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ATTN: Folks with or w/o microphones in predominantly white church congregations in America this Sunday (I also have in mind the hours remaining before the polls close). I believe these three words probably need to be voiced aloud in your contexts: WHITE NATIONALIST ANTICHRIST.
2/ If you aren't inclined to say such words for fear of some1 calling you (or thinking of you) as liberal or partisan or possessed by "political motivations," you may be held captive by a disinformation campaign, the noise that drives out the possibility of signal. It's tricky.
3/ For the sake of your own soul & the souls of others, U'll want 2 get free of it. Know that you can slow the tape, 2 keep open the possibility of actual communion. If you love yer fellow congregants or even want 2, let perfect love cast out fear long enuf 2 speak w/ due candor.
4/ In our mostly white church congregations, we have people whose media diet resembles the known media diet of individuals who felt compelled to send explosive devices to famous people & to open fire on unarmed civilians in #TreeOfLifeSynagogue, a Kroger in KY, & a yoga studio.
5/ We also have among us those whose bids for public office bank everything on the disinformation that weaponizes the despair of our fellow Americans. While claiming membership in our churches, they approve the ads that amplify the disinformation that incites violent acts.
6/ We owe it to them to somehow lovingly communicate the ways in which they're publicly disgracing themselves and the witness of their churches with each passing day. We owe it to the world we're supposedly called to minister to confront the wickedness possessing our own.
7/ There's a legitimation exchange involved in the concept of membership & affiliation. Congregations looped into that exchange by career politicians who claim membership are free, in myriad ways, to distinguish its signals from the noise that, for now, seems to win elections.
8/ We've been here B4. The Barmen Declaration & the Belhar Confession both draw these essential lines. If there's to be truth in advertising, I don't think churches can be said 2B ministering 2 or loving their members while letting their incitements to violence go unaddressed.
9/ Churches don't have 2 sit still & see their own witness falsified in this way. Alternately, if the alleged successes of career politicians serve 2 insulate them from the joys of moral accountability, the church, above all, mustn't play that way. Keep a space 2 repentance open.
10/ Feel your own power & responsibility in the presence of those to whom (whether as pastor or fellow congregant) you're trying to be in fellowship. Thoreau says we all, each of us, crave reality most of all. I think this is true. Even when animus arises in our heads like lava.
11/ Be emboldened by the spirit of Beloved Community, which calls each us out of the moral dead end of every form of nationalism & sees, even in the alleged enemy, an infinitely valuable bearer of the divine image.
12/ I approve this message which arises out of my own Tennessean context & my hopes for my former employer, Christ Presbyterian Church, & its arrangement with Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn.
13/ If Marsha Blackburn is your friend, your constituent, your fellow church member, or your parishioner, please address her with love & care concerning the ways she's disgracing herself, her denomination, and her state when she speaks this way: https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1060580719326449666
14/ To borrow a phrase from this piece, if you or some1 you know is so "BENT ON GROWTH" that adding disinformation 2 the media diet of lonely men who open fire on unarmed people is essential 2 your perceived profits, please intervene &/or repent today. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html
15/ The work of Beloved Community continues: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2018/11/16/marsha-blackburn-represents-only-rich-white-christian-people/2007674002/
16/ Can't help but wonder what passes for Christian education in the church that claims @cindyhydesmith as a member. Was she counseled to refuse to apologize for the public hanging remark? One begins to discern a pattern.
17/ My mulling over what to say to predominantly white churches in the South who give a pass to professional politicians who bank their careers on white nationalism always takes me back to Will Campbell (He goes before us). https://chapter16.org/gods-will/
18/ If the confessional shoe fits (& someone in your congregation mimics the rhetoric of our last two synagogue shooters to win elections), publicly rebuke the spirit of white nationalist antichrist today: https://twitter.com/dukekwondc/status/1122848780502614018
19/ “We can’t pretend as though we didn’t have some responsibility for him — he was radicalized into white nationalism from within the very midst of our church." https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/05/01/alleged-synagogue-shooter-was-churchgoer-who-articulated-christian-theology-prompting-tough-questions-evangelical-pastors/?utm_term=.6d97b02cf633
20/ Language for talking to people & thinking these things through lovingly, prayerfully, & historically is among us to share, discuss, & weigh out. I mentioned Barmen & Belhar already, but here's an exceedingly helpful statement from AME church from 2017: https://www.ame-church.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Episcopal-Statement-Council-of-Bishops-re-Trump-Actions.pdf
21/ I still wish alleged leaders within PCA culture would lovingly address alleged members of its congregations when they perpetuate the rhetoric of white nationalist terror. Seems important and necessary. https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1137152466615787525
22/ 45 speaks of infestation. @MarshaBlackburn speaks of invasion. What would it take for the community she claims to draw a loving, public line between her witness & theirs?: http://www.shakesville.com/2019/06/trump-announces-massive-sweep-of.html
23/ That's @MarshaBlackburn representing the state of Tennessee (Me) & the church in which she claims membership. I pray for better days for all of us. We can only disgrace ourselves: https://twitter.com/rmayemsinger/status/1149915185445920768
24/ Because intersectionality names the phenomenon that can afford us the insight that congratulating yourself for opposing gay marriage & leaving white nationalism unrebuked are (sometimes) two sides of the same coin, I'm placing this here: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2019/07/03/cracker-barrel-takes-moral-high-ground-discrimination/1642034001/
25/ Silence is complicity. https://twitter.com/AngryBlackLady/status/1158037896965705728
Area woman who's campaign advertising matches the rhetoric of yet another white nationalist shooter thanks law enforcement and speaks of sympathy, thoughts, and prayers (twice). https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1157831050581741569
"We will love you back." @AOC is perhaps the most obviously Christian elected official we have in this country. Follow her lead, everyone. https://twitter.com/Public_Citizen/status/1159943931674673152
#Liturgy Friends don't let friends succumb to white supremacist antichrist. All hands on deck: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/11/business/media/el-paso-killer-conservative-media.html
"In this chaotic time Christian leaders of all stripes must help the church discern the boundaries of legitimate political alliances." @antheabutler @MiroslavVolf @brianmclaren https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/open-letter-against-new-nationalism
Everything matters. It always has. https://twitter.com/wilsonhartgrove/status/1191705750256734208
Let everyone who still has her ear speak up. Nobody has to live like this. https://twitter.com/VoteMarsha/status/1193668137759195137
I ask anyone with @MarshaBlackburn's ear to ask her to stop putting this man's life in danger. https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1197576176593715210
Constituents & alleged sisters and brothers in Christ of @MarshaBlackburn, please demand/ask that she change her behavior. This is an incitement to lawlessness. https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1197875810256007170
Folks with access, please surround @MarshaBlackburn with love and assure her that she doesn't have to live this way. Somewhere in there, also tell her to stop playing games with our lives. https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1206930269271400448
Very grateful to @DavidAFrench for speaking up. I invite other members of the PCA denomination to weigh in & invite @MarshaBlackburn to repent, resign, &/or stop claiming membership @CPCnashville. https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1220502016599957505
This is a very big "they." I call on anyone who knows her to encourage @MarshaBlackburn to step away from these incitements to violence & to remember her oath, her office, & her baptism. May her church remind her that she doesn't have to live like this. https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1221813996896116736
Now I know how @timkellernyc feels (at least a little bit). https://twitter.com/SenAlexander/status/1223094605509468160
Tfw @taylorswift13 addresses @MarshaBlackburn's betrayal with moral authority. https://twitter.com/GuthrieGF/status/1223312482208505856
A lovely & loving reminder that @SenatorRomney's commitment to the sacred held strong as @SenAlexander
& @sensasse & @MarshaBlackburn's went slack. May the moral resolve of churches in America be strengthened similarly in the days ahead. (via @DaultRadio) https://novenanews.com/afd-munster-diocese-bans-far-right-leadership/
& @sensasse & @MarshaBlackburn's went slack. May the moral resolve of churches in America be strengthened similarly in the days ahead. (via @DaultRadio) https://novenanews.com/afd-munster-diocese-bans-far-right-leadership/
"[Those] who push stories that sow division today, from the White House to the County Commission, will stand in history alongside the Southern gentlemen of the 1960s who never ordered the death of a single civil rights worker but..." @wilsonhartgrove https://sojo.net/articles/my-encounter-right-wing-rage-machine
Very grateful to @timkellernyc for offering this public word. Please have a look at the replies to see what thoughtful people are up against. https://twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/1229095598026035201
I don't like my tax dollars going to white nationalist antichrist rhetoric. I wish her alleged community of faith @CPCnashville (PCA) would address her lovingly & firmly. They owe her that much. https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1240082908511178752
I spy progress: https://ligonduncan.com/a-statement-on-the-flag-of-mississippi/
