New research finds that, in counties across the United States, “increases in the evangelical adherent rate are directly associated with increases in homicide rates.”
Fascinating. I keep coming back to Dave Verhaagen's book, How White Evangelicals Think, which demonstrates higher than gen pop levels of narcissism. He calls it a culture of "collective narcissism," which I think does follow from a theology that convinces adherents they are right, everyone is wrong, there is no nuance, God is on their side, it's the Saved vs. the Lost etc. As we've seen with MAGA, these beliefs easily slip into an "ends justify the means" mentality. And that is dangerous. It's the same dynamic that leads to the cover up of abuse, as you well know.
If strikes me, too, that white evangelicals will rush to identify culural roots of social ills and then dig in and fight, often ferociously, before they’ll admit the roles, often decisive, that material conditions play. It’s as if we’re not really embodied creatures. It’s as if the incarnation means … nothing.
I'm fairly certain that one major theological cause is penal substitutionary atonement and the theory of divine retributive justice that stands behind it. I think there is a process of emotional formation that emphasizes fear and retributive punishment, which then shapes how white evangelicals think about the public sphere. Increasing levels of personal violence would also fit the pattern.
A century ago, white evangelicals supported the lynching of African Americans. During the 1960s and 70s, white evangelicals defended the Vietnam War when the rest of the country did not. Today, evangelicals favor capital punishment *more* than the overall population. British theologian Timothy Gorringe, in his book God's Just Vengeance, observed, "Wherever Calvinism goes, punitive sentencing increases." By Calvinism, he was denoting the theory of divine retributive justice.
Evangelicals are more likely than the general population to justify torture of terrorists or suspected terrorists. When asked about the controversial CIA waterboarding treatment of men suspected of being terrorists and detained at Guantanamo Bay, 69% of white evangelicals believe it was justified; only 20% said it was not; that compares to 59% of the general population believing it was justified. And just in case we think that the word ‘evangelical’ is based only on a self-reported label, the Pew Research Trust says that they measured behavior: ‘Attend religious service at least weekly’ or ‘monthly a few times a year’ or ‘seldom or never.’ The percentage of people agreeing with the use of torture increases **with the frequency of attending a religious service**.
Also, despite the lack of justification under the just war criteria, evangelicals rushed to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Southern Baptist Convention officially supported the Iraq War. White evangelicals are *more* for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on North Korea than the general population.
The same logic of retributive justice is the principle behind letting people flounder in poverty and also punishing abortion. For example, in mid-2017, the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study of over 1,686 Americans. They found that white evangelicals are more likely than the general population to look at a person in poverty and blame the person for not trying hard enough to get out of poverty. The Washington Post notes: "When comparing demographics and religious factors, the odds of Christians saying poverty was caused by a lack of effort were 2.2 times that of non-Christians. Compared to those with no religion, the odds of white evangelicals saying a lack of effort causes poverty were 3.2 to 1."
My team and I are committed to the early Christian view of divine restorative justice, and healing atonement, so this is an area of some concern for us. The Anastasis Center for Christian Education and Ministry: www.anastasiscenter.org.
* Anne C. Loveland, American Evangelicals and the U.S. Military 1942 – 1993
Wow. Thank you for all this illuminating additional data! All of it aligns with a pattern of accepting/fostering violence. And I think you're right... that whole theological notion of divine retributive justice is a significant part of what undergirds these patterns.
The inclination to murder infidels is strong. It begs the question of whether someone who has truly understood the grace and mercy of God through Christ could be murderous or not. Because it’s Gods will for NONE to perish. Shouldn’t we be doing all we can to keep the “heathens” alive so they can repent and not perish for all eternity? Seems that way to me.
And when people like us talk about witch hunts and crusades, we mean it. Action is never that far behind words. The sixth commandment of the catechism defines the rhetoric that leads to murder.
Fascinating. I keep coming back to Dave Verhaagen's book, How White Evangelicals Think, which demonstrates higher than gen pop levels of narcissism. He calls it a culture of "collective narcissism," which I think does follow from a theology that convinces adherents they are right, everyone is wrong, there is no nuance, God is on their side, it's the Saved vs. the Lost etc. As we've seen with MAGA, these beliefs easily slip into an "ends justify the means" mentality. And that is dangerous. It's the same dynamic that leads to the cover up of abuse, as you well know.
"A culture of 'collective narcissism.'" I think that's apt. I haven't read Verhaagen's book, so now it's on my list! Thank you for mentioning it!
It was a major lightbulb for me. Can’t recommend it enough. He’s a psychologist (and a Christian!)
If strikes me, too, that white evangelicals will rush to identify culural roots of social ills and then dig in and fight, often ferociously, before they’ll admit the roles, often decisive, that material conditions play. It’s as if we’re not really embodied creatures. It’s as if the incarnation means … nothing.
I'm fairly certain that one major theological cause is penal substitutionary atonement and the theory of divine retributive justice that stands behind it. I think there is a process of emotional formation that emphasizes fear and retributive punishment, which then shapes how white evangelicals think about the public sphere. Increasing levels of personal violence would also fit the pattern.
A century ago, white evangelicals supported the lynching of African Americans. During the 1960s and 70s, white evangelicals defended the Vietnam War when the rest of the country did not. Today, evangelicals favor capital punishment *more* than the overall population. British theologian Timothy Gorringe, in his book God's Just Vengeance, observed, "Wherever Calvinism goes, punitive sentencing increases." By Calvinism, he was denoting the theory of divine retributive justice.
Evangelicals are more likely than the general population to justify torture of terrorists or suspected terrorists. When asked about the controversial CIA waterboarding treatment of men suspected of being terrorists and detained at Guantanamo Bay, 69% of white evangelicals believe it was justified; only 20% said it was not; that compares to 59% of the general population believing it was justified. And just in case we think that the word ‘evangelical’ is based only on a self-reported label, the Pew Research Trust says that they measured behavior: ‘Attend religious service at least weekly’ or ‘monthly a few times a year’ or ‘seldom or never.’ The percentage of people agreeing with the use of torture increases **with the frequency of attending a religious service**.
Also, despite the lack of justification under the just war criteria, evangelicals rushed to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Southern Baptist Convention officially supported the Iraq War. White evangelicals are *more* for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on North Korea than the general population.
The same logic of retributive justice is the principle behind letting people flounder in poverty and also punishing abortion. For example, in mid-2017, the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study of over 1,686 Americans. They found that white evangelicals are more likely than the general population to look at a person in poverty and blame the person for not trying hard enough to get out of poverty. The Washington Post notes: "When comparing demographics and religious factors, the odds of Christians saying poverty was caused by a lack of effort were 2.2 times that of non-Christians. Compared to those with no religion, the odds of white evangelicals saying a lack of effort causes poverty were 3.2 to 1."
My team and I are committed to the early Christian view of divine restorative justice, and healing atonement, so this is an area of some concern for us. The Anastasis Center for Christian Education and Ministry: www.anastasiscenter.org.
* Anne C. Loveland, American Evangelicals and the U.S. Military 1942 – 1993
* Sarah Posner, ‘Christians More Supportive of Torture Than Non-Religious Americans,’ Religion Dispatches, December 16, 2014; http://religiondispatches.org/christians-more-supportive-of-torture-than-non-religious-americans/;
* Pew Research Forum, The Religious Dimension of the Torture Debate, Pew Research Center, April 29, 2009; http://www.pewforum.org/2009/04/29/the-religious-dimensions-of-the-torture-debate/.
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/03/christians-are-more-than-twice-as-likely-to-blame-a-persons-poverty-on-lack-of-effort/
Wow. Thank you for all this illuminating additional data! All of it aligns with a pattern of accepting/fostering violence. And I think you're right... that whole theological notion of divine retributive justice is a significant part of what undergirds these patterns.
The inclination to murder infidels is strong. It begs the question of whether someone who has truly understood the grace and mercy of God through Christ could be murderous or not. Because it’s Gods will for NONE to perish. Shouldn’t we be doing all we can to keep the “heathens” alive so they can repent and not perish for all eternity? Seems that way to me.
And when people like us talk about witch hunts and crusades, we mean it. Action is never that far behind words. The sixth commandment of the catechism defines the rhetoric that leads to murder.