(Pro)American?
After my last blog (read here) some still believe that I am Anti-American. So let me start by saying that I absolutely am not. I’m actually, believe it or not, Pro-American. Allow me to explain:
Jesus told his disciples to “seek first [God’s] Kingdom” (Matthew 6.33). Some think this was just a religious statement, but it was actually political.
In the minds of those in Jesus’ day religion and politics could not be separated. For the Jewish people God was God and King. For the Romans, Caesar was god and king. It was political and religious.
You see, even if Jesus was making only a religious claim about God’s kingdom, in the Roman minds, he was still talking about another king. For Jesus, the question was not, “God and Caesar?” but, “God or Caesar.” You could not have both. Jesus is still asking this question today.
We must hear the question, “God or the United States?” You cannot have both. Many, however, have been fooled into thinking we can.
Many believe there is to be a political solution for the world’s social ills. They think we just need the right candidate or legislation. They place there hope so firmly in a political solution, it seems as though politics is their lord and savior.
Jesus’ attitude was different. His called for full loyalty to the Kingdom of God. Make no mistake this has deep political implications. The apostle Paul knew this.
In his letter to the church in Rome, he speaks of the evil and oppression of the government. His instruction to the church on how to respond is this: “‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’” (Romans 12.20).
Paul’s response to the political evil in his day was to show humble kindness to the oppressors. Hundreds of years after Paul wrote this, Emperor Julian complained about the Christians doing just that. He wrote, “Those godless Galileans feed not only their own poor but ours." Paul’s instruction was heeded, and, years later, had deep political impact.
This story has played out time and time again throughout the history of the church. When the people of God dedicate themselves to the Kingdom of Heaven and seek the highest good for all people, political change is a result.
This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. knew. He did not begin his fight against his oppressors in the courtroom or in the halls of government. He and others, like Joseph Lowery, preached to the churches a message of love and nonviolence – even toward those who were oppressing them.
He said to his oppressors, “… Threaten our children and bomb our homes and our churches and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hours and drag us out on some wayside road and beat us and leave us half-dead, and as difficult as that is, we will still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory."
It was his Kingdom mind and heart that brought change to the political landscape of his day. It is his legacy and dream that we are still seeing realized in our day. Dr. King’s complete devotion to the Kingdom of heaven had deep political implications for the United States of America.
As a citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven our full and exclusive allegiance is to be to God alone. He is to be our President and our Commander in Chief. In this, we are to seek to the highest good for everything and everyone in our world. We cannot only limit this to the USA, but all people, all countries, and all governments. So maybe, it's not Pro-American ... it's Pro-Kingdom.