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As a whole American evangelical Christianity is based on rigidly fundamentalistic and authoritarian ideology. It demands “true belief” in its followers or adherents. That is, it demands absolute, unquestioning acceptance of all of the ideology and blind faith in the dogma and in the behavior of its ministers and leadership.

That makes the movement and its followers highly judgmental, condemning any behavior which does not accept the blind faith or who act differently. The condemnation of the behavior extends to condemnation of any and all persons who act or believe differently. Add to that the fact that many of them believe in the “prosperity gospel”—God rewards those who follow the dogma in every way, including financial. In their view, those who are struggling financially or in any other way are probably not following God’s word. Therefore, true believers should not feel much pity for them until they confess their sins, repent, and become true believers.

This combination makes far too many of them to become judgmental bigots and often outright racists. And, that racism all too frequently becomes part of the dogma.

The authoritarian and generally demagogic leadership of evangelicals leads most of them to have a lust for power so that they want force their point of view on others through unholy comingling of politics and religion. These hypocrites such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, jr, Franklin Grahan an, Paula White, and far too many others are knowingly befouling both religion and politics by the comingling. They are to be condemned and fought.

wordywalt 9 Nov 12
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11 comments

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1

All of the above and full of hypocrisy, and shit.

1

Whole American evangelical Christianity is base on money and how much they can get for their own gains and help support a richer live style. What do they talk about is money and the need for more money. These evangelist have personal wealth in the top 1% from people who are weak and think they are giving to GOD but really its supporting life style of these fake so call close to GOD.

Giess Level 4 Nov 13, 2019
3

Amen! Very well thought out and delivered!
And Totally on point! You've summed up the entire Hypocrisy of organized religion in one nice easy to digest post!

Well Done! 😊

1

Stating the obvious. You are preaching to the choir.

0

Very well said.

2

Preaching to the choir.

1

Let it (show “it demands absolute, unquestioning acceptance of all of the ideology and blind faith in the dogma and in the behavior of its ministers and leadership” )! Such dogmatic intransigence best exemplifies the extremist demands they’d make on all given the opportunity.. They are the smarmy equivalent of an ‘American Taliban.’

Solid piece … worthy of the Opinion Page of any newspaper.

Varn Level 8 Nov 13, 2019
2

When you put it this way, I am more amazed than ever that anyone with a scintilla of brain activity "believes"! Just scary!

2

I grew up as an Evangelical Christian. I was neck deep into our church life. Church on Sunday, youth group on Wednesday, summer camps at the church camp (which happened to only be an hour away), youth conferences....At 14, my life's ambition was to be a pastor. And I was actually pretty damn good at giving a sermon.

My journey to being agnostic/atheist began around the time I was 14. I had began to have questions about inconstancies that I saw in doctrine and teachings. I was seeing behavior in people that to me was hypocritical towards the teachings. So I started asking questions to my pastor, my youth pastor, one of the counselors at my camp.... I found every one of them, and I mean every one, to be open to my questions and answered how they could and they were not judgmental towards my "questioning my faith".

In the end, I simply could not reconcile the teachings with what I saw with my eyes and knew with my mind. Even in my separation from the church, I was not judged by these people. Yes, it took years to deprogram myself from asking the question of "What if I am wrong" about there not being a god.

I say all this, because I disagree with your characterization and grouping of ALL Evangelicals or as you call it "as a whole". I will agree with your characterization of the individuals that you named. I think they are a special breed of evil - narcissistic wearing the sheep's clothing of religion. My experience is that many of the general church population are simply people who are looking for meaning in life in a world where there isn't any.

There are people who can create their own internal moral code and live by it. I see many of the people in religion as people who were unable to create their own internal moral code, so they look to an external source. Unfortunately, of those who cannot create their own code, some are also weak minded as well. These are the people who I believe fall completely under the spell of the aforementioned wolves in sheep's clothing.

I like user DavidDuhon's comment to this. Just my two cents.

Your experience with leaving the church is NOT IN ANY WAY normal. The way you were treated and/or not treated was very rare indeed.
What is much more common, is judgment, harsh treatment, and being shunned by one's own Inner Circle

Brilliant, and honestly written… I so appreciate those taking time to respond for more than ‘quick points,’ too. I hope you’re able to influence others beyond here, your moderation and insight ..impressed me.

Perhaps he could have referred to present day adult fundamentalists. Children don’t count because they might grow up. It is, however, pretty spot on description of the adult fundamentals that I have encountered.

When I use the phrase " as a whole" I mean that it applies to most, but not all/

0

Yes but of course in many ways it is giving them what they want, and what they came to it for. To be told. 'You are superior, you can be as lazy as you like because we will tell you all you need to think, no effort required from you, and everything you have is yours because you are naturally good and deserve it.' The dream ticket!

1

Insightful description.

skado Level 9 Nov 12, 2019
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