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Ivan G Thompson
a book bubble about
The Making of a Great America Where the Church and the Founding Fathers Fell Short
Religion & Spirituality
Author Insight
The Church's Stand on Masks
I have really struggled this year as a Christian. My church was the most ethnically diverse that I have ever attended. The senior pastor and most senior leaders are white. After the George Floyd incident, I started to become a little uneasy with my church as the things being said from the pulpit seemed to parrot the Republican party platform. A few months ago, my church seemed to take the president’s stand on masks and later started having services without masks or social distancing. It seemed that we had gotten so close to the president that we followed his policy on masks and social distancing like it was a prophetic word. This was very difficult for me because my dad had coronavirus, and today there will be a memorial service for one of my dearest friends who also went to a church that did not wear masks. The senior pastor’s wife at that church, when confronted with the state law to wear masks in church services said it was “Biden’s law.” I have already started praying for the president and the first lady. I pray that neither will have a very difficult time with COVID-19. But I am also hoping that many of the president’s followers, including people at my church, would begin to reexamine their use of masks.
Book Excerpt
The Making of a Great America Where the Church and the Founding Fathers Fell Short
Excerpt from the Chapter:
A Ringing Endorsement by the Church?
“Reasonable people can differ when it comes to the flagrantly partisan impeachment process. But this is not merely about impeachment, or even merely about President Trump. He is not the sickness. He is a symptom of a sickness that began before him, which is the hyper- politicization of the American church. This is a danger for all of us, wherever we fall on the political spectrum. Jesus said we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. With profound love and respect, we ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to consider whether they have given to Caesar what belongs only to God: their unconditional loyalty.” (Dalrymple, 2019)
In his editorial, Timothy Dalrymple called “hyper-politicization of the American church,” the great sickness that causes evangelical Christians to continue to be loyal to a president who is “extravagantly immoral.” (Dalrymple, 2019)
Mr. Dalrymple goes on to say that “American evangelicalism is not a Republican PAC,” and that “We are a diverse movement that should collaborate with political parties when prudent but always standing apart, at a prophetic distance, to be what Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the conscience of the state.” (Dalrymple, 2019)
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