US Elections: One Pastor's Response<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Elections: One Pastor's Response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-12T09:43:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-12T16:14:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/\",\"name\":\"US Elections: One Pastor's Response\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-12T09:43:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-12T16:14:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US Elections: One Pastor’s Response\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US Elections: One Pastor's Response","description":"Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US Elections: One Pastor's Response","og_description":"Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2016-08-12T09:43:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-12T16:14:02+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/","name":"US Elections: One Pastor's Response","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-12T09:43:12+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-12T16:14:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US Elections: One Pastor’s Response"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":64320,"date":"2016-08-12T04:43:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T09:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=64320"},"modified":"2016-08-12T11:14:02","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T16:14:02","slug":"us-elections-one-pastors-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/08\/12\/us-elections-one-pastors-response\/","title":{"rendered":"US Elections: One Pastor’s Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Trading the Gospel for Political Pie, by John Frye<\/p>\n

As I see it, USAmerican evangelicalism is now a distant mirror to 1st century, 2nd Temple Judaism. Or, more correctly, Judaism(s).<\/p>\n

In this post-Christian era, we have frantic groups longing to return to the Promised Land. Each group, just as in Jesus\u2019 day, thinks they know how to get America back again. Consider the Pharigelicals for whom law is King, especially at the Supreme Court level. Then there\u2019s the Sadducelicals who long to cross the aisle, not rock the boat and \u201cjust get-along.\u201d The Herodigelicals don\u2019t fool around, grabbing for all the power and following the money. Every age has its Essenigelicals, the pious few, the self-appointed faithful remnant who \u201cfold the fort\u201d \u2019til Jesus comes again. Watch out for the Zealogelicals whose slogan is \u201cGuns, God, and the US Constitution!\u201d All this furor within the blood-soaked, gun-running, drug-dealing, super exceptional USAmerican Empire slouching toward a dominant globalism. \u201cIn God \u2018Money\u2019 We Trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the midst of being exiled from the public square, the US Church wants their \u201cland\u201d back. When Trump barks, \u201cMake America great again,\u201d hordes of believers hear, \u201cMake the church great again!\u201d One Christian blogger<\/a>, committed to prayer for the state of the church, characterizes the screechy clamor belching from all the evangelical factions as a frantic looking for the political messiah<\/em>, be it Trump or Clinton.<\/p>\n

I have seen, sadly, good friends sell out unity in Christ for unity of Party or candidate. One prominent Christian author even demanded on FaceBook to unfriend her if you plan on voting for Trump. Let\u2019s pour political poop all over Philippians 2:1-4 and exile the \u201cmind of Christ\u201d into oblivion. Far be it from non-Trump Christians to come to the Table with Trumpites. America has built the dividing wall, not on the border with Mexico, but right in the heart of the church. The Table of the Lord is now an ecclesial mockery<\/em> in the degenerate state of the Church in the USA.<\/p>\n

One prominent Christian leader actually wants us to wink at all of Trump\u2019s deplorably pagan, and I mean pagan qualities because Trump is an alleged \u201cbaby Christian.\u201d All this wasted passion toward flesh and blood entities all the while purporting to believe that the church\u2019s struggle is not against flesh and blood. Evangelical leaders, followers, FaceBookers, bloggers, you name it, are talking out of both sides of their mouths and have become stupidly unintelligible. Even unbelievers are questioning Evangelicals for trading in the Gospel for a piece of political pie!<\/p>\n

A thoughtful millennial evangelical<\/a> laments the sorry mess handed to her and her peers by a Church sold out to an elephant and an ass. Isn\u2019t that considered idolatry? \u201cNow these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is Hillary.\u201d Why don\u2019t we admit that is where so many hearts are set? I don\u2019t think either Hillary or Trump died on the Cross for me. Can I tell this young millennial that?<\/p>\n

When I was a child I was seeking to know the signs of the times and who the anti-Christ was and shuddered at the thought of being \u201cLeft Behind.\u201d But when I became a man, I still believed in a rugged biblical idea: God\u2019s judgment on the church first. \u201cFor it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God\u201d ought to slap some sense into us for selling out to Caesar. Many will say, \u2018We\u2019re just exercising our American right to vote.\u201d Then why are those many covered in stinky political slime? Why does their vote come at the expense of brothers and sisters who make up the bride of Christ? Shouldn\u2019t we stop talking about Jesus\u2019 body in filthy ways merely to advance a human, fleeting kingdom?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"