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TygrBright

(20,733 posts)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 03:57 PM Nov 2017

They are "Evangelical Voters"

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the General Discussion forum).

The root of the term "evangelical" is Greek, ?ὐ???έ???? ('euangelion'), translating roughly to "glad announcement" or "good news." While sharing the gospels and proselytizing have been part of Christianity since the beginning, the "evangelical" movement in Protestant Christianity is fairly recent, subsequent to the spread of Methodism in the early nineteenth century CE. The term "evangelize" reached its first real prominence in the English language in about 1850, declined somewhat in prominence by the end of the century, revived a bit with the revivalist movements of the early 20th century, then declined steadily until the post-WWII era in America, when it began another meteoric rise.

In its broadest sense, "Evangelical" is simply 'sharing/announcing good news'-- with the implication that by so doing, the one sharing/announcing is doing the recipients a service, opening the door to faith, inviting them to join in belief. Gamers evangelize the latest game fad. Fashionistas evangelize the new trouser leg width. Food faddists evangelize the crusade against Demon Gluten.

In that sense, evangelism is annoying, but essentially harmless.

As it was in the early days of Evangelical Christianity.

You know who demanded a "wall of separation" between Church and State?

Evangelicals.

Because mainstream Protestant denominations- predominantly Episcopalian and Presbyterian- tended to dominate lawmaking, government regulation, etc., and the burgeoning Evangelical movements worried that the State might enact laws or regulations to force them to conform, or interfere with their liberty of conscience. They were supported by older Christian nonconformist traditions such as Quakers and Mennonites, and by America's Jewish and Catholic leadership, who'd had more than a bellyful of experience with discrimination by the powerful Anglo-American establishment.

It's hard for me to understand on any level deeper than intellectual awareness why some human beings are so strongly drawn to authoritarianism. I'm not in any sense a libertarian, certainly not an anarchist. I believe a social contract that includes norms and laws is necessary to provide incentives and disincentives that enable peaceful coexistence in diverse communities.

But the key phrase is "diverse communities." Norms and laws focused on enabling diverse groups to negotiate and enforce coexistence are very different from the kind of authoritarian norms and laws designed to eliminate diversity altogether.

People of authoritarian mindset are predisposed to accept the exegesis of those who assume and/or project authority. Combine the irrational nature of religious belief with the vulnerability to having those beliefs interpreted for them by authority that assumes a "divinely appointed" mantle.

Then tell the believers they're "oppressed" by a powerful "them" outside their elite belief group.

Thus the Evangelical Voter. Perfectly poised to support with perfervid rigidity a patriarchal authoritarian agenda defined by their leadership. To evangelize that agenda, regardless of any theological disconnect with the actual teachings of Christ or the New Testament.

And what matters to the Evangelical Voter is, first and foremost, political power and influence. Because that's what matters to their leaders.

It's more important to them to "win" politically, than to accept human imperfections and live the love for those different from themselves that Christ preached.

So of COURSE they see no problem with the condemnation of a man who beat "their" candidate, based on extramarital affairs with adult women making him "unfit to hold public office". And of COURSE they see no problem with supporting a serial adulterer who proudly boasts of sexual assault, and a man with a history of preying on vulnerable women half his age (including legally underage girls), as long as those men are "their" candidates, as anointed by the leaders.

And they think you and everyone else in America should vote exactly the same. And they'll tell you so on Facebook, and around the Thanksgiving dinner table, and in every possible public forum. Because they're evangelizing. Evangelical Voters.

Bleah.

wearily,
Bright



13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
They are "Evangelical Voters" (Original Post) TygrBright Nov 2017 OP
Brilliant. Comatose Sphagetti Nov 2017 #1
Thank you. Sophia4 Nov 2017 #2
Madison keithbvadu2 Nov 2017 #7
They forgot what they were fighting for... 7wo7rees Nov 2017 #3
In his autobiography, Jimmy Carter says he's baffled that those who claim to be the most "religious" Rhiannon12866 Nov 2017 #4
Evilgelicals they support molestation and pedophelia. boston bean Nov 2017 #5
Political Christians rather than Christians of faith. keithbvadu2 Nov 2017 #6
What you wrote is basically the second stage... JunkYardDogg Nov 2017 #8
+100 for this post ⬆ Duppers Nov 2017 #12
Another good one. cachukis Nov 2017 #9
Well said TxDemChem Nov 2017 #10
These people nowadays are the..... wolfie001 Nov 2017 #11
Locking.... DonViejo Nov 2017 #13

Comatose Sphagetti

(836 posts)
1. Brilliant.
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 04:13 PM
Nov 2017

nt

 

Sophia4

(3,515 posts)
2. Thank you.
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 04:36 PM
Nov 2017

I especially appreciate your pointing out that it was Evangelicals, or the early version of Evangelicals, who insisted on separation of church and state.

"Madison was one of the first thinkers in colonial America to understand why church and state must be separated. His advocacy for this concept grew out of his own personal experiences in Virginia, where Anglicanism was the officially established creed and any attempt to spread another religion in public could lead to a jail term.

Early in 1774, Madison learned that several Baptist preachers were behind bars in a nearby county for public preaching. On Jan. 24, an enraged Madison wrote to his friend William Bradford in Philadelphia about the situation. "That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages among some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their quota of Imps for such business," Madison wrote. "This vexes me the most of any thing whatever. There are at this time in the adjacent County not less than 5 or 6 well meaning men in close Gaol [jail] for publishing their religious Sentiments which in the main are very orthodox. I have neither the patience to hear talk or think any thing relative to this matter, for I have squabbled and scolded abused and ridiculed so long about it, to so little purpose that I am without common patience. So I leave you to pity me and pray for Liberty of Conscience to revive among us."

. . . .

Madison soon had the opportunity to translate his anger into action. As a member of the Revolutionary Convention in Virginia in 1776, Madison sought to disestablish the Church of England in that state and secure passage of an amendment guaranteeing religious liberty to all. The attempt at disestablishment failed, but Madison's ideas on religious freedom were included in an "Article on Religion" that was adopted by the Convention. The statement held that religion can be "directed only by reason and conviction, not force or violence" and guaranteed to all "the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."

Here Madison was responsible for a great leap forward in thinking. At the Revolutionary Convention, delegate George Mason had proposed an amendment guaranteeing "toleration" of all faiths. To Madison, this did not go far enough. He sought to expand religious liberty rights beyond mere toleration and argued for the "free exercise" of religion a concept that would later resurface in the First Amendment.

. . . .

https://www.au.org/church-state/march-2001-church-state/featured/james-madison-and-church-state-separation

That is a great article to read if you are interested in this topic. Especially true if you have Evangelical friends or family who argue that we are a "Christian nation." We are a nation of many faiths and no faith at all.

keithbvadu2

(36,362 posts)
7. Madison
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 05:24 PM
Nov 2017
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/?no-ist=;

Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. "Who does not see," he wrote, "that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.

7wo7rees

(5,128 posts)
3. They forgot what they were fighting for...
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 04:38 PM
Nov 2017

Rhiannon12866

(202,970 posts)
4. In his autobiography, Jimmy Carter says he's baffled that those who claim to be the most "religious"
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 04:49 PM
Nov 2017

Inexplicably overwhelmingly vote Republican.

boston bean

(36,186 posts)
5. Evilgelicals they support molestation and pedophelia.
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 04:53 PM
Nov 2017

keithbvadu2

(36,362 posts)
6. Political Christians rather than Christians of faith.
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 05:22 PM
Nov 2017

Political Christians rather than Christians of faith.

They support Trump who says he is so perfect that he does not need Christ or his forgiveness.

Like today's evangelical/religious right supporters, Trump is a Political Christian, not a Christian of faith.

Evangelicals/religious right are easily able to spin their beliefs for political expediency.

The Donald who does not have to ask Jesus for forgiveness.

Trump: Drink my little wine, have my little cracker

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2015/08/13/donald-trump-religion-serfaty-dnt-erin.cnn

JunkYardDogg

(873 posts)
8. What you wrote is basically the second stage...
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 05:40 PM
Nov 2017

This Fundamentalist Religious Extremist "Putsch" is based on Christian Reconstructionist Dominionism.
One must use Dominionism as the starting point to define this Evangelical movement.
It is the foundation, value system, engine that drives the Evangelicl Putsch, which has declared a fatwah
on secular American and is waging Jihad on our secular country.

Duppers

(28,094 posts)
12. +100 for this post ⬆
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 06:02 PM
Nov 2017

Dominionism is correct.

"Dominionism is the theocratic idea that regardless of theological camp, means, or timetable, God has called conservative Christians to exercise dominion over society by taking control of political and cultural institutions. The term describes a broad tendency across a wide swath of American Christianity."

Basically they want institutionalized theoracy.



cachukis

(2,201 posts)
9. Another good one.
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 05:46 PM
Nov 2017

TxDemChem

(1,918 posts)
10. Well said
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 05:49 PM
Nov 2017

That’s the best explanation I’ve heard of this (insane) phenomenon

wolfie001

(2,131 posts)
11. These people nowadays are the.....
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 05:50 PM
Nov 2017

.....Christian version of the Taliban.

DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
13. Locking....
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 06:12 PM
Nov 2017

The consensus of Forum Hosts agrees this thread is not appropriate for the General Discussions Forum. Please post this in the Religion Group.

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