Just days later, Christians claim, this Carpenter rose alive from the tomb. Believers say that his resurrection is a free offering of atonement (at-one-ment). Those who genuinely repent of their sins and declare the sinless Carpenter to be their personal lord and savior become mystically one with him and are awarded eternal life in heaven. It's called being "born again."

Those who die having rejected the gift spend eternity in hell. But I wonder today if some Christians are so riveted to concerns of personal sin and redemption - and so button-busting proud they've made the grade - that they fit what an old preacher called "so heavenly, they're no earthly good."

C.S. Lewis, a Christian apologist whose work I read avidly years ago, cautioned against the deadly sin of pride - that is, arrogance, pretension to superiority, a sense of privilege, haughty exceptionalism.

The line dividing good and evil, Lewis said, is not between nation and nation, nor assuredly between one person and another. The line crosses every human heart. Most of us, most of the time, mostly understand that - whether or not we're born-again. If we forget, someone reminds us... or should.

Many will be offended if I or anyone else disparages their fixation on whether or not the word God is in our flag salute, whether "In God We Trust" remains on our coinage and currency. They shudder if we do not share their obsession with the ACLU's effort to remove the trappings of sectarian religion from government buildings.

Among such Christians is paranoia about science challenging the literal inerrancy of ancient religious manuscripts. One told me that if all those dinosaurs wouldn't fit on Noah's Ark, then surely he carried aboard fertilized eggs from tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, and brontosaurus. He just forgot to tell us what a risky business it was raiding the nests.

For fundamentalists, sex is a nasty business; the government should rein in over-active tallywhackers - principally other people's.

Why does a segment of Christianity fixate on religion superficials, or obsess about sex? Neither seemed to be a priority of the Carpenter.

Why do they so seldom trouble themselves about arrogance, greed, and power - about which the Carpenter spoke often?

Why their scant concern about environmental stewardship or social justice?

Cast me into fire if you like, but I'd say arrogant pretension to superiority is as great a sin for a nation as it is for an individual and if not evil, far more destructive and every bit as common - but rarely admitted.

So how were a third of Christians so seduced by Caesar that they exude today a militant jingoism that intends to make the world safe for corporate globalists?

How does glorying in a national flag, reveling in celebration of the most efficient killing machine in history comport with what the gentle Carpenter of Nazareth asks of us?

Is it that our nation is devoid of any evil but linguistic omission in the flag salute and sexual exhibitionism? Is there no arrogance in our delusional quest for Empire? What of our past and current support of dictators as bad as Saddam Hussein - and, in fact, our decades long support of Saddam himself?

What of saturation bombing, our millions of hi-tech cluster bombs which blow apart the bodies of children playing in the fields? Our depleted uranium ordinance strewn everywhere, already increasing the incidence of birth defects?

Are our occupying troops in foreign lands (past and present) there solely for humanitarian concerns - or mostly to satisfy a thirst for access to foreign resources and markets and bring great profit to arms manufacturers?

Did the Carpenter grant our nation the powers of proxy?

Where was it our national soul was washed clean? When was it we repented, and of what, and asked forgiveness?

How is it that the life and teachings of the Carpenter fit us?

On this Easter Sunday of Oestre feasting, I think He might like to hear.

(This first appeared in HDN)