#Evangelicalism

[sayruq]

[headspace-hotel]

Sometimes when I see posts about abortion my mind flashes back to the time when I was like 14 and there was this bullshit book i was reading for a class (christian homeschool co-op) (red state) (baby high schooler in process of developing my own opinions about things)

and there was this website associated with the book, and I found this article describing an event organized by Feminists in some Liberal Blue State that was like a celebration of abortion rights or something.

The article described how the women made baby-shaped cookies and laughed as they broke them into pieces to "symbolize" abortion and there was like this table set up where attendees were invited to write down reasons abortion was important

and. and the article said. that one of the reasons written down was

(this is the part that is BRANDED into my neurons)

"My vagina is too pretty for a baby to crawl out"

[duchess-of-mandalore]

Star Wars, friends. I know this is not why you follow me, but please make this my most shared post.

You are here.

We're living the lead-up to Revenge of the Sith, and it scares me so much a) it feels like there is so little we can do, and b) young people are acting as if there is nothing we can do.

If you don't know what's going on, I need you to wake up and get engaged.

I have two history degrees. My whole life I've always been the person saying, "When people say, 'This is the most important election ever," it just shows how little they know about history.'"

So please believe me when I tell you that THIS is the most important election (cycle, not just presidential race) that you will likely ever be a part of.

Trump is not Hitler. He's too stupid to be Hitler.

But our democracy only held together in 2020 because of a few people like Mike Pence who were willing to stand up against Trump when it was truly the last line of defense. I know that's hard for some of you to hear, but whatever you think of his beliefs, Pence showed he has integrity and stands by the Constitution.

There will be no Mike Pences this time around. Trump will not make the mistake of surrounding himself with those who are not fully committed to him.

Trump is a convicted felon. He is running to avoid his convictions and likely jail time more than anything else. If he wins, he will be able to pardon himself of his federal crimes, but he's going to keep acting like Donald Trump. If he's still alive in 2028, do you think he will leave the White House peacefully and just submit to further cases against him?

Please watch John Oliver's recent expose on Project 2025 and Trump's Second Term. It is linked in a comment below.

Trump and his administration are already putting in place plans for sweeping reforms that truly will make America look like The Handmaid's Tale. Presidents usually will push for more when they're in their second term because they don't have to worry about another election campaign, but this is different. This is about dismantling the democratic system so that it only benefits the most radical conservatives and Christians.

Christians, I am one of you. I was raised Evangelical (capital E meaning politically motivated culture warrior), and I am still evangelical (lower-case e, referring to theological beliefs). This is not the posture of Christ-followers. There is no good that comes from state-mandated religion, which both coerces people to claim that they are believers for social and cultural clout AND waters down the true religious fervor of the church because most people are only nominal believers.

There is NOTHING about Christian Nationalism that is in the best interest of Christians or in the best interest of the neighbors Christians are called to sacrificially love. If you need a reminder of who your neighbor is, read Luke 10:25-37.

Please start talking with your friends. Young people, please register to vote and bring your friends to do the same.

I know so many of you are disillusioned. I am too. Things that are going on in Palestine and Ukraine and so many other places make it very hard to vote for people with "D"s behind their names (especially after the recent presidential debate).

But punishing Joe Biden is not the revenge you want to pursue here. Are you unhappy with him giving Israel $12.5 billion? I am too, but do you think that number won't be repeated multiple times under Trump? Again, I was raised Evangelical. A staple of (politically-focused) Evangelicalism is that Christians (and thus America) must support (the modern state of) Israel no matter what because they have a hyper-literal understanding of the verse where God tells Abraham that he will bless those who bless him (including his descendants who became Israel).

Do not underestimate the importance of that view in their ideology. Nearly every member of my biological family has shunned me for suggesting that this is not a blanket endorsement of every action the modern state of Israel takes.

Trump is a criminal running for president to save his skin. He supports Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel who is now himself wanted for war crimes. Trump has aligned himself with the authoritarian leaders/dictators of Hungary, China, North Korea, and Russia. He is open about his love for Russian president Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime and stands against Ukraine's democracy and national sovereignty.

This is what happened before World War I and World War II.

I know this isn't what you follow me for.

But George Lucas was showing the dangers of authoritarianism. He shows that democracy is hard. It's frustrating trying to negotiate with people you disagree with vehemently. It may seem like nothing gets done.

Go and watch the Naboo picnic scene. Go and do it. And after chuckling at all the funny memes it's given us, let me tell you why it scares me so much.

Because Padme laughs.

Anakin tells her who he is, and she laughs.

She passes it off as a joke, or as flirting, or maybe even as just the ignorant views of a boy who views life as far more black and white than she knows it to be.

But the alternative to all of that frustrating democracy, all that gridlock in the Senate, all those choices and compromises you have to make in order to benefit the people at all ... the alternative is a dictator who says, "I will make all the decisions for us."

That's why there are people who applaud Palpatine. That's why we as viewers see Bail and Padme as the reasonable ones and think it's crazy that anyone would applaud, but they do.

The applaud because Palpatine says, "You don't have to be frustrated anymore. You don't have to be worried about those who disagree with you anymore." Safety and security and ease are powerful temptations when you live in a polarized society, and Palpatine offers them all of those things.

That's why many people applaud Trump, too.

There were also people who applauded Palpatine who did see the danger of what he was doing. But they applauded because it was easier to do so. He had already amassed power because they didn't stand up to him before. They applaud him now because standing against him now would have dire consequences they wouldn't have faced if they had stood against him before.

So vote. And get your friends to vote.

If there is any part of you that believes Star Wars has important things to tell us about real life, then I need you to fan that flame into a fire.

Otherwise, you won't be living in the prequels anymore. You will be living in the time of the Empire.

Vote.

[chelledoggo]

i don't think there's a single Christian outside of the evangelical right-wing sphere that unironically enjoys the God's Not Dead movies.

heck, i don't even think most of the evangelicals actually like them. i think they just pretend to in order to look good in front of their fellow fundies and pay lip service to the warped version of God they believe in.

even with the mean-spirited victim complex put aside these movies are just corny and bad lmao.

[smashing-yng-man]

Treating people decent and equal is better than posting Bible verses everyday that aren't even practiced.

[virgo-79]

This is Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the white nationalist organization behind the fascist horror and treason that is the 2025 Project, openly threatening leftist American citizens. Me. You. Your families. Your partners. Your kids. Your friends. Your patients. Your clients. Your teachers. Your students. Your patrons. Your volunteers. Your coworkers. If Trump wins, this skinhead motherfucker will have disastrous levels of power. There will be no "voting them out in 4 years." We need to stop this NOW.

[lyndentree63]

As a fundie teenage girl, I used to write in my journals, over and over again "I wish I could treat guys like brothers!" and at the time I thought it was because I was dealing with crushes, romantic feelings, lust, etc. and only saw guys as romantic prospects. I would pray over and over again, "God help me treat guys like brothers!" but I didn't know how to because I don't have actual brothers of my own.

As I got a bit older, I thought I said that because I was trying to gaslight myself into not being attracted to guys. I thought "I wish I could treat guys like brothers!" was a hollow trying-to-be-holy statement because really I was a sinner raging with lust, what I must be feeling when I had strong attraction to single young men was fleshly passion. (That needed to be crucified, obviously.)

Flash forward a couple decades, and now I know I'm asexual, and it turns out the gaslighting was actually from purity culture. THEY were the ones telling me that guys and girls couldn't be friends, that any interaction with a single man my age must be fraught with sexual temptation.

All along, the whole time, I wanted to treat guys like brothers. That was true. And it was purity culture and amatormativity that was blocking me from treating guys as brothers, not my own sinful heart or whatever.

[lowcountry-gothic]

Rather than caregiver and child, parents and children were framed as adversaries in everyday home life. As the angst of the culture wars spilled over into family life, establishing obedient children through power and rule became the primary task of the parent, rather than creating a safe and nurturing environment.

D.L. Mayfield, STRONGWILLED, Chapter 5: Casualties of the Culture War

[gramarobin]

😮‍💨

[nando161mando]

[peterrsthomas]

The Handmaid’s Tale in the Age of Trump’s Republic

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in a near-future patriarchal world, following Offred, the titular handmaid (i.e., a woman whose role in society is solely to get pregnant). The Republic of Gilead in which Offred lives is rigid and highly religious, oppressive and authoritarian. Women go through a process of reeducation in training for their new roles, and memories of the time before the revolution that brought the Republic about are hazy. The novel was arresting enough when it was published in 1985, but it has taken on a new salience with the resurgence of the fanatical evangelical Right in America—the faction most devoted to the ironically areligious and immoral Trump.

A key theme of the book is the use of religion as a vessel for power. The Republic of Gilead isn’t based on any meaningful interpretation of religious scripture; rather, religion is a tool for exercising control. Similarly, with Trump’s evangelical base, it does not matter that Trump is a liar and an adulterer—and embodiment of many other sins besides. They see him as a hammer, a tool with which to exercise their will over the population. For as long as he serves their interests (see: social conservatism, anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ rights, and more), they will follow him, regardless of his character. Leaders of evangelical groups will willingly overlook these flaws and contradictions if it means greater power for themselves and their ideologies.

The book highlights the dangers of the intersection of religion and politics, in particular where the former coopts the latter. When the separation of church and state is eroded, this is devastating for women, religious, sexual, and ethnic minorities, and anyone who doesn’t fit neatly with the ‘in-group’ (in this case, White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant). Civil liberties are eroded—in the book, people are murdered and pinned against a wall in medieval fashion for all to see.

Most striking is the wrestle for control over women’s bodies. In The Handmaid's Tale this takes the form of reproductive rights. Certain women are given the right to have children, though they will not become the children’s mothers—that role goes to someone else—at the expense of all other rights to self-determination. The scary thing is that this is not so far-fetched; today, religious conservatives are eroding hard-won rights, in particular reproductive rights and access to reproductive medical facilities, abortion rights, and adoption rights for LGBTQ+ couples.

Frighteningly, the novel is resonant not just in America, where it is set, but elsewhere in the world. Germany, France, Sweden and elsewhere are seeing an insurgent Right; the incumbent party in the UK is being split between its centre-right and more fanatical fringes. In other countries, such as India, the dominant party is explicitly religious and is shored up by its majority religion base. All this to say that democracy is fragile, and when people fall victim to economic misfortune or experience cultural shifts, the mechanisms of democracy can be weaponised by bad actors against minorities and vulnerable groups. The media can, and often does, play a part in this, too, especially when a few large corporations own multiple outlets. The organisations spread lies and misinformation, and stoke paranoia.

Like with all good dystopian novels, The Handmaid’s Tale is incredibly prescient; the prospect of such a future coming into fruition is alarmingly real. But the novel is not just a story about a horrifying future; it is a story of resistance. And the future it describes is a future we must be prepared to face head on and challenge at every opportunity.

[headspace-hotel]

"the babylon bee" documents, in such a damning and ugly way, the transformation of american conservative christianity from "group that claims to value love and caring for humanity while behaving the opposite" into "group that expressly values hatred and cruelty for its own sake"

around the time it launched the babylon bee was a christian satire site that primarily satirized intra-community issues (mega church pastors, 'trendy' worship services) and occasional jabs at Teh Liberals, with equal amounts of mocking evangelicals for supporting Trump

now it's like *"I hate my wife" joke* *joke about violent immigrants* *"women be shopping" joke* *joke about trans people grooming children into a sex cult* *racist joke* *calling women sluts* *calling women fat and ugly* *rape joke* *racist joke*

babylon bee was always making garbage "blue hair and pronouns" type jokes but this is a whole other fucking level.

back in 2015 i was in a conservative christian homeschool group and I cannot IMAGINE being shown the above screen shots and being told they are from The most popular christian satire website. the level of naked cruelty and prejudice would have been completely shocking.

[probablyasocialecologist]

One root of gun culture in the U.S. was the white fear that grew out of the successful effort to integrate public schools in the 1950s and the subsequent civil rights movement. Soon after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education invalidated the separate but equal standard in public education, the Christian school (and, later, homeschool) movement gained ground — with Christian Reconstructionists leading the way.

Rousas John Rushdoony, “the father of Christian Reconstructionism,” was a Calvinist philosopher and ardent segregationist who “argued that it was unbiblical to have the civil government overseeing education because that belonged within the purview of the family,” according to Julie Ingersoll, a professor at the University of North Florida and scholar of religion, the Religious Right, and American culture. “He advocated that not just in his writings, but also in helping people establish these alternative schools,” Ingersoll told Sojourners. “And even more than that, when those alternative schools had to establish their legal right to exist autonomously from government regulation, he served as an expert witness in court cases, arguing that it was a fundamental First Amendment, religious freedom right to choose how to educate your children.”

Rushdoony and other Christian Reconstructionists used the “virtue of home schools and Christian schools” as a mechanism to bring about a shift in the larger conservative Christian culture by basing their framework in an apologetics position called presupposition, Ingersoll said. According to Reconstructionists, how we exist in the world comes down to “two possible realities: Either you believe in and get your authority from the Bible and God, or you believe that you on your own can figure out better answers,” Ingersoll said. “And for these folks, that is actually the sin that’s in the Garden of Eden: deciding good and evil for yourself.” According to this perspective, if all human actions — including, say, writing the Bill of Rights — flow either from sinful disposition or biblical revelation, then the right to bear arms is either fatally flawed or a divine gift from God.

Gun Owners of America (GOA), the second-largest pro-gun group in the country (behind the NRA), would lean toward the latter. In NPR’s Pulitzer-winning investigative series on “the most uncompromising corner of the gun debate,” journalists called GOA the “Johnny Appleseed of the whole no-compromise movement,” a seed that grew, in part, due to Rushdoony. GOA’s founder, the late California state senator H.L. Richardson was, in Rushdoony’s words, a “friend” and a “very fine Christian, thoroughly reformed,” who founded the GOA in 1976 in response to a series of gun control measures that passed throughout California and the rest of the U.S.

“We don’t get to the kind of conservative evangelicalism that we have dominating today that has become compatible with QAnon, and pro-Trump, and basic authoritarianism — you don’t get to all of that without this pivotal figure Rushdoony,” Ingersoll told Sojourners. “Persecution narratives, anticipation of martyrdom, conspiracies — all those kinds of qualities have overtaken conservative evangelicalism in the last 50 years. And I see this movement, Christian Reconstruction, as part of that.”

[chelledoggo]

Every "God's Not Dead" movie ever

humble Christian protagonist: [enters a big scary secular environment] mean scary atheist antagonist: "i am forcing everyone here to denounce God or they will be punished" protagonist: "erm no i'm a Christian" antagonist: "you fool. you fucking cretin. prove God is real or i will punish you." concerned friend/family/partner: "nooo don't argue with them it's not worth it!!" protagonist: "i MUST... God is calling me to!" [meanwhile we get a bunch of b-plots featuring people who are going through very difficult times and wondering if they should find Jesus but their family/peers disapprove] protagonist: "i have prayed and prepared and now i am giving this big epic speech that proves without a shadow of a doubt that God is real and my religious affiliation is the only correct one." antagonist: "NO." protagonist: "yes." antagonist: [crumbles into dust] b-plot characters: "thanks to you, protagonist, we're all Christians now!" [everyone claps] the newsboys: "LET'S ROCK" [they play "God's Not Dead" before the credits roll]

[zombiesun]

I truly think that the christian insistence on hell being a divine and necessary punishment for evil and our current prison system have a lot to do with each other

[powerlineprincess]

☆Daughters of Jezebel☆