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David Gushee: US-evangelicals, culture wars and… hope

David Gushee lehrt als Professor an der Mercer University in Georgia, ist Autor und Herausgeber von über 25 Büchern und hat in den letzten Jahren auch als Aktivist für LGBTQ-Inklusion, für den Klimaschutz und gegen die Folter in den USA hohe Wellen geworfen.

Manuel Schmid spricht mit ihm über seinen persönlichen theologischen und spirituellen Weg und über die Entwicklung des US-Evangelikalismus, besonders in den Trump-Jahren. Zur Sprache kommt auch das Thema Culture Wars und die Beteiligung von Christen und Kirchen. Wie sieht eine christliche Existenz aus, die sich nicht auf eine Seite der verhärteten politischen Fronten schlägt, sich aber auch nicht in eine apolitische Frömmigkeit zurückzieht?
Das Gespräch wurde auf Englisch geführt. Weitere Angaben zu David Gushee finden sich auf seiner Website.
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Today’s guest in TheoLounge is well-traveled: David Gushee is one of the most influential Christian ethicists in the United States. He teaches as a professor at Mercer University in Georgia, is the author and editor of over 25 books, and has also made waves in recent years as an activist for LGBTQ inclusion, for climate protection, and against torture in the US.

Manuel Schmid talks with him about his personal theological and spiritual path and about the development of US evangelicalism, especially in the Trump years. The «culture war» and the involvement of Christians and churches are also discussed. What does a Christian existence look like that does not take sides on hardened political fronts, but also does not retreat into apolitical piety?
The conversation will be conducted in English. Additional resources by David Gushee can be found on his website.

5 Kommentare zu „David Gushee: US-evangelicals, culture wars and… hope“

  1. Dr.Dietrich Schindler

    I resonate with much that David says, yet it is what he does not say that raises dissonance with me. I too want a passionate Jesus-centered Christianity. But will that lead to progressive and inclusive Christianity, where anyone can come and anyone can be who they want to be? Yes, all are welcome just as they are (to quote Billy Graham’s theme hymn), but not to stay where they are. If David’s Christian humanism is „the good, the right, and the true“, there must concomitantly be those ways and lifestyles that are not good, right, and true. These should ultimately, as Jesus taught, lead to repentance, not inclusion.

    1. Because in antiquity one could recognize nothing of homosexuality, of hermaphrodites, of people whose hormones can be extremely fluctuating, of people who suffer insanely as a result, of people who biologically do not correspond to the statistical normal distribution, whereby people presented themselves as lost and feel abandoned by God and humans, … because in ancient times there was no corresponding scientific knowledge, because in ancient times everything that was not normative was assigned to spirits and demons, against which those affected could not do anything and alleged demons were used with satanic violence together with the „Host people“ cruelly and brutally tried to exorcise these demons and in doing so has done cruel misdeeds to people of flesh, blood and sentient souls and bodies.
      Where is the mercy, compassion and concern for such lost ones?

  2. Thank you Manu for this very interesting conversation. I’m surrounded by many US missionaries. I’m thankful that usually we don’t talk about politics, but several times I have witnessed that the postings of some friends on social media got more conservative, nationalistic and even aggressive after they have returned to the US. I know that many have voted for Trump and a few times, I had chances to talk and asked them why. And usually the answer was, he is more in line with our evangelical values. In the resent Livenet Talk from 4. August about Evangelical Nationalism it was said, that many Evangelicals supported Trump in the hope he turns America into a great Christian nation. That Trump himself was morally quite the opposite of a good Christian did’t matter. For the first time, I understood that they see in him a pagan ruler whom God uses to build His kingdom on earth – like God has used King Darius to bring back the Jews to Jerusalem!

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