What do Evangelicals truly believe?

[Girard442]

I'm wondering if any journalists or writers have made a deep dive into Evangelical culture post-11/2016 to try to get a grip on what beliefs are central to their existence.

As far as I can tell, the only fixed stars are:

1. They're right about everything.

2. They're going to Heaven and everyone not like them is going to Hell.

[NurseJackie]

1. I'd also add...

As far as I can tell, the only fixed stars are:

I'd also add... 3)They have a right to control the actions of others. 4)They are being victimized by anyone who prevents them from controlling others.

[Blue_true]

16. You nailed it. nt

[Runningdawg]

2. They are prepared to defend their way of life AT ANY COST

if they die in the process - so be it - more Jesus points for heaven.

[dalton99a]

3. Sex and money, when they're not afraid of their preacher

who also wants sex and money

[PETRUS]

4. You might find some answers in this book:

"One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America," by Kevin Kruse.

[rurallib]

14. thanks for the tip - will probably pick it up

[world wide wally]

5. And 5) God is Republican

[ooky]

10. Also a white male.

[Blue_true]

17. Really funny how a stubby, dark skinned Jewish guy became a tall, blonde

Adonis over time. If you try asking a rightwing evangelical to explain that, you will likely get shot.

[ProudLib72]

25. Just an FYI

If Jesus came back today, he would tell these fuckers that they are NOT his followers. He would disown them entirely. It was the asshole Paul who made it too easy for anyone to claim they were xtian. But I think even Paul would denounce these fuckers.

Please warn me of any evilgelicals coming to shoot me!

[ck4829]

6. If you have money, it means God loves you. If you don't, well...

[violetpastille]

7. All of my neighbors are very aloof and go to the same church.

So I went to the "About Me" page of their church's website. And it said.

WE BELIEVE that God designed marriage as a covenant “one flesh” union between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:21-24; Malachi 2:14-16; Mark 10:2-12). The relationship between a husband and wife in marriage points beyond itself to the relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Because marriage between man and woman was part of God’s design for His creation of humankind, and because marriage pictures the union between Christ and His church, we do not recognize any other definitions of marriage outside of these biblical standards.

Lots of Old Testament stuff and NOTHING about helping the poor, which I believe was Jesus' one big message to us all.

So, I'm cool that they don't talk to me.

[Blue_true]

18. How did you end up in a neighborhood like that?

It sounds like some places in Steven King novels.

[violetpastille]

19. True! Or Octavia Butler.

You're right.

I was an environmental refugee from California. We drove up to SW Washington and saw that houses were cheap and there was water up here so we bought a home in a new subdivision.

All our neighbors are also from California. ( Red California.)

They are here for the White Flight and we just came for the H20.

(But I'm going to work like hell for the next two years to get our Red Congressperson out of office to make a nice welcoming space for the next round of Californian climate refugees.)

[jmowreader]

22. Violet, I believe they fail to acknowledge the truth of the Bible

The vast majority of marriages in Biblical times were plural marriages - one man, as many women as their fathers will give them. To people in a simpler time, polygyny made a lot of sense: we have a 90 percent infant mortality rate, we need as many babies born as we possibly can get, Issac and Jacob are really good at fathering children...let's have them father all the children in the village.

So, therefore, if you REALLY want to follow the Bible in marriage matters, with the legal system we have now, make it "one man, one wife and as many 'girlfriends' as you can attract. It's totally legal to do this, and as long as you can find a woman who will put up with her husband sleeping with seven or eight other women for the express purpose of pregnancy, you should be okay.

[Azathoth]

8. They're saved and you're not

And abortion is the greatest evil in the world.

Literally everything else is negotiable.

[Mariana]

9. Pretty much whatever they want to believe.

A person can believe or disbelieve just about anything and still be considered one variety of Christian or another. With so many denominations to pick from, plus "nondenominational" and "independent" churches, there's a flavor of Christianity for everyone.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

11. They believe in end of times BS. n/t

[Cosmocat]

12. Liberals are the spawn of satan

Pretty much the sum of it.

[meow2u3]

20. So, according to evangelicals...

...Jesus was the spawn of Satan?

[democratisphere]

29. Sinnin' and grinnin' is a Liberal's reason for livin'!

Last edited Sun Nov 11, 2018, 12:25 AM - Edit history (1)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. There are benevolent memory lapses.

So if another of member of my congregation meets me in a liquor store or a strip bar, they will not remember the encounter afterwards. Nor will I.

Praise jeebus.

Oh, yeah, and handling rattlesnakes is da bomb!

[LiberalFighter]

15. Jesus is their King and God. God is not their God.

Therefore, they are worshiping other gods when they worship Jesus. The Ten Commandments references only one god. Oh. Since Jesus is not a Christian it must be another person they are worshiping.

[Wolf Frankula]

21. Everyone else in the world

is like us, wants to be like us, or ought to be like us. That is a common American belief.

Wolf

[brettdale]

23. Ones I worked with in New Zealand

Have said

All gay people go to hell.

Because we legalize prostitution, God caused the earthquakes.

Dont read Harry Potter,people will cast spells, (I said, well they wont work though) and they
replied, "your'e poor naive fool."

They seem to love to use the word "Fool"

The world's over populated, if you bombed Africa, you solve the world's problems.

God wants women to stay at home, the Husband is the boss.

So if you take those comments.

Evangelical people, don't like women, don't like gay people, don't like people with dark skin pigmentation
and Im guessing they would've failed science class.

[budkin]

24. Every single choice they make is "God's will" and therefore the right one.

That's pretty much it.

[gibraltar72]

26. And Trump is as close to the Antichrist as they're gonna get.

So they latched on like grim death. They want the end times.

[democratisphere]

27. Evangelicals are so-called Christians believing in their own self righteousness with

the singular goal of saving their own fraudulent miserable asses on their day of reckoning.
.

[AlexSFCA]

28. it's a political movement, more than religion

[justgamma]

30. Jesus died for their sins

therefore they can sin all they want. Also, the Ten Commandments must be displayed everywhere. They don't need to be followed,only displayed.

[KCDebbie]

31. The evangelicals also believe that they must support Israel...

while fomenting a war between Israel and Iran so that Iran can kill all but 144,000 Jews world-wide, an event after which God/Jesus, the creator of the universe and all in it can finally be allowed (by whom? I don't know...) to return to Earth!

[stopbush]

32. They believe the make believe of the Buy-bull is factual.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

33. A good question with complicated answers

1) Kings

You also heard this one during the W Bush era. The concept that God will select a king to lead his faithful, and that obedience to that king is tantamount to obedience to God. Currently, Trump is their king. That leads us to.....

2) Wrath

Evangelicals believe that liberals and America's liberal society, with abortion, pornography, humanism, feminism, multiculturalism, and a general lack of focus on God. With Trump's in-your-face disdain of liberals, Evangelicals see Trump as God's tool to punish America. And.....

3) Wealth

If you read what Jesus said, he doesn't seem too keen on the wealthy. But there is a philosophy among some American Evangelicals called "Wealth Theology." Long story shortened: if you are rich, it is a manifestation of how much God loves you. And that stems from.....

4) Grace

Works vs. Grace is one of the longest running debates in Christianity. Super simplified: The "works" side believes that you can do good works - feed the poor, house the homeless, give a bunch of money to charity or the Church, and that will help get you into Heaven. The "grace" side holds that original sin makes us all unworthy to enter Heaven, no matter what we do. Our only hope is to accept Jesus (who died for our sins) and to have God's grace. Grace basically means that somehow, some way, God picked you to be an integral part of His plan. Here's the thing - while holy, Godly behavior is supposed to manifest itself in people with Grace (think "Mother Theresa" ) that isn't always the case (think David committing adultery with Bathsheba or all the things St. Augustine did or St. Paul being a Roman slaughtering Christians before God talks to him and he becomes their leader.) So here's how it works with Trump: the three wives; the adultery with porn stars, the shady finances don't matter because Trump's wealth (remember point 3) and elevation to leadership (remember point 1) are manifestations of his being possessed of God's grace.

Disclaimers: 1) this is an attempt at explanation, not a defense 2) this is a gross oversimplification

[UCmeNdc]

34. Pimping of the name of Jesus...

They do not believe what they say

[TheBlackAdder]

35. Since around the 1980s, pretty much whatever they're fucking told. Almost NO critical thought left.

.


Before the 80s, people who thought of the Bible being without error were seen as pariahs.

Then, there was a big push, around the same time as the "Moral Majority" came to be, and churches slowly adopted this thought. Christians who believed in Verbal Dictation or Verbal Plenary Inspiration argued that, since the Bible was inspired by God, it must be perfect. Evangelical minister, Harold Lindsell, wrote a book and later headed the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. An astonishing 335 Evangelical leaders signed onto the “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy."

Soon, the educated ministers were forced out of churches. Religious universities, began to purge any doctors who refused to sign onto inerrancy, since the Bible contains hundreds of erroneous and conflicting passages. Compound this with the modernist view that anyone can be a minister, without official training or education, as long as one was divinely inspired or felt so.

This led to a complete dumbing down of religion within Christianity, as the majority of church organizations and movements have now subscribed to this Biblical Inerrancy movement.


The problem with this belief, is that people must make up stories and excuses to resolve these Biblical errors.

Now, after 35 years, a generation and a half, most people are used to explaining away things to meet their needs. The educated are no longer acting as the firewalls of insanity, and lunatic fringes are now the keymasters to most churches.

.