In light of the fallout around Moore and his Evangelical supporters, I think it's time we devote a broader discussion of this issue. It's long overdue considering their unwavering support of that other sexual assaulter in the White House. First of all, I want to be clear. The church is hardly the only institution that has been found to harbor this sort of sexual criminality. We've seen problems in universities, Hollywood, corporations, politics, police departments, the military etc ... Virtually anywhere where there is a male dominated hierarchy in place, sexual abuse is possible ... maybe even likely. What makes the Evangelicals a special category is their sanctimony and their political attacks against non conforming people based on morality. Gays, transgender, adulterers, pre marital sex, contraception, abortion, promiscuous women, divorce and pornography are always in the firing line. And yet it's a never ending stream of closeted gays, hidden abortions, adultery, pornography and sexual abuse coming from their world. At what point will they stop preaching at us? How many more revelations do we need? And let's not get started on financial criminality (although we should since these various crimes often go hand in hand). Tax evasion, fraud, crooked televangelism, political corruption etc ... This is a long but fascinating article that motivated me to start this thread. http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/b...lauderdale-accused-of-molesting-child-9827948. I'd quote from it, but quotes would be pointless without the whole context of the article. The depravity and the widespread nature of this web of criminality is mind boggling. And all while these people engage in gay conversion therapy and fund regressive far right politicians who try to curtail sexual rights and freedoms. And the national media sort of gives them all a pass, and much more leniency than the Catholic Church and Islam receive for their sexual depravity. While I wish that we could just hope that they die out on their own, the truth is that far right evangelicalism is actually growing. Maybe not as fast as the religiously unaffiliated (atheists, agnostics, general spiritualists), but growing nonetheless. They're growing mostly at the expense of mainline Protestants who are slowly fading away into history. What is the endgame here and will these people ever reform themselves? Is there hope for a milder version of Evangelicalism? Can Evangelicalism ever separate itself from fundamentalism and charismatic cultism? Or are we on an unavoidable violent collision course ...
That part is true. We are Ireland, the year is 1965, and evangelicals are our Catholic Church. They influence the state's policies, and its popular culture, while being protected from inquiry. Nobody directly says "don't go after them, they are men of the cloth and it would inappropriate to treat them otherwise," but that is the effect.
Or more to the point, stop letting them call themselves Evangelicals. We (Christians) are all called to be evangelical and spread the Good Word. We are not, in any way, called by Scripture, to demand that secular government defend and/or enforce adherence to our (Christian) beliefs.
I don't let them use it, at least not without spitting on the ground. It also doesn't help with every media outlet looks to a loon like Pat Robertson, or a Salesman like Joel Osteen following literally any event of significance in the news.
Evangelicals are distinct because of their commitment to (duh) evangelism. Many people who aren't practicing Christians confuse them with inerrantists or dominionists or other factions. There's much overlap, sure, but the latter are about theology. Evangelicals are about how to live out their faith, not the details of what that faith is. Oversimplified, but hopefully y'all get the point.
I'd say the venn diagram between evangelicals and dominionists is practically 80% coverage Well, with them, you know what you're going to get by reading the manual. With evangelicals, that's going to slide a lot with every cultural battle they lose
Being a heathen, I'm having trouble remembering the parts where Jesus implored his adherents to control the government. But no doubt he did.
The dominionist Bible leaves out the part where Satan tempts Jesus with political control of the secular world.
Again, I blame St. Ronnie. Give any group a lil bit of power and it becomes intoxicating. Then we get what we have now. The "religious" overwhelmingly supporting skunkholes like Moore & Trump. Not because they're holy men...haha...Evangelicals aren't that clueless. It's because they want to vanquish Evangelicals' enemies. Bernie Bernsteins, lib'ruls, commies, Big Gubmint, feminazis, BLM, etc. Lock them back in the shed & ignore them, and their power will diminish again.
I've never stepped foot in an evangelical church, so I don't know what I'm talking about. But I always associated them with charisma religion, which in my mind lends itself perfectly to cult like behavior. The more charismatic the pastor, the more afraid I am of them. The only evangelical church I feel comfortable around is the old run down sleepy church that is pastored by some geriatric with a congregation you can count on two hands.
All I know about churches (and I'm speaking of Protestant churches), if you go into a church and it's white you are in for some really bad music.
There's a presby church a few miles north of me that has a really good jazz pianist for a pastor. And about 20 miles south, another presby church has an organist with a classical recording contract. I've never been to a service there, but I've been to a couple of his recital. Unless he wears mittens during the services, he's probably pretty good there too. Not evangelicals, to be sure, but as white as white gets.
I disagree. I've been to a few Unitarian services, most recently the funeral of a colleague of my parents. They do a great job and have some interesting arrangements and use of harmony. One of the big White churches in town gives a Christmas performance which is really well-done. The dismissal of White art forms as sterile or inartistic has another side... an ugly, false side White conservatives have been trying to pass off as fact for centuries. They create these bizzarre alternate realities on their own enough as it is and force the rest of us to live at least partially within them- it's best not to give them any more ammo. Black people don't sing, dance or cook better than anybody else, and that bit of damnation via faint praise needs to stop. Or those people will continue to laugh at their lack of rhythm (allegedly) all the way to the bank while we cut rugs in poverty and ignorance (allegedly).
As others have mentioned it seems that the mainline churches (which I hadn't gone into any) did have some good music. The last evangelical church I went in had the worst type of derivative music not copying Black forms of music but copying Rock. It is more an indictment of America and its total lack of history or its total dismissal of history that exists. There is a whole rich history of religious music but these churches encourage instead a sort of christian rock which I guess is supposed to encourage the youth to attend. It was really bad music.