Weird Time for Christians

Fortunately not all Evangelicals support Trump -  hopefully a greater move away from Trump will materialize.

I've come to believe that the greatest thing to happen to the Republican party over the last 50 years was the Moral Majority. 

I've also come to believe that the worse thing to happen to the church of Christ in the USA is the Moral Majority. 

While I may hold to one  of the major tenets of the Moral Majority - Pro life  - it has, as a whole, corrupted the Christian message in the USA and has politicized the church.  Ironically, the church has thrived (as in spiritual growth and not necessarily in numerical growth) and fulfilled its mission best when it was 'not at the political table' and even more so when it was under persecution.   

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/4/12/17216258/lynchburg-rally-red-letter-revival-shane-claiborne-jerry-falwell-jr-liberty-university

Leading the other camp was Shane Claiborne, the self-described “radical evangelical,” author, and activist, who lives in a faith-based intentional community in Philadelphia.

The “Red Letter Revival” he co-organized — a direct repudiation of Falwell’s values — exhorted the people in attendance to divorce evangelicalism from politicized Christian nationalism and white supremacy.

Featuring a Native American prayer for the land, a Christian rapper who presented a prayer in poetry, and an openly bisexual speaker, the Red Letter Revival was diverse (only two of 18 presenters were white men) and passionately political.

Its speakers repudiated what Pastor David Anderson called “evangelicals ... more committed to the amendments than to the commandments.”

One Charlottesville pastor, Brenda Brown-Grooms, spoke up to declare “Christian nationalism” a form of “apostasy”: a serious and willful deviation from the Christian faith.

Their goal of the event? As Claiborne put it in an interview with Vox: “a Christianity that looks like Jesus again.” The racialized rhetoric of Trumpism, he said, meant that “the words of Jesus are getting lost in white evangelicalism.
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Between these quotes the article talks at length about Liberty Univ - how it shuts down free speech of those evangelicals that oppose Trump.  - Made me think - I wonder how Turner Gill

is responding to this environment - as their football coach.  As an African American evangelical - I would think he would have some concerns wt Liberty becoming defacto Trump Univ.   See statement about black evangelicals in this quote:

A number of prominent evangelical writers, including Katelyn Beaty and Skye Jethani, have written about disavowing the term “evangelical.” Even Russell Moore has suggested going by the term “gospel Christian.” For these thinkers, the evangelical community has become synonymous with support for Trump and the white nationalist policies they see him represent.

So too the growing exodus of black evangelicals from the evangelical movement, many of whom report feeling pressured to vote for or support Donald Trump in spite of his statements on race.

As Doug Birdsall, chair of the international Lausanne organization of evangelicals, put it to the Washington Post: “When you Google ‘evangelicals,’ you get Trump.”
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The bold line below is really important.  The gospel isn't politics. Jesus said render to Cesar that which is Cesar's and to God that which is God's.  The church's responsibility is to the 'least of these'.  It doesn't mean we (the church) don't have a voice in the public marketplace of ideas but rather that isn't our primary calling.   The good news isn't political dominion (See dominion movement https://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/08/18/dominionism-rising-a-theocratic-movement-hiding-in-plain-sight/

It is that which is spoken of in Luke 4: 18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor "

The Red Letter Christian movement — named for the red lettering used to denote Jesus’s words in many Bibles — is, in many ways, a direct repudiation of Falwell’s brand of Christianity.

For these thinkers, the evangelical establishment’s embrace of Trumpism — unbridled capitalism, xenophobic nativism, and a willingness to engage with white supremacy — goes against everything Jesus stands for.

“Jerry Falwell [Jr.]’s dream is a nightmare to our most marginalized people, those whom Jesus called the ‘least of these,’” Claiborne told Vox in a telephone interview.

The Red Letter Christians aren’t alone among evangelicals uncomfortable with the way GOP politics and Christianity have become intertwined. There are signs that in the wider community, dissenting voices, particularly over Trump’s seeming embrace of white supremacists, are growing. In July 2017, for example the Southern Baptist Convention near-unanimously passed a resolution condemning the “alt-right.” And last December, Roy Moore, an open proponent of Christian theocracy, lost a special election for US Senate in Alabama.
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VectorVictor said:
If by "more tolerant", you mean "overtly racist and hypocritical", then you're dead on. :thumbs
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"White Evangelical" is too large of a group for blanket statements.

The saying about a critic being the world's easiest job has stuck with me since hearing it early on in life.

I have a few friends and acquaintances who would fall under the broad category of "White Evangelical" and I have absolutely no idea about their "level" of racism.

Everyone has opinions.  I try to choose wisely when mine needs expressing......and trying to change the opinions of others isn't something I invest a lot of emotional energy in.

 
TheSker said:
"White Evangelical" is too large of a group for blanket statements.
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No it's not. That's literally what general statements are for - big groups :lol:

Most everyone knows what you're referring to with a label like that. If you ~technically~ belong in the label, but what someone is describing isn't you, then understand they aren't talking about you and move on. 

 
Clifford Franklin said:
What in the world is wrong with these people?
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That actually doesn't surprise me.  More of them didn't like him until he became the R nominee.  Then, he becomes the most amazing person alive today.

The issue is that, for some reason, the Republican party has that vote locked up.  It's one area they have done very well in.

 
BigRedBuster said:
The issue is that, for some reason, the Republican party has that vote locked up.  It's one area they have done very well in.
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The Republican party has done a masterful job with this, honestly. They hijacked and pounced on the tribal nature of white Christianity in America, reinforced the myths of it (We understand a sacred truth that 'everyone else' doesn't // The world hates us because the world hates God // God helps those who help themselves aka pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, etc.), and presented itself as the saving force of that ideology while also providing a deflecting answer that blames 'the world' for every question they could have. 

 
Landlord said:
The Republican party has done a masterful job with this, honestly. They hijacked and pounced on the tribal nature of white Christianity in America, reinforced the myths of it (We understand a sacred truth that 'everyone else' doesn't // The world hates us because the world hates God // God helps those who help themselves aka pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, etc.), and presented itself as the saving force of that ideology while also providing a deflecting answer that blames 'the world' for every question they could have. 
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I think Trump's favorable view within that broad population has much more to do with economic ideology than religious ideology.

 
TheSker said:
I think Trump's favorable view within that broad population has much more to do with economic ideology than religious ideology.
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And that unfortunately, both parties are so polarized on the issue of abortion.  Hold you nose and vote for Trump because the other side is not pro-life.  I keep saying, if the Dems were smart - they'd recruit prolife Dems to run and I'd think they would win congress in a landslide.   To Landlord's point - the Rupublicans have land locked the prolife vote into their party with a mote around it that to vote Dem would be the same as denying your faith.  

To quote a very intelligent & smart poster above :o :facepalm: (thought I'd do my Donald Trump impression):

TGHusker said:
I've come to believe that the greatest thing to happen to the Republican party over the last 50 years was the Moral Majority. 

I've also come to believe that the worse thing to happen to the church of Christ in the USA is the Moral Majority. 
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TGHusker said:
I keep saying, if the Dems were smart - they'd recruit prolife Dems to run and I'd think they would win congress in a landslide.
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This is probably a losing strategy as they'd lose more pro-choice voters than they'd gain pro-life voters. Especially since 68% of their own party are pro-choice and independents are evenly split at 50%.

There may be individual local races that the Dem could be pro-life and better represent their constituents, but the same applies for Repubs that could be pro-choice to better represent their constituents.

 
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