Religionized America
Preaching
Shaking Wolves Out Of Cherry Trees
And 149 Other Sermon Ideas
Purpose Statement: To show how the Christian church has tried to control our nation's policies.
It is natural to want to take advantage of privilege. If you can get something someone else can't, the feeling is "go get it!" In a competitive environment such as ours, it is believed good business or just good common sense to take advantage of being in control or in the majority. Christianity has that privileged status in our country.
Use Matthew 22:15-21 as it deals with what belongs to God and what is due the state.
a. First, many see our country as a Christian country. Unfortunately, much of the world has come to identify Western civilization as synonymous with Christianity. When we seek to share the Christian faith and ideals with the world, it sees the process (as we sometimes do) as converting the rest of the world to Western ways.
b. Second, we claim the nation was founded by Christians, and from that deduce it was founded "for" Christians. There were deists among the founders and the nation was founded on separation of church and state and freedom for all religious peoples. No one religion was to have special privileges.
c. Third, our biased perspective leads our Christian church to seek special treatment because we are in the majority. When we want scripture and prayer in the classroom or our legislatures, it is to be Christian scripture and prayer. Prayer at sports events is Christian prayer.
d. Finally, the extension of this religionizing of America is the desire of the "religious right" to take over or have a monopoly. They would like to have their values imposed on all others because they are right and everyone else is wrong. There is no tolerance. Special privilege and control eliminates all semblance of religious freedom, or any kind of freedom.
It is natural to want to take advantage of privilege. If you can get something someone else can't, the feeling is "go get it!" In a competitive environment such as ours, it is believed good business or just good common sense to take advantage of being in control or in the majority. Christianity has that privileged status in our country.
Use Matthew 22:15-21 as it deals with what belongs to God and what is due the state.
a. First, many see our country as a Christian country. Unfortunately, much of the world has come to identify Western civilization as synonymous with Christianity. When we seek to share the Christian faith and ideals with the world, it sees the process (as we sometimes do) as converting the rest of the world to Western ways.
b. Second, we claim the nation was founded by Christians, and from that deduce it was founded "for" Christians. There were deists among the founders and the nation was founded on separation of church and state and freedom for all religious peoples. No one religion was to have special privileges.
c. Third, our biased perspective leads our Christian church to seek special treatment because we are in the majority. When we want scripture and prayer in the classroom or our legislatures, it is to be Christian scripture and prayer. Prayer at sports events is Christian prayer.
d. Finally, the extension of this religionizing of America is the desire of the "religious right" to take over or have a monopoly. They would like to have their values imposed on all others because they are right and everyone else is wrong. There is no tolerance. Special privilege and control eliminates all semblance of religious freedom, or any kind of freedom.
