Identity by Ideology
Response to comment [from a Christian]: "I have been puzzling, lately, over the modern (mostly) American phenomenon of intertwining self-identity with ideology."
We don't check our Christianity at the door.
Recommended Reading:
Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity
by Nancy Pearcey
"I'm referring to the steady and
significant increase in the number
of Americans who conflate their own
identity with some particular
ideology, both on a personal level
and in groups.
Fifty years ago, very few Americans
would have thought of themselves as
being republican or democrat,
liberal or conservative, religious
or agnostic, capitalist or
socialist, pro or anti abortion, pro
or anti contraception, pro or anti
gay rights, pro or anti taxation,
pro or anti climate change and
carbon emission control, pro or anti
government regulation, and so on.
Certainly people had opinions about
these issues, and tended to come
down on one side of them or another,
but people didn't consider the
ideologies that led them to their
opinions on these issues to be the
defining factor in 'who they are'.
And yet now days that seems to have
become surprisingly commonplace."
"Some people
believe Christianity is like
checking a box Democrat or
Republican....Can we say if you do
not follow Christ you are not a
Christ-follower?--A Christian." ~
Darrell Ferguson
See:
AOG Study Notes
"I hear songs on the radio all the time about how proud the country bumpkin is to be a country bumpkin."
Ruth was a country bumpkin (Ru 1:4).
"Clearly, it's the greatest thing about the singer's life. And I hear songs about how bad the bad-boy rapper is and how he wants us all to know how bad he is. Because clearly, his anti-social, even criminal badness is paramount to his view of himself."
How bad he is
How badly he wants to make money
"And on the religious stations I hear songs and stories about how righteous the Bible Christians are and how we'd all better become one or we're going to hell."
Trust in Jesus - Third Day
"Or I can switch to talk radio and hear hours upon hours devoted to expressing how "our" ideology is always right, and "their" ideology is always wrong."
Eccl 10:2, Jn 10:10
"How "we" who adhere to this ideology are the good guys, while "they" who adhere to that ideology are the bad guys."
Ro 1:16
"...[W]e are becoming more and more divided against each other by our ideological differences. Differences that we would not be tripping over if we were identifying ourselves and each other as human beings, first, rather than as ideological manifestations."
Are you a
utopian?
Lk 12:51. At the end, there will be
a falling away (Mt 24:12). People
are lining up on one side or the
other. Be sure
you're
on the right side. Josh 24:15
