The Day My Old Church Canceled Me Was a Very Sad Day (by David French)

If the comparison were just "not exact" I would've given it a pass. You can't just put all of that on Trump. Samuel's warning was just as valid for the "good" kings as it was for the "bad" ones.

For example, Solomon was the greatest king in Israel's history but, after his death, the people asked his son to lighten the burden that he had laid on them so, basically, he was a tyrant.

 

A lot to unpack here. But let me at least address the last line. It is not my intent to "accuse the brethren" many veing my own family and close friends that agree with you.

I am drawing attention to the fact that we seem to think God needs our earthly votes in some way, like Israel seemed to think they needed.
earthy rule.

My guess is God might bless us more for resisting the proud men rather than voting for them.

 

So to recap, David French voluntarily and very publicly left the PCA because it was teeming with racists. But he wasn’t so bothered by it that he could resist returning to the denomination’s primary meeting to lecture on “polarization.” Then he was uninvited thanks to astute Christians quoting French’s own polarizing words.

 

When did your friend have to leave the PCUSA? They approved ordaining homosexual in I think 2011, and accepted homosexuals as members well before that.

 

I would agree with you and say God does not need our earthly votes in any way whatsoever. I think the idea here is stewardship. God did not need any of the servants he gave talents to either, but he did require each servant to give an accounting for what each did with the talents given to them. You have the right to vote because God gave you that right. On the day of judgment we are judged for our stewardship over many things that have been given to us by God.

Jeremiah 29:7 gets close to the right motivations for voting IMO:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
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This gets closer to the truth of what motivates me in voting. This is not my home. It is not a Christian country. It is a pagan country in many respects, dooming it to eventual destruction at some future date, but I am to seek the welfare of this country. Certainly, I do not want Trump to be my POTUS, if I seek the welfare of the country. However, he is far from the worst alternative if one examines these things from a biblical lens, and considers that we have a 2 party system.

I think a person can have a 3rd party mentality or a 2 party mentality and vote in a way that pursues this end. The motive to pursue the welfare of the country, on the basis of a Christian worldview, is what truly matters.

 

I am not sure that message made it to all parts of Tennessee. Also, just because an organization votes on something, does not mean all members suddenly buy in to it. That would be more of a cult than a religion.

That said, to answer your question, it was before 2010.

 

At what point when you see so many of your brethren go down a dark path does one question the path in the first place? If most conservative Protestants think Trump is the answer, and people like David French must be outcast and ridiculed, should the belief system that got them there come into question?

 

He was paid to stir up hate against the church. He will pay for it eventually.

 

No.

 

Not sure what you are doing there, and technically a violation of board rules, but I don’t really care.

 

It was supposed to be satire, but is now Orwellian newspeak. Guaranteeing access to IVF is attacking “religious freedom”.


Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) pushed that argument, too, saying he supports IVF but not the Democrats’ bill.

“The Democrat bill is not about IVF, it’s about repealing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” Hawley claimed to TPM. “It seems to me like there’s some other agenda,” he intoned, “It’s like an anti-religious agenda at work.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also echoed that sentiment when asked about the bill.

“The [Democrat] bill very deliberately attacks religious liberty and forces people and organizations that have their own religious objections to IVF to participate,” Cruz told TPM. “That’s not right. What we should do is protect IVF for anyone who wants it, but we shouldn’t force it on people who have religious objections to it.”

 

What the UMC church I attended was like …

 

IVF is in trouble. The highest policy making body in the United States has condemned it. Those who oppose the right of the Southern Baptist Convention to set national policy as an exercise of their religious freedom, implemented by force without democracy, are obviously hostile to religion

 

Wait. What? You asked a question. I answered.

My answer was "No."

 

Oh wait i see it now. I had copied something to look up for an employee PTO request (he is a DJ needing to travel to an award show) and somehow pasted it into your quote. No idea how that happened. My apologies. I will correct it.

That is bizarre.

 

I didn't have any church cancel me, I cancelled the church. The Southern Baptist Church, to be exact. Having been raised as a Baptist fundamentalist, the cancellation was a day of liberation.

I see where the Southern Baptist Convention just voted down the notion of allowing women to be pastors. Why? Because if the Bible says that women are second-class citizens, then, by God, they are second-class citizens!

 

In Tim Alberta‘s book The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory, he describes the meeting he had with French along with Russell Moore and David Darling. They concluded those evangelicals on the “dark path,” as you describe it, represent about 15% to 20% of evangelicals. That means that 80% to 85% of evangelicals are not like that.

I don’t know what you mean by thinking “Trump is the answer.” There is an election with two main candidates. You have to pick one of those two, or else vote third-party or abstain, as I will. Most of people I know who will vote for Trump would not consider it appropriate to treat French is an outcast.

 

Perhaps 15-20%, but obviously the presence of that minority was so overwhelming French decided to leave.

I suspect it depends on the church. I’m guessing more than 20% believe in Trump and look down on dissenters but aren’t so bold as to demand ex communication.

 

She was 12. The hashtag. Megachurch Trump advisor, returned to ministry 18 years ago after admission.

My Church has done the same. Hopefully we are past thought though there are some disturbing New Orleans accusations percolating, as yet unconfirmed. Still this is disturbing