Humility or Arrogance?

Here are a couple of brief excerpts from God’s Politics that I have been thinking about…

“God’s politics challenges narrow national, ethnic, economic, or cultural self-interest, reminding us of a much wider world and the creative human diversity of all those made in the image of the creator” (Wallis, 2005, p. xix). I feel like so many Americans are only concerned with America and protecting our own self-interests, but God doesn’t love Americans any more than he loves any other people group. He loves the Sudanese, Iraqis, Russians, Palestinians, Canadians, Vietnamese, and every other nationality just as much.

“Abraham Lincoln had it right. Our task should not be to invoke religion and the name of God by claiming God’s blessing and endorsement for all our national policies and practices – saying, in effect, that God is on our side. Rather, Lincoln said, we should pray and worry earnestly whether we are on God’s side. Those are the two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way – God on our side – leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness, bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way – asking if we are on God’s side – leads to much healthier things, namely penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and even accountability. We need much more of all these, because these are often the missing values of politics” (p. xviii). In my reading of Scripture humility, rather than arrogance is the way of Christ. Does my worldview and do my political views reflect this? Hmmm….