American Literature
9-23-14
Christian Paradox
Bill McKibben’s 2005 article, The Christian Paradox, is an attempt to notify our nation, The United States of America, about how people perceive it as a Christian nation, but the ideas of what one may label as American are contradicted. In the article, Bill McKibble represents the fact that if someone wants to call the United of America a Christian nation, the citizens here need to reevaluate the way our society is established. Jesus taught his disciples primarily to be generous. Part of the generosity act includes, sharing wealth. America's perception of wealth explains that the richer they get the better they will live. Americans have always contradicted, tracing all the way back to Winthrop. Since its birth, Americans have been known to be hypocritical and seem to have forgotten what the true definition of what Christianity actually is. McKibben's article is full of contradictions, hence the title. Bill McKibben starts his article off by giving readers a contradicting statement. "Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten …show more content…
Being that Americans labels theirselves as a Christian nation, they are not doing their duties according to how Jesus told his disciples to do them. One can agree with McKibben’s position in this situation because the nation’s lack of a Christian heart and it is evident. “Jesus summed up His message for His disciples, He said the way you could tell the righteous from the damned was by whether they’d fed the hungry, slaked the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the prisoner." (McKibben, 2) This is contradicting because as Americans, this seems to be very rare. If God decided to at this very moment, many Americans would be damned due to the lack of caring for the people that deal with poverty on a day to day