(Picture above a screenshot of this video about Appalachian Christianity.)

This Twitter thread is making the rounds, deservedly so. It begins like this:

And consists of this:

However then he modified his thoughts. Click here to read the whole story, and to see some superb paperwork.

I considered this whereas reflecting on one thing a former occultist, now Christian, advised me once I interviewed him for my new e book. He stated that having come out of a really, very darkish place, he realizes now that the fundagelicals he used to make enjoyable of in his pre-occult youth are literally much better judges of the risks of the occult’s risks than the subtle Christians he used to admire earlier than turning into an occultist. After he started overtly and willingly to serve the darkish aspect, he used to snicker on the refined Christians as no menace in any respect to the designs of him and his co-religionists. The ex-occultist, who has a complicated training, even advised me that as crude as he’s, previous Jack Chick, together with his crazypants pamphlets, was so much nearer to the reality of what the occult is than are many extra refined theologians (and it is not more durable to be extra refined than Chick). A attribute picture from a Chick tract:

I am reminded too of what the late Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszyinski, the non secular chief of Poland throughout most of its Communist oppression, did to make sure the survival of the religion underneath the Communist yoke. The Blessed Stefan (he was beatified final yr) understood that the brand new Communist rulers of Poland would attempt to subdue the Church and secularize the Polish folks by successful over mental elites. So he strongly promoted Polish people piety, judging that the faithfulness of the straightforward folks of Poland, which entailed some pious practices that have been shallow and nostalgic, have been a stronger bulwark in opposition to the totalitarians than intellection. (In case you learn Czeslaw Milosz’s The Captive Thoughts, concerning the give up of some Polish intellectuals to Communism, you possibly can perceive why).

The purpose of all this isn’t to reward ignorance in Christian pastors. Not way back I encountered a low-church Christian who did not know what he did not know, and who made numerous dangerous judgments based mostly on his ignorance, which for him had develop into a type not of humility, however of self-righteousness. Satisfaction could take completely different kinds, nevertheless it’s nonetheless satisfaction. No, the purpose is to not reward ignorance per se, however somewhat to say that in some methods, the ignorant-but-faithful are a lot wiser than those that look down on them from a mountain of books, however who’ve misplaced one thing important of their mental assent. Could God bless Michael Clary for his testimony. He has given me so much to consider — as has this ex-occultist with whom I spoke.