Some days I want to burn it all down

 Something I've been thinking about. I often feel like I'm not the best and putting these thoughts into words, but I'm going to try.

Being raised in the Christian evangelical culture, I remember chapel services about surrendering our lives in service to God because millions of people in the world need to know about Jesus. I remember reading and hearing about Christian martyrs, and how we should have the same dedication to our faith in Jesus. And whatever trials we face, God will be with us. I remember hearing about how China and other countries forbid any exercise of religion except the one approved by the government, and how we believed this was bad and there should be freedom of religion. But also, we rejoiced that there were brave people worshiping in homes and how the gospel spreads under persecution.

In light of that, if all of those things we were taught are true, I don't understand the people who are saying the US is a Christian nation and Christianity should be the state religion. There is a faction of Christianity that wants to make all of the laws based on the Christian Bible, and take free will and freedom of conscience away from other people. And some believe that only the Christians should be in power, because the secular people are trying to persecute us. (I don't really think Christians are being persecuted here in the US, but that is perhaps another conversation.) Looking at church history, the faith grows in the hard times and it gets corrupt when it is in power. What makes us think the US different from this historical trend?

We were taught to be like the Bereans, the ones who studied the scriptures and tested what Paul was teaching them against the scriptures they had (probably the Torah). I think that, in a general sense, Christians in the US do too much listening to what the talking heads are telling us we should believe and not enough seeking the scriptures or seeking God about what we should believe.

I don't want to suffer or be a martyr if I don't have to. But I don't believe in the christian nationalist version of the faith. I am proud to be an American, and I think the US has done some exceptional things in the world. But I think my faith should be a humble, kind, peaceful/peacemaking walk following Jesus, focused more on love than power/strength, hierarchy, rules/legalism etc.

I'm intentionally not dropping random scriptures verses in here to try to make a point, because people take scriptures out of context all of the time to make a point. I'm just off work today and trying to put some thoughts together (and trying hard to stay on 1 point instead of rambling about "everything"). I was really moved by the Free Methodist seminar I went to a couple weeks ago, and the mention of suffering by the one speaker brought a lot of these thoughts to mind. It gave me hope that out of the ashes of what I've been burning down, God can do something new.