From Joshua Tait: "What does it tell skeptics when evangelicals throw in their lot with a cruel, venal, and unrepentant man like Trump? Or that leading Southern Baptists associate with movements inspired by the Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán?"
Or when ostentatious Christians portray Vladimir Putin as first of all a champion of Christia…
From Joshua Tait: "What does it tell skeptics when evangelicals throw in their lot with a cruel, venal, and unrepentant man like Trump? Or that leading Southern Baptists associate with movements inspired by the Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán?"
Or when ostentatious Christians portray Vladimir Putin as first of all a champion of Christian civilization?
For many among the natcons, Christianity seems to be primarily an instrument for beating up leftists and pushing LGBTQ people back into the closet. And perhaps keeping women subordinate. It's a view of Christianity that isn't well suited to reversing a long secularizing trend.
Natcons say that a common religion provides "unity." which is true only insofar as people actually believe that the creed is true (or at least they aren't required to affirm propositions they do not believe to be true). Tradcons gloss over (or outright deny) what history shows about the downside of a state-enforced creed and demands for religious conformity. "You must acknowledge these doctrines as absolutely, unquestionably true, and you must accept then on faith because, by their nature, they cannot be proved" is a formula that has brought a lot of strife and suffering -- which is why the Framers rejected a state-sponsored creed. So it's dismaying to see people suggesting that the Framers got it wrong.
Skeptics will believe or disbelieve what they will. Religion and fake Christianity and such have always been used as weapons against The Other. Pope Gregory has a lot to answer for. As does the Catholic Church itself. But so do today's so-called evangelicals and "Christianists," none of whom have ever given a fig for Christ's teachings, as far as I can tell. The Dominionists, which put Trump in the WH (cf Kellyanne Conway, Ted Cruz, others), are the worst as they simply ignore the Bible in aid of their own superiority. (Amy Conan Barrett is also part of some abhorent splinter of a church, maybe Catholic.) "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" was a recurring line in Monty Python. Nobody expected it to hit the GOP as it has and brought what it has wrought in its 21st century iteration.
But despots, dictators, totalitarians, are just the other side of that same coin. Pick your poison. Those who seek to oppress others for their own goals will use whatever force or power is at hand. Religion. Politics. Even probably Capitalism. And any one of them can provide "peace" and "unity" once they have murdered or otherwise silenced all opposition.
From Joshua Tait: "What does it tell skeptics when evangelicals throw in their lot with a cruel, venal, and unrepentant man like Trump? Or that leading Southern Baptists associate with movements inspired by the Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán?"
Or when ostentatious Christians portray Vladimir Putin as first of all a champion of Christian civilization?
For many among the natcons, Christianity seems to be primarily an instrument for beating up leftists and pushing LGBTQ people back into the closet. And perhaps keeping women subordinate. It's a view of Christianity that isn't well suited to reversing a long secularizing trend.
Natcons say that a common religion provides "unity." which is true only insofar as people actually believe that the creed is true (or at least they aren't required to affirm propositions they do not believe to be true). Tradcons gloss over (or outright deny) what history shows about the downside of a state-enforced creed and demands for religious conformity. "You must acknowledge these doctrines as absolutely, unquestionably true, and you must accept then on faith because, by their nature, they cannot be proved" is a formula that has brought a lot of strife and suffering -- which is why the Framers rejected a state-sponsored creed. So it's dismaying to see people suggesting that the Framers got it wrong.
Skeptics will believe or disbelieve what they will. Religion and fake Christianity and such have always been used as weapons against The Other. Pope Gregory has a lot to answer for. As does the Catholic Church itself. But so do today's so-called evangelicals and "Christianists," none of whom have ever given a fig for Christ's teachings, as far as I can tell. The Dominionists, which put Trump in the WH (cf Kellyanne Conway, Ted Cruz, others), are the worst as they simply ignore the Bible in aid of their own superiority. (Amy Conan Barrett is also part of some abhorent splinter of a church, maybe Catholic.) "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" was a recurring line in Monty Python. Nobody expected it to hit the GOP as it has and brought what it has wrought in its 21st century iteration.
But despots, dictators, totalitarians, are just the other side of that same coin. Pick your poison. Those who seek to oppress others for their own goals will use whatever force or power is at hand. Religion. Politics. Even probably Capitalism. And any one of them can provide "peace" and "unity" once they have murdered or otherwise silenced all opposition.