Oh, all of this. All of it. My parents converted from Catholicism during the Satanic Panic, as did my grandmother and great aunt on my father's side. They all *to this day* believe in this stuff. Anything that's counter to their narrative is cast as demon possession. From toddler nightmares to narcistic rage to one of your children deciding they're no longer a fundie evangelical anymore (ask me how I found that one out...). -_-
That's why books like Left Behind are prophecy and books like HP are occult texts. And it's definitely an excuse to inaction. Because if there's nothing you can physically do about it, that frees you to stick your head in the sand. If you pray hard enough, long enough, be a good enough xtian etc, etc God will do it for you. Unless he can't/won't because maybe he's secretly impotent and that's why we need to elect GOP and *force* these people to do what we want.
I think about this a lot when non-Christian Americans react to the "thoughts and prayers" rhetoric. Like, yes, conservative politicians absolutely use that phrase so they can seem like they are actually addressing tragedy while not doing anything at all to change all of the conditions that led to tragedy (and will lead to it again and again). But the reason that phrase works with their voters is that many, many people in this country believe that prayer is *the most important and powerful thing any person can do.* Prayer, to them, is more powerful than passing laws or eradicating poverty. Praying, to them, materially affects the world in literal ways. I don't think non-Christians really understand that very well.
[edit] Whoops! Markup codes don't work here, apparently!
As a life-long faith-free person I shrug at those folks. What gets me is the potential (given the circumstances) fear and self-loathing that could well up inside a nonbeliever raised within that community.
A recent post from Gavin Fox on the Q Origins Project site that describes the differences and similarities between Q followers and evangelical Christians (and the overlap is broad). Worth a read.
Another excellent piece of writing. Have you come across the crazy Frank Peretti novels yet? They were very popular in fundie world in the 90s. Demons and spiritual warfare are portrayed as literal. (As an aside, women and children are portrayed as weak, sinful liars.) Just horrible books, as far as the effect on impressionable young kids.
Oh, all of this. All of it. My parents converted from Catholicism during the Satanic Panic, as did my grandmother and great aunt on my father's side. They all *to this day* believe in this stuff. Anything that's counter to their narrative is cast as demon possession. From toddler nightmares to narcistic rage to one of your children deciding they're no longer a fundie evangelical anymore (ask me how I found that one out...). -_-
That's why books like Left Behind are prophecy and books like HP are occult texts. And it's definitely an excuse to inaction. Because if there's nothing you can physically do about it, that frees you to stick your head in the sand. If you pray hard enough, long enough, be a good enough xtian etc, etc God will do it for you. Unless he can't/won't because maybe he's secretly impotent and that's why we need to elect GOP and *force* these people to do what we want.
I think about this a lot when non-Christian Americans react to the "thoughts and prayers" rhetoric. Like, yes, conservative politicians absolutely use that phrase so they can seem like they are actually addressing tragedy while not doing anything at all to change all of the conditions that led to tragedy (and will lead to it again and again). But the reason that phrase works with their voters is that many, many people in this country believe that prayer is *the most important and powerful thing any person can do.* Prayer, to them, is more powerful than passing laws or eradicating poverty. Praying, to them, materially affects the world in literal ways. I don't think non-Christians really understand that very well.
[edit] Whoops! Markup codes don't work here, apparently!
I never thought about that. Thanks for the insight.
As a life-long faith-free person I shrug at those folks. What gets me is the potential (given the circumstances) fear and self-loathing that could well up inside a nonbeliever raised within that community.
Edited to add: https://qoriginsproject.org/in-service-of-the-truth/
A recent post from Gavin Fox on the Q Origins Project site that describes the differences and similarities between Q followers and evangelical Christians (and the overlap is broad). Worth a read.
Salmo 127
Significado del salmo 127 en la Biblia
Explicación, estudio y comentario bíblico de Salmo 127 verso por verso
https://www.bibliaplus.org/es/salmo/127
https://www.bibliaplus.org/es/commentaries/3/comentario-biblico-de-juan-calvino/salmo/127/2
Another excellent piece of writing. Have you come across the crazy Frank Peretti novels yet? They were very popular in fundie world in the 90s. Demons and spiritual warfare are portrayed as literal. (As an aside, women and children are portrayed as weak, sinful liars.) Just horrible books, as far as the effect on impressionable young kids.