Thread by @brchastain

One key lesson I’d love for the Left to learn from #Exvangelical folks is this: evangelicalism, the engine of religious conservatism in America, has become increasingly constrictive over the decades. Their ability to tolerate dissent of any kind in their community is near zero.

https://twitter.com/C_Stroop/status/1040638884617637888

Over the past few decades, through concerted efforts across a variety of evangelical institutions, social & political dissent has been quashed from within. Examples include Paige Patterson’s fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in ‘98 & the increased conservatism on Xian campuses.

@C_Stroop has documented cases of “theological paranoia” on Christian college campuses. An increasingly conservative donor base that demands campus and intellectual life match their own preferences drives Xian colleges to damaging policy and teaching.

religiondispatches.org/special-report…

But like so much of evangelicalism, the reasons for this push toward hardline stances—with no room for compromise, resulting in the ‘closing of the evangelical mind and heart’—are multitudinous.

Much can be credited to toxic beliefs about “God’s Sovereignty,” and what evangelicals claim is a “plain reading” of the biblical texts, that have resulted in abusive practices in evangelical homes, churches, and institutions. These beliefs are taught in many places & mediums.

Toxic evangelical beliefs are espoused in Christian homeschool curricula, evangelical colleges, evangelical music, Xian TV, and Xian lobbying. An entire media ecosystem has been created to propagate these beliefs, and even so, it can be hard to unmask the underlying assumptions.

This is why #Exvangelical voices and community are vital to public discourse. We know the internal logic and language, because we were inside. We know how this culture pushes out the dissenters and the different, because we have been pushed out.