Let's Talk About the Religious Right UPDATE 11/7/2020 - VINDICATION!!!

[Black Panther]

This is a subject very close to me. I used to belong to a church that increasingly espoused right-wing views over the years, and I ended up stepping down as a minister and leaving the church this past May due to their apathy on recent police shootings and open support for Donald Trump.

Spoiler

I'm actually in talks with Cracked.com about writing an article about my experience.

The worst thing about belonging to a church that inserts political views into it's message is that there's no distinction being made between doctrine and opinion. I had belonged to that church for 11.5 years, and I thought that being united together in Christ would make political, racial, and cultural differences irrelevant.

Spoiler

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. --Galatians 3:28

I was wrong. I'll take the L.

I always knew my pastor and many other members had some pretty conservative views (my former pastor is Lebanese, and identifies as white), but I believed that their political and cultural views were secondary to the Gospel (as they should be).

Then Ferguson happened.

Ferguson is my hood. Obviously there was a conflict in how we viewed the situation, being that I'm from North County (of which Ferguson is a municipality) and he's from the affluent part of South County.

I wrote a letter that was largely ignored by the church, and once the church started openly endorsing Donald Trump for President (which is technically illegal BTW), I was like

So I left. Then I found the Coli.

Y'all have mostly been a means of catharsis. I post a lot here because I'm trying to confirm that I'm not crazy.

I'm still a Christian, and I still hold some pretty conservative social views (abortion is murder and should be rare, homosexuality is wrong), but I cannot endure right-wing evangelical thinking anymore.

I know some fools are going to come in and try to clown (@I_Got_Da_Burna

) but I appreciate the opportunity to be open and honest about my feelings.

 

[dennis roadman]

This is a subject very close to me. I used to belong to a church that increasingly espoused right-wing views over the years, and I ended up stepping down as a minister and leaving the church this past May due to their apathy on recent police shootings and open support for Donald Trump.

Spoiler

I'm actually in talks with Cracked.com about writing an article about my experience.

The worst thing about belonging to a church that inserts political views into it's message is that there's no distinction being made between doctrine and opinion. I had belonged to that church for 11.5 years, and I thought that being united together in Christ would make political, racial, and cultural differences irrelevant.


I was wrong. I'll take the L. :mjcryhubie:

I always knew my pastor and many other members had some pretty conservative views (my former pastor is Lebanese, and identifies as white), but I believed that their political and cultural views were secondary to the Gospel (as they should be).

Then Ferguson happened.

Ferguson is my hood. Obviously there was a conflict in how we viewed the situation, being that I'm from North County (of which Ferguson is a municipality) and he's from the affluent part of South County.

I wrote a letter that was largely ignored by the church, and once the church started openly endorsing Donald Trump for President (which is technically illegal BTW), I was like

So I left. Then I found the Coli.

Y'all have mostly been a means of catharsis. I post a lot here because I'm trying to confirm that I'm not crazy. :kanyebp:

I'm still a Christian, and I still hold some pretty conservative social views (abortion is murder and should be rare, homosexuality is wrong), but I cannot endure right-wing evangelical thinking anymore.

I know some fools are going to come in and try to clown (@I_Got_Da_Burna :bpufedup but I appreciate the opportunity to be open and honest about my feelings.

you have an interesting story no doubt

if you're gonna write about this and get paid for it, i understand if you don't want to go in here

have you ever looked at your situation as one of a cult? it took you 3 years to leave a church that was not 100% in opposition to police shooting an unarmed black teenager?

i know you wanna talk about the movement in general but since there's not a lot of people who have actively been involved with the religious right posting here, please recognize you're inviting responses like mine. this thread could get personal for you.

breh if i were you i would question every single belief i ever had and still have

 

[jj23]

Well said. My church experiences left me agnostic. So as a minister I can only imagine how rough it was for you.

I have found the church is more about control and power than Christian values. Unfortunately people are brainwashed into believing the word of the ministers is the unquestioned truth and they can't bring themselves to accept reality. It's like being stuck in the matrix.

 

[Black Panther]

you have an interesting story no doubt

if you're gonna write about this and get paid for it, i understand if you don't want to go in here

have you ever looked at your situation as one of a cult? it took you 3 years to leave a church that was not 100% in opposition to police shooting an unarmed black teenager?

i know you wanna talk about the movement in general but since there's not a lot of people who have actively been involved with the religious right posting here, please recognize you're inviting responses like mine. this thread could get personal for you.

breh if i were you i would question every single belief i ever had and still have

I'm aware this could get personal. I invite it. :kanyebp:

I don't think the "cult" label applies, unless everybody who belongs to a particular church is in a cult. I believed in it's mission and supported it for all those years because I didn't really have a reason to doubt what they were saying was true.

Ever since the police shootings and the 2015-2016 political climate, things changed.

There were several questionable statements made by my former Pastor that began to concern me. Such as:
-"God is conservative; liberalism is demonic" "God is not a liberal" (God does not fit into your political boxes )
-"Fox News is the best news source" ()
-"Capitalism is the only economy blessed and ordained by God" (Capitalism didn't exist when the Bible was being written )

-"Don't get into all this racial stuff, it's a distraction" (while playing Fox News videos during service about the Ferguson and Baltimore protests )

 

[dennis roadman]

I'm aware this could get personal. I invite it. :kanyebp:

I don't think the "cult" label applies, unless everybody who belongs to a particular church is in a cult. I believed in it's mission and supported it for all those years because I didn't really have a reason to doubt what they were saying was true.

Ever since the police shootings and the 2015-2016 political climate, things changed.

There were several questionable statements made by my former Pastor that began to concern me. Such as:
-"God is conservative; liberalism is demonic" "God is not a liberal" (God does not fit into your political boxes )
-"Fox News is the best news source" ()
-"Capitalism is the only economy blessed and ordained by God" (Capitalism didn't exist when the Bible was being written )

-"Don't get into all thins racial stuff, it's a distraction" (while playing Fox News videos during service about the Ferguson and Baltimore protests )

my dude, everything you said after the bold contradicts it, except the part about everyone being in a church belonging to a cult (which is technically true but semantics aren't important here)

why didn't those comments have you getting up in the middle of the service and leaving forever? what compelled you to stay so long?

did you ever try to offer any opposition, publicly or privately, when church brass was saying this stuff?

 

[jj23]

I'm aware this could get personal. I invite it. :kanyebp:

I don't think the "cult" label applies, unless everybody who belongs to a particular church is in a cult. I believed in it's mission and supported it for all those years because I didn't really have a reason to doubt what they were saying was true.

Ever since the police shootings and the 2015-2016 political climate, things changed.

There were several questionable statements made by my former Pastor that began to concern me. Such as:
-"God is conservative; liberalism is demonic" "God is not a liberal" (God does not fit into your political boxes )
-"Fox News is the best news source" ()
-"Capitalism is the only economy blessed and ordained by God" (Capitalism didn't exist when the Bible was being written )

-"Don't get into all thins racial stuff, it's a distraction" (while playing Fox News videos during service about the Ferguson and Baltimore protests )

Sounds like a cult to me breh

 

[Black Panther]

my dude, everything you said after the bold contradicts it, except the part about everyone being in a church belonging to a cult (which is technically true but semantics aren't important here)

why didn't those comments have you getting up in the middle of the service and leaving forever? what compelled you to stay so long?

did you ever try to offer any opposition, publicly or privately, when church brass was saying this stuff?

It's not as easy when you're part of the ministerial staff. Not to mention my wife and several friends being there.

The honest truth is that people aren't as principled as they'd like to be in real life.

 

[jj23]

How did your wife take your decision to leave?

 

[dennis roadman]

It's not as easy when you're part of the ministerial staff. Not to mention my wife and several friends being there.

The honest truth is that people aren't as principled as they'd like to be in real life.

i feel that bruh. you got caught up. did your wife leave too?

what was it like when yall left? do you still interact with those friends and do you see church members for any non-church reason, without the dynamic being awkward because your exit?

you were preaching, too, then? did you ever feel compelled to go against the grain and speak your mind? how'd that work?

 

[Black Panther]

my dude, everything you said after the bold contradicts it

Sounds like a cult to me breh

:kanyebp:

I'm only really quoting the negative things I've observed. There was a lot more good. I just couldn't endure that line of reasoning, though.

How did your wife take your decision to leave?

i feel that bruh. you got caught up. did your wife leave too?

My wife is still there.

do you still interact with those friends and do you see church members for any non-church reason, without the dynamic being awkward because your exit?

We don't talk much, but honestly the interactions I had with friends and other church members had declined steadily during that whole period of time. That was mainly on me. I knew they wouldn't agree, so I gradually stopped hanging around.

you were preaching, too, then? did you ever feel compelled to go against the grain and speak your mind? how'd that work?

I did, a few times. I talked about my interactions with police during Bible study (mostly BS traffic-related incidents. St. Louis County has an over-policing problem. The main one was when I was hemmed up by a cop while helping my sister move at night because he thought I was stealing ).

There was one Sunday where my pastor played a video from Fox News with the Omega C00n himself

, and I ended up breaking down and refuting each point Sheriff Clarke made in that video without mentioning his name. :smugkobe1:

 

[dennis roadman]

:kanyebp:

I'm only really quoting the negative things I've observed. There was a lot more good. I just couldn't endure that line of reasoning, though.





My wife is still there.



We don't talk much, but honestly the interactions I had with friends and other church members had declined steadily during that whole period of time. That was mainly on me. I knew they wouldn't agree, so I gradually stopped hanging around.



I did, a few times. I talked about my interactions with police during Bible study (mostly BS traffic-related incidents. St. Louis County has an over-policing problem. The main one was when I was hemmed up by a cop while helping my sister move at night because he thought I was stealing ).

There was one Sunday where my pastor played a video from Fox News with the Omega C00n himself

, and I ended up breaking down and refuting each point Sheriff Clarke made in that video without mentioning his name. :smugkobe1:

how'd your wife take you leaving? does she agree that god loves racist police?

 

[jj23]

Tough one man. The community exiles you like you are a cancer rather than face their own bigotry.
Hope your wife comes around.

 

[hashmander]

i've never been an adult member of a church. shyt my parents are jamaican so of course i had to go to church as a youngster, but i stopped going regularly once i started college. now i just go for weddings, funerals and christenings. but my parents weren't full suckers either, we stopped going to one church cause the pastor bragged about how god blessed him with a new luxury car. my dad kissed his teeth and grumbled some shyt about how our tithes did that and that was the end of that chapter. so i couldn't imagine him staying a member of a church where people disregarded the plight of black folks. to tell you the truth we never really attended a church that wasn't a black church. it's suppose to be one religion, but i don't see white people interpreting it the same way black folks do. it's one big hustle to make black folks pliable.

 

[Black Panther]

how'd your wife take you leaving? does she agree that god loves racist police?

When you put it like that, of course not.

The thing here is phrasing. There's a moral imperative to respect police and other authority figures, so police get the benefit of the doubt. :kanyebp:

Of course I would agree that there's a problem there when police are so quick to shoot black suspects than white, but evangelicals view this as a distinction without meaning (mainly because many evangelicals don't believe in systemic racism).

I'd be lying if I said this situation hasn't caused problems, but we try to make it work.

 

[Green N' White]

I feel bad for you reading this especially the part where you mentioned your wife still attends. That's pretty tough. Is your wife a cac?