Category / Evangelicals

by James Ross Kelly

How a Rising Religious Movement Rationalizes the Christian Grasp for Power–David French


Today I’m going to talk about something called the Seven Mountain Mandate. While it’s a term that few people know, the core concept is deeply influential to the way in which millions of Evangelicals approach culture and politics. It’s a concept that has its uses, but it’s also subject to profound abuse. In short, it often confuses Christian power with biblical justice, and it creates incentives for Christians to not just seek power but to feel a sense of failure and emergency when they are not in positions of cultural or political control. The origin of the Seven Mountain Mandate rests with an alleged divine revelation shared by Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission, and the theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer. Not one of those men is fringe. They’re among the most influential Evangelicals of the modern age. And what was that revelation? Cunningham explains it in the short YouTube below:

Source: How a Rising Religious Movement Rationalizes the Christian Grasp for Power

by James Ross Kelly

The Seeds of Political Violence Are Being Sown in Church–David French


On Thursday night in Castle Rock, Colorado, a group called “FEC United” (FEC stands for faith, education, and commerce) held a “town hall” meeting that featured a potpourri of GOP candidates and election conspiracy theorists. Most notably, the event included John Eastman, the Claremont scholar who authored the notorious legal memos that purported to justify the decertification and reversal of the 2020 election results. During the meeting, a man named Shawn Smith accused Colorado secretary of state Jena Griswold of election misconduct. “You know, if you’re involved in election fraud, then you deserve to hang,” he said. “Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.” “I was accused of endorsing violence,” he went on. “I’m not endorsing violence, I’m saying once you put your hand on a hot stove, you get burned.” As soon as he said, “you deserve to hang,” an audience member shouted “Yeah!” and applause filled the room. You can watch the moment here.

Source: The Seeds of Political Violence Are Being Sown in Church

by James Ross Kelly

New Survey Shakes Middle Earth | Matthew Distefano


Rivendell, EASTERN ERIADOR – A recent survey conducted by a coalition between the elves of Rivendell, dwarves of Erebor, and men of Gondor, shows that a growing number of Middle Earth residents do not see Mordor as a threat. The survey concludes that as recently as this month, 31% of Middle Earthers believe that the hype surrounding Sauron has been overblown, while a striking 11% don’t believe Sauron even exists.

Source: New Survey Shakes Middle Earth | Matthew Distefano

by James Ross Kelly

A Conversation with E.O. Wilson (1929–2021)


EOW: I think that work has been very productive. It helped move Evangelicals more decisively into conservation. Once they see what they call “the Left,” the environmentalists and the scientists—what Rush Limbaugh, that expert on climate change, has called “the granola-crunching tree-huggers”—are not necessarily the dangerous threat they thought, they are not as aggressive. I understand Evangelicals well. They circle the wagons, but they are afraid of all these happenings. Once they see they could form a non-threatening alliance for a transcendent purpose, then they could move forward. That’s why I wrote the book. You have 42 percent of the American people who might be rallied for the environment, particularly for conservation.

Source: A Conversation with E.O. Wilson (1929–2021)

by James Ross Kelly

Noah and his Children: Bad News for White Evangelical Christians | Vance Morgan


By establishing an unholy alliance with people and values entirely contrary to what they claim their own moral and religious commitments to be, white evangelicalism has shown itself to be an emperor with no clothes.

Source: Noah and his Children: Bad News for White Evangelical Christians | Vance Morgan

by James Ross Kelly

The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism – Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture


The fracturing we are experiencing is likely to be irrevocable as the historical ties that bind have eroded beyond repair. The reality is that while many in the evangelical movement thought their bonds were primarily (or exclusively) theological or missional, many of those bonds were actually political, cultural, and socioeconomic. These political, cultural, and socioeconomic differences have always been there beneath the water line but what has occurred over the last 5-10 years has been the extent to which those values are expressed has been exposed. With the expression louder and the exposing more visible, these divergent values have rapidly created substantive wedges between various subgroups. The rate at which divergent views have been revealed has created jarring relational dissonance. People in the pews are left questioning the extent to which their unity is based on the Apostles or Nicene creeds or other political, cultural, and socioeconomic matters. They are left questioning where churches, ministries, or organizations land on these things. The tectonic plates are shifting underfoot. This fracturing will likely be irrevocable not because our Gospel essentials are not unifying enough but because the divergence of ethical priorities, cultural engagement, racial attitudes, political visions/illusions, and their implications for philosophy of ministry mean that unity is fundamentally no longer tenable.

Source: The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism – Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

by James Ross Kelly

The Inevitable Death of Evangelical Christianity | Keith Giles


Whenever I read the surveys from Christianity Today, or Baptist News, or The Christian Post about how young people are leaving the American Church in […]

Source: The Inevitable Death of Evangelical Christianity | Keith Giles

by James Ross Kelly

To Trump’s Evangelicals, Everyone Else Is a Sinner – The Atlantic


Two of the president’s prominent evangelical supporters are literally demonizing his opponents.

“As a result, they make the job of the so-called New Atheists so much easier than it would otherwise be. All militant atheists need to do is to point people—young people in particular—to conversations like the one between Graham and Metaxas and say, “Is that the kind of faith you want to be associated with?” If that was what I thought even remotely embodied true Christianity, I would want nothing to do with it.”

Source: To Trump’s Evangelic

Franklin Graham portrays those with whom he disagrees politically as under demonic influences.LEAH MILLS / REUTERS

, Everyone Else Is a Sinner – The Atlantic