Idols Fall

When it comes to Donald Trump, the weird thing is that a lot of Christians tend to put him on a pedestal, much moreso than they do with somebody who’s an actual self-proclaimed Christian like Jimmy Carter. Even if Mr Carter was not a saint in life, so is Mr Trump considering his affairs and pride. If pride goes before the fall (I kind of struggle with this), perhaps Trump’s downfall will come sooner than expected. This prophecy says that he’s going to die because so many people have turned him into an idol, trusting in a mere mortal more than they do with God. The idolatry of Trump is also largely responsible for why some people turn away from Christianity, if because they can’t stand Christians putting him on a pedestal and overlooking his faults a lot.

Until recently when it came to Paula White (a heretical pastor) being at the White House, but it does make you wonder why so many Christians make an idol out of him. Far moreso than they do with Jimmy Carter, who may not have been perfect, but it seems easier to overlook faults in Trump. I feel some of the problems with Trumpism is how populist he tends to be, pandering more to people’s sentiments than aiming for the betterment of humanity. In some regards, he’s like the opposite of Jesus who not only understood human feelings, but also demanded humans to better themselves in his name. Trump barely does this if ever, possibly never does this at all because he’s really full of himself.

If Trump was sent by God to Christians, the problem lies in worshipping the gift over the Giver. To the point where God will see fit to withdraw the blessing from them, just so they can honour him more (the one who’s really in charge of this). Trump might not be unique among prominent figures to be turned into idols by many Christians and especially Protestants oddly enough, since they do this with authors like CS Lewis. It’s even odder still to think that the current Trump administration has a lot of wealthy people at the upper echelons that it’s practically a plutocracy, rule by the very rich really. Whilst an actual aristocracy, gentry and the like wouldn’t be any better, it’s strange considering what America turned into.

The first democracy of the early modern period has morphed into a plutocracy, transforming from being ruled by the people to only a handful deemed fit to rule over the people. In this case it’s not so much through hereditary landownership and the like among gentry and aristocracy as it is in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, but rather through sheer wealth and corporate power as it is with present day America. Whilst Christianity says that the love of money is the root of all money, looking down on materialism and favouring the poor over the rich, Trump’s administration turns these on their heads where money is beloved, materialism is condoned and the rich are favoured over the poor.

Apparently somebody like Donald Trump is fit to rule over people due to a combination of his sheer financial wealth and his populist sentiment, surprisingly among Christians who should know better. Being rich and powerful is more important to the second Trump administration than being generous and compassionate, so this is likely why USAID got dissolved or something. This only makes it easier for America’s rivals (both China and Russia, which are God’s tools of indignation against this country) to give gifts and other resources to suffering countries instead, it’s as if America doesn’t want to help people anymore and is more interested in holding onto power as it’s slipping away quickly.

Trying to incorporate Canada, Greenland and Panama into America proper, reverting Mount Denali to Mount McKinley (thus disregarding the feelings of indigenous people there) and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, in all honesty the Gulf of America will always be known as the Gulf of Mexico to me. X will always be Twitter to me and still is so in Japan, though it’s harrowing to see Elon Musk not only turn Twitter into his soapbox but also how he got a place in the US government. Then again the rest of the Trump administration is rich, it wouldn’t matter if you have a more politically qualified but middle class or even working class candidate when you could have somebody rich but unqualified.

Even then it’s telling how and why America’s increasingly becoming not only more irrelevant, but also judged for what it does and why it’s going to get destroyed. God has given it time to repent but it doesn’t seem to repent in earnest at least, not helped by that too many Christians put their faith in both Trump and the nation-state, instead of God and his body. As if geopolitics matter more than faith in God, which transcends borders and eras. The things the Bible said before are still relevant to today and any situation, really (from my experience but it applies to everybody and everything else, anybody and anything else). Even if Donald Trump wants America to be great again like it was the last time, it’s not going to happen in any way he likes.

Under him and subsequent presidents (Kamala Harris and Barack Obama), America might slide into dictatorship and fascism, which others have suspecting of undergoing this in some way. As much as Trump wants America to be great again, he will wage real war against the nations to get his way real badly. He’ll make America get into a war with two European countries, both Denmark and Britain, just to get Canada and Greenland. Should these two consider allying with Russia, he’s going to find a way to undermine it no matter how unsuccessful this is in the long run. Them joining Russia may not happen in the time that I expect them to, though it’s possible Trump might be successful in getting both at first, only to have them join Russia later on.

Actually even if Trump does succeed in consolidating both Greenland and Canada into the wider American sphere proper, it’s not going to last long nor is it going to end well when he does (come close to it). If because he might drag the nation into a nasty conflict with not only China, but also Russia which plans on bombing and nuking this country. America will be the sore loser in this fight, something Trump himself will be unable to prevent or even avert in advance, because it’s going to lose. I had a dream involving a war where China does get the Philippines, but as a comeuppance of the latter’s own sins that it’s on itself why it got to be part of China. A case of God using evil to deal with evil, as what somebody else pointed out.

It would be no different if God uses Russia to punish America so badly, that it’s going to take both Canada and Greenland away from it sooner than expected. There are even some people like the Handmaid of the Most High, Celestial and Glynda Lomax all saying that America will become the territory of another country, in fact the other two said that it’s going to be Russia that’s going to take over America. Not just culturally but also geopolitically, where America becomes part of Russia in some way or another. A Russian colony whereas both Greenland and Canada have gone on to become Russian protectorates, commonwealths or something.

It wouldn’t matter if Trump found a way to bring Canada and Greenland to the US, because it’s going to be temporary and not without nasty consequences. It already is happening with Canadians preferring to buy Canadian brands and products, Greenlanders might be no different in some way too. If taken to a logical or perhaps consequential conclusion, America might find itself becoming more irrelevant in their lives and be overtaken by Russia. But America becoming overshadowed by Russia and China is bound to happen, both of them will defeat America together in WWIII (which could happen anytime soon). Even if Trump does succeed, it’s only temporary for he’s an idol of many.

He may not die yet, though he could at any point. He wants to rule over Canada, but he may not succeed in the long run. Perhaps it’s about time for Trump followers to confront his humanity, over his inability to succeed at what he wants to do due to his own arrogance. If pride goes before the fall, Trump may witness a downfall in political prowess. More countries will revolt against America, even allies like the Philippines will begin to protest against it. Trump might want to prolong American rule, but God will undermine his efforts to bring him down once and for all.

Move to high church

As to why so many young Evangelicals become Catholic (or turn to high church traditions in general), this is sometimes motivated by a desire to seek faith though in very unexpected places. I ended up going to Catholic devotionals simply because I want more devotionals to read, as well as looking up on the various Catholic traditions all over the world to reconnect to my Christian faith. But it’s also possible why some turn to Catholicism is because they’re curious about what it’s all about, sometimes not in ways they don’t realise given their upbringing.

As I realised from going to Catholic devotionals, they don’t really worship Mary and the saints as much as others make it out to be. In fact, some of the Catholic devotionals I’ve read contain significant passages from the Bible itself. As if Protestant mistrust of Catholicism and anything similar to it is rooted in both dehumanisation and ignorance, since it’s quite common for Protestants to see anything Catholic as anything unChristian. Even though if you’ve read actual Catholic texts, there’s a heavy mention of God and the Bible somewhere.

Some Evangelicals become Catholic because they’re actually curious about it, some become Catholic because they want a deeper relationship with God. Just not in ways their elders and peers expect, but that would mean their attitude to faith’s rather transactional or at least more superficial than they’d realise. I feel with Evangelicalism, there’s a big emphasis on something showy instead of something deep. It’s this easy to become disillusioned with Evangelicalism, especially when compounded by prejudice.

I understand why exvangelicals become the way they are, the Christianity they were exposed to is rather spiritually superficial. Built more on superstar pastors and a preoccupation with strict gender roles, which is ironically more in line with their enemies (Catholics, but also Muslims when it comes to modesty). When you build your faith on following superstars, it can be easy to fall into idolatry if one’s not careful. If only Evangelicals realised this, this would involve realising they are hypocrites.

So becoming high church is their way of seeking a deeper relationship with God, in ways people don’t expect nor understand immediately. Well that’s how it is with me when it comes to perusing Catholic and Orthodox devotionals in addition to the Protestant ones, it’s really a matter of seeking a deeper faith in God. Sometimes the message and beliefs are the same wherever you go, or so as I found out in life.

How can you accuse someone of having something in their eyes when it’s the same with you, per the Bible if I’m not mistaken? This is pretty much why exvangelicals exist, they’ve had enough with the ignorance and petty prejudice all their lives. This is also why exvangelicals turn to other denominations, if because they want a deeper faith. You can’t get deep faith if this were based on showy celebrities, which Evangelicalism is prone to at times.

Deep faith is important, regardless of the denomination you belong to.

Christianity’s loss is paganism’s gain

There are reports and statistics showing that more women are leaving Christianity than men, I think it boils down to serious sexism in evangelical churches where despite the variety of Biblical female characters; the ideal woman is often somebody who’s pure, pious, into homemaking and the like. Even if one were to bring up any Biblical female character, the problem lies in how they dictate morals and codes to certain people. It doesn’t help that in some Christian circles, women are expected to leave their jobs and be homemakers. This is off-putting to women who have to work outside of the home so that they can support their families, whether if they work in healthcare or in the factory.

If the thin ideal is damaging to women, so is the homemaking ideal and why it’s putting off so many women. While paganism might not be any better, I believe the number of women in paganism to be possibly higher than in Christianity especially at this point. Future research may point out what I suspected, especially if paganism offers something that Christianity failed to show. I feel paganism offers a wider variety of female role models to look up to, they don’t have to be a homemaker. They don’t even have to be the perfect wife. While some Christian denominations do offer singleness as an option, especially when it comes to ascetism, the problem is Evangelicalism offers marriage as the ideal and the baseline for all women to aspire to.

Same with motherhood and how this goes against some women’s own biological problems, in addition to other women’s indifference to children. I feel Christianity failed women not just because of the rampant abuse they endure, but also because Evangelicals failed to offer a wider variety of role models to look up to. Christianity does have a wider variety of female role models, much wider when it comes to Orthodox and Catholic saints. But it doesn’t utilise those to their fullest extents, which’s why women are leaving the church in greater numbers these days. Paganism, in contrast, doesn’t have the same hang ups as Christianity does. I also think its role models are more relatable to women.

Especially if they’re not always the perfect housewife model, that they come off as more attainable to other women this way. I also think Christianity failed women because it fails to protect women from abusers, especially if they’ve had enough of it for so long that it has to stop. I think it has to do with what I call toxic forgiveness, that’s the tendency to forgive somebody who constantly does the same bad things without being convicted in any way. The failure to convict somebody who constantly sins and doesn’t bother learning from it is why more people distrust Christians, especially if they fail to prevent or minimise abuse if it bothers them so much.

If God can withdraw his grace from somebody who always sins and never repents, Christians should do the same thing too but that involves holding somebody accountable for what they do. That involves making them live with the consequences of their actions, it’s like you know somebody who works in healthcare but gets fired for her constant faults that she has to lie in bed and sleep there too. The failure to hold abusers accountable for their actions is what costs them the loss of their believers, this one of the reasons why so many women leave Christianity. They have enough of being abused, to the point where they leave faith altogether.

I feel if Christians did that, that involves making them responsible for what they do. If they keep on doing the same bad things, never repenting in any way then they should sow what they reap. In this case, it’s the growing loss of believers. I don’t think Christianity does a good job at protecting the innocent, especially when it comes to toxic forgiveness hanging in the air, that it’s easier for Christians to let it slide for as long as they ‘forgive’ the abuser who doesn’t even repent or change their ways. They never hold them accountable for their actions, if they did then they’d have to be harsher than usual whenever they do those things.

If God can be harsh to an entire nation for not repenting, so should Christians when it comes to unrepentant abusers. Christians are so insensitive to others’ feelings, that is one of the reasons why they leave Christianity. I know this from experience and why it’s so persistent in Christianity, that it seems other religions don’t have this problem. Better to be treated well in another house than to be subjected to constant abuse in the one you’re used to. Christianity’s loss is paganism’s gain, if Christians fail to address any systemic problems then more women will leave. More people in general will leave the faith for something else. But that would mean Christians failed at doing the right thing.

If it continues, then Christians have failed to save people from being abused.

None of it

According to new research at Christianity Today, more younger women than men are identifying as nones. I think it’s got to do with strict gender roles in some Christian roles, which don’t always make good practical sense for other occupations. Nursing is one of those jobs that make it hard to balance work and family, even if it’s always possible to an extent as that involves having to save one life out of necessity. So it’s never going to be easy, especially when compared to something like starting a garment business at home. The one advantage of starting a clothing business at home is that you could still have enough time for your family and your relatives may even see what you’re doing, so they’ll imitate that later on in life.

So the homemaker ideal is practically impossible for many nurses to achieve, especially if they have families around to attend to. Working at a part-time job’s pretty much one of the better ways of achieving this, but that means the homemaker ideal is inaccessible to many women. Especially if they work at jobs that require several more hours to do, that working as a homemaker isn’t ideal as that adds even more hours of work when they want to take a break. Both jobs that allow flexible work hours, work at home and part-time jobs are the only jobs that make it easier to fulfill the homemaker stereotype, but that involves realising only certain jobs come close to such an expectation.

I’m afraid many Christians who subscribe to such gender roles fail to take certain jobs into consideration, but that involves realistically realising some jobs require you to spend less time with your family especially if somebody else’s life is at stack as it is with nursing. Supposing if somebody works as an animator, since a lot of it involves carefully depicting movements in real time that it’s going to take more time to finish than doing comic strips. Certain tools have made it easier to do things more efficiently, but even then not all jobs are created equally. I don’t think people are willing to consider things practically, especially when it comes to certain jobs like nursing.

What could be said about women who work at fast-food restaurants where they have to cook food for people almost every time, besides cooking takes a lot of time to do so if somebody starts cooking for a living they will spend a lot of time cooking so much food for so many people that a homemaker stereotype is going to be near-impossible to achieve. Quite frankly, why so many young women become nones is because the Christianity they’re raised with is rather sexist. Its ideals don’t translate well to practical realities, especially in jobs that require someone to work outside the home. It could be the restaurant, it could be the hospital. It could also be the bank or the theatre.

But that actually involves realising it’s not a one-size fits all solution to problems women face, especially if certain jobs don’t mesh well with complimentarian ideals. I’m afraid Christians fail to take occupational requirements into consideration, especially for women who work in fields like nursing and fast food chains. If they did, that involves realising some of it’s necessary. If Jesus had a parable about a shepherd who had to make sacrifices to find his one sheep, they should realising it’s similar in healthcare where sometimes professionals have to sacrifice their family and friends to save needy, sickly patients. Not to mention there was a connection between Christian monasticism and healthcare before.

For some reason, this isn’t considered by Christians even if it fits the loving your neighbour part when it comes to handling patients. This is why so many young women are alienated by Christianity, some of the ideals it preaches is impractical to some of the jobs they work in. Certain occupations have different schedules, therefore different hours and days of working. If you have a part time job in sewing, it makes it easier to spend time with your family. If you have a fulltime job as a nurse, sometimes you have to sacrifice family for saving someone’s life. This has got to be one of complimentarianism’s biggest blindspots, especially when it comes to certain jobs.

Including certain female-predominated jobs like nursing where one has to work long hours to save somebody from a life-threatening disease, so balancing family-work is going to be a tough act for nurses to follow. Even if somebody works at home, it’s not easy balancing family and work when it comes to long hours at times. I know as my own father’s like this, I don’t think many Christians are quick to realise some of the drawbacks to the ideals they preach when it comes to complimentarianism. Even if somebody works at home, she wouldn’t always have time for her children. So the homemaker ideal isn’t easily achievable.

To make matters worse, in America evangelicalism has become so closely tied to macho conservatism that it’s going to alienate women a lot. Especially if it’s always based on strict gender roles and serious machismo that it’s not appealing to many women, that’s why so many of them leave. I also think the number of women leaving Christianity might be much higher, especially if paganism were to be taken into consideration. Paganism isn’t ideal, but when it comes to having relatable role models it has those in spades. I guess part of the problem with the Evangelical subculture’s that there’s really not a lot of relatable role models to look up to.

In evangelicalism, the ideal woman is often the homemaking housewife. This leaves little room for women who work elsewhere to support their families as I said before, even though at some point Christianity was this closely tied to healthcare. Healthcare’s also one of those fields with a substantial female workforce, but one where evangelicals seemingly ignore a lot if it weren’t for their habit of turning the homemaker into the gold standard for Christian womanhood. While Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy aren’t entirely any better, with so many single women leaving evangelicalism and these two having celibacy as an option perhaps that’s why some women flock to these denominations.

It’s not necessary wrong to be a housewife, but when it becomes the gold standard for evangelical womanhood it becomes impractical to those who live contrary to it. Be it single women, those working in healthcare, factories or any occupation that requires you to leave your family for an extended time. I don’t think the housewife stereotype is ideal for certain working wives, given the nature of things like healthcare and factory work. Mothers working in healthcare and factories do their best to provide for their families, even if they may not always attend to them the way they wanted to.

I feel evangelicalism’s insistence on the housewife has done them dirty, not so much that marriage and family are incompatible with careers and God. But that it doesn’t take into consideration that it’s not easy working long hours in healthcare and factories, that it’s going to alienate those kinds of women anyways. The perfect homemaker is too unattainable for these people, precisely because it’s so impractical in the fields they work in and chose to. I don’t think people will realise this, even if it has alienated so many women because there’s no way they can ever fit the ideal.

Perhaps a new model’s needed, especially if it necessitates bringing young women back to God.

You have only yourself to blame

I guess one of the reasons why people keep seeing Christianity as a western religion isn’t helped by that many missionaries expect the locals to adapt to their cultures and needs, not the other way around especially if they’re coming from a western country. They don’t respect the locals’ cultures and needs, they put them off so that’s why they have a hard time gaining as much followers as they wanted. Something like expecting them to adhere to a strict version of Protestantism, instead of adapting Protestantism to their own cultural attitudes and beliefs as it is with Pentecostalism in Ghana and Nigeria or Catholicism in Mexico.

Cultural attitudes can be changed, but not always to the extent missionaries wanted if they don’t know how to adapt Christianity to the locals’ needs and desires. This is also generally why Christianity has such difficulty attracting different people these days, it’s always about the whims and feelings of the privileged, not to those who’re really disenfranchised and voiceless. A suicidal person wants a peace of mind, they don’t want to suffer any further. Even the Bible says that God puts a kibosh on somebody’s suffering, but insisting that they use their suffering to be reliant on God only worsens their mental health. Hence why some people leave Christianity, they don’t want to be put through the wringer anymore.

That’s why they question and doubt whether or not God can heal, either that or accepting that God can be very fickle and strong-willed is something Christians will have a hard time accepting. I don’t think Christians are going to accept a God who’s fickle, even if it makes more sense why would he not answer prayers all the time and that he does whatever he does. That’s why Christians will have difficulty understanding unbelievers’ feelings about God, they have Christian privilege in the sense of being so privileged to know God knows them but I don’t think others know any better. But they don’t deserve to be infantilised and lectured a lot either, this is why Christians have a hard time attracting those from different cultures.

I think if they actually understood the local culture and adapted Christianity to it, they’d attract more followers this way. But if Christians continue to be insensitive to them, well to be honest Christians from my experience are a very insensitive lot, they’ll never attract as many people as they wanted.

A toxic relationship

I personally feel as if Christianity, especially American Christianity’s close relationship with right wing politics has ruined it to the point of burning bridges for others. I can understand why so many people become exvangelical, associating Christianity with right wing politics isn’t a good combination and one that poisoned the well for everybody else. The right wing, with their obsession with authoritarianism, warfare, bigotry aimed at everybody else and xenophobia is mostly antithetical to Christianity.

Right wingers despise their enemies a lot, while Jesus told people to love their enemies. Christianity’s supposed to be about being kind to those who were victimised, but the problem is that Christians tend to use forgive your enemies thing to excuse abusers so that’s why they let them off the hook. Without knowing this creates a lot of atheists and agnostics this way, you keep on abusing people’s trust in you without realising the damage done unto them.

I think Christianity’s better off not associating with right wing politics, not only are they antithetical to Christian teachings they also hurt those who want to trust Christians. It doesn’t help that many Christians, from my personal experience, tend to be the biggest hypocrites and most duplicitous around. Making it harder for people to trust them, especially when they let bad people off the hook but blame victims for their plights and the like. Forbidding them to do one thing, but they themselves do something similar.

This inconsistency’s one of the reasons why it’s so easy to ruin people’s trust in someone, especially if they excuse similar things to the point where they might as well be doing mental gymnastics a lot. You have a choice, either continue being a hypocrite and anger everybody else or be more consistent and people will trust you more. That’s why so many atheists and agnostics exist, if because they’re so fed up with the hypocrisy and duplicity Christians do.

Christians need to stop what they’re doing if they want to retain more people, if they keep on doing these things they will lose the people they want to reach out.