Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #exvangelical
Most recents (24)
@brucewilson And arguably that particular imagery goes even more *directly* to Nazis, as one of the popular recruiting efforts by Nazis targeting monarchist Germans, etc. was the "stab in the back myth" (the claim that Jewish people had sabotaged the war effort for The Evulz)
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@brucewilson And because two of the most notable opponents of Nazis involved Jewish people (who did not want to be unalived) and Communists, eventually Nazis claimed communism itself was a Jewish plot (particularly in 1935 Nazi party congress): encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/filā¦
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@brucewilson So this is a trope with an old, and *EXCEPTIONALLY* nasty, history.
Christian Nationalists would also later claim civil rights movements were a "Communist plot" (even heard this from my own parents, regarding MLK in particular, pretty much my whole life until their deaths)
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Christian Nationalists would also later claim civil rights movements were a "Communist plot" (even heard this from my own parents, regarding MLK in particular, pretty much my whole life until their deaths)
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And so, it would seem, Texas is trying to go for Massive Resistance 2.0, possibly in an attempt at undoing the Supreme Court rulings in the late 60s that led to the initial voucher programs in the US being ruled illegal and BJU losing their tax-exempt
A thread:
A thread:
I say "Massive Resistance 2.0", of note, because Christian Nationalism in its modern form arguably got its start via the fight against desegregation by unreconstructed Confederate-sympathisers, and the FIRST round of "private voucher programs".
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(Yes, this is going to be one of those little history lessons.)
So after Brown v BOE, and subsequent rulings that mandated schools be desegregated...a lot of Southern "Jim Crow" states were exceptionally Salty about this, and so basically set out a plan or three...
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So after Brown v BOE, and subsequent rulings that mandated schools be desegregated...a lot of Southern "Jim Crow" states were exceptionally Salty about this, and so basically set out a plan or three...
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You know where I and thousands of other kids were groomed, abused, sexually assaulted, manipulated, controlled, brainwashed, beaten, & silenced? Yeah it wasn't Pride parades or drag story hours.
It was in your fucking churches.
It was in your fucking churches.
You know where I learned consent & that my body belonged to me, that I could say no to my spouse, that men didn't own my body, that they could control themselves, that I could be who I was without shame?
Queer spaces.
Queer spaces.
Hey, yāall! š§µā¦
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Between this, and probably *the* biggest push for the Great Sedition starting around the same time with the "Jericho March", it's high time I talk about Christian Nationalist (and NAR) apocalypticism re the High Holidays, particularly Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
A thread:
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A thread:
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So. There is...a whole, whole lot of conspiracy theology in NAR circles (which honestly spreads out to Christian Nationalism in general, but is most prevalent in the NAR) where there is not only a promotion of a certain Xanatos Gambit regarding immanentizing the eschaton,
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but (as part of said conspiracy theology, which in essence claims that Israel has to be re-established *and* the world's Jewish population must be moved to Israel before Jesus can return) there's a lot of...very weird cultural appropriation of Jewish religious culture
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tw: hate speech in video
It's literally material like this (that has been the norm in Christian Nationalist circles for *decades* now, as a note) that have led me to keep breaking out Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines comparisons
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%Cā¦
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It's literally material like this (that has been the norm in Christian Nationalist circles for *decades* now, as a note) that have led me to keep breaking out Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines comparisons
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%Cā¦
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For the tl;dr explanation: RTLdMC was an outlet in Rwanda that was set up as an "alt-news-and-entertainment" outlet, and they pushed an AWFUL lot of dehumanizing, hateful things re Tutsi and are credited with kickstarting the Rwandan Genocide
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and for the tl;didn't watch potentially triggering vid comparison, basically Christian Nationalist leaders are (and have been) using pretty much the same kind of dehumanization (calling opponents literal demons, accusing of ritual murder of babies, etc.) and outright
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This is actually a pretty important thread (that ties onto my own thread yesterday on "how people get recruited into literal cults")--anti-mainline-medicine stuff in general is an increasingly big way people get recruited into Christian Nationalism
My own thread:
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My own thread:
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And as a prep in addition to this thread, here's a link to the thread I did yesterday on how people do get recruited into cults and what goes on upstairs when people get pulled in: unrollthread.com/t/154397144527ā¦
So part of what we'll discuss today is cross-recruitment
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So part of what we'll discuss today is cross-recruitment
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So, one of the things that has received relatively little info from even exit counselors until relatively recently is that...there are coercive groups that have overlapping systems of management, or overlapping theologies, or something else overlapping,
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Today, I'm going to be discussing something of an unusual subject that actually has some pretty heavy relevance to US politics and (honestly) world politics:
I'm going to be discussing cults (in the coercive group sense).
A thread:
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I'm going to be discussing cults (in the coercive group sense).
A thread:
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So lately there's a lot of people who keep thinking re Christian Nationalism that "it can't happen here" (even as it is), or thinking they won't touch *Griswold* or *Loving v Virginia* or *Brown v Board of Education*, or even proposing "national divorces",
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and I've discussed (largely to political audiences) why they absolutely would try to target these and *more*, and why the latter is likely to be as effective as the Maginot Line longterm in stopping an actual religio-fascist cult movement en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Lā¦
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I. Literally. Warned. Just. *YESTERDAY*. This. Was. A. Goal.
And not just *Brown v Board of Education* but actually proposed *GOING BACK TO PLESSY V FERGUSON*, aka literally what instituted Jim Crow.
And they'll go back even MORE if allowed, kids.
A mini-thread:
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And not just *Brown v Board of Education* but actually proposed *GOING BACK TO PLESSY V FERGUSON*, aka literally what instituted Jim Crow.
And they'll go back even MORE if allowed, kids.
A mini-thread:
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So. One of the dirtier secrets is that the growth of Christian Nationalism is largely *very white, Anglo-Saxon* Christian Nationalism (with a few token African-Americans and token convertees of other races, as well as token convertees of Jewish and Arab origin).
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And, well, a lot of this is historical (especially if you get into the history of the Southern Baptists and PCA on one end--formed from Confederate era splits on whether owning slaves was justified Biblically. Yes, this becomes VERY IMPORTANT later in this thread.)
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The people who wanted Roe overturned voted consistently Republican for 40 years to get that outcome.
When they didn't like a GOP candidate, they held their noses and voted anyway because getting a right-wing, anti-Roe majority was more important than likability.
They succeeded.
When they didn't like a GOP candidate, they held their noses and voted anyway because getting a right-wing, anti-Roe majority was more important than likability.
They succeeded.
As an evangelical teen in 2008 who would be 18 by election day, I told my youth group that I didn't like John McCain as a candidate.
My youth leader told me to vote for him anyway because all that mattered is that he would put anti-abortion judges on the Supreme Court.
My youth leader told me to vote for him anyway because all that mattered is that he would put anti-abortion judges on the Supreme Court.
When I left evangelicalism and went to college (and became familiar with real Democrats/liberals/left-wingers, not caricatures), I was struck by how comparatively little emphasis there was on the Supreme Court and the connection between it and elections.
WWJD? A couple of things Jesus would say about jobs. š§µ
Consider this is an ex-tradesman (according to tradition, a carpenter in the family business) who for much of the Gospels narrative held no job but had at least one sugar daddy (Nicodemus) & perhaps a couple of sugar mamas.
Consider this is an ex-tradesman (according to tradition, a carpenter in the family business) who for much of the Gospels narrative held no job but had at least one sugar daddy (Nicodemus) & perhaps a couple of sugar mamas.
It sounds like heād condemn holding more than one job or say you shouldnāt have a side hustle.
And his overall point is you shouldnāt focus on your money, think about your survival, but focus on God.
But what if youāre a slave who wants to buy your own manumission?
And his overall point is you shouldnāt focus on your money, think about your survival, but focus on God.
But what if youāre a slave who wants to buy your own manumission?
The whole sermon talking point seems to be more rooted in the banal institution of Roman slavery, so itās no second jobs or businesses or side hustles for slaves. Because you canāt have two masters (loyalty issues) which then gets spiritualized as God vs money.
If your church invited Lauren Boebert to lead imprecatory prayers against Biden hoping his "days are few", they not only need taxed retroactively but outright investigated re potential involvement in hate crimes and domestic terrorism (and yes, I am serious)
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And the specific reason they need to look at those churches with hairy eyeballs...is because there is actually a documented history of *some* Christian Nationalist churches that use a "cell church" structure having at least *some* of those cells linked to domestic terror
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Christian Nationalist terrorist groups tend to operate on a "leaderless resistance" framework, which *in practice* is set up like cell churches or MLM downlines (and ultimately the concept was borrowed from revolutionary groups that operated in similar methodologies,
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I grew up Southern Baptist. I joke that I'm still in recovery. It was a very abusive, cult-like church. They used to tell me my father, a non-believer, was going to hell. I begged Dad to come watch when my choir performed & my church buddies would pray that he would be saved.
I went to a pool party after church one Sunday and my bikini was scandalous! One of the girls gave me a T-shirt to cover up my itty bitty titties. Can't rile up those church boys with my 14 year old bod.
I missed church one week (maybe 2 in a row) and got a *sweet* postcard from my Sunday school teacher admonishing me, saying that I had an effervescent personality and therefore, it was my "duty" to attend.
This is a 2022 book on Black Liberation Theology. It's become increasingly clear that single greatest cause of deconstructed/ing US evnglclsm is the abysmal failure to fully believe the gospel during slavery through the 1975ish. Sad but true. amazon.com/dp/1626984700/ā¦ @amazon
The theological method that allowed Jonathan Edwards to own slaves and sadly prevented Billy Graham from marching on the front lines, arm-in-arm with MLK, is the exact same framework that set the stage for the current #deconstruction/#exvangelical trends. There be no Du Mez book.
The "blind spot" was a cancer. They will not be able to church plant their way out of what they created. There is no "discipleship" program that can rescue them. Not .org for pastors. No study center on a college campus. No campus ministry. No new parachurch org. Etc.
i was born into the southern baptist church. my grandfather was my pastor for the first decade of my life. i was "born again" when i was 6 after a particularly terrifying sermon about hell. i spent 32 years in white evangelical churches, and it fucked me up in a lot of ways š§µ
i attended bob jones academy, a conservative fundamentalist christian school where interracial dating was banned until the year of their lord 2000. i was taught that the bible is 100% literally true/historically accurate and that the earth is 4-6k years old don't ask questions
the #purityculture movement of the 90s and 00s shaped the way i viewed sexuality, gender, marriage, and divorce--basically that sex is a sin anywhere outside the context of a cis/het monogamous marriage. and it motivated me to get married at 21, which is my single greatest regret
Ok, this is the topic yāall chose, so hereās a thread on how COVID may likely be the final death knell of the Church.
A Thread:
A Thread:
So as you may be aware, church/religious affiliation fell below 50% for the first time in 2021. (washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/ā¦)
This is the result of decades long disillusionment but COVID put this sentiment into overdrive. Hashtags on Tiktok and Twitter like #exvangelical
This is the result of decades long disillusionment but COVID put this sentiment into overdrive. Hashtags on Tiktok and Twitter like #exvangelical
Offer a window into those who watched their church communities completely disregarded the pandemic, abandon their mandate for community care and leave medically vulnerable people to die.
Even with that in mind, the pandemic could push church membership off a cliffās edge.
Even with that in mind, the pandemic could push church membership off a cliffās edge.
In the wee hours this morning I heard the heartbreaking news that Anne Rice died, surrounded by loved ones, due to complications from a stroke.
Anne revolutionized gothic horror writing with her layered, humanizing, and sensuous approach to storytelling...
Anne revolutionized gothic horror writing with her layered, humanizing, and sensuous approach to storytelling...
Anne Rice initiated a trend toward more sympathetic portrayals of (say) vampires, telling the story of their eternal power and anguish from *their* point of view, which became the de facto norm for later shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and True Blood.
A little thread on #deconstruction. The past few wks, my phil of religion students have read essays on the religious exp of ppl in marginalized communities, challenging students to think abt how religion intersects w/ slavery, segregation, ableism, trauma, colonialism & sexism.
Their papers have been pretty š³, both in how they admit they're largely ignorant of such perspectives & yet the stories resonate w/ them. They have lots to say abt how they feel religious institutions have failed them & give detailed reasons for why the find religion untenable.
There's a whole industry right now of conservatives [usually white guys w/ power] glibly explaining away #deconstruction , #exvangelical & #deconversion stories, often gaslighting victims & blaming them for their own questioning or loss of faith. They simply aren't listening.
I consider myself #ExVangelical, but still religious. I went to a private ev school, but attended more Catholic mass than Baptist services. I say all this because I had NO IDEA what evangelicals were up to because my school was run by the most incompetent con artists. 1/
Yes, they taught by The Book, and had the corporal punishment and Dobson parenting book giveaways and all that. But most of their teachers were partying with the students or each other, so piety wasn't practiced. 2/
And oh my word, there was no way in hell my mom was going to let anyone lay hands on me or my big sis. So their manipulative, racist framework never really got off the ground with us. And I honestly am thankful for that, after seeing how badly most others fared under ev'ism. 3/
Most days I donāt label myself an #exvangelical. And then most days I see a story or tweet (too often from people I know and whom I wrongly hoped knew better) that makes me pretty sure Iād probably rather label myself an #exvangelical.
Such conflicting sentiments came to the forefront of my thinking and writing when @IvanTable approached me a month or so ago about a piece for him and @TGC. Today, that essay (with its deliciously bland titleāwhy are titles often so blah?) meets the rest of the world.
Ostensibly on the ways evangelicals ought to treat Jonathan Edwards the enslaver, I turn to James Baldwin & Wendell Berry to offer some thoughts on history versus āheritage,ā maybe allowing me to forestall a decision about such a label and personal identity a little while longer.
Going to retweet some of the New Yorker article with parts that stuck out to me as it illustrates why I started questioning complementarianism and eventually decided this whole debate is fit only for the trash can.
This will be a thread, and probably a long one. 01/?
This will be a thread, and probably a long one. 01/?
"For a time, Barr fell under the sway of an abusive boyfriend, who, while menacing her, spat Scripture demanding her submission. The fact that she couldnāt question him made it harder to see the abuse for what it was."
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The first time I ever felt called on to use counseling training was when a young woman I worked with confided in me that her then-boyfriend was mentally, verbally, and socially cruel to her. Neither were saved, but I realized "complementarianism" had no category for this. 03/?
I remember the one my ex attended during our separation. Another man there called to ask if I would meet the returning men at the church āto motivateā his resolve to be a āmore godly husband & fatherā & āencourage the continued change he experiencedā while on the retreat.
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It was the first time I felt free to tell the truth.
I told him I had been trying to encourage my then husband for over a decade. I did everything to motivate him be a more godly husband & father, encourage him to get help, support him financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
I told him I had been trying to encourage my then husband for over a decade. I did everything to motivate him be a more godly husband & father, encourage him to get help, support him financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
I had tried everything, read every Christian marriage book I could find, asked 4 help and advice from pastors and spiritual mentors 4yrs, attempted xtian counseling and yes, went on menās/womenās/& marriage retreats with him too. But I recognize I could never motivate him.
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A few years ago a Zionist cornered me in a grocery store to try and convince me that Palestine was an imaginary place/identity, because it was all just "Arab". If I didn't have my Jewish friends who were vocally anti-Zionist, I wouldn't have been prepared for that moment.
Her beliefs were, as you can expect, incredibly sinister. I'm not going into the grit of it because you probably follow me for art or whatever, but stick with me a sec.
If you're an outsider or at least undecided to these current events, keep reading.
Other followers, hi! Bye!
If you're an outsider or at least undecided to these current events, keep reading.
Other followers, hi! Bye!
Back to this person, she said I was "smarter than I looked" because I knew that there were different types of Judaism, and that evangelical America is by far the greater supporter of Zionism.
It was such a gross, weird interaction that felt like a power play. Because it was.
It was such a gross, weird interaction that felt like a power play. Because it was.
Alright alright alright. I have tried to limit how and when I speak in any kind of capacity regarding @TheWitnessBCC, a Black Christian non-profit of which I am the Vice President. My platform and opinions are my own and I try to compartmentalize...until I canāt. So here goes...
In March, @TheWitnessBCC launched our #LeaveLOUD content focus. Our founder, our President, and I shared our stories of leaving white Christian organizations and churches. We have published articles on our website and distributed other media as part of this content focus.
#LeaveLOUD is BY Black Christians, is FOR Black Christians, and is ABOUT who? BLACK CHRISTIANS.
We understand that a lot of our white siblings, particularly #exvangelicals, have resonated with this movement on some level. Not mad at it.
Lemme tell you what IS bothering me...
We understand that a lot of our white siblings, particularly #exvangelicals, have resonated with this movement on some level. Not mad at it.
Lemme tell you what IS bothering me...
