Deep Dive: American Christianities

On a recent "Morning Joe" political show, Joe Scarborough was perplexed that the Evangelicalism of his upbringing was not what he is seeing today. He could not understand how Republican Evangelicals can totally turn from the "love your enemy, feed and clothe the poor, turn the other cheek" Jesus and instead, lock up immigrants in prison camps, take money from the poor and give it to the rich. How could this possibly happen?
Ever since the first "Great Awakening" in the early 1700s, Evangelical theology has been constantly evolving to coopt and placate the political ideology of the day. By the time of the "Second Great Awakening" in the mid-1800s, Evangelicals had found a way for the Bible/God to approve of slavery and racism. The Civil War was essentially a war over theology, and a war over whose side God was on.
And in the early 1900's, Evangelicals used their evolving theology to partner with the wealthy corporations of the day to try to undo the "socialist" New Deal of FDR. The Civil Rights Movement, abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, etc., have been nothing but theological battles, pitting progressive/liberal Christians (and non-believers) against Evangelicalism.
In today's version of Evangelicalism, morality and the teachings of Jesus no longer apply to their theology - it's more about the wrath of God in the Old Testament and the wrath of Jesus in Revelation, separating the "righteous believer" from all the rest. It's about making America "great" by making it an Evangelical Theocracy.
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