I grew up in the fundi Baptist church. I had to break away to save my life and did so years ago. But with the emergence of Trumpism, it’s like “The Empire Strikes Back” and once again, I’m subject to the same fear and loathing that I felt attending those churches who cared more about controlling people and their behavior than it did about salvation.

The American Evangelical Church has forgotten it’s protestant roots. Ironically, because it’s love of power, it is where the Catholic Church was 500 years ago that people like Luther protested. It’s corrupted. It’s associating with the empire instead of opposing it, and it’s unapologetically anti-Christ in it’s political views. There’s a need for a new reformation in America, some say it’s happening, and I believe this to be true.

Reading books by Nadia Bolz Weber, Rob Bell, and the late Phyllis Tickle as well as Rachel Held Evans, has taught me that Jesus (and God for that matter) wasn’t some dumb ass wandering around castigating people for being human. That’s religion and today, that’s American Evangelicalism. Passionately dumb as a brick.