Thousands of Southern Baptists overwhelmingly voted to advance a formal ban on women pastors in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. cnn.it/3S3Ar4O

NEW: MAGA evangelical leaders gather in Mar-a-Lago to bless and dedicate a gold statue dedicate to Donald Trump.

It’s Holy Week and ICE is currently detaining a pastor with no criminal record who is legally in the United States seeking asylum. They have also refused to give him a Bible. substack.com/home/post/p-193…

Christmas is our annual reminder that God chose enter this world as a marginalized person on behalf of marginalized people everywhere. Jesus was born poor--to a scandalized teenage mom and a blue collar stepdad. His people were living under oppressive occupation and he was from a town no one liked (“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”). First recognized as Messiah by social outcasts and pagan magicians, Jesus spent his early years as a refugee on the run from a violent government. In one of his earliest public speeches, Jesus claimed he’d been sent by God “to proclaim good news to the poor,” “freedom for the prisoners,” “recovery of sight for the blind,” “to set the oppressed free,” and “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus spent the rest of his life doing just that, all while challenging oppressive systems, breaking religious rules, and defying social norms to support those on the margins. Eventually, he was executed as a political dissident by the occupying Roman government. But it didn’t end there. Jesus overcame death with life by rising from the grave, demonstrating once and for all that there is nothing more powerful than the love of God. He now offers forgiveness, freedom, and flourishing to anyone and everyone who wants it. If you really want to “keep Christ in Christmas,” worry less about people saying Xmas or Happy Holidays and more about sharing this story—the story of Jesus. (🖼️ Tent City Nativity by Kelly Latimore)

I posted this and got literally *hundreds* of comments/DMs from self-professed Christians claiming that we should absolutely be dehumanizing people we don’t like. I was called every horrible name in the book and repeatedly chastised for my “weak” version of Christianity. This is part of a larger trend in our country which claims the name of Christ, but has completely abandoned his teachings. It reminds me of a story I heard Russell Moore tell about how one of the pastors he knew mentioned that Christians should “turn the other cheek” in a sermon. A parishioner came up to him afterward and said, “where did you get those liberal talking points?” When the pastor pointed out that he was quoting Jesus, the man said, “That doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” The idea that ALL people are made in God’s image and deserving of love is a core commitment in Christianity. Regardless of our theological or ideological beliefs, all Jesus-followers should be united in this commitment. No one is an animal. No one is garbage. No one is worthless. Every single person is worthy of dignity, respect, and care.

If your version of Christianity can justify calling any group of people “animals,” it’s not from Jesus.