the idea of empire

I finished reading Rob Bell's Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and I'm pretty sure I read it too fast and too much of it went over my head. That's my disclaimer if you have also read this and think I missed the point.

The missing of points is also a theme in the book. Evidently, lots of Christians do this all the time, so at least I'm in good company being off the mark.

But this is what I've taken away from the book...

Part of the book discusses pre-exodus Egypt in a frighteningly familiar way. I know I'm going to over-simplify the already overly simplified story of the Jews exodus from Egypt, so if you are a biblical scholar, forgive me.

The Jews were oppressed in slavery in Egypt, and they cried out to God. God heard these cries and freed them from their oppression. Almost immediately afterwards, they forget who has freed them and begin worshipping idols. God shakes them up with the Ten Commandments. He makes a covenant with them about the importance of not being oppressors and stock-piling weapons and becoming an agressive military state. Then He sends them on their way to the promise land, where a few generations later, they (under Solomon) are a huge military power with lots of weapons and are using slaves to build- get this - the temple.

Slaves are building the church.

I can't help but think back to my elementary school history books. About the Pilgrims setting off to a new land to obtain freedom from the oppression of England. And about how in the process, we inflicted a genocide on the native people already living in that new land.

But wait... that isn't how the history books told it, was it?

We were the good guys. We were the ones conquering the enemy. Fighting in retaliation against a godless, aggressive people.

Right?

And we've been the good guys, every time since. Our intentions have always been pure. We've never invaded or attacked out of selfish motives.

Right?

When September 11th happened, I couldn't believe that anyone in the world would want to hurt innocent people... Innocent Americans in that way.

I couldn't believe it because I always got As in my history classes.

I feel like I've spent much of my adult life unlearning what I was taught in my youth.

I have a feeling I concluded a lot of what Bell was leading me to conclude with his book. America is the new Egypt. We are also the new Solomon's Kingdom. And as history continues to repeat itself, so goes America.

I just don't know what I'm supposed to do about it.

How do we break the cycle? Is it too late for us?

Are fear and greed to powerful a force for even a "Christian" nation to avoid their pitfalls?

This book is not a doomsday novel. It's not a discussion of the end times. It's a "manifesto for a church in exile." And for that purpose, I think it's an excellent read. I need to read it again.

I just wish it had a happy ending.