Owen Strachan’s Public Theology

Owen Strachan is a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Southern Baptist school in Kansas City, MO. There, he leads something called “The Center for Public Theology.” Today his public theology showed up in the following tweet:

The Time article in question describes a brilliant and successful effort by many people to safeguard the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. As people in the real world know, Donald Trump lost his bid for a second term in an election which was — according to former Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs — “the most secure in American history.”

With this Time magazine article, we have a more informed idea of factors which led to the security of that election. We also have information about how the right of minority voters were protected and encouraged. Guess what? Evangelical supporters of Donald Trump were not cited for helping to stop voter suppresion or provide truthful information to the public.

Strachan’s public theology laments the “sinister” efforts to increase voter participation as a “plot.” What the Time article documents is an effort to combat lies and disinformation and make sure all legal voters used their privilege. Apparently, these strategies were quite successful in countering voter suppression tactics aimed frequently at minority voters.

In my Twitter response to this tweet, I asked Strachan how telling the truth and fighting against voter suppression can be considered a sinister plot. He rarely ever answers those who question him so I don’t expect a response. But I offer that question to any Trump supporting evangelical. If your public theology is to lament legal get out the vote efforts and the dissemination of truth because your candidate didn’t win, then what religion are you with?

 

 

55 thoughts on “Owen Strachan’s Public Theology”

  2. Hope you guys wear both masks tomorrow. The regular hypocrite one you always wear and the vid19 one.

  4. “Look, you paranoid, privileged, white trash, white supremacist, qtard, wignat, nazi scum — there was no Sekret Cabal scheming to rig the election, ok? that’s a Conspiracy Theory, it did not happen

    There was just a small group of billionaires and elite power brokers working together behind-the-scenes to *fortify* the election which is totally different and not at all a bad thing

    So stop spreading baseless Conspiracy Theories; this election was not Rigged in Secret, it was Fortified in Private — you’re welcome.”

    —

    satire of course – from john rivers on gab:

    https://gab.Com/JohnRivers/posts/105679384471636505

    1. You don’t understand “banning speech” at all. The First Amendment only applies when the government is censoring you. Not when Facebook or Twitter bans you, or when a blog deletes your posts, or when the editor of the local fishwrap declines to print your Trump fantasies. This is not hard.

      1. And, in any case, BK is being allowed to post comments here. His problem is that he expects us to agree with him! And when we don’t, he cries like a big orange baby who’s just lost an election.

  6. Changing voting rules by breaking laws and censoring news like Hunter Biden’s laptop are just a couple of great examples for ways to “save our democracy”. You guys own Biden and what happens to our country under his ‘watch’.

    1. you should change your handle from “Big K” to “Non Sequitur” be a little more honest at least.

      1. I feel sorry for Big K. Reading is sometime hard when your mind keeps putting words in place of what is on the page.

          1. No one here has a problem with dissent. Just people who are trying to derail the conversation with pointless, irrelevant posts.

            We all get that you are having issues dealing with the fact the Trump really is a loser. However, that is your problem to deal with, don’t bring it here.

          2. He can “bring it here” if he wishes, and I am happy that he is free to do so. However, what he should not expect is for us to agree with him!

          3. You are here and dissenting from the general viewpoint, so what you are saying in this comment is rubbish.

          4. You are here and dissenting from the general viewpoint, so what you are saying in this comment is rubbish.

          6. Well, you are here and dissenting. You have not been prevented from commenting. Your freedom to express your opinion is being respected.

            I do understand that people like Trump, who suggested that dissenters at a rally should be beaten up, might have caused you to have moral and intellectual difficulties with the concept of free speech.

      3. Or change it to “HAIL TRUMP! HAIL VICTORY!”

        I wonder if Big K managed to recite the names of five breakfast cereals while the other Proud Boyz were punching him in the face…

    2. We own Biden and what happens to the country under his watch? I’ll take it! Does that mean his opposition will just shut up and go away and stop trying to obstruct everything he does? That would be even better!

      1. Isn’t it just such a relief to have someone who just gets on with the job? And, given the President’s +17 net approval rating (a rating way out of reach of anything that Trump ever managed), it appears that a substantial majority of Americans share that sense of relief.

        1. I will settle for a plain boring POTUS any day over the 70 year old toddler we had for the past 4 years. Boring, competent, and uneventful.

          1. I understand how you feel! Actually, I’m more impressed by Biden than I was expecting to be. He is not saying too much (and what he does say is pithy and to the point) while apparently working very hard.

          2. Agreed. It is nice to have an adult as a POTUS for a change. Same with his Cabinet picks. Competent, experienced, not flashy, but quiet and unexciting. And never having to see a Twitter Toddler Tantrum like Trump had during his many Twitter meltdowns is a nice bonus too.

            I am one of those principled conservatives like those Never Trumpers from the Dispatch and elsewhere who were exiled into the Wilderness after the Orange Dear Leader got the nomination in 2016.

          3. There really is a great deal to be said for the ‘mood music’ from the top: for example, the calmer. more methodical approach to dealing with the pandemic actually encourages ordinary folk to be more sensible in how they go about their daily lives. We are probably more influenced than we realize by they way our leaders conduct themselves; their example matters, even if we know that no leader is perfect.

            Yes, and it helps also that Biden is very experienced, as are many of his appointees.

          6. As Aesop and Aristophenes told it, better a King Log than a King Stork.

    4. I think K is jealous of all the attention the similar-sounding letter Q is getting.

      Sorry, your posts are moderately incoherent and lean toward falsehood and non sequiturs, but you have quite a ways to go before reaching Q’s level. Try writing about Hunter Biden’s laptop running Dominion software and being powered by the blood of babies instead of by electricity.

  7. If your public theology is to lament legal get out the vote efforts and
    the dissemination of truth because your candidate didn’t win, then what
    religion are you with?

    TRUMPISM, of course.
    Bend the knee to Him, burn the incense on His altar, Take His Mark on forehead AND right hand.
    And come to life and decree that anyone who does not Take the Mark shall be killed.

    “I give Donald Trump Praise and Adoration.”

    — Wondering Eagle’s regular (now-banned) troll

    “SEE HIS FACE! HEAR HIS VOICE! FUEHRER! FUEHRER! FUEHRER!”
    — Leon Uris, Armageddon: a Novel of Berlin

  8. Glad to see you posting again, Dr. Throckmorton–hope you are feeling better while in recovery. So glad you spoke Truth to Strachan. He and his followers must be held accountable for their gospel of bearing false witness. As you suggest, which god is Strachan worshiping?

  9. Voter suppression efforts have kicked into high gear since the election in all the Republican controlled swing states, with a raft of new measures being proposed to help ensure they don’t lose the next election. After all, Republican lawmakers know what’s best for this country, and if you don’t agree, you don’t deserve a vote…

    1. “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” ― David Frum

        1. Apparently “conservatism” is kind of a moving target. Even WFBjr was in favor of segregation back in the day…

          1. What is considered “conservative” is always moving. if you take the most staunch “conservative” of today, he would seem like a far-left liberal to people 50 or more years ago.

          1. And they are remarkably thin on the ground and very quiet (except for The Lincoln Project and similar efforts).

          2. Yes – Right-wing popularism is very much the order of the day in (centre-)right parties in many places. And it all works so well, doesn’t it?! For example, just look at how marvellously effective against COVID-19 have been the governments of Brazil, the UK and the USA!

        3. This ‘hits the nail on the head’.

          There is nothing ‘conservative’ about the fiscal laxity of the Trump Administration.
          There is nothing ‘conservative’ about boasting about assaulting women.
          There is nothing ‘conservative’ about questioning election results without credible evidence.
          There is nothing ‘conservative’ about lame-duck sign-offs on federal executions, given that there was a century-plus-old tradition of not doing such a thing.

    2. “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” ― David Frum

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