I simply cannot tell you how much I agree with this. Unfortunately, I have always been smart enough to recognize and affirm the truth you write here, but so weak that at the first push back I get when talking about theses issues, it becomes easy to give up. I feel like my whole life has been one of losing arguments like these with folks who are emotionally stronger than I, or more clever than I, or more dogged than I. I have lost arguments, and therefore votes, on the floor of my (PCUSA) presbytery and General Assembly related to some of the issues you reference. But now, especially related to Donald Trump, I'm unable to convince folks of the very issues you write about. Part of it is the disinformation that makes up the culture we inhabit (as Steve Bannon has advised, "fill the zone with shit"), but part of it is still my old familiar weakness. Literally my only hope is that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, and that Jesus is still on the throne. Thank you for your wonderful essay and your faithfulness to the Kingdom whose coming we both hope in.
Spot on, but one criticism: MLK isn't a paragon of moral virtue, especially in sexual matters. But he continues to be lionized by many of the same people, the same Christian leaders (not including you), who courageously opposed Trump and chastised Christians who overlooked his sins. My criticisms of MLK have not been appreciated by people who loathe Trump. It's almost as if there is some relative scale, or some grading on a curve.
Marvelous essay, Chris. Several standout statements leap from the virtual page as talismans for our times. But before I share the post, I wanted to check about fixing a pair of Kevin DeYoung spellings. In the subtitle and Graph 2 of the Author's Note, there is what I believe to be the incorrect spelling of "Keven," while in the first text-spelling below the second-section subhead, "DeYoung on Cheney," "Kevin" looks kosher again. A mere trifle, though, in a trenchant and triumphant essay. Many thanks for your courage and eloquence.
I added a sentence at the end of the fifth paragraph of the section, "Courage in our Place and Time" - "And even if it never effects us personally, what ever happened to the Christian ethic of loving our neighbor and caring for the “least of these” among us, those who will be hurt by a lessening of civil rights safeguards?"
I added this because I realized I fell into a utilitarian, and self-oriented form of argumentation in the sentence before.
Courageous, God bless your eloquent defense of a Holy backbone.
I simply cannot tell you how much I agree with this. Unfortunately, I have always been smart enough to recognize and affirm the truth you write here, but so weak that at the first push back I get when talking about theses issues, it becomes easy to give up. I feel like my whole life has been one of losing arguments like these with folks who are emotionally stronger than I, or more clever than I, or more dogged than I. I have lost arguments, and therefore votes, on the floor of my (PCUSA) presbytery and General Assembly related to some of the issues you reference. But now, especially related to Donald Trump, I'm unable to convince folks of the very issues you write about. Part of it is the disinformation that makes up the culture we inhabit (as Steve Bannon has advised, "fill the zone with shit"), but part of it is still my old familiar weakness. Literally my only hope is that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, and that Jesus is still on the throne. Thank you for your wonderful essay and your faithfulness to the Kingdom whose coming we both hope in.
"As Martin Luther King Jr. prayed...."
Spot on, but one criticism: MLK isn't a paragon of moral virtue, especially in sexual matters. But he continues to be lionized by many of the same people, the same Christian leaders (not including you), who courageously opposed Trump and chastised Christians who overlooked his sins. My criticisms of MLK have not been appreciated by people who loathe Trump. It's almost as if there is some relative scale, or some grading on a curve.
Marvelous essay, Chris. Several standout statements leap from the virtual page as talismans for our times. But before I share the post, I wanted to check about fixing a pair of Kevin DeYoung spellings. In the subtitle and Graph 2 of the Author's Note, there is what I believe to be the incorrect spelling of "Keven," while in the first text-spelling below the second-section subhead, "DeYoung on Cheney," "Kevin" looks kosher again. A mere trifle, though, in a trenchant and triumphant essay. Many thanks for your courage and eloquence.
I added a sentence at the end of the fifth paragraph of the section, "Courage in our Place and Time" - "And even if it never effects us personally, what ever happened to the Christian ethic of loving our neighbor and caring for the “least of these” among us, those who will be hurt by a lessening of civil rights safeguards?"
I added this because I realized I fell into a utilitarian, and self-oriented form of argumentation in the sentence before.