General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Something I think we should all consider in terms of COVID death numbers. [View all]ancianita
(36,220 posts)71 million voters still break down into religious groups that have anti-abortion in common regardless of location, and mostly white rural voters. They have believer habits in common.
They might say they only want Trump, but without him they'd still follow the next anti-abortion, xenophobic, "religious" white Republican.
I've read their use of prayer comments on social media and how even pro-science people who live among them can't convince believers to live smart, and not just pray.
The following good sense comments get ignored...
-- Jesus doesn't teach Christians to use faith as a substitute for brains God gave them.
-- The best of religion says that h.s. science and prayer are not contradictory.
-- Would Jesus tell them to risk death for money?
-- Christian pharisees tell them they can have it both ways -- go to work and pray.
-- Praying to overcome a virus or elections is religious malpractice.
imo, it looks as if most evangelical religions tend to teach that believers can be safe by praying. Then believers forget about Jesus and reinforce each others' misbegotten 'faith' on social media.
This is their real world. And these comments show a reflexive turn to helplessness and prayer in that world. Which works in tandem with corporate pressure to make bucks, pay bills.
71 million voters isn't the usual definition of a cult.
But common religious/corporate ideas do form realities that just seem cult-like to us.
If they form a cult, it's from being conditioned to devalue their own lives & souls (call it mislaid faith) every bit as much as corporate employers and their political leaders devalue them.
Religion and companies' cumulative effect is a mentality of "sacrifice," so that a few million dead believers in a nation run like a business is still about winning.
To me we're describing a win-win church and corporate state alliance.