Emergent Monday - Adventures On The Left

Want to stir up a hornet's nest? All you have to do is go to the "Christian" Left Facebook page and have a look around. You will find that you've already stirred up a hornets nest simply by existing. I am sure that deep inside the "Christian" Left there are some very good Christians, but do not be fooled, The "Christian" Left (TCL) is a political entity who preaches love, but this love they preach is reserved solely for each other and their adherents. Disagreement is considered heresy. 

Let me first say I have nothing but love for liberals, I work in the high tech industry and except for a small cadre of fellow conservatives, I am surrounded by liberals. While I disagree with their political ideas, we don't talk politics, we have other things to do. They know I'm conservative, I know they're liberal, and that's that. It's not that smooth with the "Christian" Left. Here's a shining example - yesterday morning on the "Christian" Left facebook page their Morning Message was 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

A wonderful passage to contemplate on a Sunday morning, however the very first response was anything but loving. Sandy Carson immediately took this beautiful verse and went straight into the cesspit of politics:

I wonder if good Christian Trump has ever read that. He is the antithesis of those verses!

Another masterpiece of theology came moments later:

i also like to think that LOVE IS PIZZA,,,,sorry it's a food thing

The "Christian" Left has invented an imaginary demon that they blame for all the ills of the world, and they call this self-created delusion the "Right-Wing Christian Industrial Complex" and they claim that this imaginary beast "all but decimated everything in its path" Now it's perfectly fine to have your very own version of reality, you can dream up UFO's, you can spread hack journalism and claim it's proof that Allan West wants to kill Barak Obama (which they do), but when it comes to bride of Christ you can't spew hatred and accusations against your brother and sister members of His body and still claim the title of Christian.

11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12)

But stirring up strife with their brothers is what the TCL is very good at. Their social media posts are filled with anger, accusations, insults, and embarrassing bouts of self aggrandization all based on their very odd idea that they care much more than anyone else does, especially the "Right-Wing Christian Industrial Complex" so they are clearly better people. Is this really what what God wants for us?

19 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20)

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made united in the same mind and in the same judgment. (1 Corinthians 1:10)

Social media is a bad way to take the temperature of a group - people laboring under the illusion of anonymity will say almost anything, and when you are free to make a statement with no need of corroborating reference material people will say anything. It can break down to a hysterical shouting match, which will happen if someone from the "other team" dares post something. And by "other team" I do not mean Satan, to them the "other team" is Christians who do not rubber-stamp everything they say and do. What follows is the doctrine of the "Christian" Left:

It sure was a clever plan Satan had when he managed to convince a majority of Christians to appoint moneychangers, warmongers and Pharisees as kings, based on two red herring issues that Jesus never said anything about. They have been taught to overlook 99.9% of what the Bible is actually about. The agenda of the right has nothing to do with being a follower of Jesus. Nothing. (Source)

What do they use for their source data? Nothing. Nothing at all. It's made up. Moneychangers, warmongers and Pharisees as kings are an act of the majority of voters and politicians of the United States, not of Christianity. Politics is an activity of the world and we are called out of the world.

The two supposedly "red herring issues" that Jesus supposedly never said anything about are abortion and homosexuality. The "Christian" Left makes so much noise about these two sins that you would think that these are their sacraments. Maybe they are. Just the fact that the Christian left consideres the lives of the unborn babies a red herring issue shows how little regard for human life they have.

Murder and homosexuality are addressed throughout the bible and as one who believes in the Trinity I know that Jesus is God, which makes all words in the bible the words of Jesus. And, of course, the vast majority of the bible is about sin, repentance, and redemption, and no conservative Christian that I have ever met has been taught to overlook sin. 

In fact I went to the christianleft.org and did a google search for Sin on their site and came up with one CCM music video. Seriously. Does the "Christian" left consider CCM a sin? Sin is the reason why we were cast out of Eden, sin is the reason why Jesus came to Earth, sin is the entire reason for God's plan of redemption, yet TCL (The "Christian" Left) appears to ignore sin unless it's the sin of disagreeing with their political aims.

From what I've seen and experienced the only sin that TCL takes serious is the sin of disagreeing with them. Last month I awarded the False Teacher Of The Year award for 2015 to Mark Sandlin, for abusing scripture, for being an anti-trinitarian, and for fomenting anger and hatred toward fellow Christians that he deems unworthy of loving. 

When pointing out Mark Sandlin's abuse of scripture I used appropriate bible references, and the initial response of TCL was as condescending as it was off topic:

Just so you don't sound so ignorant, allow me to teach you something new today...

followed by a copy/paste from wikipedia about the origins of the political terms left and right which originated in the French revolution. He basicly told a history fanatic that the sky is blue in the most condescending way possible, but the real question is: Who cares? This is a theology blog, not a political history blog.

(By the way: Mr. TCL didn't bother to mention that once the political right was pushed out of the French government, the left {the Girondins and the Jacobins, mostly the latter} began a slaughter of over 50,000 people and began a purge of Christians in a bloodbath called "The De-Christianization of France" Mr. TCL conveniently failed to mention that 72% of the people that the left slaughtered during the French revolution were of the working class, the poor, and the homeless) then Mr. TCL closed with

When Jesus referenced right and left it had nothing to do with the politics of the French Revolution or the politics of today.

Which is very true, but Mark Sandlin did, which was what the blog post was about. Had Mr. TCL actually read my blog post and Mark Sandlin's bizarre twisting of scripture to advance his political love of the term "left", Mr. TCL would be agreeing with me. Mr. TCL refused to address the blog entry. He carried on about politics as if Mark Sandlin's abuse of scripture was never mentioned, and I could not get TCL to address the subject. In fact multiple watchbloggers pointed out that politics was not the issue in this blog, theology is. That God's word is supreme and we are all bound by it and that Mark Sandlin rightly has earned the title of false teacher. Mr. TCL's response was

You think the political ideology of the right is the more Godly ideology?

Seriously? the first thing that popped into mind was maybe Mr. TCL has a reading comprehension problem, maybe dyslexia, and I prayed for his healing. But he proceeded to called me brainwashed, a student of false teachers, and a Pharisee (and I'm not even Jewish). As the exchanges went on and members of the "Christian" left joined the discussion it became abundantly clear that none had read the blog entry, and all wanted to drag their world idolizing politics into the matter. Alicia, the poor child, was so confused that she actually tried to drag homosexuals into the argument, abusing them as a pawn solely to advance her own political agenda.

The lessons I learned from my engagement and study of the "Christian" left is that TCL believes that petty partisan politics is equivalent to scripture, studying and following the word of God is legalism, and anyone who disagrees with them is a pharisee. Their "Shut up Pharisee" attitude makes we wonder if they bothered to read Luke 7:36. From his response to my post I get the feeling that Mark Sandlin missed Matthew 24:48-51 as he was on his way out to the bar.

But for all the anger and sorrow they intentionally incite, even though they seem to take joy in attacking Christians, I feel sorry for them. Their whole world is tied up in the cesspool of politics. They are driven by outrage rather than love, anger rather than joy, and divisive hatred rather than fellowship. Please pray for them, as I do, that the anger they live with is eased and the true joy of Christian fellowship is revealed to them. And pray that this verse does not apply

11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)