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Buckle up, guys, gals, and non-binary pals, because we are about to talk Pensacola Christian College.
This is a political #Exvangelical #emptythepews thread with a heavy dose of #youdontknowevangelicals
This is a political #Exvangelical #emptythepews thread with a heavy dose of #youdontknowevangelicals
When I was choosing my Evangelical college, PCC was one of my few approved options. It has a pretty decent nursing program, and I was toying with going to school for that, but I knew, even then, that it possibly was the most conservative of all the schools I had access to.
Actually, I’ll have to amend that, Ambassador Bible College was probably way more conservative than PCC, but even we considered them fringe.
1/ If evangelicals enthusiastically supporting the forced separation of children from their illegal immigrant parents is surprising to you, understand that evangelicals are fundamentally opposed to the idea of children having human rights. #YouDontKnowEvangelicals #EmptyThePews
2/ Most evangelicals would not directly say “Children do not have basic human rights”, but it is baked into their belief system; they just don’t. Evangelicals do not see children as having an identity independent of their family.
3/ Observe Mike Farris of HSLDA explaining that children don’t have fundamental human rights of their own, while not explicitly saying so (hslda.org/content/docs/h…): 
Complementarianism is like a potato peeler.
Stay with me here.
Stay with me here.
It's sold to Christians by its function: "This is how you obey God and have a good family."
We don't purchase potato peelers to do anything but peel things.
No one argues AGAINST "Comps think the best way to obey God and have a good family is by complementarianism."
We don't purchase potato peelers to do anything but peel things.
No one argues AGAINST "Comps think the best way to obey God and have a good family is by complementarianism."
[Content note: I'm about to use graphic violence to make a point. I'm a writer who likes Stephen King--sorry in advance.]
But, imagine if a husband took a potato peeler and started using it to peel a woman's skin. It's still serving it's function! It's peeling!
But, imagine if a husband took a potato peeler and started using it to peel a woman's skin. It's still serving it's function! It's peeling!
1. Gather round, people of Twitter! It's time for How the #MartyredMajority Lives!
Returning to the last episode's theme of #WhiteChristiansBeingPersecuted, today's episode takes us to Hillsdale, Michigan.
(Credit to @NutMeg897 for the amazing hashtag #MartyredMajority!)
Returning to the last episode's theme of #WhiteChristiansBeingPersecuted, today's episode takes us to Hillsdale, Michigan.
(Credit to @NutMeg897 for the amazing hashtag #MartyredMajority!)
2. Now Hillsdale is home to a hardline conservative Christian "liberal arts" school called Hillsdale College. Incidentally, one of my high school friends from youth group went there. And guess who was invited to give this year's commencement address? Why, none other than @VP.
3. You can see Mike Pence's own thread relating his speech here:
In what follows, I am going to analyze (okay, mock) it blow-by-blow using screenshots. But first, a bit about Hillsdale College, where being persecuted is definitely #HowToEvangelical.
In what follows, I am going to analyze (okay, mock) it blow-by-blow using screenshots. But first, a bit about Hillsdale College, where being persecuted is definitely #HowToEvangelical.
Gather around, because I have some *things* to say about being raised in white evangelicalism.
Radicalizing individuals to violently “take back America” isn’t a bug of evangelical fundamentalism, it’s the whole point.
#EmptyThePews #YouDontKnowEvangelicals #Exvangelical
Radicalizing individuals to violently “take back America” isn’t a bug of evangelical fundamentalism, it’s the whole point.
#EmptyThePews #YouDontKnowEvangelicals #Exvangelical
My parent’s pastor, in the early 80’s, preached, “If we're going to turn this [country] around we need to be having lots of kids.” My parents chose to have more kids than they could handle because of those teachings.
Side note: we weren’t even in a quiverfull church. Most families had 4-5 kids. We dressed normal. This wasn’t an “extreme” fundamentalist church. My point, you probably know people who are in evangelical churches like this, that seem totally normal and harmless from the outside.
I don’t want to give more publicity to this bad faith argument, and Jen doesn’t need me to defend her, but I do have some thoughts. This kind of logic is very commonly employed in conservative circles, and I think a little pushback is completely justified. 😆
We jump off with TWO classic “arguments”:
1) conceding that perhaps a small problem exists somewhere but it’s not widespread.
2) my argument is Real Logic™️ so despite neither of us having data to backup our assertions and experiences, I’m more right than you.
1) conceding that perhaps a small problem exists somewhere but it’s not widespread.
2) my argument is Real Logic™️ so despite neither of us having data to backup our assertions and experiences, I’m more right than you.
Here’s where Mike makes his bad faith and hyper defensiveness abundantly clear: he frames Jen’s theological shift as rejecting all traditionalists as “backwater bucolic yokels.”
I haven’t listened to this interview yet but this framing is so out of character for JH is comical
I haven’t listened to this interview yet but this framing is so out of character for JH is comical
1. Evangelicals love to twist the meanings of words and phrases, appropriating human rights rhetoric for an ideology that rejects universal human rights.
2. There's a disingenuousness in the way Evangelicals and other fundamentalists will change their framing and packaging for different audiences. It's cult-like.
3. Let me explain what I mean by "cult-like." Fundamentalists and cultists of all kinds operate with ends-justify-the-means tactics when it comes to drawing people in for conversions.
1. I and many ex-Evangelicals share @DJSugi’s frustration. 2017 taught us some things about how to be heard.
“I’ve spent much of my adulthood terrified that Christian extremists would take over America, and... many of my peers seemed oblivious to my concerns.”
#EmptyThePews
“I’ve spent much of my adulthood terrified that Christian extremists would take over America, and... many of my peers seemed oblivious to my concerns.”
#EmptyThePews
2. Before laying out my thoughts on this, a couple of caveats. Firstly, it's not the fault of survivors of extremist Christianity that mainstream America has proven largely unwilling to listen.
3. An (untenable, circular) impulse to consider "real" religion benign is baked into American national DNA, although it functions disproportionately in favor of Christianity. Christian privilege is very real.
You say you are “soul searching,” @jjz1600, but you need to be looking at WHO actually voted in Jones.
(Hint: It wasn’t the WWW.)
(Hint: It wasn’t the WWW.)
I appreciate your responding, and ITA about both/and.
Let me ask you something: How do you understand the turnout by Black Alabamians last night? What is your view on what prompted that level of engagement by Black voters?
Let me ask you something: How do you understand the turnout by Black Alabamians last night? What is your view on what prompted that level of engagement by Black voters?
(Since you don't know me and don't have context for reading my tone: this is a sincere query. And I am choosing to ask it publicly via quote tweet because this is an important dialogue for many of us on the left, NOT to put you on the spot.)
1. #YouDontKnowEvangelicals if you don’t see the Christian Right’s fingerprints all over Trump’s move to consider Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
2. But why does it matter to them? It really is all about end times prophecy associated with what’s called premillennial dispensationalist eschatology. #EmptyThePews
3. If you’re hung up on the terminology, it’s the popular version involving a “rapture” of believers at Christ’s return and before the “tribulation.”
1. Many ex-Evangelicals leave when our understanding of Jesus comes to clash w/ right-wing culture wars and our criticism is deflected. BUT
2. It simply isn’t true that “anyone who has actually read the Gospels” will opt for social justice Christianity or bust. Not how this works
3. There was a time when I insisted the “real” Jesus of the gospels was nothing like Evangelicals, who are like the Pharisees he attacked.
1. @splinter_news and @sarahposner get it. To understand and combat Christian Right Trump support, talk to us ex-Evangelicals. #EmptyThePews
2. I'm going to be blunt here. Americans don't need 573 think pieces in the vein of "Hypocritical Evangelicals, y u vote Trump?"
3. What we need is to allow the ex-Evangelical community and movement to have the kind of visibility and voice that shapes the public sphere
1. Trumpism is made-in-America ugliness that Kremlin interference helped to empower. To defeat it we must address U.S. white supremacism.
2. Facing their flaws and accepting legitimate criticism is something that authoritarian/narcissistic personalities and groups refuse to do.
3. To the authoritarian, feeling safe, in control, and protected from ego threats takes precedence over empathy and redress of grievances.
