I tried reading one of Dobson's books once. The man could not go more than about two pages without referencing the Old Testament. If you look to the Old Testament for moral guidance, you're not moral. In fact, if you need religion to find a moral compass you're just a bad person on a leash. Few things could better demonstrate the disconnect between religion and morality any better than America's religious right.
"Journalists don’t sufficiently distinguish Christian nationalists from conservative evangelicals who simply and reasonably want to bring their faith to bear on public life."
The GOP-fueled impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas (who's done nothing worthy of impeachment) now moves to the Democratically-controlled Senate where it will be presided over by my own state's senator Patty Murray. Look for her and them to put an end to this petty partisan time-wasting farce.
"Their church may run a food pantry and host Mike Flynn, or someone like him, the following week."
I was shanghaied into attending Pinellas Park Wesleyan Church for awhile. Before then, I had seen lists provided by social service agencies listing food pantries in south county. PPWC was not listed, even though I found out that they did have a food pantry. It was for their congregants only.
Oh, you see, but it's okay to overlook the perspectives of those hurt by Christianity with a dismissive, "Well, you weren't REALLY a Christian" or "Just look at Jesus, Hon, not the church" or "Why did you go alone anywhere with the pastor, are you sure you weren't leading him on?" or "Love the sinner, hate the sin" or to go all the way back to the original sin of America, "Well, he's better here than he was in Africa."
So much love! So much good! #sarcasm
White Evangelicalism was born in the oppression and domination and demeaning of Black people. It was born in white supremacy and whether or not one is personally white supremacist (whatever that means) the theology was tainted with it from the beginning and a little leaven leavens the entire loaf. The outlook, the politics, the theology is all corrupted.
"… For all the bad that’s come out of this movement, there are still countless stories of personal transformation leading people to become better parents, better spouses, and better members of their communities."
This struck a nerve, so please bear with me for a moment.
Those 'stories' have been around for 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠. Seriously, they're as old as the New Testament at least, and full of little more than hot air. Sure, okay, some of the people sharing those stories probably do honestly mean well and may have experienced something vaguely like what they're saying; but my experience has long been that those individuals haven't changed to speak of. The Christian echo chamber is rife with stories like that, and from what I've ever been able to tell, they're mostly BS.
So far as I know, nobody's serious trying to argue that no Christian ever does good things. What the public sees is that most Christians are attempting to claim to be better people than the average most of the time; something Christian leaders have consistently failed at. Then, when the opportunity to show the world that being a Christian is the right choice presents itself, the world sees things like January 6th, 2021; an unruly mob of semi-rioting Christians attempting to overthrow the government and install a new dictator over the fairly determined president-elect. If evangelicals aren't happy with the way they're presented in the media, then they need to clean up their own messes and stop blaming the world for their problems, not criticize the individuals pointing out their flaws.
Christian Nationalists are selfish hypocrites, zealots who would sell out this democracy and foist their narrow, illogical ideology on everyone else. They back some of the worst, fascist billionaires controlling the RNC—the Mercers, the DeVoss-Prince’s, etc. They perpetrate fraud, using their churches to shield income (and why, exactly, does Mike Johnson have no need of a bank account or mortgage?); they violate the separation of Church-State with absolutely NO understanding its Constitutional roots. They promote ignorance and attack our schools, libraries and women’s rights —and no wonder! So many of their make-believe pastors and leaders are involved with fraud, pornography, pedophilia and sex slavery. You need only look to their Dear Leader, Donald Trump and his pals, Jeffrey Epstein & Maxwell, Matt ,Clarence & Ginni Thomas as prime examples of utter corruption in the name of religion.
Then, they rabidly support the Gun industry and foster movements to arm teachers instead of enacting gun laws. Christian Nationalists are liars and traitors in every conceivable way.
> "...evangelicals who simply and reasonably want to bring their faith to bear on public life."
Aye FAITH, and there's the problem. I grew up going to church and although our church didn't have "Faith" in the name (Trinity Presbyterian) many churches did and our minister certainly extolled the value of faith. And that was one (just one) of the reasons I began doubting the minister and the whole God/religion thing. We were taught the biblical line that "faith without works is dead". That pretty much tells you that faith is the useless part of the equation. What is needed is "works" and that has value whether faith is involved or not. So then what good is faith? I looked around, examined the situation, took into account my education and my life experiences, and determined that "FAITH" was actually a bad thing. Ergo, bringing faith into government is a bad thing.
Did this article talk about how Dobson kicks off his book with a charming little story about how he abuses a tiny dog... and then suggests that this provides a really good lesson about how parents should treat their children? Because if you read that story and you think Dobson is anything but a moral monster, I don't see how we have anything to talk about.
I think to get a more complete picture when talking about the damage modern evangelicalism is doing to our politics and our culture it’s important to note that we are mostly talking about white evangelicals.
“The same data in 2020 show that Black evangelicals (62%) are twice as likely as all Americans (33%) and three more times as likely as white evangelicals (20%) to identify as Democrats, while only eight percent of Black evangelicals identify as Republicans (compared to 51% of white evangelicals), which explains Trump and Biden’s favorability ratings during 2020. Only 22% of Black evangelicals reported a favorable opinion of former President Trump, while 80% favored President Joe Biden.”
I personally think Evangelicalism alone has a lot of silly beliefs that make it an easy target for derision. But it doesn’t HAVE to be theofascist. I can remember a time decades ago when separation of church and state was a key Baptist principle. The fact that white evangelicalism is now the Church of the Proudboy TikTok is tragic.
It's also a cult of patriarchy, of misogyny and homophobia which a considerable portion of the evangelical community have taken as indisputable truth. What it is NOT is a cult which regards all of those who might otherwise be regarded as God's Children™ as 𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗦. That being the case, evangelical Christianity will continue to be at odds not just with American democracy and liberalism but that same attitude which is, slowly but surely, spreading across this planet. Indeed, I just read this morning that Greece is now getting ready to approve of same-sex marriage.
Christianity in general and evangelical Christianity in particular are anachronisms to freedom and reason ... and they deserve to be treated as such.
".. a narrative—perpetuated by scholars, memoirists, and journalists—that evangelicalism is bad for America."
Mindless adherence to ANYTHING is bad for America. Taking ANYTHING on nothing more than faith (no facts needed — or even desired) is bad for America. Disparaging critical thinking is bad for America. All 3 of those are unavoidable, inherent features of evangelicalism.
There are tons of cases where people are far WORSE off than before in spite of them being converted to Christianity at the urging of their parents, preachers, and other evangelical leaders. Does Fea knows about this? Apparently not. That's what every Christian media and literature deliberately leave out when they focus on winning converts to the group.
I tried reading one of Dobson's books once. The man could not go more than about two pages without referencing the Old Testament. If you look to the Old Testament for moral guidance, you're not moral. In fact, if you need religion to find a moral compass you're just a bad person on a leash. Few things could better demonstrate the disconnect between religion and morality any better than America's religious right.
"Journalists don’t sufficiently distinguish Christian nationalists from conservative evangelicals who simply and reasonably want to bring their faith to bear on public life."
That's because they are the same thing.
OT
The GOP-fueled impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas (who's done nothing worthy of impeachment) now moves to the Democratically-controlled Senate where it will be presided over by my own state's senator Patty Murray. Look for her and them to put an end to this petty partisan time-wasting farce.
I still prefer to call them nationalist Christians, because the abbreviation nat-Cs is so apt.
Basically, if you don't become an evangelical Christian, you will burn in the EVERLASTING FIRES OF HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY.....because God loves you....
"Seeing the good in evangelicalism is essential to understanding its appeal to millions of Americans."
More likely, they were brainwashed from birth into it.
"Their church may run a food pantry and host Mike Flynn, or someone like him, the following week."
I was shanghaied into attending Pinellas Park Wesleyan Church for awhile. Before then, I had seen lists provided by social service agencies listing food pantries in south county. PPWC was not listed, even though I found out that they did have a food pantry. It was for their congregants only.
Oh, you see, but it's okay to overlook the perspectives of those hurt by Christianity with a dismissive, "Well, you weren't REALLY a Christian" or "Just look at Jesus, Hon, not the church" or "Why did you go alone anywhere with the pastor, are you sure you weren't leading him on?" or "Love the sinner, hate the sin" or to go all the way back to the original sin of America, "Well, he's better here than he was in Africa."
So much love! So much good! #sarcasm
White Evangelicalism was born in the oppression and domination and demeaning of Black people. It was born in white supremacy and whether or not one is personally white supremacist (whatever that means) the theology was tainted with it from the beginning and a little leaven leavens the entire loaf. The outlook, the politics, the theology is all corrupted.
"… For all the bad that’s come out of this movement, there are still countless stories of personal transformation leading people to become better parents, better spouses, and better members of their communities."
This struck a nerve, so please bear with me for a moment.
Those 'stories' have been around for 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠. Seriously, they're as old as the New Testament at least, and full of little more than hot air. Sure, okay, some of the people sharing those stories probably do honestly mean well and may have experienced something vaguely like what they're saying; but my experience has long been that those individuals haven't changed to speak of. The Christian echo chamber is rife with stories like that, and from what I've ever been able to tell, they're mostly BS.
So far as I know, nobody's serious trying to argue that no Christian ever does good things. What the public sees is that most Christians are attempting to claim to be better people than the average most of the time; something Christian leaders have consistently failed at. Then, when the opportunity to show the world that being a Christian is the right choice presents itself, the world sees things like January 6th, 2021; an unruly mob of semi-rioting Christians attempting to overthrow the government and install a new dictator over the fairly determined president-elect. If evangelicals aren't happy with the way they're presented in the media, then they need to clean up their own messes and stop blaming the world for their problems, not criticize the individuals pointing out their flaws.
Christian Nationalists are selfish hypocrites, zealots who would sell out this democracy and foist their narrow, illogical ideology on everyone else. They back some of the worst, fascist billionaires controlling the RNC—the Mercers, the DeVoss-Prince’s, etc. They perpetrate fraud, using their churches to shield income (and why, exactly, does Mike Johnson have no need of a bank account or mortgage?); they violate the separation of Church-State with absolutely NO understanding its Constitutional roots. They promote ignorance and attack our schools, libraries and women’s rights —and no wonder! So many of their make-believe pastors and leaders are involved with fraud, pornography, pedophilia and sex slavery. You need only look to their Dear Leader, Donald Trump and his pals, Jeffrey Epstein & Maxwell, Matt ,Clarence & Ginni Thomas as prime examples of utter corruption in the name of religion.
Then, they rabidly support the Gun industry and foster movements to arm teachers instead of enacting gun laws. Christian Nationalists are liars and traitors in every conceivable way.
> "...evangelicals who simply and reasonably want to bring their faith to bear on public life."
Aye FAITH, and there's the problem. I grew up going to church and although our church didn't have "Faith" in the name (Trinity Presbyterian) many churches did and our minister certainly extolled the value of faith. And that was one (just one) of the reasons I began doubting the minister and the whole God/religion thing. We were taught the biblical line that "faith without works is dead". That pretty much tells you that faith is the useless part of the equation. What is needed is "works" and that has value whether faith is involved or not. So then what good is faith? I looked around, examined the situation, took into account my education and my life experiences, and determined that "FAITH" was actually a bad thing. Ergo, bringing faith into government is a bad thing.
Did this article talk about how Dobson kicks off his book with a charming little story about how he abuses a tiny dog... and then suggests that this provides a really good lesson about how parents should treat their children? Because if you read that story and you think Dobson is anything but a moral monster, I don't see how we have anything to talk about.
I think to get a more complete picture when talking about the damage modern evangelicalism is doing to our politics and our culture it’s important to note that we are mostly talking about white evangelicals.
“The same data in 2020 show that Black evangelicals (62%) are twice as likely as all Americans (33%) and three more times as likely as white evangelicals (20%) to identify as Democrats, while only eight percent of Black evangelicals identify as Republicans (compared to 51% of white evangelicals), which explains Trump and Biden’s favorability ratings during 2020. Only 22% of Black evangelicals reported a favorable opinion of former President Trump, while 80% favored President Joe Biden.”
I personally think Evangelicalism alone has a lot of silly beliefs that make it an easy target for derision. But it doesn’t HAVE to be theofascist. I can remember a time decades ago when separation of church and state was a key Baptist principle. The fact that white evangelicalism is now the Church of the Proudboy TikTok is tragic.
𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢, ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑎𝑚𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒.
-- Sam Harris
It's also a cult of patriarchy, of misogyny and homophobia which a considerable portion of the evangelical community have taken as indisputable truth. What it is NOT is a cult which regards all of those who might otherwise be regarded as God's Children™ as 𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗦. That being the case, evangelical Christianity will continue to be at odds not just with American democracy and liberalism but that same attitude which is, slowly but surely, spreading across this planet. Indeed, I just read this morning that Greece is now getting ready to approve of same-sex marriage.
Christianity in general and evangelical Christianity in particular are anachronisms to freedom and reason ... and they deserve to be treated as such.
".. a narrative—perpetuated by scholars, memoirists, and journalists—that evangelicalism is bad for America."
Mindless adherence to ANYTHING is bad for America. Taking ANYTHING on nothing more than faith (no facts needed — or even desired) is bad for America. Disparaging critical thinking is bad for America. All 3 of those are unavoidable, inherent features of evangelicalism.
There are tons of cases where people are far WORSE off than before in spite of them being converted to Christianity at the urging of their parents, preachers, and other evangelical leaders. Does Fea knows about this? Apparently not. That's what every Christian media and literature deliberately leave out when they focus on winning converts to the group.