Quoting Russell Coker (russell@coker.com.au):
https://www.politicalorphans.com/the-article-removed-from-forbes-why-white-e...
This article explains why most Americans don't read the Bible.
As a correction, the article says and implies nothing whatsoever about 'most Americans', and you cannot reasonably draw conclusions about the majority of 325 million Americans from it -- for the simple reason that it's about _evangelicals_. Who are a subculture. If I might meta-comment for a moment, here, Russell, you have long made a habit of this sort of sloppy extrapolation, particularly but not exclusively when you are far outside your areas of competence. Back to the (excellent) article: As it happens, I am not personally, and have never been, any variety of Christian (nor any other kind of theist), but I know and largely respect Christianity (with some reservations) in its major mainline denominational forms, by which I mean the ones outside of the evangelical subculture. You can trace the themes from the New Testament's figure of Jesus clearly in those major denominations, overlaid with the institutional changes made by Saul of Tarsus (yclept 'Saint Paul'), and then the familiar evolution over the centuries as Christianity went through distortions from power dynamics interacting with 'The Church' and then with the splintering branches of the Orthodox Church factions, the Roman Catholics, the various mainline Protestant denominations, and various not-too-insane outliers. I can look at the nature of thought among the Lutherans on my agnostic father's side (from Norway), and on my atheist mother's Congregationalist side (from England and the Netherlands), and see the commonality and the differences -- while seeing, thoughout, the clear connection to the heritage from the (allegedly historical, but historicity doesn't matter in this context) figure of Jesus and his teachings. I can see the actual intellectual tradition of Catholicism and how it differs (e.g., greater stress on good works, rather than just faith) and think it actually more honestly Jesus-like than the other. But the point is, they're all distinctively genuine Christianity descended from the biblical text as variously interpreted. And then there's the evangelicals, who are totally out of step, and make anyone familiar with the New Testiment perennially rub his or her head and say 'WTF? This isn't the least bit like Christianity.' You get monstrosities like the so-called 'prosperity Gospel' notions, which have absolutely nothing to do with the Gospel, and everything to do with justifying shunning and condemning the poor and unfortunate, rather than living to serve and help them. As author Chris Ladd says, all of the ethical principles of Christianity get discarded and turned upside-down. Instead of a biblical mission, you see 'I got mine, Jack' Zig Zigler salesmanship of 'Pray with us and you'll get rich and be happy.' You get toxic misogyny the likes of which even Saul of Tarsus could never dream of on his worst days. The message of compassion gets totally discarded and stomped on. As author Chris Ladd says, the core of this vile thing, evangelicalism, is in the former slaveholding Confederacy states, the Old South, although there are smaller tendrils of the evangelical denominations everywhere, even here in California. If you bother to look at a map, you'll please note that the ex-Confederacy, even if you include Texas that never completely bought into that conspiracy against the USA while nonetheless joining it, is only a small chunk on the southeast side of the continent. 325 million Americans in 50 states plus American Samoa, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, Guam, and other minor holdings constitute a much, much bigger United States, in most of which, Old South twisted thinking is considered pretty alien. When I encounter apparent evangelicals, I maintain perfect politeness, but what I'm thinking is 'Wow, you guys are kind of totally not-Christian. You might as well go full-lunatic and be Mormons or Scientologists, because you're almost there, already.' I'm hardly the first American to think 'We shouldn't have defeated and reabsorbed the Southern states. Hell, we should have kicked their sorry asses out and said "Good riddance."' The sentiment is often felt. Alas, as we didn't do that, we're stuck with this retrograde, somewhat fitfully insane region that periodically must be wrestled with and fights progress. Where one of the dominant strains of alleged Christianity is so little like any normal Christianity that it seems from another, and regrettable, planet. But never, Russell, never, please, and certainly never again, confuse the brokenness of the Old South and its bizarre anti-Christianity with the United States as a whole. It's really offensive, in exactly the way that only you, in your Dunning-Krueger wowzering mode, can manage. I read the Bible, both the Tanakh of the Jews and the New Testament of Christianity, and I'm not even a tiny bit religious. The members of my Sons of Norway lodge (of which I'm president) read the Bible and know it well because they're mostly Lutherans. Most American Christians read the Bible, on account of being recognisably Christians in the normal sense. The large faction of non-religious Americans tend to read the Bible for the reasons I first did, that it's historically pivotal in Europe-descended countries, and because historical translations into English such as the KJV were one of two pillars of the creation of the modern English language, right alongside Shakespeare. So, don't tell us that Americans don't read the Bible, because you're simply mistaken, and moreover that isn't even a thing author Chris Ladd even said or implied. It's the evangelicals who don't. And they are out of step. (Well, I hear that Catholics are also mildly discouraged from reading the Bible outside of the guidance of the Church, which is understandable as a power dynamic, given the schisms that happened before when people did that.)