Hi, so here is a thing you might not know about me — I grew up in a very strict, evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist church.

It was very similar to the types of people currently taking over the United States government, with Mike Pence at their head.

Did you know 9 out of the 15 Trump cabinet picks are evangelical Christians?

I ran away from these people when I was still a child, and I am filled with terror at what I know they are capable of. And I am especially afraid that people do not seem to understand what we are facing.

I feel like y’all think that these radical evangelicals are like super strict Catholics or Lutherans, only meaner.

They are not like that at all. AT ALL.

For instance- they don’t believe there is such a thing as non-religious space. To attempt to make a space non-religious is to worship secular humanism.

A church state separation in this world view is not only not desirable, but actually impossible.

They do not believe church state separation is a core American value, or one that goes back to the founding.

Saying church state separation to these people is meaningless.

Any viewpoint that does not accept the Bible as the literal Word and law of god is substituting your own judgement for god’s, which is secular humanism.

Using your own judgment to decide what is right and wrong is worshipping secular humanism. Only god’s judgment can be trusted. And they are positive they know exactly what that means.

An atheist or a Catholic or a mainline Lutheran are the same to them.

The Bible is considered to be literally true and inerrant (no mistakes) Yes, even the super weird 5 headed animal bits.

You must always take them at their word. They are always speaking literally.

They don’t do metaphors. Their religion basically forbids metaphors.

When they say they want to take over the government and rule via Old Testament law- that is EXACTLY what they mean.

This is not some vague “oh they’re gonna bring the hammer down”.
No. They mean the death penalty for adultery or being queer. Literally.

With literal rocks.

There’s a bunch of jargony words/phrases like pre and pro Tribulationist and the 7 Mountains and theonomy- but the basics are this-

At the end times- the Book of Revelation stuff- Jesus will rule on earth for 1000 years. The saved dead will come back to life. The Rapture happens, and the rest of the heathens will have a period of time to repent their sins and turn to Jesus.

The order of these events is up for debate and not important, but remember — these are all Totally Literal Things That Will Happen.

Keep that in mind.

So there are a group of radical evangelicals that believe in order for Jesus to come back to form his Kingdom on Earth they have to prepare the way by taking over all secular institutions (especially the government) and ruling thru God’s Old Testament law.

Which will trigger the events of the end times.

(This is an extremely simplified version of theology that is hotly debated and can get very complicated.)

So basically what we have in this country right NOW is a group of radical Christians who have been planning since the 1970s how they were going to take over the US government in order to bring about the end of days.

Let me repeat that —

They have been planning for DECADES on how to take over the US government in order to bring about THE END OF DAYS.

And they are now in charge.

This is also why you can’t make any arguments to these people about climate change- they are preparing for the end of the world already.

They welcome it.

Are you scared of them being in power? Because you really should be.

(For the purposes of this discussion, I am using the term radical evangelical to mean Dominionists and Reconstructionists b/c even tho there are differences, I don’t think they matter in the context of what you can expect them to do in the public political sphere.)

(Originally published on Medium.com)