Interesting read. I can’t help but think the decline of white evangelical christians is a good thing. It also explains why that group has gotten more radical, the more moderate members left.
This is minor, but I like the graphs. The colors and choices of groups and how to split them was easy to understand and also pretty
It certainly is, if we’re able to make it past their fascist outburst.
The author is correct about the identity politics
Guns are a symbol of virility and righteous Christian white resistance to oppression. They’re like MAGA hats or, in an earlier fascist movement, swastika armbands. It’s an identity marker which shows you’re with the program, and also serves as a threat to out groups. The righteous rush of identity, victimhood, superiority, and violence is more important to the GOP than money. In fact, it’s more important to them than the lives of their children.
But wrong about the NRA money. Author says:
The small size of the NRA’s donations makes it unlikely they’re meaningfully bribing politicians. Nor do GOP politicians behave as if they’ve been bribed. When politicians vote their donors over their constituents, they don’t tend to boast about it.
The size of the donation isn’t the bribe. The existence of the donation and the accompanying NRA public approval is the bribe. That approval is necessary for any GOP politician to succeed within their own party. Sure, no GOP politician is going to do much in the way of passing new gun control measures because of the way their constituents and small donors identify with guns. But getting that NRA approval instead of their same-party opponent requires them to further weaken gun laws and the limited accountability courts can impose on manufacturers. The gun-loving constituents only care about the politician appearing to be pro-gun. The NRA requires them to tangibly advance a pro-gun agenda. They want that approval, in turn, because it convinces the constituents the politician is pro-gun.
The Fox News boss then bemoaned how the election had impacted the network’s bottom line. “The audience feels we crapped on [them] and we have damaged their trust and belief in us. We lost 25k subs from FOX NATION. We can fix this but we can’t smirk at our viewers any longer,” Scott added.
And why they’re so embracing of non-Christian gun fanatics like the Moonie spin-off Iron Rod:
Far Right.
Gunphiles.
Christian.
Oh well, two out three ain’t bad, and it’s the important stuff that counts.
I’m not sure Rod of Iron isn’t christian, for given values of christian. It’s a splinter of the Unification church and they believe that Jesus was the messiah, but he messed it up by not siring a family. So their founder was the new messiah. Or something like that. The Rod of Iron group is definitely focused on the same parts of the bible as evangelical christians and ignoring all the same parts most evangelicals do too. I think there is a lot more overlap in religious beliefs between evangelical christians and the Rod of Iron than there are differences. It probably depends on what definition of christian we are using
Oh, it might get worse…in court! 
Ooh ooh ooh matamoras moonie topic. Lemme chime in for a sec. That family also sells the guns which they making a profit off of too. The brother of the guy who runs ROI also owns a gun foundry and the both of them have been known to hobknob with other folks in the firearms industry too
After all the centuries of bloody conflict, Christians do want to be ecumenical and ignore differences of doctrine.
I’m not a Christian, so sod that.
The Moonies are a classic Korean family cult format with a pseudo-Christian veneer slapped on. Their core beliefs are so incompatible with general Christianity that it’s impossible to ignore. (Unless there was a lot of money, political influence, and followers prepared for violence…)
They did manage to get tentacles into the GOP pretty deeply.
The Moonies have been good enough for quite a while, and not just GOP.
In my opinion that also describes a lot of white evangelical sects!
I think I posted this in the odd stuff thread, but this is a much better place for it…
Ask the Seventh Day Adventists and their offshoots, right!? The right to practice a culty form of Christianity is a core value held above all else in some areas. It’s almost certain some sect of Christianity views this a heresy, but it’s also fundamentally what freedom of religion looks like too.
“We proudly stand with our Military Legislative Assistant Derrick Miller,” Joel Valdez, a spokesperson for Gaetz, told The Intercept. “He was wrongfully convicted and served our country with honor.”
Just another political prisoner of the deep state. The person he shot was brown! Hell, that’s hardly even human! (/s)
Seriously, is anyone even surprised? I thought not.
