US Political Christianity II: Why Isn’t It Global?

Thanks for the comments!. I plan to write to them, but want to test my hypothesis a little more before doing so.

However, you’ve raised a very good distinction because I agree that Sojourners does not write from the “saviour of the world” perspective. For me it also clarifies an important issue, because whilst sojourners are currently entering what I count as their third recent campaign to bridge the partisan divide in the US politics, i don’t see the right-left issue as the big challenge.

To me the big challenge is exceptionalism and the only solution to that is to present a global view that shows the need for American Christians to be more essentially networked with fellow believers around the world, on all levels. It seems no coincidence to me that at the same time that the US has gone for a unilateral approach in politics, some of it denoms and parachhurches have also gone unilateral (episcopals and southern baptists, for example).

So in terms of content, I’d like to see more of what sojourners does best, stories of Christians strugling to embody faith and justice, but to hear about that from all over the world. For example, the recent feature on people brought up evangelical could have had a very interesting and more challening flavour if it had included voices from around the world.

By becoming a voice for a global faith that happens to be published in the US, rather than a voice for US faith that happens to be interested in the world, I think Sojourners could increase its effectiveness in combating US exceptionalism.

Thanks again for your comments,

f.