In the second part of Andrew Sullivan’s weekly tri-partite diary entry, he puts together one of those pity put-downs of the American Evangelist movement that you just have to admire:
The evolution of the Christianist right has been quite something these past few years. In this century, the Evangelical right has embraced the cult of prosperity, the efficacy of torture, and the denial of health care to the poor. They upped the ante in 2016, of course, by embracing a pagan worshipper of Mammon, with a sideline in philandery, cruelty, gluttony, pride, deceit, envy, insatiable greed, and the foulest abuse of women. How could they top that? Well, they’re trying.
And that would be … a cult of death. He cites R. R. Reno, whose article (my reaction here) in First Things was equal parts historical ignorance and lamentations that religious groups are being told not to get together, while failing to note that there isn’t the faintest hint of actual arbitrary repressive element to these bans on gatherings, religious or otherwise.
And then Sullivan provides yet another real-life example of why, despite the arbitrary and, in my view, fallacious basis for any religion, I cannot subscribe to the loathing exhibited by militant atheists:
I’m also reminded of one of the most extraordinary moments in the history of the Black Death. In a northern English town called Eyam, in 1666, the local tailor received a batch of cloth from London that turned out to be infected by fleas carrying the disease. Suddenly, people started dropping dead. Two Christian pastors then made an extraordinary decision: They would quarantine the entire town, forbidding anyone from leaving — so that the plague would spare their neighbors and county. They kept up that quarantine, even as families were wiped out, and never left, losing more than half of their residents, a higher proportion than even London. But the rest of the region was spared thousands of deaths.
Those people, as devout Christians, were indeed not afraid of death. But they faced it because they wanted others to live. I have to say I find their faith a little more impressive than that of the today’s American Evangelicals.
It’s quite the takedown of Reno and, by implication, the screwy ravings of Texas Lt. Governor Patrick. Not to mention a full condemnation of the American Evangelical movement, at least those who’ve pledged their souls to Trump.
