Evangelical is a really fascinating term. It meant a hundred different and politically flexible things for decades, and then it came to be *the* common shorthand for MAGA Protestants, which erases lots of people and politics, while also letting other groups of MAGA Christians sneak by - ThreadSky

jasonkirk.fyi • 1 day ago

Evangelical is a really fascinating term. It meant a hundred different and politically flexible things for decades, and then it came to be *the* common shorthand for MAGA Protestants, which erases lots of people and politics, while also letting other groups of MAGA Christians sneak by

Reposted from Ryan Burge

What racial group is most likely to self-identify as evangelical?

Black people, and it's not even close.

In 2022, 44% of African-Americans said that they were evangelical.

It was only 25% of Whites and Hispanics.

Just 15% of Asians.

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jacketdan.bsky.social•1 day ago

This is why I tense up whenever I see “tax the churches!”

minouroufail.bsky.social•1 day ago

“Other groups” like conservative Catholics, who, for instance, dominate the corrupt and politicized Roberts Court and who apparently wish to facilitate an authoritarian (Catholicized) state. Enter J.D. Vance, “convert”.

minouroufail.bsky.social•1 day ago

Just now reading the comments in this thread and glad to see mine is superfluous!

kerrence.bsky.social•1 day ago

just in my own experience I think people just interchange “fundamentalist” with “evangelical” when you’d be hard pressed to NOT find evangelical protestants vs fundamentalists being very specific things

bevbrandt.bsky.social•1 day ago

I was raised in a fundamentalist family. I differentiate between fundamentalist and evangelical and so did my church. Evangelical means to actively recruit. Though fundamentalists consider recruitment, they are far more concerned with their translation of the Bible and how it impacts their in-group.

jasonkirk.fyi•1 day ago

Another example, for sure. There's lots of overlap at times in both directions, but that's been a huge rivalry at times, and they're definitely not synonyms

onekneedjacks.bsky.social•1 day ago

Seem to recall polling/analysis that splits out white christians by catholic/mainline protestant/evangelical but can't do the same for other racial groups due to sample size. So in political context, "evangelical" becomes a label that distinguishes among white christians in particular.

jasonkirk.fyi•1 day ago

Lots of polls also split out White Catholics, etc. They usually vote pretty similarly to White Evangelicals. And I get that this is one thing the term has come to popularly mean, but one of my points is about the many other meanings that have been erased

redactedparker.bsky.social•19 hours ago

The most common theological trait among the American right tends to be a neo-Gnostic dualist cosmology, in which Satan is treated as an Antigod with control over the material world, while God reigns over a mythicised Platonic Ideal of America

zkindt.bsky.social•1 day ago

I grew up attending ELCA, it was good then and by far one of the more progressive Christian denominations today, happy to be associated with that vs MAGA people

bsviggy.bsky.social•1 day ago

Especially since the powerful hardliner fundies in government are mostly (borderline schismatic) Catholics

jasonkirk.fyi•1 day ago

I'm sure I've used "Evangelical" as a synonym for "Christian Trump voter," but I've tried to first make sure we're both clear on what we mean when we say it. If you say it around a modern religion scholar they'll pause to give you a checklist of questions on potential meanings

mobute.bsky.social•1 day ago

it seems especially sloppy now given the catholics on the supreme court, generalized crusader cosplay, and the vp champing at the bit for francis to die so he can dig him up for the woke cadaver synod

tcmcg.bsky.social•1 day ago

I didn’t even think of the desire to put Woke Pope in Cadaver Synod II.

jasonkirk.fyi•1 day ago

Yeah this drives me crazy. Certain kinds of Catholics have been doing this shit for a thousand years, but we act like Jerry Falwell invented it all nine seconds ago

kingme1848.bsky.social•1 day ago

Will not be surprised over an American Pope soon.

redactedparker.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Absolutely- and the traits associated with MAGA Christianity in America go far beyond self-professed labels. There are Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish people in America whose theology is more distinctly rooted in Calvin and Luther than most European protestants’.

guspowers.bsky.social•1 day ago

I mean, I know up is down and all, but it literally means the good news. Ain't nothing in modern right wing politics involving good news.

stickypeanut.bsky.social•1 day ago

random question but this reminded me - last night the Hockey game had the "he gets us" ads on the rink - my grandpa was a Lutheran Missouri Synod pastor an Army chaplain. The rage for how these ads are used by orgs who don't follow the teachings...it's rage inducing. How does anyone square this?

esouthard.bsky.social•1 day ago

Even evangelicals in the UK, as close to American culture as you can get outside North America, are very different, from what I can tell

highmynameishi.bsky.social•1 day ago

To put it loosely they’re the people Layne Staley warned us about.

arrpeeohh.bsky.social•1 day ago

I want to take the alignment with TradCaths and asorted splitter denominations and say Fundamentalists could work. But Christian Nationalist is right there and fits so well

jasonkirk.fyi•1 day ago

Fundamentalists already had a whole other set of complicated meanings. CN makes fine sense to me because it focuses on what they are trying to achieve without implying theological/traditional/denominational/etc specifics

rwmaxey.bsky.social•1 day ago

One thing I find really odd about “Evangelical” being the broad brush for conservative Christianity is that the conservative legal movement, the most successful flank of conservative action for the past 50 years, verges on being explicitly Catholic

yinkadoubledare.bsky.social•1 day ago

Explicitly pre-Vatican II Catholic, specifically.

sandyparker.bsky.social•1 day ago

Catholics

jasonkirk.fyi•1 day ago

This is what I think of every single time a poll shows like 70% of "White Evangelicals" voting Trump ...... and like 65% of "White Catholics" quietly doing the same

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•1 day ago

When I noticed that Republicans always put Catholics on the Supreme Court (Gorsuch had a Catholic education, shut up) I was like wait what

minouroufail.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yeah, that’s Leonard Leo’s doing.

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•1 day ago

What a dick

sandyparker.bsky.social•1 day ago

I went back to church when my kids were in elementary school. The increase in the amount of time they spent talking about "the unborn" in the intervening years was staggering.

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•1 day ago

What about the undead

aceanbender.com•1 day ago

this is the only book i've read on the christian right wing that doesn't erase non-white evangelicals from the MAGA movement https://bsky.app/profile/aceanbender.com/post/3li5jfxfzc22e

minouroufail.bsky.social•1 day ago

Excellent book!

ijspurcell.bsky.social•1 day ago

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