Civil Commotion

Y’all will probably not be surprised to learn that — according to Dear Leader, at least — John Bolton is one of the very worst human beings who has ever lived. Sad!

I hope the Senators are looking at this and thinking to themselves something like, “Geez … why should I disgrace myself by protecting and perpetuating the presidency of this clown?”

Jerry Falwell, Jr., is some kind of peeved at his home state.

Moments earlier, Falwell had described the Legislature in Virginia as a “barbaric, totalitarian and corrupt Democratic regime” that is “trampling on individual rights throughout the state.”

He was referring specifically to proposals currently circulating the Legislature intended to combat gun violence, an issue many of the Democrats who won races in Virginia ran on in 2019, despite the NRA’s heavy presence there.

Well.

Clearly, conservatives are taking their cue from The Donald and denouncing in violent language anybody who doesn’t enthuse over their backward-looking agenda. This will get worse if the Senate reneges on its plain duty to remove Trump from office.

And just wait till the preachers jump into the act with both feet, and start howling and bellowing that Jesus disapproves of pointy-headed liberals who have a problem with yahoos carrying their guns into McDonald’s. The danger posed by Trump is not merely his day-to-day stupidity and malice, but the lesson that amoral slugs like Falwell, Jr., are taking from his behavior.

Evangelicals are doing less and less evangelizing. SBC Voices is on the case.

Dr. Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, wrote an article about this recently. He listed seven reasons for the decline in evangelism.

1. There has been a backlash to past evangelistic methods that seemed reductionistic and simplistic.

2. Many believers do not have confidence in the gospel.

3. It is getting harder to share the gospel in a context where people are further away from what their parents and grandparents believed.

4. Some believers have replaced evangelism with another spiritual emphasis. (like social justice or environmentalism)

5. A lack of compassion for the lost around us.

6. Some believers fear not having the answers to questions people raise.

7. Some Christians worry that their lives are not good enough to qualify them as witnesses.

Two things: First, I love explanation number 5 — a lack of compassion. That is, believers are thinking, “I don’t have a problem with Cousin Bubba spending eternity as the fuel in a Tiki Torch.” Heh.

But what is striking to me about this earnest list is what is missing: The Christian narrative is crazy and only a dysfunctional mind falls for it.

This is fun. Yesterday, I linked to a story about a venue in Liverpool, England, that cancelled an appearance by Franklin Graham.

What do you know? Now, an activist group is calling upon all venues in England to refuse to host Graham.

More than 8,000 people have signed a petition calling on event organizers in Britain to cancel an event that would see Trump ally and anti-LGBT+ preacher Franklin Graham appear in London this year as part of a planned tour across Britain.

[ … ]

As of late Monday morning, just over 8,300 people had signed the petition, which has been addressed to Alex Hill, the chief executive and president of AEG Europe.

“Graham is a hate preacher. His message is deeply divisive, encourages violence has been condemned by UK Christian leaders,” the letter states.

Graham is not a hate-preacher; Steven Anderson is a hate-preacher. I do think, though, that Graham is too unintelligent to recognize how degrading Christian teaching actually is at its core — with the result that, like most preachers, he has unknowingly dedicated his life to harming others.

A venue in Liverpool, England, has cancelled a scheduled appearance by Franklin Graham.

A conference venue in Liverpool has cancelled an event featuring American evangelist Franklin Graham. Mr Graham, the eldest son of the late preacher Billy Graham, has said he believes gay marriage is a “sin”.

He was due to speak at ACC Liverpool on 12 June as part of a UK tour. But an ACC spokesperson said it had recently been “made aware of a number of statements which we consider to be incompatible with our values”.

Graham, y’all will not be surprised to learn, isn’t happy about this. According to JoeMyGod, Graham posted the following to his Facebook page (I’ve cancelled my Facebook account):

The world has changed dramatically since my father, Billy Graham, was last in the UK. Church membership has declined, morality is falling, the institution of marriage is at risk, godless secularism is permeating all levels of society, including, sadly to say, some churches.

These are familiar complaints, and all should be cause for celebration.

It’s a good thing that churches are in decline, because it means that fewer people, especially children, are listening to the drumbeat that they’re No Damn Good.

The complaint that marriage is at risk is an odd one, because Graham is a Southern Baptist, and Southern Baptists don’t believe in marriage. What Southern Baptists believe in is animal husbandry, a cosmic grant of permission to have sex in order to procreate and grow their ridiculous club; they affirmatively condemn the mutual loyalty and shared ambitions that make a relationship a marriage, because those are presumptions upon the absolutely sovereignty of Our Invisible Friend (who alone is worthy of your loyalty and who will tell you what are your ambitions). If you think I’m exaggerating and don’t know what I’m talking about, read former pastor Bruce Gerencser on the subject.

As for godless secularism … is Graham unaware that America is a secular state by design? The spread of godless secularism means that the Good Ol. U.S. of A. is moving toward the Founders’ ambitions. Good for us.