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White Christian Nationalism--Not Secularism--is Destroying America
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Oct 27, 2019 22:12:26   #
Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
 
Larai wrote:
"The Scales Tip Heavily Against Christian Anything Destroying America" This I agree with!

Oh I agree.. I said I agreed with some of that... but Not Nearly ALL of it.. I don't live in an informational bubble, I've just seen some things done in the name of Christianity that I don't agree with ... Just curious though... Because I have witnessed over the years some serious hypocrisy goin on... I was raised in two faiths.. But to me, Christianity was an extension of Judaism... my opinion only, no need for a rebuttal... Christianity, has had it's fair share of violence... and bloodshed... it's prejudices etc... If anyone denies that they may be living in a bubble.. The Jews also have their fair share of violence, all in the past they may be...

However, Not much into the passive aggressive post that was Peter's Post, I didn't admittedly click the link.. just read what was posted....and some of it was thought provoking, no more no less
"The Scales Tip Heavily Against Christian Any... (show quote)
I don't know why you had to add this comment. First of all, Christianity IS NOT an extension of Judaism. If Jesus was merely extending Judaism, why did the Jewish priesthood demand He be crucified?

Sojouners (sojo.net) is a group of Christians who work together to live a gospel life that integrates spiritual renewal and social justice.

Social justice IS NOT a tenet of Jesus' teaching, Jesus was not an SJW. Social justice is the work of leftist activists. The Sojouners is based in Wash DC. Their approach to Christianity is arrogant and judgemental.

PeterS is incapable of using logic and rational thought in launching his assaults on Christians and Christianity. There is no moral reasoning in his meaningless attacks. He attempts to use something he does not even believe as a weapon against his non-belief. Pure nonsense, and really weird.

Jesus among secular gods

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 01:08:47   #
jack sequim wa Loc: Blanchard, Idaho
 
PLT Sarge wrote:
Peter there are so many statements, opinions and quoted facts that are untrue that I can't even begin to address them. I can't speak for all Christians only myself. I know what scripture teaches. I know that I have to study and ask guidance for my life every day. My belief in God and the Holy scriptures are stronger than my hope for America and President Trump.




Jesus or Lord and Savior is where our hope lay. When Trump has tough choices, we don't hope he goes the right path.... we pray that our God (The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob) directs his path.
When Antifa mobs against conservatives with violence, we don't see angry people, we see people following the liar of liars.
The far left being spiritually blinded believing only their actions are justified, righteous can only see Christians through their gods eyes.... vitriolic hate that must be eradicated.

God Bless

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 07:17:45   #
Big Kahuna
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


You forgot to say what was ruining our nation. It is not Christianity but a non-Christian, anti-American, anti-constitutional, anti -moral secularist society which permeates our society and is being made worse daily by the demorat leftist progressive/ communist ideology which wants to make us a $hitwhole country that is part of the insidious global agenda of totalitarianism and slavery to leftist causes.

Reply
 
 
Oct 28, 2019 07:21:54   #
Big Kahuna
 
karpenter wrote:
White Christian Nationalism--Not Secularism--is Destroying America

Aw, Lawdy
There's A New Christian Boogie Man In Town
And He's Comin' Ta Git Cha' !!


Yea, that boogie man would give you the shirt off his back if you were polite enough to ask without trying to destroy his country or come in illegally. Stealing from other people is not moral or legal and those perpetuating it should not be expected to get a free pass!!

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 07:22:55   #
Big Kahuna
 
karpenter wrote:
And Unless You Live In An Information Bubble
Or Are Just Willfully Insane
The Scales Tip Heavily Against Christian Anything Destroying America


Fear the left and big government, not Christianity.

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 08:09:57   #
Liberty Tree
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


Just more of your anti-Christian bigotry. Unfettered secular humanism is and will destroy America.

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 09:08:07   #
rebob14
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


You should try viewing the world through a larger diameter soda straw.........

Reply
 
 
Oct 28, 2019 09:33:34   #
crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)



Almost all of these problems can be traced to the all-powerful government that you love.

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 11:25:14   #
Trilliby
 
You make very good points about the political uses of religion. Any church that promotes revenge and violence in the name of God commits a double desecration.

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 11:31:36   #
PeterS
 
Larai wrote:
Well.. Hmmm.. No Sarcasm or malice intended, But did you write all that, or are you citing it from that link...or both? I will say, that if you did write it yourself, It was a very thoughtful post and I may say also, that while you may know where I disagree, Peter.. there is a Lot I do Agree with.

I have found that people seldom will follow a link if one is provided so when starting a topic--I say what I think--provide a link to the topic--then copy and paste the majority of the article for people to read.

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 12:18:30   #
Tsion1953
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


Your post ties all of America's woes to President Trump and the Christian church. I couldn't begin to address all that is wrong with that line of thinking. You advocate for open borders, which not if but when that comes to pass will be the downfall of America. I have zero problem with anyone wanting to come here, work hard, provide for their family, and respect our laws. But that is far from the case. People come from all over the world to enter America across our southern border. The flow of illegal drugs decimate families all over America. You offer no solution to these problems, you just blame it on Trump and White Christians. I believe in Jesus as my Saviour, God is first in my life. I stand for the true church, which grows smaller every day because so much of the church has given way to accommodate the world instead of living by the Bible, God's inspired, inerrant Word. His Word has never changed, but sadly, some of the church has. But I respectfully disagree with much of your post. God's true church is not the culprit. Straying from His word is the real problem.

Reply
 
 
Oct 28, 2019 12:42:07   #
Silent Hammer
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


WHEW! Glad you got that off your chest! Must've been suffocating you. Lets pick on The Roman Catholic Church first, shall we? (They are, you must admit, the paragon "Christian" religion, do you agree?) And before we go there, oh, well, we'll get to that later.
The Catholic Church was run out of England, France, The Low Countries and The British Isles in the 16th century. While here, this Church built a LOT of stuff. More hospitals. More schools. More colleges. It IS the greatest Social Charity in the world, helping more humans the world over than any other country or coalition of nations. "Christians" WROTE the Declaration of Independence AND The U.S. Constitution, freeing people from despotic slavery and building a nation in which ALL people could become free and prosperous. You probably believe that Christians Begat Slavery in the U.S? Who do you think CAPTURED Black African men and women to be sold off to "slavers"? RIGHT: it was Black Africans of other tribes! And where did some of the big African Tribes GET the slaves and concubines for their kings and chiefs? Yup, from OTHER tribes. You see where this is going? Who were the original "slavers"? Arabs! And they were Muslims. (I am continually awed at the number of BLACK Muslims who blame Whites for their slavery, when it was the Arab Muslims who enslaved their own ancestors. There are over one million Africans enslaved in Arab nations TODAY!)
Next: Just because a person is White, don't go assuming he or she is a "Christian"! Nor conservative. Adolph Hitler was brought up in the German (Roman) Catholic Church. Would you consider HIM a "Christian"? Bill Clinton surely ain't acting like a "Christian". Nor HRC. And so on. You state that "White Christians" are responsible for these "mass killings" to a huge extent more than people of color (I imagine you're intimating 'Black People'?). Well, what's the ratio of White People to Black People in the U.S? Now, in the Black community, how many Blacks kill other Blacks? How many Blacks kill Whites? How many Whites kill Blacks? You see where this is going? And of the Whites who kill ANYONE, how many are Christian?
Jesus told everyone that we will know the spirit of a person by his/her FRUIT. St.Paul (a pretty good Christian, would you agree?) comments in Acts, I believe: "See how they LOVE one another."
It's not a color issue, this terrible behavior in humans. It's a Satan vs God issue. And Satan's aim is to steal as many souls from God as will allow it. Next, will you blame God for the sin of this world?

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 13:02:00   #
crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island
 
Trilliby wrote:
You make very good points about the political uses of religion. Any church that promotes revenge and violence in the name of God commits a double desecration.


The problem with this is that people like PeterS use those things to completely discredit Christianity. He will never turn the same lens on the Leftists such Bernie Sanders, Hillary, Butagieg, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, etc. He will never criticize the political uses of politics.

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 13:14:49   #
padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


To an individual like yourself this article you posted must sound like part of the Progressive religious utopia. Yet part of the philosophy for you hard core Progressives is to sacrifice that which is very good in the present to achieve what you believe is perfection on earth in the future - yet you folks are never wise as to why you always fail! It is, you might try to understand, because of an intentional chosen blindness. In your posted article you hear beautiful music while I also hear some Truth but also the gleeful whisper of the father of lies able to distort Christ's Truth. Christianity, Peter, does discriminate! It discriminates against evil in favor of Christ. It discriminates against compromising The Faith in favor of remaining steadfast! it discriminates against lies in favor of Truth. It discriminates against sin favoring true contrition seeking forgiveness. We intentionally discriminate and reject many things you would advocate to "feel good" about yourself. Conscientious humanity knows we were not created to do wrong and then "feel good about ourselves" - even those with no religion. Only an intentionally dulled conscience has that potential.

You seem to demand perfection from Christians. If that were true we Christians have no need for Christ. Some of the greatest saints could only see themselves sinners while some great sinners thought of themselves as saints. There are also those in between believing, for example, in the 5th Century heresy, Pelagianism. Pelagianism has come to be identified with the view human beings can earn salvation by their own efforts, by their own will. Throw into that poisonous mix individuals choosing for themselves what is good, what is evil, and they've distorted Christ's message substituting their own. This is what the Sojourner's so called social justice article said to me. Their brand of Christianity compromises Christ. Sounds good but it's also very wrong in parts. It is a very mixed message. I went to their web page and found the following confirmation:


"Building upon these biblical foundations, we commit ourselves to:

Confront and dismantle discriminatory behavior wherever it may be manifest—whether individually or organizationally—by creating and maintaining policies and practices that foster right relationships among our staff.

Intentionally seek partners, participants, and contributors to our programs, events, and publications that mirror the diversity of our churches and society, with special efforts to welcome those who are underrepresented.

Employ, retain, and promote a diverse staff, leadership, and board of directors that mirror the diversity of our churches and society. Sojourners is an Equal Opportunity employer, committed to nondiscrimination and affirmation of people.

Confront and dismantle discriminatory behavior wherever it may be manifest—whether individually or organizationally—by creating and maintaining policies and practices that foster right relationships among our staff.

Intentionally seek partners, participants, and contributors to our programs, events, and publications that mirror the diversity of our churches and society, with special efforts to welcome those who are underrepresented.

Employ, retain, and promote a diverse staff, leadership, and board of directors that mirror the diversity of our churches and society. Sojourners is an Equal Opportunity employer, committed to nondiscrimination and affirmation of people of color, women, and LGBTQ staff, and to increasing the ethnic and racial diversity of its staff.

Educate our staff by providing ongoing training and orientation that teaches the value of diversity and provides practical skills in building intercultural competency, thereby strengthening our ability to relate meaningfully across our many differences.

Empower a Diversity Task Force made up of a diverse array of Sojourners staff members to hold Sojourners accountable to its values and promote initiatives related to diversity.

Publicly advocate for civil rights and legal non-discrimination to protect the safety and dignity of all people.
Continually seek personal, organizational, and social transformation, guided by scripture, humbly listening to those marginalized by society's past and present patterns of discrimination. "

Reply
Oct 28, 2019 14:43:28   #
Lt. Rob Polans ret.
 
PeterS wrote:
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity because there is nothing Christian about our Christian Nationalists. I just wanted to make that clear before Blade Runner blamed me for hating Christianity. I don't, simply the version practiced by him and his ilk...

https://sojo.net/articles/white-christian-nationalism-not-secularism-destroying-america?fbclid=IwAR0Ub8p_fQ_ITyBKirJfogey9t0IwvYQ6m3oWrSQxFGcOxykwPSy7PWfOOs

Tens of millions of Americans — and most of its elected leaders — claim to be Christian, and yet we're a country that's completely broken.

This is the state of our “Christian” nation: Our government isn't working, and when it does it’s on behalf of behemoth corporations and influential lobbyists. Elected officials are openly racist, sexist, and xenophobic — without consequence. Police continue to kill people of color and jails have become a modernized form of slavery. The military is mired in endless violence throughout the world, participating in wars far beyond the interests of our citizenry, and defense contractors reap the profits. Teachers are underpaid, schools underfunded, and students underfed, but our president wants to spend billions on a wall he promised our country would never have to pay for.

Despite mass shootings that have killed innocent lives, politicians have represented corporate interests at the expense of public safety, and though white American males are the predominant facilitators of these heinous crimes, partisan rhetoric — in spite of data, factual research, and truth itself — insists that immigrants, refugees, and “foreigners” are the real culprits.

American Christianity brought us to this point. It preached nationalism and sanctified American imperialism — promoting Manifest Destiny as ordained by God. The prosperity gospel baptized capitalistic greed, its preachers vilified the poor, and its theologians manipulated scripture to rationalize global colonialism. Salvation was no longer personified through Jesus, but was redesigned to be a political machine, fueled by its ability to control branches of government. This methodology was packaged as “Christianity,” and the gospel became a message of gaining social power and control rather than a call to follow Jesus’ life of selfless service and sacrifice.

The American church fell into the same failings as the Pharisees of old: obsessed with their holy scripture while completely ignoring the loving God it was intended to direct them to. Instead of focusing on Jesus, it propped itself up as its own deity — ruling, controlling, and judging according to loveless and legalistic doctrines. To protect and maintain this self-serving religion, populist propaganda related to abortion, gun control, patriotism, economic uncertainty, crime, and terrorism are used as dog-whistles to fearfully manipulate Christians away from Jesus’ message of love towards one of exclusion.

This isn’t new. The origins of Christianity in American are stained with genocide and enslavement. White Christendom’s legacy is one of moral failure and intentional evil, consistently being on the wrong side of history. But by refusing to acknowledge its past or educate current parishioners, the white church has attempted to minimize its role. With few exceptions, its built up a self-immunity to guilt, awareness, and dialogue, and any such attempt to confront its past and present failings is dismissed as “radical liberalism,” “progressive partisan rhetoric,” or “cynical complaining.” The pain and trauma caused by all of this cannot be overstated, yet white American Christianity relies on apathy, avoidance, and outright denial in its efforts to preserve its self-righteousness.

When their privileged status quo was recently threatened by the election of a black president, the rise of new civil rights movements, and the empowerment of traditionally maligned segments of society, a massive culture war pitted weakening religious factions against populations they no longer “controlled.” Politically, many white Christians rallied around a man who personifies the American Idol of Nationalism, Populism, and Greed, and they enthusiastically preferred the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again” over the wisdom of “loving your neighbor as yourself.”

So when LGBTQ individuals, people of color, immigrants, refugees, “foreigners,” Muslims, and others faced societal injustices, the white church not only was largely absent from defending them, but it was complicit to their persecution. Instead, it was secular institutions and organizations that fought for equal rights and empowerment, doing unto others what the church didn’t.

To maintain their economic, political, and social majority of white Christian nationalism, moral arguments and “biblical truth” once used to bash previous political opponents no longer applied. Truth is now relative, and God is used as a religious construct to push partisan agendas—no matter how anti-Christian they are. To appear spiritually legitimate, a few church leaders and pastors would be required to support this charade, and to promote their own carnal desires and quell their worldly fears, to placate their parishioners and pander to their desires, this is exactly what many Christians did — and they continue to do so.

The crises we’re currently facing was directly created by —and for the benefit of — the white American church. It’s lost the right to pander moral clichés or offer spiritual platitudes to problems it produced, even though it will inevitably continue to do so.

This isn’t a plea to return to the church or give “Christianity” another chance, this is a call to confront the broken system that is Colonial Christianity. Violent, abusive, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ignorant, corrupt, and legalistic, it looks nothing like Christ.

In the face of such injustices, Jesus became furious and overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and condemned the spiritual leaders of his day. We must now do the same, and drive out the many forms of “Christianity” that are oppressive and loveless.


If you can’t fight these forms of destructive “Christianity,” run. Flee from cross-laden buildings that excrete sexism, escape from cultish partisan rhetoric that spews racism and fosters xenophobia, and free yourself from bigoted communities that espouse hate.

If Christianity would rather build a wall to exclude migrants and asylum seekers instead of lovingly accept them, ditch it and don’t look back. If Christian leaders would rather deport their neighbors rather than generously accept them, have nothing to do with them. Because this is what following Christ is: “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27), and to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).” So for the love of God and others, give up on Trump and start following Jesus — and abandon any form of Christianity that refuses to do so.
And to clarify, I'm not talking about Christianity... (show quote)


The country is broken, we agree there. If you find malice, so be it that's your interpretation. "Police continue to kill people of color..." More often the Police are killed, I've been on many ride alongs and stopped a couple. I don't know where you have been, but we have no leaders, none that I'd follow anyway. We're just a ship adrift. The government hasn't worked for us for decades, we were just too distracted to see it.

If you ask me, close the schools down, they are just indoctrination centers. The teachers are honestly teaching what they've been taught revisionist history, agendas such as the transgender one where many are regretting their transition. You know this as well as I do. It's not necessarily give up on Trump. I gave up on the government after Vietnam and just have God and my wife (not in that order) telling me what to do. I hate long pieces unless I'm being paid to write them and since this is free...

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