Thread by @Meredith_Sell

Sorry, but it's not actually over.

And it won't be over when Biden's been inaugurated.

The damage of the last 10+ years of narrative-spinning, divisive rhetoric -- not just from Trump, but also from conservative talk show hosts (think: Limbaugh, Hannity) -- is deep.

I grew up in a household where Hannity and the like were the most consistent voices. Everything was based on ideology and perception, not reality or reported facts.

When people view everything through those lenses, it's REALLY hard to get them to see things differently.

That was pre-social media, pre-fake news. It's only harder now.

That's why explaining to my sister my problems with DT feels impossible. It's not just that we're consuming different information -- it's like we're living in different worlds.

I saw someone on here last week saying that the MAGA right (read: wrong) see themselves as if they're in a video game. I'm hesitant to buy into this explanation bc it seems a bit dismissive, but there's something to it.

Maybe a better explanation is: they see themselves as actors in a larger story, directly tied to a particular mythologized version of the American Revolution.

That's why they accuse those who disagree with them politically of being anti-American. That's why anyone who points out the moral failings of our forefathers is accused of being anti-American.

They've so bought into the myth that they can't grapple with the reality that our forefathers were deeply flawed, our Constitution is NOT divinely inspired, the US is not a Christian nation.

(The misinterpretation of Christianity is a topic for another thread.)

That's why cultural artifacts like the 1619 Project are so offensive to them: because those artifacts confront the mythologized heritage they've built their identities around.

If the USA isn't the greatest nation on earth, they've lost a core part of their identity.

So how does you compete with that? How do you break down the power of the myth?

I don't have any real practical ideas, but -- and I'm going to get blatantly Christian here -- I'm convinced it's an idolatry problem.

People are always looking for a bigger story to plug into. It's my honest belief that the story we're looking for is laid out in Scripture -- from Genesis through Revelation.

That story, btw, is not about punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. It's about God drawing near so that those he created in his image (all humans, not any particular nation) could live in relationship with him.

My perspective on American politics, after growing up in a conservative talk show household, drastically changed when I dug deeper into that biblical story.

The American myth is small potatoes. And even if those who buy into it got their way, they'd find it to be hollow.

Why?

Because they're made for a greater story.

They've sold their loyalty and affections to a leader who doesn't care about them or their day-to-day lives -- when there's someone else who counts all their tears, looks on them with compassion bc they're "like sheep without a shepherd."

That's perhaps the tragedy of today.

People wholly convinced that they're carrying out their divine purpose (whether or not they explicitly believe in a God) when they are still so far from the truth.

And this is where the problem of American Evangelical Christianity and Christian Nationalism comes in.

There are a lot of people who profess to be Christians that understand Christianity as, basically, a moral project or a way to get out of going to hell.

Neither of these views are true to the fullness of what's set forth in scripture.

(If you doubt me, check Jeremiah 31:33-34, Ezekiel 33:11, and Revelation 21:3, for starters.)

But they are ubiquitous in the US.

And because they're divorced from the overarching story of the Bible, they leave that part of us that's looking for a bigger story unresolved, still searching for a narrative to latch onto.

In a nation where politics is the national religion, our violent beginnings (though admirable in some ways) are mythologized in history classes, and "good" (white) Christians vote Republican, it's so, so, so, so easy to get sucked in by the storytelling of right-wing pundits.

There are plenty of Christian leaders, writers, and thinkers who've been calling out what's been happening in American Christianity in recent years as a failure of discipleship.

And they're right.

But the problem is we've been failing at discipleship for generations.

Baptists, for instance (and I can call them out bc I grew up Baptist), have been content to preach a gospel only of salvation -- it's just about getting people saved so they don't go to hell.

Plenty of other denominations have been content to keep faith a private, personal affair that has no bearing on everyday life.

"Social gospel" and "social justice" are treated as dirty words -- despite the fact that there's clear biblical basis for carrying out social justice, and the gospel was ALWAYS intended to change our interpersonal relationships.

In the meantime, because of the idea that Christianity is about being a good, moral person, politics have been weaponized in futile culture wars that actually harm Christian witness bc they foster self-righteousness -- on all sides -- rather than humility and repentance.

Pile on top of that rampant biblical illiteracy among people who claim to be Bible-believing, and it's easier and easier for things that are small in scripture (e.g. gender roles) to become all-consuming, rather than the story that ties all of the books together.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say:

The problem we're facing is one of misplaced affection (or worship)

and

America's ubiquitous, shallow "Christianity" (which looks nothing like that of the apostles) is partially to blame.

TL:DR: Counterfeit Christianity is one key culprit in what we've been seeing -- not just today but over several years (if not decades).

*do