Politeuo Axios

Obviously, if we are going to talk about the Christian faith and politics, we need to talk about Jesus, and we will. But before we go there, I think it is necessary to do some deconstruction. If something is built incorrectly, you must first take it apart before you begin building it correctly. To get started, here is a brief thought experiment: When you look at this picture, what do you see? If you said, “A map of the United States,” you are wrong (at least in the ontological sense)! What you are looking at is a human construct. When God looks upon the world, does He see any of those lines? Do any of them even exist in any real, substantive way? Is God obliged to abide by the arbitrary lines and distinctions we have placed upon the world? This is a fairly simplistic thought experiment, but if you really think about it, it can shake the foundations of your worldview. How much time and energy do we spend on arguments and controversies based on the assumption that these lines...

Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivered the following words: Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-4) Typically pastors present this passage as a message about resisting culture. The wider, secular culture is the wide gate and broad road, whereas Jesus/Christianity/church is the small gate and narrow road. On some level this is true. The Gospel is always counter-cultural and requires a significant amount of swimming upstream against the whims and seductions of human culture. However, we often miss the more poignant point of the text for a simple reason: our roads are too good. I live in Raleigh, NC, a place I often refer to as having “enough city but not too much.” The Raleigh metropolitan area is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, but as of 2014, Raleigh-Durh...

I’d like to begin this series on essays with a question: What if HGTV is way more evil than Game of Thrones? That likely seems like a strange way to open a collection of essays on faith and politics, so let me back up and give some context. I love Game of Thrones. I have watched the entire series and I have read all five (1000-plus page) books. Needless to say, I’m invested! Now, in many Christian circles Game of Thrones is likely viewed as an abomination. It is clearly not wholesome, PG-13 entertainment. It has sex, violence, bad language, and magic… That’s the quadrilateral of American Christian paranoia! And please don’t misunderstand my agenda. I am not suggesting you watch it. I am virtually impossible to offend, so I can get invested in it’s sweeping, complex narrative without being bothered by the creepy incest and ice zombies. (Well, perhaps I should clarify. I am bothered by creepy incest in real life. Just not in fictional worlds with dragons!) On the other hand, I have a...