American Exemptionalism

I know! I made that word up!!! But it fits! (apologies... first version was cut short for some reason. This is now corrected.) We are on the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in our Red-Letter Bible Study. It occurred to me how foreign the message in Matthew 5:38-42 was and that led me down the Rabbit Hole of "why?". Why don't I connect to this. It feels historical but not relevant. For me, at least, that's a red flag. I'm missing something mightily important. As I dug into this rabbit-hole I thought of a word not in the dictionary: Exemptionalism. This deep dive explores how America, founded on Christian principles, has in many ways left God at the altar. Our Christian founding has blessed this country so much that we've forgotten that it was God putting food on the table. This may not be all that comfortable. It was challenging to me for sure. I truly admire the culture of American rugged individualism. What Christ is saying eats at my very core of ethical bias. But here we are... and here we go.    Notes to American Exemptionalism