Has Evangelical Christianity Become Sociopathic?
 

Has Evangelical Christianity Become Sociopathic?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/has-e...b02d6199b2ed92

Our resident MAGAMoron "Christian" trolls show every sign of being sociopathic.

When thinking all the answers are with your church. All others are of course will be considered as those to be converted or shunned.

IMHO, the stunt in which President Trump used his troops to displace protesters just so he could 'photo-op' with the Christian Bible was hideous. Extremely hideous.

Affirmation to me that world is controlled by Satan.

When asked one time by two at my door handing out Summer Bible School brochures.

"If I believed in God?"

Replied, I know there is a evil in the world so makes sense there would be good too!

It's been said that American evangelical Christians believe that the right to life begins at conception and ends at birth. The exceptions give some hope that It isn't lost in it's own dogmatic excesses.

"Ends at birth".

I had not heard that prior, made me literally 'laugh out loud'.

I completely understand oppression, and I have not consciously kept any minority groups down at any time in my life.

If God's going to throw 99.9% of all human souls into Hell, that's His business.

I just hope I don't have to go, after all I've been through.

My own Christian conversion is so bizarre, if I talk about it, it alienates me from everyone else. Especially church folks.

Christians against Christian nationalism say the ideology distorts both American and Christian values
https://www.businessinsider.com/chri...s-group-2022-9

Christianity is the least of the problems which beset modern community.

There is rapidly increasing and successful effort by the 0.01 to harvest everything for itself. This has occurred and is occurring regardless of which party is in power. Monopoly and Oligarchy are the distinct characteristics

Careful Dondi, you're beginning to sound like a Democratic So************************t. ;)

Anyone who thinks Christianity is not relevant runs the risk of sounding as ignorant as Stalin was when he quipped, regarding the Pope, "How many divisions does he have?" The ability of the far right to co-opt evangelical christianity has given them the power of countless virtual divisions in the the current cultural/political wars. I saw this mobilization in 2020 in a Cincinnati suburb, where a billboard bore the message "If your church isn't telling you how to vote, you need a new church!" Most don't realize they are fighting for the 1%, of course.

That is so true. The 1% has bought both sides of the argument.

Back that equivalency up. How has the 1% bought the non-evangelical liberal protestant denominations, or any other segment of the left?

To go back to the OP:

A social / political trend such the GOP coopting so-called Christian denominations can not be described as 'sociopathic'. The term can only be applied to human individuals.

The word 'pandemic' is a closer fit, but not exact.

It is a sickness when Preachers tell their congregation to rock the vote, IMHO.

I've seen one local AOG Pastor try to get himself elected to city council by telling his 'flock' that God wanted them to vote for him. The mayor sort of despised the churches for influencing electoral processes.

When US forces invaded Panama, the primary target was Emmanuel Noriega himself.

They didn't killed 800 people just to peacefully arrest the guy, either, (according to one source whom I consider reliable).

The power of the Pope save his life. That's power ! Facing down a seriously armed contingent of troops with nothing more than TV cameras.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just marveling at the power.

The left or segments: no potent action on basic critical issues which confront the American people.
Such as housing, food and energy.

Any rally, street demonstration against corporations buying up large chunks of single family housing?

In the time of Stalin that power would be zero.

Whenever the considerations of a religious takeover of the government.

The religious right has been doing the preliminary ground work for years. Grooming of, educating funding placement in key areas. Taking the long view, one of generational to have control. We are now seeing the fruits ripen of their efforts.

Afraid we have not seen anything yet....

That's more a matter of geography. The Catholic church had a lot of power during that era, but not in the Soviet Russia.

I don't actually see it, other than Mike Pence trying to woo the main stream churches, and I'm sure the churches donate a lot of money.

But I don't see any Christians ruling the country. Y'all will have to convince of the Nat C take over. ;)

I think the worst of it was Billy Graham's love for Lyndon Johnson, trying to convince everyone that Jesus thought Napalm was good stuff (my spin). We haven't seen anything like that since.

What do you call the effective repeal of Roe vs. Wade by the Supreme Catholic Court of the United States, aka SCCOTUS, even more powerful than the Pope himself. Abortion is supported by 61% of Americans.

Public funding of religious schools? School prayer/prayer before a high school football game? In God We Trust signs in Texas classrooms?

If you don't believe that these are not signs of government sponsored Christinization of America, you should buy the Brooklyn bridge.

The repeal of Roe vs Wade was just de-centralization of political power, they kicked it back to the states for them to make their own decisions. It also cut Federal Funding for most abortions.

Kansas, that dreaded Red State, full of conservative Republicans and Christians actually let the people vote in a political decision (for once) as soon as Roe vs Wade was repealed.

We're Pro-Choice now. Not Pro-Life. By a huge margin, no less, like 55% to 40%. There's that crazy 40% Trumpkin thing again (Pio might get a kick out the 40%). Not sure where the funding comes from for the women who can't pay.

I never seen, or heard about prayer in schools, or at any sporting events in Kansas. "In God We Trust" is printed on all our money, I don't see it any where else.

Even our Catholic schools in Kansas are private tuition. If there are government funded religious schools, I'm not aware of it.

Ha.

Rajoo was referring to a Supreme Court ruling about a High School coach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwQJo1La1-I

So now it goes back to each state to decide if prayer can be allowed in schools.

Anyone can privately pray at any time, any place. It's allowing others to see you, and know what you're doing that's an issue.

Christ said to only pray in private, not showing off to other people.

The coach defied the teaching of Jesus. I hope he wasn't praying for the other team to lose. And the powers of evil have now made it legal.

But it's not like the kids are being forced to do it.

Found another example of what y'all are talking about;

The American Redoubt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDWaa3NshyM

That's lunatic fringe stuff, though. They're clueless that the Fourth Reichers are evil. They'll figure it out too late.

Allowing public school tax dollars to fund private church tuition. The so call charter schools eroding chipping away at public schools.

The CRT issue, Abortion Gender even Creation and Climate is being question not on the facts or science. Rather on a segments core values and beliefs. School board elections across the country are being targeted by churches as ripe pickings.

That's misconstruing Matthew 6:5. The text is this:

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”

These words in context are dismissive of folks who pray or go to church to make a public display of their faith for their own purposes. This type of display is not a prayer to God but putting yourself and your desire to appear "righteous" ahead of God.

This doesn't mean its wrong or "defies the teachings of Jesus" to pray with others. It does mean that prayers should be sincere and for the right motives.

There are instances in the bible where Jesus was witnessed in prayer. In fact, in Luke 11:1, after witnessing Jesus in prayer, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Not so much. I went to Catholic schools, and sure, Religious Ed was part of the curriculum. But Catholic teachings did not supplant or inform the teaching of science, math, history, or any other subject matter. In fact, in 8th grade, I was a good little environmentalist and did a science project on the impact of chlorofluorocarbons on the ozone layer.

We are in total agreement for a change Sir and one of my closest friends and a board member is named Matthew. So thank you once again Matthew. :)

And yes, kneeling at the 50 yard line in a so called silent prayer is BS. Only Christians kneel down to pray that I know of, not Muslims, Buddhists or the Hindus. So yes, its open promotion of Christianity within a secular state and should be constitutionally prohibited.

Nice rebuke.

Incorrect. The practice of kneeling in prayer is most commonly associated with Christianity in this country. Kneeling is also practiced in Islam and Hinduism.

In the case of the football coach, I suspect the separation of church and state hard-core folks would have been pissed about the situation whether the coach was kneeling, standing, or hanging upside down from the goal post.

It is trivially easy for a coach to make or break a student's 'athletic career.' You want to please the coach. You don't want to displease the coach.

Wasn't intended as a rebuke, just an explanation of how "communal prayer" is not only practiced but encouraged.

Are you suggesting this was a factor in the most recent SCOTUS case?

By the allowing of public funds to support the sending of students to private and religious schools. At first it seemed to be an attempt at breaking teacher unions, now to bring back religion to the schools on the tax payers dime.

This country been able to survive for this long because of the separation of church and state. To now with the Johnson Amendment being under attack.

The separation of church and state is essentially an artificial one. The real power of the state is its ability to wield violence and that has always been infused with religious fervor.

For charter schools, the idea was to provide an alternative learning environment that meets or exceeds what's available in the public school system, while allowing the curriculum to be tailored to certain types of students. The idea that all students should have the same curriculum was great 100 years ago when much of the US still had an agricultural economy. Allowing schools to tailor education to focus on STEM, leadership, foreign language immersion, etc., does have certain advantages.

As far as private schools: why not allow parents to choose which school their children will attend. Why lock low-income families' kids into floundering school districts while kids whose families can afford it send their kids to a school that produced superior results?

Parents who send their kids to a private school essentially pay tuition twice: once with their local tax bill, and again when they pay tuition at the school of their choice. That's fine if you can afford it, but many families can't.

Some good points. Many of the public schools are handicapped with oversized admin.

That is a quintessential Russian attitude. We had a thing we call the Enlightenment that spread the idea that religious fervor is not healthy for children and other living things. Governments with religious fervor are bad, and governments doing violence with religious fervor are are about as ghastly bad as it gets.

The charter schools is a way around busing, integration, teaching with little transparencies. A profit engine for those running the schools.

Few local controls, oversight over the curriculum. Have not proven to be any better then public schools in test scores.

Less diverse of a student body. No busing for students so limit the applicants to those with transportation. Special need students are not assured admittance.

Charter schools will increase the tribal like separation going on in our society. At the time the opposite is much in need.

Public schools are just that a reflection of the surrounding areas. One of the biggest issues with pubic schools is the funding model. With property taxes the fuel. Affluent areas better schools, less funded schools suffer. Taking a portion of the funds away from publicly accountable schools to a private opaque one is problematic at best.

The Russians were more forthright.
The Enlightenment was skin deed. It did not prevent the state from grabbing the religious symbols, accoutrements and mimes to employ in the suppress and control of the people.
All those states that were supposed to be exposed to this Enlightment went to Africa under a God head and wreaked havoc.