(4) Are we more likely to follow God's commandments when others are watching?
(5) Are we more impressed with degrees and qualifications or character and faithfulness?
(6) Are we more impressed by who somebody knows or what he knows?
(7) Which do we know more thoroughly: radio song lyrics and sports stats or the Word?
(8) Are we false optimists? Confident the future will be better because we have 'plans"?
(9) Do we seek security in neat systems? Or in our relationship with god?
(10)Is God our "tower"-the biggest, most exciting, most impressive part of our lives? [p. 157-8]
There were too many Christians claiming that those who opposed and marched against the shameless takeover of Iraq in 2003 "were drinking Saddam's cool-aid". What a horrible thing to say about your brothers and sisters in Christ seeking the best for your soul and America's soul-as well as for the children and mothers of so many since-dead in Iraq.
Jacoby in his footnotes also asks, "What about our ideological or political arrogance? Did we ever think totalitarianism was a good idea? 'Enlightened' leaders making all the important decisions for the people who, after all, are just 'children'?"
From my perspective, too many Christians-including too many in my own church--began to get Milton Friedman Capitalism and Pat Robertson Christianity confused with a living faith that involves fighting political and ideological ignorance.
This lack of will to call Christian leaders and others to account when they rage on-and-on about foreign- or humanist dangers but lead a whole country, people and political-economy to war-without-end MUST STOP NOW!
It should have stopped decades ago. But, too many good Christians in America and in Europe were silent and let others define Christianity and living faith for them. The same has happened over the centuries in the Middle East, but that doesn't mean we all need to do what John Doe Babel does.
NOTES
International Teaching Ministry of Douglas Jacoby, http://www.douglasjacoby.com/
Jacoby, Douglas. THE GOD WHO DARED-Genesis: From Creation to Babel, Woburn, MA: DPI, 1997.
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