Did you know that grasslands have only covered the earth for around 5 - 7 million years? 

I was taught that evolution undermines “biblical authority,” but I don’t think that’s true. Evolution is the scientific evidence of the great narrative arc found throughout the Bible: the meek always inherit the earth while the mighty always perish.

It’s not just a promised future outcome, it’s history, and it’s the story embedded in the earth.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” -Matthew 7:15-16

When the wolves in sheep’s clothing have been in the herd long enough, they normalize wolflike behavior to such a degree that the sheep begin to take on the characteristics of the wolves.

The wolves are running amok now...

How did millions of American evangelicals become stormtroopers (and not even know it)?

Tyranny triumphs when all the truthtellers are successfully silenced and the lies define reality.

Don’t be silent.

Liberalism, the rights of the individual over the State, dealt a crushing blow to the patriarchy.

The forces of oppression - greed, racial supremacy, religious fundamentalism, and patriarchy - had been exposed and were eroding, but they did not disappear.

Imagine for a moment, a Christmas Eve service; the people are singing Silent Night, one candle lights another until the room is filled with light.

“…heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!”

Then, with two verses remaining, someone starts blowing out candles. It’s not a child, it’s an adult, walking down the aisle, quietly extinguishing the lights.

The voices soften and begin to quiver, “…with the dawn of redeeming grace…”

I began this series talking about a different view of the peak of Western civilization, one from the much more distant past, when men were men and everyone knew their place in the order of things.

Two competing views: cooperation vs. order; peace through negotiation vs. peace through strength; democracy vs. autocracy; liberalism vs. authoritarianism.

I wonder if the nostalgia that people have for the 1950s and 60s is for liberalism. They picture it as a time when church attendance peaked (at 49%) as families went to their local mainline churches to learn the Golden Rule.

There was no authority on earth that could force the South to end its practice of slavery or become a true democracy, because the Bible did not compel them to do so.

Appeals to biblical authority are often used to abuse power and escape accountability.

Last week, I referenced a speech given by Vice President Vance in which he talked about the need to defend a “certain” Christian civilization (see Part Two), I suspect he did not mean a civilization built on the teachings of Christ.

If the Christian Nationalist movement is interested in Christian civilization, perhaps we should look at what the oldest Christian communities were like.

Several weeks ago, the Vice President of the United States went to Hungary to praise the authoritarian regime of Viktor Orban as the “the defense of Western civilization,” and “the defense of the idea that we are founded on a certain Christian civilization and Christian values that animate everything…” (CBS News)

When I heard this, everything clicked. 

“…a certain Christian civilization…” 

I pledge allegiance to the Bible,

God’s Holy Word.

I will make it a lamp unto my feet,

and a light unto my path,

and will hide its words

in my heart that I might

not sin against God.

I had never heard of this “Pledge to the Bible” until I taught in a Christian school in the 90s. I found it odd, but didn’t really question it.

I grew up with the Apostle’s Creed, which goes like this: