The Gospel According to Vox Populi

Here is an essay on what happens when American civil religion runs up against what's actually in the Scriptures, in the context of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. While I don't necessarily agree with all the author's comments, I'll shout out an "Amen" to her observation about the general disconnect between our civic values and Christian values as modeled in the Gospel message. For me the point, I think, is not so much attempting to impose the values of the Reign of God on an uncomprehending and unwilling population, but rather getting more churchy, self-described "Bible-believing" folks to finally understand that the civic God of "one nation under" usually bears more of a resemblance to Wotan or Zeus, or perhaps more accurately to our own inward-turned, vengeful, grasping impulses, than it does to the God we meet in Jesus. What is it they say about realizing that you have a problem being the first step in making a change?