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quote
'How Did We Get Here?' A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump
January 13, 20215:08 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
RACHEL MARTIN
TwitterFacebook
As fallout continues from the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, has a message for his fellow evangelicals: it's time for a reckoning.
Evangelicals, he says, should look at how their own behaviors and actions may have helped fuel the insurrection. White evangelicals overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the 2020 election.
In the interview, Stetzer also laments that evangelicals seem to have changed their view of morality in order to support Trump.
"So I think we just need to be honest. A big part of this evangelical reckoning is a lot of people sold out their beliefs," he says.
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You write that Trump has burned down the Republican Party. What has he done to the evangelical Christian movement?
If you asked today "what's an evangelical?" to most people, I would want them to say: someone who believes Jesus died on the cross for our sin and in our place and we're supposed to tell everyone about it. But for most people they'd say, "Oh, those are those people who are really super supportive of the president no matter what he does." And I don't think that's what we want to be known for. That's certainly not what I want to be known for. And I think as this presidency is ending in tatters as it is, hopefully more and more evangelicals will say, "You know, we should have seen earlier, we should have known better, we should have honored the Lord more in our actions these last four years."
Should ministers on Sunday mornings be delivering messages about how to sort fact from fiction and discouraging their parishioners from seeking truth in these darkest corners of the Internet peddling lies?
Absolutely, absolutely. Mark Noll wrote years ago a book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and he was talking about the lack of intellectual engagement in some corners of evangelicalism.
I think the scandal of the evangelical mind today is the gullibility that so many have been brought into — conspiracy theories, false reports and more — and so I think the Christian responsibility is we need to engage in what we call in the Christian tradition, discipleship. Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life." So Jesus literally identifies himself as the truth, therefore if there ever should be a people who care about the truth it should be people who call themselves followers of Jesus.
end quote
We've known for the span of the past 4.5-5 yrs of the sell out of morality and values as the White Evangelicals chose Trump over the Principles and Truths of Jesus and the Values that the Bible Teaches.
History, tells us... this did not just start with Trump, but it certainly reached a all consuming level. Truth of History, not generally taught in schools or Evangelical Churches, is that White Evangelicals embraced racism all the way back to using the Bible to try and appease their minds to maliciously try and justify their support of slavery, and carried that forth for the past 156 yrs of supporting elements of Racial Segregation which they fought to sustain for 100 yrs, and for the past 56 yrs have continued to see and embrace racial bias in both ideals and policies as well as within their dogma to continue to embrace White Nationalist ideology and Confederacy Era Racial Biases and Confederacy Era Agenda.
Lyndon B. Johnson, understood laws couldn't accomplish everything. But he also knew that only the law could anchor change, and set hearts and minds on a different course. And a lot of Americans needed the law's most basic protections at that time.
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
'How Did We Get Here?' A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump
January 13, 20215:08 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
RACHEL MARTIN
TwitterFacebook
As fallout continues from the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, has a message for his fellow evangelicals: it's time for a reckoning.
Evangelicals, he says, should look at how their own behaviors and actions may have helped fuel the insurrection. White evangelicals overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the 2020 election.
In the interview, Stetzer also laments that evangelicals seem to have changed their view of morality in order to support Trump.
"So I think we just need to be honest. A big part of this evangelical reckoning is a lot of people sold out their beliefs," he says.
-----------
You write that Trump has burned down the Republican Party. What has he done to the evangelical Christian movement?
If you asked today "what's an evangelical?" to most people, I would want them to say: someone who believes Jesus died on the cross for our sin and in our place and we're supposed to tell everyone about it. But for most people they'd say, "Oh, those are those people who are really super supportive of the president no matter what he does." And I don't think that's what we want to be known for. That's certainly not what I want to be known for. And I think as this presidency is ending in tatters as it is, hopefully more and more evangelicals will say, "You know, we should have seen earlier, we should have known better, we should have honored the Lord more in our actions these last four years."
Should ministers on Sunday mornings be delivering messages about how to sort fact from fiction and discouraging their parishioners from seeking truth in these darkest corners of the Internet peddling lies?
Absolutely, absolutely. Mark Noll wrote years ago a book called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and he was talking about the lack of intellectual engagement in some corners of evangelicalism.
I think the scandal of the evangelical mind today is the gullibility that so many have been brought into — conspiracy theories, false reports and more — and so I think the Christian responsibility is we need to engage in what we call in the Christian tradition, discipleship. Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life." So Jesus literally identifies himself as the truth, therefore if there ever should be a people who care about the truth it should be people who call themselves followers of Jesus.
end quote
We've known for the span of the past 4.5-5 yrs of the sell out of morality and values as the White Evangelicals chose Trump over the Principles and Truths of Jesus and the Values that the Bible Teaches.
History, tells us... this did not just start with Trump, but it certainly reached a all consuming level. Truth of History, not generally taught in schools or Evangelical Churches, is that White Evangelicals embraced racism all the way back to using the Bible to try and appease their minds to maliciously try and justify their support of slavery, and carried that forth for the past 156 yrs of supporting elements of Racial Segregation which they fought to sustain for 100 yrs, and for the past 56 yrs have continued to see and embrace racial bias in both ideals and policies as well as within their dogma to continue to embrace White Nationalist ideology and Confederacy Era Racial Biases and Confederacy Era Agenda.
Lyndon B. Johnson, understood laws couldn't accomplish everything. But he also knew that only the law could anchor change, and set hearts and minds on a different course. And a lot of Americans needed the law's most basic protections at that time.
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."