(单词翻译:单击)
When we finally met, in the spring of 2021, Brown told me his alarm had only grown.
当我们在2021年春天终于见面时，布朗告诉我，他的担忧只增不减。
“The crisis for the Church is a crisis of discernment,” he said over lunch.
“教会面临的危机是分辨能力的危机，”他在午餐时说。
“Discernment”—one’s basic ability to separate truth from untruth—“is a core biblical discipline. And many Christians are not practicing it.”
“辨别能力”--辨别真假的基本能力--“是《圣经》的核心训导。而许多基督徒并没有践行这一点。
A stocky man with steely blue eyes and a subdued, matter-of-fact tone, Brown struck me as thoroughly disheartened.
布朗身材魁梧，蓝眼睛透漏着坚定，语调低沉，不务空名，给我的印象是郁郁寡欢。
The pastor said his concern was not simply for his congregation of 300, but for the millions of American evangelicals who had come to value power over integrity, the ephemeral over the eternal, moral relativism over bright lines of right and wrong.
这位牧师说，他担心的不仅仅是他的300名会众，还有数以百万计的美国福音派教徒，他们已经变得重视权力而非正直诚实，重视短暂而非永恒，重视道德相对主义而非分明的是非界限。
He made a compelling case.
他提出了一个令人信服的理由。
So I began checking out his sermons, podcasts, and blog posts.
所以我开始调查他的布道、播客和博客文章。
Every time I heard Bolin preach, I could also hear Brown, the pastors’ voices dueling inside my brain.
每次我听博林的布道时，我都能听到布朗的布道，这两位牧师的声音在我的脑海里决斗。
Brown is polished and buttoned-down; Bolin is ostentatious and loud.
布朗文质彬彬，保守低调；博林热爱卖弄，哗众取宠。
Brown pastors a traditional church where people wear sweaters and sing softly; Bolin leads a charismatic church where people dress for a barbecue and speak in tongues.
布朗是一个传统教堂的牧师，教堂里的人们穿着毛衣，轻声歌唱；博林领导着一个魅力十足的教堂，教堂里的人们身着烧烤服装，讲着方言。
Brown is a pastor’s kid and lifelong conservative who’s never had a sip of alcohol; Bolin is an erstwhile “radical liberal” who once got “so high on LSD” that he jumped onstage and grabbed a guitar at a Tom Petty concert.
布朗是一个牧师的孩子，终身都是保守派，从未喝过一口酒；博林曾是一个“激进的自由主义者”，曾经“嗑药嗑嗨了”，在汤姆·佩蒂的演唱会上跳上舞台，抓起吉他。
But in leading their predominantly white, Republican congregations, Brown and Bolin have come to agree on one important thing:
但在领导以白人为主的共和党会众的过程中，布朗和博林在一件重要的事情上达成了一致：
Both pastors believe there is a war for the soul of the American Church—and both have decided they cannot stand on the sidelines.
两位牧师都认为，这是一场为美国教会灵魂而战的战争--两人都决定不能袖手旁观。
They aren’t alone.
他们并不孤单。
To many evangelicals today, the enemy is no longer secular America, but their fellow Christians, people who hold the same faith but different beliefs.
对于今天的许多福音派教徒来说，敌人不再是世俗的美国，而是他们的基督徒同胞，他们持有相同的信仰，但却持有不同的观点。
How did this happen?
怎么会这样？
For generations, white evangelicals have cultivated a narrative pitting courageous, God-fearing Christians against a wicked society that wants to expunge the Almighty from public life.
几代以来，白人福音派一直在建立一种叙事，让勇敢、敬畏上帝的基督徒与一个邪恶的社会对抗，而这个社会想把全能的上帝从公众生活中抹去。
Having convinced so many evangelicals that the next election could trigger the nation’s demise, Christian leaders effectively turned thousands of churches into unwitting cells in a loosely organized, hazily defined, existentially urgent movement—the types of places where paranoia and falsehoods flourish and people turn on one another.
基督教领导人说服这么多福音派教徒相信下一次选举可能会引发这个国家的灭亡，之后，他们在一场组织松散、界定模糊、事关存亡的运动中，将数千座教堂在不知不觉中变成了牢房——在这种地方，偏执和谎言猖獗，人们相互攻击。
“Hands down, the biggest challenge facing the Church right now is the misinformation and disinformation coming in from the outside,” Brown said.
布朗说：“毫无疑问，教会目前面临的最大挑战是来自外部的错误信息和虚假信息。”
Because of this, the pastor told me, he can no longer justify a passive approach from the pulpit.
正因为如此，这位牧师告诉我，他再也不能证明从布道坛上采取被动的方式是合理的。
The Church is becoming radicalized—and pastors who don’t address this fact head-on are only contributing to the problem.
教会正在变得激进--而不正视这一事实的牧师只会加剧问题。
He understands their reluctance.
他理解他们的不情愿。
They would rather keep the peace than risk alienating anyone.
他们宁愿维护和平，也不愿冒着疏远任何人的风险。
