Jeremy L. Berg

I reject dismissively labeling a fellow Christian as “woke” or “brainwashed by mainstream media” or a “lefty” just because they may critique the Right or fall left of center on certain issues. Why? Because many like me have come to hold their views by virtue of being a faithful Bible-believing, Evangelical Protestant upholding the conservative value of standing on the ancient text and testing (and often changing) one’s views in light of the teachings of Jesus.

“Where is it written?” is the motto of the Evangelical Covenant Church I am part of. And that’s the question I am often asking when challenging those who support and defend the current president when his rhetoric and policies blatantly violate the plain teachings of Scripture and spirit of Jesus.

If I have been brainwashed over the years, it’s been the prophet from Nazareth’s Kool-aid that I’ve been drinking and sharing with others. It’s not the liberal media, or a liberal university eduction (I have 3 degrees from Evangelical Baptist institutions), or following Bernie Sanders Tweets (I’ve never been on Twitter, or X), that has led me to stand with the poor, fight for the unborn and against the death penalty, to critique the downsides of consumer capitalism, to fight for racial justice, to welcome the foreigner, etc.

It’s the Bible!

It’s been my Protestant commitment to sola scriptura, my ultimate allegiance to King Jesus, and my ordination vows to be a faithful shepherd of His sheep and public ambassador of His borderless, multiethnic Kingdom that has led me here. “Here I stand,” I echo Luther in speaking out against the current tide of political extremism, “For I can do no other.”

If a Christian has concerns or questions about another believer’s social-political views, please don’t come at them with partisan talking points from a favorite podcast or cable news personality. Let them come with a Bible in their hand and the words of Jesus on their lips, after spending serious time soaking themselves in the prophets and the words of Jesus of Nazareth in the Sermon on the Mount.

I’m not sure when and how millions of self-professed Evangelical protestants in America exchanged sola Christo and sola Scriptura, for sola Trump. But it’s a blasphemous trade and one that should be repented of immediately before it’s too late. For the soul of our country. For the soul of the Church’s witness. And for their own soul that will one stand naked before the judgment seat of King Jesus. (Read Matthew 25 to see how souls will be sorted. Gulp.)

All that is a preamble to sharing a brief word from Scot McKnight who also had his entire worldview exploded by a closer reading of Scripture many years ago. Here’s Scot, and go subscribe to read the full piece here.

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I grew up against the social gospel. I didn’t know jack-squat about it other than it was bad. It was what the liberals believed and practiced. Like Methodists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians. The downtown churches of our small community. On occasion, as I was learning theology, I heard someone mention the arch-liberal of them all, Walter Rauschenbusch. I didn’t know anyone who had read him, but why bother, I assumed, with someone like that. So I carried on.

Until the Gospels themselves provoked in me the tempting thought that Jesus was concerned about the poor because they were poor. That anti-social-gospel house of cards collapsed for me because of the Bible – Deuteronomy, Amos, Isaiah, Jesus, Acts, Paul, James, 1 John. So, I’m with Chicago’s Pope Leo. Pope Leo knows the Bible. And the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, remains to this day the best biblical-theological study there is on the topic of Pope Leo’s newest booklet.

Our God is a God of love. And there is a preferential option for the poor with God, and that God is all over the Bible. I believe the anti-social gospel is blind tribalism, pure and simple. Nothing but. One can’t read the Bible and not see care for the poor, and that’s why Dilexi Te: Apostolic Exhortation on Love for the Poor. matters. But, “this preference never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups, which would be impossible for God. It is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity.

Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest.” God’s “particular fondness” is for the poor; if it is not our particular fondness, we are not on God’s side…

Keep reading here.