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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

4 Nov

Screwtape: "Wormwood, I need something that's going to rip Christians apart after the death of George Floyd. Got anything?"
Wormwood: "Hmm, I found this obscure legal theory from the early 70s called #CRT."

Screwtape: "What is it?"
Wormword: "Well, it centers race as the interpretive key for understanding social & racial inequality in America."
Screwtape: "Oh, this is brilliant. Race and politics are blinding for these patients. Has been for 400 years."

Wormwood: "Blinding?"
Screwtape: "Yes! Politics is their Achilles' Heel. They'll be so distracted by the fake hysteria about CRT & their stupid culture war anxieties that they'll ignore actual demonic evil at work in other areas of society."
Wormwood: "Brilliant! Now what?"

Read 6 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

31 Oct

Real life scenario: (1) Tina is sexually abused by her grandfather at 6 years-old, unknown to parents. (2) Tina self-medicates abuse by binge drinking in high school. (3) Tina only hears sermons about her rebellious drunkenness, need to repent, & how terribly sinful she is.

(4) Tina is given an oversimplified, pietistic version of the gospel at _____Church's youth group. (5) After several chord progressions, some preacher uses her emotional turmoil to induce a crisis about her moral dereliction about being a "party girl" so that she follows Christ.

(6) At some youth camp, she walks down to the front & throws the stick of her debauchery into the fire with a commitment to live morally acceptable life. (7) Youth leaders report that they'd added to their "decisions" for Christ. 8) Her body never forgets the trauma of her abuse.

Read 10 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

10 Oct

Covenant children are not born as “objects of wrath.” Covenant children are “heirs according to promise.” So we baptize them as infants and don’t ever expect them to have a “testimony” or some felt-need conversion experience or story. prpbooks.com/book/children-…

I was talking to a Covenant College alum who felt shame because he didn’t have some sort of sensational conversion story to tell. As the child of an elder, unbelief was never a part of his life. His shame was a consequence of hanging around evangelicals instead of Anglicans, etc.

When the church’s kids are treated as “objects of wrath” in need of a conversion/testimony rather than catechized “heirs to promise,” don’t be surprised when they’re not around in their 20s. Individualism in, individualism out the back door.

Read 6 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

8 Sep

I recently spoke with a college student who told me that he realized that if “I studied real hard, I could go to college for free.” It’s simple. Now he’s in college tuition-free. Someone should tell parents that academic scholarships are easier to get than sports scholarships.

Only 1-2% of college students get athletic scholarships compared to 8.1% for academic scholarships. So I get confused when parents say, “we put our child in sports early hoping for college scholarships.” I’m like, “yeah, but getting him/her to read more works much better.”🤷🏾‍♂️

This is what enrages me about how we view teen extra-curricular activities & how we help urban youth. There are few programs that focus on academic development compared to sports. “Inner-city kids need sports to pay for college.” No, they need reading, math, science, etc.”

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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

5 Sep

"In modern American society, the most important factor for understanding the intergenerational transmission of religion to children is their parents"(91). At what point do we call churches "brainless" for not shifting their entire budgets to focus on equipping parents for this?

Namely, given the post-1960s decentering of institutions (denominations), & the fact that data shows that the greatest cause of kids adopting their parent's faith are daily conversations at home, what kind of church spends more money on youth/children's programs than parents?

If a church is not providing specific resources for parents to have daily theological conversations about the intersection of faith and the issues of life, is it a wise place to be? In the church, children adopt faith because of parents and basically no one else, period. Data!

Read 5 tweets

Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

4 Sep

The current COVID hotspot map. Stop racially pointing the fingers. #Conservatives blame minorities. #Progressives blame “white #Republicans.” You’re both wrong & silly. It’s more class than race. Lots of black, Hispanic, *and* white people don’t believe COVID/are anti-vacciners.

What do many anti-vacciners have in common? They tend to be of the same socioeconomic class. Elites progressives are also stupidly blaming “systemic racism” for minorities not being vaccinated. What? They are so out of touch. They obviously don’t know any lower-income minorities.

A black teenager in Brooklyn, NY recently told her white high school teacher that she doesn’t “believe in COVID.” That is, she doesn’t believe COVID is real. She’s in all black community & her views have nothing to do with “systemic racism.” Stop infantalizing black people.

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