this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
130 points (97.1% liked)

politics

19152 readers
2422 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
outrageousmatter
aidan
jordanlund
HLMenckenFan
little_cow
130
Tux-Wearing Christian Nationalists Laugh About Their Influence, Live From Mar-a-Lago (www.rollingstone.com)
submitted 1 year ago by CantaloupeLifestyle to c/politics
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Obligatory reminder that while Christianity is declining, to the point that Nones may surpass them as the majority in 50 years, Fundamentalist Evangelicalism is rising in spite of that overall decline. People are either leaving mainstream forms of Christianity entirely or to join up with these weirdos.

And having escaped one of these cults myself, they are well-suited bedfellows with fascism.

[–] Zombiepirate 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well said.

I come from one of those cults as well, and it's crazy how they're distilling themselves into the most hateful, wretched, unbearable group in the country.

I don't like everything Jesus was purported to say, but turn the other cheek, bless those who persecute you, and do unto others as you would want done to you are completely anathema to the conservative philosophy (not that they're persecuted, but they believe they are).

They'd burn everything down to get their intolerant theocracy.

[–] agent_flounder 7 points 1 year ago

Burn everything, people included.

A group of zealots brainwashed into thinking anyone outside their group is "The Enemy" and that they are waging a spiritual battle against evil is a group of people that is extremely dangerous.

If you saw the article from CNN about Johnson posted to the fediverse, you'll see he uses some of the same extremist Christian I mentioned above. For those who know it is all about, it is pretty terrifying to hear coming from the Speaker.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's becoming increasingly difficult to take anything evangelicals say seriously.

They talk about personal integrity and morals and being gentle and letting your speech be gracious. Yet, they support a leader who is and does the exact opposite. And then proceed to mimic him.

Way to trash your own witness.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Even when I was still drinking the Jesus juice a decade ago I could see this in my church. It's the main reason I left. Sermons would preach one thing, which the congregation would agree with, but then immediately after I would hear people gossiping about how Marsha has a gay son so she's going to hell, or Tom's daughter got pregnant out of wedlock so they were shunning them. I grew up with several of these peoples kids and knew for a fact they were nowhere close to saints. Rampant. Hypocrisy. It's wild that they're so willfully ignorant. It's all just projection of their own guilt.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That's one of the things that really accelerated my deconstruction. Even if you aren't a fundigelical, how can you sit back and tolerate these people representing you? You might be able to pontificate amongst yourselves why they're not Real Christians™, but the rest of the world isn't given to that level of pedantry.

They bear your name and claim to represent your god. To any reasonable person, both kinds are still Christians.

[–] agent_flounder 9 points 1 year ago

I was in an evangelical church for a time and it is no surprise that so many support Trump. They're actively brainwashed to suppress their empathy and believe things on faith alone. Too many go right along with it making this group a very dangerous set of people, ripe for being conned by a vicious strong man authoritarian like Trump.

(My refusal to let go of empathy is one of the things that helped me see them for what they were. I left and some years after when I saw Christians convinced Trump was their guy, I was finally hit with the full realization that belief without good evidence easily leads to believing all manner of absolute crazy bullshit... and then I became an atheist).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

50 years is an embarrassingly long time out

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Considering that Christianity has retained a solid majority for probably 150 years, it's quite fast, and that's only speaking about majorities. The actual threshold for irrelevance might be sooner.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Lance Wallnau — the chief promoter of a “Seven Mountains Mandate” for right-wing Christians to seize control over government and culture — was dressed in a tux and streaming live to his 1 million Facebook followers.

As he filmed with his cell phone, Wallnau grabbed co-religionist Jim Garlow — the MAGA pastor with whom now-House Speaker Mike Johnson recently prayed to spare a “depraved” America from the “judgment that we clearly deserve.” Both religious figures are associated with an evangelical movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, which has an unusual obsession with earthly power.

The duo engaged in jocular banter during the stream on Friday: “You can read about you in the news lately,” Wallnau ribbed Garlow, referring to Rolling Stone’s coverage of the pastor’s prayer call with Johnson.

The fact that Garlow and Wallnau were palling around in tuxedos at Mar-a-Lago the same week that their religious movement made national news for its troubling reach into the highest ranks of elected Republican politics, was itself another remarkable sign of that influence.

Schindler is also a pastor who works closely with Garlow; they co-founded the World Prayer Network, which hosted the call where Mike Johnson decried the rise of LGBTQ children as evidence of America’s “dark” and nearly “irredeemable” culture.

Boldface MAGA names included former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, former Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway, and former acting attorney general (and well-endowed-man toilet promoter) Matt Whitaker.

The original article contains 1,048 words, the summary contains 244 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!