When it comes to church-state dynamics, Paul showed us the way by appealing to his citizenship in the Roman Empire while reserving his allegiance for Christ and His Kingdom. Sadly, Christian culture in the U.S. has taken another path. We suffer from a chronic condition of adjective-noun confusion. An adjective is a description. A noun is a source of identity. That distinction … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Laments the Existence of American Civil Religion
Citizenship
Beatnik Christianity Pledges Allegiance to Christ and His Kingdom Alone
A biblical motif running from Genesis to Revelation is that of God’s covenant people. It’s a sweeping story of God healing the world through an alternative kinship structure. According to 1 Peter 2, we are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” and “aliens and strangers in the world.” Our superseding citizenship is not found in any … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Pledges Allegiance to Christ and His Kingdom Alone
Beatnik Christianity Restores the Tension Between the Individual and the Community
Not only is contemporary Western society the most radically individualistic in all of human history, but American society is at the apex of that hyper-individualism by a long shot. It'd be like building the Burj Khalifa skyscraper atop Mount Everest. Our lifestyle of relentless self-interest is truly unprecedented. Yet any call for the restoration of a healthy balance or … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Restores the Tension Between the Individual and the Community
