Conservative White Evangelicals Need to Be Stopped

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

I’ve been a pastor in the local church for the past 24 years, much of that in megachurches in the Bible Belt. I’ve been shoulder to shoulder in ministry and in life with white Evangelicals, I’ve sat in Bible studies with them, served alongside them in staff meetings, attended hundreds of pastoral gatherings and heard how they think and what drives them.
I need you to understand something:
Conservative white Evangelicals need to be stopped.

Prior to the 2016 Presidential campaign, it would have been unthinkable that professed followers of Jesus would align themselves in any way with a human being like Donald Trump; the disconnect between them so profound, the gap in decency so wide, it wouldn’t even have been a discussion. He modeled the life Christ spent his entire time on the planet warning against and the kind of person he protected people from.
But these folks soon realized something critical: Donald Trump is amoral. He lacks personal convictions of any kind, choosing to take on the shape of the highest available bidder—and that they had the deepest of pockets. He could simply be an empty but singularly powerful vessel through which they could legislate their theologically-distorted agenda—which is happening in the moments I’m typing these words and you reading them. They are building their caucasian theocracy within this vacant shell of a human being.

To read more:

https://johnpavlovitz.com/


I would not call Trump a vacant shell. I would call him a sociopath who is motivated by money, as well as a damaged little boy still fighting to show his father that he is not a failure.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. In short, rump is a small minded human being, and will be always remembered as such. ...

History has shown that it can be very unkind to those like this, and so it will be. Deservingly so.

[guillaumeb]

3. Trump is a little, abused boy, still angry at his father.

Unfortunately, he was elected, in part by the racists and poorly educated.

[dawg day]

2. No true Christian would be for Trump's treatment of families at the border

They are using their "religion" as a bludgeon.


If there actually is a hell... well, they might be surprised where they end up.

[guillaumeb]

4. They are intolerant of everything but themselves.

And we are suffering because of that.

[Major Nikon]

27. No true Scotsman

[Cuthbert Allgood]

34. Yeah, that didn't take long.

I would have put the over/under at 5.

[keithbvadu2]

29. "where they end up" - In a Trump cage for eternity?

"where they end up" - In a Trump cage for eternity?

[customerserviceguy]

5. It will be interesting to see

what happens to the evangelical movement when they realize what they went to bed with. But the question is, how much damage will have been done by that point?

[guillaumeb]

9. But will they admit that trading everything for power

is a bad tactic?

[customerserviceguy]

12. Only if they think

that by doing so, Jaysus will forgive them.

[guillaumeb]

14. Jesus counselled forgiveness without limit.

And it is not easy to do.

[keithbvadu2]

30. Forgiveness includes repentance and change.

Forgiveness includes repentance and change.

Alas, these folks only consider the short version.

[guillaumeb]

36. Agreed. Especially the injunction to go and sin no more. eom

[Comatose Sphagetti]

6. Hopefully the election of DJT

will hasten the arrival of the proverbial 'last nail in the coffin' for organized religion.

[guillaumeb]

10. That epitaph has been written many times before this.

With the expected result.

[TwistOneUp]

7. Finally!

You and I agree on something. The logic underpinning the decision not so much, but given your belief system your decision is sound and I wholeheartedly agree.

Thank you for this post.

[guillaumeb]

11. "Given my belief system"?

That sounds like profiling. And we all do it.

[TwistOneUp]

20. Ya gotta start, huh.

Yes. That simply means that Christians approach things "from" or "using" their belief infrastructure as opposed to a mathematical and scientific analysis using empirical data. This was not a qualitative criticism.

However, if you want to feel insulted, please go right ahead.

[guillaumeb]

21. We all profile to an extent.

And our decision making can be influenced by many factors. But there are progressive and conservatives in any group.

The scientists who developed nerve gas, knowing the intended use, are one example of scientific knowledge divorced from morality.

[TwistOneUp]

31. Unlike...

Torquemada, who detested science and killed millions. Ditto the church's persecution of those nascent scientists of which it was aware (e.g., Galileo).

So tell me, guillameb, how many computers has the church made? When you christians want to communicate, you use a computer, created by scientists. When you lose a tooth, you use dentists. They fix teeth using science. They are not, like the fundagelical implant ads say, an answer to prayer. They're due to scientists that mastered knowledge of certain properties of Nature. The scientists whom you so easily throw away, and whose credit fundies steal when they attribute it to prayer.

Perhaps you should become Amish, if you detest science and the modern-day world so much. Make sure you take your bedpan! lol

[guillaumeb]

37. I do not detest science. Nor do I worship it.

Scientists weaponized anthrax.
Scientists exploded nuclear devices.

[Mariana]

8. So, this Evangelical preacher, John Pavlovitz, tells us:

"I’ve been a pastor in the local church for the past 24 years, much of that in megachurches in the Bible Belt. I’ve been shoulder to shoulder in ministry and in life with white Evangelicals, I’ve sat in Bible studies with them, served alongside them in staff meetings, attended hundreds of pastoral gatherings and heard how they think and what drives them."

We're supposed to believe that this Evangelical preacher, John Pavlovitz, never saw this coming? That he had no idea this could happen? That he couldn't figure out that this is what logically follows from the shit that's been preached in Evangelical churches the whole time he's been in the ministry?

BULL. SHIT.

If he knew these people so well, if he spent so much time with them, if he ministered to them for 24 years, then he knew.

[guillaumeb]

13. My impression is that he is speaking

to the larger audience.

[MineralMan]

15. He's just whispering.

Nobody's listening.

[guillaumeb]

16. You just listened. And you could spread the message if you wish.

But the corporate media loves simple narratives. It saves time and effort versus actual reporting.

[MineralMan]

17. I am not part of the corporate media.

I'm also not someone who spent 24 years preaching in the churches he is now condemning. I speak with my own voice. I do not spread other people's words. That's what you do. I am not you, sir.

[guillaumeb]

18. And I am happy for that.

[marylandblue]

19. Read his bio, he did figure it out a long time ago

It was a long journey from commercial Christianity to progressive faith. I think he is now trying to undo the damage he has done.


https://indyweek.com/news/raleigh-s-john-pavlovitz-went-fired-megachurch-pastor-rising-star-religious-left

[Mariana]

22. In this particular essay, I noticed a distinct lack

of him accepting any responsibility for the current appalling state of affairs.

[marylandblue]

23. Does he need to in this particular post?

Maybe he said it somewhere. Maybe he didn't. But he is not the same person now and it's all hands on deck.

[Mariana]

32. It would amplify his point if he did.

He has plenty of words to spend bragging about all the time and effort he put into teaching conservative Evangelicals to be the way they are, but he can't spare three to say, "I was wrong."

[marylandblue]

33. Yes it would help, but he still a political ally now.

[Act_of_Reparation]

24. Well, hop to it.

[guillaumeb]

25. I am.

I have been involved all year in races at the local, state, and national levels.

[YOHABLO]

26. Evangelicals are nothing more than a tool for not only Trump, but for the GOP. Shame isn't it.

[Major Nikon]

35. It use to work the other way

The shameful part is organized religion having influence over public policy, no matter which way it goes.

[AlexSFCA]

28. christofascism

the american way (handmaid)