Rec | THE ABSURDITIES OF AMERICAN EVANGELICAL COLONIALISM

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THE ABSURDITIES OF AMERICAN EVANGELICAL COLONIALISM

Beirut, Lebanon is the newest victim of Israel airstrikes and obviously this is a fucking atrocity but I need to take a minute to reflect on the hypocrisy and inability to reflect by American conservative Christians in response to this moment, one of whom is my own mother and many being members of the megachurch in which I grew up. Must have been the summer of 22 that a group from my parent’s church was called to serve doing missionary work in Lebanon, which, you know, is admirable from the eyes of the missionary and the faithful old chaps who fund them, until you’re manipulating impoverished Lebanese people into abandoning their faith for a free sewing lesson or dentist appointment while you use donation money to go on a tour of important Biblical sites for half the trip. Despite all this ooing and aaing about the spiritual importance of Lebanese cedars and the sites where Jesus held sermons, I bring up the recent bombing and it’s just “so sad” but there will be no reflection on how they, as conservative American Trump voters, are supporting this destruction and genocide in the name of profits!! I genuinely don’t know how to reconcile the fact that my parents have spent time volunteering to feed and clothe migrant farm workers but do not give a single fuck about the ICE raids. MAGA brainrot at it’s finest. The unfortunate truth is that the Christian text encourages a kind of false consciousness that puts power into the hands of manipulative, pseudo-christian leaders. I can’t tell you how many times growing up I heard how God appoints those in power for a reason, and that those with wealth and positions of leadership are there to carry out God’s plan. The bible is a violent and retributive book. It applies virtue to quiet suffering. I love my parents still but this is so ingrained in them, and millions of other conservative christians, and i genuinely do not know how you argue with people who gladly believe in a literal rapture and a literal hell that their children will suffer for eternity

@eatgraeps

Apr 1, 2025

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@lucius

Extremely valid critiques. Fwiw, much of american evangelicalism either ignorantly or willfully misinterprets the scripture they claim to follow. Most haven't even read it at all. Their true god is U.S. Capitalism and the "American Dream," neither of which align with Christ's teachings at all.

Apr 1, 2025

@eatgraeps

@LUCIUS yeah, always incredible to me… the people i wrote about above are christians who study the bible daily (i have read a lot of it myself!) and it astounds me how they react so rabidly to socialist politics when ”loving the downtrodden” and literal wealth redistribution through donations to the church is such a big part of what they read and practice

Apr 1, 2025

@lucius

@EATGRAEPS Agreed, insane to me how they can agree with those passages with their words but won't connect that they're actions a values don't align with them at all.

Apr 1, 2025

@MidwestZen

I’ve been reflecting a lot on the banality of evil, coined by Hannah Arendt, and its growth in American culture. People will accept atrocities, even those that seemingly go against their own values, if it has the potential to afford them greater comfort and meaning. MAGA has cultivated this in the United States, the seeds have been planted for quite some time. This idea that it doesn’t matter who suffers so long as “I get mine” because that’s what’s “fair.” There are fanatics in this type of culture, but most people aren’t so ideological. Yet they will still co-sign evil so long as they’re promised cheaper eggs, lower taxes, and free trips to the Middle East.

Apr 1, 2025

@eatgraeps

@ZENLIKEME yeah- lately ive been wondering if we’ve always been so desensitized and lacking in enpathy or if it’s a recent cultural development… or maybe a byproduct of gaining power and comfort. part of the reason ive been so interested in wwII history recently. Incredible, the banality!

Apr 1, 2025

@MidwestZen

@ZENLIKEME It’s likely not new, being a superpower, but I do think it’s changed and evolved as our hyper-individualism has intensified. I wonder how that has impacted the circle of empathy and who does/does not reside within it.

Apr 1, 2025

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