Dave Black has written a new essay, The Persecuted Church: An Obstreperous Flower, which is well worth reading. A taste:
When our sons and daughters go off to war we honor them for their willingness to die in military service. But the minute our children tell us they want to give up career or marriage for the sake of Christ we spend countless hours trying to keep them from “going off the deep end.” Much of today’s popular pseudo-patriotism and flag waving is centered around a horrible distortion of Bible doctrine. It denies the very heart of the Gospel and says, “Self-denial for the sake of the nation is honorable, but before we follow Jesus we must bury our dead or bid farewell to our families or build new barns.”
(David Alan Black is the author of Christian Archy. Quotes from his blog are used with his permission.)