Civil Commotion

The loonies are really upset about Target’s refusal to marginalize transgender people.

And this:

Like hounds on a fox, the Southern Baptist Convention’s heresiologists are baying madly after an Oklahoma pastor who — GASP!! — allowed his pulpit to be contaminated by girl-cooties.

It’s not a click-bait headline. It’s not veiled metaphorical rhetoric. It’s a bonafide story … and it’s not funny. It is, rather, further evidence of a denomination in the throes of a downgrade because of its disregard for Scripture. A Southern Baptist church is lauding a girl preaching from the pulpit.

[ … ]

Still, her place is not in a pulpit. Not because I say so. Not because the SBC says so. Not because the collective opinions of devout men and women say so. But because God’s Word says so.

Alvaro and his church, failing to repent of this error, should be removed from the fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s time we stand for God’s Word and start ejecting error from of our midst.

Well.

The devout will recognize the problem at once:

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.

1 Timothy 2:12

So there you go. And notice this: It’s out of this poor heresy hunter’s hands. She’s probably a very nice young lady, et cetera, et cetera, but the Good Book says so, and that’s that.

But … wait! This is not merely a case of some old geezer having a fit about girl-cooties. No. Not at all. In fact, it is a very serious matter, and much worse than the unfortunate need to give the boot to some reprobate church. Seth Dunn explains:

So: Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Not only has he permitted a Southern Baptist pulpit to be fouled, Pastor Alvaro has set this sweet young thing on the road to a move to New York City, hanging-out with all kinds of dirty perverts and probably even some Methodists, and casting aside those all-important Southern Baptist restraints at a FEMEN rally. Let’s face it: She is ruined. No decent, god-fearing man is ever going to have anything to do with her. Her shot at a good righteous man like Seth is already gone.

All because her pastor strayed outside those clearly-marked lines set out in the Inerrant Bible and permitted this young lady to stand at the pulpit and speak.

Now, I know my readers. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Damn, g-r-r-r-l — you got lucky!” Just remember: Y’all are of the world, and no damn good.

Few are more mean and vicious than the “godly” conservative Christians. Like Islamic fundamentalists, hate and mistreatment of others are their main fruits of their religious belief. The sooner society at large recognizes this reality and the sooner journalists and politicians cease giving deference to such foul people, the better off the world will be.

Michael Hamar

Michael is pointing here toward the only benefit of this chaotic election season: Nobody who is paying attention can fail to recognize the malice that animates the Evangelical Right.

And what does John Piper mean by that tweet?

I will start and end with my main point and, in the middle, cover a wide terrain of Scripture to support it. My main point is that God promises those of you who remain single in Christ blessings that are better than the blessings of marriage and children, and he calls you to display, by the Christ-exalting devotion of your singleness, the truths about Christ and his kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness than through marriage and childrearing.

So much for ‘family values.’ I am not kidding, and I am not wrong: These clowns do not believe in marriage. They believe in animal husbandry, and they regard healthy marriages — couples working together to build the satisfying lives they want — as a threat to total ownership and control of their flock.

It’s a good thing that church attendance and church marriages are in decline.