Evangelicals wondering why so many people don't take them seriously, well here's why.

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/05/politics-smothers-christian-message-of.html

"Evangelicals, this is your guy," so said Joe Scarborough on his Morning Joe segment on MSNBC this morning.

He was referencing Donald Trump. You know, the twice divorced man of the world, who has cheated in business, defaulted on debt, indicted for lying about a payoff for political purposes to a porn star with whom he had an affair, currently undergoing a civil trial for an alleged rape, the instigator of the January 6th insurrection, a pathological liar and con artist who dabbles in conspiracy theories, advocates revenge politics. twice impeached for mind-boggling corruption. That guy.

There are a lot of things Evangelicals claim to believe which they say distinguishes them from other Christians, specifically Catholics and liberal, mainline Protestants. I grew up in an Evangelical church, so I can recite from memory most of what they claim are "distinctives" of their doctrine and theology which set them apart from other Christians and, in their eyes, demonstrate that they are the "true church" in a world of pretenders. But the evidence that comes from observing what they do creates an entirely different impression than what they claim.

[Frasier Balzov]

1. Trump furthered their agenda in ways which won their love.

Trump craves love from somebody--anybody--and they were willing to give it if he made the right promises.

A calculated compact with the most craven of politicians.

Their Orange Thessalonian.

[soldierant]

12. Or Corinthian.

Corinth was considered the red light district of the ancient world. Sin City.

[RockRaven]

2. Internal inconsistency also makes people not take one seriously...

It's like the old saw about when you always tell the truth then you don't have to waste time/energy to remember what lies you told to each different person...

If you don't contradict yourself all the time then people will take you seriously because there is no trap/gotcha created by your previous speech. IOW, no literal nonsense.

And Evangelicals are extraordinary in their internal inconsistency. They -- by their own speech -- forfeit being taken seriously.

[walkingman]

3. I was raised in the Baptist Church and until I was around 50+ I was actually

ashamed to admit that I was no longer a believer - not hard at all anymore. The indoctrination that takes place when you are a child stays with you for a very long time but at some point I think even the most devout have to admit it is a shameful doctrine which in many ways is oriented in racism, misogyny, and a disgusting "holier-than-thou" doctrine. Most of my family continues in the tradition and my DW and I have been almost shunned because of our refusal to participate - very sad.

[Alice Kramden]

4. I have family like that, too

I commiserate with you on being shunned

[Warpy]

8. Now that TFG has his tentacles into every fundagelical church

including the Baptists, you can be sure that he'll manage to ruin them, too.

Then again, I always say the pastor cares for his flock because it makes them easier to fleece. Growing up RCC gave me a very unsympathetic view of organized religion.

Oh, and search "famous atheists." You'll be amazed at some of the names. Whether you're an atheist or a "don't know, don't care," it will make you feel considerably less alone and ashamed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Yes, indoctrination as a child is the key point.

I was raised Roman Catholic. Different specifics, but I was indoctrinated as a child. In my case, I can recall questioning what I was being taught from the very beginning. When I was in high school I'd have angry arguments with my mother about going to mass. Once I left home, at age 17, I never went to mass again.

I do happen to have very strong spiritual beliefs, and as much as I think those beliefs are absolutely true, I have zero inclination to tell others about them or expect that anyone else should believe the same way.

[lees1975]

18. I was raised Baptist as well, and ironically...

Studying Baptist history and the foundations of the doctrine and theology, discovered that what Baptists historically and traditionally believed, as expressed in multiple confessions of faith, is quite different from the hard line fundamentalism that has crept in and taken over. Baptists were the primary influence with the founding fathers, both Madison and Jefferson, in bringing about the establishment clause and separation of church and state. Freedom of conscience is one of the foundational principles of Baptist confessions in America and the emphasis of church life wasn't on pointing out the sinfulness of everyone else, and the wrongness of other Christians, but on the enhancement and fulfillment of life based on the introduction to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

It's a long history, involving lots of events, that pushed Baptists from being much like Quakers, who see God as an "inner light," rather than an external deity like the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods, into fundamentalism. Their structure, which includes churches that are independent and autonomous, rather than ecclesiastically connected, opened the door to infiltration and the influence of uneducated clergy, the Civil War and a lot of other factors turned most, not all, of them into conservative Evangelicals. I've found myself to be much more compatible with some Quakers. And the emphasis on values is what is so compatible with being a Democrat.

[Deuxcents]

5. My parents were very religious. I started asking questions when I was about 15-16

Things were not making sense and blind obedience was out of the question. So was the hypocrisy and “oil and water don’t mix” bull💩 because my friends weren’t all white. “Hate your next door neighbor but don’t forget to say Grace” was like an anthem going on in my head. After I left the religion behind, my parents excommunicated me from my family but I never regretted it. Things calmed down with them but I just could not March to their drummer. Parents are gone now and my sisters and I are just fine.

[MLAA]

6. At 18 when I started college and lived on campus I was able to separate from the evangelical

world I was raised in. I knew things didn’t make sense around age 13. Never looked back and moved across the country after graduation and visited twice a year and for the most part planned things to avoid church services during the visits. I feel like I broke free.

[vlyons]

7. Well for starters, Evangelicals believe they have to convert everybody to save them from sin,

and eternal damnation. They are so bigoted and self-righteous that they believe their version of Christianity is the only correct version.

Now I'm completely fed up with everything Christian, no matter which denomination. It's all just so much spiritual materialism. It is a preposterous religion based on nonsense. There is no Bronze age invisible sky god, who waves a magic wand to suspend the laws of physics. A 3 day old corpse does not get up and start walking around. There is no such thing as a man born from a virgin. Ya can't walk on water. Jesus didn't escape earth's gravity without a rocket and oxygen supply to ascend to heaven, wherever that is. There are thousands of telescopes around the world, both amateur and professional, for hundreds of years, but not one has located heaven.

Jesus was not born on Dec 25, while shepards were in the fields watching their flocks by night. There are no flocks in the pastures in Dec, because there is no grass to graze in Dec. I used to own a ranch, and I know a thing or 2 about pastures.

[TrumanTheTiger]

10. The pandemic outed many of them as being selfish...

…which is polar opposite of Jesus’ life, work, and teachings.

You have no authority or credibility to talk about God’s love when putting a piece of cloth over your face to protect “the least of these” is too much to ask.

[BigmanPigman]

11. This makes sense to me.

The other night I Googled Jane Russell after watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes again and she had the same attitude...

"Marilyn Monroe once said, "Jane tried to convert me (to religion), and I tried to introduce her to Freud". Russell had tried to take her to a bible study for Hollywood stars. In an interview, Russell later said "I certainly wasn't trying to convert her to religion because I don't like religion", denoting that she didn't consider Christianity "a religion".[42] Russell appeared occasionally on the Praise the Lord program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian television channel based in Costa Mesa, California."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Russell

[Martin Eden]

13. The THREAT they pose should be taken seriously

It's easy enough to see their sheer HYPOCRISY in claiming to love Jesus while worshipping Donald Trump and being cruel to people not like them, so their self proclaimed piety should not be taken seriously.

But we have to take seriously the very real threat of Christo fascism that is upon us. They have many state governments, the House of Representatives, and two-thirds of the Supreme Court. Democrats have a razor thin majority in the Senate, and could lose the White House as well.

Republican refusal to do anything about the proliferation of guns in America goes beyond greed and pandering to idiots. Heavily armed rightwing extremists are itching to use their 2A joysticks to kill people on the left who stand in the way of American fascism.

We're just a few steps away from mobs of browshirt thugs openly committing acts of political violence with the full support of the Party in Power. If you doubt this, just consider for a moment that Republican voters and politicians consider the J6 insurrectionists to be true patriots being unjustly punished by a Deep State that must be defeated.

[dalton99a]

14. They are fascists and racists hiding behind the cross

[marble falls]

15. this is how it's become ...

[Karadeniz]

16. Redemption by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That theology was for those who had not

been told the mysteries Paul refers to because they were still at the infant stage in their ability to assimilate higher knowledge. Paul is clear in stating there are two types of believers, babies and adults. Since he's willing to say grace aloud, but not the mysteries, grace must be a concept for the beginners. The gospels clarify faith as only valid if it spurs one to live Jesus's instructions. Jesus also says he has knowledge hidden in the parables and if one thinks the children Jesus invited to come to him were actual children as opposed to those beginning their spiritual journey, then again one becomes stuck at the literal level.

[CTyankee]

19. As a regular viewer of MJ, I didn't think much about Joe's evangelical roots, but this was a good

ploy on his part. And he does it quite a bit (it's now a bit of a joke around that table of talking heads) and he really rubs it in. Those evangelicals had it coming to them. Let Joe be Joe on this one!

[Wonder Why]

20. When you follow a False Idol, why should anyone take you seriously.

"I am the Lord, thy God. ... Thou shalt have no Donald Trump before Me"

They can't even get past the First Commandment of the Old Testament, much less the rest of them.