With the rise of Trump, evangelical pastors and voters have overwhelmingly supported the most vulgar, dishonest, greedy, and immoral man ever to occupy the presidency. This rush to sell their supposed principles for a mess of anti-abortion judges has branded them as hypocritical in the eyes of the rest of the country -- though in truth they had already richly earned that label through their history of excuse-making, victim-blaming, and "forgiveness" fetishism on behalf of an endless succession of church leaders caught committing sexual or financial abuse.
And now, in the time of covid-19, evangelicals and other conservative Christians have fought tooth-and-nail to defy lockdown and closure orders, hold in-person group services and events, and generally exempt themselves from the rules which apply to everyone else. This has made church after church a nexus of new outbreaks of the virus, endangering the wider communities in which the believers live (and that post is over three months old -- there have been many more cases of this since then). Thus they are wrapping themselves in yet another mantle -- that of disease-spreading Typhoid Marys. We will never know how many non-evangelical lives were lost due to their callous and arrogant disregard for the health of the people around them, but they have earned this label as richly as the other two, and all decent people must ensure that it, too, sticks to them permanently.
That's what you've done to yourselves, idiots. Good luck converting anybody now. And don't even think about trying to be taken seriously making moral pronouncements about anything at all, ever again.
Oh, religion.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say? I see the religulous as feeble-minded but scheming and backstabbing. They'll sell their soul for power, but they never lose their holier-than-thou attitude. Their hypocrisy is as big as their greed. Not my favorite people. Maybe they should have more face to face services during the pandemic? With lots of singing?
XOXO
Watching evangelical Christianity drive more nails in its own coffin is just fine by me.
ReplyDeleteThat about sums it up, and yes, 20th century "BC" is more like it, shit, they were more liberal on gay sex in f'n ancient Greece for that matter, than America, heh, heh,heh, heh, heh {:-) ... their doing (killing) themselves, but unfortunately their doing others around them too! I alwayz wondered how can self proclaimed Christians actually support someone like Trump, who is completely opposite of everything they say they stand for? Next time I'm around a fundi- Christian, I'm going to ask them that, just our of curiosity for their response.
ReplyDeleteIn the mean time ... while they are all on their mission for going to that heavenly place in the sky ... a little morning music to enjoy, from an ole buddy of mine, Jesus, himself {:-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCsmIHLjM_o
if there is a hell? I hope they burn for eternity..
ReplyDeletetRUMP has helped raise the meaning of the word hypocritical evangelical to an all-time high.
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to caution us:
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to sell your soul, demand at least a million dollars. Get it in advance.
This "sell their supposed principles for a mess of anti-abortion judges" strikes me as falling short.
"I alwayz wondered how can self proclaimed Christians actually support someone like Trump, who is completely opposite of everything they say they stand for? Next time I'm around a fundi- Christian, I'm going to ask them that, just our of curiosity for their response." - Ranch Chimp
ReplyDeleteEasy. They'll accuse you of supporting the legal mass murder of 600,000 babies every year. Remember - human embryos are human. Are you claiming they are cows or something?
They will ask you if faced with two candidates - one who agrees with you on everything except that they are for killing millions of babies just for funsies, and one who disagrees with you on everything except that they, like you, think killing millions of babies are wrong, who would you vote for?
That's how they can support Trump - "he opposes baby-killing."
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Now, we all know that it's white evangelical pastors and voters who overwhelmingly support Trump. Black evangelicals overwhelmingly oppose him.
In practice, Jesus is not the primary deity of white evangelicals. White Supremacy is. It is a white god they worship. Your typical first-century Jew in Roman Palestine had brown skin. This explains much.
So many times I secretly wish that "what goes around, comes around" would do just that! I'm constantly waiting for the "bad guys" to get what's coming to them without taking so many good people before they get theirs. Okay enough, let me stop before I say something I can't take back! Great post!
ReplyDeleteWishing you well, my friend.
Sixpence: It would be healthier to have less singing and more sinning, but either one works.
ReplyDeleteDebra: Indeed, since they're so determined to do it.
Ranch: Heh.....I doubt they'll be playing that in church any time soon.
JackieSue: One does sometimes wish it existed.
Mike: And the stench will stick to them long after he's gone.
Burr: I think they realize it's their last chance at power. They don't realize yet how badly it's going to blow up in their faces when they get caught up in the backlash against Trump.
Anon: Yeah, they always use that argument. Funny how they don't seem to care much about people after they're born.
Dellgirl: Oh, they're going to get theirs, just watch. It's already starting to happen in the form of shrinking church membership as the younger people get disgusted and leave.
Anon: The topic of this post is religion, not racism.
ReplyDeleteReligion is a pervasive social virus that from the early days of human society has been used by the powerful, and submitted to by the powerless for countless reasons. The negative effects of religion persist because it is (or has been) exceedingly good at "community spread" and resistant to development of "herd immunity". I do hope that those strengths are now diminishing, or will be countered more effectively by the spread of real understanding, compassion, and commitment to the type of social goods that it would seem underly many religions, however clouded and twisted they have been by myth and dogma. Maybe those better trends will end up being adopted by religions as they mutate for survival, and the negative strains will go extinct. One can hope I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me though that the behavior of people in the face of seeming contradictions with their religion parallels how a commitment to a democratic society with "liberty and justice for all" bends as they succumb to the gravity of the conservative ideology which anchors religions like Christianity. Something has to be sacrificed, and there is some comfort I guess in knowing your place in this life, as you wait for your mansion in the hereafter.