Politeuo Axios

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...