Abnormality

So today is the fourth of July. The day everyone in the U.S. celebrates our freedoms, remember those soldiers who died (or managed to kill everyone who was trying to kill them and so survived) to give us said freedoms. They fly American flags. Except the pacifists.

Oh, we do normal fourth of july-ey things like cooking tons of delicious food and family get-togethers, and now that we live in the middle of nowhere we even set off bottle rockets and firecrackers and stuff. My brothers love that. I even love that! = )

And we do also celebrate our freedom, but I always get the sense that we celebrate with a "matter-of-time" attitude. It's only a matter of time until our freedoms get taken away. It's only a matter of time until the southerners find out we're pacifists and burn us at the stake (figuratively speaking - for at least the present time, burning people at the stake is illegal). It's only a matter of time until there's a draft and half our relatives have to declare conscientous objector or end up in jail. It's only a matter of time until our government totally screws up and gets us involved in an unjust war - oh wait, haha, we done that already.

So I know that this will be a really unpopular post with most of you. A lot of my friends come from family military traditions and have a great loyalty towards the United States government and its president. But can I just ask one thing of all you people, before you start flaming me? Don't let your loyalty be blind. I saw one woman raise her hands in worship to the national anthem. Don't let loyalty to your country usurp the place reserved for Christ. Simply because we're under a certain government's authority (and we are told to submit to that authority, unless it interferes with our faith) doesn't mean you have to unequivocally approve of all its decisions and actions. Is not the greatest loyalty and love the one which sees faults and seeks to fix them, to make the nation loved greater than it currently is? Is true patriotism loyal to the people of its nation, the government of its nation, or one man - the president of its nation? I'm going to point out one more thing. And then let the flaming begin. We're not the chosen nation, sorry. We, as a body of believers, have been grafted into the nation of Israel and its salvation - but we, as a nation, have not been grafted into Israel's place as the chosen people.

Thank you, I'm done. I could, as you who know me well know, rant on for hours about governments, faith, seperation between church and state (which frankly I'm all for), unrest, agitation, national security, and politicians. But I won't. I'm stopping, because I want to have a few friends left after the fourth of july.

I'm going to make one more request - that those of you who have serious grievances/issues with this post e-mail me at mm1296@messiah.edu with them, so that I can reply in a format much more convenient than the comment section of my blog.

Happy eatings of food, hangings with family, and celebratings - whatever you choose to celebrate and however you choose to celebrate it.