THREAD. I started the TCM blog for reasons twofold: 1) to get progressives to care about orthodox doctrine, & 2) to get conservatives/moderates to care more about justice. Here's what I've found: it is much easier to accomplish #1 than #2.
1/ When I try to do #1, I will get a lot of honest questions that lead to good dialog. When I try to do #2, I get accused of being a Marxist etc. and am told "just preach the gospel!"
Over the past 2-3 yrs, I've begun to understand more of MLK's frustration at the "white moderate"2/

THREAD. For 40 yrs now, "evangelical" political/cultural engagement has been dominated by the Religious Right, which was influenced (somewhat paradoxically) by theonomy & fundamentalist dispensationalism. In contrast, I'm what's known as a "Kuyperian"...

christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/novemb… ...after it's namesake, Abraham Kuyper. Kuyperianism, also known as "neo-Calvinism", is an approach to cultural/political engagement that, among other things, encourages Xians to seek the common good in pluralistic societies through education, justice, and social reform.
2/

Quotes below:
"Republicans in Congress and around the country endeavored--mostly unsuccessfully--to cut the provider out of gov't revenue streams wherever possible.
...Republicans have still repeatedly tried to cut abortion providers from [Medicaid]..."

washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/… "The 2017 House & Senate health-care bills repealing Obamacare would have effectively stripped Medicaid $'s from [PP]. But [it] ultimately died amid heavy political opposition & the inability of Republicans to come up w/ a replacement...that would cover as many people."

Clarification thread: Some are taking this to mean that I find religious liberty ("RL") unimportant. Nothing is further from the truth. RL is a common good, enables us to seek justice, is worth fighting for, and yes, can even be inferred from Scripture etc. HOWEVER...
1/ (cont'd)

https://twitter.com/confessinmill/status/1322539958335426563

RL is not the presumed norm in Scripture. Quite the opposite: it's assumed that the church will be a minority among a pagan society, tho we can still seek the good of our neighbors. Unlike Scripture's ethic of justice, which is unequivocal, RL is not as explicitly spelled out.
2/

@EnochTheGentile My friend, I've been in the evangelical subculture/world all my life. I have both cons and prog friends. Believe me when I say cons have a track record of neglecting certain social justice issues. Biblical social justice is neither left nor right. 1/ @EnochTheGentile The problem is conservatives rarely want to talk about social jusrice issues, while prog talk about it but not from a biblical workdview. For conservatives, justice is rarely social. 2/

It's here! Complete w/ footnotes & hyperlinks that would make someone like Tim Keller proud. 😉

"What can a dead twentieth-century evangelical theologian teach us about approaching social justice and frameworks like CRT today?"
1/

theconfessingmillennial.com/2020/09/26/a-r… Here's a rough outline on the headings:

1) Co-belligerence for the Common Good
2) The Lordship of Christ Over All Things
3) Common Grace for the Common Good
4) An Apologetic of 'Subversive Fulfillment'
5) The Dawn of a New Reformation

2/

But it's not beyond their control, even if it just means advocating. It is our responsibility to love one's neighbor. This responsibility is multiplied when you have the privilege, power, & socioeconomic capital that the white community historically has. 1/

https://twitter.com/EnochsTime/status/1307790498090815488

We are told to not withold good from those to whom it is due when it is within our power to act (Prov. 3:7). White Americans are not culpable for past sins, but they are responsible to advocate because of their disproportionate societal capital. 2/

With all the recent talk about CRT recently, I thought it might be good to re-share this post that I wrote back in July.
Excerpt below as well.

theconfessingmillennial.com/2020/06/27/how… 'Black churches were fighting for racial justice while conserving biblical orthodoxy long before “critical race theory” and “intersectionality” entered the lexicon.
1/

Y'all. I received what I believe is a genuine, honest question from someone who has gently pushed back from one of my earlier tweets. FWIW, I'm just an aspiring pastor who simply seeks to apply biblical principles & not an expert. But this is how I responded (THREAD) 1/1 The problem is that overlooks socioeconomic realities on racial lines that have been perpetuated in our nation's history, such as the racial wealth gap, disparities in home ownership, and property values. We don't all have the same starting lines.
2/

On the verge of a potential writing streak for my blog this Labor Day weekend. If all goes according to plan, I'll be releasing two more posts: one about the need to approach social justice biblically, and the other about the need for evangelicals to do social justice PERIOD. Stay tuned.

"But when we have singled out the enemy - when we have disentangled him from those whose company he has kept and whom he has misled - we must meet the foe headon, girt in the Gospel armor."
--Carl Henry

This quote is salient for a very important reason. (Thread) 1/4 Henry is talking about evangelicalism's needed involvement in social efforts and its contribution of being able to peer into the spiritual dimension. Here Henry distinguishes from "the enemy" and "those whose company he has kept and whom he has misled." 2/4

Full quote: ""Evangelicalism will be presumed not to have a mind on great world issues unless it speaks, but there is no justification for evangelical attempt at solution in non-redemptive frameworks."
--Carl Henry

Thread. 1/5

https://twitter.com/confessinmill/status/1300176575959269378

Translation: The greatest contribution that Christianity can have to social justice is by anchoring itself in a biblical worldview, and specifically in Christ. When it fails to do so, it robs itself of the most unique aspect it has to offer the world.
2/5

THREAD. Tonight I had the privilege of speaking to Christian college students at a state university about how God can be glorified in their major, field of study, and vocation. Used Daniel 1 as my text. 1/3 There are few things I'm more passionate about than showing how the lordship of Christ is brought to bear on every aspect of life and culture. These are tomorrow's engineers, doctors, lawyers, therapists, teachers, politicians, artists, musicians, scientists, and businessman
2/3

Kuyper sometimes gets bad press these days because the Religiois Right co-opted some of his ideas. But a few things to consider: (thread) 1/4 1. The Religious Right was also influenced to some degree by the theonomist ideas of Rushdoony and the Reconstructionists. When mixed with over-zealous Kuyperianism...well, it's a recipe for disaster.
2/4

Important. As much as I've been tweeting about Carl Henry's broad support of social justice efforts, even he was somewhat skeptical about the ability of legislation to shape the hearts & minds of individuals. Volf has an excellent answer for him. 1/4

https://twitter.com/JoeTogs/status/1291129463372238850

Though hearts & minds are ultimately changed by the gospel, we also have to acknowledge the existence of non-salvific common grace present in all cultures that enables people to create a just society. In this sense, legislation does have a role to play. 2/4

THREAD. My white bros/sisters in Christ, I've heard it said from some of you that you wouldn't kneel for "black lives matter" during the anthem because the only person you kneel for is Jesus. A couple thoughts:
1/ 1) Jesus kneeled in humility to wash people's feet. We are kneeling in humility as well, to figuratively wash the feet of our neighbors.

Carl Henry, Harold Ockenga, Billy Graham set out w/ the new evangelical movement with noble ideals, to engage culture constructively yet with conviction. Yet they never developed a political theory of cultural engagement, which is what opened the door for...1/ ...the rise of the Religious Right & its uncritical allegiance to the GOP. But there is a new generation of evangelicals that have learned from the past & are not content w/ the state of affairs both left and right. Organizations like the @AndCampaign are doing good work...2/

'[Carl] Henry summoned evangelicals out of their fundamentalist ghettoes, exhorting them to enlist against “social evils [such as] aggressive warfare, racial hatred and intolerance, the liquor traffic, and exploitation of labor.” .... 1/4 '...An evangelical united front would advance redemptive solutions to social crises, he argued. Evangelicals could do this without succumbing to modernist anti-conversionism or to the fundamentalist tendency to attribute all of humanity’s ills to individual sins.' ...2/4

#Revangelical thread. Some think that evangelicalism was always doomed to fail. But it was later developments in the 80s that contributed to its unraveling: the rise of the Religious Right, prosperity televangelists, & the attractional church mvment, among others. 1/ (Some1 who represented the first 2 digressions was Pat Robertson.) But historians believe in the 'contingency' of history, that things didn't have to turn out a certain way. We need to return to the original vision of being theologically robust yet socially/culturally engaged. 2/

Someone just aptly described this (below) as "Moralistic Therapeutic THEISM" (a play off of "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"), which I think that's pretty accurate. And it is what is being taught and preached in many of our evangelical circles. (cont'd) 1/4

https://twitter.com/drantbradley/status/1287438493950586881

A more holistic (and biblical) view would be sinful people needing atonement to a righteous God AND Jesus as a healer and restorer. The two truths go hand in hand. What God has brought together, let no man tear apart. ;) 2/4

Excellent article written by @tisaiahcho a couple years ago abt J. Grescham Machen.

"[Machen's] confessional theology...and his practical, experiential theology (what he lived out in the day-to-day) was never more clearly divorced than in this occasion."

faithfullymagazine.com/tale-of-two-ma… Pretty sure you have to be a subscriber to read the whole thing, but the above quote sums it up pretty well. Here's another:
"Machen is an example of how some White Christians allowed their whiteness and desire to protect their privileged status to blemish and skew the gospel..."