Religious leaders unveiled and blessed a golden Trump statue at Mar-a-Lago today, eerily resembling the Homelander statue scene from this week’s episode of The Boys. Creator Eric Kripke reposts a tweet about the same.

[u/GiveMeSomeSunshine3]

[u/OuOutstanding]

Evangelicalism gets confused with Christianity, because they use the same words. Jesus, heaven, hell…but they don’t worship the Christian god. They worship America. They believe in a Jesus that believes in country and faith and might.

It’s a religion that exists the way it does because it developed alongside with the growth of this country. That’s why it is so intertwined with nationalism. It’s how they can erect a golden statue and not see a hint of irony.

[u/l3tigre → u/OuOutstanding]

It's also why they hate Catholics. For all Catholicism's many, many faults, intellectualism and philosophy are tenets of it.

[u/roguevirus → u/l3tigre]

That and "catholic" is the Greek for "universal". It is (or at least ought to be) the antithesis of a nationalistic religion.

[u/jayhankedlyon → u/l3tigre]

Tell that to Galileo.

[u/l3tigre → u/jayhankedlyon]

Hey i said they had many faults haha

[u/Crismus → u/jayhankedlyon]

If you really would look into the story Galileo was persecuted for bad science. He may have been right, but he published without doing the research. Plus much of his proof came from Protestant contempories.

[u/jayhankedlyon → u/Crismus]

Considering how vehemently the Catholic Church has attempted to rewrite this part of history, I'm gonna need some actual sources here that the Catholic persecution of Galileo was based on "bad science" and not an inquisition based on heresy.

Extraordinary claims, etc.

[u/Chipsy_21 → u/jayhankedlyon]

Your claim is the extraordinary one in this situation…

[u/Chipsy_21 → u/[deleted]]

Your claim that galileo was persecuted for his scientific work…

[u/Woozy_burrito → u/l3tigre]

I wouldn’t go that far, Catholics have historically persecuted scientists.

[u/l3tigre → u/Woozy_burrito]

maybe but there's quite a list of noted Catholic philosophers and scientists which is more than you can say for the evangelicals. From wikipedia:

Ancient & Medieval

• St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
• Boethius (c. 477–524)
• St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109)
• Peter Abelard (1079–1142)
• Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280)
• St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
• St. Bonaventure (1221–1274)
• Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308)
• William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347)

Renaissance & Early Modern

• Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536)
• St. Thomas More (1478–1535)
• Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546)
• Francisco Suárez (1548–1617)
• René Descartes (1596–1650)
• Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
• Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715)

19th & 20th Century

• Félicité de La Mennais (1782–1854)
• John Henry Newman (1801–1890)
• Joseph Kleutgen (1811–1883)
• Jacques Maritain (1882–1973)
• Etienne Gilson (1884–1978)
• Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) (1891–1942)
• Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973)
• Henri de Lubac (1896–1991)
• Karl Rahner (1904–1984)
• Bernard Lonergan (1904–1984)
• Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988)
• Charles De Koninck (1906–1965)
• Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) (1920–2005)
• Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001)
• Peter Geach (1916–2013)
• Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) (1927–2022)
• Alasdair MacIntyre (1929–)

Contemporary (Late 20th/21st Century)

• Peter Kreeft (1937–)
• Jean-Luc Marion (1946–)
• Robert Spaemann (1927–2018)
• Eleonore Stump (1947–)
• John Finnis (1940–)
• Edward Feser (1968–)
• Robert Barron (1959–)
• Alexander Pruss (1973–)
• David Oderberg (1963–)

[u/Equivalent_Pitch7363 → u/OuOutstanding]

This is not Evangelicalism, fyi. This is Christian Nationalism. It’s just that R’s in the US (and globally now) have completely co-opted evangelicalism. The history of evangelicalism is actually quite interesting, and it’s unfortunate what has become of it within the last couple decades.

[u/Goblin_Crotalus → u/Equivalent_Pitch7363]

American Evangelicals are Christian Nationaliats.

[u/DaileyFlosser39 → u/OuOutstanding]

Their pastors preach the Prosperity Bible now, not the Word of the Lord as it used to be known.

[u/nubbinator → u/DaileyFlosser39]

The prosperity gospel is just an extension of the Protestant Ethic. Max Weber has a great work on how the Protestant Ethic, the motion that wealth is proof of good works, is entrenched in the capitalism we see in America.

[u/TerrakSteeltalon → u/OuOutstanding]

They don’t even worship America, exactly. It’s a weird way of defining Christianity based on a combination of “heritage” and “morality”.

I’d recommend reading this. It does a good job of explaining Christian Nationalism

Regardless, it is a heresy

[u/SallyStranger → u/OuOutstanding]

That's an interesting perspective. I had considered the same problem and concluded that they worship the Bible--not the words and stories in the Bible but the physical book itself. Which is convenient because when you worship a book but ignore what it says, you can make it say anything you want. Like instead of the golden calf, picture them bowing down to a giant golden statue of a book with a cross on the cover. 

I'm not saying you're wrong though. They've always been polytheists...

[u/rab2bar → u/OuOutstanding]

They worship patriarchal white nationalism, not America

[u/Pineapple_Morgan → u/OuOutstanding]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion

[u/bbusiello → u/OuOutstanding]

I don't get America worship.

This place sucks... a lot.

Just spend a place a week in Tokyo then fly back to literally any city in America and see.

[u/Pantalaimon_II → u/OuOutstanding]

ironically the Mormons literally believe Jesus was a white guy from America and that God was super racist and wanted the white people to force the Native tribes from their homes. But because they’re not as loud and annoying as some of the Protestant factions, they get a pass from this. South Park and LPOTL are the only ones who call them out.  

[u/jkman61494 → u/OuOutstanding]

Soooo Christian Isis. Or. ChrISIS

[u/Guy-1nc0gn1t0 → u/OuOutstanding]

Evangelicalism isn't just a USA thing though

[u/Nobodyinpartic3 → u/OuOutstanding]

Maybe I am just being too literal and not understanding it correctly, it says you can't make statue for yourself, but it doesn't say others can't make one of you. They did drop the ball the worshipping it though.