• mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    There is a study on how most Americans view religion and how it is connected to social and political norms. This “version” of Christianity is called “American Civil Religion” in the relevant sociology sub-field. I know about the articles that compare Trump to the Antichrist do so in good faith (pardon the pun) but anything from old Christian traditions isn’t the focus of this sect; proof as things such as military involvement, Memorial Day, wording from the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are considered sacred.

    Thus, especially in rural and suburban areas where culture is more monotone; Jesus is more of these people’s “identity” rather than an example to live by (perhaps that is why identity talk seems to scare them). Once again proof, there is an American version of Christianity that is the main culture of the US.

    Being Republican or Democrat does not matter much in this case as both are of the American culture. Obviously, it is up to the individual to decide how much of this should be codified into law.

    tl;dr: What some of you might find ironic is the studying of a religion is absolutely necessary to understanding a person’s own religion without culture “baggage” (which in my own personal experience makes a person less of an extremest, see certain ultra-orthodox Jews: https://www.reddit.com/r/Israel/comments/18fc65b/antizionist_hassidic_jews_a_thread/)

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, the American civil religion is becoming a dominant religion in America and it’s hard for people who don’t spend time near it to understand it. The gotchas are fun, but this is the essence of Christian nationalism in America. They don’t see the difference between religion and nation because they’ve always been tied together as part of “one of us” and “good guys” to them.

      The Cold War in particular drove it to an extreme. Opposition to the “godless communists” made America, Christianity, capitalism, and the concept of a good person all deeply tied together to many of these people.

      The world is changing whether they like it or not, and decades of people selling them fear and self righteousness are catching up to all of us.

      May the gods have mercy on us in America, because Americans won’t.

      • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I agree. The cold war has changed the culture of this country. Just look at how much more of a socialist Eisenhower is compared to today’s politicians. Which is crazy as he is what passed as a Republican in his era.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Eisenhower was considered a socialist in his era by some, but notably those some were the people who did the business plot and those like them. The 20th century in America can be summarized as unregulated capitalism destroyed our society and pushed us to the question of socialism or barbarism, a compromise was struck, and the ones who demanded barbarism spent the remainder of the century inching us back towards unregulated capitalism while pointing at the socialists and calling them barbaric.