Pledging Allegiance When Kingdoms Collide

"No wonder it's getting hard for seekers to find God nowadays. It's difficult to know where Christianity ends and America begins." writes Shane Claiborne in Chapter 7 of Irresistible Revolution. "God's name is on America's money, and America's flag is on God's altars."

This chapter is very much about pledging "allegiance" and where that allegiance lies. Is it to our God, as demonstrated in Jesus, or to our borders and our patriotism?

There is no doubt that we must mourn those lives lost on September 11th. We must mourn the lives of the soldiers. But with the same passion and outrage we must mourn the lives of every Iraqi who is lost. They are just as precious , no more, no less. In our rebirth, every life lost in Iraq is just as tragic as a life lost in New York or DC. And the lives of the thirty thousand children who die of starvation each day is like six September 11ths every single day, a silent tsunami that happens every week.

Living out his beliefs, Shane spent time with Iraqi families in Baghdad at the time it was being bombed. He played balloon volleyball with kids. Bombs started exploding. The kids kept playing. "These children were raised hearing bombs - in 1998, in 1991 - and yet they will still play in the park with people whose country is destroying theirs."

When told of US christians who support the war, the Iraqi bishop said to Shane (about Iraqi Christians) "We believe 'blessed are the peacemakers.' We believe if you pick up the sword you die by the sword. We believe in the cross."

I guess the main point is that if we are truly reborn, and if God is our king, then perhaps we could learn from those kids - playing games with Americans even while being bombed by Americans. After all, "it is more courageous to love our enemies that to kill them".