toldailytopic: How do you balance your sense of patriotism with your disgust for what

[Buzzword]

Some people have touched on this issue and I wanted to bring it up. For those who are Christians.....do you see any conflict between patriotism and Christianity?

Most definitely.

I believe Christianity means living in the Spirit and working for positive change HERE AND NOW, not sitting around waiting for Christ to come back and magically fix it all.

He has changed me in ways I never would have thought possible, and I believe He is working THROUGH human history, not in spite of it.

However, it's hard to look outside and reconcile reality with my beliefs.
Especially knowing that the only way to get something new is for those who profit from the old setup to suddenly decide they care more about others than themselves.
Such is the system in America: the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and everyone in between is told to look out for number 1.

Thus I've tried to make a difference in those closest to me, working to show them Christ's love and compassion in spite of the world and "church people" screaming that they (and the world) are all going to hell.

 

[genuineoriginal]

YOU must obey them. So obey them. Jesus said nothing about making everyone else obey them. When Jesus was confronted with the sin of his society, he accepted it, and forgave them saying, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".

You don't seem to know what Jesus' society was.
It was the people that God chose to be His people.
It was the people that God chose to be their God.

This people already had God's commands through Moses to set up exactly the kind of society that YOU don't want.

Jesus went around teaching people how to worship God in spirit and in truth.

Matthew 5:17-20 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.​

What Jesus didn't say was; "Father, help me become president so that I can stack the courts with like-minded Christians, who will then force everyone else to obey our religious edicts".

Guess what Jesus will do when He returns?

Zechariah 14:16-19 16And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. 17And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.​

The nations will include the United States of America. One day the President of the United States of America will have to travel to Jerusalem every year to kneel before Jesus. Guess what kind of men will stack the courts in that day?

 

[Town Heretic]

...Some people have touched on this issue and I wanted to bring it up. For those who are Christians.....do you see any conflict between patriotism and Christianity?

No, given that the state, flawed in practice as it can be, preserves the right to practice and advance my faith and its influence on the greater good.

:e4e:

 

[chrysostom]

Some people have touched on this issue and I wanted to bring it up. For those who are Christians.....do you see any conflict between patriotism and Christianity?

how can you ask such a question?

the most patriotic people are Christians

it is all about freedom

free to believe as you wish

 

[PureX]

Every generation pines for the glorious past as it reaches adulthood because they saw those years through a child's eyes.

For example:
My generation remembers the 90s as being a time of better TV shows for kids (viewing the current crop as inane at best), better or at least more artistically driven rap music (cop killer > "you and dat booty"), meteoric technological growth (it seems to be gradually coasting now), etc.
But we weren't adults during Desert Storm, the bombings of Kosovo, or any of the economic ups and downs of that decade.

Similar to older folks pining for Leave It To Beaver.

"Rose-colored goggles" doesn't even begin to describe how most people look back, all the while demonizing efforts to move forward.

You're pretty smart for a "whippersnapper".

 

[Lazy afternoon]

Knight, "abortion, homosexual rights and socialism" in America make you sick?
And you really think that making abortion illegal would stop women from having abortions? LOL !!!!!! This would only make abortion much more dangerous.
And even if poor women did not have them, how would they provide for their children? This would only increase poverty,unemployment and crime in America. They wouldn't get any government help to provide for their poor kids.
Your sick about homosexual rights ? So what do you want the government top do, take all their rights away and treat them the way the Nazis treated the Jews?
I'm sure there were lots of Germans in the 1930s who were "sick" about Jewish rights.
Socialism in America ? Ha ! We don't have socialism at all.We never have.
Right-wingers like you don't even know what socialism is. You stupidly confuse the existence of a safety net for the unfortunate in America for "socialism".
Now let's see what an America which didn't make you sick would be like.
Poor women would be dying left and right from botched illegal abortions.
Many children who were already born would be left without mothers
Because of a lack of "socialism" poverty and unemployment would increase enormously, and millions of Americans would be without work and homes, completely helpless. There would be no help for them whatsoever.
Maybe a few soup kitchens, but that wouldn't even come remotely close to providing the help people needed.
Gay people would live inf ear of being outed, and blackmail would be common.Teacher sand other people would lose their jobs.
The police would constantly be on the look out for harmless gays instead of fighting REAL criminals. We would return the the past,when homosexuals were routinely sent to mental hospitals and subject to brutal shock therapy to "cure " them, Some would even be lobotomized .
Sheesh ! I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want t live in an Americ alike this.
I'll stay sickened.

Oh,

So you think if there are no laws against evil then everything would be rosy.

LA

 

[Frank Ernest]

Oh,

So you think if there are no laws against evil then everything would be rosy.

LA

The nuance is that rules are for OTHER people, not as enlightened as "they."

 

[The Horn]

I didn't say that there should be no laws against evil. The problem is that not every one agrees about what is evil. I pointed out that the kind of laws against "evil" that conservatives want would only create a heck of a lot more evil.

 

[Granite]

Has anyone here defined patriotism yet?

 

[Town Heretic]

Has anyone here defined patriotism yet?

"love for or devotion to one's country."

To my mind that's about principle, failure to meet it at every opportunity notwithstanding.

 

[rexlunae]

toldailytopic: How do you balance your sense of patriotism with your disgust for what's going on in this country?

I have a very simple mechanism, which I think can work for people of almost any religious or political stripe. My patriotism is completely contingent upon my country doing the right thing. When the country does right, I celebrate the country. When it does wrong, I chastise it.