A Land of Immigrants

This weekend Coke caused a big stir by having “America the Beautiful” sung in multiple languages. Sadly, many people were upset by their decision. The way I see it, the artistic commercial can be understood as doing two things:

1.  It shows that people from multiple nationalities see something special about our country.
2. It shows that our country is beautiful in its diversity.

People from all over the world come to America with dreams of starting a new life in. We live in a land of immigrants. Everyone here originally came from somewhere else. America is a place where people of all nationalities and languages can melt together creating an ever changing tapestry of culture. Part of the beauty of America is that it is unique place that never stays the same for very long. In one sense our tradition is that everything is always changing.

The commercial is artistic. It makes a bold statement. It highlights our diversity and the unique way in which people outside America envision life here.

How does this video help Christians understand taking the Gospel to all people, even in just this country? How does it remind us to become all things to all people? In what ways does the negative reaction to the commercial from some remind us of the war we wage with the sinful attitudes and practices of the world?

GOD HATES OBAMA AND CHRISTIANS SHOULD TOO

I was initially going to write this post about those email forwards turned Facebook memes, their malicious deceptiveness, and the role they play in too many well-intentioned Christians' daily social networking liturgy. You know what I'm talking about. They're half truths disguised as completely true stories about politicians, or touching (but still only partly true) stories about a family or individual 'victimized' by liberal policies. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. And they spread like wildfire, in part because they're half true. (Or in some cases, as with the example below, almost completely made up.)

But this landed in my lap this afternoon, and I thought I'd shift gears slightly.

This still lands in the category of a Facebook meme propagated by ultra-conservative groups, but it lacks the compelling narrative. What makes this kind of thing attractive is it's one-liner, black-and-white pith. It's cheeky; it's inflammatory; it's simple. And American Evangelicals love these sorts of things for all of those reasons. This is baffling to me.

We must beware of deceptively simple arguments such as this. We are called by Christ to be innocent as doves and shrewd as serpents (Mt 10). We must stop allowing ourselves to be duped. We must repent from being a part of spreading these lies--even if by being silent--and turn to fight against them instead, for they are a great harm to the church.

The especial, malicious irony of the above image is that it was posted by one of those harmful "Christian" Facebook groups mere hours after Israel bestowed their highest honor upon President Obama, thanking him for his "tireless work to make Israel strong."

President Peres went on to say, "Your presidency has given the close ties between Israel and the United States a new height. A sense of intimacy. A vision for the future." (Read the full transcript or watch the video here.)

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, stop forwarding these emails. Stop liking and sharing these Facebook photos. These memes are poisonous. They are often intentionally deceptive, and there is nothing more unChristian. We are supposed to spread the cure, not the poison.