Write Down What You See
Kansas City held a big parade to celebrate the home team winning the Super Bowl.
Some families will hold funerals later this week after another mass shooting at the parade.
The place was crawling with “good guys with guns”, but they all must have been Niner fans…
That was probably the last celebratory parade we’ll see…we can’t gather anymore without someone getting shot or many someones getting shot.
This is the new normal.
We are angry people, armed to the teeth… believing that accumulating firearms keeps us “free”…increasingly imprisoned in our own homes because of fear of neighbor.
It’s a short ride from fear to hate…to solving things with a bullet.
We used to be smarter than this…
For instance, we used to be able to do math.
It’s a statistical fact that churches are in steep decline and what is left is aging out rapidly.
We are a demographic minority.
Yet…there is some belief that America can be made a “Christian” country…where leaders are elected by majority vote.
I wonder how this works…
First, becoming a Christian is a spiritual experience…I do not see many conversions at political rallies.
How then can America become Christian?
By force?
When persuasion fails and conversions dwindle…force is the only option left.
I see more and more people advocating that we take this option into consideration.
Acting like Christians and following Jesus is only discussed by those who don’t understand “what’s at stake”.
What’s actually at stake is the faith once delivered…that follows Jesus in sacrificial love to a cross…
Christians really didn’t like the “He Gets Us ” commercials.
Those damn commercials made it sound like it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance.
They inferred that Jesus doesn’t hate the same people we hate in His name…
Jesus wept…
Michael,
I have no answers except persistent, loving evangelism. Twenty years ago I was familiar with a church that had an exciting outreach to the gay community through a free meal program for AIDS sufferers. They did see people come to Jesus as they went door to door with homemade meals. Of course, that ended with the advent of the new viral drugs to combat the virus, but it was still a way of reaching out and washing the feet of those who needed the love of Christ.
After a rather heated conversation with one of my ESL volunteers a couple of weeks ago about immigration (I’m not sure why she is involved in ESL), I’m keeping my peace more around church unless asked what I think. Most churches in my town that welcome immigrants and LGBTQ+ folks are also into the “Jesus was a nice person, and here’s some other nice people you can worship, too.” I need to be in church, and I will quietly, but openly, do “me.” Then, at my very progressive school, I keep wondering when all teachers will be required to fly a rainbow flag in their classrooms (I also think about 20% of the staff would walk; there are a number of Christians at the school). The pressure is a little bit more each year. I am hoping I can hold on three more.
I think the coming election will reveal the true hearts of “Christians” in our country. I’m not sure if all of them are actually Christian, or if they believe a lie propagated by the devil himself.
As to guns, I avoid large shopping malls. There are parking considerations with my walker, but the bigger issue is that I haven’t had an Amazon delivery person show up with a gun (yet).
Well said, Linn.
it’s sad…I’ve basically been housebound for a couple of years…looked forward to being able to go out when my mom goes into a facility.
Now…I don’t think I’ll go out much more than I do now.
I’ve had to fight too damn hard to stay alive…don’t want to lose it to a thug or a nut…
“First, becoming a Christian is a spiritual experience…I do not see many conversions at political rallies.”
Oh, there are conversions, sometimes many:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/23/right-wing-election-turnout/
Of course, these aren’t conversions and baptisms into the faith once delivered, but rather a highly bastardized, depraved faith.
The gun control sides have staked out their positions again and the rhetoric falls on deaf ears. But the position gaining converts is the one with the growing membership in the club no one wants to join…victims of gun violence. Hopefully it won’t take until the majority holds membership in this club that meaningful restrictions on gun ownership and meaningful consequences for misusing firearms are established. The myths that both sides hold need to be exposed, and one was mentioned in the article–that all that’s needed to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
Regarding the He Gets Us commercials–it is no surprise that so many “believers” reject them, for the message doesn’t resemble their faith. The gospel has been surgically removed from so many churches and a false narrative transplanted. Here’s to praying for systemic transplant rejection.
“We are angry people, armed to the teeth… believing that accumulating firearms keeps us “free”…increasingly imprisoned in our own homes because of fear of neighbor.”
One of the most brilliant things I have read in years.
Well-written, Michael. Unfortunately, much needed.
I liked the He Gets Us commercial. I must be turning woke.
Thanks, Reuben!
CK…I wrote it then took a nap…thinking about this wears me out.
I’m glad we have a sane space here…
CK and Michael
Over on one of the Christian online rags all the zombies are saying the commercial shows a woke Jesus approving of sin.
WTF?!?!?!?
I can’t even fathom anymore of how to communicate with some people. It wears me out too, Michael.
Dan, same here. I wonder if these people think Jesus is woke when they read the gospels.
Who did the shooting (Kansas City), why & what cultural ideologies led them to do it and what did the bystanders do to stop it?
What segment/schism of the US Culture glorifies the use of guns?
What segment/schism of the US Culture has experienced the greatest increase in the use of guns against others?
Yes, fear is in the hearts of people but what event(s) in the last 5 years have precipitated this?
Yes Jesus “gets us,” however where in scripture is this written? Hint, He’s the lawyer no one can afford, but is always ready to take on our case pro bono.
I can see how conservative Christians would object to the scenes in the Gets Us commercial. It can definitely be interpreted as condoning sin or putting conservative Christians down, or even representing liberal sin-tolerant (or no sin at all) Christianity.
However, knowing the funding source of the ad., I think there is another explanation. I think the ad is an example of the “bait and switch” mentality of some mega church Evangelicalism that markets Jesus to the masses in a seeker-sensitive or harmlessly inviting manner, with the goal to get anyone into their church and then instruct them in God’s law later.
Jean, If what you say about ‘bait and switch’ is true, then that makes me really, really sad. I watched the Superbowl with family and we all liked the ad. On another note, there is a new documentary that just came out called ‘God and Country’ and it is about evangelical Republican nationalism or the push for a religious theocracy in the U.S. I looked at trailers and it seemed to be quite balanced – with many pastors speaking up, as Michael dies, about how un Christian this movement is, even though they claim to be motivated by the Bible. Interesting times we live in, especially if you identify as a Christian.