A comment that was left yesterday on a post leads to this article. After being called the Anti-Christ, this blog is being told that I have no business in writing about the issues inside evangelicalism. But its time that these issues get looked at and be analyzed. That is the long term goal to this blog.
“We need to tell each other our stories. We need to show that everyone — our neighbors, our families, our community leaders — everyone we know is touched by corruption.”
Jennifer Lawrence
“People’s indifference is the best breeding ground for corruption to grow.”
Delia Ferreira
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
James 1:19-21 ESV
Community Evangelical Free in Elverson, Pennsylvania
The other day someone left a comment on the blog demanding that I cease writing and take down the blog. I know what scripture says, “touch not the Lord’s anointed,” and yes I have touched the Lord’s anointed. Let’s look at what was said.
A Comment that Comes into The Wondering Eagle
This comment happened on an older post. The IP address showed the comment coming from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. That is just west of Philadelphia. This is the comment that came in below.
You, David Bonner, are not the one to post other believers sins. They are between them, the offended person or persons and God. You are an Anti-Christ, an evil sinner putting yourself in place of God. Shame on you. Take down wondering eagle, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one true Judge not you.
We Need to Discuss Issues and Problems in Evangelicalism.
I appreciate being called the Anti-Christ. For me that is an honor. As I look at the feedback well if I am making enemies that must mean that I am doing the right thing. This blog is having an effect in what it is writing about. That is part of the goal. I also find it interesting when he says that “sins” are between the people, the offended person or persons and God. So what does that mean? If a child is sexually abused its between the abuser and the abused? Those that have families in the place should not have a right to know what is going on? Why are evangelicals lacking in transparency? Shouldn’t evangelicals be the most transparent? They after all, are the ones claiming to be a new creation, re-born and set apart. What does it show when atheists and others in mainline Protestantism have more transparency? Is that Satan at work? As for taking down this blog it serves a purpose and has a focus. How sad is it that the person communicating the issues becomes the issue and not the place that covers up the rape, or where the embezzlement takes place, or where places are theologically flipped and the person is hurt.
Too many people have long given evangelical Christianity a pass. The Roman Catholic church is being scrutinized and under the spotlight. Its time that evangelicalism faces the same focus. These issues are not just in Catholicism, as they happen in many aspects of religion. Its especially troubling when you have evangelicals trying to outlaw pornography, prevent access to birth control, go after gays, or those in consenting relationships. And they are then concealing criminal activity allegations in their own churches. Its long past time that evangelicalism be the focus on these kinds of issues. This blog is a long term project. Sadly I get the dark side of religion and wish I had not. But the time is now for these problems to be written about. And in that context I will be writing about them. In response you are free to leave comments chewing me out or criticizing me. That is fine and fair game. This is a brief post but I wanted to get this up and do a quick response.
Wondering Eagle 
Sorry you had this criticism. It sounds like a play from the JMAC book. Let’s twist scripture to try and make the case convincing. Satan has been doing that since written about in Genisis. Keeping writing truth Wandering Eagle. These blogs are one of the few places God’s people can speak truth or share their feelings openly. I thank God for you and others like you who expose the evil trying to destroy God’s church. Thank you for being a light!
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As much as I can’t stand some of your POLITICAL posts, I have to agree with you on this one.
The Hypocrisy of, how you say, what is word, Evangelical? I wish that word was NOT USED at all. I’m just WONDERING why you can’t just say, “CHRISTIAN”, because in the Bible, the word EVANGELICAL is a JOB, WITHIN the Christianity circle…
Ephesians 4:11
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
And, the majority of your posts actually deal with…PASTORS AND TEACHERS.
According to the dictionary, an evangelist is:
a person who seeks to convert others to the Christian faith, especially by public preaching.
Billy Graham was one such evangelist. But your averages pastor or teacher is NOT trying to convert anyone. He’s preaching to the choir already. And it is that choir, so to speak, that is the ones being abused.
And, in a nutshell, the abuse comes from their twisted view of MATTHEW 18 and 1 Corinthians 5, for which they call, church discipline. There is NO SUCH THING as church discipline. But they twist the scripture so much that people think that pastors have authority over them to Lord over them.
And because they think that the CHURCH is OVER THEM, then FELONY and MISDEMEANOR crimes are handled in house, because they think that the government is OH SO EVIL, so they never face our CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. And, they reap what they sow. A bunch of losers in church, when God states to KICK THEM OUT.
Let them repent in a JAIL CELL.
Keep your blog going…even if I disagree with your stupid political rants about the morality of Trump. NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION, and the dems are pissed! Ha ha!
Ed Chapman
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Because the Fundagelicals have redefined “CHRISTIAN” without any modifiers to mean themselves and themselves alone.
op cit Screwtape to Wormwood on redefinition of words into their “diablolical meanings”.
Remember the Testimony “I used to be Catholic (or Episcopalian, or Methodist), but Now I’m CHRISTIAN(TM)”. Heard it all the time when I was in-country; even on the phone-ins to Rich Buhler’s talk show. A similar Screwtape redefinition in my local area was redefining “non-denominational” to mean “Calvary Chapel Clone with the labels painted over”.
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HUG,
Seems that the 21st Century is all about redefining words. Hate has been redefined to mean that anything that I disagree with you on, is hate. Racism has been redefined to mean that if I disagree with Obama, I’m a racist, and if I want a secure border, then I’m a racist.
The second amendment has been redefined to mean muskets and hunting rabbit.
Free Speech has been redefined as “The Left can say anything they want, but if the Right says anything, punch them in the face!”
I could go on and on about redefining words. I think we all need to get back to KJV language, when BETWIXED was used. I’m not down with being WOKE.
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“Remember the Testimony “I used to be Catholic (or Episcopalian, or Methodist), but Now I’m CHRISTIAN(TM)”.”
Yep, I remember that one!
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“…touch not the Lord’s anointed…”
But what about those who claim to be the “Lord’s anointed”, but then show by their behavior that they are anything but? None of these guys you are exposing have any claim on being the “Lord’s anointed”. They’re just corrupt humans taking advantage of a power structure that lets them abuse others in the name of their religion. Calling them out on their BS is important work. Keep at it!
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It also appears to be taking a verse about an OT king and twisting it so nobody can criticize the pastor….
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I would bet Jim Jones or his followers probably quoted the same verses.Lets just rip old testament verses out of context.
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“Throw a rock into a pack of junkyard dogs, and the one who yelps the loudest is the one who got hit.”
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You’re going to have to take a number and stand in line with all the other (Proven from SCRIPTURE!) Anti-Christs, from Henry Kissinger to Aslan of Narnia.
And me; I once got called The Anti-Christ when I gave a measurement in Metric instead of feet & inches.
(A little used-bookstore research into the outer limits of human belief eventually traced that to one of those Victorian-era Great Pyramid Prophecy books.)
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I know a lot of drug addicts that are very knowledgeable in the metric system, until they tell you how many MILES to the GALLON they get in their car.
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And this means what?
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It means that your metric system is meaningless, unless you are a criminal in the United States of America. So, the anti Christ is a heroin dealer in Spain. How’s that for prophesy? Eh?
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No weirder than some of them I’ve seen & heard (and I’m a weirdness magnet), except they were backed up by chapter-and-verse Zip Codes. Though the Proofs from SCRIPTURE that Aslan IS The Antichrist (from the Satanic Panic days) still calibrates the upper end.
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“Touch not the LORD’s anointed”.
That would be the anointed king, whom we believe is Jesus.
Self-described ministers of the gospel are fair game.
And it’s a dangerous game applying biblical promises to present-day self-described church leaders. Do they claim for themselves the “keys of the kingdom”? Let them prove it by showing that another of Jesus’ promises to the apostles (the famous “whatever you ask in My name” promise) also applies to them.
I’ve never met anyone who actually knew how to ask anything in Jesus’ name and have his requests consistently granted. This suggests to me that either these people don’t know what “in Jesus’ name” means and maybe should not be in ministry (or should be ministering in a much more humble spirit), or that promise to the apostles does not apply to contemporary church leaders (in which case what other promises that they rely on also do not apply?).
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this lil Exvangelical birdy just dropped by to say Thank You for the work you are doing in your blog and elsewhere.
also, you are obviously extremely well read… are you familiar with the writings of the Rev. Dr. William Barber, or George Marsden or Jeff Sharlet or Chris Hedges, or Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove? American F/Ev christianity truly is at its roots a slave-holders religion and bears such little resemblence to the actual teachings of the actual Christ…
i’m from a multigen cradle-to-grave Fundy family, finally emptied a pew 3 years ago after years of misery reached an impossible pitch of anxiety, for my children and myself. they are now agnostic and i cant blame them altho my own wiring requires me to remain a Person of Faith. i can recognize christianity as a religion now that i no longer identify as such, and i’ve spent the last 3 years digging into the sordid history and current events of the church in the need to try & understand how everything went so wrong. i’ll never get to the bottom of the rabbit holes, of course. they run too deep. i do know that Jesus was Beautiful. that much my heart understands. but the more i learn, the more i realize i can never return to the religious fold. i now follow one simple mantra: Kindness Counts… and i believe that when all is said and done, if there is a final accounting beyond the grave as the ancient hebrew writings claim, then a Creator who is both Justice and Mercy will be primarily concerned with exactly that.
as far as the Question of Evil, i so appreciate you wrestling so openly with that. i have very much as well, it was one of the main things which drove me from the church, the more i thought on things, the more i came to realize that much of what the patriarchy calls evil cannot possibly be, but many things that are truly evil are greenlighted by the church in the name of god. such as the greed, corruption, racism, misogyny and exclusivist imperialism manifest in the western church empire. of course many people who identify as christian are lovely kind souls — but in Fundamentalist America, so many more frankly are NOT. this cannot be the Way of an All-Loving and All-Just God who is also All-Knowing and All-Powerful… hence, Disconnect. something has to give. i am no one and know very little, but it seems to me that this indicates a rather obvious reality that perhaps nothing actually looks like we were taught, regardless what religious tradition we have been trained in, including christianity. and perhaps a great deal of our christian religion is a mashup of several millennia of people’s ideas, coming from all over the spectrum of intent from corrupt and authoritarian, to superstitious and naive, to well-meaning but mistaken, even to some things that will in the end bear out to be Truth. and why not? we christians quite happily point to every other belief system under the sun and assert this is so.
ultimately, it seems to me, that we know evil exists. and we know love exists. and we can see that many times the two things are tangled together along with a whole mess of other things in a person’s mind and heart. but in the heart, maybe, that’s the place to start. if i have a will, and i will to focus on Kindness, then i havent much room leftover inside my heart to be a basically shitty person, rght? i’ll screw up at times because im human, but if my soul is attuned to Kindness, then that’s going to govern my decisions a great deal… and so, in my own life, which is the only life i am truly able to govern, the potential to be evil is squeezed out by the desire to Be Kind. i suppose a wordy way of making the Hippocratic Oath, lol
and i rambled at length, but perhaps you sort of understand what i mean.
anyway, back to the original reason i stopped in here: THANK YOU for putting your own honest spiritual wrestlings into words, it is very needed. many good people, both within the church and without, struggle in the very same ways and do not understand nor have words to explain why there is so much pain and loss and empty space.
Blessings.
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