I have a good friend and fellow musician who I have known for 8+ years. He is a world famous trumpet player now turning his music toward the clarinet. We met playing in different musical ensembles. During his touring years, he played for numerous famous groups and has performed at the White House several times. Along the way he became a born again Christian and then attended a theological school to become a Pentecostal minister.

At breakfast Friday, he told me that he has had to give up on a number of Evangelical friends and fellow ministers. They have become too hardened by TFG and by their devotion to force the US to become a Christian nation. He repeatedly stated we were born with choice and it is our purpose in life to make good choices and not be forced by a church or a government. He was quite emphatic about that. He is very upset with his fellow Evangelicals. He knows my ex-Mormon background and that I am an atheist.

He is an outlier, though it gives me hope there are others like him. He is religious and open minded.

“He is religious and open minded.”

Two attributes that are too often mutually exclusive. It’s nice to see an example of the exception.

I hope many more come to the same conclusion. In your neck of the woods, it's nice to find some who sees that too much religion, even if it is your religion, is not good for the nation overall.

The big question is whether their dislike of anything Democratic will impact their voting. Even if they don't like what the more extreme Evangelicals are doing, he might hold his nose and vote on their side anyway, which will ultimately make the situation worse, IMO. I have a sister like that.

Too bad he isn't your neighbor instead of that one group you had living by you.

I have an evangelical friend who is likewise open-minded. Other members of her family are UUs, so she has learned to go along to get along.

Is Tennessee overwhelmingly Christian? Sometimes I think when you live around and associate with people who are different from you (Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, LGBTQ+, etc.,) it helps to encourage tolerance.

I seem to remember that the largest group of legal immigrants are currently coming in from China, something like 25% of legal immigrants. I'm going to bet that most are not Christian.

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1073215412/christian-nationalism-donald-trump


This movement of ultra-conservative, politicized churches is apparently on the march, though there are no firm numbers because the congregations are mostly nondenominational. The belief system provides a godly underpinning for right-wing activism in venues like school-board elections, anti-vaccine protests, and the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol.

"This is a spiritual battle. It's good versus evil," says congregant Jim Willis, after the service. He's a 72-year-old retired army colonel and software salesman, who wears on his lapel an American flag inside of a Christian cross. "And, unfortunately, evil has taken charge."

The barn-like Patriot Church, with the giant American flag painted on the roof, has prospered. There are currently about 350 church members in the four campuses, in Tennessee, Virginia and Washington State, with two more locations underway.


https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/news/evangelicals-debate-their-role-political-activists-trump-era-n1281422


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — At the Patriot Church on the outskirts of the city, politics and religion mix freely under a flag-painted roof.

“This nation was founded on predominantly Christian values by predominantly Christian people. We just want to keep that in play,” Pastor Ken Peters told “MTP Reports.”

Peters doesn’t consider politics a private matter. He voted for President Donald Trump last year, and he wanted every member of his congregation to know it and to do the same. He then marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

To Peters and many other pastors like him, the stakes are high. Many in the white evangelical community feel under siege from a socially liberal mainstream culture increasingly out of step with their beliefs.

“They can’t stand Christian culture,” Peters said. “Why? Because we believe marriage is between a man and a woman. We believe that there are only two genders. We believe that life in the womb is actually human life, and they’re murdering human life for money.”

The beliefs are increasingly hard to separate from partisan politics. White evangelicals have long been described as the foot soldiers of the Republican Party, and that held true last year, when exit polls found that close to 8 in 10 voted Republican in the presidential contest.

It’s all fueling a growing Christian nationalist movement that links love of God to love of country and often a very specific vision of what that country should look like.


Willis says he and his wife fled California because of heavy-handed pandemic restrictions and headed to Tennessee. He says the Holy Spirit led them to the Patriot Church, which is not afraid to jump into the fray.

"We know what (the enemy's) agenda is," he continues, with a steely gaze. "Their agenda is to close down churches, to get rid of religion permanently in this country."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2022 08:29PM by anybody.

getting rid of religion??...works for me.

Especially his sort of "religion."

Substitute the word "Christian" for "white" and you get the picture.

Religion to me means someone wanting to make stupid rules to control or punish me and or take my money. All of them. Every friggin church. No exceptions.

But to him, it means something else.

They have created their own "religion" to justify their hate.

Ask him who he voted for.

Dear Eric,

Do you have a way to private message me? I have compiled a 2+page list of opposite beliefs of Christians and Mormons.

Also I have an 18 page compilation of reasons why Mormonism cannot be true. (I sent some of them to Richard Packham and he complimented me on things I found which he had never thought of.)

I would love to forward both to you to print or use however you think might be best, to make TBMS think.

My problem is: I don't know how to send the whole thing in a PDF file. I'm pretty computer illiterate and would have to be walked through the process.

I'm not sure what your email is. If I have that, I could send you a couple of sample excerpts to see if you think the rest is worth sending.

Thanks,
Hollensnopper

Tried that--didn't work

maybe someone will tell me where to find Eric's email address

did you click on his name on this thread on the home page?