Tried With Fire

Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump , John Fea, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018, 238 pages. Early in the morning on November 9, 2016, I was on my way to pick up the day's work. I turned on the radio and braced myself for the announcement that Hillary Clinton was elected. It would be an understatement to say that I was stunned when I learned that the next president would be Donald Trump. I think I pulled the car over to the side of the road. I was that shocked. My first major election was 1980, so I am not a new voter. Yet I don't remember there ever being an election where both candidates had so much ethical and moral baggage to disqualify them. For the record, I did not vote for Clinton or Trump. I understand holding one's nose in the voting booth (or in this case with an  SCBA  on) and choosing to be pragmatic even while being internally conflicted. However, it is another thing to rubber-stamp God's approval on a morally questionable candid...

Culture and history are a powerful combination. It is all around us and affects our thinking whether we are aware of it or not. I was pretty clueless about this until I went through a dramatic theological shift from Arminianism to reformed theology. It was then that I embarked on a journey to learn about what I believed now, what I formerly believed, and why. It was difficult at times but worth digging up the roots of ideas I had taken for granted as gospel truth which were not. The journey has only continued, and since the 2016 election I am making a feeble attempt to understand the blending of evangelicalism and American culture that brought us to where we are today. My intent isn't to blame but to understand so I can be a bridge builder. It grieves me to see professing believers so sharply divided in the last few years particularly when it comes to issues of ethnicity and gender. Perhaps I can be someone who asks questions to get people to think about things they have not con...

This has been a time of raising my own awareness. You would have to be living under a rock to not realize that America is becoming an increasingly divided nation over the issues of race, class, and immigration. Reading Divided by Race , at the recommendation of an African American brother, was eye-opening. Here you have professing believers who have almost opposite assessments of racial issues within the American church. Why do we think so differently? What produced these two wide trajectories? Then came the racial incident involving Michael Luo, deputy metro editor of The New York Times. Now it was much closer to home because, after hearing his story and many others that poured forth, these were my people. Their stories are very much like mine. So to gain more understanding, I began to read and listen. The first book was The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee. This was a fascinating book and quite a feat given its scope. I had no idea that Asian immigrants first came to Cen...

It's been interesting and rather sad, at the same time, to witness the divide between professing Christians over the 2016 election. It's true that social media may not be the best tool of observation, but even among people I know, there are folks with strong convictions and very different opinions. If I was a sociologist, this would be worth studying. But since I am not, it seems like a good time to start reading Christian America? What Evangelicals Really Want  by sociologist Christian Smith. In the introduction, he mentions several fallacies that must be avoided to understand evangelicalism. This is the first and one worth noting. The Representative Elite Fallacy - A most common error that observers of evangelicals make is to presume that evangelical leaders speak as representatives of ordinary evangelicals. In fact, evangelical leaders do not simply give voice to the thoughts and feelings of the millions of ordinary evangelicals. Nor do ordinary evangelicals simply fo...

My pastor has been preaching through the book of Revelation. We're still in the first few chapters where Jesus is commending and correcting the churches. While these letters were written to real churches in existence in John's lifetime, these letters are for all true churches throughout time. These letters are for us. For me. In the letter to Ephesus, Jesus commends this church, but He also admonishes them that they have lost their first love. This could mean love for God, love for believers, and love for the lost. According to my pastor many commentators have different views as to which love. But who amongst us would dare say that we love God, believers, and the lost as we should? Who doesn't need to grow in all three areas? My mind is still reeling from the election. My heart is also grieved for believers and unbelievers alike as we seem to more divided than ever. So my prayer for myself and for the church is that we would regain our first love. - Love for God that...