In 2009, Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, prophesied about The Coming Evangelical Collapse:

”Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the “Protestant” 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.”

While I don’t believe Spencer nailed the reasons for the collapse in their entirety, he did nail the fact that it is happening. And faster than he could have imagined, as evangelicalism is down to about 15% now, in less than one generation. In the wake of the recent conservative Christian packed SCOTUS decisions on abortion, guns, prayer in schools, as well as the Republican-Evangelical outright hostility to things such as LGBTQIA+ rights and, I don’t know, contraception, I expect the pace to pick up significantly in the coming decade.

You see, the problem isn’t that the evangelical church isn’t doing a good enough job at communicating its doctrine to the world, but that the doctrine itself is poison. As Andre Henry tells us, “this shit is not good news,” and everybody can see that.

Evangelicalism, as an offshoot of 20th century fundamentalism, is profoundly anti-scientific. And because of this, not only does it tend to believe nonsense like the earth being six thousand years old, but it casts aside modern science which shows us that LGBTQIA+ people are products of their human development, not renegade sinners making a “lifestyle choice.” And, for the record, 1 in 6 Zoomers are LGBTQIA+, so these evangelicals are very likely to have them in their family. What happens when these kids come out? Either their family changes or they get pushed out of the family and likely leave the faith entirely. This is a death spiral for evangelicalism.

The fundamental problem with evangelicalism is that they have cast off the way of Jesus – the way of love for all people – for the sake of a particular reading of two-thousand plus year-old scriptures without any understanding of how culture and scientific understanding shaped the beliefs of the authors of those scriptures. And instead of focusing on trying to bring the love of Christ into the modern context, they have doubled down on rules that were developed in a time of patriarchy and oppression. Is it any wonder that 21st century people see no good news here?

So the coming evangelical collapse is coming and has already arrived, and I for one, welcome it as a refugee from its dying empire. If the entire church must die so that the love of God may be expressed in the world, then bring it on. We will be here on the outskirts trying to build a community of practice that is faithful to the Divine Mystery and the Way of Jesus.

Question of the day for me: is it possible for conservative and liberal Christians to still consider themselves part of the same church? It seems to me like the fundamental worldviews, both presumably based on a faith in Jesus, are incompatible.

I currently attend a church that contains some people that are reasonably politically and theologically conservative along with a majority that are more liberal. But I feel constrained from advocating what I feel is the passionate heart of God because I just don’t want to have the argument.

Maybe I just need to finally give up on threading the needle and find a full throated, progressive activist church.

“You Can’t Be a Christian If You’re Pro-Choice”

I’ve heard that a lot both online and formerly in the evangelical circles I used to run around in. And the short answer is this: who says I claim to be a Christian? I mean, I do claim to affirm the historic creeds of the church. And I do like to think of myself as a follower of the way of Jesus. And I have had direct experience with Divine Love which I ascribe to Christ. I even pray (and meditate) multiple days per week! But Christian? That label carries far too much baggage to claim.

So then lets answer this one: how can I, as a mystic, creedal, follower of the way of Jesus, be pro-choice? This one is a lot easier to answer, even using the evangelicals’ weapon on choice, the Bible:

1. Jesus says exactly nothing about abortion or even when life begins. One would think that, like with homosexuality and gender identity, if it were really that important he would have said something. But he did talk a lot about oppression and injustice.
2. Given that silence (and, in fact, the silence of the entirety of the New Testament), I have to rely on the Hebrew Bible. And the most definitive statement of when life begins is in Genesis 2:7, which asserts it begins at first breath. Now, this is a pre-scientific understanding written in a poetic form with the purpose of primarily introducing God as Creator, not as a proof text for when babies get their souls. So that pretty much leaves us at “who knows?”
3. “I knit you together in your mother’s womb” is a song of praise to God. Also not a proof text for when babies get their souls. And even if it were a proof text, there is a time when something you are knitting is just a bunch of string and a time when it becomes a quilt. This text doesn’t answer the quiltiness question.
4. I understand that the church was anti-abortion from an early era. I also understand that the church believed the sun revolved around the earth, that witches should be burned at the stake, that Native Americans didn’t have souls and therefore could be conquered and killed, that the Inquisition and the Crusades were good ways to spread the gospel, and that slavery was a-ok by them. In other words, maybe the church hasn’t always nailed everything perfectly?
5. Why the hell should one specific religious view have any say over whether abortion is legal?
6. Science isn’t in the business of answering the “when does a baby get its soul” question. It can only give us some scientific markers. To me, the most compelling of those is brain development, which really doesn’t kick in until the end of the second trimester.

So, given all of the above, this is a moral question best left to individual conscience. It’s none of the state’s damn business, and none of the church’s damn business.

Moloch, the God of the United States, is pleased.

Basically, the Trump SCOTUS is telling us that there will be nowhere to run from the coming gun apocalypse. Even if you live in a state that wants to implement semi-sane gun regulations, you will not be allowed to do so. And the murders of our children are collateral damage needed to protect a made up Constitutional right based on an activist right-wing interpretation that didn’t exist for the first two hundred years of our country’s existence.

But hey, the Trump SCOTUS is about to provide an additional supply of bodies to sacrifice to Moloch by outlawing abortion, so that’s something, right evangelicals?

This is why I can’t subscribe to the New York Times. On the day after the court passed a so-called “Pro-Religion” ruling (which this religious person opposes because it will be largely used to advance Christian Nationalist beliefs that I find to be harmful), the Court then ruled that we should make our society even more violent by letting anyone who wants to carry a concealed weapon. Which I find to be the exact opposite of the way that Jesus taught and modeled (so, arguably Anti-Religion). If by “Pro-Religion” you mean “Pro-Moloch Worship” or “Pro-Theocracy,” then sure. But would it hurt them to be more precise and to recognize that a large portion of the religious folks in this country are opposed to the so-called “Pro-Religion” policies of this court?

You know your denomination is bonkers when it leaves the National Association of Evangelicals because it considers them a bunch of liberal squishes.

This is an incredibly disturbing story about how Trumpist America is ensuring that our children are never taught the truth about American history, to the point where they are willing to permanently destroy people’s lives based solely on hearsay and social media BS.

Another evangelical denomination locks in its inexorable decline by clinging to a reading of the Bible that ignores modern science and clings to two thousand year old cultural norms that were oppressive at the time and are even more so now.

Crypto is end stage Ponzi. You are literally buying nothing and trying to unload nothing to the next sucker before nothing implodes.

I suspect the Lakers will be looking for a new name for their arena soon. #Enron

John MacArthur and the SBC make unsurprising bedfellows. And when your message is so unChristlike that you’re turning away people in droves, it’s always convenient to blame Satan and say it’s because you’re not compromising with “the world.” But maybe it’s as simple as Jesus having left the building?

MacArthur would claim that I “hate Christ, hate God, hate the Bible and hate the Gospel,” but a gospel that oppresses women, BIPOC communities, and LGBTQIA+ folks is good news to very few. It is certainly not “good news of great joy for all the people.”

That’s the Gospel that I love, because it’s the gospel Jesus brought, and still brings. The Year of the Lord’s favor. All are one in Christ Jesus. Bringing of sight to the blind. Eating with tax collectors and sinners, and giving communion to your betrayer. Today, you will be with me in paradise. As all died in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

Good news of great joy for all the people.

Am I just missing something or is it completely idiotic that the US has to convert its units of measure back and forth with those of the ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD?

And you know what’s worse? I still don’t know how many cups are in a gallon. But hey, obviously increments of 12, or 128, or 5280 are clearly superior to POWERS OF 10.

You know what’s even more idiotic? We’re also the only country in the world unwilling to pass common sense gun laws (like not allowing people to own military weaponry) that are also in place is the ENTIRE DEVELOPED WORLD and which have made mass shootings exceedingly rare in those countries.

But freedom, amirite?

We were definitely better off before we had social media to surface random assholes into our life. Can you believe what that random evangelical pastor from Necksylvania said? How dare that completely unknown state legislator from Neck Dakota make those accusations? And who is this rando on my timeline giving me shit? Beloved, we have enough random assholes in our local community, we don’t need to know about those in the rest of the world.