{"id":30217,"date":"2015-05-16T06:55:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T10:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=30217"},"modified":"2015-05-16T06:55:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T10:55:55","slug":"politicized-christianitys-pact-with-the-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/politicized-christianitys-pact-with-the-devil.html","title":{"rendered":"Politicized Christianity’s Pact With The Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Most-interesting-pact-with-the-devil-in-the-world\"<\/p>\n

Having recently shared<\/a> some thoughts on the separation of church and state, and the politicization of religion, in relation to the Pew survey data that was published recently, I thought I would also re-share the meme above, which I made a few years ago, and shared in a post called \u201cPossibly the Most Interesting Pact with the Devil.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0There I wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

[I]f anything has been to the detriment of Christianity in the past two\u00a0millennia\u00a0of its history, it is the forging of an allegiance between imperial\/state power, and the church.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there is a literal personal entity called \u201cSatan<\/a>.\u201d But if I did, I\u2019d expect him to be seeking to put the church in bed with the state, and not keep them apart in the manner that has upheld and defined religious freedom in the United States.<\/p>\n

Progressive Christians don\u2019t always use the term \u201cdemonic\u201d \u2013 certainly not as much as some Christians do. But when we do, it is in reference to those who would take the name of the one who taught his followers to not repay evil for evil, and stick it on flags or the bumpers of tanks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having recently shared some thoughts on the separation of church and state, and the politicization of religion, in relation to the Pew survey data that was published recently, I thought I would also re-share the meme above, which I made a few years ago, and shared in a post called \u201cPossibly the Most Interesting Pact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":9581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,75],"tags":[5677,7250,7724,9305,9597,11083],"class_list":["post-30217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-religion","category-politics","tag-jesus","tag-meme","tag-most-interesting-man-in-the-world","tag-politics","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-separation-of-church-and-state"],"yoast_head":"\nPoliticized Christianity's Pact With The Devil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having recently shared some thoughts on the separation of church and state, and the politicization of religion, in relation to the Pew survey data that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/politicized-christianitys-pact-with-the-devil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Politicized Christianity's Pact With The Devil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having recently shared some thoughts on the separation of church and state, and the politicization of religion, in relation to the Pew survey data that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/politicized-christianitys-pact-with-the-devil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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