Evangelical Christians will pay for trading faith for power, morality lost forever

[egbertowillies]

White Evangelical Christians en masse and other Christians voting for the likes of Donald Trump and Roy Moore have done irreparable damage to their faith. They now have absolutely no moral authority outside the cult they have become. Associate editor of The Marginalia Review of Books uses scripture and logic to destroy their rationale for supporting deviancy

https://egbertowillies.com/2017/12/31/evangelical-christians-faith-power/

[milestogo]

1. They had no moral authority to begin with, but now they are a "tarnished brand"

just like the Catholic priesthood.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

13. According to the Bible, they worship the wrong leader and then all go to hell. Or some such thing.

Anybody here know about this stuff? I slept through church and pulled pranks during Sunday school. I'm pretty much a drop-out when it comes to church.

[Glorfindel]

19. Some of the strongest language in the Bible is reserved for such hypocrites (rightly so):

Matthew 23:13-39 King James Version (KJV)

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Except that they themselves don't see it that way, and probably never will.

They are so caught up in their world view, they simply don't understand that there can be any other valid way of thinking, believing, or behaving. Or they believe that so long as one espouses certain evangelical beliefs (like no abortion) any other sin can be forgiven. And always is.

I'm not sure they understand the concept of hypocrisy. To them, all moral authority comes from outside ("God&quot and they don't get that someone can have morality come from within.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. And not *just* an external god...but a god (and RULES)

and bizarre circular, ritualistic interpretations of “doing things the “christian” way, as sermonized by their pastor.

[roamer65]

3. They are fascist theocrats, not followers of Christs teachings.

They are now exposed.

[Orange Free State]

5. I agree.

This Fascio-Christianity bears a similar relationship to the teachings of Christ that the WWE does to Olympic wrestling. Some of the forms and terminology are the same, but it just ain’t....

[roamer65]

10. Good analogy.

One that the common man can understand.

[msongs]

4. ya cant lose what ya never had. nt

[dembotoz]

6. Fun calling them lying hypocrites. They turn colors

[alarimer]

7. These people have never had morality of any kind.

They have always been hateful and bigoted and a threat to progress.

The world is BETTER because gay people can marry and because women can have easy access to birth control. The world is a BETTER PLACE when women are not seen as chattel and people can be whomever they want to be.

Christianity (especially as interpreted by evangelicals and Catholics) is a straight-jacket meant for keeping women barefoot and pregnant, over and over again, never fulfilling their own promise as fully realized people.

[lindysalsagal]

8. "Morality"? Can't lose what you never had.

That ship has sailed, except for the most frail, needy, or gullible.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

9. Makes you wonder if that anti-Christ thing is real and coming to pass. Isn't there something where

a lot of "fake" Christians fall for the anti-Christ and worship him? There is too much bizarre stuff going on with the evangelicals going for Trump and then this naming of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. If they build a temple on some spot WWW3 is supposed to happen. Christ is supposed to come back. Please forgive my incoherence on the topic - I'm by no means a biblical scholar......

[keithbvadu2]

11. Political Christians rather than Christians of faith.

?w=480&h=296

[dalton99a]

12. "No compunctions about jumping into bed with the most manifestly irreligious of presidents in modern

history, for whom the only scripture is that of Norman Vincent Peale’s prosperity gospel combined with an endlessly renewable faith in himself, regardless of what reality dictates"

In other words, they are motherfucking liars and hypocrites - as they have always been

Good article

[bitterross]

14. They already are.

The number of people who identify as "none" or "other" when asked about their religion is rising.

Their brand began to go downhill with the rise of the "Moral Majority" and the rest of the groups who got into politics to control others' lives. People are more and more individual today and don't want someone else telling them what to do.

[keithbvadu2]

15. Because stadiums pay better and hospitals can check results

Because stadiums pay better and hospitals can check results
.

[Thekaspervote]

16. Evilgelicals

[grantcart]

18. "forever", "irreparable". really?

[samnsara]

20. So funny to see all these so called Christians bowing to a false prophet.

[William Seger]

21. Supporting Trump and Moore isn't nearly the worst of it

I was raised going to Sunday School and was baptized a Christian, so I know for a fact that Jesus taught that we should feed the hungry, care for the sick, love your neighbor and take in the stranger without qualifications, and generally treat others as we would wish to be treated if the shoe were on the other foot. He also had some things to say about idolizing wealth. Either my Sunday School failed to teach us about Jesus' disdain for those things and his obsession with homosexuality and abortion, or "right-wing Christian" is the world's most profane oxymoron.

[calimary]

24. Catholic school here. Yep. You're spot-on, William Seger.

Matthew 25: 35-45. That's the one about "whatever you do to the LEAST OF MY BRETHREN, you do to Me."

Our Lord also never included in the Beatitudes anything about "blessed are the rich" or "blessed are the warmakers".

And He never advised the rich young man to come on in and buy Me a palace so we can live like kings! He told the rich young man who asked "how do I join up?" to go and sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and THEN come back. And as I recall from that passage, the rich young man did not like that advice, and went away, sad.

Oddly enough, you NEVER EVER hear these pompous, sanctimonious hypocrites with their religionist empires and TV networks and real estate portfolios and fancy cars, designer clothes, chauffeurs, servants, publicists, entourages, and fawning hangers-on mention any of these three sets of Christ's teachings. i have yet to hear ANY televangelist build a sermon on any of that.

[True Blue American]

26. The same here.

I have always tried to follow what I believed to be right. But the mind control practiced by so many Religions does not work for me.

The terrible things that people have done in the name of Religion is horrible.

We know so much about Science and right or wrong there is just no way to pretend the hatefulness in the Old Testament is the way we should lead our lives.

This latest,of excusing everything Trump has done,is doing,Fed by the greedy Republicans in Congress actually admitted by Evangelicals who try to make you concentrate on abortion,gays and fear of having your gun taken away.

It is clear there is not honest faith in any of them. They crave power,nothing else. They have so warped their faith,then wonder why the young,the Educated are turning away. They have destroyed themselves with lies,hate and bigotry.

[world wide wally]

22. They have always been nothing more than a wing of the GOP

They have absolutely nothing to do with God or Jesus.
STRICTLY politics.

[Cary]

23. Aren't they a splinter group?

They can be traced to Calvanists, who didn't want to follow the Pope, who then morphed into Puritans, who then splintered as there were not suffient numbers of trained clergy on the Frontier.

And then they glommed onto a 19th Century work of fiction.

I don't recall the details but it's a stretch to say they ever had any moral standing.

[SeaDoo77]

25. Evangelicals Insult God And Jesus

With their filthy actions. Satan is who they worship.