Christmas 2021: AOC Shames the Evangelicals

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2021/12/09/ocasio-cortez-slams-republicans-over-gun-toting-christmas-photos/

What a sad moment. Ocasio-Cortez the much vilified Democratic representative from New York and member of the hated 'Squad' has spoken truth – and a truth that puts Evangelicals to shame.

Scott Morrison, Dominionism, and Evangelical Politics in Australia (II)

Scott Morrison, Dominionism, and Evangelical Politics in Australia (I)

https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/10/12/its-time-to-call-it-out-scott-morrison-doesnt-care-about-secular-accountability/

https://www.crikey.com.au/topic/god-in-the-lodge/

The Crikey series is worthy of consideration and yet typical of such journalism it offers a secular assessment that deals with issues that at times the authors and editors clearly don't understand. Given that the name of the publication is tantamount to blasphemy, one must expect a degree of hostility to the Christian faith. But it shouldn't scare us or cause to dismiss the reporting out of hand.

Kovalik on the American Empire and its March to War (Part II)

Kovalik on the American Empire and its March to War (Part I)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/29/what-are-the-prospects-for-peace-an-interview-with-dan-kovalik/

This was a good and insightful interview with much to consider. Kovalik's 'The Plot to Scapegoat Russia' caught my eye a few years ago. Kovalik is one of the few voices on the Left that's critical of the Democratic Party and its increasingly hysterical Anti-Russia campaign. This conversation is wide-ranging and touches on several important issues, ones critical to understand if we're to navigate the present situation and filter the many voices that seek to dominate our thinking.

New Calvinism, Evangelicalism, and Trump Era Schisms (Part II)

The recent World Magazine rift seems to be also rooted in a Trumpian schism. Marvin Olasky, a right-wing figure who was loosely associated with the George W Bush presidency is enough of a principled intellectual and in possession of enough historical sense to realize he could not endorse Trump for president in 2016.

New Calvinism, Evangelicalism, and Trump Era Schisms (Part I)

One of the flagship conferences of New Calvinism, Together for the Gospel (T4G) will end in 2022. The official reasons have convinced no one. Everyone more or less knows the group's founders have become irreconcilably divided. This is but part of a larger fragmentation taking place, one that seems to be hitting the New Calvinist sphere hard.

A Dominionist-Evangelical Distortion of Haiti's Sad History

https://www.breakpoint.org/helping-haiti-with-our-heads-and-hearts/

Haiti has been in the news more than once in 2021. Unrest, assassination, an earthquake, and now the kidnapping of US-based missionaries, Haiti is all but associated with chaos, turmoil, grinding poverty, and corruption. The cultural commentators want to weigh in and John Stonestreet of BreakPoint and The Colson Center recently offered his own Evangelical assessment, his own take on the Haitian situation.

The Christian-Right and the Rittenhouse Acquittal

Kyle Rittenhouse is the product of a generation brought up in the midst of social turmoil, economic decline, and endless war. It's evident that to Rittenhouse life is cheap and he speaks casually (in almost video game terms) of shooting people. They're not human beings, they're objects. He's the classic 'angry young man' and while he's a murderer, he does deserve a degree of sympathy.

The Unity of the Brethren and the Magisterial Reformation (Part 2)

For the Bohemian Brethren, the contacts with the Magisterial Reformation produced mostly negative results. Swept up into the political struggle, the theology and ethics of the Reformation produced worldliness and compromise in their lives. The net sum was that their movement was forced to pay a vicious price in the aftermath of the Schmalkaldic War. Though attempting to keep their distance at times, they were now part of the larger Protestant movement and (willingly or not) they were caught up in the catastrophe and bloodletting known as The Thirty Years War.

The Unity of the Brethren and the Magisterial Reformation (Part 1)

A good resource regarding the formative years of the Moravian Church is The History of the Unity of Brethren (A Protestant Hussite Church in Bohemia and Moravia) by Rudolf Rican. First published in the 1950's, the available English translation (by C. Daniel Crews) came out in the 1990's. It's published by The Moravian Church in America.

The book begins with the martyr Jan Hus (1372-1415) and other dissident movements in Bohemia such as the Waldensians. Petr Chelčický (c.1380-1460) also receives significant treatment as he came to exert a great deal of influence on the early Brethren movement – itself a derivative of the larger Hussite wave.

The Establishment's Suppression of the January 6 Investigation (III)

Nancy Pelosi is the Right's greatest and most powerful enemy within Congress and at this point she's the one figure that could really lead the charge, the one person that has the power to pursue the January 6^th coup attempt and to take down the collaborators in congress – wounding the party in the process.

And yet she's not. Why isn't she? Why isn't the Establishment media aggressively reporting on this? Why aren't they coming after her and challenging her tepid response and her lacklustre investigation?

The Establishment's Suppression of the January 6 Investigation (II)

The US sought unipolarity in 1989 and thirty years later it finds itself in grave danger, the dream lost, and US hegemony under threat. The American Establishment is desperate to re-engage the world and rekindle the kind of American dominance that the nation had in the decades after World War II. The vast wealth and power the US accumulated post-1945, is now under existential threat from foreign rivals.

The Establishment's Suppression of the January 6 Investigation (I)

Some independent commentators have picked up on the fact that the mainstream media, the so-called 'Leftist' media has all but ignored the recent 'bombshell' Rolling Stone article that exposes the fact that several members of congress were actively involved in the failed January 6 insurrection.

Why? Why would the media ignore this? It's like the goose that laid the golden egg, a chance to take down several Republicans – and yet they're ignoring it. The January 6 investigation should be like Watergate with around the clock coverage and televised hearings. But instead it barely gets noticed and while the congressional investigation continues – tepid is a word that comes to mind. Given the magnitude of what happened and the nature of emerging revelations since, one would think this would be a major story.

Barna on Marxism (Part 2)

If the younger generation has soured on capitalism it's because they've come of age at a time when the entry level situation is fairly dire and in some cases hopeless. You can skip college and remain on the lower end of the working class – an exception being those who find a skill in demand and escape neo-vassalage by means of becoming self-employed.

Or, you can take on massive debt which more or less enslaves you to a job (an employer) as you are compelled to keep making your payments. And by the time you're done you've undoubtedly taken on many more. It's a trap and some young people have realised it. For many of that generation, adult life properly speaking, an age of autonomy and social establishment is nigh on impossible before one is in their thirties. The system is immoral and exploitative and those who are living in the bottom tiers realise it and thus they're willing to entertain other options, all the more when they begin to understand the American system and its priorities, as opposed to the model of the social democracies in Europe – which have elements that many Right-wing Americans erroneously associate with Marxism.

Barna and Marxism (Part 1)

https://familyliferadio.blubrry.net/2021/10/21/faith-under-fire-ep-74-marxism-in-america-part-1/

George Barna is best known for his fusion of ecclesiology with market analysis. He and those associated with him have pursued models of church growth rooted in surveying and in shaping practice on the basis of the results. His name is usually associated with the Seeker Sensitive Movement because its leaders (men like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren) have integrated the market strategy popularised by figures like Barna into their models for Church growth.

A Broken Ecclesiology

https://churchleaders.com/news/396413-reports-of-an-unsettling-trend-of-pastors-leaving-the-ministry.html

The broken ecclesiology that dominates the Evangelical scene is bearing a rotten harvest. Cultural attitudes and tensions, false expectations, and alternatives born of the technological age have created conditions in which men are leaving Church leadership for other 'ministries'. In some cases we must say good riddance but few seem willing or able to address the real reasons for this trend and identify the nature of the problem. It starts with an unbiblical ecclesiology – especially in the Evangelical and New Calvinist spheres.

A Recent Visit to an Evangelical Congregation

As our congregation has succumbed to Trumpism we are currently looking at other options and let's say the scene is not encouraging. Sunday after Sunday, I find myself driving the better part of an hour or more to sit in on meetings that disappoint and sometimes are an occasion for righteous anger. It's one of those moments that living in a rural area becomes a burden. There are relatively few churches and the distances can sometimes be great.

Revelation 18: The Merchant Princes of Babylon, Their Sorceries, Mammon and Medicine

Revelation 18.23 refers to the sorceries of fallen Babylon. It could be a reference to Babylon in general or more specifically to the merchants of Babylon. Ultimately it doesn't matter as the mercantile-mammon driven activity of its 'great men' are part and parcel representative of the Babylonian system as a whole along with its larger list of deceptions and evil.

Macron and the New Edict of Fontainebleau

In October 2020, French president Emmanuel Macron proposed new education legislation that was meant to counter the influence of subcultures within France – particularly those of a religious nature.

Covid and False Gospels

https://julieroys.com/sherri-tenpenny-covid-denier-christian-nationalism/

This is the hour of deceived deceivers. If every dog has his day, this is the hour for those who have embraced quack medicine and have (via their sorceries) created a toxic brew that is deceiving people in terms of the gospel and in this case is literally causing people to lose their lives.

Siemon-Nietto on Vietnam: No Wisdom Gained

http://uwesiemon.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-wrong-side-won.html

I have written before about Uwe Siemon-Nietto who is a semi-frequent guest on Lutheran Public Radio's Issues Etc. Along with John Warwick Montgomery, Siemon-Nietto often provides what might be described as the view from Europe.

Milley, The Deep State, and the Present Crisis

Is General Milley a traitor? The Trumpites would have you think so. As a Christian my concerns to this end are minimal at best. Let the dead bury their dead. Let the Babylons and the Babylonians scheme and betray one another. Whatever faction is ascendant – it's still Babylon in the end.

And yet there's a concern here on a deeper level because it touches on fundamental understandings of the nature of US government. This is particularly important given the way Evangelical leaders have fused Liberalism with Christianity and have thus generated a series of extra-biblical imperatives regarding citizenship, voting, general participation, capitalist economics, and the like.

The System and Racism

Recently I was talking with my son and he told me about some experiences he had on a Christian chat forum that he visits from time to time. He's had several interesting interactions on the site but recently things took a somewhat bad turn as a person appeared who argued (in a rather aggressive manner) that Christians were under obligation to combat systemic racism. A hot button issue to be sure, the tensions and conflicts that emerged from this confrontation led to several departures and in his estimation has almost ruined the overall experience.

Contemporary Iconoclasm: Cancel Culture and Statue Removal

When the Magisterial Reformation appeared on the scene in the Sixteenth Century it was followed by many episodes of iconoclasm. Protestant mobs would rush into Catholic buildings and tear out and smash art, statues, relics, and architectural elements that they found objectionable.

Inbox: The Book of Revelation as a Justification for High Church Liturgy

Over the years I have heard various appeals to the Book of Revelation as some kind of guide or normative template for New Testament worship. Usually those who appeal to this line of reasoning wish to move their particular congregation (or perhaps denomination) in a High Church direction. Revelation's liturgical imagery is certainly lavish and one can easily make a case for vestments, incense, candles and the like.

 

Christo-Trumpism and January 6th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgBOsGFc5h4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWJVMoe7OY0

I don't doubt this testimony for one moment and one need not be a fan or supporter of Global News (Canada) or the New York Times to benefit from this reporting. The testimonies and images all but speak for themselves.

The Testimony of IC Herendeen and World War I

Irwin C Herendeen (1883-1982) is a name few remember today. Those who are familiar with the name usually connect it to Arthur Pink. A Christian book and tract publisher, Herendeen laboured in Central Pennsylvania and published many of Pink's works among others.

Helm on Vocation

https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2021/the-christian-mans-calling/

Helm begins by arguing that Evangelicals have adopted an essentially gnostic view of Creation and Redemption and a non-Christian anthropology. These claims are regularly made by Dominionist-minded thinkers and yet I have yet to find anyone who actually holds to these views. For nigh on forty years the Christian Right has laboured to eradicate them – largely straw men to begin with – and they have been successful. The attack is against new straw men they have substituted for the real problems they face.

Judaizing and Reductionism: An Interaction with MacArthurite Hermeneutics (Part 2)

That the Old Testament was harder to understand did not minimise the onus placed on the saints of that era. And yet, New Testament believers are called to a higher ethical standard. We have so much more revealed and we are called to live as citizens not of the typological kingdom comprised of sword-conquests, land boundaries, stone buildings, and blood sacrifices. Rather, we are called to live as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven and as such we are strangers and pilgrims on the Earth in a way the saints living under the Mosaic order were not. We do not live by the sword, we have the completed perfect sacrifice which grants us access to the Kingdom of Heaven. Our Kingdom is eternal and yet hidden to the unregenerate. Our Temple and sacrifices are spiritual. Our High Priest is in Heaven. Our battles are not against flesh and blood. Our ethics are born of a higher eternal order.

Judaizing and Reductionism: An Interaction with MacArthurite Hermeneutics (Part 1)

https://blog.tms.edu/is-the-old-testament-unintelligible-without-the-new

I was struck by two recent displays of the reductionist hermeneutics utilised by the MacArthurite faction. These are retentions of the Baconian attempt within Dispensationalism to cast hermeneutics into a scientific framework. They want the Scriptures to have one clear unambiguous propositional meaning that is grounded in the inductive and deductive processes of human experience.

Bercot's Covid Ethics: Practical Wisdom and Shortcomings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLI_iF75_-8

Overall this was a very good forum. My wife and I both agreed that is was some of the best practical ethics and wisdom we've heard since the Covid crisis emerged over a year ago. Bercot did not disappoint. He got the balance right and rightly applied Kingdom ethics to the situation – mask mandates and the like. I really appreciated it and the fact that he condemned the behaviour of Evangelicals and the many Anabaptists who fell into Right-wing individualist thinking and behaviour and brought shame to the testimony of Christ and the Church.

But there were two glaring deficiencies that I would point out and I think they're important to consider.

A Postmortem on Covid Postmortems (Part 2)

His comments on the government operating outside parameters and violating its God-given authority are frankly ridiculous. It's the wrong way to approach such questions. He's mischaracterized the nature of government and badly misjudged and wrongly framed the Christian interaction with this post lapsum reality – a temporary situation that will be eradicated at the eschaton.

A Postmortem on Covid Postmortems (Part 1)

https://thelocalkirk.org/a-postmortem-on-covid-and-the-church/

Perhaps what I found most disappointing about this piece is that many will believe it to be well-reasoned and moderate in its tone and posture. I did not find this to be the case and in addition I found it indicative of some other disturbing trends at work within conservative Evangelical and Confessional circles.

The Shadow State is Alive and Well

https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881

The stage for all of this was set in the aftermath of 9/11 and increasingly as people no longer consider the surrendering of their privacy and data to be anything controversial, and as generations of lock-step, wave the flag, support the troops, my country right or wrong nationalism has come to dominate – this story isn't even controversial.