by Joel Lawler

For those who are unaware of who Kaleb Lawler is, he is a modern philosopher with an inquisitive mind. He spends most of his days in wonder of the world around him. He is fearless in his questions and boldly seeks answers without hesitation. He does not concern himself with the issues of whether his questions might sound silly. If he does not understand something, he asks. When he stumbles on something profound, such as the above quote, he states it unashamedly. He also happens to be my eight year old son of whom I could not be prouder. I am very proud of him and his ability to step outside of himself and see the perspective of someone else. Far too many of us never take the time to even consider another view point other than our own.

I honestly wished those who call themselves Christians could spend some time grasping the idea my son so profoundly stated. There is a false idea that we live in a "Christian Nation." While some of the founders were of the Christian faith, they intentionally swerved away from a national church. The Church of England was not the path they wanted the new nation to go down. They were against the idea of The Church of The United States. They wanted people to freely worship as they chose without the government being involved in that aspect of their lives.

The Bible uses many tools to teach us how to live the way God designed us to live. There are stories and parables, psalms, proverbs and commandments that are the key to hope and life and most importantly, knowing God our creator. The point of the entire bible is to bring us back to a right relationship with God. It is his love for us poured out in words. Reading, understanding, studying it and applying it to our daily lives is what life is all about. But each of us has to choose this direction freely.

In some countries, living by the Koran is mandated. Not doing so could very easily result in torture and death. Christianity has to be a choice. It is a relationship built on love. Love cannot exist in a relationship where both parties have not freely chosen to be together. There will be resentment and bitterness by the party who is not free.

Christianity cannot be spread by the barrel of a gun. To share our relationship with God with others takes love. It takes a relationship. A relationship takes the ability to see the other person's perspective. We have to have an understanding of where someone else is coming from in order to meet them in a place where we can establish a relationship.

Christians are aliens. Jesus said "Narrow is the road and few that find it." Those who follow Christ will be few and will be the outsiders. As my little guy stated, to aliens we are aliens. To the culture, we are always going to be aliens. Our ideas, principles and beliefs will always be foreign.

In order to construct a "Christian Nation," it would have to be a brutal dictatorship. A democracy or even representative government will always reflect the majority. Christians will always be the minority if they are truly following Christ and not just Christians in name only. Jesus was hated by many of his countrymen because he was not interested in overthrowing the oppressive Roman government. He was not interested in nation building. He was seeking out people to draw to himself. He became a man for the purpose of no longer being "alien" to man.


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