The Gospel Has No Asterisk for Geopolitics
As the U.S. and Israel strike Iran, today's Gospel dismantles the oldest lie in the American playbook — that peace comes through destruction.
Dear friends —
Welcome to our daily Lenten reflections through Easter, available exclusively to paid subscribers. Each day, we will sit with the scriptures and ask what it means to follow Jesus more faithfully — not as partisans first, but as Christians whose consciences are shaped by the Cross.
These reflections are not a retreat from the world. They are an engagement with it.
We write from the conviction that the Gospel has something urgent to say to American civic and political life — and that too many Christians have stopped listening.
Lent is a season of repentance, renewal, and resolve. It is a time to confront our idols, strip away our illusions, and allow the light of God’s redeeming love to search and purify our hearts.
Let’s walk this road together.
"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust." — Matthew 5:44-45
There is no verse in the Gospels more offensive to the American ear than this one.
We are a nation built on the concept of the enemy.
Our politics requires one. Our media feeds on one. Our economy profits from one. From the Cold War to the War on Terror to the culture wars that now consume every dinner table and parish hall in this country, the enemy is the engine that keeps the whole machine running.
Today, as the United States and Israel launch strikes against Iran, this teaching lands with a force that no bomb can match.
The logic of the enemy — the logic that says security comes through destruction, that peace is purchased with fire — is on full display.
And the Gospel says the opposite. It does not say “love your enemies unless they are a national security threat.” It does not add an asterisk for geopolitics. It simply says: love them.
