AN INTERESTING QUESTION....

[Ocelot II]

36. Religion at the micro level is much more about association and affiliation

than it is about dogma. The right wing co-opted evangelical Christians during the civil rights movement of the '60s; private church-based segregated schools were formed so people wouldn't have to send their kids to integrated schools. Churches, especially in small towns, are major social centers, and social and political political beliefs are reinforced in those centers, not only by sermons but in the informal associations of the members. The secular beliefs and prejudices held by the church members become central to their "religious" dogma more than the teachings of the Bible, and the groupthink takes over. No inconsistency is observed between Jesus' commands to feed the hungry and welcome the stranger and Trump's commands to hate the poor and the immigrant. Jesus is background noise; the church has become a political entity, not a religious one.