"For American Evangelical Christians there is no more a severe charge than the judgement that one has abandoned the gospel."--Wes Markofski in New Monasticism and the Transformation of Evangelicalism
Too Many Christian Evangelicals becoming Fuzzy Thinking and Moral Relativism in 2016--Better Christian Education (and education for all) Needed!!
by Kevin Stoda, in Oman (but viewing the American Evan gelical landscape)
Some years ago, I met a wonderful Australian missionary whom I shared my concerns for the worrying trends and fates of my militaristic and nationalistic evangelical Christendom friends in my homeland, the USA. The man nodded, sighed, and shared that origininally, i.e. 4 or 5 decades ago, the evangelicals in Asia, the Middle East and Australia had looked to American evangelical christians for leadership, but for many years since, they no longer look toward American evangelical churches for models or even for leadership.
Whether on the progressive sid e or the conservative side of the evangelical christian perspective, christians have been talking about the need to restore logic to the narration that evangelical christians share with the world, especially now in 2016. Until now, the majority of Christian evangelicals in the rank and file have ignored it--as have their TV fare from CBN and their ilk--especially over the past decades, i.e. when it was evangelicals who helped push the non-sensical invasion of Iraq in 2002-2003, even though no just war theory could be used to support such an unwarrented and awful action by a state in the name of a christian people who could not get their president, vice-president and congress to avoid the mess we have been in for so many years. I live in a fragile Middle East--and Islam has not been the sole problem here by any means for people living safer and just lives. Endless wars are what evangelical christians provided in the time of W. Bush and appear to be in vogue again now in the time of Trump and his illogical Cheney-wannabee-Mike Pence.
American Christian Logic for God and the Bible must become the main or current issue in the evangelical in the wake of the fact that 4 in 5 people, who claim to be evangelical christians, voted for Donald Trump this election in th USA in November 2016 .
From this fact alone, it appears that relativistic moral theories on behavior are dominating a sector of the Evangelical Christian Churches in America--- a sector which once upon-a-time used to once pride itself on knowing the Bible. These disciples of Evangelicalism were supposed to train each other as to how to logically live out their faith here and now on Earth. Instead they go to bed at night trying to tell their children that voting for a rapist is good and voting for a woman who raised her daughter well is OK, i.e. now that Post-Modern Relativism Dominates their Muddled and illogical minds.
Upon noting publically--i.e. right after the election of Donald Trump earlier this month--that I was proud to be among the 20% of evangelical christianswho did not follow like little Fuhrer- fanatics the mass media manipulations and messages of this world purporting all the relativist nonsense that all politicians are basically the same.
I proudly voted for a woman for president (Jill Stein) because I felt that the platform of the Green party is more in line with how God expects us to treat our neighbors, women, our environment (or climate )and the world's refugees. Because of non-fuzzy logic, I could say that I was setting a better christian example by voting for her than by voting for more of the evil-sameness of a Hillary Clinton Administration or a Neo-Dick Cheney administration under Donald Trump.
A week later, an evangelical christian Mennonite (former Seminarian from Indiana) whom I have known from my college days, wrote to defend his christian fellowship and the illogical but dominate world view eminating from his supposedly Christian Indiana community that these days that (1) all politicians are liars and not to be trusted anyway.
By stating this, my evangelical friend was implying: (2) It was really no crime nor sin to vote for a man who stood throughout his whole life-style across 5 to 7 decades as a racist, a woman-abuser, an abuser of laborerers, and as someone who tells Christians it is OK to turn their backs on refugees of war--wars that the USA helped created with Christian Coalition help back in 2001-2003.
In short, Christian Evangelical leadership and those living and working in the evangelical movements have fallen badly.
Perhaps this mass-ducking of responsibity in the 2016 election, in terms of really trying to promote christian living (i.e. through voice and vote), is not as bad as the Sodomites who found no crimes in sins of ooutragesou, sex, bad language-- and abandoning the poor, needy or those in refuge. On the other hand, perhaps it is.
Tony Campolo told Bill Clinton's prayer breakfast back in 1997--perhaps such voting in America is sinking to the level of Sodom. American christians were outraged. Since that time, I have seen things only getting worse among the masses of evangelical christian communities I have seen active in big American media (especially the wealthiest Christian media networks) over these past two decades.
Wes Markofski in New Monasticism and the Transformation of Evangelicalism wrote some time ago, "For American Evangelical Christians there is no more a severe charge than the judgement that one has abandoned the gospel."
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