"...the Evangelical Christian church in the United States has failed in its purpose. Their insecurities as a religious group led them to fall into the arms of a con artist like Donald Trump. Their obsession with theological certainty has prevented them from escaping their delusional creations… The fact that he has been associated with many alleged crimes at the state and federal levels has not deterred large swaths of the Evangelical core from supporting him… Some political pundits cynically predict that Trump’s very criminality will catapult him to the presidency in 2024. How could the people who were supposed to possess the mental (and spiritual) wherewithal to discern between good and evil fail to see beyond Trump’s facade of lies?"
"As I started the journey of writing this book, I was relieved to know I was not the only Christian aghast of the events transpiring in the Evangelical church. As I searched the literature for answers, I found works by several courageous Evangelicals..."
"I became a Southern Baptist around 1983. During all my time as a Baptist, it never occurred to me to ask what was up with the “Southern Baptist” label as opposed to just “Baptist.” It took a dramatic event to become curious about something I should have known from day one…"
"If the Protestant Church—in its many denominations—were a product offered by Amazon.com, half of the reviews would be extremely positive, and the other half would be extremely negative. The average of the reviews will fall somewhere between 2.25 and 2.75 out of five stars. How many of us would buy a product with such a rating?..."
"Part of the reason people are losing confidence in the church is because of disbelief in the different spiritual entities the church has created: God, angels, the Holy Spirit, heaven, hell, and the devil (or Satan). The Christian church says that they are the representatives of God on Earth. They claim to know what God is thinking, what God wants from people, and what God can do for people. The church is also the self-designated emancipator of people’s spiritual lives. She claims to provide human beings with the means to reach heaven and avoid hell…"
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (Psalm 9:17 NewInternational Version 1978)
A local Baptist church recently mailed me a postcard invitation to their church with the verse above…This bellicose, apocalyptic language in the Bible has created a chasm between those who follow Christianity and those who don’t…The battle against the spiritual enemies of God and their earthly agents is real… stereotypical perceptions of Christians …judgmental, intolerant, closed-minded, inflexible,… may result from Christians’ tendency to see the world around them as a constant battle between good and evil."
"Anyone who has studied the history of the world, or more specifically, the history of religious groups, would know that religion and fear are no strangers. In his book Religion of Fear, Jason Bivins explores the role of fear in American religious culture... He argues that fear has been used as a tool to control and manipulate people in religious communities. The author traces the history of fear from the Puritans to contemporary Evangelicalism…"
"Atonement theology is a unique fringe benefit American Evangelicals have indulged in for decades. They can claim that Jesus lives in their heart, be imprudent sinners, and still feel good about themselves and the collective they represent. Evangelical Christians want you to join them in their hypocrisy. It is a simple step; you only need to give your life to Jesus in baptism, become a “born-again” Christian, and pretend you care about others…"
"Drives to increase membership are a critical function of the church leadership. Who hasn’t seen Franklin Graham and his father before him asking people to say the “sinners’ prayer” on national TV? Then ask them to call the 800 number “Prayer Line.” Typically, the caller would provide personal contact information and then be encouraged to seek a local congregation where they can be baptized and become born again. Becoming an Evangelical church member is important because one of the tacit “obligations” is to tithe 10 percent to the church..."
"The believer’s subjective expectation is that he will get better due to his faith. Symbolism and rituals can manifest in prayers, candle lighting, oil pouring, or other “healing” practices. The stronger the believer’s faith that good things will happen in her life, the stronger the positive effects of religion. Just like the medical patient believes the placebo is working for her, the religious believer thinks everything good that happens to her is the result of her faith…"
"Christians are no different when it comes to behavior the church considers sinful. Every evil behavior the church condemns, you will find within the church: divorce, extramarital affairs, abortion, sexual abuse, homosexuality, pornography, deceit, greed, racism, and suicide. Christian apologists will say that is to be expected. The church is a repository of sinners…The problem with such an argument is that society has higher expectations from the church and its members. If sinners will continue to indulge in sin after being “born again,” what is the point of the Christian conversion?..."
"The politicization of moral values by the Evangelical church in the United States has been its “appel a la guerre” (or call to war)…Nothing has damaged the reputation of Evangelicals more than their collaboration with the Republican Party to win elections for public offices across the nation. The church has become the Republican Party’s sidekick in the political arena, and the Republican Party has become the church’s legislative enforcer on its“spiritual wars” …"
"Evangelical leaders like John Hagee, chairman and founder of the Christian-Zionist organization Christians United for Israel (CUFI), are making the defense of the state of Israel a fundamental tenet of Christian doctrine. He’s written a few books alluding to the importance of Israel in his end-of-times apocalyptic prophecies…Some critics believe Hagee’s interpretations of the Scriptures are wrong, but that doesn’t stop people from buying his books and believing his rhetoric…"
"Pastor Barnhart encapsulated, better than anyone I know, the real motivation behind the advocacy of the “unborn” by Evangelicals…Advocating for the unborn is an easy way to please conservative Evangelicals who want to feel relevant in their perceived duty to the God of the Bible…calling themselves the new abolitionists is an insult to African Americans... Evangelicals had plenty of opportunities and plenty of time to feel relevant in the eyes of God by advocating the end of slavery. Instead, they used the same book, the Bible, to support the enslavement of human beings..."
"You don’t learn compassion by reading the Bible or joining a church. Even when people read about Jesus’s teachings on compassion, they ignore them…People outside the church perceive Evangelicals as not being too concerned about disenfranchised people. Evangelicals may feel guilty about missing Church service on Sunday or not having read the Bible more often, but caring about the indigent or helping immigrant families is not one area where they feel guilty…"
“Scores of books have been written about Donald Trump’s infamous actions before, during, and after his presidency…We are entering an era when we should seriously question not just the strength of our democracy but the institution of the Christian church and its teachings. The church cannot be an institution based on lies and deceptions any more than the government should. To the extent the church possesses sway over a large segment of the civil population, it is incumbent upon society to limit its unbridled political participation…”
"Unlike many of my former fellow Christians, I do not support a president who holds the Bible as a banner to support the Christian faith…I support someone concerned for the common good of all Americans and beyond reproach on the minimum expectations of civility due to an ordinary US citizen. While our founding fathers had diverse opinions on the question of moral attributes in government, they all agreed that a national leader should have the nation’s best interest in mind…"
"Donald Trump and Fox News were birds of the same feather during the 2016 presidential elections and Trump’s presidency…Fox News, known for its right-wing stance and alignment with Donald Trump…reached an out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit brought against it by Dominion Voting Systems (DVS).… Both Donald Trump and Fox News propagated baseless claims suggesting that DVS’s voting machines had been tampered with to manipulate election results in favor of the Democratic Party…"
“Christians are called to respect marriage’s sanctity and avoid any behavior that would undermine it. Evangelicals knew well in advance of voting for Donald Trump of his many extramarital dalliances with several women. While some were considered mere rumors, others were well-established facts. Yet church leaders concealed or dismissed this information as slander, insufficient evidence, or of no great consequence. Once again, the leaders of the Evangelical church and its members ignored the cautionary teachings of the Bible in this aspect of human morality…”
“On January 6, 2020, in the Capitol riots instigated by Donald Trump, some of the leaders of the uprising wore Christian symbols … Some were seen praying in the name of Jesus inside the Senate chamber. Some “Christians” in the crowd believed that overturning the election was a God-sanctioned action and saw themselves as liberators from the tyrants secularizing our country. The evil system they openly despise is represented by the liberal Democrats in Congress, who have come to represent the Evangelicals’ mortal enemies on earth…”
Copyright © 2024 Jose Medina Author