Trump wouldn’t be a Republican if he was anything but the drag on the Feminazi agenda that stabilizes its flight to glory. But as always, the floor show is spectacular.
The floor show du jour is his appointment of a woman to SCOTUS. The Left is frustrated that she hasn’t already soul her soul to the devil, neglecting the obvious fact that she remains a woman ruling over men in open defiance of God. I cared barely long enough to learn that she adopted foreign black children in order to miscegenate her marriage for Jesus, although the hilarious side effect consumed much popcorn:
Ibram Kendi: .Too Many White People. Believe They Can’t Be Racist if They Adopt Black Children
htt ps://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/26/ibram-kendi-adopting-black-children-racist-white-colonizer/
Ibram X. Kendi, director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, wrote on Saturday that white people who adopt black children may be .racist,. joining a growing group of Democrats and leftists commenting on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Haitian son and daughter.
Kendi wrote on social media: .Some White colonizers “adopted” Black children. They “civilized” these “savage” children in the “superior” ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity..
Fine, I’ll demonstrate I’m not racist by refusing to adopt any non-white kids. But what caught my attention is her membership in the organization “People Of Praise”. A joint Protestant-Catholic venture into charismatic… patriarchy?! That’s the accusation I’m hearing from Leftoid media.
htt ps://peopleofpraise.org/about/who-we-are/
People of Praise is a charismatic Christian community. We admire the first Christians who were led by the Holy Spirit to form a community. Those early believers put their lives and their possessions in common, and “there were no needy persons among them..
Christian Socialism is sourced from a descriptive (as opposed to prescriptive) reference in the Bible. Acts 2:43-47 “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
In their defense, those earliest Christians were expecting Christ to return literally any day, and not without reason. That was WHY they sold their belongings, because there wasn’t any point in holding property if Christ was about to whisk them over the sunset. In fact… why bother showing up to work? Money doesn’t spend in Heaven and miracles are so much more fun!
Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians to stop to that nonsense. “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us.whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter.asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs…” 2 Thess. 2:1-3 and it goes on about how to recognize the End Times. (Hint: Revelation.)
Next is 2 Thess. 3:6-15. “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. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.
“Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.”
There you have it. Every now and then, a group of Christians gets carried away, reads about how the Acts 2 church got to enjoy prophecies, miracles & super recruitment and tries to force God’s hand by banning private property. This iteration, “People of Praise”, appears to have fallen into the same trap but without the idleness that accompanies every welfare state.
Back to their website,
“Jesus desires unity for all people. We live out this unity the best we can, in spite of the divisions within Christianity. We are Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians and other denominational and nondenominational Christians. Despite our differences, we are bound together by our Christian baptism. Despite our differences, we worship together. While remaining faithful members of our own churches, we have found a way to live our daily lives together.”
Again with the tired demand for one-size-fits-all central bureaucracy… I mean, Unity. If humanity had Unity in food then we’d all be eating at McDonald’s every meal.
Per their FAQ, PoP is not a church and its members attend whichever denomination they desire, which is how they square the inevitable circles of sectatian incompatibility. Thus, they preach economic unity rather than religious unity. Consistent with my accusation of Socialism.
Our community life is characterized by deep and lasting friendships. We share our lives together often in small groups and in larger prayer meetings. We read Scripture together. We share meals together. We attend each other’s baptisms and weddings and funerals. We support each other financially and materially and spiritually. We strive to live our daily lives in our families, workplaces and cities in harmony with God and with all people.
Our community life is grounded in a lifelong promise of love and service to fellow community members. This covenant commitment, which establishes our relationships as members of the People of Praise community, is made freely and only after a period of discernment lasting several years. Our covenant is neither an oath nor a vow, but it is an important personal commitment. We teach that People of Praise members should always follow their consciences, as formed by the light of reason, and by the experience and the teachings of their churches.
You don’t need an organization like this to donate your time & wealth.
Like hundreds of millions of other Christians in the Pentecostal movement, People of Praise members have experienced the blessing of baptism in the Holy Spirit and the charismatic gifts as described in the New Testament. This is a source of great joy for us and an important aspect of what God is doing in our world today.
It is fine to wish for miracles and prophecies but I have deep suspicions when they regularly show up on time for the weekly newsletter. As a rule of thumb, God doesn’t directly intervene for people living comfy lives.
God has never sent miracle-working prophets to lay anointed hands on my busted spine. But I give God this gratitude, He’s kept me busy enough with work that I’ve never lacked for chiropractic care. Why should God give me a miracle cure instead of rewarding me for working?
Founded in 1971 in South Bend, Indiana, People of Praise has grown into a community of about 1,700 members. We are now in 22 cities across the US, Canada, and the Caribbean.
Between low numbers and an anything-goes theology, this sounds more like a network of like-minded hippies than any kind of religious organization.
In 2002, inspired by the Holy Spirit, People of Praise members began moving into some of America’s poorest neighborhoods. Since then, we have lived closely with our neighbors and worked together to help meet pressing neighborhood needs. Our efforts include running summer camps for hundreds of children, repairing neighborhood homes, hosting prayer meetings, growing healthy food on an urban farm and establishing a private elementary school, Praise Academy at Lakeside. Longtime local residents have credited these efforts with lowering the crime rate and making the neighborhoods more beautiful and peaceful places to live.
Sounds like they avoided idleness by signaling virtue.
People of Praise members agree to contribute five percent of their gross income to the community, creating a fund that supports community outreaches, staff and charitable service to the poor. Our community life is always evolving, with changes often fueled by the ideas and insights of community members. The highest authority in the community is its board of governors. When making decisions about especially important matters, the board of governors seeks input and opinions from all community members through a direct consultation.
Community life provides a natural support for marriages and families. Many community children grow up as close friends, and their mothers and fathers find friendship, encouragement and insight from other community members. Marriages in the community have a very low divorce rate.
Indicating these people are economically upper class rather than devout. Did you catch the part above about a several-year integration process? Textbook cherrypicking. I’d guess that fragile marriages don’t make the cut.
Community members agree to serve one another wholeheartedly, no matter the type of need: spiritual, material or financial. We work together, pray for one another, visit one another, share meals and offer one another gifts of money, goods and time in situations of need. Through daily acts of kindness and by constantly forgiving one another’s faults, we hope to live up to the simple call of the Lord Jesus, “Love one another.”
A bastardization of both the Greatest Commandments.
All in all, a typical presentation of Christian Socialism. They try to invoke signs and wonders by repeating what the Acts 2 church did. Never mind that Acts 2 was a history lesson, not a mandated pattern of behavior.
Let’s hear from some critics.
htt ps://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/amy-coney-barretts-alleged-religious-group-people-of-praise-what-is-it.html
Is this an ominously metastasizing “cult” or a thriving parachurch organization? .I would definitely not use the term cult in its popular sense,. said Thomas Csordas, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego, who has written about People of Praise and similar groups. For one, it is not terribly secretive other than keeping its membership list private. It has a detailed website, and Lent, its current leader.who was elected by a board and is term-limited.cheerfully agreed to an interview. Csordas describes the group as theologically conservative, with a hierarchical leadership structure. But Lent said the group was also deeply inspired by the communitarian ethos of the 1960s counterculture. Group members often make an effort to live near each other in certain neighborhoods. Single people sometimes live with families, and there are some households of single men or single women living together. Members pledge to donate 5 percent of their gross income, and many give more, with the idea of supporting fellow members.
Even Slate won’t call it a cult. A good sign. But the comparison to 1960s counterculture fits my accusation of Christian Socialism.
The term handmaiden was chosen in 1971, 14 years before Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, to evoke the Biblical Mary’s description of herself as a “handmaid of the Lord,. or a woman who has an important relationship with God. .It has acquired worse resonances, and all we were looking for was a neutral term,. [Group leader Craig Lent] said, explaining the recent change to “woman leader..
That is good to know. You might be seeing some comparisons between the book and the group in the near future.
Per Titus, it’s acceptable for women to be teachers of other women but their husbands are the leaders. I haven’t nailed down whether they practice patriarchy although a cursory search suggests no female governors.
Lent said the group considers abortion a “morally wrong act” but takes no position on abortion policy, comparing it to the way that greed is morally wrong but what that should mean for policy is up to individual discernment. Lent sounded bemused by the national scrutiny the group has attracted lately. .In a certain sense it’s not really about us,. he said, “although I owe members a good account if somebody asks me what this group is about.” An introductory essay on the group’s website sums it up as “hard to understand and that’s OK..
That answers the question of whether their ultimate loyalty is Christ or the world’s approval. “Abortion is morally wrong but that doesn’t necessarily mean we should have laws against it.” Abortion is much worse than greed: abortion is the premeditated murder of children too young to even cry in pain.
And of course, they’re perfectly okay with their womenfolk holding positions of authority over men outside their tiny organization. Christianity is only for indoor use, at most!
Stop you bellyaching, Leftoids. You won AGAIN, no shots fired AGAIN. You wanted a woman who would keep abortion legal, support feminism and sanction the extermination of white America. You got a female SCOTUS judge who adopted black children and comes from a “faith tradition” that thinks morality and legality are separate concepts… and specifically with respect to abortion. You got everything you wanted except she mistakenly thinks she’s Christian.
Do not force me to defend her! I do not want to defend that false Christian from your false accusations! Man, this is crazy world.
neglecting the obvious fact that she remains a woman ruling over men in open defiance of God.
On this she differs in no way from every other self-described “Christian” in the western world (“Hey, God: we ain’t havin’ none of yer patriatchy no more! Ain’t it about time you got that through yer head? We’ll buy the rest of yer Bible –well, okay, most of it, anyways– but that patriarchy sh!t just ain’t gonna fly no more, no way, no how!”).
I haven’t read or heard any churchian reactions her appointment, but I doubt any of them will make any kind of fuss over it. She’s certainly as lukewarm as they are, so nothing to complain about there.
Perhaps a woman can be a judge… let us consider.
God permitted Deborah to be a judge in Israel. These judged Israel and their disputes (legally).
I have heard the claim that perhaps Deborah was chosen as there were no worthy men in Israel at the time. This sounds stupid however. In the time of Elijah, God said he had reserved for himself 7000 who had not bent their knee to Baal. Am I supposed to believe that out of the millions of Israelites, not one worthy man could be found? This sounds far more like a typical “bash men” sermon that is typical of Western churchianity than a rational argument.
Depending on whether you believe the nonsense above or not, God either tolerated a woman judge when there were no worthy men, or deliberately chose a woman to be a judge despite men being available.
I’ll admit, this is odd, given what God commanded in 1 Timothy 2/3 and also in 1 Corinthians about a woman being quiet and not in positions of authority.
But we need to remember timing. God allowed Adam and Eve’s children to marry each other, despite being related. And then, much later, God forbid this activity. The earlier actions were done before the law was given, and therefore were not sin.
Similarly, the example of Deborah does not make void the later commands that God gave to the NT believers. I think the NT commands are similar to the OT laws; they give additional restrictions. (In some cases, such as Romans 14, they cancelled some OT restrictions.)
But what of these NT laws? Were they worded as commands for the civil nation as a whole, or only for believers and their religious communities?
All of the restrictive commands for men and women in the NT seem (to me) to be pointed only at believers. For example, Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 2, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” And what role did God give to Paul, as Paul enforced this rule? Was Paul a leader in some civil government? Or an apostle in Jesus’s church?
And since the command is for the church of Jesus, it seems questionable to demand it be applied to civil government.
Now, I personally agree a ban on women leaders should apply to civil government, and every other area of life except for children, due to the immaturity and lacks in the typical woman. But I am reluctant to teach this restriction, in every area of life, as a command from God. I am not sure that I would not be putting words into God’s mouth by doing so. And God had a strong punishment for false prophets…
I am willing to hear why I am wrong….
There are two prevailing misconceptions about Deborah:
1. That she held a position of man while not performing her womanly duties (sex to husband, children, etc). B.C. feminism yah!
If we believe the Bible is in its entirety the Word of God, the Mouthpiece of the Spirit, and God does not change.. nothing in the Bible is contradictory. There are no ‘exceptions’. This is weak theology, and the sign of an immature spirit. (God does not change. The Law- which is God- does not change. It predates Creation, and not one jot or tiddle will be removed from it before the Earth ceases. This is the common sticking point for most Christians who subscribe to different sets of rules, replacement theology et al.)
Deborah would have been faithful in heart, and dutiful in the little things before being entrusted to more- according to God’s plan for her life. She would have been first and foremost a wife, mother etc. as these are the roles for which woman was created, and she would have faithfully fulfilled.
2. That a woman should aspire to a man’s position at all.
It was a mark of shame that Deborah was selected to judge Israel. The Bible records the history, but only through the modern lens of feminism indoctrination can one interpret mere historical observation as the celebration of Progress.!
Israel was wayward. Its leaders who were men and remained men had become complacent, cowardly and among these sins was eschewing male headship in society. Deborah was used by God to humble the men in leadership, and did so without GRRL PWRR. assertions. This is no modern interpretation of Joan of Arc, here. No Notorious RBG, here.
* A woman in any societal position is the symptom of a spiritually decayed people, namely both military and government. Is 3:12
* God allows the free will of heading down a path of unrepentedness, the people are given over to its rewards of their toiling down said path. Rm 1:24 In this case, the men were not leading, and God says ‘ok, if you will not assume headship that for which you were created and to which you are commanded, then you will reap having a woman as a judge’
* Despite God’s children having a sin-nature, His desire is to always see repentance. 2 Ch 7:14.
* Deborah reinforces God’s Will- not to elevate herself- but to point out the honor that should have been theirs, will instead be removed from them. Jd 4:9.
There is nothing to suggest Deborah did not drain her man’s balls every night, cook him a square 3 meals a day, keep his home and raise his children. God would never involve a woman of dishonor in His plans.
The example of Elijah is misplaced. It assumes outright commonality and thus loads the analogy.
Deborah : Israel :: Elijah : Israel? Nope.
God rarely (ever?) chooses to discipline in the same way twice. Logically, if such predictability existed, then people could then map risk:reward, risk:punishment and chart their own path to Heaven, so to speak. For God to have chosen Elijah to rebuke Jezebel (a false priestess- female!) and slaughter her priests, and having Himself kept 7000 from bowing the knee, was His divine selection. You cannot assert blindly that the 7000 knees would have been kept from idol-worship during Elijah’s days would mean equally 7000 knees of men were actively practicing their God’s order for patriarchy. Rather, as Deborah is recorded as saying that the leadership of Israel was complicit in cowardace, the assumption (warning: personal interpretation follows:) that Israel was thoroughly a Nation of cowards. God then gives Israel over to her insolent disobedience and allows them to ‘enjoy’ a female judge.
Deborah is not a story of female empowerment. Hers is a story illustrating the shame of Israel.
Elijah is a story of proper male leadership, acting alone with divine purpose in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. His is a story illustrating human obedience and Providence in action.
—
GQ, your article is spot-on, as always, and explores the minutia of what is in play. ACB is no friend of Christians nor the Constitution. As much as I disagree with Adam’s theology, on this he was spot on: https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/2020/08/19/the-not-good-times-brought-to-you-by-team-woman/. ABC represents the long, slow march toward deviancy as brought about by compromise. I have simply matured to the point of seeing a woman in leadership and safely conclude her works are of the devil, for the Scriptural references you have already cited.
The greatest lie Christians sell themselves is that God’s Word, His Plan are not enough in the moment, and that one can do something ‘in the grey’ and ‘for the right reasons’ / ‘with the right heart’ and assume they are thus acting righteously.
A woman in leadership, remains a woman in leadership. Margaret Thatcher did many wonderful things for the UK and the world, yet she shirked her responsibilities as a woman to keep her home, rather preferring to be a harlot for her country (Pr 7:11). ‘Look at what good she brought about!’ .. perhaps, but who knows what better good still she might have achieved if she fully lived God’s plan for her role as a woman- perhaps she would have birthed 7 children of which 5 sons and raised them all to- in turn- become PMs for the UK for the next 50 years with even more intensity and conviction than did she (as exemplified by Jedidah dutifully raising Josiah)? We cannot know what might have been had we been obedient, and thus can never justify our disobedience for righteous intentions.
God’s Word is enough. God will not be mocked.
Worth reinforcing, however, enjoying the fun of the moment is completely warranted.
https://www.thepiratescove.us/2020/09/28/liberals-go-full-moonbat-over-notorious-acb-shirts/
“All of the restrictive commands for men and women in the NT seem (to me) to be pointed only at believers.”
The concept “God made them male and female” predates all Biblical legislation. It is ludicrous to believe that women aren’t women outside the Church just because God didn’t pass enough laws.
If God had made laws that believers needed to force upon unbelievers then He would have implicitly mandated a theocratic form of government everywhere.
The concept .God made them male and female. predates all Biblical legislation. It is ludicrous to believe that women aren.t women outside the Church just because God didn.t pass enough laws.
True. Many of the various laws are clearly restricted in scope however. For example, consider this passage from Colossians 3:18-21:
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Verse 18 only applies to married women. For everyone else, that passage is useful for showing what God requires of his followers, but the verse does not apply directly to them.
An unmarried woman is free of this command. We see exactly this type of language in Romans 7:2: “For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.”
Verse 19 applies only to married men.
Verse 20 applies only to children. Once a person is no longer a child, they are released from this command. (A person may argue the point at which a person is no longer a child, but I am sure we can all agree that a 20-year old man is free to ignore the commands of his parents.)
Similarly, consider the commands Jesus gave to his followers, recorded in Matthew chapters 5 to 7. Jesus was speaking to his disciples, not to the general population of Israel; see verse 5:1. If you think these commands were intended for everyone, then you will apply them a certain way. If you think these commands were intended for his disciples, to whom he was speaking, then you will apply them differently.
Some of God’s commands are clearly intended for everyone, whether you follow God or not. For example, in Leviticus 20 we see: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 .Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death…
Similarly, God allowed Moses to give the command for all people (in Israel’s borders) that a man could give his wife a certificate of divorce. But in Matthew 5:31-32, Jesus gives his followers a restriction on divorce.
So either:
a) anyone who divorces (without acceptable cause per Matthew 5) is sinning, or
b) any professing Christian who divorces (without acceptable cause per Matthew 5) is sinning. Other people can divorce, although doing so is neither commendable nor advisable.
If God had made laws that believers needed to force upon unbelievers then He would have implicitly mandated a theocratic form of government everywhere.
Agreed. Certain laws were for everyone, such as what we find in Leviticus 20. Other commands, like “be thankful” from Colossians 3:15-17, do not seem, to me, to have the same scope.
I’m late to the party as always, but I wanted to mention something about Deborah. I went and checked my copy of the Bible and, to my very (not great) surprise, noticed that nowhere is recorded in the book of Judges that Deborah was acting in obedience to God. She certainly seemed to prophesy… but there is no affirmation there of her authority (it’s not clear she had any at all). It is, of course, recorded in the bible that there were women who prophesied.