But the break had already happened. Before one cannon was fired at Fort Sumter, American Christendom had split over the issue of slavery. The Civil War had already begun over the moral question of holding another human being as chattel. Some Christians found religious justification for their greed and prejudices. Others condemned the practice. Those held in bondage and who bore the brunt of the cruelty of slavery dared, as the theologian Howard Thurman said, to redeem the religion profaned in their midst. This dramatic split would come to characterize the nation’s religious landscape as race segregated the idea of the beloved community and many were willing to die and kill to maintain it all. Frederick Douglass would put the point more poignantly: “The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter crises of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master.” The historian David Wills has insisted that one way to tell the story of American religious history is through this “encounter of black and white,” an encounter that “occurred within the context of a slave system”† and the world it created that colors how we see each other and how we imagine being together. And here we are over 160 years after Lincoln’s first inaugural address still grappling with the moral question of who we take ourselves to be and how a certain distorted view of Christianity sanctifies our hatreds and fears. Will we reach for our better angels? Jim Wallis has spent a lifetime bearing witness in the face of injustice. He has worked diligently to organize faith communities and leaders to cast away the idolatry of race and to live the gospel. In this powerful book, The False White Gospel, he takes on the latest American expression of white Christianity. Without mincing his words, he understands that white Christian nationalists have clothed their hatreds in the garments of their faith. They sacralize power and worship at the altar of autocrats who all too often profane the message of Jesus. These are the descendants of those who so easily reconciled Christianity with slavery and Jim Crow. But Jim Wallis, as he has always done, refuses to sit by silently as these forces hijack his tradition. He understands that this moment is a moral crisis that cries out for courage and conviction and, especially, for Christians to defend their faith by finally leaving behind the idea that some people ought to be valued more than others. And he provides the tools for the fight with Scriptures and commentary that guide our hearts, our minds, and our actions. His is an invitation to us all to engage in the moral battle.
I really don't know what President Biden meant as to fighting for the soul or our nation. I'd like to believe it is the same as my belief... Of God's Command... That we must speak out, without violence, to verify that we believe Our Neighbors as defined by Jesus, is ALL People, no matter what race, religion, or whatever differences that can and are being used to discriminate against another Child of God...
But I have seen enough to know that the republican party has turned away from the Promises of God...
They Say... Believe on ME... Now they worship Power, Greed, and a Man of Violence and Hate, so badly that some call him a psychopath... but I am not an expert so I'll just speak about what I see... The past president tells us that he will rule as a dictator, that he will weaponize our armed forced to fight against all those who oppose him...his enemies... Yes, those of us who Know God Is Above All... And that NO MAN(MEN) are above the law...not even those who were placed by republicans on the Supreme Court...
I woke up this morning and Standing on the Promises came to me, the old version which I knew the words, but I chose this version because he sung the words with feeling, with truth of his belief in our God who promises that He will Not Forsake Us...
Stand on His Promise... Do your Research... Pay more attention to what is being said by any and all republicans... There is no way to know who actually is MAGA, those who call themselves Christians--Christian Nationalists!
Please note that there is a technical problem at this time. Colors were used to differentiate excerpts versus narrative... Please note that my narrative is below the second video. I have notified Google...
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