Listening to the news about how the id'ed military in Wed's insurrection are mostly Air Force. And remembering this story from 15 years ago re: evangelical radicalization at the Air Force Academy in CO. (Rep Capps & I talked about this at the time.
The students then would be senior officers now - perhaps even some retired.
Then-radicalized students would've spread thru the whole branch - training, teaching, leading others who did NOT go to the military academy.
I've always wondered about the influence of those days since.
(I've known plenty of great Air Force officers who are not like this btw)
Rep Doug Lamborn, who is the Congressman for the district in which the Air Force Academy is located, is one of the 147 GOP who voted to overturn the election results.
He also sits on the Air Force Academy's Board of Visitors.
He lists his religion simply as "Christian."
There was an investigation that led to new policies, etc, especially post-2007 - and the Air Force has been working to do better.
The AFA, with its cross-currents of extremist evangelicalism, has been a recognized problem for almost 2 decades. And it is those streams, militarized "patriotism" and radicalized white evangelicalism that were so strongly on display on Jan 6.
This also makes me wonder about the newly-founded Trumpian Space Force and what's going on there -
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If Mitch McConnell passes the $2000 emergency aid assistance, y'all know that it has nothing to do with compassion or helping us. It will be a calculated political payment to purchase two Senate seats in Georgia.
...and if and when they pass it, their first act in the new GOP-controlled senate will be to defund any and every social program that Biden proposes or wants to strengthen. Because "budget deficit" and "fiscal responsibility."
Basically, they are setting up a Sophie's Choice scenario - $2000 now to get thru this part of the pandemic in trade for health care and social security later.
I don't know where the theology comments originate today. But I just wrote an entire book ("Freeing Jesus" comes out in March) in a genre I call "memoir-theology" (not "theological memoir") and make the claim that theology emerges from the lives of all God's people.
This is also the point of a foreword I wrote for @LaytonEWilliams' wonderful book, Holy Disunity (some screenshots below):
This foreword became the inspiration for me thinking about Jesus -- and the framework is that of my own book. A Christology of real life.
When Trump promised his Christian followers “power,” I questioned both the sort of power he wanted and the kind of power Christianity can and should exercise.
With Kamala Harris's nomination as the Democratic VP candidate, I ruminated on the small conjunction, “and,” exploring the radical social message of inclusion of the early Christian community from a forgotten ancient creed.
What is the matter with seminary education? I just had to explain to a really smart student who Charlotte von Kirschbaum was -- no one ever told him about Karl Barth's live-in secretary/mistress who basically co-authored (without credit of course) the "Church Dogmatics."
She was Barth's student. He moved her into house to "help" his wife and assist with his writing.
Christianity Today calls it Barth's "steadfast adultery."