Aaron Renn claims Christians are shut out of elite institutions. In reality, evangelical power has rarely been stronger, and we're all suffering as a result.
B-b-b-b-but they have to 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 now! Sometimes they even have to *𝘨𝘢𝘴𝘱* let people they don't like 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵 in their presence! How can you be so insensitive?!
There is an underlying mentality here that seems to be asserting evangelical Christians have some kind of inalienable right to rule, regardless of how the rest of the country feels about it. The evangelicals are the first people to claim they’re being persecuted any time they’re prevented from forcing their religion on others. They are also the people most likely to persecute others given the power and opportunity to do so. These people will never have all the power they think is their due. Power few groups would be more ill-equipped to exercise.
Evangelicals are EXPERTS at using DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender roles) to bolster their arguments. And everyone knows that DARVO is Abuse 101. Evangelicals are bona fide ABUSERS towards anyone not in their particular tribe, and two thousand years of history proves it.
The DARVO crowd is the same the mob of "Christians" who stoned, flayed and killed Hypatia ( 415 AD) when she was a leading "philosopher" (scientist), mathematician, astronomer, teacher and renowned speaker. An intelligent female whose independence threatened the male religious hierarchy.
“Portray the Christians as a mob of violent fanatics”. That sounds like typical modern Christian fascist assholes that are running around whining about about how persecuted they are.
They think they are owed respect because they have bought into the lie that the United States is a Christian nation, specifically that their brand of Christianity is somehow the default. They don't think they have to earn that respect because they believe that anyone who doesn't bow and scrape to their narrow little idea about what it means to be an American is less than and doesn't deserve to be thought of as fellow Americans. They think that respect is owed to them because of who they are, not what they do. And what they do is why they deserve no respect.
Thumpers like Renn love to bleat about non-existent persecution in this country, but I never see them journey to other countries where Christians really are being persecuted and stand shoulder to shoulder with their brethren and face that same persecution. I mean, isn't risking martyrdom for their Jesus what they want?
Evangelical Christians are underrepresented in elite institutions? Ya think? I’m just guessing that they are underrepresented in University Science programs… What would people who believe in the antithesis of Scientific Method bring to the table. I doubt there is some frustrated pool of Evangelical Theoretical Physicists out there with a useful take on quantum theory. We already know they are just simply wrong about evolutionary biology. Anthropology? Chemistry? Applied science like technology, engineering, medicine don’t seem to be clamoring for them - although the ones who made it through medical training are wreaking havoc on the Nation’s healthcare system… People who yearn to drag society back to some golden yesteryear are polarizing and degrading all of society including elite institutions.
Renn wants to claim underrepresentation in Congress in the courts? I can play that game too. Non-religiously affiliated Americans constitute 26 to 29% of the US population. What about us?
True representation would mean about 25 senators and 110 representatives as evangelicals, 30 and 120 as non-religious, and the rest a mix of liberal Christians and other religious beliefs. Let the MAGA right wing assholes have proportionate representation. They will be a permanent and shrinking minority.
And the thing that this guy seems to forget is that we hold ELECTIONS to choose our leaders. So if they're so great why aren't more of them getting elected? Riddle us THAT.
The Heritage Foundation wrote Project 2025 and then Project Esther and more plans for world domination. The Heritage Foundation is evangelical Christian. These projects are being implemented. This little essay is just misdirection, keep the rubes focused on how they’re not 100% in charge everywhere, while the evangelical leaders are actively destroying the lives of all the rubes and all of us as well. Oh noes, we don’t have people in the most prestigious universities and institutions, even though we are destroying those universities and institutions from the outside. Harvard didn’t need an evangelical president to cave to Trump’s demands. The NIH didn’t need an evangelical leader to be undermined and defunded, to start spreading misinformation about nutrition and vaccines. The regime is getting everything it needs to install white Christian supremacy in the USA. This whine fest is a distraction, or a way to pretend they aren’t getting what they want so that the rubes keep pushing for them to get more.
RE the headline changing. Longtime subscriber to WaPo here. Sometime in the last year I noticed that ALL the headlines change sometime during the day. I see it as a way to trick readers into clicking on an item more than once.
I’ve subscribed for almost 40 years. That ends on 3/16.
Nah, too many subscribers call them on their bullshit, so they change the title. They used to do it all the time when they weren't run by the Murdoch tabloid guy like they are now.
Evangelicals are dangerous, but Renn is correct, not very well represented in the trump regime. Hegseth, Johnson, Vought. After that, who? But the trump regime would collapse overnight without the Leonard Leo Maga Catholics. 6 Supremes, Heritage, JD, Rubio, Homan and nearly 40% of trump cabinet. Tons of books, articles and documentaries on scary Evangelicals - Nada, zero, zip on the far more powerful Maga Catholics. Why no media scrutiny?
But I want to point out that the church I attend Sunday service in (after a >40 year lapse) hasn't a single MAGA. In fact, that's why I'm there: it's a safer space than even my own rural, deep south house (considering my neighbors.)
I don't imagine I'll ever call myself a Christian again in this life, but if most of us white folks can be eliminated from organized Christianity, it can be pretty nice! (And a lot more honest.)
Most people don't yet intuitively get the part about it being WHITE evangelicals causing problems. In our church (that's only about 10% white), that problem doesn't even exist.
Other evangelicals? Karoline Leavitt (press secretary), Kristi Noem (until she got reassigned to a non-job), Marco Rubio (Sec'y of State), Paula White-Cain (director of the White House Faith Office), Pam Bondi (Attorney General), Gregory Bovino (Border Patrol), Douglas Collins (VA Director), Lori Chavez-Deremer (Sec'y of Labor, evangelical Catholic), Sean Duffy (Sec'y of Transportation, evangelical Catholic), Kelly Loeffler (Small Business Administration) . . . off the top of my head.
Exactly. They hold sacrificial positions of power within the current administration (because it’s unstable and a risk). The Catholic Church holds the real power. They have the SCOTUS, the land, and that virtue signaling pope. They play the long game.
Christian fascists claim persecution when they are unable/prevented to denigrate, insult, harass, or commit acts of violence (without any consequences, of course) against people they hate such as POC, gays, atheists, muslims, etc.
The Christian fascists would never seek out actual persecution, they want “PERFORMATIVE” persecution. This is where the Christian fascist pretend to be getting attack, without any actual evidence of getting attack.
Performative persecution is the foundation of this absurd religion. The story takes a Jewish man who may or may not have existed and spoke on behalf of the have nots. He was allegedly tortured and persecuted. Nobody bothered to write any of it down or corroborate it, even in Roman society. Hundreds of years later he is turned into a deity. Then 2000 years of bloodshed leading up to Mike Johnson.
If Christians were persecuted by the ancient Romans as they claim the religion would have been wiped out. If Christians today were persecuted as much as they claim how do they explain Trump and his administration as well as all the media outlets, colleges etc to exist? They can’t, because it is a false narrative.
Trump, a malignant narcissist, is the ultimate con-man: a whiner, complainer and bully demagogue who makes people without critical thinking skills feel good about themselves by vilifying and condemning all that is 'other.' Easy to see why his Base is so heavily comprised of evangelicals, who must paint themselves as victims to support their flimsy religious story.
Exactly my point, the Romans were not all hell bent to destroy Christianity as many Christian’s believe. The Romans were tolerant of other faiths, SO LONG as it didn’t involve rebellion or disregarding Roman law!
When the Jews rebelled against Rome, then Rome reacted and crushed the rebellion. Punitive punishment against Jews only came after they rebelled, otherwise the Romans allowed the Jews to practice their religion without a problem. That was the same with Christianity, Romans only interfered when Roman law and order was threatened.
When Christianity became the religions on the land, look how the Jews were treated, compared to when Rome was pagan!
"Renn is most famous for arguing that for the past decade, Christians have been living in a “Negative World” where people see Christianity as a bad thing,"
Gee, wonder why that is?
"Mirror mirror on the wall, why do normies hate us all?"
"Renn says that this exclusion of evangelicals deprives us of “an important pool of talent.” (That’s the same argument, by the way, made by supporters of DEI, which white evangelicals overwhelmingly oppose.) But he offers no evidence that they’re excluded from those pools because of their faith."
Maybe I'm oversimplifying here, but I believe that if they're actually excluded, it's because they're stupid and obnoxious. No rational person wants to deal with them. They're like a bunch of spoiled 2-year olds having a tantrum in public. Nobody wants that shit, and rightly so.
Plus, their only "talent"- if it may rightly be called that- is somehow, against all reason and likely also in violation of the laws of physics, managing to insert themselves and their odious beliefs into every single place in existence where they aren't welcome and don't belong.
It should be mentioned that evangelicals seem to feel that their religious beliefs should "trump" the Constitution. Which renders them unqualified to be on the Supreme Court.
"Evangelicals have excelled in politics, producing figures such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana)."
Those two shitstains are your best argument? Try again, this time with a brain.
He also mentioned Tyson Foods and Hobby Lobby. Seriously? Does Renn not keep up with the news?
No. He also does not keep up with logical thought.
They don't 'do' reality.
No, Renn. It is Christians that do the persecuting and have since 380 CE.
This is recorded history, not fantasy.
B-b-b-b-but they have to 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 now! Sometimes they even have to *𝘨𝘢𝘴𝘱* let people they don't like 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵 in their presence! How can you be so insensitive?!
There is an underlying mentality here that seems to be asserting evangelical Christians have some kind of inalienable right to rule, regardless of how the rest of the country feels about it. The evangelicals are the first people to claim they’re being persecuted any time they’re prevented from forcing their religion on others. They are also the people most likely to persecute others given the power and opportunity to do so. These people will never have all the power they think is their due. Power few groups would be more ill-equipped to exercise.
Evangelicals are EXPERTS at using DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender roles) to bolster their arguments. And everyone knows that DARVO is Abuse 101. Evangelicals are bona fide ABUSERS towards anyone not in their particular tribe, and two thousand years of history proves it.
Your comment made me think of Hypatia.
The DARVO crowd is the same the mob of "Christians" who stoned, flayed and killed Hypatia ( 415 AD) when she was a leading "philosopher" (scientist), mathematician, astronomer, teacher and renowned speaker. An intelligent female whose independence threatened the male religious hierarchy.
Funny you should mention that. I just watched the film "Agora" again. It really does portray the Christians as a mob of violent fanatics.
Yes they got executed because they were fanatical assholes, not because of their religion.
“Portray the Christians as a mob of violent fanatics”. That sounds like typical modern Christian fascist assholes that are running around whining about about how persecuted they are.
That sounds like a good film recommendation. Thanks!
It's very good. Rachel Weisz plays Hypatia.
I liked Lisa Kudrow better.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑡.
They think they are owed respect because they have bought into the lie that the United States is a Christian nation, specifically that their brand of Christianity is somehow the default. They don't think they have to earn that respect because they believe that anyone who doesn't bow and scrape to their narrow little idea about what it means to be an American is less than and doesn't deserve to be thought of as fellow Americans. They think that respect is owed to them because of who they are, not what they do. And what they do is why they deserve no respect.
The Christian fascist don’t think that anyone not like them is even HUMAN deserving Human Rights and Civil Liberties (not to mention being decent to).
Entitled, hypocritical, brainwashed morons with a total inability to think independently or critically.
Thumpers like Renn love to bleat about non-existent persecution in this country, but I never see them journey to other countries where Christians really are being persecuted and stand shoulder to shoulder with their brethren and face that same persecution. I mean, isn't risking martyrdom for their Jesus what they want?
Frauds, the lot of them.
Evangelical Christians are underrepresented in elite institutions? Ya think? I’m just guessing that they are underrepresented in University Science programs… What would people who believe in the antithesis of Scientific Method bring to the table. I doubt there is some frustrated pool of Evangelical Theoretical Physicists out there with a useful take on quantum theory. We already know they are just simply wrong about evolutionary biology. Anthropology? Chemistry? Applied science like technology, engineering, medicine don’t seem to be clamoring for them - although the ones who made it through medical training are wreaking havoc on the Nation’s healthcare system… People who yearn to drag society back to some golden yesteryear are polarizing and degrading all of society including elite institutions.
👏👏👏👏👏
I wonder what they actually 'teach' in the xtian universities? None of what you mention would be accurate if even allowed.
Renn wants to claim underrepresentation in Congress in the courts? I can play that game too. Non-religiously affiliated Americans constitute 26 to 29% of the US population. What about us?
True representation would mean about 25 senators and 110 representatives as evangelicals, 30 and 120 as non-religious, and the rest a mix of liberal Christians and other religious beliefs. Let the MAGA right wing assholes have proportionate representation. They will be a permanent and shrinking minority.
And the thing that this guy seems to forget is that we hold ELECTIONS to choose our leaders. So if they're so great why aren't more of them getting elected? Riddle us THAT.
👆🎯
This is akin to the argument xtians make that they are being silenced when in fact they never shut the fuck up.
Lefty Cartoons » Blog Archive » I Have Been Silenced! https://share.google/hgToY3XEP0mc7CDEw
The Heritage Foundation wrote Project 2025 and then Project Esther and more plans for world domination. The Heritage Foundation is evangelical Christian. These projects are being implemented. This little essay is just misdirection, keep the rubes focused on how they’re not 100% in charge everywhere, while the evangelical leaders are actively destroying the lives of all the rubes and all of us as well. Oh noes, we don’t have people in the most prestigious universities and institutions, even though we are destroying those universities and institutions from the outside. Harvard didn’t need an evangelical president to cave to Trump’s demands. The NIH didn’t need an evangelical leader to be undermined and defunded, to start spreading misinformation about nutrition and vaccines. The regime is getting everything it needs to install white Christian supremacy in the USA. This whine fest is a distraction, or a way to pretend they aren’t getting what they want so that the rubes keep pushing for them to get more.
Even if they achieved their fondest dreams of dominion over all the world, they'd still bitch about not ruling the rest of the universe as well.
RE the headline changing. Longtime subscriber to WaPo here. Sometime in the last year I noticed that ALL the headlines change sometime during the day. I see it as a way to trick readers into clicking on an item more than once.
I’ve subscribed for almost 40 years. That ends on 3/16.
Fox seems to put up the same articles under three or four different headlines at the same time.
Hell, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 intended audience is so dumb half of them probably don't even notice there's an article beneath the headline.
Nice to see them using the same tactics as clickbait entertainment/celebrity gossip sites like Bored Panda.
My working assumption is that they are trying to cheat their advertisers by exaggerating the number of hits. I could be wrong.
I think you're very likely correct on that one. I certainly can't think of any other reason to do that.
You raise a good point, probably a trick Will Lewis learned from the tabloids he ran for Murdoch.
Nah, too many subscribers call them on their bullshit, so they change the title. They used to do it all the time when they weren't run by the Murdoch tabloid guy like they are now.
theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/07/washington-post-new-ceo-leadership?
Evangelicals are dangerous, but Renn is correct, not very well represented in the trump regime. Hegseth, Johnson, Vought. After that, who? But the trump regime would collapse overnight without the Leonard Leo Maga Catholics. 6 Supremes, Heritage, JD, Rubio, Homan and nearly 40% of trump cabinet. Tons of books, articles and documentaries on scary Evangelicals - Nada, zero, zip on the far more powerful Maga Catholics. Why no media scrutiny?
The MAGA Catholics are functionally equivalent to the white Evangelicals.
Essentially, it seems.
But I want to point out that the church I attend Sunday service in (after a >40 year lapse) hasn't a single MAGA. In fact, that's why I'm there: it's a safer space than even my own rural, deep south house (considering my neighbors.)
I don't imagine I'll ever call myself a Christian again in this life, but if most of us white folks can be eliminated from organized Christianity, it can be pretty nice! (And a lot more honest.)
Most people don't yet intuitively get the part about it being WHITE evangelicals causing problems. In our church (that's only about 10% white), that problem doesn't even exist.
Thanks for being "exceptional", Joe.
Every day I see a news item that causes me to say wtf white people and I am a white people.
Oh, same.
As you can see, even Chiquita is mostly white.
I’ve always thought the Catholics just use Evangelicals. They need their votes. It’s pretty straightforward.
Correct. The oil libertarian oligarchs provide money, the Evangelicals are votes, infantry. Leonard Leo Catholic generals run the show.
And the Evangelicals use the Catholics. Mutual selfishness to grab theocratic power. They'll worry about the holy wars later.
Yep yep
👆🎯
Other evangelicals? Karoline Leavitt (press secretary), Kristi Noem (until she got reassigned to a non-job), Marco Rubio (Sec'y of State), Paula White-Cain (director of the White House Faith Office), Pam Bondi (Attorney General), Gregory Bovino (Border Patrol), Douglas Collins (VA Director), Lori Chavez-Deremer (Sec'y of Labor, evangelical Catholic), Sean Duffy (Sec'y of Transportation, evangelical Catholic), Kelly Loeffler (Small Business Administration) . . . off the top of my head.
The Catholic branch of MAGA knows how to funnel money and thus power. Even they don't want the Evangenitals in charge!
Exactly. They hold sacrificial positions of power within the current administration (because it’s unstable and a risk). The Catholic Church holds the real power. They have the SCOTUS, the land, and that virtue signaling pope. They play the long game.
👆🎯
Christian fascists claim persecution when they are unable/prevented to denigrate, insult, harass, or commit acts of violence (without any consequences, of course) against people they hate such as POC, gays, atheists, muslims, etc.
The Christian fascists would never seek out actual persecution, they want “PERFORMATIVE” persecution. This is where the Christian fascist pretend to be getting attack, without any actual evidence of getting attack.
Performative persecution is the foundation of this absurd religion. The story takes a Jewish man who may or may not have existed and spoke on behalf of the have nots. He was allegedly tortured and persecuted. Nobody bothered to write any of it down or corroborate it, even in Roman society. Hundreds of years later he is turned into a deity. Then 2000 years of bloodshed leading up to Mike Johnson.
If Christians were persecuted by the ancient Romans as they claim the religion would have been wiped out. If Christians today were persecuted as much as they claim how do they explain Trump and his administration as well as all the media outlets, colleges etc to exist? They can’t, because it is a false narrative.
Trump, a malignant narcissist, is the ultimate con-man: a whiner, complainer and bully demagogue who makes people without critical thinking skills feel good about themselves by vilifying and condemning all that is 'other.' Easy to see why his Base is so heavily comprised of evangelicals, who must paint themselves as victims to support their flimsy religious story.
The Romans should have. If the Romans wanted to wipe them out they would have. They exterminated the entire druidic religion.
Exactly my point, the Romans were not all hell bent to destroy Christianity as many Christian’s believe. The Romans were tolerant of other faiths, SO LONG as it didn’t involve rebellion or disregarding Roman law!
When the Jews rebelled against Rome, then Rome reacted and crushed the rebellion. Punitive punishment against Jews only came after they rebelled, otherwise the Romans allowed the Jews to practice their religion without a problem. That was the same with Christianity, Romans only interfered when Roman law and order was threatened.
When Christianity became the religions on the land, look how the Jews were treated, compared to when Rome was pagan!
Which he, like the Buddha, said not to worship the man, but take the message. They failed.
Yes, there are people who view belief in things that aren’t really there, talking to things that aren’t really there, etc. as negative qualities.
"Renn is most famous for arguing that for the past decade, Christians have been living in a “Negative World” where people see Christianity as a bad thing,"
Gee, wonder why that is?
"Mirror mirror on the wall, why do normies hate us all?"
"Evangelicals have excelled in politics, producing figures such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana)."
A statement which should produce horrific revulsion AGAINST evangelicals from any thinking person.
"Renn says that this exclusion of evangelicals deprives us of “an important pool of talent.” (That’s the same argument, by the way, made by supporters of DEI, which white evangelicals overwhelmingly oppose.) But he offers no evidence that they’re excluded from those pools because of their faith."
Maybe I'm oversimplifying here, but I believe that if they're actually excluded, it's because they're stupid and obnoxious. No rational person wants to deal with them. They're like a bunch of spoiled 2-year olds having a tantrum in public. Nobody wants that shit, and rightly so.
Plus, their only "talent"- if it may rightly be called that- is somehow, against all reason and likely also in violation of the laws of physics, managing to insert themselves and their odious beliefs into every single place in existence where they aren't welcome and don't belong.
It should be mentioned that evangelicals seem to feel that their religious beliefs should "trump" the Constitution. Which renders them unqualified to be on the Supreme Court.
The Christian fascist assholes think their beliefs should override reality, and get very upset and violent when reality pushes back.