Evangelism, Empathy, and Christian Nationalism...

[temporal1]

Josh:
Can you explain why banning gay marriage had strong popular support then and the courts overturned the will of the people?

Not only popular support, but historical legal and cultural norms overturned.
It can be comical how all this grand rejection of established law and culture and science is quickly excused/forgotten,
once a “favorable” new+experimental ruling is passed.

THEN, and only then, they go all, “It’s the law of the land!” “How dare you question!”

This being accomplished world-wide.
The ugly truth about powerful+organized organized political blocs/cults. Beware.

[Ken]

Except the culture wars are explicitly being fought against an American Christian culture.

Actually it is the opposite. The culture wars are explicitly being fought by a Christian Nationalist minority against a majority culture (both secular and Christian).

No, they aren't. Some might think I'm fighting the "culture wars" because I oppose some of the cultural changes being foisted on the American public. (An example is the shift to out of wedlock pregnancy becoming the norm.) That doesn't make me a Christian nationalist. I just think it's bad for people to have children out of wedlock and for society and policy to promote/affirm that.

There is no culture war issue that has majority support in this country. They are all about rallying a political base for political reasons.

That is entirely not true. Over 30 states voted to ban gay marriage - many of them via direct citizen appeals at the ballot box, including California's Prop. 8. These were overturned by the courts.

Abortion, all the “anti-wokeness” nonsense, CRT, DEI, anti-gay rights, etc. etc. All of them are minority positions in this country, even among Christians.

Can you explain why banning gay marriage had strong popular support then and the courts overturned the will of the people?

Because it was unconstitutional and we are governed by a constitution

[temporal1]

See?

[Ernie]

Not a lot of evangelism or empathy happening in this thread... A fair bit of Christian Nationalism...

[Bootstrap]

Not a lot of evangelism or empathy happening in this thread... A fair bit of Christian Nationalism...

Thoughts on how we can do better?

[Bootstrap]

Second, you had Paul spreading the gospel to non-Jews across the Roman Empire in far-flung places like modern Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Places where Jews did not live and where Old Testament Jewish law had no meaning and carried no weight, historical, cultural, or otherwise.

But there were Jews in those areas, and Paul usually went first to the synagogues. He did not limit his preaching to the Jews, and also presented the gospel to Gentiles, especially when the Jews rejected his message. The non-Jews of course had no knowledge of the OT, and you're correct that he didn't try to persuade the Romans to follow OT law.

And Paul repeatedly invokes the Old Testament in his teachings. He doesn't carry it over intact, but he never says Jews should stop following it either, does he?

In 1 Timothy, when Paul talks about "the Scriptures", he seems to be referring to the Old Testament.

[Bootstrap]

Quote for the day from the book in the original post:

If Christianity is politics, people can get their politics from somewhere else—and fight and fornicate and get drunk too—all without giving up a Sunday morning. And, in fact, many are doing just that—not only among those who are leaving but among those who are “staying” too.

Political scientist Daniel K. Williams writes, “If ‘lapsed evangelical Protestant’ were a denomination, it would be by far the largest religious body in the South.” Again contrary to the myths of progressive secularization, Williams mines the data to show that these de-churched “evangelicals” are not becoming like Swedes, or even like de-churched northeastern cradle Catholics. Their politics haven’t changed (except by becoming more extreme) and their sense of religious identity hasn’t changed either. The data show that they are liberalizing, to be sure, but only on the specific sins they want to commit—especially when it comes to premarital sex.

“When people leave church, they retain the moralism—at least insofar as it pertains to other people—but lose the sense of self-sacrifice and trust in others,” Williams writes. “They keep their Bible, their gun, their pro-life pin, and their MAGA hat, but also pick up a condom and a marijuana joint and lose whatever willingness they had to care for other people in community.”

Moore, Russell. Losing Our Religion (pp. 37-38). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[Bootstrap]

And one more ...

Crazy wins—in the short run. To gain attention, spectacle is the way to be noticed, which is why ambitious but hollow young men on social media often are looking to be denounced, so that they can gain a niche audience. No one will book a congressman on cable television for negotiating a compromise on an infrastructure bill, but everyone will talk to the politician who says that Jewish space lasers are causing wildfires. And one can certainly raise wheelbarrows full of cash by saying extreme things in extreme ways. Television evangelists have known this for years.

The people who leave the “ordinary” worship of Word and discipleship to find places that “tell it like it is” often define that as whoever can provoke the most outrage. The gospel is a sign of contradiction, not a sign of insanity. The gospel is “foolishness” to the world (1 Cor. 1:27), the apostle Paul wrote, but then wrote in the exact same letter that when outsiders are convinced we are out of our minds because of our own incoherence, that’s our problem, not theirs (1 Cor. 14:23).

Moore, Russell. Losing Our Religion (p. 40). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The 1 Corinthians 14:23 quote comes from this passage:

So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

[Sudsy]

Not a lot of evangelism or empathy happening in this thread... A fair bit of Christian Nationalism...

Thoughts on how we can do better?

I would love to hear what Anabaptist churches represented here are doing regarding evangelism and what kind of results they are seeing. Same goes for non-Anabaptists. Some of us really could use some encouragement and good reports on how the Kingdom of God is growing in our local areas.

Most of my life I have been involved in various denominations that were keen to some degree and had results in reaching the lost. New converts to becoming a Christ follower was a high priority. Everyone was expected to be sharing their faith whenever possible with the unsaved. I don't get the impression here that this is a high priority and suspect some churches have grown cold and indifferent toward reaching out to lost souls.

Currently my encouragement in evangelism comes from a church I follow on Youtube and it is not a local church. It is hard to find a local church actively involved in evangelism. Years ago it was quite well known in our city what Christians were actively soul winning. So what has happened ?

One way is to 'come out from among them' meaning those churches that are not soul winning and seeing growth of new converts to Christ and start up a new local church. Jesus said He will be wherever two or three meet in His name. But there is another way I have seen a local church become more lost soul aware and that was to sit down with a pastor and see where he/she is with regard to evangelism. It may require some shopping around until you find a pastor that will get behind a soul winning emphasis.

One of my experiences was this way and an MB brother left the MB church and took his interests to a small Baptist pastor and this pastor worked with him to get Christians involved in evangelism and the church grew from a small trickle group to overflowing in a short period. I left the Pentecostal church which had grown cold in that area and joined them. Many Christians joined us from other churches and the outreach to unchurched people was the greatest experience I have ever had.

I'm hoping something opens up in my area as I would love to be a part of another 'on fire for God', soul winning group. I'm running out of years. I'll keep you posted if I find one.

[Ernie]

I would love to hear what Anabaptist churches represented here are doing regarding evangelism and what kind of results they are seeing. Same goes for non-Anabaptists. Some of us really could use some encouragement and good reports on how the Kingdom of God is growing in our local areas.

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