A coworker of mine forwarded this excellent editorial from the New York Times entitled Christ Among the Partisans. It quotes a bit from Matthew that I’ve always liked, “”When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square, in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray there in hiding to your Father, and your Father who sees you in hiding will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6).” He uses this bit to illustrate how Jesus wouldn’t nessisarily be for prayer in schools, although I’ve always saw it as a condemnation of organized religion as a whole.

“The Romans did not believe Jesus when he said he had no political ambitions. That is why the soldiers mocked him as a failed king, giving him a robe and scepter and bowing in fake obedience (John 19:1-3). Those who today say that they are creating or following a “Christian politics” continue the work of those soldiers, disregarding the words of Jesus that his reign is not of this order.”