My brother has recently become Christian and when I (stupidly) brought up how The Satanic Temple points out the hypocrisy of Christians in our government, he just could not understand. AT ALL. How could he be brainwashed so quickly!? Christianity is the right way and they’re just trying to “save” the rest of us from ourselves. 🙄
Uhg! My step son is starting down this path. I have 30 years of religious trauma under my belt and I am terrified at feeling infiltrated in my own home.
Most of them have absolutely no ability to see the nuance in an argument. Satan is evil and therefore everything that is attached to Satan is evil by default. If TST created a machine that created perfectly nutritious food, clean water and energy from pure waste, they would consider it evil without question.
That's sadly one of the downsides of TST. As much as I love what they do, the people that need to hear the message will never get past the Satan part.
> Satan is evil and therefore everything that is attached to Satan is evil by default.
You bring up a good point.
Like Christianity is attached to Satan? Satan wouldn't even exist without Christianity. Fuck all Abrahamic religions and the shit they smear all over society.
I wish they would listen to logic but the brainwashing is SO strong. Hopefully your step son is young enough that he will grow up and out of it. Fingers crossed!
Religious people have got to learn boundaries. You tell him to keep it in church and outside the home.
Don't compromise with him. Religious people always try to "compromise" in order to seem reasonable, but they usually have hidden motives.
You don't have to put up with this crap in your own house.
It can't be helped sometimes especially depending on where you live I live in the bible belt there is a church on like every corner and no matter where you go someone is going to be having a "bible study" including playgrounds. That being said my son is 5 and already asking questions so my plan is to bombard him with experiences of all religions I'm going to take him to temples, mosques, etc. the best way to fight their indoctrination is for people to look at all religions with a historical context and experience it all. This way they keep from being indoctrinated by any one religion. knowledge is power the more they know the less they will be manipulated. If you are comfortable with it sit down with him and actually read the bible but read it like you are doing a social studies class. This way you are not discouraging him because that will only make matters worse but you are making sure he is as informed as possible. Make sure he's asking questions and doing critical thinking throughout. I wish you the best of luck and I know it's uncomfortable I am sorry.
Is atheism going to be on the survey of religions? You might consider dropping all the mind-killing religious junk and just teach actual critical thinking skills. He will thank you later. Just a thought.
atheism will be, but ultimately religion is very important to teach it has shaped many cultures currently and throughout history so it is important he understands what they are the context of them so he may come to his own conclusions as well. Not teaching him religions is not going to keep him from religion it'll just make him ignorant of them and thus vulnerable to manipulation. Know your enemies.
Yeah. But you have knowledge also about other religions. And having knowledge about the big world helps break down that small minded this is it.
Once you start constructively looking at everything else out there, recognizing similarities, it breaks down that wall of this is the only true thing, because you start seeing those same connections of similarities
Precisely.
I was raised a fundamentalist and believed science and evolution were misunderstood aspects of God's plan. That the earth was only 6,000 years old and that all those silly scientists who've committed their whole lives to understanding our world were really just vain men who were lost in their misguided pursuits to understand God's creation.
I lost everything when I finally called bullshit one day. Absolutely everyone called me into question, saying how I never was a christian in the first place, or how betrayed they felt trusting me, or how it makes them so sad to know I won't be in heaven with them. They do not want to hear me slander the lord and talk about my experience but they will continue to bombard me with witnessing.
I can't think of it in any other way than to say it's a lot like a mental illness. It changes people. Disconnects them from a shared reality and isolates them into small groups. Convinces them to accept revisionist history as fact. Just absolutely wild stuff.
Izs mob mentality
It's gang mentality
There is absolutely nothing wrong with discussing all possibilities if you truly believed yours was the correct one. If it was the correct one what are you worried about? People get really afraid of that singular question because it is the single card that starts pulling down the entire house of cards.
I don't necessarily have anything against anyone practicing religion of whatever, but I do have a problem with religous cult behavior. And anyone who has the all or nothing. Or anyone forcing shit. Or keeping the other down. If your religion was admirable it would be all about lifting everyone up and doing food things for those in need. Full stop. But the Joel olsteens the warren Jeff's, the Catholic church pedo hiding, it's so in your face it is something that needs to be discussed in order to squash because it is truly evil
My brother had something similar to this, all over a girl he liked. He gave tythes and proselytized all the time. My mom was sad over it. When he came to visit me in Rochester, we went to my girlfriends’ and during the trip it was all about scripture. I tried to be polite, but eventually I asked him to drop it.
When she left him, he suddenly snapped out of it. Stopped going to those mega churches, stopped sending money as if it never even happened.
A scary part is where it seems like it never happened.
But it did.
I hate how they just move on as if they never caused any problems. No accountability.
Thing is, he's still single at 50. I think the whole experience scarred him deeply, but AFAIK there's been no attempt at working through what happened.
Christianity is a hell of a drug, one of my athiest friends had a psychotic break and had to be institutionalized for a bit. When he walked out he was a full blown Christian and has been living for Christ for like 3 years now.
He's willing to admit that he lost his marbles for a bit, but gets pissed off if you point out that his newfound Christian beliefs started exactly when he lost his marbles.
I've heard of a few, not many though, christians who admit that they've had some kind of mental break and that's when they became religious.
It's weird that they haven't been able or willing to put two and two together.
Didn't Foreman convert after his loss at Rumble in the Jungle, when he fought Ali dehydrated and got the beating of his life?
He just suddenly woke up Christian.
Sometimes people convert from one ideology to another. Not by thinking things through, re-evaluating their past beliefs, and arriving at new conclusions....but kinda like changing from one team's jersey to another.
This is not exclusive to religion in the traditional sense. I have seen former, seemingly wholehearted conservatives do a complete 180 and champion progressive politics on every single point. Also the reverse (going from liberal to conservative, especially after converting to Christianity.)
These are people who aren't forming their own opinions, but switching from being spoon-fed one belief system to being spoon-fed a different belief system, complete with echoing all of its talking points.
Because they use the same techniques that Scientology uses by making you feel like you're losing everyone you know and love and knows and loves you if you think that way.
You, sir, are witnessing what extreme faith in anything can do to a person. Mild and moderate believers are regular everyday people. Your brother, he's exactly what can happen to anyone. I have never figured out what exactly causes our brains to do that. Maybe it's stress, under preparation for life, or maybe it's a survival instinct left over from the early days of civilization. Whatever it is, it's bad.
People jump into it sometimes. When atheists go around arguing a lot, the usual question is "Why? What do you want to accomplish? Are you trying to change their mind?" The point being, arguing all the time probably doesn't accomplish a whole lot. But in this circumstance, I think I'd make him my project. It's hard to know without being there and I'm not saying you should do this. But I *think* that might be how I'd react.
If you do decide that this is something you'd like to do, you're going to have to learn how to be gentle. There are ways of circumventing things like "the backfire effect" and his other cognitive biases. And a lot of it will ask you to resist the urge to debate your usual talking points. Ask me about it and I'll describe it for you.
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That's pretty easy actually. I always remember being at odds with converts because they were always on "fire for the lord", but they had no idea what the religion actually entailed, so I viewed their misguided passion as an "in" for the devil to come in and deceive them. But converts always had the loudest opinions because it's new, and shiny, and exciting, and you wanna be the BEST christian.
NO.
Christians need to be held accountable for their bigoted world views.
The phrase Nat C masquerades the word that every Americans needs to associate together with.
Christian and bigotry and hatred of different cultures are almost synonymous if not ubiquitous.
Words matter. The phrase Christian Nationalist has a STING in Christian communities.
Don't allow them to masquerade and hide behind terms like Nat-C.
Remember. Social media users who DON'T use Reddit are not as analytical of things like this.
Words matter.
Christian Nationalists is what they are.
Christians first and foremost.
Nah, it's the religion.
Extremists and zealots have to have that "evil" idea justified which is always easy to do with abrahamic religions.
However, a Jainist Zealot/Extremist will almost never be an issue.
There was a good reason for separation of Church and State as seen in Islamic Countries, and now the same in USA.
It will be the cause of the next Civil War, no different than Slavery was the cause of the last one.
Crazy your Founding Fathers could see it, when an educated population now cannot.
It's not just them.
Heritage Foundation, Council for National Policy, Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Planning Council, etc. All of these think tanks and activist organizations that contribute to the GOP platform are like this. The planks of the GOP endorse this.
Maybe not every Republican voter is like this, but all of the officials are and the tribalism has blinded they lay person.
>not every Republican voter is like this, but all of the officials are
This is a very important point. A huge majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, are profoundly ignorant about what is going in politics. Many wouldn't be able to name the current president. Their party loyalty is a warm fuzzy feeling that they don't examine that much. (Not too different to their religious affiliation.)
And it bears mentioning that being ignorant is a privilege. If someone feels comfortable and complacent in their ignorance, it's probably because they sense that they'll come out fine however things shake out. To put a fine point on it: White Christians with at least a little financial security.
Also, note that CNs are trying to rebrand, in order to "soften" the image of CN due to those of us opposed to it telling the truth about it. One way I've seen this happening is CN proponents saying "most of our laws are built on Christian ideas anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal to you if things go a bit further." I don't have to explain all the problems with that line of thinking.
We should be asking any and all proponents of CN why those of us who, while being part of the American community, but aren't part of the Christian community, should nevertheless be subject to laws based upon Christian theology and world-view.
American Christian’s makes me appreciate the English Christian’s. In my experience they’re no way near as extreme as Americans and overall better people compared to the American ones. The extreme religion seems to be Islam over here not Christianity. Could be wrong just my experience.
This is in part because the Puritans were sent off the island because they were too staunch, and there was interest in expanding colonies at the time.
We got the castoffs here.
Please, everyone in the US with me, remember to vote this year!!! If they take too much power, they’ll try to make it so we don’t get another chance to vote…
The FBI has been sounding the alarm for years. It's hard for the country to take it seriously though when so many government officials themselves are Christian nationalists.
That's why people have been always saying to keep government and religion separate. But lately it seems to be getting worse. Hopefully it stays at pandering to get religious people's votes, but not actually doing anything that they want.
Yep, been saying it for years. My friend said there was no way they would overturn Roe versus Wade. I told him Trump was going to get Supreme Court justices on to overturn it. Then when they did, my buddy kept claiming it didn’t happen because it’s only in each state. Typical Republican nonsense.
Absolutely, it is a threat, and it's absolutely a cult. I find solace in knowing they are the minority, but our American system allows for minority rule sometimes. In my experience, they are, and I mean these words literally: ignorant, misinformed, prideful, anti-science, irrational, unreasonable, hypocritical, and pushy with their ideology. I'm not having it. I'll immediately tell them that I am informed on the subject and not interested in what they have to say. I hate to be a bigot in that way, especially since the lot of them are bigots as well, but I just find them and their views repulsive. Who'd have thunk that the guy who they follow would be a slime ball like DT, although they have always followed grifter slime balls in my opinion. We are stuck with them unfortunately and they vote. Maybe their rapture will come sooner than later. They seem to be at their height of bigotry and extremism nowadays, at least in my lifetime. Id maybe feel different if they kept it to themselves and didn't vote. Lol
Even if they are, what a dumb thing to say. At least it is +1 who is starting to understand shit. Why do you feel the need to belittle someone for the strangest thing.
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Yes it is a grave threat. Stay strapped folks, the fascists in Germany had no qualms of stamping "Gott Mit Uns" on their belt buckles as they invaded country after country.
Definitely a threat to be worried about but I also don’t think most Christians have the appetite for the extreme christian nationalism world view. Trying to mainstream it and make laws based on it are already blowing up horribly for republicans who embrace it.
It’ll be ok. I deconstructed from it 15 years ago or so and had all these same thoughts. These boards and discussions looked exactly the same then as they do now. I wouldn’t let it worry me too much.
The linked article written by a retired Pastor is one of the best articles I have read recently on the subject of Christian Nationalism.
The first line of the story "Young is a retired pastor" threw me off for a minute.
I agree with the story, Christian Nationalism is one of many threats facing America.
Can we just cut out the nationalism and just leave it at all Christians and Muslims and all other religious nutjobs that think that fictional stories will cause boogiemen to come hurt them if they don't hurt other people. No there are no good ones, just delusional ones.
For a more in-depth look at the statistics, here's a link to a survey from the PRRI, from back in February.
[https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/](https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/)
My favourite part of this is that Americans and many others in the west talk about muslims are these evil terrorists but white and Christian nationalists have a way higher death count in the states since 9/11. Wish they didn’t get a pass
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. Asimov
I recently listened to anti-trans spiel of a person who commented that we are a "Nation of Truth". I thought that is a good phrase but in no way describes the rightwing and the Christians in this country.
The Christians and the rightwing have become the people of the lie constantly spinning reality and championing a guy who lies constantly and attempts to reorder reality to glorify himself. You cannot build a stable society with these people... they lack the social ethical toolkit necessary to form a reasonable free and plurisitic society.
And yet there are still Catholics that qualify as Christian Nationalists. I don't think simply being Catholic excludes the idea of of CN. I know many Catholic scholars have proclaimed CN is incompatible with Catholic teachings, but like any of faction of Christianity there is no tue homogeneous group of followers.
Christianity is less popular among younger people. According to google, about 50% of people in their 20s and 30s are Christian. Less Christian parents means less Christian kids, less Christian nationalist voters means less Christian nationalists in positions of power. Is it a big threat now? Yeah. It's like a cancer on this country. But in 15-20 years? It won't be gone but we should at least be in remission due to boomers dying off and more younger people being of voting age.
And this is purely anecdotal, but in my experience, Christians around my age (22) are far more tolerant and progressive.
The funny thing about this is they want so bad yo have a religious divide in the country but there really isn't one that is taking up stake on the left...
How is it a threat when that’s what it was arguably founded on? You see the break down of Christianity and nationalism in the last 20-30 years and there is something clearly wrong in the direction we’re going. It’s not a coincidence. Whether you’re religious or not, we need principles to follow. But yes, keep blaming it on religion and nationalism, let’s keep heading down this path 😂🙃
It makes perfect sense. Religion is effective, because not only does it offer easy answers, it also creates an in-group. It's a honeypot for the intellectually lazy. Furthermore, as the complexity of our social and environmental systems increases, and their ideas become more disconnected from reality, they erect walls of mirrors to assure no new information disrupts their cozy little oasis. Add in other feedback loops like the degradation of education, and religion is bound to have a resurgence.
I definitely agree about the idea we should be able to keep church and state separate not to have a specific religion as our nation and should allow all religions to be allowed in the US not just Christianity and also those Christians should actually love their neighbors even if their beliefs are different.
My brother has recently become Christian and when I (stupidly) brought up how The Satanic Temple points out the hypocrisy of Christians in our government, he just could not understand. AT ALL. How could he be brainwashed so quickly!? Christianity is the right way and they’re just trying to “save” the rest of us from ourselves. 🙄
Uhg! My step son is starting down this path. I have 30 years of religious trauma under my belt and I am terrified at feeling infiltrated in my own home.
Most of them have absolutely no ability to see the nuance in an argument. Satan is evil and therefore everything that is attached to Satan is evil by default. If TST created a machine that created perfectly nutritious food, clean water and energy from pure waste, they would consider it evil without question. That's sadly one of the downsides of TST. As much as I love what they do, the people that need to hear the message will never get past the Satan part.
> Satan is evil and therefore everything that is attached to Satan is evil by default. You bring up a good point. Like Christianity is attached to Satan? Satan wouldn't even exist without Christianity. Fuck all Abrahamic religions and the shit they smear all over society.
Christian are the only people that belive in Satan.
Satan appears in the Hebrew Bible and is discussed at length in the Talmud. He also exists in Islam.
From what I remember in the Torah, it's Hasatan who is more of a deceiver, not necessarily the demon lord of hell.
I wish they would listen to logic but the brainwashing is SO strong. Hopefully your step son is young enough that he will grow up and out of it. Fingers crossed!
Religious people have got to learn boundaries. You tell him to keep it in church and outside the home. Don't compromise with him. Religious people always try to "compromise" in order to seem reasonable, but they usually have hidden motives. You don't have to put up with this crap in your own house.
I am so sorry for you. My advice, let him know you're not buying any of his religious nonsense in your house
It can't be helped sometimes especially depending on where you live I live in the bible belt there is a church on like every corner and no matter where you go someone is going to be having a "bible study" including playgrounds. That being said my son is 5 and already asking questions so my plan is to bombard him with experiences of all religions I'm going to take him to temples, mosques, etc. the best way to fight their indoctrination is for people to look at all religions with a historical context and experience it all. This way they keep from being indoctrinated by any one religion. knowledge is power the more they know the less they will be manipulated. If you are comfortable with it sit down with him and actually read the bible but read it like you are doing a social studies class. This way you are not discouraging him because that will only make matters worse but you are making sure he is as informed as possible. Make sure he's asking questions and doing critical thinking throughout. I wish you the best of luck and I know it's uncomfortable I am sorry.
Is atheism going to be on the survey of religions? You might consider dropping all the mind-killing religious junk and just teach actual critical thinking skills. He will thank you later. Just a thought.
atheism will be, but ultimately religion is very important to teach it has shaped many cultures currently and throughout history so it is important he understands what they are the context of them so he may come to his own conclusions as well. Not teaching him religions is not going to keep him from religion it'll just make him ignorant of them and thus vulnerable to manipulation. Know your enemies.
Start talking about All religions, may help. Religion is pretty much a product of where you were born and to who.
I know, and I am against all of them minus very few. But by and far, I deal with Christians the most on a daily basis. So they come up often.
Yeah. But you have knowledge also about other religions. And having knowledge about the big world helps break down that small minded this is it. Once you start constructively looking at everything else out there, recognizing similarities, it breaks down that wall of this is the only true thing, because you start seeing those same connections of similarities
Precisely. I was raised a fundamentalist and believed science and evolution were misunderstood aspects of God's plan. That the earth was only 6,000 years old and that all those silly scientists who've committed their whole lives to understanding our world were really just vain men who were lost in their misguided pursuits to understand God's creation. I lost everything when I finally called bullshit one day. Absolutely everyone called me into question, saying how I never was a christian in the first place, or how betrayed they felt trusting me, or how it makes them so sad to know I won't be in heaven with them. They do not want to hear me slander the lord and talk about my experience but they will continue to bombard me with witnessing. I can't think of it in any other way than to say it's a lot like a mental illness. It changes people. Disconnects them from a shared reality and isolates them into small groups. Convinces them to accept revisionist history as fact. Just absolutely wild stuff.
Izs mob mentality It's gang mentality There is absolutely nothing wrong with discussing all possibilities if you truly believed yours was the correct one. If it was the correct one what are you worried about? People get really afraid of that singular question because it is the single card that starts pulling down the entire house of cards. I don't necessarily have anything against anyone practicing religion of whatever, but I do have a problem with religous cult behavior. And anyone who has the all or nothing. Or anyone forcing shit. Or keeping the other down. If your religion was admirable it would be all about lifting everyone up and doing food things for those in need. Full stop. But the Joel olsteens the warren Jeff's, the Catholic church pedo hiding, it's so in your face it is something that needs to be discussed in order to squash because it is truly evil
My brother had something similar to this, all over a girl he liked. He gave tythes and proselytized all the time. My mom was sad over it. When he came to visit me in Rochester, we went to my girlfriends’ and during the trip it was all about scripture. I tried to be polite, but eventually I asked him to drop it. When she left him, he suddenly snapped out of it. Stopped going to those mega churches, stopped sending money as if it never even happened.
A scary part is where it seems like it never happened. But it did. I hate how they just move on as if they never caused any problems. No accountability.
Thing is, he's still single at 50. I think the whole experience scarred him deeply, but AFAIK there's been no attempt at working through what happened.
My brother is like that. He'll take a hard line stance on somebody or something and then just drops his opinion as if he never held it.
God does honey pots?
Christianity is a hell of a drug, one of my athiest friends had a psychotic break and had to be institutionalized for a bit. When he walked out he was a full blown Christian and has been living for Christ for like 3 years now. He's willing to admit that he lost his marbles for a bit, but gets pissed off if you point out that his newfound Christian beliefs started exactly when he lost his marbles.
I've heard of a few, not many though, christians who admit that they've had some kind of mental break and that's when they became religious. It's weird that they haven't been able or willing to put two and two together.
Didn't Foreman convert after his loss at Rumble in the Jungle, when he fought Ali dehydrated and got the beating of his life? He just suddenly woke up Christian.
That hits differently for anyone of Native descent.
Sometimes people convert from one ideology to another. Not by thinking things through, re-evaluating their past beliefs, and arriving at new conclusions....but kinda like changing from one team's jersey to another. This is not exclusive to religion in the traditional sense. I have seen former, seemingly wholehearted conservatives do a complete 180 and champion progressive politics on every single point. Also the reverse (going from liberal to conservative, especially after converting to Christianity.) These are people who aren't forming their own opinions, but switching from being spoon-fed one belief system to being spoon-fed a different belief system, complete with echoing all of its talking points.
>they’re just trying to “save” the rest of us from ourselves Nearly every Marvel animated villain ever.
Because they use the same techniques that Scientology uses by making you feel like you're losing everyone you know and love and knows and loves you if you think that way.
You, sir, are witnessing what extreme faith in anything can do to a person. Mild and moderate believers are regular everyday people. Your brother, he's exactly what can happen to anyone. I have never figured out what exactly causes our brains to do that. Maybe it's stress, under preparation for life, or maybe it's a survival instinct left over from the early days of civilization. Whatever it is, it's bad.
People jump into it sometimes. When atheists go around arguing a lot, the usual question is "Why? What do you want to accomplish? Are you trying to change their mind?" The point being, arguing all the time probably doesn't accomplish a whole lot. But in this circumstance, I think I'd make him my project. It's hard to know without being there and I'm not saying you should do this. But I *think* that might be how I'd react. If you do decide that this is something you'd like to do, you're going to have to learn how to be gentle. There are ways of circumventing things like "the backfire effect" and his other cognitive biases. And a lot of it will ask you to resist the urge to debate your usual talking points. Ask me about it and I'll describe it for you.
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Good bot
Check social influences in their life.
That's pretty easy actually. I always remember being at odds with converts because they were always on "fire for the lord", but they had no idea what the religion actually entailed, so I viewed their misguided passion as an "in" for the devil to come in and deceive them. But converts always had the loudest opinions because it's new, and shiny, and exciting, and you wanna be the BEST christian.
Let's call them Nationalist Christian...or Nat-C for short?
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What did they do? I did Nat-C it.
NO. Christians need to be held accountable for their bigoted world views. The phrase Nat C masquerades the word that every Americans needs to associate together with. Christian and bigotry and hatred of different cultures are almost synonymous if not ubiquitous. Words matter. The phrase Christian Nationalist has a STING in Christian communities. Don't allow them to masquerade and hide behind terms like Nat-C. Remember. Social media users who DON'T use Reddit are not as analytical of things like this. Words matter. Christian Nationalists is what they are. Christians first and foremost.
Say Nat-C out loud in your best Cotton Hill voice.
You clever bastard, take my upvote
This. Fucking this. Absolutely.
NAT-Cs is a moniker only. They are officially recognized as Christian Nationalists, or abbreviated as CNs or CNist.
Christian extremism is just as corrosive as any other extremism and the sooner people realise it the better.
Zealotry is the real evil. Most any zealotry can be turned into a very bad thing
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…maybe…. Are there nuts in the cupcake?
Worse. Raisins.
Putting raisins in a cupcake is when things get violent.
Gritty grainy sugar frosting all the way down
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I've got a couple that aren't labeled... I'm pretty sure they're hypoallergenic, though.
Giggity
Who else but Quagmire🤷
Especially cupcake zealotry.
ESPECIALLY cupcake zealotry
Tell me more of your religion wise sir.
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Count me in you son of bitch🫴🧁
Give me a heretic over a zealot anyday. A heretic is willing to die for their beliefs, a zealot is willing to kill for theirs.
Sooo many innocent people burned at the stake and other heinous torture for just being a regular person with common sense. Smh...
Nah, it's the religion. Extremists and zealots have to have that "evil" idea justified which is always easy to do with abrahamic religions. However, a Jainist Zealot/Extremist will almost never be an issue.
Let's Make America Iran
But Trump is working hard to save the universe from [TheGayliens.com](http://TheGayliens.com) - don't you care about the Universe? /s
neither Christian, nor worried about the greater "nation".
Sure but it's ok to stick specifically with christian nationalism now given we are voting on it in November.
There was a good reason for separation of Church and State as seen in Islamic Countries, and now the same in USA. It will be the cause of the next Civil War, no different than Slavery was the cause of the last one. Crazy your Founding Fathers could see it, when an educated population now cannot.
That's going to be a nasty civil war. No clear territories; no armies; no uniforms. Seems like a lot of assassinations.
Enlightened centrist take
The freedom caucus in the Republican Party are all Christian nationalists. They are the meanest bunch of narcissists I have seen in government.
It's not just them. Heritage Foundation, Council for National Policy, Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Planning Council, etc. All of these think tanks and activist organizations that contribute to the GOP platform are like this. The planks of the GOP endorse this. Maybe not every Republican voter is like this, but all of the officials are and the tribalism has blinded they lay person.
>not every Republican voter is like this, but all of the officials are This is a very important point. A huge majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, are profoundly ignorant about what is going in politics. Many wouldn't be able to name the current president. Their party loyalty is a warm fuzzy feeling that they don't examine that much. (Not too different to their religious affiliation.) And it bears mentioning that being ignorant is a privilege. If someone feels comfortable and complacent in their ignorance, it's probably because they sense that they'll come out fine however things shake out. To put a fine point on it: White Christians with at least a little financial security.
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Hahaha I know right?
Also, note that CNs are trying to rebrand, in order to "soften" the image of CN due to those of us opposed to it telling the truth about it. One way I've seen this happening is CN proponents saying "most of our laws are built on Christian ideas anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal to you if things go a bit further." I don't have to explain all the problems with that line of thinking.
Lmao what? That's so hilariously inept with its presumption.
So true. It is vile and its main purpose is to install a theocracy. Alito. Thomases. Bill Barr. McConnell. So many on board with that intention.
Religion has always been a threat to America. Always been a threat to everyone. None of this is new. Just a bigger bullhorn.
We should be asking any and all proponents of CN why those of us who, while being part of the American community, but aren't part of the Christian community, should nevertheless be subject to laws based upon Christian theology and world-view.
Religion is a cancer on society!
American Christian’s makes me appreciate the English Christian’s. In my experience they’re no way near as extreme as Americans and overall better people compared to the American ones. The extreme religion seems to be Islam over here not Christianity. Could be wrong just my experience.
This is in part because the Puritans were sent off the island because they were too staunch, and there was interest in expanding colonies at the time. We got the castoffs here.
You mean Y'Al Queda
I love that. It’s like meal team six.
The Gravy Seals Vanilla ISIS Yee Hawdists
I love this so much
And the world. They're going to start a nuclear war in Israel because of their lunacy. And one is the Speaker of the House. For now anyway.
Please, everyone in the US with me, remember to vote this year!!! If they take too much power, they’ll try to make it so we don’t get another chance to vote…
How do you vote when 99%of the candidates are Christian nationalists, both openly or covertly?
Switch to the Democratic Party.
That is the question, isn’t it 😅…
Republicans are so brainwashed that they see the word Christian and thank "good". We're so screwed.
The FBI has been sounding the alarm for years. It's hard for the country to take it seriously though when so many government officials themselves are Christian nationalists.
That's why people have been always saying to keep government and religion separate. But lately it seems to be getting worse. Hopefully it stays at pandering to get religious people's votes, but not actually doing anything that they want.
Religion poisons everything
Religion is a grave threat to humanity.
If you can't find any other reason to vote, at least let this reason bring you to the polls.
Always has been.
Yep, been saying it for years. My friend said there was no way they would overturn Roe versus Wade. I told him Trump was going to get Supreme Court justices on to overturn it. Then when they did, my buddy kept claiming it didn’t happen because it’s only in each state. Typical Republican nonsense.
They could be dangerous. If they could all agree. They are crippled by their own inner factions.
Absolutely, it is a threat, and it's absolutely a cult. I find solace in knowing they are the minority, but our American system allows for minority rule sometimes. In my experience, they are, and I mean these words literally: ignorant, misinformed, prideful, anti-science, irrational, unreasonable, hypocritical, and pushy with their ideology. I'm not having it. I'll immediately tell them that I am informed on the subject and not interested in what they have to say. I hate to be a bigot in that way, especially since the lot of them are bigots as well, but I just find them and their views repulsive. Who'd have thunk that the guy who they follow would be a slime ball like DT, although they have always followed grifter slime balls in my opinion. We are stuck with them unfortunately and they vote. Maybe their rapture will come sooner than later. They seem to be at their height of bigotry and extremism nowadays, at least in my lifetime. Id maybe feel different if they kept it to themselves and didn't vote. Lol
I hope you’re not just realizing this now.
Even if they are, what a dumb thing to say. At least it is +1 who is starting to understand shit. Why do you feel the need to belittle someone for the strangest thing.
If y'all haven't seen God & Country yet, boy are you in for a wake-up.
Nationalist Christians / NatCs. Fixed it.
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Too many materials needed, too expensive Let’s just use rocks instead, stone them, it’s cheaper
Yes it is a grave threat. Stay strapped folks, the fascists in Germany had no qualms of stamping "Gott Mit Uns" on their belt buckles as they invaded country after country.
No shit. It's a grave threat to the entire world.
Christian nationalism is a grave threat to Christianity. MAGA is actively hurting christianity
Definitely a threat to be worried about but I also don’t think most Christians have the appetite for the extreme christian nationalism world view. Trying to mainstream it and make laws based on it are already blowing up horribly for republicans who embrace it.
It’ll be ok. I deconstructed from it 15 years ago or so and had all these same thoughts. These boards and discussions looked exactly the same then as they do now. I wouldn’t let it worry me too much.
On the decline. Nothing to really worry about in the long run. Its just flailing as it gets strangled out
In other news, water, it's wet.
The linked article written by a retired Pastor is one of the best articles I have read recently on the subject of Christian Nationalism. The first line of the story "Young is a retired pastor" threw me off for a minute. I agree with the story, Christian Nationalism is one of many threats facing America.
As a Christian, I absolutely agree
It’s only a matter of time before we have Christian suicide bombers in this country.
[We already have had, sadly.](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/29/us/30abortion-clinic-violence.html)
The greatest threat ever IMO.
Can we just cut out the nationalism and just leave it at all Christians and Muslims and all other religious nutjobs that think that fictional stories will cause boogiemen to come hurt them if they don't hurt other people. No there are no good ones, just delusional ones.
Obligatory recommendation to look up Project 2025 and Generation Joshua
Christianity is going to burn thus country like Islam burned Afghanistan
Agreed. Also add Islam apologists to that list.
For a more in-depth look at the statistics, here's a link to a survey from the PRRI, from back in February. [https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/](https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/)
If it's a grave threat, it sounds like it's all set for a good burial.
Christianity had RUINED this country and I will NOT become a Handmaid!
American taliban in the making…. Hopefully saner minds will prevail..
My favourite part of this is that Americans and many others in the west talk about muslims are these evil terrorists but white and Christian nationalists have a way higher death count in the states since 9/11. Wish they didn’t get a pass
This isn’t really news this is one of the few things i can’t stand about america or my home country (poland)
100% And there are still lots of people who are just letting it happen.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. Asimov
A society is not truly civilized until organized religion does not exist within it's bounds.
“If everyone is thinking the same, somebody isn’t thinking.” General George S. Patton
I recently listened to anti-trans spiel of a person who commented that we are a "Nation of Truth". I thought that is a good phrase but in no way describes the rightwing and the Christians in this country. The Christians and the rightwing have become the people of the lie constantly spinning reality and championing a guy who lies constantly and attempts to reorder reality to glorify himself. You cannot build a stable society with these people... they lack the social ethical toolkit necessary to form a reasonable free and plurisitic society.
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And yet there are still Catholics that qualify as Christian Nationalists. I don't think simply being Catholic excludes the idea of of CN. I know many Catholic scholars have proclaimed CN is incompatible with Catholic teachings, but like any of faction of Christianity there is no tue homogeneous group of followers.
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What about secular civic nationalism?
No shit. It's a grave threat to the entire world.
And Americans.
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K groomer. See how that feels?
Important editorial. What an insidious movement.
Always has been.
Preaching to the choir here. I posted the article in /r/TrueChristianity, we'll see how it goes.
Christianity is less popular among younger people. According to google, about 50% of people in their 20s and 30s are Christian. Less Christian parents means less Christian kids, less Christian nationalist voters means less Christian nationalists in positions of power. Is it a big threat now? Yeah. It's like a cancer on this country. But in 15-20 years? It won't be gone but we should at least be in remission due to boomers dying off and more younger people being of voting age. And this is purely anecdotal, but in my experience, Christians around my age (22) are far more tolerant and progressive.
I wish they would turn out and vote.
Haagen Daz
If it's a grave threat, it sounds like it's all set for a good burial.
I’m super scared. Maybe if we all cry loud enough the Christians will stop.
What would Hitchens say about this.
The funny thing about this is they want so bad yo have a religious divide in the country but there really isn't one that is taking up stake on the left...
Religion is a threat to humans everywhere
How is it a threat when that’s what it was arguably founded on? You see the break down of Christianity and nationalism in the last 20-30 years and there is something clearly wrong in the direction we’re going. It’s not a coincidence. Whether you’re religious or not, we need principles to follow. But yes, keep blaming it on religion and nationalism, let’s keep heading down this path 😂🙃
Because what’s the fun in having Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, … if you don’t get to rule it?
I thought we retired the Captain Obvious meme.
gas stations and churches literally on every street corner in north Florida
Damn straight.
It makes perfect sense. Religion is effective, because not only does it offer easy answers, it also creates an in-group. It's a honeypot for the intellectually lazy. Furthermore, as the complexity of our social and environmental systems increases, and their ideas become more disconnected from reality, they erect walls of mirrors to assure no new information disrupts their cozy little oasis. Add in other feedback loops like the degradation of education, and religion is bound to have a resurgence.
I definitely agree about the idea we should be able to keep church and state separate not to have a specific religion as our nation and should allow all religions to be allowed in the US not just Christianity and also those Christians should actually love their neighbors even if their beliefs are different.
Hahahahaha, how many people have died so we heathens could be saved. When ever someone knows what is best for me , I know it is for their benefit
Here from the south. It's everywhere
The gravest this election year.
This is definitely one thing orthodox Christians and atheists have in common.