Thread by @MBurtwrites

Saw a post where @DennyBurk incidentally dehumanizes two children in his ire at Chip & Joanna.

Moralistic litmus tests are revealing.

I’ve never seen Christian concern re: normalization of consumption, discontentment & greed on display in home reno shows. 🧵

I’ve not seen discussion of how this forms idolatrous souls to expect luxury when so many go without food & clothing.

Disappointed fans seem capable of overlooking that as well as the fact that many unmarried couples on the show were cohabitating. 2/

They were able to see that it was a TV show not a church

& that ppl who aren’t Christians are uninterested in pietism or moral beliefs of Christianity.

It’s never been our task to isolate, exclude & erase ppl b/c we perceive immoral, greedy or idolatrous. specks in their eye 3/

What business is it of ours to judge those outside the church?

All this while we have neglected to respond to ppl *within the church* who have preyed on most vulnerable.

I will take your concerns about sexual immorality seriously when you flip tables over predatory pastors. 4/

I will believe Christians care about children & families when we stop minimizing the evil that has been done in God’s name.

When we listen to survivors & evangelicals & all whose faith we’ve shipwrecked.

5/

https://twitter.com/mburtwrites/status/1730019773587874182

Hatred & contempt never showed anyone the Good News of God’s love.

Calling hatred “love” doesn’t make it so.

Whatever you think of ppl’s sexual choices, they are *people*, in this case including two children whose perhaps first & only taste of Christianity will be contempt. 6/

Religious ppl have always gotten mad about Jesus eating w/those they perceived to be sinners & tax collectors. Tainted by association. He is never punitive enough for our liking.

Unmerciful servants delighting in grace when we receive it & big mad when it’s shown to others. 7/

I guess it’s unsurprising that religious ppl today would be mad about the Body of Christ rubbing shoulders w/a family that has two gay dads.

IDK what the end game there is, though— increasingly narrowing communities that only grant access to the “right” kind of sinners? 8/

Only times Jesus got indignant *w/His disciples* was when they hindered ppl from getting access to Him.

@chipgaines & @joannagaines decided not to gatekeep *in the marketplace*

Christian rage demanding they recant reveals why some will never set foot in a church again.
/end

*exvangelicals*

Expanded on these thoughts in a long form post here today.