This is not an attempt on my part to say that Trump is the Antichrist, but to point out that Evangelicals, who have long fancied themselves the experts regarding such things, show a remarkable rigidity of thought, and lack of creativity, when it comes to understanding how these passages are intended to keep the would-be follower of Christ on his/her toes, in the midst of a world that will constantly tempt them. Instead, they have settled into a complacency which concludes that anybody who dares to suggest that the USA may not be identical to the kingdom of God, or that we need to critique ourselves according to a standard other than the world's standard of strength and prosperity (with which our capitalist mindset can be so easily complicit) must be of the devil. At a moment in culture when a deft application of the prophetic theological perspective is called for, Evangelicalism is caught flatfooted. Its years of fancying itself as the “silent majority” have secretly been years of snuggling more and more comfortably into bed with this world’s principalities and powers. How ironic that even a biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer finds himself advocating for Trump! What monstrosity of self-justifying, self-deceiving rationalization makes a position like that possible?
Sunday, July 31, 2016
It is a strange and mysterious thing how many Evangelicals have gone totally silent when it comes to their usual habit of finding Antichrist behind every bush, right when they have someone in front of them who fits the suit better than anyone they have tagged so far. Instead, they are voting for him! They appear to not be taking their own warnings very seriously. Then again, since they have opted to use that label for public figures who dare to value peacemaking (because anyone who promotes peace can only be a wolf in sheep's clothing, seems to be their usual reasoning), like Pope Francis, Jimmy Carter, or Obama), they may not know what to do when someone like Trump comes along, who, in a way more straightforward than any of these others, "will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped..." (II Thes. 2:4a). Evangelicals may want to reconsider their usual bias in interpreting such passages, and also passages like, "For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie..." (II Thes. 2:11).
This is not an attempt on my part to say that Trump is the Antichrist, but to point out that Evangelicals, who have long fancied themselves the experts regarding such things, show a remarkable rigidity of thought, and lack of creativity, when it comes to understanding how these passages are intended to keep the would-be follower of Christ on his/her toes, in the midst of a world that will constantly tempt them. Instead, they have settled into a complacency which concludes that anybody who dares to suggest that the USA may not be identical to the kingdom of God, or that we need to critique ourselves according to a standard other than the world's standard of strength and prosperity (with which our capitalist mindset can be so easily complicit) must be of the devil. At a moment in culture when a deft application of the prophetic theological perspective is called for, Evangelicalism is caught flatfooted. Its years of fancying itself as the “silent majority” have secretly been years of snuggling more and more comfortably into bed with this world’s principalities and powers. How ironic that even a biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer finds himself advocating for Trump! What monstrosity of self-justifying, self-deceiving rationalization makes a position like that possible?
This is not an attempt on my part to say that Trump is the Antichrist, but to point out that Evangelicals, who have long fancied themselves the experts regarding such things, show a remarkable rigidity of thought, and lack of creativity, when it comes to understanding how these passages are intended to keep the would-be follower of Christ on his/her toes, in the midst of a world that will constantly tempt them. Instead, they have settled into a complacency which concludes that anybody who dares to suggest that the USA may not be identical to the kingdom of God, or that we need to critique ourselves according to a standard other than the world's standard of strength and prosperity (with which our capitalist mindset can be so easily complicit) must be of the devil. At a moment in culture when a deft application of the prophetic theological perspective is called for, Evangelicalism is caught flatfooted. Its years of fancying itself as the “silent majority” have secretly been years of snuggling more and more comfortably into bed with this world’s principalities and powers. How ironic that even a biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer finds himself advocating for Trump! What monstrosity of self-justifying, self-deceiving rationalization makes a position like that possible?
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