Benjamin Cremer's Lament to Evangelicalism

 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1494307575558381570.html

Rev. Benjamin Cremer

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If you weren’t raised in American Evangelical churches, it can be difficult to understand the ways so many of us are expressing our pain, anger, and feelings of betrayal.

So to add a bit of clarity, here’s a letter of lament written to Evangelicalism (a thread🧵).

Dear Evangelicalism, the way you taught us to live is not what we are seeing you live out.

You taught us to seek the kingdom of God first, yet so often it seeks America first.

You taught us to proclaim Christ as Lord of all, but when it comes to talk of real power, you seems so preoccupied with presidents and political parties.

You taught us about purity and respect, yet you get upset at us when we call out political and religious leaders for their unwholesome remarks about women and people of color.

You taught us to love our enemies and that violence isn’t the way to solve our problems, yet you seem so preoccupied with guns, lethal force, and war.

You taught us to spread the gospel, yet so much of what we hear from you is campaigning for partisan power in the name of Jesus.

You taught us to welcome the stranger as a friend and help those in need, yet you often talk so disparagingly about immigrants, refugees, and those in need of welfare.

You taught us to repent, yet when we want to repent from systemic racism, patriarchy, jingoism, capitalistic greed, homophobia, and religious nationalism, you mock us as if we are just politically misguided rather than gospel minded.

You taught us to be pro-life and that all life is sacred, yet you act as if it only applies to the the unborn and not to the very real lived economic and social realities of those who are born, especially the women who’s very own bodies carry the unborn.

You taught us to be good stewards of our resources, yet when we want to be good stewards of the earth and advocate for confronting climate change, we are either ignored or criticized by you.

You told us we are saved by grace, not the law, yet we hear so much talk from you about working to get the right people in power and to shape the legal system in favor of what we value in order to save America.

You taught us to worship God alone and see scripture as our primary authority, yet you act as though this country and it’s constitution are on their same level of theological sacredness.

You called this generation lazy, entitled, and shame us for deconstructing our faith or for abandoning your churches. Yet, we feel like you’ve abandoned so much of what you’ve taught us, becoming lazy as the church and entitled over political power.

Maybe people are leaving Evangelicalism because there’s more of a desire to protect the institutions it has made, preserve the power it has acquired, and a refusal to repent, reform, and grow with our ever changing world than there is to be the body of Christ as the church.

Sincerely signed with hope for a better world to come.