As I’ve written before, the misogyny and racism in which much of conservative evangelical Christianity has rooted itself is a poisonous tree that can bear no good fruit. Would you like more examples? I hope so, as that’s what you’re getting.
Joel Webbon opposes women’s right to vote and advocates for Christian dictatorship. He also agrees with Confederate apologist Jon Harris that while Confederate generals and slaveholders have gone to heaven, abolitionists burn in Hell, as does Martin Luther King. They “were not the good guys.”
Speaking as a Christian, it’s entirely possible many slaveholders are in Heaven. It’s a creepy thought but the basic tenet of my faith is that anyone can receive absolution for sin. That includes the worst sins. Of course that applies to abolitionists too. They were the good guys; even if they weren’t, that wouldn’t stop them from achieving salvation. Harris argues (and Webbon agrees) it’s because they rejected the inspiration of scripture; as religious historian Mark Noll has shown, many abolitionists were inspired by Scripture, they just interpreted it differently from slaveowners. Nor have I ever heard of Martin Luther King rejecting Scripture.
Call me crazy, it sounds like Webbon thinks King and abolitionists were bad simply because they challenged white supremacy. Given his outrage at having non-whites in his neighborhood, it’s hardly off-brand for him.
Webbon also participated in drafting a statement on Christian nationalism which as the Libertarian Christian Institute says favors ethnonationalism over the idea that Christianity forges a new kinship between all believers. Which has never been a popular idea with white supremacists.
Webbon also believes in banning freedom of worship for anything he considers a false religion—private worship at home is fine, but nothing public. While he talks about Islam, would he consider a church that supports women’s right to vote or preach, or a black church marching for civil rights to be Christian? Would they lose their rights too? History shows religious governments get picky about who gets to qualify. I wonder the same thing about would-be theocrat (and flat-Earther) Kandiss Taylor. The poisonous tree is poisonous to Christians too.
Certainly Trump’s court prophets are PO’d that Christian figures spoke up at the DNC, insisting that while Trump — the convicted felon, liar, sexual assailant, scam artist and breaker of most of the commandments — is godly, supporting Democrats is not. A member of the forced-birth group Students for Life says, for example, that ““Hey maybe the party that promotes abortion through all nine months until birth and all kinds of sexual degeneracy shouldn’t be quoting from the Bible that condemns both.” Apparently he’s fine with Trump’s sexual degeneracy (and lots of Christians disagree about his interpretation of the Bible). I’m sure they’re freaking out that Evangelicals for Harris is a thing.
And of course, many of the religious leaders shrieking about Democrats’ sexual immorality are no paragons. Busted in a sex-trafficking sting. Or using a deepfake to link Kamala Harris to Jeffrey Epstein, then getting busted yourself for child sexual abuse. Or how about a pastor hiring a hitman to kill his daughter’s boyfriend?
They’re also shrieking, always, about how persecuted they are. And when the prophesied persecutions don’t happen — gay marriage, remember, meant they’d be forced to marry gay couples — they keep shrieking. Kamala Harris is the next Nero/antichrist/Diocletian who will persecute them by not letting them run the country.
As Fred Clark says, they seem tormented by finding Demon Commie Kamala kind of sexy. He also offers some good inside-baseball analysis of Webbon’s brand of Calvinism.
