My article Vote “Jesus 2020”? is now available at Baptist News Global.
When I was in college, I read an author who introduced me to a radical new concept. I’d been attending church for 18 years, and this was something I’d never heard before. I was skeptical.
from Vote “Jesus 2020”?, featured in Baptist News Global
The word this author introduced to me was “discipleship.” He had the audacity to suggest that Jesus was interested in transformation, in helping people see God more clearly, in allowing God to live in and through them. Frankly, I thought this was insane.
My experience of Jesus was of one who really wanted me to believe the right things (and by really wanted, I mean would damn me to eternal hellfire if I did not). The Jesus I knew wanted his people to wear the right T-shirts, listen to the right music, throw stones at the right sinners, and, most importantly, vote for the right candidates. This last one I internalized way before voting was even on the table for me.