David Stippick

I screw it up. On this feed, I do not speak for my Church or its affiliated networks, my other local business employer, but for myself and what I believe is important

So as a White Male Christian Pastor I cannot bypass my responsibility to speak up and speak out against those who take the name of the God I work to reflect and represent.

but also the least, the marginalized, the forgotten, the ignored, the attacked and maligned in the world around me both near and far.

Beyond just identifying as a Christian I am a Pastor. In my faith community I've been entrusted with the Spiritual and Emotional care and shepherding not just of those in my church/faith community/congregation,

I'll admit that that's primarily because I was born as a white male in Central Texas in 1987 - what other religious/faith tradition might I have found myself in? Born somewhere or sometime else I could have been anything else.

This is my primary lens through which to consider what's happening in the world right now because I am a Christian.

The Black Church. They have long been a prophetic and practical voice and body in this country and many of us would do well to follow their lead in this time.

Weeks ago I saw someone here say that the United States doesn't need a Confessing Church like the one Bonhoeffer was integral to in Nazi Germany because we have and have had one.

I've long been fond of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his work as a minister and activist in Nazi Germany. In no way do I believe I am capable of or some kind of Modern Bonhoeffer, don't come for me, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that there are people already doing that kind of work now.

These are not normal circumstances and these are not normal times.

So they will continue to take X number of steps knowing that we can only fight Y number of them, and only win Z number. That means that whatever slips through is a win for them and they can move on.

The disregard for norms, legality, and the overwhelm is the point. Everyone can't fight every dehumanizing action being taken.

I firmly belive both by watching what's happening here, reflecting on historical experiences, and what has happened in some places in the world today, that that does not matter to those currently seeking power and control.

As I've started some of these conversations in person or seen them in some of the digital spaces I inhabit online I see and hear many people saying that this, that and the other can't happen because it's not legal to do those things.

I don't consider myself an alarmist or conspiracy theorist. I'm an institutions guy. I believe in the Church as a whole, I thing Government should provide goods and services for all beyond what they do now, and that many people who have dedicated their lives to that believe the same things.

Donald Trump spent the last four years decrying the "adults in the room" that many believed in his first term would hold him back from any meaningful harm so that they could not be counted on the second time around.

However, I knew then that Donald Trump wouldn't face any meaningful consequences. Just as Hitler was then able to re-make his image and allow those around him to perceive him as someone to be used and controlled before proving himself to be too popular to be shouted down,

As I watched J6 unfold before my eyes on twitter, I told a co-worker (a history teacher!) that this felt like Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch - his initial failed attempt to seize power that landed him in prison but garnered him support.

I'm thankful to have read the book, "The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic," back in 2020.

However, I can't help but wonder how so many others like me aren't now seeing so many of the things that happened then and believing, at least on some level, that the same things are being attempted now.

As a high schooler in a conservative Central Texas town in a post 9/11 world I developed an interest in WWII - I don't think I'm unique in this.

I said that the announced "search" for FBI agents who worked J6 cases, coupled with the "buyouts" offered to civil servants, the stepping down of the top CS at Treasury, and the physical removal of an IG from USDA, felt like the Completed Wet Dream of the "Saturday Night Massacre" taken on by Nixon.

I told a friend that night that the shutting down of websites and scrubbing of data, which has been done in Donald Trump's previous administration, felt more sweeping.

On Friday evening I told my wife before we went to bed that I felt like we'd wake up to a different world on Monday morning, and to me it feels as though that is true. I'm comforted by the fact that a number of journalists and commentators I pay attention to seem to be affirming this.

At best, I'm an aggregator and I've found over the years that I've been able to inform others in my circles about happenings both important and benign.

One of the things I know about myself is that I'm not an expert in anything, really. I'm a practitioner as a parent and spouse, minister, End of Life care giver. I'm an above average consumer of news - political, general, local, national and international, entertainment and sports, etc.

First, I needed a bagel and an americano because, what the fuck, y'all.

I woke up around 4 a.m. today unable to go back to bed because I'd felt a shift that I'd wondered a bit about on Friday evening. I came to the coffee shop where I work from a couple days a week with a fire in my belly that had been growing since the middle of last week.