Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
David says his homeschooling experience with Bob Jones and Abeka American history texts—“extremely patriotic” and not reflecting “two kingdoms”—pushed him to write *In God We Don’t Trust*; what specific instincts or loyalties do those kinds of “patriotic Christian” narratives tend to form in Christian kids, and how might that formation conflict with the kingdom-of-God perspective he’s arguing for?
Another way to ask: What kinds of loyalties or habits do “patriotic Christian” history stories often build in kids, and how could that clash with putting God’s kingdom first?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, “patriotic Christian” narratives tend to form instincts of national loyalty, pride, and justification of America’s political and military actions as “godly.” That formation conflicts with a kingdom-of-God perspective because it trains Christians to measure history by national success rather than by Jesus’ teachings (nonresistance, enemy-love, submission, and paying taxes).
- He says these textbooks are “extremely patriotic” and “don’t represent… the doctrine of the two kingdoms.”
- He wanted an American history told “from an Anabaptist perspective, from a kingdom of God perspective,” similar to “the early Christian view… the Anabaptists, the Quakers.”
- He notes the common rhetoric: “the founding of America and the kingdom of God… match,” and answers: “they really don’t.”
- He frames the Revolution as refusing taxes and contrasts that with Jesus and Romans 13, implying the patriotic narrative normalizes disobedience to Jesus.
- He critiques the pattern of claiming “our faith and trust is in God,” while fearing a weak military budget—“It shows we don’t really trust in God.”