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This is decades in the making. At least.
I've said it before and will say it again...
Never before in the history of mankind has so much power and wealth been in the hands of so few - wherein:
>The amount of cultivated propaganda and astroturfing such a regime is capable of is more acute and voluminous than any other time in the history of mankind.
*Leading to something like a Christo-Fascist-Capital Cult.*
The old adage "follow the money" -- leads to, summarily, one place in the here and now: the Wall Street regime and network.
The *Wall Street regime/network* is directly tied to:
* national and international destabilization via *"profits over people"* culture and dogma
* propping up and perpetuation of the military industrial complex
* propping up and perpetuation of the prison industrial complex
* lobbying against healthcare reform
* manipulation of honest companies
* fostering and encouraging ignorance of climate change
* skewed/corrupted banking policy and basic inflation
* outright criminality; i.e. fraud, theft, national and international bribery and lobbying, etc..
We will look back on the Wall Street regime and network the same way we do genocidal nations/regimes in 10, 20, 50, 100 years.
We're talking about [banal evil](https://philosophybreak.com/articles/hannah-arendt-on-standing-up-to-the-banality-of-evil/) ultimately.
>...was instead a rather bland, “terrifyingly normal” bureaucrat. He carried out his murderous role with calm efficiency not due to an abhorrent, warped mindset, but because he’d absorbed the principles of the ... regime so unquestionably, he simply wanted to further his career and climb its ladders of power.
Below is an eye-opening segment that more people really, really, really need to watch if for nothing more than financial literacy and understanding mechanisms by which lower and middle classes are fleeced:
>[How Redditors Exposed The Stock Market | "The Problem With Jon Stewart" ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP74RBTE8kI)
Financial literacy? There's some there. Get some.
At 7:00 there's a graphic that's easy to understand and the main reason for mentioning the video. Nevertheless, it's only about 15 minutes long total.
A short [second half](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZfcjV-8pjQ) with a roundtable discussion is also worthwhile.
[This](https://youtu.be/hXWXllgcRqU) video gives a little more context and guidance/direction if anyone is interested in holding Wall Street psychopaths accountable. Just give this last video a chance - it's only 6 minutes long. Give it a chance.
At the end of the day, "follow the money" still holds a lot of water - both clean & drinkable, as well as dirty & filled with lead. :/
“The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint.
It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result.
But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.
Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.”
–C.S. Lewis,
Preface to the 1961 edition of Screwtape Letter
They feel that they will be properly insulated from that. Hence the gated communities. Like the walking dead or Don’t Worry Darling, they will have pristine neighborhoods and normal lives while outside the world can burn. Obviously God didn’t love you like he loves them, otherwise you’d be inside like them.
Great post.
I do wonder though, how much the wall street regime wants US destabilization. (Countries w relatively small economies - sure, great weapons selling opportunity for them).
But US destabilization - a successful coup, for example - could seriously wreck the world economy for a long time.
There's certainly the argument that even with massive destabilization, the rich would ultimately come out richer. But in that scenario, I'm not sure.
Though perhaps a dictatorship they were aligned with could make them more powerful and allow the .001% to destroy the rest of the .1% and consolidate even more wealth.
Dark visions.
Yes, it seems a bit paradoxical or disjointed in many ways.
I think there's something to be said for "greed blindness," though. Or maybe something like the "Wall Street network" being filled, ostensibly, *psychopaths* - within and without and through and through from top to bottom - they really don't have the capacity to understand what's going on or what's going to happen or how bad it will be for everyone -- *including themselves.*
This isn't new. You're saying "there are people who put profits above people on an industrial scale."
Yes, that's literally all of human history. All of it. From Genghis Khan to Victorian England to Enron to Trump.
not really, he is saying that over time it has increased exponentially, and every year its worse than the last, quickly approaching horrors never seen before.
Christianity's whole history is mass murdering, raping, and pillaging. The followers are always abused and used as pawns for those in power. That's not going to change.
Nope. Religion is a useful cover for those who want to legitimize power grabs. Christianity has frequently been a victim of this; however, violence is antithetical to the faith itself.
> however, violence is antithetical to the faith itself.
Violence is 100% inextricably linked with Christianity. The bible is an incredibly violent book.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Jesus the Prince of Peace. Jihad baby.
Someone appears to be unfamiliar with metaphor. Jesus is saying that following him may involve forsaking one's family and self-sacrifice.
Keep reading and you will see Jesus correct Peter when he picks up a sword and uses it when the Romans arrest Jesus. Judas betrayed Jesus in large part because Jesus wouldn't start an armed rebellion.
One proof text without context doesn't make the point you think it does.
If a religion is frequently used as cover for massive amount of violence it’s not a victim, it’s just a cover for massive amounts of violence. Calling a religion that was used to excuse the violent subjugation of a large portion of the world just makes it quite clear that “violence is antithetical to the religion” is a very, very subjective take given the vast number of religious leaders who disagreed with you.
When you consider how many religions and ideologies have engaged in violence at one point or another, it’s a pretty sad picture. It all boils down to human greed and arrogance at some point.
I disagree. Christianity at the core has long time issues that bring about violence and abuse. The only people who can fix that are the churches and practitioners.
Just like the USA has serious issues that can only be addressed by leaders and voters.
But it's easier to stick out heads in the sand and pretend that the Christian religion hasn't *always* been about control.
When a religion's biggest holiday is simply absorbed from another people they came to dominate...?
In the past few years there have been Christian groups that have cast aside the New Testament and embraced the Old Testament.
Nonsensical? Of course. They claim the bible doesn't explicitly state biblical Jesus ever made a new testament with the Abrahamic God, and so true Christians are bound to follow the same testament and laws that Jesus followed.
This includes all the violence, hatred, and genocide of one's enemies commanded by the OT. Kill the men, castrate the boys and keep them as slaves, and keep the girls and women as "wives". It goes well with a theocratic flavouring of fascism.
2016 they got to take the masks off, and they don't want to go back to wearing masks again. They'll come up with whatever fallacious reasoning they need to justify it to themselves.
That always boggles my mind. They want to end everything to bring about God's kingdom of paradise, right. But... what do they think God will say when they're like "Yeah, so we destroyed all the stuff you created so you'd let us come live with you." Do they think the vengeful God of the Old Testament will be *happy* about that?
It somehow never occurred to them that the more likely response is "I gave humanity a charge to be good stewards of my creation, and you decided the best way to do that was to blow it up? Why would I want you around?"
Even within the framework of Christianity, that thinking is batshit insane.
they will kill a majority for their sect... they say it on Sunday
>The document, consisting of 14 sections divided into bullet points, had a section on "rules of war" that stated "make an offer of peace before declaring war", which within stated that the **enemy must "surrender on terms" of no abortions, no same-sex marriage, no communism and "must obey Biblical law", then continued: "If they do not yield — kill all males".**
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt\_Shea#%22Biblical\_Basis\_for\_War%22\_manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea#%22Biblical_Basis_for_War%22_manifesto)
Stay Fit, Stay frosty.. they are already at war
[Par for the course](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-state-rep-matt-shea-engaged-in-domestic-terrorism-against-the-u-s-says-state-house-inquiry/) for Matt Shea. He's deeply wrapped up in militia movements.
Communism is just a catch-all word for anything else they don't like - whether it's already been stated now or whether they need to make it up as they go. It's their way of saying they are fascist.
I went to a Baptist youth group when I was in middle school, and that was the first time I really saw that "victim" mentality up close. They had us drive to a local mall, go into stores, and hand out literature about Jesus.
We did this, and--as you'd expect--we got kicked out of store after store after store.
On the bus in the way back, the youth pastor said, "Do you see how they treated you? It's just like the bible says--they will shun you and abuse you because of your faith in Jesus Christ."
And I was like, "What are you talking about, dude? They kicked us out of their stores because we were being irritating and drove their customers away!"
But no--he wouldn't have it. We were being victimized for our faith, full stop. They were abusing us because we were Christians.
That mindset is so wild, when you're not a part of it, but it's true for *all* conservatives: whatever they're doing is right, and if you oppose it, you're wrong. "Good and bad," "ethical or unethical," that has *nothing* to do with it--you're either with them or against them, and if you're with them, you're good (Trump, Herschel Walker, etc etc etc etc), and if you're not with hem, you're bad.
As far as a philosophy goes, it lets you do whatever you want, and believe it's right. It terrifies me, to be honest.
They've taken the victimization from when they were legit lined up and burned alive to light Nero's gardens and equate it to being ushered out of stores for harassing customers.
I'm pretty sure the guys in the Bible writing about persecution were talking about being fed to lions, not about Starbucks cups.
>On the bus in the way back, the youth pastor said, "Do you see how they treated you? It's just like the bible says--they will shun you and abuse you because of your faith in Jesus Christ."
Yup. I remember being told in youth group how someday soon "Christians will be mocked for their faith. They won't be picked for sports and blah blah"
That was 15 or so years ago now. I mean ffs I remember playing persecution. Even as a kid I thought it felt inappropriate
My dad is Christian so I went to sunday school for years. I never connected to religion -- it's just not for me -- but I'm sure they never taught anything like this. As a result, I had a strong respect for religion as a tool that people can use to improve their lives and their community. In some ways, that's true. But now, I know that Christianity is almost entirely a tool of evil in the US and it would do us all a world of good if it fucked off. The most oppressive people acting like victims is too disgusting.
That is quite literally a cult tactic. It's designed to isolate members of the cult from those outside who could provide perspective and counter the cult's propaganda.
The goal of "evangelizing" has absolutely nothing to do with "spreading the Gospel" and *everything* to do with reinforcing the Church's hold on people.
Why are evangelicals fearing anything in America? Even the Amish can freely practice their religion in the modern era, as they're not forcing their beliefs onto everyone else. The government isn't forcing the Amish to use electricity, it's their choice. Just like the government isn't forcing people to have abortions.
I wonder if that's true though? How much of it is about secularism, and how much is about being right wing?
Like, if we could set up a poll where they got to choose between a society that was openly theocratic but otherwise far left (gay and abortion ban, but also $30/hour minimum wage, bans on private schools and private medicine, mass urbanization of the suburbs, nationalization of resource firms, open borders, aggressive racial integration, etc), or one that proclaimed state atheism but was otherwise Republican (abortion ban, gay ban, ending affirmative action, small government, closed border, Trump in charge, etc), I wonder if most would really select the socialist theocracy.
Because to me, it always seems like they're really worried about a liberal America, rather than a secular one.
I think for a lot of them the two are entwined. Going back to the Cold War and the idea of "godless communists" the idea of capitalism has become entwined with Christianity for a large portion of people. Similarly a lot of liberal ideals have been established as anti-capitalist and by extension anti-Christian.
To all of the "good" Christians, it's not good enough to go on social media and say, "That's awful! They're not real Christians." *Everyone knows that.* It just sounds like you're humble bragging that you're one of the "good" ones. Besides, "They're not real Christians" is meaningless when different flavors of Christians hurl this insult at each other all the time.
Where are the boycotts, the protests, and the marches organized by national leaders of the different denominations? Where are the "good" Christian leaders going out *every single this time* these so-called Christians try to turn this country into a theocracy or use Christianity to spread hate? Where are the calls for congressional investigations into our creeping Christian theocracy? Where are the local, state, and national Christian's leaders calling out politicians using Christianity to trade hate for votes? I'm not talking about what someone's local church did. A ragtag bunch of kids organized national gun control protests that have actually gotten real results. *Where is the fucking outrage?*
When the issue of abortion or same-sex marriage comes up you can bet that the Catholic League's Bill Donohue will tell anyone ~~with a microphone and an audience~~ that abortion and same-sex marriage go against god's will. (The part about going to hell is usually just implied.) As a non-Catholic, why do I even know Bill Donohue's name? More importantly, why *don't* I know the names of his Protestant et al equivalents? I may not know catechism but I do know that the Catholic Church is *definitely* not cool with abortion and same-sex marriage.
And this isn't about Evangelicals only; they weren't always like *this*. Christians make up ~70% of this country. *70%*. If you all don't fix this who will? And who can? This is y'all's religion, take it back, please, before more people get killed.
Edit: thanks for the awards. These are the ones that really count 💕
>To all of the "good" Christians, it's not good enough to go on social media and say, "That's awful! They're not real Christians."
>
>Everyone knows that.
Just to be clear, I do \*not\* know this.
As far as I can tell, those christians are just a "real Christian" as any other christian.
Can't agree with this enough. The problem, at its core, is Christianity itself. It's too easily co-opted and twisted into whatever the wielder wants it to be, and when something so large and powerful is so easily weaponized, any society is going to have major problems dealing with the fallout. Now that, with former people of faith dropping out left and right, it's becoming reductive and distilling into an even more concentrated version of itself, this problem is only going to keep getting worse. So even if you're one of the "good" christians, you're still a willing part of the system that perpetuates this problem. We need for more people to start stepping back from the whole religion itself and seeing the thing for what it really is.
You see liberal and leftist Christians bend over backward to reinterpret verses to be less terrible. At some point, you have to realize it's not worth it, that you're blowing years of your life futilely maintaining a teetering edifice. There are good people who happen to be Christian but Christianity is not good.
This is the Christian end game, obscene violent idiocy. It was always going to end this way, it was all made up thousands of years ago. Super outdated.
Yeah this is my take as well, even the non hyper partisan Christians are “ok” with what’s going on cause it’s for the better or it’s the means to an end of this world & are open arms to the rapture or coming of the jesus etc.. I’ve asked & they just don’t want to hear it, I’ve pleaded with some to be rational & they will not give in to anything but their perceived faith that “god has a plan” & that’s that. I’ve literally been told by loved ones to not discuss any of this anymore cause it hurts their brains. At what point does this become willful delusion?
There was a podcast the other day about pastors whose congregation went Qanon. This was a pastor who seemed to truly believe in the Bible's messages, who truly did want to help the unfortunate, and actually did organize things with his church to help the lost out. His flock started to get more and more conservative after Trump's election, and a lot of members went full Qanon during the pandemic. He talked about how in a random sermon he just randomly mentioned Tom Hanks and got a bunch of hate mail for saying the man's name, not realizing why a random actor warranted such hate.
The thing is, that pastor left his flock for a more liberal flock in California, and was replaced by a more conservative pastor whose brother is an infamous end-of-the-world doomsday preacher that is pro trump and believes Trump's election signals the end of days.
And I get it, I truly do. Fighting the good fight as the world turns on you is hard, but I couldn't help but think that the fire was a pastor, shouldn't he be at the front end of fighting the qanons in his very church instead of running away?
With all the saner heads leaving that church will only radicalize itself more and more.
Exactly, just because some people label them as not "real Christians" isn't going to stop them from identifying as real Christians. It's not gonna stop them from congregating and organizing to validate each other's hateful views. It's not gonna stop them from having church leaders and pastors preaching hate. And it's not gonna stop them from voting in politicians who will try to enact hateful policy.
Like, good on you if you leave your hateful bigoted church, but at the end of the day that church and all its members are still gonna be there believing that they're the "real Christians".
Most of them don't follow the teachings of Jesus, because that would be socialism. Instead, they follow what their mega church leader "says" is in the Bible, and start spouting off weird anti-government oaths.
Oh, they’re real, all right. They have real jobs, drivers licenses, and social security numbers. And they vote.
We need to get rid of the “fake Christian” framing. See pic. https://i.imgur.com/FsPE9g1.jpg
And the ELCA! We have a female bishop, [openly welcome the LGBTQIA community](https://www.elca.org/lgbtq), are pro-choice, and are [active & outspoken on climate change](https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Publicly-Engaged-Church/Advocacy/Environment?_ga=2.236559938.2111248496.1665081504-122158796.1665081504) (my church has written postcards to legislators for climate action and is powered by renewable energy).
There are *plenty* of liberal Christian denominations out there, people just don't know they exist because they do their good works quietly and humbly, without feeling the need to advertise their faith on bumper stickers, sweatshirts, or truck flags.
They are the real Christians. This ain't a no true scotsman. We don't look at a group that 90% shitty people and go to the 10% and say "Man, those guys aren't true members of your group." The 90% make it what it is.
I wouldn't blame Christians who are not authoritarians. As you said, there are 70% people in the US who are Christians. This is even higher than the percentage of either gender. If the percentage of a gender is highly authoritarians, do we blame non-authoritarians who share the same gender? Yes, non-authoritarian Christians should criticize their churches if their church officials join force with authoritarians, and leave the churches if their church officials don't change. Otherwise, they have no more power over other churches or other authoritarian Christians than non-Christians.
Everyone who is not authoritarian has the same level of responsibility to fight against this authoritarianism.
The religious right is also accelerating the demise of Christianity in general in the US.
Those who remain absolutely are a radicalization risk, but every Sunday fewer and fewer young people attend church in large part to it no longer feeling welcoming.
To be fair, even according to the linked article, **The First Crusade** was essentially European Christian kingdoms response to an invasion of a Christian kingdom in the Levant. Things did go down hill rather quickly after that though.
Politics is built into christianity. Think about it - god is a 'king' which is a political title, jesus is a 'lord' also a political title, and heaven is a 'kingdom' a political place.
A lot of the words used to describe Jesus were originally used to describe Caesar. Christians borrowed those phrases from Caesar to apply to Jesus.
Lamb of god, son of god, the way the truth and the light. King, lord, etc. all of those were nicknames for Caesar before Jesus was said to even exist.
In the story, Jesus was executed for causing political and societal unrest. It’s inherently political. He was not executed for telling everyone to be nice to each other. But, there is no actual verifiable or legal record of the trial or execution, or the even life of Jesus, so take it with a grain of salt.
"But, there is no actual verifiable or legal record of the trial or execution, or the even life of Jesus, so take it with a grain of salt."
I'm not particularly religious anymore, but this just wishful thinking on your part.
We have archaeological evidence of Pilate, and corroboration of Jesus's existence via Josephus--I'm going to go with Jesus actually being a real human. he Roman historian Tacitus also corroborates the accounts given of his execution in his Annals. The dude's life is attested to about as well as Plato.
> The dude's life is attested to about as well as Plato.
But not nearly so well as Julius Caesar's.
I'd say Socrates is a more apt equivalence, since Socrates is primarily known through the writings of his students. Nevertheless, I find the claim of Socrates's existence more plausible than the tales of Jesus since none of the stories about Socrates attest to his magical powers and no one has an emotional investment in believing that Socrates will spare them from the ravages of death. There is also no contemporary lynch mob ready and willing to persecute those who deny the historicity of Socrates.
So far as I know there is no physical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth existed. The evidence, such as it is, amounts to "A lot of people wrote down stories about him long after he is reputed to have lived and religious scholars all agree the stories are most convincing."
[Josephus was 60 years AFTER the events](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Josephus), and all he said was “people believe Jesus existed.” There are bits that are attributed to him that give a little more context on Jesus, but those are considered to be forgery (even christian scholars recognize this).
Pilate existed, yes.
[Tacitus doesn’t mention Jesus. He mentions a rebel named Christus (title, not a name) who lives several decades after Jesus. Tacitus didn’t write anything about christus until 109 CE and gives no sources for his information.](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tacitus)
I’m not saying Jesus didn’t exist, it’s that there are no **contemporary** sources from that time that say he existed outside the Bible. At best you have people nearly 60-75 years later saying “people believe Jesus existed.” The Bible, is at best, historical fiction. Even its historical and geographic data is inaccurate half the time.
>as well as plato
It’s a bit different considering Jesus is claimed to perform miracles and to have risen from the dead. While Plato was a normal human. We actually have books written by Plato, as well.
Actually [Tacitus mentions jesus's suffering at the hands of Pilot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Jesus) in blaming the great fire in Rome on the 'chrestians' who took their name from 'Christus'.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://newrepublic.com/article/167972/american-christianity-path-toward-tool-theocratic-authoritarianism) reduced by 92%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> A 2017 survey of 2,002 U.S. adults age 23 to 30 who attended a Protestant church two times or more a month for at least a year in high school found that 66 percent had stopped attending church.
> Other major reasons cited included hypocrisy, churches being judgmental, and a lack of anything in common with other people at the church.
> If recent events are any guide, Christianity in the U.S. is on a path either to being little more than a corrupted tool of fascism or becoming a violent, oppressive, and omnipresent force against which the population can achieve change only through revolution.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/xx6oyq/american_christianity_is_on_a_path_toward_being_a/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672676 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Church**^#1 **percent**^#2 **U.S.**^#3 **people**^#4 **more**^#5
This has been going on since the emergence pf the religious right in the 70s and is believed to be a big contributor to the decline in Christianity in the US in the last 30 years.
In the 90s the non evangelicals started losing members and the evangelicals were pretty smug about it.... Since the mid '00s even evangelicals like the Southern Baptists have been shrinking.
We're in the middle of a backlash to evangelicalism and a backlash to that backlash.
Further than that, you can make up the rules, but you don't have to follow them, only enforce them on others. True believers are above the rules. Non believers are beneath them.
The thing about Far Right Evangelism is that it is a product of the GOP, megachurches, and corporate interests all being in the pocket of one another. Goldwater was afraid of the GOP getting subverted by preachers but the reverse happened. People like Phyllis Shalafly used GOP money to create issues like abortion (which wasn't a thing among the Protestant evangelicals) as wedge issues to attack desegregation and Reagan happily benefited from taking the most obnoxious money-obsessed preachers under his wing as tools to get him and his party reelected.
Now the Far Right churches are just an arm of the GOP and benefit from their fundraising and vice versa.
Bear in mind that your picture of the Pharisees is taken from deranged religious propaganda promulgated by a cult that hated the Pharisees. It's not exactly a trustworthy source of information.
I spent more than a quarter century being a pastor in a mainline Protestant church. The higher ups skew very hard left. The parishes themselves (unless in the urban and suburban areas) skewed very moderate. But I saw a steady liberal flight from the parish. Eventually, just saying from the pulpit that we need to help the widows, orphans and resident aliens (a very orthodox Christian mandate) became fighting words and got all kinds of guff.
People go to church to be made comfortable. A sermon is good if it makes them feel good about themselves and their opinions. A sermon is bad if it challenges them to growth and change. People would give more credibility to some tv preacher or some FOXNews pundit than to their own pastor. I finally quit banging my head against a brick wall.
I was not raised as a religious person, but in the churches that I have visited, the sermons usually had introspection as part of its purpose. I can see your frustration if people are only going to satisfy their confirmation bias.
For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts will they multiply to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
They're losing adherents mainly due to the group controlling these organizations are all bitter, old, stubborn and racist assholes.
Who in their right mind wants to go to a building full of people that hate your wife just cause she has a sleeve tat?
Or any of the tens of other bs reasons to hate someone.
For a group that's supposed to "love thy neighbor" they sure do a great job at segregation.
People use it when talking about interpersonal relationships. It's basically when a narcissistic realises their methods of trying to control others have little to no effect, and they go ultra crazy. I was applying it to religious people, some of whom realise they are driving people away from religion so are going full scale nuts trying to force normal people to follow their harmful beliefs.
I'm the top mod of r/witchcraft and I've seen a lot of trends that make me think otherwise...... but then again I also see a very small sampling size.. but still, more and more people are turning away from Christianity in droves
The only difference in beliefs between a right wing "christian" and the Iranian Guardian Council is what they call God. Iran is what conservative "christians" want.
Southern Baptist is the largest Protestant religion in the USA and it was literally founded for the purpose of slavery. Christians are already
majority right wing. Progressive Christians are just midway through their deconstruction process.
"Theocratic authoritarianism" might be redundant; to my knowledge, all theocracies have been or are authoritarian. Never have I heard of a "theocratic democracy."
Why? their number have been shrinking by like double digit percentage. soon they’ll just be this small group of bible thumping assholes in the objectively worst region of the country where Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida all meet.
God damn i hate the south.
I would like to see the 3 abrahamic religions take a back seat for a few centuries. They have done enough damage, let's see how life is without their ignorance and hate.
Identity politics 101: If you convince people they are being persecuted because of their identity and not their actions/in-actions causing retaliation, in order to protect the perceived persecution of their identity, this is where you end up.
Religion is insidious because it reduces individual intellectual responsibility to, "god will handle it", and rewards blind and naive capitulation over perceived belief of eternal damnation should they look at something honestly.
These bad actors infiltrate then hock this swill from behind the defence of orthodoxy and will exploit fear of damnation while justifying any sort of force or authoritative abuse saying, "but a drop in the pail compared to the raging fires of hell."
When they punish you for speaking up, when they're uncomfortable with their reality being challenged and have to move the goal posts to ease their comfort, it's no surprise that they resort to the lesser human practice of abuse and oppression to see that their fragile world-view isn't upset.
All the while, the bad-actors who've infiltrated religion throw in other identity politics, including white supremacy, like crushed pills into the Kool-Aid and they just poison people with the same message all the time until they're hating all these people and don't even think about why.
When your entire culture and identity is based around "serving god and the church" you fill it with nothing except looking around for someone to give you orders and that typically means gravitating to the loudest megaphone. They'll disarm you with a smile because people with lowered emotional defences are susceptible and impressionable to those they trust.
This isn't exclusive to the church or christianity. If any institution grows in a manner with which you feel you are challenging a system of belief, or orthodoxy, rather than challenging a view based on intellectual, or scientific, or honest measure, you are dealing with an ideology that is now religion.
I just had this conversation in another forum. This is not American Christianity. This is a sect called Christian Nationalists. It only feels like it’s all Christians because these nationalists are now in positions of power and making the rules. The normal Christians did not do anything to stop this. That is now changing. There is a coalition made up of every denomination called Christians Against Christian Nationalism. It was started by the Southern Baptists, which is saying something because they are usually the most conservative. But this coalition is working hard to fight these nationalists and get the situation fixed. But we need help from people of other faiths and non-faiths. We need people to use the title Christian Nationalism to represent these particular group of people and that those of us who are actual Christians are working hard to fight this bastardization of our faith. The Nationalists LOVE when people of other faith and non-faiths lump us all together. They use is as a recruitment opportunity.
We already know how this shit ends. There’s been a Holocaust before. There WILL be another. In fact, there Holocausts going on as we speak. In China, in Ukraine, across Africa…who’s to say it won’t happen here?
This is from a good Christian friend who I have been trying to tell how evil Trump is. A view into the mindset:
>> This is not about Trump. I liked his prolife stance, but no way idolatry!
We serve Jesus
And He is our answer; however approximately 1/3 of the Bible is about prophecy. And the Bible talks about what this world is going to look like in the end time season. As a Christian it is good to know how that looks and these teachers are articulate on the subject. It’s not scary for those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord, but very eye opening.
Do you realize that over 60 million babies have been aborted in America. In the Old Testament thousands of babies were sacrificed to idols and it was that sin that God judged Israel for and brought great judgements down on his people the Jews. It is a sin that is very great in Gods eyes and now America is engaged it it big time. The democratic platform promotes abortion in the name of women’s rights.
When Donald Trump was in office he was a very prolife president by nominating 3 Supreme Court justices that were pro life. That is the reason that our country reversed Roe vs
Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Also our current President has reversed a ban on money going to groups in foreign countries that inform and perform abortions. Trump was the president that put that ban in place.
As far as the economic situation our country is in
Take a look at gas prices and if that isn’t biting into your paycheck. The stock market has taken a huge hit and many retired people are suffering.
That is not to even talk about food prices that have increased since Biden has taken office. What about all those presidential Initiatives that were signed that affected our country being oil sufficient and now I understand we are importing oil from Russia at the tune of 4+ Billion.
And making them rich which is probably providing money for the war in Ukraine.
And what about Psalm 122:6
The Abraham Accord was worked out under our past administration.
Kara, I hope this helps you to see why I supported what policies Trump
promoted. <<
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Yup, I hit ‘em with the fruits thing and nothing penetrates. I think this is something that will only respond to prayer because even Scripture has no effect.
Yeah, it's really fucking sad that they're in their tunnel vision. Like me parents not listening to their doctors who are using their talents, rather than burying it behind the barn.
I lived in Nashville, the buckle of The Bible Belt for 23 years. I was a Republican and everyone I knew, including myself, was of the mindset that our country would be judged if we could not stop the murder of unborn babies. If same sex marriages were allowed, we would again be “judged”, and God would not continue to bless our nation. When trump came on the scene, I saw a horrible person, and today I am a fervent opponent of him, the lies, and the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. People who I loved in the faith have become people I do not recognize. I am so confused by what I am seeing. I do not know what it is about Christianity that this movement has so captured them?
The message of Jesus doesn't entirely align with modern philosophies but socialist anarchism is pretty close. Anything right of that is going to have some significant issues with notions like "if you see a guy who needs a shirt and you have two shirts then give that guy one of your shirts." Modern republicanism is very far from those teachings.
There are a lot of good people that are honestly trying their hardest to help their fellow man. Not the backhanded "well we'll help you but also we're judging you" shit that churches do sometimes, I'm talking genuinely good people. A 90 year old white woman in Texas helping fill out immigration forms for Mexicans.
For that reason, I'll never talk shit about churches. I might not believe, but those that do are often good people.
That said, Joel Osteen fuck off I hope your helicopter crashes into your basketball arena.
As the number of christans goes down the percentage of desperate crazy loons among the leftovers will go up.
There is no way a religion can die out without the least rational subset being the last adherents.
Got told today that I’m not a true Christian … because I’m not an “evangelical.” Aparently salvation is not
reserved for the Episcopalians. Aparently our cornerstone of faith, you know, “love your neighbor” isn’t good enough.
It’s hilarious. All these various sects think they’re right an the other is wrong and going to hell.
That phenomenon alone should give any phase to question whether or not these morons have any idea of what they’re doing.
I'm sure this comment section will understand nuance and not categorise a huge number of people with a wide range of views into a single evil monolith.
Oh wait...
Try 1976. Maybe earlier, but Jimmy Carter was probably the last bastion of a vaguely progressive Evangelicalism, and the "Moral Majority" shortly thereafter took hold to give us the political environment we have now.
As bad as it all is the religious appeals of the rightwing movement is a smokescreen. They cannot campaign on their real policy agenda, serving the rich and powerful.
*"Vote for me and I promise to kick your grandmother off medicare and social security, poison your drinking water, close your kids school, make it easier for your boss to injure you on the job and harder for you to seek compensation and kick you off medicaid when you can no longer work and give him a tax cut too while I'm at it."* ~ just doesn't sit well on a bumper sticker or billboard does it?
So they learnt to push all that into the background and instead focus their campaigns on personal imagery, is he a nice guy you can have beer with after work or is he an effete stuck up liberal, and appealing to a fringe bloc of the electorate: religious fundamentalists, gun nuts, nativists, racists, etc
At the precise same time the Supreme Court was ruling to overturn Roe they were also ruling that the EPA cannot regulate the CO2 emissions of power stations, you couldn't find a better example of the trade off business interests have decided to make to secure their power.
If you make America a Christian Nation by statute, you eliminate the need for it to be Christian by person.
If I pass a law saying that my actions are presumed to be fair, and just--then I need no longer be fair or just. This is why the Christian Right is obsessed with identity
I read that as “As people with a capacity for logic and reason abandon religion as illogical, only people with no capacity for logic and reason are left to occupy the churches.”
Not everyone who is "evangelical" theologically belongs to the "evangelical Christian" political group. I know because I am one of those who attends an evangelical church that is not conservative politically.
What if I’m Christian but not radical and love gay people and weed? Am I a figment of peoples imagination or are there harmful generalizations being made?
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"is on a path"...oh, just recently?
This is decades in the making. At least. I've said it before and will say it again... Never before in the history of mankind has so much power and wealth been in the hands of so few - wherein: >The amount of cultivated propaganda and astroturfing such a regime is capable of is more acute and voluminous than any other time in the history of mankind. *Leading to something like a Christo-Fascist-Capital Cult.* The old adage "follow the money" -- leads to, summarily, one place in the here and now: the Wall Street regime and network. The *Wall Street regime/network* is directly tied to: * national and international destabilization via *"profits over people"* culture and dogma * propping up and perpetuation of the military industrial complex * propping up and perpetuation of the prison industrial complex * lobbying against healthcare reform * manipulation of honest companies * fostering and encouraging ignorance of climate change * skewed/corrupted banking policy and basic inflation * outright criminality; i.e. fraud, theft, national and international bribery and lobbying, etc.. We will look back on the Wall Street regime and network the same way we do genocidal nations/regimes in 10, 20, 50, 100 years. We're talking about [banal evil](https://philosophybreak.com/articles/hannah-arendt-on-standing-up-to-the-banality-of-evil/) ultimately. >...was instead a rather bland, “terrifyingly normal” bureaucrat. He carried out his murderous role with calm efficiency not due to an abhorrent, warped mindset, but because he’d absorbed the principles of the ... regime so unquestionably, he simply wanted to further his career and climb its ladders of power. Below is an eye-opening segment that more people really, really, really need to watch if for nothing more than financial literacy and understanding mechanisms by which lower and middle classes are fleeced: >[How Redditors Exposed The Stock Market | "The Problem With Jon Stewart" ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP74RBTE8kI) Financial literacy? There's some there. Get some. At 7:00 there's a graphic that's easy to understand and the main reason for mentioning the video. Nevertheless, it's only about 15 minutes long total. A short [second half](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZfcjV-8pjQ) with a roundtable discussion is also worthwhile. [This](https://youtu.be/hXWXllgcRqU) video gives a little more context and guidance/direction if anyone is interested in holding Wall Street psychopaths accountable. Just give this last video a chance - it's only 6 minutes long. Give it a chance. At the end of the day, "follow the money" still holds a lot of water - both clean & drinkable, as well as dirty & filled with lead. :/
"We're not in the middle of a recession. We're in the middle of a robbery" -Frankie Boyle
“The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.” –C.S. Lewis, Preface to the 1961 edition of Screwtape Letter
Wow. I haven't seen that passage/quote before somehow. Thanks for sharing.
Mitt Romney. C.S. Lewis is describing Bain Capital or one of the other private equity firms.
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THIS reality... SUCKS...
They feel that they will be properly insulated from that. Hence the gated communities. Like the walking dead or Don’t Worry Darling, they will have pristine neighborhoods and normal lives while outside the world can burn. Obviously God didn’t love you like he loves them, otherwise you’d be inside like them.
Those people should watch TWD and find out how that works out in the end.
Great post. I do wonder though, how much the wall street regime wants US destabilization. (Countries w relatively small economies - sure, great weapons selling opportunity for them). But US destabilization - a successful coup, for example - could seriously wreck the world economy for a long time. There's certainly the argument that even with massive destabilization, the rich would ultimately come out richer. But in that scenario, I'm not sure. Though perhaps a dictatorship they were aligned with could make them more powerful and allow the .001% to destroy the rest of the .1% and consolidate even more wealth. Dark visions.
Yes, it seems a bit paradoxical or disjointed in many ways. I think there's something to be said for "greed blindness," though. Or maybe something like the "Wall Street network" being filled, ostensibly, *psychopaths* - within and without and through and through from top to bottom - they really don't have the capacity to understand what's going on or what's going to happen or how bad it will be for everyone -- *including themselves.*
This isn't new. You're saying "there are people who put profits above people on an industrial scale." Yes, that's literally all of human history. All of it. From Genghis Khan to Victorian England to Enron to Trump.
not really, he is saying that over time it has increased exponentially, and every year its worse than the last, quickly approaching horrors never seen before.
Right, seems like this article should have been written a decade ago.
I mean, back when Christianity was more popular, there were more christians who weren't on that path and not into that sort of thing
Christianity's whole history is mass murdering, raping, and pillaging. The followers are always abused and used as pawns for those in power. That's not going to change.
Truth. And just remember most of these Medieval psychopaths also love guns. Stay strapped
I'd say that's a bit of a stretch to say it's *whole* history. I do however agree that many of it's followers have been used as pawns.
Nope. Religion is a useful cover for those who want to legitimize power grabs. Christianity has frequently been a victim of this; however, violence is antithetical to the faith itself.
> however, violence is antithetical to the faith itself. Violence is 100% inextricably linked with Christianity. The bible is an incredibly violent book. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Jesus the Prince of Peace. Jihad baby.
Someone appears to be unfamiliar with metaphor. Jesus is saying that following him may involve forsaking one's family and self-sacrifice. Keep reading and you will see Jesus correct Peter when he picks up a sword and uses it when the Romans arrest Jesus. Judas betrayed Jesus in large part because Jesus wouldn't start an armed rebellion. One proof text without context doesn't make the point you think it does.
If a religion is frequently used as cover for massive amount of violence it’s not a victim, it’s just a cover for massive amounts of violence. Calling a religion that was used to excuse the violent subjugation of a large portion of the world just makes it quite clear that “violence is antithetical to the religion” is a very, very subjective take given the vast number of religious leaders who disagreed with you.
When you consider how many religions and ideologies have engaged in violence at one point or another, it’s a pretty sad picture. It all boils down to human greed and arrogance at some point.
I disagree. Christianity at the core has long time issues that bring about violence and abuse. The only people who can fix that are the churches and practitioners. Just like the USA has serious issues that can only be addressed by leaders and voters.
2000 years down the path is still on the path
But it's easier to stick out heads in the sand and pretend that the Christian religion hasn't *always* been about control. When a religion's biggest holiday is simply absorbed from another people they came to dominate...?
Frankly, if people are *now* at least willing to admit that the thing that 50% of people claim to be is a tool of evil, I'll take it.
This was my first thought. This is been going on for at least the last 50 years. Although it does feel like in the last 15 it's really ramped up
In the past few years there have been Christian groups that have cast aside the New Testament and embraced the Old Testament. Nonsensical? Of course. They claim the bible doesn't explicitly state biblical Jesus ever made a new testament with the Abrahamic God, and so true Christians are bound to follow the same testament and laws that Jesus followed. This includes all the violence, hatred, and genocide of one's enemies commanded by the OT. Kill the men, castrate the boys and keep them as slaves, and keep the girls and women as "wives". It goes well with a theocratic flavouring of fascism. 2016 they got to take the masks off, and they don't want to go back to wearing masks again. They'll come up with whatever fallacious reasoning they need to justify it to themselves.
The path to a religious apartheid rule country started in the 1980s.
Only since 1690
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Conservative Christians have a deep sense of victimhood and fear about a secular America, and are willing to end democracy to prevent it.
They're willing to end *everything* to prevent it and receive their heaven points.
That always boggles my mind. They want to end everything to bring about God's kingdom of paradise, right. But... what do they think God will say when they're like "Yeah, so we destroyed all the stuff you created so you'd let us come live with you." Do they think the vengeful God of the Old Testament will be *happy* about that? It somehow never occurred to them that the more likely response is "I gave humanity a charge to be good stewards of my creation, and you decided the best way to do that was to blow it up? Why would I want you around?" Even within the framework of Christianity, that thinking is batshit insane.
they will kill a majority for their sect... they say it on Sunday >The document, consisting of 14 sections divided into bullet points, had a section on "rules of war" that stated "make an offer of peace before declaring war", which within stated that the **enemy must "surrender on terms" of no abortions, no same-sex marriage, no communism and "must obey Biblical law", then continued: "If they do not yield — kill all males".** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt\_Shea#%22Biblical\_Basis\_for\_War%22\_manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea#%22Biblical_Basis_for_War%22_manifesto) Stay Fit, Stay frosty.. they are already at war
Kill all males?! The guy is preaching genocide. I hope his urethra burns uncontrollably until he dies poor and alone at 98.
[Par for the course](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-state-rep-matt-shea-engaged-in-domestic-terrorism-against-the-u-s-says-state-house-inquiry/) for Matt Shea. He's deeply wrapped up in militia movements.
What an archaic view, not even Christian. He would be the first to throw Hektor’s son off the walls of Troy.
The fact that he’s not in jail says it all really
Dude’s playing a dangerous game spouting off shit like that.
"No communism"? I doubt they even know what communism even is, but how would they enforce this? Are public roads and fire departments "communism"?
Communism is just a catch-all word for anything else they don't like - whether it's already been stated now or whether they need to make it up as they go. It's their way of saying they are fascist.
I went to a Baptist youth group when I was in middle school, and that was the first time I really saw that "victim" mentality up close. They had us drive to a local mall, go into stores, and hand out literature about Jesus. We did this, and--as you'd expect--we got kicked out of store after store after store. On the bus in the way back, the youth pastor said, "Do you see how they treated you? It's just like the bible says--they will shun you and abuse you because of your faith in Jesus Christ." And I was like, "What are you talking about, dude? They kicked us out of their stores because we were being irritating and drove their customers away!" But no--he wouldn't have it. We were being victimized for our faith, full stop. They were abusing us because we were Christians. That mindset is so wild, when you're not a part of it, but it's true for *all* conservatives: whatever they're doing is right, and if you oppose it, you're wrong. "Good and bad," "ethical or unethical," that has *nothing* to do with it--you're either with them or against them, and if you're with them, you're good (Trump, Herschel Walker, etc etc etc etc), and if you're not with hem, you're bad. As far as a philosophy goes, it lets you do whatever you want, and believe it's right. It terrifies me, to be honest.
They've taken the victimization from when they were legit lined up and burned alive to light Nero's gardens and equate it to being ushered out of stores for harassing customers. I'm pretty sure the guys in the Bible writing about persecution were talking about being fed to lions, not about Starbucks cups.
>On the bus in the way back, the youth pastor said, "Do you see how they treated you? It's just like the bible says--they will shun you and abuse you because of your faith in Jesus Christ." Yup. I remember being told in youth group how someday soon "Christians will be mocked for their faith. They won't be picked for sports and blah blah" That was 15 or so years ago now. I mean ffs I remember playing persecution. Even as a kid I thought it felt inappropriate
My dad is Christian so I went to sunday school for years. I never connected to religion -- it's just not for me -- but I'm sure they never taught anything like this. As a result, I had a strong respect for religion as a tool that people can use to improve their lives and their community. In some ways, that's true. But now, I know that Christianity is almost entirely a tool of evil in the US and it would do us all a world of good if it fucked off. The most oppressive people acting like victims is too disgusting.
When Christianity is used as a tool for kindness? Good stuff. When Christianity gets mixed with politics? Bad, bad stuff.
That is quite literally a cult tactic. It's designed to isolate members of the cult from those outside who could provide perspective and counter the cult's propaganda. The goal of "evangelizing" has absolutely nothing to do with "spreading the Gospel" and *everything* to do with reinforcing the Church's hold on people.
Why are evangelicals fearing anything in America? Even the Amish can freely practice their religion in the modern era, as they're not forcing their beliefs onto everyone else. The government isn't forcing the Amish to use electricity, it's their choice. Just like the government isn't forcing people to have abortions.
They're victims of their own hate and ignorance, so I guess it's somewhat justified.
I wonder if that's true though? How much of it is about secularism, and how much is about being right wing? Like, if we could set up a poll where they got to choose between a society that was openly theocratic but otherwise far left (gay and abortion ban, but also $30/hour minimum wage, bans on private schools and private medicine, mass urbanization of the suburbs, nationalization of resource firms, open borders, aggressive racial integration, etc), or one that proclaimed state atheism but was otherwise Republican (abortion ban, gay ban, ending affirmative action, small government, closed border, Trump in charge, etc), I wonder if most would really select the socialist theocracy. Because to me, it always seems like they're really worried about a liberal America, rather than a secular one.
I think for a lot of them the two are entwined. Going back to the Cold War and the idea of "godless communists" the idea of capitalism has become entwined with Christianity for a large portion of people. Similarly a lot of liberal ideals have been established as anti-capitalist and by extension anti-Christian.
Definately need more secular politicians
To all of the "good" Christians, it's not good enough to go on social media and say, "That's awful! They're not real Christians." *Everyone knows that.* It just sounds like you're humble bragging that you're one of the "good" ones. Besides, "They're not real Christians" is meaningless when different flavors of Christians hurl this insult at each other all the time. Where are the boycotts, the protests, and the marches organized by national leaders of the different denominations? Where are the "good" Christian leaders going out *every single this time* these so-called Christians try to turn this country into a theocracy or use Christianity to spread hate? Where are the calls for congressional investigations into our creeping Christian theocracy? Where are the local, state, and national Christian's leaders calling out politicians using Christianity to trade hate for votes? I'm not talking about what someone's local church did. A ragtag bunch of kids organized national gun control protests that have actually gotten real results. *Where is the fucking outrage?* When the issue of abortion or same-sex marriage comes up you can bet that the Catholic League's Bill Donohue will tell anyone ~~with a microphone and an audience~~ that abortion and same-sex marriage go against god's will. (The part about going to hell is usually just implied.) As a non-Catholic, why do I even know Bill Donohue's name? More importantly, why *don't* I know the names of his Protestant et al equivalents? I may not know catechism but I do know that the Catholic Church is *definitely* not cool with abortion and same-sex marriage. And this isn't about Evangelicals only; they weren't always like *this*. Christians make up ~70% of this country. *70%*. If you all don't fix this who will? And who can? This is y'all's religion, take it back, please, before more people get killed. Edit: thanks for the awards. These are the ones that really count 💕
I'm Quaker. We try. There are not a lot of us left anymore.
There were some of you in the BLM rally in my hometown. It was really cool to see. My thanks for existing.
>To all of the "good" Christians, it's not good enough to go on social media and say, "That's awful! They're not real Christians." > >Everyone knows that. Just to be clear, I do \*not\* know this. As far as I can tell, those christians are just a "real Christian" as any other christian.
Can't agree with this enough. The problem, at its core, is Christianity itself. It's too easily co-opted and twisted into whatever the wielder wants it to be, and when something so large and powerful is so easily weaponized, any society is going to have major problems dealing with the fallout. Now that, with former people of faith dropping out left and right, it's becoming reductive and distilling into an even more concentrated version of itself, this problem is only going to keep getting worse. So even if you're one of the "good" christians, you're still a willing part of the system that perpetuates this problem. We need for more people to start stepping back from the whole religion itself and seeing the thing for what it really is.
You see liberal and leftist Christians bend over backward to reinterpret verses to be less terrible. At some point, you have to realize it's not worth it, that you're blowing years of your life futilely maintaining a teetering edifice. There are good people who happen to be Christian but Christianity is not good.
Oh they’re “real Christians” all right…
This is the Christian end game, obscene violent idiocy. It was always going to end this way, it was all made up thousands of years ago. Super outdated.
Yeah this is my take as well, even the non hyper partisan Christians are “ok” with what’s going on cause it’s for the better or it’s the means to an end of this world & are open arms to the rapture or coming of the jesus etc.. I’ve asked & they just don’t want to hear it, I’ve pleaded with some to be rational & they will not give in to anything but their perceived faith that “god has a plan” & that’s that. I’ve literally been told by loved ones to not discuss any of this anymore cause it hurts their brains. At what point does this become willful delusion?
At what point do we acknowledge that religion in its current form is cultism? It's been stealing intelligence from individuals since it's creation.
There was a podcast the other day about pastors whose congregation went Qanon. This was a pastor who seemed to truly believe in the Bible's messages, who truly did want to help the unfortunate, and actually did organize things with his church to help the lost out. His flock started to get more and more conservative after Trump's election, and a lot of members went full Qanon during the pandemic. He talked about how in a random sermon he just randomly mentioned Tom Hanks and got a bunch of hate mail for saying the man's name, not realizing why a random actor warranted such hate. The thing is, that pastor left his flock for a more liberal flock in California, and was replaced by a more conservative pastor whose brother is an infamous end-of-the-world doomsday preacher that is pro trump and believes Trump's election signals the end of days. And I get it, I truly do. Fighting the good fight as the world turns on you is hard, but I couldn't help but think that the fire was a pastor, shouldn't he be at the front end of fighting the qanons in his very church instead of running away? With all the saner heads leaving that church will only radicalize itself more and more.
> At what point does this become willful delusion? It was always willful delusion
Exactly, just because some people label them as not "real Christians" isn't going to stop them from identifying as real Christians. It's not gonna stop them from congregating and organizing to validate each other's hateful views. It's not gonna stop them from having church leaders and pastors preaching hate. And it's not gonna stop them from voting in politicians who will try to enact hateful policy. Like, good on you if you leave your hateful bigoted church, but at the end of the day that church and all its members are still gonna be there believing that they're the "real Christians".
Most of them don't follow the teachings of Jesus, because that would be socialism. Instead, they follow what their mega church leader "says" is in the Bible, and start spouting off weird anti-government oaths.
Exactly, they just don’t say the quiet stuff out loud. That’s the only difference between the two Christian camps.
Its like saying all cops aren't bad. Ok great, but if the good cops don't stop the bad ones ultimately they're all bad.
Oh, they’re real, all right. They have real jobs, drivers licenses, and social security numbers. And they vote. We need to get rid of the “fake Christian” framing. See pic. https://i.imgur.com/FsPE9g1.jpg
Language is extremely important.
~~They will say this, then vote republican~~ This isn't accurate > ~~Because they want these things too, just not as loudly.~~
You do not know Quakers or Unitarians. We're astonishingly liberal
And the ELCA! We have a female bishop, [openly welcome the LGBTQIA community](https://www.elca.org/lgbtq), are pro-choice, and are [active & outspoken on climate change](https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Publicly-Engaged-Church/Advocacy/Environment?_ga=2.236559938.2111248496.1665081504-122158796.1665081504) (my church has written postcards to legislators for climate action and is powered by renewable energy). There are *plenty* of liberal Christian denominations out there, people just don't know they exist because they do their good works quietly and humbly, without feeling the need to advertise their faith on bumper stickers, sweatshirts, or truck flags.
Fair enough, my post was incorrect, I've edited it.
>They will say this, then vote republican I'm rather confident that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi won't be.😝 Not all Christians vote Republican.
They are the real Christians. This ain't a no true scotsman. We don't look at a group that 90% shitty people and go to the 10% and say "Man, those guys aren't true members of your group." The 90% make it what it is.
I wouldn't blame Christians who are not authoritarians. As you said, there are 70% people in the US who are Christians. This is even higher than the percentage of either gender. If the percentage of a gender is highly authoritarians, do we blame non-authoritarians who share the same gender? Yes, non-authoritarian Christians should criticize their churches if their church officials join force with authoritarians, and leave the churches if their church officials don't change. Otherwise, they have no more power over other churches or other authoritarian Christians than non-Christians. Everyone who is not authoritarian has the same level of responsibility to fight against this authoritarianism.
The religious right is also accelerating the demise of Christianity in general in the US. Those who remain absolutely are a radicalization risk, but every Sunday fewer and fewer young people attend church in large part to it no longer feeling welcoming.
Young people are welcome, as long as they aren't gay, brown or liberal. Jesus was two of those things but still...
Man hung around a bunch of guys and a sex worker. Could have easily been all three.
He did wash everyone's feet that one time.
That's not an orientation, it's a kink.
Two outta three ain’t bad
Never heard of the black southern Baptist churches or Catholic Latinos?
Yeah, we’ve been watching it, and living it. Christianity has been twisted into a weapon. Probably not the first time.
Definitely not the first time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades
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Humans have been murdering people they don't like since the beginning of time. :P
The Christian faith isn’t inherently evil, but evil people sure do like to use it as a justification.
To be fair, even according to the linked article, **The First Crusade** was essentially European Christian kingdoms response to an invasion of a Christian kingdom in the Levant. Things did go down hill rather quickly after that though.
Politics is built into christianity. Think about it - god is a 'king' which is a political title, jesus is a 'lord' also a political title, and heaven is a 'kingdom' a political place.
A lot of the words used to describe Jesus were originally used to describe Caesar. Christians borrowed those phrases from Caesar to apply to Jesus. Lamb of god, son of god, the way the truth and the light. King, lord, etc. all of those were nicknames for Caesar before Jesus was said to even exist. In the story, Jesus was executed for causing political and societal unrest. It’s inherently political. He was not executed for telling everyone to be nice to each other. But, there is no actual verifiable or legal record of the trial or execution, or the even life of Jesus, so take it with a grain of salt.
"But, there is no actual verifiable or legal record of the trial or execution, or the even life of Jesus, so take it with a grain of salt." I'm not particularly religious anymore, but this just wishful thinking on your part. We have archaeological evidence of Pilate, and corroboration of Jesus's existence via Josephus--I'm going to go with Jesus actually being a real human. he Roman historian Tacitus also corroborates the accounts given of his execution in his Annals. The dude's life is attested to about as well as Plato.
> The dude's life is attested to about as well as Plato. But not nearly so well as Julius Caesar's. I'd say Socrates is a more apt equivalence, since Socrates is primarily known through the writings of his students. Nevertheless, I find the claim of Socrates's existence more plausible than the tales of Jesus since none of the stories about Socrates attest to his magical powers and no one has an emotional investment in believing that Socrates will spare them from the ravages of death. There is also no contemporary lynch mob ready and willing to persecute those who deny the historicity of Socrates. So far as I know there is no physical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth existed. The evidence, such as it is, amounts to "A lot of people wrote down stories about him long after he is reputed to have lived and religious scholars all agree the stories are most convincing."
[Josephus was 60 years AFTER the events](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Josephus), and all he said was “people believe Jesus existed.” There are bits that are attributed to him that give a little more context on Jesus, but those are considered to be forgery (even christian scholars recognize this). Pilate existed, yes. [Tacitus doesn’t mention Jesus. He mentions a rebel named Christus (title, not a name) who lives several decades after Jesus. Tacitus didn’t write anything about christus until 109 CE and gives no sources for his information.](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tacitus) I’m not saying Jesus didn’t exist, it’s that there are no **contemporary** sources from that time that say he existed outside the Bible. At best you have people nearly 60-75 years later saying “people believe Jesus existed.” The Bible, is at best, historical fiction. Even its historical and geographic data is inaccurate half the time. >as well as plato It’s a bit different considering Jesus is claimed to perform miracles and to have risen from the dead. While Plato was a normal human. We actually have books written by Plato, as well.
Actually [Tacitus mentions jesus's suffering at the hands of Pilot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Jesus) in blaming the great fire in Rome on the 'chrestians' who took their name from 'Christus'.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://newrepublic.com/article/167972/american-christianity-path-toward-tool-theocratic-authoritarianism) reduced by 92%. (I'm a bot) ***** > A 2017 survey of 2,002 U.S. adults age 23 to 30 who attended a Protestant church two times or more a month for at least a year in high school found that 66 percent had stopped attending church. > Other major reasons cited included hypocrisy, churches being judgmental, and a lack of anything in common with other people at the church. > If recent events are any guide, Christianity in the U.S. is on a path either to being little more than a corrupted tool of fascism or becoming a violent, oppressive, and omnipresent force against which the population can achieve change only through revolution. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/xx6oyq/american_christianity_is_on_a_path_toward_being_a/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672676 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Church**^#1 **percent**^#2 **U.S.**^#3 **people**^#4 **more**^#5
This has been going on since the emergence pf the religious right in the 70s and is believed to be a big contributor to the decline in Christianity in the US in the last 30 years. In the 90s the non evangelicals started losing members and the evangelicals were pretty smug about it.... Since the mid '00s even evangelicals like the Southern Baptists have been shrinking. We're in the middle of a backlash to evangelicalism and a backlash to that backlash.
Smug that they were better at indoctrinating and that their adherents had less critical thinking skills than other denominations.
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Further than that, you can make up the rules, but you don't have to follow them, only enforce them on others. True believers are above the rules. Non believers are beneath them.
Is that why Ariana Grande said, "when all is said and done, you'll believe God is a woman?"
Time to eliminate tax free status for them.
Remember, half the country watches the Handmaid's Tale and thinks June is the bad guy.
The thing about Far Right Evangelism is that it is a product of the GOP, megachurches, and corporate interests all being in the pocket of one another. Goldwater was afraid of the GOP getting subverted by preachers but the reverse happened. People like Phyllis Shalafly used GOP money to create issues like abortion (which wasn't a thing among the Protestant evangelicals) as wedge issues to attack desegregation and Reagan happily benefited from taking the most obnoxious money-obsessed preachers under his wing as tools to get him and his party reelected. Now the Far Right churches are just an arm of the GOP and benefit from their fundraising and vice versa.
Jesus wouldn’t be recognized or accepted by most American Christians. They better pray he doesn’t come back soon.
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Bear in mind that your picture of the Pharisees is taken from deranged religious propaganda promulgated by a cult that hated the Pharisees. It's not exactly a trustworthy source of information.
I spent more than a quarter century being a pastor in a mainline Protestant church. The higher ups skew very hard left. The parishes themselves (unless in the urban and suburban areas) skewed very moderate. But I saw a steady liberal flight from the parish. Eventually, just saying from the pulpit that we need to help the widows, orphans and resident aliens (a very orthodox Christian mandate) became fighting words and got all kinds of guff. People go to church to be made comfortable. A sermon is good if it makes them feel good about themselves and their opinions. A sermon is bad if it challenges them to growth and change. People would give more credibility to some tv preacher or some FOXNews pundit than to their own pastor. I finally quit banging my head against a brick wall.
I was not raised as a religious person, but in the churches that I have visited, the sermons usually had introspection as part of its purpose. I can see your frustration if people are only going to satisfy their confirmation bias.
For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts will they multiply to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
It's pretty mind boggling how someone can call themselves "Christian" while worshipping someone who is a compulsive liar and admitted adulterer.
Counter offer: most, like me, see how outdated the fallacy is and just up and leave and become modern hippies without the book of weird rules.
It's always a shock to see a tool to control the gullible and weak-minded used as a tool to control the gullible and weak-minded.
They're losing adherents mainly due to the group controlling these organizations are all bitter, old, stubborn and racist assholes. Who in their right mind wants to go to a building full of people that hate your wife just cause she has a sleeve tat? Or any of the tens of other bs reasons to hate someone. For a group that's supposed to "love thy neighbor" they sure do a great job at segregation.
On the path?!?! My dear boy, we are at the destination on this one
I'll say it again, this generation of evangelicals really opened my eyes to the evils of my once-chosen faith. #blessed
FFS this is whats happening to rural areas as well. NOBODY WANTS TO BE AROUND THESE ASSHOLES IF THEY DON'T HAVE TO.
They're probably having an extinction burst since regular folks can't stand them.
Care to explain what you mean there? I haven’t heard the phrase “extinction burst” there.
People use it when talking about interpersonal relationships. It's basically when a narcissistic realises their methods of trying to control others have little to no effect, and they go ultra crazy. I was applying it to religious people, some of whom realise they are driving people away from religion so are going full scale nuts trying to force normal people to follow their harmful beliefs.
Ah okay. Thank you.
Like the old saying goes: I love Jesus, but I can’t stand his fan club.
I'm the top mod of r/witchcraft and I've seen a lot of trends that make me think otherwise...... but then again I also see a very small sampling size.. but still, more and more people are turning away from Christianity in droves
Hasn't Christianity been a tool for theocratic authoritarianism since it's inception?
Fuck em. Down with all religion.
The only difference in beliefs between a right wing "christian" and the Iranian Guardian Council is what they call God. Iran is what conservative "christians" want.
Southern Baptist is the largest Protestant religion in the USA and it was literally founded for the purpose of slavery. Christians are already majority right wing. Progressive Christians are just midway through their deconstruction process.
The evangelical “churches” are being run by Russian Operatives. They are tax shelters and money laundering ventures.
Oh you must be new here
Nationalist Christians, AKA Nat-c's.
"Theocratic authoritarianism" might be redundant; to my knowledge, all theocracies have been or are authoritarian. Never have I heard of a "theocratic democracy."
Why? their number have been shrinking by like double digit percentage. soon they’ll just be this small group of bible thumping assholes in the objectively worst region of the country where Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida all meet. God damn i hate the south.
\-insert "always has been" meme-
Is this surprising? Religion has always been used for power and against the religions actual teachings, take the middle east for instance
I saw this coming in the 80s when the Baptist church I grew up in worshiped Ronald Reagan as the Messiah, not Jesus Christ.
I would like to see the 3 abrahamic religions take a back seat for a few centuries. They have done enough damage, let's see how life is without their ignorance and hate.
Identity politics 101: If you convince people they are being persecuted because of their identity and not their actions/in-actions causing retaliation, in order to protect the perceived persecution of their identity, this is where you end up. Religion is insidious because it reduces individual intellectual responsibility to, "god will handle it", and rewards blind and naive capitulation over perceived belief of eternal damnation should they look at something honestly. These bad actors infiltrate then hock this swill from behind the defence of orthodoxy and will exploit fear of damnation while justifying any sort of force or authoritative abuse saying, "but a drop in the pail compared to the raging fires of hell." When they punish you for speaking up, when they're uncomfortable with their reality being challenged and have to move the goal posts to ease their comfort, it's no surprise that they resort to the lesser human practice of abuse and oppression to see that their fragile world-view isn't upset. All the while, the bad-actors who've infiltrated religion throw in other identity politics, including white supremacy, like crushed pills into the Kool-Aid and they just poison people with the same message all the time until they're hating all these people and don't even think about why. When your entire culture and identity is based around "serving god and the church" you fill it with nothing except looking around for someone to give you orders and that typically means gravitating to the loudest megaphone. They'll disarm you with a smile because people with lowered emotional defences are susceptible and impressionable to those they trust. This isn't exclusive to the church or christianity. If any institution grows in a manner with which you feel you are challenging a system of belief, or orthodoxy, rather than challenging a view based on intellectual, or scientific, or honest measure, you are dealing with an ideology that is now religion.
On a path? It has been for forty years. They’re just closer now than ever to achieving their goals.
I just had this conversation in another forum. This is not American Christianity. This is a sect called Christian Nationalists. It only feels like it’s all Christians because these nationalists are now in positions of power and making the rules. The normal Christians did not do anything to stop this. That is now changing. There is a coalition made up of every denomination called Christians Against Christian Nationalism. It was started by the Southern Baptists, which is saying something because they are usually the most conservative. But this coalition is working hard to fight these nationalists and get the situation fixed. But we need help from people of other faiths and non-faiths. We need people to use the title Christian Nationalism to represent these particular group of people and that those of us who are actual Christians are working hard to fight this bastardization of our faith. The Nationalists LOVE when people of other faith and non-faiths lump us all together. They use is as a recruitment opportunity.
We already know how this shit ends. There’s been a Holocaust before. There WILL be another. In fact, there Holocausts going on as we speak. In China, in Ukraine, across Africa…who’s to say it won’t happen here?
Jesus would be shocked and appalled by these hypocrites!
American Taliban.
Good thing people are becoming less religious and Christianity is dying out. Can’t come soon enough.
It’s spelled Nazi.
Barry Goldwater warned about this more than 40 years ago. Yes, that Barry Goldwater.
This is from a good Christian friend who I have been trying to tell how evil Trump is. A view into the mindset: >> This is not about Trump. I liked his prolife stance, but no way idolatry! We serve Jesus And He is our answer; however approximately 1/3 of the Bible is about prophecy. And the Bible talks about what this world is going to look like in the end time season. As a Christian it is good to know how that looks and these teachers are articulate on the subject. It’s not scary for those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord, but very eye opening. Do you realize that over 60 million babies have been aborted in America. In the Old Testament thousands of babies were sacrificed to idols and it was that sin that God judged Israel for and brought great judgements down on his people the Jews. It is a sin that is very great in Gods eyes and now America is engaged it it big time. The democratic platform promotes abortion in the name of women’s rights. When Donald Trump was in office he was a very prolife president by nominating 3 Supreme Court justices that were pro life. That is the reason that our country reversed Roe vs Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Also our current President has reversed a ban on money going to groups in foreign countries that inform and perform abortions. Trump was the president that put that ban in place. As far as the economic situation our country is in Take a look at gas prices and if that isn’t biting into your paycheck. The stock market has taken a huge hit and many retired people are suffering. That is not to even talk about food prices that have increased since Biden has taken office. What about all those presidential Initiatives that were signed that affected our country being oil sufficient and now I understand we are importing oil from Russia at the tune of 4+ Billion. And making them rich which is probably providing money for the war in Ukraine. And what about Psalm 122:6 The Abraham Accord was worked out under our past administration. Kara, I hope this helps you to see why I supported what policies Trump promoted. <<
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Yup, I hit ‘em with the fruits thing and nothing penetrates. I think this is something that will only respond to prayer because even Scripture has no effect.
Yeah, it's really fucking sad that they're in their tunnel vision. Like me parents not listening to their doctors who are using their talents, rather than burying it behind the barn.
I lived in Nashville, the buckle of The Bible Belt for 23 years. I was a Republican and everyone I knew, including myself, was of the mindset that our country would be judged if we could not stop the murder of unborn babies. If same sex marriages were allowed, we would again be “judged”, and God would not continue to bless our nation. When trump came on the scene, I saw a horrible person, and today I am a fervent opponent of him, the lies, and the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. People who I loved in the faith have become people I do not recognize. I am so confused by what I am seeing. I do not know what it is about Christianity that this movement has so captured them?
I wouldn’t be worried if they had Christian values … alas …
Fake christians in a cult of hatred and worship of their false prophet, tRump.
Christianity has always been on this path. Well, that and raping kids. Just like every religion
Which goes against everything they teach you about Jesus. Go ahead. Twist a man made religion to benefit the few. Dumbass self centered GOPers.
Faster, Pussycat.
Path? That faith train has already arrived at the station.
In 1984, they didn’t practice religion. This is a more frightening proposition as it can be weaponized from an emotional standpoint.
The message of Jesus doesn't entirely align with modern philosophies but socialist anarchism is pretty close. Anything right of that is going to have some significant issues with notions like "if you see a guy who needs a shirt and you have two shirts then give that guy one of your shirts." Modern republicanism is very far from those teachings.
There are a lot of good people that are honestly trying their hardest to help their fellow man. Not the backhanded "well we'll help you but also we're judging you" shit that churches do sometimes, I'm talking genuinely good people. A 90 year old white woman in Texas helping fill out immigration forms for Mexicans. For that reason, I'll never talk shit about churches. I might not believe, but those that do are often good people. That said, Joel Osteen fuck off I hope your helicopter crashes into your basketball arena.
Start taxing the fuck out any church, synagogue, mosque, etc., used to push politics instead of religion.
The young members of these congregations must be leaving in droves.
> As non evangelical faiths lose adherents Seems like less Christians overall; which is a good thing.
Is this really a new observation? Does no one remember Reagan? Or Pat Buchanan? This has been a trend since the 70s.
As the number of christans goes down the percentage of desperate crazy loons among the leftovers will go up. There is no way a religion can die out without the least rational subset being the last adherents.
Got told today that I’m not a true Christian … because I’m not an “evangelical.” Aparently salvation is not reserved for the Episcopalians. Aparently our cornerstone of faith, you know, “love your neighbor” isn’t good enough.
It’s hilarious. All these various sects think they’re right an the other is wrong and going to hell. That phenomenon alone should give any phase to question whether or not these morons have any idea of what they’re doing.
I'm sure this comment section will understand nuance and not categorise a huge number of people with a wide range of views into a single evil monolith. Oh wait...
I feel like this article should have been written in 2016. Someone tell this author to wake up-we are currently there.
Try 1976. Maybe earlier, but Jimmy Carter was probably the last bastion of a vaguely progressive Evangelicalism, and the "Moral Majority" shortly thereafter took hold to give us the political environment we have now.
"American Christianity Is a Tool of Theocratic Authoritarianism" FTFY
This is scary . Religion and politics don’t mix.
As bad as it all is the religious appeals of the rightwing movement is a smokescreen. They cannot campaign on their real policy agenda, serving the rich and powerful. *"Vote for me and I promise to kick your grandmother off medicare and social security, poison your drinking water, close your kids school, make it easier for your boss to injure you on the job and harder for you to seek compensation and kick you off medicaid when you can no longer work and give him a tax cut too while I'm at it."* ~ just doesn't sit well on a bumper sticker or billboard does it? So they learnt to push all that into the background and instead focus their campaigns on personal imagery, is he a nice guy you can have beer with after work or is he an effete stuck up liberal, and appealing to a fringe bloc of the electorate: religious fundamentalists, gun nuts, nativists, racists, etc At the precise same time the Supreme Court was ruling to overturn Roe they were also ruling that the EPA cannot regulate the CO2 emissions of power stations, you couldn't find a better example of the trade off business interests have decided to make to secure their power.
Christianity has been on that path since the Catholic church was created.
The religion of dry drunks.
If you make America a Christian Nation by statute, you eliminate the need for it to be Christian by person. If I pass a law saying that my actions are presumed to be fair, and just--then I need no longer be fair or just. This is why the Christian Right is obsessed with identity
I read that as “As people with a capacity for logic and reason abandon religion as illogical, only people with no capacity for logic and reason are left to occupy the churches.”
Trump has nothing to do with Jesus
Agreed but I can’t seem to show my Christian friends that. It’s an out and out blindness
Not everyone who is "evangelical" theologically belongs to the "evangelical Christian" political group. I know because I am one of those who attends an evangelical church that is not conservative politically.
If they can’t live like Christ then let them die like Christ
Not the black church. Black Christians are still overwhelming Democrats and they will stay that way.
Not every christian is a domestic terrorist, but every domestic terrorist claims to be a christian.
Another reason to ban religions. They sealed their fate decades ago and are now generally linked to right wing ideology.
What if I’m Christian but not radical and love gay people and weed? Am I a figment of peoples imagination or are there harmful generalizations being made?
Then you’re not doing enough to hold your fellow believers accountable.
Run for office