Theologically Sound. Culturally Relevant.

TGC

The Gospel Coalition slanders Kyle Rittenhouse

If there was an article that makes clear the decline of The Gospel Coalition, K. Edward Copeland ramble about why he hates the month of August is it in this post. The article appropriately titled “Why I Hate August” was published on Saturday in reaction to the Kenosha riots and Kyle Rittenhouse. Copeland begins with by setting up all the reasons he should like the month of August in order to draw a distinct contrast not based on his own experiences.

My sister and I were born in August. As a child, I confessed Christ in August. As an adult, I vowed fidelity to my bride in August.

Copeland then goes on a long tangent explaining history, much of it taking place in August, that reads like Robin DiAngelo wrote it.

I read in history books that “20 and odd Negroes” from the White Lion, an English ship, were brought to the Virginia colony at Point Comfort on the James River on August 20, 1619, and sold for food. Yet when I saw the relatively recent magazine images, I began to suspect August was still a dangerous month for bodies like mine—even hundreds of years later.

Copeland’s [feigned] conception of the month of August is as pagan as a horoscope, and quite selective in its historicity. This is to set up the “egregious contrast” between the treatment of blacks in August and Kyle Rittenhouse.

This August, however, the hurt is amplified by an egregious contrast.

Kyle Rittenhouse killed people in the middle of the street (on camera and in front of witnesses) and then, smoking rifle at his side, casually strolled past law enforcement. He didn’t run away. He didn’t hide. He showed no fear. He assumed there was something about his person that would allow him to approach law enforcement with a visible semi-automatic weapon that had just taken lives—and live to tell about it. More than a few witnesses pointed out that he had just shot several people. Yet he was able to leave the scene and the state. 

Already, Copeland is lying about the events that take place to formulate a racist narrative. He conveniently leaves out the fact that Kyle Rittenhouse was defending himself from felons who were attacking him. So the remainder of this article is predicated in lies.

When armed mass shooters (Kyle Rittenhouse, Dylan Roof, etc.) are apprehended without incident, and unarmed black people are killed out of fear that they might be armed, we have a more insidious problem than “a few bad apples.” This thing is cultural, pervasive, and abominable. 

The contrast is not egregious, but this comparison is. Conveniently, Copeland, writing on a “Christian” publication has no qualms about lumping Kyle Rittenhouse in with Dylan Roof who shot up a black church in South Carolina. This comparison is slanderous. Copeland continues his contrast with Kyle Rittenhouse and alleged sex offender Jacob Blake.

If your default impulse is to try to justify the seven or eight bullet holes in Jacob Blake’s body—He’s no angel; What was in his system? He was probably reaching for a weapon; He should have complied; We don’t have all the facts—just consider the facts we actually do know about Kyle. He took lives in front of physical and digital witnesses. He’s alive. No bullet holes in his body. He will be charged and tried in court, not on the streets, as it should be in a just society. 

Alleged sex offender Jacob Blake had just attacked a police officer and was reaching for a weapon. He was asking to be shot. Are the police supposed to simply let him wave a knife around and wait for him to put it down. Dylan Roof surrendered to police. If a police officer shot him while he surrendered, they would likely face internal affairs to the same if not less public intensity that they would for shooting someone whose technically unarmed but attacking police.

The inconsistency between how these two bodies were treated in Kenosha reinforces my childhood suspicions.

Again, I do not think he actually had these suspicions because becoming woke is a conversion experience. But Copeland does wrap up his slander with a little self-awareness.

Those who claim my same convictions about Christ will be the first and loudest to castigate me for these observations. They’ll be the most proficient at finding some excuse for Rittenhouse, the most cavalier in discounting my trauma, the most eager to somehow find a “Marxist” or “Critical Race Theory” connection in my reflections. And that hurts my heart, literally and profoundly. 

That’s right. I not only discount his trauma, but I am going to the wall for Kyle Rittenhouse because this is an Arch Duke Ferdinand incident. If he gets shafted by the system, the system has stripped the rights of the people to defend himself. The most basic rights our country was founded on are under attack by those who charged Kyle Rittenhouse. Furthermore, we should live in a world where seventeen year olds step up when the government refuses to do its job and not enough adults are willing. That is masculinity and we need more of that. And yeah, Copeland sounds a lot like blatant Marxist Robin DiAngelo. Copland closes with this:

I hate August because I have a growing suspicion that no video evidence, no panel discussion, no theological argument will convince some to live out what we know to be true: God did not color-code human dignity and worth. Black and brown bodies are made in his image, like all others, and should not be desecrated or treated as disposable.

False teachers, like Beth Moore, have a habit of always focusing on their opposition, to delegitimize their criticism and scoff at the idea that they have strayed from orthodoxy into a false gospel. This article is evidence that The Gospel Coalition is no better and deeply corrupt. At The Gospel Coalition, a false teacher can break the 9th Commandment with impunity.

Facebook
Twitter
Telegram
Reddit
LinkedIn

One Response

  1. Just so tired of their lies…. they know they can’t admit to Christians they support a new “Great Leap Forward”.

Leave a Reply