Ethicists mark 75th anniversary of German 'Confessing' movement

There is a lot that America in the 21st century can gain from looking at the history of the Church in Nazi Germany. In this article the author makes the statement that:

In 2008 Gushee published The Future of Faith in American Politics, a book arguing that there is an "emerging evangelical center" distinguished from the Religious Right. Gushee defined one mark of that center as a "Barmen ethic" of political independence from governments and political parties as the church seeks to follow Christ.

"American Christians need to decide whether we are Christians or Americans first," Gushee, who writes an Associated Baptist Press column, said. "We need clarity about the discontinuities between these two identities and the dangers of confusing the one with the other."

Aligning closely with one political party has done a great deal of damage to the church's ability to effectively evangelize many of the unsaved in America. When you're told that you can't be a Christian unless you belong to a given political party that significantly turns off members of other political parties. They see the church as more of a political front organization than an institution primarily concerned with winning the lost to Jesus Christ.

 

No they don't. Such rhetoric is untrue and nothing more than a political tool itself used by the liberal left theologically. The only thing those who refer to themselves are center of is the theologically conservative and complete disbelief. No such thing as a moderate.

The theological left needs to stay away from such political tactics if it bothers them so much. And be the example they are failing to be. But making comparisons to Hitler and those who followed him is itself a political tool and incorrect. You libbies need learn how to make legitimate comparisons.

 

You know when I see resources like The American Patriot Study Bible (see my thread in the Bible Translations forum for details) and nationalistic worship services around July 4th pushed hard by leadership in conservative evangelicalism we know we have a problem.

I often joked with friends that it would be ironic if someone like George W. Bush ended up being the antiChrist because so many of our deeply conservative evangelical brethren would be completely fooled by him. We need a significant push to recongize that Christianity is much more than the branding some leaders have ascribed to it.

We need to realize that those who try to polarize without care for understanding the vast (and legitimate) middle ground often polarize out of a quest for power and desire to inflate their ego. We need to see that our ethics are so messed up that we are close to losing the ground to a surging syncretism.

The confessing church realized these things!

 

PJ perhaps Obama is the anti-Christ and many of your friends would be fooled. Now wouldn't that just be ironic.

 

Well it was more an observation in humor than anything. Most of my friends and I don't believe in a literal, singular anti-Christ as presented by dispensational pre-trib, pre-mil. Anyhoo, it would be as ironic but probably for a different reason.