A response to Shane Clairborn

Well Frankly Shane…….

First let me start off by saying that I’ve always respected you Shane, because I don’t see you as the typical “progressive” who preaches to us the need for sacrifice and redistribution from their chauffeured Range Rovers, Private Jets and Mega Yachts in-between Wagyu Beef dinners preaching the virtues of vegetarianism and climate change. Most of them make Creeflo Dollar, Joel Ostein, and the Rev Ike appear genuine. You do try to live what you preach.

But now something I’m tired of. . I AM TIERED of the Anti-Semetic moral equivalency in the so-called “progressive Christian”movement. NO Israel is not committing Atrocities in Gaza, Hamas is creating Atrocities in Gaza by using children as shields, the Civilian population and infrastructure as military assets. And creating a terrorist state where they spent millions on munitions and armaments while their people suffered with the barest of existence. There is no moral equivalence between a murder group that teaches toddlers to hate with a Nazi fever and cheered the murder of teens in Israel who were at a Peace rally music festival when they were slaughtered . The IDF doesn’t celebrate when Arab children die, They didn’t live stream gang rapes, behead infants, and burn toddlers alive all the while getting hailed as hero’s by much of the indoctrinated population.

Yes, you can be Pro Palestinian (clearly Hamas isn’t) and pro Israel. And yes you can grieve for innocent civilians lost and condemn Hamas. And yes it’s fair to criticize the policies and actions of Israel but it is dishonest and immoral and Anti-semetic to put them on the same level as Hamas. Frankly Shane before Israel fired a shot into Gaza on Oct 8th, I saw ambivalent moral equivalency statements from many on the progressive spectrim including you. I saw progressive Christians condemn Trumps statements about “poisoning the blood” almost instantly, I did myself, but they remained eerily silent when leaders of our most prestigious universities refused to condemn calling for gennocoade of the Jews. I suspect that is not what following Jesus looks like.

I had an idiot state on my page that the Jews have been committing gennoacide of the Palestinians since 1948. The Palestinian population in 1948 was 1.37 million today it is roughly 14.3 million. The population of Jews in the world in 1938 was about 16.7 million, it was less than 11 million in 1946 and STILL hasn’t reached the 16.7 million it was 85 years ago. And yes it sickened me that the world watched Oct 7th and there was an ounce of ambivalence. Much like the world watch Jews getting carted to the ovens. I know Jesus would condemn it.

Anti-Zionism=Anti Semitism

In 1947 they gained independence from the British, the partition was a religious one with them becoming a theocracy. The area was not originally dominated by their faith, but they had conquered it and become a majority in the territory they occupied. Their independence was gained during a hard fought sectarian clashes with the other dominant religion of the area. Since that time they have been in a perpetual state of war with their largest neighbor. They are still a theocracy and the rural areas have religious police that patrol to assure their faith is adhered too.

If you are anti-Zionist here is what you believe: Jews (both a race and a religion) can’t be trusted to run their own country. Jews don’t deserve their own country, they can reside in other places ruled by other people despite a history where as recently as the 1980’s large population groups of Jews were expelled from countries they had resided in for a couple of thousand years. You also accept the lie that Jews have no connection to the Middle East and no right to their indigenous land. Israel was NEVER governed by any other indigenous people. When Jews returned, and remember many never left, they found evidence of a Jewish civilization there a thousand years before Christ.

Muslims will claim the sacredness of the Dome of the Rock, it is built on top of Jewish Temple. They will claim Muhammad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem, but there is no evidence he ever set foot in the city. A city that still had a Jewish majority thru much of the Diaspora.

You can argue with the policies of the State of Israel, you can disagree with its politics, you can condemn the extremes of its people . But when you say the State isn’t legitimate you are applying different standards to Jews than you are applying to other People. That is the very definition of bigotry. In the opening paragraph, I described a nation formed a year before the state of Israel, Pakistan. Many will say they don’t believe a modern country should be based on a race or religion and that is their objection to Zionism. I don’t see those people protesting for the liberation of Pakistan. In fact I never hear ANY objections to Pakistan’s legitimacy. But then again they aren’t Jewish.

Earth to church, we have an attractiveness problem.

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. IS 53:1-2

One of the privilege ideals that is rarely addressed is attractiveness and height. Taller people and attractive people have better outcomes in income, education than others in almost every study. In fact it’s arguable that attractiveness is a better predictor of outcome than almost any other demographic. -Douglas Murray

A friend of mine is partnering to help start a church in outstate MI. First, I want to make it clear I have no doubt of his sincerity, faithfulness or dedication to following Christ. And this is not meant as a personal criticism, much of what I am saying could be applied to a vast majority of churches across the fruited plane.

His church recently posted a photo of a family with the caption “This is _ Church.” The photo was of a man who spends a vast majority of his waking hours at the gym, a women who looks like she just got back from her Sports Illustrated cover shoot and two perfect suburban kids. I recall another church that I attended that would do video’s and I can assure you that almost every participant had made at least some income on the side as a model. I remember one where an obviously very upwardly mobile super model couple who probably spent more on their wedding than I’ve earned in my life was talking about how the church helped heal their marriage. I’m glad the church helped them, but is that what we should be modeling to hurting people who don’t fit those definitions?

We see it all thru the church, tatted buff male speakers pastoring mega-churches. The Babylon Bee jokes about tight jeans as a uniform for worship leaders. It has gotten to the point where many of the “faces of the church” would be indistinguishable from participants on the Bachelor, an episode of the Kardashians or a late night talk show host. 

This desire to make the church “current” has two very damaging consequences. One, it states to the world that the value and privilege it places on physical appearance is moral when it’s clear that God values the heart far more than the outward appearance. Two, it models an unobtainable (for most of us) “you can have it all” faith. Wealth, good looks, hot spouse oh, and Jesus. And those who fall short struggle with their failures and never feel like they are quite a part of the community. 

Sadly, we are sending the message that if you are old, short, poor (let’s face it wealth means access to gym memberships and personal trainers), don’t look like a model-athlete, you have failed. You have not met what it is to be an “ideal Christian”. You will rarely see people who don’t fit this description in our pulpits. And I suspect we have no idea how many of the worlds forgotten (who God remembers) come to our churches, attend for a while, and disappear unnoticed. 

Explain this one?

There are two things I don’t understand from my friends on the left or our leftist leadership.

One, you’d think if they want the government to be fixing everything from health care to the environment they would want good government? One of the things that shocked my about Obama administration, from a leader that at least seemed coherent and competent was the utter failure of the Obamacare web site roll out. They had two years to get it right and weren’t even close to ready when it rolled out. 

I would argue the same thing is true of our “intelligence” and law enforcement agencies. When is the last time the the FBI got something right? And the CIA? Really, they blew it on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Bush gave Tenet a medal for it. They blew it horribly on Isis, and if Biden isn’t lying to us they were close to 100% wrong on the Afghanastan withdrawal, our “over the horizon” capability which lead to a mass civilian casualty drone strike is pathetic. But ALL of them still have jobs, most got raises. 

Two, you would think that the enablers of Government expansion would want government to not be corrupt? It is clear that the VA administration was an endless morass of incompetence and corruption for years over several administrations. They were falsifying medical records of veterans (a felony) and providing horrible care to meet projected target numbers. Not one of these criminals was fired not one prosecuted. Many were relocated, kept their incomes and cushy retirements, while Veterans literally died!

What I don’t understand is why doesn’t the party of Government demand that Government at least be good, efficient and not filled with corruption and incompetence?

Two myths dead on a roof in Kabul:

“This is China’s world, were just making the mortgage payments” Mark Steyn

In 2004 Natal Sharanski wrote the book “the Case for Democracy.” In it he asserted that the spread of Democracy was the greatest hope for world peace. And that the more nations were democratic the less they were likely to go to war. There is certainly some merit to this argument when it comes to Democratic Republics going to war with each other. This argument influenced George Bush profoundly and was arguably the impetus for the Neo-Con domination of American foreign policy at the turn of the century. 

So George Bush set out in a flurry of Nation building both in Iraq and Afghanastan. The problem was two fold. First Armies are great for breaking things, but mediocre at building things especially across cultural lines. We often forgot the history of Democracy even in Europe is young, and Multi-cultural democracies are an even rarer breed. The result was failure at every level. Iraq has a modicum of stability after we went back in to clean out Isis, but it has arguably become a proxy of Iran with the exception of the Kurdish territory, and we already know about Kabul. The Neo Cons missed the last chopper out of town. 

Another myth that died was Barack Obama’s “shared or Universal values”. President Obama used that line every chance he got. It wasn’t serious, it was lie, a vast majority of the planet has never had in its history and certainly doesn’t now have shared values. To base a foreign policy on this belief is not serious. It brought us a cluster of failed states like Libya and Syria, and a massive increase in the hegomoney of the Islamic Fascist in Iran. 

We worry about pronouns, they arm themselves with our weapons, we worry about micro-aggressions, they blow up girls schools, we campaign on defund the Police, they have concentration camps in their police states for Uighur’s. It takes one year plus for an Afghan translator to get a visa, but an MS 13 member can stroll across the border on a whim. This is not the stuff of a serious country. America isn’t “back” Joe, it’s on it’s back. 

Critical Race (Its only a) theory

A Friend of mine recently hosted a Pod-cast entitled “demystifying Critical Race Theory. “Well, I’ve made it a point in my life to be be open to others ideas. After one hour and a half of some of the most cognitive dissonant banter one could imagine I had no inkling of CRT’s premises, little understanding of its origins, and no idea of the its goals or outcomes. All I had was a reading list to find out what it’s really about.

This is my first point of fundamental departure from this world view. It is cloaked in language, many words which are summerly re-defined and concepts which are designed to deceive. I see no evidence in the illogical often deceptive musings of the CRT crowd that they want us to know what they really believe. I almost get the feeling they know, if we knew, we would reject it for its absurdity. What goes for nuance in todays Academia is bluntly unsupported black-white proclamation as if it’s tenets of faith that must be accepted before one can proceed.  The pod cast participants proclaimed it to be just a Tool, well a hammer is just a tool, but not the first thing I’d grab if I was repairing a Rolex. 

Near as I can surmise tenet one, which is borrowed from (Marxist) Critical theory. Is that history is divided into two groups. A little sidebar: Marxism is the greatest evil ism ever spawned and responsible for the deaths of roughly 100 million. mostly victims of Genocide in the last century, Stalin made Hitler seem like a piker, and yet unlike Nazism which is universally condemned the utter evil of Marxism is still accepted in much of Western academia. I never hear anyone proclaim Naziism would have worked with a good leader, but somehow the effects of Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Ho and and Castro isn’t enough evidence for these dolts in Academia. Enough is enough ,Marxism is EVIL. Simple stuff really. A self declared Marxist is identifying with an evil as hideous as any Nazi and they should be forced to defend it, if you say I’m a Marxist, then you should be able to defend Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. 

It perplexes me to no end how anyone could start with such a simplistic naive theory as the bases for analyzing something as complex and nuanced as the how civilizations were formed and cultures developed. I certainly can’t consider it an academic pursuit, because no serious student of the effects of geography, language, and climate on civilization could be so naive. 

The first tenet appears to be history is divided into two groups. The oppressor white European males and their mostly people of color victims. This remarkably un-nuanced world view is not only a lie, it leads too ugly hatreds and revisions to the reality of history. First, which white male group was the oppressor when Black African Tribes were selling other Black Tribes into slavery? or when Muslims from the middle East were financing that very same slave trade? Who was the white oppressor group when Hutu’s we carving up Tutsi’s in Rwanda in the 90’s? 

The Slave trade itself was incredible diverse. A majority of the slaves were procured by Black African Tribes selling other black tribesman to Muslim POC who shipped them around the world. The Caliphate largely financed itself with slavery and didn’t end slavery until the early 1900’s and the POC running Saudi Arabia ended it in 1965. In fact one of the largest groups of slaves procured by the Caliphate was those oppressor group white European males. We sent the Marines to Tripoli to deal with this in the early 1800’s. And how much “white supremacy” were the 300 or so Black slave owners in the US exercising?  To make it clear, Slavery was a horrible evil, certainly in some ways one of the greatest evils perpetrated in history. But it didn’t have a single group of oppressors and a single group of benefactors. And while it was no doubt racist in its origins it wasn’t just racist by any means. 

This leads me to my second biggest issue with Critical Racist theory, it is a servant of its narrative rather than Truth. One great example of this is the recent up-tick in violence against Asian Americans. There has been a known hatred/jealousy of Asian Americans from some whites but also many African Americans because of their cultural and economic successes following their immigration to this country. From the simmering tensions in Korea town in LA that exploded in the LA riots to the recent spate of attacks from mostly Blacks against elderly Asians following the Covid outbreak.

 And yet there was hardly a peep from the “woke” community until a white man committed a mass shooting against Asian sex workers in Atlanta. Then all of the sudden Asian’s were the victim group of the week for social media. While we have no idea the motive of the white shooter it was just assumed he was wearing a MAGA hat and following Trumps orders due to the “Wuhan flu.” The problem with that narrative is it ignores the Asian students who are suing Harvard because they are being denied admissions and their slots given to African Americans who score lower on tests, Which white supremest are they victims of? And it ignored the hundreds of Asians who were victims of clearly racially motivated attacks at the same time by African Americans in LA and NYC. This Lie is perpetrated by our media, and that leads me to my biggest issue.

Critical Race Theory is FUNDAMENTALLY ANTI-SEMITIC. By making White European males the oppressor group and declaring POC incapable of committing acts of racist bigotry you are excusing the massive increase in Anti-Semitism across the globe.  The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are somehow members of the historical oppressor group is heinous. Which Oppressor group where they a member of when they were kicked out of Spain in 1492? when they were tortured during the Spanish inquisition?  when they were run out of region upon region in N Africa and Eastern Europe in the programs? When they were segregated and run out of Iraq in 1920’s? Or when Hitler sent them to the ovens? 

To me I can’t imagine a more inhuman bigoted world view than to consider the descendants of Jews living in the diaspora who escaped the Holocaust to be part of the historical oppressor group and benefactors of White Supremacy. That isn’t twisted thinking that is a lie from the pit of hell. And sadly this explains the silence of so many of my so called woke or self appointed “anti-racist” friends when it comes to the huge increase in anti-semitism around the globe. 

During the Gaza conflict, Jews being attacked by Middle Eastern and Black males thru-out Europe and on the West Coast and East Coast in the US. This historic rise in Anti-semitism drew silence from the “anti-racist” crowd. This is a mob that insists that “silence is violence”. I marched with my African American brothers against what happened to George Floyd, I marched with my Asian American brothers a few months ago. In both cases the Church spoke out as it should have. And yet I have not heard a peep from those same church leaders, many who pride themselves on their progressive values on the Jews. Silence is Violence. 

In short, CRT has a truth and hate problem. When your world view informs you to gloss over or ignore history or current events that don’t fit its narrative and you defend it, you are a slave to that narrative. The Truth will set you free, try it. And when your narrative justifies hatred it is at enmity with God. There is no justification for hating Jews for the actions of the Israeli Government any more than it is Justified to hate Police officers for the actions of Derek Chauvin or Hispanics for the actions of George Zimmerman, or Europeans for the actions of their ancestors 300 years ago or Asians for the actions of Chinese Government today. CRT is simply not compatible with the Gospel, Christ came to redeem every individual and he offers forgiveness and reconciliation for every individuals sin. 

CRT and much of the self anointed “anti-racism” movement proclaims that we are to treat people differently with different levels of respect and expectations based on their skin color, gender, and other factors. The Word of God proclaims loudly in Acts 10:34 That “God is no respecter of persons” Any “ism” that proclaims otherwise is an enemy of the Faith. 

Patriots Bible?

Sorry, but I’m not interested in the “Patriots Bible”. While there is no question Christianity influenced the founding of this country, so did other things. And the Constitution is not the word of God. In fact Jesus spoke very little about one of the most oppressive governments in history (Rome) and an awful lot about how we should live as a people following him. Right now we are a hedonistic greedy country like any other country run by an inhabited by sinners, we need to seek God first, not a Bible with something added to it that is not profitable for reproof or correction.

The narative test, a few thoughts

God’s Justice is always about reconciliation that leads to redemption. Christ NEVER directed his followers to seek retribution. If your “Justice” movement is about retribution, it’s of man not God.

If the loudest most prominent voices in modern popular culture are agreeing with your world view ,chance’s are it’s not a Kingdom view.  Proclaiming the Kingdom of God to a lost world requires courage. Agreeing with popular cultures memes is easy.  If you agree with Jeff Bezo’s and Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg isn’t censoring some of your ideas, the odds are they aren’t the teachings of Christ.

While it’s certainly fine to ally with those who aren’t Christ followers to make the world a better place. Remember in the end they all need the redemptive power that only faith in Christ can bring.

Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. A movement of God holds truth as essential. If your narrative doesn’t hold up to this it requires reexamining. And if you aren’t willing to debate the truth of your narrative, it’s propaganda, not prophecy.

Your commentary must match your lifestyle, if you’re preaching about the sanctity of marriage while you’re having multiple affairs or lecturing us on our carbon footprint from the Cabin of your G4 or berating us on the evils of Capitalism while your own multiple million dollar estates, chances are intelligent people aren’t listening. While hypocrisy doesn’t invalidate truth it most certainly negates it’s impact. And if Elitism is the foundation of your world view, it is the opposite of Christs world view. 

Leftism? Christianity?

To me there are several beliefs in American Leftism that are fundamentally incompatible with the teachings of Christ, they are:

1. ALL PEOPLE ARE BORN GOOD AND HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO DO OR BE EVIL. This is unarguably a belief that is at odds with scripture, wether it’s the story of the fall, or Isiah declaring “all of our righteousness to be as filthy rags” or Paul stating that “ALL have sinned and fall short of the Glory of Isiah”.  Sorry Barack Obama needs Jesus, so does Donald Trump, so does Jeff Bezos. All of us need the redemptive power of Christ to set us on the right path. 
2. GOVERNMENT IS GOD AND IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR WELFARE, ELIMINATING RACISM AND ASSURING EQUAL OUTCOMES FOR ALL. While the church is commanded to minister to these things even it isn’t declared to have the ultimate responsibility. Jesus Christ lived under one of the most imperialistic, oppressive governments the world has ever seen and he never called for his people to “resist” and change the government. In fact it’s arguable that the Biblical Christianity had its darkest times and was most diluted when it was aligned with the powers of government. And going back to point one, there is nothing more delusional than believing unrepentant sinful man running the institution of government offers any solution for racism, poverty, or the immortality of our age. This has been proven empirically already, the argument is over, it has failed so many times that to try again is insanity.
3. TRUTH IS RELATIVE, AND ANY FACTS, HISTORY, OR TRUTH THAT CONFLICTS WITH THE GOAL OF RIDDING THE WORLD OF POVERTY, RACISM, AND OUR NEW MORALITY IS TO BE CENSORED, REPRESSED, OR CANCELED. The Irony of this recent belief in American Leftism is that classic American leftism was a champion of free speech. People like Noam Chomsky, and Christopher Hitchens were willing to test and debate their ideas in open forums.They believed in engaging others to prove their viewpoints. They didn’t proclaim their beliefs as some kind of edict on Tablets from the Sinai and the fought for the rights to debate their ideas. Todays leftist are utterly unwilling to debate, and they have called for massive censorship, the canceling and removal of those who dare to disagree. It is no longer a political philosophy, it is religious cult, and one at odds with Christianity. I can assure my Christian friends who buy into these myths that after they have come for us, they will come for you. History is clear on this. Trust me, after they are done burning Ted Cruz books they’ll come for the Shane Claiborne books.
4. ALL PEOPLE (EXCEPT WHITE MALES ) ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR LIFES CHOICES, THEY ARE VICTIMS AS MEMBERS OF OPPRESSED GROUPS TO ONE DEGREE OF ANOTHER OF AN OPPRESSIVE SYSTEM. No view could be more opposed to the Gospel of Christ, because it offers no redemption or reconciliation. Its goal is to lay blame on those it hates, and absolve many of their sins while assigning guilt and blame to everyone but fallen man. We ALL need Jesus wether we are a member of the Proud Boys or BLM. 

Is it possible to be a Christian and be on the left of the American political spectrum? It’s a worthwhile question, there are no doubt many goals of the American left that many on the Conservative side have ignored or in come cases contributed too, that are worthy and part of the Gospel. The church has sought wealth, power, and in many cases justified greed. It has been racist in many of approaches to church growth by tailoring its message to middle class mostly young white suburbanites and has justified systematic racism of many in power. To try to tear down those systems and replace them with the Gospel is worthy and should be supported by all in the body of Christ. But to replace them with just another repressive immoral greedy system is not the answer. 

Election thoughts, no Calvinism content :)

First, for my Trump voter friends. Joe Biden did not win this election but it is a strong possibility that Trump lost. Trump had three issues that destroyed him with suburban voters. He never grew into the Job, it was rare if there were any moments where he appeared Presidential. Was he goaded into it and treated unfairly and probably illegally by the opposition over the Russia thing? No doubt, but there was never an elevate the dialog moment in the Trump presidency. Wether it was mixed messaging on Covid, or failing to make a bring the nation together in a speech after George Floyd Trump always seemed to be tone death to the effect of his messaging.

The sad fact is he did some great things. He was arguably the best President since Reagan on Foreign policy. And the first since Carter to not start any new wars. He accomplished a lot of great policy achievements on the economic and trade front. In fact we arguably saw the best economy ever in history anywhere at any-time in the US pre-covid. And for the first time since the 80’s REAL wages were rising not just in the upper end of the income scale while the cost of some products, consumer electronics and energy were falling. And he was arguably the least anti-Semitic administration ever. On the Covid front, the mobilization he achieved on Respirators, PPE and apparently a vaccine in record time was an under reported accomplishment.

As far as the election as I said, Trump probably lost. This isn’t 2002 when a few hundred votes decided the fate the nation. This is tens of thousands of votes in several states. While there is no doubt in my mind there was fraud committed, there is in EVERY election. Will we be able to find enough of it to change the outcome? I sincerely doubt it. And as a Christian I am not going to join the “Resistance”, claim Biden is not my President. I can’t rip Romans 13 or II Peter 2 out of my Bible. I will honor my leaders and treat the new President with respect.

Now for my Friends who colored in the box for Biden. I get it, while I may not agree with many of Biden’s policy stands, I can understand why someone would come to the conclusion that Trumps character or lack of it wasn’t fit for the job. I can understand and respect that position. For me it was the literal insanity that is being accepted in Biden’s party that I just couldn’t stomach.

As far as what to look forward too. We’ve seen this movie before and the first run wasn’t a picnic for many Americans, in fact it was so bad voting for Trump in 16 was easy. Corruption and ineptness was rampant in Government with zero accountability. Now we have the sequel with the “B” team, I wouldn’t be gloating or popping the Champagne just yet especially if I considered myself to be a moderate.

As far as the election, calm down. It’s ok to celebrate, but demanding concession when your last candidate advised Biden to never concede in October is a bit heavy handed. And yes I know WAPO has declared Biden the winner, but I missed the article of the Constitution that states that a newspaper that claimed Biden had a 14 point lead in PA a day before the election gets to decree who the winner is. They have ZERO credibility, so please take their calls to leave meekly when they spent four years attacking the integrity of the last election with the appropriate grain of salt.

As far as the press pontificating about Biden missing the daily intelligence briefings so far, I think it’s a bit rich for the VP of an administration that used an intelligence briefing for Trump as an entrapment interview for an illegal investigation in a clear violation of due process to think they have the right to lecture anyone about transition protocols. That ship has sailed. So let the States certify the vote and let the electors do their job and let the Constitutional process play out. That’s not a big ask.