Why are our churches talking justice and racial reconciliation now—it’s trendy and they are woke?

2020 wasn't about George Floyd. BLM was launched in 2014 by three lesbian feminists steeped in Marxism.

"Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men in the U.S., and around 90 percent of the perpetrators are also black. Yet for months [2014] we’ve had protesters nationwide pretending that our morgues are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. Around 98 percent of black shooting deaths do not involve police. In fact, a cop is six times more likely to be shot by someone black than the opposite. The protestors are pushing a false anti-cop narrative, and everyone from the president [Obama] on down has played along.” . . . Jason Riley https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/race-relations-and-law.../

• When did we pray for the millions of babies aborted?
• When did we hear sermons on bitter divorces and the need for understanding and acceptance? In fact, when did we ever even hear a sermon about marriage?
• When did we pray for all the families who’d lost loved ones from cancer or heart disease as we do for Covid19?
• When did we as a congregation ask for justice for the trafficked child or abused woman?
• When the Columbus police were told to stand down during the summer riots, did our church collect money for the damaged or destroyed businesses?

Yes, we need reconciliation, but it’s between members, not races.

Facial language fails with masks

Today I learned it is very difficult to scowl wearing a mask and have people get your message. The church I attend is still closed, so when we're in Columbus I attend St. Andrew Catholic, which is only a mile away. This has never happened before, but there were 4 men chatting 2 by 2 in the entry and in the back of the sanctuary. Usually, in my experience, Catholic churches are very quiet and people go there to worship not to catch up on the local news. I love the architecture, but the acoustics are poor with a lot of echo, so having someone talking (that sound seems to travel) makes it especially difficult for others to hear. I tried turning my head and scowling at them, but they either didn't get the message or they figured out I was a visitor and they had rights. I would like to tell them that  many churches in the U.S. are not open and they should appreciate what they have.

Can I get an AMEN?

The church is proving what the non-churched have said for years. We're invisible, irrelevant and unnecessary. Time to change that. Time to reopen.

"The church is not a building." How many times do we have to hear that!

"It's not loving to risk infecting people." It's also not loving to ignore other types of pain in the community.

"We've got more people at our Bible studies on Zoom than we ever had before." Great. Let's fire most of the staff and just buy everyone a new computer and blanket the neighborhood with Wi-Fi. Probably cheaper than maintaining our buildings and parking lots.

I've heard all 3 excuses from pastors. . . this week.

Let's stop living up (down) to the unbelievers' expectations.

Grocery stores can stay open, but churches can’t?

I'm not sure I've ever shopped at a grocery store associated with Southeastern Grocers. Their web page has a statement I wish we'd seen from our churches. They stayed open--they were "essential." They also donated a lot of money to food pantries and are supporting a big fund raiser for July 4.
"We are committed to providing the safest and healthiest store experience for our associates, customers and communities.

We will continue to refine our processes and protocols in our stores, with health and safety as our guide, as long as this pandemic remains a threat. You can always count on us."
Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG) is the parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores. It is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. and is located in 7 southeastern states.

8928 Prominence Parkway, #200 / Jacksonville, FL 32256 / Local: 904-783-5000 / Toll Free: 1-800-967-9105

Maybe they have a parking lot somewhere that a church could meet.

The UMC split began a long time ago

“ In 1968 the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church finalized the plan of union to form the UMC. But by the time they completed their 1972 Book of Discipline, the die for the UMC’s dissolution had already been cast. The doctrinal section of the Book of Discipline reframed Wesleyan doctrine around the newly-coined Wesleyan quadrilateral in a way that privileged theological pluralism at the expense of doctrinal fidelity. Whereas Wesley emphasized spirituality in Scripture through his Explanatory Notes and tradition through his Christian Library, the theological commission behind the Book of Discipline turned theological pluralism into a principle emphasizing human experience as the core of theological method.”

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/01/a-failed-experiment-in-methodist-unity

I wonder what will happen at Lakeside?

The churches and BDS

IF you attend a liberal, mainline church (can be either Catholic or Protestant) you'll hear about BDS (boycott-divestment-sanctions) as a response to Israel. It's plain and simple Arab anti-Semitism and you've been snookered. Its advocates swarm on college campuses, social media and late night TV. Liberals particularly seem to love BDS. The objective is the killing of Jews and returning those who are left to the statelessness of pre-1948. I don't know exactly how they got such a foothold in academe, the founder, Omar Barghouti attended university in the U.S., so we must have birthed him. Can someone shake the money tree?

Which churches?

Here’s the ELCA, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a merger of 1988 of 3 major Lutheran synods. download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/PNW_elca_bds.pdf?  Our church, UALC is no long in that synod.

Here’s Church of the Brethren, UCC, Disciples of Christ,  UMC, Presbyterian Church (USA)   https://disciples.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016DNSStatement-on-Anti-BDS-legislation-Aug-22.pdf

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/121645/chutzpah-omar-barghouti-daniel-greenfield

Obama's EEOC and toilets, and the LGBT agenda for churches

"The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ordered the U.S. Army to accommodate a male-to-female transgender soldier by punishing anyone who persists in using male pronouns or bars the soldier from using women’s restrooms.

For good measure, everyone in the Army has been sentenced to eight hours of “sensitivity training” on transgender issues. The order was signed by Bernadette B. Wilson, acting executive officer, Executive Secretariat. Does that sound all-American? Unle...ss we’re talking about a horse, “secretariat” is the language of authoritarianism, not a free republic." (Washington Times "The Dawn of Totalitolerance")

An example of our a regulatory bureaucracy out of control. In 2012 EEOC declared that transgendered were a protected class under Title VII, and from that, it continues to threaten and malign American citizens and employers. As near as I can tell from reading various EEOC factsheets on litigation, all that is involved is notifying the employer that one is not conforming to "stereotypes." No counseling, no surgery, no hormones necessary--it's the thought that counts, apparently.
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 Obama is extorting the citizens of NC and putting their children in jeopardy. Parents are suing. Obama's interpretation of Title IX, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational institution that receives government funding, is just wrong. The word "sex" was never intended to put men in women's locker rooms.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3mLreCBcUc
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Until recent EEOC regulatory decisions to change the definition of sex, women had finally gotten some protections. The Obama administration is changing that with redefining male and female.

Using toilets or getting athletic scholarships isn't the only problem with fluid gender fantasies of the left. What about those angel investors trying to give female owned businesses a boost? Will they be charged, fined or jailed for being transphobic if they reject a guy feeling fluid who can't get an investor the old fashioned way?

 What about gender fluidity and special awards/contests for women artists, women authors, women innovators/inventors, there are organizations for women lawyers, architects, doctors, and veterinarians, and female pastors have their own clubs and retreats. Women librarians (80% of the profession) have nothing special to attract women, because they try to recruit men to keep the salaries up. And anything special for LGBT would just look silly given the demographics of the profession.
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 There's an easy solution to the LGBT agenda for Protestant churches. Take the smidgen of Lutherans, and the dollop of Methodists, and the drop in the bucket of Baptists, and the large task force of UCC'ans and forge your own denomination. Do the tough work of working out a theology. You should get between 100-300,000 members which is actually larger than a lot of Protestant groups. You'll have no gospel, but at least you'll allow others to preach the good news and then you can stop squabbling over your sexual identity.