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> influenced by friends at church in the US south The article doesn't really touch on this much. I don't know what church culture is like outside the U.S. Sou
by brucethemoose2 3y ago
> influenced by friends at church in the US south
The article doesn't really touch on this much.
I don't know what church culture is like outside the U.S. South, but here in the South its... weird. It's not like Donald Trump is a holy figure or anti-vax is scripture, but at the same time political memes and secular conservative culture have become remarkably entwined with the religious side. Obviously church has a long (sometimes problematic) history in U.S. Southern culture, but not quite like this. Not at such scale, diverging from the central moral/religious teachings and the culture of southern hospitality so much.
This Atlantic piece is based in Michigan, but it similar to what I've seen in the states between Texas and Florida:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/06/evangelical-church-pastors-political-radicalization/629631/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/06/evangel...
- smt88 3y agoI'm surprised that you're surprised. Southern Christianity has always reached deep into secular politics and government. The entire Southern Baptist religion was founded to protect slavery, which certainly isn't an imperative from scripture. I believe you that things are changing and perhaps becoming less subtle, but there never was a strong connection between Christian scripture and the behavior of Southern Christians.
- brucethemoose2 3y agoYeah, but its so... secular now. And blunt. I can't believe how direct some of my family+acquaintances are now in their mixed up religious/political talk, it's totally out of character. Instead of being introduced as a pretense, its like the fundamental religious pretense is getting thrown out, along with the tendency to use euphemisms.