{"id":8359,"date":"2014-06-30T12:30:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T17:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/formerlyfundie\/?p=8359"},"modified":"2014-06-30T12:30:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T17:30:41","slug":"please-skip-that-independence-day-service-at-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/formerlyfundie\/please-skip-that-independence-day-service-at-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Skip That Independence Day Service At Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If your church is going to be holding an Independence Day celebration this year, I hope you\u2019ll think this through and decide to skip it.<\/p>\n

Celebrating Independence Day at church is among what I believe to be the most offensive things we could do in a place that is supposed to be reserved for worshiping the God we see fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the one who taught his disciples to pay their taxes, and nonviolently love their enemies\u2013 even to be willing to lay down their lives to love their enemies. I hope that it might strike you as odd and outright offensive that we\u2019d go to a building to worship the one who taught us to pay taxes and love enemies\u2026 in order to celebrate the date we decided we\u2019d rather go to war and kill our enemies instead of continuing to pay our taxes.<\/p>\n

Celebrating Independence Day at church is to celebrate something that is the polar opposite of the Jesus of the New Testament. It\u2019s offensive. It\u2019s idolatrous.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something I hope you\u2019ll skip.<\/p>\n

Jesus calls us to bring healing to the nations\u2013 he didn\u2019t say anything about violent nationalistic loyalties, and in fact, was a force against both.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no room in a church named after Jesus to celebrate the things he stood against.<\/p>\n

So please, skip it this year.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a few examples of what this nationalistic idolatry looks like:
\n