What’s Going on with the Church? Is the “Wheat” Being Sorted from the “Chaff”?

Calvin Mulligan  Futurescapes.ca All rights reserved June 28, 2023, rev July 11, 2023

A torturous spectacle

Call me jaded, but there are really few things occurring in the public square in our Upside Down world these days that surprise me. And that includes both the in-you-face expressions of evil and the political contortions of left-leaning, woke Christian churches to accommodate them. But I won’t deny it can be difficult to watch. RT recently reported that self-described “activist pastor”, Quentin Caesar (who goes by she/he pronouns), declared, “God is Queer” in his speech at the closing ceremony of the German Protestant Congress in Nuremberg. Speaking to attendees of the Evangelical Church Congress, Caesar declared that “now is the time to say” that “black lives always matter,” that “God is queer,”and that migrants must be welcomed to Europe, among other liberal affirmations.”

The article goes on to say that Caesar’s views aren’t unique among Protestants. An Anglican church in London held a drag queen performance for local “LGBTQIA + communities and other marginalized people and groups.” The author adds that a Protestant Church in Sweden replaced an Adam and Eve altar piece with one showing homosexual couples in suggestive poses.

Gigi de la Torre attended Washington DC’s pride parade and among other things, noted a “religious” presence; specifically, representation by a number of churches. One of the groups was Washington DC LGBT Catholics. Another identified itself as “United Methodist Churches of the National Capital Area.” The groups’ signs and posters carried such messages as: “Queer and Christian,” “God is love,” “God is a dyke,” and “Trans joy is a miracle.” 

Swedish journalist, Peter Imanuelsen reported that he had walked into a church in Norway and discovered a wall hanging at the front of the church where the image of Christ was superimposed on an LGBT flag. Shocked at what he calls ‘absolute heresy”, Imanuelsen asks: WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE CHURCH??? 

I’ve been asking myself the same thing. Specifically, why have so many Christian churches and church leaders eagerly jumped on the LGBTQI+ bandwagon (along with a lot of other cultural Marxist causes)? The question has played out in my personal life as my former church here in Ottawa has bought into the trend.

A love affair with “wokeism” or cultural Marxism

Its love affair with woke ideology and causes appears to have begun prior to my arrival in 2016. By 2019, it had become too hard for me to stomach. It seemed that the (stealth) seeding of cultural Marxist memes into church prayers, sermons and the congregational lexicon was dishonest and incompatible with tenets of the Christian faith. I miss the fellowship, but in some respects my departure has been liberating. I no longer have to confess the fashionable fake sin of “micro aggressions”, acknowledge my inborn white racism and “white fragility” (courtesy of Robin D’Angelo) or pretend to fear imaginary “white supremacists.” It frees me to focus on some of my real sins like inaction in the face of evil. Going along in order to get along with evil isn’t a virtue. There are just too many occasions when I’ve sat and waited for divine intervention or someone else to step up when I should have.

But, back to the matter of what’s going on with the church. What’s prompting so many to jump into the pool of orgiastic LGBTQI+ Pride fandom, applaud fake justice causes like BLM and march in lock step to the drum beat of authoritarian vaxx zealots? I can think of  four maladies that may be afflicting progressive churches, their leaders and their congregants.

Lack of spiritual discernment: In the age of deception, or any era for that matter, the ability to discern between the virtuous and the Luciferian counterfeit is essential. But it needs to practiced on a regular basis. Perhaps these churches once possessed this ability, enabling them to discern between darkness and light, and it’s has atrophied from lack of use over time. This in turn, has left them spiritually blind and deaf, lacking eyes to clearly see and ears to hear. It strikes me as a case of Elephant (in-the-room) Blindness,” because the militant depravity of the dark side is hard to miss. And their memes and slogans aren’t exactly subtle. How much discernment does it take to parse a message like that coming from LGBTQ+ marchers in the NYC 2023 Pride event: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children”? 

Ignorance (and laziness): It’s hard to overstate the importance of doing one’s due diligence regarding the latest ideological fashion peddled by the Powers-That-Be. So, how many woke churches that leapt onto the BLM bandwagon for example, actually researched the political backgrounds of its leaders, BLM’s anti-traditional family manifesto, the source of BLM funding, the use of donations or even black leaders’ impressions of the cause. And even now, long after the false high of George Floyd’s veneration has dissipated, how many of those that bent the knee have a clue as to what it was really about? Do they care that the autopsy revealed that Floyd had actually died of a drug overdose? Do they care that reportedly not a single dollar raised while black and white businesses burned was directed to community improvement projects. (But thanks for playing, suckers.) 

I once tried to alert my church pastor and librarians to the likelihood that a book recently added to its lending library was thinly-disguised Western war propaganda. I supported my claim with a dozen or so references. Since Mennonites had historically adopted a passivist stance during wars, it seemed ironic that a Mennonite church was providing war propaganda to its congregants. But no, I was told the book should remain on the shelf; it was fine. Later, I tried to alert the church to the fact that the LGBTQ+ political cause could no longer be considered a matter of oppression, thus no need for sermonizing. And still later I provided heavily-documented evidence that the Covid vaxx narrative was a dangerous scam threatening the lives and health of congregants. Seemingly nothing has registered.  

Vanity: My re-reading of the Emperor’s New Clothes as an adult revealed something I had missed as a child. The con described in the 186 year old fable was ultimately a pitch to human vanity. The story reads in part: “The fake weavers in the story said their cloth  was more beautiful that any other cloth BUT it could not be seen by just anyone. Only people who were smart and the most excellent could actually see the magic cloth. People who were not smart and not excellent —well, they could see nothing at all.” 

So those who claimed to see the emperor’s new clothes were instantly deemed smarter than the rest. The biblical Eve is said to have been seduced by the promise that she would become like God. Big Pharma and its minions promised the masses that getting vaxxed  would confer a variety of privileges that lesser humans, specifically anti-vaxxers, would be denied. And pledging loyalty to the LGGTQ+ flag, it appears, elevates one to the lofty company of the virtuous to enjoy the fellowship of other woke cult “believers”. Ooops…they all fall short of the rule in business: under-promise and over-deliver! In reality, any cause which purportedly confers special privileges or special status (more virtue, or intelligence) is an appeal to human pride or vanity, something James Wood (Rev.) calls “the food of fools.” 

A grasp for renewed relevance: The root of the progressive church embrace of cultural Marxism may go deeper than a felt need for greater societal acceptance. It may reflect an unspoken yearning for renewed relevance in a 21st century societal context. The church, once a central pillar of the community is Western society, has been gradually pushed to the sidelines over the last 50-60 years. The technological Utopians have to a large degree declared it irrelevant. Governments have usurped aspects of church ministry in the realm of charitable services, and criminalized aspects of pastoral ministry. (One example is counselling in the realm of gender dysphoria.) In light of this, some churches are perhaps yearning to regain relevance in the eyes of the public and dwindling congregations. Perhaps Progressives believe that embracing cultural Marxism and advocating for its causes will enhance their denominational “sex appeal” — figuratively speaking of course.

The likely after-effects of the affair 

The excitement of the illicit love affair eventually wears off, leaving the straying partner wondering what the attraction was. The lurid affair between progressive churches and cultural Marxism is likely to have a similar outcome. The thrill will wear off while disappointment, guilt and shame linger. It’s said that before Satan destroys his victims, he first degrades them. Perhaps this was a feature of the diabolical plan to spiritually neutralize vulnerable churches from the outset. Seduce them with false promises and allow the resulting guilt and shame to distance them from God’s love, something which typically leads to spiritual paralysis. 

What is the likelihood propagandized churches will rebel against their programmers and return to the core of the faith? It’s probably not as great as one might hope, for multiple reasons. The most obvious reasons are pride and shame. Less obvious is the possibility that church leaders and congregants that bought into the “get vaxxed” Covid propaganda may be sedated. One medical observer, Dr. Tau Braun says, “I have become more and more certain….that the fundamental reason for the vaccine was as a tranquilizer.” If true, lethargy, not righteous rebellion against the political fashion du jour can be expected. I say this because progressive churches tended to equate vaxx “mandate” compliance with Christian obligation in spite of the risks attached to the injection.

Straddling a barb wire fence 

Meanwhile, at a practical level, the contradictions progressives are seeking to straddle are painfully inescapable. For example, do progressives advocate for “trans rights” or do they advocate for the rights of children, including a child’s right to be protected from political indoctrination? Which mantra will it be…”Protect trans kids”, or Protect kids from trans (exploitation, medical mutilation, and predation)? Now that the marketing campaign for pedophilia is well under way, will progressives feign blindness to the addition of the next gender/sexual kink to the expandable LGBTQ1AA+ alphabet? Will they continue to blissfully celebrate with LGBTQI+ Pride” a year from now or awaken to challenge the inversion of the moral horizon? You don’t have to be a cowboy to know it’s painful to straddle a barb wire fence. And there is no neutral ground in this all-out spiritual war.

Winnowing winds 

What’s going on with churches? The desperate pursuit of acceptance and “love” in all the wrong places by so-called “progressive” churches is beginning to read like a cautionary biblical parable. At least one of its lessons can be drawn from an analogy with harvest and its central task — separating the kernels of ripened grain from the chaff. Following the threshing of their harvested crop, ancient farmers used the wind to separate the grain from the chaff in a process called “winnowing”. (A modern farm combine uses a fan-generated current of air.) The Luciferian-weaponized cause of the day, whether it’s based on BLM, LGBTQIAA+ or something else, is like a winnowing wind blowing across our society and our culture. Thus, it’s not just religious leaders and church doctrines that are being sifted and sorted in the process. It seems like every personal belief system, ideological construct, political brand, organization and institution is being exposed to divining winds. Are we in the midst of a great, God-ordained winnowing? It seems so.

“For the winnowing fan is in his hand and he purges his threshing floor, and he gathers the wheat into his barns, and the chaff he will burn in fire that is not extinguished.”(Matt: 3:12) 

— Calvin 

Endnotes:

I went to DC’s Pride parade. Here are nine things that I saw: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/15/i-went-to-dcs-pride-parade-here-are-9-things-i-saw/

“Pride” is a thinly-veiled colour revolution to destroy Western civilization: https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/84984/brandon-smith-pride-is-a-thinly-veiled-color-revolution-to-destroy-western.html

Drag marchers spark outrage with “we’re coming for your children chant” at NYC Pride event: https://nypost.com/2023/06/24/drag-marchers-spark-outrage-with-chant-at-nyc-pride-event-were-here-were-queer-and-were-coming-for-your-children/

Peter Sweden (twitter): https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1667839339785785344

The Emperor’s New Clothes: Bedtime stories for kids: https://storiestogrowby.org/story/early-reader-emperors-new-clothes-english-stories-kids/

God is ‘queer’, says German Pastor: https://www.sott.net/article/481233-God-is-queer-says-German-pastor

Transgender lawsuits reveal horrors of procedures: https://stateofthenation.co/?p=173042

The spike protein functions as a neurological tranquilizer numbing the brain to reality: https://stateofthenation.co/?p=173171