While not a comprehensive explanation, this excerpt sums it up nicely:
"With every persecution of the LGBTQ community, with every unprovoked attack on Muslims, with every planet-wrecking decision, with every regressive civil rights move—the flight from Christianity continues. Meanwhile the celebrity preachers and professional Christians publicly beat their breasts about the multitudes walking away from God, oblivious to the fact that they are the impetus for the exodus."
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/06/04/the-christians-making-atheists/
122
I see no evidence Trump goes to church, but his go-to preacher during campaign was Paula White, who sells an "anointed prayer cloth" for $77 on her website.
https://paulawhite.org/product/prayer-cloth/
81
Heresy is alive and well in America’s Fox/GOP Cult.
Getting smaller by the day:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo
Fewer folks admit they’re Republican. But more and more the GOP is full of nothing but heretical people, brandishing a bible they profess to believe in (every word!) - but refuse to follow.
63
One needs to ask how did it get this way? The media can start by looking in a mirror and acknowledging that their bias and lack of coverage provided an entry for Fox and others. This article makes a point of how effective media can be in shaping views, but at the same time they aren’t looking at the bigger picture of who has been complicit in this state of affairs
Since guns were brought up multiple times the authors need to also acknowledge that although Red areas may have a 'gun culture' it is actually Blue counties that are the killing centers in the country. Of the top 25 counties for number of deaths by firearm homicides 24 of 25 are Blue, where the rates are all above the national average. That is profane.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/25/media-bubble-real-jou...
The national media really does work in a bubble, something that wasn’t true as recently as 2008. And the bubble is growing more extreme. Concentrated heavily along the coasts, the bubble is both geographic and political.
So when your conservative friends use “media” as a synonym for “coastal” and “liberal,” they’re not far off the mark.
Sometimes, correcting for liberal bias can be smart business as well. For instance, by rightly guessing that there was a big national broadcast audience that didn’t see their worldviews represented in the mainstream networks, the Fox News Channel came to dominate cable TV ratings.
7
If Jesus were to come back today, I'm sure he'd condemn all of those fake "Christians" to Hell first before anyone else. What they have done to pervert the Christian faith is an abomination.
59
“Never in my lifetime have we had a Potus (sic) willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like Donald Trump,” tweeted Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham.
Because, as you know, Christ adamantly supports and encourages*:
Racists
Misogynists
Cheaters
Traitors
Child Molesters
Sexual Predators
Adulterers
Serial Liars
Mass Murders
Spree Killers
Dictators
Abortionists (applies ONLY to Republicans trying to cover-up an illicit affair)
Rich People
Hippocrates
Demagogues
Braggarts
Con Men
So rejoice! It doesn't matter what you do or what you've done, as long as you're: white, pro guns, for tax cuts for the rich, against abortion and say "Merry Christmas" (instead of the bombastic "Happy Holidays"), you may bask in God's eternal love.
*Partial List. Liberals exempt from redemption.
102
Property, money and power. The three legs of the stool of religion, politics and war.
50
When Jews do something disgraceful, the expression is “a shonda for the goyem”.
Evangelicals will need to have some description of their validating Trump’s despicable behavior.
31
Ah, that good ole Repub-Religion! Anything for a vote....Anything for a donation.... Anything we can smear the left with....Anything to WIN!
33
Merry Everything!
14
Ban Fox News? Yea, there is reasoned discourse for you. A true message of tolerance.
4
Although I no longer attend a church, I would never reject the message of peace and love, or a person's spiritual quest. One might satisfy there spiritual needs in many places, including the backcountry visited by the 74 year older reader, but Fox News would not be one of those places. If a church has adopted the Fox game plan, that would be my definition of HELL!
24
SNL Cold Open, 12/16/17 War on Christmas ...
https://t.co/vDqr8OBuZe
"“God intervened in our election and put Donald Trump in the Oval Office " confuses Putin with God.
43
Let's accept, once in for all, that the proliferation of internet and non-stop news channels have only allowed us to discover our most inner fears and to let them develop and take over. The foundations of fascism are the fear of an 'enemy' (e.g., the Jew, the Communist, the Muslim, the transgendered/homosexual, etc.) and a strong messenger who legitimizes them. When people see a 'war on X-mas', what they are seeing is a world changing in which they are losing their entitlements... I have yet to meet a Muslim - and I know many - who cares about such thing... Fact is, they are OK with it!!!
God is in a many of us, just not in evangelicals who watch Fox News...
15
The only religion in the fox corporation is $$$$. If it were atheists pushing the government agenda the $$$$ would be the same. And the same is said for Donald Trump $$$$.
22
Now what? For decades Americans have been marinating in Fox News, right-wing nut radio drivel, all conveniently wrapped in American flags and the Bible. This propaganda helped elect Trump. Peel back the god facade evangelicals are hiding behind and you will not like what you see.
The ghosts of Jim Jones, David Koresh, Timothy Mcveigh are alive and well in groups like The Army of God, Phineas Priesthood and Concerned Christians. The Christian Identity movement is about white supremacy among other things. What happens next with Trump encouraging and enabling these groups?
For starters it is putting American democracy at risk.Trump has been appointing Federal judges at high speed. Examine the backgrounds of these appointees and you quickly realize they all have connections to the Christian Identity movement.
Now combine a plutocracy with a theocracy and you clearly have a match made in hell. All of the noise and talk of the culture wars are great distractions, keeping the focus off the real objective of turning America into a white, Christian nation.
52
The Fox war on Christmas is quite simply the definition of political correctness. In this case the political correctness of Fox news and Christian fundamentalism. What hypocrites as you note in its effect on commercializing a religious holiday. And by the way the most important Christian religious holy day is Easter not Christmas. Fox news is not a big promoter of Happy Easter!
29
I don't think that Robert Jeffress et al will be satisfied until we have an American Inquisition on steroids, when Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, LGBTQs and atheists either profess to be Christian or are banished to the netherworld. I won't even get in to Wiccans!
16
* Nazareth Cuts Back Christmas Celebration Over Trump’s Call On Jerusalem *
>> Officials in Nazareth are not happy that Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. <<
11
Trumpism coupled with Fox Evangelicalism is a lot like Francisco Franco's religious nationalism. People still focus on Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Tojo as "the evil four" of the 1930s and 1940s, and Franco gets forgotten. Forget him at your peril because he was a soulless monster whose agenda was "Spain First!" and who had no compunctions about imprisoning, torturing, and murdering tens, probably hundreds, of thousands innocent Spaniards in order to keep his dictatorship in power for four decades.
36
God put Trump in the White House? Not Putin?
14
Fascism 101: A. Attack the press. B. Con the religious zealots. C. Pervert the meaning of the language. And those are only the tips of many very dangerous icebergs surrounding our ship of state. And it's not actually being hidden from us, it's all happening before our eyes.
59
Aren't these the people Jesus threw out of the temple?
46
Wow!
Who would ever believe that modern evangelism would rise to the level of corruption of the Catholic Church?!
Franklin Graham has sold his soul to the devil.
8
Would Jesus "concealed carry"?
11
Among the fears of the evangelical that Ms. Sullivan did not mention is the fear of death itself. Ask any atheist: While there may be much to legitimately fear in the act of dying, Death itself is pure and utter relief.
Why then do so many Christians, with their visions of eternal rapture in a perfectly climate-controlled Heaven, fear it so? In 30 years of nursing, initially in emergency rooms and later in hospice care, I observed (I just couldn't bring myself to type "witnessed," as tempting as it was) that the evangelicals demanded the most --and the most futile-- interventions at life's end when compared to unbelievers and to those of less intrusive and conservative Christian faiths. Again, why? Because, this all-loving, all-forgiving God they believed in had, in addition to a paradise beautiful beyond description, a Hell stoked with fire so hot the Sun itself would feel cold to the touch.
What evangelical do not see, do not realize is that Hell is the here and now, and that they are the ones shoveling trumpianly "clean" coal to stoke its flames. They really are their own worst enemy.
28
Said the Shepherds: Merry Christmas. NOT!
Said the Angels: Merry Christmas. NOT!
Said the Wise Men: Merry Christmas. NOT!
Said Joseph to Mary: Merry Christmas. NOT!
Replied Mary to Joseph: Merry Christmas. NOT!
“Shalom” they may have said. PEACE!
27
Please remind these Evangelicals that Christmas originated as part of the war on the Roman pagan festival Saturnalia!
16
"You cannot serve both God and money" Mathew 6:24
Fox news? Who do they serve? Really?
17
I was in Russia and watched Russian T.V.And I thought to myself:RT vs Fox news:About the same...
15
Fox News is doing all it can to bring down the USA. I hope the Russia investigations look at Fox' connections to Putin.
9
Ms. Sullivan... look what thou hath wrought. Christians of every stripe—all those who cling to religion in fact—are complicit in creating this monstrosity. Because they are incapable of seeing and conceding religion for what it is, an array of ancient superstitious cults authored by unenlightened mortals for the purpose of personal exaltation and societal control, they are also resistant to the fact that, just as there is ultimately no such thing as responsible gun culture, there is no such thing as responsible evangelism. Certainly you may embrace only the egalitarian and spiritual aspects of Christianity, but that actually makes you resistant to its true purpose and ultimate effect upon society. Say it with me: "Christianity is a divisive, superstitious cult." "Islam is a divisive, superstitious cult." "Buddhism is a divisive, superstitious cult." All religions are divisive in nature. All lead to mass deception, fear and violence. All shield us from the true nature of existence. You are clearly intelligent and educated. How is it that you cannot see the poisonous nature of what you embrace and the inevitability of what it leads to?
8
There was a time in our family when the name Billy Graham was discussed in reverential tones. As far as I am concerned this generation of evangelical leaders have lost their way. They are the new crop of "money changers in the temple". They are the pharisees of our time. It sickens me to hear them spout scripture in defence of the indefensible. I hope there is a special place in hell for leaders such as these. They have taken their privilege and knowledge and completely subverted the gospel.
22
Let's not call White evangelicals Christians. Their actions prove they are anything but Christlike!
15
Ms. Sullivan’s attempt to coin the term, “Fox Evangelicals” to distinguish some evangelicals from others is a distinction without a difference.
Religion in all its guises is based on “us” and “them”: The saved and the damned, the believer and the non-believer, the elect and all the rest, etc., etc.
Religions are the stories we tell ourselves to try and explain a random universe and give meaning to our own impending death.
Beating the same old religious drum always ends badly, as here we see.
There probably is no heaven or hell, so why not relax and enjoy your life?
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Religion isn’t the solution, religion is the problem”.
7
What an incredibly stupid discussion, practice it however you want. If you want to get after others for how they believe then check in to a mental heath facility!
Every intelligent educated and intelligent person and those not having had the advantage of higher education understands that this is a one sided non-conversation.
Fox evangelicals to brain dead Republican elites have to know in their hearts that they are cowards and hypocrites of the highest order.
Anyone with an operational brain knows that FOX promotes mental disease. How else could anyone believe the rot they spew.
FOX evangelicals are out of the reality loop and not interested in returning to the real world.
8
This is perfect New York Times copy. It feeds right into the political screed of secular journalism. No, Trump is not a Christian. He is a capitalist, the real "religion" in American society. No, Fox has gone off the rails in alot of ways but no more than the secular left that is pervasive throughout the media. This article is just one more piece of bait to throw out for more division and "me-too" empty-headedness from whatever angle.
5
“Never in my lifetime have we had a Potus willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like Donald Trump,” tweeted Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham. The Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress sees a divine hand at work: “God intervened in our election and put Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a great purpose.”
Are you kidding me ? Donald Trump is as spiritual as a rock !
11
Trump will hate this column, but he will absolutely love the photo. Himself as a gold Xmas ornament--he will want several dozen for himself.
15
Trump embodies the Gospel of Success, so long a strain in American evangelical Christianity. As Russell Conwell said in his Acres of Diamonds speech: "I say that you ought to get rich, and it is our duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me, “Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?” 'Yes, of course I do.'"
And of course the best crowd to get rich from is the crowd of gulls in the pews, who believe Fox News' lies and see their way of life threatened by modernity, as they have since before the KKK reorganized.
5
"I’m as guilty as any of not noticing what was happening."
Multiple studies conducted the last ten years or so have shown that Fox News viewers believe things that are patently false. Most Fox News viewers still think Iraq had something to do with 911. Most believe Barack Obama was not born in America and that he's secretly Muslim and wants to send your grandmother before a death panel. And the list goes on and on.
Anyone who has ever seen Fox News should have known years ago that it is cult. It is the new religion for conservative minded people. These people are addicted just like someone addicted to opioids are addicted.
All of these never Trumpers coming out now will not get any sympathy from most people because you would have to be "willfully" ignorant not to see it years ago.
8
“Never in my lifetime have we had a Potus willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like Donald Trump,” tweeted Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham.
Well, Franklin Graham may say that, but I bet Jesus never would. Donald Trump's inherent cruelty, bigotry and lack of kindness and empathy make him one of the least "Christian" (in the true sense) people alive.
12
ah, all the things you can do once you claim them as religious beliefs...
9
The Bible doesn't say how Jesus will look when He Returns
What happens if the Lion of Judah returns in the form of a Dark Skinned Woman or Man rather than the Bleach-blond Surfer Dude of the 1950s & 60s Biblical based movies?
Will they follow the Messiah?
Inquiring minds want to know?
13
Trump, Bannon, Fox bring out the worst in people, just as they intend to do.
8
A “progressive evangelical”? Ha, ha.
Thanks for this.
7
Fact is the Christians appropriated December 25th for their own back in Roman Times. Although there is much controversy, created mostly by Christians, the day was originally celebrated in Rome as the birth of the Sun God, Sol Invictus which concluded their annual winter festival of Saturnalia. It's easy to see the parallel, birth of the Son of God as opposed to the Sun God. This is around the time of Constantine, who despite Christian claims most likely never converted to Christianity!
Let's face it though Christmas has nothing to do with religion and is strictly a profit making, garbage producing, celebration of capitalism and can be labeled the most pagan day of all in the history of humanity.
I have absolutely no use for any religion though wishing others a 'Happy Holiday' is a pagan pleasure!
6
I don't care for any kind of war, but as these wackos at faux news would have us take sides, just trying to ignore christmas, and quietly acquiesce is no longer enough.
I can't come down on the side of a perverted religious holiday, which seeks to honor a great person by promoting everything he was against.
5
At some point we have to reach the very bottom of stupidity. We just have to, or we won't have a country left to save.
11
Am I the only one who sees the hand of the devil in the radicalization of these former Christians? Just as he took over the minds and hearts of some in Islam so too has he darkened the minds and hearts of many in the evangelical world. True preachers, priests, ministers, imams must come together to fight Lucifer’s influence on these religious hypocrites.
7
IF ONLY there was a War on Christmas.
5
The religious right has coalesced into a movement to install a quasi-fascist theocracy in the US, aided and abetted by Fox News, the NRA and of course the corporately-owned GOP and transparently corrupt Trump administration. Hannah Arendt could not have been more right. This cancer on our democracy needs to be stopped, and stopped now.
10
Wayne LaPierre, Rupert Murdoch, Trump, Gibson, O’Reilly, and Falwell all understand the truth of P. T. Barnum’s statement, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
7
I had to laugh when the author said that she/others had not noticed what the War on Xmas and Theocratic zealots where doing to the very Evangelical Religion itself. Really? How could you not notice? It was their charter! To infuse all of US secular life with their brand of xtianity...which by the way strays a long way from the tenets of Jesus, and their holy book!
This lines were particularly funny. "...but I’m confident that it was important to Senior” — Jerry Falwell — “that he grounded his beliefs in Scripture,” Mr. Martin said. “Now the Bible’s increasingly irrelevant. It’s just ‘us versus them.’” Thumping the bible is what the rest of us call it. Not using it, not practicing whats in it - but using it like a weapon. (and Falwell Sr's. "grounding" is questionable)
Malleability and straying from core principles, while politicizing and ritualizing the Xtian faith IS the American Version. Its been that way since the Puritans,its support of slavery, then Jim Crow, thru the Fundamentalist movements, to today's perverse TV-centric (eccentric?) Prosperity movement,in which I include the Osteen's, Falwell's, Robertson's, Bakers and all the local varieties.
The American version of Xtianity is always about being marketed as a wholly American and patriotic faith. The two are indistinguishable. To be a real American now means; being Evangelically Xtian (not Roman Catholic BTW) Republican, xenophobic, homophobic, and anti-immigrant, anti-free-trade, anti-self-determination.
2
I read an article like this and I immediately wonder “why is Fox News still in business?”
6
Wherever a gullible audience can be found, there will be someone forcefully representing their version of God's will.
These phonies first ensure that congregants should be afraid--that they will be punished and overrun by evildoers and God's wrath. Of course, these preachers can protect you from this hell on earth--for a price.
Trump is that immoral traveling preacher, appealing to evangelicals' fear that their numbers are shrinking, thanks to science and the educated left, and that he can protect them.
Fox News, a true extreme right propaganda machine, presenting opinion as fact, jumped on board with Trump, who echoes Fox's own divisive racist and sexist views.
Their audience does not think critically and search for facts. They are frightened by the spector of people of color, diversity, liberals and change. They fear exclusion.
The NRA uses this fear to fight gun-control, insisting that attack is a certainty.
Phoney preachers, Trump, the NRA use fear as their prime motivator to raise cash and increase their power.
Americans don't like Trump, and by extension, far right evangelicals. His, and their, hateful ways are not in the Bible.
Evangelicals shifted from honoring Christian tenets--kindness, forgiveness, generosity--to worshipping at the altar of extreme Republicans.
The change is logically selfish and in keeping with Republican philosophy--"We want to do what we want! "--but it's not Christian.
7
Wow! So clearly said; beyond scary; seemingly unstoppable; we’re not too far from being flung back into Dark Ages of regimented thought and life.
Fox has become the incessant blaring propaganda thought control microphone written about in “1984”; and currently practiced in North Korea.
4
I think it is time for a national boycott of Fox News advertisers.
12
I was “brought to Christ” by Rob Schenck and his brother Paul in 1975 on Grand Island, NY. The evangelicalism of the seventies and eighties is virtually unrecognizable in today’s highly politicized version. Back then, we were all about Jesus, love, forgiveness and being born again. Now it’s guns, abortion and xenophobia. WWJD? Not that.
7
Happy Festivus everyone!
4
Compassion & morality have nothing to do with religion, this is more a secular & spiritual concept. Religion is based on the literal belief in ancient scriptures , much of which has not evolved with the times. A case in point is the word abomination to describe what we refer to as Homosexuality, Sexual preference is not like picking a delicacy out of a menu, your born with it, you don’t choose it.This word abomination has been the cause of thousands of years of persecution for innocent human beings that are Gay.I call this religious bigotry.Then you have the right & the divine belief, which is what we were brought up to believe, & if you do not believe what I am ,your a sinner,which is like being a leper in ancient times.Therefore , if your an Evangelical , it’s ok to march and shout Jews will not replace us, or to support the likes of Trump, & the Fox Hypocrites.
2
The underlying personality trait that I see in the conservatives who infest my particular neck of the woods is fear, bordering on paranoia. Tattooed white guys in pickup trucks with Confederate flags in the rear window (in Ohio, go figure), who think they're tough, are nothing more than frightened little children. They have their concealed-carry permits, constantly on the lookout for scary brown or black people--who essentially do not exist in our county. The biggest threat here is white people who are afraid of their own shadows.
By the way, my husband has a tattoo, drives a pickup, and is an expert on World War I rifles and ammunition. He despises Christmas music (but always donates to the Salvation Army), as well as hypocritical Christians, Fox News, and our cowardly BigMouth-in-Chief.
9
Reading this article, Biblical phrases such as “many false prophets will arise” and “you cannot serve both God and mammon” keep popping into my head. The theology of Fox couldn’t be less biblical, but people are simply too lazy and intellectually bankrupt to bother understanding that.
9
"...Fox News, where every day viewers are confronted with threats to their way of life."
Um, have you never watched MSNBC? The left trades in exactly the same fearmongering -- liberals are just irrationally terrified of different things than conservatives are (e.g. guns rather than Islam).
4
Churches are ingenious revenue generating non-profit (wink) enterprises whose product is an idea. Franklin Graham rakes in a personal salary of about a half million a year for administering (wink) the Samaritan's Purse charity and that's only a side hustle. Jeffers meantime is most likely taking in at least a quarter million a year to tell Dallas suburbanites how truly exceprional they are. Neither of them, by the way, gives a fig about your liberal opinion, you were never going to make out a check anyway. It's the opinion of their paying constituency which
matters and if the audience responds to the image of Jesus carrying an assault rifle, then whatever keeps the lights on.
4
As America's faith in religious institutions declines, we need only look at the likes of Franklin Graham for the reason. He promotes a "Jesus" who advocates a bible in one hand and a gun in the other. He expects people to buy his silly and dangerous endorsement of Trump and Moore. They support a culture of racism, misogyny, and hatred. If you sit in the pews of any church that spews their hateful message, you ARE the problem. The Christmas message is one of hope and love. Graham and his ilk promote anything but! Trump is the antithesis of Christ's teachings.
10
I guess I would have liked to read more concrete examples of how Fox News creates this situation. There were a couple of other assertions put forward, but no quotes or examples. Yes, O'Reilly, but he's gone. What is happening now? I guess I will have to start watching Fox News to see if Amy is simply pandering to a progressive liberal audience who enjoys seeing evangelicals put down! (I suspect not, Amy, but your article lacks a foundation.)
3
Don't forget celebrating wealth. Republican Jesus: Blessed are the rich. Blessed are the gunmakers
5
Oh well, "there's a sucker born every minute" just waiting in line for the snake oil salesmen to offer them a place in the heavens. One can't expect too much rational thought here.
6
The word is idolatry; worshiping and putting your trust in worldly things instead of the things of heaven. Here, that worldly thing is political party. This is a problem for both the flaming liberals and the flaming conservatives. The things of this world only disappoint and demand more and more allegiance until you sell your soul to them.
3
The people on this forum saying the “War on Christmas” does not exist are the coastal elites living in their smug, liberal fantasy world blind to the realities of what ‘s going on in the real America. What you condescendingly call “flyover states”.
A few hundred feet down the street from my house are two evangelical churches. More correctly, there WERE two churches. Earlier this week heavily armed government agents raided them, arrested the pastors, boarded up the buildings. Then they knocked down all crosses.
Local residences with holiday decorations had their windows broken, their doors kicked in, the occupants were herded onto trucks and we don’t know what happened to them. There are rumors of volleys of gun shots being heard in the nearby mountains.
The rest of us were warned to keep quiet and never say “Merry Christmas” ever again. (We should have known this was going to happen after our guns were confiscated a few months ago.). Of course the ultra liberal main stream media, like the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC have been silent while this assault on God-fearing Christians was made by the deep state.
Okay, it never happened; the churches are filled on Sundays and the lights are twinkling up and down the street. Those who like guns are free to buy them at any of the dozen gun shops in our town. It was just a silly, made up story that no rational person believes. Just like the stories Fox News broadcasts on a daily basis.
7
If Jesus walked the earth today, right-wing evangelicals and fundamentalists would be the last to recognize him, but if they finally did, they would be the first to stone him.
9
Billy and Franklin Graham just make me so darn glad and proud that I am an atheist.
7
Christians supposedly believe that Christ will come again. But if Jesus ever did show up on the doorstep of any of these Evangelicals, they would immediately call in the ICE agents and have him deported.
9
The War on Christmas is a distraction. The real war is the one on Christianity itself. And it comes from within Christianity itself.
Here's a guide you can use to identify the sides:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
7
Stopped wasting my time reading this. Sorry Ms. Sullivan, I have known the Evangelical movement has forever been about political and economic power. You suggest it is a more recent development that went unnoticed? My g-d how high in the air is your ivory tower? Holy war or class war. Same to me.
4
It's not a war on Christmas, Christmas belongs to the Christians, it's a Christian holiday, the New York Times and it's long list of socialists can try to deny it as much as they can, merry Christmas!
2
Thought provoking but why blame Fox News? Don't people have a mind of their own? Too many people watch Fox News to be thought of as 'the hillbillies that got left behind'. Is the media to blame for the deep divisions in our country?
AKW
3
Happy Festivus to the rest of us!!!!!!! (Seinfeld)
2
Wherever a gullible audience can be found, there will be someone forcefully representing their version of God's will.
These phonies first ensure that congregants should be afraid--that they will be punished and overrun by evildoers and God's wrath. Of course, these preachers can protect you from this hell on earth--for a price.
Trump is that immoral traveling preacher, appealing to evangelicals' fear that their numbers are shrinking, thanks to science and the educated left, and that he can protect them.
Fox News, a true extreme right propaganda machine, presenting opinion as fact. jumped on board with Trump, who echoes Fox's own divisive racist and sexist views.
Their audience does not think critically and search for facts. They are frightened by the spector of people of color, diversity, liberals and change. They fear exclusion.
The NRA uses this fear to fight gun-control, insisting that attack is a certainty.
Phoney preachers, Trump, the NRA use fear as their prime motivator to raise cash and increase their power.
Americans don't like Trump, and by extension, far right evangelicals. His, and their, hateful ways are not in the Bible.
Evangelicals shifted from honoring Christian tenets--kindness, forgiveness, generosity--to worshipping at the altar of extreme Republicans.
The change is logically selfish and in keeping with Republican philosophy--"We want to do what we want! "--but it's not Christian.
2
Fox is the network for the non-thinking and incredibly gullible -- the same non-thinkers and gullible who fall for the tripe pedaled by the NRA, Donald Trump and the "religionist" profiteers like Falwells Sr. and Jr., Franklin Graham, and the other duplicitous un-Christ-like hucksters who have come to the fore.
4
Can we stop calling evangelical fanatics "values voters"? When you have embraced Trump and Roy Moore, you are morally bankrupt and any claim to morality is nothing more than a punchline to a bad joke.
Also, FYI, progressives have values and they vote too.
6
Evangelical "Christians" now embrace a Fox-fueled bunker mentality, us-against-them, as the author describes. Their creed has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus but serves to separate them from the herd they perceive as weak and occupying a lower moral tier.
I am : non-Jew, non-Muslim, non-feminist, non-gay, non-black/brown, appropriately armed with guns and my lineage is Christian, so I must be a Christian.
WWJD? He would be tagged a weak loser and enabler of persons who made poor choices.
4
Tge most amoral POTUS in our history heralded by the self anointed moral majority. Beyond satire.
3
Beating any drum on religion is a real turn off. It is a scold and ugly.
1
It's not “Fox evangelicalism”. It's straight up heretical Christianity, rejecting the best of the teachings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament and embracing the worst of the genocidal warrior God of the Old Testament.
4
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Having been vilified for decades, told they are backward and racist, made the butt of late night parody shows' insensitivities, mocked repeatedly by hollywood and finally told by a President they are lesser beings because they "cling to God and guns", the total and forever antipathy to all things liberal - or democratic as that party morphs into the party of Che - is both understandable and growing. Faith doesn't win wars. The popular culture declared such on us long ago; we are late to the fight, true. But we intend to win it. At any cost.
1
Too bad Bethlehem is in the Palestinian West Bank, POTUS could've moved the embassy there to really save Christmas. Maybe Nazareth, instead of Jerusalem? It would be a great tip of the cap to the Boy's hometown, no?
If the Christians’ idea of faith is forcing “Christ is lord” on their Macy’s bags and Starbucks cups, they can go right ahead. Christians have become so jingoistic and hate-filled that Christmas is now their holiday of domination and conquest.
2
These evangelicals have definitely been taken over by their own devil and do not realize how far away from the teachings of Christ they have been led. They are doomed in their fake news after life. Their fate is none of societies concern; however, when they start agitating for the overthrow of the United States Constitution and our form of government it becomes our business.
The solution is to educate, register to vote, resist their hatred, vote in 2018 and throw the bums out. Save our Revolution. Vote and kill the Beast.
4
Get Christmas out of Advent.
1
I realize that the chances of the NYT publishing the comment below are slim. In fact, I would prefer you not to publish it as I simply no longer trust how a certain minority in the US will react to such opinions being expressed. I do however, need to write down these profound concerns if only to exorcise them. I have lived in the US twice, two of our three children were born there. As a family we have only the fondest memories of the US, today none of us would consider going back. That fact fills me with infinite sadness. As to my comment, here it goes:
These Fox evangelicals show in essence the same characteristics, the same zealous self-righteousness, the same attachment to guns and the professed willingness to use violence as the Islamic fanatics and terrorists they so abhor. I realize this will be a highly controversial perspective but there has come a time to acknowledge that when it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck then it is a duck. As for the Fox leading anchors such as Hannity, they quite frankly would be able to operate seamlessly in any non-democratic, autocratic régime anywhere in the world. They may kid themselves that they are better than that but looking from the outside in, being a lot closer to European history in particular, I for one recognize these people for what they are and that is a fundamental danger to democracy.
I thank you for your indulgence and as I said please do not publish this comment.
14
"Progressive evangelical" is an oxymoron.
There is nothing "progressive" about the bible, that ancient, ignorant book, written by ancient, ignorant people, for ancient, ignorant, sheepherders.
Donald is about religious a I am, and you know what that is.
You are all being "fooled" and bamboozled and lied to in many ways.
Wake up before it is too late.
3
graham and jeffress are plain old frauds, as are most evangelical preachers.
4
When in reality Donald Trump takes the Christmas out of Christmas.
Publicly hand him a Bible and ask him to find and read to his crowd a chapter, verses, that describe the Christmas story.....on his own.
4
I see two kinds of Christians, the love-based and the paranoid. Both kinds of Christianity begin in the home, in early childhood.
The origins of the "paranoid Christian" begin in infancy in a rigidly scheduled "prevent disaster" mentality. This kind of Christian parenting is draconian and rigid... obedience based, "spare the rod and spoil the child," controlling form of parenting. In these Christian homes there is a clear power hierarchy. There is an underlying fear that without frequent punishment the kids will go awry and not be Godly. Gary Ezzo's parenting program is followed-- one where rigid scheduling, cry-it-out and physical punishment of small infants with hitting implements is advocated.
In a love-based/ nurturing home, power is not the key concern. Moral development, cooperation/trust with others, and closeness to family members is valued. Dr William Sears is the Christian parenting expert of this wing: attachment parenting, co sleeping, and extended on-demand breastfeeding.
Early childhood determines what sort of world view you have: beneficent or painful. Punished kids grow up with a sense of angry/ punitive God and many painful, dangerous circumstances to fear. Nurtured kids can posit a loving, tender God and a safe world in which to operate.
5
Lord, give me the strength to tolerate your followers.
16
I have trouble seeing someone like Trump who is a serial adulterer and who regularly denigrates women as a good Christian.
4
Just selling fear and white grievance in the guise of Christianity. The modern evangelical way. It is no longer a religion. It is a tribal identity.
10
Christian Evangelism is the preaching--onto others--of the Good News that Christ will return.
Fox evangelism is the preaching against abortion and all that stands under that rubric: minorities, liberals, the pointy-headed educated, the poorer than thou. Women are chattel and the idealized head of the family is the Donald Trump of the dirty mind. This evangelism has been festering and spreading ever since the Scopes trial settled the role of science in human existence.
Christian Evangelism and its concern for the poor will begin its return when Americans learn they had been had by the current republican budget fiasco.
3
If the NYT or Ms. Sullivan is looking for a name to call these people, "extremist wing of the Republican Party"--absent any reference to Christianity--is accurate and sufficient. Ms. Sullivan implies that she's an evangelical, and I commend her that she injected a sampling of Christian values, but she fails at actually condemning this political faction for their heretical perversion of the Bible. Their political antics "MAY be damaging Christian witness?" No, they ARE; I believe they've done more damage to attracting seekers to the faith than all the angry screeds of Ricard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, or the arrogant bloviating of Bill Mahr could ever do.
Sullivan undermines her vivid argument by giving legitimacy to an apologist for one of the most atrocious "christian" demogogues of the twentieth century, Jerry Falwell, Sr. This extremist wing didn't spring up out of a vacuum. Falwell was one of the founding pimps of this political faction; he didn't ground his teachings in the Bible, he prostituted the Bible to suit his vile teachings. That "conservative christians" have now abandoned the pretense--in the same way that "patriots" have abandoned the pretense that America is a force for good in the world--doesn't negate the lies and hyocrisy of their predecessors.
6
Fox and Trump is what they worship.
What else do you need to know about them?
3
I have a Christmas Card, which my Uncle Joe sent to my parents while he was recuperating from wounds incurred during the Battle of the Bulge. He sent the card from a hospital near Paris. On the front of the Card was written in huge letters, "Merry Xmas". MY Uncle Joe was a devout Catholic and he sent it at the time when patriots like him had no problem with that Expression.
In or days I remember Bill O(H) Reilly, the molester, condemning all who would utter such a prase. Their hypocrisy had no bounds.
I really, really wonder how many of the FOX presenters even served in our military. The previous one, No! INS-Hannity also no!
I rest my case.
1
A simple hit piece disguised as sympathetic reasoning. The never Christmas crowd is not new, nor did Fox create it! Funny how one cable show somehow outweighs four other long-term broadcast channels. Either it is extremely popular or all four others are not. Look to institutions like the U of Minnesota that suggests that everything from the colors blue,silver, red and green to angels, bells, stars and elves are inappropriate at December social gatherings or in public spaces. For some reason they left out bows. Really? And this is Fox's fault, that brings out the crazy evangelicals? More like another unhinged, desperate attempt to silence western foundational thinking. Wonder why? Too much joy in that perhaps? Merry Season to all!!
2
The Pharisees are back, and now they have a cable channel.
11
Things don't seem to have changed much for the evangelicals for a long, long time, say maybe almost 2,000 years. So after burning other sects of Christians in their very churches, for instance, they really outdid themselves when they destroyed science in the early Roman empire cause they only needed one book, the Bible. Furthermore, Science was pretty much written in Greek so they didn't like that immigrant stuff either. So they just burned all those books and sometimes the people that wrote or read them, too. So after ruining the future of the Roman empire they moved on to perpetuating the Dark Ages they had created for another 1,000 years. Now they have expanded their base to include haters of everything not politically correct for them, including money changers in the temples, racists, child molesters, democracy destroying dictators, treasonous presidents, etc.
Yes things haven't changed much for them for thousands of years.
3
All of this "God is on our side" is pure fabrication, and evil. It occurs to me that the opioid situation in the US is actually much worse than simple drug addiction. When the pernicious faith of men like Hannity, Ryan and Pence serves as a rationale for usurping the US Constitution and the rights of our country's diverse inhabitants, it can truly be said that "Religion is the opioid of the masses." I consider doctrinaire fundamentalism -- be it Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, or any other faith -- to be as dangerous as Fentanyl.
7
The author’s failure to report on what is said and believed at her neighborhood mosque speaks more loudly than the content of her piece.
She only went to an Assembly of God event.
2
The materialism of modern Christmas in Europe and America is very much at odds with the Irish festivals of my childhood. Then, however, we lived in a country that was isolated by Hitler's forces and that had been poor for decades before that in the spasms that followed the break from the UK. Midnight Mass, candles, incense, and choirs. Maybe even a shooting star as we waited for the Church to open. Family, peace, joy, and expectation were all part of our Christmas. Some kids got toys, some got an apple and some candy.
Now, Christmas is a consumer and retail festival. A festival of pressure to spend and give! Pretending that liberals created that is hypocritical nonsense. Now, even a whole New Year is reduced to a few hours on New Year's Eve: Happy New Year's? No. Happy Christmas and a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year--as we wrote on cards in the old days.
5
"God intervened in our election and put Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a great purpose"? Silly me, all this time I thought it was just Vladimir trying to get his hard earned sanctions lifted.
4
We know which side the white evangelicals were on during the Civil Rights movement.
5
This insidious contortion of Christianity and the collapsing between church and state started way back during the George H Bush administration when the GOP went all in for the evangelical votes using pro-life as red meat. Up to that point I was a card carrying Republican. That was when the Republican Party and I parted company. These fake Christians better hope to God the second coming isn't any time soon. I can only imagine what Jesus would have to say to them!
4
Don't forget that FOX News is the outgrowth of the Religious Right"s attachment to Reagan and his attachment to them. The New Right, modern Evangelicalism, and FOX all grew together.
6
"When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." – Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780
6
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
6
Obviously the Disney Corporation considered the Fox News part of Murdoch's empire a toxic waste it didn't want to own.
2
By describing words and actions of Donald Trump as Christian, Franklin Graham heaps shame and embarrassment onto Jesus and those who faithfully strive to follow Jesus teachings. The real shame belongs to Graham.
6
Thank you for putting in print what I have been saying for over a year: Trump is the Antichrist. These so called pastors and Christians have replaced Jesus with Trump and worship him.
I had to leave my Church because our Pastor, a true man of God, was replaced by Trump worshipper. I hate that a sacred place of worship of Jesus and his teachings is now bastion of hate.
So called evangelicals are now the Cult of Trump who spread his hate everywhere. You sad people have forgotten the love and Grace Jesus taught us. May God have mercy on your lost souls.
3
It seems that the idea of "The Divine Right of Kings" long thought dead is alive and kicking in the minds of these so-called Christians.
2
Maybe it's that Trump gives evangelicals license to be naughty that they thrill to....
1
Given how little these white evangelicals actually follow the teachings of Jesus, perhaps it's time we stop granting them the label of "evangelicals."
The label of "evangelicalism" provides, to these group of dangerous thinkers, a veneer of tradition and mainstream normalcy that is used to justify extremist views. It is similar to how "anti-choice" folks on the issue of abortion adopted the label "pro-life," which gives them the moral high ground from a purely semantics perspective.
It's time we call these evangelicals out for who they actually follow. And it's not Christ.
1
Non Christians can enjoy Christmas too. It just doesn't mean as much, but for many it's a day off at a minimum.
New Term of the Year: Christian Nationalism.
2
If Eric Hoffer (True Believer) was here today, I'm sure he would amend his publication to include FOX, Trump, et al and their antics. Hoffer noted that to have a mass movement, you do not need a God, but you must have a convenient devil, and Trump has multiple to choose from.
Hoffer noted that mass movements need an object of hate which unifies believers with “the ideal devil is a foreigner.” He also notes that the “hatred of a true believer is actually a disguised self-loathing …” and “the fanatic is perpetually incomplete and insecure.” and through fanatical action and personal sacrifice, the fanatic tries to give their life meaning.
Look at the bulk of the makeup of FOX /Trump supporters, and you see the ideal fodder that would fall victim to such propaganda.
3
It's gotten to the point where I say Happy Holidays to strangers as code for "I didn't vote for Trump."
9
Christianity is big business. Megachurches with seating for thousands aren’t unusual. These churches bring in big bucks.
1
We people of faith must call out these hypocrites who are Christian in name only and who embrace not one scintilla of Christian values. Capitalism, as espoused and practiced by Republicans in America, is incompatible with Christianity. Spreading hate and fear of minorities is incompatible with Christianity. The overarching message of Christ was love and living a life of prayerfulness, kindness and charity. There is none of that in this consumerist, greedy culture we have created and which Trumpism takes to new heights. If there is something to be afraid of, it is the judgment that is coming in the form of a reaction to policies of hate, destruction of our God given environment, and worship of mammon.
1
The fire and brimstone vitriol has migrated from the European medieval to American modern church en route to the political theatre now facilitated by
Pox ‘n Tox Fox.
Rabble rousing the mob has long found a place in history and literature, but Shakespeare lacked the formidable power of modern media weaponized by psychological tools of the advertising world. Why just disagree with a candidate when you can be motivated to truly hate his whole world?
1
Every tyrant has an designated TV network and the US in no different from North Korea, Russia, China, etc, etc.
Fox News has become a state run propaganda machine. Putin would be proud. The NRA and the anti-abortionists have taken over our government. It's Bibles and Guns for all. Congress legislates according to their donor's wishes instead of their constituents. I feel like something awful is coming down the road and it's very upsetting.
2
Foxy “News” has become the official Trumpo State Media in the best tradition of state run media outlets in Russia and China.
From carrying water to give faux Christians cover for their bigoted, homophobic views to ginning up faux conspiracy theories about Mueller’s investigations, it’s all consistent with how an autocratic regime runs the “press.”
Foxy was the principle purveyor of the GOP disinformation campaign during the Obama years but now has morphed into a propaganda megaphone for the Trumpo administration’s attempt to discredit law enforcement and the criminal justice system ahead of Mueller’s inevitable indictments of more administration officials, perhaps Trumpo himself.
Supporting white supremacists, faux Christians, and no rule of law for Russian interference in our elections- all in a day’s work for Foxy serving the dark side.
1
Unless one practices what the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge preaches: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year," Christmas follows little to nothing that Christ taught. It becomes another rationalization for the industrial consumer complex's carbon footprint to trample everything Jesus of Nazareth held dear.
2
Apparently, in order to qualify as a true American Evangelical, one must ignore the New Testament; excepting, of course, Revelations!
1
Evangelicals get wackier and wackier, imagining a "war on Christmas" apparently driven by non-white immigrant minorities. Or something....
Trouble is, the vast majority of immigrant minorities are Christian (indeed, Catholic). And they take Chrisrtmas very seriously. So why all the fuss?
"...the nationalistic, race-baiting, fear-mongering form of politics enthusiastically practiced by Mr. Trump and Roy Moore in Alabama is central to a new strain of American evangelicalism. This emerging religious worldview — let’s call it “Fox evangelicalism” — is preached from the pulpits of conservative media outlets like Fox News. It imbues secular practices like shopping for gifts with religious significance and declares sacred something as worldly and profane as gun culture.
And we are reminded again that 'for the thinking, religion is false; for the ignorant, religion is true; for the powerful, religion is useful'.
5
My heart is broken for the American Church, which welcomed me as a convert 30 years ago, but which has become unrecognizable to me as the embodiment of Christ on earth as the Bible calls it to be. How can I spread the “Good News” of the gospel - the true definition of an Evangelist - to the refugee, the abused and suffering, the person of another faith - when the American Church has become such an example of hate and separateness. Woe be to the leaders of these churches when they stand before the Lord and face judgment when He says “It would be worse for you to have a millstone be tied around your neck be cast into the ocean than to have caused these one to stumble.”
1
Sullivan rightly points out that FEAR -- the central sacrament of Fox -- is not a Christian teaching. A few others:
HATRED -- not Christian -- teaching "love your enemy" was as radical when the Christian scriptures were collected as now.
REJECTION OF THE OTHER -- not Christian -- read the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, or the good Samaritan. Samaritans were the "hated other" in that place at that time. Replace with "Mexican" or "Muslim" and reread the story.
PROSPERITY IS YOUR DIVINE RIGHT - this is actually a slogan of Christian mega churches. Uh, no, read the story of Jesus and the rich young man. Or the many, many bible verses that talk about wealth and poverty. Or how about living communally, with all things in common (Acts of the Apostles). An acquisitive Christian is an oxymoron.
REVENGE - remember after Jesus was crucified he came back and said "the most important thing now is for you to kill those guys and then start an endless holy war and spend millennia killing people in my name"? Yeah, actually, it was "he who lives by the gun, dies by the gun."
The teachings of that irksome homeless guy who questioned authority were radical then and are radical now. No comfortable person has ever liked them.
4
Your article is yet another example of a liberal political journalist determining that Christians are dumb, white conservatives who rely on cables news as their true Christian foundation. It's an article that anyone from CNN, MSNBC, NBC, NPR, and other secular liberal media tend to repeat in one form or another on a continual basis. The fact is a vast majority of Christians supporting trump don't endorse Trump but rather endorse many of his policies. Liberals will scoff and laugh at my statement. Christians get it.
1
It should be obvious to any objective observer that what Fox evangelicals want is another holy war, another Crusade. Witness the celebrations from the obedient Right when Trump broke with every predecessor and declared Jerusalem the new site of the American embassy. It was a retaking of the holy city from the heathen Muslim, the imperative and objective of past Crusades -- Trump as Richard the Lionheart. At the core of Fox evangelicalism is dismal bigotry.
1
Sounds as if they want to stamp out notions of a decadent socialist holiday season in which advertisers don't open their wallets to pump a joyful capitalist Christmas.
Come on it's not just white evangelists. Catholics also support Trump in droves. The writer is promoting this as a purely white protestant phenom. ALL Christians are feeling silenced and shamed into not using greetings like "Merry Christmas". People have made it un-PC to say "Merry Christmas" the most innocent saying is now under attack. The writer is using this stereotype to connect this to Trump. Even those WHO DON'T support Trump are feeling under attack by the PC police and are sick of it. I personally accept Jesus as my lord and savior and I am not afraid to say so. I am unabashedly a Catholic Christian. I find this article very insulting to those who keep the faith, this article is inflammatory to Christians of all colors and backgrounds but I guess It's ok as it is all the rage don't you know? Christians are A-ok and socially acceptable to attack ... Wow and during the Christmas season. You have some nerve Amy Sullivan. I will pray for you.
1
It’s always been about the Anglo Saxon (white) Protestant who, over the course of this country’s history has been responsible for proxisms of nativist acts both violent and legislative) against st the newcomer. Since Obama he has become especially alarmed at his shrinking influence, now for the first time a minority in the US. Poor baby, he is sinking, as Blacks, Hispanics, women, and Muslims are at last beginning to be heard, even heard loudly, threatening his sense of superiority, his manhood (a fear that no number of guns can suppress) and his sense of priveledge. What has he left? A degraded Christianity, devoid of Jesus, serves as his banner of war.
Can Billy Graham make a public statement about the use of his name and legacy for partisan political purposes while he's still alive? I don't know what he and Franklin talked about around the dinner table growing up, but this does not seem like the Billy Graham who said things like "I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."
― Billy Graham
In contrast, and spitting on his father's legacy, is Franklin: “Never in my lifetime have we had a Potus willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like Donald Trump,” tweeted Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham. The Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress sees a divine hand at work: “God intervened in our election and put Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a great purpose.”
1
These people are hypocrites with cognitive dissonance.
They say they are pro-life and support war.
Their politicians don't seem to follow these commandments.
You shall not murder. (Isn't killing civilians in war murder?)
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal. (Latest tax plan)
1
Indeed it does not take much to scratch the veneer of civilization from even (or is it especially?) the most religious among us. I sure hope that one day, we will respect each other's faiths in our respective imaginary friends in the sky, that we will stop killing each others in the name of our Gods of love, that one glorious day, we will finally remember that 70,000 years ago, we were ALL Africans.
3
What would be a very Merry Christmas is to not see or hear one single word of TRUMP.
2
"progressive evangelical" - isn't that an oxymoron?
1
If George Orwell were to have composed a futuristic set of news headlines detailing an authoritarian takeover of the United States they would be identical to today's headline stories.
1
“Avoided conflict with the Russians.” That he has, Mr. Douthat.
I find these people very scary. Fox is really a state run news media while this group reminds me of the people of North Korea talking about their great leader. History is full of wars and extreme violence done in the name of religion.
1
What's so new? Not wildly different from Klan evangelicalism. Equally distorted.,
I want the ornament!
1
Fox has built it's success on frightening white people and convincing them that any perceived bias against an outside group is clearly warranted. That's it!
That's there complete bag of tricks.
1
Just heard on local radio news that there are demonstrators in downtown Vancouver trying to get people to cancel their accounts with the TD Bank because of that organizations financing of the Kindermorgan Pipeline.
I know the Koch Bros.are involved with many,many cos.but why cannot progressives in the USA target a few of the biggest for a boycott...hey...it worked with South Africa and Apartheidt.
2
Christmas is not a religious holiday, anyway.
With the over-the-top rampant commercialism that apparently takes over most people's brains the last six weeks of the year?
Please....
Need proof? Ask virtually any holiday shopper if they would be willing to give every last penny they spend to someone in need, instead of buying a present or a tree or lights for the house, and wait for the reply....
What would Jesus do?
Uh-huh....
Isn’t a secular“happy holidays” greeting a cultural appropriation of a religious celebration?
Fox News and its Prince of lies has not moved Christmas into the secular realm. They have debased it and defiled it. Certainly they've turned wishing another a Merry Christmas into a far-right shibboleth and all too many faint- hearted Christians have fallen into line. Christ stood firm and rejected Satan's temptation to fall down before him and thereby gain the world. The same can not be said for many of his avowed followers. I'm not saying there are no longer true followers of Christ in our country, just that you can't easily tell them apart for those whose true fealty is to the prince of lies. All too often nowadays when someone mouths Merry Christmas I swear I smell sulfur.
1
Interestingly, we have not seen the conservative Christianists go all out about the "War on Easter." Would sort of love to see them try.
Thank you for writing this. It is important that fundamentalist Christians like you speak up like this.
1
If you believe there is a war on Christmas, if you believe that America is a Christian country then you are not an American. It's was clearly written into our constitution by the founders 'any religion or no religion'.
If they wanted this to be a Christian nation I'm sure they would have written it in. This country was meant to be inclusive not exclusive.
So, wish your Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah, your Christian friends a Merry Christmas and to everyone else a Happy Holiday and start the new year with the resolutions to 1) get over yourself and 2) acquaint yourself with the constitution.
2
Great article, thank you.
Great article, Ms Sullivan. Thank you. I think it speaks effectively to the
"the impact of conservative politics on religion itself".
I wish that it could be reprinted in every church bulletin or read from the pulpit by every pastor.
"What would Jesus NOT do" - exactly.
2
This trend for evangelicals to drift into right-wing politics has been part of the long game played by the Republican Party since Eisenhower, and has now reached its zenith. I hold out some hope that those evangelicals who still think about ethics and thinking hard about biblical texts, who read Sojourners and understand the notion of justice, are still around and will find their voice.
5
Christianity has two faces at least. One is that of compassion, charity, forgiveness, humility; the other is that of judgment, moral certitude and punishment. Those who evangelize for the latter have the loudest voice these days, and those who live the faith of the former have been abysmally silent. Sure, the Pope occasionally sends us a missive from afar, but where is that Christian community in the United States? Why aren't they raising their hands not just in prayer, but to say "Stop!" and advocating forcefully for the gospel of compassion, humility and charity?
5
Fox News reminds me of food that is engineered specifically to get people to eat as much of it as possible. It gives the person that consumes it a quick easily attained high and then makes you sleepy. It is addictive and not good for anyone.
6
You've all heard that Christmas is now mostly about commercialism. That's exactly what the war on Christmas is...and so is the NRA's message of fear. It's about add revenue for Fox and gun sales. No more. No less. Charlatans all...just like Graham and Fallwell. Same as it ever was.
3
Perhaps statistically and biblically the evangelical fear of "the other" is misguided, but the Gospel's imprecation against fear notwithstanding, the fact is that societal upheaval over the years has been frightening for many. Crushing economic pressure, tribal mistrust of "the other" (racism) -all contribute to an atmosphere of fear. Additionally, yes, the culture wars have profoundly compounded the fear in America. I happen to think of myself as liberal progressive, however I can understand/ sympathize (to some degree) with the anxiety caused by all the changes in America that have been "confusing" for traditionalist conservatives (not to mention for evangelicals) over the past 50 years.. So many products made abroad, homosexual marriage, gender "fluidity," the vanishing white majority, a multiculturalism that indeed does make it awkward to wish a stranger "Merry Christmas" these days - for fear that this will now be viewed as insulting to another's religion. And while money has always been associated with power in America (Capitalism being the country's
"article of faith"), it is now overtly and crudely leveraged in the service of special or "elite" interests, rather than in the service of what used to be called "The American Dream." Many changes in America have been for the better, but the thoughtfulness, reason and civility at the heart of our democracy-i.e., elements required for smooth societal transition & evolution, have for the most part vanished.
3
More than anything, Trump is President due to Fox and right wing media of the last 20+ years. Lies and conspiracy theories have driven many to become confused, paranoid, and driven by fear and hate, which has created this end result of the "false news" narrative from the right onto the so-called "left leaning" media. It seems clear to me once all is said and done, the post Trump period will hopefully shrink the standing of Fox and the right. Americans needs more truth, and the lies must stop. This brainwashing effect must be cleared in order for the US to heal its wounds. Time will tell.
5
Goes to show that the central motivator for these rightists is simple tribalism. In their increasingly insular universe, all outsiders are judged suspect, if not hostile. Their evangelizing is just part of their American Identitarian uniform, along with Old Glory sweatshirts, camo underwear, plastic red baseball caps made in China, and Glenn Beck survival kits tucked away within the basement arsenal.
Their fear, though, may have its origins in something rational. Although the marauding brown hordes they expect to invade their neighborhoods and homes will never materialize, the socioeconomic future of the U.S. is clearly leaving them behind. Luckily, they'll have plenty of freeze-dried lasagna to eat and weaponry to polish to pass the time when employers are no longer willing to take a chance with them.
6
What i have been saying for years. there is no morality left in the right wing. and its not new. they regularly reelect people who would have been drummed out of any liberal party long ago, diaperman, Appalachian man and more.
2
The truth, as always, is somewhere in the Middle.
As long ago as Seinfeld, when we were introduced to Festivus, we have struggled with the Christmas Season: can we wish people a "Merry Christmas" without trampling on their beliefs, is "Christmas" an inclusive term in an inclusive America, how do our Jewish brothers and sisters feel? A radical Black college professor even divined the holiday Kwanzaa, a secular holiday dropped into the Christmas Season to celebrate Black culture...it's enough to make me think we should move St. Patrick's Day and Bastille Day to December 20 to make sure our "inclusive" season makes room for all with a slightly different angle and need to be noticed.
The shame of it all has been the American idolatry of Materialism. We have so infused Christmas with commerce that it over-played the season's significance, to Christians, leaving only a food-fight for what originally should have been a modest and largely Christian time of year, like Hanukkah is for the Jews in certain ways: important and sacred, not defining as Easter is and should be.
As a Christian I am lo tired of the wars between Christians and society, both the Franklin Graham comments (he does not speak for Christ and shares no divinity) and those of the aggrieved who see a mercantile season and want in on the action.
Christmas in our home is a time of contemplation, another pause on the calendar to remember our Savior. I don't need Fox's help, and I am not forcing all to join me.
2
I abandoned my childhood religion before I was 20. Observing the hypocrisy of my mother’s version of being a devout Catholic was instrumental in that choice. She used the n-word at every opportunity. She treated waitresses with condescending contempt. When she met my soon to be husband she turned to me—as though he was deaf and blind—and announced that he was “nothing but a dirty hippy.”
Yet she spent hours of every day saying her rosaries and dutifully followed the rules. The rules don’t require that devout Catholics be charitable or kind. The rules are irrelevant to living an ethical life.
So, I went my own way and there is no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice. I follow my own rules and they are more generous to my fellow human beings than anything the church required me to do.
6
The so-called "war on Christmas" is idiotic. All Christmas means to most Americans is getting to the stores before first light to beat everyone else to the best bargains.
5
let's put these people into perspective. They use to consider Obama the Anti-Christ. Now they worship at the altar of the golden idol Mammon. I suspect the major tenant of Fox Christians is "Words Speak Louder than Actions". They are best kept at arms length but watched carefully. Democracy is not one of their strong points.
6
Saw a Simpson's episode not too long ago. In this episode, Ned Flanders' wife said she was going to go to Bible study so she could learn to be more judgemental. I am still chuckeling.
5
Why do you think fewer and fewer Americans go to church. Priests are holy men, no matter what they do behind the scenes. Evangelical leaders who commit acts of immorality are A-OK if they confess their sins. I am sure the man driving in his car (or limousine) offering candy to the girls in the neighborhood is a good man as long as he plunks a bit of dough in the collection basket on Sunday. One man's sins are another man's opportunity as it were. I stopped going because I tired of the hypocrisy. Happy Holidays. I hope that is good enough for you, because that's all you are getting from me.
4
Does anyone remember "Season's Greetings"? This was the all encompassing manner in which to wish everyone a nice_____ (insert your religious holiday celebrated in December here). This generic greeting was around long before Fox News came along. It's funny, I don't recall anyone ever having a problem with "Season's Greetings".
5
Human Beings at their best, aspire to be generous, forgiving, tolerant, fair-minded, willing to live and let live, trusting, look for the best in others, high-minded, cooperative and accepting of differences. Those who preach anything else are truly false prophets.
1
If evangelicals read their sacred text they would reject Jesus as a socialist. No doubt they will someday claim that Trump died for our sins.
5
Atheist don’t believe in anything good. There are a drain to society. I have met many and they were all wrong on every political issue. Am I being truthful or am I mocking the anti-Christians comments seen routinely in these comments.
2
The group should be called "evangelical conservatives" and not "evangelical Christians".
There is nothing Christ-like in the positions they espouse.
7
Christian Evangelicals in the US and President Trump are of the "Do as I Say, Not as I Do" sect of Christianity.
4
The conservative propaganda media is destroying Christianity, ironically enough, with its greed driven mind control tactics. Evangelicals are headed down a path where guns and whiteness are more important to them than the teachings of their savior.
3
A former student of mine has done a fair amount of field work in Viet Nam. I asked him if "Christmas", especially the jolly Santa Claus sort of Christmas popularized by the Coca-Cola company, was big, there. You know, deliverers of towering cages of poultry riding on a tuk-tuk while wearing a Santa hat or an elf costume, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer blaring out of sidewalk speakers, large cartoonish snowflakes in shop windows, Christmas trees of whatever size, that sort of thing.
His response: "Andrew, you have no idea".
2
I live in one of the most liberal cities in the world and I am in the minority with my conservative viewpoints. It is not always easy but I persevere and never give up my strong convictions. I am a person of faith and take religious holidays seriously. As my deceased father said to me once "it is who you are." When you are brought up celebrating the true meaning of Christmas which is the birth of Jesus it is difficult to accept anything less.
I know that many on this comment board disagree with me but I am my own person. I have been blessed in this life beyond belief and know it has been the will of God for my good fortune. I had loving parents who were rock solid and supported me to the hilt. They instilled in me the importance of believing in God and to this day I still practice my Catholic faith. I saw how it sustained my parents during their trials and tribulations. It is also the reason for their joy and good fortune. My deceased mother always told me to put my trust in God. I followed her example and am the reason I am who I am today.
It is difficult for those who are non believers to understand where we come from. Life is not also easy or pleasant but when adversity strikes which it will to everyone it is important for some of us to believe in a higher power. It helps us to make sense of things and move forward.
Christmas is a joyous and important holy day for many of us who practice the true meaning. It is more than just exchanging gifts.
1
To me declaring war on Christmas means banning all media ads (especially on FOX) about what to buy to express our love...you know, new cars, diamond tennis bracelets, plastic toys made in Chinese sweatshops.
In fact, let's ban Christmas shopping altogether, you know the frenzy of trying to buy stuff for those who already have more than enough stuff. Ya wanna give, then make a donation to a worthy cause in the name of a loved one. My grown children still remember the Christmas their aunt, in their names, made a donation to provide vaccinations to children somewhere in Africa. They were dumbstruck, thought she'd bonked-out but now understand that it was a terrific gift, and certainly memorable.
3
Franklin Graham and Donald Trump both strike me as deeply insane men who find some sort of doppelgänger in each others's mental illnesses. Neither man is grounded in reality, which explains their moral flexibility in supporting each other. Evangelicals want their Armageddon; Trump will deliver it just by being Trump.
5
This article makes the critical point that Fox News creates its own reality as well as reflects it. Through sheer repetition of message, it can create an alternative world view, impervious to reality.
We also see this happening with Fox's orchestrated assault on Robert Mueller, clearly laying the groundwork for when Trump decides to fire him.
With Fox News, we have truly entered the Orwellian world where 2+2=5.
227
Commercialism destroyed Christmas years ago. What we have now is a spending holiday the determines whether people stay employed and causes many to get into excessive debt. It’s the worship of Mammon.....Money. Only fitting that Donald Trump be their leader.
1
You you know as a Jew, though non practicing and the older I get moving from agnostic to atheist, I can tell you there is no “war on Christmas or Christianity” in this country. The few acknowledgments in our culture that not everyone is a Christian, like wishing people “happy holidays “ instead of “merry Xmas,” are barely perceptible to anyone not paranoid and fanatic. It is incredibly self indulgent, and might be laughable if not for the hate that accompanies it, for anyone in this country to try and make the case for this preposterous idea. What these people really want is to be able to freely discriminate against, marginalize and punish anyone who holds beliefs different from theirs. It’s plainly reprehensible.
3
One has to wonder what is going to solve these issues; evolution or climate change. I'm betting on climate change inasmuch as it's a much faster process.
2
I'm a practicing Catholic, and I have not experienced any war on Christmas. I say Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to those who do not. This so-called war on Christmas--and religion--was created to stir up indignation and coalesce the right's base. As for many of the evangelical "Christians," they are today's Pharisees, big on righteousness and short on mercy.
4
This in many ways a wonderful essay. Though in truth Barack Obama wishing the country a Merry Christmas underscored how much I am not a part of this country.
But a deeper challenge here is when she writes: The film followed the pastor and abortion opponent Rob Schenck on his quest to convince fellow evangelicals — the religious demographic most opposed to gun restrictions — that pro-life values are incompatible with an embrace of unrestricted gun access.
I haven't seen the movie so I can't comment on it. But an attack on women's reproductive rights and sexual lives feels like a basic divide. And I think it is a core expression of the hatred that drives the right. But clearly Amy is not part of that right. So how we can engage each other is a deep challenge for all of us. Because it is a core issue that goes to the heart of freedom.
In the meantime I wish her a Happy New Year.
Or a Merry Christmas since she clearly and very respectfully won't answer me in kind.
1
It's all so obvious. The phony piety. The thinly disguised racism. The martyr complex. What it all adds up to is a move towards authoritarian rule, using right wing militant religious nonsense as one of the propellants. And it certainly helps to have a full fledged propaganda apparatus in place which has been wolf crying an imaginary "War on Christmas" for a decade or so. Santa, the white guy described by Megan Kelly ,will save Christmas yet again, like every Christmas movie ever made. But guess who's getting the gifts.
2
"But these students in a town with a population of some 1,200 saw the idea of a home invasion or an Islamic State attack that would require them to take a human life in order to save others as a certainty they would face, not a hypothetical."
Perhaps this is an appropriate time for a reminder that the Second Amendment does not confer a right to be a gutless wonder, a coward, even though that is the reductio ad absurdam of the gun lobby's jurisprudence.
It is heartening to learn from Ms. Sullivan and Pastor Schenck that Christianity confers no such right either.
1
Regarding the final paragraph of this piece-
Just follow the money! These secular pastors and televangelists can't get the money to buy their Gulfstreams and Houston arenas be simply preaching the Bible; they've got to come up with something more sensational that arouses their audience and compels them to reach for their wallets every Sunday. Heck, they even offer a 1st class ticket to Heaven on the Good Ship Rapture for $20 a week in the collection plate in perpetuity.
Why does Christmas bother the writer so much? It's Christmas and we are a predominantly Christian country and have been. Why the disdain, why the outrage, why the worry? There has been a war on Christmas, our places of work will not say Christmas, their calendars reflect Winter Holiday instead of Christmas Day, Merry Christmas as a greeting is looked down upon so Happy Holidays is it's replacement. Yes Virginia there is a war on Christmas.
2
You people are ignorant, and I don't mean that as an insult, you just lack the knowledge needed to write an article like this. You've gotten so much wrong. As a Christian evangelist I do not support Trump neither does most of the Christians we know. In fact when it came time to vote most of us voted for some other candidate so as not to go against our conscious. I know very few evangelicals who want Trump in office. This article is one sided and I'd also like to mention we do believe in Saints, it's in the Bible. Except in the Bible all believers are called Saints.
3
What Amy Sullivan is writing about is a world outlook that basically comes down to "make it up as you go along". Combine that with an additional compulsion to evangelize (I've got the truth and you don't) and that's a recipe for a fairly toxic brew.
Unfortunately when it comes to politics people motivated by the above tend to derive their principles from their actions and opportunities... and not the reverse. Reasoning is abandoned for "God says it's so" and what God is saying from day to day can vary widely depending on who God's interlocutor is and his or her agenda.
Most of those who "speak for God" are self-ordained talking heads - including the arch hypocrite, Donald Trump.
None of these folks dwell very long on the separation of Church and State clearly spelled out in the US Constitution. That's a major inconvenience when it comes to a rule of law not wedded in "God says it's so" and "God told me his wishes".
I don't think that you can size this phenomenon up as anything else but an expression of social madness. Extreme forms of this in the 20th Century were Fascism in Germany, Stalinism in the Soviet Union, the Cultural Revolution in China, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Granted - it hasn't reached that level yet in the United States - the voters rejected Roy Moore last Tuesday. But we have a man in the White House who gave Moore his full throated endorsement and the Fox News Network still leading the charge. Whatever happened to love thy neighbor as thyself?
Guess I'd better lock my doors and hide under the bed in case my fellow athiests find out that I'm wearing my merry christmas holiday socks at this time of year.
1
Just got home from church (I'm a deep blue progressive in a Democratic state, and I go to church). The message from Isaiah this third Sunday of Advent had to do with getting out there and acting unselfishly, for the common good, with special attention to our most vulnerable neighbors. Turns out, Christians are supposed "to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit." No mention of shopping. No pursuit of wealth. No message of fear. When's the last time Fox News delivered "the oil of gladness" or "good news to the oppressed" or anything resembling Christian values?
2
Evangelical in small town Canada need going to service two on Sunday and mid week to keep religious high of belonging. No mid week prayer meeting congregation collapse.
Look at Canadian newspaper for Sunday church services times, only faith listing multiple times is Catholic church. The others list only one service time!
This adulteration of "Christianity" is turning out a rare breed of "believers" and destroying the true meaning of Christian faith. There is no longer a "we," only an "us or them." Christianity is just becoming another political tool; a competition.
1
No matter how you look at, when one looks at the brazen catering to evangelicals by Trump and Republicans in general, especially the nonsensical and archaic changes in wording at the CDC, it is clear, in order to align with the reality of the day, America will have to change its official name to:
The "Fascist, Theocratic, Divided States of America".
(Like it or not, that is how much of the world is looking upon America now and the dangerous direction it is headed).
War on Christmas? Hardly.
But if you get tired of all the add-ons to the holiday season that have nothing to do whatsoever with the birth of Christ, remember there's always the celebration of Festivus. (For the rest of us.)
And one great tradition of Festivus we can toss right at Evangelicals--the enumeration of grievances. A lot of us have a snootful.
2
Nothing really new here. For a generation or more American "Conservatism" itself has been little more than an ill-assorted grab-bag of biases. Commentators haven't noticed? Come on! Perhaps they - and we - have just got tired over the years playing "Gotcha!" with hypocritical politicians and the special interests that support them. Those are epitomized by the Rev. F. Graham, once a tearaway, now a well-compensated panderer. For decades I've laughed at my old-fashioned Republican friends in the Northeast who have made common electoral cause with former yellow-dog Democrats in the South, survivalists out West, "evangelicals", and gun "enthusiasts". Trumpism just encapsulates the progression. It's a great "Coming Together"!
If there is an anti-Christ Trump is a good candidate. His son-in-law even owns the 666 building in NYC. And what could be more devilish than persuading Christians to vote for a man whom they admit is riddled with vices solely as a means to what they think are moral ends?
2
I can't repeat it enough: of all the woes that have befallen America, Fox is singular in its threat to the body politic with its deliberate goal to, and success in, manipulating and lying to its viewers such that good, reasonable people are profoundly altered, turned into raving cult members.
(And daily I thank the Lord we said: "No Fox Canada".)
5
One of the most compelling reasons to hope that an afterlife actually exists is to be able to confirm that these malicious, hypocritical, monetizing Fake Religionists got a decisive "thumbs down" from the Big Guy, and are spending all their days, and nights, in a very, very warm region. Praise be!
2
My cuz in CA had to visit the nearby and quite excellent high school twice before the principal finally accepted that the Founding Fathers had not regarded the U.S. as a "Christian nation" and education as an entrance into Protestant society - as he had imagined.
To his credit, singing Christmas carols became optional for secular, Buddhist, Jewish, and recalcitrant students. School plays and decorations became diverse. He had been running schools for decades not knowing much about Deism, atheism, or diversity, but changed after cuz dropped books and photocopied materials on his desk. She's ,y hero.
Hope, there is. not for FOX, which sells Scare-The-Christian-Right, but for thinking people. For the new breed of evangelicals? Let us pray.
“Never in my lifetime have we had a Potus willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like Donald Trump,” tweeted Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham.
Well, Franklin Graham may say that, but I bet Jesus never would. Donald Trump's inherent cruelty, bigotry and lack of kindness and empathy make him one of the least "Christian" (in the true sense) people alive.
Strange-bedfellows relationships like this are bound to occur when religion becomes not purely religion, but also a tax-free business enterprise. Business leaders love to be close to power. And when a fake news enterprise helps drive the whole thing by acting as if the key parties of religion-as-business enterprise and the politics-for-personal-grift enterprise can both do no wrong...
2
Franklin Graham?
The same Franklin Graham who while speaking at the memorial service for the Columbine High School massacre, pronounced his faith as the true faith, and in the process of doing so denounced the faith of the other faith leaders there.
All of this done at a memorial to honor these senselessly murdered children and the teacher who tried to protect them.
These faith leaders – Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, and others – sat stoically after offering messages of compassion, hope, empathy, and condolences, while Graham arrogantly went on about his true faith as if it were all an infomercial.
Franklin Graham is a horrible person just like Trump and Moore, and he is devoid of respect for others.
I often imagine his own father cringing at the drivel which comes out of his mouth.
I take great solace in the fact that I am opposed to the likes of Trump, Graham, and Moore on a cellular and DNA level.
5
I was talking with two evangelists about the comments that Roy Moore said, "We live better in the slavery time." They agreed with him, and I told them how could be possible that owned a human being is morally right. They said, is written in the bible, and that make it morally right. Their religion bankrupts their humanity and blinds their morality, this shows the sickness of Christianity and the end of The GOP.
4
Every year some one says Merry Christmas to me as if they are spitting out bile. It is always a stranger who is upset by something I have done. Some innocent transgression like walking in their way or driving wrong in the parking lot. I am an overly polite person so it is never for something done intentionally.Often I have no idea what I am being singled out for. I firmly believe Jesus would hate this whole mess and would have to struggle to forgive us for doing this in his name. Especially FOX's perpetuation of the so called "War On Christmas".
2
Organized religion is the root of all evil. Fox evangelicism is just another predictable dead-end for every us-vs-them religious ideology from the crusades to ISIS. Right-wing false christianity has taken this country to the brink of disaster, and there is no guarantee that it will stop before it drags us beyond the brink. This false religion has effectively tainted all Christianity in our country. My Catholic-identifying friends loved O'Reilly and voted for Trump so he could appoint an anti-abortion Supreme Court judge. They've always voted Republican because they've been told liberals are godless and conservatives are the bulwark of Christian America. Lies and hypocrisy go hand-in-hand with religion and conservative politics.
And of course the Republican tax bill loosens the already tenuous ties between church and state by allowing tax-exmept churches to run political operations. This should negate their tax exemptions, but so long as conservatives believe only Christians will enjoy this political windfall they are all for it. Let every church which spews politics from the pulpit start paying taxes for that privilege.
3
"It imbues secular practices like shopping for gifts with religious significance and declares sacred something as worldly and profane as gun culture."
I used to rail against "1984" as so clumsily metaphorical as to be unbelievable and uninteresting. Now I feel a deep pain as people who think thinking is overrated make it all immediate and pertinent. I counted on horse sense and the ability to see a scam artist given A YEAR WATCHING HIM as a TERRIBLE scam artist, and a large minority of my country LET ME DOWN. Obama had more class, ability, and dignity in his little finger. Work faster, Robert Mueller.
2
I am glad that a bona fide Christian (I am not) confirms what I have been saying for some time: the new American religion is not Christianity. Theologically and culturally, it has It has little in common with the historical religion of that name. In some ways, Fox evangelicism has inherited the worst theological features of Calvinism: the notion of the Elect and the salvation by grace. In other ways, it has created a brand-new religion whose idol is the fetus and whose icon is the gun. Just as Christianity split away from Judaism, this new religion is splitting away from historical Christianity. And the sooner, the better!
1
What would Jesus do?
The Jesus I studied is accepting, not particularly judgmental, and loving.
Not anything Fox News advocates. Nothing.
2
Opinion writers calling American yahoos "America," as if to suggest that decent people are not representative of America, is a huge part of the problem. Media people are having too much fun being dazzled by the freak show. Pretending that the grotesqueness of Trump and other Republicans is normal is deplorable.
2
Where has Amy Sullivan been hiding for the last 20 years? She seems to be surprised that Fox News is so powerful, (along with AM radio) This radical right propaganda machine has changed the evangelical mindset forever. Religion has turned into entertainment. Decorating for Christmas and Easter is all many evangelicals now practice. The participation in weekly services continues to decline, while gun sales continue to grow.
Sadly, the radical right has taken God out of the picture.
Ironically, these "American First" supporters are not even aware that the man who made this all possible, the owner of Fox News, is not American born; Rupert Murdoch was born in Australia.
1
I am not a church goer so I give credit to Wikipedia for the Cleansing of the Temple description: "In this account, Jesus and his disciples travel to Jerusalem for Passover, where Jesus expels the merchants and money changers from the Temple, accusing them of turning the Temple into "a den of thieves" through their commercial activities."
WWJD is clear.
1
I have a friend from South Dakota who says Fox News plays on every TV in his parents' home. He says it has totally brainwashed his parents, the spew Fox News taking points, and he questions how their situation is any different from a person living in North Korea. lI have another friend from Alabama whose grandfather, a doctor, watches only Fox News. In all the rural white-dominated areas of the country where Trump won,Fox News is spewing its lies and acting like the equivalent of mullahs in Pakistan. Controlling people's minds and telling them what to think. Many of these people are undereducated educated and not critical thinkers; they seem exceptionally gullible. The worst is that these very people are empowered to shape the national politis of this country by the electoral college. Whosoever they choose for President will probably become President. Trump has set the standard so low that it seems the most toxic personality might become President again and in our present system the majority is powerless. At the very least, we need to get rid of the Electoral College. Hopefully 2018 will see a Democratic Congress unafraid to make bold changes to our feeble system.
1
Thank you for writing this piece. I’ve been delivered, I’ve been set free, no more chains of disappointment holding me. I finally see the light as you are correct that most of the actions exhibited by some of these Fox evangelicals are indeed, “what would Jesus not do” so they are not my brothers and sisters in Christ, but brut beasts, hateful, sensual, lovers of themselves, forms of Godliness, proud boasters and lovers of money.
I thought I was in the twilight zone, but I understand these folks have digested a false doctrine of devils and use Christianity as a cover. I feel better now knowing there are Christians and then there are Fox Christians. Fox is an appropriate name...sly, slickster, cunning.
1 John 2:15 KJV
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
2
The problem is insularity. Being religious is just part of the package. And Fox exploits it.
The description of the movie showing in North Dakota brings to mind Jesus’ statement that many “false prophets will arise; they will deceive many, and with the increase of lawlessness, love in most people will grow cold.” Matthew 24:11-12.
2
The Evangelicals are all praying for "the end of days." Trump is the one most likely to deliver that to them.
1
FOX News has been shouting out lies and brainwashing for 20 years now, and I have always wondered why the rest of the news media and the leaders of this country did not challenge them and shame them for their obvious lies and efforts to destroy trust in our institutions. Now it is too late. Fox News runs this country, people. Hannity tells Trump what to believe. Hannity is a nobody who has never accomplished anything except with his big mouth. This is who is in charge now. America's democracy is in extreme danger because of this. We have a President who does not believe our intelligence agencies and prefers to believe a murderous dictator, our enemy, Vladimir Putin! I demand that Trump resign now. This cannot stand!
3
Personally, I can’t wait for that Rapture that evangelicals purport to live for, just to see the faces of all those very many hopefuls who, based on their embrace of the NRA, the alt-right, discrimination in all its forms, and Trump himself, are going to be left farrr behind. They will find it difficult to keep arguing their righteousness thereafter. And then just consider the possibility that the Rapture takes those who LIVE by Christian tenants, regardless of their faith, are taken instead. Ho ho ho.
1
"...it’s about playing for the right team...."
Replace "team" in that sentence with "tribe" and you will have a clearer picture of Sullivan is trying to say.
Hannity, Ingraham, Coulter, Limbaugh, Malkin, Beck, the Kochs, the Mercers, Adelson and their ilk have succeeded in creating and then carving out a new tribe where there was none before.
The result is kinda' like what went wrong in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory, only more tragic, considering the rip in our national fabric.
3
And Trump is calling the tax plan a Christmas gift. Back to trickle down and another crash like Reagan's and Bush, Jr.'s. Merry Christmas, indeed!
As a normal Christian, I am offended that he is saddling his bad economic theories to Jesus Christ.
3
Q: Since taking office as President, how many times has Donald John Trump attended a church service?
1
I've been to 39 countries and in my opinion no country do the citizens have more freedom to be individuals against the power of the government than in the US. I began asking myself why everyone in other countries appears so afraid of their governments? I believe it has a lot to do with government knowing the citizens are armed and knows citizens must be treated fairly, whereas almost everywhere the government has sole monopoly on deadly force and fairness in treating citizens is the last thing a government is concerned with.
1
The War on Christmas, just another distraction from the real issues.
137
I was raised in an evangelical/mainline Christian home, but my parents were of the WWII generation and worked overseas as missionaries. Among them and their colleagues I found some of the most truly Christlike, compassionate, generous, sacrificial and selfless people I have ever known, and some of the smartest. But that was long ago and far away.
I left American evangelicalism more than a decade ago. I saw strong indications of what was coming even then. I never thought it would go this far. Fox evangelicalism is a fairly good descriptor for this new religion, but the Bible has a better name for it: idolatry.
16
The Fox Evangelicals have been around a lot longer than Trump but now they perceive that have a new voice to strengthen their diminishing influence and dying world view.
Last year, I attended a candlelight Christmas Eve service at one of these churches to see what it was all about. A cultural experience of sorts. After the sermon, the minister dutifully reminded the congregants that the gift shop at the church would be open for last minute shopping. George Bush's biography was one of the books prominently displayed in the shop window. This, to me, sums up these supposed 'religious' groups' mindset.
11
I have long argued that we will get nowhere with gun control until we acknowledge and address the reality that for many guns have evolved into s sacred symbol. To them, it feels like telling them they cannot wear their necklace crosses (or burkhas or other religious identity symbols). This brilliant article ties all that together. Fox News is really a megachurch! The devil is everywhere! The implications of looking at it this way are profound. Many have accused the core GOP base of being a cult. Turns out, quite literally, it is. Imagine the electoral implications of telling this like it is!
12
I remember when religion was a source of peace and tranquility for people. Although I am not a religious person, I do remember thinking that religion did have a positive impact on believers. But now it seems that religion is used as a cudgel to punish anyone who does not believe and will not adhere to its tenets.
If I were a religious person, I would do my best to distinguish myself from the sects that have lost their way. With Trump as their spokesperson, this will be hard to do. The Evangelicals will be one of the casualties of the Trump presidency. They just do not know it yet.
8
Years ago, in the 90s, in a military chapel overseas, a new chaplain arrived full of fire about "spiritual warfare," a contemporary concept I'd not heard of before. He waged a one-man war at that chapel: wIthin a year he had divided the congregation against itself and driven out half of it. This was my first taste of that particular brand of Christianity, and my last. This morning, I'll attend services with my mainline denomination, one which was a leader in the Abolitionist movement, welcomes women in positions of leadership, & flies a rainbow flag out in front. Christianity is not about dividing and hating people.
17
In the constant drumbeat of life-threatening reasons to be afraid, thankfully Wayne LaPierre has provided a list, it's not just Fox News. Some credit is due to local broadcast journalism, which forty years ago discovered the ratings power of a style of live reporting initially called "Action News". The goal has always been simple - Convince viewers that threats are all around, from crime, accidents, or a vicious mother nature. More viewers tune in and they will watch longer which means more revenue.
How many local news stories DON'T have yellow crime scene tape behind a remote reporter? And now that the network newscasts and cable news outlets are in on the model, we are learning something new; that in many countries they use different color crime scene tape.
Fox News is simply better at this type of reporting, using a weaponized model of local news to promote existential threats with a constant barrage of "ALERT!" graphics, often based on stories ginned up by the GOP's interest groups, right wing conspiracy theorists, and last year, Russia.
The problem for the profession is that Americans instinctively understand that something is wrong. Surveys may show people believe crime rates have been on the rise for decades but at the same time trust for journalism is at its lowest level.
6
For about 50 years, I have been a member of a church with a large congregation where politics is never mentioned. Conservatives, moderates and liberals coexist in an atmosphere where the teachings of Christ are the focus of the preaching and activities of the church. Political subjects are never discussed and candidates are never endorsed. If my church one day goes the way of most of the evangelical churches and becomes an arm of the Republican party then I will no longer have a church home.
14
If we shouldn't be fearful and xenophobic, the reason for that ought to be that there is insufficient basis for it in reality. The reason should not be that the Bible says, "Do not be afraid!" or "welcome the stranger." The evangelicals Ms. Sullivan is referring to may be mistaken about whether the kinds of threats they're worried about really exist. But if they refrain from deriving their political views from generalized exhortations to be "strong and courageous" or "trust in the Lord," that in itself is sensible. There are some things that ought to be feared or people distrusted, and a text that is hundreds or thousands of years old is unlikely to be able to tell us specifically which.
2
I always listen to how someone introduces themselves. If they say "Hi! I'm Jonathon"." I don't respond by saying, "Hi, Jon". Names are important things and I honor that.
The same goes for holidays. If someone wishes me, a pagan, "Merry Christmas" I respond the same. I wish them all the positive things *they* associate with *their* celebration. I don't pass judgement on their beliefs as I hope they don't pass judgement on mine. Many of my (true) Christian friends now wish me "Happy Solstice!" instead and I find that wonderful. It acknowledges that we are celebrating the return of the Sun/Son and it boils down to the same thing - the hope for illumination.
If a store, business or individual wishes to say "Merry Christmas" they should be able to do so without others assuming anything about it or, worse, being offended for pete's sake. I fear this article will now stigmatize all those who do utter those words, the assumption being they are some sort of hard liners. This would be an erroneous assumption.
6
More and more, I wonder if the NRA and the military-industrial complex are the financial puppet masters behind Fox and the GOP. There seems to be a far grander plan: inculcate - or just plain brainwash - the masses into turning against one another, creating a kind of civil war that will require the intervention of the government to quell, and voila: democracy is dead. Alternately, harness all that fear to drive a "holy" war. I can't listen to thirty seconds of the hate and manufactured faux reality on right wing talk shows; anyone who can has relinquished common sense, rational discourse, and the exercise of independent thinking.
8
Thanks to Amy Sullivan for framing this issue as she did. Christianity is about mercy for the downtrodden and outcast, but as Sullivan says, a strain of it has contorted into a faith that boils down to us vs. them. I grew up in a Christianity with a somewhat conservative bent, but have moved toward the religious left. Meanwhile, on a visit to relatives several years ago, I went to the [location redacted] Christian Sportsmen's Club annual picnic, where the prayer before the meal started with, "We thank you, God, for these young boys with their shotguns." Really.
7
I am pleased that Trump, for all his faults, has allowed me to forward from the back of the bus to which Obama had consigned me as a relic of America's demographic past - where Madam Hillary would kept me while she catered to selected minorities.
In Southern California, somehow my Roman church is still full, and people are less afraid, I think I can opine, of saying "Merry Christmas."
I'm old now, but I'm not going away - and I VOTE.
4
Oh please. Nobody ever said you could not say Merry Christmas. Treating black Christians equally and respectfully doesn’t mean you have to sit in the back of the bus. Recognizing that not all Americans celebrate Christmas does not mean a war on Christmas. Just look around you. Christmas music everywhere since before Thanksgiving. Lights decorating all the houses. And stores and ads urging us to buy buy buy.
2
Since the election, I've been trying to understand the underlying political philosophy of my significant other, who is an evangelical and a Trumpite.
What I can say is that American Evangelical Christians seem to derive their views more from the Old than the New Testament.
Their sermons are filled with Old Testament "lessons" -- "An eye for an eye", etc.; glorification of certain strong "great" men like King David (despite their personal shortcomings - sound familiar?) and particularly, the machinations of the "good" tribes Vs the "bad" tribes.
Jesus seems to come into play only at the part where they want to be assured of being "saved". Otherwise, they have little time for Jesus stories that may infer inner strength, but seem to point to outer weakness.
5
Just don't confuse the Old Testament with the Jewish Bible, because Jews, who are overwhelmingly moderates and progressives, don't live lives informed by all the negatives you list.
It ain't the Book, it's what's in people's hearts.
2
So how do these Evangelicals feel about the fact that Trump's son-in-law, and both daughters-in-law are Jewish? We know Ivanka has converted to Orthodox Judaism. Have the sons as well? Are all of the grandchildren being raised in the Jewish faith? Do Ivanka and Jared send "Merry Christmas" cards? You would think that in a country that actually talks about "Judeo-Christian" there would be more of a sense of inclusion, especially when we send huge sums of our tax money to Israel every year. (Possibly more than we spend on the CHIPs program for the poor children of our own country).
Is there a Menorah in the seasonal displays at the White House? If so, why is it necessary to not include other faiths in our seasonal greetings? And why should a company founded by mostly Jewish investment be criticized for not putting Christian symbols on it coffee cups?
Finally, I wonder how many people know that when the Puritans came to this country they were so rigid about their beliefs that any display or celebratory behavior at Christmas time could get one put in jail! That would have included saying "merry" anything!
7
It's ironic that Ms. Sullivan mentions Jerry Falwell, Sr. in an article the premise of which is that "we largely missed the impact conservative politics was having on religion itself." And she seems surprised that "Fox evangelicals don't back Mr. Trump despite their beliefs, but because of them."
In May of 1978 I moved from upstate NY to Chapel Hill, NC. Flipping around the TV on a Sunday morning (prior to CBS's Sunday Morning) I was astonished by the plethora of gospel shows, of preachers and singers. But one caught my attention and horror. It was, of course, Jerry Falwell, Sr., preaching from his gargantuan Thomas Road Baptist Church. I grew up in a town that was FILLED with churches (4 large ones clustered around the High School alone), including 2 Catholic ones, one that ranked a Monsignor , and only one synagogue. So I grew up very familiar with devout Christians, especially Catholics. What Falwell preached didn't sound like any Christianity I had ever experienced. What it sounded like was simply a call for a reactionary theocracy that would shut down the free press, abandon "technicalities" that freed the accused, force women back to the kitchens and bedrooms, and though we didn't know the term yet, create a Southern White Baptist Taliban. There was no charity, no outreach to non-White people. It was EXACTLY what we see in the Alt-Right. And that was in 1978.
If you missed it, it's your own fault because it was always right there in front of you.
8
The article begins with a "straw-man" argument. Conservative Christians (meaning those who actually believe the Bible) like myself, wholeheartedly voted for Trump without qualms because of his views on public policies, not Christianity. Voting for someone who values human life (pro-life) was a no-brainer when the other candidate believed in abortion (a nice word for killing babies) at any time. Writers like this still don't get it.
1
Guess you missed the part that, until the "Moral Majority" came to town in the 70's, evangelicals were overwhelmingly pro-abortion.
It isn't theology, it is a desire for power.
1
Well I don’t get taking away hot meals for elderly shut ins, taking away health insurance from children, allowing pollutants in our air and our water, taking away heat subsidies for poor families, cutting Medicare and Social Security. All to give tax breaks for billionaires. Love the fetus, hate the person.
3
During the period of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Reformation in Europe, religious loyalties were identified with political loyalties and every inhabitant of a country had to have the same religion as the ruler in order to create a godly society. Religious diversity was equated with treason. The result: two hundred years of relentless religious warfare that devastated Europe and the European witch hunts in which over 100,000 people, mostly women, were accused of being witches, half of whom were executed. By 1750, Europeans decided that the cost of religious warfare was too great and gradually settled on a policy of separation of church and state as more productive of a stable prosperous civil society. Up until now, the United States has remembered this invaluable and hard-learned lesson. Sadly, evangelicals are now actively promoting a return to the idea that religious identification trumps every other tie to your fellow human beings and seem willing to endorse religious warfare as a solution to every social problem in their quest to mold society into their version of godliness. Past history strongly suggests that this is a really bad idea.
4
As an athiest I still love Christmas. The holiday is a chance to pause and reflect on my values -- mercy, generosity, and kindness to strangers. It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite because it shows how much better our lives would be if we focused on making sure everyone has just enough to live comfortably, rather than giving tax breaks to Mr. Potter's ilk. I honestly don't know how Fox Evangelicals survive the cognitive dissonance; Christmas reflects liberal values.
10
"Fox evangelicalism" is the perfect name. Instill constant fear and hatred of the world around you, keep reiterating that the only hope is Jesus and while a percentage of Americans get wound up, rob them blind. Health Care, Taxes, Schools, EPA...
Sounds like a program working too well. I watch disbelieving and that is my FEAR.
4
It's nice to finally see some recognition of the fact that the Right-Wing Evangelicals have placed politics at the center of their religion.
Where have you been, though? Some of us have been saying precisely that for years.
5
It's interesting to me - in a sad way - that evangelical "hyper" Christians profess such strong and emotion driven feelings for an unseen divinity, yet have so little faith in the very visible fellow man who is their neighbor. The Fox viewer gets a sumptuous banquet of reporting on the evils of men, while the much more common kindness, decency, and intelligence of the human person is mostly ignored.
1
The way I used to feel about Christmas is similar to my feeling of patriotism. Through Presidents Ike, JFK, Nixon and on and on through Reagan, the Bushes and Obama, I loved and awed at my country's resiliency. My heart swelled with pride. Then came Trump, and for the first time in my life I was embarrassed to be an American and felt duped to have served in Vietnam.
Similarly, Christmastime brought visions of the lights, music, and yes, the crazy hubbub of the season. It all led to a night of serenity and tranquility brought on by the true meaning of the holiday. Then Bill O'Reilly and Fox told me that Christmas was not a time for love, but hate for those who did not celebrate it. Patriotism was not love for my country or fellow Americans. It was (as they saw it) quantified by how much you hated non-Americans, or American citizens who were not white. For awhile, even the President of the United States was not patriotic when he forgot to put on a lapel pin as he fixed his POTUS cufflinks. The alt-right managed to turn pride and joy into despair and melancholy. Congratulations.
3
I refuse to play Fox's Christmas-shading games. The Jesus I learned about would have no interest in Fox and Trump's commercialized nonsense. He'd be asking what are we doing for the least among us, and the answer is Trump raised their taxes, plans to cut their public support. Shame on Fox, and Trump.
6
From my experience at a mainline Methodist church in Georgia, these Fox-promulgated beliefs have definitely seeped beyond the typical evangelical church. I hear women in my SS class talk about Muslims and feeling under attack, and I am just baffled. The author's article has helped me make sense of it.
More and more, I believe one of the biggest problems in America is Fox News. Murdoch's mouthpiece has made him billions, but it has lowered the discourse and level of thought in this country and in the UK. How will we ever recover from such poisoning?
I encourage everyone to turn off the TV and have some quiet thoughts. My teens and early 20s were spent with the TV as background to every day. It came on when I woke up, and it put me to sleep every night. During a particularly acrimonious divorce, I turned to silence. I read more and wrote more; I made plans. I also never went back to the TV. My perspective on the world has definitely changed.
We tend to forget that we can choose what we consume. We don't have to be automatons mindlessly following pro-consumerist, gun-consumerist, fear-mongering propaganda designed to keep us in a state of heightened emotions, and thus easily manipulated. After all, God did give us free will.
2
I just go with Happy Merry New Thanksoweenmas kwanzukkah. Covers all the bases and usually gets a smile.
1
I am reminded of the section of the Book of Matthew telling the story of the Sermon on the Mount. When asked about how one should pray, Jesus responded with The Lord's Prayer. But he prefaced it with some remarks about how not to pray:
"...do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others."
and:
"...go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen."
and finally:
"...do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words."
These "Fox evangelicals" and Mr. Trump seem like they fall into this group that likes to make conspicuous displays of public faith and devotion.
As for the "war on Christmas", I suppose when the Church first decided to put the holy day in December there were those who bemoaned the "war on Saturnalia". In any case, Santa Claus, Macy's, Rudolph and Montgomery Ward have been winning that one for years.
1
Meant to say Gospel of Matthew...
It is really the same strain of strained logic which found slavery condoned by the Bible. Preaching for profit and/or power is as old as the idea of gods or a God. support of the power brokers, and installing them insured Papal authority for centuries, and diversification of authority into mega-churches preaching for money and claims of soul-salvation plays well into the minds of people looking for certain salvation (nothing new here, as old as organized religion).
Preaching about practicing the tenets of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, or the basics of the Ten Commandments fall well behind the importance of these "messengers of God" telling people how to follow their interpretations of holiness and religious rebirth rather than sensible core beliefs of right and wrong. Send the check and check off the ballot as we say.
1
Evangelical Christian theology, which includes Biblical literalism and dispensational millennialism (pre-tribulation rapture included) is especially susceptible to being hijacked in the service of political agendas of exclusion, scapegoating, violence and war. It is a theology that teaches adherents that they are partners in bringing about the last days and the return of Jesus. These events are marked by increasing violence as the prelude to Armageddon unfolds. The FOX News effect isn't limited to Evangelicals. Lots of life long Lutherans in our little church in rural North Carolina were thoroughly steeped in Fox idolatry. Their TV's were constantly tuned to this channel when I would do home visits, and their concerns were more attuned to the latest conspiracy theory about President Obama than they were to following the Way of the gospel.
2
This whole Winter War has always been baffling for me. For many years I believed – apparently naïvely and cluelessly – that "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" were a reasonable shorthand for "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." After all, this is the season where we have two holidaysin one week at year-end and the celebrations tend to merge.
And then it occurred to me that these broad-category greetings also could, in theory, include Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Well – happy day, callooh callay! What a happy thought.
I was stunned 10 years ago when I saw Fox News characterize this warm-hearted, openhearted way of greeting others at year-end into an attack on Christianity. Will wonders never cease? The success of that twisted spin is so mean-spirited, ugly, paranoid, and, as Howard Stern might have said, Just Wrong.
3
For those who espouse the myth of a war on Christmas, I say unto you: You are engaged in spiritual fraud. As a child, Christmas was not so much about receiving presents, but more about preparing tamales and other goodies the night before at my family's kitchen table, falling asleep listening to the hum of the heater, and waking up with my sisters and parents knowing that our home was full of love. As this Christmas approaches, I have fond dreams of my childhood home.
Madison Avenue and materialism have made many believe that one's worth is dependent upon keeping up with the neighbor and having more toy's than someone else. This competition has only created misery for many.
The phrase, "Merry Christmas" has been coopted by capitalism, effectively taking Christ out of Christmas a long time ago.
Today, my idea of Christmas is being able to go to my 21 year old God daughter's home, going to see my youngest niece, seeing some of my best friends, and visiting with people who I have helped over the year. When I am in their homes, I know I am loved and appreciated for having been a part of their lives throughout the years. I can relax and rebuild my spirit and renew my faith and hope to help others in the coming year.
That is Christmas for me, and nothing Fox News says can take that away.
3
It's a cult. More specifically, what Sullivan calls "fox evangelicanism" suggests a nascent syncretic religion, one that merges the traditional religious beliefs and practices of conservative denominations with worshipful reverance for right wing political concepts and nationalism. As seen on Facebook and even NYT comments, these people describe Trump in Christ-like terms, arguing that he "gave up everything" for "your" sake. Look how he endures slings and arrows and suffers on your behalf! Trump himself played to such sentiment when he declared that only HE could save the country. Small wonder that for this group, the American flag is no longer a symbol of political ideals and principles but a venerated religious object. The national anthem is a sacred rite in a "true" or doctrinal expression of patriotism. The "war on Christmas" resonated wth these people not because it had any basis in reality--it didn't--but because it provided an accessible vocabulary to articulate fears and anxieties about their perceived loss of status in Obama's America and mainstream or "secular" culture. Above all, this new religion explains why its adherents can so easily vote for politicians who, for example, bully and mock the poor; it's faith alone, not good works, that leads to salvation.
1
My family background is Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Christian, and I am an atheist. I believe in asking the questions although not necessarily in the religious answers, and I say Happy Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Holidays at this time of year. Whatever.
But to Amy Sullivan I say, Amen sister! Exactly right.
2
I cannot figure out why Fox News followers allow themselves to be subverted by foreign owned media. I wouldn't let these folks watch my six. They are unaware of their mental penetration by these agents (e.g., pretty people who are trained converters). I don't consider them reliable Americans, more like foreign operatives that have been brain washed into subverting their community and government.
Brilliant really - train them to turn upon themselves! A house divided is easy pickings.
A remarkably intelligent summary. There's a lot to unpack.
We all know Evangelical is no longer a term associated with a religious denomination but rather a cultural and political identity. There's no other way to square the mounting logical fallacies. Fox News is an obvious enabler but I've never thought to explore the impact of media on Christianity explicitly. For instance, I've always taken American Christmas consumerism for granted regardless of the religion.
I'm not exactly a religious person. Atheist is too strong a word but theology is more or less an academic exercise for me. I still celebrate Christmas though. I celebrate Christmas for the same reason I celebrate Hanukkah. The ceremony is important to people around me. The right thing to do is to respect and appreciate their traditions. For me this means a tree and my Grandmother's old Hummel nativity set. There's usually a Zot Hanukkah dinner as well.
Neither tradition has much to do with my identity. Neither has anything to do with my political affiliation. The stores I shop in are based mostly on principle and ethics. Actually, we made our gifts this year. I had to buy materials but these were mostly acquired from small independent retailers. So I suppose I just don't get what Evangelicals are so outraged about or why a news channel would seek to exploit the impulse. What's going on here?
A better question: How can we encourage Evangelicals to practice a little self-reflection? That's what I'd like to know.
2
Trump and Fox News the defenders of the Christian faith? Not hardly and whatever happened to the 1st Amendment? It's not us-versus them but them-versus-us in trying to degenerate the Constitution. There was a reason to separate church and state. The evangelicals and religious right seem to think it's their way or the highway. It's there way of life or eternal damnation. It's fear and distrust cloaked in disregard for any moral theology or ethics as this article stated.
I have a friend who grew up down South, nominally "evangelical"--but she says that she never went to church. She says her "evangelical" mother still refuses to go to church. She says that where she grew up, being "evangelical" is just seen as being part of a white American. It's not a religion, from the sounds of it; it's just a cultural/political identity.
This isn't all self-described "evangelical" people--some of them are quite serious about their faith. But it's to point out that two people who both call themselves "evangelical" may mean VERY different things by it.
1
Christian/Fox Evangelicals believe that every word in the New Testament is true, even though anyone paying close attention knows that the Gospels are self-contradictory, and hence that the New Testament as a whole cannot be 100% true.
Given their willingness to abandon common sense and their refusal to question what they are being told about the Bible, is it any wonder that Christian/Fox Evangelicals are equally willing to abandon common sense and to question what they are being told about Trump and the GOP?
Christian/Fox Evangelicals have been asked by the carnival barkers who feed them lies about the Bible and about Trump/GOP not merely to embrace lies and myths, but to publicly acknowledge that they are doing so. And Evangelicals have done so in droves. Psychological studies show that when a person takes a position on something, particularly when that person affirms the position in public, it becomes virtually impossible to change that person's mind. (See Robert Cialdini's book, "Influence").
Our nation is therefore stuck with a substantial contingent of voters whose breathtakingly narrow minds can never be changed with respect to the goals of Trump/GOP, i.e., to raid the U.S. Treasury so more money can flow to the rich, suppress the votes of people with opposing views, oppress people of color, despoil the environment, and remove essential federal regulations so that businesses can reward their shareholders with higher stock prices and bigger dividends.
1
Please understand that the term “Christian” is not inherently, and certainly not logically connected, to Fox News and the politicians/policies Fox promotes. It instead relates to Jesus and His followers, including Pope Francis, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King. Jr., Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, and others who model—and deliver—God’s love.
This is a prescient article! As a progressive Protestant who focuses on a social justice, non-fearful embrace of life (or tries to) I have been disgusted and mystified by the myopic narrowing of Christianity to fit the 'evangelical' box. I also totally affirm the separation of church and state in our nation, providing all faiths the opportunity to flourish and not discriminating against those who don't profess faith. This fox news-Evangelical package seems to be somewhat akin to the triumphal civil religion of the 1950s where 'Christians' could be judged 'good' if they embraced positive thinking and the pursuit of personal success, with just a little 'doing good' thrown in. Anyone who thinks that Christians are disadvantaged in this society is not playing with a full deck.
1
The use of the word "veneer" is interesting. In the past, a veneer was an extremely thin layer of higher quality wood glued to a much lower-quality/lower-cost base wood. It was, in many ways, an artifice.
These days, veneers often are still a thin layer glued to a base. But the base is often an engineered wood - high quality plywood or MDF (medium-density-fiberboard) - that offers an extremely dimensionally-stable base.
Economically-driven evangelism (and that's exactly what it is; Jerry Falwell Jr. is an attorney running a Liberty University money machine) is clearly not akin to the newer veneers. It is a corruption of what most of us who find the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth at the core of our lives hold to be of value. Scratch the veneer of this corruption and what's exposed is the basest of layers.
To allow fear to overpower faith is the great Christian malfeasance. If Jesus were still in his grave, he'd probably be doing several RPM.
2
"We have nothing to fear but but fear itself." a popular quote and piece of wisdom from from FDR that seems to be all but forgotten. This article meshes with another bit of news today of a survey of increasing depression among youth. Youth from conservative families are increasingly filled with fear of the other. Youth from liberal families see a world increasingly disconnected from the reality of the real problems we face like global warming. At the same time our public education system is falling apart because we don't want to pay the taxes needed to support the schools. And those in between are completely confused as to what to believe in a culture of increasing propaganda and "fake news".
1
When people wish me a merry Christmas or ask me if I've done my Christmas shopping, I use this as a prompt to simply tell them that I'm not Christian and don't celebrate Christmas. It's a simple, quiet, dignified way to remind people that we are a country for people of all faiths or non-faith.
2
Non-believers and people who are religious but not Christian did not declare was on Christmas. You can thank Walmart and all the merchants who have turned it into a month of gross commercialism. So all those cheering Trump when he talks about the so-called War on Christmas need to take a pledge to quit buying and return it to the religious holiday they claim it to be.
1
it is time for someone to speak up for the Gospels. We must teach what Jesus said preached and lived. The labels we attach as religion are used go segregate us not unite us. If Christianity is to survive we must return to basics. Listen to God's admonition to Saint Francis to rebuild his Church and start again from basics. Love one another, follow the Sermon on the Mount, remember the lesson of the Semaritin and understand that if God is the creator of all things everyone is part of the story and all the earth is God's as well. That's Evangelical.
3
A new religion has taken the place of Evangelicalism and Christianity itself, although the names have not changed, in a kind of bait and switch. This new religion is the Fox brand of Conservatism; and saying that a person is Christian Conservative is an oxymoron. These terms are mutually exclusive.
The very essence of Christianity teaches us about how we are to live our lives according to the the Golden and to treat others as we would be treated ourselves. No conservatives believe that that the meek shall inherit the earth. Neither do they offer forgiveness, forbearance and aid fo the weak, the old, the halt and the lame, which was the message of Jesus. And as the GOP tax theft bill clearly proves that Conservatives who control Congress beleave that that a rich man could no sooner enter the Kingdom of Heaven than a camel could pass through the eye of a needle. We have returned to a form of paganism where the gods are money, power and subjugation of women.
4
I don't know why this is so complicated. Though with the over-commercialization of Christmas it's hard to tell, but it is still a religious holiday, so not everyone celebrates it. To my Christian friends I say "Merry Christmas," to my Jewish friends I say "Happy Chanukah" (when or around the time the holiday is being observed, it actually rarely coincides with Christmas) and Happy Holidays to anyone whom I am unsure what they celebrate. To those who feel everyone should say "Merry Christmas," ask yourself how you would feel if you are not Jewish and everyone wished you Happy Chanukah.
4
So what does mr. trump say to his son-in-law this season? Does he insist on saying, "Merry Christmas" to him and family as they celebrate Hanukkah?
4
Excellent article! Thank you!
However, you did not go far enough. Not in my lifetime, but probably in this century, religion will be recognized as a political force and fall out of favor because it is based on fictitious reasoning. The world has had over 2,000 years to offer evidence of a supreme force/being/human entity, whatever, and has nothing to offer except fear of eternal suffering for not believing.
Evangelical thought is the worst of all for one simple fact: Either you believe (faith is really only wishful thinking and hope that good luck comes one's way), or you and your loved ones will suffer infinite pain.
As our present Administration daily demonstrates, ignorance of fact harms all of us.
1
Thank you for this illuminating and deeply disturbing piece. Many things struck me about what you said among them the line; "they have been exposed to Fox news 3 to 4 hours a day." Prolonged exposure to Fox is toxic. Fox has become a news channel that makes little attempt to report the news objectively but instead has become a vehicle of weaponized propaganda distribution for the conservative Christian right.
I grew up in the Christian church and received messages as a child that helped form my world view. The teachings of Christ seemed full of hope and taught me I should love my fellow man. As I grew older it became harder for me to take these messages seriously because they seemed so frequently at odds with what the church actually did. The Evangelicals in particular seem to have surgically removed empathy from Christianity. Loving thy fellow man seems to have gone by the wayside for these Evangelicals unless the man in question is part of their "tribe." Increasingly one of the defining characteristics of that tribe is being infected by the virulent right wing propaganda of the Fox "news" channel.
4
Trump has now mixed the signing of the tax bill with Christmas, the delivery of a present of more wealth to the wealthy, even as itakes from the poor. Is this irony lost on evangelicals?
Evangelism grew up in my urban high school in the mid 1970s through Young Life and other more conservative youth organizations that gave teens a place to "belong", a structure for their week, and a hierarchy of commitment within a social group that saw itself as ever more divided from secular society. What started with the young 40 years ago has now become a world view of grumpy old men and scared senior women. It just goes to show you that the longer you talk to yourself, and the more you cut yourself from the realities of the world, the more you can convince yourself of anything. Somehow, in all this self talking, evangelical Christianity, at least as practiced in much of America, has become far more about the elect and self-identification of being "saved" and less about the teachings of Christ, especially the kindness to strangers mentioned here. Evangelism has become an echo chamber of both fear and self-congratulations.
2
When you start with the premise that God rewards the righteous financially, and move on to the idea that capitalism is His way of rewarding the righteous, and then consider that consumption is the actual reward, FOX Christianity makes sense.
The poor must be unrighteous, and we can ignore them. And rich have not only earned there wealth in the marketplace, but in the eyes of God. Old aristocrats and monarchs were given wealth and power by divine right; in FOX Christianity is through His personal approval. Tax-cuts for the rich? God's will, and who would gainsay God?
So our question is, as we see a religion that worships consumption and the marketplace, and sacrifices moral power for political power - how can a religion thrive when it sacrifices moral power?
What would Jesus shoot? What would Jesus buy? I bet FOX has the answer.
I'll stick with Catholicism which is imperfect, but recognizes imperfection and the need for repentance and redemption.
2
All too true. The nefarious influence of Fox "news" propaganda is already well-known. But what is to be done? Should irrational, right-wing propaganda that trades in fear and anxiety be censored? Banned? How will the gullible masses be freed from manipulation?
My hope is that some hard-nosed investigative journalism will begin to expose the criminal connections behind Fox News and its malevolent "sources." If their editors and even owners eventually go to jail, will that help?
1
I think this analysis of how the ideology of Christian Evangelicism has become the ideology of "Us Versus Themism" elides a crucial element. This us versus them mentality has been stoked by absolute "conception as lifeism". That division has been around for decades and cannot be blamed on a Fox "News" political agenda. The belief that others' personal decisions can be dictated to them by virtue of religion is central to what motivates evangelicals. It is also at the root of the moral, political, and policy position that all Americans must adhere to the beliefs of a small, self-righteous, religious minority. This example of the so-called "one issue voter" is the epitome of us versus them thinking: If you don't agree on this issue, you are "them".
2
"Happy Holidays" is non controversial salutation.The phrase is simply easier to utter than 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year', and is also religiously neutral. That is, neutral until the O'Reillys, Limbaughs and their ilk made it a cause celebre, and fed the phrase as a toxic tidbit to their evangelical audiences. The evangelicals eagerly digested this morsel as nourishment for their self righteous indignation. They also viewed this phrase as anti-Christian. Why? Only God knows. The Evangelicals, contrary to the teachings of Christ, are very combative, seeing attacks on their religion around every corner and in every shadow. They are pro life when it comes to abortion, but fervid supporters of guns. A stance which seems to advocate protecting life until that life is mature enough to gun down.
The Evangelicals may benefit by less religious fervor and more higher education.
2
The term "Merry Christmas" did not have any religious meaning at all, when it was coined. The mere fact that Trump says he is saying "Merry Christmas" means nothing. And any Christian that has read the Bible should know that this is not in it.
This was simply a phrase of politese and also a reason for retailers in the 16th century to push gift giving as an appropriate way to celebrate.
This has become a huge commercial celebration, unfortunately. And for some people a Holy Day. For those "religious" leaders and Trump to declare that you are somewhat less a human being because you choose another phrase connoting celebration is just another ruse to get their obvious base to think they are "right" in their beliefs and have every right to push their beliefs on the rest of us. So far religious has proven that it is "the opiate of the masses" as Marx declared.
Religion pulls more people apart than joins them.
And it is proven day after day when one reads yet another "religious war" or genocide committed in the name of Religion. What kind of Religion is that?
3
"The regular Fox News viewer, whether or not he is a churchgoer, takes in a steady stream of messages that conflate being white and conservative and evangelical with being American."
As this article perfectly (and finally!!) points out, Fox Evangelicalism is indeed inherently RACIST.
And as a recent WP piece has shown, Alabama African-Americans are perfectly aware of this fact, as 95% of black Alabama voters who voted for Doug Jones are actually Evangelicals, and most black Evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for Jones:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/12/13/there-wa...
This kind of doctrine not only goes directly against Christ's teachings, which of course tell Christians to radically stop all discrimination based on race, it even doesn't make any sense, as Jesus himself was certainly not a white person, but a person of color, like most people living in the Middle East at that time.
So here too, it's African-Americans who are leading the way and showing the world that a REAL Evangelicalism remains possible and is fully "alive and kicking".
By doing so, they're once again contributing in a wonderful, unique way to the long process of turning this country into a more perfect union.
So thank you, black Alabama Evangelicals, for having the courage and faith to stand up against injustice. History will remember you!
5
Just because certain segments of evangelical sects proclaim themselves to be christian that does not make them the "true" christians. There are so many iterations of the sects that proclaim themselves to be true christians that the term almost loses any meaning. Labels and words are meaningless if the deeds and actions of the proclaimers do not measure up. "Organized Ignorance" would be an apt description of some of these groups. One has to be suspect of those constantly telling us how christian they are when their deeds, attitudes and demeanor fall so far short. It should not matter how you are greeted this time of year if you have true faith. In fact insisting that everyone say "Merry Christmas" to you is rather boorish and presumptive; for you see there is a wide disparity of beliefs among all of us that make up this society.
2
I'm so glad Trump came into office so that I can comfortably say "Merry Christmas" . I couldn't do that under Obama.
I'm so glad Trump came into office so that I can have all the guns I want. It seems I could not have all the guns I wanted during the Obama years, or he was supposed to take them all away.
I'm so glad that Trump came into office, so that now I can bend my head and say a silent prayer. Don't know how many times I got sent to the office at school for doing this during the Obama years.
Christian prominence is chapter 2 in the Make America Great Again book, right after the tax plan. I believe there to be plenty of folks in this country who would fully embrace a Christian theocracy.
2
I have argued for years with people that religious people are less moral than secular or atheists. The Christians prove me correct over and over with their actions.
3
This isn't anything new. Doesn't anyone remember Andy Schlafly's "Conservative Bible Project" from 2009? The one that literally rewrote the Bible to reflect conservative principles? Because the actual Bible was too liberal? Evangelical Christianity has been a farce ever since it got corrupted by the "Moral Majority." The Bible says you can't serve two masters but modern Evangelicals have been trying to do just that ever since they decided the keys to the kingdom lay in obtaining political, not spiritual, power.
5
Know your snake-oil salespersons to be what they are.
Please know: my intent is not to belittle or demean religion. Religions can be a great source of help and peace for those who believe. But there are many religions, many beliefs, and many misguiding individuals who use religions maliciously. Those who do so are not always Muslims—some are American evangelicals and some are leaders of our country.
I'm pretty sure that, while Trump may have touched a Bible a time or two, he never looked inside one. It's a difficult read, and, while some Bible stories have made their way into the Golden Books children's series, few biblical writings are so easy to understand and several contradict one another when the entire text is taken as a whole. The book has been translated from the original and edited extensively with suspect intentions. Very little is black and white, and that, that seems to be, is often simply overly general and/or ambiguous. Even the 10 commandments seem to leave some wiggle room—rather like our original Constitution. Biblical scholars and evangelicals, like lawyers, won't always admit that there are gray areas.
Marx called religion the opium of the masses—perhaps warning that we need to be critical thinkers. I remember a political cartoon with a caption that read: "Those who believe Obama was Muslim, also believe Trump is Christian." In the world of politics, religion is a smoke screen that hypocrites hide behind so starry-eyed evangelicals lap-up their lies.
3
There is nothing Christian about 45 or these so called evangelists. Look up Jesus' words, messages. "love one another, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the sick", etc., etc. What we are witnessing is the worship of money and power, persons spreading hate and division, and self centered selfishness. The rule of LAW no longer matters through willfulness and ignorance. Our nation is in great peril.
3
Brilliant piece. One of the mysteries of the 2016 election: how 70% of evangelicals supported the least Christ-like candidate in history.
2
I've never been attacked, verbally or physically, for saying Merry Christmas. I've been saying it for more than five decades. I've never witnessed a mall or store front vandalized because they had a Christmas Tree displayed in their place of business. Happy Holidays has been a friendly, all encompassing greeting for decades. Yet, the intellectual myopia that has inflicted anguish on a slice our society (Faux Christians and FOX personalities) is having the opposite effect on the meaning of Christmas. As for Trump's ascension to power, it was not divine intervention but God's arch rival's doing.
5
I am a Christian.
It is my strong belief that Christianity and Judaism are mutually compatible in the United States. I have many Jewish friends and they have many Christian friends.
Multiculturalism is not meant for the United States, let Europe wallow in that experiment the outcome of which we have already seen numerous examples of.
There is a war on Christmas, but it's not being waged by people saying "Happy Holidays". It's being waged by those who, for whatever reason, have chosen to weaponize the holiday and use it as a cudgel against the world. I'm in my 60's and I have used the terms interchangeably my entire life.
A few years ago I wished a woman at my gym a Happy Holiday and she screamed (literally) at me for not saying Merry Christmas. I was shocked and I told her that if the words are that important to her perhaps she had forgotten what the holiday is supposed to be about in the first place. I also never spoke to her again.
Another time I was riding in an elevator, this was probably during the 80's, when a fellow passenger was bragging to her friend about ripping down a "Feliz Navidad" poster in her office and telling everyone that "This is America, we say "Merry Christmas!"
These are the people waging war on Christmas. The people who are so filled with hate and so obsessed over a few words that they have completely forgotten the message of hope and peace and brotherhood that the holiday is supposed to be about. If your Christmas can be ruined by a sign in a department store then your Christmas was never worth much in the first place.
And just for the record:
Obama said Merry Christmas Every Year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi4Ie7YotWo
2
Thank God for this column. Writers and thinkers cannot point out often enough the utterly pernicious affect Fox 'news' is having on our culture. Monetized disinformation, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nothing good is coming from this except for the Murdochs making money and a bunch of TV hacks getting jobs.
1
Fox is meant to be subliminal as well as direct propaganda. I am a doctor and as I make rounds in nursing homes, the TVs tuned to Fox are almost always not attended to, yet on all day long. Others watch game shows or coffee talk shows, or maybe old Westerns. But it's the Fox channel that is drip, drip, drip with the same message every day: we are good, they are bad, government is evil.
1
A truly excellent article, which (likely due to space limitations) does not follow up on Sullivan's main point: "...'evangelical' effectively functions as a cultural label, unmoored from theological meaning [for many people.]"
As America has drifted away from a sense of collective national purpose, people have resorted to hyphenated identities, where the adjective before the hyphen becomes more important then the noun, "American", which follows it. This is true on both the Right and the Left. We are all hyphenated Americans, but instead of celebrating this diversity, we have allowed ourselves to tribalize our society.
Two elements which, among others, are underconsidered in this dynamic.
1/ Once-upon-a-time, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day were true holidays, celebrating at the community level what the nation held in common. They are now merely three barbecues embedded in a consumer circus.
2/ Once-upon-a-time, folks got most of their news from three middle-of-the-road TV networks and a local or regional newspaper. What that provided was not necessarily "truth" but a common basis for discussion, even for passionate disagreement. Then we were sold 500-channel TV as a way to promote diversity. Instead, it had the opposite effect, providing a 24/7 platform of narrowness that Americans could embrace, "validating" what they already believed or feared. Now we have the internet, which is 500-channel TV on steroids.
2
I'm atheist, but I still wish others "Merry Christmas" if I know they are Christian and "Happy Holidays" if I don't.
Little did I know I was waging a war on Christmas until now; I thought I was being respectful of others.
2
The scripture is a problem too. All good religions require only one line of scripture: the Golden Rule. All else is politics, manipulation and exploitation by clergy trying to play God.
2
The last two paragraphs practically mirror Dr. Robert Altemeyer's 30+ years of research into the authoritarian personality. His findings, that can be accessed free through a simple Internet search, show this fundamental issue, as they resolve what on the surface seem like total contradictions. It is the trend toward authoritarianism that is the key element, having all of the ingredients of fascism. There are three features--adherence to authority, aggression in the service of that adherence, and conventionality (or a kind of lock-step mentality). The authority? Maybe it's something to do with Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex. As another Times article in today's posting shows, the corporate greed is having an immense impact. With FOX propaganda, the con game is profound, and Christianity itself is being abused as a tool in its process. Remember, you can fool some of the people all of the time.
1
I always thought a holiday greeting was to wish another person well, Merry Christmas to Christian friends, happy holidays to atheists ... whatever. It’s shocking that such words are used by evangelicals to intimidate those who are not them and to empower themselves. They might as well point a gun at you while they greet you, and threaten to shoot in the name of Jesus if they don’t get the response they want.
1
This article represents a whole category of simplistic thinkers obsessed with the existence of Fox News. I suggest coming in from the ledge. First, it seems to support the idea among conservatives the liberals are the ones who are truly intolerant. Fox News existence seems to unhinge some, before considering it has any kind of content. This is huge over-reaction. Fox has an average audience of about 2.3 million. NPR's Morning Edition has 13 million. Well over a million a day log into the the NY Times. O'Reilly was its best rated show, at 3.4 million. In a country of over 3000 million, to blame and target a relatively small outlet for so much borders on hysteria. Fox is a home for a certain type of audience. That audience existed before Fox, and will outlive it. The media that impacts more, it seems to me, is social. The bubble-enhancing algorithms and unedited, poorly refereed "news"that whips around in a an instant have created something far more dangerous than a "new religion". People who watch news and read newspapers are not the problem. Even Fox viewers select from more than one source, usually traditional media. Social media users are not just fed garbage news, they are addicted to their feeds, a result that is by design. I'd be more concerned about the hundreds of millions on Facebook before I'd get worked up about the million or so that might be tuned in to Fox at any given moment.
If homicides are "caused by firearms," does that mean that drunk driving fatalities are caused by automobiles?
Fox "News" is saying that there should be no place in our increasingly multicultural country for anyone else's uplifting end-of-year celebration but their own "white" Christmas.
I'm an atheist who is mature enough to enjoy an expression of "Merry Christmas" for its goodwill intent. Hey, "War" believers -- there is no war because we don't care.
This essay is incredibly discouraging because it’s so misleading and disingenuous. Ms Sullivan is projecting her anti-Trump views onto millions of Evangelicals. Although I am not now an Evangelical, I grew up in an Evangelical family attending different non-denominational Evangelical churches and both my sisters are practicing Evangelical ministers. The truth is Evangelicals are far more intelligent and diverse group than this writer conjures in her article. Ms. Sullivan trots-out the trusty Evangelical whipping boy, Franklin Graham to castigate Evangelical conservatism. Let me tell you, Ms Sullivan, Evangelicals outside Franklin Graham’s tiny little sphere could care less what he proposes on politics. In fact, most Evangelicals aren’t familiar with him. The Evangelicals I come into contact with everyday are too busy focusing on God, family, betterment of their lives and working hard to make ends meet. They’re not lemmings sitting couch-side hitched to every word of Fox News or, for that matter, CNN. To be sure, Evangelicals are generally private, independent; not people interested in playing the Democrats’ identity politics game, nor are they interested in cow-towing to Fox News nonsense about the Christmas wars. They are much smarter than falling for that. All in all, I find Ms Sullivan’s views on Evangelicals frightfully shallow and condescending.
2
For most of the seriously religious, the psychosis is inherited. Small children who could be taught the details of human metabolism (which might deter some of them from eating themselves into Type 2 diabetes) are instead indoctrinated that some all-powerful being can read your thoughts and (as George Carlin said) really, really loves you even though (in some variations) he will cast you into eternal darkness. This is a good blueprint for making young humans crazy.
At this point, the reality becomes reality-plus. The plus is all of the spiritual and mystical extensions added onto every human interaction. As both "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" are variations on "I Wish You Well!", a sane person could find fault with neither.
Then there are the lies that start almost from one's birth. By the time one is old enough to distinguish truth from fiction, one has already been immunized that certain "truths" cannot be proved or even supported. They are true because they are true: one's faith thus depends upon an oft-renewed suspension of disbelief. Similarly, as you point out, Fox began 20 years ago promulgating "truths" that had no basis in reality, but because those "truths" buoyed the spirits of Fox's followers, no proof was ever required. Emboldened by the embrace of its propaganda by all of America's "good Germans," Fox, like all good religions, doubled down.
When the language of divine love is used to demonize and ostracize, we learn the meaning of the word perversion.
1
The Moral Majority is neither, especially in their support for Trump, the "Do as I pretend to say, not as I do" candidate. Three wives, maximum philandering both real and attempted, untold numbers of abortions covered up, Trump exemplifies the worst of Biblical sins and lets loose the hounds of Evangelical hypocrisy in their support of him.
Well, they deserve each other. Neither speaks for America. Their babble echoes only in their mutual bubble of bigotry and pretentious hate. Let them travel, hand in hand, to the netherworld which awaits them.
1
I suspect these people were raised to be fearful of a vengeful God, fearful of most things. It carries over to all internal existence: fear and hatred of the unknown, a kind of paralysis. It is then that black becomes white, up becomes down. Christianity becomes the opposite of what most have been taught.
I have watched Russian propaganda on their mainstream TV with its constant mix of hatred and lies against an outsisde enemy that is used to exploit an ignorant population by pandering to their worst fears and insecurities. I don't see much difference with the Fox newscasts which are done in exactly the same manner. I know why Russia allows this, but why America? Why should the Murdoch family, which is not even American be allowed to destroy American democracy just for the money??? Something is very, very wrong.
Growing up as a Jewish kid in Los Angeles in the 1960's, my favorite day of the year was Christmas. Not, as you might think, because we ate Chinese food and went out to the movies. Back then, everything shut down for Christmas day. Movie theaters weren't open. Supermarket doors were locked. Restaurants and even gas stations were closed. That was what made it unique. You had to plan for a day where you would be on your own without outside distractions and resources.
My favorite Christmases were spent in National Parks. Waking up on Christmas morning in Yosemite or Sequoia or Death Valley, the gifts weren't under a tree (we didn't have a tree anyway), the gifts were the sounds and sights of the natural world at peace. Christmas was, quite simply, the holiest day I knew.
Today the stores and gas stations are open. The joke about Jews going to the movies and eating Chinese food on Christmas barely lands because the whole country is doing that. The Christmas commercialism flogged by Fox News and the President has nothing to do with holiday and "Merry Christmas" has become the sound of a cash register ringing.
Well, whatever.
I now live next to a National Park and on Christmas day will take a short walk with my wife and daughters from our house to the Cape Cod National Seashore and back.
Merry Christmas (and Happy Hannukah!)!
261
Thank you
For anyone who considers themselves a Christian, it is unfortunate that they enable the voices in their heads, follow the oily self-serving pastors of greed, possession, and exclusion, and refuse to follow Jesus instead. It's enough to make an atheist of a person, the absence of spirituality, goodness, sharing, and helping in this community.
I have a simple recommendation. Go back and read the Gospels, short repetitive, and obvious. By my count, Roy Moore violated 3 of his sainted 10 commandments, and Republicans are in violation of most if not all of the 7 deadly sins.
Try the sermon the the mount, Matthew 5-7. I include this link because it references similar teachings from Jesus as well as other religions. The core of the heart, that is better than exclusion and hatred:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount
15
And don't forget fetus worship at the expense of the living and the eventual babies' families! They're "pure" you see; once they emerge and do human things, these worshippers of unborn "life" abandon them, imprison then, exclude them, kill them, and/or arm them with weapons of multiple destruction.
17
Oh Susan...if only there was a defined and exact ONE and ONLY version of what TRUE Xtianity is. If only...but alas, there are hundreds of versions.Of which the American versions are too many. The American versions are not beholden to the holy book per se, but like xtianity in general are prone to Interpretation. (xtianity's biggest flaw, too many self-proclaimed, god-led intepreters)
And the seven deadly sins are not biblical. So there "they" have a escape hatch.
The naivete with which alleged true xtians, (like yourself?) continually approach this issue, and those involved - high profile Evangelical leadership with the ears and faith practices of many of our elected officials intheir hands - is part of the problem!
As so many rail against moderate Muslims for not doing enough to cull their ranks of the extremists - so to are American Xtian moderates, and generally faith-apathetic, guilty of not shutting down these powerful political arms of the American Evangelical Theocrats.
FYI; your god aint coming to rescue us from these theocratic miscreants. And no amount of You/others telling them to do X, or read Y, is gonna stop them!
They're winning the game what IS a True American Xtian. Not you're/others meek push back!
I read somewhere that from an evolutionary perspective it would have been good for the human race to have both out-going adventurous types and conservative, even timid or afraid, types. Progress requires trying new things, but sometimes it doesn't work out. The stay-at-home types help guarantee species survival. All I'm saying is that soem of these attitudes may be "baked" in.
2
Worked well a few years after we left the trees. Today the village is global and that's a necessity to solve our global problems.
The "Fox evangelicalism" seeks to defend the right to say "Merry Christmans." Behind its benign mask hides something more sinister - an evangelical fundamentalism that exponents like Steve Bannon and Fox News embrace.
Proponents of evangelical fundamentalism have adopted a distorted reading of the Bible to promote their causes. They demonise segments of the population – particularly when it comes to migrants and Muslims – and promote the US as a nation that is blessed by God. While they are pro-life they don't question the number of deaths as a result of gun violence and the greed of arms manufacturers.
What is appalling is that Trump let evangelical leaders into the Oval Office in July. They laid hands on him in prayer following discussions about religious freedom, support for Israel and healthcare reform etc. Indeed, Trump has shown the country how divisive he is, giving preference only to those who support him.
14
As the writer points out, Fox News is behind this so-called Evangelical Christian movement. Just look for a moment at who is and was behind Fox News: Roger Ailes- hello, those Fox News watchers- a sexual predator; Rupert Murdoch, an Aussie, not an American, who plays dirty (check out the scandals in England). Remember the movie Network? Fox News IS Network. Then we have Americans: unfortunately many of whom haven’t thought independently for much of their lives. And they accept the pap that Fox feeds them. Perhaps, for those of us who are not yet brain dead, it’s time for our own French Revolution. Sharpen your knives and guillotines, and clean and prepare your guns (which the NRA so stoutly defends) for war. I think we could do with a good purge starting with those 1%ers like Murdoch who work the angles to enrich themselves with no compassion for people. It’s business for them, pure and simple. I’m beginning to think of these super rich people as courts of Hell. Maybe this is what Hell really is.
When I was 7 years old I was yelled at by my classmates and my teachers for screaming “Merry Christmas” to everyone I met during the month of December. I was told that Christmas is one of only a few holidays celebrated at this time of year. There was Hanukah, which I thought was cool because my Jewish friends got to open presents for seven nights during the month and later I heard there was something called Kwanza which only a few of my black friends recognized while simultaneously celebrating Christmas and opening presents every December 25th. I’m not the brightest lamp on the porch but I knew instinctually that there was nothing wrong with different faiths celebrating their own festivals at this time of year. In some ways it brought me closer to them united in the delight of exchanging gifts and opening presents. Even so, I never stopped yelling “Merry Christmas” to everyone while my friends would yell “Happy Hanukah” and “Happy Kwanza, dude!” We would laugh and go our merry way until around the age of 9 when I was again scolded for screaming “Merry Christmas” while my friends were given a pass. I was told that “Seasons Greetings” was the preferred exclamation. Somehow it didn’t have the same ring and I felt discouraged and demoralized for being excited about proclaiming the birth of my lord and savior. Ever since then I suspected there was a covert war on Christmas so it is understandable why this is an issue Trump has chosen to exploit. Seasons greetings everyone!
6
No one should be scolded for how he or she greets anyone else. I accept all greetings, from Seasons Greetings to Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays. It is the meaning behind the greeting rather than the words. And I also agree that we have forgotten what the season is really about. It is now mostly a secular holiday about how many presents one can get or give. Evangelicals have lost their way. I lived beside the Baptist Church and always admired their view that you should render unto Caesar what was Caesar’s and unto the Lord what was the Lord’s. That came from the words of Jesus in the Bible and A certain prescription for the policy of separation of church and state.
1
Don't be ridiculous, there is not a war on Christmas. It's unfortunate that you were "scolded" for yelling Merry Christmas, but to suspect that there is a secret war on Christmas as a result is absurd.
Merry Xmas to U too!
Let us pray for a swift departure of the NRA-lobby from the WH and let them take that FearMonger with them...
Evangelicals do more to undermine Christianity in the US than any other group. Who would respect or want to join a group whose actions and opinions are based on hate and fear? Sadly, these anti-Christian haters make the real Christians look bad. I am a devout atheist, but if there is a Satan, he is surely an evangelical.
29
What are performative secular practices?
1
Consumerism.
And wouldn't you just know it, HarperCollins, the book publishing arm of News Corp. have a division called "HarperCollins Christian Publishing' - add that to Foxangelicalism and hallelujah - we have a blessed synergy and a church where you can leave your conscience at the door. God, Trump and Fox are the Holy Trinity of the 21st. Century.
2
In 2017 about 7.5 billion humans live on earth. There are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and many smaller ones. In everything we think, say, and do....we must ask if it is the will of God, or the will of man. Why? Because there is but one true God.
3
Franklin Graham like the rest of the Evangelical hypocrites is no "Christian". Jesus wouldn't recognize that these people are preaching. What happened to responsibility for those less fortunate, forgiveness, a "chaste" life. Everything 180 degrees opposite of what Trump does.
9
Good luck finding a Hillary sticker on someone's bumper during the election here in sunny Sarasota. All I managed to see were Trump stickers EVERYWHERE...
1
Does anyone know how often Trump has been to Sunday worship since taking office?
9
I heard a rumor that there are chapels on the Ninth and Eighteenth holes of the golf course he has played at.
And that that is the reason he wants privacy on those outings.
Read it on Breitbart. Must be true.....
ZERO!
Because even when he’s there, he’s not there.
Sunday worship ?? He worships everyday - he worships himself.
1
These folks carry a bible but don't understand a word of it. They make the bible say whatever they want. Just like Trump. There is only Trump truth now and he will contaminate our last hope----the law; as he takes over the court system and the justice department. It is as he pronounces and if you don't like it you go to jail, are sued or get deported. Happy Holidays.
9
My grandparents had a letter banner they put across the large mirror on their living room wall in the 1950s and 1960s. It said "Season's Greetings." It went up on Thanksgivng and came down after New Year's. Nobody ever called my granny or grandpa pinko commies. They'd give you a punch in the nose if you did -- both of them.
One year my spouse gave me a Christmas card that was made from a genuine 1890s Christmas post card. Atop the 100 year old (at that time) postcard? "Season's Greetings." On drugstore candy boxes when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s? "Season's Greetings"
"Merry Christmas" was something you said on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. "Hello! How are you? Good to see you. Merry Christmas!"
In the springtime we'd say to coworkers "Have a good holiday," not Happy Easter. Thanksgiving? Same thing. "Have a good holiday weekend!," not "Happy Thanksgiving."
Well, everyone -- I hope you all have a good holiday season. Season's greetings, from my house to yours!
22
Several years back. another Sullivan -- Andrew Sullivan -- began to refer to these people as "Christianists" rather than Christians. The term was meant to reflect the political rather than religious nature of their beliefs.
18
Fox, or Trump, evangelicals are simply members of a cult. They have been brainwashed, or at the very least, conned. Fox and Trump have given them permission to spew their hate and insularity. The grotesque absurdity of these people claiming the mantle of Jesus, when they everything they support is in direct opposition to his teaching of "Love your brother as yourself," is nauseating. It's time for the majority of Americans, who retain the basic decency they learned as children, to take the country back at the polls in 2018 and 2020.
14
Everyone knows, or should know, that liberalism is America's state religion. It's rigorously enforced by the media and in the streets. See WAPO, NYT and Antifa for examples.
Liberals blame Fox news for conservative values of people they don't agree with, as if Fox tells them what to say and think, but this just projection on the part of liberals, as it is the liberal media that issues the instructions to the confused masses. The only way I know what Fox says on a given subject is reading what the liberals say about it in publications like the NYT or WaPO. I rarely watch any FOX network television, maybe once a year if I am curious, but I often discover my opinions on certain issues coincide with those reported to emanate from FOX. According to liberals Fox news should be no more, it should be banned and destroyed. Let's just dispense with that part of the first amendment. Meanwhile, lets get rid of the second amendment as well, because the NRA rules the minds of clueless non-liberals. What's that one about due process? Expunge it. Our media mob machine enforces the law now. A court says 'No' but the media and the mob disagree, let's riot. We'll get our way.
Presidential election. What election? Everyone knows the Liberal candidate is better qualified and had more votes. Resistance! The Constitution is wrong. The Liberals won.
3
Where to begin?
1
I have seen this phenomenon in my own church and I have thought it was quite strange. How can evangelicals who profess to follow the Bible be interested in killing someone? How can evangelicals who profess to understand Jesus' love, hate others so much? This is not all evangelicals, but many. I saw a pastor get run out of town by the church body when he suggested that even though he didn't vote for Obama, God is in control and we should follow the leader of the country. This is very much the FOX News influence at work. What is worse, FOX has turned evangelicals into walking zombies, repeating all the same talking points you see on FOX. It is difficult to have a serious conversation with most evangelicals because if you question their reality, based on FOX, they shut you out. Evangelical faith is really not Bible-based, it is FOX based.
15
It’s Rupert Murdoch based. He is laughing all the way to the bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the FOX personnel know it’s all a ratings and money game and don’t actually subscribe or believe to the “stuff” they broadcast.
In what other part of our culture are we still doing it the same as as we did in the fifteenth century?
Human knowledge and consciousness is cumulative and progressive. If you make a massive mistake and decide you know everything already, and your scripture is literally the unchanging word of God, this doesn't allow for reasonable debate any more, does it? And in life, if you are not adapting, then you are dying. Evangelicals are killing/may have killed this country.
6
Never have I seen such grotesque and overt signs of the satanic and profane as in these modern times!
Trump as a perverse, yet lauded "saint."
"Fox Evangelism" - so true!
So much breast beating, so much holier than thou attitudes - and none of it being even remotely of a genuine spiritual nature.
"What would Jesus not do" is very accurate. How has it come to this?
(And in the end, it's all a cloak for the lowest forms of Racism, and taking from the Poor to give to the Rich!)
10
A fear-and-loathing based ideology, where scripture is "increasingly irrelevant. It’s just ‘us versus them."
Sounds a teeny bit bit like radical Islamism, where a thin veneer of caricatured religion covers a deep layer of raw tribalism.
7
Which does Trump believe in most: God, Money or Power?
3
He obviously believes in God the most. Omarosa said, "Trump is the most powerful being in the Universe" Nevermind that there are 250 billion plus galaxies in the universe that we know, and that our solar system is but an insignificant drop in the ocean of our galaxy - but nonetheless....... This is what we become..?
“The result is a malleable religious identity that can be weaponized not just to complain about department stores that hang ‘Happy Holidays’ banners, but more significantly, in support of politicians like Mr. Trump or Mr. Moore - and of virtually any policy, as long as it is promoted by someone Fox evangelicals consider on their side of the culture war.”
George Orwell would have had no trouble recognizing the peril that “Fox News,” its evangelicals, and its “lemming” supplicants represent for our democracy. “Fox News” is currently just another name for Orwell’s all controlling “Big Brother “ and “Nineteen Eighty Four” seems closer by the day.
6
These Fox evangelicals are alien to me, a practicing Christian who abhors loudmouths and intolerant behavior. The ones I cross paths with are drunk with the propaganda of Fox News and their conversation is laced with the venomous epithets of Fox hosts. Christianity is far more complicated: read C.S. Lewis to discover that living the Christian life can be very challenging if you conduct yourself according to the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 25: 35-40. Franklin Graham, a Trump zealot, is but a shadow of his father.
21
Thank you for referencing C.S. Lewis. I am no Christian, but he explains the theology compellingly.
Doc, difficult? Then you must be practicing a non-American version of xtianity.
Because the American version is not hard at all. Its based on blaming "others" (a list that is always being updated) for your inability to live a solid xtian lifestyle. And as soon as these "others" get right with your god, and do as these xtians say, then they too can become more devout.
Its because of the Gay agenda that more Americans are not going to church.
Its because of progressive social policies that the Youth are straying.
Its because marijuana is being legalized that more Americans stray.
Its because cashiers and others don't say say, "Have a Merry Christmas", and mean it, that we are struggling as a nation.
Its because school children no longer say their morning prayers IN school, that we're facing so many domestic and world problems.
And its all because of these "others" that your individual Evangelical xtians cant be better xtians. If only everyone else would get in line, they could be better xtians!
See its not hard at all. Blame others for your lack of adherence to your alleged freely chosen faith.
So its your fault your neighbor sucks at their faith! Now get in line for their soul!
This column explains the situation better than any other I have read.
30
Christianity teaches love and compassion but also teaches homosexuality is a punishable sin. They don't believe in evolution and there are some weird stuff in the Old Testament like ethnic cleansing and polygamy.
Anybody is free to decide what to believe and follow but when the evangelicals embrace racists and sex offenders like Trump and Moore and work hard to put them in charge of the Country, they are damaging the society and the lives of the "sane " part of the population.
10
Rubens...but how do you counter their POV that these men, while badly flawed are chosen instruments of their God. ??? Its a true and deeply held conviction for many of them right now. They view themselves on the precipice of a Bigly Win for their causes...how do you counter that hold on them?
Its not a question to be taken lightly...as its central to them, and they are hyped up on the emotion of a possible bigly win...
FNC is not a news channel. It's Propaganda 1984 Orwell style. And FNC needs to be banned wherever possible.
16
Banned? No, just exposed and ridiculed.
It's not a 'new American evangelicalism'! It's been around for awhile. It's never had the media opportunity and funding like today and the complicit, cult-like evangelical church.
17
What is most bankrupt about the evangelicals that preach sainthood for Donald Trump, is that he may be the least religious of all of our presidents, doesn't seem to know anything about the bible and is about as anti-Christian in every way he acts as anyone I can remember.
This shows the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of the Elmer Gantry types like Franklin Graham and Robert Jefferies, these clowns are no different than leaders of the Taliban who bankrupt and twist their religious views to fit their own agenda.
25
Wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
3
And HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you!
1
Why? I'm Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist!
Have a Happy Holiday Y'All!
1
And Happy Hollidays
1
The real issue for me with the purported “War on Christmas” is that it plays out in the world of business. We are exhorted to use the term in places of commerce, presumably because they are the sites where the secular error of “Happy Holidays” need to be excised. The conflict means that we neither celebrate Jesus’ birth nor the generosity associated with the original St. Nicholas. Foxian fiends have weaponized the seasonal wish, so I’m often in doubt as to the motives of a person saying “Merry Christmas!”
Fox evangelicals are not the pilgrims of the early Christian faith. Their value of generosity has been turned into tax policies that reward the idle rich. Christian openness to strangers is carrying weapons in the open to deter or defend an attack. The admonition against lusting in the heart has devolved into helping elect (and almost elect) a serial sexual predator.
For those who prefer their bible verses directly, the one that best applies is from John.
"Jesus wept."
5
Anyone who believes the Bible is “literally” true—as many Evangelicals say they do—can be led to believe ANYthing. Literally.
11
This shows the Hypocrisy of religion and the Harm it does. Our world is the result of 3.8 billion abrahamic followers indulging baseless nonsense. The truth is that jesus, allah, zeus or whatever, is no different from all the thousand odd gods believers do not believe in. Whatever Depends on faith is false, this always was and ever shall be the case.
6
The moralistic evangelicals call it a War on Christmas. I call it basic decency, inclusion, and manners to say "Happy Holidays" to someone when you don't know whether they celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, something else, or nothing at all.
Republicans, conservatives, and evangelicals all really seem to have a problem with the simple concept of equality. Nothing but a very much misplaced superiority complex. Pathetic.
How would they feel if store tellers only said "Happy Hannukah" rather than "Happy Holidays"?
6
The sad truth is that right wing evangelicals are anything BUT Christian. They don't want to hear about what Jesus said about welcoming the stranger, or succoring the poor, or humility, or turning the other cheek. They do not refrain from judging others, nor do they heed Jesus' admonition to remove their own logs before worrying about the sins of others. And love one another as He loved them? Pffffft. What kind of liberal garbage is *that*? Followers of Christ, they are not.
They are instead the modern-day Pharisees, certain that they, above all others, are the righteous, and the favorites of God. What they don't seem to understand is, that in the New Testament, the Pharisees were NOT the good guys.
17
Excellent essay by Amy Sullivan. The Right Wing Christian evangelical movement is under the control of the Antichrist, and it is a brilliant move. Trump and Fox News are facilitators of this strategy.
Right Wing Christians need to wake up from their Trump-induced trances. How can they associate a carnal, political notion, "Right Wing", with the kingdom of God? They can if they are guided by evil elements.
So their theology damns them. The real strategy is not Trump's recalcitrance or Fox News' prevarication, the real strategy is to turn people away from Christ. People look at the Right Wing Christian movement and roll their eyes. But those pastors all bow to Trump. What better strategy against Christianity could there be other than to get people who say that they follow Jesus Christ to worship sexual predators? Truly brilliant.
By making the message of Christ a political issue, Right Wing evangelism has succeeded in soiling the word of God. Nixon had Billy Graham. Of course they won't get away with this.
Well, Sinclair Lewis knew well the religious ethos in the U.S. All we have to do is read his "Elmer Gantry" to see how it's done. It's a big market for Fox News and Right Wing media. They are not going to give it up.
49
Well said, Charles, but I take exception with "the real strategy is to turn people away from Christ". I don't think the neocon movement cares, one way or the other, about who or what evangelicals believe in the heavenly realm. Like all political movements, it needs adherents, followers, infantry. Religious believers are, by definition, credulous. Pound something into their heads long enough, consistently enough, a steady drumbeat, and they will come to believe it, regardless of whether there is any objective proof of it whatsoever. Who better, then, to target with a political ideology that makes no sense and is, in fact, inimical to the true ideology of genuine patriots? Buy a network, a few magazines and newspapers. Flood America's homes, day after day, with political belief grounded in hate, bigotry, divisiveness. In time, SOMEONE will buy into it, embrace it, make it their own. The first ones on that highway to hell will be the most credulous. While the identity of that subculture varies from one spot on the globe or another, religious believers are always at the front of the line. Here, evangelicals are prime and willing targets.
1
I am an a-theist, but have never thought twice about wishing someone a Merry Christmas - an acknowledgement of our shared celebration - although I knew of many who did not share in the religious aspects of it but in the good will aspects, the increased friendliness and smiles.
But after all he tirades about "having" to say Merry Christmas, I have gone out of my way to make it a habit to say Happy Holidays - which to me includes the Christmas holiday - but also the other holidays celebrated by many people during this time of year.
I refuse to be intimidated by wishing people the same thing Bing Crosby did in the song I'm sure you can hear in your mind
Happy Holiday
Happy holiday,
While the merry bells keep ringing
May your every wish come true
Happy holiday, happy holiday
May the calendar keep bringing
Happy holidays to you
What could be more American than that?
252
Thank you, Nancy. Me Too! We can start to call it the Winter Solstice Celebration for ALL Americans, of every belief and who think like you and I.
43
One does not have to believe Christmas is a holy day to acknowledge a custom/tradition of centuries. It is at least a day off work for most. Merry Christmas to all.
2
The days growing longer again is worthy of celebration.
3
The anti-christ Con Don and his Robber Baron friends have taken over OUR government with Hate-Anger-Fear-LIES,LIES,LIES and they want WW3.
Merry anti-christ-mas Everyone.
61
When I was a kid in the '50s I noticed there were two kinds of Christmas cards. One said "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year". The other said "Happy Holidays". No Difference.
Now there are more religious holidays being observed in December but everyone observes New Years.
23
@long memory Woodbury, MN
Er...everyone observed new years in the 50's when I was also a kid. And as far as I know there are not more Christian religious holidays being observed in December than there were then. Not sure what relevance Christmas cards have to all this.
17
Do you also remember in the 1950s when children had to name a "religion" when they enrolled in elementary school, long memory? That was during republican Joseph McCarthy's "communist" scare that destroyed so many lives.
The fact that this is happening again in OUR United States of America is sinister and MUST be stopped. NOW is the time!
5
A lot of the cards said "Season's Greetings," an awkward phrase thst called attention to its awkwardness. Even then I knew the reason for it - a reluctance to say the C-word.
You don't remember that, long memory?
1
On the face of the Disney takeover of Fox entertainment it appears to be good news but there may be dark undercurrents like giving Rupert Murdoch the cash to take over cable networks so thanks to the end of net neutrality he can control what we see on the internet like in Russia and China. What is the quid pro quo? Fox News is going after Special Counsel Mueller and in return Trump's antitrust regulators turn a blind eye to the cable takeover
101
Or, Rupert may be cashing out 'cause he's 86 and his sons aren't able or interested in running the whole thing.
2
I see no signs that the internet infrastucture serving me now is being upgraded at all. Instead, we have a bidding war to jack up the price of entertainment products.
1
I'll add that the reversal of net neutrality makes the timing disconcerting.
1
"Christmas" is pretty much a made up holiday. Jesus was almost certainly born in the summer; but when early Church fathers were trying to convert the northern European Germanic tribes, they (the Church officials) moved Jesus' birth to the same time as the Winter Solstice, which was a major celebration for those tribes. Hence all the completely non-Palestinian trappings of "Christmas", including decorated conifer trees and references to snow and cold. In fact, until the early 20th century, many American Protestants frowned on "Christmas" displays, considering them papist and practically heathen in nature (as they indeed were). It is just like the right wing media to elevate a fictional story; give it mythic status, and then pretend it is under attack. I despair that people are so gullible as to buy (buy, buy, buy!) into this foolishness.
300
Why do you care what other people think? Isn’t that the epitome of intolerance? The last think I think about is the religious beliefs of others.
1
What is the evidence that Jesus was "almost certainly" born in the summer? Can you link to it?
In any case, I'm astounded at the number of commenters, whenever the subject of Christmas comes up, who proudly announce that Jesus was not born on December 25, as though this were some disproof of Christianity. December 25 is when the birth of Christ is celebrated, that's all.
3
Not just Northern tribes. The winter solstice was a major celebration in Rome. Slaves were free for the day, presents were exchanged, etc.
But many aspects of Christianity originate in pagan beliefs including many Saints that incorporate aspects of earlier deities and nature spirits. And of course the Virgin Mary has absorbed attributes of lunar and mother goddesses from many countries.
Easter and the Ressurection also easily absorbed celebratory customs from all the Spring/New Growth/Fertility observances around the world. Eggs, rabbits, chickens .... none of them have anything at all to do with Christianity and everything to do with fertility rites.
This is one reason the Puritans and Calvinists did not and do not allow such pagan practices in their observances.
1
The most important part is that while doing anything they want on behalf of the good team, like say driving your car into a group of protestors, you can still sleep well at night knowing that God loves you. Win, win.
78
And sadly, they really believe that. That's how shallow they are as human beings.
People are saying that there is not a war on Christmas. Well, I experienced an incident back in 1982 well before the Happy Holidays expression became popular. To this day I hate it and will never say it.
I was at a company Christmas party in Manhattan and after it was over we all wished each other Merry Christmas. I said this to a woman in a natural tone of voice only to have her respond by screaming Happy Holidays back to me. I had grown up saying Merry Christmas coming from Boston so I was shocked at her reaction. I went home and called my parents and was very upset by this woman's response. My Irish Catholic mother who was wild told me to go in the next morning and wish her a Merry Christmas again. My mother who is now deceased had inner strength and was not going to have someone offend her daughter. If the woman had said Happy Holidays in a sane voice I could have accepted that. She was not of the Christian faith which I did not know at the time. Every Christmas I think of this incident and tell at least one or two people. This is how much I was affected by this occurrence.
The above incident was just the beginning of what was about to become of Christmas celebrations. It was only a few years ago that Macy's in Manhattan told their employees not to say Merry Christmas to the customers and instead substitute Happy Holidays. Guess what happened? They lost a tremendous amount of business and was forced to say Merry Christmas once again.
16
Total myth. I tried to copy and paste Federated Department Stores response to the boycott and the claim that people were "forbidden" from saying Merry Christmas, but it was more than 1500 words. The gist
Federated has no policy with regard to the use of specific references to Christmas in any of its divisional advertising or promotions. Our divisions are free to advertise in their local markets in any manner they choose. This includes using the phrase Merry Christmas if they believe it is appropriate to do so. Additionally, our stores recognize and celebrate Christmas in a variety of ways, including Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas-themed merchandise and Christmas trim-a-tree shops. And since our employees are free to wish any customer a Merry Christmas, you will frequently hear such expressions of holiday cheer in our stores as part of celebrating the season.
We realize that this is an important issue to some, and we respect their views. There are, however, many diverse cultures represented in American society today whose views we also recognize and respect. Phrases such as "season's greetings" and "happy holidays" embrace all of the various religious, secular and ethnic celebrations that take place in the November/December period. Because these expressions of good will are more reflective of the multi-cultural society in which we live today, they tend to be used more and more frequently across all segments of society. "
33
And in New York, a city with a very large Jewish population, how would you feel as a customer if a store clerk said "Merry Christmas" to you? Left out? In the minority? Not wone of "us"?
3
I am in my 60's and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays were interchangeable (reference the Happy Holidays song) when I was a Southern Baptist youth. My thought is, I am happy to receive any well meant greeting and since I appreciate the joy of the holidays, I will respond however my heart is moved in that joy.
As my daughter, so rightly put it, "Why would you let a coffee cup or a specific greeting define your holiday?".
3
I'm feeling gas-lighted. I've read hundreds of descriptions of what's wrong, but none about what to do it about. If something is truly wrong, if something is truly hurting our society, shouldn't we act against it? Or by just condemning, but not acting, are we really saying (through our inaction) that really nothing is wrong, everything is OK, it's at most a difference of opinion. Just to focus on one element, is what Fox is doing simply exercising freedom of the press? Or are they doing something that should be stopped?
24
The US has a large population of present fatalists who believe a hypothetical entity called "God" is responsible for everything, so they conduct rituals to appeal to this being for magic, rather than become students of science and reason, to learn to turn the mindlessness of nature to advantage.
Sad.
Fox is exercising freedom of speech and we need to be aware of the deleterious affect their brand of speech is having on our country.
I love Fox News for the importance of bringing the Christmas celebration front and center to those of us who find it important. It is both a religious and joyous event for the over one billion Christian people of various faiths around the world.
Other religions have their celebrations such as Hanukkah for Jewish people which they find important. People should celebrate in the way they seem fitting for the season.
It is the most wonderful time of the year. Let's be thankful for the blessings we have been given.
7
I am a Catholic who celebrates Christmas (despite knowing that we don’t know the date of Jesus’s birth and that it was almost certainly not in December). That said, I may wish you a “Merry Christmas” or a “Happy Holidays” depending on my mood, but if you wish me a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah” or a “Blessed Kwanza” I will echo what you say back to you: I know there are a number of holidays celebrated this time of year and I try to be respectful of that.
There is no “War on Christmas”: there is a need to respect each other’s beliefs and traditions.
10
The problem is, had you read the article, that there never WAS a " war on Christmas". All president's say it, most people do. And the ads + sales start in October.
4
Since when do those that celebrate Christmas need a television station to make it
"front and center"?
In addition, among the Christians of various faiths Christmas is not always celebrated on Dec. 25th.
5
Francis Fitzgerald, "The Evangelicals: the Struggle to Shape America". Evangelical history is the history of the United States from the beginning. Enlightening read.
9
“These fears are far removed from the reality of life in North Dakota, a state that saw a total of 21 homicides in 2015.”
The author says Christians have a moral duty to embrace gun control, even in places like North Dakota. Yet by the author’s own admission, North Dakota has very little gun violence, so there is no need for gun control there.
4
No, the author said that the FEAR of imminent attack by 'others' is the problem. The issue in this article is the FEAR from which Christians are supposed to be free. They gleefully wallow in fears of persecution in America, and a sense of aggrieved victimhood totally dis-avowed by Jesus and the entire New Testament.
Don't cherry-pick just the one sentence that seems to justify your pro-gun policies in an article talking about Christian hypocrisy.
4
The author does not say that. She said that as a reporter, she was among evangelicals who said that. Read the article again, CAREFULLY.
1
I interpreted the author to mean that North Dakotans should understand and support the issue of gun control. North Dakotans elect Representaitives and Senators to Congress, so the impact of their view on the matter does indeed extend beyond the state line.
The Christian Right, which characterizes itself as both religious and evangelical, always has been the political adjunct of the conservative right wing, going back to the days when opposition to the New Deal, segregation, and later regulation of tobacco advertising enlisted preachers from the South to rally their congregants to oppose policies focused on social justice and the rights of workers and consumers over the interests of the propertied classes. There is a neat and precise symbiosis, for example, when the NRA finds support from the Christian right as the NRA promotes its own commercial interests by advertising itself as opposed to the desecration of Constitutional rights by liberals who hate America.
God and the teachings of Christianity have almost nothing to do with the Christian Right. The Religious Right and the evangelical leaders who promote it are the true RINOs--Religious In Name Only.
75
Are we talking about radical Christianity or radical Islam? Apart from the theology (or lack thereof) therr seems to be little difference. Thinking about it more, it is biblical Christianity that is and was radical. Much of the weakening from the bible stemmed with the gradual identification with the dominant culture and then the taking up of arms under Constantine.
24
In a twist of Reagan’s comment about Democrats:
I didn’t leave the church. The church left me.
To get scriptural for a brief moment, Jesus specifically warned his followers that there would come a time when people who claimed to be his followers would have “itching ears” and would follow teachers that told them things they wanted to hear- but would reject sound teaching. He also warned that people would infiltrate the church for private agendas and described them as ravenous wolves despite appearing as sheep- the basis for the term “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
Nonsense like the prosperity gospel and the word of faith has overtaken much of the church and many others are more interested in politics or social service than anything taught by Jesus. For the most part the church is spiritually dead.
93
Trump is not acting in a truly Christian manner. Nor are the evangelicals who support him. Being Christian is about more than following lock, stock, and barrel what the New Testament says. It's about having compassion, welcoming strangers, being more fully human, challenging oneself to be more like Christ and less selfish. At least that's what I've been given to understand. I've also been told that kindness and compassion are to be extended to all human beings, not just those who adhere to Christianity. Then again, maybe I've been thinking of the wrong kind of Christianity. The one being practiced by some Americans has more in common with extremists in other religions than it does with Christianity. Intolerance to outsiders, treating women like chattel, treating women's sexuality like a threat, refusing to consider that there is more than one point of view in the world. But what I find most threatening about Fox Evangelicalism is how it twists things so that a man as odious as Trump is considered a savior when he is destroying our country. Trump is more like the second coming of Judas; loyal to no one and willing to do anything to get some power.
358
This piece does state, "We kept asking how white conservative evangelicals could support Mr. Trump," but I sense at least some mention is warranted of the contrasting perspectives of black evangelicals in the U.S. Hefty percentages of the latter voted against the Trump-supported Republican candidate (Roy Moore) in this week's senatorial election in deep red Alabama.
29
My take-away from that is that black evangelicals are smarter and more Christian than white evangelicals.
As a Roman Catholic who was brought up in a religious home in Belmont, Massachusetts and still practices the faith, Christmas means more to me now as an adult. When younger, it was about Santa bringing toys and goodies but as I got older and matured it has come to mean an important holy day with deep religious significance. Saying Merry Christmas has strong meaning for me because of the word Christ as in Christ's Mass.
Right now is the season of Advent in the Christian Church which leads up to Christmas. It is a beautiful and joyous time of year. It is one of the most sacred and important times in the Christian Church.
Right now I am recovering from a cold and a corneal abrasion and have been watching the Catholic Channel, EWTN. I have needed spiritual guidance and this excellent program has been a Godsend. They have over 270 million viewers around the world which is no small feat in today's secular environment. It was founded by Mother Angelica in Irondale, Alabsma the seat of Protestantism. It started out in a garage and grew beyond her wildest dreams. After being exposed to progressive and liberal media, is is a welcomed change.
For those of us who are religious, it is very important to practice our faith. We live in a more secular society than ever before and for us religion gives us meaning and hope. Faith is a gift and for me it is the most important gift I could ever have. I thank my Irish Catholic relatives for this wonderful gift. Merry Christmas.
9
There's a world of difference between practicing your faith and forcing others to follow suit. To my knowledge, there is no one stopping you. I will, however, fight tooth and nail to keep it from becoming the law of the land. Look to the history of Ireland and England to see how that worked out for Irish Catholics.
2
I have no problem with people wanting to hear "Merry Christmas" in stores or other places. The problem is calling it a war, as Fox News does. Retailers who ask their employees to substitute "Happy Holidays" are doing it for purposes of inclusiveness. They are not trying to destroy Christmas, at which time, after all, they make most of their profit.
1
Merry Christmas to you, WMK.
"They have over 270 million viewers around the world which is no small feat in today's secular environment."
Exactly the point. Christian Americans enjoy a freedom of religion they take for granted. They don't just want to practice in PEACE, they want the entire (secular Republic) USA to become a Taliban-run government with religion as it's foundation. Exactly why the Puritans arguably left England.
The fact that hundreds of millions of people can access faith-based programming, in the comfort of their own homes, or find multiple churches in every town and city, with Bibles free for the taking everywhere, watching people pray over their food in restaurants without hassle, wearing Bible verses emblazoned on shirts, preaching freely on street corners, hundreds of websites dedicated only to Christian merchandise, advice, supplies, Christian madrassa schools teaching Christian principles if their parents want that, and vouchers to help them pay for it.....
Yes, Merry Christmas, I'm glad you are happy in your faith. Just don't bemoan the NOT-ME of every other citizen while you enjoy the fruits of your holiday, your faith and those who allow you to practice it in freedom.
1
When I was much younger, we stopped at a small store on the way to the office Christmas party and I unwittingly offered a Merry Christmas to both the Muslim store owner and the Jewish acquaintance I encountered when I entered the party. Each of them responded with holiday greetings in their tradition. Their responses showed me that it's not the formulaic recitation of the words "Merry Christmas" that matters, it's the expression of brotherly love that should be the reason for the celebration.
129
It is exactly the expression of universal brotherly love that is anathema to the proponents of 'Merry Christmas' only Christian theology object to. Evangelists belong to a special righteous club whose secret pass word is Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays is an expression of universal brotherly love for everyone, be he Christian or otherwise. For the 'Merry Christmas' theologians, the recitation of the sacred phrase is the functional equivalent to 'I am going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell right after they are burned at the stake.'
1
For some of us Christmas is an occasion to get the family together, reflect, and focus on things that are important.
For those who are alone or have dysfunctional family situations Christmas can be a time of extra loneliness, depression and anger. It's long been exploited commercially, now it's being exploited politically to sow hatred and fear and is being deliberately used to create conflict which can be further exploited.
The birth of the prince of peace is being hypocritically perverted to contribute to the sundering of our society. Historically the message and teachings of Christ have at times been vilely corrupted by those claiming to be his servants.
The Fox/Trump/Franklin Graham ilk have infamous company.
On balance, I believe the true spirit of peace, goodwill and human brotherhood is surviving the perversions and that belief should remain steadfast.
27
Hopefully, there are some bright young sociologists out there watching all this closely.
In ten years or so they can win the Nobel Prize for explaining how a "religion" becomes a "cult" and how a "religious cult" becomes a "secular political organization".
"Now the Bible's increasingly irrelevant. It's just 'us versus them'".
That's the warning, to anyone who still cares, that Jesus has snuck out the back door. The new "religious identity' no longer requires even the generic Christian talking points. FOX will give you your points every morning, instruct you on whom to hate, and where to meet to join up with the Jonesboro Church.
Nothing proves "evolution" more than a religion, any religion. And that change doesn't have to be for the good. It can even encompass "devolution", the circling of the drain.
What we have here is the last rictus dance of the "Moral Majority"of the 1980's. It's been 35 or so years for this transformation to assume this incarnation. Tracking it, step by step, has been the devolution of Islam into ISIS. The same time frame and just about the same percentage of people.
Oh, yes. Someone needs to study this phenom.
"Weaponized"?
Yikes! Where's my pen????
76
We do not need to wait 10 years to see the hypocrisy of the religious right. Never really honest scholars of the bible, they selected passages that would support the message they wanted their audience to believe.
Built on that weak premise they have rolled over the less critical thinkers. They were a secular political organization from the beginning.
54
Well. We worship frogs, trees, wetlands, co2, salamanders....
1
For others, “evangelical” effectively functions as a cultural label, unmoored from theological meaning.
It's a god story brand--as are all the others.
The essence of brand marketing is brand loyalty--regardless of product--or god-story; it can be updated--for better market share.
E.g, THE! Ten Commandments vary depending on marketing agency. Catholics and Lutherans deny "Thou shall not worship graven images" affirmed by Jews and other Christians.
They get 10 by splitting 10 into 9. Don't covet your neighbors goods and 10. Don't covet your neighbor's wife.
A double spin--(a) allowing Catholic iconography and (b) abandoning wives as a husband's property--which no longer sells, except to barbarians.
One (or is it Two?) prohibits worshiping other gods "...no other gods before thee."
Polytheism?? Or is it about other god-stories? Then it's not a theological (god story) commandment, but a political one--monolatry (allow only one religion).
Monolatry can have two forms:
(a) A religious state--a theocracy (literally god-rule, really religion rule)--the religion (as a political party) governs the polity. Christendom for example--the religion was supposed to authorize kings.
(b) A state religion--the state authorizes a religion and its leaders--Church of England.
"Fox Evangelicalism" is a corporate version of (b)--Fox edits, updates a god story for commercial purposes.
Viewers "buy" the story--as they "buy" Fox "news" and buy from Fox sponsors, funding Fox.
Big $ in Xmas
22
Snake oil sales dip. Snake oil salesmen blame the devil.
26
Trump is a racist. His disdain and hostility toward people of color is key to his appeal to the adherents of the lily white religion that is Evangelicalism. Let’s be honest a religion dominated by white Southerners is always going to be a whites only affair.
52
I think I get your overall point, but I don't believe it is fully fitting to characterize Evangelicalism as "the lily white religion." Large percentages of the black voters in Alabama registering their opposition both to Trump and to Roy Moore this week identify as Evangelical.
13
These 'Christians' would condemn Jesus in the flesh, brown, foreigner, broke, everything in the flesh that the GOP condemns.
150
Jesus when asked, who is my neighbor, gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. Let us remember that Samaritans were not merely foreigners who were considered to follow a false religion (prophets in the Bible condemned them). Even worse, they had obtained their independence by beating Judea in a war. The Samaritan was able to travel openly in Judea in the time of Jesus because the Romans had conquered both areas. When Jesus briefly traveled in Samaria and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water, she reproved him that he, a Jew, had asked her for water, for Samaritans and Jews have nothing to do with each other.
Today the Good Samaritan would be Muslim, black and from South of the Border. These "Christians" would see that he was not allowed in.
31
My UU church reenacted this parable for the children during the children's portion of the service. It was the word-for-word King James, except that Samaria was changed to Syria - i.e., the parable of the Good Syrian.
A learning experience for all...
1
Ms. Sullivan, there was never a “war on Christmas “ except in the minds of Fox News and preachers of hate like Franklin Graham and the residue of Jerry Falwell’s amalgam of racial antagonism and the commercialization of Jesus Christ.
Barack Obama, during every one of his eight Christmas seasons as president, wished everyone a “Merry Christmas.” Every year. So why doesn’t Fox News tell the truth? Because their audience is made up of white “evangelicals” who haven’t the first clue as to teachings of Christ. Their religion, if one can describe it so, is much like the selections at a buffet; one picks and chooses what’s tasty.
Evangelical “Christianity,” as practiced in much of the Bible Belt, has as much in common with holy scripture as peas and apples. There’s no “there” there. It’s all’s showcase for white supremacy. Who doesn’t understand that?
123
There's also a Commandment against lying!.
1
" I'm dreaming of an ALL White Christmas ".
Thanks, GOP.
21
This is well rounded hypocrisy; anything goes, as long as it is tribal (Us vs them). Fox evangelicals are sold on a most despicable liar, vulgar Trump. Can't go any lower than that.
40
Of my God, literally! I want my religion back. As a Christian I am here to tell you that there is no war on Christmas. There are at least 25 churches within a ten mile radius of my house. In our neighborhood about 80% of the homes have lights, Santas, Creches, laser lights, Snowmen and all the accoutrements of Christmas in their front yard for all to see. I am 54 years old and have always said, "Merry Christmas" at the appropriate time and in the appropriate venue and have never been shunned. Christians in America are NOT VICTIMS, except for those of us with progressive views. We have had our beliefs highjacked and our religion branded by right wing nut jobs.
130
Fox Propaganda machine has to keep their viewers mad and hate filled some how - how better to do that than create a war over a holiday that should be joyful - Way to go !
Fox "News" = National Inquirer x Right Wing Propaganda. Kinda funny people actually think it is legit.
25
A fascist by any other name is a fascist. It would be interesting to know what portion of the 'Evangelical' right are really fascists hiding behind the cloak of religion.
21
White evangelicals are the Pharacees and Sadducees Jesus condemned and warned us about. They are far more influenced by Ayn Rand than The Beatitudes.
41
Remember when Obama said the right winger cling to their guns and religion and got lambasted for it? Since then, they've not only doubled down on their gun fetish and pious hypocrisy, but they don't even realize that they're bowing down to a tiny minority of the rich who jerk them here and there, and tell them they're free! And the little puppets believe it.
70
Asking many "Christians" what Christ-like actions they can claim is a lot like asking many "conservatives" what they conserve.
30
The new crusade "Fox evangelism Just Wars"
5
The only war on Christmas is the one Fox runs against the people Christ told us to care about, on behalf of those he said will never make it into the Kingdom of Heaven.
40
The irony is that those who most vehemently denounce Muslims would like to establish the Christian Caliphate.
38
We don't do historical sensitivity very well in the U.S. Much of the population of the Mid East is still cognizant of the terrors perpetrated by the Christian Crusaders (both against Muslims, e.g, at Ma'arra, and against other Christians, e.g., at Constantinople). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Ma%27arra
“…you can do anything and still be on the right side.”
Even better, you can do anything and still get into heaven. You just need to invite Jesus into your heart, yes? None of your other actions really matter, as long as Jesus is your savior you’re still on your way to heaven. Commit any crime, live as irresponsibly as you choose, your ticket's still valid as long as you’ve accepted Jesus as Lord. Please, never mind gun control or immigration policy, it is the fundamental beliefs of Evangelical Christianity that are the greatest evil that this country faces today.
24
And God will never let global warming happen, right? That is what my most superficially religious relative claims.
Every time a conservative Christian prays to thank God for intervening in the election, Vladimir Putin's phone rings.
33
"But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws.'"
Jesus (Matthew 7:23)
11
This is simply history repeating itself.
On March 24th, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act by convincing the Christian Centre Party, using arguments about protecting "religious liberties" and propaganda about fear of the "other", to vote with the National Socialists in order to pass the act over the objections of the Social Democrats.
This passage was of course immediately preceded by the Reichstag Fire. Coming soon to a cable news outlet near you!
24
“Never in my lifetime have we had a Potus willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like Donald Trump,” tweeted Franklin Graham,..."
They said that about George Bush.
As for the war on Christmas, whatever. But in light of the sexual revolution going on now there should be a war on Christianity because the Bible says woman was created from Adam's rib. What else do you need to know?
3
Graham conveniently omits any mention of Jimmy Carter, who identified as an evangelical Democrat.
1
Christians appropriated the entire Christmas rite from pagans. We’re taking it back.
22
Please explain what race baiting by Trump you are talking about. Provide a quote from him.
4
Start with his speech from his first appearance to announce his candidacy and go from there. It won't be hard to find.
1
Although it is a waste of time engaging in intelligent conversation with a Trump apologist, try "there are good people on both sides..." for one.
1
Do you mean, like, for example, from memory, when he was asked if was possible for a judge of Mexican heritage to try his case fairly, Trump said No?
Or when he condemned the "violence on all sides" in Charlottesville, when a white supremacist killed one of the counterprotestors? Or when he said there were good people on both sides?
Or the Muslim travel ban?
Or when he said Mexican immigrants were rapists? Surely you remember that announcement.
If you can, go back and watch Trump's answer during the town hall debate to the Muslim girl concerned about violence gains tax Muslims. Watch how he pins the responsibility, very subtly (for him), on the Muslim community.
Trump is never going to spell it out in plain English. He himself doesn't think of himself as racist; racists never do. He just likes the way white people do things. Black people would be richer if they worked harder. Americans would have better paying jobs if there were no immigration, and the culture wouldn't be so weird.
1
Has "evangelism" become a religion of gun worship and racism?
16
Donald Trump is a not a Church goer. He is a documented serial adulter, a racist, and a habitual liar. He convents other prople’s Wives and materials, his NY penthouse looks like he melted the “golden calf “ and then dipped all his belongings in it. He doesn’t even think he needs forgiveness .
In backing Donald Trump, “Religious” Right might get judges who will rule the way they want. This makes them constituents! Use that term and leave Jesus Christ out of this unholy alliance.
20
A current of reactionary Christians are convinced that the Divine will use Trump - however imperfect - as an instrument to their envisioned millennialism.
4
Fox evangelism? FAUX (fake) evangelism! These are people who reject Christ and support Trump and Moore.
11
Religion is a scourge and breeds nothing but ignorance and closed mindedness. Thankfully the numbers are dwindling. Evangelicals are the furthest from holy. They are greed incarnate.
17
Gandhi, MLK, Malcolm X, and Thich Nhat Hanh would each disagree with any dogmatically sweeping generalization that "religion is a scourge and breeds nothing but ignorance."
1
Put an image of Trump on top of your Christmas tree and you too can be a Fox Evangelical liar.
Nothing like injecting fear and loathing into the season by Fox News--- HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
7
Fox-Evangelicalism is not a religion, it is a propaganda machine. This is brain washing of the 1st degree, a massive and toxic tribal cult in our midst.
15
The so-called war on Christmas is fake news!
13
Beware of false prophets...
5
The perfect Marks. No wonder they love and support Donald. Scammed for Jesus. Hallelujah.
5
Rupert Murdoch and Fox news have single handedly dumbed down America. They have been conned by a foreigner and an immoral traitor and they don't even care. Maybe its time to end 501c3 tax deductions forever.
4
That makes no sense whatever. 501(c)3 didn't create Fox News. Congress did, when it repealed media market concentration regulations, starting in 1979.
If you want to limit the power of Fox News, limit the power of media. Restore restrictions on media ownership. Let a hundred flowers bloom.
1
Let's just be real. Anybody that labels themselves an evangelical doesn't give a hoot about Christ's teachings
6
Jimmy Carter would disagree, as would the tens of thousands of black evangelicals who just voted against Trump's candidate in Alabama.
Not even Ms. Sullivan, who wrote the article? Not even Russell Moore, the "never Trump" Southern Baptist? Not even Jim Wallis or Tony Campolo? Would you be willing to look any of them in the eye and say, "You call yourself an evangelical; therefore you're not a Christian"?
Twice-divorced Trump, who brags of "grabbing them by the pu**y" is a hero to conservative evangelicals? Then I would offer a prayer for their souls, because they clearly do not understand a bit about the Gospel of Jesus our Lord. Trump is a sinner's sinner, and these conservative evangelicals are "Christians" only in their own minds, and certainly not in their hearts or their lives. A person living their life in the image and heart of Jesus could not endorse even one bit of Trumpism. There is no charity to it, no empathy, no humility, no forgiveness, no blessing at all in Trump and everything he seeks to achieve. Wrong, just wrong.
15
I agree but would also point out that a significantly vocal, if minority, Christian view is that God will "use" Trump to His ends, and they thereby justify their support of the current regime.
1
Truly, Jesus weeps and His Word is twisted for political gain and we abandon his very teachings to love one another.
Yes, Jesus weeps.
14
Entering the United States from Europe many years ago and teaching a European language, it always strikes me how fear-based the American experience seems to be. The world is a dangerous place for many Americans, and it has become more so in the 40+ years I have lived here. You cannot leave your children alone for one second since there may always be an abductor waiting behind every corner. The fact that New York City children take a public bus to school at age 10 gives rise to cries of horror in most places west of the Hudson. The suggestion by some recent immigrants in the NYT that children could go play in the playground by themselves creates a storm of protest in the comments section. If people travel to Europe (or anywhere else) they must buy expensive gear because you have to protect yourself from the natives; and watch out because someone will try to drug you and steal your kidney. And if the normal criminals won't get you, a terrorist will probably shoot you in Europe. -- All that with Western European homicide rates that even with terrorism are a small fraction of those in the US.
Somehow, the fear is inculcated from the get-go. One of the first songs my children learned was "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when times are gray. Oh, please, don't take my sunshine away." Who is that lurking behind the corner wanting to take away my sunshine. Better get a gun ....!
20
This is the same phenomenon we used to see among "lapsed Catholics" who identified with the Church culturally (and maybe Notre Dame football), but who never darkened the door of a church except for funerals. An old West Virginia Methodis minister used laugh about the obituaries in the local paper that declared the deceased was "Methodist by faith." Not a member of any actual church. It was "the church they stayed away from." There may have been more Methodists by faith" than there were Methodists by membership. What Sullivan is calling Fox Evangelicals I call "commercial Christians." Commercial Christianity is just a product sold on the open market, created to make money for the sellers. Christian crack. Has nothing to do with Jesus except for the packaging.
17
It sounds like there was seldom a better time to pray that the fine people held in this thrall will increasingly realize that they can break away from the political charlatans, yes-men, and propagandists who are riling them up to the point of moral and intellectual incoherence and alienation and thereby stop their mad dash towards desecration and mockery of all that they would profess as their most sacred ideals.
3
The Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress sees a divine hand at work: "God intervened in our election and put Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a great purpose."
Wow! I thought it was just Russia that intervened!
Wonder what that great purpose could be? Of course the bible does state that before the Second Coming a "false prophet", a charismatic great deceiver ( the Anti- Christ) will become a powerful leader.
I read that some evangelicals were celebrating the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem as a sign of the end of times. The fight between " good " and "evil". Maybe? Guess it never occurred to them that they just might be on the wrong side of that battle!
12
Burning crosses are one of the KKK symbols of hate and grievance. This intersection of bigotry and so-called Christianity is not new. Trump's father was arrested for violence at a KKK protest in 1927.
In a diverse country, this is not acceptable. Trump's own family includes his Jewish daughter and grandchildren. As Washington famously wrote to the Jewish congregation in Newport, the government of the United States "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance". James Madison wrote in 1820 on the historic synagogue in Savannah, that among the features peculiar to the political system of the U.S. is "the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect."
Whatever the Fox faux religion and conservative evangelicals are up to, it has nothing to do with the founding principles of the United States or with Christianity. They are burning crosses and not lighting Christmas tree lights.
The holiday spirit will endure due to what Madison called cherishing the "mutual respect and good will among citizens of every religious denomination".
15
Just why is our gun culture "profane"?
"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. Luke 11;21
But, I suppose that actually reading the Bible isn't needed for your goal of scoring political political points and insulting people's culture.
2
I think the point is that these so-called Christians are pro-life, yet also believe in saturating the US with guns due to imagined fears. We have by far and away the highest saturation of guns per person than any other 1st world country and by far and away the highest death rate via guns except for a small handful of third world countries. I find that profane, as do many others. Am I against a person having a well-secured gun I the house for protection? No. But I don't think Jesus intended people to have multiple assault weapons, etc.
9
Scripture can be cited on either side of the issue. Many would argue that in the context of Luke 11:21 Jesus was speaking about taking care against demonic influences.
Matthew 5:29 39: "But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."
Personally, I'm confident Jesus would be horrified by bump stocks and the ungodly, growing numbers of gun deaths in the U.S.
10
"Turn the other cheek" and "An eye for an eye." You can make the bible, a storybook written by the romans, translated by the English, and sold without pedigree, agree with whatever path you want to follow, whenever you want to follow it. If you don't want your culture mocked quit trying to foist it upon the entire populace of this secular country.
8
I surrendered in the War on Christmas. Now I spend it poolside in the tropics and ignore the whole catastrophe.
8
"What they discovered was that while one-quarter of Americans consider themselves to be “evangelical,” less than half of that group actually holds traditional evangelical beliefs. For others, “evangelical” effectively functions as a cultural label, unmoored from theological meaning."
Many of these people are victims of a school system that left them not only in profound ignorance of fact, but absolutely unable to think logically. I've talked with a number of self professed evangelical religious leaders and while everyone of them asserts that they and their religious views are logical, not one of them seemed to know or understand that logic is a specific well defined system of thought with specific rules. They seem to understand it as "plausible opinion" or "corroborated by biblical verse". It was shocking to encounter people with no understanding that logic is an actual thing, especially as they claim to be logical.
There is a cultural disease among southern evangelicals. They are unable to think rationally when it comes to what their religious leaders tell them. They will stab their own eyes out with a pick if that is what they imagine the bible tells them. They do the voting equivalent of that all the time. They need to released from the benighted thralldom of unscrupulous religious leaders. The ones, for example, who want to subsume the constitution under 'god's law'. That is traitorous extremism. It appears to be real and acceptable among Alabama white people.
14
Tony Campolo has been a mainstream Evangelical favorite for a couple of generations. He sees today's phony Evangelical movement for what it is. A year ago Campolo wrote an OpEd here, "much of the good that went by the name 'evangelicalism' has been clouded over; now a new movement is needed to replace it."
Campolo wrote, "We need a new name" a year before the NYT awoke and discovered the "Evangelical crisis" over these past 2 weeks.
I am the farthest possible thing from an Evangelical Christian. But I know a good and true man when I see one. Tony Campolo called it. But why would today's Evangelicals respond to his Jeremiad? They don't belong to his religion.
3
The Religious Right serve a useful role for atheists in accelerating the decline of religion, especially among the young. By eliminating actual religion from their advocacy and replacing it with fear, crass commercialism, and ignorance, these “Christians” are sowing the seeds of their own decline and fall.
16
Long live Festivus and the Airing of Grievances.
6
The trouble with this Evangelical minority is that they are the tail that wags the dog. They vote in high enough numbers in the Republican primaries to totally turn the Republican party. Having control of one of the two major political parties is no small deal: both DT and Moore lost the popular vote, and still...
5
Agreed, but, again, it's worth bearing in mind that it was in significant part black evangelicals who turned the tide against DT and Moore.
Yes, Tom Hayden. And they claim they're the only Christians, as in the old joke about the guided tour of heaven. News reporters repeat that claim, out of ignorance or in the spirit of "call them what they call themselves." Secular liberals read what the reporters write and believe this generalization. Secular Christian-bashers, where's your normal skepticism of the media?
They are blind to what Scripture says about a wolf in sheep’s clothing and false prophecy. Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, not to unleash greed, marginalize the less fortunate and destroy the earth.
14
The white-evangelical Fox Christians are hoping Trump can return them to the 1950s. The poor, elderly, opioid addicted, gays, and people of color did not exist. They long for the Hollywood fictional Ozzie and Harriet family--no one divorced, had a single parent head of house hold or an elderly relative struggling to raise young grandchildren on a fixed income. They know by embracing Trump as their savior he has the power to return them to a point in time they desire. They blindly follow him as he, their religious leaders, and Republican controlled Congress line their pockets at their expense.
4
(note: i'm a graduate of an evangelical college.) one thing that should be noted is the biblical illiteracy of almost every evangelical alive, especially those with whom i went to school. i was a late in life 'convert' and i took biblical stidies seriously. i read the books (plural) of the Bible seriously in Greek and Hebrew, and immersed myself in the complexities of what was written. My classmates, on the other hand, having grown up in evangelical households were content woth the fifteen or twenty verses they knes, and to sing praise four chord praise music (if a V7 counts as a fourth chord). I wad, and still am, apalled at the ignorance and scriptural illiteracy of my classmates, the product of a 'premier' christian college. it is truly depressing.
7
I'm also a seminary grad, and would add the note that scholarly understandings of the historical Jesus - before the overlay of Hellenistic philosophy, etc. - are markedly different than that of most evangelicals. The historical Jesus was radically critical of wealth, racial prejudice, and social inequities.
17
There was no "historical Jesus"! Jesus is a myth not a real person who existed at some point in time.
This reminds me of a cousin who is so brainwashed by Fox News, that she refused to believe that President Obama uttered the words "Merry Christmas" at the lighting of the Christmas Tree last year, even when I shared the video posted at the National Parks' website. If only she were the only one ....
Over the years, Christianity has survived the evil actions of many who claim to act in the name of God. And it will survive this heretical belief that a broken man will save the church.
Biblical Christians -- those grounded in knowledge of the Bible, who daily attempt to live by its commandments -- will be the remnant that leads the Church forward.
5
From a Wikipedia citation of a 1999 publication: "The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine highlighted an article that appeared in The Black Flame, in which one writer described 'a true Satanic society' as one in which the population consists of 'free-spirited, well-armed, fully-conscious, self-disciplined individuals, who will neither need nor tolerate any external entity 'protecting' them or telling them what they can and cannot do.'"
I must agree with Mr. Jeffress that someone intervened in our election, but to think that it was God is outright delusional.
6
Please... how gross a gold Trump Christmas tree ornament. The total opposite of the meaning of the season of love and charity.
2
A wise kindergartener once announced to her class that the best greeting for the holidays is Merry Whatever You Celebrate! Wise beyond her years with matter of fact acceptance of everyone, the way everyone should.
What would Jesus NOT do? Judge people on which holiday they celebrate, spread paranoia that everyone needs machine guns and enable more mass murders, crush the spirit of millions of low and middle-income families who will lose because of Trump's tax bill making billionaires richer, hurt millions of children who won't have access to medical care after Trump and his minions torpedo CHiP, and brag about assaulting women. I believe Jesus would do none of that - because whether you think of Jesus as the son of God or simply as a really good guy who tried to help a ton of people without judging them, you have to believe he would want nothing at all to do with Donald Trump.
11
Thank you for this article. The problem isn't so much the hypocritical, hysterical religious bonding with Trump and Fox News, it's the lack of education to at least try to objectively evaluate what information is thrown out today to the audience of Fox News, Limbaugh and Trump. I doubt logical thinking and civics is even taught anymore in high school.
3
Although a staunch nonbeliever myself, I know and have known many Christians who earnestly try every day to live and not just preach the tenets of their faith. These are good, kind and tolerant people who I am proud to call friends. I also know how profoundly uncomfortable and even horrified many are at the right-wing hijack of "believers.
From our so-called President to evangelical leaders, the bigoted and hateful people who have taken over the conservative echo chamber endorse all the worst elements of current American political life. What would Jesus do indeed. What a shame for the true followers of Christ's message.
596
Thank you for not tarring all believers with the same brush. Many of us are indeed horrified at the Faustian bargain many supposed Christian leaders have made in supporting consumerist and gun culture as well as the very sad figure of Trump. We want a return to the caring and sanity I thought we were achieving during the Obama years.
3
I'm an agnostic myself, who has nothing but the utmost respect for those who really live the Christian life. Those are modest people who help, serve humanity, ask for nothing, and who lead by example The two Sunday school lessons I remember best are (paraphrasing): 1) When you pray, pray in your closet and don't make a show of your faith; 2) Christians are not to be involved in worldly affairs, like politics and big business. It's simply not possible to participate in these activities without compromising principles of faith. We know what Jesus said about mammon. What megachurches, megawatt television stations, and megawatt egos like Falwell Jr. and Franklin Graham have to do with the Christian lifestyle as portrayed by Jesus in the New Testament....well, nothing. Many want to be Christians by proclamation, because they say they are, and not by how they actually live. Those Christians seem to thing that they have an irrevocable pass to heaven. That's not what I remember from my Sunday school lessons.
3
As the author is a religious person- as someone with faith in a supernatural source of human morality and goodness- I think she ought to address the real reason for the intractable behavior of the Fox evangelicals: belief their supernatural faith is superior to the supernatural belief systems of everyone else on earth.
Explain that; we might get somewhere with regards to religion.
6
Nothing unusual or unexpected about the Fox-Trump- Televangelist alliance. They are "men of the cloth", that is, they are cut from the same cloth. Their method is the media, their deity is wealth, and they see their flock as ever loyal giving marks. They exploit the fears, prejudices and anxieties of their followers for their personal gain. They are parasites that mimic true journalists, clergy and politicians that dedicate their careers to the public good. You shouldn't buy a used car from any of them, let alone the truth, salvation and a better life.
8
You know when the most self-professed religious in America have issues like how to greet people for Christmas, whether God is guiding their giant SUV into the best parking place, or believing the heresy that Fox News has anything to do with the core teachings of Christianity, that the thing is off the rails.
We cannot get children's insurance, Franklin Graham. Put down your "how many angels dance on the heads of pins"/Eeyore mind-set and wake up to the misery that is built into all sorts of systems in America. Fix that.
13
Fox has done a great job of manipulating those who lack any sort of ability to think critically - evangelicals in general. The author is an obvious exception. Great piece, Amy!
2
I appreciate that the New York Times has been running more and better analysis of this unholy alliance between conservative-authoritarian religion and an increasingly hysterical and fascistic propaganda machine. It's about time to call these things what they are, and also to make clear that this hideous hijacking of Christianity is not the faith of the apostles and saints, nor does it represent the beliefs of millions of faithful church people in the US who are now faced with the question of whether we need to retire the terms "evangelical" and even "Christian" in order to differentiate ourselves from this heresy.
8
Without religion you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things, but for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
-- Steven Weinberg
(Or it takes tribalism calling itself religion.)
7
"Evangelicals" today are clearly not concerned with following Christ. You can't read the New Testament and tell me that the goal of Christianity is to turn your government or your culture into a Christian theocracy. Because at that point, following Christ is not a choice; it's a dictate. Jesus himself said "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" when his followers clearly wanted him to be a revolutionary against the Roman government. He didn't say "take over the government and control the media." And you certainly can't read the gospels and tell me that Jesus wants the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor, or be armed to the teeth.
And then Ms. Sullivan gets to a question I often have: what difference does it make if Christians live in a culture that does not celebrate them? Are Christians less Christian if they live in a place where they are not the majority, or maybe are discriminated against? Were the Christians who were fed to the lions in Rome a bunch of losers, or heroes of the faith? Are the Christians in Muslim countries somehow failures because they don't control the government and can't get everyone to say "Merry Christmas"?
There is so much suffering Christians could alleviate if they focused on emulating Christ and stopped hating everyone not like them. There's nothing about following Christ that requires them to control the actions of non-believers, culture and the government. America is not the Christian Israel.
7
What do you say to Ms. Sullivan, who calls herself an evangelical? And why the scare quotes?
The idea that Fox News is responsible for this is grossly inadequate. If you live in a state where the homicide rate is one per one hundred thousand and yet you think you need an arsenal to protect your house, the reason cannot be simply that Fox News told you so. There must be some deeper force at work. I find the complete lack of insight about what that force could be quite disconcerting.
2
Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny author, Yale prof) has a fascinating short video on Christmas and Christianity that is worth watching. https://youtu.be/930siVFAI5o
All of us 'left leaning' people need to say Merry Christmas to everyone we encounter, especially if we're with those we know who watch Fox news.
Barry Goldwater was prescient in his mistrust of the Religious Right's takeover of the GOP... but it now appears that takeover is complete. The 'wimpy' evangelism of Jimmy Carter - building homes for the poor, brokering international peace, following the teachings of Christ - has been replaced by the paranoid, culture-driven hostility of these Old Testament cherry-pickers. Do unto others before they do unto you...
Happy Holidays, everybody!
9
I have to wonder whether readers who read this (spoken by Mr. Martin):
'“If there’s not a moral theology or ethic to it, but it’s about playing for the right team, you can do anything and still be on the right side.”'
...understand how scary that is, if enough people are OK with that. It's how Germany accepted a leader 85 years ago that drove them into a 2nd world war in a generation, that destroyed their country, and behind enemy lines quietly put the blood of murdered millions on their hands. Because they were told they were 'on the right side' doing the nation's work and led by a 'strong leader'.
6
I find it especially perverse that Trump is spawning so much of the extreme Evangelical rhetoric. He has been married three times, had an out of wedlock child, spews crudeness and profanity, and is the embodiment of greed. These are not Christian values by any stretch of the imagination. He is not a religious man, not an observant Christian, and certainly has not lived his life as a reflection of the teachings of Jesus.
He is a self-serving trickster who stoops to feigning piousness to rally the Evangelical base to get votes, to achieve tax reforms to further enrich himself and his family, and to exact revenge on his adversaries (or maybe really just Obama).
What a loathsome, pitiful excuse of a man.
4
Those who voted for Trump because they are followers of Christ understand neither man.
1
Morals and ethics should determine one’s politics and not the other way around. In the world of Trump, Moore and Fox evangelicals, politics and only politics, dictates one’s morals, ethics or lack thereof. This Godless theology explains why such people can turn a blind eye to rape, mass shootings, (even when children are involved), discrimination, corruption, lies and climate destruction. This theology has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ and such individuals’ proud proclamation of being “Christian” is completely undeserved.
2
What you must understand is that the defining trait of most of these white evangelicals is victimhood: the truth is, they wouldn’t know *what* to do without it. Take it from a guy who grew up in Mississippi.
They set ridiculous standards they themselves fail to live up to, deify their leaders, and wrap themselves in the comforter of smug self-righteousness. It simultaneously causes them guilt at their failures (which reinforces their hard nosed “people shouldn’t get something for nothing” grinch-y-ness), blinds them to the failings of their leaders, and comforts them that despite their miserable lives and their failed culture, they are the chosen ones, the heavenly people, those destined for reward.
It is a wholesale abdication of any responsibility to this life: they don’t have to work on their violent culture, their teen pregnancy rates, their broken families, their death-cult worship of guns and vigilantism, their dead-end economies or their own responsibility for their failure to value or pursue responsibility. And why should they? They have something good waiting for them in the next life to excuse their moral failures to be responsible for their lives and their beliefs today.
Culture has always been the real issue: religion was always merely a plausible front. It’s part of the problem with liberal multiculturalism: some cultures really aren’t valid, and some cultures are actually bankrupt. I hate to break it to the Dawkins atheists in the room...
6
The Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress sees a divine hand at work: “God intervened in our election and put Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a great purpose.”
Who knew God was a little Russian named Vlad?
3
This explains the Republican tax cuts and a host of their other policies. If they believe that they have an imaginary friend named Jesus, then they will believe anything that is not fact based. Cutting taxes makes the economy grow even though that didn't happen in Kansas or Louisiana..raising taxes in California did increase growth. Blasphemy, don't believe the facts; your faith was not strong enough. Evangelicals have never matured beyond Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. If you believe it enough it will happen. Facts don't matter. Blind faith over facts...The Republican Evangelical mantra. You America will be the ultimate winners of the country specific Darwin award. Putin and the world consider you the laughingstock of the world.
3
IMO, if Christ appeared in the faux “newsroom “ he would grab a cudgel and drive the clowns out of the building.
2
Evangelicalism is a good example of neo-fascism today. The transactional basis behind Graham,Dotson, and Robertson fit the use of religion in Nazi Germany, Putin's Russia and other dictatorships. All of these guys are rich from the faithful.
The principle overall theme of the bible is "love thy neighbor as thy self". That theme does not exist in many if not most of evangelical thinking today. Issues like gun violence, global warming, women's right's or rights of minorities that embody the principle theme of the bible are not followed Instead abortion, NRA propaganda, and other "Kansas" taking points are used to support the xenophobic "us verses them" preaching. "Christianity" has totalitarian aspects that our Founders found repugnant, and drafted the Constitution accordingly.
3
On Trump's Xmas gift list: a tax cut for the rich, a cut in social services for the poor, and his small "thumb up" to racists, misogynists, and homophobes everywhere...
Since most Fox News viewers are elderly (I'm 68) they can't use sex to sell as they do with young people. Just keep pushing that fear button!
1
Folks like Franklin Graham are an embarrassment to many faithful Christians, I am only one among many. I wouldn’t care that Graham chooses to worship this particularly loutish and obscene Golden Calf, but that he does it in the name of my Lord and Savior really ticks me off.
5
Why is the guy selling pillows on television wearing a big cross? Why did the guy who welcomed me to the restaurant he recently bought tell me that the new cook is a "good Christian"? Better he actually was a good cook....
3
A kind of mass mental illness has taken over the US and I'm not exaggerating. Remember Jim Jones when all those people drank poisoned cool aid? Evangelism is the same.
People brainwashed into thinking men like trump or Moore are Christian's: men without
an ethical bone in their bodies and who love to abuse women.
Well women are not having any of this nonsense anymore .
I'm an atheist and I have more ethics and morality than any one of these loser Christian's". The ones who carry guns around
and take money from poorer people
Via
" tax reform"
This country has become a sad joke.
4
I've saying Merry Christmas all my life, and voting democratic since I was 18. I also pray every day, believe in God and Jesus Christ, and like Pope Francis. These phonies like Franklin Graham and his huckster father, the ones who pray in public and point their fingers at the shortcomings of others, they are what Jesus called charlatans. Their God is wealth and power. They made thar choice years ago. Trump is a perfect representative for them.
3
I'll take the father over the son any day. When he was last in New York City (in Flushing Meadows Park), he all but endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
It cracks me up that anyone studying religion in America would've missed this trend. For years it's been obvious that an awful lot of people who call themselves evangelical Christians are really hate- and fear-filled people hostile to the changes under way in American society. The most irrational fear of every Muslim, a sickening homophobia that they cloak with a Biblical veneer, and a weird politics that blends extreme nationalism and American exceptionalism with a humongous hatred of the federal government. This has been stoked not only by Fox but by talk radio, both of which many of them demonstrate allegiance to far more than they abide by the teaching of Jesus. Anyone who disagrees with them is virtually a traitor and needs to be eliminated from public life. Astonishing? Hardly. Troubling? You betcha.
4
Would some Christian evangelical explain to me why they show so much faith in Donald Trump, a man who:
Seems to place money and the worship thereof ahead of his God, He even seems to engage in self-worship at times.
Has continued the pointless war in Afghanistan, and allowed his military to hide the number of avoidable civilian deaths in Syria,
Used bankruptcy, or the threat of same to steal money owed employees and suppliers, and stated that only stupid people pay taxes, And he considers himself intelligent and therefore failed to pay his fair share of the cost of even his own government mansion,
,
Repeatedly born false witness (lied over and over again.)
Done so under oath and violated his oath of office, using the option of swearing to the God he says he worships, rather than just making a promise to the people and courts,
According to divorce proceedings, committed adultery.
Failed to observe the Sabbath.
Indeed respected his father, though never, to my knowledge,has even mentioned his mother.
Seems to covet everything -!including young female beauty pageant contestants, bragging about grabbing their pudenda.
Ok, half one of the big ten I recall.
Is it because he decorates the White House with plastic replicas of the birth of God “s Son?
3
The only commandment he seems to have kept is honoring parents.
No, Rev. Graham, God did not “intervene” in last year’s election. Comey and Putin may have, but not God. Your crypto divine right thing, “by the grace of God”, is one major issue the Founders firmly rejected. It’s very difficult to trust people who defend God as if He needed their help.
2
The war on Christmas is the real "fake news".
2
Rupert Murdoch's prime directive: fear = $$$$.
Pretty simple. It's worked equally well for the armaments industry.
Mining psychoneurosis....
If this is true, it's a horrible abuse of the term "Christian".
Here's the summary: God uses sinful men to accomplish His will. Its that simple.
Men who claim to know his will are charlatans.
1
they're rendering unto caesar the things that are god's
3
As much as I agree that Fox and similar media outlets are responsible for the fearful, us-vs-them attitude of far right evangelicals, I am puzzled by the suggestion that we should expect "Fox evangelical" pastors to counteract the problem at all. Every visit I've ever had to an evangelical church has absolutely terrifying, with pastors riling people up about Satan, atheists, gays, slutty women, and false prophets waiting to pounce on them and destroy their way of life. Where are we supposed to think Fox got its schtick from in the first place?
6
Your first mistake is not understanding that "being white and conservative and evangelical" is absolutely "being American." Attacking Fox News with the smear of "evangelical" is partisan blather, as is demonizing Christianity as a new form of "American evangelicalism."
By the way, the right to bear arms is an "unalienable right" "endowed by our creator." It is absolutely sacred. You failed Radical Liberalism 101.
1
War on Christmas is just another head fake to take your eyes off the injustices brought by Trump and his minions. It’s feeding to the fear of Main Street USA that they’re losing control, which is true. Unless Main Street will recognize and accept the variety of US citizens we have today, they’ll always back a demagogue, some one who will MAGA. Then we all lose.
2
Most evangelicals don't know what their religion says, don't care, and wouldn't believe it if they did know.
2
Yeah, and just wait till they get rid of the Johnson Amendment. I can see sermons, especially in the South, that might look almost indistinguishable from a campaign rally. Then faith will have been hijacked to become just one more tribal “family value” among other “family values”, such as unrestricted gun rights, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. You’ll have “evangelicals” so politicized they would vote for the devil in a suit if he’ll promise to end abortion and gay marriage. Roy Moore was an accused pedophile in a suit and he almost won. After the allegations came out, according to a JMC poll of self-identified Alabama evangelicals, 37% were now “more likely” to vote for Moore! Only 28% were less likely. Donald Trump is almost the antithesis of Christian belief and conduct, yet you have “Christians”, as the article shows, holding signs that say, “Thank you, Lord Jesus, for President Trump.” If you become this politicized, please don’t tell anyone else you’re a Christian because you’re lousy advertising. Romans 12:2 comes to mind: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
4
Too bad Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and their evangelical colleague "leaders" cannot tell the difference between somebody who talks the talk vs. somebody who walks the walk. They might want to check in with Jimmy Carter to get a better grasp of such things.
3
The Moore senate race made perfectly clear that white evangelicals insist on practicing a new form of Christianity, one that denies the teachings of Christ.
5
Fox evangelicals, Fox christians, Faux christians, that seems to be the progression here.
I've always given the Trumpish Christian Voter the benefit of his/her own faith first, which is why it's always been confusing. This label is very helpful, because it's enabled me to get beyond what I felt was stunning hypocrisy and more accurately describe the sensation, exasperating heresy. Fox evangelicals are worshipping a false idol. It's not Trump and his ilk. They worship their own tribalism, centered around fear and retribution, and the TV is their altar.
3
Call Graham, Jeffress, and Falwell, evangelicals, but don’t call them Christians.
4
No coincidence that the president with the most divorce, immorality vis women, financial impropriety, and general lack of preparation should seek absolution in the arms of the alleged absolvers. Like a child seeking constant approval from disapproving parents.
Donald, don't you know: you'll never be good enough for this disapproving mom and dad?
2
For all Trump trumping of Christmas, not one Nativity Scene in the White House. Lots of Pagan Yule symbols, no Christian ones.
4
Would that they had eyes too see and
realize arming yourself has nothing to do with Jesus message. Hopefully Will Smith is right and this is the dark before the dawn.
"Evangelicals" who do not ground their beliefs in scripture should be outed for what they are, not religious. They have no right to claim the religious mantle. Unfortunately, this can only happen when evangelicals clean their own house. I'm not holding my breath.
2
I will endeavor to discriminate to the extent i can against evangelicals. it's one thing to have your own fantasy world, but you can't force it on others.
1
The Pakistani owner of the local gas station I frequent greets me, a secular Jew, with a Merry Christmas this time of year. For some, this phrase has meaning, for others it's a seasonal nicety.
Trump's defense of Christmas is a nothingburger. It's really a thinly veiled campaign to make American White Again. An appeal to Evangelical racists. For Fox and Trump to fan the flames of a nothing holy war is really a travesty and a joke, a cheap appeal to an ignorant base, which includes a frequent viewer, the president himself.
5
Maybe it's the hair. Could be the vulgarity. Probably a combination of things that would have prompted Jesus to drive Trump out of the temple...
1
It continues to amaze me that the people most afraid of a Muslim terrorist attack are the ones living in Podunk, W.Va., while the people most likely to be targeted are in urban centers that are more open, welcoming and accepting of diversity. The irony of all this, of course, is that the residents of Podunk should be much more fearful of the neighbor's kid walking into the local school armed with a rifle.
3
Fox is perhaps the most egregious fear mongerer, but they have competition in the local news stations of most American cities. Tune in any evening, and the first 15 minutes is devoted to robberies, assaults, rapes and murders just down the street. No wonder the NRA preys on fearful Americans who think they need a gun to protect them from the evils right outside their doors. When we moved to Oklahoma 35 years ago, I was puzzled by ubiquitous fish in the windows of local shops. Very soon it became clear to me that along with advertising on television and in newspapers, the fish was the code to all those local evangelicals that buying clothes or household items from this establishment was supporting a brother in the faith (whether or not the faith was in God or mammon). In 1982, it was still illegal to go into a restaurant and order a drink with the meal, but you could sign in to become a member of a private club that dispensed alcohol.
So much about this culture is built on deception, hypocrisy and fear, the antithesis of the Christian message. This isn’t something that Fox created, but Fox certainly has mastered the movement to turn it into an economic powerhouse. The only difference between Fox and the local fish-bearing merchant is scale.
6
From here on out, if some rational person has the misfortune to be in a room with a Republican politician, or current day Republican voter for that matter, pontificating on commitment to faith or social equality, start the belly-roll and laugh them clear out of the room.
"If there's not a moral theology or ethic to it, but it's about playing for the right team, you can do anything & still be on the right side."
The defining ethic seems to be that triumph over anything that threatens is a virtue. It seems like Trump and the Church are merely symbols to this group of "followers". Rather than honoring any 'substance' both the actual lives of Donald Trump and of Jesus Christ are absent. Both are reduced to demigods.
So who are these "followers" following? The corporate overlords of Fox News & Wall St, and the Darkness of the Troubled Heart, are the guides. Unmoored from decency, honor and justice (as is Donald Trump) and from the faith, hope and love (of Jesus Christ), the way is guided by knee-jerk fear and anger.
This "moral theology and ethic... can do anything and still be on the right side" for self-defense is it's only justification. Tribal and personal (ego) identity as ultimate truth. Its call is compellingly visceral, self-justifying and hugely destructive. It is the opposite of the call to sacrificial surrender- to Spirit, truth and mercy. It is the Darkness, I truly believe, that Jesus Christ came to deliver us from.
2
Trump is our nation's drunk uncle. True evangelicals know he doesn't live his beliefs; they know he's the rich man whom Christ told to give up his wealth in order to find salvation. But Trump professes to stand for "the faith" -- in the commercially-corrupted, unloving, us-vs.-them version that many evangelicals have adopted.
Talk with evangelicals who THINK -- college professors, writers and professionals -- and see if they support Fox Evangelicalism. If they do, listen to all the caveats they put in place. Trump is winning support from the unthinking, the Tribalists, but not from evangelicals whose role in society is to think. Trump is dividing evangelicalism just as he is dividing the GOP.
1
The rich young man was an observer of the commandments, and Jesus did not challenge him on that.
What Trump and those are more like are the scribes "who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers" (Mark 12:40, with parallels in Matthew and Luke).
I grew up in a very s conservative, 99.8% white town of 23,000 in rural Nebraska. My father is a Presbyterian minister. Miraculously, both they and I--and my entire family--have turned out to be very progressive, yet still grounded in our faith. Why? Besides the fact that none of us watch Faux News--why would any rational, thinking person submit to such vile propaganda?--the other dynamic I can point to is that we all travelled extensively. It's very hard to hold severe biases against those you have come into contact with both at home and abroad. Dialogue=understanding.
We are all one community in humanity. Besides the profit motive, I have to ask, exactly what is Fox News trying to achieve? Maybe I just answered my own question.
7
As the millennial generation cuts the cord, the less and less local “police blotter” networks will have as a captive audience and believe what they see on TV, much like the boomer generation does. For a religion supposedly of hope and love, it certainly uses the dark side of human emotion and experience to keep people
Coming back. And yea, those attitudes from small town ND folk are 100% true, and mirror those across rural America. Many of these people simply do not have the # of interactions with places or persons different than them, and thus the TV is their only window into the world. It’s akin to babies and the # of words spoken to them as they mature.
1
Conservatives appear oblivious to the fact that they are ruining everyone's Christmas. It is a time of good cheer, fellowship, and hopefulness. If you are a practicing Christian, it is a time to celebrate the coming of Christ and his message of love. Do evangelicals actually think that if Christ were alive he would foam at the mouth at the very idea of cheerfully though vaguely wishing a non-believer "Happy Holidays?" He only foamed at the mouth at the moneychangers at the temple, whom today's evangelicals most resemble.
3
We have politicized just about everything else. So why not Christmas? Apparently, we need some neo- conservative to determine what stores have the “Christmas Spirit.” We are so far beyond mass commercialization that we are well on the way to destroying the holiday (holy day) altogether. So, bring on the war over Christmas. That’s right. The over or about Christmas. A “war on Christmas ?” This attitude about Christmas is totally contrary to the reason for it in the first place. There never was a “war on Christmas.” I think that being sensitive to how others feel about Christmas is part of the meaning of Christmas. Whether we say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or some other cheery sentiment of the season—love is a big part—if not the whole part— of Christmas that counts. Whatever religion one practices—or none at all—be happy in whatever aspect is important to you. Let’s be gentle with one another now and the whole year long, regardless of religious affiliation or non-affiliation.
I've come to hate the holidays. Can't wait for them to be over.
I think differently. Religion serves an important purpose early on in human history and it continues. In ancient time, political leaders are usually religeous leaders too. This is the tribal culture of our ancestors. The problem is liberal democratic ideology tries to deny our true nature and it created something totally against human nature. It didn't work, it is not working and it will never work. Liberals simply cannot not erase the accumulated effects from tens of thousands of years of evolution. We are who we are and it is in our DNA. Survival of the fittest. We are all decendents of winners in the battles of natural selection. Our ancestors wiped out Neanderthals and many others tribes. Our existence is the result of someone else's extinction.
I am a Democrat but I accept human nature. In order to move forward, I think we should not throw more read meat to the other side. Besides, I am an environmentalist. So I support less immigration. I like Trump because he exposed the true nature of GOP and Christian conservatives. It is quite entertaining. The temporary setback is ok because younger generations will not support GOP. As a business person, I will never run their business model. In essence, they only focus on short term profit but ignore the dire consequences of long term effect. As far as I am concerning, they are digging their own graves. We should celebrate. Finally, there are too many "moralists" but almost no anthropologists in NYT. Sad!
Reading this article, it is clear that Fox Evangelicalism is all about image and appearance. Not what is done or has been done, but that he "casts" himself as the defender of the Christian holiday. 'Cast' is a good word for what is happen as it makes clear the show business nature of our reality today. Our reality TV president dealing with a manufactured crisis like the fake "war on Christmas". That's how we live today.
PS. I wish there really was a war on Christmas and I wish they would lose. I am sick to death of Christmas starting in October.
1
I'm convinced that today's American evangelicals would be thoroughly unrecognizable to Jesus. I believe he would see their embrace of unregulated capitalism, worldwide militarism, and cheering for cult-of-personality leaders like Donald Trump as more like pagan Rome.
1
Tonight in Rome, Annie Lennox and Patti Smith will perform with a children's choir at an annual charity concert sponsored by Pope Francis, who has deprecated the false glamour and greed surrounding the holiday, who wishes we could return to the message of love, mercy, and humility in the story of the nativity, and who expresses thanks for the way artists and musicians bring to life the beauty of humanity and nature. Poor Donald Trump and the bad news sycophants at Fox News- they are like Scrooge before the ghosts appear to change his mind and warm his cold heart - they exclude the needy, expel the foreigner, kill the innocent, tax the poor, and lie like Lucifer. No, they are more like Herod- and he did not end up well. Happy holidays, blessed Kwaanza, merit Christmas, and let us all enjoy the fun and beauty of the season.
5
Great article, scary though. Next we may want to look at what makes people susceptible to this propaganda while continuing to expose fraudulent
religious leaders who propagate these messages. Why is it that those accused of mounting a war on Christmas, know more about Christ than those Evangelicals who believe this mythical war. And if there were a real war on Christmas, Christ would be on all sides while proclaiming the Happy Holidays and peace on earth.
I once went to Bethlehem at Christmas. Too late to sit in the church, I stood in the Square to watch the mass broadcast against the walls of one of the buildings. The service was ruined by drunken revelers shouting merry Christmas and trying to kiss the two pretty girls traveling with me. The current insistence on merry Christmas here merry Christmas there reminds me of those distractions: focus on the party, not on Christ.
2
I hope that i see the day when we become a post-religious society. Progressive, thinking liberal minded evangelicals like the author create space for the regressive and conservative Christians she speaks about. It all boils down to which belief system you subscribe to, and any one lends credence to all others. In my view, all belief systems are ultimately bankrupt. The notion of god irrelevant.
2
Fox promotes the fear mongering news for the same reason every other network does. Ratings. Sponsor money. Fox promotes the GOP brand because the bias created reinforces the brand, reinforces viewer loyalty and sponsor product purchase. Behind Fox evangelism lies nothing. It is neither religion nor creed. Fox is the magnifying and focusing of media power over the weak minded, to manipulate into believing their own self importance and virtue is real.
Great piece of writing. Thank you for making the opaque clear.
1
Merry Christmas! There, I’ve written it! And I’m Jewish, and have yet to be struck by lightening! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, if you let it! And those lovely Christmas Carols! Worshipping a Jew, And adhering to his Sermon on The Mount, and believing in good will to all, does not cause any problem for me! Merry Christmas!!!
3
It is frightening to see the direction that religion is heading in this country. It has become a way to divide people not bring them together, to beat down your fellow man not lift him up. What ever happened to "love thy neighbor" ? Jesus would be appalled by today's so called Christians.
In the last sentence is the characterization of today's evangelical (for some) relativism: "you can do anything." Where have I heard that before?
Thank you for this informative article.
I am horrified with this brand of religion and its warmongering spirit.
Jesus would not recognize his teaching in any of this self-serving rethoric.
So wish these so-called religious people would disconnect from Fox News and stop drinking from the Cool-aid.
Great piece. I would say that Evangelical Christianity needs a reformer like Luther, except that Luther was of course a violent anti-Semite. Maybe they just need to be go to church and pray and be quiet—for a long long time.
The raving anti-Semitism of "The Jews and Their Lies" is irrelevant to the Lutheran and Reformed theologies that are central to the Reformation. It expesses the rage of love to hatred turned. Today it is of interest only to historians and white supremacists; the latter have kept the book in print as a standalone book. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("evangelical" in the European sense, not in the American one) repudiated Luther's anti-Semitic writings in 1994.
If another Luther is needed for "Fox evangelicals" - and another Philipp Melanchthon, like Martin Luther's cool-headed associate - we can pray that God will send them.