Millions of White Evangelicals are Now Supporting a Legally Defined Sexual Predator

Donald Trump has now been found liable by a jury for sexual assault and must pay over five million dollars for assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a clothing store in 1996. However, she is far from the only one who has testified that Trump has committed assaults:

Jessica Leeds has recounted that Trump touched her breasts and ran his hand up under her skirt in the early 1980s.

Kristin Anderson has said that Trump reached under her skirt and touched her genitals in the early 1990s.

Jill Harth told how Trump repeatedly sexually harassed her and groped her under a table in 1993.

Temple Taggart McDowell, former Miss Utah, said that Trump kissed her directly on the lips the first time she met him in 1997.

Cathy Heller said Trump grabbed her and tried to kiss her at Trump’s luxury resort Mar-a-Lago in 1997.

Karena Virginia recounted that Trump groped her during the US Open golf tournament in 1998.

Mindy McGillivray said Trump groped her while she was at a concert at Mar-a-Lago in 2003.

Rachel Crooks said she was assaulted by Trump in an elevator at Trump Tower in 2005.

Natasha Stoynoff recounted that Trump pushed her against a wall and stuck his tongue far down her throat at Mar-a-Lago in 2005.

Jennifer Murphy, a participant in Trump’s TV show The Apprentice, said Trump kissed her on the lips after a job interview in 2005.

Ninni Laaksonen, former Miss Finland, told how “Trump was standing right next to me and suddenly squeezed my buttocks” in July 2006 when they were backstage to appear on The Late Show.

Jessica Drake told how Trump grabbed her and kissed her without consent, and then offered her $10,000 for sex in 2006.

Summer Zervos, another participant in The Apprentice, told how Trump started kissing her, touched her breasts, and pressed his groin against her in 2007.

Cassandra Searles, a model who participated in Miss USA, which Trump owned, told how he grabbed her buttocks and invited her to his hotel room in 2013.

Last but not least:

Donald Trump himself boasted in 2005 to his friend Billy Bush about how he usually assaults women by “grabbing them by the pussy” and getting away with it because he is so famous, and how he, for the same reason, usually has sex with married women.

Isn’t Trump innocent until proven guilty? Legally, absolutely – he cannot be punished solely based on accusations – but that is not the same as saying that all these women are liars until proven otherwise. Especially not when Trump is a proven liar with this verdict (and according to his own words when he thought no one but Billy Bush could hear him).

The fact that many Americans, including many Christians, now openly express their continued support and defense for the sex offender Trump after the guilty verdict is sheer madness.

It was only 25 years ago when the Souther Baptist Convention passed their “Resolution on Moral Character of Public Officials”, which states: “Some journalists report that many Americans are willing to excuse or overlook immoral or illegal conduct by unrepentant public officials so long as economic prosperity prevails. […] Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.”

If white evangelicals in the US want to be viewed as anything else than immoral, misogynistic hypocrites, they need to abandon the Trump train immediately. The fact that they’ve been on it for seven years is disastrous in and of itself, but to save whatever integrity they have left, now is the time to repent.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Featured image of Trump by Gage Skidmore, creative commons.

The “Final Warning”: Three Billion Lives Are at Stake in the Coming Decades

Recently, the UN released its “final warning,” the last climate report they will write before it becomes too late to prevent a warming of at least 1.5 degrees.

We have two years to start reducing emissions – but instead, we increased them last year. Three billion people are threatened with losing access to clean drinking water in the coming decades, yet wealthy countries are reducing aid to the world’s poor. Research clearly shows that we must quickly stop driving gasoline cars and significantly reduce consumption of products like meat and new electronics – but many politicians lie about not needing to change any of this.

The report shows that the climate crisis is already here and causing conflicts, refugee crises, extinction of species, and famine. The longer the crisis continues, the more severe it becomes – to the extent that more and more researchers believe that most civilizations will collapse if the climate crisis is not quickly avoided through major lifestyle changes.

It may seem like an impossible task. But nothing is impossible for God. While the climate crisis is something all people – believers and non-believers – need to cooperate to overcome, I am convinced that the Holy Spirit wants to help us transition to sustainable homes, sustainable congregations, and sustainable societies.

Already two millennia ago, long before we came up with the idea of releasing millions of tons of gases into the air, the authors of the Bible wrote about the importance of contentment, simplicity, and guarding against the temptations of wealth (see, for example, 1 Cor 8:13-15 and 1 Tim 6:7-10). Now more than ever, the world needs a church that not only believes in these values but demonstrates in practical action how beautiful they are.

It is not too late yet – but we do not have time to delay. If everyone lived like the avarage American,we would need four Earths for the natural resources to be sufficient. Let us seize the opportunity to prepare a path for others to follow and show that life is not only possible to live in a simpler and more sustainable way – it is also so much more full of life!

I never thought I would live in a time when the UN and thousands of researchers would proclaim that the lives of three billion people are at stake in the coming decades, only to be met with a shrug from many.

Is the lack of interest in this due to people thinking they themselves will not be affected, even though it would naturally lead to economic and civilizational collapse if a third of humanity dies or is driven to flee? Or do they find it too difficult to think about how their own lifestyle and living standards contribute to the problem, preferring to bury their heads in the sand rather than seriously changing that lifestyle?

Perhaps they simply lack hope for change, and think that the impending disaster is as inevitable as a giant asteroid. How important it is then for the church to proclaim a message of hope for both this world and the next!

As Paul writes in Romans 8:

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” 🌱

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Trump’s Pornstar Infidelity Highlights the Evangelical Hypocrisy in America

Yesterday, Donald Trump was indicted for having paid over a hundred thousand dollars to the porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their sexual encounter shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to the crime, calling it a “sex scandal of biblical proportions” and admitting that it was done on Trump’s orders.

Trump also accidentally admitted to the crime in 2018, but has since denied it. He is really bad at playing innocent – he recently threatened “death and destruction” if he is charged. Several of his supporters call it persecution and communism that he is being charged – they do not care that Trump himself has already admitted to it.

The millions of (white) evangelical Christians who still support Trump also do not seem to care about his infidelity with porn stars and other women. In fact, after the infamous video where Trump boasted about committing sexual assault (“grab them by the pussy”) and sleeping with married women was released, he became more popular among white evangelicals.

This is largely due to the fact that many white evangelicals value traditional patriarchal masculinity, as historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez shows in her book Jesus and John Wayne. While they verbally condemn sexual assault and infidelity, it is something many evangelical men engage in themselves and are quite impressed by, and women are taught to accept sexual assault and rape in popular evangelical books about marriage and relationships. The book The Great Sex Rescue goes through this in detail and shows that evangelicals who have a so-called “complementarian” view of women and men have significantly worse marriages that often lead to divorce.

These statistics show beyond any reasonable doubt that the white evangelical endorsement of Trump has radically changed their values. In 2011, over 60 percent of them said that an elected official who commits an immoral act in their private life cannot behave ethically in their public life. In the Trump era, this conviction remains among less than 20 percent. Falwell Jr. and other evangelical leaders have convinced millions of Christians that a good character simply isn’t relevant when it comes to leadership, despite there being hundreds of verses in the Scriptures that suggest otherwise.

Continue reading Trump’s Pornstar Infidelity Highlights the Evangelical Hypocrisy in America

The “Jesus Revolution” Movie Shows How Peace and Justice Belong with Signs and Wonders

The film Jesus Revolution about the youth revival in the 1970s has done much better than expected in US cinemas – and now there are reports that some have even given their lives to Jesus after seeing the film. At a movie theater in Miami, a prayer and praise meeting arose after the film was over where some made the decision to become Christians.

Here I have made a video where I have collected clips from the revival meeting at the cinema:

People were saved even during filming. When Jonathan Roumie, who plays the hippie preacher Lonnie Frisbee in the film (and who also plays Jesus in the series The Chosen) filmed a scene where Lonnie baptized hundreds of people in the sea, some of the extras said that they had never been baptized but wanted to be born again in the name of Jesus. Thus, some of the baptisms that made it into the movie are not staged, but the cameras filmed people being baptized for real! 🙌

The film’s producer also said that many in the studio and on the production team who were not Christians were moved to tears when they saw the film and wanted to know more about Jesus. This is truly no ordinary Hollywood movie!

The Jesus Movement in the 1970s emerged as a unique blend of evangelism, charismatic spirituality, and activism for peace and justice. Participants were deeply engaged in anti-war protests, expressing their commitment to nonviolence and social reform. This countercultural movement also fostered a strong sense of community, with many followers living in communes and practicing a simple, communal lifestyle that emphasized shared values and spiritual growth.

As the Jesus Movement gained momentum, it attracted a diverse range of individuals, including disenchanted youth, disillusioned with the mainstream societal values of the time. These followers sought solace in the teachings of Jesus, interpreting them as a call for radical transformation of both individual lives and society as a whole.

The movement’s emphasis on charismatic spirituality, which included speaking in tongues, divine healings, and prophetic visions, created a sense of unity and transcendent experience among its members. This spiritual fervor served to strengthen their commitment to activism and social justice, fueling the movement’s impact on the broader culture.

The Jesus Movement’s anti-war stance aligned with the growing peace movement of the era, and its members often participated in protests and demonstrations against war and militarism. This commitment to peace extended to various social issues, such as racial and economic justice, environmental concerns, and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities.

Despite its countercultural roots, the Jesus Movement also had a lasting influence on mainstream Christianity. It contributed to the growth of contemporary Christian music, as well as the rise of non-denominational and charismatic churches. Ultimately, the Jesus Movement’s unique combination of evangelism, spirituality, and activism served as a powerful catalyst for change, both within Christian communities and in the broader society of the 1970s.

It’s amazing to see how the Holy Spirit is impacting people’s lives through this movie. Now sadly, I haven’t been able to watch the movie myself since I live in Sweden, but a Swedish friend of mine, Anders-Petter Sjödin, went to the premiere in Los Angeles and said that it was amazing. If you have the opportunity to see it, you should definitely take it.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

In memory of Ron Sider and his amazing work for peace and justice

One of the great champions of a Christianity shaped by peace and justice, Ron Sider, has gone home to God. His 1977 book “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger” has been named one of the most influential religious books of the 20th century, motivating hundreds of thousands to live more simply and help the poor.

This book has sold over 400,000 copies and has been translated into multiple languages. In it, Sider argues that Christians have a moral responsibility to actively work towards ending poverty and economic inequality and that prosperity theology, which teaches that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, is misguided.

Sider’s work has also had an impact on the broader society. He has been a leading voice in the Christian social justice movement for several decades, and has been influential in shaping the thinking of many Christians on issues of poverty, economic justice, and the role of faith in politics and society. He was the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action (nowadays called Christians for Social Action), an organization that works to mobilize evangelicals to advocate for social justice issues. Through his books, speaking engagements, and involvement with this organization, Sider has been instrumental in raising awareness of poverty and economic inequality and encouraging Christians to take action to address these issues.

Ron Sider was also a devoted pacifist and his speech at a Mennonite conference in 1984 that pacifists needed to be as willing to make sacrifices for peace as soldiers led to the founding of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that sends nonviolent observers to conflict zones.

Ron Sider’s work on nonviolence and peacemaking is centered around his belief that Christians have a moral responsibility to actively work towards peace and justice. He argues that war and violence are not consistent with the teachings of Jesus and that Christians should instead strive for nonviolence and reconciliation.

One of his notable contributions in this area is his book “Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War” which was first published in 1992. In this book, Sider outlines ten practices that individuals, churches and nations can engage in to work towards the abolition of war and the establishment of just peace. These practices include: nonviolent resistance, conflict resolution, economic alternatives to military spending, and the promotion of democracy and human rights. He also argues that Christians should actively work towards disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons, and that the just war tradition has been misused to justify violence and war.

Sider’s work on nonviolence and peacemaking has been influential in shaping the thinking of many Christians on issues of peace and justice. He has been a leading voice in advocating for nonviolence and disarmament, and his work has helped to raise awareness of the moral implications of war and violence.

I listened to him when he visited Gothenburg over ten years ago and I was struck by his passion to follow Jesus and his Sermon on the Mount no matter what it costs us. We need more disciples like Ron!

Praying for Putin

by Bob Ekblad, originally published on his blog.

A few nights ago I had a surprisingly vivid dream featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin. I recall it now as if it were an event that actually happened.

At first I was walking behind him and an American woman I knew, who seemed determined to keep me from him. Then I saw him look at me at a gathering in a hotel, as I refused to sing some well-known American songs in English with what looked like American fans.

Then suddenly I was seated beside him in the front seat of his limo. Gracie sat beside a woman in the back seat who was maybe his wife– though I’ve since learned he’s divorced, so I’m not sure who this was. She lay back against the seat, her bare forearms covered with elaborate, symmetric tattoos.

We start talking more personally, and he immediately directs someone to pull the curtains between the back seat and the rest of the limousine, so those further back couldn’t hear or see us. Heavy black curtains are drawn, allowing for total privacy.

I tell him I’ve been praying for him. He looks skeptical, and I say:

“Mr. Putin, I mean prayer as conversation with God.”

His driver mockingly asks: “conversation with God?!”

I then remember that as Russian Orthodox Christians he and his driver would understand prayer more as rote, liturgical prayers from a prayer book. So I explain:

“I’m not talking about praying liturgical prayers, say from the Orthodox liturgy or prayer books. These prayers are precious, valuable and powerful, and we can certainly benefit from praying them. But we can also pray to God directly, conversationally about what’s on our heart and mind.

I look at him and say: “President Putin, I’ve been talking with God, with Jesus, like we’re talking now, asking him to give you wisdom to know what to do, and courage to make the right decisions.”

He visibly warms up, and looks at me with genuine interest.

I had seen some special bottles of liqueur or skin tonic. I wondered if he might give me a gift. Just then he offered me a bottle and some other gifts. I thought I should ask him how we could stay in contact in the future. But then I woke up.

This dream took me completely by surprise. I hadn’t been thinking about Putin, though I have been keeping up on the news on a daily basis regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I also lead a weekly Bible study via Zoom with Russian recovery guys living near Krasnodar.

I read and hear Mr. Putin being regularly denounced as a brutal oligarch dictator, a war criminal, evil incarnate. He is often compared to Stalin or Hitler. He most certainly has blood on his hands.

However, in only demonizing Russia’s President we risk pushing him further into the darkness, from where even more destruction can be unleashed.

Throughout Scripture the prophets regularly communicated with heads of State, both in person and through letters and emissaries. These communications included intercession, as well as offers of specific counsel, warnings and outright denunciation too.

Jesus challenged the religious leaders of his day, embodying a way for saving that incorporated active love for and intercession on behalf of enemies.

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Lk 6:27-28).

The Apostle Paul was often imprisoned by the authorities of the Roman Empire who had blood on their hands– who he faithfully told about Jesus. He writes in Romans 12:14 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse,” followed by “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rm 12:21). Paul wrote Timothy words that are certainly important to head now.

“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

Mr. Putin has recently threatened to use nuclear weapons, which would lead to destruction like the world has never known. Certainly now is the time to include him and his political and spiritual advisors, and our own national leaders in our prayers, “so that we (followers of Jesus in the Ukraine, Russian, Europe and around the world) may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity”– so we can focus our attention on advancing Jesus’ Kingdom.

In my dream I told Vladimir Putin that I pray for him. However in reality I have really only begun to actively pray for him since my dream. I invite you to join me in daily prayer for Mr. Putin, and for his advisors– including the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. Let’s remember to pray too for the Ukrainian people, leaders and soldiers– and for Russian soldiers. May we engage in active peacemaking from out of a commitment to prayer as the Apostle Paul urges in Philippians 6:18.

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”

Bob Ekblad is co-founder and co-director of Tierra Nueva in Burlington, Washington. Bob is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  He holds a ThD in Old Testament and is known internationally for his courses and workshops on reading the Bible.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Guns Are Not Made in the Image of God. Children Are.

I live in a country where there are no school shootings. It’s probably due to us having extremely restrictive gun laws in Sweden, as it is illegal for civilians to carry a gun unless they have a license and guns are required to be unloaded, hidden, and supervised when transporting them.

The United States, on the other hand, has more guns than people, guns are involved in 79 % of homicides (compared with 4 % in the UK) and the gun lobby is extremely rich. Tragically, many pastors and other Christian leaders enthusiastically support the gun industry despite Jesus’ words about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek. As a result, many of them refuse to acknowledge the need for more gun control in order to prevent school shootings like the one in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two adults.

For example, worship leader Sean Feucht warned his followers against seeking political solutions to the gun problem, telling them that the solution is to bring God “back in schools” (which, ironically, is a political suggestion):

In fact, when the National Rifle Association (NRA), the leading gun lobby organisation in the US, arranged a prayer breakfast at their national convention just a few days after the shooting, nobody on stage mentioned the attack or prayed for the families of the victims. Instead, they prayed against “Democrats and liberals” who want to have better background checks on those who want to buy guns. After all, this is the same organisation that has actively lobbied against background checks and undermined efforts to keep firearms away from those with mental illness.

Yet, there was a voice in the wilderness, a remnant of righteousness among the gunmongers. Our friend Shane Claiborne, activist and theologian, was there. Not because he is a NRA supporter, but because he wanted to show the people at this prayer breakfast the difference between the Gospel of Jesus and the gospel of guns.

He and some friends started to pray for the victims of the shooting in Uvalde, and immediately were kicked out by the police. Shane writes at Red Letter Christians blog:

I carried with me the Uvalde paper we had picked up. The front page had all those babies’ faces and the two teachers who died with them. We also had a list of all their names, along with the names of the 10 people killed in Buffalo. Our goal wasn’t to get kicked out of the prayer breakfast. Our goal wasn’t event to disrupt it.

We had tickets and waited until there was a space without speakers in the program so we didn’t interrupt. Our goal was singular – to pray for the victims by name, and to invite everyone to join us. With the help of a coalition of clergy around the country known as National Faith Leaders For Ending Gun Violence, we had created a liturgical, call-and-response, prayer. Before reading aloud each name, we say together, “God knows their names.” And after each name, we say, “Lord, have mercy.” Simple, heartfelt prayer.

As we were told that the program would pause, and breakfast would begin, I stood, holding the Uvalde paper, and invited people to join us in prayer for the victims. After the first name, we were told that we would be arrested if we did not leave. So we invited people to join us outside, as we respectfully complied with police orders. It is noteworthy that the police came quicker to kick us out of the prayer meeting than to confront the shooter in Uvalde.

Claiborne also said:

“I’m going to go straight to Jesus and say we cannot serve two masters. And we really are at a crossroads where we’ve got to choose: Are we going to follow Jesus or the NRA? And literally, you couldn’t come up with much more contrasting messages. The gospel of Jesus — turn the other cheek, love our enemies — stands in direct opposition to the rhetoric of the NRA — stand your ground. The gun and the cross give us two very different versions of power.”

[…]

“Idols are things that we put our trust in. They’re not God, but we treat them like they are,” Claiborne said. “We put this sort of sacred reverence into things that should only be given to God. And it’s been said that idols are things that we are willing to die for, kill for, and sacrifice our children for. And literally, by that definition, I think guns would have that sort of unreasonable dedication.”

“Guns are not made in the image of God but children are,” he added.

Amen.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish theologian, author, and editor for PCPJ.

Uvalde Children

Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Putin Refers to Biblical Love as He Continues to Bomb Children

On a war rally in a Moscow stadium last Friday, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that his “special military operation” in Ukraine, which he refuses to call a war, reminded him of the words of Jesus in John 15:13: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Alisa Perebyinis, killed at the age of 9 by Vladimir Putin

This is just a few days after a pregnant woman who was damaged by Russian bombing in the occupied city of Mariupol died along with her unborn baby. Ukrainian authorities claim that over 100 children have died in the war as of yet, and although the numbers are difficult to verify at this point there is no doubt that Putin has killed children in this conflict.

One of them was named Alisa Perebyinis. She was nine years old, and her father found out that she had died along with his wife and 18-year old son on Twitter.

To kill children in a pointless, unlawful and unrighteous war is despicable in and of itself. But Putin goes even further than that, claiming that his sinful acts are an expression of Biblical love.

He quoted someone who never used violence against anyone and who taught us to love our enemies, Jesus Christ, in order to justify slaughtering innocent people – many of which are Christians!

Putin is of course far from the only politician who has religious rhetoric in order to motivate people to war. George W. Bush claimed that God told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and called the war on terrorism a “crusade“.

Israel’s former corrupt prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu constantly refers to biblical texts when justifying Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and its warfare against Palestinians.

Even the Nazis during World War Two quoted passages like Romans 13 in order to make people submit to Hitler.

Jesus warned that there would be false prophets who claim to follow him but refuse to do his will (Matthew 7:21). He said that there would be those who persecute Christians who actually think that they serve God (John 16:2).

Whether Putin is deluded enough to actually think that he is loving people as he bombs children is impossible to know. Perhaps he hates God and just uses religious language to gain support.

In either case, the Bible makes it clear that all those who take the Lord’s name in vain to justify their own evil actions will stand accountable before him on the last day. God will restore all those who fell victim to injustice, and invite us to an eternal life with him without any wars, lies or oppression.

All thanks to the one who truly gave his life because of his love for us: Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Here’s how you can donate to help the victims of war in Ukraine.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish pastor, author, and editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Most Swedish Pentecostals Used to be Pacifists… But Their Eschatology Was Extremely Violent

“War is not the will of God, this we know.”

– Folke Thorell, Evangelii Härold, 1967.

“God will let the satanic rearmament of nuclear weapons and biological warfare strike the godless themselves in forms of plagues that will exterminate large portions of humanity.”

– Folke Thorell, Evangelii Härold, 1968.

Pentecostals were the largest religious group among conscientious objectors in Sweden between 1967 and 1971, a time characterized by passionate debates on the ethics of war in the shadows of Vietnam and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In my master’s thesis on church history, I aimed to review and analyze how the Pentecostal periodicals Evangelii Härold and Dagen described and ethically motivated military violence and pacifism during this period.

The purpose was to identify potential motivations for pacifism and/or military support during a time when a large number of Pentecostals refused to bear arms, with a particular interest in how these motivations related to ethical evaluation on contemporary wars.

Swedish Pentecostals at a revival meeting in the 1960’s. The informal leader of the movement, Lewi Pethrus, can be seen to the right.

The findings were fascinating. Pacifism and conscientious objection were regularly promoted and seldom criticized, while most contemporary military violence was condemned with one glaring exception: Israeli warfare.

Folke Thorell, quoted above, thought that God principally is against war, but allows them to fulfill his eschatological plans and even engages himself in warfare. He envisioned two-thirds of all Jews to die in a future third world war involving nuclear bombs, a genocide so brutal it would make the Holocaust seem “minuscule” in comparison.

A Bible Study in Evangelii Härold titled “A Nuclear Physicist Interprets Revelation”, illustrated by a nuclear missile being fired from a submarine.

Unlike the American war effort in Vietnam, Israel’s wars were commonly viewed as eschatologically significant and biblically predicted holy wars, with several writers suggesting that God himself has waged and will wage war on Israel’s behalf. Pacifism was primarily motivated by obedience to the Bible rather than empathy, fitting with Lisa Cahill’s theory of obediential pacifism being distinct from empathic pacifism in the Christian tradition.

Support for Israeli warfare was also derived from biblical interpretation, primarily based on Old Testament texts. It was further motivated by ideas of Jewish suffering and death being part of God’s plan, with several Pentecostal writers speculating that an apocalyptic genocide would precede the second coming of Christ.

Many Pentecostals did not see this as standing in conflict with personal pacifism and conscientious objection, as both views were perceived as biblical.

Future research could further explore the relationship between Pentecostal eschatology and empathy, along with how mid-century Pentecostal Zionism might have been influenced by antisemitic ideas from the 1930’s.

Download the thesis here!

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish pastor, author, and editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

The Messy, Dirty, and Beautiful Birth of Jesus

by Greg Boyd, originally published on his blog and in the Minnesota Christian Chronicle, Volume #28 No.21, December 3, 2006.

Few things capture the spirit of Christmas better than a traditional nativity scene for many people. The star shines down on the serene baby Jesus, sleeping in a nice little manger with golden straw spilling out from the edges. He’s surrounded by Mary, Joseph, three wise men and several shepherds. They are all radiantly peaceful as they gaze in wonder at the newborn Christ child. Even the animals lying in their nice clean hay seem almost Spirit-filled as they look serenely upon the infant Savior. As the song goes, even when the cattle start lowing and the poor baby wakes, the little Lord Jesus no crying he makes. It’s a cute, quaint scene, capturing the spirit of a cute, quaint holiday.

Now, I don’t mean to be a scrooge, and I’m not suggesting there’s anything heretical about this cute, quaint scene. I’m all for tradition – our family sets up a nativity every year. On the other hand, I think it’s important to realize that this scene is not completely accurate.

Try to imagine for a moment how things most likely unfolded the night Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph were probably teenagers when they traveled to Bethlehem, for in first century Jewish culture girls were usually engaged around the age of 12 or 13 and boys around 16 or 17. The two were undoubtedly exhausted from their long journey when they arrived at the inn, but all the rooms were taken. The two decided to bed down with the animals in the inn’s stable, which must have been an act of utter desperation (was Mary beginning to have contractions?). They really had no choice, since the possibility of Mary giving birth in public was (especially in first century Jewish culture) completely unthinkable.

Plus, an early church tradition tells us that the stable was a cave, a suggestion many scholars find plausible. So the young, unwed mother and her fiancé make their way to this cave, which was probably animal-packed if the inn was full. We should probably imagine these two exhausted and desperate teenagers squeezing past livestock, stepping over animal droppings, making their way to a corner of an unventilated, smelly, dimly lit cave so Mary can have her baby with some degree of privacy.

Suddenly the manger scene is beginning to look a bit less cute and quaint.

Nativity scene in an Iraqi refugee camp

Now try to imagine what the actual process of giving birth might have been like. Even with the best preparation and medical assistance, the birthing process is painful, “messy” and, at times, terrifying. Yet, Mary and Joseph would have had little preparation, and likely no medical assistance. They were alone.

When the child was born, they placed him in a manger – which in this context can only refer to a trough the animals ate or drank from. This certainly couldn’t have been their first choice! It’s hard to imagine anyone remaining calm and serene given these circumstances.

If even half of these assumptions are accurate, they suggest a nativity scene that was much less cute and quaint than what we traditionally picture. We should imagine two desperate, exhausted teenagers passed out on bloody, manure-filled hay in a crowded, smelly, dark cave while their baby sleeps – and sometimes wails – in a slimy feeding trough. The original audiences of the Gospels would probably have imagined something like this, and it would have shocked them. I believe this is a central point of the story.

Our God uses his almighty power to dive into the worst this world has to offer. He dives into the shame of an unwed Jewish mother. He dives into the rejection of an already-full inn and the darkness, odor and inconvenience of an overcrowded stable. He dives into the desperation and fear of a young, ostracized couple. He dives into our humanity; and not humanity at our best, but humanity at our worst. He’s not a God who gravitates toward the cute and the quaint, but a God who immerses himself in our mess, our manure, our pain, our fear, our sin and our shame.

He is a God who takes on himself everything that is shockingly ugly and redeems it all – and by doing so, he reveals himself to be a God who’s shockingly loving and beautiful.

This Christmas if you set up a nativity scene, don’t worry too much about what it looks like. There’s a place for tradition, and I doubt many stores sell “realistic” manure-filled caves to put on your end table! But remember that our God isn’t cute and quaint. He is a God who’s beautiful because he takes on our shocking ugliness and lovingly transforms us.

And I’ll take that Christmas story over cute and quaint any day.

Greg Boyd is an internationally recognized theologian, preacher, teacher, apologist, and author. He has been featured in the New York Times, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, National Public Radio, the BBC, and numerous other television and radio venues.

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