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A vitally important thread. Much isnt new, but is so in the air we breathe we forget how RECENT it is & therefore how unaccustomed we r to coping w/it. At the risk of hijacking her great observatns, theyre pivotal to points others have made re: Institutional Evangelicalism...1/12 https://twitter.com/sometimesalight/status/1348999326249447424
1. The increased burden of sifting fact from fiction is one that only the economically privileged have the bandwidth to keep up with day-to-day, especially w/the SPEED of news generation we've seen in the last 6-10 years. This contributes to polarization & significantly... 2/12
... disadvantages blue collar America (on the left and the right) in an info economy, and is a massive catalyst for populist sentiments that make it exponentially harder for already-weak institutions to lead or swim against the tide (see Yuval Levin's "A Time to Build"). 3/12
2. I cannot agree more effusively with @sometimesalight's point re: social media & narrative. Social media platforms function as counterfeit institutions (social spaces that form identity via narrative, connection via shared purpose, & virtue via participation). 4/12
Prior to SocMed's ubiquity(approx. 2010), sifting/weighing primarily happened in traditional institutions (esp. churches) where perspectives tempered by wisdom, virtue, & relationship both evaluated & prioritized info. They served as both refuge & filter, solvent & catalyst. 5/12
Counterfeit Institutions like SocMed falsely promise the BENEFIT of connection w/o the BURDEN of formation. Being content/virtue agnostic is itself a purpose w/deep moral implications, shaping us toward expressive individualism & (over time) epistemological nihilism. 6/12
3. @DavidAFrench said in our interview that he believes the primary diff b/w public figures whove stayed consistent vs gone off the deep end during the Trump era (eg @ericmetaxas) is whether theyre anchored in healthy institutions. This is VITAL. 7/12 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everything-just-changed/id1507866918?i=1000494036257
When Evangelical institutions are more shaped by their counterfeit, they function as mere platforms w/o a formative purpose (e.g. Great Commission). Expectations of leaders follow suit, making everything @sometimesalight describes THAT much harder for those who need it most. 8/12
4. We're living thru epistemological crisis, but not b/c secular post-modernism won out. Just as "no creed but Jesus" is a creed, "no formation, just expression" IS formative. Institutions w/o formative purpose (i.e. platforms) cant HELP but form expressive individualism. 9/12
Levitical laws were liturgical narratives shaping Israel's orthodoxy THRU orthopraxy (& why @drmoore's article is so on-point). Evangelicals outsourced our orthopraxy to the culture wars, our epistemology to SocMed, & our orthodoxy to nationalism. 10/12 https://twitter.com/drmoore/status/1348668245616824323?s=20
5. Lastly, far more than democracy @ stake: the Church's witness. Last wk's insurrection is culmination & escalation of everything post-evangelicals feel so genuinely frustrated w/, but I wont belabor what I've already written re: @ length below... 11/12 https://twitter.com/cbradedwards/status/1303350544606531584?s=20
Culture war fallout will likely "winnow" Evangelicalism, w/refugees falling into @msgwrites's boxes. B/c witness is to both Xp & His Bride, I suspect which will largely depend on whether the baby(Institutions) is thrown out w/bathwater(Counterfeits). 12/12 https://twitter.com/msgwrites/status/1340847647171764226
