I have a sick obsession with Christian Nationalists and the theocracy they want to enact in this country. They're the opposite of everything we need, and at a deep level I don't understand them and how they can think what they want makes sense in general, let alone in this country.
A recent Why Is This Happening podcast was helpful, while still a bit frightening. The guest was Doug Pagitt, an evangelical pastor who heads a group called Vote Common Good. As the description on the podcast says, the group "has been on a nationwide tour focused on directly engaging evangelicals in key swing states with the hope of swaying a critical percentage of them against former President Donald Trump."
One of the most memorable moments in the podcast was Pagitt describing a person he talked to near the Texas border who didn't believe Trump had said immigrants are polluting the blood of America. Pagitt showed him a quote; the guy didn't believe it was real. Someone just says Trump said that, he claimed. So Pagitt showed him video of Trump saying it. And the guy said, "Well he only said that once. It might not have been what he meant."
Jaw-dropping.
But Pagitt interprets that to mean the guy himself doesn't agree with what Trump was saying, and since he can't reconcile that fact, he pretends to himself that it's not what Trump means.
Which of course is b.s., but it's very charitable and gives some basis for Pagitt to be able to talk to a person like this and maybe make some headway in changing his mind about Trump.
It's work that's beyond me, but it takes people like Pagitt to do it, as well as ex-evangelicals who are there for all the people who are leaving churches these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment