Nathan shares his thoughts on how misunderstanding "Good Guys vs. Bad Guys" can lead to an inverted gospel of moral superiority, and how it contributes to the problem of "Us Against Them." And, along the way, Nathan realizes that he's not the Jedi he thought, but he was the Sith the whole time. Book Club! - “With” by Skye Jethani Intro - Good guys vs. Bad guys - The Empire Strikes BackDarkwing DuckRescuers Down Under How to know if someone’s a bad guySmokes cigarettesThey’re uglyForeign accent (Russian or German, but the worst is British)OT “heroes” are very flawed peopleWe’re not necessarily supposed to emulate the heroes at all timesNoah had a dark ending (Genesis 9)Abraham lying about his wife being his wife (Genesis 20)David & Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)Jacob & Esau (Genesis 25)Judah & Tamar (Genesis 38)We read ourselves into the best parts of the storyGoing to church = I’m a good guyThe G.O.D. Club (sorry Jodie)We associate being a Christian with moral superiorityThe natural response to meeting God is not “I’m so great”The Gospel of Moral Superiority - The need to feel “good enough” to become a ChristianFocusing so much on right vs. wrong that we miss the forestFear of morality outside ChristianityWe are skeptical of things not written by people we always agree withWe should also be skeptical of those we think we do agree with Leads us to hide any darkness we find inside ourselvesWe then hide the shortcomings of our leadersRavi Zacharias scandal Us Against Them - We should be the salt of the earth not the starch of the vest (Matthew Today means: authentic, guard down, not worried about perceptionsBook: “Unchristian” by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman Rethinking how we measure ourselvesJesus came to the “in group” and reached out to the “outsider”Thought experiment: Tell yourself the “Good Samaritan” story and substitute the person you can’t stand as the SamaritanGod leaves no room for someone we’re NOT supposed to love “Jesus the Pharisee” - Joseph Shulam There is no outsider! There is no “us vs them”Love activelyJoin our Patreon - we'd love your support and we have some fantastic patron perks!Support Following the Fire