{"id":11000,"date":"2023-10-20T20:48:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T00:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=11000"},"modified":"2025-12-14T19:12:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:12:59","slug":"noted-without-comment-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2023\/10\/noted-without-comment-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Noted without comment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A short excerpt from The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism<\/em> by Katherine Stewart. In this excerpt, the author and Rev. Chris Liles, a Bible-believing Southern Baptist preacher, have just attended a meeting of the Family Research Council, a Christian nationalist group. Neither one of them felt comfortable at the meeting. As they leave, Pastor Chris begins speaking to Katherine Stewart:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018It\u2019s ten degrees hotter than normal, and these people don\u2019t believe in climate science,\u2019 he grumbles. Then his words start tumbling out like a waterfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Do we not owe people more than simply reducing \u201cpro-life\u201d to one issue?\u2019 he says. \u2018I mean, no one wants babies to die. No one is \u201cpro-abortion.\u201d That is a false dichotomy. Do we not owe people more than to force them into one box or another? As much as abortion is a pro-life issue, so is affordable health care, access to contraceptives, and real, comprehensive sex education. Minimum wage. Fighting poverty. These should all be part of the \u201cpro-life\u201d conversation.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChris falls into silence for a few minutes, then speaks again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018And shouldn\u2019t we show compassion to people regardless of how they identify? They, too, are made in God\u2019s image. We find in Scripture the imperative to love our neighbors and care for the least of these. That is by far one of the clearest messages we receive.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel bad for Chris [says Katherine Stewart]; he seems dismayed by the event precisely because the Bible is his greatest source of comfort and moral direction\u2026.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStopping at a red light, Chris picks up his Bible and turns to the Old Testament book of Amos. \u2018Here, for instance, in chapter five, the prophet says, \u201cYou, Israel, you were supposed to take care of the poor and you\u2019re not doing it,\u201d\u2019 Chris says. \u2018\u201cYou\u2019re using power and wealth to tilt the system in your favor.\u201d For society to be just, it was necessary for everyone to be seen as equal.\u2019 He falls silent for a few moments. \u2018Sometimes,\u2019 he adds, \u2018it\u2019s almost like people are reading a different Bible. That\u2019s the trick with Scripture. You can make the Bible say just about anything you want it to.\u2019\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short excerpt from The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart. In this excerpt, the author and Rev. Chris Liles, a Bible-believing Southern Baptist preacher, have just attended a meeting of the Family Research Council, a Christian nationalist group. Neither one of them felt comfortable at the meeting. As … Continue reading “Noted without comment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[743,1191],"class_list":["post-11000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-people-places","tag-christian-nationalism","tag-commonplace-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12651,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11000\/revisions\/12651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}