The Babylon Bee gave me a chuckle with this article, “President Pretending To Be Catholic Meets Pope Pretending To Be Catholic.” Unfortunately life on the protestant side of things at the moment is just as crazy making and even harder to satirize and laugh at.
Just this week Paul Pressler died. “Pressler was one of the chief architects of the “Conservative Resurgence,” also known as the fundamentalist takeover, that changed the course of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s and 1990s, turning it into a decidedly conservative theological denomination with deep ties to the Republican Party.” I don’t want to go into all that mess, I just want to say, what hypocrisy.
Just the other day another mega church pastor acknowledged a past, “moral failure with a young lady.” What they didn’t reveal was that the “young lady” was 12 years old at the time. What really galls me is that the church knew about this and the elders have continued to “supervise his restoration to ministry,” for the past 35 years!
I think there is an underlying problem within our society where we have forgotten that Christians are sinners saved by grace. Our institutions are a collection of deeply flawed sinners coming together to form an organization. What could possibly go wrong there, right??! For much of my life we have completely reversed that truth, elevated people and placed these organizations up on a pedestal. They’re the designated “good guys” so you can’t question them. These “good guys” are allegedly going to save us from the “bad guys” so they couldn’t possibly do any wrong themselves.
The founding fathers understood these truths much better than we do today. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We have three branches of government so as to balance the power, to ensure some checks and balances. They did this not because men are good, but because they knew they were not. That’s a bitter truth to face because if you’re willing to consider it, you have to also be willing to confront the fact that you yourself might also be capable of sin.
James Madison’s famous letter to Edward Livingston in which he said in part, “And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together,” was about having a keen awareness about the sinfulness of men and the dangers of sinful men forming powerful organizations that did not perceive themselves as accountable to anyone. He called it, “a strong bias towards the old error.”
The strong bias towards the old error was about believing you could just put the good guys in charge and give them unlimited power and all would be well. After all, they’re the good guys, right?
We can (and should) blame government for our current circumstances but ultimately the problem lies with we the people and we the people of the churches. Everyone is a sinner. Our job as an organization is to try to mitigate some of the inevitable harm that comes from having human beings involved.
That is what that verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14 means, “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.“
See, there's this thing called biology... 
In my teens, I read the book, Run, Baby Run. This is the story of Nicky Cruz, who went from being a violent gang member, to a Christian with a ministry that continues today. I’ll take someone like him, with his background of drugs and violence, turned to God over some slick “good boy” suit, like the guy with the big teeth my mother likes to watch in TV. Cruz is honest and raw about his history. The “good boy” suits that look so squeaky clean? No one is squeaky clean. That’s kinda the whole point of being saved through grace.
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Yes, amen! I trust a good testimony far more than I trust those squeaky clean personas. There is a lot of celebrity worship in our world, from movie stars to mega church pastors. When they crash we sometimes even call it, “a fall from grace.” The thing is, that’s not grace at all! Social favor, fame, wealth, are not grace at all and yet as a culture we kind of perceive it that way.
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Perhaps it’s important to present that the “success” of any pastor (and you can define a pastoral “success” any way you wish) is greatly attributed to a person’s personal charisma; the more charismatic, the greater the public admiration. That even carries down to the pastor of a local church… when someone says they “like” a church it generally means they appreciate the pastor. Just like in politics, entertainment, etc., the person with some level of charisma (not necessarily the loudest mouth with a good or bad message) gets the greater attention. We are all attracted to charisma.
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Hmm, maybe charisma plays a role? You say, “We are all attracted to charisma.” I genuinely don’t see charisma at all, but you could be right.
A bit funny, charisma is allegedly, “a personal magic of leadership.” Yeah, I’m a Gen X. Pretty sure when God made us he left off that part of the recipe.
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Charisma.. or the ability for humans to respond in kind to follow another.. is a human trait.. hence some might suggest it was in His plan.
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The Lord knows who is His and who is not. I’d rather Him make the judgment than me. Don’t we have enough divisions and backbiting in the Body of Christ?
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Perhaps, but if we don’t stand for something, we’ll stand for nothing. There were a lot of children abused and sexually exploited by these two men, and worse yet the victims were just tossed aside and disregarded by the church at large.
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Understood, and agreed. But questioning their position in Christ is what the title of the post says. “Pretenders” vs true believers in christ. I still that that question is out of our wheelhouse and way above our pay grade
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Well, nobody has the authority to cast people out of Christ, out of grace. I think we all can have aspects of some kind of pretending going on. That’s just human nature! But the Bible does tell us that, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And also, “by their fruits you shall know them.”
Much of the ministry Jesus is engaged in involves encountering pretenders, religious authorities and such. It’s not really about whether or not they are saved, but rather that they are pretending to be what they are not and using their social position to hurt and exploit people in the process.
I’m not even suggesting these two pastors should have been exiled forever, just maybe if you have a track record of sexually exploiting children you should go sell shoes for a living rather than being elevated within the church and promoted in ministry.
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With respect, Let me try again. I got a dwi in 1988. Does that mean I have a “track record” of driving drunk and that it should both color my Pretender vs Real status in Christ and my qualification for serving in the Body or in Ministry? This is what I think you’re doing in the particular case of Pressler. Not fair. Don’t have all the info from his life or activities in the last 35yrs. Don’t know his heart or mind or walk with Christ. This equals… stop judging/condemning him as a possible “pretender”. It’s just not your call. Last I’ll say on the post. Thx for your consideration.
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with apologies to all good shoe salespeople everywhere.
lol
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LOL, oh dear! Yes, no disparaging of shoe salesmen intended. An honorable profession for sure! In fact, currently far more honorable then that of a mega church pastor.
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I like the old time shoe repair man- if you can find one. Tradesmen are sort of salt of the earth.
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Corrupt governments have always had problems legitimizing their moral authority and somebody in prehistoric times figured out that there were corrupt clergy willing to sell that authority. I’ve been reading some Dead White Males lately relating how after Israel adopted a kingdom what their corrupted religious system that the prophets spoke against actually looked like. What they were teaching bore a lot of disturbing similarities to today’s Prosperity Gospels and Christian Nationalist movements.
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Good points about the complexity behind Israel, Christian nationalism, politics and corrupt religious systems. I do know that Orthodox Jews often do not support the concept of modern Israel. To complicate matters even more, a lot of Israeli’s are currently at odds with their own government. At the same time, we in the US have the LGBQT out protesting in the streets in defense of Palestine, but we also have many openly in favor of Islam (which would probably have them thrown off a roof or executed for homosexuality. ) It’s all very confusing and way past my pay grade to sort out, but I am aware that there is a lot of nuance and moral ambiguity involved.
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In Germany right now, they have more Jews incarcerated since 1945—for engaging in ‘anti-semitism’ by opposing Israel. Under the new PC/DEI rules for American colleges and high schools, Jewish student groups have been banned for the same reason.
I suspect (though can’t prove) that many of these ‘Queers for Palestine’ types are fakes. It’s certainly not unheard-of that both the DNC and RNC have planted actors in groups they want to discredit to make them look like complete kooks. It’s well known that in 2016, Clinton’s team planted fake Trump or Sanders supporters at campaign events to disrupt things and that’s probably what’s going on here.
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Kind of a weird coincidence, but Pastor Morrris of Dallas, the guy who ” had an affair with a young lady,” meaning he spent five years molesting a girl beginning when she was 12 years old, resigned today. I also discovered he made a video, did an interview with Netanyahu. In the interview he tells Netanyahu, “when I read your book, I felt like I was reading from the scriptures.”
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I thank you for sharing your insights in easy to contemplate prose. The heart of this post serves to remind us that ” all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.
Whereas your paragraph stating the responsibility of organizations is indeed accurate, Christ never intended His Church to function under such human coordination.
The Church is NOT an organization, but rather, an ORGANISM – formed, led and sustained by the Holy Spirit. It consists of truly Spirit filled believers (sinners saved by grace, yet still prone to sinful behavior if not willingly yielded to the Spirit of Christ).
When Christ commissioned His Church, it’s primary mission (preach the Gospel) was to point people to Jesus, sharing their PERSONAL relationship with Him – the living, eternal God. Without that introduction, whatever results, were a corruption of God’s plan of Salvation – the true purpose of Christ’s earthly mission and inherited membership in the Church.
As for mitigating the harm that comes from human involvement, that’s the Spirit’s role. Humans taking on such a task apart from a genuine leading of the Holy Spirit will always be futile. It merely perpetuates the blind leading the blind.
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Thank you, MJ. An organism not an organization, I like that! Well put.
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In order to generally produce a different human behavior, would we not need to evolve a different biological design? And would that continue the evident (so far) success of our species?
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Precisely. 🙂
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But then that evokes Darwinism, Jack. Is that allowed in here?
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Well to be fair Doug- we actually ARE evolving. – more stupid by the day.
10 genders today, 20 tomorrow, a pronoun for every occasion, men having an alleged placenta, some people say they can’t tell you what a woman is, so maybe the better word is Devolving.
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Well, in the end we are all still human beings. So, to that end, does it all really make a difference, CS?
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Yes it does matter. When I resist or reject something forced down my throat, something that been obviously true for ten thousand years, only to be considered ‘stone age,’ or intellectually stunted because I refuse the ‘equity, inclusion’ nonsense, the ‘difference made’ is that there are millions of people without voices in media, who by daily conversation by pushing back, it may slow down the absurd avalanche of sheer abominable agendas.
So it matters.
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Then let me ask, what exactly is being “forced” down your throat? Who or what exactly is forcing their will upon you? Perhaps more to the point, who or what is affecting your quality of living life the way you wish?
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Sure. Two things to start. Our good friend here in the blue dress on many occasions and most recently wrote of c-19- and the policies that ‘affected MY, HER, and countless millions quality of life. Not forced down your throat? Are you serious?
2. In the workforce, DEI policies have infected all areas of professions. People hired not because they are capable and qualified, but because they are incapable and unqualified. And while many are promoted to mgmt, again, quality of life is threatened
Some others can affirm these things and more.
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Ok.. so what you are saying is that you “suffered” or had quality of life issues by extension of the apparent “suffering” of others and not directly? You’re suggesting that your life has personally been affected as a result of Covid policies and local mandates? I mean, maybe you have. How would I know one way or the other. I’m just asking. I’m guessing you might impose the broader economic effects.. price of gas, pound of hamburger, etc., rather than the “my family is starving as a result of Covid policies”, or “I’m unemployed now because of woke policies.”.
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There is great difference between a e
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Well, observation of biology seems appropriate here and attaching modern Darwinism seems rather like sewing an overcoat onto a button…
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Good analogy. 🙂
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No. Changing behavior has nothing to do with altering our biological design. That is a ridiculously materialist conceiving of things. We are each free to pursue the cultivation, or not, of the various virtues according to our own qualities of will and conscience. This basic human fact is independent of any faith or religious confession. In fact all spiritual edeavor would be meaningless without this basic fact.
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I believe Jack was referring to our behaviors as being largely dictated by our responses to our own natural instincts as human beings in general. Heck, religion exists at all as a counter balance to our instincts. Remove the instincts, you change behaviors.
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Religion does NOT exist as a counter balance to our instincts. Religion exists to remind us of who we really are, biologically, naturally, and instinctively. Things like hatred, greed, and scarcity are all learned behaviors based on lies. They are not innate to who we are as people.
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Spiritually I might agree that is the goal of religion… but I don’t agree that those things will be removed from mankind without a change in evolution. Now.. hope and faith would suggest otherwise. I will not dispute that nor attempt to change your idea on that either. We believe as we choose.
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Thank you; ypur opinion is appreciated!
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Doug, oh yes indeed – it definitely makes a difference! The defining moment in every human life is how we answer the only question that has ever, and shall ever, be of eternal significance. Namely, as Christ Himself asks, “Who do YOU say that I am”?
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Do I need to say “Who you are?” Why should that even make a difference to my life? I am certainly not qualified to tell someone else how to live their life.
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Doug – With all due respect, I fear you’re missing the point. The focus is NOT on mere humanity (inherently prone to mistakes, corruption, and misunderstanding) but rather spirituality. Specifically, the Great Spirit, God Eternal, God in the flesh, asking (requiring) YOU. Who do YOU say Christ is? The answer YOU give determines YOUR eternal destiny. Denying or rejecting God’s true identity in Christ leaves YOU (and every other human being) without a Savior, a Redeemer, or reconciliation.
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Ah.. ok to your point. That I cannot dispute.
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Term limits
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