https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/u...gtype=Homepage
Rather than put this in the political forum, I thought it might be more interesting to discuss the more harmful aspects of conservative religion here.
First, let me say that I'm not saying that all White evangelical Christians hold the same views or act like the mob that invaded the US capital recently. My own parents were conservative Christians and my mother was devastated when Trump became president. She was also upset with her Christian friends who kept trying to persuade her for years to vote for Republican candidates, so this claim isn't about the small percentage of White American evangelicals who aren't as harmful as some. But, as a group, they are becoming as potentially dangerous as any other extremist religious group. The danger comes when religious groups stop supporting the SCS, and start believing that their personal beliefs and moral claims should be pushed on the rest of us.
Before self-proclaimed members of the far-right group the Proud Boys marched toward the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, they stopped to kneel in the street and prayed in the name of Jesus.
The group, whose participants have espoused misogynistic and anti-immigrant views, prayed for God to bring “reformation and revival.” They gave thanks for “the wonderful nation we’ve all been blessed to be in.” They asked God for the restoration of their “value systems,” and for the “courage and strength to both represent you and represent our culture well.” And they invoked the divine protection for what was to come.
Prior to the presidential election I saw many Jesus 2020 signs in an exurban areas not too far from my home. I wondered why they were often near a Trump sign. Do evangelical Christians who supported Trump see him as their savior? As a person who was raised to believe in Jesus as savior, Trump would never have been equated with Jesus back in those days. So, I'm both mystified and appalled that such a large percentage of White evangelicals seem to be equating Trump with Jesus. The Jesus I was taught to believe was a more compassionate person who didn't judge others who were different, although there are many contradictory things in the Bible, I was always taught to emphasize the more positive sides of the Christian myth.The presence of Christian rituals, symbols and language was unmistakable on Wednesday in Washington. There was a mock campaign banner, “Jesus 2020,” in blue and red; an “Armor of God” patch on a man’s fatigues; a white cross declaring “Trump won” in all capitals. All of this was interspersed with allusions to QAnon conspiracy theories, Confederate flags and anti-Semitic T-shirts.
I do wonder what the few conservative Christian members that we have here think about this. How did this happen? What can you do to try and discourage such behavior? Is there anything that more moderate believers can do to change the sordid reputation of Christianity, that the actions of these people are having on your religion?This potent mix of grievance and religious fervor has turbocharged the support among a wide swath of Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war, according to interviews.
The following quote is just one example of many describing one of the people who went to DC. She also tried to blame the violence on Antifa without any evidence.
That would sound delusional to most any thinking person. To me, it sounds like the rantings of a deeply disturbed mentally ill individual.Lindsay French, 40, an evangelical Christian from Texas, flew to Washington after she had received what she called a “burning bush” sign from God to participate following her pastor urging congregants to “stop the steal.”
“We are fighting good versus evil, dark versus light,” she said, declaring that she was rising up like Queen Esther, the biblical heroine who saved her people from death.
I've always thought it was weird that most churches tend to be racially segregated, with few exceptions. I remember singing the little children's song, "All the children of the world" when I went to church as a child. It was about how Jesus loved children with all different shades of skin. So, why after over 2000 years, are Christian churches so segregated, resulting in a movement that is often racist?“You can’t understand what happened today without wrestling with Christian Nationalism,” Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said on Wednesday, adding that white evangelical movements have long at least tolerated far-right extremism, well before Mr. Trump. “They provided the political and theological underpinnings of this, and it has allowed anarchy to reign.”
In a Facebook video shot in Washington on Monday night, Tennessee pastor Greg Locke referred to himself as part of the “black robe regiment,” a reference to American clergy who were active in the American Revolution. At a rally the next night, Mr. Locke preached to a crowd of Trump supporters in Freedom Plaza, predicting “not just a Great Awakening, but the greatest awakening that we have ever seen.”
The riots on Wednesday, carried out by a largely white crowd, also illustrated the racial divide in American Christianity.
How does religion make some people so delusional as to think that Biden or any president for that matter is going to take away their Bibles? Biden is a Christian himself, just not an evangelical. But, even an atheist president would respect religious freedom. What happened to those evangelical Christians like Jimmy Carter who respected the SCS but still practiced religion privately while not being critical of those who had different beliefs?Abigail Spaulding, a stay-at-home mother of 15 who traveled to the rally with friends from her church in South Carolina, broke down in tears as she spoke about her fears for her children under a Biden administration. She said her husband had explained to their children that when Mr. Biden is sworn in as president, “they can take the Bible and call it hate speech and throw it out.” And she had other worries about Mr. Biden, drawn from Facebook and Twitter — all of which were false.
The last quote is the part that always gets to me. I live in a small city of about 25,000 people. There are at least 80 churches in my city and surrounding areas, with several being White Evangelical mega churches. There are many majority Black churches and one that advertises as mixed race. I once saw a bumper sticker on a woman's car that read, "I'm Christian and I vote". Really? How in the world did so many conservative Christians come to believe that they are being oppressed, or suppressed? Where did this victim culture come from when Christians remain as the dominate religion in the US? Should the rest of us be concerned that this brewing theocratic movement will continue to rage for years to come? Will the better Christians among us try to persuade their peers to be more reasonable, or is it impossible to change people who have become a part of such an extremist cult?Adam Phillips, 44, a dry wall contractor from Robbinsville, N.C., had work and couldn’t come to Washington on Wednesday — “The Lord just didn’t see it fit,” he said — but he came to two demonstrations since November, the Stop the Steal march and the Million MAGA March.
“It has been obvious for a while that Christians are under suppression, they are under scrutiny by everyone,” he said. “All of the things the country was founded on are under attack, they are trying to get the name of God out of everything, especially the name of Jesus.”
There's a lot more in the linked article. I just tried to post some quotes to give you an idea of what's going on in White evangelical communities.
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Originally Posted by southernhybrid
