politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
You're right that it's more complicated than that. But I thought it was well understood that he was working behind the scenes from the beginning to intentionally craft the narrative of a paternalistic, aggressive faith that was pro-war and anti-government. Is that not your understanding? Because Phyllis Schlafly preceded him and she was definitely in that same vein.
I might have the causality a little bit off, though. Most of my information comes from Kristin Du Mez's work, but it's been a while so I might be misremembering parts of it. I grew up in evangelicalism, but in the late 80s and 90s when everything was pretty well humming along toward Trump or somebody like him—even though we didn't know it yet.
I also forgot to mention how all of that was building on the racist work of antebellum preachers who said that freedom for slaves was essentially an early sign of the apocalypse and certainly the end of the world was coming soon (that's more or less the way that the Rapture, which was a fringe theology up to that point, became popularized). It was then that American Christianity went from being mostly outward-focused in daily life and insular in ways of politics to being insular in daily life and outward-focused in ways for politics.
In any case, it was a gross history constructed by people trying to gain power for themselves and the Republican party. I do know that the big turning point came when they decided to come out against abortion specifically because they thought Jimmy Carter was too popular among Christians.
We’re on the same page, friend. I suppose my point is that the self-appointed leaders of white evangelicalism past and present got where they are by a feedback loop between themselves and their followers. You can only sell something like hotcakes if people want what’s on offer. People wanted justification for slavery, they got it. People wanted justification for persecution of secularist jews, they got the Red Scare and McCarthyism. I’d argue that the modern christofascism has its roots most directly in McCarthyism. The John Birch Society is a white Christian nationalist organization that had its heyday in the 50s and early 60s, but really just was giving people what they wanted. A quick fix of endorphins that comes from defining and hating an evil other.
Indeed, absolutely on the same page. I've heard it said before that God's harshest judgement is to give people what they want.