Kingdom Harbor

This is from Prof. Scot McKnight, my teacher and mentor. [And, yo Scot, some pastors have been speaking out and preaching Revelation and the politics of Jesus since 2016….most of us have very small churches and few donors left because our voice and pulpit can’t be bought].

He writes:

If you think Trumpism is GOP-ism, you are mistaken. If you think it is democracy, you are seriously wrong. Trumpism wants tyranny. Silence is complicity. Bystanders are guilty, too. The Christian pretenses of Trump are nothing but pretense. A mask worn to acquire votes and power and money. As Taylor says it, “the antipolitics of Jesus does not mean being apolitical.” The antipolitics of Jesus is not partisan. Well, I’d say, yes it is: it is kingdom politics.

We are in a time like no other in my lifetime. I’m utterly stunned by the sycophantic behaviors of our nation’s senators and representatives. I’m just as stunned by the political loyalty of Christians who do not see what is actually going on. By their inability or at least unwillingness to call a spade a spade when we see a president enlarging his riches, a president who has little to no respect for lawmakers, for the Constitution, and who simply diss the realities by a both-sides-ism that pretends they are doing moral discernment.

I’m calling on pastors to pull the plug on bystanding. It’s time to preach Revelation, to preach the prophets, to search for a Christian social imaginary that puts kingdom first and shelves Caesar with the Wild Things (beasts) and antichrists. You can’t be faithful and pretend like these things are now current realities. Sure, I know you will experience opposition and criticism. Take it on the chin with the grace of Christoformity and move toward the kingdom.

Thanks for the challenge; now you please put your fiery pieces in front of the pay wall so we can share them and you can share in the heat.