It's Spring: Enjoy the TULIP of Calvinism While You Can

[MineralMan]

Want to learn more about the lovely principles of Calvinism? No? Well, you should. Almost all right-wing fundamentalist Christian churches are based on this TULIP. Be afraid. Be very afraid. See what Calvinists believe here:

https://carm.org/what-is-tulip-in-calvinism

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The most depressing religion there is. Never understood why anybody wanted to go to

a church that made you feel damned and generally shitty. Yes, many of them do sometimes, but not all the time like the Calvinists. Jesus loves you but you're going to Hell anyhow?

[MineralMan]

2. Several denominations are based on Calvinism

Here's a list of those in North America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Reformed_denominations#North_America

And here's another treatment of Calvinism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Yes, the Presbyterians are the big one.

United Church of Christ (formerly Congregational) is on the list but I think they've strayed quite a ways from their Calvinist roots. My family went to a UCC church and I never was never once threatened with Hell. They are actually quite liberal, both socially and theologically.

[MineralMan]

5. Calvinism isn't what it once was.

Still many denominations are based on it, whether they embrace all of it or not. It lies under those denominations' doctrines, waiting to emerge from the grave and pull people down into the earth.

In the United States, Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was transformational in part of American Life. It triggered something called "The Great Awakening." Edwards was a Congregationalist and a devout Calvinist. The entire sermon is long, but frightening when delivered by a great orator like Edwards.

There are several YouTube videos which have someone giving the sermon in various ways. I once delivered it to an audience, after memorizing it. I did my best to assume the angry voice of Jonathan Edwards. It was a performance piece, designed to show the roots of American dominionism and reconstructionistic theology. Sadly, that was before the time of video recording, so there is no record of it, except, perhaps, in the minds of that audience, who had never heard a sermon like that before.

Here is such a re-enactment. It runs about 14 minutes:

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Slow down a second- the first Great Awakening was in the mid 1700's and was...

started by George Whitefield, a British Anglican priest who spent a lot of time preaching in the colonies.

So, what does that have to do with today? Except maybe that humans still haven't evolved out of the ability to be conned by gifted preachers.

[MineralMan]

8. That's the one. Jonathan Edwards was part of it, too.

Calvinism is still alive and well in the good old USA. Same old shit still going on. It has morphed into dominionism and the drive to make the country a theonomy. Trump is an unwitting stooge in the process. Of course he'd be an unwitting stooge in any process, but Calvinism is what underlies the philosophy of people like Pence. They're working on their plans in the background, while Trump distracts us from what's going on.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. UCC may have some Calvinist and Puritan roots, but it's an amalgam of beliefs...

largely Lutheran, and does not insist on predestination or the basic depravity of man. Or much else, outside of the basic creeds and communions.

It's become a rather mellow version of Christianity concentrating more on Jesus' words and actions than threats of hellfire.

I know of at least one UCC church that merged with a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and they seem quite happy with each other.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes, the UCC has moved away from its Calvinist roots.

Thank goodness for that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. I think they leaned more toward the Arminians, with a fair amount of Lutheran stuff thrown in.

The Reformation wasn't just one thing - once Luther (and Hus before him) broke away from the Catholic church, all sorts of variations popped up, and they all thought they were right and everyone else was wrong, until various sects decided to merge their doctrines into something else altogether. Go to a small town in the South and you'll find at least five different Baptist churches, each of whom claims the others are heretics.

[underpants]

4. 👀

Time to brush up on my Calvinism. Thanks

[Blue Owl]

10. As a man of science I would think you'd be more into Kelvinism!

[MineralMan]

12. Indeed. I'm enjoying today's 290 degree weather quite a bit.

[The Genealogist]

11. I was raised United Methodist

This TULIP thing was foreign to me until I took courses in Religious Studies in college. I found it disturbing. However, my conservative relatives have left the United Methodist Church and have adopted this Calvinist crap. All they want to talk about is how superior their conservative religion and politics are. Need I say that I rarely see these people anymore?

[MineralMan]

13. The Right-Wing Has Bought into It.

The Christian Right is Calvinism-based, and goes way back to pre-revolutionary times in the USA.

[The Genealogist]

14. I don't see the attraction, myself

I find the whole thing cynical and miserable. But I think some people like being miserable and to feel that they are worthless crap. I think it somehow empowers them.

[MineralMan]

15. But, see, in Calvinism, if you're one of the "elect,"

it's all good for you. You can enjoy your superior status and the success and wealth that comes to you by being one of God's "chosen." You're in. Everyone else who is beneath you isn't one of the "elect" and is doomed, so you needn't bother yourself with them.

It's all preordained, see. No worries. How do you know you're one of the "elect?" Well, God shows you by making you successful. That's the sign. It's custom made for white males who run things. Your success is the sign you need to know you're "good with God!"

Predestination Rules!

[The Genealogist]

16. Ugh...thanks for the flashback to 1st semester of grad school

I can still remember how angry it made me studying this, and that was 23 years ago.

[MineralMan]

17. It's an important part of American History, actually.

It is also part of the core of Republican thinking these days. People like Pence and DeVos and many others are part of that whole Calvinist thing, and it informs the Dominionist movement of the far right.

While it all seems boring and old-fashioned, it's a major element in right-wing politics today. If you're a person of color, you're almost certainly not one of the "elect," so you don't matter. If you're a woman, well, who knows about women? Are you poor? Then that's what God wants you to be, and there it is and all about it. It's all preordained by God, and God's in charge of everything, so suck it up.

Frankly, it's much of what's wrong with our society right now, I believe.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. It's also the source, at least in part, of the Prosperity Gospel,

which preaches that having lots of money is a sign of God's favor and that God wants you to be rich. Especially the preachers, it would seem.

[MineralMan]

20. Yes, indeed. And it's still drawing crowds, too.

However, the prosperity gospel folks don't linger on the idea that your success or failure is preordained and can't be changed. That isn't a good selling point. So, that Calvinistic idea has been modified, so you can earn God's approval by following the preacher's advice and donating to his "ministry." In return, God will reward you and reveal your true "elect" status.

Whatever works, works. Preachers today are better at marketing than those of the past. Most mega-churches have ties to Calvinism, although those ties are not always transparently presented. The message that "Jesus wants you to prosper" is the only message needed to fleece the flock, apparently.

Today's prosperity gospel ministers are a particularly cynical sort of people, it seems. In their hearts, they have contempt for their flocks, and are certain of their own "election," so it doesn't really matter. They're "good with God!"

I can't stand 'em.

In the Twin Cities, Mac Hammond is a principal preacher in that mold. For at least a couple of years, he had a little spot, "Winner's Minute," that aired during the morning news on WCCO TV. Right after the weather and before the sports, there was Mac, uttering platitudes on the little screen. For some reason, he dropped that this year, at least on WCCO. He's a vile little man, and a big fan of right-wing Republicans, to boot.

[LastDemocratInSC]

21. Some Baptist denominations (aka metastases) are keen on Calvinism

But I wonder how it affects their Great Commission obligations to go out and save the world. Why would any person listen to a missionary or evangelist when "salvation" is no more likely than winning a lottery? Such strange stuff.