During the Sept. 1 episode of America Unhinged on Brighteon.TV, theologian Dr. John Diamond tackled Jesus Christ's commands for Christians to be "salt and light." He was joined by former Ohio football coach Dave Daubenmire, who was sued for praying with his high school football team. Daubenmire, who now heads Pass the Salt Ministries, lamented the apathy of many Christian churches over what happened to him.
Diamond began his program by elaborating on Christ's instructions to be salt and light. He quoted the gospel according to Matthew: "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." (Matthew 5:13)
He then shared his experience living in a hunting community where people would hunt deer, skin the animal and hang it to dry. Unless preserved with salt, the deer began to rot and become putrid after three or four days under the sun. "Salt was the remedy to keep things from decaying," Diamond said.
The theologian also expounded on the command to become light, quoting once more the gospel of Matthew: "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14) Diamond pointed out that darkness – the absence of light – served as "the default condition." He added: "If the light withdraws from anything or anywhere darkness will fill the void."
Jesus Christ put forward the concept of "salt and light" to counteract the darkness and decay brought about by the Fall of Man. "The only [things] that [remedy] darkness and decay [are] salt and light," Diamond said. To that end, the theologian emphasized the purpose of the Christian church – that of being salt and light to prevent darkness and moral decay from taking over society.
He quoted Thomas Paine, one of the Founding Fathers, who said the church's function was to watch over the morality of a nation. "We're supposed to be involved in every institution because [in] everything that we withdraw from, darkness and decay come in and take over," Diamond warned. (Related: Dr. John Diamond: Government, God and rights are inseparable – Brighteon.TV)
Daubenmire slams institutional Christianity for refusing to be salt and light
Back in 1997, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Daubenmire for allegedly "breaching … the separation between church and state." The ACLU's lawsuit came after reports of him praying with the London High School football team before their games surfaced. An October 1999 press release by ACLU said the coach eventually reached a settlement with the group – at the cost of turning his back on high school coaching.
In his conversation with Diamond, Daubenmire shared his frustration with what he called institutional Christian churches. "I'm a coach and I look at things from a team perspective. My great frustration is that we don't really well as a team. In fact, in Christian circles – we don't even know what that means," he said. The football coach-turned-pastor lamented that "there's really no human in the body of Christ" – referring to most churches.
Diamond shared the same sentiments, saying: "You and I have done what we could do to wake the church up. But the pastors have been lost." The America Unhinged host mentioned how no one listened to his warning at first, with people only listening recently.
"In [my] book, I said America is no longer America. [It] is not an atheistic, communistic, totalitarian police state wrapped in an American flag as a façade. And everybody just kind of pooh-poohed that and dismissed it. They didn't understand. And then [COVID-19] came along and what I said was absolutely realized by a lot of people," he said.
Afterward, Daubenmire shared a realization he had following the conclusion of his two-year legal battle with the ACLU. It dawned upon him that most pastors were "impotent, unconcerned and uninvolved" – unfit to be the salt of the earth as Christ commanded. (Related: Coach Dave Daubenmire reveals how American institutions have abandoned God – Brighteon.TV)
"They all knew I was a Christian and the ACLU comes and sues me … because we're praying with our team, and not a peep from the pulpits. In fact, some … though I was out of line, that I shouldn't be praying with our football team because it was against the law. Which of course, we know, shows how ignorant they are," Daubenmire said.
He continued: "After I went through that whole battle and I walked away from teaching and coaching, I thought, 'I just [got to] go out and tell the pastors what's going on.' And I've come to find out they didn't [want to] know, they weren't really interested in it. I've been plowing hard as you have been, trying to awaken them and very few of them have an idea [about] what's going on."
Awakening.news has more articles about the push to wake up churches across the country to the truth of America's real situation.
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