NYTimes Op Ed on the Republican Party and evangelicalism

Trump has been a train wreck thus far it seems. It’s times like this that you appreciate the way our government is built that helps mitigate damage from the executive branch.

 

I remember posting about this idea about evangelicalism a couple of weeks ago. There are some people who have always identified as evangelical who are finding the movement has become so twisted up that it might be better to not associate with that name any longer. They might just be slower to realize something that people outside evangelicalism have been saying for awhile, that it is just a blunt political weapon that tries to leverage Christianity to get preferred political outcomes. From the evangelical church communities I've been a part of, I don't think that has been the intention for them but they've been able to see too much nuance in evangelicalism and all the reasons why their church is not like that other church, and not really appreciate how everyone calling themselves evangelical are getting painted with the same broad brush. More and more, because of Trump, they're seeing it, and seeing that they might need to define themselves and ally themselves differently.

 

The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear evangelicalism is not the Christian faith, it is White far right conservatism.

 

To be honest, I had a different feeling. I feel the Executive branch has too much power and not enough checks and balances are in place. I honestly feel our democracy is more fragile than I have ever imagined. Much of the Executive branch's powers is contingent upon good faith. An intelligent version of Trump could have done much more damage to the country because of the powers bestowed upon the POTUS.

 

Exactly. But, my introduction was via a theologically conservative church (Bible is authored by God and is inerrant) that was focused on evangelizing the word of god to nonbelievers (like me) but was studiously apolitical. When you are in a community like that and you hear about other evangelicals fighting abortion, or gays in the military, or whatever, you don't really think that has anything to do with you. But, everybody on the outside does. It's like wanting to call yourself a socialist without carrying all the baggage of Soviet communism. It might make all the sense in the world, but the uninitiated will still think you're just a commie.

 

You are exactly right.

 

Honestly . . . I first really recognized and could put a name to this type of actions back with the REFORM PARTY
Ross Perot created a good thing . . IMo . . . not perfect but his ideals and party were sound

So . . .What happened. . . INFILTRATION, DOMINATION and DESTRUCTIONS
Republicans saw it as a threat .. . they infiltrated it with their 'religious folx' . . they took it over. . .and destroyed it from the inside
The point is
When a thing becomes useful . . .those in power will infiltrate it . .. manipulate it . . and ultimately destroy it and move on to the next thing
Evangelicals are simply the latest host to the parasite of power grubbing manipulators
They are now finding their name, reputation and influence being used for some of the very things they say they are against
as of now
they seem too embarrassed, engaged or committed to it to break from this snowball rolling down hill

Rocket River

 

Nixon's congress was also a more intelligent version of Trump's.

 

To be fair, when Nixon was impeached, Democrats held the House with a much larger margin than what the Republicans have now and Democrats controlled the Senate (with 56 seats).

If Democrats held both houses right now, the congressional investigations would look very different and since the Senate wouldn't be able to overcome the filibuster, there would be a disproportionate amount of time spent on investigations.

 

My sister's family is a part of a Chinese Evangelical church and most of the adults are conservatives with their Fox Fed values. Not stupid people either. A lot of the men are mid-senior level engineers so I guess it provides a kind of order and they'd be a third-fourth tier beneficiary of whatever tax cut might be thrown their way.

 

And I know, shocking that trump would blatantly lie to a room full of church leaders...

 

Some times the material writes itself...

Exclusive: Trump fixer Cohen says he helped Falwell handle racy photos

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...CN1SD2JG?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social