The Idolatry of Christian Trumpism

If there's one person I wish my conservative evangelical loved ones would listen to (instead of cable news talking heads) is David French. He is conservative in his politics, loves Jesus, cares about truthfulness and is a voice of decency and reason. He points us toward a deeper love of God/neighbor and the truth.

For example:

"There is a dramatic difference between:
1) verifying, then reporting;
2) dumping, then demanding others disprove
The first practice is journalism.
The second practice is partisanship -- or perhaps profiteering."

And this:

"I'm noticing a trend from a certain brand of right-wing pundit:
1. Tweet out claim of vote fraud to "seek answers."
2. Don't tweet the answer.
3. Condemn "media" for not empathizing with Americans who distrust the election outcome.
Bad faith from start to finish."

David cares for the Church enough to expose her idols, which is why today he published these words to his brothers and sisters in Christ:

"It’s time for conservative Christian leaders to shed any form of fear and to speak against conspiracies and against slander with the same boldness that many of them spoke for Trump. Again, this isn’t just about “witness.” It’s about justice. It’s about law. It’s about peace."

We Christians need to be diligent about culling the voices that are shaping our loves, listening to a spectrum of good and wise teachers. They shouldn't think just like us either; there is wisdom to be found on both sides of the center line, from conservative Protestants such as David and conservative Catholics such as Ross Douthat to liberal evangelicals such as Michael Wear and Miroslav Volf. And it is good to listen to our black brothers and sisters as well, who have a perspective that we white evangelicals don't have, such as Thabiti Anyabwile, Ameen & Mika Edmondson to name a few.*

(S)he who has ears, let them hear.

*I realize that all my recommendations above are men; I have plenty of wise women that I pay attention to and they will be introduced in future posts.

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