Hope from our Christian Friends

[Doctor Steuss]

A high school friend recently published a book that you might find worth reading, Kish. I don't know anything about her co-author, but she is a devout Christian, with a PhD in Divinity from Cambridge, and a Master in Religion and Bachelor in Journalism, both from Pepperdine. She’s currently a professor at Pepperdine (I believe she teaches various history courses on Christianity and Religion in America, and Ethics and Journalism).

I haven’t had a chance to buy/read it yet, but knowing her, and her unwavering faith combined with her areas of expertise in journalism and religion, I’m certain it’s stellar (if she took the lead on the writing, it will also be highly accessible and enganging).

Naturally, given her staunch Christian faith, coupled with her deep knowledge of the Bible and history, she's not a big fan of the orange god-emperor and his enablers.

Christian America and the Kingdom of God: White Christian Nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021

Two blurbs from reviews:

"If American Christians are serious about their citizenship in the kingdom of God, they should start to think in complex and nuanced ways--both theologically and historically--about how Jesus’s Kingdom relates to the values, ideals, and yes, the sins, of the United States. Richard Hughes and Christina Littlefield’s Christian America and the Kingdom of God is a great place to start. This book is a gift to the academy and the church.”--John Fea, author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction

"This very thoughtful, very thorough book describes and attacks what the authors name as white Christian nationalism. It offers both meticulous documentation of this phenomenon and its disastrous fruit, and critiques it on the basis of Scripture, notably the central biblical concept of the kingdom of God. The authors join many of us who are attempting to resist a version of Christianity and of US national identity that we believe to be both illusory and dangerous. May they find many readers for their important work.”--David P. Gushee, author of Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies

[huckelberry]

Kishkumen,

I can remember Obama disliked and called a socialist but am surprised to hear people thought him antichrist. Do you have any clue why or by what path such a view arises? I realize it may be a mystery, but if you have any insight I hope you could share.

My personal contact with holders of such views has long faded.

[Chap]

A high school friend recently published a book that you might find worth reading, Kish. I don't know anything about her co-author, but she is a devout Christian, with a PhD in Divinity from Cambridge, and a Master in Religion and Bachelor in Journalism, both from Pepperdine. She’s currently a professor at Pepperdine (I believe she teaches various history courses on Christianity and Religion in America, and Ethics and Journalism).

I haven’t had a chance to buy/read it yet, but knowing her, and her unwavering faith combined with her areas of expertise in journalism and religion, I’m certain it’s stellar (if she took the lead on the writing, it will also be highly accessible and enganging).

I've just read the sample on Kindle. It is a historically and theologically literate work, and although I am fortunate enough not to be living through the forging of a Christian Nation where I am situated, I find the analysis of the origins of this struggle to overturn the Founders' conception of a free nation gripping enough to want to follow it further.

But this quick reading did motivate me to look back at Luke's gospel to see what it says about the beginning of Jesus's teaching. After the well-known Beatitudes come, of course, the opposites of beatitudes, of which one is:

Luke 6:26

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Who does that make us think of? Maybe the guy who wants to close down all those who do NOT speak well of him? Could be.

[ceeboo]

Luke 6:26

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Who does that make us think of?

Luke.

[Kishkumen]

There are lots of evangelicals out there who give me hope. They just don’t shout as loud.

Indeed! There is a minority that see the MAGA movement for the danger to the faith that it is. I have watched some YouTube videos about them and of meetings in which they have spoken about this problem. They are, in a sense, the Christian equivalent of those actual conservatives out there who did not throw all in with MAGA. I find myself agreeing with the non-MAGA Christians and real (not MAGA) conservatives quite a bit.

[Kishkumen]

Kishkumen,

I can remember Obama disliked and called a socialist but am surprised to hear people thought him antichrist. Do you have any clue why or by what path such a view arises? I realize it may be a mystery, but if you have any insight I hope you could share.

My personal contact with holders of such views has long faded.

There are folks out there who are obsessed with apocalypticism. They see things that trouble them and try to shoehorn those things into end-times prophecy. Donald Trump pushed the idea that Obama was not eligible to be president because, so Trump falsely claimed, Obama was not born in the US. Obama's "different" background--the fact that his father was from Kenya and that he has a Luo-Arabic name--caused some to buy into Trump's bigoted conspiracy theory. And, thinking that a horrible mistake had been made, these folks saw Obama's imminent (before the election) or actual presidency a sign of the end of the world. I have to say, on BYU campus in the 1990s, LDS kids were convinced the election of Bill Clinton was a sign of the end times, so it really does not take much for these people to become unhinged and believe just about anything they fear is a sign of the end.

I could try to dig up these old "Obama is the anti-Christ" emails, but I may have deleted them because I found them so repulsive and was so disappointed in the people who sent them to me.

[Kishkumen]

Here is some stuff buried in my email and messages that attest to what was happening in fall 2008.

Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months, and you know what that is. Almost a four-year term of a Presidency.

All I can say is 'Lord, Have mercy on us!'

According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is: The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything..

Do we recognize this description??

I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to post this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet..do it! I refuse to take a chance on this unknown candidate who came out of nowhere.

As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . .'we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, . .' As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be.

I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation!

Please pray for our nation!

A friend sent me these messages on November 4, 2008. The friend's name is redacted:

So, I guess if Obama wins, it's Damien Omen II all over again.
--some of whom had been getting the Obama-AntiChrist garbage

I sent out your Palin spoof, just for fun, to dozens of friends.

[Kishkumen]

A high school friend recently published a book that you might find worth reading, Kish. I don't know anything about her co-author, but she is a devout Christian, with a PhD in Divinity from Cambridge, and a Master in Religion and Bachelor in Journalism, both from Pepperdine. She’s currently a professor at Pepperdine (I believe she teaches various history courses on Christianity and Religion in America, and Ethics and Journalism).

Thanks, Doctor Steuss! I think I have seen a couple of interviews with her, if I am remembering correctly. I need to get a copy of this book. Yes, I think that mature, well-informed Christianity does not lend itself well to support for Trump. But, heck, I know I am biased! I think the antidote for bad Christianity is good Christianity, and I have hope that better teaching of a better informed Christian community could lead to more Christians seeing Trump for the danger he is and ending their support for his destructive agenda.

ETA: I was mistaken about the identity of the person who I saw in those interviews. The good news is that there are more such people than I knew.

[huckelberry]

Kishkumen, thanks for your reply about Obama antichrist. I suppose eager for any sign of the second coming explains a lot. I have never experienced that enthusiasm for myself but have seen others. I see the human project as full of lots of interest and hope even if also discouraging in ways.

I even miss the Muslim angle in revelations. I have seen the desire to make America a Christian nation by fiat not conversion of people. It is hard to know how serious such nationalist passions are. It is possible that believing one is in a Christian nation feels more secure than searching out how to be Christian oneself.

[Kishkumen]

Kishkumen, thanks for your reply about Obama antichrist. I suppose eager for any sign of the second coming explains a lot. I have never experienced that enthusiasm for myself but have seen others. I see the human project as full of lots of interest and hope even if also discouraging in ways.

I even miss the Muslim angle in revelations. I have seen the desire to make America a Christian nation by fiat not conversion of people. It is hard to know how serious such nationalist passions are. It is possible that believing one is in a Christian nation feels more secure than searching out how to be Christian oneself.

My pleasure, huckelberry! Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I, too, have a difficult time seeing the Obama anti-Christ interpretations, and I think that demands to Christianize the law do amount to a kind of failure of faith. Christianity is not about forcing the faith or its unique values on others.