This is a note for the younger generations.
We’ve had 250 years of entitled white guys (with one notable exception) running things.
We are now at the pinnacle (or nadir, whichever you prefer).
In those 250 years, 230 of them have been war. We’ve had 20 years of peace. In 250 years.
The man currently in the White House is a crime boss, a rapist, and a conman. If you took every single horrible thought, cruel impulse, and twisted desire that men normally fight against and compressed them all into one man, it would be Donald Trump.
Rape culture is rampant; health care is only for the elite few, food and gas are becoming more and more scarce, the environment is turning inhabitable, and the nation is full of racism, distrust, ugliness, hatred, greed and lust.
The ones who have spoken out against it all the most effectively have been women. And now I even read about “Getting rid of liberal women” when they are the only ones keeping the slightest bit of sanity around us.
Truth has fallen in the street and equity cannot enter.
The president uses his words to cause riots and hatred and violence in the street.
To the younger generations. We’ve left you a mess. Old white guys have left you a crumbling ruin and they continue to desperately hang on to power long after they should be corpses. And we still aren’t sure how much of Mitch is still left.
It will take courage and compassion, and speaking as an old white guy, I would be glad to entrust this mess to those who would do far better than we did.
But now is the time to start and to take up the reins. Don’t let this election pass you by. Get out there and vote.
You have a choice all over the country. You won’t find perfection. You won’t find it anywhere.
But your choices are these: The same shit that has been poisoning us for decades – greed, racism, misogyny, rape culture, entitled power, madness and death.
Or those who will do their best to shore up what is left and leave a better world to the next generation.
The future belongs to you. Do you know that nasty uncle that you have to put up with at Thanksgiving, with the foul mouth, hateful words, stupidity and groping hands?
You can bet your ass he’s voting.
I say that it is time to quit allowing him to elect our leaders.
Get out and vote. We can do better.
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
