The Them are attacking our Democratic institutions on all levels and states but keep projecting
Why ‘Evangelical’ Is Becoming Another Word for ‘Republican’
- Thread starter cigaretteman
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I read a similar article, which I can't find, so can't source, that made similar points. The author referenced weaponization of religion by Evangelicals; fomenting hatred and distrust as a moral interpretation.
This is an extension of right wing hot button issues that are easily integrated into conservative social discussion, therefore prime meat for religious circles. It's a double edge sword though; sweet music to the conventional bible belt mental type, but toxic to the emerging, progressive cosmopolitan voter.
The consequence is the evangelical world is crumbling.
My personal opinion is that evangelical has always been synonymous with white shoes, phoniness and corruption.
This is an extension of right wing hot button issues that are easily integrated into conservative social discussion, therefore prime meat for religious circles. It's a double edge sword though; sweet music to the conventional bible belt mental type, but toxic to the emerging, progressive cosmopolitan voter.
The consequence is the evangelical world is crumbling.
My personal opinion is that evangelical has always been synonymous with white shoes, phoniness and corruption.
And, they are convinced you're attacking the exact same thing. Soooo... it's a pretty interesting conundrum. Two sides convinced that each side is doing the same thing and hellbent on trying to protect "Democracy" from... itself? LOL
When the fight comes, it will be even more fun. The people in power already have a contingency, I assure you.
Like I said, you don't understand the word irony. I'll leave it at that since you don't like it when I'm mean to you.
I have no intention of helping people hate one another, so they can claim that they're right.
It's pretty telling when someone like @artradley has chishawk on ignore! Artradley is clearly a more left-leaning poster. And, he's chosen to ignore a poster who is a constant squawk-box for extreme left doomsday sources. If you enjoy being on the extreme with him, that's great. When you've lost the more rational, center-left people, then you're hardly on the "right side."
I think many of you just enjoy arguing and pretending you're better than whoever your presumed opposition may be.
"Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."
He wouldn't be at home in either party, but his own writings late in life suggest he would be much more comfortable with moderate Democrats than anything going on under the red tent these days.
I'm not sure how much "credibility" Goldwater has, or even deserves, but there's no way he would tolerate the religious influence of the current GOP. I'm, frankly, surprised that it's managed to be so influential and for so long.
Well... maybe not. This is America, after all.
And we wonder where the righteous righties get this stuff? It’s a multipronged full frontal assault from the most crazy depths of insanity. And people not only gobble up this tripe, they actually believe it.
@dgordo , is that an official/verified-by-the-Hebrew-Council Menorah-adorned apparel? That doesn't look like something a rabbi wears. That looks custom-made to me. What's your take?
These people are living in their own artificial reality. It's truly frightening. It's even more frightening that the majority of Republicans believe them! I truly fear for the future of our democratic republic in a way that I never would have believed possible five years ago.
The majority of Christians in America are
Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran,
Presbyterian or Methodist. These churches
are not considered Evangelical.
Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran,
Presbyterian or Methodist. These churches
are not considered Evangelical.
Goldwater would be labeled a RINO in today's GOP
Look at what the Glenn Youngkin is doing in Virginia. His whole campaign seems to be driven towards scaring white people that their kids will be strapped into their desks at school and turned into transgendered CRT adherents.
This is true, but your failure to mention the Baptist denomination is interesting. They have many of the large mega churches and do preach a sort of religious conservatism that other Christian Faiths don't as a matter of everyday faith.
I get what some are saying as a general theme, but those who are Evangelical, or consider themselves such, are far fewer in number than the frantic and overblown rants in this thread. I live in Southern Baptist country and quite frankly many younger people whose parents or grandparents are longtime members of the Baptist faith either don't go to church or they like these new interdenominational "happy churches" as some call them where the emphasis seems to be a feel good experience rather than some rigid Evangelical dogma.
Yeah, Youngkin. He is running a campaign devoid of content. It’s nothing but fear.
Pro tip: If you want people to get along, it's not helpful to constantly berate people for not getting along.
You should go work for the Pew Research Center. Seems all that researching and stuff is wasted resources. Your gut opinions are sufficient to describe trends in society.
Nothing says indoctrination like this belief that, no matter what, Dems are worse.
Do you realize that Dems are basically holding positions mirroring the last time this country has this level of wealth concentration/consolidation? Oooooohh, sssscary.
This is what sells with GrOuPies....fear and hate. Turn on Fox and it is rapid fire grievance and fear mongering all day.
By Ryan Burge
Mr. Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, has written extensively about the interaction of religion and politics.
The conventional wisdom about religion in the United States is that the number of people who have no religious affiliation is rising rapidly. In the 1970s, secular Americans (often called the Nones) made up just 5 percent of the population; now, that number has climbed to at least 30 percent. The data suggest that religious groups must be suffering tremendous losses as the Nones continue to increase in size and influence each year.
That’s why a recent report from the Pew Research Center came as a huge surprise. Its most shocking revelation was that, between 2016 and 2020, there was no significant decline in the share of white Americans who identify as evangelical Christians. Instead, the report found the opposite: During Donald Trump’s presidency, the number of white Americans who started identifying as evangelical actually grew.
Conservative Christians celebrated the news. For years, stories have appeared in media outlets about how many of the more theologically moderate denominations like Episcopalians and the United Church of Christ have suffered staggering losses in membership. The fact that denominations that allowed women pastors were declining while evangelical churches that took more conservative positions on views of gender and sexuality were holding their own was evidence for evangelicals that conservative religion has staying power. Because these moderate traditions were so much like the culture around them, the story went, it was easy for their members to fall away from church attendance. Evangelicals prided themselves on their distinctiveness from mainstream society, which insulated them from forces like secularization.
But they might hold off on patting themselves on the back too much. The number of self-identified evangelicals has likely not increased over the last few years because evangelicals have been effective at spreading the Gospel and bringing new converts to the church.
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What is drawing more people to embrace the evangelical label on surveys is more likely that evangelicalism has been bound to the Republican Party. Instead of theological affinity for Jesus Christ, millions of Americans are being drawn to the evangelical label because of its association with the G.O.P.
This is happening in two different ways. The first is that many Americans who have begun to embrace the evangelical identity are people who hardly ever attend religious services. For instance, in 2008, just 16 percent of all self-identified evangelicals reported their church attendance as never or seldom. But in 2020, that number jumped to 27 percent. In 2008, about a third of evangelicals
The data from the Pew Research Center reinforces that — those who became evangelical between 2016 and 2020 had much warmer views of President Trump than those who didn’t feel warmly toward him. The evidence points in one direction: For many Americans, to be a conservative Republican is to be an evangelical Christian, regardless of if they ever attend a Sunday service.
The second factor bolstering evangelicalism on surveys is that more people are embracing the label who have no attachment to Protestant Christianity. For example, the share of Catholics who also identified as evangelicals (or born again) rose to 15 percent in 2018 from 9 percent in 2008. That same pattern appears with Muslims. In fact, there’s evidence that the share of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christianity and Hinduism who identify as evangelical is larger today than it was just a decade ago.
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Yet these non-Protestants are embracing the evangelical label for slightly different reasons. Protestants and non-Protestants have a strong affinity for the Republican Party and the policies of Donald Trump, but non-Protestant evangelicals are much more religiously devout. For instance, half of Muslims who attend services at a mosque more than once a week and align with the G.O.P. self-identify as evangelical. (Just 20 percent of Republican Muslims attend mosque once a year.) In essence, many Americans are coming to the understanding that to be very religiously engaged and very politically conservative means that they are evangelical, even if they don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ.
The rapid rise of the nonreligious and non-Protestant evangelical has meant that the tradition did not fade in any significant way over the last decade. But instead, what it means to be evangelical is being radically remade. It used to be that when many people thought about evangelicalism, they conjured up an image of a fiery preacher imploring them to accept Jesus. Now the data indicate that more and more Americans are conflating evangelicalism with Republicanism — and melding two forces to create a movement that is not entirely about politics or religion but power.
White evangelicalism has never been more politically unified than it is right now. In the 1970s, only 40 percent of white weekly churchgoing evangelicals identified as Republicans; in the most recent data, that number has risen to an all-time high of 70 percent.
The evangelical coalition of 2020 may not be in agreement about which religion is the correct one or even if religious devotion is necessary to identify as an evangelical. But on Election Day, they speak with one voice — in full-throated support of the Republican candidate.
Opinion | Why ‘Evangelical’ Is Becoming Another Word for ‘Republican’ (Published 2021)
It’s not necessarily a theological affinity for Jesus Christ. Many Americans are being drawn to the evangelical label because of its association with the G.O.P.www.nytimes.com
And "asshole"
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