a hit TV show about zombies<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=amerjesu-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0049P1ZZQ\")
, and hacking into digital traffic signs to warn of an impending zombie apocalypse has become a popular prank across the country.<\/p>\nBut why?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so appealing about zombies?<\/p>\n
I think the answer to that question can be seen pretty clearly in a movie like\u00a0Zombieland<\/em>. Zombies are mindless, soulless monsters. They may look human, but it\u2019s obvious to everyone they\u2019re just a walking pile of useless flesh. Which means they can be shot, decapitated, blown up, or have a piano dropped on top of them and it doesn\u2019t matter because they\u2019re not really human anyway.<\/p>\nAfter all, you can\u2019t have them getting too close, otherwise they\u2019ll eat your brains.<\/p>\n
If you ask me, that sounds a lot like political and theological discourse in America. Even that part about your brains getting eaten.<\/p>\n
Treating the other side of the aisle or the people in the next pew with dignity and respect can be really hard to do when we fundamentally disagree with them. Especially when we refuse to actually listen to them for fear they might eat our brains or worse, the brains of our children. Our brains may not get literally panfried, but we\u2019re terrified of our children getting \u201cindoctrinated\u201d by other people\u2019s ideas or, worse, we\u2019re afraid we might have to confront the fact that we might be wrong about something.<\/p>\n
So, rather than going through all the hard, messy work of loving our enemies or hearing what they have to say, we zombify them.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re no longer people anymore in our eyes, they\u2019re \u201cDemocrats,\u201d \u201cRepublicans,\u201d \u201cCalvinists,\u201d or \u201cArminians.\u201d Because of this zombifcation they not longer have to be treated with respect and dignity because we\u2019ve stripped them of their humanity, reducing them to nothing more than a charicatured, soulless enemy ripe for destruction.<\/p>\n
We zombify our opponents because it lets us sleep at night and go to church in the morning knowing we didn\u2019t destroy a real person or groups of people of Facebook. We did what we had to do. We killed the zombie and held off the apocalypse.<\/p>\n
This all might sound a bit silly, but it\u2019s tragically too close to reality.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t believe me, it\u2019s probably because you haven\u2019t been on Facebook or Twitter in recent days or you don\u2019t watch cable news or you\u2019re tuned out of the conversations in the church world. The sad reality of both our country and our church is that far too many of us refuse to treat people we disagree with as if they truly are human beings created in the image of God. Instead, we\u2019d rather treat them like zombies, lop off their heads, and be done with it.<\/p>\n
Zombie hunting may be great for the movies, but it\u2019s terrible for real life.<\/p>\n
Particularly if you claim the name \u201cChristian.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Jesus came across people who\u2019s ideology of lifestyle he didn\u2019t agree with, he didn\u2019t zombify them. He listen to them. He talked to them. He ate with them. He defended them. And then he died for them.<\/p>\n
If Christian is who we are going to be, then this is the path we must follow because zombifying our enemies isn\u2019t just problematic for dialogue and debates.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the very definition of being anti-Christ.<\/p>\n
Jesus came to give everyone new life and a new identity in him. When we zombify our enemies we strip away that identity and deny them that life. When that happens, we\u2019re not longer being Christians, no matter how right our theology may be or how passionately we think we need to \u201cstand up for our faith.\u201d When that happens, we\u2019re nothing more than zombie hunters in a bad B movie.<\/p>\n
If being a disiciple of Jesus is something we are going to take seriously, more seriously than just posting a cheesy status on Facebook, then that doesn\u2019t mean we have to stop having an opinion, nor does it mean we have to stop arguing that opinion vigorsously.<\/p>\n
But what it does mean is we have to start treating our political and theological opponents with dignity and respect. It means we have to stop denying them their identity as a person created in the image of God. It means we have to treat them as equals.<\/p>\n
To do otherwise means we\u2019re not just being zombie hunters, we\u2019re being anti-Christ.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may have been missed by those who weren\u2019t around when it was originally posted. Given the contentious political environment right now I thought it would be appropriate to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":10898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Zombification Of America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may\" \/>\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\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Zombification Of America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-04T14:23:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/10\/night_of_the_living_dead_3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/\",\"name\":\"The Zombification Of America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-04T14:23:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-04T14:23:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\"},\"description\":\"FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Zombification Of America\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\",\"name\":\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\",\"description\":\"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\",\"name\":\"Zack Hunt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zack Hunt\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Zombification Of America","description":"FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Zombification Of America","og_description":"FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/","og_site_name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","article_published_time":"2013-10-04T14:23:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":432,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/10\/night_of_the_living_dead_3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zack Hunt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zack Hunt","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/","name":"The Zombification Of America","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-04T14:23:09+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-04T14:23:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226"},"description":"FROM THE VAULT:\u00a0As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/10\/the-zombification-of-america-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Zombification Of America"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/","name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","description":"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226","name":"Zack Hunt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Zack Hunt"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"night_of_the_living_dead_3\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/10\/night_of_the_living_dead_3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n