Stanley Hauerwas
— author of Resident Aliens and Hannah’s Child
“New Testament scholar David Crump has the courage to write a book in Christian ethics that explores how Christians must learn how to negotiate a world in which they are no longer in control. One of the delights of this book is Crump’s careful and constructive use of the New Testament to help us see what it means for Christians to recover the radical character of an ethic of discipleship.”
William T. Cavanaugh
— author of Being Consumed and Migrations of the Holy
“This book meets two needs. The first is for a biblically based analysis of the ethical issues of our day aimed at an educated lay audience. The second is for a book by an evangelical Christian that challenges evangelicals to take Jesus seriously in living out their citizenship. In forthright language and with the aid of real-life examples, Crump calls Christians to reject the idolatrous political and economic allegiances that divide the church.”
Ronald J. Sider
— author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience
“A powerful, passionate plea to American Christians to follow Jesus rather than conform to a broken culture. . . . Biblical, urgent, provocative. A must-read.”
Gregory A. Boyd
— author of The Myth of a Christian Nation and Letters from a Skeptic
“Well-written, insightful, and compellingly argued. Crump exposes the frightful degree to which the church in America has been co-opted by the secular ideals and agendas of our country. I Pledge Allegiance is a much-needed clarion call for the American church to turn from its divided loyalties and once again embrace the singular devotion to Christ and his kingdom that lies at the heart of the gospel.”
Reading Religion
"In I Pledge Allegiance, Crump makes the fruit of his scholarship available to an educated lay audience in accessible terms with ample examples and apt analogies. He makes sharp incisions where they count the most and is sparing with inessential details. . . . It would play well in small church groups and could benefit undergraduate courses introducing or applying Christian ethics."
Anglican Theological Review
“As Rowan Williams has said, we need to see in one another fellow followers of Christ. This is surely the necessary starting point if we are to move away from this confrontational approach so that we can genuinely learn together at the feet of Christ and even learn from one another across Christian traditions and political affiliations. The church is sorely in need of this mutual learning, and the world is sorely in need of a Church which is learning together.”
Library Journal (starred review)
“While the relationship between the church as prophetic witness and its radical distinction from the larger society could have been fleshed out more thoroughly, Crump succeeds in challenging his fellow evangelicals with this theological account.”
C. Christopher Smith in The Englewood Review of Books
“Crump is asking the hard questions that matter most for Christians today, and I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone seeking to live as a faithful follower of Jesus in the spiritual wilderness of 21st century America.”