Monday, April 22, 2019

Social Gospel Movement

From an article at coversation.com titled Why Pete Buttigieg may be reviving progressive ideals of the Social Gospel Movement.
In recent weeks, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has captured wide media attention. One reason is that Buttigieg is the first openly gay presidential candidate. Another is that he has been unguarded in speaking about his religious beliefs, arguing that his faith shapes his politics.
Those aren't separate reasons. The second can't stand alone, because Christianity is demonized by the left. An average white guy running as an out-of-the-closet practicing Christian would be lambasted for believing in barbarism, more or less. However, Buttgay gets a pass. Even praise. Why?

Remember, a while back, there was some right-wing outrage about child transexuals who often posed erotically or were even paid to dance for men in bars. If you do an image search for child transexuals (you can just take my word for it) you'll find that all the images have one thing in common: the child is always white. Most people realize that liberal diversity just means opposition to straight white guys. (Not Ben Shapiro, but most people.) So, if the left loves diversity, why wouldn't they find a nice black or latino kid as their child tranny poster boy? It's because everyone innately realizes that there is hardly anything more degrading than compelling a boy to dress like a girl and dance for perverts. A white tranny is marvelous...such progress! A black tranny kid would stoke a lefty outrage about a black serving the lusts of despicable men, modern day slavery, etc etc. (They'd be correct, too.) The white tranny is praised because it satisfies their deep desire to humiliate whites.

This Buttgay fellow is a similar deal. A gay progressive Christian! The left will simply adore this open mockery of the Christian faith. He's just the kind of degeneracy the left is looking for. And, the first gay president beating Literally Hitler...it's a story arc that's hard to resist. [My prediction, at this point, is Buttgay wins the Dem nomination, but loses in the general because blacks and Latinos are not going to turn out strongly for a homosexual.]
In a recent interview, Buttigieg said that “Christian faith” can lead one “in a progressive direction.”
No it can not. Christianity does not tolerate sexual immorality nor idleness. Nor does it permit lies in the pursuit of worldly power. Christianity is diametrically opposed to "a progressive direction."
He has also argued that Christianity teaches “skepticism of the wealthy and the powerful and the established” while elsewhere expressing concern that in the U.S. “concentrated wealth has begun to turn into concentrated power.”
Okay, but "skepticism of the wealthy" is hardly the same as an embrace of progressivism. They aren't calling for skepticism, they're calling for socialism, and a rejection of nearly every social norm of the Christian faith.
While [in Indiana], [early Social Gospel advocate Francis J. McConnel] published a book that made arguments similar to Buttigieg’s belief that faith should inspire social action. McConnell insisted, “The moral impulse calls for the betterment of all the conditions of human living.”
You can see the root of the problem here. We've long described liberalism as a secular Protestantism where they have replaced God with themselves, and seek to mold the world into their particular vision. There isn't anything in Christianity calling for the "betterment of all the conditions of human living." Jesus called on his followers to adopt a life of poverty. Surely these lefties aren't calling for global poverty! It's one thing to fall short of the Christian ideal, quite another thing to reject it entirely, and even more to proclaim that rejection as the new Christian ideal. It's just like Paul said in 2 Thessalonians (see yesterday's post): He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
 Historian Susan Curtis writes that McConnell “participated in the promotion of an evolving welfare state.”
Again, 2 Thessalonians delivers:
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.
Pretty damn clear. There is nothing in Christianity to permit stealing from the productive, nor in allowing the unproductive to partake in handouts.
The Social Gospel’s critique of big business resonated in communities throughout the Midwest.
Christianity is opposed to greed. You don't need "Social Gospel" for that. Perhaps this indicates a failing of the church. Christians should have been opposing anyone engaging in greedy behavior that is harmful to the integrity of Midwest communities.
Like Buttigieg, who argues that his Christian belief makes him skeptical of the effects of concentrated wealth, these Midwesterners saw Christianity as the antidote to distant corporate power.
The problem is that he believes a fake Christianity. Skepticism of corporate greed is perfectly fine. Obsession with materialistic statuses, forced redistribution of wealth, acceptance of the unearned, and praise of unholy lifestyles are definitively unChristian, and to pretend otherwise is the exact type of false proclamation that Paul warned us about.

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