No America isn't going to help make your children Christian

If Christians can't figure out how to have better conversations then nobody should listen to us anyway

Today's video will get people a bit salty. The current fragmentation of the mid 20th century neo-evangelical tradition reliably makes the news but seldom as such. It's usually proxied by the back and forth of America's binary politics.

A recent example was the Twitter-spat between @DavidAFrench and @RevKevDeYoung. Both are part of the conservative PCA (no women-in-office, substitutionary atonement) and they were fighting over https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/deconstructing-white-evangelical

The heart of the piece is that the WHITE evangelical community was captured by Trumpism and that this exposes the fact that they are thinking politically and not theologically. DeYoung saw it as simplistic and ungracious.

Part of what enrages the other side is that they see this as the pot calling the kettle black. If part of the church is taking its cues from Trumpism, their parallel opposites are simply political progressives sporting their own theological fig leaves.

In a fight like this nuance is always presumed to be BS. @DavidAFrench despite his Republican affiliation and PCA membership must be a lefty and @NeilShenvi is an Indian Uncle Tom giving aid and comfort to bigots.

Establishment evangelicals like @SkyeJethani and @WeAreSpringtide are studying the center of the swell of deconstruction and being about as reactive in their prescriptions for "keeping the kids" as Trumpists are for "saving the nation".

If you want to watch the edge of the wave not the center of the swell you'd be better off listening to a conversation like this, which may horrify both sides.

but this is closer to where we're going.

Politics is now, religion is always. Expedience is the theological order of the day but such theology neither governs nor guides. If Christians are going to have any credibility, they need to be less insecure and approval seeking.

If we can't learn to talk to each other in a more productive way no one should bother listening to us on any of the concerns of today.

If we can't learn to talk to each other in a more productive way no one should bother listening to us on any of the concerns of the day because what we really signal is that we don't know, and we don't care about each other.

Something to ponder on your way out is Will Willimon's piece written in the 1986 about 1963 that holds up remarkably well, as good Christian thought ought to do. https://www.religion-online.org/article/making-christians-in-a-secular-world/