Question:  Dear Greg,

            Why do evangelical Christians put country before Christ?  I’m looking for a religion that lives by Jesus’ message of peace and love, one that doesn’t throw his message aside every time the USA and England declare war.  Advice would be appreciated.

            Paul

 

Answer:  Dear Paul,

            Christians differ about how God would have them interact with culture.  Politics and the military are two areas where these views come into sharp focus.

            Half a century ago H. Richard Niebuhr presented five perspectives that Christians take with their relationship to culture:

1.      Christ against culture.  Christians must reject the institutions of this “world”— including politics and the military.  Institutions of this world are and have been defined and identified subjectively.

2.      Christ of culture.  Jesus is identified with culture, the exact opposite of view #1, thus eliminating conflicts with “the world” and the church.

3.      Christ above culture.  Christ and culture can both be affirmed, as long as Christ is the priority.

4.      Christ and culture in paradox.  God forgives the inner man, but our outer man is in conflict with our culture.  Culture represents good and evil, and the Christian is in constant conflict.  See Romans 7, see “Pilgrim’s Progress” by Bunyan.

5.      Christ the transformer of culture.  Christ can overcome culture, and it is the role of the individual Christian and of the organized church to overcome and transform culture, rather than to be overcome by it.

            Within these perspectives Christians have a variety of views about how to respond to one’s country in war.  Some Christians are pacifists (Quakers and Brethren are examples) while other Christians see service in the military as an absolute duty, for Paul tells us in Romans 13 that government is set up by God, and that it is our duty to defend home and family.  Other Christians fall short of the view of duty, and take the perspective that military service is only justifiable when the cause is just, when the oppressor is evil (as opposed to supporting a government merely trying to enlarge its own boundaries).  Such Christians support a war against the evil of Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht