B189. Antichrist

 I grew up in the 1960s and 70s as almost part of the woodwork of Charity Baptist Church in Boonville, NC. My family was there every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening, and any other time the doors were open. In Vacation Bible School I pledged allegiance to the Bible and memorized Bible passages. In Sunday School I participated in “Bible Drills,” racing to be the first to find a called out Bible verse. My family “read the Bible through in a year” at the dinner table, and my mom and I played Bible board games.

In those childhood years, I remember hearing many sermons warning us about the coming of “the antichrist,” “anti” meaning “opposite of.” The antichrist would be a world-known leader, a christ/savior figure from the dark side, a satan, attracting and pulling away multitudes of followers. He would spew blasphemy and lies, stand for everything Christ did not, and be everything anti-Christ.

As a child, I could not imagine why anyone would follow such a man.

(1 Jn 2:18; 2:22; 4:3; 2 Jn 1:7; Jn 8:44; 1 Cor 15:33; Gal 5:22-23, Mt 24:5)

B188. Truth and Political Lies

We are now less than one month from Election Day, and our political wars have made most of us a little crazy. Friends, expect ridiculous lies between now and Nov 5. If it immediately angers you, stop, look for the ORIGINAL source, think twice before reposting, and try to avoid cable news sources and Facebook bait.

Lies are a political strategy. Many of the liars don't expect us to believe all their lies. The larger plan is that we stop believing anything, even the Truth, because we can't discern one from the other. This is dangerous - to our politics, our society, and ourselves - to live without Honesty and Truth.

God, teach us wisdom and discernment, and remind us to guard our hearts and minds watchfully through these next few weeks. Amen

(Suggested Readings, Videos, and News Sources: Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, Alberta's The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory, The Gospel of Matthew, The Matrix, Bad Faith, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, PBS)

B187. Ear Wash

I went to the dr. this morning for an ear wash. The nurse was very apologetic for wetting much more of me than my ears. I repeatedly assured her that getting wet didn't bother me in the least. I just wanted to hear again.

Sometimes in the past, this process has been painful, or, almost always, uncomfortable. After the nurse finished, as she continued to apologize for wetting my clothes, I sincerely thanked her and told her this was my most pleasant ear washing experience ever. Her expression changed dramatically. With a broad smile, she said, "Really? This was my first time."

Thank you, God, that I was my best self today, and you could use me to give a new nurse the confidence she deserves!

B186. Imane Khelif and Binary Thinking

Imane Khelif, Algerian Olympic boxer. If your social media rhythms perceived you as politically right, you have probably seen the anger-generating memes about her being a biological man competing as a woman. The truth, it seems, is more complicated than that. According to fact-checker Snopes, USA Today, and numerous other reliable media sources, she has been female from birth, Yet, last year she was allegedly DNA tested and found to have XY chromosomes. (This too is questionably Russian propaganda, but I’ll let you look that up.)

This is a teachable moment for us all, if we allow it to be. Science has long known that gender is not clearly binary. Binary means either one or the other. Like there are many grays between white and black, and many heights between tall and short, and many variations even within “tall.”  

I remember in my General Psychology class in 1983 learning that some babies are born with ambiguous genitalia. In more advanced classes we learned that it’s not as unusual as we might guess, and that parents might be asked which gender they want the hospital to surgically assign them, ignoring that one’s gender affects us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically, not just physically.

Why do we not talk about this? Well, let’s consider. If you were that parent and thought that this was some kind of freak occurrence (because no one talks about it), you would probably keep the secret forever, probably even from the child. Fortunately, now with the internet, people are able to learn that they are not alone. 

If we can come to accept one shade of gray, it becomes easier to see that there are an infinite number of grays between the binary extremes of black and white, of female and male, of heterosexual and homosexual, of conservative and liberal, etc. We will begin to see the many aspects of life as the continuums they are, rather than the binaries we have assumed.

I do not know Imane, and I do not know her physical story. Nor am I in any position to judge whether she should or should not be allowed to compete. I do hope those in such positions, and you and I before we form our opinions, will look to science, reason, and humanity, not to politics.

B185. The Third Commandment

 I used to think taking God’s name in vain meant saying words like "damn" or "hell" or "God" as an expletive, but the third commandment is far deeper than any mere utterance. It is about manipulation, about using God’s name to manipulate others for our own gain.

When I was in seminary, there was an oft-repeated joke that the few women on campus were there to get our MRS degrees. During my 2 ½ years there, three different male students told me that God told them they would marry me. By the third time, I had my ready response: "When God tells me the same thing, we’ll do it." If I was to believe all their assertions, God wanted me to have three husbands?

Once when I was serving on a Pastor Search Committee (I’ve served on three), a candidate told us that God told him we were the church for him. One trusting committee member was ready to hire him on the spot because God said so. I repeated my same response: "When God tells us the same thing, we’ll do it."

We are currently all living through an election season that promises to be a wild ride, filled with drama, AI-generated deception, foreign bot interference, and every imaginable type of manipulation like we have never seen before. The manipulators aim for our gullibility, hitting us where we are most likely to succumb. For many of us, they know that is our religious faith.

Be wary of the Facebook memes, church leaders, or candidates themselves comparing candidates to Jesus or manipulating Scripture for political purposes. Be wary of anyone’s interpretation of the bullet. While we can be glad and thankful that the bullet missed, to make political assertions about God’s interference or intentions goes beyond the human scope and opens questions of why God did not care to protect the fireman, or the Holocaust victims, or lynching victims, or victims of school and church massacres.

Before reposting a meme or internalizing or repeating something you heard, ask yourself: "Is God’s name being used in vain to manipulate my vote?" We are in for a wild three and a half months, but we can do this if we stay alert.

B184. The Last Fourth of July?

Yesterday I saw a man sitting outside the post office, carrying a large wooden cross that was draped in a flag. This is "Christian Nationalism," a dangerous political wolf disguised in church sheep clothing. We can love our faith, and we can love our nation, but when we allow the two to become one, we invoke the destruction of them both.

248 years ago today, the 13 American colonies declared themselves a separate nation independent from the British Empire. My dear friends and family, if we do not wake up from our in-fighting and work together to save the Republic we love, it might never reach its 250th birthday. Our nation has never been at such a dangerous point.

We must listen to each other, really listen, especially to those outside our chosen boxes (church organization, political party, news sources, etc). We must acknowledge that none of us understands all that's happening. We must realize that Christian Nationalism is our common enemy and has orchestrated for its own power our animosity toward each other.

Hard truths: The extremist political machine we call Christian Nationalism has successfully taken control of evangelical Christianity, a strategy it began in the 1970s, and in more recent years the Republican Party. The evangelical church now makes up 1/3 of the now Christian Nationalist controlled Republican party and is being used by it. "Christian Nationalism" is politics. It is not Christianity. Neither the Republican Party nor the Evangelical Church resembles the party or church I knew in my youth. It grieves my soul.

We are distracted now by Biden's age. It is an intentional distraction, one of many. If Biden is unable to fulfill his duties, he will be replaced, and our democratic republic will go on. We will continue to celebrate our nation's birthday every 4th of July, and we will continue to hold elections in which we all can have a voice. This is not what Christian Nationalism plans for our nation.

We have 4 months to come together to save this country we love. 4 months and 2 days will be too late. This July 4, remember January 6. Remember the Holocaust. Remember school and church shootings. Remember the pledge of allegiance, the patriotic songs we love, and the pride of our shared rights and freedoms. Remember the Jesus of the Gospels. Remember when we, you and I, did not think of each other as enemies but as friends, as cousins, as siblings. This July 4, we must come together, focusing not on two men, but on one democratic republic, one nation indivisible, for the loss of that nation is the very real threat to us all.

B183. Women's Suffrage Anniversary

Following a battle that lasted over 70 years, the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was passed by the US Congress and sent to the states for ratification on this day 105 years ago. June 4, 1919.

Have you seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels about Alice Paul? Do you know the amazing stories of suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Julia Ward Howe, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Anna Howard Shaw, and Jane Adams? Did you know that the 19th amendment did not include black women and that most black women in the US were unable to vote for several more decades?

Do you know what year women in the U.S. could legally take out a business loan without a male cosigner? (Guess before you Google.) Do you know what percentage of a man's salary a woman makes today for the exact same job? Do you know how valuable our rights and freedoms are and how quickly they could disappear for us all? Vote, my friends, vote with diligence and wisdom.