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It does.
On a rotten day I’ve said as much. As time goes on, though, I’ve realized that this view takes a lot of people (who put way, way, way more into it than I ever have, or perhaps ever will) for granted.
(Edit for some clarifications)
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It does. I’ve been pushing back against that view for years now, in part because it assumes that the evangelical right are the ones who are right and are the only “real” Christians. It ignores a very long, complicated, and messy history that does us a serious disservice in understanding what the real problem tends to be - and that is power and how it’s wielded across history. It only aids in the right wing cause, because it proves them right. It also splits us into groups on the left, which allows the right to seem more united.
As much as religion can and has been used as a form of oppression, the opposite is true as well. There are plenty of examples of religion being used against power structures and for liberatory purposes. To dismiss that is to dismiss history, and I’m a little sick of us doing that (not just because I’m a historian).
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Neal Stephenson captured this movement so perfectly in REAMDE, Dodge In Hell with the Leviticans of Ameristan.
Remember Moab
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It’s in the name ffs. CHRISTians If you are a Maoist, you don’t shit on Mao Tse Tung.
You’ve got a trillion dollar Evangelical empire based on canon, but NOW you decide the guy who it’s all about is too woke to be worshipped? After 2,000 years it’s time to pick a new figurehead?
Maybe an orange lump of turd ?
There’s always going to be those that believe in the teachings of Christ … the base-line of being good to your neighbor, help the downtrodden and don’t piss on anyone. Good on them. The rest that are full of vile and hate and all that ugly shit… the time when they become dust can’t come soon enough.
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The kids are alright!
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Maybe Mr. Rogers was in fact the second coming of Christ, and we missed it.
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I’m firmly convinced modern evangelical Christianity has been following the anti-christ for a long time, and , in fact, much of modern Christianity has as well. This “Why are you quoting woke talking points in your sermon” talk has been going on for over decades. It’s not new. It was happening when I was a kid, with people coming up to the preacher and saying things like, “Why are you doing all this hippie dippie bullshit? When are you going to preach about <the jews, the gays, the muslims, the blacks> and their evil ways?”
And even our pastor, as right wing as he and my church is, was flabbergasted.
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It’s almost as though a self-contradicting book of Bronze Age fables is an extremely shaky and unreliable foundation to build one’s entire system of morals and beliefs on.
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Not at all. I’m using “them” to reference the American evangelicals of the headline, not the folks who paid attention to the actual words of the guy who dared to suggest we should be nice to each other.
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Cool. People keep lumping all Christians into the same evangelical basket… trying to head that off at the pass.
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One of my favorite t-shirts
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As far as we can be certain of anything in this regard it’s this: Jesus was not a Christian. Scholars don’t even talk about “early Christians” any more, it’s early Jesus groups. Paul might be the first Christian in the sort of modern sense. Like Jesus’s brother the head of the Jesus group in Jerusalem, and the rest of Jesus’s family were pretty certainly not Christians in anything like a modern sense, and most likely not in the sense that they thought he was the messiach.
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When the story gets inevitably rewritten they will be board members.
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Ugh, not looking forward to 𝕏tianity. 
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I’m fond of making similar arguments myself. While I’m not a religious person, I am unwilling to cede the concept of religion to those who have twisted it for evil!
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