Evangelicals are not a religious group...

[Baconator]

.. But rather a political one and should be treated as such.

[MikeydaDog]

1. I agree. I think that I can accept this statement.

It matters. I do like to try to be fair, in statements I make. But, I feel this can be proven out in debate.

[MustLoveBeagles]

2. Yep

[Voltaire2]

3. those are not mutually exclusive properties.

[Baconator]

11. Sure... but its their primary category...

A political group that sometimes has religious motivations.

[Voltaire2]

17. no it isn't. Evangelicals are massively religious first.

You might wish to believe that they are somehow not religious but your wishes and reality are not the same. See the pew studious on religion in america, they are, by all objective measures the most religious group in the country. They also used to be more or less apolitical a few decades ago.

See for example:
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/importance-of-religion-in-ones-life/#religious-tradition

[Baconator]

19. If that were true they would choose religion and morals over political necessity...

Last edited Mon Dec 18, 2017, 02:04 PM - Edit history (1)

Instead we get "But we need a Supreme Court seat so I'm going to vote for the child molester."

[OriginalGeek]

21. They do, just not maybe _your_ religious morals

It's all about abortion. At least the child molester will stop them damn commies from killing babies.

[Voltaire2]

24. They are making exactly that choice: religion and morals over political necessity.

They vote for what they view as the "jesus party" regardless of the impact that vote will otherwise have on their lives.

[TDale313]

4. They can be both...

However, when they start acting in political matters, they should have their tax exempt status revoked.

[Greybnk48]

5. It's a hate cult hiding behind

Christianity.

[Baconator]

13. There's just as much bullshit justification for their bigoted worldview...

... as there is for the hugs and rainbows bit as well.

It's all there, completely contradictory and can justify any position for any group...

[Greybnk48]

22. I may be missing your point, but

there's not one shred of evidence that one race is superior to another, other than arbitrary archetypes. The same goes for gender dominance, and sexual orientation. "Whites" are not superior (except regionally and by force), men are not better than women (unless by force), and gay people are not a mistake. LGBT people have always existed. They are as natural as you or me.

Hate has no objective rationale, so not all justifications are equal.

The new bastardized Christianity is biased, twisted and fabricated nonsense based one book that has been revised and rewritten over and over.

The other view is based on factual evidence. NOT equal.

[Voltaire2]

25. The bible and racism.

The "curse of Ham" in genesis was part of the religious justification for the enslavement of africans. There is nothing new about this. Religion has been used to justify social order for the entire history of religion. It is one of the reasons why religion exists.

[Igel]

6. Since they're both liberal and conservative, what political group are they?

Yes, there are those calling themselves both "evangelical" (which describes an approach to Xianity) and liberal.

That we don't hear about them just means they're (a) not screaming as loudly as conservative evangelicals and (b) we don't think of them as very salient, since they're not something in the road that we're likely to trip over.

In some ways, many progressives consider them sort of backwards rustic cousins. The family members that you sort of know are there but suspect probably will marry their cousins and, well, they have all that icky "we believe in Jesus" goop sticking to them.

[pwb]

7. They have been exposed for the frauds they have always been.

Not so much the congregations but the leadership is bought and paid for by republicans.

[Initech]

8. They're a hate group, and that is what we should call them,

And they want to overturn the Johnson Amendment which would give them free reign to preach hate politics, and they can sponsor any extremist candidate they want and not get punished. We should be outraged at this. It's scary.

[LAS14]

9. The term has been hi-jacked! Don't fall for this!

Isn't this kind of lumping-together thinking exactly what we want to avoid? Check out Sojourners, based in D.C.

https://sojo.net/

Black Voters in Alabama Defined the Soul of the Nation
Thanks Be to God
Thanks be to God.

Christian Leaders Speak Out Against Trump’s Devastating Budget Cuts
In June, a diverse group of Christian leaders gathered at the National Press Club on behalf of the Circle of Protection to protest potential budget cuts targeting the poor. Representing the full range of Christian traditions, the speakers spoke with prophetic urgency about Jesus' call to care for the poor, the sick, the elderly — the very people the administration's budget would hurt the most.

[rogue emissary]

10. Rev. Dr. Barber would agree with you as he ties it to White Nationalism.

https://thinkprogress.org/who-radicalized-trumpvangelicals-63c746d59ca5/
Rev. Barber: Trumpvangelicals are using faith to bring us to the brink of nuclear war

When the Rev. Robert Jeffress declared this week that “God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un,” many who grew up in Sunday School struggled to square the teaching of the president’s favorite pastor with the words of Jesus. How could the One who taught “love your enemies” be understood to endorse nuclear holocaust? Jeffress thinks his declaration is self-evident, which only highlights the fact that religious extremism could destroy the world as we know it. Long accused of extremism themselves, our Muslim neighbors are right to ask, who radicalized Rev. Jeffress and his fellow Trumpvangelicals?


While few white evangelicals are as extreme as Jeffress, the roots of the reactionary Christian nationalism we are witnessing in America go back to this nation’s original sin of genocide and race-based slavery. The violence required to steal this land from Native Americans and build an economy on stolen labor was not only un-Christian, it was inhuman. Yet people of faith suppressed their conscience, rejected the plain reading of Scripture that teaches of the God of justice releasing slavery and letting the oppressed go free, and silenced their prophets for generations, hardening their hearts against the very truth that could have set them free. We deceive ourselves if we believe that America has healed from this spiritual wound. We carry it with us always.

So you're definitely not alone in seeing these White Evangelicals as more political than a religious group. I also think they use the cloak of religion so the MSM won't criticize them.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

12. Are you OK with liberal Christians that are politically active?

Side note: not all evangelicals are conservative.

I think no church should have tax exemption.

[roamer65]

14. Ah...so you actually believe in teachings of Jesus.

Love, caring, kindness.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

15. I'm an atheist

I can guarantee you that conservative Christians have Bible passages to back up their claims.

But, are you OK with liberal Christians that are politically active?

[haele]

16. By definition, Evangelicals must attempt to influence others.

The difference between a fundimentalist and an Evangelical is that the Evangelical is expected to inform all about the "good news of God", ether through words or deeds.
What is particular about Republican Evangelicals and Prosperity Gospel Christianists is their focus on the old testament and the various "letters" and subsequent writings above the actual Gospels with the Red Letters in them.
I have more respect for the Fundy who keeps true to his or her religious beliefs and keeps them personal in the wider World to a hypocrite who mouths "good news" bible verses out of context in an attempt to convince others that s/he is a mouthpiece of an apparently very small and young God.

Haele

[crazycatlady]

18. Because of them

An entire generation and then some associates Christianity with GOP politics.

I was born the year that they first came out as a political force with the Moral Majority (1980). Their marrying of conservative politics to religion has made me (and many others) want to steer clear of ever going to church.

I live up the street from a church. On Sunday mornings, the traffic in and out seems to mostly have gray hair.

[Lee-Lee]

20. Thats the same thing they say on the right about Islam...

[dalton99a]

23. They are a Bible-thumping hate group.

[Clarity2]

26. I think its more

a money making machine for their leaders, who dont believe their own bullshit, but are now using their basic tenets (pro-life agenda) and a politcal agenda to further their monetary goals. These evangelical leaders that are often multimillionaires.

Sort of like scientology, or radical islam...leaders dont believe their own bullshit either. But the brainwashing/religious cultism is a means to keep followers under their will.

However, there are evangelical groups that are denouncing trump. Im assuming their pastors arent of the wealthy variety.

[cpamomfromtexas]

27. They are a political cult

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. "Evangelicals" are not a single, monolithic denomination;

but many people who belong to so-called evangelical denominations have placed political goals ahead of their religious principles. The evangelical denominations, generally speaking, are those that believe these three basic things: that the Bible is inerrant; that you have to be "born again," meaning accepting Jesus as your personal savior; and that you are obligated to spread the Christian message by proselytizing to the un-saved. The major evangelical denominations are the Baptist and Pentacostal churches but there are elements of evangelism in other denominations that aren't usually included in that category (Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, for example).

About 30 years ago many evangelical Protestants joined the Catholics on the anti-abortion bandwagon, which gave them political clout. The ultimate result has been a focus on political goals that often seem completely contrary to the basic altruism of Christianity; the power went to their heads. They became so invested in that power that they were willing to support the candidacy of Trump, a crude, dishonest, adulterous man who never sets foot in church if he can avoid it; and Roy Moore, a credibly-accused child molester, but one who defies "the establishment" that wouldn't let him put his Ten Commandments plaques in his courthouse.

Some religious leaders in the evangelical movement have started to figure out that their politics and their religion are incompatible and are backing away from Trumpism, but an awful lot of other people still are able to reconcile the viciousness and un-Christian-ness of the GOP and Trump in particular, with their "inerrant" Bible, which tells them to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger and comfort the afflicted.