Episode 259 - Lee Camp: Scandalous Witness

"One major reason Christianity in America has been made into a bad public joke is our failure to rightly understand what Christianity is.”Our guest this week is Lee Camp, Professor at Lipscomb University in Nashville and host of the popular Tokens Show in Nashville. Check out his website: https://www.leeccamp.comHis latest book is Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians. Fifteen propositions for changing Christianity in AmericaChristian identity is in moral and political crisis. Lee Camp writes “that one major reason Christianity in America has been made into a bad public joke is our failure to rightly understand what Christianity is.” Scandalous Witness provides a way forward. Although refusing to reduce Christianity to any partisan agenda, he reminds us that the gospel is inherently political and that we are called to be political witnesses. Camp’s provocative diagnosis is that “American hope” is a bastardized form of Christian hope. The United States is not the hope of the world nor is it a Christian nation. Rather, “American Christian values” corrupts Christianity, and partisanship mocks the true scandal of the gospel. Camp reminds us that all empires fall. By conceiving Christianity as a politic instead of a religion, we may begin to take seriously the true scandal of the gospel. We may envision new possibilities by which our gospel practices make a new world possible. Offering a robust vision of a Christian politic that exposes modern parodies of faith, Camp mixes wit, charm, and logic, challenging Christians to rethink who they are and how they participate in the modern world. In it, Camp unpacks 15 propositions:Proposition 1: History Is Not One Damn Thing after AnotherProposition 2: The End of History Has Already BegunProposition 3: American Hope Is A BastardProposition 4: Christianity Is Neither A Prostitute Nor A ChaplainProposition 5: The United States Is Not the Hope of the WorldProposition 6: The United States Was Not, Is Not, and Will Not Be a Christian NationProposition 7: How Christian Values, and the Bible, Corrupt ChristianityProposition 8: Every Empire FallsProposition 9: Christian Partisanship is Like a Fist-Fight on the TitanicProposition 10: Hostile Forces Have a Role in the Unfolding of HistoryProposition 11. Christianity Is Not a Religion; Christianity Is a PoliticProposition 12: Liberal Political Puissance Is Not the GoalProposition 13: Exemplary Political Witness Is the GoalProposition 14: Christianity Is Not Counter-CulturalPropositions 15: Christian Engagement Must Always Be Ad Hoc