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It hurts down here on earth, Lord

It hurts down here on earth, Lord

Last updated on: June 5, 2025 at 5:07 pm by Fred Clark

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It hurts down here on earth, Lord 2025-06-05T17:07:30-04:00 Fred Clark

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• Here is a radical, impossible statement, presented as an anodyne headline:

That says “Without the Bible and the Cross there is no gospel.” This is a bit of pernicious pablum that gets said all the time in white evangelical circles without anybody raising an eyebrow, but it is not true and it cannot be true and the implications of pretending it is turn out to be rather conveniently massive.

The problem here is theological, but it is also simply chronological. If “there is no gospel” without the Bible and the Cross then there was no gospel until “the Bible and the Cross.” Which means there is no gospel in the Gospels. It means that Jesus’s preaching and teaching, whatever it was, was not and could not yet have been “the gospel.”

And so it means that whatever Jesus had to teach or to say is of secondary importance.

• I don’t know the players or the teams here, but there are some deliciously ironic aspects to this report on the latest circular firing squad among the theobros: “PCA leader Bryan Chapell offers to resign after ‘scandalizers’ flap.”

Just consider this sentence: “The podcast, in which Chapell discussed his new book on church unity, was taken down, and Chapell apologized.” A conversation on “church unity” centers on an enemies list and turns so toxic that it has to be taken down and the author of the book on “unity” is forced to apologize and resign.

Said author “is the head of Unlimited Grace Media.” The general rule still stands: If you’re looking for grace, avoid any church or institution with the word “Grace” in its name.

• I’ll have more to say later about Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s horrific “We’re all going to die” comment and her vile, blasphemous Jesus-juke doubling down on that, but first let me share the most surprising bit of Scott Lemieux’s post on all of that.

Lemieux links to reports from Iowa that Ernst’s callous attitude is prompting a state representative to challenge her in next year’s election: “Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten … a 45-year-old pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers, is no stranger to running in deep-red areas.”

Wait … the state representative is also “a 45-year-old pitcher”? I mean, that’s not unheard of or impossible. Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer, Satchell Paige, Bartolo Colon, and a handful of other pitchers* were still going at 45. but don’t most pitchers retire before then, even in the independent leagues?

Well, it turns out that Scholten did retire, years ago. In 2007.

And politics aside, this is just a great baseball story:

Sioux City native J.D. Scholten came out of retirement from baseball on July 6, 2024, and made an emergency start for his hometown team, the Sioux City Explorers. He went out on only three hours’ notice and tossed 6.2 innings for Sioux City, throwing 102 pitches to pick up the win over the Milwaukee Milkmen. His story captivated baseball and became news not just in the American Association but nationwide. He would tie for the team lead in wins at the end of the season with a 6-2 record with a 5.40 ERA in 60 innings.

The night before the emergency start, J.D. Scholten, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives for District 1, was just another fan at Lewis and Clark Park in a 17-9 loss to the Milwaukee Milkmen. In fewer than 24 hours later, the right-handed state representative would hold Milwaukee to two earned runs on seven hits to pick up the 11-2 win. Scholten was 44 at the time of the win and had not pitched since 2007 for the Explorers.

• Sean Feucht is a MAGA-worship leader, a covid-denialist, conspiracy theorist, and mass-deportation enthusiast. It would be nice if someday he were held accountable for all of that, but at least his rabid self-enrichment and grifting may be catching up with him: “Former staffers accuse activist Sean Feucht of ‘potential financial crimes,’ spiritual abuse.”

A once obscure evangelical worship music leader, Feucht achieved fame during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic for his “Let Us Worship” concerts protesting pandemic restrictions on churches. He ran for Congress from California in 2020 but lost in the primary, but has since forged political connections in Washington, boasting about ties to conservative insiders and right-wing lawmakers such as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. He has also emerged as an evangelical leader in Trump’s orbit, having hosted multiple worship services in the White House and at Mar-a-Lago.

But the former staffers on the “Truth and Freedom Stories” website allege that amid his rise Feucht used business credit cards for personal expenses on multiple occasions, failed to pay staff minimum wage and may have used donations to invest in personal properties. They also say he falsely reported on tax forms that two of his nonprofits, Sean Feucht Ministries and Light a Candle, have no volunteers.

The former staffers identify at least six properties owned by Feucht’s organizations or Feucht himself. Among them is “Camp Elah,” a town house near the U.S. Capitol that the former staffers say is classified as a “parsonage,” despite reports that people are often not present on the property. The staffers say Feucht recently sold a property in California for $1.7 million, which “suggests a degree of personal wealth.”

“Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field.”

• The title for this post comes from a Kasey Chambers song we’ll dedicate here to Sen. Ernst:

* Phil Niekro and Tim Wakefield, too, but knuckleballers are their own distinct category.

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