The errant Christian participation in the Capitol insurrection has its roots in the apocalyptic craziness espoused by the likes of the late Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahaye. Their 'end of the world' mania misled many, laying the foundation for conspiracy theories...

... and the horrid view of the civil government so many trapped in the maze of this nonsense espouse. In an odd-couple marriage, Christian post-millennialism was then married this movement to a 'save America', all in the name of a mythical 'lost' Christian America and hopes for a
... future Christianized state, a theocracy in the Christian sense. Opposition to Christian positions on moral issues was equated w/ opposition to God. How? Paul Weyrich and the Reagan-era GOP saw this as an opening to win the Evangelical vote for themselves & beat Carter in 1980
EVs had voted for Carter in large numbers in 1976, Carter identifying with them as a Baptist and Sunday School teacher, a humble, gracious, country boy. The GOP wrangled that support to itself by taking up the fearful millennialism of the EVs and making the Democrats...
... an embodiment of the Beast of Revelation. American could be a Christian Republic, saved from evil - from the Democrats in particular - and, later, from the swamp, the deep state, or whatever label worked best. Because a majority of people would never accept these wild views
...the GOP promised EVs conservative judges who would back their social agenda. That was a crucial strategy and gave cover for a generation of Christian leaders to urge voting GOP 'because of the Supreme Court' no matter what. Issues of economy, war, character, etc were subsumed
into the critical battle to win the Courts in order to stop abortion, the 'persecution' of Christians, and 'communism', which is always, of course, the great enemy of the cold-war generation. Along the way, they forgot about fascism. Large numbers of EVs tethered fidelity...
...to Christ to support for the GOP agenda. Essential in that mix is the fact that this is a largely white EV escapade. Had white EV leaders actually had deep conversations with and listened to the concerns of Black EV leaders, they might've at least exercised more caution.
This failure to listen, fueled by errant eschatology and the desire to control the corridors of power (or at least find access to it and with it maintain cultural viability when their numbers were in decline), led many to support even the Big Lie of election fraud and participate
...in the insurrectionist activities of Jan 6. Some will say, 'I was just there praying and preaching.' But why? You engaged in public displays of righteousness - which Jesus repudiates - and did so in support of falsehood and ultimately murderous, revolutionary violence.
A day of reckoning has arrived for Evangelical Christians. We must repudiate: a) errant apocalyptic fear-based theology; b) the Constantinian myth of the conservative 'Christianized State'; c) the replacement of the Great Commission with 'saving' America;
d) exalting false patriotism as true spirituality, and e) seeking influence in the culture through levers of power. In place of these errors - rest in the present rule of Christ; offer a wide embrace of political diversity; get back on mission; seek to serve rather than to reign;
disavow the celebrity driven culture of public protest Christianity for worshipping communities of humility led by faithful servants; live in our cities as those who love our neighbors & seek the common good rather than as those who see their neighbors as enemies and fight them.
There's a long way to go on the journey home to Gospel sanity but for many it is time to take those first steps out of the lie. Yes, this is a wildly oversimplified version of what's transpired - hey, it's Twitter - but you can read the big books on it all. Christians will...
...sometimes agree with more conservative positions and sometimes with more liberal positions, and all should have their approach informed by Scripture. But never again should Christians so identify with a single party or cause that they risk eclipsing or besmirching Jesus.
Jesus was at the Capitol insurrection. Not on the lips & banners of the insurrectionists, the plotters & hunters, but with the broken and violated and fearful who cried out for help amid the mob.
True Faith isn't about getting Jesus on your side of a revolution, but rather humbly following him into service with sacrificial love for all.
So let’s be faithfully present as neighbors, participate in politics w/ humility & graciousness, & recognize that whether we US Xtians are Ds, Rs, or Indy, our tribe will get it wrong at times & get it right at times. We can work together, worship together, and love one another

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I've seen many news articles cite that "the UK variant could be the dominant strain by March". This is emphasized by @CDCDirector.

While this will likely to be the case, this should not be an automatic cause for concern. Cases could still remain contained.

Here's how: 🧵

One of @CDCgov's own models has tracked the true decline in cases quite accurately thus far.

Their projection shows that the B.1.1.7 variant will become the dominant variant in March. But interestingly... there's no fourth wave. Cases simply level out:

https://t.co/tDce0MwO61


Just because a variant becomes the dominant strain does not automatically mean we will see a repeat of Fall 2020.

Let's look at UK and South Africa, where cases have been falling for the past month, in unison with the US (albeit with tougher restrictions):


Furthermore, the claim that the "variant is doubling every 10 days" is false. It's the *proportion of the variant* that is doubling every 10 days.

If overall prevalence drops during the studied time period, the true doubling time of the variant is actually much longer 10 days.

Simple example:

Day 0: 10 variant / 100 cases -> 10% variant
Day 10: 15 variant / 75 cases -> 20% variant
Day 20: 20 variant / 50 cases -> 40% variant

1) Proportion of variant doubles every 10 days
2) Doubling time of variant is actually 20 days
3) Total cases still drop by 50%
Hi @officestudents @EHRC @EHRCChair @KishwerFalkner @RJHilsenrath @trussliz @GEOgovuk

The Equality and Diversity section of your job application has 'gender' in what appears to be a list of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

However...

1/15


However, 'gender' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

Sex is the protected characteristic under the Act, but that is not on your list.

2/15


You then ask for the 'gender' of the applicant with options:

Male
Female.

3/15


Again, 'gender' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

4/15


Sex is the protected characteristic and the only two possible options for sex are 'Female' and 'Male' as defined in the Act and consistent with biology, but you don't ask for that.

https://t.co/CEJ0gkr6nF

'Gender' is not a synonym for sex.

5/15

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Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.