GREAT????? Put down the bong.
David > On Mar 18, 2016, at 3:21 PM, Centroids <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Billy, > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Mar 18, 2016, at 11:10, BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical > Centrist Community <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > >> >> Not "the end" but something dubious is happening and its not good. > > Not good. Great! > > I don't say this lightly. Our church is perilously close to being ripped > apart by this very issue. Already spent eight hours this week counseling > people on various sides of the issue. > > I couldn't be happier. It is finally forcing us as a church to confront what > we really mean by humility, Sin and authority. About time. > > God will use this, if we let him. I will. > > Love, > Ernie > >> BR note >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> >> Patheos >> >> The Anxious Bench >> >> >> >> The End of American Evangelicalism >> >> March 16, 2016 by johnturner >> <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/author/johnturner/> >> One of the big surprises of 2016 is the extent of evangelical support for >> Donald Trump. As I mentioned several weeks ago, judging by historical >> precedents, evangelicals might well have divided their support among a >> number of candidates who spoke persuasively about their Christian faith, >> including Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and the now-defunct Ben Carson, Marco >> Rubio, and Jeb Bush. Nevertheless, in many early primaries, Trump attracted >> a plurality of the Republican evangelical vote. >> >> This past Tuesday, things were more mixed. Trump nearly won an outright >> majority of the evangelical vote in Florida >> <http://www.cnn.com/election/primaries/polls/fl/Rep>, but Ted Cruz >> out-performed him among such self-identified voters in Missouri >> <http://edition.cnn.com/election/primaries/polls/mo/Rep>(by quite a bit), >> Illinois <http://www.cnn.com/election/primaries/polls/il/Rep> (very >> narrowly), and North Carolina >> <http://www.cbsnews.com/elections/2016/primaries/republican/north-carolina/exit/> >> (even more narrowly). Kasich narrowly carried the evangelical vote in Ohio. >> >> Many journalists and other commentators have noted the fracturing of the >> evangelical vote in 2016 and sought to explain Trump’s success among this >> demographic. Stephen Prothero offers a good starting point >> <http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/the-huge-cultural-shift-thats-helping-trump-win-evangelicals-213729> >> for assessing these developments: “America’s evangelicals just aren’t all >> that evangelical anymore.” >> >> So, what does it mean for someone to be an “evangelical?” Prothero suggests >> that “what made an evangelical an evangelical was a born-again experience >> that included accepting the Bible as the inspired word of God and giving >> one’s life over to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. To a born-again >> Christian, following Jesus came first. Everything else came in a distant >> second.” He suggests, though, that this is no longer true for most >> self-identified “evangelicals.” It’s the Republican Party or whatever >> political savior appears that takes priority over Jesus. >> >> I’m not convinced without further evidence that self-identified >> “evangelicals” are less evangelical than they were in ca. 1980. The >> positions of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, after all, did not flow >> straight out of the New Testament. >> >> The bigger issue here in my view is that journalists and pundits invest >> “evangelical” with overly broad meanings. First of all, most exit polls ask >> respondents whether they are “evangelical or born-again Christians.” If the >> question were simply, “Are you an evangelical?” many respondents might well >> be confused, and journalists would probably identify fewer Americans as such. >> >> In the 1950s, the term “evangelical” or “new evangelical” had a particular >> meaning, identifying a camp of theologically conservative Protestants led by >> Carl F. H. Henry, Harold J. Ockenga, and, above all, Billy Graham, that >> wanted to create a more attractive version of fundamentalism. Over time, >> though, “evangelicals” won this internecine, intra-fundamentalist conflict. >> As the ranks of self-identified “fundamentalists” narrowed, “evangelical” >> became shorthand in many quarters for all theologically conservative >> Protestants, especially those who placed a central importance on the >> born-again experience of conversion. >> >> Scholars, meanwhile, often define evangelicalism in terms that are >> simultaneously specific and vague. Following the lead of David Bebbington, >> they define evangelicals as Protestant Christians who place strong emphases >> on conversion; on biblical authority; on activism; and on the meaning of the >> crucifixion for the atonement and human salvation. For example, in my >> history of Campus Crusade for Christ, I defined evangelicals as “Protestant >> Christians who readily talk about their experience of salvation in Jesus >> Christ, regard a divinely inspired Bible as the ultimate authority on >> matters of faith and practice, and engage the world in which they live >> through evangelism and other forms of mission.” Of course, many Christians >> who would not think of themselves as “evangelical” or “Protestant” could own >> such language. Historians, though, have particular groups of Protestants in >> mind from the eighteenth-century through the present day. >> >> Nowadays, the term “evangelical” has morphed into something far more diffuse >> and confusing. As Stephen Miller observes, “its footprint has extended far >> beyond the number of people who might fairly be called evangelical.” Many >> conservative Protestants recognize and lament this reality. For example, >> D.G. Hart has argued that theologically conservative Protestants should >> discard “evangelical identity” for confessional identities more closely tied >> to historic Christian movements. >> >> As an antonym of sorts for “liberal Protestant,” “evangelicalism” is still a >> reasonable way to identify factions within a range of American denominations >> and an umbrella term that brings together a host of parachurch >> organizations, nondenominational churches, and other institutions. >> >> At the same time, “evangelicalism” as imagined by many journalists does not >> exist, nor is there an “evangelical” movement akin [to] the one led — albeit >> loosely — by Billy Graham in the decades following the Second World War. To >> claim that a quarter of Americans are “evangelical” or “born-again” says >> rather little. And if we want to examine the appeal of Ted Cruz or Donald >> Trump to different sorts of American Protestants, we need far more >> precision. American evangelicalism, in short, no longer exists the way that >> many journalists and scholars imagine it. >> >> >> -- >> -- >> Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community >> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> >> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism >> <http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism> >> Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org >> <http://radicalcentrism.org/> >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout >> <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > <http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism> > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > <http://radicalcentrism.org/> > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
