We continue to be unamazed at the theological and spiritual depravity of Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas. We are unamazed because Pastor Jeffress has for an entire career displayed ignorance of the Bible, a startling lack of theological insight, and more care for power and prestige than befits any shepherd of one of Christ’s congregations. While unamazed, we are nonetheless troubled, because Jeffress has influence over many vulnerable sheep.
 
This time, Jeffress, perhaps the most ardent fan of Donald J. Trump among evangelicals other than Jerry Falwell, Jr, is worried about Trump’s penchant for “taking the Lord’s name in vain.” In particular, Jeffress is put out that Trump used the word “goddamn” in a recent rally with donors. As Jeffress puts it in the Washington Post, when it comes to off-color language, “There is a whole commandment dedicated to prohibiting that. I think it’s very offensive to use the Lord’s name in vain. I can take just about everything else, except that.”
 
For Jeffress, taking the Lord’s name in vain is literally about a set of words that to him are profane. He’s especially worried about the use of “goddamn,” spoken by a president who doesn’t worship the god Jeffress worships and who doesn’t believe in the hell Jeffress preaches. Whatever Jeffress or others say about Trump’s faith, we have it on good authority – the Scriptures – that Trump’s works and words tell us that he worships himself and that he has little fear of a hellish end.
 
But the more important point about Jeffress, and any Christian for that matter, is that we decry the use of ‘goddamn’ as a vain use of the Lord’s name, while we ourselves take the Lord’s name in vain in other, more profane ways.
 
We take the Lord’s name in vain when we say we honor Jesus Christ but . . .
 

• Ignore the instruction to care for “the least of these” and to welcome the stranger while turning away those seeking asylum, separating families, and caging children
• Have conferences and make statements to oppose the notion of “social justice,” a fundamentally biblical concept, because we think it somehow undermines our concept of the gospel
• Fail to speak out against the racism that permeates our culture and fail to do the good work of forming a more just and equitable society
• Cheer on a president who bullies, insults, and denigrates people and whole societies (“shithole countries”)
• Endorse a president and other leaders who are chauvinists, misogynists, and who have serious charges of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and rape against them.
• Pursue winning a “culture war” that is more about defending a version of the USA than it is pursuing the kingdom of God whose Lord is Jesus. The two are not the same, and winning the culture war espoused by Jeffress et all likely means waging war against the kingdom that Jesus preached and died for.

 
In each case – and there are many others – we take the Lord’s name in vain when we claim to speak for and work for the Lord Jesus and not only turn our head from the kinds of injustices Jesus told us to confront, but we somehow justify our faithlessness by quoting the Bible. The practice of claiming the name of Jesus and then forsaking his teachings is the “empty” use of the Lord’s name that is at the heart of the command, “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Robert Jeffress is confused about this, as he is about so much of the Christian faith. But we need not be confused like him, nor need we be unfaithful like him. It would honor the name of Jesus (that’s the opposite of taking that name in vain) for us to recover a truly Christian way of life that takes seriously the faithfulness to our fellow humans that Jesus requires of us.
 
 

​For those who will attend the Southern Baptist Convention, we note that there are various opportunities for, presumably, encouraging and developing people in their public witness of Christ and Christian way of life. We note with curiosity on June 10 at 7:30pm at the Westin Hotel ballroom in Birmingham the panel discussion The Dangers of Social Justice in Evangelicalism.
 
The panel will discuss “the way social justice, intersectionality, and critical theory are impacting the topics of race, complementarity, and homosexuality in the Southern Baptist Convention and evangelicalism.”  If we allow our imagination to wander not one bit we can predict that the panel, notably composed of five white males, will determine that social justice is very dangerous indeed.
 
We don’t have to be prophets to predict the questionable exegesis and theology that will inform the panel discussion (it pains us to say this, since one of the panel members is a former teacher and another is an acquaintance for whom we have respect), but we do have to wonder how discerning those who attend, who no doubt care deeply about being “biblical,” will be.
 
We have said it before, and we must say again, that to claim to be Christian and to claim to be biblical and to dismiss, ridicule, or reject the work of social justice is both oxymoronic and immoral. You may not like those who fight for social justice, you may feel you are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, or whatever causes you to experience distance between you and others.
 
But if you want to be “biblical” and you can’t trace a line from texts like Amos 5:24 or Isaiah 1:17 or James 1:27 (to cite a very few of the plethora of such texts that permeate the Scriptures) to a call for Christians to work for justice, then you aren’t very serious about being “biblical.” More importantly, if you don’t care about social justice, then you aren’t very serious about being Christian.
 
We suspect the panel that will assemble on June 10 is filled with serious men. We know they want to be “biblical.” We hope they will be Christian. If they are, then perhaps we’ll be surprised, pleasantly so, and they will urge attendees to take up the cause of justice and equity in communities across the country. Perhaps they’ll prophetically tell Christians to take down their Confederate flags, take up the cause of black and brown bodies that too often face violence, and take on the systemic inequity that ravages our country.
 
Perhaps the panel will acknowledge the privilege of white males in our society, and will advocate for the rights of marginalized in the US and around the world. Perhaps they will critique the financial inequities rampant in our country and will challenge believers to do something about it.
 
Perhaps they will warn evangelicals that the danger facing evangelicals is that if they refuse to stand for social justice, they will inevitably ruin their witness to the world and will eventually face the judgment of their God. The Bible tells us so. We look forward to Tom Ascol, Tom Nettles, Josh Buice, Tom Buck, and David Miller laying out the real dangers facing evangelicals. 

For many years Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been among the keenest minds in the orbit of evangelicals in the United States. Whether one agrees with all of his positions, he has stood out among Southern Baptists as a voice of theological acumen who is aware of Christian history and scholarship and who avoids the typically peculiar exegetical practices of his SBC siblings.
 
One of Mohler’s most important contributions to evangelicalism in the past decades is his prophetic stance against what he considers to be an impending post-truth age in the “western” world, which he warned would undermine American culture. Though he too often confused post-truth with “postmodern,” demonstrating a facile understanding of that philosophical movement, Mohler was correct to warn of what might occur if US culture abandoned truth as a feature of reality and what might become of a theological tradition if it likewise dispensed with any notion of truth.
 
What Mohler got right about the trouble with a post-truth world, he had wrong about the source of the sure-to-come scourge about which he warned. That is, Mohler assured us that the post-truth horde would descend upon us from the ranks of the “secular” left and theological liberals. Little did Mohler realize that the most insidious and powerful movement of the post-truth age would come from within evangelicalism itself.
 
But indeed this is the case. The likes of Jerry Falwell, Jr, Franklin Graham, and Robert Jeffress, just to name a few of many evangelicals, want us to believe that down is up, that evil is good, and that Donald Trump is a divinely appointed ruler, an almost-if-not-certainly messianic figure come to save America from its sins. And in the process, these evangelical leaders want the world to believe unrighteous is righteous, cruelty is Christ-like, hatred and indifference are love, and lies are truth. Evangelicals like Falwell, Graham, and Jeffress have long expressed belief systems that are sub-Christian and heterodox. They are more American than Christian, to be sure. Their love affair with Trump has just made their aberrant views clearer to us all.
 
But we wonder what Mohler makes of all this. We wonder why his warnings about the post-truth world and its corrosive effects upon Christianity are not so pronounced toward this threat when it comes from within evangelicalism rather than without. We hope that Mohler will reprise his warnings about the demise of truth before the destruction about which he once seemed so concerned takes its ultimate toll. That the purveyors of un-truth happen to be evangelicals, and not the “liberals” who are so often the targets of evangelical ire, should matter not one bit. The danger is no less real because it comes from one source rather than another.
 
We hope, and in fact we challenge Mohler to regain his voice against the post-truth scourge. And, like the apostle Peter, we hope Mohler will proclaim that it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God. You see, to allow the continued support of the post-truth icon that is Donald Trump doesn’t just signal the destruction of the United States; the support of Trump by evangelicals is a capitulation to relativism and an exercise in hypocrisy that undermines the witness of evangelicals for generations to come.
 
We suspect Mohler realizes this, as do many other evangelical leaders. Yet, like many Republicans in Congress, the cost of speaking prophetically at this time seems just too costly. We are not surprised when politicians fail to act courageously. It is just as likely that a politician acts from cowardice as courage. But we should expect more of Christian leaders. Courage, along with wisdom and justice and mercy and love, should mark Christian leaders.
 
We are hopeful that Dr Mohler will be courageous and employ his bright mind and clear voice to speak truth to and about the crisis of the current evangelical moment. It is a moment of considerable peril, but one that could turn to considerable promise—if evangelicals will remember the gospel their name heralds. That gospel means nothing if there is no truth. To mix gospel truth with such profound and disturbing error as to herald a man who peddles injustice, cruelty, and lies is plain revelation that within the evangelical Christian movement, truth is in grave danger.  
 
This is your time, Al Mohler. We hope you will speak the truth, and do so in love.
 

​Some evangelicals in the United States persist in the bad habit of confusing criticism for persecution. In so doing, they make much of themselves and make little of the many people of faith who are actually persecuted around the world. Mike Pence, with his wife, are the chief perpetrators of the persecution complex that grips parts of evangelicalism in the US.
 
At his recent Liberty University commencement address Pence said, “Throughout most of American history, it's been pretty easy to call yourself Christian. It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.” Pence demonstrates how truly American he is and how Christian he isn’t. His Christian faith should inform him that if he is, in fact, persecuted, that he will be blessed, whether in the US or elsewhere.
 
But, of course, Pence isn’t being persecuted; he’s being criticized. As a Christian he should expect that, and as a politician he should expect that. But it’s far easier to whip up the crowd by lamenting that he is being ridiculed for his faith. Pence has invited criticism by his unwavering support of an ignorant, immoral, dishonest, dishonorable, corrupt and corrupting president. If that criticism turns at points to ridicule, he should ask himself why. After all, his faith has a prescription for the problem. It’s called repentance. And if Mike Pence wants to truly be a Christian leader, he will repent and call other evangelicals to repent of their corrupt and hypocritical support of Donald Trump.
 
Until that time, Mr Pence should read the Bible he claims to espouse and learn what persecution really is, and then, since he sits in a seat of immense power, perhaps do something about those who truly suffer it. 

​Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas recently expressed his Christian charity, as he put it, by calling “Never Trump” evangelicals “morons.”
 
In the world Jeffress inhabits, that Donald J. Trump is president of the United States is a divinely ordained good in the cosmic battle with evil. Trump is more friendly to people of faith than any president before him, he is pro-life, and he is protecting the citizens of the US from the evil hordes of criminals invading our southern border.
 
These are not political talking points for Jeffress. They are deeply held beliefs. He isn’t simply tolerating Trump. He believes Trump is on the right side not only of history but of divine providence. Trump, for Jeffress, is one of the good guys, a white-hat wearing hero of the morality play that Jeffress understands as ultimate reality.
 
Trump is anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion, anti-climate change – well, you get the point. So is Jeffress, and Jeffress is a Christian who speaks for God. He’s certain of that. Trump believes what Jeffress believes, thus, Trump is a good guy. That’s the Jeffressian logic in play here.
 
For Jeffress, the gospel is about a narrow way that accommodates only certain people. His Bible tells him so. In terms of Mark’s Gospel, where there is so much about who is “in” and who is “out,” Jeffress is sure he’s “in “and that those unlike him are “out.” And the only way “in” is to convert to his version of “in.” Jeffress is certain about this, because he reads his Bible, and the Bible has no errors, and that’s that. So immigrants, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, queer, along with refugees and people of other faiths, especially Muslims, are “out” and must be kept out because they can only come “in” on Jeffress’s terms. This is so for his church, and it’s so for his nation, because, after all, the US is a Christian Nation (David Barton told him so).
 
For Jeffress, abortion is the defining issue of the Christian politic. It is the singular issue that defines whether you are “us” or “them.” A Christian who doesn’t agree with Jeffress on abortion, to him, likely isn’t a Christian at all, or at least is such a confused Christian that they are in desperate need of correction and discipline. So, in the world of Jeffress, these “Christians” are actually “out” until they get religion on abortion, while Donald Trump is “in.”
 
(Note that Jeffress isn’t so much a proponent of life issues beyond abortion. The issue is abortion, because unborn children are the most vulnerable. They can’t defend themselves, so we must defend them. As for the already born, they may as well be damned.)
 
If you are a Christian, and you don’t agree with Jeffress about these matters, you are a moron. That’s Jeffress, in his own words, being as charitable as he can be.
 
We have noted before that one of us once had lunch with Mr Jeffress. It was a gathering of about ten Southern Baptist leaders. At the time we were struck by the sheer ignorance displayed by Jeffress – biblically, theologically, and politically. We made a mental note of Jeffress as an example of the apostle Paul’s description of certain Corinthians as among the idiotes, the unlearned folk who, because of their ignorance and self-absorption, created problems for the church. That was about twenty years ago. It seems little has changed.
 
Robert Jeffress, a pastor who has responsibility for thousands of congregants, seems to have settled into his ignorance. Comfortably so. Firmly so. That is lamentable for his congregation and, because his voice is among the loudest claiming to be Christian, it is lamentable for our nation.
 
A central point of the Gospel of Mark, by the way, is that Jesus is on the outs with those so certain they are in, while showing those who think they’re in that they may well be on the outs, while of course welcoming (not condemning) those who are by all accounts “out” to enter into His kingdom. 

Ms Stewart rightly articulates what many of us have known for some time.

Bad exegesis and bad theology amount to a belief system that gives us an immoral, ignorant, dishonest, and dishonorable leader whom some Christians laud as the providential work of their god. This remains bad news, for the United States, yes, and more so for Christ’s church, which sullies and imperils its witness by supporting a corrupt man like Donald Trump and places its trust in chariots, horses, and princes and, in so doing, worships idols.
 
We are reminded, however, that it is Christmastide, the season of God breaking into the world to redeem and restore, and in just a few days we celebrate the Epiphany, the remembrance that God’s savior has appeared to all the world. Evangelicals in the United States are not the sum of Christian belief nor are they constitutive of the Christian church throughout the world. And Donald Trump, whatever his vain imaginations or that of his followers, is not our king.
 
There is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church and there is but one King. That some Christians at some times are confused, misled by false prophets, and corrupt is foretold in the Scriptures. That God’s people sometimes clamor for a king other than their Lord and that those who claim to be Christian make false claims about Christ is likewise foretold in the Book.
 
Like the magi who came to worship Jesus at the Epiphany, it is ours in 2019 to offer Christ our good gifts and to be shrewd about the Herods in our midst.

Happy New Year!

Best YouTube video of the year - 

When we hear someone say they think people should be “biblical,” our ears here at Toward the Truth perk up. When we learn that the just appointed interim Attorney General of the United States has said he supports a “biblical view of justice,” and a “New Testament” one at that, our ears are maximally perked.
 
This, we think, an instance where we know what Matthew Whitaker means when he says “biblical,” but we’re not sure Mr Whitaker knows what he means, if what he means to say is that he wants our nation’s justice system to be formed by what the Bible means. (Follow that?)
 
Whatever it is that Mr Whitaker means, if he wants the laws of the US to reflect New Testament justice, we should expect he’ll soon be counseling the president of the United States to:

• Compassionately provide for those who lack what they need
• Welcome immigrant strangers into our country
• Provide for the health of sick people
• Work for the good of those in prison

And all that’s just from one little passage in Matthew 25. What a revolutionary view of a national justice system! As James envisaged it, a “biblical” view of justice is that mercy triumphs over judgment. What a nation that would be!
 
We’ve said before that there is a great deal of confusion about how Christianity intersects with governance of our nation. The framers were quite reflective about such issues; we note the first amendment for Mr Whitaker’s consideration. In the meantime, we’d be thrilled to see the US Justice Department under the purview of Mr Whitaker come closer to a New Testament vision of justice in the days to come.

​We never really imagined that we would reflect so often on politics, though, to be sure, we understand that Christian vocation always involves political engagement. The political is the work of the polis, and we all live in the polis, and Christians have a duty to be good citizens of the polis.
 
What we didn’t anticipate was that, as residents of the United States, we would sense a calling to comment so often about political matters and, to be specific, about the partisanship that has overwhelmed the political life of the United States.
 
Which brings us to our point: We are advocating a healthy and even drastic reform of the party system in the United States. We do so because the two-party system is failing our nation, as some of the early framers of US political life feared it would. But more than advocating for a third party, we believe the two main parties – Republican and Democrat – are broken beyond repair.
 
Republicans, who currently control the executive and legislative branches of the federal government and have gerrymandered state and local districts to their overwhelming benefit, have demonstrated that they care more about their party than they do the country. To those who object, we fear you are not seeing what is right before your eyes. And while we are convinced that the only way at this moment to address the Republican problem is to give control of at least one house of congress to Democrats, we have little confidence in that party to place country before party either.
 
This isn’t a knee-jerk or unconsidered assertion on our part. Nor is it a conclusion based on scant evidence. The dysfunction of both parties has been growing for years. We see no leaders from either party who give us hope that anything will substantially change for the better.
 
So we recommend that Christians who care about the future our democratic republic vote this Tuesday (if you have not already), as all Christians should do, and that you vote for Democrats so there is a check on the dangerous man who currently occupies the White House. The future of our republic is at stake. To those who argue otherwise, we fear you are either ignorant of history or blinded by partisanship. We’re sorry we don’t have more time to more politely say it. But this is the day in which we live.
 
We admit that we don’t like our advice because, as noted, we have little confidence in Democrats as a party. But more on the current party system later. For now, go vote and cast a responsible vote that will subvert the control of our entire government by a party, the Republican Party, that not only is silent about, but supportive of the ignorant, immoral, dishonest, and dishonorable occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

​Jesus teaches us that we are blessed when we are reviled and persecuted and evil is uttered against us falsely on His account. This promise, of course, is the penultimate statement of the Beatitudes, which offer us Jesus’ countercultural insight into the nature of Christ-like living and divine blessing.
 
The Beatitudes remind us, among other truths, that meekness and mercy, poverty of spirit and peacemaking are essential to a truly Christian way of being in the world. While we at Toward the Truth ardently advocate that we don’t confuse the church with government, we nonetheless realize that our current administration is so closely aligned with the powers of evangelicalism in the US that the lines between church and state are being blurred at a rapid pace. Beyond that, many evangelicals seem certain that Donald Trump has been placed in office by means of the meticulous providence of God and some in the administration seem to concur.
 
Which makes even more distressing some of the disturbing headlines in recent weeks. The president mocks a professed victim of sexual assault. Trump says of a US congressman, a professing Christian who slammed a reporter to the floor, that “He’s my guy,” specifically referring to the assault for which Rep Gianforte pled guilty. And, when confronted with the reality that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is likely complicit in the premeditated torture and murder of one of his kingdom’s own citizens, Trump seems willing to wave off this atrocity in order to make some profit. (And today, those things seem like old news as the news cycle has shifted to the promise that a caravan of unarmed migrants who will be met by thousands of military troops at the border, in light of the impending vote.)
 
We could say more, but this should be enough. It should be enough for the average citizen, and it should certainly be enough for those who claim to be followers of Jesus, to realize that this administration neither represents nor defends the cause of Christ. But, as we have observed repeatedly in our posts, evangelical Christianity in the US these days seems to be far less about Jesus and the work of God’s Spirit than it is about attaining secular power, preserving male headship, and declaring how righteous they are.
 
It is bad enough that some Christians sit idly by while Donald Trump and his supporters corrupt our country. It is worse when Christians join the throng who cheer him on. In terms evangelicals should understand, there will be hell to pay for this. It is ironic and lamentable that those Christians in the US who are most ardent about the doctrine of hell have embraced the mantle of self-righteousness and corruption that Jesus so clearly warned lead to that fiery end.
 
But there is hope. Even for the religious who have strayed so far from faith and truth, from love, the gospel of Jesus remains our hope. The kind of righteousness lived by Jesus, the genuine righteousness that is found in Him, is righteousness that is inextricably linked to meekness and mercy and poverty of spirit and peacemaking. Of such is the kingdom of God.
 
If today is any indication, the great reward promised in Matthew 5 would seem to await not the self-proclaimed evangelical Christians who follow Trump but the poor, mourning, and meek souls whom they are currently persecuting. Part of the point of Matthew 5 is that it doesn’t always end up in ways we’d expect. Wouldn’t it be a strange twist, but so like Jesus, for the tables to be turned in this way?