When a faith built to bless the nation gets quietly diverted into power, the most dangerous act left to the church may be refusing to whitewash the story and choosing instead to become a communion of genuinely unlike people.

On the eve of a national prayer rally rededicating America to God, Mark Labberton joined The Jim Wallis Podcast to ask whether Christians who invoke the nation's name are following Jesus or drifting from him.

Together with Jim Wallis, Mark reflects on what it means to choose Christ alone, love the neighbour, and refuse a faith fused to national power. They discuss the evangel versus "evangelicalism," the church as a communion of unlike people, worship in a black church, American exceptionalism as theological crisis, and racial gerrymandering after recent court rulings.

Episode Highlights

"I want to be evangel-centric and not be caught up in the icalisms of a history, a pattern, a habit, a sociology that has often been diverted from the evangel into power—political, social, economic, racial power."

"Paul's giving us a vision of the church that's a communion of unlike people. We know a lot about a communion of like people. But a communion of unlike people is meant to be one of the hallmarks of the church."

"I can't be a Christian alone, but I also can't be a Christian that matures if I'm a Christian only with people who are like me."

"Worship of our country, or the exceptionalism of leaders of our country—these are completely foreign to the body of Christ and to the theology of the kingdom."

"It's really like subverting reality by renaming it in a way that's euphemistic, that's literally whitewashing."

Helpful Links and Resources

• The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, by Mark Labberton https://www.ivpress.com/the-dangerous-act-of-loving-your-neighbor
• Called, by Mark Labberton https://www.ivpress.com/called
• The False White Gospel, by Jim Wallis https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250291899/thefalsewhitegospel/
• Jim Wallis, Center on Faith and Justice https://faithandjustice.georgetown.edu/about-jim-wallis/
• God's Politics with Jim Wallis (Substack): https://jimwallis.substack.com/

Show Notes

• Recorded on the eve of the Rededicate 250 prayer rally
• Loving your neighbour as a dangerous, costly act
• Gratitude for America alongside a "far more complicated story" of suffering
• "Christ alone"—Jesus, not any nation, party, or president, is Lord
• "The evangel is the good news of Jesus Christ"; nothing can rival it
• "A communion of unlike people is meant to be one of the hallmarks of the church."
• White allies, Black solidarity, and Supreme Court rulings on Louisiana and Alabama
• A friend's anniversary in African garb—living fully "on good days, maybe two-thirds"
• Detroit, Black churches, and faith as joyous rediscovery
• Worshiping at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland every Sunday
• Saying yes to the evangel, no to the "icalism" of evangelicalism
• John Stott as mentor; the Lausanne Covenant and Global South
• Stott's wartime pacifism; a father who stopped speaking for four years
• American exceptionalism as a theological crisis, not just left-versus-right
• "America's original sin," erasing history, and "literally whitewashing"
• First citizenship in the kingdom; the moral arc bends toward justice

#MarkLabberton #JimWallis #Conversing #ChristianNationalism #ChristAlone #LoveYourNeighbor #PublicTheology #FaithAndPolitics

Production Credits

Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Jim Wallis and Paul Woodhull.