by Frank Schaeffer
When will the media stop completely overlooking the glaring fact that Christo-Fascists were very much involved on the January 6th invasion/attack on our Capitol? They have long been a dagger poised over the beating heart of American Democracy. Say it out loud with me: White evangelicals are anti-American, anti-democracy and dangerous.
History teaches that when you mix religion and politics you get blood. Is anyone in the media awake to what White evangelicals are now? This Trump cult is on the verge of blessing widespread violence as legitimate “resistance” to “liberals” and Democrats who “stole” the election.
Why the silence? I surmise that the liberal literati do not take kindly to one of the unwashed like me pointing out such a glaring sin of omission as ignoring the looming threat that evangelical Christians post to our nation.
The media is exposing a White supremacist path to violence that the FBI is investigating but make little to no mention of Christo-Fascist evangelicals like Franklin Graham. But Graham, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell Jr., were the supporters most essential to Trump’s election. Now they are most essential to the rise of terror as Christian Nationalist “resistance” to liberals.
No, Graham and company are not calling openly for violence. BUT they are also not calling out Trump’s lies that labeled the election “stolen” thus legitimizing a lie-based overthrow of our government as a “legitimate” goal.
American media elitists just don’t have any personal experience of the evangelical and conservative Roman Catholic religious wackos that are a clear and and present danger to our Republic. The media are missing the story of a coming wave of religion-inspired and enabled, even blessed, terror.
It is time to call out the entire evangelical movement as an existential threat to American democracy. It is time for the coastal lazy media to do its job.
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4 Comments. Leave new
My experience with extremist evangelicals in 2011 left me deeply shaken Mr. Schaeffer. They thought they were going to convert me into their cult, but that wasn’t going to happen.
I knew something was very wrong with the leaders of this southern Baptist Church early on. I had hoped they were an anomaly, but they were most certainly not. I educated myself (with your wonderful help!) and agree we are in a desperate situation.
They call themselves evangelicals which means they believe that salvation is through Jesus Christ. Yet they do not act like they believe what Jesus taught. Evangelical also, usually, means that one is committed to convincing people that Christianity is the truth and yet they support a political party that is setting new records for lies told per hour. The so called extremist evangelicals are often good citizens but they are very confused and very deceived. Most of my extended family would fit into the definition of evangelical and nearly to a man and woman they voted for Trump. They are not bad people and they are true Christians but they are very deceived.
Hi Frank, have you seen Paula Stone Williams latest article? “A Failure of Courage” – of evangelical leadership, that is.
https://paulastonewilliams.com/2021/03/09/a-failure-of-courage/
What is the best way to distill your message down to its very important point in a way that doesn’t make it sound like it’s an attack on non-political evangelicals. I understand and agree with your premise, but at the same time I also know a lot of evangelicals who are not fundamentally political. I used to belong to a medium size evangelical church in CT that certainly shares much of the same religious beliefs as the white evangelical nationalists that you speak about. But they would be aghast at the notion that evangelicals support a theocratic government. I would equate it to the difference between devout Muslims who have little political interest and fundamental islamists who have been radicalized into violence.
I think that in order for the media to even broach the subject of white evangelical fundamentalism there needs to be a way to address the issue that doesn’t offend Christians who will automatically dismiss it as an attack on their religion. If the education on these dangers can somehow be directed first at the purveyors of this first, with enough reasonable proof of their agenda that makes it more palatable to main stream media that would help. I would love to help spread this message and the shocking truth it seeks to expose, but I hesitate to even tweet about it for fear of attack.