Our Temporal and Eternal Citizenships and Self-Criticism

My reply to comments by Barry Zimmerman in a previous, and now older, post became rather lengthy, so here they are.

"Give some examples on where the US is more right than some others."

For starters (although others also have these)

Freedom of the press

Freedom to assemble

Freedom to have any ideas I want

It would all depend on what specific country we were comparing ourselves with. I would assume that we could find actions and programs in every country that is better than ours and vice-versa.

"I don't find it of great importance to teach someone in Ecuador that "christianity is bigger than Ecuador" and would do harm to the cause if I bothered teaching how I think America does it better."

That would be true because you are not from Ecuador. An American should not go into Ecuador and try to make them American. We should go or send people to go and try to make a non-Christian nation Christian. I guess that shows the heirarchy of citizenship we adhere to. However, for social improvements, a citizen of Ecuador should try to make him and his neighbors better whether he saw a new and more effective idea in France or Zimbabwe. The same is true for an American. Wherever we see a better idea, it is beneficial to bring it home and share it. Americans do not like the idea that others might be doing something better, but no civilization has ever done everything best. Each civilization has things they do better and things they do worse.

I think part of it is that we have gone into defensive mode from all of the criticism, some right and some wrong, that we receive from those outside of America. We do not want to be criticized, but we all know that we have lots of areas that we can improve in.

As for self-criticism, I can point out how my family needs to do things better. If I was humble, I would willingly allow others to point out how my family could be better. It is okay to criticize your own to improve them. It is not the same in criticizing others. I am not responsible to go around town and be critical of all of the families. I would only only give contructive criticism to a family if I were asked by them, and then I would tread lightly. However, I am responsible to criticize my own in order to make it better. Self-criticism is an acceptable and expected form of criticism.

Also, are there people in Ecuador that claim that Ecuador is God's nation or any such from of that? There are here, and they are trying to "reclaim" this nation for God making many people dislike those who follow Christ for reasons that we should be disliked. Let the world refuse to follow Christ because of his radical demands on their lives, not on the stupidity of those who follow him.

"if you get strange looks sharing that point of view I'm gonna be so bold as to say it's the way in which it is being shared that is getting the looks."

You can be bold and share that but you were not there. It was well received in the end. And I did want it to be shocking because I believe the idea that our eternal citizenship overrides our temporal citizenship is extremely shocking to many older Christians. It would not be shocking to someone that has already thought it out and believed it.

"There's nothing wrong with having a love or country it's not inconsistent with a loyalty to Christ which is what I sometimes feel these viewpoints ae communicating."

If love of country blinds us from its flaws or prevents us from doing the will of God, then it is wrong. I will disobey the laws of thise land when they contradict Scriptrue. The two citizenships are not equal nor are the expectations and requirements of our temporal citizenship always in line with our eternal citizenship. A good American citizen is not always a good Kingdom citizen, nor is a good Kingdom citizen always a good American citizen.