Growing Hostility towards Evangelical Christians on Atlas

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

The hostility of many on this forum to evangelical Christianity would never fly if similar comments were said about literally any other religious tradition.  And, before you say that it's because we are "advantaged", I would push back on that.  Evangelicals see very little representation in entertainment, for example (and, when we are represented, it's usually a cartoonish portrayal).

I think this is an important point.  Evangelicals seem much more powerful than they actually are.  Evangelicals have a lot of Representation within the Republican Party.  However, when it comes to the media, education, Hollywood, and business, there really aren't very many Evangelicals at all.

[Former President tack50]

The bizarre mindset on this forum though is that it only should for the conservative Protestant sects. That it's totally finally for people from conservative Protestantism to convert to liberal Protestantism, but it's never OK for Catholics to convert to any type of Protestant because "that's not how things are supposed to work" or whatever but it is OK for them to become atheist, so basically the mindset is people raised Protestant can be whatever they want but people raised Catholic have only a binary choice of Catholic or nothing. It's a truly perplexing mindset that I can not understand in the slightest.

This supposed mindset only exists in your mind lmao. I have never seen anything like that on the forum, let alone enough times to consider it a collective "mindset". Why you would come up with such strange ideas, of course, is a truly perplexing thing that I can not understand in the slightest.

Well for example Gully Foyle a truly HORRENDOUS poster whose garbage I've been been bemoaning for over a decade once said something along the lines of "If you're practicing a different religion than your parents or maybe your spouse, there's a problem."

If it wasn't super late I could dig up other threads but a lot of Europeans seemed to have a difficult time grasping that in the US religious identity is basically self-selected (in the US even people who are the same religion as their parents made a conscious decision to stay that) and thus tried to just deny that.

I will raise my hand here and plead guilty as charged

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Well for example Gully Foyle a truly HORRENDOUS poster

Go read his posts about the Green Party, or his junk on AAD about how Tulsi Gabbard was a serious candidate.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

They hate us because they ain’t us, ER!

White men from suburbia? That describes 95% of the people here

I was obviously referring to evangelicals in suburbia, the third most oppressed group after gamers and Nikki Haley haters.

Ah, right after Native Americans, Blacks, Women, Latinos, Trans people, Gay people, LGBTQ people in general, single moms, service industry employees, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, mormons, residents of California, people in North Korea, people in literally all of Africa/central asia, Women under Taliban rule, and moderate Republicans.

The sarcasm understander

[It’s so Joever]

This is correct to be honest. Atlas has this strange identity and those who don’t fit into it are certainly looked down upon to a slight extent. Not verbally, but you can see it. This doesn’t just apply to evangelicals (although they are impacted) it seems that women and trans people are impacted by the same phenomenon on here.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

They hate us because they ain’t us, ER!

White men from suburbia? That describes 95% of the people here

I was obviously referring to evangelicals in suburbia, the third most oppressed group after gamers and Nikki Haley haters.

Ah, right after Native Americans, Blacks, Women, Latinos, Trans people, Gay people, LGBTQ people in general, single moms, service industry employees, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, mormons, residents of California, people in North Korea, people in literally all of Africa/central asia, Women under Taliban rule, and moderate Republicans.

The sarcasm understander

THG is just on an uncomprehendingly high level us mere mortals can't understand.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

[Hindsight was 2020]

    While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

Oh god grief PIT it was a public health crisis and evens churches were encouraging people not to physically come in over streaming.

Edit: Also that doesn’t change that fact that what OP is talking about and when people in general complain about their religious freedom being under attack they are talking about gay rights

[All Along The Watchtower]

Why focus on Evangelical Christians specifically? There is hostility or at least suspicion toward religion in general on online political spaces, especially places that skew toward a younger demographic (hi Atlas Zoomers).

And not to startle the OP, but this is nothing new.

[All Along The Watchtower]

It's not "good" works though, but rather very legalistic junk

Please don't use that word.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Large portions of the world, including most of the Atlas Forum hate you and always will. If they don't, you are probably doing something wrong. That's simply a result of standing for something. Truth is inherently divisive. Never change your beliefs from pressure.

They will hate you and you have to love them anyway. And until that is something an outsider sees from the Christians they know and not from everyone else, it's going to keep getting darker outside.

The darkness outside is people being gay openly, right?
If that's what you're getting at, it is rather concerning that someone with this extremist mindset is a moderator here. It would certainly explain some of the more baffling, unexplained removal decisions I've seen in the past.

The text does not say that. The text says that to the extent the Christians an outsider knows are kind to him even though the outsider disdains them - which the outsider finds a most uncommon reaction as compared to others (to turn the other cheek), and the outsider comes to appreciate the difference, at that point the animus of the outsider may begin to dissipate.

Another way to put it, is that if you treat those with whom you disagree, and/or the other, in a classy way, over time the animus should subside.

And that is the TJ I know and respect, and was the reason way back when I sponsored him to become a Mod.

Thank you.

You are being very charitable towards TJ, at least as I've experienced him as a commenter and moderator.

TJ is literally one of the nicest posters on here

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's not "good" works though, but rather very legalistic junk

Please don't use that word.

Why not?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Large portions of the world, including most of the Atlas Forum hate you and always will. If they don't, you are probably doing something wrong. That's simply a result of standing for something. Truth is inherently divisive. Never change your beliefs from pressure.

They will hate you and you have to love them anyway. And until that is something an outsider sees from the Christians they know and not from everyone else, it's going to keep getting darker outside.

It's extremely generous for you, as a Catholic, to refer to Evangelical beliefs as "truth," when the vast majority of them would never do the same back to you.

You're committing the common fallacy here of assuming that almost all evangelicals are hostile to Catholics like it's still 1928 or whatever. That's not true at all today. For one look at how many evangelicals supported Rick Santorum in 2012 and Marco Rubio in 2016. Also try to find a Catholic bashing article in Christianity Today. Etc.

[Pedocon Theory is not a theory]

Why focus on Evangelical Christians specifically? There is hostility or at least suspicion toward religion in general on online political spaces, especially places that skew toward a younger demographic (hi Atlas Zoomers).

And not to startle the OP, but this is nothing new.

Because Evangelicals are the only true patriots willing to fight back against the Gay Agenda taking over American and turning it towards SIN.

[Xing]

No ideology or belief system is beyond criticism, and thinking that any beliefs other than your own will literally lead to eternal suffering is going to raise some eyebrows. If my ideology were that conservatism is irredeemably evil, obviously conservatives are going to have something to say to me about that, and I don't think it would be entirely fair on my part to label any criticism of that as hostility or persecution of me. Being completely unforgiving and intolerant of homosexuality or being transgender... is it really hard to see why that isn't going to sit well with people who are gay or transgender?

And if anyone tries to say that the fact that I'm saying this is "proof of what OP is saying", then this is nothing more than a Kafka trap. Kind of like me accusing another poster of being disagreeable, and then if they disagree with that, it's "evidence that I'm right."

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Large portions of the world, including most of the Atlas Forum hate you and always will. If they don't, you are probably doing something wrong. That's simply a result of standing for something. Truth is inherently divisive. Never change your beliefs from pressure.

They will hate you and you have to love them anyway. And until that is something an outsider sees from the Christians they know and not from everyone else, it's going to keep getting darker outside.

The darkness outside is people being gay openly, right?
If that's what you're getting at, it is rather concerning that someone with this extremist mindset is a moderator here. It would certainly explain some of the more baffling, unexplained removal decisions I've seen in the past.

The text does not say that. The text says that to the extent the Christians an outsider knows are kind to him even though the outsider disdains them - which the outsider finds a most uncommon reaction as compared to others (to turn the other cheek), and the outsider comes to appreciate the difference, at that point the animus of the outsider may begin to dissipate.

Another way to put it, is that if you treat those with whom you disagree, and/or the other, in a classy way, over time the animus should subside.

And that is the TJ I know and respect, and was the reason way back when I sponsored him to become a Mod.

Thank you.

You are being very charitable towards TJ, at least as I've experienced him as a commenter and moderator.

TJ is literally one of the nicest posters on here

I'm sure he is, but he clearly moderates with a bias and extreme heavy hand.

[All Along The Watchtower]

It's not "good" works though, but rather very legalistic junk

Please don't use that word.

Why not?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism

[Associate Justice PiT]

     While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

Oh god grief PIT it was a public health crisis and evens churches were encouraging people not to physically come in over streaming.

     Good grief, indeed. We did not close our doors until the governor forced us to. Two months in, when the restrictions were first loosened ever so slightly, my parish re-opened while negotiating the various rules put into place, because my priest understood that nothing is more important for the faithful than being in church and receiving the Eucharist. When that happened, new people started attending from other parts of the Bay Area, where the local authorities were ensuring that churches remained closed for public health reasons, so they could also worship and partake of the Eucharist.

     Point being, our right to go to church was very much under attack last year. That it was justified in your eyes does not change the fact that millions of Christians understood it as a threat to our free exercise of religion. If anything, it merely proves my point that secular leftists attack Christian conservatives from a place of misunderstanding. If you don't wish to understand, that's your business. You certainly are not alone in that regard.

[TDAS04]

Xing's post is good.

Religion should not be immune from criticism, and obviously if you express religious-based beliefs that homosexuality is bad, expect as sharp a rebuke on an LGBT-heavy forum as you would if your homophobia was secular-based.  This applies to any religion.  Disliking a religion is not the same thing as say, racism.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's not "good" works though, but rather very legalistic junk

Please don't use that word.

Why not?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism

That's a bit of a stretch and has nothing to do with a school banning "unnatural" dyed hair colors or for example the Catholic prohibition on birth control. What term would you use instead?

[Hindsight was 2020]

    While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

Oh god grief PIT it was a public health crisis and evens churches were encouraging people not to physically come in over streaming.

     Good grief, indeed. We did not close our doors until the governor forced us to. Two months in, when the restrictions were first loosened ever so slightly, my parish re-opened while negotiating the various rules put into place, because my priest understood that nothing is more important for the faithful than being in church and receiving the Eucharist. When that happened, new people started attending from other parts of the Bay Area, where the local authorities were ensuring that churches remained closed for public health reasons, so they could also worship and partake of the Eucharist.

     Point being, our right to go to church was very much under attack last year. That it was justified in your eyes does not change the fact that millions of Christians understood it as a threat to our free exercise of religion. If anything, it merely proves my point that secular leftists attack Christian conservatives from a place of misunderstanding. If you don't wish to understand, that's your business. You certainly are not alone in that regard.

No I get that people were upset about churches being closed and felt why it shouldn’t of been regardless of COVID. But to try and act like that is what OP is referring to you run into the trouble of OP’s posting history pointing to the fact he is more likely than not referring to homosexual rights and the fact these concepts and terms were being pushed long before COVID

[Santander]

In particular, recently, the belief that Christianity is the only path to Salvation has been roundly mocked on this forum in recent weeks.  For Christians who take the Bible as the literal and inerrant Word of God, that is a central belief that informs how we interact with the world- because we love everyone and want everyone to have eternal life.

And you wonder why we mock you.

[Pedocon Theory is not a theory]

Large portions of the world, including most of the Atlas Forum hate you and always will. If they don't, you are probably doing something wrong. That's simply a result of standing for something. Truth is inherently divisive. Never change your beliefs from pressure.

They will hate you and you have to love them anyway. And until that is something an outsider sees from the Christians they know and not from everyone else, it's going to keep getting darker outside.

The darkness outside is people being gay openly, right?
If that's what you're getting at, it is rather concerning that someone with this extremist mindset is a moderator here. It would certainly explain some of the more baffling, unexplained removal decisions I've seen in the past.

The text does not say that. The text says that to the extent the Christians an outsider knows are kind to him even though the outsider disdains them - which the outsider finds a most uncommon reaction as compared to others (to turn the other cheek), and the outsider comes to appreciate the difference, at that point the animus of the outsider may begin to dissipate.

Another way to put it, is that if you treat those with whom you disagree, and/or the other, in a classy way, over time the animus should subside.

And that is the TJ I know and respect, and was the reason way back when I sponsored him to become a Mod.

Thank you.

There is no subsiding of animuses when it comes to the sin of homosexuality, regardless of "classy" treatment. America is backsliding into the ways of SIN! Homosexuality is a SIN and cannot be abided in any way.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I’ve seen a few posts like Torie’s and Xing’s that were good-faith responses, but like 80% of the responses here (to say nothing of the obnoxious troll threads that are now clogging the arteries of this board) are really proving the OP’s point far better than OP ever could.

[Associate Justice PiT]

    While Atlas hostility towards Evangelicals is very bad, the response from the left to this thread make it clear that this hostility is largely based in a secular liberal conviction that everything is political and that Evangelicals merely have the wrong politics. If that hostility is growing (which I am unsure of given my long-term experience on the forum), it is primarily because hostility in society as a whole is growing and a drive to be charitable to your opponents is decreasing.

Because “attacks on my religious freedom” like OP is going on about when pressed upon comes down to the political issues of gay rights and abortion. Whenever people in this country complain about Christianity and in particular evangelicals being under attack they aren’t talking about the right to go to church or worship god, they are talking about their perceived god given right to discriminate against gay people

     Funny how I remember being denied the ability to go to church for an extended period last year and Atlas lefties assuring me that I didn't really need to be there anyway. Guess that never happened.

Oh god grief PIT it was a public health crisis and evens churches were encouraging people not to physically come in over streaming.

     Good grief, indeed. We did not close our doors until the governor forced us to. Two months in, when the restrictions were first loosened ever so slightly, my parish re-opened while negotiating the various rules put into place, because my priest understood that nothing is more important for the faithful than being in church and receiving the Eucharist. When that happened, new people started attending from other parts of the Bay Area, where the local authorities were ensuring that churches remained closed for public health reasons, so they could also worship and partake of the Eucharist.

     Point being, our right to go to church was very much under attack last year. That it was justified in your eyes does not change the fact that millions of Christians understood it as a threat to our free exercise of religion. If anything, it merely proves my point that secular leftists attack Christian conservatives from a place of misunderstanding. If you don't wish to understand, that's your business. You certainly are not alone in that regard.

No I get that people were upset about churches being closed and felt why it shouldn’t of been regardless of COVID. But to try and act like that is what OP is referring to you run into the trouble of OP’s posting history pointing to the fact he is more likely than not referring to homosexual rights and the fact these concepts and terms were being pushed long before COVID

     Tying back to the OP and the idea that there is hostility on the forum, there are numerous posts that outright condemn conservative Christians as a bloc. Like the recent topic in USGD entitled "The Religious Right Needs to Disappear... and We need to aggressively campaign against them." Or a long-deleted post I recall that said that Evangelicals should be made to feel afraid in society, just like how Nazis are. There is pushback against certain beliefs of Evangelicals, which is naturally fair game on a political forum, but it strikes me that there is also pushback against Evangelicals as a concept that illustrates a view of them as a political entity, fundamentally little different from any other political entity.