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Amazingly, I went to bed early last night and managed to sleep well. But I can't get this out of my mind: insurrectionists at the Capitol bearing all manner of Christian imagery: "JESUS SAVES," the ICTHYS symbol, the Christian flag, "Jesus is my Savior/Trump is my President." /1
I've tweeted about this before, but I can't help associating a scene like this w/the Church Growth Movement & its scale. The mission of Christians should never have gravitated toward growing churches. It should have stayed committed to the Great Commission: making disciples.../2
...and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. (Matt. 28:19,20) When we grow churches without doing the difficult work of making disciples, we not only enfold ungodly patterns of the world into our religious systems, we christen them! /3
When we christen idolatrous things like tribalism, militarism, nationalism, fame, a lust for cultural relevance, or a need for political power and influence, we see really terrible, even evil, things said and done in the name of Jesus yet proclaimed as good, holy, & righteous. /4
I consider the decades-long organized pursuit of tribal power, relevance, and cultural influence by many prominent American evangelicals a major result of this general failure to understand, then teach people, what it means to obey Jesus. /5
Admittedly, a life of loving your enemies, praying for your persecutors, caring for the poor, caring for prisoners, welcoming aliens/outsiders (even learning their languages), taking up your cross, & dying to yourself is difficult to market. But that's precisely the point. /6
The shape of a Christian disciple's life is supposed to be cruciform. But certain sectors of evangelicalism have been discipling people AWAY fm the cruciform life & grooming them instead for stand-your-ground war that's taken on rhetorical, cultural, & now embodied dimensions. /7
Four years ago, Trump identified himself with and made specific promises to survivalist-minded Christians in 2016:
“I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we don’t want to talk about it..."/8
“I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we don’t want to talk about it..."/8
"And yet we don’t exert the power that we should have. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that." See this piece by @elizabethjdias: /9 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/us/evangelicals-trump-christianity.html
It's a shame to see how this has played out, is playing out, and will continue to play out. But at the same time, this is not a new problem. And despite the apparent might of violent syncretistic religion, I'm reminded that "The One enthroned in heaven laughs." (Psalm 2:4) /10
