WE'RE SO PERSECUTED
Memes like this suppose that it's the Gospel people object to, rather than the travesty of what the church has become.
It's a good example of meme trolling activity, in that the whole point of the meme is to provoke political radicalization and make Christians feel that unless they go along with that radicalization, they're compromising and weak. The meme implies that any opposition to Christian supremacy and nationalism is "persecution".
Such memes are not authentic commentary on Christianity. Consider the pot-stirring origins of such "meme-trolling" and the agenda behind it.
A few thousand memes like this can incrementally change people's world view.
So, can we "evangelize" in a way that won't lay Christianity open to charges of "white supremacy"???
Is there a way a "preach Good News to the poor" that doesn't exploit and oppress the poor and the marginalized even more???
If we still don't know how ... it's time we learned.
It's possible to cling to the Bible and learn to stop being intolerant.
The problem is people interpreting the Bible to justify prejudices that are more cultural than Scriptural.
The idea that if you are truly Scriptural, it follows therefore that you'll inevitably be deemed "intolerant", is a post hoc fallacy.
It is absolutely possible to be a follower of Jesus with a high view of Scripture AND un-learn a lot of quite hateful and unjust prejudices we've normalized along the way.
The idea
that you can only be a good "sold out, on fire, anointed” Christian if you are
dogmatic, harsh, judgemental, intolerant, prejudiced and bigoted, is faulty reasoning.
There's also an issue there, that supposes that if we *ever* deconstruct *anything* that has been incorporated into our cultural expression of Christianity, that would be bad - that would mean we are becoming "woke" or "compromising with the world".
This line of thinking is problematic, because it hinders growth and maturity.
For example, it stops us learning
- that male headship doctrine is sexist
- that purity culture contributes to widespread sexual exploitation and abuse in the church
- that prosperity doctrine feeds into exploitative unfettered capitalism that hurts the environment and oppresses the poor
- that gun culture and militarism is not fitting for the people of peace
- that white savourism and feel-good missions trips may be narcissistic, unhelpful and counter-productive for developing nations
- that people of colour can be harmed and disadvantaged by institutional and structural racism, even when individuals who benefit from that social infrastructure may not hold racist views personally.
This type of growth is vital for the spiritual health of individual Christians, the church as a corporate body, and for the credibility of the Gospel.
Lately, we see the church increasingly judging the 'world' - wider secular society - to distract and deflect away from the really hard work of addressing our errors, learning from our mistakes and letting go of some of our pet doctrines and customs - especially the ones that afford us a sense of cultural superiority or political supremacy.
Instead of learning to love a broken world the way Jesus did - as a servant, with sacrificial love. As it says in Acts 10:38 - Jesus of Nazareth was anointed of God and went about doing good and healing all who were afflicted by the devil/evil.
The more we cast ourselves in the role of the 'persecuted, righteous victims', presuming we have God on OUR side, the more we become blinded to our real mission ... to go where GOD goes, to the poor, the hurting, the marginalized, the oppressed, the exploited - and help them, tell them about Jesus, pray with them and SHOW them Jesus through our acts of service: really living with them, listening to them, standing in solidarity with them.
SJWs
When social justice started to become denigrated among American preachers and pundits, and being a "SJW" (social justice warrior) became a slur, and sermons starting being preached about how empathy is a “sin”, I noticed that a sickness crept into American evangelicalism.
If we care about the Gospel, and truly want to be sold out for Jesus - instead of being mad at secular society for daring to call us intolerant, or bigots - we have a lot of work to do.
We need to put our own house in order and stop playing victim.
We need to be willing to go through the painful process of growth instead of clinging to our pet doctrines and customs - if we're going to be fit to go where Jesus is going, and truly preach the Gospel in truth and power.
And that is a lot harder to read (and live out) than a confirmation-bias meme.
Refraining from white supremacy, Christian Nationalism and "culture wars" is no hindrance to the Gospel. Rather, politicized power Christianity and Christian supremacy are the anti-thesis of the Gospel - these errors drag the Gospel into disrepute and put people off. They are a distraction from the real work of reaching out to people and ministering in the power and love of Christ in a hurting world. These deceptions are giving Christians a false identity and a fake mission that is a counterfeit for the Great Commission: taking up our cross, laying down our lives, and following Jesus.
The real Gospel, and the real Great Commission, cannot be hindered by true Christians understanding that white supremacy is sin and that imperialism & colonialism are/were abuses.
This could only be the case if Christians were deceived into thinking that supremacy, individualism, exceptionalism and prejudice are the Christian way, and that Christians are entitled to political and cultural supremacy, and that this is what “spiritual victory” would look like.
I have no problem with apologizing for white supremacy.
Doing so is the Gospel, it is literally 'proclaiming Good News to the poor.'
WE ARE NOT THE VICTIMS HERE
It seems to me it's Christians who are becoming more radicalised by algorithmic disinformation and thus more intolerant of anyone who doesn't subscribe to their preferred "values" and cultural norms; and Christians who are becoming more and more judgemental of a hurting and stressed communities around them; and Christians who are increasingly ‘cancelling’ other people’s culture by labelling it as “liberal” or “woke” or “Marxist” or any other synonym for just plain “bad”.
After working as a missionary for a couple of decades in China, and as a church leader since, I have to say, we're not the victims here.
Politically and socially, we have no hindrance, no opposition and no excuse not to preach good news to the poor and pour out our lives for "the least of these, my little brothers & sisters."
THE REVIVAL WE'VE BEEN PRAYING FOR
The biggest issue I see is Christians conflating having to lay down our privilege and presumed supremacy with "persecution" - and being unwilling to abandon our comforts and privilege to serve the poor ... or even just share more fairly.
Christians having to lay down their accustomed prejudices and learn not to be bigoted will only advance the Gospel, not obstruct it.
Isn’t it time that we stopped being so offensive, and abandoned the nonsense of Americanized white evangelicalism?
It's easy work to repent of white supremacy and other errors and prejudices, and get on with living for Jesus and fulfilling the great Commission.
All we have to do is admit we were wrong, we got off course, and return the Lord.
It's actually the revival we've been praying for.
We just don't like it because in our pride, we don't want to admit we got it wrong.
We created a self-serving Gospel instead of a self-sacrificing Gospel, we got deluded by right-wing media and troll farm disinformation, we tolerated Qanon synchretism, we normalised superstition and conspirational thinking as a counterfeit for authentic faith, and we created God in our own image.
Troll farm algorithmic disinformation - especially since Trump, Qanon and the pandemic - has exacerbated and leveraged weaknesses of pride and supremacy that were already fault lines in the evangelical church.
We are off track - as much as Islam was dragged off-track by right-wing fundamentalism and extremism.
RETURN TO THE LORD
I have no fear whatsoever that the secular world or those of other faiths will judge me or persecute me.
My whole life of serving Jesus as a missionary and minister of the Gospel since I left school, the worst opposition, judgement and persecution has come from Christians, and I have to say it ... especially American Christians who seemed to be most influenced by ideology and spiritual pride.
But we have Jesus, and it's time to return to the Lord, lose our religion and seek Jesus afresh.
This has been so, so painful, it's been agonizing ... but I believe that if we can truly learn from history that the seeds of revival are REPENTANCE ... I think we will indeed see the revival we have hoped for, and like all revivals, it will be completely different to everything we expected; and it will challenge our religion.
People are leaving the institutional church in droves not because they are abandoning Jesus … but because they are SEEKING JESUS.
They are leaving the church, drunk in its own power and influence .... because He is not there.
They are going to find Jesus, the Jesus they have loved with their whole heart since Sunday School, in the same places He's always been.
On the streets. A lonely hillside. In the crowds. An upper room. A marketplace. With the sick, the poor, the helpless and the rejected. With the sinners, the outcasts, the losers, the addicted.
My heart is grieved, because I love Jesus with all my being, and I am devastated at what evangelicalism has become.
But as for me, I will follow Him anywhere.
Bring it on, I say.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
