The Evangelical Effect

This just in: I recall being about 8 years old and thinking “I can’t believe that my parents believe what they are teaching us in Sunday School.”

The apple snake story is a good one, like many others in the bible, but to take it literally seems akin to thinking we should sacrifice virgins to volcanos.

To me, the best case for there being a God is that I want there to be one.

That’s it.  Everything else is speculative.

The idea that anyone, anywhere understands the will of a God capable of creating the Universe is astoundingly absurd.

There was a study done recently that showed the more Evangelicals get involved in politics, the more people turn away from organized religion.  I completely fall within this category.

I watch the Evangelicals twist and turn to justify their support for Trump.  They say things like, “The Bible teaches forgiveness” or “God is just testing us.”

What they should really be saying, if they were being truthful is, “Trump doesn’t like non-whites and non-Christians so we like Trump.”

I watched a segment on the morning news where a boy was suspended from school for wearing t-shirts with guns on them.  One t-shirt had about a dozen different guns on it.  Underneath is said, “Respect Diversity.”  The other t-shirt had guns arranged to spell out the word “LOVE.”

The parents fit the NRA/Trump mode perfectly.  They were both about 300 lbs.  The husband had on a shift that said, “I’m a Christian.”  and both claimed the shirts were about Love and Diversity, not guns.  Plus, their son loved guns and they didn’t want to change him.

Right there is your problem…

These people are Christians willing to inspire gun violence so their son doesn’t have to change his shirt.  They are the American Evangelicals and thus, typify why we are unfit to govern ourselves.

Note: Most Trump supporters make me feel this way. There are certain types that I view as “Likely Trump Supporters.”  One is that they must live in rural America and be willing to vote for a person that does everything he can to fight against their best interests.  They belong to the NRA.  They are not-college educated (unless they are very rich and positioned to become richer through Trump’s actions.)  They must be anti-abortion plus against any food program that will feed our nation’s poor. They must watch Hannity and believe he is real news.  They are closet or openly white supremacists. They are evangelicals who hate Muslims.  They are poor and willing to blame that condition on immigrants.

In the end, I’ve decided that I believe in God but want nothing to do with formal Christian organizations.  The hypocrisy is just too much to bear.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim