Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk  ## Metadata - Author: [[Eugene Cho]] | [[3. Resources/Authors/Eugene Cho|Eugene Cho]] - Full Title: Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk - Category: #books - Kindle: [Open in Kindle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WRGTYC6) - Document Tags: [[Faith]] ## Document Notes ## Highlights - certain Christians have altogether dismissed and disengaged themselves from the political process—either because it’s too exhausting or because of the theological bent that shapes their conclusion that a follower of Jesus should only focus on “spiritual things.” ([Location 108](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=108)) - using Jesus to promote nationalism is simply not the way of Jesus. This is the danger of cultural Christianity that eventually, and predictably, produces cultural Christians rather than disciples of Jesus. ([Location 116](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=116)) - Imagine an institutional Christianity that’s obsessed with power, influence, and platform without a ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=124)) - commitment to the countercultural commitment of Jesus Christ; a commitment to empire rather than the kingdom of God. ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=124)) - It’s not merely what we believe but also how we engage. ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=181)) - the idolatry of politics is eating away at the civic discourse of our nation. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=207)) - Cultural “Christianity” has bowed to political loyalties. It’s neither radical nor countercultural in the way of Jesus. Rather, it’s a bastardized and infected form of cultural Christianity. Another word for what I just described is idolatry. ([Location 214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=214)) - Remember, as believers of Jesus Christ, we are to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33 NKJV) and not the kingdom of our party or respective country. ([Location 220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=220)) - Nationalism points to a potentially dangerous view of exceptionalism. ([Location 227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=227)) - the idea of American exceptionalism can be a dangerous guise for American supremacism. ([Location 227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=227)) - the crux of our dilemma is that for some Christians, we’ve allowed our politics to inform our theology rather than our theology and worship of the Christ informing our politics. ([Location 294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=294)) - we want to think what we want to think. And no matter what someone from the other party says, they can do no right. ([Location 364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=364)) - When Christians pledge blind allegiance to a political power and its leaders and cannot objectively evaluate what a politician states or espouses, we travel down a dangerous path. We cease to see the world informed first and foremost by the life and teachings of Christ. Instead, when we allow political allegiances to identify us, we distort the Bible to justify our politics and allegiances. Put another way: this is idolatry. ([Location 371](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=371)) - When word had spread that Jesus was going to be at this home, teachers of the law from the entire region gathered … only it wasn’t with an open heart to learn and listen but rather to scrutinize and analyze. ([Location 416](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=416)) - We want to preach to others, but we don’t preach to ourselves. We love to flip tables, but not our own. We love to expose the privilege in others while rarely considering our own. I confess, I don’t like to hear words of rebuke. ([Location 427](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=427)) - The kingdom of God cannot be encapsulated by one gender, one church, one denomination, one leader, and certainly not by one political party—even if there are prominent Christian leaders advocating for it. ([Location 579](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=579)) - We are simply recognizing the way the world really works, at least in the long run. The child with Down syndrome on the fifth row from the back in your church, he’s not a “ministry project.” He’s a future king of the universe. The immigrant woman who scrubs toilets every day on hands and knees, and can barely speak enough English to sing along with your praise choruses, she’s not a problem to be solved. She’s a future queen of the cosmos, a joint-heir with Christ.… ([Location 607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=607)) - we need to remind ourselves who we are, what we’re about, and most importantly, who we worship. ([Location 627](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=627)) - when we’re more obsessed with winning and being right, when we’re more obsessed with power and privilege, more obsessed with winning culture wars, and when we act and speak in ways that are completely antithetical to what we say we believe as followers of Christ, people—fellow Christians and non-Christians—can’t help but see the dissonance. And well, it has consequences. ([Location 656](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=656)) - We must learn to be civil with one another, including those we disagree with—even political candidates. This is one of the great challenges in our culture today. We are called to love one another, including those who don’t look like us, feel like us, think like us … or vote like us. ([Location 684](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=684)) - Tags: favorite - While it’s important for us to acknowledge our views and convictions and, when needed, to speak up and contend for them, it’s nearly impossible to have meaningful dialogue, and thus progress, if we have no idea how others feel and why they have those feelings. Civility is impossible without a genuine commitment to listen. ([Location 897](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=897)) - Are we intentionally surrounding ourselves with people who have opinions that are not like ours? Do we care enough about our neighbors to get to know them, their backgrounds, their beliefs, their opinions? Do we care enough to go deep in our knowledge about issues that matter to us? ([Location 966](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=966)) - Christians should always have two questions in mind as we engage with those around us: 1. Help me understand what you believe. 2. What brought you to those conclusions? ([Location 993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=993)) - Don’t be lazy and make assumptions about people. Ask about their stories. Then listen. Genuinely listen. Be humble. Be teachable. Be human. Be a good neighbor. ([Location 1083](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1083)) - If we want to be a people who bring hope and healing to a broken culture, with the message of Jesus, we must be willing to scoot over to make room at the table for the untouchables, no matter who they might be. ([Location 1087](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1087)) - Jesus didn’t just enter Jerusalem and go straight to the Cross. In between, He confronted corruption and hypocrisy, overturned tables, healed the blind and sick, hosted a meal for His imperfect friends, and washed feet. ([Location 1175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1175)) - The kingdom of God is about life on earth as well as eternity in heaven. ([Location 1177](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1177)) - pro-life Christian isn’t simply about being against abortion. I want to be about life from womb to tomb. ([Location 1274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1274)) - I believe in the sanctity and dignity of life from womb to tomb. Not only babies’ lives, but also the lives of their mothers. Not just our lives, but their lives. Not just American lives, but Syrian lives. Not just Christian lives, but Muslim lives. To be pro-all-life is to acknowledge the systemic injustice that operates against indigenous and black and brown people in our culture. To be pro-all-life is to be broken by the fact that LGBTQ youth are three to six times more likely to attempt suicide. 16 And the list goes on … ([Location 1306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1306)) - Pro-life should not just be an anti-abortion conviction. It is so much more. We have to reduce the demand for abortion and seek to engage policies that reduce that demand or perceived necessity. We must come alongside the poor and low-income women, for this demographic constitutes about 75 percent of abortions. 17 Some will disagree, but we ought to provide access to birth control. We must engage and support those called to foster care and adoption. And in the midst of all this, we must pray for the presence and power of the gospel, pray for hearts to be transformed. And we must love well. ([Location 1312](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1312)) - To support both the equality of women and the dignity of the unborn feels like a very lonely place to be, but I know I’m not alone. May we press on. ([Location 1335](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1335)) - Without a government that values each individual—their life, their health, their future—our society will forget those in the margins. And without intentionally valuing all people, our nation or even any smaller community will never live up to its full potential. ([Location 1371](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1371)) - We have become more concerned with conquering America for Christ rather than loving as Christ loved, speaking truth, and showing people the way to Christ through word and deed. The Christianity the next generation longs for has existed before, but it seems so uncommon in America today. ([Location 1687](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1687)) - With our mind-set of protectionism, Christians in America end up worrying about the wrong things, or at the very least, we spend a lot of time fretting about a few issues, while not focusing on the kind of faith lived out that could truly proclaim the kingdom of God. ([Location 1691](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1691)) - Is the ultimate goal to build an island for ourselves, walled off from society, with all the political protection we can muster? ([Location 1696](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07WRGTYC6&location=1696))