“Turning away” from the American Empire [American politics #20]
Ted Grimsrud—July 14, 2026 Back in 2004 I published an essay that I have been thinking about a lot lately. It was called “Anabaptist Faith and American Democracy” (see the link in the comments). In...
View ArticleTakeaways from the US/Israel attack on Iran [American Politics #18]
Ted Grimsrud—March 2, 2026 The fog is still way too thick in the very early days of our new war to draw any stable conclusions about it. However, I believe that it is not too soon to see ways already...
View ArticleConclusion: A Christian pacifist in the American Empire [part 2]
Ted Grimsrud—November 21, 2025 I have found Christian pacifism, properly understood, to be a most helpful framework as I try to understand the world I live in. In this series of 24 blogposts, I...
View Article23. Conclusion: A Christian pacifist in the American Empire [part one]
Ted Grimsrud—November 18, 2025 My journey as an American citizen may be characterized as a radical reversal. I switched from a young adult ready to take up arms to serve the wishes of my nation’s...
View ArticleEmpire as a way of life: The colonial era to World War II
Ted Grimsrud—October 28, 2025 In the posts that remain in this series, I want briefly to flesh out what we see when we describe without blinders the American Empire as it has emerged and functioned...
View ArticleThe tragic American Empire story in light of the gospel
Ted Grimsrud—October 24, 2025 I recognize my upbringing as a proud citizen in the world’s most powerful empire to be part of my identity. As I described previously, I experienced an eventful meeting...
View ArticleChristianity’s accommodation to empire
Ted Grimsrud—October 21, 2025 Amidst its diversity, we may discern in the Bible a specific political sensibility. God has called into being a community to know God’s love and to embody that love so as...
View ArticleJesus the Lamb challenges empire
Ted Grimsrud—October 17, 2025 The Bible has a reputation of being pretty pro-violence. Some Christians want the Bible to approve of violence—that helps them justify the violence they currently...
View ArticleJesus’s political alternative
Ted Grimsrud—October 14, 2025 Christian pacifism challenges mainstream Christianity by arguing that Jesus’s life and teaching actually do provide direct guidance for politics. Jesus, like the rest of...
View ArticleBreaking the hold of territorial kingdoms
Ted Grimsrud—October 10, 2025 Peace theology centers on Jesus’s life and teaching. Jesus’s life and teaching, though, make the most sense in relation to the bigger story of the Bible. In two posts, I...
View ArticleThe Bible’s suspicion of the empires
Ted Grimsrud—October 7, 2025 In the years from 1987 through 1996, I preached several hundred sermons. Almost all had to do with biblical bases for peace theology. Then I began college teaching and...
View ArticleA Christian political agenda? The Bible’s radical politics (part four)
Ted Grimsrud—June 16, 2025 In the first three parts of this series on the Bible’s radical politics (part 1; part 2; part 3), I have sought to show the continuity between the Old Testament and the...
View ArticleJesus’s upside-down empire. The Bible’s radical politics (part three)
Ted Grimsrud—June 12, 2025 As a Christian, I read the Bible with two assumptions. (1) The Old Testament has its own integrity and tells its own story. It is not simply, or mainly, or even at all...
View ArticleAncient Israel as a failed state: The Bible’s radical politics (part two)
Ted Grimsrud—June 11, 2025 After considering ancient Israel among the great powers, I now want to focus on ancient Israel as what I will call a “territorial kingdom” (i.e., a political community that...
View ArticleAncient Israel among the great powers. The Bible’s radical politics (part one)
Ted Grimsrud—June 10, 2025 I recently led a three-part adult Sunday School class on “The Bible’s radical politics.” This post is an expanded version of the first session. I will follow with the other...
View ArticleIt is hard to imagine the United States finding healing
Ted Grimsrud—April 28, 2025 In the fifty plus years that I have been paying attention, I have felt that most Americans have been shielded from much of the brokenness of our society. Domestically, the...
View ArticlePacifism in a time of war and chaos [American Politics #16]
Ted Grimsrud—March 10, 2025 I am deeply troubled by the wars and rumors of war, the social chaos, and the strong sense of pessimism that seem to be so much a part of our current situation. I also feel...
View ArticleFinding peace in the Old Testament [Peace and the Bible #19]
Ted Grimsrud—September 23, 2024 One of the first things that came up for me back nearly fifty years ago when I first thought of myself as a Christian pacifist was the question of the Old Testament....
View ArticleThe book of Revelation and peace, part I: The peace of the Lamb [Peace and...
Ted Grimsrud—March 28, 2024 The book of Revelation has a pretty bad reputation among many people—not least because it is easily interpreted as portraying quite a bloodthirsty God. And many Christians...
View ArticleThe politics of Paul and the way of Jesus as seen in Romans 13 [Peace and the...
Ted Grimsrud—March 25, 2024 The Apostle Paul was a follower of Jesus. And his social views actually complement Jesus’s rather than contradict them, contrary to what many Christians have believed. In...
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