The combination of Trumpism and white, Evangelical Christian nationalism is a "monstrosity"

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/03/white-evangelicals-and-catholics-turn.html

I've said it multiple times, and will say it again, glad to see that there are others who not only also see it, but dig in and find the facts to support their view and help those of us who struggle with it to understand it and remain completely committed to eradicating the evil from our churches. The dependence of white, conservative, Evangelical Christians on the political power of right wing extremism, including the worldly and secular Trumpism, and white, Christian nationalism, instead of reliance on the divine spirit of God produces a theological monstrosity."

The sharp decline of younger generation participation in Evangelical Christianity, and the decline of their church membership numbers means that they are not likely to "win" their culture war democratically. They don't understand that their ability to practice their religious beliefs is guaranteed by the constitution and that a religiously, racially, culturally diverse and pluralistic America is no threat to their freedom, though they don't get it that some of their more extreme ideology, which is not rooted in the Christian gospel, is what is helping drive members, especially younger ones, completely away from their churches.

So they are willing to support the politics of lying, character assassination, election denying, fraud, and the overturning of democracy to achieve their own ends and force their perspective on everyone else. Robert Jones says that is "mortgaging their future." I say that it is the destruction of the Christian church in America because they've let the enemy come in and are now dependent on his support.

[raging moderate]

1. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

You are so right!

[keithbvadu2]

2. "a religiously, racially, culturally diverse and pluralistic America is no threat to their freedom"

https://democraticunderground.com/100216049081

Michael Flynn tonight: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”

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We have plenty of folks who want to be the Christian Ayatollah of America

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http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/?no-ist= ;

Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. "Who does not see," he wrote, "that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.

[usonian]

3. Now, where did Flynn get that idea?

[brush]

4. Flynn is dangerous. His doctrinaire inflexibility...

was perfect for the military, but not for mainstream society, to which it seems he never adapted to once he was out of the army.

[lees1975]

5. It was Madison's observation of the persecution of Baptist ministers, along with Jefferson's

communication with Baptists in Connecticut, that led to the establishment clause and the separation of church and state, which Jefferson articulated as a "wall of separation."

Government sanctioned religion is an institutional church that advances the political aims of the state at the expense of the Christian gospel. It is oppressive. It has no place in a free society. Ironically, one of the main distinctives of Baptist doctrine and faith practice is the belief that the church is made up of those who are "called out" or called together because of their common faith in Jesus as the Christ, and it is a completely free and independent body, separated from the state and connected to the universal church by its spiritual principles, not by human regulation. Derived from the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, core Baptist beliefs include "soul freedom," or accountability to God alone, "Bible freedom," or the ability of each individual Christian to apply the teachings of the Bible as the Spirit leads them without priest or bishop, "church freedom," the ability of a group of Christians to establish a church and govern it within their own body, without outside interference, and "Christian liberty," which is the complete separation of the church, with a Christian ministry and purpose, from any political state, which has no Christian purpose.

So to accept Trumpism, white, Christian nationalism and "one religion" that Flynn babbles about, any Baptist must completely abandon the core, Biblical foundations of their identity, faith, doctrine, theology and practice. Many of them do, because they have absolutely no idea what their church teaches, or any idea of their founding principles that created their churches in the first place. They've sold out to preachers and leaders who are after power and money and know that's not coming from God, it's coming from their connection to the politics of oligarchy.

[lambchopp59]

6. How to compete with instantaneous empowerment?

Only requirement is to "believe" and undergo some Doctrine specific rituals. Instantly, the "saved" person is elevated in status by the right of God. Above the experts in any field. They know better than the doctorates in anything because God.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. In a society that often seeks instant gratification it's not surprising a religion promising instant

Last edited Fri Mar 17, 2023, 01:53 PM - Edit history (1)

salvation is popular.

The evangelical Christianity runs counter to what I was brought up with as a child.

[lambchopp59]

9. Same here

But the first hand view of deeply religious families of friends was frightening. Some of whom died because their doctor's orders were brought to their radical preacher for "god's" second opinion.

[republianmushroom]

7. Yes it is.