Sarah Posner's Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump — Unholy Marriage of Alt- and Religious Right in the Trump Presidency

I recently read Sarah Posner's new book Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump (NY: Penguin Random House, 2020). Reading it as Robert P. Jones's White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity comes out is in many ways a thoroughly depressing experience. I began reading Jones's book as I was finishing Posner's.

A Valuable Opportunity Tomorrow, April 25: "American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel" — "In Oklahoma, You Can Be a Democrat or You Can Be a Christian. But You Can't Be Both"

In Oklahoma, you can be a Democrat or you can be a Christian. But you can't be both. 

~ Rev. Robin Meyers, Mayflower United Church of Christ, Oklahoma City

I'd like to draw your attention to this promising-looking resource. Tomorrow at 3 P.M. CST / 4 P.M. EST, there will be a live online screening of the award-winning film "American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel," directed and produced by Jeanine Butler and Catherine Lynn Butler. Information — including information about how you can log in and watch — is at this link.

As America Becomes Number 1 in World Coronavirus Infections, the "Beautiful" Idea of Packing Churches for Easter: My Commentary

8 in 10 white evangelicals, 6 in 10 white Catholics & Mormons, 50%+ of all US white Christians, set this nightmare into motion, claiming they voted "pro-life."

We must not forget. Racism + US white Christianity are central to this nightmare. Pretending re: this will not help.

— 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕒𝕞 𝔻. 𝕃𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕤𝕖𝕪 🌈 (@wdlindsy) February 15, 2019

An update on the story I shared with you recently (and here), about First Assembly of God church in Greer's Ferry, Arkansas, which hosted a children's crusade March 6-8, and then discovered that some three dozen church members who attended that event were infected with coronavirus: that story continues to gain international attention, as with this recent NBC news report. 

In the News: Wendy Vitter Refuses to Affirm Support for Brown v. Board in Federal Judgeship Hearing; Americans Display Appalling Ignorance of History of Evangelicals Vis-a-Vis Slavery

Two stories in today's news I'd like to share with you, both showing the effects of religious thinking and influence on the political and cultural life of the U.S. The first has to do with federal judge nominee Wendy Vitter of Louisiana, the second with recent findings about how little of the real history of American evangelicals and their relationship to slavery even well-educated and liberal Americans actually know.

Quote for Day: How American Religious Right Tried to Sway Ireland's Abortion Vote

The Guardian, "Irish Abortion Referendum: Official Results Show Big Lead for Yes"

Sarah Jones, "How American Christians Are Swaying Ireland’s Abortion Referendum":

Hell of a Week: "Americans Who Mandate a Close, Symbiotic Relationship btw Christianity & Civil Society Are Deeply Opposed to Federal Gun Control Legislation"

With yet another tragic mass shooting, the #GunControl debate will yet again take center stage.

One reason for the intractable nature of this debate? Deeply held moral & religious schemas like Christian nationalism. 1/8@LandonSchnabel @PaulHRosenberg @jackmjenkins @JackSmithIV

— Andrew Whitehead (@ndrewwhitehead) May 18, 2018

Our working paper shows that Americans who mandate a close, symbiotic relationship btw Christianity & civil society are deeply opposed to federal gun control legislation. 2/8

Find the working paper here: https://t.co/1FzmpjZlxr@socarxiv pic.twitter.com/gFlHvYnHw3

— Andrew Whitehead (@ndrewwhitehead) May 18, 2018

It has been a hell of a week, and center-stage in each fresh hell are U.S. white Christians, notably white evangelicals. Here's some commentary:

In the News: "Religious Freedom" and "Right" to Discriminate; Roots of Evangelicals' Idolization of Trump; Shifting Religious Landscape re: LGBT Rights; SBC and Misogyny

Religion-themed news from the past several days that has caught my eye, and which I'd like to share with you:

More on Recent News: White Evangelical Fervor for Trump at Record High; White Evangelicals and Racism; Millennials and Abortion; Cardinal Tobin on Listening to LGBTQ Folks

Jacqueline Thomsen, "Poll: White evangelical support for Trump at record high"

Some odds and ends of commentary on news items today — several of them items I have discussed here in previous postings.

Amy Sullivan on the Weaponized (White) Fox Evangelicalism That Is America's New Religion: "You Can Do Anything and Still Be on the Right Side"

Amy Sullivan, "America's New Religion: Fox Evangelicalism":

Hot Takes on Moore Defeat: White Evangelicals Did It! It's All About Abortion! (And Why Masterpiece Cake Will Likely Prevail)

Some takes on the Alabama election I should have anticipated, but did not:

1. Though 80 percent of white evangelicals in Alabama cast their votes for Roy Moore, Doug Jones won because — are you ready for this spin? — white evangelicals abandoned Moore!

Charles Pierce on Roy Moore as Exactly What Republicans Are All About Now: "Wake Up and Smell the White Supremacist Theocracy"

I'd rather have a pedophile in office rather than a democrat any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Pedophiles only screw kids while democrats screw everyone.

— Carroll Bryant (@CarrollBryant) November 10, 2017

This quote should be hung in museums of American history 50 years from now so people can remember why the Republican Party collapsed. https://t.co/P70omazXeD

— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) November 10, 2017

Charles Pierce hits the nail squarely on the head:

Trending on Twitter: #RoyMooreChildMolester — "I Never Thought I’d See the Day When Pedophilia Became a Divisive Issue Within the GOP"

Democrats are divided on single payer healthcare. Republicans are divided on pedophilia. #RoyMooreChildMolester

— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) November 10, 2017

Trending today on Twitter: #RoyMooreChildMolester. At the New Civil Rights Movement website right now, David Badash has a good assortment of tweets from this hashtag. The tweet above by Dave Zirin is one featured in David's article.

Fantasies of Some American Christians about "Good" Violence as Precursor of Second Coming: Theological Root Not to Overlook in Gun-Control Debate

What can churches do for protection? @robertjeffress weighs in pic.twitter.com/IxxgScBI3f

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) November 6, 2017

Because of our historical amnesia and religious illiteracy — both of them aided and abetted by our media — many Americans know little about powerful strands in American Christian thought, especially among white evangelicals, that feed our national fantasies about guns and violence. When Western Christianity made its fateful turn with Constantine, conflating church and state in many troubling ways and resulting in the church's blessing of state violence, it turned decisively away from the pacifist theology of such early Christian thinkers as Tertullian, who taught (On Idolatry) that wearing the belt of a soldier was incompatible with following Jesus, who had instructed his followers that those who take the sword will die by the sword. 

Russian Propaganda, Critical-Thinking Skills, and How the Christian Right Broke America: Valuable Recent Contributions to the Discussion

Without the education necessary to think critically, challenge what you’re told by ppl you respect, & vet info, you can fall for anything

— Mandy Nicole (@TenaciousMandy) November 1, 2017

As Manafort Goes Up in Flames, Major White Evangelical Leaders Tweet About . . . Something Else, Anything but Manafort

.@RobertJeffress discusses the importance for Christ followers to fight for religious freedom. #FamilyTalk https://t.co/wdZkNSf6iu

— Family Talk (@DrJamesDobsonFT) October 30, 2017

 

As the man who managed the campaign of the moral monstrosity placed in the White House by eight in ten white evangelicals and some six in ten white Catholics and Mormons goes up in flames on #MuellerMonday — the man I'm talking about is Paul Manafort, of course — it's fascinating to see what the leading white evangelical epigones of that moral monstrosity in the White House are tweeting about this morning.

The tweet above is what Reverend Robert Jeffress tweeted* just after news broke about Manafort's and Gates' indictments.

Cahill and Wilkinson's Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church on How Humanae Vitae Undermines Sexual Ethic of Catholic Church

As a complement to what I just posted about how the U.S. Catholic bishops and Republican party brought right-wing white evangelicals on board the anti-contraception and anti-abortion bandwagon, I'd like to share a posting I made yesterday to my Facebook friends. I'm now reading the recent ground-breaking, exhaustive study of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church entitled Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interpretive Review of the Literature and Public Inquiry Reports by Desmond Cahill and Peter Wilkinson's of Melbourne University's Centre for Global Research. (Thanks to Sarasi1 for inviting me to do that). When I've finished reading it, I'll have more to say about it, but for now, here's something that leaps out at me as I read:

How Right-Wing White Evangelicals Fixated on Birth Control and Abortion: Answers from Tara Isabella Burton, Fred Clark, and David Gushee

Mike Pence protests NFL protest, but stays silent on white supremacist rally https://t.co/Vee4E9rGnr pic.twitter.com/vPmWuIFNZQ

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) October 9, 2017

At Vox this past weekend, Tara Isabella Burton asks how birth control became a part of the conservative evangelical agenda, when even the most conservative evangelical churches never had a peep to say about this matter until fairly recently. She writes:

U.S. Catholic Bishops Address Racism After Charlottesville: Critical Questions Arise

After Charlottesville, the U.S. Catholic bishops have created an Ad Hoc Committee on Racism. The committee will presumably address racism within the U.S. Catholic community — as a problem worth talking about in an open way, a problem we can no longer pretend about as we vote in tandem, year after year, with white evangelical voters whose resistance to the agenda of the Democratic party is patently rooted in racism, while we claim that voting in this way is a "pro-life" choice and that motivation exonerates us of racism. As some commentators are noting, this facing of reality is going to prove to be a difficult task for the U.S. bishops, given their choice some years ago to ally themselves with overtly racist right-wing white evangelicals, and to bless the Republican party as God's anointed party, when it has been using race-baiting as a potent political tool since the Nixon era. 

Fire and Fury in Charlottesville, Virginia, As Neo-Nazis and KKK March: Reports/Commentary from Twitter

The "Debate" About Transgender People: Don't Buy Framing That It's About Gender

THREAD: 1. Those pushing anti-trans discrimination with religious warrants would like you to think this is all about gender.

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2017