Tag: Religious Right

The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump

Ron Sider has gathered an impressive group of contributors for what I believe will be a very important and much needed new book, The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump: 30 Evangelical Christians on Justice, Truth and Moral Integrity.

The book becomes available on June 1st from Wipf & Stock publishers (also the publisher of my next book about Israel-Palestine). I have already pre-ordered my copy, and I am anxious to dig into it.

While the partisan political blindness of the “Court Evangelicals” (to use the extremely apt term coined by historian John Fea, professor at Messiah College) has gone a long way towards identifying the evangelical label with their own far-right, Christian nationalism, this new book is a much needed antidote to their hijacking of the movement.

Here is the publishers’ description:

What should Christians think about Donald Trump? His policies, his style, his personal life?

 Thirty evangelical Christians wrestle with these tough questions. They are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. They don’t all agree, but they seek to let Christ be the Lord of their political views. They seek to apply biblical standards to difficult debates about our current political situation.

Vast numbers of white evangelicals enthusiastically support Donald Trump. Do biblical standards on truth, justice, life, freedom, and personal integrity warrant or challenge that support? How does that support of President Trump affect the image of Christianity in the larger culture?  Around the world?  Many younger evangelicals today are rejecting evangelical Christianity, even Christianity itself. To what extent is that because of widespread evangelical support for Donald Trump?

 Don’t read this book to find support for your views. Read it to be challenged—with facts, reason, and biblical principles.

With contributions from:
Michael W. Austin
Randall Balmer
Vicki Courtney
Daniel Deitrich
Samuel Escobar
John Fea
Irene Fowler
Mark Galli
J. Colin Harris
Stephen R. Haynes
Matt Henderson
Christopher A. Hutchinson
Bandy X. Lee
David S. Lim
David C. Ludden
Ryan McAnnally-Linz
Steven Meyer
Napp Nazworth
D. Zac Niringiye
Christopher Pieper
Reid Ribble
Ronald J. Sider
Edward G. Simmons
James R. Skillen
James W. Skillen
Julia K. Stronks
Chris Thurman
Miroslav Volf
Peter Wehner
George Yancey

Please, order your copy now, and help to make this book an important factor in educating the church:

  • to regain its footing in the gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than Republican politics
  • to live as citizens of the kingdom of God, rather than “culture warriors” eager to destroy their enemies
  • to prioritize the poor, the needy, the sick, and the disadvantaged, rather than the opulent corporate enrichment policies of president Trump, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Shumer
  • to work as true peace-makers, at home and around the world, rather than cheering on the global war-mongers, happy to expand American Empire at the expense of destroying others

ISIS Says Covid19 is Divine Punishment on Apostates

Today’s edition of Haaretz has an editorial by Fiyaz Mughal explaining the religious logic of Muslim fundamentalists – extremists (to use his word) who are using the corona virus pandemic as a recruitment tool. The headline reads “Jews and Apostate Muslims Deserve Punishment.”

Click on the title above for the entire article. Or read an excerpt below:

” . . . extremist individuals and groups are using this period of trepidation to try and promote hatred, racism and extremism. Their narratives are simple and sound much like a broken record, though they will have some traction with the disaffected, misinformed and unaware. They are feeding off fear, and – especially for modern societies – the unusual and dispiriting experience of individual powerlessness in the face of the pandemic.

“The narratives espoused by Muslim extremists are depressingly familiar: the ‘other’ is blamed. One target is inevitably history’s favorite scapegoat, the Jews. But ordinary Muslims are in the extremists’ sights as well. . . .

“As Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, director of research at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism notes, ‘Jihadis see the [coronavirus as] manifestation of the wrath of God, both upon the non-believers for their rejection of God’s law and crimes against Muslims, and upon those Muslims who have forsaken the duty of Jihad.'”

In a similar vein, the internet is swamped these days with US church “leaders” proclaiming a similar, if not identical, message.

Obviously, one religion’s fundamentalists are not much different from another’s.

Whether “Muslim” or “Christian,” jihadists all sound alike.

I’ll offer only one example. You can easily find more if you look.  Watch the clip below:

So, what’s the difference between this man and an ISIS spokesman?

Idolatrous Israel Continued to Worship Yahweh, Just as Evangelicals Continue to Worship Jesus

The God of Judaism and Christianity does not like company.

Yahweh (for Jews and Christians), the eternal Father of Jesus Christ, the Son

A painting on a large jar from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, presenting two masked figures, a male and a
female. Unlike most publications, the right figure is shown here with no tail or a penis, since it was not
indicated on the original drawing on the jar. The Hebrew inscription above addresses “Yahweh of
Shomron and his Asherah” (After Meshel, Z. 1978. Kuntillet ‘Ajrud: A religious Center from the
Judaean Monarchy on the Border of Sinai. Israel Museum Catalogue No. 75. Jerusalem, Fig 12, with
correction of the right figure).

of God (for Christians), is the one and only creator God throughout both the New Testament and the later writings of the Old.

It’s called monotheism.

Although the Old Testament prophets condemned ancient Israel for both idolatry (the worship of false gods) and apostasy (the abandonment of their religion), their condemnations were aimed at a people who never stopped worshiping Yahweh.

How could that be?

If Israel never stopped worshiping Yahweh, why did the prophets foretell judgment and captivity as divine punishment for abandoning Yahweh?

Israel’s error was their syncretism.

Syncretism is the mixing of different religious elements from a variety of cultural sources. So, I doubt very much if any Israelite ever stopped praying to Yahweh, the God of their fathers. But they added other items of devotion to their liturgies and turned Yahweh into a god of cultural appetites.

Images of Asherah, the Canaanite mother goddess

Read the books of 1 and 2 Kings for its many references to these idolatrous Canaanite additions to Israel’s Yahweh worship. For example, in Canaanite religion, Asherah was the mother goddess of creation who was typically married to a male deity such as Ba’al.

The holy of holies in the Arad temple of southern Judah. The two masseboth towards the back of the small room to the left represent Yahweh and Asherah, his “consort.”

Well, guess what. During their periods of rebellion, the Israelite’s — deciding that they must conform to the society around them — played match-maker and married off their Yahweh to the Canaanites’ Asherah. They even made room for her masseboth (the word for a “standing stone” commonly erected to symbolize a deity) inside the Jerusalem temple (2 Kings 23:6; one of the reasons it was finally destroyed by the  Babylonians)!

No, the Israelites never abandoned their prayers to Yahweh, but they finally bore the brunt of Yahweh’s condemnation because they couldn’t help but “punch up” their worship by adding a few cultural icons to the mix.

So, what does all this have to do with American evangelicalism, you ask?

As I argued in my book, I Pledge Allegiance, our favorite idols are worshiped  through the pervasive influences of nationalism, patriotism, militarism, American exceptionalism, politics, and consumerism. These are the evangelical idols of today.

No, we have not given up worshiping Jesus. Jesus Christ remains the deity on evangelical lips, but he is no longer Jesus of Nazareth.

We worship an image of the Son of God who is wrapped in an American flag, singing the national anthem as He returns on the clouds, swinging a sword to cut down our political enemies (because the opposition must be demonic, never a sincere person with an honest difference of opinion), all in order to protect our materialistic, consumerist way of life.

God bless America!

Today I came across this video of an “Evangelicals for Trump” rally held in a “Christian church.” Take a look (it’s a little over 19 minutes long; this congregation should immediately be stripped of its tax exempt status).

I will give you a preview: it is 19 minutes of idolatry, led by false prophets and pagan priests.

President Trump has replaced the goddess Asherah. He surrounds himself with false teachers who tell him what he wants to hear, just like the false prophets in the days of king Ahab, the apostate.

Red baseball caps, “God Bless America,” and fire-breathing Republican  prophets of Democratic doom have replaced the court prophets that jumped, flailed, and prophesied nationalistic lies for king Ahab and his wife, Jezebel.

Yet, the same fate awaits all false religion, even when the worshipers still call out in the name of Jesus.

The Dangers of Anti-Science Evangelicalism During the Trump Presidency

Rodney Kennedy is a professor at Palmer Theological Seminary. He recently posted an interesting article at Righting America: A forum for scholarly conversation about Christianity, culture, and politics in the US, analyzing evangelicalism’s antagonism to modern science.

Perhaps the most dangerous — at least, from a public health standpoint — expression of the tragic alliance between anti-science evangelicalism and right-wing politics is the decision at Fox News to (1) downplay the dangers of covid19 transmission by (2) demeaning the medical professionals who disagree with Trump and (3) promoting the early end of current stay-at-home orders.

Kennedy’s article is entitled “A Scopes Trial Redux: Evolution, Coronavirus, and the Evangelical War on Science.”

You can read an excerpt below:

“…From the Scopes Trial to the coronavirus pandemic, the pandemonium among evangelicals has always been about opposition to evolution. The symbolic epicenter of the anti-coronavirus movement is the Creation Museum in Kentucky. Inside the tech-savvy Disney theme park edifice is

Anti-Evolution League, at the Scopes Trial, Dayton Tennessee From Literary Digest, July 25, 1925. Image by Mike Licht – Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

enthroned the king of anti- evolution – Ken Ham. Neither scientist nor theologian he routinely rips apart science and theology. He assures his adoring fans that he doesn’t interpret the Bible; he merely reads it and its message is at once plain and clear. Ham is perhaps the quintessential example of the evangelicals who routinely believe that the Bible gives up its treasures to nothing more complicated than “common sense.” 

“The Creation Museum is the Temple of Doom, as it defiles, denies, and attacks science. Ham’s obsession with painting evolution as the “beast out of the bowels of Darwin” provides the foundational ideology for the anti-coronavirus movement. Behind the mistrust of science and expertise, behind the denial of the pandemic’s scope, behind the spectacle of pastors holding mass services in states where people are fighting for their lives : behind all this is the anti-evolution movement.

“Ken Ham’s message has found ardent support among the millions of evangelical Christians who are easily persuaded that science and scientific expertise is an attack on the Bible, the American way of life, and on Christianity itself. So, it is that the ghosts of fundamentalism’s last stand at the Scopes Monkey Trial have returned in evangelicals like ancient witches and wizards gathering for the triumphant return of Voldemort. At the opening of the Creation Museum Ham expressed this residual resentment against Darrow and spoke of repairing the damage: The Scopes Trial “was the first time the Bible was ridiculed by the media in America. We are going to undo all of that here at the Creation Museum.” 

“The declaration of the continuing war could not be clearer. Every week, some business person or politician with evangelical ties adds to the creationist-inspired movement against science movement. Hobby Lobby, in direct violation of orders to be closed, reopened its stores, before announcing they would close again. The mayor of Cummings, GA rescinded his lock-down order and re-opened his city. The governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, has chosen prayer over following the recommendation of health officials. The governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, resisted issuing any order to shut down before relenting by telling the people of Alabama a shutdown was the only way to salvage football season. Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, has appealed to Christian convictions in his call to reopen schools and businesses. 

“But with the coronavirus pandemic, evangelicals may have overplayed their hand, and finally exposed the soft underbelly of their anti-science, anti-intelligence, anti-history bias. Evolution isn’t as scary as COVID-19. Evangelicals may have once again picked the wrong enemy, allowing Americans, who usually pay no attention to evangelicals, to see just how dangerous they can be. This seems like a foolish attack akin to Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. When General Lee told General Pickett to rally his division, Pickett allegedly told him, “Sir I have no division.” When this current battle over science plays itself out, one can only hope that the forces of anti-science evangelicals will have been shredded and sent back to the woods from whence they emerged. Perhaps we will look back and say that the Trump presidency was the “high watermark of the evangelical movement,” before its collapse. If that is the case, it will be a tragic end to a once proud movement.”

Read the entire piece here.

Fundamentalist Pastors and Haredi Rabbis Both Put Their People in Danger

Israeli soldiers confront Haredis violating quarantine orders

The tightly woven communities of Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews in Israel are being devastated by the covid19 pandemic. Their neighborhoods are the nation’s “hot spots” for this contagion.

Check out any of these recent articles from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz — here, here, and here).

One reporter goes so far as to say that Israel’s Haredi community is facing its greatest threat since the Holocaust. They literally may be wiped out.

The explanation for this tragedy is simple: insular, anti-intellectual religion very similar to American Fundamentalism.

First, Haredi families do not allow their children to attend school with “unfaithful unbelievers,” which includes non-Haredi Jews. Their children are required to attend Haredi religious schools with strict curricula where they can only mingle with other Haredi children.

Second, the Haredi curriculum excludes the study of modern science so their communities are ignorant of even the most basic knowledge of modern medicine. In addition, they are forbidden from listening to the radio or watching TV. They live in an information bubble.

Third, they are convinced that faith and Torah will always keep them safe. A firm enough belief in God, the authority of Scripture, and their tradition is all they need to be protected from infection.

Of course, this means that they must continue to gather together in the synagogues for services.

The government finally is deploying soldiers to Haredi neighborhoods in order to enforce government quarantine orders. These soldiers are frequently attacked, physically, by the devout who accuse them of being Nazis and the enemies of religious freedom.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Soldiers in Tel Aviv challenging Haredi man. Haredi folks have been very slow to wear face masks

Now, thousands upon thousands of these fervent believers are now dying, not in spite of their faith, but because of their faith.

I know. A fringe of religious-right, anti-Semitic nutcases are saying that their suffering is God’s punishment for being Jews. (Oh dear Jesus, please deliver your church from such destructive, apostate imbeciles. Amen.)

The obvious American parallel to this part of the Israeli story is seen in the U.S. pastors and churches that continue to defy the medical advice coming from places like the Center for Disease Control and the National Institute for Health by continuing to hold weekly services.

Jerry Falwell, Jr. is good friends with Fox & Friends, is as president Trump

Or University presidents such as Jerry Falwell, Jr. at Liberty University, who parroted Fox New/president Trump talking points about the covid warnings being a “hoax” propagated by “Trump haters” and now insists on keeping the university open.

I cannot help but wonder how many of their followers are living inside their

own information bubbles, sealed off from the rest of the world by the disabling combination of Fox News with a heavy dose of Christian radio and TV.

Many of them subject to an irrational fear – propagated by their leaders –  that our government is just waiting for the chance to shut down Christian

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne leads his congregation during a service Sunday, March 29, 2020 at The River at Tampa Bay Church. [Photo from Facebook]
churches.

I am sure that most of us are now familiar with the mug shot of Rodney Howard-Browne, the mega-church pastor arrested for endangering his Tamp Bay congregation by continuing to hold church services.

Please, if your pastor is anything like Howard-Browne or Jerry Falwell, I urge you to find another church (or synagogue).

 

 

Why is Israel’s Occupation and Annexation of Palestinian Land Illegal?

I won’t go into the various ways in which Israel has taken over (“expropriated”) privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank (and even within Israel itself). But they do it on a regular basis.

In this post I will focus on the provisions of International Law being violated by Israel’s steady encroachment into the Occupied Territory/West

Israel’s Annexation/ Separation Barrier separating Palestinians from Israel. Observe that it’s not hard to climb. It was not built to stop terrorism, but to steal more land.

Bank.

The Geneva Convention declares that land conquered through war (1) cannot be kept by the conquering power. (2) Neither can it be incorporation as a part of the victorious country. (3) Nor can the conquering country move its own citizens into the occupied region for colonization.

Israel is violating all of these legal requirements.

Here is what International Law says:

Article 49, paragraph 6 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV says, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Article 85(4)(a) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I adds that “the transfer by

Palestinians live under military occupation. Trump’s plan will expand and deepen its oppression

the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” is a serious breach of the protocol.

Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court states that “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” is a war crime.

Why were these restrictions on the ancient attitude of “to the victor goes the spoils” put in place?

The answer is simple. And you’d think Israel might be especially sensitive to this part of the story.

Adolf Hitler.

As I will explain in my next book, during the Second World War, Adolf Hitler

Hitler’s plans for population transfers throughout Eastern Europe — remove the natives and replace them with ethnic Germans

undertook ethnic cleansing in parts of eastern Europe.  He then resettled these areas with ethnic Germans, planning to incorporate the newly settled territories into an expanded German state.

For only one example, the Nazis expelled nearly 122,000 Poles from German occupied Pomerania in 1939-40. They were replaced by 130,000 ethnic Germans who were resettled in place of the former Pomerania population.

German settlement expansion in eastern Europe was a part of Hitler’s “Germanization” program, referred to as Generalplan Ost (the GPO).

The Geneva Convention, at the instigation of the United States, hoped to prevent (or, at least, to outlaw) similar population transfers via warfare in the future.

Israel first violated this part of international law in 1948-49 when it conquered 50% of the territory allotted by the United Nations for a Palestinian state.

Israel continues its violation of international law in the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan during the 1967 war.  The West Bank has remained under military occupation ever since, hence its identification as Occupied Territory.

Now it becomes United States policy to endorse the violation of international law. Only a few weeks ago Trump announced that the US considers all Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “legal.”

This week’s Apartheid Plan endorses the illegal annexation and Jewish settlement of the entire Jordan Valley, displacing the many Palestinians farmers from their own property.

All of the Palestinian lands stolen by Israeli fiat, and built up by illegal

Illegal Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley. They have been breaking the law for a long time. Trump now says it’s OK

Israeli settlers, throughout the West Bank will be officially annexed as a part of Israel.

I know this will offend some and appear an exaggeration by many, but facts are facts. They don’t change because some folks are offended.

  1. Israel is a rogue nation. The international community must condemn its avaricious, illegal, inhumane behavior now.
  2. The United States is the world’s most far-reaching enabler of such rogue behavior, not just in the Middle East, but around the globe.
  3. Sadly, nobly intentioned international law has failed to stop the ghost of racist, ethnic nationalism from stealing from and oppressing other human beings.
  4. The ghost of Hitler hangs heavy over the United States, Israel, Donald Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Professor Erakat Talks About Trump’s Middle East Plan for Israeli Apartheid

Noura Erakat is assistant professor of criminal law at Rutgers University, specializing in international and humanitarian law. You can check out her faculty page here.

Her most recent book, which I read not long ago and highly recommend, is entitled Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford, 2019). In this book, she examines the modern history of Palestine through the lens of international law. (I’ll give you a head’s up: Israel has regularly violated, and continues its violations, of international law flagrantly and persistently.)

Recently, Ms. Erakat was interviewed by Aaron Mate, one of my favorite journalists for his independence and investigative abilities, on the Grayzone program, Push Back.

Their conversation concerns the practical effects of President Trump’s recently announced Apartheid Plan for Israeli/Palestinian relations.

Please take the time to watch the complete interview here. It is approximately 15 minutes long.

Her summary: “This plan is much more dangerous than I originally thought.”

Kairos Palestine Responds to Trump’s Middle East “Peace” Plan

Kairos Palestine is an organization made up of Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank who advocate for peace and justice on behalf of all the Palestinian people.

Some years ago I had the opportunity of visiting their offices and speaking with several of their volunteers. Our time together was delightful as we discussed the ethics of Israel’s military occupation and its consequences.

Today Kairos Palestine released a press statement in response to Trump’s unveiling of his administration’s obscene pretense of a “peace plan.” (You can read a few of my thoughts about Trump’s plan  here.)

Below is an excerpt of Kairos Palestine’s press release. You can read the entire statement here:

“Peace, peace, they say when there is no peace”

(Jeremiah: 6:14)

The position announced by the U.S. administration regarding what they termed as the ‘deal of the century’ was in fact an insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself.

The American-Israeli proposal is premised on consolidating Israeli control over all of Palestine’s land, making sure that the Palestinian people are subjected to this control, in return for economic promises that are closer to a deal for buying the people and their spirit with money.

This proposal seeks to legitimize the Israeli occupation and revoke the history of the Palestinian people and their legitimate inalienable rights, particularly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the right to self-determination in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian question completely and definitively…

…Through this declaration, the U.S. has proclaimed itself clearly as a party to the conflict rather than a peace broker, as it considered this deal, that has no reference to the international law or the UN resolutions, as the final offer to the Palestinians holding them fully responsible, should they reject it, for all the ensuing repercussions.

Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to the voice of God commanding them, here in the Holy Land and in the world as a whole: do not steal, do not kill, in order to stop killing the Palestinian people and stealing away their lands.

Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to God’s voice, to the voice of conscience, and realize the truth that cannot be subdued: the Palestinian people are alive, consistently demanding their rights over the past hundred years till this date. The Palestinian people will continue to demand their rights until they obtain them. The only path to peace is that of full equality between the two peoples. Israel peace is preconditioned by Palestinian peace, in fact, Israeli mere survival is based on the just peace for Palestinians. Otherwise, Israel, despite all its power, will live in fear and anticipation of an unknown future. As we already stated in the Kairos document ‘Moment of Truth’ , “our and their future are but one. Either a cycle of violence whereby we all perish, or peace whereby we all thrive.” 

Observations on the Trump/Netanyahu Apartheid Plan for the Middle East

Trump and Netanyahu unveil the “plan of the century” — remembering, of course, that the century is merely 10 years old.

The Impeached and the Indicted are on the campaign trail together with a shamelessly ridiculous plan for permanent apartheid in Palestine, all under the guise of an Israel-Palestine peace plan producing a viable two-state solution.

Well, attention Mr. Impeached President and Mr. Indicted Israeli Prime Minister — a two-state solution died long, long ago.

Israel’s continuous multiplication of illegal Jewish-only settlements throughout the occupied West Bank put a stake through that two-state dream like a knife cutting through butter.

And the US stood on the sidelines and watched.

Take a look at the map provided with the plan (which you can read for yourself here). By the way, the extremely right-wing Jerusalem Post is thrilled that Trump’s plan comes with a map. They absolutely gush, It is the first plan to come with a map!

Oh joy, I guess the editors at JP like their books to come with big two-tone pictures.

But the map does illustrate one thing clearly. There ain’t no Palestinian state with contiguous borders (as Jared Kushner, the plans’ main presenter, insists there is).

Perhaps someone in the White House needs to explain the meaning of “contiguous” to Mr. Kushner.

The dark blue areas are the holes in the tiny piece of Swiss-cheese that Israel has left for the Palestinians to nibble on. These very non-contiguous dots are what is being called “a Palestinian state.”

They are like tiny Indian reservations linked together by underground tunnels and elevated bridges, all of which will be heavily monitored by the Israel military. So much for freedom of travel and assembly in the new Palestine.

Trump also made it very clear that those ungrateful Palestinian mice ought to be darn thankful for the meager crumbs of cheese left to them by their oh-so generous benefactors, Israel and America.

Take a moment to scan this map tracking the loss of Palestinian land ownership throughout the years of Israel’s settlement expansion and illegal occupation.

A few other details to remember include:

  • The new state of Palestine is prohibited from having any treaties or diplomatic connections with other countries. This is Israel’s idea of Palestinian national sovereignty.
  • Palestine is prohibited from having its own, independent security forces. Whatever forces they have must always support Israeli security interests.
  • None of the Palestinian refugees inhabiting the camps of neighboring nations since their displacement in the wars of 1948 and 1967 may return to Palestine. The Israelis insist, No more of your refugees jumping on the bed!
  • There is a strong likelihood that many Israeli-Palestinians, possessing Israeli passports and citizenship, will be stripped of those possessions and forcibly transported to the new “state.” (Which, by the way, is a violation of International law. But Israel excels at such illegal dealings.)
  • Along with all the other stolen land, Israel has also decided to annex the entire Jordan Valley, displacing all the Palestinian farmers who have owned and cultivated that land for as long as anyone can remember.

And the list could go on.

President Carter called for Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid in his 2006 book by the same name. But I am afraid that forcing brutal apartheid onto the Palestinian people has been the name of the game in Israeli and American politics for decades.

For the one-two punch of ethnic cleansing and apartheid are Israel’s favorite original sin. They just can’t break their national addiction to war crimes, racism and oppression.

And there is no sign of national repentance anytime soon.

Palestinian outrage over the Trump plan is already evident throughout the region, and justly so.  I expect that we may see a Third Intifada on the horizon sometime soon. Frankly, I’d love to be there to join them.

Heck, if I weren’t a Christian and a pacifist, I would be stockpiling rocks and organizing revolutionary resistance right now.

The Difference Between Truth and Falsehood is Supposed to Matter to Christians. When Did that Stop?

In my neck of the woods in NW Montana, talking with a new church acquaintance invariably includes a question about my devotion to Fox News.

When I say that I do not depend on Fox for my news information, that I

Rupert Murdoch, founder of the Fox network

watch Fox mainly for research purposes; and that Fox is not a reliable source for information about the world, the eyes of my new acquaintance invariably go wide, very wide.

“But Fox gives us the Christian perspective,” I am told in a variety of different ways. “It’s the source for the truth.”

“Not really,” I say. “Fox News has always been an outlet for partisan, Republican propaganda. Just as MSNBC serves that purpose for Democratic party propaganda.”

If they haven’t walked away from me by this point (which has also happened), I’ll offer some evidence.

“First, did you know that Rupert Murdoch got his start in American ‘news’ by answering President Reagan’s call for someone to spread Republican ‘talking points’ (double-speak for propaganda) to the American public?”

(No one has ever answered “yes” to this question. You can read an investigative account of the Reagan-Murdoch arrangement here, written by a real journalist. It’s not hard to find similar stories if you look.)

“Second, did you know that leaked Fox memos have revealed that the Fox News desk receives regular updates from the Republican leadership instructing them in the latest party talking-points, which they are required to repeat?”

“In fact, did you know that this practice continues today, as demonstrated  by a New York Times story revealing that the official White House talking-points for Fox News impeachment coverage, instructing them in how to discuss the day’s testimony, was accidentally sent to the Democrats?”

The truth is, Fox news has NEVER been about news reporting. It has ALWAYS been a propaganda arm of the Republican party. And it is a serious indictment of American evangelicalism that Fox has been elevated to such an idolatrous, ask-no-questions-please position.

The ONLY reason conservative Christians love Fox as they do is because it provides a daily dose of jingoistic reinforcement for conservative Christianity’s very conservative, Republican politics (which is another sort of indictment against the evangelical church).

Such information idolatry is referred to as confirmation bias. We all prefer to read and listen to the things that conform to and reaffirm what we already believe.

In other words, don’t challenge me, don’t make me uncomfortable, and never make me think.

The simple mantra for the devoted, Christian audience of Fox news clap-trap is: Don’t confuse me with the facts.

Such intellectual and moral laziness is evidence of the age-old human condition. It’s called sin. Nothing new to see here, EXCEPT when American Christians decide to place more of their trust and confidence in something like Fox than they do in Jesus Christ and his teaching.

Which is where vast swaths of the morally moribund evangelical church finds itself today. Frankly, it is impossible to be a Christian with such personal default settings at work in one’s life.

Why?

Because challenging me, making me uncomfortable, and causing me to think are three things that Jesus will always do to every disciple every day.

Let me share another story to illustrate my point:

A few months ago I was having a version of this Fox news conversation with the leader of my church small group leader. It was predictable, but became especially disturbing when he raised a few  issues that I had written about in my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans, 2018).

To give you the short version. Of course, I took issue with what he was saying, and I suggested that I’d buy him a copy of my book and we could make some time to talk about the issues. I assured him that I attempted to root all my conclusions in very careful Biblical interpretation,  so we’d also be studying scripture together.

Without a moment’s reflection, he immediately said, “No. I don’t have the time. Besides, anyone can make the Bible say whatever they want.”

Oh really?

I ignored the intended insult — a gross slap in the face to anyone who has spent the majority of their life speaking and writing about the historical aspects of the Christian faith — and that was the end of that.

Perhaps you are already thinking of the many obvious questions left hanging in the air. For instance:

Among all the abusive scripture-twisters in the world, which now apparently includes me, how do you decide which teachers and which “doctrines” to believe?

What are your criteria for selection and how do you apply them?

What role do historical evidence and logical argument play in your decision-making process?

How do you know that the things you believe right now are not the result of someone else’s sly ability to “make the Bible say whatever they want it to say”?

At the end of the day, Christians, of ALL people, must be hound-dogs for THE TRUTH.  We should all want to know the truth and nothing but the truth, in all things.

Believing in the necessity of Truth requires that we reject falsehood, whenever and wherever we find it.

Lies, of any type, regarding any arena of interest, should never find a place of comfort in a Christian’s life.

The real problem was not this man’s single-minded devotion to one particular news network, but his refusal to investigate (much less admit) the possibility that he was being deceived (and welcoming it!).

His attitude really was, “Don’t confuse or challenge me with unwanted evidence.”

Even worse, he refused to investigate God’s word with an interested brother in order to discover if he might learn something new (and have fellowship with a new friend).

I am sorry, but all of this adds up to a dangerous, wide-spread disinterest in standing up for the Truth — absolutely THE WORST position any follower of Jesus Christ can ever take.

And it is all on national display in every Fox interview with president

The mass suicide at Jonestown when everyone drank the poisoned kool-aid.

Trump, his defense attorneys (including the one who says he is a Christian), and elected, Republican officials ad nauseam.

While the evangelical church is drinking it all up like the kool-aid served at Jonestown.