I predict it’ll require brain surgery.
Pretty much. They need legitimate cult deprogramming.
And if you have the conversational acumen and feel safe doing so, giving them a safe space to dialog and ask questions in good faith can be a good place to start.
The interviewee basically said that he was able to get out once he was able to do that, which is huge, because Fundamentalism often disparages asking questions.
giving them a safe space to dialog and ask questions in good faith can be a good place to start.
That’s the rub, though, isn’t it? Too many of them simply aren’t prepared to discuss such things in good faith. They often approach any discussion with an outsider defensively. Getting them to let their guard down long enough to have an honest conversation isn’t always as simple as giving them the space to do so. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
It certainly is the rub. It’s not something I’d undertake with just any random fundie. I’d have to know them and what kind of person they are, first.
I suppose you might say it’s about leveraging relational equity to have a dialogue.
Cast them into the sea. Give them one of those olde tyme punishments from the good book.
Nothing. They’re cultists. They support the exact opposite of what Jesus stood for, and just want the world to burn so they can be raptured to heaven, to hell with everyone else.
Fuck them.
Can we stage a faux rapture and relocate them to one of the earth’s polar regions?
The sun would be a better climate for them.
I made it out, somehow
Same. Although it wasn’t easy.
And I think the more you sort of say to people, “You’re one of them,” I think the more you leave them little room, and you’re pushing them towards those extremists.
I think we would benefit from keeping this in mind more. There’s some rampant labeling online, sometimes just based on a profile photo, that practically traps some people into shitty views. As much as it’s fun to OK boomer or Karen people, that shit is probably very alienating in a way that isn’t leaving a clear path back into the fold of moral approval.
I dunno, man. If I say something off-hand and get called a racist or homophobe or transphobe or bigot or misogynist or whatever, I take a hard introspective look at what I said and why it was perceived that way. I don’t pull a Principle Skinner and say everyone else is wrong before digging in even deeper.
These people were just fine standing among their white supremacist brethren until they started being called out for their shit.
There is nothing we can do but wait for the second coming
It’s been 2000 years. I think it might not end up happening.
Honestly, if evangelicals want their witness back and for people to actually take them seriously, they have to decouple themselves from the Republican Party.
They always say they are being persecuted for their faith. No, no one’s persecuting anyone. You’re being criticized for your extremist politics, which is totally fair game. In turn, that it trashing your witness and you feel persecuted.
There’s plenty we can do. Don’t give your money/tithes to churches who support Christian nationalism. Don’t attend those churches. Call out their false beliefs. Don’t vote for people who support Christian nationalism. Get it through the minds of Christians that their personal religious beliefs don’t get to be used to control the rest of the population.
If y’all sit on your asses waiting for the 2nd coming (something that was supposed to happen before Jesus’ contemporary generation died) then YOU are the problem.
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