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Nathan shares his thoughts on how misunderstanding "Good Guys vs. Bad Guys" can lead to an inverted gospel of moral superiority, and how it contributes to the problem of "Us Against Them." And, along the way, Nathan realizes that he's not the Jedi he thought, but he was the Sith the whole time.

Book Club! - 0:00

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• \u201cWith\u201d by Skye Jethani
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Intro - 2:52

Good guys vs. Bad guys - 4:30

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• The Empire Strikes Back
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• Darkwing Duck
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• Rescuers Down Under
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• How to know if someone\u2019s a bad guy\n\n
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  • Smokes cigarettes
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  • They\u2019re ugly
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  • Foreign accent (Russian or German, but the worst is British)
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• OT \u201cheroes\u201d are very flawed people\n\n
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  • We\u2019re not necessarily supposed to emulate the heroes at all times
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  • Noah had a dark ending (Genesis 9)
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  • Abraham lying about his wife being his wife (Genesis 20)
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  • David & Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)
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  • Jacob & Esau (Genesis 25)
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  • Judah & Tamar (Genesis 38)
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• We read ourselves into the best parts of the story\n\n
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  • Going to church = I\u2019m a good guy
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  • The G.O.D. Club (sorry Jodie)
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  • We associate being a Christian with moral superiority
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  • The natural response to meeting God is not \u201cI\u2019m so great\u201d
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The Gospel of Moral Superiority - 4:30

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• The need to feel \u201cgood enough\u201d to become a Christian
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• Focusing so much on right vs. wrong that we miss the forest
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• Fear of morality outside Christianity\n\n
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  • We are skeptical of things not written by people we always agree with
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  • We should also be skeptical of those we think we do agree with
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  • Leads us to hide any darkness we find inside ourselves
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  • We then hide the shortcomings of our leaders
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  • Ravi Zacharias scandal
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Us Against Them -

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• We should be the salt of the earth not the starch of the vest (Matthew 5:13)\n\n
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  • Today means: authentic, guard down, not worried about perceptions
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• Book: \u201cUnchristian\u201d by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman
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• Rethinking how we measure ourselves
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• Jesus came to the \u201cin group\u201d and reached out to the \u201coutsider\u201d
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• Thought experiment: Tell yourself the \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d story and substitute the person you can\u2019t stand as the Samaritan
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• God leaves no room for someone we\u2019re NOT supposed to love
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• \u201cJesus the Pharisee\u201d - Joseph Shulam
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• There is no outsider! There is no \u201cus vs them\u201d
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• Love actively
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