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Trying a slightly different, and hopefully more appealing, format for this week’s “Encouraged and Emboldened” . Our first felt a little abrupt and incomplete so I added a little more in this go around. If you listen, I’d love to know what you think. Rev. Matt Sapp’s “Love Abounds in All” tied together solar eclipses & John 14:27 in a very interesting way.

https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/encouraged-and-emboldened/love-abounds-in-all

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reviewed Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies by David P. Gushee

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David P. Gushee: Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies (2023, Eerdmans Publishing Company, William B.)

 4 stars

A proper takedown of Christian Nationalism, but it seems to be for a specific audience

4 stars

Gushee correctly points out the errors in Christian Nationalism, but avoids the term because he dislikes it. He describes it as "authoritarian reactionary Christianity," which I dislike because "reactionary" seems to put them on the defensive justifiably, whereas in my opinion, Christian nationalists haven't been wronged and have nothing to defend themselves for.

His solution to the growing problem is a covenental approach towards society (as in Covenant Theology, see Puritans, Reformed Baptists), nurtured by participation in a Baptist polity. That is, as people are brought up in the church to participate in a local congregational church government, they are in training for a democratic participation/covenant in the broader community. But the covenental approach is decidedly religious in nature and fails to take the atheist into account, other than acknowledging separation of church and state and that "all are equal." It doesn't offer Enlightenment solutions because the covenant itself is …