Author: Warren Throckmorton

Merry Christmas – O Come, O Come Emmanuel

This is a tradition on the blog:

Recorder artist Victoria Rigel played two recorders at once in this 2008 performance of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. I accompanied her on the guitar. She adds the second recorder at the beginning of the second verse.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve! – Angels We Have Heard on High by Audible Waters

A Christmas tradition on the blog has been to feature a song on Christmas Eve by Audible Waters, a musical project of a blog commenter who goes by “Mr. Jesperson.” His project has focused on a collection of Christmas songs over the years. This year I post a old one and a new one for them. First, the old one: Angels We Have Heard on High.

And here is a new one from Audible Waters, O Come All Ye Faithful.

Merry Christmas!

Report of an Execution From a Future Christian Nationalist State

Idaho carries out first known execution in Christian Commonwealth amid ongoing protests

12/08/2030

Boise, ID – The Christian Commonwealth of Idaho announced on Thursday that it had executed a man arrested during the state-wide protests that have shaken the commonwealth for several months.

The protester, identified as David Hunter by the Idaho news service, is thought to be the first person executed by Idaho’s Christian Commonwealth since the former American state gained independence in 2028.

Idaho’s Constitution specifically makes blasphemy and disturbance of the religious order of the Commonwealth capital offenses for the most serious offenses. Hunter is the first person to be executed under the regime’s new Christian Constitution.

Hunter was convicted of devising, organizing, and leading protests against Idaho’s Christian state. Protesters want a return to religious freedom in Idaho. According to a spokesperson for Free Idaho, the group has no position on independence from the U.S., but they believe religious freedom is a “God-given right.”

Hunter had appealed his conviction to Idaho’s Court of Holy Magistrates, but his appeal was denied.

Governor says laws applied fairly

Idaho’s Governing Magistrate Douglas Wolfe issued a statement saying that “While we regret Mr. Hunter’s decision to violate the laws of God, we applied the law fairly in his case.”

Wolfe’s spokesman, Stephen Wilson, added, “Freedom of religious belief is the law of the land in Idaho. On the other hand, externalized false religion is the object of punishment and sadly Mr. Hunter led many souls astray with his blasphemous and scandalous actions.”

DeSantis calls for ‘restraint’

U.S. President Ron DeSantis’ responded to the execution calling for Idaho’s leaders to “show restraint.” DeSantis, a supporter of Idaho’s independence during his first term, recently told GOP leaders in Congress that he is less favorable toward similar proposals from Oklahoma and Texas.

“Even a Christian Commonwealth must respect democratic values,” said Press Secretary Joel Turnipseed. “As the president said, we expect Idaho to show restraint.”

More executions expected

However, restraint does not appear to be the policy of Idaho’s Christian government.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International has said that more people have been detained and are potentially facing the death penalty following the protests in the former U.S. state.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Obviously, this isn’t a real news report. Note the date and the fact that Idaho is still an American state. However, the outcome isn’t too far fetched if the Christian Nationalist vision of Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism is ever allowed to come to pass in the nation or an American state.

In his book, Wolfe calls for governors to lead the way in bringing about this Christian nationalist vision.

State governors are deputies of God, not deputies of the federal government, and their power from God is for good, not for evil. Thus, they must resist and nullify unjust and tyrannical laws imposed on the people by the federal government. No unjust federal law is an ordinance of God, and so it is not backed by a power of God. Therefore, a state governor resisting an unjust law of the federal government is not resisting God but the tyranny of men. Resistance to such tyrannical laws—which are not laws at all—is obedience to God, for they harm the people, and the state governors have the power of God to eliminate what harms the people. State governors must recall their duties to God and fight against injustices of the federal government. (p. 472)

This dramatized parody was inspired by the news report of an execution of a protester in Iran just a few days ago.  My parody above follows the framework of that news report.

I had been thinking about dramatizing how awful it would be to have a government such as envisioned by Wolfe’s book when I read a short opinion piece in the Carolina Journal by David Larson titled, “Making Space for Heretics.” Indeed, a free society must make space for heretics of all sorts.

In my view, any approach to government which allows for the murder, banishment or imprisonment of people for deviating from Protestant orthodoxy is a non-starter. No need for book reviews or debates or consideration. Such an approach isn’t a serious proposal. It is a death wish.

Here is a thread with quotes from The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe on these points.

All of this is in chapter nine of the book.

Photo credit: Florida Department of Corrections/Doug Smith

This is How You Lose an Election and Love Your Country – Hershel Walker Edition

Hershel Walker’s concession speech in his loss to Raphael Warnock for the GA Senate seat.

Donald Trump and Doug Mastriano could learn something from Hershel Walker. This is the best thing I have heard from Walker. This is how you love your country.

“I want you to believe in America, and continue to believe in the Constitution, and I especially want you to believe in our elected officials and pray for them.”

Amazing.

Mark Driscoll Says Mars Hill Elders Planned to Accuse Him of Infidelity

Julie Roys did the hard work so I am going to refer you to her article on this.

In short, in a sermon last Sunday Mark Driscoll claimed that some of the elders who accused him of abusive behavior at Mars Hill Church planned to accuse of adultery if he didn’t step out of the pulpit.

From Roys article:

Driscoll alleged that prior to resigning from Mars Hill, God told him “that a trap was set.” Then, during an 18-month hiatus following his resignation, Driscoll said he met multiple times at Panera with some “critics and enemies” who used to be friends, “some who were pastors, some who are still pastors.”

Driscoll said when he asked these former friends about a possible trap, they responded that “the nuclear option was that we were going to accuse you of adultery.”

Driscoll said the plan was to get him “out of the pulpit.” And those plotting against him believed that if “we accused you of adultery, and enough of us signed the open letter, that ultimately there would be such a media firestorm that you would have to exit the ministry . . . for probably a year while a full investigation was done,’” Driscoll recounted.

Sutton Turner, former number two man at Mars Hill, denied anything like that to Roys and then today put out a tweet linking to notes taken from the meeting where Driscoll was informed of the elders findings. Significantly, Driscoll was found to be disqualified from ministry but for no reasons involving infidelity.

From my perspective, this is a fantastical story. If the elders wanted to make such an allegation, they could have made it when he resigned suddenly rather than enter a plan of restoration. Likewise, these same elders could have done this last year when they approached Christianity Today with a statement calling on Driscoll to resign from The Trinity Church in Phoenix.

Although it has taken him awhile, all I can surmise is that he is now fighting back against the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast. Elsewhere in the sermon, he encouraged his congregation to ignore what they read on the Internet. Never mind what hundreds of people say, just listen to Mark Driscoll is the message. What could go wrong?

UPDATE: Miles Rohde, one of the elders on the Board of Elders who investigated the charges against Driscoll, commented on Twitter about Driscoll’s response to the BOE’s findings.

Despite the fact that Driscoll’s book Doctrine upheld the authority of elders, he didn’t follow his own teaching when the time came to apply it.