Thread by @KrisAtLarge

there's a #CSLewis quote that I believe comes from many sources—it's a thought he's expressed in multiple places. it goes something like this: "if what you want from a religion is maximal happiness, then the religion of the self is the happiest of all." not a direct quote.

(1/x)

I wouldn't be surprised if every right-wing Christian I've ever pestered on Twitter—@MattWalshBlog, @RepMTG, @DouthatNYT, @DavidAFrench, every single one I've ever irked—could correct me on the *exact* #CSLewis quote and where it's from. the cult of Jack Lewis is *lively*.

(2/x)

I suggest that #CSLewis's quote applies best to #Christians. extremist Christianity, "conservative" Christianity, @GOP Christianity, fascıst Christianity, @MattWalshBlog / @DavidAFrench Christianity, is effectively a mere religion of the self—decorated with "Jesus".

(3/x)

my assertion is that the true object of a right-wing Christian's faith is *not* God or Jesus. I suggest that @DavidAFrench, for example, does not truly believe in any entity greater in extent than "David A. French's personal interpretation of the Bible and Christianity."

(4/x)

in other words, I suggest that Mr. @DavidAFrench beliefs chiefly in himself. he believes that all of his pronouncements about God and Jesus and morality and every other related subject are always true, because he feels that he has doctrinal infallibility, like he was Pope.

(5/x)

ironically I'm sure that @DavidAFrench doesn't have any respect for the (purported) doctrinal infallibility of the @pontifex, even though he's the world's most powerful single Christian leader—French is evangelical, and therefore is bound to regard Catholics as idolatrous.

(6/x)

@MattWalshBlog and @DouthatNYT *may* have a different problem—they may ALSO have no respct for the (purported) doctrinal infallibility of the @pontifex, for they may be "sedevacantist" heretics, i.e. they may reject the legitimacy of the current Catholic leadership.

(7/x)

it's therefore possible that @MattWalshBlog and @DouthatNYT, even though they're "Catholic", in fact have the same *personal* sort of faith in the infallibility of their personal interpretation of Christianity that evangelical Christians such as @DavidAFrench have.

(8/x)

this is the state of Christianity: it's shattered into millions of individualist fragments. any human being with a Bible and a "faith" can basically be their own Pope, with their own slightly (or greatly) different religion built from their interpretation of Christianity.

(9/x)

*no outsider* can get near to questioning this intensely personalized and idiosyncratic sort of Christian faith. pointing @MattWalshBlog or @DavidAFrench to Biblical passages would achieve nothing; they'd simply tell you that you were wrong. they might blame your Bible.

(10/x)

for that's one aspect of this hyperfragmented, personalized manifestation of Christianity: everyone's got their own personal canon: their own pet Bible translations, their own set of outside documents, their own ideas about what bits of the Bible are actually important.

(11/x)

none of these Christians feel any reliable obligation to human beings in general; their loyalties are strictly personal loyalties, family loyalties, and factional loyalties (@mtaibbi would call those "tribal", probably.) the rest of humanity is damned and worthless.

(12/x)

@jordanbpeterson put it straightforwardly: Christianity, Christianity of his sort anyway, is strictly for the *self*. it's not for _society_; Peterson is a barbarian, and he does not believe in society. he worships only himself—he *is* what #CSLewis warned us about.

(13/x)

that's what Christianity has become, in the hands of its loudest and most politically powerful practitioners: a mere religion of the self.

~Chara of Pnictogen