Politics and religion are topics you don’t discuss

Last updated on: March 19, 2024 at 12:31 pm by Ed Stuteville

Politics and religion are topics you don’t discuss 2024-03-19T12:31:18-04:00 Ed Stuteville

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Politics and religion are two topics you don’t discuss. People consider it rude to discuss them in public. It is best to keep your beliefs on both to yourself. Religious and political ideals guide people’s beliefs but do not impose them on others.

Throughout my life, religion has become more acceptable to discuss in public. Primarily due to the rise of the Evangelical movement. Evangelical pastors began pushing their flocks to do outreach to bring people to God. More importantly, it created a rise in religion as a focal point of conversation in the church.

Churches had “Visitation.” Church members got paired up with deacons and other lay leaders. They would go into the community to “Witness” to people about the need for Jesus.

The Amway of Religion

Looking back now, it was another form of Multi-Level Marketing. People who have been invited to a cookware or essential oils “party” know that the object is to bring more people in. Thereby bringing more money into the organization. This meant more people could go out and recruit more people, bringing in more money. The modern Evangelical Church is the same.

Before you criticize me for my cynicism, I ask you, where is the lie? According to a 2010 Hartford Institute on Religion study, more than 350,000 churches were in the United States. Of those, there are more than 50 Mega Churches in the United States, according to that same study. A Mega-Church has a weekly attendance of 10,000 or more. This does not include the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Getting back to the MLM theme, one thing I noticed after I stopped regularly attending church is that when I ran into an acquaintance from church, the first question was usually, “What Church do you attend now?” Not, “How are you doing?” or “We miss you; what have you been up to?” Giving credence to being a club member is the most important thing.

The Reagan Factor

Sometime during the Eighties, around the Ronald Reagan presidency, churches began to use their sheer numbers to sway politics and politicians to enact laws that were favorable to the Churches but forced the Evangelical Christian worldview upon the rest of the country. Church leaders made it a litmus test for any politician that they endorsed that they not only had to be Christian but also agreed to work to enact laws that reflected the Christian Worldview on the nation.

Preachers started running for office when they failed to get results quickly enough. Pat Robertson was the first nationally known to run for president. Since that time, the Moral Majority and the TEA Party began to turn the Republican Party into an extension of the church.

Candidates had to boldly announce their faith and anti-abortion stance as part of their bona fides to get the support of the ever-growing religious movement. Over the last 40 years, we have become a nation divided. It is no longer a battle over ideological differences but a battle to hold the country together or rip it apart.

The Rise of Trumpism

Politics and religion are two things you don’t discuss. In 2016, when Donald Trump became a Republican candidate, most people on both sides thought he couldn’t become the defacto Republican nominee for president. He was vile and crude, and he was not really a Republican. He spat out remarks about grabbing women by their private parts; he spoke about migrants as if they were lower than dogs; he made fun of women and disabled people; he called his republican opponents names and generally spoke as if he were a fifth grader trading barbs on the playground. Comparing Trump to a fifth grader insults fifth graders everywhere because they are still in their formative years and are still learning to get along with others. Trump should know better.

However ridiculous the idea of Trump being the nominee was, he did the one thing that endeared him to the Evangelicals. Trump brought politics and religion to the forefront. He spoke against abortion and endorsed Nationalism and separatism. This was all it took for the Evangelical right to get behind him, and the impossible became possible. He not only became the nominee, he won the electoral vote and became the 45th president. Across the nation, pastors overlooked his vileness and crude remarks. Many called him the candidate chosen by God.

During his term, he did damage to the United States that will take a generation to reverse. Roe V Wade was overturned when Trump installed three Supreme Court Justices (with the help of the GOP lead Senate). He nearly tanked the economy during Covid, in the process, allowed thousands to die unnecessarily.

Defeating Trump

Politics and religion are two things you don’t discuss. But with Trump, you can’t uncouple the two. Biden defeated Trump in 2020 because his policies affected women and young voters. He has 92 charges in four separate indictments. He stands accused of inciting a riot when he lost the 2020 election. Yet, he still stands as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nominee, primarily due to the backing of the Evangelicals and Churches.

According to a Pew Research poll in Fall 2023, 55% of white evangelical voters said they would support Trump over Ron Desantis. In a Time Magazine article quoting the poll, White Evangelical voters are partisan Republican voters, and 73% who attend church weekly identify that way. Evangelicals are also Culture Warriors who feel under attack, and they think Trump is their warrior king. And as such, they feel that any Republican, no matter how unpalatable they are, is better than losing to a Democrat. Even a Democrat like Biden, who is undoubtedly more Christ-like.

Christian Nationalism

Over the last eight years, many Republican voters have said that American Muslims want America to follow Sharia Law. Which is the Muslim Religion as the ruling class. When they want a Christian Sharia Law, where everyone must abide by the Christian faith.

In Muslim Countries, women do not have the same citizenship as men. They kill gay people. Defy the Ayatollah and get beheaded. Christians are chastized at best and killed at worst. Christian White Nationalist Evangelicals want the same kind of United States. Religion and politics should not mix because the ruling religious party will subject everyone to their standards.

It will be the end of America as we know it if we allow Trump a second term. He is an authoritarian who, if given the chance, will make America a separatist nation. He has already promised that he will take down his political enemies. Evangelicals already anticipate totally destroying what’s left of individual freedom. They will be the ruling class and Trump, their puppet master.

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