Booing the Golden Rule

 

Every week I look forward to the latest column from Chuck Baldwin.  He is one of the few Christian leaders who publicly speaks out against war, and he is one of even fewer who will publicly speak out against the worship of the state of Israel by many Christians who have embraced the Scofield heresy.

In his column from May 15, he addressed several comments from an interview with Larry Johnson on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s channel (by the way, I strongly recommend the judge’s channel for those interested in well-reasoned alternative commentary on the issues of the day).

The following comments struck me:

I’m not exaggerating when I say that not only is Israel losing credibility and legitimacy all over the world but so are America’s evangelical churches.

I have been thinking about this same point.  Countless thousands of young people, many of whom likely not at all Christian, are speaking out against Israel’s policies regarding the Palestinians.  And what they are seeing, not only from their politicians and school administrators, but also from many Christian churches, is support for these horrendous actions.

This is not how to witness.  There is nothing Christian about this.

Further, Baldwin commented on the warmonger Lindsey Graham, who decided brining up American’s nuclear bombs on Japan as precedent for all manner of evil. 

I find it incredible that this bloody vampire has been a senator from South Carolina for over 20 years. Why do I say that? Because South Carolina has more evangelical churches and evangelical Christian people per capita than any State in the United States. South Carolina is the home of the flagship evangelical university: Bob Jones University in Greenville. Yet, these evangelical Christians are content and happy to elect and re-elect and re-elect again the most bloodthirsty senator in American history.

Yes, everything Baldwin says about the size of the evangelical population of South Carolina is correct.  But that they continue to elect Graham should be no surprise.  I recall very well what a crowd from South Carolina did when Ron Paul spoke there during a presidential debate in 2012:

Ron Paul is pushing back against critics of his "Golden Rule" in foreign policy and questioned those who booed him at Monday's GOP presidential debate.

"This is why I bring up the "the golden rule" if we don't want people to ban oil imports to our country, why should we do that to another country," said Paul adding "I don't know why that is such a negative term for people to boo that. "

South Carolina booed the Golden Rule.  One of the most evangelical Christian states in the country.

Conclusion

I have lived in and driven through many parts of the Bible belt.  No doubt, churches are as numerous as are Starbucks coffee shops in Manhattan.  But what I have seen of it is a shallow Christianity, and most definitely bought into Scofield, war, military worship, etc. 

At least in the ones that aren’t 100% woke.

Without Talking About It

 

I regularly listen to only a couple of podcasts.  One of these is The Rest is History, hosted by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook.

At the time of my writing this, they are in the middle of a multi-part (at least eight-part) series on Custer’s Last Stand (here is the link to the podcast page; finding the specific podcasts on this topic will be easy enough if you are interested).

Part One was published on May 5.  I do believe they plan their episodes well in advance.  So, perhaps this was planned before October 7, but perhaps it wasn’t.  Seven months in advance seems a long time.

What I have found, while listening to the series, is how clearly, they are offering a parallel narrative to the current situation between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.  They make countless statements in such a way that the connection cannot help but be drawn. 

Now, you might say this is due to their being standard leftists – the white man against the brown man.  But I don’t think that would be a fair description of either of them, at all.  For example, in no way do they idealize the Indians (Native Americans or whatever I am supposed to call them today).  They point out their aggressive and destructive behaviors; they note that they did not live idyllic lives.

Further, if they are doing anything, they paint what happened to the Indians in a light less negative than what is happening to Palestinians today.  They are clear, backed with some evidence, that the military leaders in the US at the time preferred some form of assimilation – although if the Indians didn’t go for that, well then, all bets were off.

In Israel, of course, there is no concept of assimilation.  Just all bets are off.

What the two are doing, whether knowingly or not, is making a very critical statement about what Israel is doing in Gaza.  They never say anything even remotely connecting these two events (albeit, I am only part way through the series; this might change).  It is a story focused solely on the American plains of a century-and-a-half ago, and not at all overtly regarding the Eastern Mediterranean of today.

At least so far, they are talking about it without talking about it.