Wouldn't it just be easier for evangelicals to admit they don't read the Bible?

[Initech]

I was thinking about this after watching Bill Maher last night. They can site their sources all they want to but in the end nobody's going to fact check them on their side, because - shocker - they don't read it. That's why they think Trump is god. They can compare him to King Cyrus all they want to, but have they read that exact passage in the Bible? No. Have they read the part where Jesus said that you should love your fellow man? No. And if you cite it, they'll simply quote another verse or passage that was probably told to them by their pastors. If they would just admit they don't read or really understand the Bible, I think we'd be better off as a society.

[dalton99a]

1. It's an authoritarian cult

[TexasBushwhacker]

2. And they will go ballistic about homosexuals and abortions

Even though Jesus never said ANYTHING about either of those issues.

[Initech]

3. And if you tell them that, they will also go ballistic.

Apparently their god has anger issues. Which might explain why they like Chump.

[trev]

10. In the NT,

they get their homophobia from the Apostle Paul.

Some non-Evangelical Bible scholars think Paul was latent.

[TomSlick]

16. The only reasonable explanation for Paul's writings about homosexuality,

in the complete absence of any such comments by Jesus, is that Paul was a closeted, self-loathing, gay man. It is the best explanation for his "thorn in the flesh." This also explains his argument that believers should be celibate.

Paul had important things to say but his rants about sexuality are best ignored.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. Later Paul writings were not by Paul, as Paul supported women as apostles. Later works ghost writers

.

There was a diametric change in Pauls writing style and beliefs as he got older, when Christianity was taken over my paternalistic leadership, around when Paul was in his 60s. Scholars make valid points in peer journal articles that Paul's voice changed to several voices later on in life, before he was killed.

.

[TomSlick]

18. The Pauline writings read like multiple voices.

It's hard to parse whether there were ghost writers or Paul just got old and cranky. In any event it was unusual for a "Pharisee among Pharisees" to be so stridently celibate. Jesus never advocated celibacy. Why did Paul? The closest Jesus came to a comment about homosexuality was in the healing of the centurion's pais. Given the opportunity to condemn, instead Jesus remarked only on the centurion's faith.

With that background, Paul's rants about homosexuality seem odd. It would be assumed that a Pharisee among Pharisee would condemn homosexuality - why the rants? Why did Paul reject the "Judaizers" but hold to this one matter of Pharisee orthodoxy? My only explanation is that he (or perhaps a ghost writer) protested too much.

[trev]

19. I agree.

[onecaliberal]

4. It's patently obvious.

[Faux pas]

5. Do they

read at all? We know their god appointed leader doesn't. (equals a rim shot)

[Initech]

9. That is a good question!

They probably don't, which is why they watch Fox News 24/7.

[ismnotwasm]

6. They read it a lot.

Bible studies are a thing with them. They take what they want and “interpret” the passages, either literally or figuratively. Same thing with the actual history of the Bible, if it fits the narritive it happened. If it doesn’t its wrong.

This is my favorite version

https://skepticsannotatedbible.com

This site has pissed off a lot of people, but he goes line by line.

[Buckeyeblue]

13. They do have a lot of bible study groups but they are mainly to talk about what the bible should say

It's like a religious brain storming session of how the good word both justifies and mandates their hate.

[underpants]

7. To my thinking a lot of people skip over a basic fact with evangelicals

The Bible is their unchageable unprovable irrefutable undocumented authorless source. It's perfect for them. It can't be questioned so they can take from it what they want.

Okay but here's the point - it's a highly patriarchal belief system. MAN is superior to both women and nature (Dominionists). They don't have anything in common with Trump and they know it BUT he stopped a woman from being President and he returned the natural order after a dizzying period when a white male wasn't in charge. That's it. That was enough. Quote Hannibal Lector here about reading Marcus Aurelius.

As for the nature element - they've been manipulated by polluters for decades.

[VOX]

14. Excellent analysis. Some evangelicals believe that 45's going to usher in the "end times."

Linger on that delusional idea for a brief moment: there are people who back 45 because he could initiate a war of complete planetary obliteration.

The late Republican Senator Barry Goldwater had this to say about evangelicals some 25 years ago:
"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."
--Stated in November, 1994, as quoted in John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience (2006)

[underpants]

15. Thank you. Very interesting how Goldwater saw them coming.

Reagan and his group thought they could pander to them just a little bit and it would be enough. It wasn't.

[backscatter712]

8. They're two-book Christians.

They've only read two books of the Bible: Leviticus and Revelation.

[MountCleaners]

11. The Bible also commands us to respect God's creation

There is nothing Christian about the right's environmental policies, and their position on climate change.

Furthermore, the Bible makes it very clear that pride is a sin, and that it is wrong to put oneself above others. And yet they are constantly deeming themselves better Christians than the heathen left. I had twelve years of Catholic schooling, and I was taught that it was a sin to demonize others or to assume that you are more holy or more in God's grace than someone else.

[Iggo]

12. LOL...shh.