tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post9043400280990178269..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Trump's Christian SupportersJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-18596849287177051962016-04-08T17:06:02.877-04:002016-04-08T17:06:02.877-04:00Douhat is being meely-mouthed here. These are Chri...Douhat is being meely-mouthed here. These are Christians only in a tribal sense, and this is a tribalism that Republicans have been encouraging for ages. It is the nature of Ted Cruz's "New York values" attack on Trump. It's the nature of Sarah Palin's "real Virginians" line. It is the nature of the rails against elites.<br /><br />Trump is only appealing to what Republicans already created. They don't "lack support and communities" to become mature Christians. They just don't see their Christianity as anything more than a tribal identity.<br /><br />Trump pretty nakedly appeals to that tribalism. The "truthiness" behind "Obama was born in Kenya/ is s secret Muslim" lie is that Obama is not in their tribe. The facts don't matter, because that exclusion is for reasons other than Christianity or American-ness, but they dare not explicitly state the reason because of the evil political correctness that they rail against so often. <br /><br />Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09051024382193588456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-12319521281678025032016-04-08T11:25:24.659-04:002016-04-08T11:25:24.659-04:00I do read Protestant commentators, but they are al...I do read Protestant commentators, but they are also intellectuals uncomfortable with glitzy, mega-church Christianity. I read people who are either skeptical of "God Bless America" nationalism or outright regard it as idolatry. (There are such people among Baptists and Methodists, even in the South.) I mean, I can only stretch my understanding so far. Thinking it over, I believe my doorway into religious blogging and journalism came through conservative Catholics, especially Douthat and Rod Dreher, so I mainly read Protestant commentators they have recommended.<br /><br />My wife always says I would have been a great Puritan, because I take religion so seriously. Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-73733241315329515292016-04-08T09:49:00.875-04:002016-04-08T09:49:00.875-04:00Based on your earlier comments, I want to ask, do ...Based on your earlier comments, I want to ask, do you tend to read Catholic bloggers more than Evangelical? I wonder if that weak and divided feeling comes more from self-consciously retro Catholics like Douthat than other conservative Christians. Retro Catholicism it seems to me is based in part, virtually by definition, on an identification with archaic things like hierarchy, elaborate ritual, and scholastic theology. I wonder, in fact, if it tends to attract folks who like feeling like they belong out of their own time.<br /><br />Meanwhile much evangelical American Christianity is essentially triumphalist, baptized American capitalist nationalism by its very nature. There may be within it a core of insecurity, and it certainly likes to use the rhetoric of defensive embattlement, but without its triumphalist and aggressive side it seems to me contemporary American evangelism would hardly exist.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com