Our Nation's Worst Demons are Ascending

In his first Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln appealed to “the better angels of our nature.” That is what our political and religious leaders should always do — appeal to our best angels. But at the other end of the moral spectrum, political and even religious leaders now often appeal to our worst demons: fear, anger, resentment, greed, prejudice, division, and hatred. And the danger we are discovering is that our demons in America have been lying just below the surface and have been aggressively brought forth in the past few years. We see white supremacists marching openly with torches aloft in Charlottesville and elsewhere, and a growing white nationalism feels emboldened by the White House. We see children in cages and families torn apart at the southern border because of policies made in the same building where they call immigrants “invaders.” We now see the worst elements of America’s history rekindled by some who see these elements as their plan for this nation’s future, often with the language of Christianity painfully deployed in defense of that.

The dangerous political crisis we now find ourselves in has revealed how disconnected from Jesus many Christians in America have become. Closing the gaping distance that presently exists between Christians and the Jesus that too many Christians desperately try to avoid often seems a daunting challenge — where can we even begin? Are there fundamental truths of Jesus’s ministry that can help us find our way back to him, even and especially amid this fearful moment? Yes, I believe there are and that some of the key questions Jesus asked or provoked would help show us the way forward.

That is what my new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus is all about.

We are asking you to help us in two ways:

• 1. Pre-ordering Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus ( https://book.sojo.net/) will help the book break into and even change the national conversation going on right now. You can directly help change that conversation by reading the book, sharing it, and using it as a tool and guidebook in your congregations, small groups, schools, and local communities. We have also created a 10-week study guide with videos and resources for small group and congregational and school study; and
• 2.Inviting me and other voices to come and speak in your community, so we can go deeper into conversation together about what these questions mean in your community and our country and world more broadly. We are already in contact with diverse local leaders in many places who are going to participate in those conversations. If you build the events, we will come.

The good news is that we will not be alone; we can take that journey with our brothers and sisters in our congregations, our families, and our communities; a pilgrimage — a sojourn — of prayer, study, discernment, and action.We may not all have the same answers to the questions Jesus asked and prompted, but they must be asked; and perhaps it is our conversation about them together that could help heal a broken nation. In the midst of the painful, shameful, and embarrassing examples of religion selling its soul for power, more and more of us will make clear that we are reclaiming Jesus.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.