Month: June 2022

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Men who understand the times

‘Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.’ 1 Chronicles 12:32 

This verse commonly serves as an anchor for Father’s Day sermons. Will you be this kind of man? Stand up now. Between (56:30-58:20) Tim implores the ‘men of Issachar’ to stand up. What is the understanding of these times? From what context is Tim asking the men to stand? At 53:30 he says that we should have the courage to stand alone. Just who exactly is standing alone?

To establish some context, Tim quotes from a verse I used in a recent post

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice.” Exodus 23: 1-2

But then to a very different purpose, and from a different understanding than what I intended. Who are the many, and to what evil are ‘the many’ standing in support of? In what way is justice being perverted? As an example, Tim references Rick Warren’s 2013 stand against gay marriage. In response to Piers Morgan’s pressure, Warren said, ‘I fear the disapproval of God more than society’s disapproval.’ 56:00 Fair enough. The question I have is whether God approves of both our tactics and strategy in combating those things we see as evil in the world.

In that interview, Warren is expressing his religious view that marriage should not be redefined to allow gay people to marry. This is protected speech under the First Amendment. However, as I’ve listed example after example, the Christian Right now seeks to use political force, which has been radicalized and encouraged by all the power it has gained under Trump, to impose its will upon the rest of society—be they Christian or not. This is not okay. Warren’s assumption implies that he believes the nation is a Christian one—this is what he was fighting for. If Christians believed in democracy, rule by the people, we would submit to majority rule as the law of the land. Of course, there are exemptions to following the rule of the land, like standing against genocide and the oppression of a people group (as in Nazi Germany for example,) which could serve as a model. But what really are we standing against? Are the gays systematically killing and oppressing people? Their choice to marry doesn’t hurt anyone—literally. What we are talking about here is essentially about hurt feelings over imagined oppression and the fear that God will unleash His terrifying wrath, according to what we have been told by mere men. The Bible is the authority, I understand. But men cherry-pick the Bible to suit their own purposes. The Christian Right is claiming to rule everyone Deus Vult—over hurt feelings and fear for our own wellbeing. The sins of the LGBTQ community have risen to the level of genocide through the means of the annihilation of the family—so we’ve been effectively told. In this Christian mind, this is what it is.

The righteous divine mandate stated is that homosexual sin hurts the homosexuals themselves. Does it? What about the feelings which are intrinsic to the person who just doesn’t fit into the expectations? They are being essentially told that God hates them because of what they feel. And what if they don’t believe in God? What about the damage inflicted upon the ‘sinner’ by the righteous who are supposedly working to impose God’s mercy on the condition of suppression and submission? Religiosity aside, this righteous indignation is based upon a simple rejection of the democratic principle of common governance. Instead of loving unjudgementally, as fellow sinners, more and more violence are being used and threatened by adherents to the salvatory Christian Right to gain more power to impose ‘God’s Law’ upon everyone in the United States of America. This is what we’ve become.

Rick Warren’s stand against gay marriage is the context Tim provides to call us to be men of Issachar. With all that is going on, this is Tim’s issue. ‘A line must be drawn in the sand.’ Much has changed Tim, from the time of Warren’s sanguine and toothless interview to now where emboldened ‘Christian’ Patriots are ramping up the threats. A Boise Baptist pastor said the God wants to “put all queers to death. …These people know that they’re worthy of death.” Are these the men of Issachar who understand the times? Are these the ones who are standing up? You may say that you don’t mean for the use and threats of violence to achieve the goals of righteousness, but these are the times. If you mean for the peaceful acquisition of power to ‘Make America Great Again,’ by using the gay marriage issue as the context for calling us to be ‘men of Issachar,’ your lack of specificity allows ‘the times’ to dictate the terms of that calling thus demonstrating that you don’t understand the times. ‘The times’ are becoming more and more militant and violent every day—all to enforce ‘God’s’ righteousness. This is the environment the now politically dominant Christian Right has feed and fostered for decades. As a Christian leader, if you don’t speak against it, you are for it.

The use of Exodus 23:1-2 to bolster your point about standing for righteousness against the masses of worldly sinners ignores the plank in your own eye. The masses of militant Christians who have it in for the evil ‘sodomites’ are falling in line with ‘the many’ of their own brethren to pervert justice by turning a blind eye to the lies and treason of those who empower them to go after those evil LGBTQ people—people whom many of you often say God would relish afflicting great terror and suffering for their wickedness. What gives you the right? Oh yeah… Deus Vult!

Once again, Jesus did not teach us to ‘stand’ in this way to inflict threats and violence. Nor do I believe Jesus would have stand silent and complicit in a culture which now encourages threats and violent to affect ‘righteous’ change. Like a broken record I repeat, our ‘teachers’ have prepped us for war as they’ve taught us to reframe Christ has a conquering warrior who will melt the faces off his enemies with laser beams shooting out of his eyes. We worship our pastors, with all the coverups and abuse, as our dull minds shuffle on having checked the box of having a ‘good service’ thus sanctifying our complicity to lies, treason, and violence.

Just as Hitler feed upon and in turn fueled antisemitism to place Germany’s problems upon the Jews, so too often American Christians blame our problems as a curse from God for our ‘toleration’ of the LGBTQ community. It is the same kind of thing.

Thank God the Coeur d’Alene police stepped up and protected human beings as they should. I don’t see the call to protect the marginalized much from Christians—this leads to the culture of silencing, violence, and persistent threat against those Christians find abominable. What I see from Christians is the cultivated persistent myth that Christians are the ones being picked on. This claim is laughable but man’o man isn’t it comfortable and convenient. It is ‘comfortable and convenient’ because white Christians, as a group, are in fact socially at the top of the heap; and as a result, have no experiential clue as to what real, organized, physically threatening persecution is. Christians deceived themselves into believing this to feel better about themselves as they create the environments which physical threatens those groups they see as posing a threat to their way of life. Tim feeds this mentality when he speaks of ‘standing alone.’ This is an illusion cast by out religious controllers to keep you in constant fear of both ‘the others’ and of the wrath of an inscrutable, eternally angry God. How do you know that war, inflation, drought, or even our ugly divisions which plague our consciences are specifically caused by a curse from God because of, let’s say, the sin of sodomy? Oh yeah… some Adam Henry who claims to talk for God told you so. Got it.

Prove me wrong please; are there many evangelical pastors speaking against Patriot violence against queer people? Tim didn’t; he just listed them as an example of what to stand against. I guess kudos to Tim for not specifically calling for violence, right? Again: if you don’t speak against it, you are for it.

These are ‘the times’ of increasingly violent division. Historically marginalized groups just want to freely live their lives without fear, having their rights as human beings protected by a broad-based, democratically controlled, secular power. To the common Christian fighting the culture war, trained to fear the angry God whose voice of judgement is broadcast by men using mass-media technology, the desire of ‘the others’ to have equal recognition, protection, and human rights is oppression of the Christian faith—because Christians fear ‘God.’ You got it wrong. Your oppression come from your leaders who have punked you into fearing them.

‘This is not a Christian nation.’ This was the heresy I stated just over 5 years ago which earned me my position as an ‘agent of Satan.’ I’m grateful that this self-proclaimed prophet of God woke me up. This was not persecution—this was just trained words from some dumbass who feels powerless who got punked by a bunch of organized people who are using him to forward their own goals. It is highly unfortunate for him, but what he said was a major catalyst leading to my freedom from religious bullshit. I still believe in the Prince of Peace, but the evangelical church is deeply fucked up. This is why there are deep divisions Tim. Jesus’ harsh words were for the religious leaders misleading the people. This is why I speak so harshly to those who claim to have religious authority. My anger stems from the fact that I have been deeply wounded by religious bullshit, which comes from men who want power without question, ever since I was a little kid. As a middle-aged white man with a comfortable pension, I have the power to be free. I want this for everyone.

Again and again, I’ve made arguments which attempt to show the only thing that makes the gospel believable at all is the testimony of suffering. This is what Jesus showed in word and example. One small tragedy on all this mess is that in all the various traumas I’ve experienced in my life, the institutional source, the church, was the most damaging. A typical reason for this trauma which would most likely be stated by the ‘godly’ leadership was my rebellion against the Word of God. I’ve read the Bible too jackasses—many, many times. The church backed the beatings I received from my parents as they weaponized scripture to say that in God’s Law disobedient children deserve to be stoned to death. That’s fucked up. I was shamed and taught fear of God, adult authority figures, and my parents who were His hand. I was silent about being molested by a neighbor only to be shamed later as the Christian reaction to the gay rights movement characterized homosexuals as abominations deserving death. I was terrorized as a little kid about the Tribulation and the anti-Christ—that I wouldn’t make the rapture was a constant fear. I was taught all that Dobsonian nonsense about human sexuality—to be ashamed of natural feelings and desires. I could go on but, to make it short, my formative religious experiences were based in fear and shame. I still struggle with this—but finally I’m getting better as rip myself away from all the training I received from people who just want to be important and in control.

I say all this as a straight, native-born American citizen, white male. I have no way to imagine how things would have been if I were an immigrant, non-white, or homosexual. Christians had me thinking for awhile that I was homosexual even though an eight-year-old boy taught to fear adults and submit to shame had no means to consent to what was done to me. Where is the mercy in that? What made it easier I suppose is that I had no desire for homosexual contact. But what if I had?

A wise black man said, “I’m not saying white people don’t have problems, it’s just that it is more difficult to be like me.” I sometimes imagine how much my religious traumas would have been magnified if I had sexual feelings for the same sex. The guilt is present still in my desires for the opposite sex, but in the Dobsonian universe those feelings are more excusable because they stem from that aggression which is required for leadership. (How convenient.) In any case, nobody is going to scream at, beat, or kill me for those heterosexual desires because they are socially acceptable.

The church is a broken system. It claims that ‘God hates the sin but loves the sinner.’ In practice people conflate the two together—it’s just what we do. We deal with the dissonance by categorizing sin into acceptable and unacceptable columns even going so far as to claim ‘entire sanctification’ thus, by necessity, loading one column heavier than the other. ‘Holy’ people are dangerous and very destructive to others as they load the columns to suit their own perceptions of themselves. They are blind to the fact that we all sin, all the time. Mercy is reserved for themselves. Blame is assigned to the others.

Deep inside we know this is wrong, explaining why we tolerate men telling us that our problems are curses from God because of the sins of ‘the others,’ and our toleration of that sin—all under the deflecting armor of ‘God hates the sin but loves the sinner.’ It’s religious, deflecting, stratifying, bullshit. If the religious leader who may read this believes I have it all wrong, then for fuck sakes don’t just use the cliché’ and then leave to the culture to define it, as I have, as it is commonly practiced; do your job, learn you own culture’s teachings, dig deep, correct it, and teach accordingly. I’m not making a straw man, it’s what we do. I know because I have personally experienced the conflation as explained above.     

Self-reflection is painful. Why do it? It’s far easier to just say it’s ‘the times.’ The pious religious language distances and disembodies the problem. The system encourages this protective mechanism even as it calls us to prayer. I know God hears me, but I have never personally heard a word from Him. I’ve reflected upon this often. Nonetheless, I place my faith in the character of Jesus and in the testimony of suffering. I want to believe that we all have a Father who loves us. I know that Tim said that to truly great one must be the servant of all. This is true. But there seems to be a major disagreement over what being a servant really means. We form up sides, each seeing the other as highly immoral. These are the ‘times.’

So here we are divided. Having lost domination over the overall culture, the Christian warriors settle for a scorched earth campaign. Burn it all. Misery for all—since that is what God wants from us. The endless ebb and flow of us in time searching for God’s will. His will for us has been shown in an accomplished liar and con man who scratches backs in exchange for unwavering support. The man, who could shoot someone in cold blood in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose his faithful, has given the Right what they wanted. These are the times for ever increasing fascism. Roe has fallen. Massive suffering will follow as the righteous will not stop until all people are under the boot.

Akin to those living under Warren Jeffs, the evangelicals now in power put forward an image of smiles and clean living. It’s just a matter of extremes, lighting up the immediate hostility and revenge of those who want freedom for all is not a concern. In biblical context, the men of Issachar were recruited to support regime change. Were these men charged to bring about a change of heart in the people? Or were they charged to employ subterfuge to smash the opposition? The biblical account is not clear hence we get to write our story to meet our own purposes.

In the end, force and deception will lose. The indomitable spark of humanism has taken hold of the collective human mind. The prophets will continue to enslave individuals to do their bidding, to submit to rape and oppression, but freedom people will continue to resist the will of these men of God. The fear of these men will continue to diminish, and finally someday, will we be rid of these men of understanding.

Amen.

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The theocracy has a foothold

Roe v. Wade has fallen. I have yet to read Alito’s majority opinion which I’ve heard is substantively much the same as the one leaked back in May. This is quite a day; one for the history books. ‘Originalism,’ however hard to define, is now the assumed rule of the land as SCOTUS ramps up to full speed. I will read the opinion in full and dissect it. But for now, just a few words of serious concern from middle aged white male.

I’m no fan of abortion; I seriously doubt anyone is. Alito’s promises that this decision will only affect abortion is obviously disingenuous. Having taken Constitutional Law at WSU, earning an A, graduating Summa Cum Laude (to say that I’m not a slouch,) I found that SCOTUS decisions frequently reversed previous law in favor of, and in accordance with, the current political winds. My initial thought is that this is different. Despite the majority opinion that Roe should not be reversed, a 50-year established ‘right’ has been taken away. This is right up there with the Dred Scott decision in terms of egregiousness. From the leaked opinion, as I discussed this with my daughter, a recent graduate of Law School, Alito’s reasoning can be applied to a great number of rights, not specifically found in the original Constitution, which many Americans have fought hard for in recent decades. Despite promises, we know, by the principles of stare decisis, as silly and irrelevant as that is, that other formerly regarded Constitutional freedoms will fall as well. When they say they won’t do it, they lie. The Christian Right is just getting started as the door has clearly opened to minority rule.

The poor will feel the immediate impact. But that is how it commonly goes. I hope that it remains peaceful, but doubt it will. I know that many women support this decision, but I seriously doubt these women are currently the most vulnerable. It’s all a very slippery slope and is very frightening to someone who studies history. If we thought we had a divided nation before, tomorrow will reveal further the increasing widening of this divide.

Instead of working to foster increasing the power of vulnerable women and to provide comprehensive sex education which would lower the number of abortions, the Christian Right now uses force to make its adherents feel better about themselves. This is what the game is. Abortions will continue and more vulnerable women will die. Fact. But those in the Christian Right don’t care much about that. And now we are supposed to believe you when you promise you won’t use this reasoning to reverse a whole lot of other rights the vulnerable have fought so hard for? You lie; you embrace a treasonous liar as your savior who has delivered a fascist SCOTUS to you—to do your will. People will die; you don’t give one shit for those living who are not you. Women are ultimately the property of men. It doesn’t matter one bit for rape, incest, or even, in some cases, ectopic.

This is your witness to the world. A bunch of power-hungry hypocrites looking to get yourselves in good with the God of your imagination. The God of the Christian Right, which is you, is a fucking bloodthirsty fascist monster with no mercy.

Obviously, we live in different worlds, with different moralities, with, tragically, a different set of facts from which to evaluate actions. I’m still working on the tear apart for asshat’s June 19, 2022 sermon on the ‘men of Issachar—men who understood the times.’ The ‘times’ now are for Christian fascism—to the glory of God. I’m at the top of the heap as a white, middle-aged male, but I care about the vulnerable. Really too pissed to write anymore right now; but I will conclude quoting the lyrics from an Arch Enemy song which now serves as an anthem for me.

Your hate is our trigger
Revolution now
The more we have to suffer
The more we will fight

With our fists up in the air

Legions marching
Ready to fire
These streets will burn
Let the black flag rise
Legions marching
Ready to fire
Empires of corruption
Crash and fall

Under black flags we march

The voice of rebellion
Calls your name
Servants of the truth
Are standing tall

With our fists up in the air…

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Defending the indefensible.

“Tonight, I say this to our Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) June 9, 2022

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice…” Exodus 23: 1,2

I’ve been told more than a few times by people who claim to be spirit-filled Christians that, putting it nicely, I’m outside of the will of God because I oppose Trump and the Republicans. As I’ve argued like a broken record, the evangelical church is inextricably tied to the GOP now. What was aired in the news last night was just a taste of the dishonor, treason, violence, and real peril to our Republic displayed on January 6, 2021. Good Christians have too much invested in God’s plan for America to turn back now.

It is absolutely appalling, beyond words to fully express, to witness the utter depravity in those engaged in the coverup to defend Trump’s ‘Big Lie.’ FoxNews would not cover the hearings because its investment in the ‘Big Lie’ (and all the associated lies) is too great. The people want lies. Lies in turn bring in lots of money and prestige to those willing to spread them. (I doubt if they lose any sleep over this.) As Laura Ingraham admitted, FoxNews is giving the people what they want.

We now live in alternative universes. Tucker Carlson said on his program opposite the hearings, “They are lying, and we are not going to help them do it.” Lying about what Tucker? There was clear evidence, for our own eyes to see and our own ears to hear, concerning the gravity of what happened that day. Yet, we are to believe the ‘real’ reality put forward by Tucker’s guest that, “There was no insurrection. There was a riot, a small one, that got a little out of hand.” A little out of hand? People died. And that’s just the start of it.

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around just how depraved this is. We are called to close our eyes and shut our ears to the evidence, to embrace the ‘Big Lie’ that the election was stolen, even when people in his own administration, we saw them and heard their testimony which said in summation, the ‘Big Lie’ is bullshit. There is no objective evidence to support the stolen election claim. None. Yet, because we’ve been told by God that Trump and the Republicans are God’s choice to ‘Make America Great Again,’ we are to believe the words of a man who made ‘30,573 false or misleading claims over 4 years,’ that the election was stolen. Despite having no evidence, the evil man inspires and encourages a slithering mass of conspiracy theories to fulfill his vacuous need for power and attention. Trump is a morally empty man who continues to spread destruction through his lies. (He would throw anyone, even his own daughter, under the bus to defend them.) In Trump World, only Donald Trump and those he currently (as this could change at any moment) sees as his supporters are telling the truth. Everyone else is a is liar. The evidence (or lack of) does not matter anymore. Honor and integrity are dead.

Ever wonder at the depth of our division? The ‘Big Lie’ led to the violence on January 6, 2021. The ‘Big Lie’ has led to deep wounds which are still being inflicted upon this nation and has caused deep divisions within the church as it continues to offer its implicit and explicit support of the man who continues to poison us all. FoxNews and the evangelical church is engaged in a coverup—it’s what the ‘Save America’ people want. No matter the destruction sown by those we revere, to the point of placing all our faith in them, no matter the evidence, no matter the hurt, the faithful will not turn on their investment. For example, those faithful to the Apostle of La Luz Del Mundo convicted for sexual abuse said that the state had doctored the evidence. The witnesses be damned. The evidence be damned. The people will support whoever they’ve invested their faith into—no matter the evidence of the evil they bring. People like Tucker sooth the consciences of those who want to believe things contrary to the evidence—people like Tucker are paid well to obfuscate and deliver an ‘alternative’ story.

To a much lesser degree of evil than La Luz, my own former church is engaged in a coverup. Pastor Tim Westerberg, in sermon after sermon, as more than a few are torn apart in this blog, admonishes those who sow division in the church—people like me. He acknowledges that division exists but intentionally obfuscates and misplaces the source. He bullies, shames, and tries to intimidate to shut people up because it is a threat to his sense of order. In his last sermon on June 5, 2022, in a rant around the 53-minute mark, Tim complains about those going around ‘sniffing armpits’ and then throwing ‘hissy fits’ on matters he personally finds trivial. This tells me he is all in for nationalism—and apparently so does most of the church. (So, what are you whining about? You won.) According to Tim, those ‘sniffing armpits’ are sowing division in the church thus sullying our witness to the world. The actual source of the division does not matter; our commitment to and investment in nationalism must be defended at all costs. To the faithful, the people citing evidence pointing out the lies are the problem.

This the same kind of thing as occurred in all the coverups in the SBC; the people hurt do not matter—the mission, or more accurately, the appearances matter. Tim is covering up both the seriousness and source of the national lie, which comes from, essentially, one evil man who is backed by the GOP. The ‘Big Lie,’ to which the evangelical church is complicit (as it has deeply woven itself into the GOP,) is ripping this nation and the church itself to pieces. Again: Evidence be damned. Truth be damned. Tim, in all his projections and obfuscations, is implicitly saying that those who speak against him, and his church, be damned. Appearances are everything. So, everyone plays pretend as we cover this up—the mission is too important to bother with considering the evidence. The ‘truth’ of what we’ve placed our faith is greater than what the evidence (or lack thereof) may say otherwise. The evidence threatens our sense of righteousness and our struggle for political control—all to God’s glory of course.

This is so dreadfully hurtful to those who care about the evidence and the resulting destruction, all the people hurt and killed, the offence to the process of seeking justice, the undermining of the process which enables the peaceful transfer of power, the murder of honor and integrity, that lies and treason cause. But not to worry, the objectors will be driven out—the leadership will continue to tell all the faithful what they want to hear. Make America Great Again.

The chances are good that he will get a standing ovation at his celebratory service on June 12th. Dishonor will continue to be honored.

(But then, I live in an alternative, godless universe, don’t I?)

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Centralia First Church of the Nazarene, June 5, 2022.

My notes, observations, and thoughts on the sermon.

36:20 Surrender to the lordship of Christ. Jesus at the steering wheel analogy.

38:05 How do you know what Jesus knows? This leads people to believe that when they feel like the ‘Spirit’ is leading them, then whatever they are believing and doing at the time is sanctified in their own minds. This is the certainty which is so destructive. This teaching leads us to not look behind the curtain at the Christian political machine running us and just accept that we are doing what we ought to be doing if we feel okay. This feelings-based teaching makes slaves of the laity. Men like Tim enjoy being in charge and for the little people to not question.

38:30 no argument that God knows everything. Trouble is, we don’t. Again, we are being led into feelings-based certainty.

40:37 ‘The Holy Spirit knows where to tinker.’  Why is it then that the people who claim to be in the closest ‘apostolic’ conversational relationship with God are so much at odds with other people who claim the same thing when it comes to what we little people ought to believe and do? Just send money, and elevate me to your highest positions of honor no matter how contradictory (and tolerant of evil) we are? Spirit-filled people have told me that I must bend the knee to a political party (unofficially) led by an accomplished liar and con man.

41:55 ‘Live wisely among those who are not Christians.’ That’s just it, Tim… Millions are leaving the church; membership declining in the past 20 years from the mid-70’s% to less than 47% and still falling. You listen to the testimony of the ex-vangelicals and they will tell you it’s because of the political enmeshment of church and state, the nationalism (which well-encapsulates the following qualities,) xenophobia, the coverups of abuse, the authoritarianism, the exclusionism, the misogyny, the arrogance, the tolerance of lies as the ends justify the means of the ‘spirit-led’ church. The problem is often not with the teachings of Jesus found in the gospels.

44:19 What would God have us seek? To value everyone, to seek what is just and merciful, to be with ‘the others,’ to love, welcome, and help them without seeing ‘them’ as an existential threat to our survival, and to not try to lord over them using political power to make them ‘behave’ and remain in their proper place? The truth? Or power?

46:46 Pray with an alert mind. Agreed. 47:30 with gratefulness. Agreed

49:37 Pray for opportunities to preach. NewsMax, FoxNews and the GOP/Christian Right creates quite a context for preaching to those who do not think like we do. So much for living wisely.

49:48 We are God’s plan to reach unbelievers. How are we doing there? Teach them to obey? We are working hard that one—to obey us that is.

51:00 We understand how to love people? This is so self-centered. Do we suppose that non-Christian cannot experience, feel, and convey ‘real’ love? It is what is being implied, however gently. The shallowness and religiocentricity (my word) of this sentiment that only Christians can convey true love leads naturally to the ‘us’ and ‘them’ problem. The sentiment springs out of and in turn feeds ‘experiential Christianity.’ This short-circuits the path from fulfilling cares and needs at our expense to immediately move forward to ‘you need to think and act as I do’ first. (Fortunately, I think the Spirit teaches us otherwise since people who’ve been transformed will be ‘liberal’ in who they will help. This is where all the fear which drives us politically clashes with what the Spirit teaches the transformed heart about charity.) Deny it all you want, but this the history of ‘become as we are’ (submit to authority) colonial Christianity. The actions of the Christian Right are commonly perceived to be quite hateful to people (and to truth itself.) Again, so much for living graciously (and wisely.)

52:00 It’s clear to me what you are saying because I’m familiar with the code.

52:44 They see the truth lived out. Well, now that Christianity has crawled into bed with the political Right, the GOP, the American flag, a system of lies, obfuscation, coverups, xenophobia, force, and patriarchal authoritarianism, which all claims to fly under a banner of love with a laity who just blindly follow where they are led, the ‘lost’ are seeing our ‘truth’ lived out.

52:55 The qualities above are anything but winsome and attractive. You are deliberately obfuscating the fact that we are seriously divided over deadly (literally,) serious matters. You don’t get to say ‘not in this church’ because that isn’t true.

53:30 And this is where you say that people like me are the problem—who ‘inoculate’ people against the gospel. Sounds to me that you are saying that to be a good Christian one must submit to the leadership who is telling us to be submissive to the sin of nationalism, which is idolatry. The sinner is the one pointing out the complicity of the church to abide and support the many sins of the GOP and the Christian Right? ‘Walking around smelling armpits and choosing up sides on an issue.’ Is that what I’m doing? What we are currently complicit in Tim is wrong. This is not a dunking or sprinkling issue Tim. This is idolatry Tim. We are allying with a system of lies to force people to behave as we think they ought to behave. Does not God have the power to make us all behave? Why doesn’t He then? What did Jesus say to the Devil when offered all the kingdoms of the world? Oh… He wants us to grab political power so we can be in charge and do it for Him. Got it.

53:44 A ‘hissy fit’ over a serious moral issue which is currently destroying our witness to the world?

54:04 ‘Why would I want that?’ Going back to the notion that non-Christians can’t know real love or morality, the fact remains that Christianity itself has picked up a lot of values from humanism which did not spring out of the Bible. Fact. A lot of the ‘lost’ are morally appalled by the complicity of the church’s getting into bed with the political system to forward what the world sees as sins—complicity, coverup, xenophobia, misogyny, patriarchal authoritarianism, homophobia, and the use of violent force and deception to enact an increasingly fascist ‘theocracy.’ Could it be they wouldn’t want to bend the knee to what they see as being hateful? I think what that you find hateful is that some who have identified as Christian will not bend the knee to you and the way you think things ought to be.  Authority doesn’t work on me Tim. Arguments and evidence does. What you are doing here is using your authority to bully and shame people to submit. I will not. Nationalism is evil. I will continue to talk to whoever will listen.

54:20 Unity to a lie is not loving.

54:46 What is the Christian Right’s gospel? It is very different than the one Jesus taught; this is what confuses the issue more than the simple fact that people, all people, disagree, sometimes very strongly, with each other. So much for ‘iron sharpening iron.’

55:45 A wise walk is a consistent walk? What if you’ve been deceived and you’re walking in the wrong direction? Nothing to see here; just keep walking.

56:30 and how do you know it’s Jesus doing the tapping? We are assaulted with massive amounts of various claims and information telling us what ‘Jesus’ thinks we ought to be thinking and doing. This information is conveyed by men in a myriad of different human ways. It is impossible to consciously be aware of all of them. Fact.

58:45 ‘Preserve me from those who are plotting evil against me.’ This Psalm of David is what it means to walk carefully? That everyone is out to get you? Well, if you claim authority, and teach people in such a way as to keep them passive and unquestioning of the way the church is witnessing to the world, of what we are (at the very least passively) endorsing, and somebody calls you on it, are they ‘plotting evil against you’? Shouldn’t be putting it into people’s minds that we are being picked on here anyway—socially, we are on the top the heap.

59:30 People read the news—and many fear what the Christian political machine is going to do to them. They recognize the nice Christian lady across the street who brings them cookies and see nice acts as that happening despite what they see the church writ large is teaching.

59:50 ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.’ I understand our differences Tim will likely never garner such a response because in your eyes, and in the eyes of the nationalists, I am an enemy of the church.

1:02:03 No impact without contact. Yep. That’s what I’m doing. Boom.

1:03:04 Fear is what is encouraged by the Christian media machine, eschatology, apocalypse, crisis, immigrants, homosexuals, massive voter fraud, sexual immorality (but not frequent mass murders with AR-15’s, heavens no!) so we’ve got to act drastically now to ‘Save America’! Fear is our faction’s main motivator. Sorrow and anger are mine.

1:03:25 Just be you and the Holy Spirit will speak through you. Following the logic of the sermon: As I’ve been told, I’m a ‘hateful divider.’ A ‘divisive’ person cannot be led by the Spirit, right? So… Just a Pharisee. Godless. Lost. An enemy. So says the authority.

1:04:25 ‘Just plain rude.’ So, we trade ‘You’re going to hell’ for ‘we are accumulating the political power, through any ugly means necessary, to make you ‘others’ speak and behave according to our rules to lift our God’s glory’?

1:05:36 ‘What did Jesus say to the woman at the well?’ This teaching here contradicts the teaching of the Christian Right which seeks to shame, silence, condemn, and punish those who do wrong in our eyes. This is not a conspiracy. It’s in the news. It’s in the legislation. We want big teeth to back what we say is right.

1:06:49 We shouldn’t put people on a scale. This is another religiocentric thing to do. Just because I am hostile to the teachings of the evangelical church doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m hostile to God. When one equivocates the teachings of the church and the teachings of Jesus, that is divisive since it forces us into serious contradiction with the teachings of other churches of which, practically speaking, we must gloss over for unity’s sake. (Our history used to be much bloodier because in the past we had harder time doing this.) All your talk of unity must remain within each local body and denomination which sets up a hierarchy by necessity to have order. This is good for the people who run things. This hierarchy of authority becomes then the very structure and framework from which all ‘good’ Christian teaching flows. This leads to scales of perception in which you may assume a person’s hostility towards God in relation to your assessment of that person’s perceived hostility towards your own teaching. I’ve done my homework—for decades. You would not like my assessment of where on the scale I would place the teachings of the nationalists as compared to my understanding of what Jesus taught. If I were to join a ‘liberal’ church, one whose teachings are hostile to nationalism and all that comes with it, would I then be a non-divisive brother equal in your eyes? Or would I still be a heretic and/or a Pharisee? (Jesus never got angry with the Pharisees for misleading the people, right? Such is not possible for the ‘Spirit-led’ people today, right?) Either way, the main instructive to the masses is that the principle of hierarchy itself is maintained. This is good for people who want to be in charge and feel important. This upholds the God-willed Christian Right program to ‘Make America Great Again.’ Good Christians submit to this as we proudly salute the stars and stripes despite all the associations of that symbol with a plethora of very ugly things being done in God’s name under this red, white, and blue banner.

1:06:59 ‘They ask really good questions.’ As do I. I don’t believe you when you say you like to interact with the negative 10’s. It is unclear where I would fall on your scale. You’ve demonstrated what is important to you, order. You like the way things are. Getting to the root of what is dividing the church and the source of why people are leaving doesn’t seem to interest you one bit. What is important to you is that you are important; the scale helps with that. Good riddance to heretics and sinners like me—because we are a threat to the order.

1:07:20 ‘Jesus went to where people were.’ Once again, trying to have it both ways. Christian Right struggles for the power to use force. Jesus rejected the use of force while physically on this earth—which I believe serves as our example. But this is where pre-millennial dispensationalism, the ‘Left Behind’ tripe, reimagines Jesus returning as an all-powerful conquering warrior who literally (I read the whole series) melts His enemies with something like laser beams which come out of His eyes. This was very helpful to the Christian Right’s goal to acclimate the average Christian to the use of force and violence to achieve the conditions we think need to happen for Him to return. This attempt to force Jesus’ hand is akin to the sin of Iscariot.   

1:09:18 ‘Witness ought to be compelling.’ I admit that I am just plain intimidating. But, if given the opportunity, I will lead you to think deeply on matters if you should spend any time with me. Little, if anything, is simple. And believe it or not, and to what was my surprise, I have been called an encourager by someone who dropped their fear of me to then spend the time to get to know me.  

1:12:00 ‘Focus on what we have in common.’ A cross? A flag? We say ‘Jesus’ a lot? This is spoken by someone who is, again, not the least bit interested to even acknowledge the depth of the problems caused by the common call to be complicit with Christian/political nationalism. Tim doesn’t see any problem with it other than it causes people, who see the misplaced hope in political power as idolatry, to speak out against it—which disturbs his peace and, possibly, his certainty. There’s plenty in the OT about Israel religiously blending with other systems—the theological word describing this is syncretism. I know lots of you will be calling for my head—but nationalism is idolatry.

1:14:00 ‘3000 get added.’ This is my second to last salvo to serve my conscience that I didn’t remain silent, complicit, to warn the church I’ve spent 20 years into a little of what we’ve all been duped into believing is the will of God. The last salvo won’t be as dramatic as it will be in my resignation letter to Pastor Bissonette (since Tim denied me that courtesy) which will briefly outline why I am leaving. I know many will be deeply upset with me. Many will be relieved. Although upsetting, and contrary to all Tim had to say about divisive people, you all deserve to hear from the ‘other side’ another perspective on the deadly, destructive seriousness of our divisions from someone who has been a somewhat consistent troublemaker for almost two decades. I care, deeply. This will cost me as people will blame me, and people like me, for the divisions to avoid addressing the problem itself. The shunning will be sad—but I must do this. I won’t be darkening the door of Centralia First Church again, since (on principle) I will not pass by those flags at the front door. I told my wife that I would only accompany her if those flags weren’t up. Whoever put them up front, I got your message. That will do it. Take care.

In Sorrow,

Mark Jennings