Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #exvangelicals
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As a convert from reactionary religion, I can say that this is a an unfortunate example of how converts should realize that our experience is atypical, and that emerging minorities need more help to be heard than a billionaire media mogul who can easily speak for herself.
People who have overcome fundamentalist indoctrination have a temptation to think that everyone is just as willing to do the same in their own lives with enough information.
Unfortunately, this is just not true. It's why there are far more evangelicals than #exvangelicals...
Unfortunately, this is just not true. It's why there are far more evangelicals than #exvangelicals...
But if you were to try to engage in this persuasion effort, you would do it by highlighting the voices of trans people rather than the voices of people who hate them.
No one is perfect, but at the very least, this would be the way to start compassionate and rational dialogue.
No one is perfect, but at the very least, this would be the way to start compassionate and rational dialogue.
So Rob Schenck is doing what Skipp Porteus did (in the Institute for First Amendment Studies days), or Frank Schaeffer Jr, or @JeffSharlet (namely, being one HELL of a whistleblower and shining a spotlight on things).
I'm still not sure I trust him 100%, but still...
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I'm still not sure I trust him 100%, but still...
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I will say that it seems Schenck jumped off the Trump Train quite a while before others did (especially in Christian Nationalist circles), and I'd like to give folks some perspective on why--of all people--Schenck would have Known about this stuff
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So, Schenck--up until 2018 or so--was a hardcore Christian Nationalist, and of the NAR type at that; he was literally recruited as a kid into Teen Challenge (a de facto front of the Assemblies of God that has been linked to...a *lot* of bad stuff),
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@timsquirrell Very good writeup, and if I may embroider a bit on this from the other side of the pond (as someone who grew up in New Apostolic Reformation circles that have...adopted a distressing amount of this stuff and can be really considered religio-fascist in and of themselves):
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@timsquirrell So, while NAR types are a *little* more down-low on the really explicit anti-Semitism (and I emphasize a "little more down-low", because there's some very specifically NAR flavours of anti-Semitism, as I'll get into), there has (really as long as I can remember)
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@timsquirrell have been really, deeply, truly, *incredibly* anti-LGBTQIA (though in my case it may have been I was raised in a group that is actually one of a few reasons the American Family Association is listed as an anti-LGBTQIA hate group by human rights/civil rights groups here).
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@DrSwordopolis @ScholarlySpoon And, pray fucking tell, WHERE are you going to get the trillions of dollars US to pull this off, to do the largest evacuation in human history, where literally all our transportation infrastructure *does not have the capacity for*?
No, seriously. I want to hear this :D
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No, seriously. I want to hear this :D
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@DrSwordopolis @ScholarlySpoon I wanna hear this shit, as an aside, because...there isn't a friggin' Money Fairy you can call on for funding for your Grand Partition scheme (hell, we're lucky we can get funding RIGHT NOW for government initiatives).
And no, you can't wait until secession. Too late then.
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And no, you can't wait until secession. Too late then.
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@DrSwordopolis @ScholarlySpoon You can't wait until secession, because once secession happens *that's literally when the killings will start*, and that's when they start denationalizing anyone who ISN'T a Christian Nationalist, so...you're gonna have to arrange this WHILE the chuds are in Congress
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I hate to interrupt the piss-taking, but...it should be noted that the Christian Nationalists who have a moral panic over the "Sexual Health" aisle of the Target are literally the same ones who want *Griswold v Connecticut* to go away (along with *Roe v Wade*)
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(Yes, literally. A lot of them actually have basic issues with the entire idea of contraception, hormonal or otherwise. Some groups, like Quiverfull types, even argue women should not be allowed in any way to determine their reproductive destiny.)
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And many of us #exvangelicals have tried to warn, for *decades* now, that if Roe goes they'll be going after *Griswold* next (which, among other things, actually paves the way FOR Target to even *have* sales of prophylactics in the Sexual Health aisle).
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#Exvangelicals who escaped Christian Nationalism and folks who monitor the far-right have been sounding the alarm for *years*, and were at 50-bell alarms from *September 2020 onwards*.
#IAmNotOverJan6 and will not be until justice is served re the coup attempt (which is ongoing)
#IAmNotOverJan6 and will not be until justice is served re the coup attempt (which is ongoing)
Many people in the US do not realize we came *very* close to a successful Christian Nationalist coup, of the sort Jorge Serrano Elias (protege of genocidist Efrain Rios Montt) attempted in 1993 in Guatemala
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Guat…
#IAmNotOverJan6
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Guat…
#IAmNotOverJan6
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I bring up Guatemala, of note, because Efrain Rios Montt's genocide--and the Bucharest Progrom by the Romanian Iron Guard--*ARE* the exact model that Christian Nationalists planned for their attempted coup had they murdered Congress
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala…
#IAmNotOverJan6
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala…
#IAmNotOverJan6
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This is is a really true & important point that #exvangelicals might have some useful (or at least interesting) thoughts on.
One crucial and very weird aspect of it, is that it is a distinct change that happened to the church within my lifetime. When I was a kid in the 1970s our church celebrated Halloween just like other people but by the 1990s, after I left, it was a “harvest carnival”
It wasn’t the same church, but it was representative of what had happened in the west coast evangelical mainstream. Regular evangelicals like the ones in my family had changed their views & had a lot more concerns about direct satanic influence, spiritual warfare, etc.
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 can’t. 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...
1/ Today, just south of me, in Austin Texas, right-wing funded protesters, with some obvious Evangelicals were protesting the stay at home order. (Actually just a trump rally since Gov. @GregAbbott_TX is a Trump bootlicker and already making idiotic moves to reopen Texas) 
2/ In the above picture of the gathered plague enthusiasts, you might notice the banner that reads "Texas will not take the mark of the beast." My #Exvangelical eyes rolled very hard. Apocalyptic theology is stupid and dangerous.
3/ As @C_Stroop has stated when talking about Evangelicals and end times belief, ". . . there is a dangerous likelihood that, in the conditions we face, their end times speculations could become human-caused self-fulfilling prophecies."
cstroop.com/2017/09/23/who…
cstroop.com/2017/09/23/who…
🎧Give this a listen.
🗨️ @C_Stroop and @Alyssa_Milano talk #EmptyThePews, #exvangelicals, and what the separation of state and church—or lack thereof—means for politics and the future of this country. sorrynotsorrypod.com/episodes/empty…
🗨️ @C_Stroop and @Alyssa_Milano talk #EmptyThePews, #exvangelicals, and what the separation of state and church—or lack thereof—means for politics and the future of this country. sorrynotsorrypod.com/episodes/empty…
Remember...
🇺🇲The moment America becomes a Christian Nation, it ceases to be America🇺🇲
There is no freedom OF religion without a government that is free FROM religion.
🇺🇲The moment America becomes a Christian Nation, it ceases to be America🇺🇲
There is no freedom OF religion without a government that is free FROM religion.
Kids know a bully when they see one.
Sometimes I think growing up, becoming "civilized," is a process of having a natural moral sense based around values like care & kindness brutally crushed & abused, until the point you can look at cruelty and see "strength"
That's why so many schools display such abject helplessness in the face of bullying -- they can't endorse it officially, yet they still recognize it as imparting all the desired lessons.
Other people on my timeline talking about real state scams adjacent to the AirBNB stuff and I've got to say...
Before entering into a business arrangement with a stranger, particularly one where you're relying on them for a roof, Google every piece of information you have.
Before entering into a business arrangement with a stranger, particularly one where you're relying on them for a roof, Google every piece of information you have.
I was talking about how people use minimal cues to establish another person as safe? For a lot of people in the US, talking about prayer and God gets them most of the way there.
Lot of #Exvangelicals on here can tell you how, within church groups, mistrusting another believer calls into question the faith that the in-group is saved and that is weaponized by scammers and predators within the church.
Scammers outside the church know about that, too.
Scammers outside the church know about that, too.
1/ Robert Jeffress declared on Fox News that the move to impeach POTUS had angered Evangelical Christians and that if the effort was successful, would lead to "a Civil War-like fracture in this nation from which our country will never heal." This shouldn't be suprising
2/ Jeffress is a Southern Baptist. The Southern Baptist convention exists as a reaction to abolition in the South. They were strongly opposed to the end of slavery and represented a powerful religious force for the South during the Civil War. civilwarbaptists.com/featured/slave…
3/ Southern Baptists history shows that, as a denomination, they were founded due to conflict and used to being on the defensive side of actual war as well as wars of words. When they have an authoritarian grip on the U.S. They are loathe to give it up.
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Five or more years ago, when I was an EC missionary, I came across a web site that offered a quiz to see how much one truly knew about reproduction, abortion, etc... I arrogantly started the quiz.
#ExForcedBirth
#ExVangelicals
#ExProLife
#exvangelical
#becausescience
Five or more years ago, when I was an EC missionary, I came across a web site that offered a quiz to see how much one truly knew about reproduction, abortion, etc... I arrogantly started the quiz.
#ExForcedBirth
#ExVangelicals
#ExProLife
#exvangelical
#becausescience
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I wish I could find this resource again, but haven't been able to. The short of it is that the results showed me that if I truly believed that life began at conception, I should be as horrified about rate of spontaneous natural abortion as I was about abortion.
I wish I could find this resource again, but haven't been able to. The short of it is that the results showed me that if I truly believed that life began at conception, I should be as horrified about rate of spontaneous natural abortion as I was about abortion.
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It showed me that my motivations were misguided, and that I wasn't nearly as informed as I considered myself to be about the science of reproduction. It made my question how valuable life was if spontaneous abortion was such a normal and frequent part of the process.
It showed me that my motivations were misguided, and that I wasn't nearly as informed as I considered myself to be about the science of reproduction. It made my question how valuable life was if spontaneous abortion was such a normal and frequent part of the process.
People often say that #Exvangelicals left our former faith (for agnosticism, atheism, or other kind of Christianity) so that we could "be popular" or "fit in." It's true that for many of us, exposure to different people and sources of information did play a role in our shift.
It's also true that many of us have gone on to form friendships, build community, and even gain some sort of platform on the basis of our newly formed beliefs, our shared journeys, or our more "progressive" views. So when we respond to those accusation by saying...
"Look at how much we've lost," outsiders see how much we have gained and think, THAT must have been our motivation--not truth, not goodness, not love. But when we started to doubt, were kicked out, walked away, or outright rebelled, what we were certain to lose was far greater...
Today, we're going to do a brief (lol, brief) review of Evangelical Christian Complementarianism. There have been whole books written on the subject, so this thread is in no way exhaustive. I'll do my best to show my work, and make it as practical as possible.
Before we dive in too deep, it's worth noting that while ECs talk about this topic a lot, they don't agree, particularly on the practical applications.
For example, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) has a statement of faith on their website: cbmw.org/about/statemen…
I wanted to take a slightly longer shot at answering this question, mostly because my position as a slightly older #Exvangelical gives me a somewhat different perspective on the whole thing.
When I was growing up in Southern California in the 1970s, I knew that we were "Christians" and that this was somehow different from being "Catholic" or "Episcopalian" but I could not have told you HOW it was different.
Sometimes I think my parents described themselves as "non-denominational" or at least, used that to describe the kind of church they were looking for.
TW. Abuse, child abuse, ableism, 'discipline'
This is the last (part 6) of my live-tweet threads about To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl, also talking openly about my own experience.
Mute if appropriate.
This is the last (part 6) of my live-tweet threads about To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl, also talking openly about my own experience.
Mute if appropriate.
The previous thread is here:
At the end of my last thread, I said a few things that I want to clarify first up.
I said that I never wanted the family to be separated as if staying together is the goal. That was quite a selfish way of speaking.
I said that I never wanted the family to be separated as if staying together is the goal. That was quite a selfish way of speaking.
1/ Southern Baptists Face Their #MeToo Moment nyti.ms/2UXcSYu And my comment on NY Times page: "A typical word salad signifying nothing. The sexual abuse in the SBC is linked to their patriarchical teachings with women virtually having no standing.
2/ "Complementarity" is a sham. So, we have here lots of worry and lots of Jesus, but no insight as to the causes flowing from doctrine. Read the #exvangelicals like Christopher Stroop and others who see through this." @C_Stroop @julieingersoll @profagagne @brucewilson
I'm sick today so I'm feeling grumpy and my concentration levels are low, but just about right to shred this article here.
religionnews.com/2019/02/01/why…
religionnews.com/2019/02/01/why…
I'll start with the headline. "Why freaking out about Christian schools proves evangelicals’ irrational fears"
The first thing that jumped out at me: you can't prove something irrational. EITHER their fears are irrational, OR they have been proven -- what?
The first thing that jumped out at me: you can't prove something irrational. EITHER their fears are irrational, OR they have been proven -- what?
True? Even more ridiculous than we thought? Full of cheese?
There's something missing here. Missing on purpose I think. It's supposed to imply the answer is "true" without committing to that.
There's something missing here. Missing on purpose I think. It's supposed to imply the answer is "true" without committing to that.
And you’ll also note that whenever a program to oppose bullying is rolled out in schools, the “Christian” extremists immediately organize to object to it. This bullying is part of their culture. It’s how early fascism under Hitler seamlessly merged with church doctrine.
Follow @C_Stroop and his various hashtags to hear about the huge overlap between white radical Christianity and white supremacy. Their Venn diagram is close to circular.
(And Stroop’s #exvangelicals will tell you how it is from the inside. They’re products of that culture who escaped.)
This is the Council for National Policy organization - the group behind Trump/Pence, etc. - re Trump's first 100 days: U.S. border, cyber, & military policies starting with the US/Mex border (4:30)." soundcloud.com/cnp-786867471/…
Source: @IndiePressWatch
#CNP
Source: @IndiePressWatch
#CNP
The Council for National Policy (#CNP) is an umbrella organization & networking group for social conservative activists in the United States.The Nation has called it a secretive organization. It connects wealthy right-wing donors w/ top conservatives.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_f…
#CNP
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_f…
#CNP
Here's what the #CNP has planned for education in the United States. With the Heritage Foundation's support, of course.
Compare this to what DeVos has done as Secretary of Education: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_DeV…
In. Plain. Sight.
Source valeriehowlandblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/how… (near the bottom).
Compare this to what DeVos has done as Secretary of Education: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_DeV…
In. Plain. Sight.
Source valeriehowlandblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/how… (near the bottom).
.@C_Stroop focuses on conservative evangelical leaders & voices trying to salvage reputation of evangelicalism in light of white evangelicals' overwhelming support of Trump. But note that progressive evangelicals have also engaged in this exercise 1/6
rewire.news/religion-dispa…
rewire.news/religion-dispa…
Most recently, progressive evangelicals who signed the "Chicago Invitation" (sojo.net/sites/default/…) were also trying to "rehabilitate the [public] perception of evangelicals." Here's how @jimwallis described the goal of the "Chicago Invitation"(sojo.net/articles/towar…) 2/6
In his conclusion, @C_Stroop criticized moderate & conservative evangelicals such as @edstetzer for remaining "complicit and part of the problem." 3/6
Alright, #Evangelicals and #Exvangelicals. It's story time. Saddle up.
Imagine this: you live in a society where being unable to pay back a loan is punishable by death. (Why, you ask? Because I'm the emperor of this society, and I make the rules, and those are the rules.)
Imagine this: you live in a society where being unable to pay back a loan is punishable by death. (Why, you ask? Because I'm the emperor of this society, and I make the rules, and those are the rules.)
Now imagine that you were born very poor, through no fault or choice of your own. And society is structured in a way which entails that, through the normal course of life, you've come to owe me $100 dollars... which you couldn’t avoid, and you simply cannot pay back, now or ever.
Of course, as your very exacting and by the book Emperor, I keep perfect records and accounts. And I can plainly see there's no way I can ever get my money from you… So what I decide to do is torture and kill a member of my own family, and take the money from his belongings.
