Evangelical – Postchristianity

God is Weak: If The Abortion Saga has Revealed One Thing…

Why would anyone want to be a part of an institution that can only unify behind controlling women?

I left the faith not because I wanted to go rape, murder, or have premarital sex and smoke the occasional organic matter. I didn’t do it so I could have an abortion. I didn’t leave the church because of its unholy matrimony with the Republican party which is a morally bankrupt and corrupt institution (although this one is true).

I left the faith because God is weak.

When I fell for Jesus, when I committed my life to it, I believed in a powerful God, one who could create galaxies and tapestries of life with a wave of his hand. I would rather believe in no god than a weak one; nothing proved how weak God is as much as what happened last week.

Why I am Leaving the US

A lot is pulling me toward England, even more pushing me away from America.

When I was young I remember watching episodes of “20/20”, journalists were exposing stories of toys that were choking kids. After one kid died and the 20/20 show aired, the toymaker recalled all of their products and released a new one safer for babies.

I recall having the feeling that adults would change their practices and lose a ton of money, all to save the life of one child; it was too costly for a company to appear ok with even one child dying.

The Farce of the “Home Defense” Argument: Gun Advocates Want Much More Out of Their Guns

Both the Rittenhouse and the Arbery cases show that gun rights people believe the second amendment authorizes them to do much more than shoot a home intruder.

In both cases the perpetrators BROUGHT their guns to the people they wanted to shoot. In both cases when a scuffle ensued DIRECTLY AS A RESULT OF THE PRESENCE OF A GUN, they shot their weapons and killed unarmed people.

In both cases they used self defense as justification for their actions.

Multiculturalism and Sexual Assault Decimated My Conservative, Southern Christianity

My upbringing was idyllic, insular, homogenous, evangelical, Southern, and Christian.

School and church were the same place 6 days a week, 99.9% white, upper middle class, and the messaging was clear and consistent: Follow the script; We are disgusting, sinful, nothing; The ONLY good in us is because of God, and without Jesus we are horrible and condemned to hell. A real wham to the ole self esteem that one.

I babysat and wrote letters to raise support and pay my way on white savior mission trips. I had a purity ring and virginity pledge, I protested out on the street for the pro-life movement and cheerfully participated in fundraisers for the cause. I honestly enjoyed it all.

A New Faith: After Christianity

I thought I needed Christianity in order to be moral, in fact it was the other way around: my innate morality drew me to Christianity. Now, post-christianity, what do I do with it?

When I left my faith I didn’t immediately start raping and murdering and punching babies in the face… as I suspected I would when I was an Evangelical.

Sure, I started drinking more (well, anything is greater than zero), but significant parts of my Christian life remained: My priority of human connection/community, the belief that it’s a moral obligation to look after the poor and the alien… I still raise above all kindness, thankfulness, self-sacrifice…

Hence the term: Deconstruction. It means taking apart your faith, discarding the parts that don’t work, and repositioning the ones that still do.

Don’t Waste Your Anger Fighting the Symptom Rather Than the Disease

The only thing that can keep white privilege in check is people of privilege

Applause for the unified anger from the American public. I see folks from all political and religious backgrounds unanimously condemning violence against black men.

But it’s a mistake to think that convicting the police officers who killed George Floyd will solve the problem. The questions we ought to be asking: What is behind the violence? What led us to this point?

It’s not just plain old racism, there is a monster that feeds it from behind the scenes, a monster we let grow like a cancer; the true enemy is when the privileged don’t stand up to white privilege.

It is this passive allowance that attempted to lynch Christian Cooper in Central Park. When we leave privilege unchecked it emboldens white people to become the vigilantes who lynched Ahmaud Arbery in broad daylight. When we are too afraid to speak against white privilege we press our knee down on George Floyd’s neck, staring into the camera without remorse.

*It’s stunning that the police officer looks so calm as he tortures and murders*

The True Plague in the United States is the Cult of Stupidity

The true threat to the US is not Covid19, it’s the fact that members of the Cult of Stupidity are in charge of solving it.

It’s a bold statement: stupidity is worse than the Coronavirus Pandemic. Yup, Covid19 is bad, and I don’t mean to diminish how deadly it is, but there is a more nefarious character: the Cult of Stupidity, fueling the virus’ growth and killing far more Americans than poorer less educated countries… and it’s all of us, even non-members, who are paying tribute.

The Worship of the Dumb

Trump’s briefing where he suggested that injecting disinfectants may cure Covid19 reveals much more than a single man’s stupidity. There is a greater epidemic that permeates our society, a celebration of stupidity that ascends such a man to such power.

Anti-vaxxers, climate deniers, Trump defenders, Flat Earthers, these are all movements of people who harden their own stupidity when faced with hard evidence… Trump is merely a symptom of the Cult of Stupidity phenomenon.

An Open Letter to my Christian Friends. Your Silence is Getting Louder

“Your silence as a believer is tacit support.”

Friend,

I have a question for you. I hope our years together in the faith would bring you to honour me with considering this plain question… although it may make you uncomfortable. I am deeply troubled by the diseased state of Christianity right now, I’m hoping that you can illuminate how it got here.

Tell me if there is any validity to this perspective that I hold: radical religiosity is dangerous. It leads to all sorts of harmful events from the Crusades to 9/11. But extremism is only half-fueled by radical/violent belief… the other half comes from moderates standing by and feeding the flames with their silence.

The rise of Donald Trump is particularly on the shoulders of the Christians, and despite scandal after inept scandal, the unshakable support of the church allows him to cling to power. As the impeachment process grinds on via a mountain of evidence, I ask you: Why have you remained silent?