it’s starting to seem like people only talk about peer pressure being bad when the pressure to conform is for something that’s considered bad. Otherwise, in the era of microaggressions and checking privilege public shaming is actually the first resort.
Depending on which former pastors we’re talking about, some conservative Protestant types have declared that sodomy is awesome as long as you’re married and straight. I’m starting to feel like whether it’s defending race-based slavery two centuries ago or abortion within the last century Americans historically don’t really want a Christianity that resembles a historic and global Christian faith so much as the red state or blue state Protestant Jesus that lets them do what they’re already doing.
[update]
Seeing how neo-cons and conservatives went from backing the war on terror a decade ago to abruptly realizing just how much power that granted the state after a Democrat took office … I find it impossible to take the two parties seriously at this point. For the popular image of the Republicans as being hawks, if you look at the last century Democratic executives were in place for the biggest global conflicts we participated in. Sure, Republicans are more likely to resort to military police actions that bypass Congress but for official wars, Democrats are tops. I would have thought that if Obama were going to scale back the military thing there shouldn’t even be an F-35 project right now.
I’ve been reading Mark Noll’s America’s God this year so maybe that’s part of why I’m feeling this way lately.
