Scot McKnight, Toxic Churches, and Toxic Politics
Scot McKnight on abusive churches and a resource on Jesus and politics.
Hello friend,
This is a hard season, no doubt.
Covid.
Personal and family struggles.
Injustices of all sorts.
Church abuse scandals.
And—an election that is driving people further apart.
And somehow, in the midst of all of this, we try to maintain trust in a loving God.
I want you to know,
today,
that God’s posture toward you is love.
When God looks at you, it is with the fierce gaze of affirmation.
Just as the Father looked upon the Son as he ascended out of the waters of baptism and said…. You are my beloved Son…
So God looks at you and says… You are my beloved child.
In a world where toxic churches harm people and where toxic politics divide people, sometimes we need that reminder.
When pandemics and injustice persist, we need to know:
God is love.
You are loved by this God.
May you lean into that love and allow it to bring healing and hope to every molecule of your being.
Two Resources
So, as you sit with the many things that are challenging in our world, I hope two resources can bring you hope for a better future.
The first, is a book that Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer just published: A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing. Scot and I discuss it on a recent episode of Theology Curator.
Second, I’ve been working on a series of podcasts called Jesus Politics. This is my attempt to create a series that explores key biblical themes that contribute to how we, as followers of Jesus, might engage in the political sphere. Politics are a toxic thing. But as followers of King Jesus, we can engage in a different way.