I resonate so much with this post. I am a woman of color and I was attending an evangelical church when Trump began running for President. When my fellow parishioners began embracing him, you can imagine the hurt and the confusion I felt. Why would they embrace someone like him? I ended up leaving and never went back. I live in the South so trying to find a church that doesn't embrace Trump as a candidate is going to be difficult. I don't know if I belong in church anymore. I haven't lost my faith, but I cannot worship with people who see nothing wrong with Trump or his platform.
Looking on from Australia, it's hard to understand what seems like a kind of madness. But it does affect us - Christians here get asked if we're like the 'Evangelicals' in the US. It's good to know there are dissenting voices.
And sometimes for your own emotional health you have to leave former friends and churches that feel toxic and unsafe. But the good news is that there are places and people of faith out there who love Jesus, the world and even their enemies.
Thank you for this perspective, Drew! Much needed at this time, and very well written. I am trying to practice a form of engagement that is neither "apolitical"--which is always appropriated by one or the other of extremes--nor intolerant. I'm trying to hold my political views and also love my neighbor, even if he she has one of those upside down American flags...Thank you!
“Joe and the Hoe”—I actually wish there was a way to bleep it out, like an expletive. It pains me to write. So disrespectful and dehumanizing. Gosh, I’m just thinking about Jesus’s interaction with the woman at the well. Even if this word could be used truthfully about her, Jesus never would have called her such names.
I resonate so much with this post. I am a woman of color and I was attending an evangelical church when Trump began running for President. When my fellow parishioners began embracing him, you can imagine the hurt and the confusion I felt. Why would they embrace someone like him? I ended up leaving and never went back. I live in the South so trying to find a church that doesn't embrace Trump as a candidate is going to be difficult. I don't know if I belong in church anymore. I haven't lost my faith, but I cannot worship with people who see nothing wrong with Trump or his platform.
Looking on from Australia, it's hard to understand what seems like a kind of madness. But it does affect us - Christians here get asked if we're like the 'Evangelicals' in the US. It's good to know there are dissenting voices.
And sometimes for your own emotional health you have to leave former friends and churches that feel toxic and unsafe. But the good news is that there are places and people of faith out there who love Jesus, the world and even their enemies.
Thank you for this perspective, Drew! Much needed at this time, and very well written. I am trying to practice a form of engagement that is neither "apolitical"--which is always appropriated by one or the other of extremes--nor intolerant. I'm trying to hold my political views and also love my neighbor, even if he she has one of those upside down American flags...Thank you!
“Joe and the Hoe”—I actually wish there was a way to bleep it out, like an expletive. It pains me to write. So disrespectful and dehumanizing. Gosh, I’m just thinking about Jesus’s interaction with the woman at the well. Even if this word could be used truthfully about her, Jesus never would have called her such names.
Those last couple lines! Keep writing, Drew.