Just remember not to lump all crazy, right-winged, MAGA-supporting evangelicals in with other Christ followers. We're not all the same.
Why ‘Evangelical’ Is Becoming Another Word for ‘Republican’
- Thread starter cigaretteman
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An Orwellian prediction is not far fetched. No one could have dreamt the scenario we are experiencing. It has formed at a pace that we have accepted as fate.
1. A president was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
2. That president is impeached for interfering in federal elections and refused to accept that defeat.
3. An entire major party is complicit in actions since then in perpetuating the denial of the defeat, including approval of, and as yet to be determined congressional participation in the organized and orchestrated attempt to stop, and reverse the process of the constitutional mandated count and certification of the electoral college vote ballots.
4. An entire party is complicit in participation in the organized effort to undermine voter rights at the state level. This includes placing arbitrary restrictions and creating laws allowing states to dissolve election boards and replacing officials at their discretion, essentially invalidating election results arbitrarily at any and all levels.
5. That ex-president is the subject of dozens of civil, assault, fraud and criminal investigations that have lingered past his tenure of president, which inoculated him.
6. That "entire party" is a crazy mob for that ex-president.
Holy Shit.
My impression was always that Baptists are among the strictest in required behavior and doctrine. Seventh Day Adventist too, although I had no idea of their faith and church. I went to church to satisfy my girl friend, and once that relationship ended, so did my Sunday trips to church.
The concepts of creation and Christian theories don't work for me, so my time was better spent elsewhere
The Evangelicals, at least as far as they appeared on TV, which was my only impression, were insincere, phony and ridiculous.
Hundreds of millions of galaxies.
Doubt seriously if humankind would be his crowning achievement.
This was the thinking when the world and man's mind was small. And why the church fought so hard to prevent science from searching for knowledge.
Doubt seriously if humankind would be his crowning achievement.
This was the thinking when the world and man's mind was small. And why the church fought so hard to prevent science from searching for knowledge.
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I'm certain I'm not the only one who stopped reading right after the words " Mr. Burge, an assistant professor". LOL!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
I don't care what he said. I addressed an author with a view I addressed. And BTW, regardless of Burge's position, the Evangelical universe is falling apart. The membership question aside, the politics within the churches is the issue. Toxic internal politics created by domestic politics are ripping at church leaderships, ostracizing church membership.
Loyalty has become a political requirement. Hardly a essence one would attribute to religion.
The local congregation in your community
was never intended to be a political refuge.
The church is suppose to be a place where
people get spiritual help on their journey
through life. It is intended to be a place
where your faith in God is strengthened.
was never intended to be a political refuge.
The church is suppose to be a place where
people get spiritual help on their journey
through life. It is intended to be a place
where your faith in God is strengthened.
The blame is on the Evangelical industry, which was the point I was making. If local congregations are engaging in political practice, it applies to them as well.
The "church" has to be careful to not cross the fine line of acceptance of radical political rhetoric the right uses to motivate its conservative base. It's tempting, but it does not belong, and once engrained, it's not removable.
Keep giving these people more exposure. They love it and appreciate your contribution.
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