AVOIDING THE UGLY AMERICAN SYNDROME (8 OF 10)
by Jeff Strite
Scripture: I Peter 4:7-11
This content is part of a series.
Avoiding The Ugly American Syndrome (8 of 10)
Series: This World Is Not My Home
Jeff Strite
I Peter 4:7-11
OPEN: Back in 1963 there was a movie starring Marlon Brando called "The Ugly American". It was a fictional story, but it dealt with the very real perception of Americans overseas. We were seen by many as "Ugly Americans". As I researched this sermon I read more than one source that said that many of the people in other countries have viewed American tourists and American businesspeople as being loud, arrogant, demanding, thoughtless, ignorant, and intolerant of people who weren't like them.
Now had that been true? Have there actually been ugly Americans?
Unfortunately, yes there have been. Too often many Americans who traveled and lived overseas behaved badly, and enough Americans acted this way that the rest of our nation became smeared by association.
And it's easy to understand why these ugly Americans got ugly.
They thought of themselves as a privileged people.
They saw themselves as members of one of the most powerful nations on earth.
They saw themselves as part of a country that had gotten it RIGHT militarily, industrially/and culturally.
In short saw themselves as the best people on earth. They had it "all together and everybody else came in 2nd. Thus, they felt they deserved to act like "ugly" Americans.
APPLY: In our passage this morning God warns us against being Ugly American kind of Christians.
Have you ever known an "ugly" Christian?
Have you ever known a believer who was arrogant, demanding, thoughtless and intolerant?
Yeah… me too
Unfortunately, I haven't had to look far to find an "Ugly Christian"?
All I've had to do was look in the mirror.
I've been an ugly Christian more times than I'd like to admit.
ILLUS: Rubel Shelly told of an incident surrounding the death of a man named Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens had been militant atheist who died a couple of years ago of cancer. And you might have referred to hi ...
Series: This World Is Not My Home
Jeff Strite
I Peter 4:7-11
OPEN: Back in 1963 there was a movie starring Marlon Brando called "The Ugly American". It was a fictional story, but it dealt with the very real perception of Americans overseas. We were seen by many as "Ugly Americans". As I researched this sermon I read more than one source that said that many of the people in other countries have viewed American tourists and American businesspeople as being loud, arrogant, demanding, thoughtless, ignorant, and intolerant of people who weren't like them.
Now had that been true? Have there actually been ugly Americans?
Unfortunately, yes there have been. Too often many Americans who traveled and lived overseas behaved badly, and enough Americans acted this way that the rest of our nation became smeared by association.
And it's easy to understand why these ugly Americans got ugly.
They thought of themselves as a privileged people.
They saw themselves as members of one of the most powerful nations on earth.
They saw themselves as part of a country that had gotten it RIGHT militarily, industrially/and culturally.
In short saw themselves as the best people on earth. They had it "all together and everybody else came in 2nd. Thus, they felt they deserved to act like "ugly" Americans.
APPLY: In our passage this morning God warns us against being Ugly American kind of Christians.
Have you ever known an "ugly" Christian?
Have you ever known a believer who was arrogant, demanding, thoughtless and intolerant?
Yeah… me too
Unfortunately, I haven't had to look far to find an "Ugly Christian"?
All I've had to do was look in the mirror.
I've been an ugly Christian more times than I'd like to admit.
ILLUS: Rubel Shelly told of an incident surrounding the death of a man named Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens had been militant atheist who died a couple of years ago of cancer. And you might have referred to hi ...
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