Is there hope for evangelicals now?

Remember the essence

Long ago I typed "beware false prophets" as an advisory about what was going on politically. Not that I'm such a wise person but perhaps I am prescient. Prescience means it would take time for others to catch up to me. I'm defensive on this because I don't wish to come across as saying "I told you so." 

What do I get out of this, anyway? I write because it has always been a chief aim in my life, a guiding aim. And I can reach an audience now thanks to all the new tech - reach an audience without spending a penny. I would be online anyway. 

Some components of that have worked out better than others. I made one attempt to sign up for online banking with one of my banks. On and on I went through their process - could there be no end? Multiple passwords or pass-phrases that I had to submit. No, certain aspects of my money management would continue to be done the old standard way. 

My aborted online banking experiment was with a bank which once had a physical presence in Morris. But that then changed as things often do with a bank. That bank is today known as U.S. Bank. They do have a branch in Alexandria. I started these accounts with State Farm Bank. State Farm eventually decided it was not practical to operate a bank. 

I have gone through changes also with the bank now known as "B-Mo." Well, that's Bank of Montreal, a Canadian flourish! Globalization indeed spreads its effects. With a shrug I've decided to trust a Canadian institution. "Adapt or die." My accounts there were set up when the institution was Bank of the West. This bank in Morris traces its origins all the way back to the old Citizens Bank! 

Citizens Bank was the classic small town bank of its time. So was "Morris State Bank" on the other side of Atlantic Avenue. Just to be different I went with "First Federal Savings and Loan," later to be "First Federal Savings Bank." And this institution has morphed into Riverwood. Businesses were not lined up to sponsor my graduation photo in the Morris newspaper back in '73. So my photo appeared with First Federal no doubt because I had an account there. 

This was truly "the old days" when young people got lectured on how important it was to "save money." The piggy bank principle. Then you'd get "paid interest" at the bank, and to really make progress there was "compound interest." One of my favorite economic commentators has observed that the reason so many boomers (like me) got situated so well for retirement is that when younger, they took advantage of "compound interest." 

So what happened to this advantage? This virtue? It vanished. Everyone got entranced by the stock market. Businesses set up 401Ks for their employees. Forum Communications set up something like that for me even though I expressly said I didn't want it. I found out about it when I inquired about our annual Christmas bonuses which up until then were done with cash. That was so nice. Some nice crisp bills to cover random costs in one's life. 

Instead we had to deal with some sort of "account" that had been set up for us. A business making financial decisions for its employees? Can we trust our employers to do this? As a matter of instinct, I'd say no. But life goes on. 

Our thinking about finances evolves, just as our religious life can get turned on its head. So all these years after I first warned about "false prophets," other people, after some head-scratching, seem to be saying there's something to that. My comment was of course directed toward Donald Trump. I didn't see anything Christ-like in him at all. Quite the opposite. 

I felt rather alone out here in rural western Minnesota where we have a congressperson now who thinks pro-life and Second Amendment are the only things on our minds. Michelle Fischbach survived a challenger who was actually to the right of her. This is our norm for the time being. 

Michelle Fischbach

However, is it possible that some smelling salts are finally being applied? There are signs Trump is a very bad, very selfish person. He crosses the line into criminality. Fischbach is proud to be an ally. 

"Evangelicals for Harris" is out there now. It was the evangelical movement in America that got Trump elected president in 2016. Footnote: Hillary Clinton actually got three million more votes than Trump. A mere quibble I guess. So we got the court-packing and the assault on women's reproductive health rights. Now we'll need a concerted effort to try to reverse that. It will not be easy. 

Abortion is women's health care. 

An "Evangelicals for Harris" ad denounces Trump as false prophet. Oh my, the sheer stupidity and mendacity out here on the otherwise blissful prairie where we have so many "conservative" churches full of Trump and MAGA people. There may be some fissures in all that now. It's a slow process and we're by no means done. 

Yahoo! News reports "a group of evangelicals is hoping to convince their fellow Christians not to fall for Donald Trump's lies once again." Declaring Trump a "fake prophet" is based on the Bible verse that reads "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." 

It is believed that if 20 percent of evangelicals turn away from Trump, the Democrat will win, democracy will win and be preserved. I say that just in case you care about democracy. You'll miss it when it's gone. And if it leaves us, do not assume the political right will necessarily keep the advantage. Politics will become like organized crime: people who are capable of seizing power will simply seize it. 

In our Morris there are three churches that resist the hard-right political trend of so much of Christianity. We have First Lutheran (my church), Faith Lutheran and Federated. Of the three, I would say Faith is doing the best and that's because they are riding the crest of a popular minister. But of late the rumors have been bouncing all over the place that Pastor Emmy's days here could be numbered. 

Pastor Emmy

So her husband got a job in Minot? That was the initial word, but of late we have heard that he has arranged for online-only work? Really? Well maybe he has. But if this was in the cards right from the start, why did the family even have to mention "Minot" to anyone? Minot is a nine-hour drive from here. If the job is online-only they would not have had to say anything. Life would just go on. 

So I'm wondering if maybe it's a matter of time before they'll want to leave, to get closer to Minot which would seem to be a natural impulse for an ambitious professional person. 

Why am I concerned? It's hard enough for one of the two ELCA churches in town to find a new pastor. My First Lutheran is in search of a permanent pastor. If Faith falls into the same situation, something drastic may have to happen like forced consolidation. Whew, a heavy lift. What building would be closed? 

All ELCA churches have been challenged in the age of MAGA. We do not buy the "false prophet" of Trump. I am concerned that so many have fallen for him. But that's our world. "Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do."

Never lose sight

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com