So, what is Jesus', and thus the Christian, message? Your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's.
From The Christian Post
From The Christian Post
Quote:‘Pathetic’ or ‘prophetic’?: 5 Christians' reactions to bishop's sermon rebuking Trump
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, has garnered headlines for a sermon she delivered at the Service of Prayer for the Nation at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.
“In the Name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said. “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.”
“The people who pick our crops, and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat-packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens, or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
Here are five reactions to Budde’s comments.
Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Christian organization the Family Research Council: “The cause of America’s decline was not what was sitting in the pew but what was standing behind the pulpit. What we heard today was not a prophetic voice from the church, but rather pathetic.”
Shane Claiborne, a progressive Christian activist: “So grateful to my dear friend and sister Bishop Mariann Budde for bearing witness to the love and mercy and compassion of our God. This is what it looks like to speak the truth in love. A committed follower of Jesus, I see no way to defend Donald Trump, who has made a vocation out of the seven deadly sins.”
William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership: "Mass immigration and transgenderism are fundamentally gnostic heresies. They both deny the reality and the goodness of the physical world—nations on one hand and our God-given bodies on the other. Budde was preaching a false faith that’s not Christianity at all." Wolfe added that he was “glad this happened” because he believed it was “good that America got to witness what the subversion of the church and our Christian institutions looks like—in all its ugly glory—in live time and on a mass scale.”
Amanda Tyler of the progressive Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism: “Bishop Mariann is an example to all faith leaders and to all Americans of the value of separation of religion and government. The independence of the church gives space to speak truth of power. We will only become an authoritarian country if we act like we already live in one.”
Megan Basham, a bestselling author and reporter with The Daily Wire: “What you need to understand is that the left-wing infiltration into churches has for decades been organized & well funded by secular foundations intent on hollowing out their spiritual doctrines & replacing them with political programs this is the fruit.”
https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-chr...trump.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
