The editor in chief of Christianity Today Russell Moore told NPR that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount (“turn the other cheek”), and someone would ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”
Moore, who resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, after years of being at odds with other evangelical leaders, added:
What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,” the response would not be, “I apologize.” The response would be, “Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis…
I think if we’re going to get past the blood and soil sorts of nationalism or all of the other kinds of totalizing cultural identities, it’s going to require rethinking what the church is.
(Source: NPR)