My brothers and sisters, where art thou?

Christian Evangelicals went ballistic (and rightly so) over Bill Clinton's alleged dalliances with women.

Where are my brothers and sisters to the religious right of me now?

I have been astonished since the 2016 election that Evangelicals were one of the groups that gave Trump the most support--a man on his third marriage and accused of sexual contact with well over a dozen women including a porn star and a Playboy bunny. And no matter how lewd things get around the President and no matter how many things he fabricates (in my Evangelical childhood, lying was up there with stealing as a sin!) there is not a whimper of protest from my Evangelical fellow Christians.

A recent article in The Atlantic by one of the few Evangelicals to speak out against the President gave the first insightful perspective of how Evangelicals have lost their way. It's titled The Last Temptation by Michael Gerson and was in the April edition.

One or two quotes from the article:

1) "According to Jerry Falwell, Jr....Evangelicals have 'found their dream president.' Which says something about the current quality of Evangelical dreams."

2) "I do not believe that most evangelicals are racist. But every strong Trump supporter has decided that racism is not a moral disqualification in the President of the United States."

3) "Evangelicals remain the most loyal element of the Trump coalition. They are broadly eager to act as his shield and sword. They are his army of enablers."

I long ago left the Fundamentalist and Evangelical branches of the church (they are not the same, but I grew up both!) but I always respected their moral righteousness and intolerance of bad ethical behavior. I no longer do.

I recommend the article. You can probably find it on line.

And I pray that my Evangelical fellow Christians can find their way back from the dark path Mr. Gerson's article describes.

(I saw a bumper sticker on one of the cars outside Emmanuel church that said:

GOD WANTS FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS, NOT RELIGIOUS NUTS.

Amen to that....)

'bide a spell

Definition of abide

abode play \-ˈbōd\ or abided; abiding

transitive verb

1 a : to bear patiently : tolerate

• cannot abide such bigots

b : to endure without yielding : withstand

• abide the onrush of the enemy

2 : to wait for : await

• I will abide the coming of my lord.
• —Alfred Tennyson

3 : to accept without objection

• will abide your decision

intransitive verb

1 : to remain stable or fixed in a state

• a love that abode with him all his days

2 : to continue in a place : sojourn

• will abide in the house of the Lord
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• Tomorrow is 'Abide' Sunday. Both the reading from the letter of John and the reading from the Gospel of John mention the word 'abide' over and again.
•  I copied the definition above from MirriamWebster's Dictionary and for some reason can't figure out how to paragraph since I started writing this. Coping things to my blog sometimes screw up the way it usually works!
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• Paragraphed! Yea!
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• I love the word 'abide'. Where I grew up people sat on their front porches and if you walked by they might just invite you to 'come up and 'bide a spell'. "Bide-ing" didn't involve any effort. Conversation was optional. You just sat on their porch until you needed to go--most often in a rocking chair.
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• I think of abiding with God just like that, just being present with no expectations. Maybe that's why I love Centering Prayer: just 'being' with God.
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• One problem with working with three churches is that I don't remember where I said things. I remember I said them, just not where.
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• I know I went off on an 'abide' rant not that long ago. I just hope it wasn't at Emmanuel, Killingworth, where I am tomorrow.
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