Comments on: Politico: David Barton's Political Usefulness Trumps Scholarship For Evangelical Groups https://wthrockmorton.com/2013/09/09/politico-david-bartons-political-usefulness-trumps-scholarship-for-evangelical-groups/ A [retired] college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues Wed, 30 May 2018 19:00:08 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Warren https://wthrockmorton.com/2013/09/09/politico-david-bartons-political-usefulness-trumps-scholarship-for-evangelical-groups/#comment-86142 Wed, 30 May 2018 19:00:08 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com/?p=15236#comment-86142 In reply to Patrocles.

Pat – Terrible reason if so, and false dichotomy. Are you suggesting that all of those Christian evangelical scholars are sitting on some kind of fence?

]]> By: Scotty G. https://wthrockmorton.com/2013/09/09/politico-david-bartons-political-usefulness-trumps-scholarship-for-evangelical-groups/#comment-57457 Wed, 11 Sep 2013 03:40:09 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com/?p=15236#comment-57457 So now the ‘upstanding’ Christian is one who resorts to duplicity and subterfuge, behind a mask of ‘interpretation’? To what purpose? A more twisted and fractured foundation would hardly be imaginable.
If Christians must sell their souls to gain political and social power, then such an establishment is nothing more then a regime to be feared. Who’s learders are led by moral relativity and who govern by situational ethics.
No doubt many may do this out of some genuine desire to do good. But such good intentions will lead where such roads always do. If the Crusades and Salem witch trials of our past teach us nothing, they demonstrate that an unfettered religious reign can never maintain its benovolent motives. Such eathly power only corrupts. Christ never sought it and admonished thoes who did.
Comments like the one from TVD exemplify how the lines will be drawn. We have been weighed and measured by a jury of one and we have been found wanting. If we do not side with the establishment, then we are ‘betrayers’ and ‘heretics’.
He speaks of rocking boats. I ask whos boat should be rocked; the ones who do not know the Truth, or the ones that know the Truth but distort and otherwise disregard it?
Such as these believe that Christian fortitude flows from governing over others for their own good, and maintaining the rightiousness of others. Christ demonstrated that strength lies in laying down ones rights for others, even enemies and even unto death. In such meekness God is glorified, not the individual or the church. It’s counter intuitive, but it is also the only way to be counterculteral in the way Christ has called us to be.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.” ~ C.S. Lewis

]]> By: Scotty G. https://wthrockmorton.com/2013/09/09/politico-david-bartons-political-usefulness-trumps-scholarship-for-evangelical-groups/#comment-76689 Tue, 10 Sep 2013 23:40:09 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com/?p=15236#comment-76689 So now the ‘upstanding’ Christian is one who resorts to duplicity and subterfuge, behind a mask of ‘interpretation’? To what purpose? A more twisted and fractured foundation would hardly be imaginable.
If Christians must sell their souls to gain political and social power, then such an establishment is nothing more then a regime to be feared. Who’s learders are led by moral relativity and who govern by situational ethics.
No doubt many may do this out of some genuine desire to do good. But such good intentions will lead where such roads always do. If the Crusades and Salem witch trials of our past teach us nothing, they demonstrate that an unfettered religious reign can never maintain its benovolent motives. Such eathly power only corrupts. Christ never sought it and admonished thoes who did.
Comments like the one from TVD exemplify how the lines will be drawn. We have been weighed and measured by a jury of one and we have been found wanting. If we do not side with the establishment, then we are ‘betrayers’ and ‘heretics’.
He speaks of rocking boats. I ask whos boat should be rocked; the ones who do not know the Truth, or the ones that know the Truth but distort and otherwise disregard it?
Such as these believe that Christian fortitude flows from governing over others for their own good, and maintaining the rightiousness of others. Christ demonstrated that strength lies in laying down ones rights for others, even enemies and even unto death. In such meekness God is glorified, not the individual or the church. It’s counter intuitive, but it is also the only way to be counterculteral in the way Christ has called us to be.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.” ~ C.S. Lewis

]]> By: Tom Van Dyke https://wthrockmorton.com/2013/09/09/politico-david-bartons-political-usefulness-trumps-scholarship-for-evangelical-groups/#comment-57456 Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:39:29 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com/?p=15236#comment-57456 In these theological matters, I miss something similar. You and your friends seem content with denouncing something called “Christian nationalism”. But where’s the positive alternative (if it isn’t simple secularism)?
Bingo. These so-called “Christian” scholars are part of the secular-left/anti-Religious Right academic establishment and don’t rock the boat. Unless it’s Barton’s, of course.

]]> By: Tom Van Dyke https://wthrockmorton.com/2013/09/09/politico-david-bartons-political-usefulness-trumps-scholarship-for-evangelical-groups/#comment-76686 Tue, 10 Sep 2013 16:39:29 +0000 https://www.wthrockmorton.com/?p=15236#comment-76686 In these theological matters, I miss something similar. You and your friends seem content with denouncing something called “Christian nationalism”. But where’s the positive alternative (if it isn’t simple secularism)?
Bingo. These so-called “Christian” scholars are part of the secular-left/anti-Religious Right academic establishment and don’t rock the boat. Unless it’s Barton’s, of course.

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