These Scary Times
So, question for Christian believers: Are you an American first, or a Christian first? Which allegiance takes precedence?
Seems like an easy question, and most evangelicals answered it quickly: Christians first. Easy.
Scary, says this writer for TIME, who manages to miss the point in a new, exciting, spring-fresh way. Whiff: He says people who DON'T put America ahead of their faith are theocrats.
Theocracy again. It's not easy to shape everything into The Narrative into Which All Religion Stories Must Be Pressed, so we can have sympathy.
He was even offended that evangelicals weren't offended by the question. By his reasoning, tolerant Christians should say, "Wait, God and country -- they're the same!" -- I'm not kidding. And horrifyingly to him, most evangelicals say their primary citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. I don't call this frightening, I call it "promising maturity."
No, it doesn't make any sense, but neither does the theocracy panic in general. Especially strange: the writer is taken aback that Christians might use civil disobedience to protest unjust laws. Uh, MLK...? Ring a bell? McFly...? He wants no part of this, this "meta-citizenship" that both Christians and Muslims subscribe to:
It sounds like tolerance, but it's not — since the allegiances are to two different Gods. It's something else, a common meta-citizenship upholding the primacy of theology, held by theologically opposed parties. A meta-citizenship it turns out I'm not interested in holding.
So I guess I'll go buy myself an "American First" bumper sticker. Who knew I was such a patriot?
Well, actually, in this sense, it sounds like tolerance, because it is. (Did I mention MLK? There are rights that exist whether a regime recognizes them or not...?)
He points it out, and it really is true, for you, if you continue to believe that government -- our lawmakers, our judges -- is not the final Word:
You're not as patriotic as TIME.
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