The Gift of Not Belonging

I know the feeling of not belonging.

As an immigrant from Nicaragua, I feel like I don't fully belong to this place I call home. Through the 13 years I've been in this country, however, I have adopted some of its values and cultures, while at the same time not abandoning fully my own Nicaraguan values and culture.

Because of this, I feel like I don't fully belong in Nicaragua anymore. My Spanish accent has changed and it is no longer fully Nicaraguan, for example. My newly adopted western values are sometimes in conflict with my Nicaraguan ones.

I am stuck in the middle of two cultures.

A Progressive, But Not A Liberal
But the feeling of not belonging doesn't stop there.

Politically, I feel I don't belong to any of the polarized political positions in this country. I don't feel fully comfortable belonging to either the Republican or Democratic party. I have strong disagreements with both.

In many ways I am a progressive. I feel my calling as a Christian is to see the perspective of the poor first, not because they are somehow more "deserving" (how can we talk of someone being deserving or not in a religion that stands on Grace?), but because the world puts them last.

Jesus hanged out with sinners and tax collectors. He hanged out with the poor. In my imitation of Christ, I want to do likewise. This is what makes me a progressive, even if I don't fully buy into the liberal agenda.

It is for this reason that I support raising the minimum wage to a livable minimum wage. This aligns with my conviction that people are more than what they do, and that in an economy that needs the janitor as much as they need the CEO, they should both be afforded a wage that can sustain them and their families with dignity.

It is for this reason that I want to call this nation to show more hospitality to immigrants. When Paul proclaims that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek (one of the racial and spiritual divisions of the time) he is leaving issues of nationalistic values as secondary to our call of seeing the other as our brother and sister.

The way the world mistreats the "other," the foreigner around the world, is heartbreaking. It seems to me that we value more our nationalistic identity than our call to love our neighbor. When Jesus responded to the Pharisees' question of, "who is my neighbor?" He responded with a parable that highlighted a Samaritan, the hated 'other' in that context.

Our neighbors are not only people of our own kind but the "other" our culture fears and despises. Even if we are disposed to not include the foreigner as our neighbor but more as our enemy, the command from Jesus to love our enemies still applies and calls us to love.

Love, for the Christian, is inescapable.

It is for this reason that I feel uncomfortable supporting most Republican candidates, because they (at the current choices) don't strike me as being welcoming to the immigrant. In fact, many of them want to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country whom they see as not belonging here.

Not Pro-Choice and yet Not Pro-Life
Let my clarify this. Ethically speaking, I am Pro-Life in the fullest sense of the word, but I can't join the Pro-Life movement as it currently is, with all the political entanglement of a particular party. This is what I mean by not being Pro-Life. I don't wish to be identified with the Pro-Life movement in the US.

I see being Pro-Life as a holistic call against a culture of death. For this reason, I can in no good conscience get behind pro-gun rights (I don't see an issue in using guns for hunting, but open carry? I have an issue with that).

I can't get behind a Pro-Life movement so entangled with a particular party that encourages cuts in the budget towards health and education but never speaks of cutting the budget towards the military and security.

If we are truly Pro-Life, then the fact that as a nation we engage in wars every 30 years or so should be disturbing. If we are truly Pro-Life, we should by definition abolish the death penalty. A political platform that condemns abortion but upholds other forms of 'righteous' killing may be more accurately described as Pro-Birth, but never Pro-Life.

This doesn't mean I am Pro-Choice. Better said, I am not Pro-Abortion. I can't deny that abortion deals with the ending of a life. This alone disturbs me. We can argue all we want whether a fetus is a human being or not, but it would be disingenuous to deny that the fetus is alive.

I know that as a man, my opinions on this subject necessarily take the backseat. I recognize that I will never have to go through the excruciating experience of deciding whether to have an abortion or not. I want to acknowledge that my perspective is severely limited because of this, and I truly don't know fully what I'm talking about, nor will I ever.

At the same time, one forms opinions on matters whether one wants to or not, and my value of life prevents me from fully supporting abortion. I understand it is not always a black-and-white issue. I understand that in many situations there are subtleties that deserve our attention. But at the end of the day, after an abortion is performed, a life is lost.

Any loss of life should always grieve us.

As you can see, for these and many other reasons, I cannot fit into any particular conservative or liberal box. I don't belong to any of them.

The Gift of Not Belonging
I can take these realities and declare "woe is me!" but I won't. I want to embrace this reality as a gift from God.

This gift of perspective allows me to see blind spots that are ubiquitous in any given culture. It allows me to see from two different cultural lenses, and acknowledge the pros and cons of each position while not fully fitting into those boxes myself.

Not only that, but maybe this sensation of not belonging is the call of the Christian. Jesus declares that we are in the world and yet not of the world. He also proclaims that His Kingdom is not of this world, and yet the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, present in this world.

I am disturbed, therefore, at seeing the Church in the US being so shaped by culture wars and ideologies of our society. I see a church that conforms more and more with the polarizing views of our national politics, whether they be conservative or liberal.

I see a Church that mirrors the political polarization of this nation, instead of the unity we are called to in Christ. If the Church is so divided not only theologically, but also culturally and politically, can we truly say that it is living fully in Christ?

When we choose a side and defend it against the other side, we enter into a cultural bubble. Ideas formed in these bubbles will slowly develop apart from the perspective of the other. As time passes in this polarized nature and ideas on both sides continue to develop independently from each other, we are driven further and further apart.

Divisions are so aggravated that when the two opposing groups get to share their ideas with each other they are both met with disgust and disbelief. Polarization is a vicious cycle that feeds on itself. The two bubbles will grow in substantial size, and when they make contact with each other, they will burst into chaos.

Here is the thing: the Church is not called to be conservative or liberal. The Church is called to be Christ to the world. Christ did not belong to any particular party of His time. He was not a Pharisee. He was not a Sadducee. He was not a Zealot. He was not a Hellenistic Jew. Christ simply was and is.

I'm not saying that a Christian shouldn't belong to any particular party. What I am saying is that this belonging is only secondary to the call to belong to Christ. Belonging to a particular political party should never be seen as a prerequisite to belonging to Christ. To consider it otherwise would be pure idolatry. When we have denominations that identify first as either "traditional" or "affirming," and only secondly as Christ-centered, we have indeed allowed our faith to be shaped by our politics instead of the cross.

I believe that our root sin as a Church is nothing other than the idolatry of culture. Our call then, is not to be a conservative or a liberal Christ to the world. Our call is simply to be Christ to the world.

Looking for the Wilderness in an Age of Productivity

[Luke 5:15-16 ESV] 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

One of the greatest dangers for those of us who are in ministry and/or non-profit work is burning out. This is especially troublesome if you are doing this kind of work while raising a family.

Members of the clergy suffer higher rates of obesity and hypertension than the rest of Americans.

Working for non-profits over the past 5 years, I have personally experienced burnout. I have never been as tired in my life as when doing this work. I have noticed anger and resentment grow in me as I go through a grueling day of work and ministry, even as my body is asking me for rest.

Why is This?
I think there are two reasons for our tendency to overwork in ministry.

First, our obsession with productivity in our culture. We value 'doing' more than 'being.' We are what we do. Whatever value you give to the world through your work is the value you receive from this world. Our identity, confidence, and self-esteem is contingent on what we do and accomplish.

With this philosophy, or work ethic, if you want to be better, you have to do better.

Second, ministry and non-profit work are often fueled by our passions. We dedicate ourselves to a good cause, to changing unjust systems so that it benefits the greater number of people. Clergy and ministers are fueled by a passion to serve God and people. We may feel duty-bound to spend ourselves for a cause.

In an age where productivity and hard work are rewarded, and when our passion to serve God and others is fueling us, the result is a perfect storm for burnout.

What Can We Do?
In the reading from Luke, we see that as Jesus' ministry grows, He found more opportunities to withdraw to the wilderness.

For many of us, witnessing our work and ministry grow and attract more people can be an exhilarating experience. We can easily get caught up in the excitement of our work. We may experience a new high that can easily become obsessive. We may plunge even deeper into our work.

Jesus doesn't seem preoccupied about that. His joy and excitement seem unaffected by His popularity. In fact, in chapter 5 of Luke, after healing a man with leprosy, Jesus instructs him not to tell anyone. Jesus seems not in the least concerned with growing His popularity and thus growing His ministry.

As His ministry grew, Jesus began to withdraw to desolate places. His initial reaction, unlike many of ours, is not to plunge deeper into His work. His initial reaction is to withdraw. How radical this is! How contrary to our own logic of productivity! Imagine if, when things get busier in your work, instead of working more you looked for opportunities to withdraw. I'm sure many of us would get fired if we did this!

And we are told in the Scriptures that Jesus withdraws to desolate places. Desolate places in the New Testament can be synonymous with deserts, places with few people and resources. These are places where there seems to be little life. He withdraws from places that are full of worldly life to find a Greater Life.

Jesus does more than just withdraw. He doesn't withdraw simply to have a nap or a cup of tea while enjoying the sunlight (not that there is anything wrong with that). But the Scriptures tells us that He withdraws to pray.

While physical rest is good and necessary, spiritual rest is even better and more necessary. Hebrews 4:10-11a describes entering God's presence as entering into His rest: "for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his work as God did from His. Therefore, let us strive to enter that rest."

The Greek word for strive in verse eleven is spoudazo. This word can be translated as diligence, eagerness, and even labor.  In its counter-intuitive and paradoxical way, the Scriptures uses a word related to hard work and productivity to call us to rest!

Striving for God's Rest
I am not trying to discount hard work. It seems to me there are many instances where Jesus works hard for His ministry. But Jesus is also diligent in returning to the wilderness. When Jesus started His ministry, the Holy Spirit guided Him to 40 days and nights in the wilderness.

As His ministry grows, He strives to return to that wilderness in the presence of God. Jesus returns to the place where He found His calling. He returns to that place of intimacy where He found His name of Beloved.

During Lent, we are called to follow Jesus in the wilderness. During our hard labor, our ceaseless ministry, it is most necessary to respond to the call of the wilderness.

We are called to withdraw from the crowds, the merciless goals and checklists, and return to that place of intimacy. Many of us get inspired to start our work of ministry after a powerful, transformative, and personal encounter with God. His love propels us to do our work.

As the years pass by and our ministry grows, we may forget that experience of intimacy in the wilderness, where God came and gave us the name of Beloved.

Let us labor then to enter into that rest, to return to that place of intimacy and experience once again the depth of God's rest.

Why Living in The City has Not Made Me Happier

I grew up loving the city.

Being born and raised in Managua, Nicaragua, meant living in an unusual city. Managua has been called "the city of trees". My neighborhood, while not quite suburban, was very quiet. There was a strong community feel to it.

Managua, a city filled with trees

My street doubled as a soccer or baseball field. We knew everybody in our block and they knew us. There was no downtown, with all the buzz of masses of people trading, thanks to the 1972 earthquake that leveled it. There is instead El Mercado Oriental, a massive outdoor maze-like market that is often dirty, filled with people, and stocked with every imaginable item you'd want to buy.

Managua, being the unusual city that it is, left a thirst in me for dense, booming cities. I wanted to be in a city full of skyscrapers, of people living on top of each other, of countless restaurants going wild with chit chat and endless clinking of dishes and glasses. Museums, theaters, and street performances...I wanted it all.

I wanted to live in the big city.

And then I Moved to The Big City: San Francisco

I moved to the U.S. in 2003. I didn't immediately move to San Francisco, but lived in the suburbs for 6 years before I had a chance to move to the city. I entered as a candidate to the Augustinian religious order, and I moved in with them in San Francisco to study and go through my pre-novitiate.

My first week in the city was one of quiet and enchantment. We had a small but beautiful garden in the back (quite a luxury in that city) where I spent hours reading and contemplating. Classes hadn't started yet, so I had plenty of time to accommodate myself and relax.

Classes started soon, and the hectic-ness of city life caught up to me. I started to notice a strange development: my heart started beating faster. I was more anxious. It was hard to sit still.

Lack of Community
In a city of almost a million, it was easy for me to get lost, unrecognized by the surrounding mass of people and things. It was difficult to make friends. For one, I was more busy than I ever had been in my life. Other people seemed to be busy and uninterested.

Why is this? Why is it that in a place full of people, there is so little community?

According to German sociologist Georg Simmel, in an attempt to protect ourselves from the overwhelming flood of city stimuli, city dwellers develop an indifferent attitude towards our surroundings.

In order to protect ourselves from the massive number of people, noise, billboards and advertisements, all demanding our attention, we have to ignore and turn off most of it in order to be able to function as normal human beings.

The city is a factory of indifference.

What Have I Gained from Living in The City?
One thing that I still enjoy of city living is the culture you can experience in it.

There are endless small coffee shops filled with beard-wielding young adults. There are the indie musicians showing off their unconventional feats and unusual performances in city bars. There are museums, galleries, and symphony halls.

I have gained a lot of what we call "culture." This is, I believe, the main attraction of city life.

But what what I have lost is also monumental. I have become more indifferent to people around me. I have less peace of mind. I have become more angry. I have a lot of anger, for example, for bad drivers, for people bumping into me, for noise in the middle of the night, and more and more I crave alone time in my home with my own entertainment. My home has become the bubble in which I seek refuge from the city.

I also notice how much of an elitist spirit has invaded my heart. I look with disdain at cheap coffee and look with horror at people enjoying a cup of Folgers. I almost hate Starbucks, which seems the coffee of choice of suburbans who lack the knowledge of truly good coffee. I look with disgust at Budweiser while I hold in my hand a local IPA from a micro-brewery.

Whenever I go to the suburbs to visit my family, I notice a slight sense of snobbery in me. I become judgmental of people driving their SUVs everywhere, at how they watch cable TV (don't they know that being cord-cutters is cool now?!), and instead of going to some local, small, cramped Italian bistro, they drive to The Olive Garden and consider it a treat.

The Idolatry of Culture
What city life has given me is the idolatry of culture. It has allowed me to look down on those who don't live in it with disdain and disbelief.  I put culture at such a high level in my life that I am willing to give up all peace of mind, and to fill myself with indifference, anger, and snobbery...as long as I have culture.

Whenever I go to the suburbs, however, I feel my heartbeat slow and relax. I don't feel as restless. I am able to rest more. I am beginning to crave more time in the suburbs because of it, despite what I see as a lack of culture. I crave it, even though I judge it.

I realize now that city life has not made me a holier person. It has not made me happier. It has given me culture, but I am not a more 'complete' person because of it.

Mathew 25 and Indifference
Reading Mathew 25, I realize that the most heinous sin is not what we do, but what we don't do. The goats were condemned not for the things they did. Jesus didn't say depart from me because you killed, fornicated, stole, etc...

No. The goats were condemned because they saw Jesus naked, and they didn't clothe Him, hungry and didn't feed Him, in prison and they didn't visit Him. The goats were condemned because of indifference. Maybe, as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel said, the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.

To be honest with you, I'm burned out of city life. The level of stress that it has brought me is slowly wearing me down. I need a break from the city and its demanding culture.

The city is a place of social Darwinism, where I feel I need to constantly compete in order to get ahead and simply be able to afford living in it. It is a never-ending competition, one I have no desire to partake in.

Do I really want to continue in a place that nurtures indifference? Where paying attention to my surrounding requires intentionality, and where I can't do it for long without feeling overwhelmed by stimuli?

I don't know the answer to this question. What I do know now is the existence of my current idolatry of culture, and that if I want to follow Jesus, I need to give it up.

The Unholy Marriage of Conservative Politics and the Church

Photo by Leland Francisco

"Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world" - John 18:36 ESV.

"There are two great lies that I've heard: 'The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will surely not die,' and that Jesus was a white, middle-class republican, and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like him." - A King and a Kingdom by Derek Webb.

The marriage of the political right in the US with Christianity frightens me to no end. This scary and unholy union has brought, in my opinion, a lot of misunderstanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

As we read the history of Christianity, we see how this little movement of Christians started by being at odds with the political system of the world. Jesus suffered persecution from the authorities of His day. The early Christians were heavily persecuted as well, and their faith, in many aspects, was a counter-cultural one.

Jesus Himself, as we see in the Gospel reading above, clearly declares that His kingdom does not originate from this world.

It is important to note how He contrasts the way the world would deal with His particular situation with the way He is choosing to deal with it: "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews." Of course He doesn't call his disciples to resolve His situation as the world would because His kingdom "is not from the world."

As we see from the Scriptures then, the culture of the kingdom of God is in some ways in contrast to the kingdoms of the world. The way the world resolves issues (fighting, ruling it over others etc.) is not the way the kingdom of God resolves issues.

This contrast between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world must be acknowledged. Although we can and should be trying to conform our worldly political systems to reflect the kingdom of Heaven, whenever a union of these two forces is attempted (as we see countless times in the history of Christianity), we instead see a heavy and unholy distortion of the message of Jesus.

The Marriage Between the Political Right & Christianity
I've spoken extensively of how liberal Christians try to marry cultural liberal values with Christianity, and how it distorts the faith. Now I want to turn my attention to how conservative Christians do the same.

It was an interesting experience to see my twitter feed explode with pro-life articles on the anniversary of Roe vs Wade. No other day exemplifies this unholy union as this day.

Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not pro-choice. I believe all life is sacred, and I agree with Pope Francis when he says in the Joy of the Gospel that "It is not progressive to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life."

But I have no desire to join the pro-life movement as it currently is. On the anniversary of Roe vs Wade, my twitter feed was crowded with articles about this or that (mostly Republican) politician being pro-life and how they deserve our support.

On this and many other issues (like gay marriage, prayer in schools etc.) the underlying message is this: if you wish to become a faithful Christian, you must be a Republican. While it is true that many Christian will not say this directly (some will!), you still get the sense that to be a Christian is to vote Republican.

Is the Kingdom of God Republican?
When a marriage of a political ideology with the kingdom of God is attempted, many aspects of that particular political ideology, which at its source is not Christian, starts to slowly seep into Christian theology and practice to the point that it is normalized. To be Christian then becomes tantamount to being part of a particular political system.

This confusion of kingdoms gives birth to many blind spots in our culture, to the point that we need an outsider's voice, or a certain distance from our cultural perspective, to really see them.

Lack of Integrity in Pro-Life Politicians
To use the pro-life movement as a case in point: many, if not most, of those Republicans who are pro-life are also pro-guns. Guns are a weapon of violence and death. Guns are a weapon for fighting. Can we claim with integrity that weapons are pro-life?

Many of these Republicans are also against many welfare programs that help the poor in our nation, including the recently born. This creates a sense of social Darwinism (social survival of the fittest) and meritocracy, where the poor are seen as unworthy of that help (it is their fault that they are poor) and that it is not fair to give something to someone who hasn't earned it.

First, isn't it ironic that the most fervent opponents of evolution also push the ideology of social Darwinism?

Secondly, the ideology of meritocracy goes against our concept of Grace. Who is good enough to receive the gifts of God? Who is good enough to earn His grace? It is true that love seeks to improve the character of individuals, but it is also the nature of love to give to those whom we deem as unworthy.

Both are not mutually exclusive. Don't buy into this false dichotomy.

Also, many of these conservative politicians support big spending on the military. We spend over 60% of our national budget on the military. Only 6% of our budget goes to education.

These politicians seem bent on presenting the US as a strong nation that will not be messed with by showing our military might to the world. They are also more likely to present the "other" as the enemy. Ted Cruz, for example, recently mentioned the need to "carpet bomb" ISIS.

If Jesus was president, would He carpet bomb His enemies? Love of one's enemy takes second place (or less) and becomes a romantic and naive idea to our real need for security. Notice how the world solves problems by fighting, and how these politicians push the US to deal with these issues by fighting.

Many of these "pro-life" politicians also refuse to let any Syrian Muslim refugees into this country, for fear that they will turn out to be terrorists. Again, our need for personal security takes priority over our call to love our "enemies."

And don't get me started on immigration. In these and in many issues, Scripture's call to treat the foreigner as our own and to show hospitality to strangers is drowned out by the world's call to protect ourselves and our way of living.

These illegals broke the law, they say, and for that reason alone they are not worthy of our welcome. It is true that many committed a civil offense when they crossed the border illegally, but I am thankful that Jesus doesn't use the same rigid prerequisites to welcome us into the Father's home as the world would! Forgiveness and other forms of retribution to repay this civil offense (outside of deportation to violent and unstable birth countries) seem oddly out of the question for many of these politicians.

The Way of the Kingdom of God: The Cross
You see, the way of the kingdom of God is risky. It is not safe. It makes no sense for politicians to adopt the way of Jesus which ultimately leads to the cross. But thank God! We are called to follow the way of the cross, and not the way of self protection! We are called to leave behind the world's call to security and to follow the call of Jesus to the cross. We are called to lose our lives in order to gain them!

No politician can preach the extremely risky way of the cross and still win votes. And this is why the union between our politics with our faith will always lead to a false Jesus: a Jesus who is of this world.

No political party will ever represent fully the kingdom of Heaven. If it did, then the kingdom of God would be of this world.

Who do you choose to follow? Who do you decide to pledge allegiance to? For me, I will pledge allegiance not to politics, but to a King and a Kingdom.

The Western Captivity of the Church: Christianity as a Social Club

Christianity, in the Western world, is a social club. We fancy ourselves a community, a church, but the Western cultural captivity of the church betrays our best intentions.

Every culture has its blind spots that are obvious and yet elusive. Elusive because our own ethnocentrism prevents us from seeing with different eyes. We are blind as to how our Western cultural values takes over Christianity and transforms it into what is was never meant to be.

The Acculturation of Christianity
I'm not trying to say that the acculturation of Christianity is something bad. I believe Christianity should incarnate into the culture wherever the gospel is preached. Instead of having a carbon copy of Christianity in the entire world, every culture shines a light on different aspects of the faith, and in doing so, it remains distinct from one another and yet universal.

The problem is, however, that in the Christian west, our cultural values have come in its full force, hijacked our faith, and overshadowed the person of Christ on whom it is supposed to be established on. Both the Christian right and the left are equally guilty of this.

This is most evident in the way we present our faith to the world.

Christian Witness According to the Clubs of Conservative Christianity & Liberal Christianity
In my experience, when conservative Christians witness their faith to the world, they do so from their cultural values. They promote all the political and cultural values associated with the right: pro-life, traditional family values, personal responsibility, personal freedoms from government, and oddly enough, gun rights and capitalism.

On the other hand, liberal Christians are guilty of the same thing, and when they witness their faith to the world, they do so from cultural and political values associated with the left: concern for the poor and marginalized, feminism and pro-choice, egalitarianism, self expression, gun control and regulated market.

Both the Christian right and left are reactive to one another, and they base their identity as negative characteristics of each other..."thank you God that I'm not like those..."

In my opinion, as I have expressed in past posts, both are guilty of the same thing, that is, finding their primary identity in their cultural values, instead of who they are in Christ.

We might find ourselves particularly drawn to the values of the right or left, or perhaps a combination of the two. I don't think that's wrong, and my point is not to argue the validity of one set of values over the other.

My point is this: our Christian witness should not be based on our cultural values. The left and right can't sufficiently tell us who we are as individuals and as a people, and so we should not base our identity in those values.

In Christ Alone
When I first came to Christianity, it was because of the fascinating, intriguing, and incredibly attractive person of Jesus. As I learned more about Him, and as I communed more with Him, my heart was more and more captivated by Him.

The most beautiful thing we can share about Christianity is the person of Jesus. No cultural value, however noble or just, can come close to His radiant glory. There is nothing more beautiful we can present to the world.

Our witness should be motivated by the person of Jesus. He is fascinating enough. He is attractive enough. There is no need to cover gold with silver in order to make it more attractive. In the same way, there is no reason to dress up Jesus with our cultural values and present them as the reason to come to Christianity. Show them Jesus, and the rest will take care of itself.

Why do we witness from our values? Is it because we are afraid that Jesus is not enough? Is it that we are embarrassed to be confused with some fundamentalist group and so we feel the need to cover Him up with our social and political values?

What brought me to Christianity was not its stands on abortion, traditional family values or its care for the poor and feminist egalitarian views. What brought me to Christianity was the person of Jesus. He was relentless in His pursuit of me, until I allowed myself to catch a glimpse of His beauty, and I never wanted to turn back again.

Let us stop selling the world short of who we are. Let us evangelize not by our opposition to Planned Parenthood and gay marriage, or our opposition to the free market or the 1%.

Those issues are important, but they should not be absolutized to the point that they become central to the faith.

When we evangelize, we should be motivated by this: the love of Christ for the world.

The Root Sin of Christian Conservatism and Liberalism

This is an issue that has been brewing in my mind, one of which I am unmistakably passionate about. It is an issue that causes lots of disappointment and distress in my dealings with Christianity as a religion.

I am talking, of course, of the polarity of Christianity in the United States, where parties seem to gather around a political spectrum that, while influenced by Christianity, it is nonetheless unChristian.

From this polarity emerges the oddity of western Christianity and its many manifestation that are normally categorized as "Conservative Christianity", "Moderate Christianity" and finally "Liberal Christianity".

These 3 parties of Christianity seem to be at odd with each other, with endless rhetorical riots directed at each other, schisms and a good measure of tribalism to go along the way.

The irony of the matter is that they all are equally guilty of the same sin: adapting and ultimately confusing, Christianity with culture. It is idolatry, pure and simple. Christianity is constantly being sacrificed to the gods of our culture.

Profiles of Conservative, Moderate and Liberal Christianity

These descriptions are going to be caricatured to make a point, and I understand that most individuals don't fit neatly into any of these three categories, but more likely than not, have a share of these three profiles.

It seems to me that to be a "good conservative Christian" one must adhere to a package of beliefs that are far from Christianity: patriotism and patriarchy, nationalism and the support of wars, the defense of our borders, and the right to bear arms. Love of Jesus is proclaimed in one breath, and nationalistic and xenophobic proclamations at the next, all with the most comical and tragic ignorance to the contradictions.

The Kingdom of God in conservative Christianity is about "saving souls from damnation" and evangelism takes center stage. Social justice issues are often ignored.

To be a moderate Christian is simply to choose a middle of the way road, an almost uncompromising stance on issues, and cherry picking from both conservative and liberal values. The moderate Christian views the commitment of both conservatives and liberals as pure "fanaticism" and is repulsed by their passions. Lukewarmness is the rule of the faith.

The Kingdom of God for moderates is about "live and let other lives, do no harm to others and mind your own darn business, we are here to have a good time and God wants us to enjoy our lives, so chill"

To be a "good liberal Christian" there is also a good and intimidating long lists of issues: you must fight for social justice, care for the poor (while at the same time creating a lifestyle that leaves no space for the poor in their lives), creeds and dogmas are at best softened or at worst disregarded as "superstitious" and "medieval". Evangelism is neglected, and what I like to call "the idolatry of justice" is prevalent. To be a liberal Christian is simply to be an activist with some religious language and practices. There is an almost desperate need to transform Christian values and ethics in a way that conform almost perfectly with progressive values and ethics.

The Kingdom of God in liberal Christianity is about "transforming our world around us and bring about the Kingdom through social and political reform".

The problems with these parties of Christianity are manifold. The biggest issue is how much these parties align with our political values. Christianity then, is heavily compromised and adapted by the culture you feel most comfortable with.

The Answer: The Gospel and the Kingdom of God

My question is: Where is the Kingdom of God in all of this? Where does the culture and values of the Kingdom of God enter in? Is the Kingdom of God Democrat or Republican?

I am going to use a Scripture passage that conservatives love to use against liberals, even though they are just as guilty of it themselves:

[Jhn 18:36 ESV] 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."

The Kingdom of God is "not of this world". As New Testament scholar N. T. Wright has pointed out, the best translation would be "My kingdom is not from this world". The Kingdom of God does not originate from this world, with all the diverse cultures and political values, beautiful as they might be.

Whenever we see the "Kingdom of God" being modeled by values of a particular political system, then it stops being the Kingdom of God and it starts being something from this world, with some religious values added to it for good measure.

This is not to say that the Kingdom of God is apolitical. If anything, it is extremely political. Otherwise, why would Jesus use political language to describe it?

What it is, however, is a culture not to replace all cultures, but by definition, a "counterculture" that is at times (but not always) in contradiction to our collective cultures. The Kingdom of God will never cease to be counter cultural. It is an endless revolution, and this revolution will one day be firmly and permanently installed at Jesus' return.

If the Gospel is not continually challenging conservative, moderate and liberal cultures and values, then it is no longer the Gospel. Making our values and culture bed partners to the Gospel is nothing short of idolatry.

Yes, Kingdom values sometimes resemble conservative and liberal values, but they do not originate from them.

We should care for the poor and social justice because we are Christians, and Christ cares for those things, not because we are liberals or progressives. We should care and do Evangelism because we are Christians, and believe Jesus is such a wonderful person that we can't help but share it with others, not because we are conservatives and duty bound to save others from hell. We believe the creeds, in Christ's incarnation, atoning death, and bodily resurrection not because we are conservative fanatics and irrational, medieval or spiritual neanderthals, but because we trust the witness of those who died to communicate this faith.

It is time for Christians to stand up and become what we are called to be: little Christs, imitators of Him, who offended both conservatives, lukewarms and liberals, and was at the same time attractive to them all.

It is time for us to die to ourselves: to our values and cultures, and be reborn to the counter cultural, always revolutionary, ancient and yet ever new, Kingdom of God.