Why Is It So Hard To Be A White Conservative Christian Heterosexual These Days?
Why can't a guy hate and oppress those who don't think like him?
Happy to say you passed the sobriety test. Sad to say you failed the asshole test.
Gena Showalter, The Harder You Fall
There was a time when a good, God-fearing White Conservative Christian heterosexual could hate on pretty much anyone who didn’t fit their definition of “moral.” And yes, unsurprisingly, that was just about anyone not like them. Their God was made in their image, as was their theology. Every Sunday, they went to a church that confirmed this for them. The Bible (which they rarely read) confirmed their biases.
Yes, Jesus (who was, of course, as lily White as they were) loved them, and they went to Church on Sunday mornings to get their spiritual tanks filled to the brim. They could then live the rest of the week as hateful bigots and treat those around them as “less than.” They could believe that those who weren’t White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual were “less than” because they knew that THEY were God’s Chosen Ones and destined for the Kingdom of Heaven.
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They confirmed this in their minds with some world-class deflection and thus were never forced to face their rottenness within their community. Their “holier than thou” attitude was merely The Way Things Were Supposed To Be.
And there was no shortage of deflection. For instance, they frequently accused drag performers, transgender individuals, and others in the LGBTQ community of being “pedophiles.” This, despite the overwhelming number of accused pedophiles being White males.
And while so many Republicans today claim to be Christians, it’s hard to pin down the Christian teachings they believe in and follow.
For so many on the Far-Right, their Christianity is a matter of convenience and a club they use to beat down adversaries. As a result, they know little and display even less knowledge of a religion based on teachings of love, tolerance, and forbearance.
Of course, for many White Conservative Christian heterosexuals, going to Church is less an opportunity to revisit their faith and reconfirm their commitment to it than a chance to see and be seen. It’s a social opportunity, even as the social cachet is decreasing. Church membership has fallen nationwide as Christians become increasingly associated with bigotry and hatred.
Sadly, Church isn’t the place one goes to be noticed that it once was.
Unless, of course, you attend a megachurch like Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, where the freshly scrubbed White Conservative Christian heterosexual upper class go to celebrate their Christian-ness.
It’s become more about conformity than truth or even spirituality.
Perhaps the worst part of modern Christianity is that far too many who profess to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ are WAY too far up in the business of other people, where they have no business whatsoever.
Or a Christian pastor.
Or seriously mediocre White men who, for reasons no one understands, believe that they’re experts on subjects they know little, if anything, about. Matt Walsh is a high school graduate with the common sense of a 12-year-old and the arrogance of…well, Matt Walsh.
The sad thing is that Walsh is a parent. Imagine being married to the neckbeard know-it-all and having to wake up next to him every morning. I’d be playing Russian Roulette in the bathtub with five loaded chambers.
The problem today is that anyone can call themselves a Christian. It matters not that you may be a terrible person who neither truly believes nor lives the teachings of Jesus Christ…like most Republicans. All you need to do is call yourself a Christian to claim the mantle of Jesus Christ. Your primary drivers may be hatred, bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and a burning hatred of Liberals, but it’s OK because you’re a Christian.
Whatever that means.
You can stand in front of a pulpit on a Sunday morning and pray for the death of President Joe Biden like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) did not long ago…and call yourself a Christian.
It’s no wonder people are deserting the Church.
Perhaps people are leaving Christianity because so much of it no longer means anything. But not all Christians are screaming ninnies who’ve given themselves over to racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and homophobia. I know a few Christians who are serious about their faith and represent it well. Even so, their faithfulness gets drowned out by the Stürm und Drang of the American Taliban, who believes that White Conservative Christian heterosexuals should, by rights, own and rule America.
The American Taliban takes offense whenever they’re called out on their bullshit as if they have the right to say whatever they wish without consequence. But woe betides those on the other side of the fence who voice an opinion they take umbrage over.
Is it me…or is Kyle Rittenhouse made up to look like a circus clown? Asking for a friend. Being a double-murderer means Christians LOVE him.
Perhaps he’s confusing the Bible with a Dr. Suess book?? Or maybe one of Roald Dahl’s works?
I’ve read the Bible. I don’t recall any “wishing star.” Perhaps that’s what you used to get home when you were too drunk to navigate?
And himself…if he possessed the self-awareness to understand.
There are several reasons I’m good without God. The above Twitter exchange is as good as any of them. The Bible isn’t the inerrant Word of God. It was written by men, translated and re-translated numerous times, and put in its ultimate form by men as a political compromise.
So pastors and religious scholars aren’t passing along the Word of God, but something (maybe, possibly) vaguely approximately it. No one knows. And yet so many assume, mistakenly, that what we have today are the literal declarations of God His Own Self.
That’s a logical leap I can’t make. For people who can do so and find comfort in that, more power to you. Whatever gets you through the night.
But to those of you who have chosen to use those words as a club, as a means to oppress and keep others down, you’re the lowest form of humanity. I may not believe in Hell, but if I did, I’d be hoping that y’all have reserved parking spaces there.
Religion can be a net plus, a very good thing. At its most basic, any religion is about making the world a better, safer, kinder, and more compassionate place. And who’s not going to benefit from that?
Sadly, for every John Pavlovitz there are ten Franklin Grahams, and Graham is perhaps the biggest advertisement for atheism today. Rev. Graham, who could strip the enjoyment from a screaming orgasm, makes Evangelical Christianity seem as enjoyable as being a galley slave.
I have coined a new word, and when it goes mainstream, I want the credit for it:
HAT(E)RIOT - Pseudo-Christian MAGA-types, white supremacists, (and their ilk,) claiming the righteousness of their cause(s) as "defending the country, or the "way America OUGHT to be."
Maybe HATEriot? There's no good way to SPELL it, but SAYING it is easy "Hate-re-ot."
I have had a button pinned above my desk for 20+ years, which says, "Doing my part to piss off the religious right." When I pinned it there, I had NO IDEA how crazy the religious right could become. I mean, who knew we could plumb these depths of hypocrisy and insanity?
Dead, unressurected Rabbi Jesus (if he ever actually existed) whirls in his grave.
Sweet screaming Jesus -- "wishing star"????
Totally gratuitous, I know, but I did a full text search on both my English Standard and King James versions and, yeah, nothing even close.
That is too jaw-dropping for words.