My first week we were treated to a chapel service taught by one of the professors from across the street at Asbury Seminary. I desperately wish I remembered his name as his words that day have shaped my life in the decades since.

Paraphrasing, he said this:
Beware of the ill advised marriage between faith and politics. The moral majority will tempt the American church with a cheap path to achieve what appears to be the kingdom of God brought forth on earth. The church will give in to the temptations of power and will turn its back to its only true power to produce cultural and world change- the power of redemption and transformation in the lives of sinners who turn away from their sins and adopt the likeness of Christ. Their pursuit of cheap political power and the blunt and effective power it has to produce outward, fake change will take them further and further from their true mission and purpose. The American Church will prostitute itself for power in the name of righting moral wrongs and in the process, lose any ability to speak with any Godly authority at all on any moral matters. How can the church adopt the weapons of politics and ever hope to fulfill its mission of reaching the lost for Christ? Do we really expect to wage cultural war and then, upon conquering our foes, reach down from the pile of the carcasses and bruised bodies of those we’ve defeated and tell them “God loves you and wants to save you from a life of sin and desperation” and receive anything other than jeers and derision? In seeking and achieving political power, the American Evangelical church will abdicate entirely it’s true mission and in seeking to bolster its waning cultural influence in this country via political machinations, will make itself entirely irrelevant and will cease to be any force for good or for God for generations, if not forever. In using political power to try to protect and project its waning influence, the American church will sign its own death certificate.

There is no basis in the life of Christ for the advancement of God’s kingdom through political or worldly power. Indeed, Jesus was tempted with this choice and turned away from it. He turned away from it because the only weapon of the lamb is a bared throat (This is an exact quote. I remember these words vividly.) It is only through willing sacrificing himself that Christ was able to redeem humanity. In turning away from sacrificial love and toward the promise of influence through worldly power, the American church will make the exact opposite choice that its savior made. And at that point, it will be too late. A world that sees that not even those who claim faith are willing to adhere to the tenants of the faith they proclaim will turn from the church in droves. The church’s political power will diminish accordingly, and the American church will cease to have any prominent influence in this country by any means. It will become irrelevant and then be forgotten. And it will be her own fault.

Everything that man said has come true and I’m eternally grateful for the warning he gave. That warning let me walk away from a church I can no longer stomach but still have a deep and abiding love for the God they’re turning their backs on. I’d call it prophetic, but in reality, it’s simple logic and extrapolation. There really is no other way this can end.

By the way, Mr. Throckmorton, we met many, many years ago, when I would have been a high school sophomore. My mother worked with you for a period as a counselor when you practiced in Portsmouth. I think I may even still have a CD of you playing guitar buried somewhere deep in the collection. Thanks for your continued work in holding the church and evangelicals to account. Your work is a consistent source of inspiration and hope.

If Trump had kept his campaign promise to propose an infrastructure bill, I would support that. I think a lot of people would: it would generate jobs, save lives, improve commerce, and other than costing some money, has no apparent drawbacks. But he seems to have abandoned the idea.

Depending on what you mean by “far left”, I would support such a person. Certainly over Trump. Against a sane(r) Republican, maybe not.

Pretty sure murder would do the trick. Also adopting a pro-choice stance, including w/ judicial appointments.