The #SocialJusticeStatement is a hard line in the sand for any progressive, justice-oriented Christian who has attempted to work with evangelicals in the past. They will no longer accept your work. They will no longer accept your driving beliefs.
In the #SocialJusticeStatement evangelicals have successfully severed any practical ties to mainstream Christianity and their version of this religion will die with them. I’m flabbergasted and, in a way, a little relieved.
Evangelical Christian pastors who sign the #SocialJusticeStatement are affectively cutting themselves off from the majority of Side B and progressive Christianity. They don’t yet realize what a tiny minority they are in by doing this.
The #SocialJusticeStatement, like the Nashville statement, is a declaration of war. Evangelicals have a lived in a bubble of fake persecution and artificial war with the rest of the world for a very long time, and they are digging deeper trenches.
They refuse, now doctrinally, to acknowledge privilege and oppression.
Christian churches around the world said #BlackLivesMatter and Evangelicals said this:
Christian churches around the world said #ChurchToo and evangelicals said this:
Christian churches around the world said #LoveIsLove and Evangelicals said this:
Christians around the world said “Jesus’ passion was truth, love, and justice“ and evangelicals said this:
Christian churches around the world said “we will not stand for white supremacist apologetics” and evangelicals said this:
The #SocialJusticeStatement is a white supremicists’ wet dream. Edicts handed down from on high now absolve evangelical Christians from examining their own privilege, confronting their place in our social structure, learning or caring about the truth of our culture.
The #SocialJusticeStatement also effectively excommunicates any Christian who believes that social justice is an important tenant of the faith and declares them heretics.
If you’ve noticed, and it’s bugging you, you should know that I’m not going to stop tagging the statement in almost every tweet because, frankly, we’ve been talking about this for too long.
We have known, as we sat in church and heard this exact rhetoric from our spiritual leaders in evangelical Christianity this is what they believed. Those of us who have left of been sounding the alarm for a long time.
But I’ve never seen them put out something this stark, and we all know why they feel they can do it now without losing political and social power over it. We know why.
This administration emboldened Nazis, and it’s now emboldened the churches they attend.
Every time I write about the atrocities ECs commit I get a slew of progressive Christians in my mentions saying “not all Christians.“
I’ve always pushed back. If you share a name and Bible, you share enough common ground to call out the white supremacist in your midst.
I think we’re past that now. These beliefs may not be new but this level of audacity is.
They may not realize it yet, but the #SocialJusticeStatement is a form of self-culling. They’ve cut themselves off from the Christianity that will continue to exist generation from now.
I think it’s time for progressive Christianity to do the same. Loudly denounce them. Use their names. Do not let them in your conferences, in your organizations, or in your pulpits. There is no space to “reach across the aisle“ to white supremacists.
If Christians want their religion to survive, they need to cut this rotting branch, immediately. Be done with evangelical Christianity.
And never elect another evangelical Christian to public office again. Don’t forget this little gem:
When the #TheNashvilleStatement was published we saw an uptick in homeless LGBT youth. All the EC who worship the Second Amendment alongside their Bible will not sit quietly when laws they don’t like are passed.
Why would they? Their leaders just told them they don’t have to.
Christians, if these are “not real Christians“, it’s time to be louder - much louder. Because those of us who left are screaming from the sidelines while you play nice and we can’t continue to do it alone.
I’m not angry at you, but I need to understand how serious this is.
If you can imagine worse than homeless children, start imagining it because upticks in violently racist behavior, legislation that strips protections from oppressed people, and worse are going to be the easily predictable outcome of the #SocialJusticeStatement.
If you see this and have the resources to do so, consider paying a Black women such as @ToriGlass, who tirelessly fights racism and ignorance, and is basically evangelical Christianity’s worst nightmare. She is glorious.
A new church in Spokane and being “dedicated“ in October on the curb outside of our local Planned Parenthood for the purpose of “assaulting the gates of hell“ with worship and street preaching.
One of the primary organizers is Jake Eakin, convicted murderer with a long history of violence.
A glance at his Facebook page shows that he perpetuates the myth of the ”abortion holocaust” which was created out of outrage and a disregard for facts.
Obviously it’s important that people in the Spokane area know to avoid Planned Parenthood on October 24, for their emotional and possibly physical safety. It doesn’t take much Googling to find horrific accounts of protesters attacking/traumatizing people utilizing PP’s services.
This is a story about my finances that does NOT end with me putting my PayPal information out for you.
Just an interesting look into millennial financial nihilism and how the financial difficulties millennials face are making us a pretty fucking resillient generation.
My daughter’s preschool tuition last year was $ X,xxx a month. We were relying on a number of different options to pay it, none of which lasted a whole year, so she ended the year with a four-digit ($ Y,yyy) account balance. Obviously, we can’t enroll her with an outstanding debt
The preschool called me to collect on that $ Y,yyy this week, so I got the lay of the land before calling them back this morning. The person in the Kindercare billing department was very sweet and very kind and just doing her job.
Hey #Exvangelical Twitter and those who follow us - little reminder that most people who leave the church also get shunted to the outsides of their own families by a religious belief that real community only exists in Christ, and that’s excruciating. Be kind to each other today.
Even for those whose families have not deliberately shunned or ostracized them (which happens), there is a painful and obvious disconnect. At family gatherings you sit at a table full of people you desperately want to connect with and can’t think of a thing to say.
Can’t talk politics, because even if they aren’t Trump supporters you’ve never heard the word “Democrat“ come out of a Christian’s mouth without it sounding like they are spitting poison. Can’t feminism for the same reason.
When I was choosing my Evangelical college, PCC was one of my few approved options. It has a pretty decent nursing program, and I was toying with going to school for that, but I knew, even then, that it possibly was the most conservative of all the schools I had access to.
Actually, I’ll have to amend that, Ambassador Bible College was probably way more conservative than PCC, but even we considered them fringe.
I think next week‘s @realreconstruct is going to have to be about fear. #Exvangelical folks are some of the most fearful today because we know what the religious right is capable of. We’ve heard them talk about it for decades. We know the kind of America they want.
Here’s the answer to the question: “What happens when the Christian right succeeds in overturning Roe v Wade?”
They have so much more they want to do.
Marriage equality will be next, followed by outlawing homosexual relationships all together. Re-segregation will be on the agenda at some point.
An early priority will be vilifying any religion that isn’t Christianity and giving Christianity as much political power as possible.