When the Godless Reign
The evangelical Philistinism of the eighties and nineties continues to thrive in the nationalist idolatry of cultic personality politics. The rejection of intellectual thought and the reductionist religion of popular media driven celebrity centered purveyors of dominance who claim to speak for the common man has made American Christianity a soulless religion of idolatry lost to capitalist structures, militarism, and ethnic dominance for the Balaams of the present. Monsters have risen from this morass of confusion, men and women who lead astray the people of God and do so in their sermons of arrogance.
Some believers return to the past for a sense of stability opting for liturgies and ceremony, effectively going into hiding rather than face the world through prophetic challenges that offer paths from the present darkness.
Good shepherds bring peace, not a sword, insight into the present, not retreat. Good shepherds are like voices in the wilderness calling out for our faith to heal the world without violence. Good Shepherds lift up the poor, educate with patience and example, they do not seek celebrity or rely on political power.
The prophets were men and women whom God had formed so that their lives were consistent with their words - the messenger and the message were one.
They spoke and wrote with great pathos immersed in the world and the Spirit of God. Prophets are recognized anyone claiming to be a prophet, isn’t.
The gospel is the message of God’s entrance into humanity to awaken us from our slumber so that we might be models to follow not fear, it is a message worthy of thought by our greatest minds, and caught by others from exemplars of faith whose stories reveal God in a world that ’lies’ in wickedness.
