A thread by Andy Rowell
If a professor has tenure and is a white evangelical and are active on Twitter or a podcast, or with popular writing, I think they should speak out—at least occasionally—at least in general terms—when white evangelicals do immoral or ignorant or destructive things. Usually those white evangelical professors who don't speak up are either:
– not involved with popular media,
– or they think of their vocation as in the classroom and in academic writing, and they do not want to endanger or muddy those primary communication vehicles. – or others are involved in other constructive or frivolous activities and hobbies.
But I wish they would use their communication opportunities to at least communicate in principles and generalities. For example, tweet an appropriate phrase of a Scripture verse or a quote. Yes, this is like a "subtweet." You are tweeting something that refers to something in the news but you are not naming the thing explicitly so someone later or not paying attention won't get it. These are baby steps towards evangelicals engaging in politics. Letting the politics for white evangelicals be dominated by the self-promoters and liars and anti-intellectuals and schemers has not worked so well. Beth Moore has done an excellent job of not naming names or incidents but calling out for justice, repentance, purity, and truth, in tweets that sometimes roughly correspond to items in the news. My heroes: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr, and my dad Dale Rowell all died at 39 so I have a little more lack-of-concern-about-the-future-and-death than some others. I have a strong sense of: If you are not standing up for something, what is life for?
Andy Rowell@AndyRowellWhite Evangelical pastors deserve your plaintive question.
White evangelical pastors have traditionally been taught not to speak about "politics" but rather focus on the "spiritual."
Robert Jeffress has decided to kiss expediency.
Graham and Falwell Jr. are not pastors.
Andy Rowell@AndyRowellFor alternatives to Jeffress, follow these evangelicals on politics: @TheAlanNoble @wilsonhartgrove @MichaelRWear @ShaneClaiborne @BethMooreLPM @JohnFea1 @JohnWHawthorne @wthrockmorton
None is a pastor. Pastors are sensitive to their congregation in what they tweet.
Melissa Moore@MelissaMoore77Being scolded for getting too political by people who have sold their souls to the Republican Party is . . . rich. And the whole: “Stop being political. Focus on leading people to Jesus." The act is tired. As a Christian my goal is better & more faithful politics not no politics.
Fred Sanders@FredFredSandersI saw the best minds of my generation join the ranks of "No, Mr. President, how dare YOU" Twitter, consumed by madness, starving hysterical etc.
Andy Rowell@AndyRowellA practical theologian should read Eberhard Bethge's biography of Bonhoeffer and Yale historian @TimothyDSnyder. Systematic
theologians may as Barth said "endeavor to carry on theology, and only theology, as if nothing had happened."
November 2016. (qz.com/846940/a-yale-…)
