The question is do Jesus-following white American evangelicals of the left or right, turn into smarmy flakes because they get “saved” or do smarmy flakes gravitate to Jesus?
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Watching Mike Pence even if I knew nothing about him as he spoke at the GOP convention I’d know he was a born again evangelical.
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How?
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Here is what some of my Facebook friends think (and thank you all!) but first maybe I can spot the white born-again types because there’s a slick smarmy insincerity to the “saved” that’s sort of unique.
That believe-in-Jesus flavor is the “flavor” of gross hypocrisy. What does it cover?
The lingo is all in coded asides to the faithful, like dogs sniffing each other for signs of kinship. It’s all “I-am-one-of-you” message.
And it’s not just white evangelicals of the right like Mike Pence, who exude this slick patina of falsehood.
Listen to most white social justice/intentional community types of “lefty” evangelical holding forth on Black Lives Matter. What’s with all the Bible verses quoted in public when speaking to evangelicals (say about the death penalty) but all the private disrespect for the very same evangelical movement to fellow “enlightened” lefty-Christian types in private?
(Translation: The evangelical “left” talks Black Lives Matter but want to stay on the racist, homophobic Christian college and mega-church lists of acceptable speakers nevertheless. Why? HINT: $$$$).
I asked my Facebook followers this question, and here are some of the (mind-blowingly perceptive) answers I got:
Published by Facebook Mentions · 9 hrs ·
Watching Pence I’m wondering again: what is it about people who “accept Jesus” that makes them so weirdly slickly-phony? Ideas? Comments?
So…what have they got to lose by being self indulgent hypocritical hedonists?…
Jesus has become a commodity of the intellect and a cover for pushing whatever agenda a persons decides on in life regardless …
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Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book —WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace
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