{"id":42363,"date":"2025-10-23T11:22:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=42363"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:22:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:22:05","slug":"faith-over-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/faith-over-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith over Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you share your faith in a country where proselytizing is illegal?\u201d This is a question I often receive when I return to the United States. My answer echoes the quote commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:\u00a0\u201cPreach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/em> I desire to live my life in such a way that no one is surprised when I speak about the hope I have in Christ.<\/p>\n

Growing up in a Christian home, I memorized many verses calling believers to live renewed lives. Paul exhorts followers of Jesus in\u00a02 Timothy 4:2\u00a0to be ready to proclaim the Word, and\u00a01 Peter 3:15\u00a0urges us to be prepared to give an answer for the hope within us. As a new nurse, I sought to live this out\u2014offering prayer to patients and sharing encouragement rooted in faith. Now, in a context where the Gospel must be embodied more than spoken, I depend on the Holy Spirit to overcome fear and to express freedom through the cross.<\/p>\n

In the United States, Christian nationalism increasingly merges faith with political identity. In contrast, my host country\u2019s Islamic public policy fuses religion with governance. When personal faith becomes a political mandate, religion turns coercive rather than redemptive. The hope of Christ is best shared through freedom, humility, and love\u2014not through force or law.<\/p>\n

My understanding of the rise of Christian nationalism has developed as I have watched the line blur between biblical teaching, Gospel living, and politics. Russell Moore in Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, <\/em>defines Christian nationalism as \u201cthe use of Christian words, symbols, or rituals as a means to the end of shoring up an ethnic or a national identity.\u201d[2]<\/a> Christian vocabulary becomes part of a cultural or national identity, but the heart transformation that comes with the Gospel is missing. Christian nationalism has also risen because people are often too afraid to speak out against what seems to be the majority.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

T. Wright and Michael Bird warn in Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian<\/em> Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies<\/em> that Christian nationalism \u201cdiminishes the rights of the people of other religions or no religion.\u201d[4]<\/a> A faithful public witness is defined by believers who live out their faith through love in both word and deed.[5]<\/a> Lives visibly changed by the Gospel are what our culture needs, not more discourse or religious speech. The best way to discern when Jesus is being used to bless political ideology rather than challenge it is through His Word. Scripture shows us what transformed lives look like and gives clear guidelines to help us recognize them.<\/p>\n

As followers of Jesus, we must also be careful not to replace the Gospel with social justice. While this is an important issue and one that aligns with God\u2019s heart, it must always be filtered through Scripture. Jesus was an advocate for the outcasts and the oppressed.[6]<\/a> However, His mission went beyond justice and focused on the redemption of men’s hearts. We should pursue justice because humanity is made in the image of God, knowing that our hope rests in Christ\u2019s transforming work, not in any movement, cause, or political side.<\/p>\n

In my experience working with Muslims in a politically Islamic nation, it is vital to teach the value of thinking critically about what one believes. Asking questions helps people examine truth and understand why they believe what they do. What is our source of truth? Russell Moore writes that \u201cthe first step to becoming a people of truth is to recognize what makes us afraid.\u201d[7]<\/a> \u00a0In my Islamic context, that fear is often rooted in the possibility of losing one\u2019s family, job, or home–essentially everything. In my conservative circles in America, fear looks different but still controls many; it often is fear of going against louder or more forceful voices.<\/p>\n

Christian leaders must learn to live cruciform lives\u2014willing to be different and willing to bear the cost. Wright calls us to \u201c[live] luminously visible lives that appear odd to others because of our allegiance to Jesus and adopting a life patterned after Jesus.\u201d[8]<\/a> This is easier to read than to live out, especially when it seems to be going against the majority.<\/p>\n

In closing, the most significant tension for me is learning to live this cruciform life within community, not in isolation from other followers of Jesus. I want to live differently and befriend those who think differently from me.[9]<\/a> It also means being willing to be uncomfortable and to \u201close our stability\u201d so that we can find firmer ground.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

May these losses and struggles provide safe spaces for others, Christians, Muslims, and those of other faiths, to come together and live life in community. In that living, may my life reflect the change brought by the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is seen through those who are redeemed, renewed, and living out the Gospel each day, even when it goes against the political majorities of the world.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Mark Galli, \u201cSpeak the Gospel,\u201d Christianity Today<\/em>, May 21, 2009, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/2009\/05\/speak-gospel\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Russell D. Moore, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America<\/em>, Kindle ed. (Penguin Publishing Group, 2023) 116-117.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Moore, Losing our Religion, <\/em>86.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies<\/em>, Kindle ed. (Zondervan Reflective, 2024), 132.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> 1 John 3:18<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Wright and Bird, Jesus and the Powers, <\/em>79.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Moore, Losing our Religion<\/em>, 84.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Wright and Bird, Jesus and the Powers, <\/em>77.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Wright and Bird, Jesus and the Powers, <\/em>160.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Moore, Losing our Religion, <\/em>\u00a0238.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you share your faith in a country where proselytizing is illegal?\u201d This is a question I often receive when I return to the United States. My answer echoes the quote commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:\u00a0\u201cPreach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.\u201d[1] I desire to live my life in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3240,2007,1817],"class_list":["post-42363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-wrightandbird","tag-dlgp","tag-moore","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42364,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42363\/revisions\/42364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}