“I would rather feel compunction than know it’s meaning.”
This is a sanitized version of an email to a former so-called “Brother” that I sent recently. It’s worth recording in Exvangelical, because truth is harder to access these days than ever before. And this problem is most acute in Church.
Thank you for the visit the other day.
It occurred to phone… just to give you something of a hug. I only know the tiniest bit of the struggle you’ve endured. How can I encourage you?! Except share our content. And press forward the joy we have found in our emancipation from evangelicalism.
Even while we are unsettled and in an unfamiliar place, there are reassurances.
“I don’t know about tomorrow…1”
Our sincere wish remains that politics won’t interfere with fellowship. But it remains a hindrance. It destroys grace. Full stop.
We are not drawn into anti-intellectualism, pseudoscience and the denialism fueling Fundamentalist Christian Nationalism. Such widespread affiliation with lawlessness is abhorrent. Evangelical pulpits have been desecrated teaching hate – an “abomination that causes desolation standing in the place it does not belong.” Love was the commandment. This is a compelling, unequivocal conviction.
“I would rather feel compunction than know it’s meaning.”2
In the parking lot? Signs and stickers festooning cars, lifted trucks with flags tell us everything we need to know. Sunday has become something else, and it’s not about the Lord.
“I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to (idols).”
Orphan-hood is hard to understand, and harder endure. Many have returned to services out of habit. For us all, there is the promise: “This too shall pass.”
“…like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.”
We certainly know it; contention isn’t right. And so we don’t!
“In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
Yet, if we are valiant for the truth, this message has meaning. Everything else is beyond my control.
Some of the hope we keep is returning to authentic fellowship. None of this needs any kind of apology.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, …, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Footnotes:
“I don’t know about tomorrow.” Ira F. Stanphill, 1950. American Songwriter.
“My imitation of Christ” Thomas a’ Kempis, 1471.
Narrow Way Cafe 