DTS update: Chapel speaker Frank Glover intros students to Kimpa Vita, lionizing her without noting syncretist controversies (🧵 incoming).
Off the bat, he says of her: "Before Luther or before Calvin, there was a revolution." Both men died 100+ years before she was born.
It's hard to find trustworthy sources on this online, but from the Met Museum we see that Kimpa Vita, aka Dona Beatriz, was trained as a medium for spirits. Glover notes in his speech she claimed direct revelation from God. metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pwmn_4…
You can also see in this screenshot that Kimpa Vita believed, based on her direct revelation, that Jesus was born and baptized in the Kongo.
Glover says she had a vision from "God" while seemingly dead, but that's not even half the story. Her vision was from St Anthony, who she considered the "second God." jstor.org/stable/1581595
(The quote is substantiated from the above book review of "The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706" by John K. Thornton. The article is paywalled by Jstor but the text appears in the Google preview)
According to Thornton, Kimpa Vita did not just have one heavenly vision from one near-death experience. "[S]he died every Friday and spent each weekend in Heaven conferring with the Heavenly Father about the affairs of Kongo." executedtoday.com/2009/07/02/170…
A portion of the quote that Glover emphasized from Kimpa Vita is true, that the Kongo people (who believe in Jesus) are children of God and that white people are not superior in God's eyes. But we need not over-correct and celebrate pagan syncretism to make that point.
I'm not seeing anything to substantiate the "black angels" claim. In fact, one missionary wrote that she told him "in heaven, there is no color." She gave the title of "angels" to local men who were emissaries for her movement. nypl.org/blog/2021/10/0…
This same missionary also contradicts the claim, made by Glover, that Vita Kimpa's infant son was executed with her. headstuff.org/culture/histor…
At the opening of the United Methodist Church's General Conference, attendees are warned to avoid "exclusively male language for God" and to "be conscious of inferred power dynamics."
The next day, this same duo presented their "report card" on the diversity of officers elected to the conference's legislative committees, then scolded attendees to "work a little bit harder on inclusion with language and interpretation."
Fani Willis returned to church to accept an award and deliver a brief sermon on her court hearing.
"The scripture they keep sending me is 'No weapon formed against you shall prosper'...They did not say the weapons will not form, and that's the part I didn't hear until recently."
Atlanta Berean Church, a Seventh-Day Adventist congregation, hosted Willis this Saturday for nearly 20 minutes of adulation, starting with lead pastor Dr. Sherwin Jack declaring, "She is one of us" (1:26).
The church presented Willis with a "Black History Achievement Award," SDA founder Ellen G. White's "Conflict Of The Ages" book series, and more.
"These beautiful flowers are for you, the beautiful person that you are. We love you."
Kelly Rosati, a National Association Of Evangelicals board member, calls pro-life Christians' opposition to state-run welfare "useless," "un-scriptural," and "madness."
Here's wider context: Rosati, an alumnus of Focus On The Family and former member of the March For Life's board of national directors, is speaking at the NAE's "Flourish" conference in October of last year. (1/2)
"I just want to plant a flag and say: Let us be people that never advocate for abortion restrictions without an accompanying paid family leave support." (2/2)
Has the Gospel Coalition embraced Federal Vision theology?
"What is the basis of our regeneration at the Judgment? It is not our confession. It is actually our living."
(see full thread for wider context)
Speaker is Darryl Williamson of Living Faith Bible Fellowship in Tamba Bay, FL, during a "Good-Faith Debate" published this March.
"How do we advance both a reconciliation and justice vision in the church?...I think it begins with...us getting the gospel right." (1/2)
"The Judgment seat, biblically, is inherently ethical...It's not a doctrinal exam. And so you don't get to give the password. The 'I've accepted Christ as my savior'...Doesn't mean it's works righteousness. It just means it's the nature of the judgment." (2/2)
This is how subversive churches will twist Genesis 1:27 to sow gender confusion in children: THREAD 🧵
"When God creates day + night, what's between day + night? Sunset + sunrise are between day + night, so there's dusk and there's dawn and there's twilight. I feel pretty safe saying that I think God created sunset."
"Do you know if there's anything between dry land + water?"
"There's some animals that live in the water AND on the land, right?"
"God created land animals and water animals and amphibians and sea birds. God also created everyone between and beyond male and female. I feel pretty safe saying that."
Found some professors from Fuller and UCLA defending, whitewashing + advocating Critical Race Theory, by name, at an event held by the church of a pastor regularly featured on the YouVersion Bible app's devotionals.
No, this isn't from June 2020. It's May 2023.
The speaker is Jeff Liou, who co-authored "Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation" with Robert Chao Romero, who I've clipped several times before. Here, the two authors call anti-CRT Christians liars and "a**holes."
(This says a lot, since @neilshenvi and @RealPatSawyer have been at the forefront of Christians critiquing this ideology. Per a quick Kindle search, neither men are mentioned in their book)