A friend of mine who is politically active and engaged every day in justice work here in our town recently confessed to me and a group of fr
And, honestly, this is what terrifies me: not the brazen, incessant attempts by this regime to dismantle every structural system and safeguard set in place by our founders, but the collective apathy it is being greeted with.
Iâm beginning to fear that Americans as a whole are too lazy to prevent the collapse of our Republic, not because weâre unaware, but because we are determined to remain unbothered.
...
Are we willing to get our hands dirty, to alter our previously planned lives, and to experience the discomfort that comes when the urgency of the moment refuses to defer to the story we want to be true?
Do we have enough good people who are willing to move together across lines of politics, religion, race, nation of origin, and orientation in sustained acts of civil disobedience and systemic disruption?
Do we have the diligence and courage to risk the loss of something: time, money, comfort, to ensure we donât lose something far more precious?
Do we have the attention span and intestinal fortitude to fight like weâve never had to fight before, because weâve never had to go to war with our government in this way before?
The real challenge is whether Americans today can sustain low-grade, often tedious forms of engagement over time: organizing, voting, litigating, protesting, building alternative institutions, which feel more like drudgery than heroism.
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Apparently, Iâve been radicalized and I wasnât aware. Certain people call me the âradical Leftâ all the time. I never considered myself radical before. I just thought I was normal, ordinary, usual. I thought equity was important to everyone. I imagined America was filled with people who took that Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness⌠Continue Reading Iâm Not The Radical Left, Iâm The Humane Middle
âRecently I took an inventory of my positions, screening for the extremism:
I believe in full LGBTQ rights.
I believe we should protect the planet.
I believe everyone deserves healthcare.
I believe all religions are equally valid.
I believe the world is bigger than America.
I believe to be âpro-life,â means to treasure all of it.
I believe whiteness isnât superior and it is not the baseline of humanity.
I believe we are all one interdependent community.
I believe people and places are made better by diversity.
I believe people shouldnât be forced to abide by anyone elseâs religion.
I believe non-American human beings have as much value as American ones.
I believe generosity is greater than greed, compassion better than contempt, and kindness superior to derision.
I believe there is enough in this world for everyone: enough food, enough money, enough room, enough careâif we unleash our creativity and unclench our fists.
âIâm not sure how these ideas became radical, though it seems to have happened in the last few years.
âI grew up being taught they were just part of being a decent human being.â
At times in this life it can be a challenge to figure out who the bad people are, but sometimes they help you. Sometimes they do the work fo
"But the former President is not a good human being, and thereâs simply no way around this truth.
...And what is painfully obvious in these moments, isnât simply that the person alleging to lead this country is a terrible human beingâit is that anyone left still defending him, applauding him, justifying him, amening him, probably is too.
At this point, the only reason left to support a man like this is that he reflects your hateful heart; he shares your contempt of people of color, your hostility toward outsiders, your toxic misogyny, your ignorant bigotry, your feeling of supremacy."
I remember the day after the Election, a friend of mine who happens to be white, remarked on social media that he âfinally wasnât embarrassed of America and our President.â I sprained my eyes rolling them and they have never fully recovered. Since then Iâve heard this sentiment echoed by more white folks than I⌠Continue Reading No, White FriendâYou Werenât âEmbarrassedâ by Barack Obama
âIâm going to suggest you rethink your word choice. You werenât âembarrassedâ by Barack Obama.
âYou were threatened by him.
âYou were intimidated by him.
âYou were challenged by him.
âYou were triggered by him.
âBut I donât believe it had anything to do with his resume or his experience or his character or his conduct in officeâbecause you seem fully proud right now to be associated with a three-time married, serial adulterer and confessed predator; a man whose election and business dealings and relationships are riddled with controversy and malfeasance. Youâre perfectly fine being represented by a bullying, vile, obnoxious, genitalia-grabbing, Tweet-ranting, Prime Minister-shoving charlatan whoâs managed to offend all our allies and alienate millions of our citizens in a few short months. ...
âNo, if you claimed to be embarrassed by Barack Obama but youâre somehow not embarrassed by Donald TrumpâIâm going to strongly suggest it was largely a pigmentation issue.â
Image: One person helps another to the top of a hill, in silhouette. (Pixabay)
This past week a friend pointed me to âPick a Hill Worth Dying On, America.â I found it moving and motivating and I thought Iâd pass it on, with a few additional thoughts. John Plavlovitz is one of my favorite Christian bloggers and he writes with an energy and urgency that I admire.
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Civility? Thatâs the card youâre pulling now, Trump supporters? Thatâs where youâve landed? Thatâs your go-to play at this stage of the game? Itâs a little late for you to roll that out now, isnât it? After voting for a self-proclaimed genitalia-grabber. After he suggested dissenters at his rallies should be beaten up. After hearing him call violent nazis âfine people.â
âWith all due respectâto hell with your phony civility. No, you donât get to play that card. That request is off the table for you. You lost that moral high ground somewhere between excusing his mocking of a disabled reporterâand celebrating brown-skinned kids in cages. ... You donât really want civility, anyway. If you did, you wouldnât still be supporting this President.â
John Pavlovitz: Here's Why You're Wrong About Church
This is a response to John Pavlovitz's article, "Church, Here's Why People Are Leaving You. Part 1" Open his post in another window and read it side by side with my post below for the full back-and-forth.
John,
What Exodus are you talking about? You complain about "being on the other side of the Exodus" but . . .
The church is not experiencing an Exodus. Weekly church attendance has changed about 2-3% for American churches in the last decade. I would hardly call that an Exodus.
If you want to talk about the Church globally. That's a whole different story. We're adding around 86,000 new followers of Jesus a day. Overall, things are going pretty good.
See actual research numbers here.
We are not afraid. We are not panicking. We are working to try and be more relevant.
We actually have a really good handle on why some people are leaving the church. Like cold hard facts - not just a two part blog post to go on.
Here's a book and bible study about it. And here are some research stats from 7 years ago.
Maybe some Christians think that people are leaving the church for the reasons you list, but those of us who are informed (which is a lot of us) - we don't.
Are we really the problem John? If we are, which is possible, then I don't think these 5 reasons are why.
1) Your Sunday productions have worn thin
You may be right to a certain extent here. We can be a little over dramatic and showy when it comes to worship. Ironically, this is because we are actually trying to be relevant and fresh.
Part of the reason that flashy worship services don't make a difference on Tuesday afternoon or Thursday evening is not because they're useless or ineffective, but because they lack substance.
Also, for what it's worth, even substantive worship services can't carry most believers through the week. That's why we offer Wednesday services and weekly bible studies and we encourage you to read your Bible and pray every day. If you're having a hard time on Tuesday afternoons or Thursday evenings you should try some of these mid-week and daily options.
A lot of churches aren doing a great job with both their worship service and substantive teaching, and not just on Sundays. You should look for one in your area.
A lot of people want more than just "Christian-themed performance" pieces. One of the places that you can find space and breath for these conversation and relationships that you seem to crave is outside of the worship service. Churches, once again, have this thing where we meet in small groups for bible study. We use different names for it, but there's no show, no lights and no fluff. It's all depth, love, and fellowship. You should try waking up earlier and going to Sunday School.
2) You speak a foreign tongue.
John, a lot of people complain about the language and terms we use. I don't know if you are aware of this, though, but a lot of the language that we use comes from the Bible. We believe that the Bible contains language and terms that God used to communicate with us. It's kind of designed to be timeless. We have a tendency to use these Bible terms to explain important stuff and concepts that God explained to in the Bible.
We've talked like this for about 2,000 years. Don't hold your breathe for too much of a change.
I realize that we have a tendency to speak in insider language from time to time and we should work harder to not be so esoteric with our language. We're working on it, but don't expect us to stop using words like eschatology and theology. Those words are really just smart people words for talking about the end of time and God. We're sorry if you don't like them, but they are very specific and scholarly terms and they've been around for a long long time. Once again, don't hold your breathe.
3) Your vision can't see past your building
While it is true that many churches are entirely too focused on church buildings and getting people to come to church - I don't think this is what is really turning people away. It might be preventing us from reaching new people, but I highly doubt that people who want to come to church are not avoiding us because we serve nice coffee and breakfast scones.
A LOT of us are going out into our communities and reaching people.
You should try coming to church, and then going out with us to reach our communities.
4) You choose lousy battles.
We know you like to complain about our fighting, John. That's obvious.
You can complain with the best of them. But I don't know that our battles are the same battles you are talking about and some of the battles that you mentioned are actually kind of important.
Fast food protests? When did the Church protest fast food? You're going to need to refresh my memory on that one.
Hobby Lobby. That one was actually important John because we believe in these things called the sanctity of life and religious freedom. We believe that Christians should be able to practice their religion in the public square. Last we checked it was in the Bill of Rights. So, do we object, as a whole, to being forced to pay for pills that can cause abortions up to 7 days after gestation? Yes, we do.
You may think that was a lousy battle, but we don't.
Duck Dynasty? Last I checked the Church didn't fight over that, Duck Dynasty fans did. I'm pretty sure that a lot of Duck Dynasty fans also happen to attend church, so there was an overlap there - but I didn't see any conventions or assemblies of church leadership over the cancellation of Duck Dynasty. That's a bad example.
We see the same world you do John. One filled with poverty, racism, and lots of bad stuff. Believe it or not we are leading the charge to do something about it. Do some research. Christians are leading the fight against slavery, sex trafficking, poverty, racism, hungry - you name it. Granted not every single Christians is doing this, but overall we are leading the charge.
John, we need you to stop being trivial with your complaints and stop being so negative in the face of positive news.
5) Your love doesn't look like love.
You're right. Love is a big deal to us. We don't always do it right and we don't always do it well - but we are trying.
Also, by calling our love "incredibly selective and decidedly narrow" I'm assuming your complaining about homosexuals, right? Maybe not. Moving on.
John, while you may want us to welcome everybody, and we are working really hard to do just that, you need to understand that love does more than just let everybody in.
You see this Jesus, whose love you admire, He did hang out with sinners, prostitutes, and low-lifes. He did love them, very much. But, if you'll take the time to read a Bible you'll notice something that He did after hanging out with them. He then called those lowlifes and prostitutes to follow Him.
And he even told them to "go and sin no more."
You see Jesus loved people where they were, but He didn't leave them there. Love doesn't let a brother in Christ cuss, drink, and redefine love and marriage. Why? Because, we've chosen to follow Jesus and that means trying to be more like Him.
Just because Jesus loved lowlifes doesn't mean wanted them to stay lowlifes. He wanted them to become more like Him. He wanted them and us to follow Him. Part of following Him is denying our own personal desires and doing what He tells us to do. That too is love.
We ask people to change because Jesus asked us to change. Period. I'm not sure you understand this . . .
From what we know about Jesus and God, they are Love - with a capital L. We are trying to look like Him. Are you?
__________________
We are a global community of followers, so we won't all get angry. I'm not.
You may not want me to critique your post line by line, but I did. Sorry.
There's really no need for me to "be still with your words." You're not writing Scripture here and there really is nothing new about them. We've been hearing stuff like this for the last 30 years or more and even more so in the last decade.
I understand that you've probably been hurt by people in a local church. We all have. The people in your local church are sinners. They have problems.
I/we don't want you to walk away. You don't have to.
You do matter. You matter to Jesus.
We have heard you, and others like you.
God has already shown you that He is real and myself and other Christians are trying to live up to that reality.
John, you're more than welcome to stay - but unless you're willing to address some of the cynicism and bitterness in your heart, educate yourself about what is happening in the Church, and choose to follow Jesus - you probably won't stay.
Ultimately it won't be our fault, though, if you leave because we are a vast global network of local churches. None of us are identical. I promise you that one in your town has already addressed these five complaints and would be willing to welcome you with open arms. Look for and go.
