D-2 PEOPLE FILES
- Jurushah Duford - Iain M Duguid - Julia Duin - Kristin Du Mez - Charles Dyer - Will Dyer -
jerushah duford
Signers of the open letter calling out Christian nationalism include Jerushah Duford, a granddaughter of the evangelical preacher, the late Rev. Billy Graham. In an interview with NPR, Duford said she was "heartbroken" by the events of Jan. 6, a feeling she said she experienced throughout the Trump years as she watched many white evangelical leaders align themselves with him.
"It felt like this was a symptom of what has been happening for a long time," she said.
--Wyoming Public Media: Evangelical Leaders Condemn 'Radicalized Christian Nationalism' 1.24.21
"It felt like this was a symptom of what has been happening for a long time," she said.
--Wyoming Public Media: Evangelical Leaders Condemn 'Radicalized Christian Nationalism' 1.24.21
Iain M. Duguid
Iain M. Duguid is professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the author of Ezekiel and the Leaders of Israel, Esther & Ruth, Daniel, Song of Songs in the Reformed Expository Commentary, as well as many other titles.
Iain M Duguid
The fundamental reality that Judah had always relied upon, the presence of God in their midst in the temple on Mount Zion, is revealed to be now nothing more than a hollow shell. The glory of God has departed from their midst, leaving the city ripe for destruction. What that means is that those who seem to themselves to be in the better situation—in the frying pan rather than in the fire, those confidently depending on God’s commitment to Zion—are actually next on the menu. God has abandoned them to their doom. To continue the culinary metaphor, their goose is cooked. --Iain M Duguid; NIV Application Commentary: Ezekiel; 1999
julia duin
Oct 21, 2022: Religion News: Best In Religion Journalism: Religion News Association Presents Its Annual Awards
Among the highlights:
• Julia Duin, a longtime religion journalist who has written for ReligionUnplugged.com and is Newsweek’s contributing editor for religion, won for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Online-only News Outlets and placed in two other categories. Duin was honored for stories she wrote for National Geographic, Politico and Newsweek.
Among the highlights:
• Julia Duin, a longtime religion journalist who has written for ReligionUnplugged.com and is Newsweek’s contributing editor for religion, won for Excellence in Religion Reporting at Online-only News Outlets and placed in two other categories. Duin was honored for stories she wrote for National Geographic, Politico and Newsweek.
kristin du mez |
Kristin Du Mez
"If you look at how many conservative evangelicals responded to abusive leaders, abusive pastors in their own churches and in their own organizations…. time and time again, you see evangelical communities ending up defending perpetrators of abuse — of sexual abuse, of abuse of power — and doing so in the name of protecting the witness of the church, (and) blaming women for leading men on or for seducing men. All sorts of excuses, really…. And that's exactly the rhetoric that we have heard and continue to hear around somebody like Donald Trump....I started noticing, more than 20 years ago, a growing embrace of a very kind of militant, rugged, even militaristic conception of what it meant to be a Christian man — a kind of warrior. And I traced that up to the present and heard so many echoes of that in evangelical support for Trump; he was their ultimate fighting champion, who would do what needed to be done to advance their aims…. You can see in the recent history of evangelicalism kind of an ebb and flow of perceptions of masculinity and what's wrong with masculinity." -Kristin Du Mez; The Bulwark; "Beg to Differ" 8-18.23
“How could conservatives with ‘family values’ support a man who contradicted every single principle they claimed to stand for?...............It was more the culmination of the evangelicalism adoption of a combative masculinity, an ideology that entrenches patriarchal authority and condones a ruthless display of power...........In reality, evangelicals did not cast their vote despite their beliefs, but because of them. John Wayne “did not live a moral life by the standards of traditional Christian virtue,” yet “for many evangelicals, he would come to symbolize a different set of virtues — a nostalgic yearning for a mythical ‘Christian America,’ a return to ‘traditional’ gender roles, and the reassertion of (white) patriarchal authority. Like Wayne, the heroes who best embodied militant Christian masculinity were those unencumbered by traditional Christian virtues.....For many evangelicals, these militant heroes would come to define not only Christian manhood but Christianity itself.”
--Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
--Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
March 14, 2023: Reformed Journal: Kristin Du Mez’s Calvinism and My Own
The Christian Reformed theobros are laying in ammunition for their assault on heretics such as I at this June’s meeting of Synod, but I don’t want to talk about that right now. Maybe in a future post.
We need a broader, and calmer, take—not on the substantive issues at hand in this controversy, but on the role that issues, particularly professed beliefs, play in religious life and organizations. For that I want to share the analysis, at once winsome and penetrating, that Kristin Kobes Du Mez recently posted on her Substack site, Du Mez Connections.
The Christian Reformed theobros are laying in ammunition for their assault on heretics such as I at this June’s meeting of Synod, but I don’t want to talk about that right now. Maybe in a future post.
We need a broader, and calmer, take—not on the substantive issues at hand in this controversy, but on the role that issues, particularly professed beliefs, play in religious life and organizations. For that I want to share the analysis, at once winsome and penetrating, that Kristin Kobes Du Mez recently posted on her Substack site, Du Mez Connections.
Kristin Du Mez
“This whole complementrian ideology is a historical construction...All the packaging that comes with it — what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman — that’s a historical and cultural creation, even as it’s packaged and sold as timeless, inerrant and biblical.” -Kristin Du Mez; Religion News Service: Beth Moore apologizes for her role in elevating ‘complementarian’ theology that limits women leaders 4.7.21
charles Dyer
Charles H Dyer
"Several Hebrew abecedaries (alphabets scratched on pieces of broken pottery by Hebrew children learning to write) have been found by archeologists. Some of these alphabetical lists are in the normal order for the Hebrew letters but others are in the reverse pe-'ayin order. Evidently both arrangements of the alphabet were acceptable. Thus the writer of Lamentations was merely employing two forms of the Hebrew alphabet, both of which were used in his time."
-Charles H. Dyer, "Lamentations," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament
-Charles H. Dyer, "Lamentations," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament
will dyer
Will Dyer is the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia.
Aug 24, 2023:
While reading a blog on a church web site tonight I came across an article about the fear of the Lord written by Pastor Will Dyer, who wrote this
about the Fear of the Lord: "In the Hebrew consciousness, the word fear doesn’t mean to be afraid. Instead, to “fear the Lord” means to have a great wonder and awe. The book of Proverbs is not asking us to think of God as a cosmic tyrant. That couldn’t be any further from the truth! To fear the Lord means to have a love and reverence for the Creator of all things. A proper understanding of Proverbs 1:7 is a baseline for how to see God and each other! So, as we begin our journey through the Proverbs together, let’s begin by knowing and trusting in these short words of wisdom. " I cannot agree with that, though I used to. Fear of of the Lord means exactly what it says: Fear. We have reason we should fear. Yes He is "wonder and awe" but that kind of simple fear will not produce holiness. We need to understand that God is all powerful and we need to fear what He can do if we disobey. I lived most of my life as a "Christian" with just that "awe" but my life never really changed until I understood the fear is real and necessary. I believe it was part of the lesson that Job learned. Real fear of the Lord can scare the hell of of you. Consider it.
While reading a blog on a church web site tonight I came across an article about the fear of the Lord written by Pastor Will Dyer, who wrote this
about the Fear of the Lord: "In the Hebrew consciousness, the word fear doesn’t mean to be afraid. Instead, to “fear the Lord” means to have a great wonder and awe. The book of Proverbs is not asking us to think of God as a cosmic tyrant. That couldn’t be any further from the truth! To fear the Lord means to have a love and reverence for the Creator of all things. A proper understanding of Proverbs 1:7 is a baseline for how to see God and each other! So, as we begin our journey through the Proverbs together, let’s begin by knowing and trusting in these short words of wisdom. " I cannot agree with that, though I used to. Fear of of the Lord means exactly what it says: Fear. We have reason we should fear. Yes He is "wonder and awe" but that kind of simple fear will not produce holiness. We need to understand that God is all powerful and we need to fear what He can do if we disobey. I lived most of my life as a "Christian" with just that "awe" but my life never really changed until I understood the fear is real and necessary. I believe it was part of the lesson that Job learned. Real fear of the Lord can scare the hell of of you. Consider it.
Fear of of the Lord means exactly what it says: Fear. We have reason we should fear. Yes He is "wonder and awe" but that kind of simple fear will not produce holiness. We need to understand that God is all powerful and we need to fear what He can do if we disobey. I lived most of my life as a "Christian" with just that "awe" but my life never really changed until I understood the fear is real and necessary.
Dec 6, 2022: Atlantic Journal Constitution: Some Georgia pastors push back against spread of Christian nationalism
The way the Rev. Will Dyer sees it, if pastors aren’t speaking out against Christian nationalism, then they’re making a huge mistake.
Dyer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Augusta, has addressed the ideology in his sermons and in private conversations with members, cautioning against the philosophy that some say calls for the blending of religion and government.
His stance cost him about 10 members from his congregation, which has an average Sunday attendance of 1,000.
“It’s something I had to do,” Dyer said of his decision to speak on the issue. “It’s a reality in all of our churches and pulpits.”
The way the Rev. Will Dyer sees it, if pastors aren’t speaking out against Christian nationalism, then they’re making a huge mistake.
Dyer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Augusta, has addressed the ideology in his sermons and in private conversations with members, cautioning against the philosophy that some say calls for the blending of religion and government.
His stance cost him about 10 members from his congregation, which has an average Sunday attendance of 1,000.
“It’s something I had to do,” Dyer said of his decision to speak on the issue. “It’s a reality in all of our churches and pulpits.”