A visitor from another planet – or perhaps an angel sent by the Lord to check in on the church – when figuring out what white American evangelicals are today might be slightly confused.
If she/he/it/they checked a dictionary then looked around at evangelicals in 2018 they’d wonder what idiot wrote this inaccurate description of the definition of evangelical in Merriam-Webster:
- of, relating to, or being in agreement with the Christian gospel especially as it is presented in the four Gospels
- protestant
- emphasizing salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the importance of preaching as contrasted with ritual.
In Trump’s America the investigating angel might be forgiven for thinking that Webster was written by idiots and write a new set of rough notes that might go like this:
White Evangelicals: relating to, or being in agreement with those trying to avoid being blamed for a generations-long pattern of rigid sexual authoritarianism and racism who have presently voted for a man everyone else in the America accurately regards as a blight, criminal con-artist.
The importance of believing that Jesus Christ saved you personally from sin or hell, and the preaching of these beliefs to other people was once the pretended prime directive of white evangelicals. Actually their history points to other priorities now fully realized in the election of Donald Trump.
Those priorities are (listed in no particular order) best expressed by the fact that 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump and now 61% percent of them still support him.
So who are these white evangelicals really? A bit of history is in order. White evangelicals are about:
stopping abortions,
preserving Male authority (it means beating children),
getting involved in shady politics,
supporting wars of choice,
In other words white evangelicals are and always have been at the heart of the fascistic so-called conservative movement, and like that movement are – in Trump – reaping what they have sown for the last 100 years- plus.
Merriam-Webster call your office. Here’s a suggestion for your new definition of white evangelical:
Relating to, or being in agreement with every backward misinformed idea as long as it is mean,
A myth-based cult,
A lynch mob.
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3 Comments. Leave new
Hi Frank. I have to say that it’s getting harder and harder to read your stuff to the end because of the anger and vitriol. I’m not saying you’re wrong but I just can’t absorb the passionate rage. Sorry- take care,
Maribeth
Okay, you can’t take Frank’s passionate rage. Fair enough. But think about the suffering these fools for Christ” inflict on victims through their championing of misguided public policies (e.g., eliminating health care for children, cutting food stamps, etc.)
Frank’s relentless anger and vitriol may be hard to read post after post, but so is the needless suffering of those least able to defend themselves politically. I know many working-class families where both parents work low wage jobs and still, they are hard-pressed to feed their children after paying exorbitant rents. And the federal threshold for getting food stamps is so ridiculously low, that many families although struggling, don’t qualify for help.
There is an ad campaign to stamp out hunger here in NYC where it states that Mom and Dad have gone without eating several days to make sure their children get enough to eat. That breaks my heart!
One can work a forty hour work week and still be poor in the US. Why is that? Something is terribly wrong and it’s disheartening to see so many so-called “Christians” supporting public policies that harm historically marginal groups in the name of “Jesus.”
Yes, Frank’s anger is hard to read, but so is a hungry child in the richest country in the world where millions of Christians voted for a billionaire who put that hungry child more at risk. Thanks for your comments. Peace.
Yes, “always look on the bright side” is not going to recapture the real Christian message. Listen to white evangelical Trumpsters talking – and if you don’t get angry….
Thank you, Frank, for articulating ‘our’ rage!!!