Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
The following excerpted article is written by an American evangelical, John Fea, providing more psychological context for why 81% of American evangelicals voted for the skeeziest man on the planet. As Fea also provided, it didn't help matters that Trump was faced off against the Clinton legacy.
Fea points out that at every opportunity there is a better 'faith' choice that can be made that will deliver better outcomes for all. Here we know that conservative types are more fear and anxiety prone and are thus more drawn to the perceived surety of religious fundamentalism. Such fundamentalism, for whatever reason(s) seem to always come with a fearsome End Times apocalyptic narrative, which does nothing but further stoke their reactionary, fear driven behaviors.
As more people are starting to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler, and others complaining that this is not valid, the David Redles book Hitler's Millennial Reich demonstrates Hitler's near identical dynamic with the German Volk, roughly the same demographic as American evangelicals. Perhaps the strongest difference is the absolute depths of the German Volk in the post-WWI Weimar period compared to the relative depths of the American uneducated white proletariat. These latter perceiving their decline in Boomer status and wealth from the post-WWII period.
As Fea points out, ironically Christian evangelicals are supposed to "fear not" because God will take care of them for eternity in the heavenly afterlife. Perhaps too many of them 'fear' that this pledge is similar to being sold some swampland in Florida. And of course, evangelicals are not of one mind on the whereabouts of the heavenly paradise, with some believing that they will live in eternal paradise on a 'cleansed' planet Earth.
This is exactly what the Nazis taught in their neoChristian millennial apocalyptic construct, with Hitler as their messiah. We even know from Trump's first wife that he kept Hitler's Mein Kampf on his bedside nightstand.
Same bat tirades, same bat shit END products.
White conservative evangelicals in America are anxious people. I know because I am one.
Our sense of fear, perhaps more than any other factor, explains why evangelicals voted in such large numbers for Donald Trump in 2016 and continue to support his presidency.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson once wrote, “Fear is not a Christian habit of mind.” The great poet of the Jersey shore, Bruce Springsteen, sings, “Fear’s a dangerous thing. It can turn your heart black you can trust. It can take a God-filled soul, and turn it to devils and dust.”
Robinson and Springsteen echo verses in nearly every book of the Bible, the sacred text that serves as the source of spiritual authority in evangelical life. Moses told the Israelites to “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.” The Hebrew God told Job: “At the destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.” The Psalmist wrote: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.”
The Gospel of John teaches Christians that “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear. St. Luke writes: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Despite all these scriptural passages, it is still possible to write an entire history of American evangelicalism as the story of a people failing miserably at overcoming fear with hope, trust, and faith in their God. But it is also possible to find evangelicals, drawing deeply from Christian theological resources, who sought to forge an alternative history. ...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/a-history-of-evangelical-fear/563558/
Our sense of fear, perhaps more than any other factor, explains why evangelicals voted in such large numbers for Donald Trump in 2016 and continue to support his presidency.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson once wrote, “Fear is not a Christian habit of mind.” The great poet of the Jersey shore, Bruce Springsteen, sings, “Fear’s a dangerous thing. It can turn your heart black you can trust. It can take a God-filled soul, and turn it to devils and dust.”
Robinson and Springsteen echo verses in nearly every book of the Bible, the sacred text that serves as the source of spiritual authority in evangelical life. Moses told the Israelites to “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.” The Hebrew God told Job: “At the destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.” The Psalmist wrote: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.”
The Gospel of John teaches Christians that “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear. St. Luke writes: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Despite all these scriptural passages, it is still possible to write an entire history of American evangelicalism as the story of a people failing miserably at overcoming fear with hope, trust, and faith in their God. But it is also possible to find evangelicals, drawing deeply from Christian theological resources, who sought to forge an alternative history. ...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/a-history-of-evangelical-fear/563558/
Fea points out that at every opportunity there is a better 'faith' choice that can be made that will deliver better outcomes for all. Here we know that conservative types are more fear and anxiety prone and are thus more drawn to the perceived surety of religious fundamentalism. Such fundamentalism, for whatever reason(s) seem to always come with a fearsome End Times apocalyptic narrative, which does nothing but further stoke their reactionary, fear driven behaviors.
As more people are starting to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler, and others complaining that this is not valid, the David Redles book Hitler's Millennial Reich demonstrates Hitler's near identical dynamic with the German Volk, roughly the same demographic as American evangelicals. Perhaps the strongest difference is the absolute depths of the German Volk in the post-WWI Weimar period compared to the relative depths of the American uneducated white proletariat. These latter perceiving their decline in Boomer status and wealth from the post-WWII period.
As Fea points out, ironically Christian evangelicals are supposed to "fear not" because God will take care of them for eternity in the heavenly afterlife. Perhaps too many of them 'fear' that this pledge is similar to being sold some swampland in Florida. And of course, evangelicals are not of one mind on the whereabouts of the heavenly paradise, with some believing that they will live in eternal paradise on a 'cleansed' planet Earth.
This is exactly what the Nazis taught in their neoChristian millennial apocalyptic construct, with Hitler as their messiah. We even know from Trump's first wife that he kept Hitler's Mein Kampf on his bedside nightstand.
Same bat tirades, same bat shit END products.
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