Two key points
"There were also demographic forces at work, beginning with the G.I. Bill, which sent a pioneering generation of evangelicals to college. Probably the greatest boost to the prosperity of evangelicals as a group came with the Sun Belt expansion of the 1970's and the Texas oil boom, which brought new wealth and businesses to the regions where evangelical churches had been most heavily concentrated."
"The conservative Christian political movement seldom developed in poor, rural Bible Belt towns. Instead, its wellsprings were places like the Rev. Ed Young's booming mega-church in suburban Houston or the Rev. Timothy LaHaye's in Orange County, Calif., where evangelical professionals and businessmen had the wherewithal to push back against the secular culture by organizing boycotts, electing school board members and lobbying for conservative judicial appointments."
Ironically, getting an education from the satan-fueled liberal arts colleges in America, thanks to democrats creating the GI Bill, gave rise to the beginnings of a cycle of cash which allowed evangelicals to make more money--and give more to the church...its interesting that this church was growing, at least the article suggests, from wealthy roots..
[this is part of the reason why i am trying--with little success--to get kossacks to call the "southern elites" what they are..but this is another story completely]
If you read through the article, and I'm not suggesting you do, what you see is the same theme over and over again: Money, money, and money. Even the young "rising" evangelical they profile says he is not sure what his life will be like because "I don't have any money yet."
Now, im no religious expert--and feel free to jump in if you are--but i dont know of any sect of religion that is so heavily concerned with money, cycling it back with the church, and justifing making more money for yourself.
I know we all know that the part about helping the poor is lost when we talk about religious "values" in america. but what strikes me as just how centerd the "value" of making money--and keeping it in your social circle is so damned praised in these sects.
But, let's face it. In any religion, you're trying to get closer to God, right? And we all know that "God has plenty of money"
which means you should, too?
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