Incredibly late, but better than nothing.
Incredibly late, but better than nothing.
Franklin just tried to bosides this shit on twitter and the seething response from both sides is just about hilarious. Welp, he definitely earned it.
Franklin just tried to bosides this shit on twitter and the seething response from both sides is just about hilarious. Welp, he definitely earned it.
While what happened at the Capitol yesterday is tragic, it is not surprising. For more than four years, Trump has shown that he is more than willing to say any lie, ignore any standard of decency, and bring any amount of violence and division to shore up his own power. Through manipulative disinformation, he incited an insurrection and has yet to condemn it unequivocally. Like Herod, he is happy to use religious leaders as pawns.
But sadly, in this anti-epiphany, the wise men are not so wise. They willingly comply. So for me, the worst part of yesterday’s insurrection is how it represents an utter failure in the American church. This anti-epiphany reveals the horrid outgrowths of Christian nationalism, faulty spiritual formation, false teaching, political idolatry, and overriding ignorance.
Though it saddens me deeply, it must be clearly admitted: Yesterday’s atrocity was in large part brought to us by the white, evangelical church in America.
I have at times tried to dismiss these leaders and events as fringe, as the crazy cranks and bizarre displays we ought to ignore. I have instead focused on how, day in and day out, pastors and Christian laypeople are seeking to faithfully follow Jesus, to love their neighbor, and to serve the poor, to embody the truth we proclaim this season. But I cannot overlook the reality that millions of evangelicals are swayed by those who proclaim untruth and ugliness in the name of Jesus.
The responsibility of yesterday’s violence must be in part laid at the feet of those evangelical leaders who ushered in and applauded Trump’s presidency. It can also sadly be laid at the feet of the white American church more broadly.
Franklin Graham is not Christian.
Today's modern Christians are speeding up the demise of Christianity as a viable organized religion.
Someone should remind Franklin that the book of revelation tells us that 12 tribes (adding up to 144k people) will be taken to heaven. That's it. Franklin and his ilk will be left behind for the destruction of earth and its their fault. If you believe in that.
The prosperity gospel has really taken the rank and file very far from where Jesus intended.
...One core feature of Trumpism is that it forces you to betray every other commitment you might have: to the truth, moral character, the Sermon on the Mount, conservative principles, the Constitution. In defeat, some people are finally not willing to sacrifice all else on Trump’s altar.
The split we are seeing is not theological or philosophical. It’s a division between those who have become detached from reality and those who, however right wing, are still in the real world.
Hence, it’s not an argument. You can’t argue with people who have their own separate made-up set of facts. You can’t have an argument with people who are deranged by the euphoric rage of what Erich Fromm called group narcissism — the thoughtless roar of those who believe their superior group is being polluted by alien groups.
It’s a pure power struggle. The weapons in this struggle are intimidation, verbal assault, death threats and violence, real and rhetorical. The fantasyland mobbists have an advantage because they relish using these weapons, while their fellow Christians just want to lead their lives.
The problem is, how do you go about reattaching people to reality?
David French, the conservative Christian writer who fought in the Iraq war, says the way to build a sane G.O.P. is to borrow a page from the counterinsurgency handbook: Separate the insurgents from the population.
That means prosecuting the rioters, impeaching the president and not tolerating cyberterrorism within a community or congregation.
Others have to be reminded of the basic rules for perceiving reality. They have to be reminded that all truth is God’s truth; that inquiry strengthens faith, that it is narcissistic self-idolatry to think you can create your own truth based on what you “feel.” There will probably have to be pastors and local leaders who model and admire evidence-based reasoning, wrestling with ideas.
On the left, leaders and organizations have arisen to champion open inquiry, to stand up to the cancel mobs. They have begun to shift the norms.
The problem on the right is vastly worse. But we have seen that unreason is a voracious beast. If it is not confronted, it devours not only your party, but also your nation and your church.
Nearly every American religious denomination, including most Evangelical sects, are steadily losing members. The Southern Baptist Convention released a report a few years ago that said that unless membership trends were reversed, up to a third of SBC churches may be closed for lack of members within the next quarter-century. Even many rural churches are either stagnant or losing members at varying rates. These people are killing their own golden goose, all for short-term profit and political gain. If something like the Rapture ever takes place (I was raised on that belief and don't believe in it anymore, or at least not the version that Evangelicals do) many of these Evangelicals will be sorely disappointed when they are among those Left Behind. Lots of them would be, I would guess, starting with their leaders like Graham and Falwell and Robertson and Osteen and on and on.
Except mega churches continue to grow. Or at least that was the case the last time I researched it.