politics

The only thing about it I find interesting is that it’s not directed towards people outside of evangelicalism. Back in the 90s and 00s, evangelicals would talk a lot about “Judeo-Christian values” as a way to get conservative non-evangelicals and independents to align with their political program. But in recent years, with the rise of Christian nationalism, they seem to be giving up on convincing anyone outside of their own to go along with them. Evangelicals think they have sufficient numbers to enact their political program if they can just get their own people in line and show up to vote.

that is interesting. the frontier always comes home, even within these sects, and they're subject to same material forces as the american empire writ large.

american church-going has been on the decline decade after decade, and even the evangelical churches struggle to hold onto their numbers. but these glossy megachurch shopping malls still need some form of message discipline to hold up their ranks. for example, there's a wildly successful megachurch franchise in my area that quietly has lgbtq+ "small groups," but their membership is a tens of thousands of people spread across a dozen or more campuses. i really doubt that 99% of the members know this, and it certainly isn't something that the church leadership condones. but what are these real estate scams going to do? turn down their money? cut off networking opportunities for their next mlm plan? not gonna happen.

today's leading evangelical figures would be pilloried by the bible-thumpers of thirty years ago, when a wife using a hyphenated surname after marriage was considered tantamount to lesbianism, but co-opting liberal hr officespeak and self-help tactics never meant these shits were ever truly tolerant or loving.