Even when Evangelicals think they're humbly repenting, they're not

Tonight an Evangelical FB friend posted something about how convicted they felt reading the Bible. This passage, in particular:

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Mark 7:20‭-‬23

They went on to say that we (presumably meaning them and their fellow Evangelicals) often ignore certain sins like greed, envy, deceit, slander, arrogance, and folly, while today's world seems to ignore other sins like sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, and lewdness. They then asked "Do you pick and choose which of God's words to follow and which words are beneath you?"

Now, this person is my wife's old friend, not mine, so I don't want to alienate them by calling them out on their page. But, DAMN, I need to talk about this post.

What I WANTED to say in response was this:


"Oh, are Evangelicals finally ready to repent and acknowledge their own flaws? Cool. 

Just a hypothetical question:

Is it okay for Evangelicals to support someone they know to be a serial adulterer, who brags that he can grab women by the genitals without bothering to ask because he's famous so they'll let him? Is sexual immorality a sin that should be called out, or ignored? Does character matter in a leader, or is that only something Evangelicals say when they don't like the leader?

Is it okay for Evangelicals to ignore someone's deceit when he lies to the country about - to take a few examples entirely at random - how serious a pandemic is, or the outcome of an election he lost by 7 million votes, or what happened in a phone call wherein he committed treason? Is deceit no longer a problem when it's your guy who's lying?

Is arrogance okay from someone who says that he alone can fix the country? Is greed okay from someone who took money from poor people via his fraudulent "University" that pretended to give good advice about how to become rich? Is malice okay from someone who couldn't go ten minutes without saying something about how anyone who doesn't agree with him is unhinged, evil, stupid, or hates America?

Do Christians who talk endlessly about "personal responsibility" bear any for the consequences of their choices? Do Christians who talk endlessly about "repentance" need to acknowledge that they knowingly did something wrong, and then turn around and start doing things differently? 

There's a beam that Evangelicals could try taking out of their own eye, before posting any more hot takes about morality on Facebook."


The thing is, even though people like this think they're acknowledging their own sins and failures by admitting that they don't always take some sins seriously ... they are still refusing to acknowledge the sins they voted for (twice) and continue to insist were the "lesser evil", or even the "greater good".

Even when questioning whether they have been picking and choosing which of God's words to follow, they are actively choosing to ignore the ones that should ACTUALLY make them feel conviction. The ones in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. The ones about loving your neighbor as yourself. The ones about sacrificing your own desires for the sake of meeting the needs of others. The ones about how nations and rulers should treat the poor, the sick, prisoners and immigrants. They STILL can't acknowledge that their consistently choosing Trump and Republicans is a choice AGAINST all the things their Lord said were most important.


Side note: Someone else responded that the scariest verse in the Bible, to them, is this one:

“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:22-23

So, first of all: Yeah, maybe if there is a final judgement you should be worried that you went through the motions of following Jesus but never actually knew him.

But also:
If your god wants you to live your life in fear that, despite your best efforts to please him, you'll end up being harshly punished by him for not pleasing him ENOUGH... then maybe you don't worship a benevolent father. Maybe you worship an abusive husband. And you should get out of that marriage, like, yesterday.

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