America was founded on the foundation of an unrealized promise: The idea that everyone is endowed by their creator with the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Founding Fathers originally meant that “all MEN were created equal” and specifically that “all white land-owning men” (and not women, or people of color) were created equal. However, the nature of that language left open the tantalizing possibility that a nation could be founded on the promise that everyone – not just straight white men – could be equally endowed by their Creator with the same rights those rich white landowners enjoyed.
So, this unrealized promise is one that people have been fighting for ever since. When Black people were given their freedom, we moved closer to that realization. When women could vote we inched closer. When segregation and racist laws were overturned in the South, we moved closer still. When gay people were given the right to marry, the needle moved ever closer to realizing that promise embedded in the founding documents of the United States of America that people, everywhere might one day all enjoy the same rights and freedoms as everyone else.
But, to this very day, we have yet to fully realize this promise of complete equality. The Land of the Free is still under construction. Equality and Freedom for all human beings is still a fight and a struggle because, sadly, not everyone wants to share this freedom and equality with everyone else. They feel that giving total freedom to everyone might somehow take away freedom from them, as if freedom and equality were limited resources that might run out of if everyone gets a slice.
It took a long time for Black people to be seen as human. It took a long time for women to receive the right to vote. It took even longer for gay people to have the right to marry the person they love.
As long as it’s taken America to fulfill that unrealized promise of freedom and justice to everyone, Christianity has taken even longer to fulfill its original promise: that all are made in the image of God and equally worthy of love and respect.
The idea that “…God so loved the World” – not just Christians but “the World” which is EVERYONE – is a revolutionary one. The idea that “God is love and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them” is a scandalous truth that most Christians are not only unaware of, but also find heretical and dangerous [even though it’s a direct quote from the New Testament they practically worship as equal to God, see 1 John 4:16].
So, Christianity is still trying to live up to that unrealized promise that everyone is made in God’s image, and that everyone is a child of God, and that God lives in everyone, and that everyone “lives and moves and has their being in God” [see Acts 17:28].
Both the United States of America and American Christianity have failed to live up to their original promise that everyone, everywhere is as equal and loved and free as everyone else.
There are some of us who are desperate to help America and Christianity live up to their respective promises. There are some who are working nearly as desperately to make sure that we don’t.
I pray that one day soon we can finally realize these respective promises. That one day it will be inherently true that all of us are created equal, and that all of us enjoy the same inalienable rights to pursue life and liberty and freedom, and that one day everyone will truly know that they are equally loved by God and filled with God and forgiven by God and made One with God.
As someone who loves Jesus and truly values the things he taught us, I have to hold out the hope that it is an inevitability. That the kingdom of God is a relentless, unstoppable force that no one can stand against. The Kingdom of God – this beautiful reality where everyone is fully recognized as a child of God who is equally loved, accepted and welcome – is the relentless reality of God. You can resist it. You can slow it down. But you cannot stop it. In fact, for many of us, that reality is already alive within us. We carry it with us. We breathe that air. We see that truth. We sing that song.
So, while there is an inevitability to the fulfilled reality of the Kingdom of God, we still have to participate. Even as that reality comes alive within us, we have to live it out day by day and reflect the glorious light of that kingdom reality.
When will America realize this promise? When we all begin to embody it. When will Christianity realize its promise? When we all begin to love everyone as we love ourselves.
When we change, our world will change.
I know sometimes it feels like shooting BBs against the Battleship sometimes. As if our puny efforts to love extravagantly in the face of such fierce hatred is weak and empty.
“Is this all I can do? Just to resist? Just to refuse to hate and say no to those who want to divide us?”
Yes. That’s right.
There’s nothing more effective than shining your light and sharing your love. There’s nothing better than to say, “No, I will not participate in this division machine.”
As dark as it seems today, I have to believe that the smallest light can still push back the greatest darkness.
If we hold on to love. If we hold on to light. If we refuse to give up or give in.
The new day will dawn.
The promise will be realized.
As Eckhart Toelle says, “Transformation happens in the chaos.”
You’re exactly where you need to be.
I believe it.
I have to believe.
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The newest book from Keith Giles, “The Quantum Sayings of Jesus: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas” is available now on Amazon. Order HERE>
Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.”
He co-hosts The God Squad podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
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