Of course there is a lot of division across many parts of American society. But for evangelicals, who have dedicated their lives to Jesus, the problem is deeper. Christians are supposed to believe in the spiritual unity of the church. While differing over politics and other secondary matters, they are in theory supposed to be unified by their shared first love — as brothers and sisters in Christ. Their common devotion is supposed to bring out the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,” say the opening lines of a famous Christian song commonly known as “By Our Love.” In its chorus it proclaims, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” The world envisioned by that song seems very far away right now. The bitter recriminations have caused some believers to wonder if the whole religion is a crock.

Russell Moore resigned from his leadership position in the Southern Baptist Convention last spring over the denomination’s resistance to addressing the racism and sexual abuse scandals in its ranks. He tells me that every day he has conversations with Christians who are losing their faith because of what they see in their churches. He made a haunting point last summer when I saw him speak in New York State at a conference at a Bruderhof community, which has roots in the Anabaptist tradition. “We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches,” he said, “but because they believe that the church itself does not believe what the church teaches.”

The proximate cause of all this disruption is Trump. But that is not the deepest cause. Trump is merely the embodiment of many of the raw wounds that already existed in parts of the white evangelical world: misogyny, racism, racial obliviousness, celebrity worship, resentment and the willingness to sacrifice principle for power.

Read it all.

Worth reading and reflecting, by @nytdavidbrooks with @KSPrior, @DavidAFrench, et al. “The Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism From Itself” https://t.co/GDhkPG4Cvo

— Dr. Michael J. Svigel (@Svigel) February 5, 2022

A former Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, was received into the Roman Catholic Church last year, it was confirmed this week.

The news follows the reception of Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, a former Bishop of Rochester, into the RC Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and the resignation of the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Revd Jonathan Goodall, to be received into the RC Church….

Dr Forster retired as Bishop in September 2019, aged 69, after more than 22 years in post…. Concerns about his handling of safeguarding matters had been raised, and, before his retirement, he delegated all safeguarding responsibilities to the Suffragan Bishop of Birkenhead at that time, the Rt Revd Keith Sinclair….

Dr Forster and his wife have moved to a house in Scotland, which has been under construction for several years. It is understood that he was received in Scotland.

Read it all.

Another one!
Former Bishop of Chester received into Roman Catholic Church https://t.co/vGUh5ayLAT

— Fr David Palmer (@FrDavidPalmer) February 4, 2022

O God our Father, who art the source of strength to all thy saints, and who didst bring the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith that we profess, even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

5 Feb 1597 – The 26 Martyrs of Japan are crucified at Nagasaki. This group of early Japanese converts, and their missionary ministers, were executed as Christianity was seen as a threat to Japanese society. #OTD #History #Japan #Nagasaki pic.twitter.com/b14yHD9doK

— PKL Living History (@gaelhistory) February 5, 2022

Grant us, O God, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your path may not stumble; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Not a bad start to the day here in Glastonbury. pic.twitter.com/RX7AE1AOL7

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) February 5, 2022

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

–Hebrews 12:18-29

Morning all. Enjoy the weekend

St Sunday Crag across Ullswater pic.twitter.com/iyegZQA5s5

— Johnny (@FlockofGhosts) February 5, 2022