Diana Butler Bass Profile picture
Aug 1, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
I'm hearing many reports of parents terrified of sending their under-12 children back to school in places where mask mandates are forbidden by new states laws.

Wondering if this is yet another way to destroy trust in public schools? Force people into homeschooling & privates?
Not only do anti-masking laws undermine the public schools (long-standing priority of religious conservatives), but they get bonus points (in their worldview) for incentivizing women to leave the workforce in order to stay home with children.
This is a huge two-fer in the most radical of Christian circles - exploiting a crisis to manipulate public policy to create fear and limit women and children to smaller and smaller domestic spheres where husbands are in control of economics and education.
It doesn't matter that mostly liberal women would take their kids out of public schools re: anti-masking laws. Getting liberals to doubt, withdraw, and break trust with public schools and getting women to leave their jobs is a big win on its own.
Also, forcing long-term teachers and administrators to quit is another benefit.

Refill the ranks with people more in line with political and theological priorities. Anti-masking is an easy way of identifying potential hires as being in "their" camp.
Don't miss this response to the thread by @MollieKatzen - she's absolutely right:

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More from @dianabutlerbass

Apr 11
With all due respect & gratitude to the ELCA, y'all gotta take "evangelical" out of your formal name in the US. It is the source of endless confusion. Sorry sorry sorry but you can't redefine it here apart from American evangelicalism. (I know what it means in Greek, German, yes)
I wish I've had $1 for how many times I've explained your name to a group of 1) Lutherans who can't understand American evangelicalism; and 2) Evangelicals who can't figure out why mainline Lutherans would call themselves "evangelical."

And even after explaining, no one gets it.
Two entire questions after my conversation w/Sarah McCammon today on her fine new book, Exvangelicals, were wasted on this ridiculous confusion.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 23
This is an important "man in a diner" article. For me, it underscores an often-overlooked reason why white evangelicals support Trump.

Both their form of "religion" and his "politics" want to destroy things. They are not content w/any sort of difference or diverse choices.
The point is to make everyone miserable. In evangelicalism, the first step to salvation is making you miserable.

You must see that you have led a miserable life, made miserable choices, are a deeply miserable person.

Misery is the door toward you being saved.
Here's the article: politico.com/news/magazine/…
Read 6 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Re: Mike Johnson porn story:

30 yrs ago, I knew a librarian at a prominent evangelical seminary whose sole job was going thru personal papers of ministers donated after they died. Her responsibility? Removing all the porn from such collections BEFORE they reached the cataloger.
In the 80s, there was a very famous, anonymous article in Leadership magazine (a CT publication) on porn and sexual addiction among evangelical clergy & leaders. It was rampant. That article was secretly passed among male evangelical seminary students & clergy like a banned book.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 1, 2023
I'm hearing anecdotally that a number of progressive mainline churches are seeing a post-pandemic steady influx of ex-evangelicals looking for new spiritual homes.

This doesn't mean that all ex-evangelicals are making this shift, but it suggests that at least some are.
In the 1990s and early aughts, the progressive mainline attracted mostly disaffected Catholics - a trend that strengthened congregations & attendance.

That the next disaffiliation wave might come from disgruntled & deconstructing evangelicals isn't surprising.
Mainline types: Don't expect this is a trend where folks will knock down your doors. You're going to have to prove yourselves trustworthy, open, loving - and you'll need to overcome years of stereotypes these folks learned in evangelicalism - you'll need to earn their respect.
Read 14 tweets
May 31, 2023
A guy got mad at my newsletter today - a post abt roses, summertime & poetry that included a “btw” line abt climate change.

He wrote a nasty note about how there’s no such thing as climate change, etc.

I can't believe that anyone would jump on a writer for reflecting on roses.
Literally, some dude attacking me for . . . flowers.
Are roses "woke"? And I just didn't know....?
Read 4 tweets
May 9, 2023
There’s no way a Catholic college can host Trump and ever hope to attract another student. .@SaintAnselm
Can you imagine? With the Catholic Church’s history of sexual abuse hosting a former president now found liable for sexual abuse?

If I were @Pontifex, I’d be on the phone right now.
If you didn’t know the @CNN town hall is scheduled to be at St Anselm College.
Read 6 tweets

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