Since it’s come up lately: In my experience, it can be helpful to highlight similarities in the argumentation/justification used to prop up systems of oppression, but not so helpful to compare the nature of that oppression. For example... ..I think it can be useful to highlight how some of the same passages of Scripture (NT household codes) that are used to support patriarchy were also use to support slavery. But I would very be wary of comparing the oppression of American chattel slavery with complementarianism.

1/3 So this is something that has changed for me recently and I honestly don’t know what to do with it...

https://twitter.com/MichaelRWear/status/1035951717643378688

2/3 I feel like I have more in common, in terms of values and worldview, with people of other faiths who seek justice and oppose this administration’s racism, misogyny, and corruption, than with those conservative evangelicals who have embraced Trumpism...

Unpopular Opinion (at least on Twitter): Sometimes people say the “wrong” thing in an attempt to connect and there should be grace for that. Okay, context: Yesterday at the park, a lady was chatting with me about the baby and she asked some questions & made some comments (about childbirth & babies) that would undoubtedly get criticized and mocked here if I shared them...

Thread: Been thinking about this tweet and the conversation that follows, and it’s led to some internal recalibrating regarding how I employ claims of a “consistent pro-life ethic.” Because I’m not consistent...

https://twitter.com/KatelynBeaty/status/1026863597111136258

...Most of is aren’t. Because life ethics are actually way more complicated and uncertain than many of us want to admit. Does being “consistently pro-life” mean I have to be a pacifist? Does it mean I’m a hypocrite if I’m not an organ donor? Must I protest against IVF?

I don’t think it’s overdramatic to call for prayer & support for members of the press. Imitating Putin, the President of the United States is doubling-down on the “enemy of the people” language, overtly declaring war on the free press. This is dangerous & frightening. Resist. Yes, the abuse of migrant children, the threats to healthcare and civil rights, and the rampant corruption are perhaps more serious than this fight with the media, but we’ll never know the truth about those things without a free press. That’s why he’s aiming at them.

Imagine for a moment if the president said “Christians are the enemy of the people.” Imagine if he lied and said millions of Christians are voting illegally and “raping women at rates you wouldn’t believe.” Imagine if he banned Christians from serving in the military... ...Imagine if he pressured the NFL to fire Christian players who prayed before the game and at a rally yelled “drag those sons of bitches off the field!” Imagine if he said at a rally, “If you see a Christian, punch him in the face. I’ll pay the medical bills”...

The Religious Liberty Task Force exists because many white evangelicals have confused sharing the public square with oppression and encountering disagreement with persecution. In fact, one study showed that white evangelical Christians believe they are *more* discriminated against than Muslims, Jews, LGBT people, immigrants, and black people. This is, of course, a fantasy.

Yes! Same. And we need to acknowledge the role of dwindling church attendance. Traditional church isn’t the only way to find community, of course, but for centuries it’s been an important one. That’s a huge cultural shift that we wave off at our own expense.

https://twitter.com/katecbowler/status/1023979496234344450

This is not to say everyone needs to “go to church.” It’s not to dismiss pervasive injustices & painful stories of exclusion that explain why so many leave. I just think this is an unspoken, unexplored reality about leaving church that a lot of us post-evangelicals don’t name...

That WaPo story about the small town Southern church is a hard one to read because I could drive down the street to any number of churches in this town and hear the same racist comments. These are not anomalies sought out by biased reporters; these attitudes are pervasive. We’ve been driving an hour to church, but this is getting harder with kids. There’s honestly nowhere else to go. It’s tough.

Motherhood has powerfully reinforced for me the significance of the fact that when God was most vulnerable - in the womb, nursing at the breast, as a child, at death - God was wholly entrusted to the care of women. I find that frighteningly profound. When this baby is “milk drunk,” she is completely relaxed, eyes closed, mouth open in a slight smile, chubby arms resting above her head in a posture of complete surrender. To imagine God like that? To imagine God waking in the night with hungry screams? Takes my breath away.

I’d say sometimes building walls is good. The Bible is a book of wisdom,
and wisdom is situational. “There is a season for everything,” the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “a time to build and a time to tear down.”

https://twitter.com/soapergem/status/1018822969055989760

Just because it was wise for Nehemiah to construct a wall in Jerusalem doesn’t mean it’s wise for Trump to construct a wall at the border. Just because something happens in the Bible doesn’t make it universally moral or wise...

He’s joking about sexual assault. He’s mocking every woman who has survived sexual assault, including his own victims.

https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1015040130405449728

And honest to God, when people like @ericmetaxas, @JerryJrFalwell,
& company inevitably leap to his defense, I can’t help but wonder why they’re so invested in normalizing this grab-em-by-the-pussy-and-laugh-about-it sexual ethic. Watch out for men like that.

Every now and then a bunch of pro-life publications try to tell me and everybody else what I believe about abortion. They are lying. This post sums up my views well if you care about the truth: rachelheldevans.com/blog/pro-life-… P.S. Noting that an abortion ban would disproportionately affect poor communities of color, and calling Trump-supporting pro-lifers to a more holistic & consistent ethic on racial justice in light of that, is not “arguing for eugenics.” I thought that was obvious.

Today I have been accused by high-profile conservatives of promoting eugenics because I wrote a thread arguing that since abortion disproportionately affects poor communities of color, pro-lifers must reject Trump’s racist views & policies to be believable & consistent... ...I am not advocating eugenics. Anyone familiar with my work knows that. I am pro-life in my convictions, though my views on the legalities of abortion are complex, evolving, and outlined in more detail elsewhere...

Three things. 1. If you’re using the Bible to try and control your children with shame and fear, you’re doing it wrong (both parenting and biblical interpretation)...

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2. Jesus is the ultimate “Anointed One” who responded to rebellion with “Father, forgive them.” Then he quashed that rebellion not through violent revenge but through his own death & resurrection. Either Jesus is the final word on this, or his work is insufficient. #Theology101

Many American Christians (especially those from anabaptist traditions like Mennonites) do not pledge/stand because of religious conviction. Should they be forced to do so? Told to leave the country if they don’t? Or is forced homage to the Empire reserved for minorities?

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If the Religious Right/ Trump’s evangelical base actually cared about religious freedom, they would oppose this. (Spoiler alert: They don’t.)

Thread: For everyone saying we should consider “they’re not human; they’re animals” in context: The CONTEXT is an administration that routinely uses dehumanizing language to describe immigrants. The CONTEXT is crowds booing at the mention of Hispanics at Trump rallies.. ...The CONTEXT is the administration’s plan to separate immigrant children from loving & capable parents just to make a point,
and to put those children in warehouses or “in foster care or whatever”...

[Thread.] My mentions are now full of stories of women survivors who, because of "complementarian" teachings like those of Paige Patterson of the SBC (a man, btw), were discouraged by their pastors from seeking safety from an abusive husband.... Each one of these survivors is so courageous - true women of valor. (And these are just the ones who have survived, the ones who are free to speak.) Many tell me they were ostracized from their church when they finally left. Y'all, I've heard this story *hundreds* of times....

I’ve seen this quote a lot, but it strikes me as false equivalency. The overwhelming evangelical support for Trump, and the bad theology behind that support, is what’s at issue. Opposing white nationalism, misogyny, & corruption isn’t just as bad/“polarizing” as supporting it.

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...Not to mention the fact that this “polarization” isn’t new. Evangelicals of color have been speaking against the white church’s alignment with religious nationalism for years and years. The election revealed fault lines; it didn’t create them.

#walkupnotout asks students to take responsibility for the mental health of their classmates, suggesting that school shootings are *their fault* for not being "nicer." It's victim-blaming. Stop it. It's baffling to me that people think that instead of making it harder for a troubled teenager with a history of violence to get his hands on an AR-15, we should just tell students to "be nice" and hope he doesn't shoot them. Good grief.

Since we're talking so much about white evangelicals and Trump these days, a short thread.... One of the most common questions I get from non-evangelicals when I'm traveling is, "How in the world do you explain evangelical support of Trump? You grew up in that world. Explain it to me. I'm baffled." They are asking sincerely.