Jesus vs. America
A Gen X attorney sits down with a millennial and a member of Gen Z to untangle the Christian faith from the influence of the American culture.
For over two decades, we have collectively watched young adults walking away from their faith at an alarming rate. Most Christian resources focus on this exodus from a sociological lens, and we have benefited from the work that has been done in this area.
But as three people with on-the-ground experience working with young adults every day, it is increasingly clear that young adults are not so much reacting to Jesus, his message, or even his plan for the church. Instead, many young people are being repelled by a counterfeit and enculturated version of Christianity, a version of Christianity that commingles the American culture and political ideology with the Christian faith. Jesus told us we could not serve two masters, and yet so many Christians have tried to serve both the teachings of scripture and the dictates of the American culture. Young adults have taken notice, and they want nothing to do with this tainted form of religion. Many may bemoan the loss of so many young people, but we have often given them the reasons they cite when they leave.
Our podcast is designed to first and foremost untangle the teachings of Jesus and the will of God revealed throughout the scripture from the enculturated version of the gospel that has spread to many corners of the church in 21st Century America. In doing so, we hope to validate what young adults have long suspected, while challenging them to go deeper with Jesus rather than bail out on a counterfeit gospel. We want to demonstrate honest questions and to wrestle with doubts while also encouraging young adults to do the work of seeking answers and working to rebuild their faith.
Jesus vs. America
Should We Display the American Flag in Church?
We may not even be aware how our attitudes about the flag and its display in houses of worship conflates our faith with our positive feelings about the country. One of the ways we can assess our own hearts on this issue comes when we consider what happens when we relocate the flag or remove it altogether. In this episode, we examine how the flag becomes commingled with our Christian faith, often representing a belief that God has blessed the United States in a way that He has not blessed other countries. Even a majority of pastors believe that patriotic elements should be incorporated into the worship services on certain holiday weekends, while those same pastors report that their congregations sometimes love the country more than they love God. We ask whether American Christians have a unique fondness of flags and pledges, creating new ways to praise Christians flags and the Bible, and how these well-intentioned but misplaced allegiances can take us from the person of Jesus.