Christ Our Bread of Life

As He shared that last meal with His disciples, Jesus shared the bread and the cup - the bread communicating that His body would be broken and the cup representing that His blood would be shed as the perfect sacrificial Lamb, given for our sins.  Jesus taught us in Scripture that He was the bread of life, the all-sufficient One, who desires for us to find our identity in Him through salvation.  He taught in John 6:
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should recognize that His principles should be integrated into every sphere of life. His Word is sufficient to give wisdom, and we should bring our Christian perspective to the decisions we make and the actions we take.

We've heard a lot about so-called "Christian nationalism" these days - it has been used to denigrate Christian believers who bring their faith into the arena of government, believing that God's laws and principles should not be separated or relegated to their own separate place in our public life.

Now, an organization that seems to think it is doing some sort of public service by rooting out this "Christian nationalism" has now attempted to define it. It's the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, and a couple of months back, it released its second American Values Atlas. And, it's targeted as Christian nationalism. But, in reading the statistics in the survey summary, I was struggling to find a definition - it had four categories it identified - Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics, Rejecters - but it seemed to be light on what they were responding to.

So, I went back to last year's summary, and lo and behold, here it was - so here we go:

Respondents in our American Values Atlas were asked whether they completely agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or completely disagree with each of the following statements:

• The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.
• U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.
• If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
• Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.
• God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.

Then we have the four categories:

Christian Nationalism Adherents (Score 0.75–1): These Americans overwhelmingly either agree or completely agree with all five statements in the scale. This group includes 10% of Americans.

Christian Nationalism Sympathizers (Score 0.5–0.74): These Americans agree with most statements in the scale, but they are less likely than Adherents to completely agree. This group includes 20% of Americans.

Christian Nationalism Skeptics (Score 0.01-0.49): These Americans disagree with most statements in the scale, but they are less likely than Rejecters to completely disagree. This group includes 37% of Americans.

Christian Nationalism Rejecters (Score 0): These Americans completely disagree with all five statements in the scale. This group includes 30% of Americans.

This year's survey is pretty much the same: "In 2024, three in ten Americans qualified as Christian nationalism Adherents (10%) or Sympathizers (20%), compared with two-thirds who qualified as Skeptics (37%) or Rejecters (29%)."

So, the survey divides Americans into groups based on their views on how influential Christianity should be in the nation. Then, it begins to poll certain attitudes, of course, attempting to paint a distorted picture of these dangerous Christian nationalists - those in the Adherent and Sympathizer groups as anti-immigrant, supportive of traditional gender roles, and possessing a propensity for political violence and even the murky QAnon philosophy. 

The fact is, Christians who love our country and are concerned about its direction should not be vilified.  In a nation where there is freedom of religion, our views possess validity, and because they are rooted in Scripture, they possess certain authority - absolute authority.  Now, we recognize there are people who do not share our faith perspective - and there is a place for them as citizens of our nation - and we should share the love of Jesus with them, firm in our convictions but rooted in compassion.

Fact is, part of the American fabric is the belief in the Bible - the Bible is foundational to our nation's laws. When faith or no faith becomes detrimental to that fabric, then it should be called out - but not in a harmful manner, and certainly not with violence.  Christians who are truly Christ-followers, unlike some groups, do not believe in doing harm to other people and attempting to silence and shut down those with whom they disagree. We've certainly been on the receiving end, though. 

Jesus gave His body and blood so that we could become redeemed people.  He gave His life for that.  And, in the Spirit of Jesus, the One who is risen from the dead and lives and loves through His people, we can seize the opportunities God gives us to reflect His presence, especially in a season in which His death and resurrection - and the new life that is made possible through those acts - are being commemorated.  Our beliefs have a place in this country, as we believe that it truly will take spiritual awakening in order to turn things around, for so many have rejected God.  We can rejoice in our all-sufficient One, the Bread of Life who truly satisfies.