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by J. Michael Bennett (Author)
Why do many American Christians Today Oppose the Values of Jesus? In recent years, why have most evangelical Christians been more concerned with political "winning" over soul-winning? Why have they been willing to "deal with the Devil" to further their interests and agenda, and disregard their call to "love thy neighbor," and its impact on their witness to the world and reputation of the Church? Why do their calls to limit government assistance and citizen protections mirror those of the financial, business and wealth classes? Do these modern values reflect the sermons and gospel they hear on Sundays, or the "sermons" they hear on talk radio and cable news during the week, like the Pharisees whom Christ opposed? How did this "cognitive dissonance" arise in recent generations of Christians, and by whose hidden hands did they infiltrate the doors of the church?
These questions and others will be addressed in full in this first installment of the Two Masters and Two Gospels series, by a Bible-believing Christian researcher who has uncovered shocking influences and culprits from the darkest corners of both the Mammon-worshipping establishment and Gnostic counter-culture, into the minds of generations of clergy, and through them into the Christian community at large.
It explores the observable changes in the attitudes, perceptions of and interactions with the outside world by America's Religious Right and evangelical base in the recent years of the "Trump phenomena," finding in their new president a messianic figure and an apparent expression of the collective "id" of their embattled culture and heritage of preeminent societal stewardship. However, have they made a "Faustian bargain" with the aim of a reclamation of short-term power and influence, and if so, which party is the compromising Faust, and which is the seducing Devil? Furthermore, have they sacrificed their (sometimes) historical role in society of spiritual guardianship and ethical example and leadership, "despising their birthright" of such like Esau, for a "mess of Trump porridge," or worse yet, in exchange for thirty pieces of silver?
So how have most of today's Religious Right-affiliated "salt of the earth" citizens developed a mindset and attitudes towards others and the issues of the day, expressing clannish pride, xenophobic paranoia of the "stranger" outside their own clan as well as a disregard for their suffering, and an exaltation of the wealthy, worldly successful and arrogant, in direct contradiction to the Sermon-on-the-Mount Kingdom principles of humility and "others-centeredness" taught by their own Founder and Savior? This work asserts that this paradox is best explained upon consideration of the "other gospel" most Christians are exposed to every week, as countless hours of exposure to talk radio and cable news during their commutes, work day and evening meal simply dwarfs the influence from their house of worship, propagating a "business-friendly" worldview. This work also reviews a score or more of the pertinent "hot button" issues of the day, and reveals how the teachings of Jesus and the saints as recorded in scripture bears little similarity to the media "gospel" that despises the poor, the stranger, and other "undesirables."
