My Old Pastor Grooms his Congregation to be Sheep | Telling a Church how to Vote, Part 1

The Sunday before last year's Presidential election, the pastor of a church I used to attend preached this message in which he - doing everything short of naming the names of candidates - told his congregation in no uncertain terms who they were to vote for. Not only that, but how you voted was a matter of obedience to God, it's his job to command you on God's behalf (meaning that practically speaking how you voted was a matter of obedience to the pastor), and our election was a battle of good vs evil. You probably know what that sounds like.

But the first step in all this was to establish an authoritarian relationship between himself as a shepherd and his congregation as intellectually and emotionally dependent sheep. So in this video we'll see the tactics he uses to do that, as well as the pressure he puts on people to remain in the church and buy into his political stance. And next time we'll see him cast the entire election (as well as all of modern politics) as a battle between Godly and satanic forces, while basically calling for theocracy.

While this is one church, it's important for us all to understand that evangelical pastors are putting these ideas into the ears of a large number of Christians, and it affects discourse and the modern political landscape. In the end, this is contributing to a radicalization of politics that we're all going to have to confront.

**A NOTE ABOUT POLITICS: It's inevitable that my response to this sermon is going to sound political at times, and I'm sure some of my political leanings are going to show. However, my point is not to argue for any particular political party, ideology, or issue. I know some of my viewership may be to the right of me to one degree or another, and some of what I say may sound like a jab against things they believe. But that's not my intent, and I hope I properly convey and you can see that I'm targeting this pastor's rhetorical tactics and simplifications. Basically, he weaponizes religion to solidify a monolithic voting block, and that's unacceptable. If you're more conservative than I am, hopefully you can still see that it's not great how he elevates himself to a position of God's mouthpiece and implies that people are sinning if they don't vote as he tells them to. Not only that, it's an insultingly poor way to defend your position. THAT'S what I'm harping on - that and the hypocrisy that becomes transparent when he poses as if presenting an objective message of holiness while repeating petty, vindictive, simplified political talking points. Now on the other hand, does this mean I don't think my personal political stances are important? No. I think many are fairly clear cut and urgent. However, my hope here is that a good point of our society can rally together in spite of our differences and agree that THIS kind of rhetoric is horrifying and dangerous. Now before anybody says so (and people will), the left doesn't always present itself well, and various factions are dogmatic, militant, and so on. I've dealt with that myself. But guess what? The focus of this channel is on fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity, so that's what I'm talking about. I also think we've taken a huge step further into dangerous territory when people start to claim they're speaking for God and that politics is a battle between God and Satan. That's something we should ALL be alarmed by. Even if you're a Christian - even if you're a fundamentalist conservative Christian - this rhetoric will always end up being turned on you, just as it's been turned on others.

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