Purity Culture 2.0. is here, and it has a new message.

Hope this is okay mods - I feel like helping Satanists buy tampons for transgender people is something many atheists might enjoy doing.

Heres the Amazon wishlist.

For people like Morgan, however, no-fault divorce has stripped him of what he views as a constitutional right to protest the dissolution.

He told Chron his views were shaped by watching his father go through a divorce and later experiencing divorce himself, one he did not want.

"When we utter our vows, many people say, 'Till death do you part.'....My vows are more important than anything… I made this vow to God, and my wife was the beneficiary of my vow," Morgan argued.

American revival movements have always contained two competing impulses: the belief that all people possess equal moral worth before God, and the belief that society must be disciplined into righteousness whether it wants to be or not. That tension runs throughout the history of American Christianity. It shaped the First and Second Great Awakenings, fueled both abolitionism and moral policing, and inspired democratic reform movements—all while simultaneously justifying social hierarchy and coercion. If you’re wondering how the MAGA movement can speak constantly in the language of Christianity while bearing intense hostility to many traditional Christian virtues themselves, we can look to this history, which is now repeating itself.

There has been a great deal of discussion on the right in recent years about whether the United States is experiencing some kind of new religious revival. Church attendance remains historically low by many measures, most notably in the mainline churches that have historically fostered religious moderation and created communities of believers from across the political spectrum. That said, religious identity is also increasingly central to American political conflict. Christianity, particularly conservative Christianity, often functions as a marker of political and cultural belonging on the American right. The result is a society that may be becoming less religious overall while simultaneously becoming more religiously polarized. To understand this moment, it helps to revisit the Great Awakenings in U.S. history, when Americans renegotiated the meaning of freedom, morality, and identity on a national scale.

...

EDIT : Might as well throw agnosticism in there too.

83 studies spanning over 90 years of research. all pointing in the same direction. Religious people are less intelligent. The evidence is concrete.

Disclaimer: I'm staunch atheist (naturalist), but every once in a while I'll dip a toe into mythology. And sometimes this includes the Christian Cinematic Universe. Or as the case may be, the larger Abrahamic Cinematic Universe

David and Goliath is already a part of biblical mythology. In the myth, David of the Israelites (in the story, a clever young lad skilled with a sling) defeats Goliath of the Philistines (a giant warrior). Implied in the story is the protocol that gods can duel each other by proxy, by having their champions fight on the field and seeing who wins.

Cut to modern day. The US attacks Iran.

But the US isn't acting as a secular nation as it has in prior theaters of war. The Trump administration is actively trying to turn the US into a theocratic state under the patronage of white Christian nationalism, a movement that intersects with a number of different Christian institutions.

Before the initial strikes on Iran, Hegseth made it very clear to the US armed forces and the US public that the United States is engaging in a holy war against Iran. Preaching and rituals happened. Blessings were administered. Troopers had to sit through uncomfortable hours of preaching.

And note that Iran is, itself, a far-right-wing theocratic government under Shia Islam.

And Iran has been holding its own under siege by the US' superior force. Early on they were able to close the Hormuz Strait to commercial shipping, decimating the global economy.

Months into the war, the US is depleted of munitions and Iran stands firm. The Hormuz strait is still closed to commerce. Moreover, hostilities are expanding as the Houthi–Saudi Arabian conflict reignites. The Bab-el-Mandeb strait is now in play. And all that Trump and Hegseth can think to do is attack Iran some more, specifically, to attack civilian infrastructure (That's a war crime and, according to Sun Tzu, an act of desperation.)

The US is getting shellacked. Brought down like Goliath.

Can this be interpreted to mean that American Christianity is a false or lesser religious power than Persian Islam? More importantly, can the risk of this narrative playing out be used to sway US leadership to act sensibly (e.g. end the war or replace the command)?

cross-posted from: https://crazypeople.online/post/22932502

Yanqui go home