Beneath This Stone I'm Forced to Lie, a Victim of the Blue-State Fly - and other such delusions

https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?seriesonly=true&sourceid=trcnw&keyword=Blue+State+Conference

I tried to get through some of these but found it unbearable. Oh, the sorrows and woe for those who live in states controlled by Democrats. If we could all just move to Texas and Florida then all would be well.

I have a news flash for these people - all is not well. In fact in some respects I would find it harder to be a Christian in these venues because at every turn I would want to divorce myself from the actions of the state and in particular their governors. They would be lauded in the context of the church - and in protest of such idolatrous obeisance I would head for the exit.

Is this because I'm a liberal? No, I'm not even someone who embraces the tenets of Classical Liberalism. In keeping with the New Testament I reject not only American Idealism but the distorted authoritarian (and increasingly fascistic) versions of politics being advocated by the Right and their Christo-Trumpist allies. The point being, increasingly these people don't even embrace the idealism upon which America is founded. I reject it all and all man-made systems. I reject Biden and Trump, AOC and Abbott, Hochul and DeSantis.

I live in Pennsylvania, a swing-state which in some respects makes it aggravating as it receives so much attention from the politicians and activists. Are there griefs associated with living here? Of course, and yet I certainly prefer it to living in the Carolinas and some of the other states I have lived in.

The framing is all wrong. As Christians we can live in red and blue states, in chaotic failed states and in authoritarian states. The regimes we live under don't define us.

Is Christ over the Blue States? This is an absurd assertion. Christ is over all but that's not what they mean. The speakers aren't thinking in terms of Providential Rule but Holy and Covenant Reign - in other words these states are 'problems' that need to be fixed, polities that need to be redeemed.

Such a thing is not possible according to the New Testament which posits such as 'outside', the realm of Satan, the prince who reigns over this present evil age. There is no basis to argue this will change before the return of Christ. Their entire emphasis is wrong and misleads the Church, changing its ethics and causing it chase phantoms off the edge of cliffs and to compromise along the way, even to the point of forming evil alliances in order to do so. Will no one challenge these misleading voices?

Is there something different about creating community in a Blue State? Is that what this is really about - in Biblical terms, or is this just a front for more political activism?

Is generational faithfulness somehow more of a problem in a state run by Democrats? The very notion is absurd. In fact, character is best fostered in the face of adversity. Red states (so called) are also an occasion for spiritual adversity but as it's more confused, so are the commitments and allegiances young people will wrestle with.

I feel sorry for these people. They fail to see how trapped they are by their own thinking and how they have unknowingly limited their own horizons. They would grow the Kingdom? What Kingdom? I see no Kingdom working in their midst. I see men chasing Babel and little else.