Space For Doubt

It has become increasingly clear in the last month that the broad American Evangelical Church is facing a dilemma between something and their neighbor. There’s something out there that seems to be a partition between the words they read and “believe”, and the actions they champion and promote.

“The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor… Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.” – Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor

Jesus did not speak of most of the hot topics in the church today. He didn’t speak against women preachers. He didn’t speak on illegal immigration. He didn’t speak on the inner workings of the heavenly council or the nature of his exact relationship with God the father. He didn’t ask for revenge in His name.

He spoke of loving your neighbor. He spoke of feeding and caring for the hungry, the poor, and the widow. He spoke of being generous to others. He spoke to showing love to our enemies. He spoke of rich men having a hard time entering the kingdom of God.

What do you see out there right now in the U.S.A.? Do you see conservative Christianity supporting policies that embody that last bolded paragraph? Do you see them voicing their concern in protest of the actions that are very much not that?

Admittedly, a few will say things like “I’m not personally a big fan of that” or “I wish they’d do that in a better way.” But that’s it. That’s all you get from them. There is often a please don’t force me to acknowledge reality, please just let me live in my happy privileged bubble. They are a hair’s breadth away from experiencing what should have happened long ago. A profound cognitive dissonance in their head that this….this just isn’t right. No amount of mental gymnastics can somehow just waive this all away under the assumption that whatever the other side would’ve done, would’ve been worse. That’s bullsh*t. It’d be great to be able to say deep down they know that, but that doesn’t appear to the case. For want of saving $0.25/gal on gas and cheaper eggs (neither of which are so far true), the world can be laid waste, morality ignored, and the basic tenets of Christianity abandoned.

Let’s say a random person was a non-believer. They didn’t know Jesus at all (never heard the gospel message). They had never read the bible. Then let’s say this very day, a conservative Christian comes and tries to proselytize to them. These Christians have them read the gospels and see Jesus’ words. Would you expect them to look at the aggregate actions, policy support, and blind eyes of the conservative Christians that are trying to convert them, and arrive at any other conclusion than…..hypocrisy?

Why would that person want any part of what those Christians are selling? Why would they want any part of that God?

Leave the what-about-isms in the trashcan where they belong. There’s no two sides here. Who’s doing more to embody the actions of Jesus? Are you deaf? Are you blind? Are you heartless? Are you soulless? Do you just not give a sh*t because these people don’t look and act like you? Because they don’t believe like you? Were those qualifications Jesus asked before he fed or healed people?

Twice now, I’ve been involved in very disturbing discussions with conservative Christians who seemed unbothered by the actions their preferred political party was enacting. Their sentiment in each occurance was “well…the end times have to come eventually.”

W.T.F. You are cool with voting for evil, to usher in the end times? It’s a twisted and sick mindset to think this is somehow what Jesus would want. You think He needs your help in bringing forth the full evil of the world, to hasten His return? That’s some un-Holy sh*t right there.

There seem to be two major internal conflicts with the modern conservative Christian church body at large.

1.) The discrepancy between what is written about their beliefs on a website (which generally fairly closely aligns with Jesus), and that which is preached on the pulpit.

2.) There is likewise a discrepancy between what is preached from the pulpit and the actions seen after stepping down from the pulpit and into the real world.

There seems to be this apologetic approach to harmonize from the pulpit what is on their website with their actions taken off the pulpit. It’s like a strange hybrid of both.

There is this alignment of the American conservative Christian with what J.D. Vance has called weaponized empathy. Somehow attempting to care too much became evil. Somehow attempting to politely and calmly plead for mercy to the new president of the USA has been twisted around to be evil. Somehow…acting like Jesus has become evil.

The broad American Evangelical Church (encompassing SDAs) has robed themselves in the dressings of that which they have so vigorously preached about in fear. The anti-Christ.

In the project management industry we have a term called a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). This is a quantifiable metric used to track progress towards a goal. There are leading indicators (like the amount of calories you eat) and lagging indicators (like the weight you read on the scale). The leading indicators predict the lagging indicators.

The conservative Christian church is doubling down on leading indicators of its own demise. The already falling membership/religious alignment of people to that group is the lagging indicator.

It doesn’t take a prophet to see that as time goes on, especially if the actions taken remain as is, that lagging indicator (essentially membership/attendance) will fall ever more rapidly. The leading indicators certainly predict it.

There is little doubt that if Jesus came to earth once more, just for a quick hello, that not only would He say “I do not know you” to this group, but that these same conservative Christians would not recognize Him. They would treat Him exactly how you’d expect them to.

They claim we “shouldn’t mix our religion and politics.” Well, in Jesus’ day, they were one in the same. Today? There is quite obviously plenty of overlap. The venn diagram of religion and politics in the USA is really looking more and more like a single circle lately.

“It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — “turn the other cheek” — [and] to have someone come up after to say, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?” And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, “I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,” the response would not be, “I apologize.” The response would be, “Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.” – Russell Moore, former top official of the Southern Baptist Convention (he was kicked out FYI)

Russell Moore saw this in his Southern Baptist churches. Don’t think this mixing of politics and religion happens from the leaders in SDA churches? See this next video. I had a good friend who witnessed this in person and told me about it. This is the Collegedale Community SDA church in TN.

Excuse me what? “Got our country back?” Do realize a fairly decent chunk of your congregation was (and still is) probably scared out of their mind last November?

Conservative Christians, for myself, I yield the name Christian to you. Have it. Own it. Keep going with it. I’m going to use “Christ follower” from now on. I want no association, not even a hint, to you. I don’t want to advertise myself as something the rest of world sees clearly as the tragically, yet ironically opposite, of what your name should imply.

Sincerely,

A distraught Christ follower