1/ "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

We're going to see a lot more of this kind of thing in the weeks and months to come. Here's the thing: It's not just a reaction to CK's murder. And it's not just a crass and gross grift using scripture. It isn't just rank idolatry. 2/ It also is a realignment of the MAGA/CN zeitgeist. For a decade, the MAGA/CN world has held on to Trump's molesting hands and called them holy. But oh ... how heavy those hands are and how difficult they are to defend.

1/ I’ll be lecturing later this fall … and I thought it would be interesting to post the reading list, in case anyone is looking for some ideas for fall reading material. They all speak, in one way or another to how empire and faith change each other, usually for the worse. 2/ Most of these are used only as citation sources, with only a couple being fully required. Some are dry as dust, but they’re all solid, if a bit niche.

So, if anyone would like some unsolicited suggestions to add to your every growing reading pile, here are a few:

1/ This is a good time to remind ourselves that MAGA adherents are disqualified from all Church offices/positions, be they official or volunteer. Not necessarily because they commit heinous acts ... but because they are so compromised they excuse evil in others for their benefit.

https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1960661602220343745

2/ If an elder went before a congregation and said "We have chosen a new pastor, and yes, he is a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, self-confessed molester, and serial adulterer with delusions of grandeur ... but we think he will give us what we want" people would leave.

1/ No Dobson obituary is complete, or honest, if it does not include the fact that he is responsible for millions of Evangelicals reducing the value of women to their vagina and treating children as mere accessories to the parent’s reputation. 2/ Dobson’s approach to child-rearing was essentially nothing more than a prosperity gospel for parents. “Do X, and Y will surely happen.”

1/ The Evangelical Christian ecosystem has taught for 50 years that our battles are not against flesh and blood, but warfare against spiritual principalities and powers. We’ve used martial language in our sermons, over and over again. 2/ We write books about manliness and praise the warrior over the humble sacrificer. We praised politicians who spoke about beating people up, and called poor migrants animals and those who advocated for them “the enemy.”

1/ Let's Talk about this: Meg's comment demonstrates two specific things about much of the current American Evangelical paradigm. Two things that we should be thinking about and discussing both in the leadership and the laity. 2/ First, and Meg know this answer but wouldn't dare say it lest she face the wrath of handlers, the real issue here isn't where a trans person would use the restroom. That's a VERY easy answer, which can be handled any one of several ways, and I'll speak to that at the end.

1/ Here’s the problem @megbasham: You push yourself on the public and claim to be a journalist. First … every REAL journalist has a basic understanding of due diligence and actual investigative techniques. You do not.
2/ In case you didn’t realize it, your hilariously pithy and pearl clutching response above is a literal admission to commenting and attacking the podcast without even finishing it. Zero due diligence. Just pearl clutching.

Second, your words show you to be a hollow hypocrite.

1/ Something to remember when reading tidbits or news on the Patriarchy Hannah meltdown: There is no such thing as a trad-wife or trad-life. There never has been. What is marketed as "trad life" is generally either a latent kink or a fetishization of a history that never existed. 2/ The "trad-life" they think they seek of a woman in a frilly farm dress chasing chickens is a romanticized version of pioneer/frontier life. What you never seen them promote is the sod-walled homes, the plowing nearly naked to preserve clothes ...

1/ Some people, like @megbasham, will do literally anything to avoid acting Christ-like to those in need. Including, as Meg does below, claiming that Jesus's explicit words prior to the Parable of the Good Samaritan ... were wrong. Lol. 2/ Luke 10:25-29 Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"He said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul ..."

1/ It's fascinating to see so many MAGA Christians either outright attacking Carter's memory or offering thinly-veiled insults wrapped in an ersatz condolence of his passing. Here's the thing to remember: MAGA Christians can't stand Carter. 2/ Not because of policy difference, nor because of partisanship ... but because his lived example of Christ and his long-displayed decency indicts their craven support for a lying rapist who is the antithesis of decency.

1/ THREAD - The Evangelical Church’s Assassin:

It’s fascinating to consider how many people worked for 30-45 years to undo the forward societal changes of the 50s and 60s, in America … only to apparently recreate the problems of France of the 1789. 2/ The shocking thing about the assassination of the UHC head, in NYC, isn’t the cold manner in which it was done or the undercurrent of class warfare … it’s the almost total lack of care shown by so many who see him and those like him as the cause of their pain.

1/ The first adjective one should use to describe every form of Christian Nationalism, be it Wilson's fey mealy-mouthed form, Rushdoony's Reconstructionism, or Wallnau's solipsistic NAR ... is coward.

All Christian Nationalists, at their core ... are hollow cowards. 2/ "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." -Bonhoeffer.

Picking up the Cross of Christ ... is a suicide mission.

1/ I *always* get some hilarious pushback from MAGA believers and anti-abortion idolaters when I talk about the vile compromises the modern anti movement has made.

There are two reasons I say that about the modern anti movement: 2/ First, the modern anti movement has willingly traded witness (and thus souls) for hypothetical babies. In other words, they're willing to trade the eternities of countless people driven from the Cross and the voice of the Gospel, for their policy lust.

1/ Friends, if you're wanting to know how to approach Christian MAGA over the next 4 years, here's an important tactic: Do not, ever, let them run away from their choice, particularly the moral compromise.

https://twitter.com/Joel7Richardson/status/1854309903143231674

2/ Every time they try to crow about their victory or defend Trump, just remind them of what he is and therefore, what they now support and stand for as his voter. It's not just Trump who called latins "garbage" or migrants and immigrant Haitians "animals" who "eat pets."

1/ The era of the American Confessing Church, begun when Trump first ran, is over. The era of faithful believers only speaking against the collective compromise of American Evangelical Church ended this morning when Trump won.

Now begins the era of the Christian Maquis.
2/ It is now time to reject all overtures offered by the Trumpgelical Vichy regime, in thrall to authoritarianism, claiming to stand for Christ ... and work to sabotage every effort they make to enact their will and corrupt desires.

1/ Meg’s response to Bari’s question demonstrates a particular issue that I don’t think has been mentioned yet as people discuss the exchange. I’d like to address it.

Hint: It’s power, it’s always power. 2/ Bari’s question, while not asked in good faith, is a valid one. Keller was a massive influence on his generation and the one that came after him. His specific approach to societal interaction & his approach to the Gospel are still excellent examples of lived example of Christ.

1/ I had someone ask me today why I'm so hard on the MAGA Christians (the Deutsche Christen of our era) and the issue of Trumpism. The simple answer is that our faith is not for sale to any politician, much less a raping one. However, the slightly longer answer is this: 2/ American Christianity, as a whole, has been co-opted by those who sold their moral profession and their faith to bent people for a myriad of reasons. Too many to list, really. The bottom line is that have effectively and greatly damaged the witness of the Gospel in America.

1/ MAGA CHRISTIANS DON’T CARE:

They didn’t care when he stuck his fingers into women without consent and laughed about it on tape.

They didn’t care when he admitted to ogling naked minors, repeatedly.

They didn’t care when he killed 400,000 by mishandling a pandemic. 2/ They didn’t care when he fomented a terror attack on the Capitol and tried to have his VP killed.

They didn’t care when he didn’t even have enough respect for the country to show up at the winner’s inauguration.

1/ A NOTE: Abby's post concerning Hannah-Kate is going to drive a lot of commentary and discourse. At the same time we recognize HK's pain, and the sacrifices @abby_e_o and her family have made ... we should not lose sight of this fact:

Everything is the SBC's fault. Period. 2/ Every tear shed by Hannah, every pain born by her and those around her, every sacrifice made, every cross word, every deed from the moment the SBC chose to ignore her, indeed chose to protect abusers, as a whole ... lies at the SBC's feet.

1/ Josh's post, to put it bluntly, isn't just moral compromise and the abandonment of basic Christian ethics, it is, quite frankly ... a return to the Nazi Christianity. Josh is directly echoing the Deutsche Christen, and their ilk of that era. Let's examine a couple examples:

https://twitter.com/JoshDaws/status/1836060481288569113

2/ Paul Althaus, the prominent Luther scholar hailed Hitler's rise, in a specific manner, despite knowing full-well Hitler's vileness and deeds. "Our Protestant churches have greeted the turning point of 1933 as a gift and miracle of God."

1/ Christianity’s Dirty Secret:

Why do people turn to Christian Nationalism? Why do they turn to extremist partisan politics? Why do they hate migrants? Why do denigrate LGBTQ+? Why do they pick meaningless doctrinal spats?

Because they are easy. 2/ You see, the dirty secret of Christianity is that few realize what it truly means to follow Christ and pick up His Cross. To accept Christ is easy. But to live as Christ commanded, to follow His example, even to the point of absolute self-sacrifice? That is hard.