The Truth Is American Evangelicals Are Lost

A few thoughts as we exit 2021 (RIP Betty White- my condolences to her loved ones).

My friend David Bonner has a good piece at his blog I recommend reading:

Evangelicals Once Claimed They Spoke of Moral Truth. Recent Scandals in Both Neo-Calvinism and Christian Nationalism Reveals They No Longer Believe in Truth

Truth matters.

I have found in Texan circles that the usual response to an expression of pain, at betrayal of good character, ethics and truth by evangelicals I trusted, is to blame me for having pain.

They never want to deal with the moral failures of those who raised me to follow Christ.

But the truth matters.

As we exit 2021, please understand I do not hate evangelicals. I know many of them are deceived, and not all willfully. What I hate are the lies that have divided US, and the truly repugnant evangelical refusal to face up to moral failure on a most basic level: lies vs. truth.

I read the end of Psalm 139 and I feel that. ("Do I not hate those who hate You, and abhor those who rise up against You?") And having felt that, I ask God to "search my heart and see if there be any way of pain in me, and to lead me instead in the Way of eternal life."

This is not rocket science, nor is it negotiable: the truth is that the God I love hates murder. So much so that even hatred in the heart, which can lead to it, is rebuked by Jesus. And I worship a God who understands the pain of being baited by evil abusers. Consider Him.

Truth matters.

So what do you do with a faith community that no longer believes in the Truth they taught you?

The moral failure of the evangelicals is to the point of refusing to repent to their own children for their willful hypocritical grasping for power and control rather than love. (The scene in "Don't Look Up" where the scientist returns home hoping to rest, but is turned away by parents who tell her, "no politics in this house," says it well for me: many of us have experienced this politicization of basic truth, simple facts, right and wrong.) The foundations are being destroyed by the people who raised us in character-based absolutes.

There is no alternative for truth-lovers other than leaving self-deceived liars. This doesn't mean we don't grieve their decisions to stay in darkness and kick us out the door either literally or figuratively. But the whole anti-deconstruction debate among evangelicals is just wall-papering over the fact they failed an entire generation by embracing a series of lies leading up to a Big Lie. They embraced evil and they called it good. They became callous.

Their cruel unrepentant arrogance never ceases to take my breath away, and not in a good way.

And here is where such callous disdain for others' lives ultimately leads:

Cruelty. Violence. Death.

FYI- this is not how anything works- this is fascism.

Link to article- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mark-milley-execution-noah-malgeri-b1983081.html

Hear this very clearly:

If these trends continue uninterrupted, we will wind up with a country rooted in neither democratic principles nor religious values. That would be a mean, violent and intolerant future few of us would want to experience.

They can't say I didn't try to warn them. Not that there's any point expecting any repentance from willfully deceived people. My experience of the last few years living among conservatives has been exactly that "mean, violent, intolerant" place that "few of us would want to experience". Unrepentant lies and abuse will always end in death.