A quick thread about the devastating affects of white evangelical fear-mongering. It is severely damaging the witness of the Church and causing people immense pain.
I just got off the phone with an amazingly kind and loving member of our church. She was in tears...
1/
She helped with Operation Christmas Child awhile back and was subsequently added (without consent) to Franklin Graham's email list.
Lately she has been inundated with fear-mongering emails about how all the "dangerous threats to our nation" and to "life as we know it."
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The "Secular Left" is going to fire people for "using the wrong name or pronouns" and force churches to "hire people hostile to its deeply held beliefs" and strip accreditation from schools that "do not satisfy the demands of the secular Left" and more.
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She cried on the phone with me. She said, "I know not all of this is true, Zach, but I get so many of these that it's become impossible not to be afraid."
We spent half an hour talking and praying together. She felt better by the end, but honestly, I didn't.
4/
I vacillate between feeling hurt and angry as I watch this garbage happen over and over again.
And you know what gets me more than anything? Most of these fear-mongering emails include requests for money.
“Chip in now and help save our nation!” What a godless grift.
5/
I don’t have all the answers. I just wish people who called themselves Christians would spend less time stoking fear and more time loving their neighbor.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear."
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First, this quote is from a book which examines castes and slavery throughout history. Obviously Wilkerson isn’t claiming slavery was invented by America.
She says, “Slavery IN THIS LAND...” wasn’t happenstance. American chattel slavery was purposefully crafted and carried out.
That’s not a “hot take” or a fringe opinion. It’s a fact with which any reputable historian or scholar agrees.
Second, this is a perfect example of how nefarious folks operate here on Twitter...
God chose to put on melanin rich skin and enter the world he created as Jesus. He was born poor, to a scandalized mom and a blue collar stepdad. First recognized as Messiah by social outcasts and pagan magicians, he spent his early years on the run as a refugee in a foreign land.
In one of his earliest public speeches, he claimed he’d been sent by God “to proclaim good news to the poor,” “freedom for the prisoners,” “recovery of sight for the blind,” “to set the oppressed free,” and “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He spent the rest of his life doing just that, all while breaking rules and castigating oppressive religious leaders. Eventually, he was illegally arrested, unjustly tried, and murdered for defying civil and religious leaders.