From Texas and Iowa to Arkansas, faith leaders are wading into politics to counter the rise of Christian nationalism
“But I also think the stereotypes of Republicans being pro-faith are bullshit too. We’re seeing a current administration bastardise faith almost every day. They used the Lord’s Prayer in a propaganda video for what they’re now calling the Department of War. That should have had every single evangelical’s bells and whistles and alarms going off in their head: this is sacrilegious.”
White clergy are deciding to run for office, Ryerse believes, in part as a response to the rise of Christian nationalism and the reality that, according to a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey, Trump won 85% of the white evangelical vote in last year’s presidential election.
Ryerse said: “We realise, hey, our churches and the people in our churches have been duped by this guy and so rather than hope someone else will clean up the problem, what we’ve seen is a lot of pastors respond with, you know what, I’m going to jump in and I’m going to be a part of the solution.
We’re seeing a current administration bastardise faith almost every day.
Welcome to the politicization of religion since always.
The racial divide can in part be traced to the mid-1970s when the Internal Revenue Service began removing tax-exempt status from private schools that discriminated by race. Conservative Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell saw this as federal overreach and seized on abortion as an issue that could be framed in religious and political terms.
Falwell’s organisation the Moral Majority used abortion as a broader symbol of moral decline alongside feminism, sex education and gay rights.
How Jesus-like.
Whereas Carter earned 60% of the white evangelical vote in 1976, fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton gained only a 16% share in 2016. It was a troubling realignment that caught the eye of Doug Pagitt, a pastor and executive director of the progressive Christian group Vote Common Good.
He said: “That’s not natural. That’s not just a policy change. There was something more significant going on. It’s been a two-sided effort. Republicans have oriented themselves primarily around religious voter identity and Democrats have set aside religious voter identity, including the fact that in 1992 Democrats removed from the voter access file the category of religious identity.”
This is where Democrats fucked themselves: they have a far stronger claim to Jesus’ preachings & could have easily challenged Falwell’s hypocrisy.
Inconsistent? I thought he was pretty consistent, really.
Please don’t cost me my rights
Like ultimately I can stand with them if they worship the Jesus who welcomed eunuchs and prostitutes, and there’s something positive if they can see the good in socially progressive issues. Otherwise, if they’re just going to say “fuck the queers and women, but not the poor and immigrants” I’d rather they change the republican party.
They should run as Republicans, the fucking slimes.
Literally poison to the party, the complete opposite of the change inside the party people are looking for.
Keep religious types out of the Democratic party. They only bring their problematic views and conservative bullshit with them. The party already has enough problems of their own with turncoats, Republican pandering, and kowtowing to rich lobbyists.
I forget which republican it was in the 80s that tried raising the alarm about courting the religious right. The essence of what they said was that you couldn’t negotiate or compromise with someone who thinks they have god on their side.
If you were duped by that guy, you were either not paying attention or just really stupid. Not the kind I want inserting themselves into decision making. Fuck all the way off, please.
They think their imaginary friend can make their wishes come true, but chooses not to. They aren’t smart.
As much as I’d like to agree, there are rational reasons to have religion.
Can we really call it rational reasoning when making decisions about survival and safety under coercion or threat of violence?
I think they mean it’s useful for controlling the uneducated masses.
I’m using the term “rational reason” in the sense that there is a more than tangential reason is was a selected trait or at a minimum not selected against.
I do not mean it in a way that justifies the amplification of specific parts or side effects of it.
I just never really understood anyone that could sit there and listen to what the cons and Republicans say and do and what their aims are and then think any of that lines up with red letter stuff from “the” bible.
But I’m thinking a lot of conservative xtians are not really readers, despite all their talk of “the” bible.
A lot of them have bought into prosperity gospel where your bak account is the measure of your faith in god.
Easy. Dems being taken over by the enemy. Enjoy voting!
Part of the problem that we have in this country, is that this idea of “Separation of Church and State” (which I quote because it’s a joke now), is dead. I don’t care if you’re a running pastor who aligns themselves with Democrat. Democrat or Republican or Independent, your religious beliefs have NO place in governing everyone else’s lives. Especially lives of those that do not believe what you believe.
We’ve suffered enough of that shit and we’re suffering it now.
I hope their faith guides them but does not control nor blind them.
Too little too late white men.
