Not Right, Not Left, But Shalom My Friend.

I watched one of Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America interviews with Alt Right Gen 7 male ‘Christian’ Americans.  They want to keep USA predominantly white because they assume that whites founded it. They are against other religions (e.g. Moslems and Jews) because they claim those who founded USA were Christians. They are equivocal or misogynistic about women. They use swear words like ‘fuck’ all the time. They parade in quasi military fashion. They dismiss ‘liberals’ such as Louis Theroux and almost everyone who is not like themselves as ineffective and a waste of time. They are mainly a social media phenomenon and have a huge following.

 So what should be our message to them? Here are a few points we can make:

1. Before whites invaded America it already had a large indigenous population. Whites are immigrants too. Jesus commanded us to ‘do to others what we wish they would do to you’ (Matthew 7:12). 

2. The Bible teaches that no human owns the land – God owns it. We are custodians (Leviticus 25:23).  We are guests of God while we live on earth.  We should treat all other humans as fellow guests.

3. Beware lest you ‘kidnap’ Christ for selfish, unchristian purposes. Christ had brown skin colour. He told people to love neighbours who were not like them (e.g. Samaritans) as they loved themselves. The prophet Isaiah and Jesus rebuked Jews for fashioning the Messiah in their own image – the true Messiah is a Suffering Servant.

4. Jesus rebuked those followers who reduced discipleship to mere words. True disciples were those who cared for the poor (Matthew 25).

5. Jesus taught everyone to make the prayer ‘Your kingdom come on earth’ their daily template. This is a kingdom of selflessness  for every aspect of life in every part of the world, in times of loss as well as of gain. A better contemporary word for 'kingdom' might be Shalom.

 Join us as we seek to follow these ways.