Closed mouths and open hearts in an age of “Christian” nationalism and prophet influencers.

Hacking coughs and filthy angel’s faces.

I’m in a dirty white tank top and similarly dirty old basketball shorts hand-me-overed from somewhere. My energy is gone. Early afternoon, Becca’s making hot dogs for who wants them, and there’s leftover lentils. My energy is gone.

Lauren Daigle is playing. Our 14-year says with a grin, “Childhood!” He and his older sis created this catchphrase, said in a certain tone, to indicate pleasurable memories of their long-ago…childhood. I kind of love it when they do this, and their younger brothers have picked up on it too. 

The character traits we take a sabbatical from (patience, in this case).

A 7-year old is weaving on his loom. He’s grabbed hold of it quickly and well. His 4-year old bro is also working on a smaller loom that was meant to stay at his grandmother’s, who is out of town with other grandchildren. He is insistent he can do it by himself…but keeps needing help at recurring points. His mother is more patient than I am today. 

Things that wipe you out.

This thing has taken me out. I am certain I never did fully recover from COVID in summer 2021? Never felt like I got my energy fully back.

The powers that are.

Trouble with streaming a live service earlier we were looking forward to, so we watched a post-July 4 sermon from a different fellow. Good fellow, this fellow. It was all about religious liberty. Revelation and Daniel-heavy. I like this fellow as a person, and sometimes what he says.

But…to me, it’s dangerous what he’s doing. Baked into it all is the idea of the government being the one to suppress liberty. Do we need to be vigilant against that? Yes. But also: when Jesus was condemning the powers - the government, the religious leaders, etc, let’s not forget the religious component. He went up against the power structures. And this is what makes me frustrated and angry:

One thing on the short list of things that make me angry. :)

Evangelical Christianity is an incredibly powerful force. It is currently working overtime, again, to get Donald Trump elected, and probably will. Evangelical Christianity is NOT a persecuted minority, let alone entity. When I think about Jesus being here today and who he would be fighting for and against…I cannot comprehend him taking the side of hate and violence and name calling and the subjugation of others. I cannot. 

Tie in Christian Nationalism and it’s a sweet pot of pie for those many wanting to frame today’s world as an existential battle where Evangelical Christians, despite being in power, are presented as the persecuted minority and where the government is either the antichrist, or enabling the rise of that figure. 

Again, Evangelical Christians, despite possessing massive political and social power and influence, are presented as a persecuted minority.

Who might that antichrist-type figure be? Generally, they say it’s the government, or some coalition of globalist-socialist-America haters, or whoever is enduring the wrath of Donald Trump on a given day. He points them in the direction and they jump. Talk about witchhunts.

Also, I am a Christian. I am saying this as a Christian. A Christian deeply, deeply uncomfortable and distressed about the unholy alliances and compromises many (most) Christian organizations are making; further and further away they drift from the New Testament and the irritating words of that one prophet guy.

End times cash-in.

But fortunately, as we move away from the words and life and entire message of that one NT prophet, there is a whole industry -and yes, industry is a great descriptor - of modern-day prophets eager to interpret and predict, often with Texas Bullseye accuracy, what is going to happen.

In logic and reasoning, a Texas Bullseye fallacy is (basically) when someone shoots an arrow, then draws the bullseye around it afterwards, and claims to be a dead shot. The “prophets” of today seem to be consistently aligned on their messaging: the world is ending, God has sent a man called Donald Trump who may be a little rough, but will fight and battle for Good and against the forces of Evil (going by the monikers Democrats, socialists, etc.). This is a consistent message, and there are millions and millions of people who tune in and listen to these charlatans and Gospel-bastardizing thieves who stack their coffers and influence metrics on the backs of the Bible…which they are happily able to interpret for everyone.

There’s a lot of prophets these days.

So it goes.

Long week. Summer project checklist? Empty boxes. Still no vehicle for us all. Big tech tumble this week in two parts. First, Trump railing against Taiwan and chip manufacturing. Then Crowdstrike’s big fumble on a security update that grounded all flights and sent the world -yes, the world - into a big slowdown yesterday. 

Still holding Ethereum, though selling slowly. $3525 currently. Started selling covered calls on Nio and SoundHound. Next up: Royalty Pharma and Starbucks (28, 79).