🧵The ICE propaganda war 🧵

I do not think people realize the degree to which you are in a propaganda war right now with ICE... As it has become clear that at least to some degree, the Democratic Party is dependent upon the immigrant-to-voter pipeline to win elections, progressives are trying VERY hard to "BLM" ICE right now.

In BLM, progressives galvanized the American public against law enforcement by convincing people a white police officer killed an unarmed black man yelling "Hands up, don't shoot." c

Cities burned and people died in the riot-aftermath... and then later it was discovered that never happened.

Political violence is a feature, not a bug of progressivism.

Because progressivism is built on top of a Critical Theory lens that sees the world through "Oppressed vs Oppressor" categories rather than a Christian Theology lens of "Right vs Wrong", it trains people to see opponents not as mistaken, but as evil oppressors.

If you believe someone is mistaken, you try to persuade them (what @charliekirk11 did).

If you believe someone is an evil oppressor ("literally Hitler!", "fascist", "existential threat to democracy", virtually everything and everyone is "racist"), you will feel a moral obligation to stop them.

This is why there is radically disproportionate violence emerging on the Left.

🧵Christians, Borders, Illegal Immigration, & Deportation 🧵

With images like this floating around, it's clear Christians are going to have to think Biblically about these issues.

Here are 10 (difficult) thoughts... #1
Christians as individuals are commanded to love immigrants (Lev 19:34), and should not let debates about IMMIGRATION POLICY erode their love for IMMIGRANTS as people.

But (wildly unpopular thoughts to come)…

This does NOT mean that Christians should oppose the enforcement of immigration laws or support mass immigration, because…

I have been asked (or demanded) to apologize for, repent of, remove the pre-election sermon I preached calling Christians - as "salt of the earth" - to vote for the set of policies between the two choices that very obviously best "slowed societal decay."

- Internet mobs
- Organizations threatening legal action
- Home address doxxed (again)
- Our home insurance application initially denied bc of that sermon ("increased threat of vandalism or assault")

Based on what we know now, I do not regret it at all for the following reasons:

// 11 WAYS CHRISTIANS ARE GASLIT INTO STAYING OUT OF POLITICS //

Of course, we should want Christ to permeate our character and not just our culture, but as "the salt of the earth" Bible-believing Christians should want both.

Here's how we get gaslit out of doing it... 1) “Separation of Church & State! Keep your religion out of politics!”

But, Separation of Church and State doesn’t mean…

- A separation of righteousness and State (that would be evil)
- A separation of politics and religion (that’s impossible)

It means a separation of governments - that the same person shouldn’t be President of the government and Pope of the Church. Our nation was founded on freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion.

Also, the same people saying, "Keep your beliefs out of my government" are doing this:

🧵🧵PREACHING HACKS🧵🧵

Over-generalization: It is really hard for a church to outgrow (health & size) its preaching, so here's a bunch of "hacks" I've found uniquely helpful... 2 parts of sermon prep:

1. Get it right
2. Make it stick

If you get it right but didn't make it stick, it doesn't matter you got it right bc no one remembers. If you make it stick but didn't get it right, would've been better if you didn't make it stick bc you made error stick

🧵11 PASTOR HACKS🧵

A handful of stuff-that's-not-in-seminary "hacks" have disproportionately helped me in ministry.

Here are 11 of them... DISCLAIMER: These are "Trellis" helps. This thread is "Proverbs", not "Romans."

People aren't following you, they're following the presence of Christ IN you. The second you lose that, rest of your ministry is "light from a dead star."

That said, here goes...

🧵How Misapplying Keller Hijacked US Xianity🧵

Large-platform evangelicalism got covertly hijacked by secular progressivism, many aren't yet understanding what’s happening, and (as a result) are attacking the *opposite* NET problem we are facing.

Here’s how it happened: Step 1: Keller (correctly) popularized phrase “The gospel is neither Right nor Left"

Step 2: His followers incorrectly applied the phrase as “Right and Left are equal and opposite errors”

Step 3: Willingness to adopt Left-coded positions became a sign of “gospel-centeredness”, and saying things that sounded politically conservative became a sign you “weren’t gospel-centered.”

You can do this with ANY story. “The story of Christmas is about a Jewish man sent by God to topple a terrorist organization that slaughtered innocent Jewish children.”

https://twitter.com/avikaner/status/1739296598062977043

I don’t think people realize how frequently the story of Jesus is now selectively-edited in only one direction.

Jesus was a refugee
Jesus was a POC
Jesus was Asian
Jesus was an immigrant

But not…

Jesus’ parents ensured he was legal and documented in a census

Jesus was part of the local ethnic majority

Jesus earthly fam was a traditional two-parent family (Mary/Joseph)

Jesus’ mom chose life

Jesus survived the 1st century version of government-funded abortion

Etc

🧵Christians & Conspiracy Theories🧵

There’s a growing trend of characterizing Christians who question a public narrative as unhinged “conspiracy theorists” guilty of “theological paranoia”

But this is to ignore what’s obviously happening (admittedly incendiary examples below) 2 thoughts, then examples:

A) Xians are to be “sober-minded” and SHOULDN’T childishly rush to believe (w/o evidence) theories bc they don’t like a narrative

B) But, the list of things once labeled “conspiracy theories” that ended up having truth in them is long.

Random order:

🧵UNPOPULAR TAKE ON CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM🧵

Increasingly, any Christian politician or voter advancing their values is decried as “CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM!”

Reality in thread to follow: Gentle watch-out:

The vast majority of the time “Christian Nationalism” is a scare-label whose subtext is, “You can’t advocate for your values in the public square, but I can advocate for mine.”

Let me show you…

🧵An Uncomfortable Woke Post-Mortem🧵

There was intense pressure in large-platform evangelicalism to accept Critical Theory / Woke justice frameworks as "flawed but helpful analytical tool"

But time is proving it wasn't a "helpful tool" but a dangerous ideology w evil outcomes CAVEAT before examples:

NONE of this is to say that real injustice and sinful racial pride/ favoritism / animosity do not exist. They DO. And every Xian everywhere is commanded to oppose them.

But there's a reason Bible commands to "execute *true* justice" Zech 7v9

EXAMPLES..

🧵BACKGROUND: I'm a 3rd-generation pastor. When I was a kid in the 90's it was cool and edgy for PK's to rebel because "it's just so hard being a pastor's kid!"

I always thought that was dumb bc I LOVED being Pastor Rick's son.

Here are 3 things Dad did that made that happen 1) My parents' faith was REAL.

Dad was always reading books about Jesus, helping hurting people in Christ's name, & I'd often notice his eyes teary during worship.

He wasn't "producing a service" or "doing a job." He was intimate w God. It made me wanna know Who he knew.

PSA because I'm seeing it used on TV at in-laws:

99% of the time, "Christian Nationalism" is an intentionally unstable label whose subtext is, "You can't advocate for your values in the public square, but I can advocate for mine." Them: "You can't force your beliefs on people who don't share them."

Also them:

This month highlighted the 2 "death star vulnerabilities" of the secular progressive social justice movement's moral framework:

Those in power = oppressors = evil
Those under power = oppressed = good Problem 1: it endorses evil

When you stop judging ACTIONS as either good or evil based on their morality, but judge PEOPLE GROUPS as either good or evil based on their "power and privilege", you end up cheering when an "under power" group commits evil against an "in-power group"

1/3
There have been two Sexual Revolutions in human history:

One in the 1st century by Christians in Rome
One in the 20st century by secular progressives in US

Both happened where the sexual dalliances of men were lionized, but the sexual dalliances of women were stigmatized. 2/3
The 1st c Sexual Revolution of the Christians said, "The men must be as restricted as the women - no sex outside marriage."

The 21st c Sexual Revolution of progressivism said, "The women must be as liberated as the men.”

1/8

Beware of (VERY POPULAR) lists like this about Jesus...

👎👎👎 2/8
Jesus...

Fed the hungry
Loved the poor
Was a person of color
& an immigrant refugee
Was outraged at systemic injustice
Elevated women
Defied the patriarchy
Eschewed religious power dynamics
Gave healthcare to ppl who couldn't afford it

... be like Jesus

The problem...

🧵Megathread: Failure of the Sexual Revolution 🧵

The movement that promised liberation and pleasure has delivered profound misery and brokenness.

Will continue to add to thread… Secular progressive British publication: “The Sexual Revolution has failed Gen X Women”

re: preaching

Don't be afraid to repeat yourself

There are a few illustrations & 1-2 sermons I re-use or re-work every yr (& openly tell church!), bc they're that critical and I want them to sink in

There's a difference between repeating to RECYCLE and repeating to REINFORCE Repeating to recycle = "I don't want to create any new content." Laziness.

Repeating to reinforce = "I want this important content to sink in." Purposefulness.

🧵 Progressive Christianity 🧵

7 thoughts from a prophetic talk given at a private gathering of extremely fruitful urban church planters... 1) Progressive Christianity = a form of colonization

The danger of Xian missions in pre-Xian cultures is the danger of COLONIZING others

The danger for Xian pastors in post-Xian cultures is the danger of BEING COLONIZED by secular progressivism. This is = Progressive Xianity

@benjaminbseiler One way is to expose the absurdity of the narratives:

For instance, I tweeted this last month:

"Christianity is a tool of patriarchal white supremacy!"

The avg atheist in the world is a wealthy white man

The avg Xian in the world is a woman of color in a developing country @benjaminbseiler The modern secular lens is a Marxist view that sees religion as a manipulative tool wielded by those in power.

But data is so obviously opposite: the people with power and privilege are the ones rejecting Xianity, the people who embrace it are the marginalized