signalmankenneth
Verified User
Remember it was Christian Nationalist that brought us prohibition, these religious fanatics are a danger to our constitution too?!!
I for one don't want these people shoving their religious beliefs on me, and sure as hell don't want to live by them either?!!
When I was a boy In Indiana, I lived in perpetual fear. These were the 1980s and so that fear took predictable forms, including the threat of nuclear devastation at the hands of the Soviet Union. Sometimes, during tornado drills in elementary school, teachers would tell us we were practicing for the inevitable atomic strike while reminding us how lucky we were to have been born Americans.
On Sundays, I huddled against the end of the hard wooden pews in my small Baptist church as the preacher sweated and begged God for Armageddon. The world had become too wicked. Too perverse. Satan had found an ally in Moscow and willing accomplices within the United States, including liberals, feminists, gays, and violent criminals who seemed to hide behind every corner.
The Devil wasn’t an abstraction or a metaphor, but a malevolent being who could manifest in your living room. And his powers were immense and his influence omnipresent. Our sick culture’s movies, television shows, and music were demonic and designed to tempt us away from God.
If things were going to be put right, if Good was going to triumph over Evil, then it was going to require nothing short of war.
The conversations I heard back 30 years ago sound a lot like the ones I’ve been hearing recently. But what was largely kept behind closed doors is now the defining dialogue of a public and worrying movement. I first noticed it in 2016, as I reported from the crowds at Donald Trump rallies, and have since seen it dominate the Republican Party, conservative media, and watched it grow into an international political project.
And, to my horror, the specifics are the same. The world has been tainted. Society is decadent and depraved. Democracy is a danger and subject to manipulation by a satanic conspiracy. And, in order to put things right, any and all means, including extreme violence, is not only an option, but likely necessary.
What I did not understand then is that our congregation was being prepared to accept changes outside the walls of our tiny church. The fiery sermons laid the groundwork for political and economic actions that would otherwise seem cruel and unreasonable. Without the religious narratives, the idea of overturning elections, imprisoning political opponents, creating an oppressive system, or executing “enemies,” which I have heard called for many times now, might be met with some resistance.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/christian-nationalisms-popularity-wake-call-120053035.html
Christian Nationalism Is ‘Single Biggest Threat’ to America’s Religious Freedom
Religious liberty is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, yet the meaning of this core American value has been debated throughout the nation’s history. Today, conflicts most often arise from Christian nationalism, the anti-democratic notion that America is a nation by and for Christians alone. At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities. These issues will only draw more attention in the years ahead, since the 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appearseager to hear more religious liberty cases advancing Christian nationalist arguments than in previous years.
https://www.americanprogress.org/ar...biggest-threat-to-americas-religious-freedom/
I for one don't want these people shoving their religious beliefs on me, and sure as hell don't want to live by them either?!!
When I was a boy In Indiana, I lived in perpetual fear. These were the 1980s and so that fear took predictable forms, including the threat of nuclear devastation at the hands of the Soviet Union. Sometimes, during tornado drills in elementary school, teachers would tell us we were practicing for the inevitable atomic strike while reminding us how lucky we were to have been born Americans.
On Sundays, I huddled against the end of the hard wooden pews in my small Baptist church as the preacher sweated and begged God for Armageddon. The world had become too wicked. Too perverse. Satan had found an ally in Moscow and willing accomplices within the United States, including liberals, feminists, gays, and violent criminals who seemed to hide behind every corner.
The Devil wasn’t an abstraction or a metaphor, but a malevolent being who could manifest in your living room. And his powers were immense and his influence omnipresent. Our sick culture’s movies, television shows, and music were demonic and designed to tempt us away from God.
If things were going to be put right, if Good was going to triumph over Evil, then it was going to require nothing short of war.
The conversations I heard back 30 years ago sound a lot like the ones I’ve been hearing recently. But what was largely kept behind closed doors is now the defining dialogue of a public and worrying movement. I first noticed it in 2016, as I reported from the crowds at Donald Trump rallies, and have since seen it dominate the Republican Party, conservative media, and watched it grow into an international political project.
And, to my horror, the specifics are the same. The world has been tainted. Society is decadent and depraved. Democracy is a danger and subject to manipulation by a satanic conspiracy. And, in order to put things right, any and all means, including extreme violence, is not only an option, but likely necessary.
What I did not understand then is that our congregation was being prepared to accept changes outside the walls of our tiny church. The fiery sermons laid the groundwork for political and economic actions that would otherwise seem cruel and unreasonable. Without the religious narratives, the idea of overturning elections, imprisoning political opponents, creating an oppressive system, or executing “enemies,” which I have heard called for many times now, might be met with some resistance.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/christian-nationalisms-popularity-wake-call-120053035.html
Christian Nationalism Is ‘Single Biggest Threat’ to America’s Religious Freedom
Religious liberty is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, yet the meaning of this core American value has been debated throughout the nation’s history. Today, conflicts most often arise from Christian nationalism, the anti-democratic notion that America is a nation by and for Christians alone. At its core, this idea threatens the principle of the separation of church and state and undermines the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
It also leads to discrimination, and at times violence, against religious minorities and the nonreligious. Christian nationalism is also a contributing ideology in the religious right’s misuse of religious liberty as a rationale for circumventing laws and regulations aimed at protecting a pluralistic democracy, such as nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQI+ people, women, and religious minorities. These issues will only draw more attention in the years ahead, since the 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appearseager to hear more religious liberty cases advancing Christian nationalist arguments than in previous years.
https://www.americanprogress.org/ar...biggest-threat-to-americas-religious-freedom/