{"id":18644,"date":"2018-11-06T09:14:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T17:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=18644"},"modified":"2018-11-06T09:18:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T17:18:00","slug":"for-god-so-loved-the-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/for-god-so-loved-the-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"For God so loved the USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Pastor Scott W. Rosekrans<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For God so loved the United States of America that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the United States of America to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait! That\u2019s not what John 3:16 says! My point exactly and, in spite of the fact that I\u2019m not seminary trained, I think this is one I get.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not implying that God doesn\u2019t love the USA.\u00a0I have no doubt that God loves America just as much as any other country around the world. There may be times when God is very proud of America and other times when He is greatly disappointed. I mean, God loved the nation of Israel (talk about joys and disappointments!), His chosen people, but God sent His Son into the world to save the world. Jesus told his disciples he would send them to the \u201cends of the earth\u201d in His name. God gave us Gentiles, the Apostle Paul, and others to help connect us to God\u2019s will and desire for the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Scott Rosekrans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have a rule, attributed to Mark Twain, that I try to abide by.\u00a0Never argue with a fool because he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.<\/em>\u00a0Sometimes, I can\u2019t help myself. I\u2019m trying a new approach, one that involves being the voice of reason and, at the same time, not being judgmental or threatening.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my latest example. A Facebook acquaintance recently reposted something someone said about the Central American refugee crisis. The post was certainly one that would rub those on the other side the wrong way. I thought, hey, here\u2019s my chance to try out my new approach.<\/p>\n

The first responder to the post remarked about how it was a humanitarian crisis and stated the facts as he saw them.<\/p>\n

Immediate response from CR: \u201cNot our problem!\u201d followed up by another responder, AF, who said: \u201cThey have a choice to stay at their own country and feed those babies!\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Scott Rosekrans: \u201cSee Matthew 25:31-46.\u201d\u00a0Enter CR: \u201cAs I said, NOT OUR PROBLEM!\u201d\u00a0Scott Rosekrans: \u201cSee Deuteronomy 10:19.\u201d<\/p>\n

DPC, another responder, added: \u201cFight for your own country! I agree, not our problem!\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Rosekrans: \u201cSee John 3:16.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try as I may, I couldn\u2019t get anyone to engage, although I did get one like on the Deuteronomy reference. At least I didn\u2019t escalate the debate. Maybe they didn\u2019t want to engage some religious \u201cnut\u201d job who was trying to drag them up to his level.<\/p>\n

Please understand that I\u2019m not looking to pick a fight where I will be dragged down and beaten with experience. I just believe that we United Methodists, Christians of all stripes, others who believe in God or a higher power, and the United States should be leading the fight to spread God\u2019s love, mercy and righteousness. I am so thankful that The United Methodist Church has a worldwide presence, as do other denominations. I firmly believe there is common ground upon which we can all agree and work to \u201csave the world through Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be any more personal than our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Wish me luck!<\/p>\n

\n

Scott Rosekrans serves as pastor to the people of Community United Methodist Church in Port Hadlock, Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to a social media post on the Central American refugee crisis light on facts and compassion, Pastor Scott Rosekrans tried out a new approach that isn’t “judgmental or threatening.”\u00a0
\n“I\u2019m not looking to pick a fight… I just believe that [Christians] should be leading the fight to spread God\u2019s love, mercy and righteousness.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinioneditorial"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/in-god-we-trust.jpg?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-4QI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18648,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18644\/revisions\/18648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}