politics

Living in the American South this is pretty plain to see, however in the American Northeast Catholics are starting to do the same, which hasn't been the norm until recently and even the Pope has noticed.

My thoughts on it are that Right wing corruption affects everything it touches, the religious leaders wanted to batter down the wall separating church and state, and now many of them are losing their congregants to congregations that are lining up behind their new Orange Joseph Smith, because politics and religion are now intersecting within the Right wing. The MAGA Qult isn't going away anytime soon, the Global Right Wing conspiracy is implementing their state religions and unless we increase mental healthcare and deprogram these individuals we're going to have a religious extremist insurgency.

I'll leave you with this quote from Barry Goldwater:

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.

Except we're not just dealing with Christian Nationalists, we're dealing with Islamic and Hindu nationalists, and simply Chinese Nationalists and other fascists, all working together to carve out their own territories.

I mean it's been clear for a while. The culture of American Christianity has long had little to do with the text of the Bible, the traditions of the Hebrews, or anyone else who had traditionally held the religion.

Religion in the US has long been part of a larger culture of being a "good" American. A good American buys a new car every couple years, votes republican, raises their daughter to be a good housewife, goes to church 15 times a year, and just thinks American culture should be more like it used to. It's always been so empty.

It's sad that we don't teach the history of symbolism / society media consumption patterns. Multimedia presentation of Fox News is way more televangelism than a dusty old book named The Bible. We just let advertising and marketing media act upon the population and people behave as if there are no side-effects or conflicting influence systems. We could educate everyone on the world-wide patterns of this and the history, but we do not. We behave somehow as if the Middle East / Levant is a role model of people fighting it out over their favorite story patterns.

Of course. Moreover, people who aren’t dicks grow up and move on from religions whose dogma justifies dick moves, while the dicks remain. It’s only natural.

Ewww, I stepped in religion.

Couldn't have said it better myself 👏

Of course. Sects like The Religious Society of Friends and the UUs are definitely brainwashing and oppressing people. That’s not at all an overgeneralization based on your experiences with the strictly hierarchical and imperialist forms of religion that are most dominant in the culture.

Fascism doesn't have a lot of support in the United States outside of those who would benefit from it. That's always been the case. Any chance it had to entrench itself died on January 6th, 2021. That was their attempt and high water mark and it failed dramatically. They made a mistake and broadcasted what they were doing publicly. Going forward you can expect a slow swing to the left for at least a generation and perhaps longer.

As for religion, it's decline was long overdue. What started with Gen X has grown generation by generation. What is needed is an organization that replaces the social space to fill that need religious people want, but without the indoctrination and hate.

Do remember that there was a lot of sympathy for fascism in America, but the fascists never got in charge, not even when it looked like Germany might get the upper hand in the early days of the war, despite the 1940 election.

The issue is that there just often aren't non political churches to go to in many areas anymore.

In the seattle area, I think the only new church that has gotten built in the last 30 years has been prosperity gospel while the ones that serve the poor have been in the area for a hundred years or operate on weekends out of a high school gymnasium.

The story of Christianity on the west coast is one of land deeds.