I was going to post a video today. Earlier, the road construction outside my porch was in full swing. The porch was rattling and the house shaking. So the video will have to wait…
Then I see the news.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the darkness.
The lies, the false witness, the suffering, the destruction of our monuments, the soaring prices, the struggling farmers, asylum seekers living in fear, the white supremacy in the highest places of our country…
Abuse, greed, theft, lying as an executive pastime, assault…it gets me.
I don’t think this is a “politics as usual” campaign. I think that this fall we are fighting for the soul of our nation, including right here in Minnesota.
Why do communities have to “assimilate” or go “back to where they came from”? Humans aren’t borg. Maybe a better answer is for Tom Emmer to assimilate. America has never been mono-culture. We have always, from the beginning, had a wonderful mix of humans from around the world. Assimilate into America, Tom Emmer!
How boring the world would be if everyone were like me! That is the promise of this country. It is actually printed on the plaque on the Statue of Liberty – you remember, the poor, the tired, the huddled masses?
Moving on in the news, the fate of those seeking asylum is crushing my soul. They came here because of a promise made, and the SCOTUS just declared that promise null and void on the whim of an abusive reality TV show host. Haitians betrayed again and again. Human beings bearing the divine image, called “filth” from the highest levels of government. Elections have consequences. This is not politics as usual. This is life and death.
There will be a massive amount of work to do to rebuild trust, the economy, and everything else this country had promised. How a madman destroyed so much in 18 short months will be studied for decades to come.
But WE, we have work to do. We have a country to rebuild, we have safeguards to put in place so that this will never happen again. We, together, can do this. We can make America the land of the free again…
It will take all of us, and sometimes the sheer amount of work ahead is so daunting…
So tonight, I will pray for my neighbors, my community, my district, my country…
And tomorrow, I will dust myself off again, and head back into the battle.
When things are dark, that is the time when even a dim light makes all the difference.
Won’t you join me?
Author: Sam Powell
What am I doing here?
I am an ex-Reformed pastor. I love the system of doctrine found in the confessions of the church because they lead to Jesus, exalt Jesus, and clarify the life and work of Jesus.
But I worship him, not the confessions. I will never use the confessions of the church to beat someone down or to win some kind of argument.
In Reformed and Presbyterian churches, I hear over and over again how the books of order, the constitutions, and the centuries of procedures are used to silence the abused, drive away the sheep, protect the powerful, and maintain the status quo.
If you haven't seen it, you haven't been paying attention.
On top of this, in the 1980s and 1990s, several influential and powerful men introduced a new theology in the church as a response to feminism. They called it "complementarianism". They based it on a novel interpretation of the Trinity, by introducing authority and submission into the persons of the Trinity. Doing this, they contradicted the unanimous testimony of the church since the 4th century.
And one more - in the 70s, a cult leader named Bill Gothard invented a religion which he called "Institutes of Basic Life Principles". He peddled it to millions under the guise of Christianity.
All of these streams combined into a weird, oppressive, violent, vicious mixture which has infiltrated the churches. It is a strange new religion, under the guise of Christianity, but has nothing to do with it. It has gone by different names: Moral Majority; Christian Nationalism; Patriarchalism;
It worships power and authority, it worships traditions and parliamentarian procedures, it worships celebrity, and it worships those who can argue down a liberal or a feminist. It values destroying enemies with argument, it values contempt and winning the debate.
It calls for the release of Barrabas - at least he was trying to do something about Rome-
And shouts for Jesus to be crucified.
What this new religion doesn't have is:
Jesus, the Lamb of God
Grace
Mercy
Compassion
Understanding
Listening
or Good news.
All it knows is law. And all it trusts in is power. It knows nothing of washing feet, of letting the mind of Christ dwell in us, or of taking the lowest place.
So this is why I am here. For those who have been run down by Driscoll's bus, who have been crushed by the Gothard machine, cast out by Wilson's cult (or Piper's or MacArthur's)...
...for those who are so confused that they don't know how to separate the gospel of Jesus Christ from the lies and tangles that the enemy has woven into a snare...
I offer my services. I can listen. I can help untangle the lies by pointing you to the simplicity of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
You can find me at sampowellministries.com
View all posts by Sam Powell
Sam Powell for Senate 