{"id":42033,"date":"2017-10-18T05:38:04","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T09:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=42033"},"modified":"2017-10-19T08:39:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T12:39:43","slug":"mike-pences-idolatry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/mike-pences-idolatry.html","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Nation And Its Flag As You Love Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Trump<\/p>\n

From a post by Adam Ericksen with the title \u201cMike Pence Is a Devout Christian, but He\u2019s Not Following Christ,\u201d on the Patheos blog Teaching Nonviolent Atonement<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is uncomfortable with the truth about racism, so they attempt to change the narrative. In doing so, they completely miss the point of the protests. If they really wanted the unity they so often speak about, they would listen to the protests and work for an end to racial injustice.<\/p>\n

Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that the Trump administration \u201cwill always be for protection and celebration of the flag and the national anthem.\u201d Trump and his followers are more concerned about protecting and celebrating the flag than they are about protecting and celebrating their fellow human beings.<\/p>\n

As a devout Christian, Pence knows that the Bible has a word for that: Idolatry. Pence has placed the American flag above the American people. As a Christian, Pence knows that Jesus didn\u2019t say that you should love your flag or even your nation. He said you should love your neighbor as yourself. That is the will of the Father. In order to love his black neighbors, Pence needs to listen to their protests and work for justice on their behalf.<\/p>\n

That would be the Christian, and the American, thing to do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read\u00a0the rest of the post.\u00a0The issue is such a\u00a0crucial one, that I thought it not only\u00a0worthwhile but important to take some part of the blog post and turn them into a meme. The point is not a new one, and so for more on the topic, let me recommend the treatment of idolatry and nationalism in Paul Tillich\u2019s classic book, Dynamics of Faith<\/em><\/a>. If you\u2019ve never read it, it is one of those books which, however dated it may sound in places on occasion, as far as its main points and substance are concerned, offers a message that needs to be heard now more than ever, and could have been written directly in response to what is happening in the United States in the present day. Because the driving issue here is American civil religion, which hasn\u2019t changed fundamentally over the past half a century, despite critiques like Tillich\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a post by Adam Ericksen with the title \u201cMike Pence Is a Devout Christian, but He\u2019s Not Following Christ,\u201d on the Patheos blog Teaching Nonviolent Atonement: The Trump administration is uncomfortable with the truth about racism, so they attempt to change the narrative. In doing so, they completely miss the point of the protests. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":42034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,101],"tags":[14918,14917,2795,3466,4974,14916,7428,8843,9305,9666,12508],"class_list":["post-42033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-theology","tag-adam-ericksen","tag-civil-religion","tag-donald-trump","tag-flag","tag-idolatry","tag-knee","tag-mike-pence","tag-paul-tillich","tag-politics","tag-protest","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nLove Your Nation And Its Flag As You Love Yourself<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From a post by Adam Ericksen with the title "Mike Pence Is a Devout Christian, but He\u2019s Not Following Christ," on the Patheos blog Teaching Nonviolent\" \/>\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\/2017\/10\/mike-pences-idolatry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love Your Nation And Its Flag As You Love Yourself\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From a post by Adam Ericksen with the title "Mike Pence Is a Devout Christian, but He\u2019s Not Following Christ," on the Patheos blog Teaching Nonviolent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/mike-pences-idolatry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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