There are lots of parallels in my town. The college is Catholic so that’s not likely a factor but there’s a military base, a huge military conservative chapel, a large homeschooling/Christian school community, and an organized white evangelical takeover of the public school boards. City government is also increasingly evangelical. Most ballots pit “Christians” against “ungodly Democrats.” The local message boards are awful re hate politics. And it’s racist.
It’s also something to look into if the Catholic “push” in your town is being orchestrated by Opus Dei a very nationalistic and cultic offshoot of Catholicism.
It does not have to be Opus Dei. Any old Catholic group can fall into culty, smells-and-bells euphoria of traditionalist Catholicism or hand-waving-tamborine-ing of modern(70s) Catholicism. Neither of these movements are bad in themselves, but when the "beauty" or aesthetic is USED TO HIDE POOR CHARACTER formation of the people within the group, that is the problem, and that is when people start turning blind eyes to abuse within their own circles. Wrote about that here:
I wrote about discerning between “is my group healthy or culty?” here for our local Catholic diocese to help wake them up to what’s happening in subgroups in our area.
Also here I show how any group that prioritizes spiritual formation AT THE EXPENSE OF basic human formation of learning to stand up for one’s own and other’s dignity is ripe for enabling abusers.
The internet has long been the connective tissue of things like Christian nationalism, conservative religious homeschooling, patriarchy and so forth. A lot of the discussion boards from the 90's through the zeros no longer exist as they were either on provider-specific discussion boards or on servers that are now defunct but they gave a front row view of the culture and the thinking that drove it.
There are lots of parallels in my town. The college is Catholic so that’s not likely a factor but there’s a military base, a huge military conservative chapel, a large homeschooling/Christian school community, and an organized white evangelical takeover of the public school boards. City government is also increasingly evangelical. Most ballots pit “Christians” against “ungodly Democrats.” The local message boards are awful re hate politics. And it’s racist.
Most of these Christian Nationalists don't think Catholics are Christians, so they'd probably try extra hard to convert them.
It’s also something to look into if the Catholic “push” in your town is being orchestrated by Opus Dei a very nationalistic and cultic offshoot of Catholicism.
Also true!!
It does not have to be Opus Dei. Any old Catholic group can fall into culty, smells-and-bells euphoria of traditionalist Catholicism or hand-waving-tamborine-ing of modern(70s) Catholicism. Neither of these movements are bad in themselves, but when the "beauty" or aesthetic is USED TO HIDE POOR CHARACTER formation of the people within the group, that is the problem, and that is when people start turning blind eyes to abuse within their own circles. Wrote about that here:
I wrote about discerning between “is my group healthy or culty?” here for our local Catholic diocese to help wake them up to what’s happening in subgroups in our area.
https://substack.com/@exposecoercivecontrol/note/p-189202503?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=5h0elg
Also here I show how any group that prioritizes spiritual formation AT THE EXPENSE OF basic human formation of learning to stand up for one’s own and other’s dignity is ripe for enabling abusers.
https://substack.com/@exposecoercivecontrol/note/p-189202583?r=5h0elg&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Can you dig into how they were able to get removed from Wayback???? That’s insane
It’s tough: https://help.archive.org/help/how-do-i-request-to-remove-something-from-archive-org/
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The internet has long been the connective tissue of things like Christian nationalism, conservative religious homeschooling, patriarchy and so forth. A lot of the discussion boards from the 90's through the zeros no longer exist as they were either on provider-specific discussion boards or on servers that are now defunct but they gave a front row view of the culture and the thinking that drove it.
Thanks for the shoutout Abby!
I think we may have different visions of Christ’s kingdom.
As a Christian, I can assure you I don’t!