2021 YEAR IN REVIEW
As a Christian who wishes to lead out with the Love of God I feel quite passionate about those condemn and judge. How is my response loving when I speak resistance to falsehoods and verbal retorts to those who persist in their folly leading others to do the same?? I don't know. Ask the prophets of the bible torn with similar emotions. Or Jesus, who didn't hold back his exchanges with religionists as they spoke lies and blasphemies in the name of God. My emotions come from a deep place and yet, I don't feel they express enough the feelings of the oppressed, unwanted, and unseen. In my small attempt I pray for unity between all Jesus followers and for humanity in general... especially for those suffering inhumane conditions both here in America and around the world. Below are several observations I had made during 2021. They are in no particular order.R.E. SlaterJanuary 13, 2022
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| Trump attacks "Black Lives Matter" Protestors with tear gas, rubber bullets, and privatized squadrons of his own quasi-military command. |
JUNE 2021
To the charade our former president performed a year ago may I say, "We hold up Jesus, not a book. Into a religious book we might write any story we want; but in Jesus, the story we write must be one of love. This is the action and spirit we hold up which banner welcomes! all. Even as the church sign said contrary to Trumpland's white nationalism of unwelcome, and deep unwillingness, to engage in embracing our brothers and sisters of any color, faith, gender, or sex. Here, on display for the world to see, is a White Gospel held up ironically in front of a social justice wielding church. The Christian White Gospel is not the gospel of the Bible which declares to love one another. To these false White leaders of the Christian church we reject their teachings, their desecrating lies, and their false leadership. They are of the devil and not of God - for ye will know God's disciples by God's love. - res
JUNE 2021
Here is the profane desecration of the Word of God by the leader of Free Democracy held on the steps of a social justice preaching church which actively practices, ministers, and seeks out the underfed, homeless, besotted, and addicted men and women around the District of Columbia area. Ironically, behind the self-righteous and proud President stands a sign saying, "All are welcomed." Clearly the optics do not measure up to the "White" House's active apartheid policies against people of color. If it was, the President would've bent down on one knee seeking repentance in confessional prayer for the loss of black lives under police arrests; and with him, his follows who gathered a summer ago to pray for the nation. But like the White church's blasphemy, so too has Donald Trump followed in his own way by holding up a bible testifying to the God of love who is unknown, unread, and unpracticed by politicians and their religious voters. Each claiming Christ as the center of their lives when in words and deeds there is no such truth found in these deceivers to the faith of Jesus. - res
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| Trump inciting Neo-Nationalists to attack the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
DECEMBER 2021
To the Christian anti-woke crowd, we have discussed social justice, ecological justice, Black Lives Matter, Gay and Womanist theology over the years. And yes, all through the lenses of God's love - not through God's condemnation and judgment - which false doctrine subsequently conflates a fictitious, idolatrous god with the real YHWH-God found in Jesus. If, as a Christian, you're for secular-religious and political division, then continue down the road of destruction with the Christian neo-fascist crowd who are speaking a false gospel of Christ. If, however, like many penitent Christians, you're beginning to see the bible in a whole new light through the eyes of a loving God, rather than a profane God, then welcome. We believe the church and its people are here to heal, minister, bear burdens, restore, renew, and redeem in everyway possible. Any other gospel of self-righteous condemnation is welcomed to take a hike. That kind of bible is as unwanted as is the type of heathen God it shouts from the rooftops to legalist ears. - res
DECEMBER 2021
The Spirit does overwhelm my soul and trouble me at all times and in all seasons. To his voice my heart cannot be silent. It is restless in words and discovery, and must speak into all evil occasions and events so strong are God's words upon my breast, in my ears, and within my soul. God's jagged voice cannot be silent. He demands all Christian faithful, all Patriots of democracy, to resist perilous church doctrines and white supremacists and nationalistic policies dooming the Christian faith to anarchy - and with it, America too. So I write, and speak, and cannot stop God's voice urging peace and love, unity and stout resistance to all forms of false conservative gospels. Gospels which are unloving, espousing unpatriotic fascism , and seeking to tear down society in its attacks against America's expanding democratic union to all, by all, and for all peoples who live herein. - res
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| Trump Neo-Nationalists attacking the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
DECEMBER 2021
I have been driving around this morning running errands while listening to what is advertised as "Christian" radio.... From listening to the Gospel airwaves I've discovered we are living in the End Times. Which means to many White Christians that we wait around for Jesus to come and do nothing in the meantime for the refugee, the immigrant, the Black man or woman and their families, the inner cities, the blown up schools and families in our districts, or the ecological pollution all about us.
It is believed by the White church that God is judging us once again (for the millionth time). This time by giving us bad democratic leadership (aka President Biden), a deadly global pandemic, and related climate disasters. Who believe the Covid vaccines are killing people and that no one is being honest about these deaths. And that Donald Trump is our only true political Savior who only wants what's best for America (especially for those of us who are true Patriots).
As I drove and turned through the Christian channels these topics were repeated by multiple news sources. By Christian media counselors sympathizing with callers. By energetic preachers telling me what the bible was saying as they read it's words magically and mystically without thot for science, historical literature, or its socio-cultural context. What these sincere preachers thundered across the airwaves was gospel - and we are ungodly fools for disagreeing or saying otherwise to them.
Since this morning's experience I've concluded the earth is flat, the moon landing was a Hollywood stunt, my church is nuts, all people are mad, and the Creator/Redeemer God whom Christians worship is as mad as they are.
However, what I do know is this:
- God is love.
- God does not judge or punish us but would help us make loving choices at all times in our lives.
- That our sin judges us as we reap what we sow.
- That the eschaton of God's redemption is always actively happening despite the horrible natural phenomena we live through, experience, or think marks some kind of eschatological ending to Earth.
- That God gave nature its own freewill as He did us, though the church seems always to lean towards some form of religious meme of scapegoating, blaming, and interpretive dogmatic dominionism.
- That God is not only holy and perfect but also LOVING in all His ways despite what his nutso children preach about Him from their dogmatic pulpits full of blinders.
- And at the last, "Christian" radio is no better than Fox News and other gaslighting social medias and propagandists.
- res
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| Trump Neo-Nationalists attacking the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
DECEMBER 2021
For very few of my readers what I will say he will be profound. For many, many others, it will be deemed gibberish, ungodly, unbiblical, liberal, or of the devil. But what is not realized is how our worlds are continually deconstructing and trying to glom things together to help us make sense of our internal fractures.
I love the idea of skepticism, especially in the religious sense. Pete Rollins calls it a "religious or Christian atheism" willfully committed into our internalized faith-beliefs which might help religionists, or Christians, make sense of their professed charters of faith when neither the temple or church can anymore.
If we haven't allowed ourselves to question who we are, and what is motivating us towards a structuralized form of faith, we will not be able to survive the many destructions which arise testing, or breaking, our faith allegiance. If allowed arightly, these life events will helpfully expand our definition of God and our faith.
Breakage is a good thing when it comes, however deeply painful and unwanted, such events may be. Personal loss is hell many times over - we ache for those who have great unwanted loss in their lives.
And the spiritual loss of faith is a deep, deep darkness. For myself, and many others who have survived these times, we may term these personal epochs as "the death of God" unwanted, barren in all its ways, and truly lost to all plans or purposes.
Our personal faith will always be tested and even, perhaps, suffer a heart-numbing death. One which will need healing and recomposition back to a rightful, truly death-defying reimaging of our lives and faith. A healing which might propel us forward physically or spiritually towards healthier, uplifting ways of living with the burdens suffered. The other choice is spiritual death. Death of soul, of spirit, of a world of relationships waiting to be encountered.
For some, this is how Christ comes to reimage us through his atoning work from death unto life. That in loss to our former faith, circumstances, or loving relationships, we might be revitalized in our losses and personal spirit-annihilation to then rise from the grave of pain and suffering to find God's love and beauty beyond the religious ascriptions of man.
Ruptured faiths are times of deep re-birth. Ruptures will never end in this life, but some are much greater than others. We are tested again-and-again to respond to dying-to-self-to-lean-into Christ's newness of life.
This is what is meant in the existentialized view of a "Christianized experience of atheism, or loss of faith." But its post-structural resurrection back into the inured world can be one of sublimely divine experience. Its an awakening, or Spirit-enlightenment, which can only be experienced.
In Christian lingo its a renewal or rebirth. But whatever, or however it is, it disturbs, is restless, and seeks to live without the plasticity of artificial forms and functions.
- res
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| Trump Neo-Nationalists attacking the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
DECEMBER 2021
Let me pose the question again as I had months and months earlier... "If Roe is struck down then who will care for all the unwanted orphans?" Our agencies cannot keep up with abandoned children so I would expect hardship to be experienced by the boys and girls who are given a chance at life but left parentless and institutionalized through their childhood and teen years.
Paraguay's policies show this as a real event which America will too very quickly if, and when, Roe is overturned. Wouldn't it be a shame to be spared life as a possible aborted baby to only then live in the inhumane conditions as an unwanted orphan destined to live in toxic foster homes, institutions, or churches? To win one war is to neglect the war next to come. The church can do better. Let's plan for the loving care not only of non-aborted babies, but of all unwanted children being raised in soul-killing locales of neglect and hate. - res
DECEMBER 2021
Addendum: Then there are groups like World Vision and Compassion International which never seem to run out of orphan cards. I suspect, with Roe's dismissal, Pro-Lifer groups will simply walk away from their subsequent responsibilities to care for the unaborted, having ironically, never enacted their pro-lifer policies except at the ballot box - even as neglected children "blow up" on their watch across rural and urban areas. (In our West Michigan area alone there are approximately 7500 children between ages 7-21 wandering fields, village townships, and city streets. An are ripe with hundreds of bible-preaching bible churches. I find this amazing and quite sad.)
Let us not forget the imprisoned Blacks forgotten behind prison bars. Or the elderly who receive very little, if any, human care unless they have money to pay for it. Or regional wars across the globe waging war, wanting more guns, and fostering hate. Or the impoverished families who stay invisible to the pro-rights group. Yes, their names will be invisible in every sense of the word - even should Roe be overturned.
Pro-lifers do not see the "living" only their own self-interested vestments. The plight of children and families of foreign refugees, civil war victims, and mass migrations of the destitute will continue o flow - but pro-lifers give their Christmas boxes to Samaritan's Purse at church, "call it a day," and go home.
If life is to be spared, then we are to begin planning now - how to help, house, care and nurture all the little ones saved to life. NOT by passing them on to cold institutions or unsafe churches and families. As example, we do not need to look any farther than the Christian organization, EXODUS, which was a huge 30-year fail for all involved.
Let's not replicate this again with helpless children. Should Roe be overturned may the church with the government figure out how to save these children into loving homes and environments. Peace. - res
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| Trump Neo-Nationalists attacking the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
I'm glad to say that many on this list I know, or know well, at the ORT Center. Kudos to all the new student entering this coming year. And yes, open and relational PROCESS theology is the way to go for all ex-evangelicals seeking to honor Jesus and reaffirm God's love for humanity through and through and through both in this life and the next processual life to come.
It is far more thoroughly godly to say God is love than to say God loves only some whom God choses. God loves all - and in God's atonement all are offered salvation by whatever means the Spirit is able to reawaken the proffered soul.
For those who don't spiritually awaken, for reasons of a stubborn or willingly blinded free will, God is there throughout that individual's life and death. I think of many Christians acting out their faith with no real Jesus-faith present in their lives. Conscripted faith is not relational faith. Working and fellowshipping in the church does not mean walking in the Spirit. Too many times we see religious people with no sense of love or caretake of others being rule-bound or dogmatic. The Pharisees were Jesus' classic protagonists.
For myself, I reject both Christian Universalism and the Christian hell. This latter is the conjecture of the human mind sealed by the mythos of the Greek underworld then later underscored in the medieval writings of Dante within the early (Catholic) church.
I follow the belief that one's faith must walk if it is to talk. As such, we are to take responsibility for earth-and-humanity caretake. By providing wellbeing to all. And must be accountable for community and people if Christ-filled redemption is to mean anything at all.
As corollary, we cannot do nothing while sitting around yapping "Jesus is Coming" while waiting for death to take us, or the Lord to return. Jesus was God's return to earth. In the meantime we are to heal, bind up the wounds of the suffering, give cups of cold water to those without, minister to the one laying by the roadside, show mercy and grace. We have the oil of salvation in our lamps. Now go out and use it!
Another thought. I follow free agency all the way up - or all the way down - via processual life (the former idea of heaven) or processual death (the former idea of annihilation, but not hell). By some means, our futures are immortalized through either participation with God, or not... by building salvific processual processes in this life and the next. Always with God and never alone.
One last thought. The triunity (or trinity) of God is a teaming endeavor to which the Trinunity's fourth apex is that of creation. An significant apex added to God's fellowship circle of interiors. It is the very organic cosmos of creation itself. Thus making the Trinity a divine Rhombus (for those geometrists in our group). Whatever becomes... begins now... through us.... If all fails, God will still overcome in His divine partnership with the elements of creation which He first began with. God wishes to use all creation. This includes humanity... and especially His life-bestowing Remnant of Jesus disciples. Redemptive life becomes through the life-giving Spirit who works together with creation to determine - er, ENACT - not by divine fiat, but by divine love, the salvation of all.
- res
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| Neo-Nationalists listening to Trump's rant before attacking the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
Commentary by VS
DECEMBER 2021
Religious fundamentalism is never satisfied. Your fundamentalism must look like
*my* fundamentalism, which is the true, unadulterated, historic, “biblical”
faith. While eating with some Reformed, Bible church-type "friends"
at Wheaton College, they discovered I was (at the time) Pentecostal. One said,
"You may leave the table." I was too "liberal" for them,
despite my own, hyper-conservative beliefs. My family got rid of our
television, didn't go to dances or movies, and didn't use playing cards (gambling
adjacent, I guess). But we weren't spiritual enough for these Defenders of the
Faith. They *really* believed the Bible. Some in their camp were offended when
Elisabeth Eliot, a woman, was allowed to speak in chapel. (One told me he
wasn't sure Black people weren't better off as slaves; his dad wrapped his
luggage in duct tape when he flew.)
Around 2003, conservatives began breaking from the Episcopal Church, finding
more conservative bishops in Africa to affiliate with. One local priest leading
such an effort—I believe he literally led a procession of the “faithful” out of
the church and down the road—got more than he bargained for when his newly
chosen African bishop informed him that he wasn’t qualified for priesthood
himself because he’d been divorced. (There was a dispute in my church growing
up as to whether my uncle could serve as Sunday School superintendent because
he'd been divorced years ago. As one board member expressed it before catching
himself, “If we were to allow undesirables ….”) These breakaway efforts led to
the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (“confessing” as in the “true” church,
like the heroic German Christians who opposed the Nazis) and Anglican Church in
North America. (ACNA's name is a bit confusing; for clarification, they're not
part of the Anglican Communion but more like a "Roman Catholic Church of N
America" that isn't in fellowship with Rome.)
This fundamentalist way of thinking is why there are thousands of Christian
denominations/sects, formed over disagreements on nearly every issue of
doctrine and practice imaginable, each insisting the Bible is clear and that
*they’re* the ones practicing “biblical” Christianity, unlike the folks in the
church across the street.
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| Trump Neo-Nationalists attacking the United States Capital (1.6.2021) |
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