{"id":12441,"date":"2020-07-27T11:08:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T15:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12441"},"modified":"2020-07-27T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T15:08:28","slug":"dismal-theology-related-applause-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12441","title":{"rendered":"Dismal theology-related applause of the day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I pointed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">yesterday<\/a> to a story that explains why John MacArthur has decided to ignore a shutdown order:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cGovernment officials have <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">no right to interfere in ecclesiastical matters<\/span> in a way that undermines or disregards <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">the God-given authority of pastors and elders<\/span>,\u201d MacArthur wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Services went forward yesterday as promised, and at least one attendee was grateful that MacArthur didn&#8217;t surrender his &#8220;God-given authority&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">John MacArthur steps up to the pulpit. Congregation stands and applauds. I may have teared up.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/conservmillen\/status\/1287440822015799301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 26, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Stop and think about that for a moment: MacArthur is being applauded for breaking the law in a way that endangers their lives.  Granted, they have the right to expose themselves to the risk of Covid-19 if that&#8217;s what they wish to do &#8212; but they have no right whatever to make such a decision on behalf of their children, your children, their co-workers, your parents, the pizza delivery kid or the drive-through attendee at the dry cleaner or McDonald&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s be straight about this: those people have sewage where they ought to have brains and character, and MacArthur (like The Donald) is running a cult of personality.<\/p>\n<p>At least one tweet got it right:<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\ude4f We can finally get back to church to worship our pastors. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EQQSwrqN7W\">https:\/\/t.co\/EQQSwrqN7W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hunter\u2122\ufe0f &#8211; Kierkegaard&#39;s anon account (@HunterCrowder6) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HunterCrowder6\/status\/1287704524023640064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>There is no defense against these morons but to put them out of your life and let natural selection have them.  None.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I pointed yesterday to a story that explains why John MacArthur has decided to ignore a shutdown order: \u201cGovernment officials have no right to interfere in ecclesiastical matters in a way that undermines or disregards the God-given authority of pastors &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12441\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12441"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12444,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12441\/revisions\/12444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}