Why I And Many Others Are Disgusted With White Evangelicals, One Of Worst Groups In U.S.

This cartoon pretty much sums up the hypocrisy of white
evangelicals nowadays. 

Liberals and Democrats have in the past several years tried to figure out how to deal with Evangelicals.

Especially white ones.

Is there something Evangelicals have in common with liberals? Is there a moral compass that liberals and evangelicals have in common?  Can these groups work together?

Um, no.

Now that Donald Trump has been president for a year, a lot of white evangelicals have shown their true colors. Gone is the assumption they're a "moral" group, even if a lot of us disagree with their positions on gays, feminists, abortion, marriage and such.

White evangelicals, at least the ones who speak for them, are hypocritical creeps. We are better off totally ignoring them. Or better, relentlessly mocking them.

For one thing, it's clear that probably a majority of white evangelicals are also white supremacists.

I can't state this case any better than John Pavlovitz, who recently penned a real stemwinder of a case against white evangelicals in a scathing open letter to them. It's so worth the read.

This is how he opens his devastating missive:

"I need to tell you something. People have had it with you.

They're done. 

They want nothing to do with you any longer, and here's why; 

They see your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your incredibly selective mercy, and your thinly veiled supremacy. 

For eight years they watched you relentlessly demonize a black President, a man faithfully married for 26 yers, a doting father and husband without a hint of moral scandal or the slightest whiff of infidelity."

Pavolvitz, along with so many of the rest of us, noticed the black president Obama never got prayers, was never welcomed to their Christian organizations, was never given the benefit of the doubt, never received any kind of affirmation of his humanity, by white evangelicals.

And then there's Trump.

"You openly give a 'mulligan' to a white Republican man so riddled with depravity, so littered with extramarital affairs, so unapologetically vile, with such a vast resume of moral filth - that the mind boggles. And the change in you is unmistakable,. It has been an astonishing conversion to behold: a being born again."

Trump's sin, lack of repentance, and lack of compassion doesn't matter. Which is why they rest of us have had it with white evangelicals. As Pavolvitz says, we recognize the toxic source of your duality.

"They see that pigmentation and party are your sole dieties. They see that you aren't interested in perpetuating the love ofGod or emulating the heart of Jesus.

They see that you aren't burdened to love the least, or to be agents of compassion, or to care for your Muslim, gay, African, femail or poor neighbors as yourself."

No, white evangelicals live smugly, often in their gated communities.

White evangelicals always have felt a sense of persecution. That everybody is out to "get" them. Everybody wants to supposedly squelch their religious freedom.  What they really want is for everybody to be just like them, to do just as they say and do. There is no room for dissent, in their warped minds. Nobody can be who they are, what they are, in white evangelicals' mind. It's their way or the highway.

Screw you on that one.

One of the most despised leaders of all these white evangelicals is Tony Perkins. (To be fair, the white evangelicals love him.)

A former evangelist, Frank Schaeffer, was recently on A.M Joy - Joy Reid hosting -  and described Perkins as follows, and he could also be describing the bulk of these morons:

"Tony Perkins forgot his own theology and replaced it with a theology of revenge on people he disagrees with politically. That's what's going on here. This is the revenge of white evangelical right-wingers. Who they want to punch in the mouth is not just black Americans but, to put it in the words of the President of the United States, those who live in shithole countries. So they're willing to put up with anything when it comes to moral degradation to see those ends achieved."

White evangelicals seem willing to suspend any kind of disbelief to push their racist, pro-Trump narrative.  So they double down on their odd, awful beliefs. Which isn't good for this movement's future, let me tell ya.

Some white evangelicals, to their immense credit, see the rot and hypocrisy and are leaving this group. Five Thirty Eight noted:

"After dominating much of American politics for the past 40 years, white evangelical Protestants are now facing a sharp decline. Nearly one-third of white Americans raised in evangelical Christian households leave their childhood faith. About 60 percent of those who leave end up joining another faith tradition, while 40 percent give up on religion altogether. The rates of disaffiliation are even higher among young adults."

Five Thirty Eight goes on:

"......white evangelical population in the U.S. has fallen over the past decade, dropping from 23 percent in 2006 to 17 percent in 2016." Five Thirty Eight also notes the remaining white evangelicals are aging, with their average age definitely going up.

One more bit of info from Five Thirty Eight:

"Other research also suggests that one of the prime motivators for leaving a religion is belief incompatibility. A 2016 PRRI stuy found that the most common reason people give up on their childhood faith is that they no long believe in its teachings. Twenty-nine percent of Americans who have left their formative religion explictly mention negative teachings about gay and lesbian people as a proximate cause for their disaffiliation."

Things will only get worse for the remaining white evangelicals. People who can think logically are leaving, and the hypocrisy they've shown under Trump will only make the stampede out the door faster.

White evangelicals will alway think the larger society is "out to get them." Unlike the past, it's actually true now. Few, if any people want to force them to give up their beliefs. It's just that not many people want to join their bandwagon. Not many people will be upset if the evangelical movement withers and dies.

Politicians of all stripes quaked in their boots if evangelicals objected to them.  Going forward, political leaders will dismiss them as an unimportant fringe group. As long as Trump remains in office, white evangelicals will have a voice and influence, just like other white supremacists.

After Trump's gone, white evangelicals will be out in the political wilderness. Where they belong.