Part One: Introduction

I just finished listening to Rachel Held Evans read her audiobook, A Year of Biblical Womanhood and I wept.

It was through those stories that I was introduced to Rachel - can I call her Rachel? - when she spoke at the VAUMC Fall Youth Retreat in 2012. She taught me that it’s okay to grow in our faith and the importance in helping others grow, too.

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.

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: