City on a Hill

This episode finds the intersection of the Bible and politics. What can we "claim" from the Bible for America? What must we do to have God bless us? How do Christians identify who is who? While it isn't exactly identity politics, the way that term is commonly used, but we do need to be clear on who is who. Is America especially blessed by God, and are we on the verge of losing that blessing? Can we be moral enough for God to bless our country?

Scott spoke on another webinar for our association of churches. We are using the audio from that webinar for this podcast. Here is a link to the webinar series. He used material he did for our church during our "Family Conversations about Politics" dinners. I hope this helps.

RECAP/TAKEAWAYS

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MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

We are happy to introduce you to the six conversations. We used this material in a workshop we did at church. We wanted to help the church have better Thanksgiving dinners after the elections. The best way to do that is to start by having better conversations, period. I hope you enjoy this and pick up the book.

NOTES:

We based our workshop and this podcast on this book:

The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility by Heather Holleman

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GET IN TOUCH:

We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected].

MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

In this encore episode, we encourage Christians to pray for governmental leaders and suggest some ways in which Christians should pray. Our church is highlighting our need to Pray First this summer. We think it is much more important to pray first than it is to worry first, vote first, or fire off a social media opinion first!

Why Should We Pray?

God is sovereign over world leaders and world events. So, it only makes sense that Christians should pray. Isaiah 40:15; Isaiah 40:22-24; Job 12:13-25

How Should We Pray?

Here are Six suggestions about how to pray for our public leaders:

We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected]. Or, leave us a voice recording at https://www.speakpipe.com/cityonahillpodcast.

Music:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

The topic of today's encore episode: How did the Great Awakening affect the Revolutionary War? How is something so religious, that appeared other-worldly, stoke the fire of the American Revolution? What if religion was the engine for the rebellion against Britain?

We are delighted to have Dr. Todd Miles on the Podcast with us this week. Dr. Miles teaches theology and church history at Western Seminary. He co-hosts a podcast for the seminary called Food Trucks in Babylon. He is on Twitter at @TL_Miles. And, he is the author of a couple of books, Cannabis and the Christian and Superheroes Can’t Save You.

Dr. Miles recommended a couple of books that you may want to take a look at:

Liberty for All by Andrew Walker

God of LIberty by Thomas Kidd

Please leave a rating or review wherever you listen to this podcast. And please share the City on a Hill on social media or with a friend. Thank you!

Music:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Sorry, Comfort Fit, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE), https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Comfort_Fit/Forget_And_Remember/03_Sorry

A little over a year ago, we visited with Kaitlyn Schiess for the first time. It was an important conversation talking about spiritual formation and politics. I'm sure you will find it helpful. We will bring it back for round two.

I'm confident you will enjoy our conversation with Kaitlyn Schiess as much as we did! She is our guest for what is our second-anniversary episode! It was a great way to celebrate two years of the City on a Hill podcast. Kaitlyn is a colleague in helping the church represent Jesus in its public life! We are glad she joined us today!

NOTES:

It seems like Kaitlyn is everywhere!

Kaitlyn is a writer, author, and a ThD student at Duke Divinity School studying political theology, ethics, and biblical interpretation. She graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2021 with a ThM in systematic theology.

She is the author of The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor, released with InterVarsity Press in September 2020. She has a book coming out with Brazos Press in August of 2023, The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here.

She has written about theology, politics, and culture at places like Christianity Today, The New York Times, Christ and Pop Culture, CT Women, RELEVANT, Sojourners, Fathom, and the Christian Research Journal. She has also contributed to this New York Times piece and this HuffPost piece. She wrote a chapter about political theology, Augustine, and conspiracy theories for a forthcoming Eerdmans book, QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross, releasing in May 2023.

She is a co-host of the Holy Post podcast. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram, too. She really is everywhere!

RECAP/TAKEAWAYS:

GET IN TOUCH:

We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected].

MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

We are so excited to have Dr. David Koyzis, author of Political Visions and Illusions, with us on the podcast today! This is an encore presentation of one of our favorite conversations!

We did a book report on the Political Visions book in the past several episodes and invited Dr. Koyzis to bring the conclusion to the book. I think you will enjoy his perspective on how the ideologies in the book mimic the true gospel. He gives good advice to the church about how to think about our relationship with political entities.

Dr. David Koyzis is an experienced theologian who taught for 30 years at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, and is currently a Global Scholar with Global Scholars Canada. He has attained a Ph.D. in Government and International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, a Master’s in Political Theory at Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Koyzis has authored We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God and Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies.

Dr. Koyzis blogs at http://byzantinecalvinist.blogspot.com.

He records music (!) at https://genevanpsalter.blogspot.com

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Send Comments or Questions to: [email protected]

Music:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Sorry, Comfort Fit, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE), https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Comfort_Fit/Forget_And_Remember/03_Sorry

It is so ridiculous, I think, to say the last Superbowl was Mahomes vs. Purdy. However, it was commonly billed that way. They are the quarterbacks, sure, but they are not even on the field at the same time. They are technically never in a position where they are actually playing against one another. It is similarly ridiculous to conceive of our government somehow being Trump vs. Biden. We place an inordinate burden on a presidential election because we cannot see beyond an individual contest. We love to oversimplify. We need to reduce the complexity.

In this episode, we address this way of thinking, which I hope will relieve some pressure on your presidential ballot.

GET IN TOUCH:

We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected].

MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

In this episode, we reflect further on the question of whether morality equates to receiving God's blessing. We need to acknowledge that humans flourish when they live according to God's design. We need to acknowledge, as well, that a holy, sovereign God does have moral standards for human beings. Those moral standards spring from the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 9:1-6. We look at the book of Amos to see how God holds nations accountable for justice and righteousness.

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We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected].

MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

In this episode, we consider the question of whether morality equates to receiving God's blessing. This is, of course, a question that people wrestle with in their own lives. If I am good, will God bless me? If you extend that to groups or nations, what is the connection between good morals and God's blessing? Then, do you reflect on all the good that we have enjoyed in America and infer that it is because we have been blessed by God because we were moral?

This is some of the Christian motivation for political involvement. If we can get our politicians and our policies to be more moral, God will restore his blessing. This assumes that America has a relationship with God that it does not have.

NOTES:

It is too easy for our moral hot spots to hide moral blind spots. -- Christopher Wright, Destroyer of Gods

Good morals may make good governments, but good governments will never make good morals. -- James P. Byrd, A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood

GET IN TOUCH:

We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected].

MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

We've all felt the pressure. How does God want me to vote? Who would a Christian vote for? These and more questions circulate around election time. In fact, you'll find no shortage of people trying to articulate a "Christian position" on an issue. In this episode, we bring this pressure to light in the hope that each person will feel free to vote their conscience.

GET IN TOUCH:

We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email or question at [email protected].

MUSIC:

Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing