Evangelicals are not a religious group...

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

A political group that sometimes has religious motivations.

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

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

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

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

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

Christianity.

... 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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

https://sojo.net/

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


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.

Side note: not all evangelicals are conservative.

I think no church should have tax exemption.

Love, caring, kindness.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.