Categories
Evangelicals Politics

Evangelical leaders have not been as wise about politics as they could be

1. Ryan Burge argues that evangelical leaders have little influence on the political beliefs of the masses of evangelicals. I disagree. But evangelical leaders have generally not spoken out about politics, which has led to a vacuum that Fox News filled.

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2. I love the work of Ryan Burge but I am not convinced that evangelical leaders do not influence the rank and file.
3. From the 2004-2020 exit polls, about 16-24% of white evangelicals voted for the Democratic presidential candidate. 74-81% voted for the Republican.

4. Some leaders of some evangelical organizations voted for the Democrat.
5. It does not follow that these evangelical leaders who voted for the Democrat are not influential on the politics of the white evangelicals who voted Republican.

6. There is a correlation. (1/4 voted Democrat, 3/4 voted Republican). But that does not mean there is a causation. (The 3/4 are not affected by the 1/4).

7. I have been thinking about the saying about how 20% do all the work in most volunteer organizations. We wouldn't say the 20% are not influential.
8. There are always ignorant people that wise people are trying to have an influence on.

9. The influence of evangelical leaders is how we got here with 3/4 of white evangelicals voting Republican. Since 1980, the Religious Right (Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Albert Mohler) have tried to persuade evangelicals that they should always vote for Republicans.

10. But persuading 24% of white evangelicals to vote for the Democrat may have made the difference for Obama and Biden. Biden won by 65,009 votes.
11. Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, John Perkins, Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, and Rachel Held Evans have been influential.

12. We know from history and psychology that individuals influence others. Claims that a person in a leadership position has no or little influence are usually wrong.
13. Christians also believe that what we do matters and what we say matters.

14. But I agree that white evangelical leaders have not been as wise with regard to partisan politics as they should be because they have generally not seen involvement in partisan politics as part of their responsibility.

15. Leaders of predominantly white evangelical organizations (pastors, professors, presidents of non-profits) have traditionally avoided talking about partisan politics because they wanted to reach Democrats and Republicans, and as a 501(c)(3), it is illegal to act partisan.

16. Generally white evangelicals have also stayed out of partisan politics because they prioritize "saving souls for heaven" and running their own benevolent organizations (rather than supporting government initiatives to help those who are addicted, poor, sick, or hungry).

17. Because the leaders of predominantly white evangelical organizations have avoided addressing partisan politics from the pulpit, classroom or in public, the vacuum has been filled with politically right wing: radio, TV, Facebook, Voter Guides, and direct mail.

18. Evangelical leaders sometimes have a deficit of knowledge because
– they grew up not thinking politics matters, and if it does, it is just abortion; and
– they do not have a solid liberal arts education (history, political science, global knowledge, science, math).

19. Evangelical leaders are constantly thinking about "offending the donors" (to the church, school, or non-profit organization they lead). Getting people to like you and your organization is the business model so saying anything partisan is a big risk.

20. Like the Republican Senators and Cabinet members who spoke out forcefully about Trump after leaving office, so retired leaders of Christian churches and organizations spoke up about him (Mark Galli, John Piper, Richard Mouw, John Perkins, Richard Foster, Ron Sider).

21. Though I was appalled in 2016, in 2020 I am encouraged that more evangelical Christian leaders have become more knowledgeable about politics and have seen the need for courage to speak out about what is blatantly wrong. I think that will trickle down.

22. And I think Trump's pocket fundamentalists, go-to flatterers, reliable religious spinners, and delusional religious blowhards have shown everyone who they are.

23. The white evangelical church has much to learn from the theology and the courage of Black Christians in America with regard to speaking up about politics.

24. I mostly feel good about the biblical preaching that most evangelicals are hearing in their churches and the great education evangelicals receive at CCCU schools. But well-educated evangelicals need to teach people on Facebook, radio, TV, YouTube, TikTok, films, and podcasts.

Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on December 16, 2020.

Categories
Uncategorized

Weekly religious service attenders are the only group who report more with excellent mental health this year

Weekly religious service attenders are the only group to have more rate their mental health as excellent in mid- Nov 2020 than in 2019.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/327311/americans-mental-health-ratings-sink-new-low.aspx
1. Religious attenders are often happier. See https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1300552809092243456?s=20
2. Interesting because many are attending online.

Between June 29 and September 18, about 50% of the churches that the @BarnaGroup surveyed were hosting church services in their usual building. (0% were between March 20 and May 18).

https://pinkston.co/docs/church-leader-survey-results-week-18.pdf

A @pewresearch study shows that 29% of those who could work at home are going back to the office.
100% – 71% = 29%29% going back to the office
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/12/09/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-and-hasnt-changed-the-way-americans-work/

A study of office space occupancy shows 21% have returned to work. The high of 27% was in October.

Based on those two statistics of about 21-29% of people have returned to their workplaces though they could work at home, I’m guessing that is also about the percentage of people who have returned to attend church in person even though they could attend online.

Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on December 11, 2020.

Categories
Karl Barth

The Digital Karl Barth Library search support ticket

Dear Alexander Street,

I am having mixed results doing word searches in The Digital Karl Barth Library. I thought I would do a simple search and document the steps in order to demonstrate why it is confusing and discouraging.  

For example, if I go into Advanced Search and search for: Bonhoeffer. 

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I specify Language of Edition as: English. 

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It gives me 11 results where this word is found. 

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 Let’s click on that second result Doctrine of Reconciliation, Vol. 2.  What is odd is that you do NOT see “Bonhoeffer” in the text. 

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However, if you do click the #3,4,5,6,7 matches, you do see Bonhoeffer result. Those work correctly!  

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So, where are the first two matches? 
And when you hover over all of the matches it shows the Page Number as NA. 

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This makes it hard to find the references without the page number. 
Also, note that when you click on the 3rd match, it does NOT highlight Bonhoeffer in the text. But when you click on the other matches, it does highlight Bonhoeffer in the text in blue.  

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I am also doing searches with German but I just wanted to identify the inconsistencies and confusion in just one search. 
I also did not mention that often a document takes 30 seconds to load. 
Thank you for looking into this. 
Andy

Background:

  • I used the previous “legacy” platform extensively for my dissertation but they have created a new platform.
  • Many people are having trouble. See the thread at:
https://twitter.com/kaitdugan/status/1323300923511316481
  • My hope is the above will help others who are also having trouble so that we can pinpoint the problems and hopefully advocate so they can be solved.