Hello, July, and welcome back to the Aspecial John podcast.

And before we jump into today's episode, I have a programming note for you to pass on.

Pastor John and I will be taking next week off from the podcast.

So there's going to be no episodes all of next week.

We've been at this for a little over 180 consecutive weeks non-stop and we're nearing

episode number 900.

So many of you listen every day to the podcast and if that's you, thank you.

It's been a great run and we have no intention of stopping, but we are taking one week off

will return on July 11th with all new episodes.

Well, we are just days away from July 4th and the state's Pastor John Independence Day is

what we call it.

And the ABJ inbox is loaded with political questions for you.

News in America, of course, find themselves in the midst of a bizarre political season,

as you know.

And there's an overall heightened partisan angst, I guess you could call it.

That's dividing both major parties and even with it, there's new levels of nationalism

that we have not seen in this country for a while.

But as Christians, as we approach July 4th, we're called to live in this world as strangers

and exiles and aliens and sojourners and pogroms on this earth.

Pastor John, we've talked about this before in the podcast, but tell us again about the

place and the role of patriotism in the Christian life.

Well, we talked about this a couple of years ago and most of what I was thinking then, as

...