The biggest failure of the modern evangelical church — especially in the United States — is the failure to preach truth to power.
Modern evangelicals have bought in to the corrupt status quo, and the church is far from the example of the historical Jesus Christ.
Christ walked the paths, fields and hills of Palestine, and the first Christians were a thorn in the flesh to the Roman and Judean religious establishment of the time.
Today the focus of the evangelical church is on form, piety and theology, without entry into the difficult and challenging space of fighting for social justice and equity against those who are a barrier to true love and compassion.
The preceding is a catastrophe for the church, and there is no difference today between the behaviour of the believer and unbeliever.
Jesus Christ was a radical, revolutionary troublemaker who refused the comfort zone and challenged the corrupt political and religious status quo of the day.
But instead, the modern church is an absurdity, reclining in a dangerous comfort zone, irrelevant to the social issues of the day.
The impact of the church on community and society is negligible except for Sunday gatherings and a concern for its own narrow interests and welfare.
The failure of the church is an abysmal reality. The church is fearful and cowardly about the righteous antagonism against power, even co-opting the Gospel for sinful ends while the masses are viewed as fodder to be exploited and fleeced.
Then the evils of racism, sexism, xenophobia, greed and hypocrisy are much too common in the church.
Donald Trump
The worship and love for the perverse Donald Trump — “the chosen one” — within the global evangelical movement led by the US has finally exposed the church in its folly and deep error.
The unconditional support for this toxic man has set back the cause of the Gospel for decades. Mr. Trump is cathartic for the evangelical movement — a gift from God to show evangelicals how far they have fallen.
He and his followers have left a trail of destruction within the modern evangelical movement that will take years to clear and repair, if ever.
How can the church recover its credibility after falling for a snake-oil salesman, a huckster and political opportunist who managed to penetrate the highest office in the world?
The rebuilding of the church will take place only when the church is ready to face itself in the mirror and recognise how far it has fallen from the example that is Jesus Christ.
White supremacists
Mr. Trump destroyed the Republican Party, turned right-wing politics into the preserve of white supremacists, encouraged racism, emboldened white supremacists, and placed conspiracy in the mainstream.
Today the platform for conspiracy theories is the church pew: anti-vaccine, anti-mask-wearing congregants believe the pandemic is a hoax. White evangelicals fell for Mr. Trump’s deceit and are paying dearly in terms of their credibility today.
Then if the evangelicals were pleased with Mr. Trump’s appointment of right-wing judges, the evangelical church has ignored bigger questions of social justice, such as human compassion, racism, hate, greed and hypocrisy within society and even within the ranks of the evangelical church itself, as it walks in a false piety even a 2-year-old can perceive.
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