I restacked this newsletter with the following comment. I'm reproducing it here to make readers more aware of Christian Nationalists' gaslighting techniques. They started using specific talking points to gaslight in the past couple of weeks.
Christian Nationalists are already gaslighting us about who they are. They say we don’t even have a coherent definition of a Christian Nationalist. That we are hysterical secularists who despise Christians and Christianity. That they aren't really doing anything radical or wrong.
Yet here is @John Pavlovitz, a Christian pastor, calling them out. More Christians need to stand up and call this out.
I am not a secularist. I am a Christian who grew up in Christian Nationalism. I walked away from that world long before 45 came to power. I am intimately familiar with their specific kind of gaslighting: You’re hysterical; you hate Christians; you have a bad attitude; you don’t know what you’re talking about; what you see us doing isn’t who we really are—you’re imagining things.
Keep calling Christian Nationalists out. If they start gaslighting, it means we’re getting to them. Don’t let them make you question yourselves, your faith, or your motives. What you see them doing IS who they are. BELIEVE WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY.
That's the million dollar question isn't it John?! The policies they like I get. The fear of voting for "Democrats" they've been demonized and brainwashed against I get. But the cruelty, hate and sheer ugliness of this man when they claim to be followers of the most peaceful, loving man EVER to walk our planet I will never ever understand. I can't even find the words to describe it. If I try to bring it up to family members or Maga friends they get very defensive. I just keep trying to plant seeds, educate with facts and counter the hateful propaganda as best I can. That's all we can do. And pray a ton.
Thank you again John for a very important post. We need to keep reminding them of their hypocrisy. Call them out. The Jesus I know and love would want us to. ❤️🇺🇸💙
John, I so appreciate what you are doing and your questions you are asking. Still I wonder if part of the problem is that we also need to change our perspective on the problem. For me depth psychology has helped to see how 45 exploits the shadow self not only in his followers but all of us. He unites the country in anxiety and hate. But the hate is more complex. It comes from a victim perspective which makes it so powerful. And again is shared across the isle. Or have we not found ourselves hating the haters some time? Feeling victimized by the state of our country?
For people who feel oppressed and not seen (and even god-forsaken!) the ethics of their ruler isn't all that important. His promises are important. He does what they would not do. He kicks a... and they love it. Because they usually would not. Most would not want him as son in law either. They want him as destroyer. They want him to destroy what they blame for their lot. The biblical stories offer all these archetypes, too. Destroyer, warrior, peace maker. And as we so little have cultivated our fighter archetypes of the warrior for instance we project it into a leader who promises to fight for us instead.
Dont get me wrong. It breaks my heart to see 45 hijacking Christianity. But he would sell anything. Wherever he sees a need he crafts the message to sell a cheap solution.
So we must see the need he apparently sells the solution for. We must see the despair and the longing for belonging in his followers. I bet many of them do not have a church home any longer. Many of them feel god-forsaken. For those God must come back "bigly" as they lost their personal God long ago.
I once had a client who loved 45. We never talked politics. But we worked on his heart. The transformation from a tuff guy's protective heart to a warm and welcoming heart solved his attraction to 45, too.
Not sure, if that all makes sense. But to love our enemies will be the most challenging task for me in this election cycle and to wonder what it means and how it must compel me to act.
“you claim to follow a compassionate, loving Jesus of Nazareth” some of them don’t even pretend to make this claim. I recently read the words of an evangelical pastor who stated over and over that “Jesus is terrifying”. These people have weaponized Christ. I have driven by billboards in the south, which say “Trump, Jesus, guns.” Their new Trinity.
"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." 2 Timothy 3:1-5 I knew these behaviors would increase in the end times, but I never expected it would come from those claiming to love Jesus. But the scripture Matt 7:21-23 makes it understandable just HOW so many Christians can be deceived! "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? ' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Every "believer" is responsible for putting Jesus FIRST in their lives, not politics!
I take your questions about the Jesus evangelicals believe in to be rhetorical. Another way of asking, "how you stand by a Jesus who came to save sinners with sex lives i can only fantasize about from deservably going to Hell when they die?"
I restacked this newsletter with the following comment. I'm reproducing it here to make readers more aware of Christian Nationalists' gaslighting techniques. They started using specific talking points to gaslight in the past couple of weeks.
Christian Nationalists are already gaslighting us about who they are. They say we don’t even have a coherent definition of a Christian Nationalist. That we are hysterical secularists who despise Christians and Christianity. That they aren't really doing anything radical or wrong.
Yet here is @John Pavlovitz, a Christian pastor, calling them out. More Christians need to stand up and call this out.
I am not a secularist. I am a Christian who grew up in Christian Nationalism. I walked away from that world long before 45 came to power. I am intimately familiar with their specific kind of gaslighting: You’re hysterical; you hate Christians; you have a bad attitude; you don’t know what you’re talking about; what you see us doing isn’t who we really are—you’re imagining things.
Keep calling Christian Nationalists out. If they start gaslighting, it means we’re getting to them. Don’t let them make you question yourselves, your faith, or your motives. What you see them doing IS who they are. BELIEVE WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY.
That's the million dollar question isn't it John?! The policies they like I get. The fear of voting for "Democrats" they've been demonized and brainwashed against I get. But the cruelty, hate and sheer ugliness of this man when they claim to be followers of the most peaceful, loving man EVER to walk our planet I will never ever understand. I can't even find the words to describe it. If I try to bring it up to family members or Maga friends they get very defensive. I just keep trying to plant seeds, educate with facts and counter the hateful propaganda as best I can. That's all we can do. And pray a ton.
Thank you again John for a very important post. We need to keep reminding them of their hypocrisy. Call them out. The Jesus I know and love would want us to. ❤️🇺🇸💙
John, I so appreciate what you are doing and your questions you are asking. Still I wonder if part of the problem is that we also need to change our perspective on the problem. For me depth psychology has helped to see how 45 exploits the shadow self not only in his followers but all of us. He unites the country in anxiety and hate. But the hate is more complex. It comes from a victim perspective which makes it so powerful. And again is shared across the isle. Or have we not found ourselves hating the haters some time? Feeling victimized by the state of our country?
For people who feel oppressed and not seen (and even god-forsaken!) the ethics of their ruler isn't all that important. His promises are important. He does what they would not do. He kicks a... and they love it. Because they usually would not. Most would not want him as son in law either. They want him as destroyer. They want him to destroy what they blame for their lot. The biblical stories offer all these archetypes, too. Destroyer, warrior, peace maker. And as we so little have cultivated our fighter archetypes of the warrior for instance we project it into a leader who promises to fight for us instead.
Dont get me wrong. It breaks my heart to see 45 hijacking Christianity. But he would sell anything. Wherever he sees a need he crafts the message to sell a cheap solution.
So we must see the need he apparently sells the solution for. We must see the despair and the longing for belonging in his followers. I bet many of them do not have a church home any longer. Many of them feel god-forsaken. For those God must come back "bigly" as they lost their personal God long ago.
I once had a client who loved 45. We never talked politics. But we worked on his heart. The transformation from a tuff guy's protective heart to a warm and welcoming heart solved his attraction to 45, too.
Not sure, if that all makes sense. But to love our enemies will be the most challenging task for me in this election cycle and to wonder what it means and how it must compel me to act.
I am glad for your way of doing so, John!
“you claim to follow a compassionate, loving Jesus of Nazareth” some of them don’t even pretend to make this claim. I recently read the words of an evangelical pastor who stated over and over that “Jesus is terrifying”. These people have weaponized Christ. I have driven by billboards in the south, which say “Trump, Jesus, guns.” Their new Trinity.
You said it. Sadly. Terrifying isn't it?! 😪💔
"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." 2 Timothy 3:1-5 I knew these behaviors would increase in the end times, but I never expected it would come from those claiming to love Jesus. But the scripture Matt 7:21-23 makes it understandable just HOW so many Christians can be deceived! "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? ' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Every "believer" is responsible for putting Jesus FIRST in their lives, not politics!
I take your questions about the Jesus evangelicals believe in to be rhetorical. Another way of asking, "how you stand by a Jesus who came to save sinners with sex lives i can only fantasize about from deservably going to Hell when they die?"
Considering printing this out and mailing it to my mother, since I lose all coherence just thinking about talking to her
Why, indeed!