Here’s why people don’t take right-wing Evangelicals so seriously anymore

[AthenaAwakened]

Here’s why people don’t take right-wing Evangelicals so seriously anymore

Here is what the Evangelical brand looks like from the outside:

Evangelical means obsessed with sex. Evangelicals are so desperate to fend off their own complicated sexual desires and self-loathing that they would rather watch queer teens commit suicide than deal with their homophobia. They abhor youth sexuality and female sexual pleasure to the point that they have driven an epidemic of teen pregnancy, unintended pregnancy and abortion—all because accurate information and contraceptive access might let the wrong kind of people (young unmarried and female people) have sex for the wrong reasons (pleasure and intimacy) without suffering for it.

Evangelical means arrogant. Wheaton College put Evangelical arrogance on national display when administrators decided to suspend and then fire a professor who dared to suggest that Muslims, Jews and Christians all worship the same God.

Evangelical means fearful and bigoted. While more secular Europeans and Canadians offer aid to Syrian refugees, Evangelical Christians have instead sought to exclude Muslims. They have used their vast empire of telecommunications channels to inspire not charity but fear of imminent Sharia in the U.S. and of refugees more broadly. They have urged that Latin American refugees be sent home so that we can build a wall across the southern border before they come back.

Evangelical means indifferent to truth. Evangelicals refuse to acknowledge what is obvious to everyone else, including most other Christians—that the Bible is a human document woven through with moral and factual imperfections. Treating the Bible like the literally perfect word of God has forced Bible believers to make a high art out of self-deception, which they then apply to other inconvenient truths. They rewrite American History, embrace faux news, defend in court the right of “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” to lie, and force doctors to do the same. The end justifies the means.

Evangelical means gullible and greedy. From televangelists and Prosperity Gospel to adulation of Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand, Evangelicalism faces the world as a religion of exploiters and exploited—both of which are hoping to make a quick buck.

Evangelical means ignorant. The only way to protect creationism is to keep people from understanding how science works and what scientists have discovered. As evidence accumulates related to evolutionary biology, insulating children requires a constant battle to keep accurate information out of textbooks. Insulating adults requires cultivating a deep suspicion of science and scholarship, an anti-intellectualism that diffuses out from this center and defines Evangelical culture at large.

Evangelical means predatory. Evangelical missionaries prey on the young and ignorant. They have fought all the way to the Supreme Court to ensure they can proselytize children in public grade schools. Having failed to block marriage equality in the States, they export Bible based gay-hate to Central Africa, where gays are more vulnerable. Since Americans lost interest in tent revivals, evangelists now cast out demons, heal the sick and raise the dead among uneducated low-information people in developing countries.

Evangelical means mean. Opposing anti-poverty programs, shaming and stigmatizing queers, making it harder for poor women to prevent pregnancy, blaming rape victims, diverting aid dollars into church coffers, threatening little kids with eternal torture, supporting war, denying the rights of other species, . . . need I go on?

 

[Brian63]

While I would agree with various negative consequences of the evangelical worldview, I think this article goes way too far in attributing all sorts of sinister motives to evangelicals. The problem is not so much that they are trying to intentionally harm secularists like us, or that they are “indifferent to truth” or that they “prey on the young and ignorant” or are “mean” and such. The problem is moreso that they are convinced that they are behaving morally and doing the right thing. They [erroneously] think they are helping by taking the positions they are and holding the views that they do. From their perspective, others like us are the ones with harmful intentions, and even acting on Satan’s behalf (according to some of them, but certainly not all of them). If we want to reduce the harmful influence of religion in our society, we should better understand ourselves what is motivating such behavior. It is just very inaccurate to label them as being “indifferent to truth.” It is moreso that they erroneously think they have the truth, while others of us do not, and they try to convince us of their views.

Brian

 

[braces_for_impact]

I think Brian nails it pretty well, but I would add that word in the article to the mix that I think fits quite well: arrogance. Very often Christianity, especially of the evangelical variety, is filled with arrogance and false humility. There's a certain smugness that comes with knowing you are right and have the facts. We liberals often display this smugness to the right, and boy do they hate it. Yet, there's a very special kind of smugness that comes with Christianity, because not only do you have the tribalism, not only do you think you are on the moral high ground, but you believe that the creator of the universe is it's source and that he agrees with you. When your world view is wrapped up in belief in God because you think that is what makes you a good person, compromise and introspection comes only after great difficulty.

 

[Brian63]

Yeah, there is definitely a wide variety of different attitudes and behaviors that even a single evangelical can exhibit at different times, in different locations, around different people, when they are in different moods. For instance, if they are trying to witness to atheists and other non-Christians, they will display more kindness, humility, charity, etc. If they are instead alone with other like-minded evangelicals discussing their views on various political issues, they will be more insulting and condescending to liberal folks. A long while back when I was lurking/posting on conservative religious message boards, that is what I saw a lot of firsthand. Certainly not everyone was like that, just large proportions of them. We can only speak in generalizations here, not entirely universal blanket statements that apply to everybody (that is true for most topics of discussion, we just have to remember that it applies).

Brian

 

[funinspace]

Retread...

Dang this sure sounded familiar....
Last March:
http://talkfreethought.org/showthre...e-conservative-evangelicals-seriously-anymore

 

[Ramaraksha]

I would disagree with the idea that borders should be open to Syrian refugees. With little skills to offer i fear they will be condemned to living in ghettos breeding resentment for the majority. I do think a good idea is to welcome them in but make it clear that they need to go back once the war ends, but quite a lot of them will simply disappear into Europe rather than go back

The real problem that i have is can anyone name one muslim majority country that is open, democratic and where minorities do not suffer? Almost every muslim majority country is either abusing its minorities or have made them 2nd class citizens in their own countries. A country like Malaysia recently razed several centuries old Hindu Temples. One can convert into islam but the reverse is not allowed. Almost all these countries make being a muslim a requirement for higher office

How many can name non-muslim politicians, leaders or sports people from these countries? Speaking of which, can you name any non-christians in leadership positions, movies or sports in Christian-majority countries? Muslims are not alone in practicing religious discrimination, but they do it far worse

These very same people get quickly enlightened when they are the minority - they all know about how people should be treated, should not be discriminated based on religion, we are all human beings underneath etc etc - but somehow when they become the majority a switch is flipped it seems. Suddenly it is Islam this or Islam that and if you are not muslim, something must be wrong with you