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on america (pt2)
I’ll admit, the last post sounded quite angry. But I’m not so sure I’m angry, I think I’m more along the lines of “hurt.”
The last post came after a string of e-mails between my mother and I, about the nature of Jeremiah Wright’s words and Obama. But that was really just the straw that broke the camels back for me. I find myself getting more and more frustrated with America, the American ideal system, and “americanism,” but, as Ken pointed out in the comments section of the last post, I feel like it’s more from a love of America than a hatred.
This is a country of immense opportunity, of immense good, and of immense passion. Unfortunately so much wrong, so much evil, and so much pain go right along with those things. It’s been the latter set of things that has been shown to me time and time again over the past few months. It seems that with all of the “junk” popping up on my radar screen I do miss the good. I think that both should be looked at when looking at America.
Now, after adding the positive note, I do see one other issue to bring up on top of this view.
The roman empire did plenty of good too. They built roads, they (at first) had a pretty decent Republic working, they did (try) to feed their poor (within the city itself of course), but we must look at what costs these goods were completed, and namely, the way in which they were completed.
How many similarities can I draw between Rome and America today? If John were to write in Jewish apocalyptic today, as he had done in the latter 1st century, would he refer to America as the great whore? Would he revile from our ways as he did 2000 years ago?
Is there hope left? Must we go away as the desert fathers did when Christianity embraced Rome? Maybe we can’t save America. How do we save Christianity, or do we have to hope, as Tony Jones says, in the fact that the gospel, like lava, will break through, no matter how much crust is formed over it.
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“How do we save Christianity, …”
Come, come. You think it a coincidence that the Holy Spirit has been growing the church in China to be a dynamic force for the gospel, just in time for the 21st Century - which must, surely, be China’s century?
Europe, and indeed, the rest of the “western” world shares many of America’s ills. For us, that’s no longer leavened - in ethics, in direction-setting - by mass church attendance. I don’t know where that leaves us: you might want to argue that in America such continuing participation is irrelevant, or self-harming. I can’t really comment, but I do know that we’re morally rudderless. However, switched around, I also find much hope in a postmodern society; in an emerging approach where faithful living out of the gospel finds its own place.
Here’s to China then. I would say it’s no coincidence that China now essentially holds the power to the financial institutions of America, and that we often joke over here that we need to learn to speak Chinese so when they take over we’re already adapted.
And the funny thing about China… the Christianity that is lived there is subversive. It’s the Christianity of the oppressed. I’d almost love to say God forbid that Christianity become the State religion of China as it has been with America, and every other Western Empire over the years.
Really… that’s such a great thought Andrew, I don’t think I can express the hope that it actually puts within me.