Originally published at: 5 Kinds Of American Evangelicals And Their Voting Patterns
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. Polls and analyses from journalists, scholars and even religious leaders often seem to assume that evangelicalism represents a singular religious and social identity. Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump, who received 81% of the white…
The churches of the confederate states, that told the youth of the South that God said it was OK to kill their uncle, should have been burned to the ground in the 1800s.
God is calling for the murder of the middle classes again, just like during the Reformation: Rewrite the foundational documents, and arm the disaffected.
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Religion is a mental illness. The Founders were well aware of that fact, since the wars that tore Europe apart for two centuries only ended decades before they were born. Infecting a new nation with that kind of sickness and insanity was the last thing they needed or wanted. So when it came to religion they gave the people everything - complete freedom to worship - and nothing - all religions are equal and irrelevant. But that hasn’t stopped the disease and the stupidity from ripping this country apart. And mark my words, religion will be the end of this country. People who believe they are special and anointed by their imaginary friend to spread his message of hate and division and child sex trafficking (what else would you call human slavery?) simply cannot be bound by any sense of human decency when an evil, angry, jealous and vengeful god is watching them. This bullshit will not end in our lifetime, not until humans outgrow the mental illness that is religion.
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Additional:
- Most evangelicals are in the South.
- Most evangelicals have no college education.
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Reminding everyone that even Evangelicals are not a monolith is great.
It remains their job to rehabilitate their name. Right now, Evangelical is firmly planted in the MAGA camp. That is not accurate, but it is what the most decibels says. If they feel that group doesn’t represent their beliefs they should say so.
I welcome their participation.
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What???
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Which part of “religion is a mental illness” is giving you the most trouble? You’re required to embrace insane delusions and believe in things that are clearly fucking insane.
Here’s a sample, just from Christianity alone -
God is all-loving, yet he gives children cancer and makes them suffer.
He’s all powerful yet unable to banish Satan from the world.
He loves you so much that if you don’t worship him he will send you to be tortured in hellfire for all eternity.
Jesus, who is also god, sent his son/himself down to earth to be tortured and die so the son’s/his sacrifice will protect you from his/his father’s vengeful wrath for the original sin of knowledge that Adam and Eve infected all humans with.
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Not quite, although it certainly seems that way sometimes. It is actually a behavioral adaptation in hunter-gatherer societies to promote group cohesion, as well as a naive-empirical way to explain the world (what causes thunder? A sky god, obviously). Once people settled in permanent, agriculture-based settlements, chieftains (soon to be kings) figured out that religion made an excellent behavioral control to keep subjects in line.
In modern, scientific society, however, religion is simply an archaic maladaptation. It ultimately should go the way of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice. The murder-fest going on in the Middle East should convince every rational person of that.
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All Christians are (technically) supposed to be evangelical. We can break them down more simply into 1) those who’ve read the Gospels (particularly the book of Matthew) and understand and adhere to His social and moral values; and 2) those who have no little or no real understanding of the teachings of Jesus and what they do know, they’re looking to renegotiate
There is nothing “mentally ill” about
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
There is something mentally wonky about trying to reinterpret that so you can beat up on people who you don’t like
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My aunt and uncle were Methodist missionaries who worked in South America building and running schools for 40 years. After they retired, they joined a church that became both a Sanctuary (for immigrants) and a Reconciling (for LGBTQ) church and was quite active in both areas.
I once used the term “Evangelicals” to describe the right-wing church movement, and my aunt quickly corrected me. To her, she was an evangelical. She had spent 40 years working to spread “God’s” word – true evangelism. To her the right wing so-called “christians” were fundamentalists, not evangelicals.
As an atheist, I have come to agree with her definition. These people are not evangelicals, though they call themselves that. They are fundamentalists just as much, to a greater or lesser degree, than the Taliban or Wahabis.
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Where’s the Mourning Memo?
If you are noticing that the only national polls Trump is leading in are the ones taken by a single far-right polling outfit known to be run by a Trumpist you are reading this image correctly
Seth Abramson
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Don’t forget Daesh (AKA ISIS). If it’s to a lesser degree it’s because they lack the backing of a state to inflict their will on others.
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That’s what Xtian nationalism is meant to do.
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Today’s a federal holiday.
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National Indigenous Day.
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Stupid is as stupid does. Turn down hurricane aid, and suppress the vote in redneck counties.
Let’s send in Delta Force to hunt the militias. It’ll be taken care of in a couple days.
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Oh, it’s just the usual reflexive faith-bashing that happens here whenever anything even remotely religious comes up. As soon as I saw the article hit, I knew what I’d find in the first few messages of the discussion, and indeed I did.
But it’s okay to insult and abuse people of faith here on The Hive. Just seems to be part of the landscape, and I’m sure it’s grand fun to show how much smarter and modern-er and saner you are than the roughly two thirds of humanity that does profess some level of spiritual belief.
You can ignore 'em. You can engage 'em, though I wouldn’t hold any very lively expectation of success. You can even pray for 'em, but please don’t tell them because it would probably make them mad.
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