5 Comments

Anything remotely related to the way women are treated in conservative, evangelical circles. It's presented as inarguable that complementarianism is the only way to be Christian. It says so with such confidence, intentionally leading them to believe this is the only view Christians have held since the Garden of Eden. Historical evidence proves this is NOT the case at all.

Expand full comment

In Rodney Stark's book the Rise of Christianity he points out that a lot of what made early Christianity appealing to women is it was a space where they could have authority in a very patriarchal society.

Of course, what we call Christianity came from a different place: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/corporate-america-invented-religious-right-conservative-roosevelt-princeton-117030/

Expand full comment
author

These are all really good points! And I really enjoy the Kevin Kruse book this article is based on.

Expand full comment

I need to read it. I'll add it to the pile

Expand full comment

The idea of the Trinity comes from the Egyptians: https://daily.jstor.org/a-holy-trinity-in-ancient-egypt/ (as does circumcision).

Also, the idea that the earth can only be 5,000 years old -- especially when we know that people were building structures with sewer systems 11,800 years ago: https://www.archaeology.org/news/8171-191108-turkey-sewer-system

So, even human civilization has been around longer than Christian ideology can tolerate.

To me I see it as 2+2 = 5. The church I went to (which had a certain vibe: https://labyrinth.church/assets/ron-williams-suspended-sentence.pdf https://labyrinth.church/assets/tom-speed.pdf ) was hard core about these ideas... because they were an easy way to find out who couldn't be manipulated.

Any criticism was met with violence: https://labyrinth.church/narrative-of-lnsy.html

American Fascism lives in Christianity, which is why it is time for this wicked faith to go the way of Moloch and Mammon.

Expand full comment