This month marks three years since the world crashed in on me.
Not the whole world. But the cornerstone of my world that is the church.
Many of us felt the temblors in 2016 as we watched many in our evangelical world excuse and even embrace an abusive man as president in the name of political power. In hindsight, I see now that acceptance of abuse had been going on for a long time in the contemporary church, which may be why so many couldn’t understand why tolerance of this abuser was such a big deal to some of us.
But 2016 opened my eyes, as it did for others. As I started to see, I started to listen.
In April of 2017, I posted a question to abuse survivors on my Facebook wall. The responses created such an unexpected avalanche that it turned into an article at Christianity Today titled “Ten Things Sexual Assault Victims Want You to Know.” A few months later, following the revelation of longtime, widespread abuses by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement took off, soon followed by its sister hashtag, #ChurchToo.
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In January of 2018 I sat in my hotel room watching the video of abuse survivor Rachael Denhollander’s powerful testimony at the sentencing of her abuser, Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics national team doctor. Then, in May of 2018, in another hotel room, while attending a conference — ironically, on the subject of women and the church — I awakened early in the morning to new details about yet another case of abuse cover-up that was unfolding.
Angry and afraid, I set out that morning to a meeting and the conference. But I didn’t make either one. Instead, I stepped into a crosswalk where, until just before it hit me, I didn’t see a bus coming.
I still can’t unsee what I saw in that moment.
Nor can I unsee so much more that I’ve come to see since then.
I believe now that I needed to go through the accident in order to understand what happens to victims of abuse and how trauma works. I thought I had understood, but I did not.
The conference I missed went on as scheduled. One of the women attending — Kerry Hasenbalg, a stranger to me — was so moved by the details of my accident that she awoke in the middle of the night in her hotel room and was prompted by the Holy Spirit to search the Bible for what it says about each of the bones that had been broken.
My new friend’s anagogical reading of the Scriptures in those early hours, which she later shared with me, follows a tradition commonly used by medieval Bible commentators, including St. Augustine. The 20th century writer Flannery O’Connor describes this approach as “a way of reading nature,” an ability “to see different levels of reality in one image or one situation” that can allow us to see and participate in the work God is doing around us.
The Scriptures tell us that life is in the blood, and blood is encased in the bones. When many core bones are broken, as mine were, life is hindered from flowing properly through the body. A broken pelvis symbolizes the broken gateway for fruitfulness. The shoulder is associated in the Bible with power, and Ezekiel prophesied against Egypt for oppressing the Lord’s people by tearing open their shoulders and wrenching their backs.
The ribs are the container for the heart and the lungs, the breath of life and the heart of God, a reminder that woman, made from the rib of Adam, needs men to be part of healing the brokenness of the church. Such brokenness can occur in many ways.
In my case, the brokenness was caused by a bus, a vehicle that moves the masses, reflecting the way women have been run over by systems and institutions. These anagogical readings pointed to how the bride of Christ needs intentional and careful healing — re-membering, re-habilitating, and re-presenting to both heaven and to earth.
For Augustine, to remember is to gather up together all that we know, experience, imagine and dream. To re-member — or re-gather — those who have been broken in or by the church is — literally and symbolically — to remember who and what the church truly is.
Before the accident, I hadn’t thought much about spiritual warfare since decades before, when I attempted to read but couldn’t get past the first five pages of Frank Peretti’s “This Present Darkness.”
These days I think about spiritual battles a lot.
I think about the mysterious stranger in the Book of Genesis who wrestled with Jacob through the night. When the stranger could not overpower Jacob, he wrenched Jacob’s hip from the socket, but then blessed him, too.
Like Jacob, I can say, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
Like Jacob, I am left with pain that prowls around my hip, coming and going, taking me by surprise every time, like a bus bearing down on me from out of nowhere. The pain always reminds me of the greater spiritual pain in the body — not only my body, but in the body of Christ. I think especially of the pain of those who have been abused and have yet to receive the blessing of the justice and reconciliation that heal.
Like Jacob, I don’t know if I am — or we in the church are — wrestling with man, with angels or with demons. Or all three.
But the wrestling gives me hope. As hard as it is to see the deeds of darkness come to light, there is solace in knowing that these secret sins are being revealed and that in being revealed are losing some of their power. The wrestling reveals, too, who is for the victims and who is not, who is being deceived and who is doing the deceiving.
While I was writing this essay, the pain came back.
In the midst of it, I had a dream that I was fighting with a demon who was trying to attack a beloved, vulnerable friend. The demon grew more vile and disgusting as the dream went on, transforming from shadow to spirit and, finally, to flesh and blood, when I could finally grab its carnal arm. I held it tightly to bring it down.
And in the dream, I was angry, but not afraid.
Karen Swallow Prior is research professor of English and Christianity and culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Before that, she was a professor of English at Liberty University. Her most recent book is On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life in Great Books.
This piece was originally published in Religion News Service.
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112 Responses
I appreciate the emphasis of the article highlighting the horrors of sexual abuse, however to mention only Trump, and not Biden or previously Clinton makes you sound like a card carrying Democrat, and me sounding like a Trump supporter for pointing out the claims of sexual abuse by women against Biden and Clinton.
I thought you may have mentioned the rampant sexual abuse and cover up in the Roman Catholic Church against children and nuns and not just the sexual predators uncovered in the evangelical churches.
Yes, exactly. How much abuse did Clinton perpetuate? And then when the tape of bill’s wife came out, explaining how she defended the rapist of a child. I hope we won’t be reading too much by this writer.
“how she defended the rapist of a child”
Important context is that she was a public defender, and she was assigned the case.
The Constitution guarantees every accused the right to a lawyer, no matter how reprehensible their alleged crime.
You can still disagree, but you should not leave out the context.
Yes, she was a public defender. But does that mean that she should use any trick in the book to help get him acquitted, or make sure that his rights were respected? I listened to the tape. She knew he was guilty. And she laughed about what she did to that little girl in court. I couldn’t believe it until I heard it for myself.
Lawyers do in fact have a fiduciary duty to do everything possible to represent their client, including making sure their rights are respected. That is not the topic of this thread however, so I will not comment further.
For another perspective than the one you have been given, you could read an interview with the prosecutor in the case here: https://www.npr.org/2016/11/03/500480069/the-story-behind-a-campaign-line-did-clinton-laugh-at-a-rape-victim
“perspective than the one you have been given”
I listened to the tape. Several times. I had also read that article, as well as many others. I formed my own perspective. I don’t think there’s any fiduciary duty to destroy a 12 year old child in the manner she did.
Yep, Karen is a card carrying liberal for sure. Definitly not a good place to find biblical wisdom.
I don’t remember the Evangelical church supporting Clinton, or Biden. I think you missed that point.
“Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden.” C’mon, man!
Oh yes!!! Now that you mention it, I think I have heard of them:)
Really? I seem to remember that there were a great many evangelicals supporting both Clinton and Biden.
Do you know any major evangelical leaders that publicly endorsed Clinton or Biden? You and I both know that would spell the end of their ministries. Of course not every Evangelical Christian voted for Trump, but they were a quiet minority, certainly at a national scale.
Thank you for your comment! Was going to leave a similar comment but you said it perfecty..
Very true. Thought the same as I was reading.
It’s a pity that such an important topic has been buried amongst the author’s still seething political bias.
The opening paragraph disempowered her argument, reminding me of the political hysteria and many years of demonising Republicans by leftists. All the while, blind to the serious abuses and shortcomings in their own camp.
This is a reflective essay written by a left wing feminist who brings the oppressed women agenda to the table against the back drop of re-ignited Trump hate. Amidst the generalised notion that all women are victims the author presumably includes women who voted for Trump as coalescing with the abusers.
The picture of using broken bones to teach us a spiritual lesson can easily be used to caricature God as an abuser. Can it not?
However, once the political ideology and anger issues have been put aside there is a genuine and serious issue to be addressed. For far too long abusers within the church have used their positions to harm rather than to heal. To control rather than liberate. To bully rather than encourage. And it isn’t only women who are victims either.
The opening paragraph may have disempowered her argument to YOU, but not everyone refuses to even allow the mention of Trump’s reprehensible sexual behavior.
remind me who did Daniel work for? What did King David do while in office? Shall we even mention the activities of Solomon? leaders and rulers through out history have not been above reproach. as has been stated many times our choice of leaders in this country has been a choice of the lesser of two evils, to not make choice ,is making choice.
Remind me again how Old Testament kings are like elected officials Ron? Do you think we should be governed by leaders with unchecked authority for a lifetime?
But if you insist on the analogy you should remember that God’s judgment on both David and Solomon for their immorality was the loss and breakup of their kingdoms. Don’t leave the endgame out of the story.
The end of your analogy would be the loss and breakup of the United States. If you want to go there, that’s up to you.
Do you believe abortion is reprehensible, too? I ask because that was the primary reason most evangelicals rejected Biden (and Clinton) and voted for Trump. No argument here regarding Trumps godless behavior and treating women like garbage, not to mention the huckster con artist “christians” he surrounded himself with, but that was peanuts and watermelons when it comes to the murder of the unborn.
That, in my mind, was the determining factor in the choice between candidates America had to choose from.
Abortion is not the point of this article, Brian. Sexual abuse is, and that’s why the evangelical response to Trump is relevant.
Unlike you, many evangelical leaders didn’t agree that Trump treated women like garbage. They gave him a mulligan and excused his words and conduct as boys being boys, mere locker room behavior. They looked the other way at his adultery, and consorting with prostitutes and known pedophiles. They had no comment as woman after woman after woman after woman told their stories of sexual aggression and abuse: 26 women alleging acts up to and including rape. Instead, they said “we don’t believe her” and “look over there at that other person”, and many on this thread are still repeating, zombie-like, their words. And they called him, after a full display of conduct that is a stench in the nostrils of God: a Christian.
This is not about who evangelicals voted for, and why.
It is about what behavior evangelicals excused, and why.
well stated !
Good points!
Perhaps I am missing something, but the significant difference between Trump and Biden/Clinton is that neither Biden nor Clinton were embraced by the evangelical church. Trump was. If I recall correctly, Trump got something like 80% of the evangelical vote. So, if you’re writing an article about the church’s response to sexual abuse, and the impact it has on victims, it’s not entirely unreasonable to focus on the abuser the church embraced.
Agreed, Krycheck_2, thank you.
This is painful to read but necessary. In the evangelical world there is another crisis creeping up too ( right now), that will divide and crush if we are not wise. So many “fault lines” around us. May we cling to God, His Word and one another. May repentance and healing come.
And Trump is abusive? That blue dress slip her memory? And what, Biden’s a saint? No shortage of accusers there! Glad she advertised her bias early on- saved me the read. Sick of this. Enough already. Is there an intellectually honest, mature, professional somewhere? Anywhere? Glad this wasn’t your article Julie.
“as we watched many in our evangelical world excuse and even embrace an abusive man as president in the name of political power.”
The evangelical world did not embrace Clinton. They did embrace Trump, which is the author’s point.
They not only embraced Trump. They committed spiritual adultery with an idol of their own making. Yes, many politicians have committed sexual sin, but they have not been welcomed into the evangelical church as a pseudo Savior. Every time I see a shirt that says “Jesus is Lord and Trump is my president” I want to cry. It’s blasphemy.
Lea
Do you think the author makes a great point by deliberately showing her democrat (Trump hating bias) by giving Clinton and Biden a free pass on the issue of sexual abuse, simply because you want your readers to believe that evangelicals have committed a crime against all women of sexual abuse by voting for Trump, instead of in your opinion giving their vote to the democrat candidate regardless of their blatant ungodly policies with regards to life?
For the record I believe a bald eagle ???? could make a better president.
Perhaps she should also have mentioned the sexual indiscretions of JFK in order to satisfy you? How about Grover Cleveland?
The idea that we cannot discuss the failings of a public figure without discussing everybody else is ridiculous.
All it points out to me, is that those of you criticizing this essay basically acknowledge that Trump is a sexually immoral and abusive man. You just try to label the playing field by saying “those other people do it too”, an argument that any Christian knows is zero justification for sin.
In other news, many of us who voted for Trump did so out of a revulsion for the Democratic platform of wholesale abortion rights. Not because he had any sort of appealing character architecture. I’ll answer your next question: I am OK being a one issue voter. And, have you honestly applied any modicum of critical thinking to this discussion – meaning, do you honestly believe that in your church and THE evangelical church – there was an embrace of him as a man versus the opportunity we have to inhabit the political sphere with our support of policy that actually supports Biblical values? I can’t find many Christians I know that are as ignorant as you make them out to be – a media supported caricature – rather, they see through the deception and made a decision as a choice of lesser evils. One has to wonder what some Christians are thinking voting for the Democratic Party. Do they actually think that party, now that it is in power, is not going to consolidate and expand that power? That it won’t actually enact the platform positions it was elected on? Such as: free access to abortion, removing tax exemptions for charitable -read: church – giving, censoring free speech and by that censorship individual freedom, promoting heretical and divisive rhetoric against us as believers and announcing as it did last week that it is time for Christians to stop exercising ‘privilege’? Enhanced tribalism leading to persecution of the church. Wait for it. One has to be intellectually dishonest to deny any of these things are happening.
If, as you say, your support was simply about abortion, you should have no problem discussing Trump’s sexual immorality, sexual perversion, and sexually abusive behavior. Because, as you say, you already acknowledge his lack of “appealing character architecture”. Though I have rarely seen a more minimizing euphemism for what the Bible calls “sin”.
This article is about the evangelical attitude toward sexual abuse and sexual abusers.
I am quite confident I understand the thrust of the article; But thanks for pointing that out, as if you think I have somehow overlooked that point.
No one has any problem discussing Trump’s moral failures and in fact, I could have used more direct terms to describe those. I just chose to employ different words. You decided that my choice indicates some apology for him – I issue no such apology. He can apologize for himself. I have no interest in doing so. The guy is a colossal disappointment. Accusing me of excusing him by mitigating my choice of language – well, that is laughable.
Your focus on Trump appears to reveal that your main point of objection to my comments is him – not the subject of the article. Which is exactly what you say you are trying to remind me of. That’s certainly an interesting conflict of argument. But not unexpected.
Jeff88keys, there is ample biblical precedent for Christians making pacts with what they viewed as the lesser evil, none of it good. Think Jehosephat joining forces with Ahab. If you seriously believe that there is a God somewhere in this picture, then why are you joining forces with what God condemns? Do you not believe he will write the final chapter? Do you not believe that he is greater than whichever political party is in power? No, as with Abraham and Sarah helping God out by having a child with Hagar, you’ve decided to help God out by siding with evil. You should expect comparable results.
Whether or not you liked Trump’s policies, he was an incompetent narcissist who basically drove the country off a cliff. We will be years, if not generations, recovering. He wrecked alliances his predecessors took decades to build. He abdicated America’s leadership role in the world, with China now stepping in to fill the gap. His tax cuts without spending cuts added trillions to the deficit. And once the dust settles and it sinks in just how catastrophic his presidency was, you know who’s going to get blamed for it? Evangelicals who supported him, that’s whom.
Try being wise as serpents and harmless as doves, rather than the other way around.
Your comments are undergirded by a political viewpoint not a biblical viewpoint. But if you want to talk politics, how do you think the trillions being added by Biden are going to work out? And where is your criticism of that? I’ll wait………..
Here is the key difference on racial justice, social justice, health care, etc and abortion. In only one of those issues do the innocent and powerless not have a voice. If you want to quote scripture to support a point then measure it against the actual monstrosity of sin that is being perpetrated. And the rest of these issues pale in significance to abortion. There is no comparison. None.
Since I am a citizen of the United States, and not Uganda, China or Brazil, I have an opportunity to try to influence policy in this country in keeping with what I believe are biblical viewpoints. Exercising that right by voting in a certain manner is actually consistent not inconsistent with the calling I have. Unless you think it is a good idea to vote politicians in who support unrestricted abortion. Which maybe you do. I have no idea.
Try to have an original thought for a change.
Biden at least is attempting to raise the revenue to pay for the spending rather than leave it to future generations, but that’s not the point. The point is that regardless of whether your political views are liberal or conservative, if you are a Christian, making a pact with the devil is not the way to accomplish them. And that’s basically what you’ve done: Make a pact with the devil in the hope of ending abortion.
Now, I don’t think it will work anyway. My predication is that ten years from now, abortion will still be legal. I think your pact with the devil will turn out to be all for naught anyway. I’m unable to think of a single example in Scripture where God honored his people making a pact with the devil. Maybe evangelical support for Trump will be a first in that respect; I suppose there’s a first time for everything.
Pact with the devil…….right.
Your statement that the evangelical world embraced Trump is a media caricature and intellectually dishonest.
Sorry, Jeff, but polls show that white evangelicals were the group that most supported Trump:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/01/white-evangelical-approval-of-trump-slips-but-eight-in-ten-say-they-would-vote-for-him/
Then there are various prominent evangelicals that were vocal in their support for Trump, including Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., and Eric Metaxas.
On what do you base your opinion that the evangelical world did not embrace Trump?
If you define embrace as saying you agree with all the character and moral inferences of a person, then no. If you define embrace it as per the arguments I set forth logically and clearly above, then yes. I am sorry you don’t have enough nuance in your thinking to dissect the clarity in those arguments. But…….not my problem you are blinded.
No, we did not. “Lesser of 2 evils” scenario. And many evangelicals loved Clinton. I lived I. KSP does not factually speak for any of us. Just by Julie posting this, she has gone down quite a few notches. There are others speaking on this same issue more accurately and without their own agenda.
As someone pointed out earlier, the context of her article is the Evangelical church which did not support Clinton. It wouldn’t make sense to talk about Clinton or Biden. That’s a discussion for a different essay. Chill.
There are many in the church who supported Biden. That is a false generalization to say they didn’t. Wake up.
The AP VoteCast survey shows that 81% of White evangelical Protestant voters went for Trump this year, compared with 18% who voted for Biden. The Edison exit polls estimate that 76% of White evangelicals voted for Trump, 24% for Biden.
Supported Biden and Clinton. Amending my comment.
Well, maybe like you, they are also one issue voters but their issue happens to be racial justice. Or ending poverty. Or having a social safety net, or health care. Where is it written that all Christians are political conservatives?
Though in fairness I would say to them the same thing I said to you: It’s never necessary to make alliances with evil if you seriously think there is a God in this equation.
OK – please compare the effect on individuals of the sins of racial justice, or poverty, or social safety nets or health care, to the outcome of those individuals being directly affected by abortion. I’ll wait….
Well, which of them does Scripture devote the greatest amount of attention to? Abortion as such doesn’t even get a mention; you have to derive your conclusion that abortion is sinful from general principles. Economic justice, on the other hand — I can cite a dozen passages on that without even breaking a sweat. Let’s start with comparing Trump’s immigration policy to Jesus’ statement to the goats in Matthew 25 that they were going to hell in part because “I was a stranger and you did not take me in.”
So while I agree with you that abortion is sinful, I’d have to go with the sins to which the Bible actually devotes significant time and space.
So defending the weak and the fatherless is not in the Bible? Ok……right. Sorry. I will use a Sharpie to remove it from my ESV. Thanks for straightening me out……
I said “abortion as such.” The word “abortion” appears nowhere in the Bible, including any of the passages that talk about defending the weak and fatherless. And it’s not because the practice was unknown at the time.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t general principles that apply. But there’s far more in the Bible about economic justice than there is about abortion.
krychek_2, Do you consider the general principle of not murdering innocent people found in the Bible to apply to abortion? The Bible also doesn’t specifically say we shouldn’t murder 1 year olds, 37 year olds, or 84 year olds.
I’m glad you agree abortion is sinful, but your strange argument from silence to try to water down the force of God’s condemnation of the evil of the premeditated killing of a developing person in the womb is pathetic and reprehensible.
Exceptional essay by a believer who sees God in the mysteries of life.
“Exceptional essay by a believer who sees God in the mysteries of life.”
How do you know this radical, left wing feminist is a….”believer”?
Because she has a ……degree…from an university?
As the old Spanish saying goes, “Mas sabe el Diablo por viejo, que por Diablo”
Ignorance is bliss.
Uwe
(Jude 3)
Post Tenebras Lux
Dear Ms. Karen Swallow Prior,
This was a moving and deeply sensitive article for which I want to thank you. Sadly, I think a part of the overall “Sickness unto Death” within all of Christendom is seen in that you shared such a tender part of your heart only for it to be picked apart by the “Confederacy of Dunces”.
You really are someone who is growing into the Flannery O’Connor frame, “Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”
Sad to see this satanic agenda and its left wing lies being propagated by Julie Roys. Every article like this that pushes a false generalized narrative demonizing the entire Evangelical church instead of exposing a clear and specific case of abuse; and every article like this that seeks to disenfranchise Evangelical Christians and treat us like second class citizens by pushing the false narrative that evangelicals are evil for daring to vote for a candidate we believe to be the best choice we have and for daring to participate in our democracy; adds to the growing sense that #churchtoo is not actually about holding abusers accountable but is a front for Satan to advance his political agenda and destroy the church. This article could have been worth reading but the author decided her anti-Christian godless political agenda was more important than her own story. I don’t know if there is a single allegation of abuse against Trump that has ever been proven (I have never seen a single bit of testimony against him alleging abuse) but I know he was impeached twice with entirely false charges in an entirely lawless Kangaroo court process and i know the media and Democrats spent 5 years fabricating and spreading lies about him. If there was a single valid abuse claim against Trump its hard to imagine it wouldn’t stick. I would not think of defending Trump for such behavior if he ever abused anyone and I would not have voted for him if he were an abuser. The comment thread says it all. There is not a single Evangelical Christian defending any abuse that may have been committed by Trump ( so much for your narrative) but there is an awful case of an ostensibly Evangelical Christian defending the Clinton’s for theur abuse. The truth comes.out.
It is sad to see such an important topic–sexual abuse in the evangelical church–derailed by hyper sensitivity around a relevant discussion of the previous President’s own sexual conduct, and the response of evangelicals to it.
I saw nothing anti-Christian or godless in the article.
Lea
Finally you are getting the hang of it. The point many, many commenters have been trying to tell the author and yourself that the article is perfectly acceptable in its context of abuse against women within evangelical circles and this is obviously despised by all reasonable folk.
However when the author kicked off with a democrat liberal one sided hate speech against Trump all credibility in her ability to convey a good message disappeared down the toilet with a flush.
Redact the politics in the opening paragraph and this might have the makings of a good article.
This is a personal testimony of the author’s own reckoning with the tolerance of sexual abuse in the evangelical church. The church’s reaction to Donald Trump is a part of her story.
I saw no “democrat liberal one sided hate speech against Trump”.
I saw no “democrat liberal one sided hate speech against Trump”.
Lea, I am sure you didn’t.
It is clear to all apolitical commenters here that you (like any democrat or Trump hater) can never put to words that Clinton and Biden stand just as accused, of sexual misconduct themselves.
It’s easy to gaslight those who criticize the author for trying to demonize evangelicals for daring to vote for a weak Republican over an even weaker Democrat.
Many evangelicals are deeply disappointed with Trump, but that still won’t cause them to vote for for the even more disappointing candidate and his wayward family.
By the way when I say a bald eagle would make a better president I am referring equally to the last 10 presidents.
I didn’t see anything godless or antichrist in it either—yet I do see a political spirit in some of these comments and people getting bogged down in arguments. That’s sad in it’s own way.
I know I probably wouldn’t fully agree with Ms. Swallow-Prior in some things but in others I do.
We are missing the point, to which she is waking up to. There is a spiritual war against Christ and His People. The enemy likes seeing believers against each other. Sexual abuse is one facet of it. It’s not the only one.
Let us not bite and devour each other with our words, lest we be destroyed.
Christ, awaken and preserve us.
Couldn’t agree with you more, S. There is so much division in the church right now, that has nothing to do with Christ. We need to regain focus and view things from a spiritual perspective.
I just read Ann Applebaum’s “Twilight of Democracy”. In it she explains the appeal of authoritarianism. I think her insights explain what is happening more accurately than anything else. Evangelicals, for decades, have venerated their leaders and sought after the simplicity and certainty that authoritarianism offers – in the church! You can see this through the rise of churches gathered around singular, unaccountable leaders. Just try to hold these leaders accountable and you will suffer the wrath of the followers who have melded their identities with the leader. It was an easy step for evangelicals to transfer their church models to the political arena and vote in an authoritarian leader and then protect him like they protected their pastors. Just like the Israelites who wanted a king and rejected God as king over them, we will get what we want and a little more than we bargained for.
You are out of touch with reality Paul. Evangelicals are the only reason America still has liberty. Our existence and engagement in politics, along with some Catholics and other Christian groups, are what has kept widespread authoritarianism and evil in check.
Discernment, I think authoritarianism can emerge from the political Left and Right. There was Stalin and Hitler, Chavez and Berlusconi. At this time in American history, the specter of authoritarianism is rising highest on the Right. On 1/6, members of the political Right stormed the Capitol in response to the lie the election was stolen, a lie began by a leader on the Right and propagated by media and politicians on the Right. Tomorrow, it could be the Left. Today it is the Right, and white evangelicals are solidly on the Right even to the point of calling the Left “Satanic”, as someone in this thread previously did. The political right in America today is leaning toward authoritarianism, but evangelicals have been leaning that way for decades.
These are interesting thoughts, Paul. I have also long marveled at the tendency of some Christians to repeatedly seek out authoritarian pastors. In my long view of church people from the perspective of a family engaged in full-time ministry and missions, this often seems to be personality driven. One family in my memory repeatedly joined, became hurt by, left, and then found another ostensibly “Christian” group, but all were essentially personality cults with high pastoral control over details of their life like diets, dress, and household spending. Why did they keep making the same mistake?
I also wonder how the emphasis on authoritarian Christianity in the 1970s and 1980s–from the Shepharding movement to the flawed doctrines of “umbrellas” pushed by Bill Gothard–set the stage for the evangelical acceptance of authoritarianism in political leaders as well as religious ones, as you mention.
My pastor-father often said “Bad theology will hurt you”, and he was right.
Applebaum makes a compelling case that authoritarianism is appealing because it promises simplicity in complex times and safety in dangerous times. Taking someone like John MacArthur (who is objectively not accountable to anyone higher than himself in his organizations), you can see how his simplistic certainty regarding many complex issues (COVID, politics, creation, Calvinism, etc…) may be appealing to people who feel as if they can’t handle the complexity. MacArthur has created a little enclave in which his followers can feel somewhat safe from the frightening outside world. The irony is that in order to maintain this control and sense of safety, one must always make his followers feel afraid!
I don’t think Christians grow up being educated regarding their own faith and the history of theology, let alone politics, science, etc… I think we grow up being indoctrinated into our own little groups and being taught we’re “right”. The truth is that orthodox (once again…orthodox) Christianity is actually a really big tent!
“simplistic certainty” This is very helpful, Paul. That’s what those repeat authoritarian-seekers wanted.
I think back to those who willingly submitted their children to the likes of Bill Gothard. What they wanted was the “simplistic certainty” that if they checked off a bunch of boxes in his lists of how-tos, their children were certain to turn out right,
“Twilight of Democracy” is on my reading list. Thanks. :)
Lea wrote:
“Perhaps she should also have mentioned the sexual indiscretions of JFK in order to satisfy you? How about Grover Cleveland?
The idea that we cannot discuss the failings of a public figure without discussing everybody else is ridiculous.
All it points out to me, is that those of you criticizing this essay basically acknowledge that Trump is a sexually immoral and abusive man. You just try to label the playing field by saying “those other people do it too”, an argument that any Christian knows is zero justification for sin.”
You are doing the same FAILURE the author of the article did: omission of ALL politicians guilty of immorality. By ignoring/omitting the Bidens/Clintons etc criminal/immoral behavior, your silence (and the author’s) speak VOLUMES about yourself. Just because Evangelicals chose to vote for the LESSER of 2 evils, it doesn’t mean Evangelicals “embraced” that political candidate. It is a non sequitur. You are making a FALSE accusation based on the FALLACY of assumption. By doing so, you have violated the Commandment “You shall not bear FALSE witness against your neighbor”.
But if you are a Roman Catholic, no biggie; pray to your Rosary, as many times as required, so you can do it all over again.
Trump lives RENT FREE in the NEVER TRUMPERS’ minds.
Uwe
(Jude 3)
Post Tenebras Lux
That’s what I noticed, most evangelicals who voted for Trump saw him as the lesser of two evils. I noticed some very excited for him for the right reasons and then some who I would say were excited about him in the wrong way, but they were a small minority. Most hard core loyal-to-the-person Trump supporters I noticed were not Christians at all.
“That’s what I noticed, most evangelicals who voted for Trump saw him as the lesser of two evils. I noticed some very excited for him for the right reasons and then some who I would say were excited about him in the wrong way, but they were a small minority. Most hard core loyal-to-the-person Trump supporters I noticed were not Christians at all.”
That is just about the best assessment on this article. Many Democrats, including Black, Hispanics, etc, voted for Trump….while they, leftists, etc, called them “white supremacists”.
Uwe
(Jude 3)
Post Tenebras Lux
Yeah the white supremacist label is just as absurd as the evangelicals embracing abuse label
Uwe,
You do realize that some did not vote for either the Giant Douche or the Turd Sandwich in either 2016 or 2020 (like myself). Rather than the lesser of 2 evils it was the evil of 2 lessers. But go ahead be stuck in your binary delusion like 95% of everyone else. At least some of us took the red pill and woke up.
But I guess in your Trump Kool-Aid drinking mind, Never Trumper = Democrat/Liberal/etc
Christians should never raise their hand to evil. If a Christian truly believes both choices presented to them are evil, they can not morally vote for either one. Thanks for pointing that out, CM.
LEA wrote:
“Christians should never raise their hand to evil. If a Christian truly believes both choices presented to them are evil, they can not morally vote for either one. Thanks for pointing that out, CM.”
I dare you to ask Julie Roys to interview all the grown women that were RAPED by Jeffrey Epstein…and his “associates”…..the F.B.I. would be having…another raid…news at 11.
Obviously you haven’t read that part in the Old Testament where God commands the people of Israel to EXECUTE men, women, and children. Yes, the God of the Old Testament, is the SAME God of the New Testament. An astute atheist would have a field day with your posture.
Uwe
(Jude 3)
Post Tenebras Lux
Jeffrey Epstein–close friend of Donald Trump–is not the subject of this article, UWE.
Lea,
There is that. Biden and his son Hunter were not BFFs with Epstein and Maxwell.
There a number of anti-Trump conservatives out there. David French is one. Jonah Goldberg is another. Here is a gem of his series of posts after what happened on 1/6/21:
https://threader.app/thread/1349880462316085249
Posts 1, 5, 9, and 10 are awesome.
Lea,
The “lesser of two evils” is an expression…but then you knew that. To vote for either party is, at some level, to “raise your hand to evil.” I might go further and say that the whole democratic system is itself a necessary evil. Necessary, since in our present fallen state, no one person or one party can be trusted with authoritarian control. Democracy is a placeholder until the King returns, the best we can muster up in our current condition, but not a final good.
If we are going to participate in our democracy at all, doesn’t it involve some level of pragmatic compromise? As a Christian, I’m sure you wish that the empathies of current Democratic leaders extended beyond potential voters to the unborn. I’m sure you wish they didn’t promote a program of full-out gender chaos. (Just like I wish Republican leaders would worry less about protecting their own little fortunes and comfortable lives.)
Yet you decided between the “lesser of two evils” as you saw it. How does acknowledging this fact make a person more culpable? Doesn’t it make him or her less blind?
“Yet you decided between the “lesser of two evils” .
No, I did not. I voted for a candidate that I did not consider to be evil.
Please don’t presume to say what I did or did not do.
I went out on a limb and assumed you’d be fairminded about the ticket you punched – that it is bound to be a mix of both good and bad.
I usually (not always) vote Republican, but I’m not unaware that the right, especially the far right, has a tendency to devolve into self-righteous self-protection. It takes pride in its moral backbone and says to its spineless neighbors, “I’m stronger than you.” To which our Lord in rebuke says, “My power is made perfect in weakness,” and points us to the Pharisee and the Publican. Pride before the fall! We’re hearing the crash of that fall from every corner these days, many of them chronicled here by Julie et al. Karen’s post is a sad case in point.
The left has its own issues. Haven’t you seen the left take pride in its intelligence and enlightened liberality of mind? It says to its ignorant and backwards neighbors, “I’m smarter than you.” To which our Lord replies, “Be not wise in your own eyes.”
Corinthians sums it up perfectly on both accounts: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Many of my Christian loved ones voted for Trump based on the ‘lesser of 2 evils’ argument, largely because of his stance on abortion.
Here’s the issue I struggle with, which I don’t think is talked about nearly enough: On what basis do we think that making abortion illegal will eliminate it? Abortion has existed from ancient times regardless of its legality or lack there of. I used to work with an old OBGYN from a developing nation which was Catholic, where abortion was illegal. He said his hospital had a whole ward for women suffering the effects of illegal abortion.
This issue is relevant to the present conversation because In the last 2 elections, many Christians cast their votes for an abusive person, more or less excusing his immoral behavior, because they thought perhaps he could end another form of abuse- abortion. But what it that promise of saving babies was false all along?
As another commentator has mentioned, aligning with evil to try to accomplish good (‘the ends justify the means’ can be dangerous.
By the way, I spent many years working in women’s health. In my experience, the things most effective in preventing unintended pregnancies and therefore abortion have been thorough education and easy access to contraception.
“The things most effective in preventing unintended pregnancies and therefore abortion have been thorough education and easy access to contraception.” Yes indeed. We need to say this and keep saying it, because it’s valid, it’s true, and it’s supported by research.
Are you sure you didn’t take the blue pill? It seems to me you did. If you aren’t considering the practical effects of an election, how it could affect your life and the world around you, that seems blue pill to me. The reality is either Trump or Hillary would win. If Hillary won the Supreme Court would have a supermajority of authoritarians for decades and thr Bill of Rights would have become ashes. You and I and the rest of us would have lost liberties. But because Trump won the Supreme Court now has a majority who respects the rule of law and our liberties and freedom in America lives to fight another day. There was a narrative in the media and among politicos that 2020 would be the most consequential election ever. I disagreed. 2016 was far more consequential, because it led.to 3 Supreme Court appointments.
Discernment,
You are complete wrong. For starters, even if if Hillary one, the results of the 2016 Senate and House Elections proved that she had no coattails. Which meant that Congress was in the hands of the GOP. Which meant divided government and meant that Hillary would have been stymied like Obama was after 2010.
You are obviously clueless when it comes to the number of SCOTUS judges, how they are set, etc. That requires an act of Congress (which set the number), which again would not be in the hands of the DNC if Hillary won.
What did happen is the election of Trump in 2016 ensured the destruction of the GOP in Congress, and completely down ballot at state and local levels. The elections of 2018 clearly shows that. You made a Faustian bargain to win the battle in 2016, but in doing so you lost the war.
Finally your boy Trump and his allies have been shredding the Constitution and the BOR. He is a statist, but since you only give a sh*t about the parts of the Constitution and the BOR and federalism YOU like and have your sacred cows that makes Trump OK in your book.
May he who is without sin cast the first stone. Lord God forgive us for all of our short comings and help us to love and forgive as You love and forgive us.
“May he who is without sin cast the first stone. Lord God forgive us for all of our short comings and help us to love and forgive as You love and forgive us.”
That statement is based on the Gospel of John’s Pericope Adulterae; John 7:53-8:11. The earliest extant manuscripts do NOT possess those verses. Just tossed ya a wrench unto your philosophical approach.
Uwe
(Jude 3)
Post Tenebras Lux
“The Evangelical Sexual Abuse Crisis is the Spiritual Warfare of our Time”
My thoughts keep returning to this title…the ugly invectives spewed at the author here confirm it, and make it clear that she has touched a nerve.
Eventually, over time, these discussions will bear fruit. It is a slow process to recognize the problem–the sin that enables and abets the sin–and an even slower process to address and root it out.
Thanks, Karen Swallow Prior, for helping us start.
The title of the article is too narrow in two ways. It would be more accurate if it were: The Sexual Abuse Crisis is a Spiritual Warfare of Our Time.
Sigh, the politicization of Christianity is it sure downfall. Just mention a high ranking political figure and the arguments start. The reality is that Jesus is supposed to be our King right now. Yet there is all of this noise because people think earthly rulers are the only way to go, like they do not believe that Jesus is King now, nor is He in control, nor is He much higher and much better than a political party. The article is not about politics but about abuse inside of Jesus body. But does anyone care about that or is it just another case to go bonkers over politicians? We care more about largely worthless politics then we do about the abused. No wonder the church is having so many problems…
You know Mr. Jesperson, I see your point. We in the church are a part of the Kingdom of God, and parts of The Bride are hurting. Yes the point is there is abuse in the church and it’s part of the spiritual warfare against us. Yet instead of paying attention to that, people are getting distracted by the politics.
From article: “Many of us felt the temblors in 2016 as we watched many in our evangelical world excuse and even embrace an abusive man as president in the name of political power.”
At least Trump’s sexual escapades were consensual. The only woman to allege actual abuse settled out of court with her manipulative, political hack lawyer eventually going to jail. Evangelicals supported Trump for his policies not his personal sex life: Controlling immigration, improving the economy for everyday people, pro-life policies, support for freedom of religion and free speech, gun rights, the appoint Supreme Court justices who would interpret not re-write the Constitution, etc. In all these areas, he did not disappoint. At the end of the day, you have a limited selection for President, realistically only two choices. Trump was a better choice than Clinton. He was a better choice than Biden too. Though with Biden we do get the first mentally disabled President–a victory for diversity..
Are you happier now with “Mr. Gropey” as President with his drug addled, illegally gun toting, Chinese government provided prostitute exploiting son at his side? Do you feel safer with the 6,000 more murders in 2020 due to big city de-policing? Do you really want the Big Tech people to censor news and debate? Do you think practicing minority racism ala critical race theory is going to create a more just country? Blacks and Black evangelicals supported Biden by large margins. Were you trembling during this past election that Black evangelical voters embraced the abusive Biden?
“At least Trump’s sexual escapades were consensual.”
This is in no way a Biblically centered justification, and no Christian should offer it,
It’s also factually incorrect. 26 women have accused Donald Trump of unwanted sexual aggression and abuse, up to and including rape.
As I said upthread, this article is NOT ABOUT who evangelicals voted for and why,
It is about WHAT CONDUCT evangelicals excused, and why.
Yes, and no.
I’ve noticed many comments such as yours and the above going in circles, bogged down by politics, distracted by political spirit.
It is not only the conduct ALL CHRISTIANS have excused, whether spiritual abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, sexual sins, Violence, rage, discord, factions, divisions, greed, selfishness, vanity, idolatry, pride, complacency, apathy, and other sins not mentioned here.
These all open doors to the enemy in the hearts of believers and people groups, families, nations, organizations, and churches.
We lose ground to the enemy via these open doors.
A scan of Julie’s blog will show many stories of lost ground.
These sins can let in principalities and strongholds that bind us.
Ms. Swallow Prior is right.
This is about spiritual warfare.
Sexual abuse is only one of those spiritual warfares attacking the Church today.
And I believe Ms. Swallow-Prior is being raised up by God as a crusader to attack against it.
Think of yourselves. What warfare is God raising you up to fight against?
Not sure where to start? Read Ephesians 6.
Once again, S, you follow me around on these threads to call me out specifically for criticism. I really don’t understand why,
Simply this. Sometimes it’s because I sense a tone of criticism in the words.
If I have been wrong about you there, I apologize.
For example, I noticed in some places of your posts on COVID-19. (Not the topic here, of course)
Going on what you’ve posted there, we would probably disagree about some things. And I’m okay with that. I’ve been learning how to listen to people with different ideas/opinions than mine. To be gracious, or to agree to disagree, or to focus on where we do agree. Because these folks and I do have some strong opinions…yet we’re trying to listen. A skill too lacking in our current world.
Re COVID, for ex, it seemed to me you were trying to judge and argue with people who disagreed with you. If I were to disagree, would you shoot me down? Or could we agree to disagree?
And here, we have people discussing how they don’t like Trump or Biden. I get it, they’re polarizing.
Ms. Swallow-Prior is telling us the Church has a problem it how it handles abuse. Okay, we can all agree, the Church is a mess. God is exposing plenty.
The question for us, is what are we going to do about that mess.
I don’t think people will accomplish anything by arguing here. But if we focus on how we can work together, pray together, minister together then something can be done.
You have a heart for truth and clarity, which is good. Again, if I got you wrong, please forgive me. Thanks.
Please compare my postings to those by “On the Other Hand”, above, and ask why you feel the need to single me out as having a “tone of criticism”.
If your issue was tone, there are plenty of other–and far worse–offenders in every thread. “Tone” is not your issue, S.
Lea—I read your reply. I am not only referring to what you and On The Other Hand were saying to each other. What I say is based on my impressions of your comments on other posts as a whole. That is what I mean by “tone”. And if I am wrong, please correct me.
Yet again I get the vibe you don’t seem interested in considering what might be valid in viewpoints that differ from yours. I’ve been enriched by considering here what’s valid in viewpoints different from mine.
You seem to want to pass the blame instead of actually considering what I’m saying.
I will leave you with that. Thx.
As a preacher’s daughter, I’ve had a lifetime of criticism couched in churchy language, fake expressions of concern and claims of being “loving”. So that sort of hypocrisy is easy to spot.
Did you have a “critical tone” when you accused me of being holier-than thou?
Did you call out the “critical tone” of those who called me a liar and a reviler, though I have called no one such names?
I ask that you not engage me again, S. I will not respond if you do.
I think we misunderstood each other. To make my intent clear, here’s the questions I was asking:
— What did you mean by that?
— You sounded _____ when you said ____, is that what you meant?
— If not, please correct me.
For example, “You sounded like you were taking a superior tone to people who disagreed with you about the virus when you seemed to re-butt and correct their opinions.”
Yes, I chose to call you out on that. I did not mean to be critical when I said you “seemed holier-than-thou” (in an earlier post) and I see how that sounds critical. I’m sorry.
No fakery here. Just trying to be straight. I’ve experienced criticism too. Who hasn’t?
Anyway, I see how I’ve contributed to the divisive spirit in that pops up in these comments. I repent there.
No worries of further engagement from me. Enough’s been said.
So are you suggesting that evangelicals not vote because no candidate is sexually pure enough? If we don’t vote on policies, what is the point? On policy positions, a vote for Trump was not unreasonable. When we vote for President, we are not voting for our pastor. And any evangelical that voted for Biden had to do a lot of excusing as well. I don’t get this bad character argument. Politically, Trump was the first president in a long time that actually kept his campaign promises. Remember Obama ran on the policy of marriage was between a man and a woman–until he got to the White House. Now that’s political bad character. He straight up lied to the voters.
I was watching C-Span years ago when Clarence Thomas was being pilloried as a sex abusing monster by Anita Hill before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a revealing bit of coverage, an FBI investigator was interviewed. He stated that after Anita Hill came forward, 250 women contacted the FBI alleging Thomas had sexually abused them. None were brought forth to testify. The agent said that in their investigation they discovered that the allegations were not substantiated by any evidence and that none of the accusers actually had any access to or had verifiable personal contact with Thomas.
We saw the same thing later with Blasey Ford’s baseless accusations against Judge Kavanaugh offered directly to the committee in an extended session without prior FBI investigation. It was a total smear. A number of brave prosecutors admitted that the “eye-witness” testimony offered by Ford was so weak it wouldn’t rate a search warrant let alone an indictment. There was no downside for Ford. She was hailed a hero, coached, given a lawyer, later awards, and lauded for her courage. And the ruthless Democrats almost upended his nomination, a man lauded by a train of top-drawer women lawyers who saw him as a mentor, professional, and friend–and judged fully qualified by the ABA. The goal here was not justice or they would have come forward at his previous Circuit Court hearings, it was to eliminate his approach to jurisprudence from the Supreme Court by any means necessary.
The truth is that many women will lie about sex abuse for political ends. This is just the sad truth about the political arena. It is also true that many women seeking careers in the celebrity arena are not averse to flirting and sleeping with men to advance their careers. Old style feminists argued this is female empowerment. Actor Ian Mckellan noted during the Me-Too craze that there was a code that women put on headshots to note their willingness to sleep with directors for parts.
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/actresses-use-sex-to-get-roles-sir-ian-mckellen-says/news-story/c32c5e8ea8cf59347a7fcee7a4bf0de2
This is why we have due process, courts, habeas corpus (evidence requirements), and the presumption of innocence.
I’m suggesting you not lie about Trump’s sexual history, as you did in your first comment.
“Though with Biden we do get the first mentally disabled President–a victory for diversity.”
What an ugly, ugly comment. Shame on you.
I thought about commenting until I read the comments. I’m disgusted by the way you all are going on about politics abortion and the like. We’ve got to help those being abused in the church and Christian organizations and in society, not allow the devil to take us so far into partisan politics. That is not our calling
Sarah—
I’ve waited to comment fully too. It is an article about spiritual war meant to alert and awaken. The mention of Trump is distracting,yet I can understand why he is a trigger for the author and why she doesn’t like him.
Despite that, I think God was raising her up to confront abuse in the Church. Her bus accident was an act of spiritual warfare against her. God was raising her up to confront abuse and the enemy didn’t like that, yet God used her for good and the lady was right to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to look up about bones.
Sometimes the Spirit will give me an image or phrase that doesn’t make much sense at the time yet when I study the Word and ask Him about it, it makes sense indeed.
The symbols God uses in the Bible to speak to us are powerful. He uses the same language when He speaks to us in prayer or dreams. The Bible and the Holy Spirit are there to help us understand. Sometimes we put our own spin on it yet the Spirit is there to clarify where we get it wrong.
For example Swallow-Prior interprets getting hit with the bus as how women have gotten “run over” by systems. Yet it can also mean how sin and evil in the world “run over” any of the weak…anybody.
She mentions a “warfare”. We are surrounded by spiritual warfare. Look at the attacks on men, women, children, the image of God, the family, all that He calls “good”. We are in a Romans 1 age. The antichrist spirit is trying to work its way in. But God…
But God has raised up people in his Kingdom, we all have an assignment and a destiny. The enemy wants to distract us. Yet we are also in a time when more people are waking up on how to pray and do spiritual war. Groups of pray-ers and awakened Christians are rising up.
Dear God,
Awaken Your Church. Forgive us for our complacency and slander of one another. We have been asleep. We have fallen for lies and idols. Forgive us. At the same time, expose us to the lies we have believed. Awaken us each into who we are and the special warrior we are for Your Kingdom. Show us where to fight and how to use our gifts. Loose in us a spirit of courage and bind the spirit of fear. Unite us with those who are in different streams in Your Kingdom and enrich us as we grow into one family of God. Help us persist in humility and love. We are in a new age and give us the spiritual weapons, prayers, provisions and strategies we need for this age. Awaken Your Church.
Amen.
I keep coming back to this statement in Karen’s post:
“I think especially of the pain of those who have been abused and have yet to receive the blessing of the justice and reconciliation that heal.”
And I think that Karen doesn’t understand that there isn’t ‘the blessing of the justice and reconciliation that heal.’ in sexual abuse stories. It’s a good statement mind you, just not true.
Maybe she isn’t referring to this lifetime, but the hope of what is to come. She writes of the pain and trauma she still carries from being hit by a bus as something that helps her, in part, better understand what sexual abuse victims are dealing with. Also, having the church make the effort to listen and take sexual abuse seriously is moving in the direction of healing. That’s my take, anyway.
https://eu.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2018/05/31/southern-baptist-karen-swallow-prior-bus-crash-paige-patterson-ousted-president-southwestern/655461002/
Some of the self-described “evangelicals” claimed with no authority to “anoint” this and that politician.
But: is this good enough / good at all? Have Christians a concept of “prayer”? Has St Paul or Jesus or James or Isaiah or Jeremiah a concept of prayer?
i. “Pray for your secular rulers” means beseech and implore God about the QUALITY of what comes through them, whether they realise it or not (that He send good angels to jog their elbows unawares). Because when we are before the Throne the good agnostics are going to ask us why we didn’t.
Some countries have a tradition of (more or less) not talking about one’s vote, which means we don’t have a hook to be let off. God is going to judge us Christians on our prayers.
(Your electoral college needs abolishing anyway.)
ii. “Pray for your church elders” means don’t become their puppets, also don’t become the puppets of the other puppets.
Flannery O’Connor is unknown in the UK, is this a good-ish author?
Has anyone read Karen’s take on literature? (I am going to; I hadn’t heard of Karen till today.) Roland Barthes is an eye opener on the subject of stageyness, and furthermore our dreams can suggest startling interpretations about life’s issues, especially if we are chronically unwell.
Christians are meant to benefit from all the arts and sciences along with the good agnostics.
Further to my remark: “(Your electoral college needs abolishing anyway.)”
Standards on vote counting and on accessibility of polling stations and the like needs to be removed from party stranglehold. And you need more than 2 parties. But you should pray for these things to happen.
Maybe a non-American should read more American history before making offhand judgments about our governmental system. I agree about having more than two parties (the Founders didn’t want political parties taking over), but I’ll keep our electoral college, and the rest of the checks and balances of our Constitution.
Please don’t tell me what I need to pray for to change in a system I live under and you don’t. Thank you.
Flannery O’Connor is a Christian Catholic writer from the 1940s-50s, active in the American South. She’s more than good-ish, she’s quite good. Look her up.
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9118
This quote, lifted from the essay is her take on the craft of a novelist:
“Vocation is a limiting factor, and the conscientious novelist works at the limits, of his power and within what his imagination can apprehend. He does not decide what would be good for the Christian body and proceed to deliver it. Like a very doubtful Jacob, he confronts what stands in his path and wonders if he will come out of the struggle at all.”
It seems striking to me that in every article or account of abuse, we never allow that there may be another side to the issue. Are none of these victims acting in a boundariless way? I am aware of at least two instances where a person was either falsely accused or set up and accused. Are we able to see nuance in this issue and express compassion for the fallen as well as the abused? The abuser and the abused deserve our prayers.
I am also uncomfortable with the discussion about President Trump…as if a Christian can’t vote in a set of policy decisions he approves of if the candidate is a person with a checkered past…This kind of idealism is undercutting our ability to rationally act in the best interests of our country. If a buffoon promises to end abortion, will we vote for him, or are we so impeccable that we can’t see God’s chosen instrument to get a job done? God spoke to Nebuchadnezzer and gave him a chance to repent. He sent Jonah to Ninevah, and even Jonah knew God would give them a second chance. I wonder if the author’s use of the imagery of broken bones is something we might do well to consider. “He protects all his bones, not one of them shall be broken.” Our Lord Jesus, took all our sin onto His body on the cross. Maybe like the author intends to do, we ought to carry these requests to God our Father and ask for His mercy on all of us. LORD JESUS, forgive our sins, help us be Your little children, and help us live with You forever in Heaven someday in JESUS’ Holy Name, Amen.
I think a comprehensive article on abuse would be a very long read. This is focusing on an area that’s been neglected. I think the concerns about Trump can be illustrated by what’s going on right now with Liz Cheyney. At this point, the Republican Party has become a personality cult. If one can’t see that, I don’t know what else to say.