You so succinctly explained my life since 2015. You are not alone in having estranged family and friend relationships, although my friends and I are more like minded; many of them are experiencing friction in relationships, as well. I thought an adjudicated rape charge and 91+ federal and state charges would bring them to their senses. I’m still waiting…
JJR, once you're in that world, that becomes your reality. That's the saddest part of this: that people can't see outside their story to realize how much it is hurting them and other people.
I attended God’s Army Seminary of the Bible from 1972-74 outside Kerman , CA and the few remaining contacts from that period are surely either entrenched in the mire or like Me repulsed And thankful to have been set Free.
John, you wrote: "Even as I despise their theology and oppose their politics and condemn their violence, there is an ember of mercy in the recesses of my heart because we could have been standing in very different places right now."
That ember of mercy--that is what has been burning in my heart. I've mentioned this in previous comments. Among the deceived are two groups of people--those that celebrate the freedom to express their worst impulses while justifying it by saying they're doing God's work; and those who have been brainwashed because they allowed a pastor, a talking head, and their cultural milieu to herd them away from the Truth.
They might still belong to God. They are like sheep that have been rustled. Their minds have been stolen. Yes, we are responsible for our thoughts and actions, but when someone puts a leader with evil intent in the driver's seat of their mind, they're lost.
My heart goes out to them. They are on the cusp of having to make the kind of decision that decent German citizens had to make in the early 1930s. How do we reach them before they are lost forever? How are they different from the average poor oppressed Jew that lived in Jesus' time, who were under the thumb of the religious elite of their time, under the heavy yoke?
Jesus' message to them--the yoke is easy, God loves you, and wants you live abundantly in love and joy--was resisted by the powerful religion of the time. Jesus' message to the Church today is the message He had for the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes in His time: come out of bondage, and let the Truth set you free!
I never thought I'd live to see a day where an obvious lie, with so much evidence against it, has imprisoned the minds of so many people. Never before has the phrase, "The Truth will set you free" been more meaningful. Time to speak to the truth in love.
That need to belong is very powerful. I feel fortunate I've been able to resist that pull when it became apparent I would have to pretend to be someone I'm not. I've been very naive, however, up until the pandemic forced me to step back from regular church attendance.
Now I realize almost every day how one person or another in my past was acting in un-Christlike ways, and at the time I just accepted it, usually without challenging it. (And the few times I did, I was the one who got in trouble due to my frustrated also-un-Christlike response!)
There but by the grace of God I might have gone, too. I’ve had to say goodbye to many friendships and family members since, oh, about 2015. I was incredibly fortunate to have two mentors throughout my youth (and adulthood, to be fair) who modeled Jesus’ universal love and respect for all: My parents.
Ever heard of the Barmen Declaration? The Barmen Declaration was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the delegates to the Synod that met in the city of Wuppertal-Barmen in May 1934, the German Christians had corrupted church government by making it subservient to the state and had introduced Nazi ideology into the German Protestant churches that contradicted the Christian gospel.
From Barth’s Wikipedia page: “He was forced to resign from his professorship at the University of Bonn in 1935 for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler.” Unlike Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was German, Barth was Swiss and, so, was allowed to leave Germany and return to his native country—probably the only reason why he survived. My father studied with Barth at the University of Basel and went on to write his Ph.D. dissertation on the theology of Karl Barth, become an ordained pastor, college professor, and finally a college president. He never lost his faith in what Barth had done—and taught him. Never.
So, one can draw a straight line from Barth’s anti-Nazi stance to my own beliefs—instilled in me by both my parents—since he survived to teach in Basel. Fast forward to 2024. Ninety years later, the Barmen Declaration is equally applicable to American Evangelicalism (the Nationalist kind, that is) as it was to Germany in 1934. That’s a rather sobering realization, and perhaps the clearest evidence that those of us fighting the rise of Christian Nationalism in the US are neither hysterical nor misinformed. The Barmen Declaration—and the fates of Barth and Bonhoeffer—should be a clarion call to all Americans today. We all have the opportunity to model Barth’s and Bonhoeffer’s spiritual integrity and unwavering faith. Every generation, it seems, does. It’s my calling now.
Grace…Mercy….I am working so hard to cultivate grace and mercy towards All the past few years but my greatest challenge is extending grace and mercy for these folks. I have to do it for my spiritual well being and I’ve come a ways but, boy is it hard.
You so succinctly explained my life since 2015. You are not alone in having estranged family and friend relationships, although my friends and I are more like minded; many of them are experiencing friction in relationships, as well. I thought an adjudicated rape charge and 91+ federal and state charges would bring them to their senses. I’m still waiting…
JJR, once you're in that world, that becomes your reality. That's the saddest part of this: that people can't see outside their story to realize how much it is hurting them and other people.
I attended God’s Army Seminary of the Bible from 1972-74 outside Kerman , CA and the few remaining contacts from that period are surely either entrenched in the mire or like Me repulsed And thankful to have been set Free.
Thank you for your endeavors brother!!
John, you wrote: "Even as I despise their theology and oppose their politics and condemn their violence, there is an ember of mercy in the recesses of my heart because we could have been standing in very different places right now."
That ember of mercy--that is what has been burning in my heart. I've mentioned this in previous comments. Among the deceived are two groups of people--those that celebrate the freedom to express their worst impulses while justifying it by saying they're doing God's work; and those who have been brainwashed because they allowed a pastor, a talking head, and their cultural milieu to herd them away from the Truth.
They might still belong to God. They are like sheep that have been rustled. Their minds have been stolen. Yes, we are responsible for our thoughts and actions, but when someone puts a leader with evil intent in the driver's seat of their mind, they're lost.
My heart goes out to them. They are on the cusp of having to make the kind of decision that decent German citizens had to make in the early 1930s. How do we reach them before they are lost forever? How are they different from the average poor oppressed Jew that lived in Jesus' time, who were under the thumb of the religious elite of their time, under the heavy yoke?
Jesus' message to them--the yoke is easy, God loves you, and wants you live abundantly in love and joy--was resisted by the powerful religion of the time. Jesus' message to the Church today is the message He had for the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes in His time: come out of bondage, and let the Truth set you free!
I never thought I'd live to see a day where an obvious lie, with so much evidence against it, has imprisoned the minds of so many people. Never before has the phrase, "The Truth will set you free" been more meaningful. Time to speak to the truth in love.
Ditto. I don’t have a relationship with anyone in that world. It’s impossible. And heartbreaking.
I was raised Southern Baptist, could have easily gone down that rabbit hole, "there but for the grace of God..."
That need to belong is very powerful. I feel fortunate I've been able to resist that pull when it became apparent I would have to pretend to be someone I'm not. I've been very naive, however, up until the pandemic forced me to step back from regular church attendance.
Now I realize almost every day how one person or another in my past was acting in un-Christlike ways, and at the time I just accepted it, usually without challenging it. (And the few times I did, I was the one who got in trouble due to my frustrated also-un-Christlike response!)
It hits many, many of our families.
There but by the grace of God I might have gone, too. I’ve had to say goodbye to many friendships and family members since, oh, about 2015. I was incredibly fortunate to have two mentors throughout my youth (and adulthood, to be fair) who modeled Jesus’ universal love and respect for all: My parents.
Ever heard of the Barmen Declaration? The Barmen Declaration was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the delegates to the Synod that met in the city of Wuppertal-Barmen in May 1934, the German Christians had corrupted church government by making it subservient to the state and had introduced Nazi ideology into the German Protestant churches that contradicted the Christian gospel.
From Barth’s Wikipedia page: “He was forced to resign from his professorship at the University of Bonn in 1935 for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler.” Unlike Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was German, Barth was Swiss and, so, was allowed to leave Germany and return to his native country—probably the only reason why he survived. My father studied with Barth at the University of Basel and went on to write his Ph.D. dissertation on the theology of Karl Barth, become an ordained pastor, college professor, and finally a college president. He never lost his faith in what Barth had done—and taught him. Never.
So, one can draw a straight line from Barth’s anti-Nazi stance to my own beliefs—instilled in me by both my parents—since he survived to teach in Basel. Fast forward to 2024. Ninety years later, the Barmen Declaration is equally applicable to American Evangelicalism (the Nationalist kind, that is) as it was to Germany in 1934. That’s a rather sobering realization, and perhaps the clearest evidence that those of us fighting the rise of Christian Nationalism in the US are neither hysterical nor misinformed. The Barmen Declaration—and the fates of Barth and Bonhoeffer—should be a clarion call to all Americans today. We all have the opportunity to model Barth’s and Bonhoeffer’s spiritual integrity and unwavering faith. Every generation, it seems, does. It’s my calling now.
The Barmen Declaration is a powerful statement that needs to be shouted from the housetops.
“As I work to resist these people, I need to keep trying to reach them.” Thanks for this, John.
Amen. I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then sums it up for many family and friends.
Well said. My whole life has been like that. Your last sentence raises the big question that’s left-“there but for…” Why me? Or you or any like us?
Why is this grace (God’s or other’s) so inequitably bestowed upon us and not others?
Grace…Mercy….I am working so hard to cultivate grace and mercy towards All the past few years but my greatest challenge is extending grace and mercy for these folks. I have to do it for my spiritual well being and I’ve come a ways but, boy is it hard.