Great read, highly appreciated! I used to think these evangelical “folk” were just undereducated, basically ignorant, easily manipulated but wearing clown shoes. Now we have Pennywise and The Children of the Corn.
In my previous comment I did not address the final sentence in your comment:
*****The only thing you are acvomplishing by engaging with such a person on social media is amplifying their repulsive ideas by driving algorithmic "engagement" to their account.*****
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My interlocutor does not derive any algorithmic social media benefit from my engagement with them within the confines of the private Facebook group in which the conversation took place (a group that I founded): Decent and Sensible Dialogue.
I would like to clarify that I did not suppose my interlocutor to be a supporter of the NAR agenda.
I suppose this person to be more of an anti-anti-Christian nationalist, as the article at the link below from last September explains the phenomenon. Note that I shared the link to this article in the second of two comments that I made to Reed Galen's "Hiding in Plain Sight" post (https://reedgalen.substack.com/p/hiding-in-plain-sight/).
*****Following the pattern of anti-anti-Trumpism, anti-anti-Christian nationalism is not in favor of its object—or, at least, not openly so. But Christian nationalists and anti-anti-Christian nationalists (CNs) share enemies in common: Anti-anti-CNs busy themselves with warning of the dangers not of Christian nationalism itself but of warning against Christian nationalism.
We critics are at risk, anti-anti-CNs say, of exaggerating the threat, smearing fellow believers, and giving aid and comfort to the secular Left. We are mischaracterizing the church, they charge, caricaturing the average American Christian, and telling the elites exactly what they already believe about “those people.” There is a class component to some of this, pitting salt-of-the-earth regular Christians of the heartland against the sneering, condescending elites of academia and the media out to tar Christianity as an extremist movement.*****
Great read, highly appreciated! I used to think these evangelical “folk” were just undereducated, basically ignorant, easily manipulated but wearing clown shoes. Now we have Pennywise and The Children of the Corn.
Evil Bozo!
100%
In my previous comment I did not address the final sentence in your comment:
*****The only thing you are acvomplishing by engaging with such a person on social media is amplifying their repulsive ideas by driving algorithmic "engagement" to their account.*****
.
My interlocutor does not derive any algorithmic social media benefit from my engagement with them within the confines of the private Facebook group in which the conversation took place (a group that I founded): Decent and Sensible Dialogue.
Would you perhaps join the group?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/872060377597265
These are great points, JW.
I would like to clarify that I did not suppose my interlocutor to be a supporter of the NAR agenda.
I suppose this person to be more of an anti-anti-Christian nationalist, as the article at the link below from last September explains the phenomenon. Note that I shared the link to this article in the second of two comments that I made to Reed Galen's "Hiding in Plain Sight" post (https://reedgalen.substack.com/p/hiding-in-plain-sight/).
Brief excerpt below. Read the whole thing!
.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/september-web-only/christian-nationalism-patriotism-extremism-moderates.html
*****Following the pattern of anti-anti-Trumpism, anti-anti-Christian nationalism is not in favor of its object—or, at least, not openly so. But Christian nationalists and anti-anti-Christian nationalists (CNs) share enemies in common: Anti-anti-CNs busy themselves with warning of the dangers not of Christian nationalism itself but of warning against Christian nationalism.
We critics are at risk, anti-anti-CNs say, of exaggerating the threat, smearing fellow believers, and giving aid and comfort to the secular Left. We are mischaracterizing the church, they charge, caricaturing the average American Christian, and telling the elites exactly what they already believe about “those people.” There is a class component to some of this, pitting salt-of-the-earth regular Christians of the heartland against the sneering, condescending elites of academia and the media out to tar Christianity as an extremist movement.*****