On Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 I will co-host a round table panel to try to answer this question: Where Do We Go From Here?
This panel will follow the premiere of a brand-new documentary Produced by Kathi Peters and Directed by David Peters, based on the book by Brian Zahnd, Postcards From Bablyon.
You can view the film and stick around to watch the Zoom panel conversation afterwards by registering HERE>
The panel not only includes the film’s director and producer, but also an array of authors, pastors, activists and political voices from both sides, such as:
*Shane Claiborne
*Lisa Sharon Harper
*Peter Wehner
*Kristin Kobes Du Mez
*Brian Zahnd
I was invited to host this panel by David and Kathi Peters and it was my supreme honor to do so.
As I said by way of an endorsement to the film, “Postcards From Babylon is a wake-up call for the American Church. I wish every Christian could watch this film and reflect on the sometimes uncomfortable truth it unveils about who we are, and where we go from here.”
This film could not have come at a better time. One President is leaving office. A new President has taken his place. Our nation is ravaged by political violence. Our Churches are ripped in half by political tribalism. Thousands of Christians are divided from one another over politics.
How do we find unity? Where do go from here?
That’s what our panel discussion, and this film, is all about.
As for me, I answer this question in two different ways.
How Did We Get Here?
Christianity in America has been duped over the last several decades into an entangled religious system that cannot tell the difference between the American Dream and the Kingdom of God.
I know this because this is my own story. I was raised in a Conservative Republican household. I voted straight-ticket Republican for most of my life. I was a proud member of the NRA. I owned a half-dozen guns. I listened to Rush Limbaugh and I thought you couldn’t be a Christian and vote Democrat.
Then the scales fell from my eyes. I realized that I was more American than Christian. I discovered that you cannot convert a system if that system has already converted you.
In response, I wrote a book to chronicle my own entanglement and to help my brothers and sisters in the Church to wake up and “come out of her” [the American Political Empire] too.
That book, “Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb” released on Inauguration Day exactly 4 years ago. Today it’s available for only .99 cents on Kindle in celebration of that release, and in hopes that many more Christians might read it and awaken from their political stupor.
Where Do We Go From Here?
About 2 years ago I created this event called “United We Stand” as a way to bring Christians from the Left and the Right together to find common ground again. We hosted these in Cincinnati, OH, El Paso, TX and Costa Mesa, CA.
Today, I hope to create an online version of this same event as a way of facilitating even more of these same conversations in Churches across the nation.
We need to heal. We need to find unity. We need hope.
That is what I truly desire to bring in the next few months to as many Christian congregations as possible.
NOTE: If you’d like to sign up for one of those, please go to this link and send an email to the address at the bottom to request more information or to schedule a “United We Stand” virtual event in your church fellowship.
As Brian Zahnd points out in his book, and in this excellent new documentary, we need to realize that Jesus never calls us to love our nation, or our political party. But he does call us to love one another, and even our enemies.
The sooner we get on with this, the sooner our churches, and our nation, can begin to heal again.
But, this is only what I have done and plan to do to help restore our nation and our churches. In the upcoming panel discussion, you’ll hear even more beautiful ideas from some of the most inspired thinkers, authors, teachers, professors, activists and pastors you could ever assemble together in one place.
Please make plans to join me for the virtual online premiere of the documentary Postcards From Babylon and stick around at the end for an insightful and inspiring conversation about where we go next.
I hope to see you there!
Peace,
Keith
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Keith Giles and his wife, Wendy, work with Peace Catalyst International to help build relationships between Christians and Muslims in El Paso, TX. Keith was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church over a decade ago to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today he is the author of the best-selling “Jesus Un” series of books, including “Jesus Unexpected: Ending The End Times To Become The Second Coming” which is available now on Amazon.
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