What people keep missing is that this isn’t a bug in MAGA Christianity. It’s the feature. If you’ve been trained your whole life that obedience equals righteousness, then authoritarianism doesn’t look like fascism. It looks like order. Freedom of speech only matters when you believe dissent has value. If you believe God already settled the argument, silence feels holy.
I grew up evangelical. My mother’s embrace of right-wing hate disguised as Christianity back in the late eighties turned me entirely against the evangelical church. And that brand of Christianity, with all its flaws and bigotry, was compassionate and mild in comparison to today’s passionate, angry embrace of cruelty and racism within the evangelical church.
I'm so so serious when I say I'm not sure they value human beings at all. I don't think they value human rights or decency I just .heavily suspicious that they're probably fine with really bad things. They're fine with rape. They want a society that is built on exploitation and dehumanization of half of humans and the people in charge think children are not worthy of their caregiving.....ya feel me? I think they think it's fine if the women and children die. I don't think those men know what goes into a human being. I've just seen too much at this point. I'm seriously questioning. I would never be in contact with them anyway so it's not that I'm.just looking at the system they believe in.
Thank you for sharing your experience, perspective through your insightful writing.
I grew up in an abusive patriarchal home, though not religious in any way.
I am 66 years old and definitely an atheist. What you have helped decode is the friends, classmates that have found religion or GOD through Rump. Seemingly decent people that for decades gave lip service to their faith, went to church now and then but are now rabid devotees of their faith. Mike Johnson’s version. They didn’t grow up as fundies but are all in now.
Anyway, thank you. I read your first book A Well Trained Wofe and will certainly read your second.
Thank you, Tia. I have learned much from you. This week has had me at a loss in how to respond. I will join you in "leaning in to the future irrelevance of Christian Nationalism." May it be so.
Thank you so much for this, Tia. I went down the rabbithole of reading old Evangelical blogs recently and it's hiding in plain sight - they want to control people, they want the sexism, anti-science and authoritarianism. It's a very twisted version of Christianity. It's too dark to be funny, but they are doing the opposite of what Jesus preached (and I'm not even religious). I don't know if they don't see the irony, or if they don't care. Either way, they want everyone to fall in line, and those who don't presumably don't 'deserve' to be saved or something.
What people keep missing is that this isn’t a bug in MAGA Christianity. It’s the feature. If you’ve been trained your whole life that obedience equals righteousness, then authoritarianism doesn’t look like fascism. It looks like order. Freedom of speech only matters when you believe dissent has value. If you believe God already settled the argument, silence feels holy.
Thank you. I badly needed to hear this today.
Your words bring hope amid the dark skies that try to blot
out any sense of a way out. Hard to be in the foggy world of my faith “deconstruction“ during this time. Thank you for putting hope down in words. 😍
I grew up evangelical. My mother’s embrace of right-wing hate disguised as Christianity back in the late eighties turned me entirely against the evangelical church. And that brand of Christianity, with all its flaws and bigotry, was compassionate and mild in comparison to today’s passionate, angry embrace of cruelty and racism within the evangelical church.
I'm so so serious when I say I'm not sure they value human beings at all. I don't think they value human rights or decency I just .heavily suspicious that they're probably fine with really bad things. They're fine with rape. They want a society that is built on exploitation and dehumanization of half of humans and the people in charge think children are not worthy of their caregiving.....ya feel me? I think they think it's fine if the women and children die. I don't think those men know what goes into a human being. I've just seen too much at this point. I'm seriously questioning. I would never be in contact with them anyway so it's not that I'm.just looking at the system they believe in.
Thank you for sharing your experience, perspective through your insightful writing.
I grew up in an abusive patriarchal home, though not religious in any way.
I am 66 years old and definitely an atheist. What you have helped decode is the friends, classmates that have found religion or GOD through Rump. Seemingly decent people that for decades gave lip service to their faith, went to church now and then but are now rabid devotees of their faith. Mike Johnson’s version. They didn’t grow up as fundies but are all in now.
Anyway, thank you. I read your first book A Well Trained Wofe and will certainly read your second.
Thank you, Tia. I have learned much from you. This week has had me at a loss in how to respond. I will join you in "leaning in to the future irrelevance of Christian Nationalism." May it be so.
I support you.
Thank you so much for this reminder. How any one of us escaped is how we all escape. Keep moving forward.
Thank you so much for this, Tia. I went down the rabbithole of reading old Evangelical blogs recently and it's hiding in plain sight - they want to control people, they want the sexism, anti-science and authoritarianism. It's a very twisted version of Christianity. It's too dark to be funny, but they are doing the opposite of what Jesus preached (and I'm not even religious). I don't know if they don't see the irony, or if they don't care. Either way, they want everyone to fall in line, and those who don't presumably don't 'deserve' to be saved or something.
well said.
This is a fantastic essay.
Justice will be served. It’s only a matter of time.
Thank you Tia, I needed to hear this.
I needed to see this, too. Thank you, Tia.
I needed this scrap of hope today. Thanks