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lees1975

(6,173 posts)
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:23 PM Monday

White, conservative Evangelicals were key to electing the most morally bankrupt President in history. Can they survive?

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/01/can-white-american-christianity-be.html

In recent decades," says retired United Methodist, former Southern Baptist pastor Martin Thielen, "the sins of white Christian American have been fully ecumenical." These include

the poisonous political partisanship of the conservative, Evangelical church
the subservience of women
the denomization of the LGBTQ community
the scourge of white, Christian nationalism
the depraved, pedophile priest scandal of the Roman Catholic Church, with almost no accountability for abusive priests or the bishops who covered it up
endless and ruthless battles over human sexuality
"Of course, these sins (and many others) in the American church didn't form in a vacuum," he says.
"From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the church has engaged in horrific behaviors, including the Inqisition, the Crusades, witch burnings, bloody religious wars, child abuse at indigenous boarding schools, indifference during the Holocaust, and a steady stream of intolerance, racism and sexism, just to name a few," he says.

As an institutional expression of the Christian gospel, found in the New Testament, preached and taught by Jesus, that's a terrible record. Defined by a set of virtues known as the Beatitudes, found in both Matthew's and Luke's record of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which include, among other virtues, the blessedness of humility, mercy and peacemaking, labelled as the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world," and placing the highest value of faith practice on loving God with all of one's being and existence, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves, it is a testimony to the strength of the gospel itself that Christianity became the predominant faith of Europe, and by extension the Americas, in spite of its record as an institution.


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White, conservative Evangelicals were key to electing the most morally bankrupt President in history. Can they survive? (Original Post) lees1975 Monday OP
I hope not. eppur_se_muova Monday #1
Can White, American Christianity be Forgiven? atreides1 Monday #2
"Can they survive"? maxsolomon Monday #3
Like cockroaches. 2naSalit Monday #7
Americans have only experienced a taste, here and there, of what White, Christian Nationalism would be like. lees1975 Monday #8
Yes, it seems a bizarre non-sequitur Mike 03 Monday #10
But the number reporting Christian beliefs goes down every year. Elessar Zappa Monday #13
Of course they'll survive. Times change. So does God. keithbvadu2 Monday #4
I don't care what anyone's personal religion is so long as they keep it to themselves. Lonestarblue Monday #5
If Satan existed and wanted to create a church ThoughtCriminal Monday #6
A wise woman once told me... 2naSalit Monday #9
Most people in a conservative, Evangelical church are not aware of the church's theology or doctrine. lees1975 Monday #12
GOP has Churches that Preach GOP Oneear Monday #11

eppur_se_muova

(37,865 posts)
1. I hope not.
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:31 PM
Monday

They haven't accomplished much good in this world. Let's try it without them for awhile and see if we like it better. I'm pretty sure I would.

atreides1

(16,451 posts)
2. Can White, American Christianity be Forgiven?
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:33 PM
Monday

I won't forgive them and I won't show any mercy towards them either!

lees1975

(6,173 posts)
8. Americans have only experienced a taste, here and there, of what White, Christian Nationalism would be like.
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:49 PM
Monday

If that's what we get as a result of a second Trump administration, and it looks like the Heritage Foundation is calling most of the shots, I don't believe churches which have been identified with right wing extremism will survive. If we are somehow able to return to a Democratic administration after 2028, the damage that they will do in the next four years will lead to the emptying out of most of the churches that supported it, once separation of church and state is restored.

Mike 03

(17,644 posts)
10. Yes, it seems a bizarre non-sequitur
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 02:17 PM
Monday

I've watched in dismay as the Christian Nationalists have risen now to infect every major rein of power, all while pundits have been saying for twenty years not to worry because they are an endangered species that is dying out.

The book "The Power Worshippers" by Katherine Stewart taught me to stop underestimating what they are capable of.

Elessar Zappa

(16,224 posts)
13. But the number reporting Christian beliefs goes down every year.
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 05:16 PM
Monday

They’re just louder now (and have more power, unfortunately).

Lonestarblue

(12,051 posts)
5. I don't care what anyone's personal religion is so long as they keep it to themselves.
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:41 PM
Monday

Keep all religion of any kind out of the law-making arena and government, public schools, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, public business services, and anything paid for with taxpayer money. We need to rebuild the wall between church and state the Supreme Court has been dismantling ruling by ruling.

ThoughtCriminal

(14,383 posts)
6. If Satan existed and wanted to create a church
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:42 PM
Monday

It would look exactly like current American fundamentalist evangelical churches.

Undermine everything Christ taught, while claiming to work in his name. I personally think all the Anti-Christ prophecy is bunk, but Christianity in America is sure making a lot of it self-fulfilling.

2naSalit

(94,087 posts)
9. A wise woman once told me...
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 01:51 PM
Monday

During a mutual rant we were having about politics and religion. In the middle of a point she stopped and said,

"You know, if you want to gain control over a whole lot of people in a hurry, start a religion."

In our case, here in the US, we have a wannabe dictator who co-opted religion for his purposes. All the trappings and blind faith were already prepackaged for him, all ha had to do was promise them what they wanted to hear, that their bigoted wet dreams would come true if only they gave him power over everybody else too.

lees1975

(6,173 posts)
12. Most people in a conservative, Evangelical church are not aware of the church's theology or doctrine.
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 03:29 PM
Monday

They depend on their leaders to tell them what they believe. It's the same on the national level. There are a few, well-known, celebrity pastors, mostly of the megachurch, television preacher variety, who have an inordinate amount of influence because of who they are, far greater than just the reach of their congregation.

The big names back in the late 70's when they first decided to put their support behind a GOP candidate, picking the divorced Reagan as the guy they were going to support, a man who couldn't remember the last time he'd been in church, who had been divorced and remarried, a no-no for leaders in conservative churches, and who had no clue about their doctrinal beliefs, were Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and a Texas evangelist, James Robison, who was a pulpit screamer. There were also people behind the scenes pulling strings, but not wanting to dirty their own reputation by getting involved in partisan politics. That would be Billy Graham. He was a major influence in the "Religious Roundtable" via Ed McAleer, but wanted to protect his ministry and reputation from the fallout that would come if people knew.

They've succeeded in making points from right wing extremist politics doctrinal beliefs of the church, so people think those points are part of the Christian gospel, when they're not. And yet, when you challenge an Evangelical to justify their support for politicians whose morals are diametrically the opposite of Christian teaching, their response is some trite saying like, "I'm not voting for a pastor in chief, I'm voting for a commander in chief." Or, "God used King David and he wasn't perfect." Both of those statements are contrary to any Christian teaching, and gross misuse of the Bible.

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