Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The writer of letter to the editor of the New York Times writer got it just right the other day when he said this:  “I am deeply troubled by how Christian nationalism exploits convictions to wage a culture.”

I agree.

He went on:

“As a Christian believer who has worshiped in Baptist, Presbyterian and Anglican churches, I share many theological convictions with my charismatic brothers and sisters.  But I am deeply troubled by how Christian nationalism exploits those convictions to wage a culture war.

“Christian nationalism distorts the Gospel.  Christ calls us to embody the justice, mercy and love that transcend tribal identities, not to conflate church and state so that opponents are cast as demonic and constitutional limits are treated as expendable.”

The Christian nationalism “movement” rests on thin theology.  It promotes a false narrative about “Americans being under siege while neglecting this core doctrine:  All are sinful and need grace, all are made in God’s image, and no earthly nation is the kingdom of God.

“I fear the consequences when the church trades the humility of the Gospel for the false security of political power.”

This is the best line in the letter, one worth repeating:  “Christ calls us to embody the justice, mercy and love that transcend tribal identities.”

I share the fear over how nationalism perverts Christianity.

I want to keep the church – the real church – separate from politics.  Yes, use your real, personal Christian faith to influence your real, personal political perspectives, but don’t let the church become just another political movement.