The executive director explained the barriers to the types of videos they\u2019d like to produce,<\/p>\n
\u201cSee the main issue isn\u2019t that we don\u2019t do good work- we keep children out of foster care and keep families together!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n She cited a statistic that helped me embrace their mission- only 4% of children who go into foster care in Kentucky graduate college.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main issue is that our right wing donor-base freaks out if anything we do looks like assisting those on welfare, and frankly those are the families that need the most Welfare is a big deal. Children being dumped in a broken foster care system is a big deal too. Immigration is a huge deal. Children “After Jesus healed people for two reasons: firstly, to display God\u2019s power through himself (John 10:37-38) and secondly because He was filled with compassion for people (Mark 1:41).<\/p>\n When you read that passage, it may have slipped by you, but the man at the pool had been laying there for 38 years. 38 years of longing, 38 years of suffering and survival and calling out to friends to drag him to the pool on the off chance that a miracle would happen and he would be healed.<\/p>\n Jesus the God-man, reflects the nature of God and is filled with compassion for him. He is filled with compassion, suffering “Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk.<\/em>‘ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.<\/p>\n Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.<\/em>\u2019… And this was why the Jews were persecuting When we read this passage, Jesus is breaking the cultural and religious law. The Jews established these laws to keep their right standing with God, and this impostor, Jesus, has the gall to upset their system and heal someone on the Sabbath! Where Jesus is filled with compassion, the Jews are only filled with legalism. Where Jesus seeks to extend mercy, the Jews seek to attack those who upset the system.<\/p>\n “By<\/em> John Piper puts it this way,<\/a><\/p>\n “This doesn\u2019t mean that acts of love are how we get right with God. No, the Bible is clear again and again as Ephesians 2:8-9 says, \u201cBy grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works.\u201d No, when the Bible says that we are saved by faith but that we must love people in order to finally be saved, it means that faith in God\u2019s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.<\/em><\/p>\n So, love for others is a condition of future grace in the sense that it confirms that the primary condition, faith, is genuine. We could call love for others a secondary condition, which confirms the authenticity of the primary and essential condition of faith which alone unites us to Christ, and receives his power.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve grappled with these polarizing issues that seem to be happening on a daily basis, I think I\u2019ve found the main issue: the evangelical right is no longer a Christian constituent. Real Christians are struggling to find their place in the U.S. political system.<\/p>\n After the 2016 election, I knew there were bigger issues in the evangelical right than just a public perception problem, but there were hints of something wrong, long before then.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2010, statistics started floating around<\/a> that Christians divorced at the same rate or higher than Classically, the term \u201cevangelical\u201d was based out of the belief of an “emphasizing salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the importance of preaching as contrasted with ritual.\u201d Evangelicals were synonymous with Protestants. Somewhere along the line, however, the term relaxed and as religion became more popular, people began to define themselves as evangelical, without evening knowing what that meant.<\/p>\n For example, nearly half of U.S. Protestants today (46%) say faith alone is needed to attain salvation, but about half (52%) say both good deeds and faith are needed to get into heaven. U.S. Protestants also are split on another issue that is central to the Christian faith: 46% say the Bible is the sole source of religious authority for Christians, while 52% say Christians should look both to the Bible and to the church\u2019s official teachings and tradition for guidance, the position held by the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n When these two questions are combined, the survey shows that just three-in-ten U.S. Protestants believe in both salvation by faith alone and the authority of God\u2019s word. One-third of Protestants (35%) affirm one but not the other, and 36% do not believe in either. In short, only 30% of Protestants understand the core beliefs that shape their faith. Three-in-ten protestants believe in purgatory!<\/p>\n So what happens when the religious right loses their basic theological knowledge? They lose their moral compass.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1972, an American politician was just getting started in his business career. He owned a string of gas stations, and during the \u201972 gas shortage, he struck a deal with a woman who owned a local \u201cmassage parlor.\u201d If he set aside gas for her girls, he would use their “services” any time for free.<\/p>\n The political figure that I\u2019m writing about is Dennis Hof<\/a>, a Republican running for Nevada legislature. Owner of a strip club and five legal brothels in Nevada, he beat GOP hospital executive, James Oscarson, and will go on the face his democratic opponent later in the year. He pulled the evangelical vote for the state and is predicted to win. Hof largely credits the changing political tide,<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m kind of rich, I\u2019m kind of famous, and I\u2019m surrounded by hot chicks. I don\u2019t give a damn what anybody says about me,<\/em>\u201d Hof said.<\/p>\n Sure, comments are going to come in that we\u2019re electing politicians, not pastors, and as fundamentally flawed as that argument is<\/a>, what it really exposes are the hearts behind the religious right: Hearts that are full of fear for the future. Hearts that are more concerned with debating issues than loving others. Hearts that are not filled with compassion. Hearts that are hardened enough to ignore even the greatest of moral failures.<\/p>\n Could it be possible that our political views are totally correct, but the way that we live them out, defeats their very purpose?<\/p>\nWhen Compassion Fails<\/h4>\n
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Jesus says this to the religious who have lost their way in legalism. You are the children of the devil. You aren\u2019t even saved.<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Demographic Just Doesn\u2019t Fit the Term<\/h4>\n
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A poll by the Pew Research Center<\/a> in 2017 found that even the term, \u201cProtestant\u201d is filled with people who don\u2019t understand their religion.<\/p>\nWhen Holiness Doesn\u2019t Matter Anymore<\/h4>\n
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<\/a>This isn\u2019t a hidden Clinton scandal, the politician is amazingly open about his sex life then and now, \u201cI had always enjoyed sex, sure,<\/em>\u201d he writes, \u201cbut until [then] I hadn\u2019t realized how little I knew about it. So, of course, I kept going back, a willing student . . . I soon realized I had a big problem: I loved f\u2014ing and I couldn\u2019t get enough of it.<\/em>\u201d He also soon realized, \u201cI had fallen madly in love with prostitutes.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
How can we explain the flippant disregard of the moral failure of our politicians, other than a fundamental misunderstanding that Christians serve a monarchy, not a democracy? Christians serve King Jesus, not the American political system.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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If what I\u2019ve said offends you, then take a step back and look at what you\u2019re defending. You have the daily choice to affect people\u2019s hearts and minds through your actions, yet you love your nation more than you love your brother.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
What This Doesn\u2019t Mean<\/h4>\n
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