White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-enemy-of-democracy-is-ignorance.html

The book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been out since 2019, but it is an excellent "revisionist" history of the political plunge taken by Evangelical Christians in the United States since Reagan embraced them while running against a true Evangelical, Jimmy Carter, in 1980. Carter was a true Evangelical, a Georgia Southern Baptist whose doctrine and theology reflected the core values of the Christian gospel, and influenced his politics. And when I say "influenced his politics," I mean that Carter always took the path of compassion, putting the needs of people ahead of his own personal preferences when it came to practicing "righteousness," believing that when Jesus said "love your neighbor as yourself," he meant it.

The political brand of Evangelical Christianity that has emerged from the influence of a core group of powerful Christian "leaders" as diverse as Jerry Falwell, Sr., Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Franklin Graham has abandoned Christian theology and doctrine in exchange for the ability to get things done using political power instead of the Holy Spirit's power, and to fight a "culture war" rather than fulfill an evangelistic mission and purpose. It is a cult, by Evangelicalism's own definition, a sinister religion with a set of religious practices that may be drawn from Christian tradition, but which deny the core beliefs of Christianity and a group drawn to the personality and attracted to the person of a leader whose core beliefs are a deviation from Biblical truth.

Du Mez says that the attraction of those within American Evangelicalism to Trump, whose personal lifestyle and values are the worldly opposite of Christ's gospel, something he openly proclaims and on which he builds his own immoral identity, is because the "culture war" agenda that includes misogyny, white supremacy and anti-Semitism, opposition to LGBTQ rights and abortion rights, and the turn toward the use of political power to advance a religious "agenda" rather than relying on the evangelistic approach to spiritual transformation, which is the core principle of the Christian gospel, existed among some branches of white, Evangelical Christianity before Trump.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Imagine destroying the country that gave them freedom of religion.

To worship as they please. Boom. Destroy all of it.

[Upthevibe]

2. Kick.n/t

[czarjak]

3. Growing up in the Bible Belt I'm from...

If you told a Baptist you were Evangelical, they'd look at you like you had three heads. The Reagan/Falwell union adopted it for convenience.

[ShazzieB]

4. I'm not really sure what "evangelical" even means anymore.

I was raised Baptist in the Bible belt until the age of 12, when my family moved "up north" to Illinois. Remained Baptist, at least nominally, until finally severing the ties in my early 20s.

The church I went to as a child was big on supporting "evangelism," which mostly meant sending missionaries to foreign countries to try to win converts. I thought that was what "evangelical" meant.That term wasn't being used to denote a particular brand of Christianity back then, at least not that I was aware of.

Nowadays it does denote a certain flavor of Christianity, and the way it's typically used doesn't seem to have much to do with actual evangelism, at least not that I can see from my "on the outside peering in" vantage point. It seems to have more to do with Christian nationalism than spreading Christ's message (again speaking from my outsider vantage point).

The so-called evangelical churches of 21st century America seem to have combined all the worst aspects of what I was raised with (especially authoritarianism and patriarchy) and combined those with a bunch of stuff I barely recognize as "Christian." I feel like they took a word that was vaguely biblical and used it to label something they pretty much made up themselves.

I think I'll take a look at this book and see if it helps sort out some of my confusion.

[lees1975]

8. The book will do exactly that.

I had a similar upbringing, raised Baptist, though not in the Bible belt, but saw the transition from the "evangelistic" mission and purpose to getting points of a culture war achieved. Most people sitting in a church on Sunday don't know what they believe, beyond what their preacher tells them and he gets most of his stuff from the celebrity televangelist crowd, who has embedded themselves in politics to keep the gravy train going and the money they need rolling in.

Not all of those who fall under the doctrinal description of "Evangelical" have headed this direction, though a large percentage of white Evangelicals have. They are pseudo-Christian, their nationalism lacks any of the gospel's values and they have no idea how lost they are.

Enjoy the book. I sure did.

[ShazzieB]

10. I have started reading it!

Downloaded it to my Kindle app right after I made that post. I've only read the intro so far, but it pulled me right in.

[lambchopp59]

6. Another space I'll reiterate

Westboro has blood on it's hands, that any reasonable sky spook they fantasize about would shock them shitting their pants to answer for.
If there was any true justice, myself and many of their victims should sue them out of existence.
This bigoted, profiteering crap under any guise of "righteousness" needs to be exposed.

[ShazzieB]

11. Oh, yes, Westboro is horrible!

I haven't heard anything about them in years and was wondering if they were still around. (And hoping they weren't. )

[kimbutgar]

7. Don't call them Christians they are white nationalists using Christianity to fool the weak into

Supporting their new Jesus TFG.

[Marcuse]

9. Marion, Drumpf and Ceasare Borgia

[FakeNoose]

12. Republican Jesus

[usonian]

13. K&R