Followers of Jesus Christ–whether in the US or elsewhere–are wrestling, discussing, and often arguing over how the Bible addresses events and contentious issues swirling throughout US society. We discuss economics and tariffs, gender and sexuality, governance, international military actions, and most urgently right now immigration enforcement and struggles in Minneapolis. Social media both sheds light and spreads scorching heat. News media all seem slanted one way or another. Various reports are difficult to discern or trust.
Regarding ICE, protests, and especially the recent deaths in Minneapolis, many who reference Scripture stress obeying authorities ala Romans 13; others point to standing in solidarity with neighbors, especially recent immigrants and other minorities. I grieve the deaths, fear, violence, and mutually incompatible and sometimes demeaning arguments directed toward fellow Christians.
Everybody, including me, is deeply affected (more than we realize, I believe) by their own context: background, ethnicity, socio-economic status, political viewpoints. We try to adjudicate events objectively, fairly, and definitively–all the while unavoidably seeing and interpreting evidence from our own viewpoints. Whatever the case, we all are responsible for how we act and speak–including inaction and silence.
As I prayerfully wrestle before God with the Bible’s teachings, I’ll offer here some challenges that I believe are vitally important for followers of Jesus in the US to consider:
1. God’s reign throughout his universe, including regarding the United States of America, is supreme and demands Jesus’s followers’ passionate allegiance. The triune God is the only one we as Jesus’s followers are to worship and relentlessly follow. Any other allegiance–be it to a country, a political cause, or any other creature–must be subservient to allegiance to God’s kingdom. The US, like any other political entity, is “like a drop from a bucket” and “as the dust on the scales “ (Isaiah 40:15) compared to God and his kingdom.
2. Allegiance to God’s kingdom includes belonging to Jesus’s worldwide, international people. Identity in Christ–the plural “we” and “you” throughout Scripture–is fundamentally being “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God“ (Ephesians 2:19) that crosses all other barriers, including national and ethnic ones. On a fundamental level, “we” who are in Christ have a deeper bond with each other than “we” who have the same earthly citizenship.
3. Kingdom standards of justice, mercy, humility, and love override “legality” and “obedience” when (not just “if”) either of the latter conflict with kingdom standards. Whether “the midwives [who] feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them“ in Moses’s infancy (Exodus 1:17), Rahab who hid the spies despite the King of Jericho’s explicit command to bring them out (Joshua 2:1-7), or Peter and John resisting the religious leaders’ orders not to speak about Jesus (Acts 4:13-22), Scripture is full of examples of resistance and disobedience to legal and religious authority when need be. While Paul and Peter both taught about kingdom living that respects civil and social authority (Romans 13:1-7, I Peter 2:13-3:1-7), they also challenged abusive authority–including when authorities were acting “legally” (Acts 16:19-40; 22:22-29).
(The Acts 22 example is Paul appealing to his civil rights when soldiers were about to flog him. As I sort through US Christians’ social media discussions about protests in Minneapolis, it seems that some would argue that Paul should have just received the flogging in a docile manner–and that he had wrongfully brought on his arrest in the first place. If you disagree, please think about it before responding defensively in a knee-jerk fashion.)
4. Jesus’s followers make decisions within their contexts–hopefully using wisdom and discernment based on fundamental allegiance to the triune God, consistent with their international identity in Christ, and according to kingdom standards. Because of how tied to our contexts we as Jesus’s followers are, we will not see everything the same way–as the current divisions among US Christians shows.
Earlier I wrote, “Kingdom standards of justice, mercy, humility, and love.” Humility alone demands trying to listen and understand others–especially other followers of Jesus Christ. I appreciate my friend Fr. Luke Veronis sharing a substack piece by Van Jones that aims toward explaining and understanding US-Americans’ contrasting viewpoints: https://vanjones.substack.com/p/america-isnt-divided-on-ice-its-divided . From the vantage point of our international identity in Christ, we who follow Jesus Christ should go even further in attempting to understand, on others’ own terms, why they believe what they do.
If you’ve read this far, you may very well disagree with some of what I have expressed in this post. Comment below as you will, and I will do my best to understand and, as need be, respond respectfully. Whatever the case, I have genuinely sought to lay out one set of "Challenges from Scripture regarding US Society Today." Kyrie eleison.
