The Logic of Intersubjectivity. Darren M. Slade

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СКАЧАТЬ “Born-again Christians divorce at about the same rate as everyone else. Self-centered materialism is seducing evangelicals and rapidly destroying our earlier, slightly more generous giving. Only 6 percent of born-again Christians tithe. Born-again Christians justify and engage in sexual promiscuity (both premarital sex and adultery) at astonishing rates. Racism and perhaps physical abuse of wives seem to be worse in evangelical circles than elsewhere. This is scandalous behavior for people who claim to be born-again by the Holy Spirit” (Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, 27‒28).

      24. McLaren, “Q and R: Hints of Kierkegaard.”

      25. McLaren, “Brian McLaren Reflects on ‘Seizing An Alternative’ Conference,” 01:12‒02:00. After all, McLaren asserts, this rethinking of old paradigms is the essence of Jesus’ command to “repent” (WMRBW, 88).

      26. See Jones and Cox, America’s Changing Religious Identity. As McLaren explains, droves of Christians are leaving the church in order to improve their spiritual lives (McLaren, foreword to The Way of Jesus, xi).

      27. Religion (Gallup, 2018). As McLaren comments, “For a variety of reasons, organized religion, including Christianity, seemed to have lost its power to satisfy us in the late old world. It seemed ingrown, tired, petty, crotchety, and out of touch” (COOS1 §Intro, 14). In fact, McLaren is writing for those “who love God or want to love God or are seeking for a God to love but have been repulsed by ugly, unworthy images of a cruel, capricious, merciless, tyrannical deity” (LWWAT §Dedication, vii).

      28. See Lipka and Gecewicz, More Americans Now Say They’re Spiritual; Wright, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites, 43; and Luntz, What Americans Really Want, 158.

      29. According to McLaren, being “spiritual” is just another way for people to say they are “seeking aliveness” (WMRBW, xv). See also, McLaren, “Brian McLaren Rebuilds Spirituality” and his foreword to The Emerging Church, 9‒10.

      30. Jerry Falwell Jr.’s call for Liberty University students to shoot and “end those Muslims” who come on campus is a case in point. McLaren writes to Falwell, “How would you feel if you saw the president, faculty, and students in a radicalized Muslim university somewhere applauding and laughing about killing Christians and ‘teaching them a lesson?’ Do you see how you are helping your students become the mirror image of such a scene?” (McLaren, “An Open Letter to Jerry Falwell”).

      31. McLaren, “Q and R: Belief VERSUS Practice.”

      32. Labberton, “Introduction,” 9. This “Trumpcult” becomes evident as one supporter stated during a CNN interview, “If Jesus Christ gets down off the cross and told me Trump is [colluding] with Russia, I would tell him, hold on a second, I need to check with the president if it is true” (“Trump Supporter Admits He Believes Trump”). Jerry Falwell Jr. echoed this sentiment when he declared that nothing could make him forgo his support for Mr. Trump, claiming it “may be immoral” for evangelicals to refuse offering the same type of support (Heim, “Jerry Falwell Jr. Can’t Imagine”).

      33. See Cunningham, “In Love with Donald Trump.” McLaren’s fictional character, Old Skunk, captures the fear-based rhetoric of the 2016 Trump Presidential campaign, “When people are worried or afraid . . . you just have to give them somebody different to blame for their problems. If they call somebody else dirty or bad, they will feel clean and good. If they hurt somebody who won’t hurt them back, they will feel very powerful, important, and safe. It works every time” (CSS, 13; cf. TSS, 20).

      34. According to Baylor University, “Trumpism” is a type of anti-government nationalism that combines pro-Christian rhetoric with overt xenophobia, misogyny, and a tribalistic fear of diversity. Those upholding Trumpism describe themselves as “very religious,” are typically white evangelical, believe the United States is a Christian nation, and believe God is an authoritative and judgmental deity. They believe Muslims are a threat to national security, men should run the government and earn more than women, working women are defective mothers, and the LGBTQ community should not have equal rights. See Froese et al., American Values, 7‒27.

      35. Mohler, “Mohler, Jr. Discusses Evangelical Support for Trump,” 00:29‒01:21; emphasis in original. Roger Olson parallels these sentiments, “My fellow evangelicals who continue to support and even defend Trump in spite of everything he has said about the weak and vulnerable people of the world: It is time to admit you have been wrong and stop defending the indefensible” (Olson, “An Open Letter”).

      36. For details on Mr. Trump’s mental instability, immoral behavior, corrupt practices, and connection to multiple crime syndicates, see Lee, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump; Woodward, Fear; and Brockenbrough, Unpresidented.

      37. Moore, “Have Evangelicals Who Support Trump Lost Their Values?” Interestingly, McLaren notes that President Trump’s mother was, in fact, an impoverished migrant to America who tried to escape economic hardship, the very kind of people that Mr. Trump has vociferously vilified during his campaign and presidency (McLaren, foreword to Poacher’s Pilgrimage, xvii‒xxii).

      38. Galli, “Trump Should Be Removed from Office.”

      39. Galli, “Trump Should Be Removed from Office.”

      40. Barnhart, “Nearly 200 Evangelical Leaders.” What is interesting, though not surprising, is just how Christian leaders on both sides will appeal to Jesus’ communion with sinners in the first century to support certain theological beliefs. See for example, McLaren, foreword to Love is an Orientation, 9‒11.

      41. McLaren, foreword to Love is an Orientation, 10‒11.

      42. Global Center for Religious Research, “An Open Letter to Evangelicals.”

      43. For instance, in an open letter dated September 1998, James Dobson demanded that Christians abandon support for President William J. Clinton for his consensual affair with a White House intern. Most of Dobson’s remarks would apply directly to President Trump today, but Dobson has remained steadfast in his support for Mr. Trump regardless and has not demanded Christians abandon their support (see Dobson, “Dedicated to the Preservation of the Home”; italics in original). As McLaren writes, “The things we are against often define us, so we are easily manipulated in this way. Consider some of the conservative political СКАЧАТЬ