As some here may recall, when I was an undergraduate and just after my first degree, I was a fundamentalist. I had a "challenging " childhood. By middle school I was engaging in self-harm and had attempted suicide. It got worse. However, at my university a next door neighbor in my dorm shared the gospel with me and I became a fundamentalist Christian. I memorized three books of the New Testament word for word, NIV, and I could tell you where you were reading from within five verses if you read any verse from the New Testament to me in any translation. I was very familiar with the Old Testament. I served on eight mission trips. I served on Evangelism Explosion for two years. I was taught how to study the Bible and to have devotions daily and daily prayer and to memorize Scripture . I taught hermeneutics and I also taught many Bible studies. I tended to stay away from topics and to simply teach entire books of the Bible, teaching word by word, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter, using context, analysis , diagramming (of sentences) and charting and the observation, interpretation and application approach as Living by the Book author and DTS Professor Howard Hendricks wrote and taught.
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I worked at a fundamentalist Christian bookstore and bought and read a lot of reformed classic works. I was told my primary spiritual gift was teaching and encouragement was my second spiritual gift. My pastors told me that they thought I was called to vocational ministry. I lived with them prior to our marriages, theirs and mine. These people were very nice to me and made me feel loved and part of a community and valued as long as I was holding to orthodox dogma and living consistent with their teaching. I had many friends. The major for my first degree was a composite specialization consisting of political science (18 hrs), economics (15 hrs), and history (15 hrs). Because of how many hours were in my major, I didn't need a minor. However, the way that my mission trips worked led to what would have been a minor if I needed one. I was taking a first class in Spanish (4 classes are required) and then my mentor suggested that I go on a mission trip to Mexico. I went and had the best time because the people I met were so wonderful 😊. So, I took another class in Spanish and went on another mission trip to Mexico. Soon, I had completed 29 hours in Spanish and had served on the eight mission trips I mentioned above. I became bilingual and served as a translator both professionally for the Frito Lay Corporation and on the mission trips. I became a fifth grade bilingual teacher.
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Again, my pastors told me that they believed that I was called to vocational ministry. However, that didn't pan out 😕😔 somehow. I could go into details, but it doesn't matter. I was interested in mathematics and so I went back to school and earned a couple more degrees in mathematics. During that time, I began to question my beliefs. The first problem I had with my faith I was the fact that the GOP denies anthropogenic climate when I know it is true. The second issue that drove me away from my former faith was racism/social justice issues that gripped my conscience. I couldn't help but see the inequity within our society and that the Republican Party promotes bigoted policies. My first vote for a presidential candidate who was a democrat was for Barack Obama. A divorce ensued and I was shunned. I had no other close friends although I had connections in my academic community. I joined Daily Kos sometimes in 2005. However, the vast majority of my Facebook friends are fundamentalists. I have made my views clear on Facebook. I reply to posts that push the big lie and conspiracy theories.... So, a fundamentalist posted something that strongly implied that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election but it was stolen from him and President Joe Biden stole all this money from the American people.
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Donald Trump is a shit human. He's a sociopath, he has antisocial personality disorder, is a bigot, is an extreme present hedonist, and is a malignant narcissist. This is known. But he could not have gotten elected in 2016 without help from the Republicans in Congress. And they might not have gone along with this if either they had some modicum of character and integrity and/or if republican voters didn't back Donald Trump no matter what he said or did. As African American women are the base of our Democratic Party, so are fundamentalists the base for the Republican Party. So, the fundamental problem that the Republican Party has is that their base, the fundamentalists, backs everything that Donald Trump says and does. And that is a blatant contradiction to what they claim to believe and live and diametrically opposed to my experience while living within the fundamentalist community but consistent with my shunning.
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I posted a long detailed comment to the Facebook post that I described above. That post, again, strongly implied hat Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election but that Joe Biden stole it and that Joe Biden also stole all the money from the American people. In response to my comment, somebody wrote " (my name) dude, you really need a hobby! "
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What follows is my reply to that post:
***_********* Yeah, democracy is important and Donald Trump's attempted coup is very bad. Trump KNEW he lost. Donald Trump was told this by his own attorney general, Bill Barr, his campaign manager, Bill Steppien, his campaign data person Matt Oczkowski, his acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, his acting deputy attorney general Richard Donaghue, his cyber security election expert within DHS, Chris Krebs, republicans in state government whether it be Doug Ducey , the republican governor of AZ, Michigan state legislators, Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers, GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Gabriel Sterling who gave multiple press conferences in which he debunked all the crazy conspiracy theories in 2 hour press conferences. Moreover, Donald Trump knew that he had lost 61 of 62 court cases. So, he KNEW he lost the 2020 presidential election and that it was NOT stolen. Yet, he tried to stay in power by attempting a coup through various means including inciting the insurrection. 2/3 of Americans know that Trump lost. Yet, 3/4 of republican voters believe the big lie, the lie that says that the election was stolen when it was not. 80% of fundamentalists still support Trump and they as well as the wider set of republican voters seem to believe and push the big lie and other false conspiracy theories. The overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives KNOW that Joe Biden won a free and fair election, devoid of widespread voter fraud that would have been required to alter the outcome of the election. Yet 2/3 of House Republicans voted to not count the electoral college votes of the swing states which gave President Biden a majority of the electoral college votes, despite knowing it was a lie. 139/211 ~14/21~2/3 did this because they were afraid that republican voters in their congressional districts would vote for their opponent in a primary as Donald Trump would direct them. Since republican voters supported Trump despite the fact that he had attempted a coup and they took whatever lies he spoke as true, then Trump could use these people, his voters/supporters, to pressure republicans in the US Congress to support everything he said.
In other words, those of you who support everything Trump says and does are the root of the problem. A strong majority of Americans understand that Trump is a shit human, not merely a bigot and an extreme present hedonist, but a malignant narcissist who wants to be KING and destroy our democracy.
But what about fundamentalists? What kind of humans are they? They make claims to represent Christ on Earth and to live a righteous life as James 2:14-26, 2Cor 5:17, Romans 6 teach.
Yet they support the malignant narcissist even after the' malignant narcissist's attempt at a coup. They place our democracy at risk. They support the malignant narcissist's allies and his actions.
I am at a quandary about what to conclude about fundamentalists who seem absolutely committed to incinerating their witness and destroying the credibility of the gospel in addition to helping eradicate democracy.
I like having a democracy and the right to vote and having that vote count. So, I am not silent about this. I use reliable sources in my posts just in case some fundamentalist might be of noble heart like the BEREANS and be swayed by the truth and require support for the truth.
Thus, I not infrequently write long posts because I care about retaining our democracy.
I play basketball most days. I lift weights and then do 90 minutes of cardio after lifting weights. Chest and triceps day 1, back and biceps day 2, legs day 3,- repeat. Every day.
I've got hobbies. That doesn't take away from the importance of retaining our democracy for me.
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