nickioeste

[nickioeste]

I've been out of the movement for 25 years, and most of this was already true then. Basically, #9 on your list is the only thing that's new.

They have been playing the long game since before I was born, and the pieces are all falling into place. I had truly hoped that people in the US would be sophisticated enough to stop their progress before this point.

Fundamentalist leaders knew in the '70s that conflating politics with religion would be necessary to achieve their goals. Republicans thought the evangelicals were dumb and an alliance would be an easy way to increase their voter base with almost no work on their part.

And now the fundies have taken over the party and old-school Republicans are allying with Democrats.

If this isn't the darkest timeline, I don't want to know what is.

Those of us who were raised near Evangelicals (like me who grew up in a largely Evangelical/Fundamentalist community) or in the cult themselves (many of my friends growing up) have been trying to warn you all for YEARS not to underestimate them, and our warnings went ignored because "no one is that evil" or "they're just stricter Christians, they wouldn't actually do that."

The exact same reasoning used when we tried to warn you 20 years ago how evil Republicans were, which isn't a coincidence because they are the same people.

So let me break it down for you, and if any of this sounds too harsh, feel free to talk to literally any exvangelical, who will back this up.

Yes, they are cartoonishly evil. I know, I'm going to get hate for saying this. But if you ignore this point, none of the other points will make any sense. This is the framework you have to use. This is cartoon villain levels of evil.

Evangelical Christianity is, first and foremost, a death cult. They want your deaths, they want their own deaths. Birthdays are a celebration of being one year closer to going home to Jesus- no more and no less. They crave death like a suicidal person, but they would never actually commit suicide because it's "a sin," so instead they long for a rapture where they die and go to heaven while the rest of us go to hell. That is their ideal world- no world at all.

You have to understand that the root of evangelism is nihilism. NOTHING in this life matters at all, except for accepting their interpretation of God and Jesus so you can enter heaven. Your work, your relationships, your family, only matter if they are in service of God and Jesus, and not at all on their own merit. God/Jesus are the only thing that objectively matters. Which leads to...

Other humans only matter if they worship your same iteration of God and Jesus. Other Christians are liars at best and will go to hell. If your entire family dies, it's just God's will, no need to be sad- it's actually a beautiful thing because they're with Jesus now. It's why you will never persuade them to support abortion even in cases where the mother's life is at risk. If she's a good Christian, she'll know there is nothing more beautiful than to die while birthing another soldier of God, and if she's not a Christian, she deserves to die and go to hell as punishment for rejecting scripture. It's why you'll never persuade them that school shootings are worse than being queer. School shootings just send Their Own to heaven, and the nonbelievers to hell, but being gay sends everyone to hell, even themselves for tolerating it. If you don't believe in their God, the best thing you can ever be to them is a potential convert, and the worst is a test sent by God himself that they CAN'T fail lest you go to hell. Leading to...

Tolerance is cruelty to them. If you tolerate "aberrant" lifestyles, you are dooming them to hell, and yourself too. That's why they claim it's oppression to be told to tolerate others. They think only oppressing the "lesser" people will motivate them to become Good Little Christians, and avoid hell. And they think they themselves will go to hell if they are too tolerant to those outside the group.

They are pro-Zionist not because they support Jewish people in any way, but because they think it'll bring about the End Times. They want Israel to exist because they think it leads to the End Times where Jews will either convert or die. They support Zionism because they hate the nonconvertable Jews and want to convert the ones who will- that simple. Palestinian Christians are, to them, just cannon fodder sacrificed in the name of bringing about the End Times. (And of course, other peoples' Zionism isn't even the same as supporting Jewish people either, but it's especially duplicitous here).

Don't take this to mean they care about their own all that much. They see them as closer to human, but still ultimately just a soldier for God. Their deaths aren't a tragedy but a reward/celebration. They will subjugate the women in their congregations with glee, they will hatecrime queer people, and white evangelicals hate POC even if they have shared beliefs. They will tell their children to their faces they will only love them if they are the perfect Christians.

They think an Evangelical who commits rape or child molestation is still a better person than a nonbeliever who spends every minute of every day working for charity. Remember, nothing matters but accepting Jesus, so the former is fine, but the latter not only doesn't accept Jesus, but they're providing support to potentially the wrong people, which "deprives" them of the chance to be converted by an Evangelical who would capitalize on their suffering.

They know Trump isn't a Christian. They know he espouses exactly zero Christian values. They don't care because he is going to end abortion in this country and because his policies primarily make people they hate (IE non-Evangelicals) suffer. He's a flawed weapon they'll never stop using and adoring for that reason.

Similarly, they don't think climate change isn't real. They know it is. Rather, they want the Earth to become uninhabitable, and many people to die, to bring about the End Times. Then they get to go to heaven, and the rest of us sinners get to live on a ruined world as punishment for our "sins." Yes, they want to destroy the planet just so they can go to heaven in 10 years instead of 40. They are that staggeringly selfish. That's what a lifetime of being taught only Evangelical lives matter does to them. Again: they think life is nothing but a test of their worthiness to enter heaven. They don't take this life any more seriously than we took gym class. Leading to...

Every instance of human suffering, in their eyes, brings the End Times closer and is to be celebrated. Death, war, plague, etc, they think it means God is going to take them home really, really soon. They aren't interested in peace, because Jesus won't come in a time of peace. They want a worse world so they can "remind" God (who they think needs their help to do it) that it's time to start the Rapture. And this sounds weird, doesn't it? That if God is all-mighty, and even the Bible says no one will know beforehand when it's coming, why would they do this? Well, that leads to the last point...

They do not read the Bible carefully. They are told what the Bible means by their pastor, and that interpretation becomes law. That's why they believe in "the sin of empathy" despite Jesus saying to feed the poor and heal the sick- not only are they told they can't extend charity to non-Evangelicals lest they go to hell, but they are also told questioning their pastor is akin to rejecting the religion itself and thus they WILL go to hell for it. And in fact, interpretations of the Bible offered by others are seen as trickery by a false prophet, that they are being tested to ignore by God. You can't reason with them as another sect of Christian any more than you can as an outright atheist. They will not listen to you. They have been conditioned their whole life to see you as an evil agent of Satan who wants to deny them Heaven. You may as well put on a pair of horns and a devil tail and tell them to worship you.

Again: we tried to tell the public for years that these people weren't to be discounted, that their insanity and fringe beliefs made them MORE of a threat and not less, that it most definitely WASN'T reassuring that they were just "fringe lunatics" because they were working from the start to seize control of the government to turn the USA into a theocracy. Well, what happened? People stuck their heads in the sand and when they took them out, a newborn theocracy was there.

We can still mitigate some of the worst, but if people keep ignoring this and pretending they aren't going to do what they literally said they're going to do, a LOT of people are going to end up dead. Even more than the inevitable amount from climate change now that they've killed our last chance to stay below 2c of warming.

[nickioeste]

[nickioeste]

[nickioeste]

Well fucks? Get to it!

[nickioeste]

"Oh but you gave your heart to jesus" I was five. I would've given my heart to elmo too if you talked about him every week

[nickioeste]

[nickioeste]

You think “oh it would be useful to learn how to identify my thrifted yarn and clothing” and before you know it you’ve been recruited by fiber witches giving out their spells willy nilly, again

[nickioeste]

I had a breakthrough in therapy and realized why all of this is happening.

Some pure innocent soul somewhere said aloud to themselves, "Kinda backhanded that they designated Black History Month to be February, the shortest month. That doesn't feel right at all, just 28 days?"

And somewhere, a cursed monkey paw only heard "They want February to feel much longer".

[nickioeste]

There's also a reason I almost always say "harm" when talking about issues in the church and not "bigotry". Bigotry is part of harm, sure, but it isn't the whole picture.

I think sin doctrine is harmful. I think the concept of original sin is harmful. I think purity culture is harmful. I think hell doctrine is harmful. I think vertical morality is harmful. I think mandatory forgiveness is harmful. I think sin leveling is harmful. I think emotion and behavior and thought control are harmful. I think child indoctrination is harmful. I think believing you are separate from the world ("we're in the world not of the world") is harmful. I think isolating/insulating yourself from the world is harmful. I think believing this life is your "practice life" and your "real life" is in heaven is harmful. I think believing that you alone hold the one source of truth is harmful. I think spiritual bypassing is harmful. I think atonement theology is harmful. I think proselytizing is harmful. I think telling people that their thoughts, actions, emotions, beliefs are being monitored every second of every day is harmful. I think believing you are more knowledgeable than experts because you have an all knowing God on your side is harmful. I think believing you know other people's experiences better than they do because you have an all knowing God on your side is harmful. I think encouraging/requiring victims of abuse to put up with abuse because divorce is a sin is harmful. I think prioritizing faith over evidence is harmful.

I'm certainly missing things but this is long enough as is. And not every christian or church does or believes every single one of these, but none of these are one-off or two-off or even three-off things I've experienced. These are all patterns I've noticed.

So I find it odd that when I talk about harm within christianity, a lot of christians only hear "bigotry". And I also find sentiments along the lines of "it's not the doctrine it's the people carrying out the doctrine imperfectly" odd. Even if there were a church that was 100% bigotry free, addressing bigotry doesn't automatically address any of these other things. And I think that the harm christianity does goes far beyond bigotry. I think a lot of the harm is baked into it, baked right into the doctrine. Which means that for every person causing harm by carrying out the doctrine "incorrectly", there are just as many causing harm by carrying it out "correctly".

[nickioeste]

I have the best friends lol. Look at this lovely cross stitch piece a friend made me!

EDIT: I have been informed that the pattern is by @shitpostsampler ! Thanks to those who let me know!

[nickioeste]

[nickioeste]

[nickioeste]

So basically, everybody is trying to make this seem like an act of bravery, and not simply one of safety. I see no issue with deciding to change plans because it's going to be dangerously cold out. That's smart.

But I bet you that some people in the MAGA movement (not to mention its leader) think that "Ooh, it's chilly" will be seen as weakness by some, and be actively mocked by the opposition (which it is). Not to mention all the people who bought tickets (I had no idea you had to pay to stand on the grass and watch the thing on TV - Did he invent that? Sounds like a dodge he'd think up) and spent money to see the inauguration that we're seeing get interviewed.

So they feel the need to back-handedly imply that there might be this OTHER reason that they had to bring it indoors. He's not afraid of the cold, he's trying to keep you all safe because of this nonexistent, but MAYBE could be Thing that they might have heard about.

I went and looked it up - the last time they brought the ceremony indoors was 1985 - it was 7 degrees out.

Who got sworn in that day?

You calling Reagan a bitch?

...ok, yeah, but you know what I'm trying to say.

[nickioeste]

Gyroids have always been my favorite part of Animal Crossing. 💚

Gingeroid Cookies~

[nickioeste]

And this, kids, is why you can't always trust Google Translate.

If you're not in on the joke, pavo is the Spanish word for turkey, as in poultry. The country is called Turquía.

[nickioeste]

[nickioeste]

It's such an unreasonable standard anyway. How could you possibly know whether you want to eventually marry someone at the literal beginning of a romantic relationship?

I can't help but think about the previous generation of my evangelical family and how my parents and literally all of my aunts and uncles were trapped in horrible marriages. Some of them got divorced, and some just moved into separate bedrooms. But all of them -- every single one of them -- made poor choices in their late teens and early 20s because the church told them that dating had to lead to marriage.

The whole purpose of dating is to get to know someone. You're allowed to try it out with multiple different people until you find one that is a good fit for you.

just when I think my religious trauma isn't that big of a deal I start feeling so incredibly guilty that I'm not dating someone for marriage right now. she asked me to be her girlfriend and I said yes but I don't think I want to marry her. I feel like such an awful person. I feel like I'm lieing to her even though I'm not because all she asked was to date me.