¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

Colossians 3:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV)

I confess; I’m a “word geek.”  I love words.  I have many fond memories of working the crossword puzzles in the evening paper with my mom after dinner.  When I was as young as nine or ten, I had the decidedly “uncool” habit of taking the “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power” quizzes in my grandmother’s Reader’s Digest magazines.  Currently, in my “day job” as an online instructor for English language learners from all over the world, defining words is one of the things that my students most often request of me and it’s one of the things that I enjoy most  Rather than simply pointing them to an online dictionary or thesaurus, I love the challenge of finding creative and memorable examples that produce clear “word pictures” in their minds, making it more likely that they will be able to recall those words later.  My students hail from all over the globe and I am sensitive to the fact that not all of them follow the Christian faith, so I generally try to avoid biblical references.  However, one of my students is a Chinese immigrant and a Christian, and when we encountered the word paradox  in an article we were reading, I couldn’t resist using the quote above from the book of Colossians and the United States’ view of itself as a “Christian nation” as a prime example of the definition of a paradox.

        I suspect that many out there will accuse me of being “unpatriotic” or “anti-American” in my sentiments, but some of the synonyms of paradox include words such as contradiction, inconsistency, and incongruity. When we contrast the characteristics of “God’s chosen ones” as outlined in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians and the actions and attitudes of the American government and roughly half of its citizens, the case for describing the “good old USA” as a paradox is difficult to deny.

        According to St. Paul, “God’s chosen ones” should first demonstrate that they are “holy and beloved”, but what does this really mean? According to pastor, author, and one of the founders of Team GenJ, Peter Botross, “Holiness is about being transformed into the character of Christ by the power of the Spirit” (Botross, 2021). More specifically, Christ is shown to have a character that is marked by an “absolute standard of integrity and ethical purity” (McDowell, 2021). How ironic then is it that there are evangelical Christians who will argue that former President Trump, with a well-documented lack of integrity in his business dealings and a personal life that is miles away from “ethical purity”, is the “chosen one”?

        Next, Paul’s letter to the Colossians says that God’s chosen ones are to show “kindness” and to have “compassionate hearts.”  Writer Becky Harling cites five key components of kindness:  assume the best about others, don’t cast others in a negative light, listen and value other people’s ideas, keep your promises, and live generously (Harling, 2017).  In a country where people of color are routinely racially profiled and treated harshly by the police, I would argue that we are failing miserably when it comes to assuming the best about others.  In a society where leaders callously declare that immigrants are bringing crime and drugs, we also seem to be missing the mark on not casting others in a negative light.  Additionally, we frequently see instances of people of color who try to relate their personal experiences with discrimination and racism being accused of lying or playing the race card which seems to contradict the charge to listen and value other people’s ideas. From hundreds of broken treaties with Native Americans, to the “forty acres and a mule” that never materialized for former slaves, to the abrupt withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord in 2017, the U.S. has shown that broken promises are relatively common.

        Next, with regard to generosity, it would seem that the wealthiest citizens in one of the wealthiest countries in the world are the most lacking when it comes to charitable works.  University of California Berkeley psychologist, Paul Piff, conducted a series of controlled experiments which examined the giving habits of people from various social classes.  Piff found that people at lower socio-economic levels were consistently more generous than members of the upper class (Stern, 2013).  Additionally, a study conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy also found that even when they do give to charity, the wealthy tend to contribute to universities, museums, and the arts unlike lower income donors who seem to concentrate their giving on religious organizations or social service organizations which provide direct benefits to the poor (Stern, 2013).

        The U. S. also fails miserably in the charge to show meekness and humility.  From sporting events to political rallies, the chants of “USA, USA” and “We’re number one!” are the antithesis of meekness and humility defined according to Oxford Languages as the “gentle, quiet, and modest view of one’s own importance”.  Even more embarrassing is the fact that the website, The Top Tens, actually ranked the United States as number one among the “Ten Countries with the Most Arrogant People” (Top Ten Countries with the Most Arrogant People, n.d.).

        The final attribute ascribed to God’s chosen people is that of forgiving others as we have been forgiven.  Sadly, Americans fall short in this area as well.  According to Center for National Vesting, student loan debt is damaging to the U. S. economy in that it prevents people from buying homes, cars, or participating as consumers in any number of ways (Debt Is Crushing Our Nation, n.d.), yet any discussion of student loan forgiveness is met with fierce opposition.  Additionally, consider the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  Despite evidence that the mass deportation of “Dreamers” could result in the loss of approximately 800,000 young workers and ultimately cost U. S. employers some $6.3 billion to recruit, hire and train their replacements (Bier, 2017), providing a path to citizenship to these valuable and contributing members of American society is still opposed with a vehemence that borders on the fanatical.

        At the end of the day, how can we, as Americans, with our arrogant, uncompassionate, and unforgiving hearts, have the audacity to lay claim to the title of Christian nation?  When my son was an elementary school student back in the 1990s, kids and teens sported the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets and T-shirts as a reminder to be a living example of faith.  Sadly the WWJD trend has all but disappeared in a time when we need it more than ever (Johnson, 2019).  However, our deeply partisan politics, racial and ethnic division, biased media pundits, and our penchant for “alternative facts” are rapidly erasing any claim we might ever have had to the title of “God’s Chosen”.   Indeed, I fear that to ask,  “WWJD?” these days would evoke a most unwelcome and devastating answer: Jesus would most likely look at the sorry state of affairs in this country and hang His sacred head in shame.

Works Cited

Bier, D. J. (2017, September 1). Ending DACA Will Impose Billions in Employer Compliance Costs. Retrieved from CATO Institute: https://www.cato.org/blog/ending-daca-will-impose-billions-employer-compliance-costs?gclid=CjwKCAjwx8iIBhBwEiwA2quaq43oQ8jqJCPfQSBlV7CBp_ylOdeynS-45quOwBFmTqpf3FWZFKa2FhoCnUEQAvD_BwE

Botross, P. (2021). Teaching Series on Holiness. Retrieved from GenJ: https://www.genj.com.au/holiness-series?gclid=CjwKCAjwgb6IBhAREiwAgMYKRlH9-E7x2gh7BOlQT_1TLh7uEJrzlX9UKvbACju2OIC8pDBLzajr7xoC0i0QAvD_BwE

Debt Is Crushing Our Nation. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Center for National Vesting: https://www.centerfornationalvesting.org/debt-burden/

Harling, B. (2017, September 4). 5 Ways Just to Be Nice This Week. Retrieved from Reach Beyond: https://reachbeyond.org/content/blog/read/5-ways-to-just-be-nice-this-week?gclid=CjwKCAjwgb6IBhAREiwAgMYKRgCy6fGAVq_nR3dSLm60qr4wc53TjTEfzJwR3cGKsTz7BS-4bKJ_aBoCg-IQAvD_BwE

Johnson, B. (2019, June 19). WWJD as a Trend Has Disappeard. Retrieved from The Arc: https://www.tyndale.com/sites/readthearc/wwjd-as-a-trend-has-disappeared-but-the-principle-has-not/

McDowell, J. (2021). Discover God’s Attributes. Retrieved from Josh McDowell Ministry: https://www.josh.org/resources/spiritual-growth/attributes-of-god/?mwm_id=315706997961&mot=J79GNF&gclid=CjwKCAjwgb6IBhAREiwAgMYKRq9idojsZEeT2ubVAumoYMfmEGk9TbhOlMQTYGWPkSom1rHZ0j3a8RoCbiEQAvD_BwE#1585865763239-e0a5cb1d-732c

Stern, K. (2013, April). Why the Rich Don’t Give to Charity. The Atlantic.

Top Ten Countries with the Most Arrogant People. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Top Tens: https://www.thetoptens.com/most-arrogant-countries/