The thing is that these so called "evangelicals" go to church less than once a month. I really want to know why and how they started to call themselves "evangelicals". I am not saying that we do not have a "politics" problem in churches in the US. But substantial number of the people who call themselves Christians are name only and rarel…
The thing is that these so called "evangelicals" go to church less than once a month. I really want to know why and how they started to call themselves "evangelicals". I am not saying that we do not have a "politics" problem in churches in the US. But substantial number of the people who call themselves Christians are name only and rarely go to church, and those people call for teaching Christianity and the Bible in school most loudly, I think. As a born again Christian, I am so saddened by those who use the name of Jesus to get or keep their power and money. They will be judged, but many people are completely turned off by these so called Christians.
Fellow BA Ev Xn here, we’ve been had, SoCal. So glad you commented.
There was a deliberate, planned, systematic effort to tie Christians into Republican politics and it worked. I don’t agree with everything Dr. Kristen Kobes Du Mez writes in her “Jesus and John Wayne” but I think any Xn wanting to know how we got here ought to read it. And after that, Kevin Kruse’s “One Nation Under God” on how Jesus became a RW pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps capitalist.
Re: your comment: Matt 6:2 always comes to mind -- some people will get their tawdry “reward” here on earth.
100%! Also the podcast Straight White American Jesus is fabulous and has really helped this former evangelical get herself deprogrammed. Bradley Oneshi, one of the founders, is out with great but terrifying book about Christian Nationalism and what comes next. I caught one of the events when the book was published. And yes, we've been had and then some.
It's because of politics. Republican politics these days is all about identity, and part of having the correct identity is being "Christian". So people who were already conservative are starting to pick up the label even if it has no real meaning behind it.
As far as why "evangelical" as opposed to just "Christian"? I imagine a lot of that has to do with the way those terms are portrayed in media. Catholics, mainline protestants, and other forms of Christianity are usually portrayed as insufficiently conservative or suspiciously foreign.
Plenty of Catholics are happy to throw in with the Evangelicals. Dump the wishy-wishy social justice aspects of Catholic Social teaching, go hardline on sexual morality (which they are happy to back up with a gajillion encyclicals because the new testament is almost totally void of it), and argue that the Catholic church ought to lash itself to the Republican party to ensure cultural and political relevance (see DeSantis). They see the "normie" Catholics as "cafeteria Catholics".
Of course, if the the Evangelical/Catholic right coalition ever came to power, the Catholics would be jettisoned faster than you can say transubstantiation. I mean Pence an Pompeo are both former Catholics who found Evangelicalism more...animating. And so many of Catholics are Hispanic, I mean, that's gonna make them nervous. And then there's that awkward stuff with the latest pope saying "maybe helping poor people should be a bigger priority than denying "the gays" communion". I mean, they wont let that stand! That sounds socialist to me!
A story from my parenting days: I had been talking with my young daughter, who is a beautiful ethnic mixture of African-American, Mexican-American, Native American, and Caucasian, about Jesus. We are Catholic. I told her that Jesus had brown skin like her because he lived in a part of the world where people had brown skin. She went across the street to play with her friend, whose blond-haired, blue-eyed family would probably now be described as White Nationalist Call-me-Christians who didn't know much about what Jesus really taught. My daughter came back home and said, "Mom, Tanya's mom said Jesus did NOT have brown skin!" I just said to her, "Well, honey, Tanya's mom is wrong."
The thing is that these so called "evangelicals" go to church less than once a month. I really want to know why and how they started to call themselves "evangelicals". I am not saying that we do not have a "politics" problem in churches in the US. But substantial number of the people who call themselves Christians are name only and rarely go to church, and those people call for teaching Christianity and the Bible in school most loudly, I think. As a born again Christian, I am so saddened by those who use the name of Jesus to get or keep their power and money. They will be judged, but many people are completely turned off by these so called Christians.
Fellow BA Ev Xn here, we’ve been had, SoCal. So glad you commented.
There was a deliberate, planned, systematic effort to tie Christians into Republican politics and it worked. I don’t agree with everything Dr. Kristen Kobes Du Mez writes in her “Jesus and John Wayne” but I think any Xn wanting to know how we got here ought to read it. And after that, Kevin Kruse’s “One Nation Under God” on how Jesus became a RW pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps capitalist.
Re: your comment: Matt 6:2 always comes to mind -- some people will get their tawdry “reward” here on earth.
100%! Also the podcast Straight White American Jesus is fabulous and has really helped this former evangelical get herself deprogrammed. Bradley Oneshi, one of the founders, is out with great but terrifying book about Christian Nationalism and what comes next. I caught one of the events when the book was published. And yes, we've been had and then some.
It's because of politics. Republican politics these days is all about identity, and part of having the correct identity is being "Christian". So people who were already conservative are starting to pick up the label even if it has no real meaning behind it.
As far as why "evangelical" as opposed to just "Christian"? I imagine a lot of that has to do with the way those terms are portrayed in media. Catholics, mainline protestants, and other forms of Christianity are usually portrayed as insufficiently conservative or suspiciously foreign.
Plenty of Catholics are happy to throw in with the Evangelicals. Dump the wishy-wishy social justice aspects of Catholic Social teaching, go hardline on sexual morality (which they are happy to back up with a gajillion encyclicals because the new testament is almost totally void of it), and argue that the Catholic church ought to lash itself to the Republican party to ensure cultural and political relevance (see DeSantis). They see the "normie" Catholics as "cafeteria Catholics".
Of course, if the the Evangelical/Catholic right coalition ever came to power, the Catholics would be jettisoned faster than you can say transubstantiation. I mean Pence an Pompeo are both former Catholics who found Evangelicalism more...animating. And so many of Catholics are Hispanic, I mean, that's gonna make them nervous. And then there's that awkward stuff with the latest pope saying "maybe helping poor people should be a bigger priority than denying "the gays" communion". I mean, they wont let that stand! That sounds socialist to me!
I have found that to now be the case.
A story from my parenting days: I had been talking with my young daughter, who is a beautiful ethnic mixture of African-American, Mexican-American, Native American, and Caucasian, about Jesus. We are Catholic. I told her that Jesus had brown skin like her because he lived in a part of the world where people had brown skin. She went across the street to play with her friend, whose blond-haired, blue-eyed family would probably now be described as White Nationalist Call-me-Christians who didn't know much about what Jesus really taught. My daughter came back home and said, "Mom, Tanya's mom said Jesus did NOT have brown skin!" I just said to her, "Well, honey, Tanya's mom is wrong."