The Problem with Partisan Religion: A Review of "Hijacked"

March 07, 2012 by Greg Garrett

Continued from Page 1

I have spent much of the last year and a half arguing just that in this space, and in my forthcoming book, Faithful Citizenship.

We are called to be uniters. The apostle Paul notes in his second letter to the Church in Corinth, that Christians are to die to the world's way so that they may be reborn into the way of Christ, which is about communion and reconciliation:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:17-21, NRSV)

Hijacked offers facts about our current life as a church that doesn't reconcile, but divides over partisan issues. It offers useful advice on how we might become the reconcilers Paul speaks of. And most importantly, it presents that Pauline call, reminding us that we are to be in the world but not of it, a light to the nations, the voice of love and justice in a world that desperately needs hope and healing from its divisions.

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About Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett is (according to BBC Radio) one of America's leading voices on religion and culture. He is the author or co-author of over twenty books of fiction, theology, cultural criticism, and spiritual autobiography. His most recent books are The Prodigal, written with the legendary Brennan Manning, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination, and My Church Is Not Dying: Episcopalians in the 21st Century. A contributor to Patheos since 2010, Greg also writes for the Huffington Post, Salon.com, OnFaith, The Tablet, Reform, and other web and print publications in the US and UK.

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