Things I Think…
1. “Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me! “(John 8:43-45 NLT-SE)
Let me state from the outset that grief has robbed me of whatever erudition or eloquence I would want to possess in writing about recent events and the state of our souls.
We have watched the murders of two innocent citizens, then heard the lies that the murderers told about them to justify the bloodshed.
We know the source of these actions…and the source of any defense of them…
2. Watching our country commit state sanctioned executions is horrific…watching Christians defend the terror is worse. Those who (rightfully )decried the public execution of Charlie Kirk are supporting the public executions of two citizens…differing weights and measures are an abomination…
3. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to discern how to respond to all of this…I do not want to to do what I accuse others of doing…which is misrepresenting the heart of Jesus. It is so very difficult not to become what you are fighting…
4. How does one respond when so much of the church has become as strange and foreign a faith to me as Islam or Hinduism?
5. Social scientist and pastor Ryan Burge has done incredible research on the shape of the church.…and that research shows what many of us have known for a decade…most people choose churches based on political preferences, not doctrinal stances…
6. The new presentation of the Gospel requires two conversions…one spiritual and one political…which makes it a “different” Gospel…
7. The murder of Alex Pretti had two different types of “biblical” manhood on display…one dressed for war and using their strength to dominate the vulnerable…and one risking its life to protect the vulnerable from the other…only one is actually biblical…only one looks like Jesus…
8. “We can protect our border and enforce immigration laws without a violent, masked paramilitary force taking over our city streets. Presidents of both parties have deported millions of undocumented immigrants without resort to brutality and violence.” @DavidAFrench
9. I am not unaware that it is when we are lamenting what we believe is evil that we risk overestimating our own righteousness…
10. “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10-12 NLT-SE)
“We can protect our borders and enforce immigration laws without a violent, masked military force taking over our city streets.”
Well, there is no way to have mass deportation, that is, deportation of large multitudes in a very short amount of time, without putting in place the infrastructure and processes of a police state, and a police state necessarily involves having violent state security agents on the streets of our cities, and wherever else they are thought necessary. Obama used the same police state institutions that were created after 911, all under the Department of Homeland Security, to deport millions, perhaps more than Trump in the same amount of time, but he did it with less spectacle and not as part of an act of hostility against the other major political faction in the U.S. and the states where it governs. It was wrong when Obama did it, and no doubt it’s even worse now because it’s enforcing a racist understanding of America, and it’s being used by one major political party to create political terror against the other major political party in our country; but Obama employed the same inhumane machinery to do what he did that Trump and his people are using to terrorize the political opposition now, and he may have unintentionally shown Trump and Co how it could be done. The fact is that some of the same state-police who have participated in the recent atrocities in Minneapolis were longtime law enforcement who worked for Border Patrol and/or ICE under Obama and before, and there is little doubt that they were just as brutal before as they are now. Mass deportation cannot be done humanely, even when otherwise humane leaders order it; it’s only a question of the degree of brutality.
There will be more Renee Goods and Alex Prettis. We know that.
Michael,
I think you are undergoing a kind of personal deconstruction touching on your identity as an American but also your understanding of the church as an institutional, and whether it has moral integrity or the ability to morally sustain anymore. When I quote the Tibetan Buddhist abbot’s words to another monk, “From now on, Brother, everyone has to stand on his own two feet,” this institutional unreliability is what is being referred to; the state and its institutions, and much of the visible church and its, are both collapsing in our country and revealing the rot that has been developing for a long time. This is hard stuff to handle for each of us on many levels.
Robert F,
I think Covid pushed us over the edge in regard to respect for institutions and expertise.
I’ve known of the rot in the church for decades, but always held out hope for reform.
I’m not so foolish anymore…
Michael,
There is a sun beyond the horizon, and its light can be seen faintly even now.
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well….”
Robert F,
Indeed it will be…but today we are all suffering loss…
Yes
I think the greatest loss I’m feeling is the loss of faith in my own government. I mean, I never put the government in place of God, but I knew that there were certain things I could depend on in terms of the way the laws and procedures were supposed to function (and I will be the first to recognize that this didn’t always work for all people groups in the U.S., but some of it has gotten better over time). On the other hand, when I was. serving as a missionary in Colombia, I never really trusted anyone in the government. There was always the “gift” (bribe) to get your stuff out of customs, the “tip” for the police officer that might give you a ticket, feeding two detectives and giving them money to put gas in their motorcycles when my two colleagues were kidnapped (I was the only missionary unit left in our city when that happened, and we did get them back alive, so the investment i gas, cookies, and coffee paid off), being stopped a few times randomly by a group of soldiers to check my papers-I adjusted, but one of the benefits I felt returning home after those years was just to be able to move around more freely. I feel we have lost all of that in the past few months, and I don’t know if we will ever recover.
Linn,
David French is brilliant on this point….
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/opinion/minneapolis-alex-pretti-ice-shooting.html
once the storm has passed and the leader tasked with cleaning up the debris and wreckage determines what to do and where to start, I trust he/she will begin with accountability and restoration in the form that Desmond Tutu modeled in South Africa after Aparthied. Within the church, it may require far more than turning tables and banishing reprobate leaders. It will require a shakeup in the structure of denominations, a full-scale review of worship practices, preaching/teaching reforms, reexamination of theologies and orthopraxy; in other words, a fresh Reformation. The remnant must not only remain faithful, but work in the darkness to prepare for the dawn.
Michael,
Great article by David French (who I’ve always liked). I will continue to work on my own responses and work with my Hispanic friends. Every time one of “my” kids is missing, I fear the worst. So far, they’ve always come back (lots of flu in our parts this winter).
Linn,
You are doing good work. David French is one of the few I respect. Unfortunately, most so-called “conservatives” are a bunch of hypocritical posers who are delusional and think that this MAGA and Trumpist populist and fascist excrement is conservatism. It sure as hell isn’t.
Ra’s al Ghul-most Christian conservatives think that French sold out to the enemy long ago and that he is a flaming liberal. He’s one of the more sensible people evangelicals I’ve read over the past few years.
An ICU nurse was shot and killed by ICE thugs in Minneapolis.
Tremendous backlash from the martyrdom of Alex Pretti seems to be having an effect on the Trump government. It seems they are backtracking on false statement about Pretti, removing from service some high-level leadership personnel, and decreasing ICE/BP presence in Minneapolis/Minnesota. That they are throwing some under the bus should not delude anyone into thinking the struggle is over; the advisers at the top who instigated this terrible war against a Blue City and Blue State are still advisers. But, at the great cost of a great man’s life, the powers have been pushed back, have been a little chastened. God bless Alex Pretti, brave public witness to the image of God in his neighbors.
Cardinal Tobin, Pope Leo’s top ally in the American Church, is calling on Congress to defund ICE
My two favorite social/cultural guideposts right now are David French and Russell Moore.
Are there no men of courage in the House and the Senate who will stand up to the Tyrant?
Yesterday’s back down by Trump in Minnesota was only due to optics —- he realized how bad his lies about Pretti’s execution were making him look due to the extraordinary backlash from groups of his own constituents; the resulting changes were all cosmetic in order to make the optics better. Still, it is a victory for the people of MN, because it takes pressure off them, and maybe there will be less killing and brutality by the Feds — and because Trump and Co. blinked.
Trump is dangerous because he has the emotions of a toddler. He has to dominate everything like a tantrum-throwing two-year old, can’t miss an important participation trophy like a 5-year old soccer player (the fit over the Nobel prize), and swoons over not being liked when people get killed in immigration raids. He is that much more dangerous due to his emotional immaturity.
“I want to live in a country that offers a $50,000 sign-on bonus to VA nurses, not ICE agents.”
— seen on Threads
In my personal dealings with the infant/tyrant pastor in our local neighborhood I am able to just pray for him and feel it is due to his having PTSD.
Thus I am not going to go to him again with another person and if he doesn’t listen tell it to the church.
He doesn’t intend to respond at all so any additional attempts to help him deal with it are a waste of time.
Much worse when dealing with a President who is supposed to be the world leader. Praying for those who despise and use us is never easy unless God gives us His grace and love to do so.
JD,
Then per Scriptures, publicly rebuke him, mark him, publicly avoid him and warn others about him and for them to do likewise.
It is that simple.
6. A timely reminder from Brian Zahnd:
“There is no such thing as a Christian nation, there are only Christian people. You cannot baptize a nation, you can only baptize individuals who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you want to have Christian influence within society, then follow the commands of Christ by doing good to those who are around you—especially the poor, the foreigner, the infirm, and the imprisoned.”
Apparently ICE agents are striving to become nominees for the Darwin Award when they attempted to enter the Ecuadorian Consulate.
Perhaps every country should remind Secretary of State Rubio that any attempt by armed men to enter their embassies and consulates will be met with lethal force. If the ICE goons try that again and are dealt with accordingly, the consulate or embassy can send the cleaning bill from Winston Wolf (HT: Pulp Fiction) to the ICE Barbie.
Thought #4…I don’t know how to respond either. Evangelical Christianity has become foreign and toxic and strange to me. I am even afraid to go to church nowadays because of what many Evangelical churches have been swallowed up in.
Dan from Georgia,
there are still people like Russell Moore in that camp…but you couldn’t get me in one of those churches on a dare…
Michael,
20 years ago I was knee-deep in evangelicalism. We had oddballs in the camp, but I knew we were on the same team. Nowadays in evangelicalism, if you do not swear fealty to Trump, you are not on the same team. Frankly, I am glad some people are now clear on that, so in that way I know who to take note of that is following a different lord.
…and yes, Russell Moore is a treasure!