There’s a lot in this post. I’ve some understanding and a lack of it as well.

Yet, I’m reminded of black Americans. Is there not a correlation?

If our most important calling is to live as Christians, we must drop the things (grievances) that bind us to this past.

1. Perhaps there’s room for you to see a speck of truth.

2. Some stories have two sides.

Mostly, my heart often aches for the racial divisions in this country that God has so richly blessed. There is often too much taring down our own home with our own hands.

I greatly enjoy your writing, David.

P.S. I’ve noted elsewhere that you’ve stated some like to play with their id. I’m American, French according to my Daddy’s last name, migrated from Canada as told by my relatives but long ago and a very cold trail. There is an American Indian in my Great Great Grandmother who had an unmarked grave, on Daddy’s side. Okay?

He was recounting some of the reasons many people reject Christianity, or remain averse to association with the church. He mentioned the Crusades, and the conquest of the New World.

He did not dispute these accusations. He implied acknowledgement that these are direct inconsistencies, failures, or “sins” of the church.

I don’t see it that way. The Crusades were wholly defensive. The age of exploration was about survival, as noted.

Perhaps this Lutheran pastor was a “liberal” Lutheran, and not a conservative. However, my experience in professional Christianity (Yale Divinity, etc.), thie Lutheran pastor represents the “social conscience” of much of modern American Christianity. This is a source, not just the university, of anti-Americanism. The very “protestant” church. The sentiment runs deep.