I’ve argued about the whole ‘one nation under God’ thing before, and most of you are probably sick of it. But that’s OK—it’s my blog.
Lee Greenwood, a country music artist who wrote “God Bless the USA” and is a spokesperson for the effort to keep “under God” in the pledge, said the following in a Decision magazine Q&A “One Nation Under God: A Conversation with Lee Greenwood”:
“It bothers me to know there is the possibility that I as a Christian would be not only an underdog, but that I would be trodden upon if I claimed that I was a Christian.”
Maybe I shouldn’t nitpick Greenwood’s statements, but he seems to be expressing a fear of persecution. Get used it, Greenwood. You’re a Christian. It’ll happen. You are an underdog. You should be trodden upon. That’s the whole nature of our faith. We are beaten down, we are losers, we are illegitimate.
“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10, NIV)
It kind of gets to me when Christians think we live in a Christian nation are are therefore free from any trouble, any hardship, any difficulty. That’s false security.
It bothers me that Decision even printed that article. Not only is it theoligically messed up (as Kevin noted), but the pictures (in the print edition) show Lee with his shirt unbuttoned way too far, trying to look, well, sexy I guess. I think they were trying for casual but ended up with disturbing (at least for me). If I still had my copy I’d post a picture…
Is this the photo, Nick? We’ll let readers be the judge.
Personally, I’ll simply point out that he only has two buttons buttoned.
Ack! Yup. That’s the one.
Reminds me a little of Michael W. Smith’s early to mid 90’s phase, I seem to remember a couple of liner note shots with unbuttoned shirts, tight jeans, etc. I was trying to find some examples on the internet and found a great site that claims MWS is satanic….including such evidence as this: one of his albums shares a producer with Madonna and he was influenced by the Allan Parson’s Project (MWS Project…hmm hmmm?)
The point about persecution is interesting. Especially since it seems to me rather far-fetched to tie the removal of “One nation under God” from the pledge to a position of being trodden upon for claiming to be a Christian.
The thing about swearing on the Bible was funny to. I mean the Bible instructs Christians to speak truly without oaths, etc. etc. And I have my doubts that your typical “athiest” is going to be more likely to tell the truth if you make him put his hand on a Bible. I mean…he may tell the truth, but you could probably replace the Bible with a box of Wheaties and it’d make the same difference.
2 things.
i don’t think the picture is an attempt at sexy. nick, you think it makes him sexy? :o) lets talk!
i think the real question that lee’s comments and struggle (a goofy one at that… what about crusading for something substantial) bring up is: what role is the christ folower (christian) to have in politics. do we want jesus associated w/ our government? are we longing for a theocracy?
here is my take, i think we are called to be ‘salt’/’light’ to our world, our culture, our society. but i am cynical — suspicious at best in the pursuit of the christian political. among all the reasons behind these feelings of concern is the effect of constantine on christianity. perhaps instead of approaching cultural change, social influence from the top down, from a position of power, maybe we should approach it like jesus approached humanity — from the bottom up.
that is all. maybe we should be crusading for good things for once.
Just because Paul said we’d be persecuted doesn’t mean that we seek to bring it upon ourselves. Why is it wrong for Christians to continue fighting for their rights? We live in a country where everyone is supposed to get “equal” rights…why not Christians? I realize that not everyone gets “equal” rights (whatever equal means) currently…but Christians need to continue their fight along with everyone else or we’ll get trounced on. I have a friend who sought refuge in the USA because his neighbors & family tried to kill him on several occasions for being a Christian. There needs to be someplace for persecuted people to go and America happens to be one of those places currently. I will fight my heart out to make sure it stays that way.
Nobody’s saying we should greet persecution with open arms. I’m saying we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens. We shouldn’t be “bothered” by the possibility like Greenwood says, because the Bible tells us to expect it.
Sure, stand up for your rights. But know that we will be persecuted.
I think there’s also a big difference between being killed for being a Christian and taking “under God” out of the pledge. I don’t think removing god from the pledge makes us less of a relgious shelter for the persecuted, or even starts us down the road towards religious persecution.
Lee Greenwood shirt open is yucky.
I just think it’s funny that this post on the “pledge of allegiance” brings up Google Ads for Pledge products on drugstore.com ;-)
OK, I’ve got Google Ads way on the brain. Sorry …