It should be much more at the forefront of our minds, the extent to which the most politically activated and politically empowered segment of the authoritarian American cult calling itself "Christian" see the apocalypse as something to hasten, not prevent.

Now ... I'm aware that there's a Christianity that doesn't ascribe to Rapture Theology and Prosperity Theology—I include myself—but I'm not inclined to make a differentiation betwixt and between, or to "not all Christians" this, for a few reasons:

1) This cult has infiltrated "regular" Christianity
2) regular Christianity accepts the graft, treating the madness as difference of opinion to accept rather than a defining break, because ...
3) This cult represents the more politically activated and influential group

What do they believe?

They believe they and they alone are chosen by God for eternal life.
That everybody else is chosen for eternal punishment.
That nothing they can do can change that.

That the world will be destroyed and God will evacuate them to a gated community afterlife.

Imagine what believing everyone but you and a few select people (who mostly look as you do) does to how you think other people should be treated. Or warnings of mass extinction.

You want the mass-extinction. You want the planet to burn. That's part of the plan.

Mass extinction? The planet destroyed?

That's how you get your gated community. That's how you get a better house.

It's a genocide theology. It's an apocalypse cult. It sold a billion copies of a book series called Left Behind.

It's running our government.

It is logically impossible to believe that you are in God's small select group of chosen beloved and that everyone else is rightfully doomed to eternal torture without on some level not caring what happens to those other people.

It's a genocide theology.

It is logically impossible to believe the end of the world means you're about to be catapulted out of a world of pain into a world of eternal joy without wanting the end of the world to happen.

It's an apocalypse cult.

The theology boils down to "the people who intrinsically matter will be evacuated out while those who intrinsically don't matter are destroyed."

How would one expect a political entity who believed this to react to global challenges? Exactly how the Republican Party is acting.

Horde wealth
Stockpile weapons
Favor the people who look like you (they aren't elect *because* they're white, how dare you suggest it, it's just that God's favored *happen* to be people who look like you, crazy coincidence that)
Demonize the rest
Get the women under control

My point is there may have never existed a greater threat to human life than the Christian-backed Republican Party.

They're an apocalypse cult with nukes and a genocide theology.

We're not going to defeat them with compromise.

Call your Democrats. Demand a fight.

I recommend a "wave" method: https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1061703894542307330

We have to demand Democrats deliver an uncompromising fight.

1) Voter and election protection/gerrymandering reform
2) Green energy/climate plan NOW
3) Then we start working on centering our other priorities on human thriving over corporate profit

We won't get it unless we demand it.

And if Democrats won't fight for us, then we'll have to fight them, too. They should know that.

Call and tell 'em.

Adding: This thread contemplated genocidal rapture heresy, that's been largely accepted into the white American Christian mainstream b/c those who hold it represent political power, but it only touched briefly on another related heresy, the prosperity gospel.

Like the rapture/left behind/dominionist heresy, the prosperity gospel is frowned upon by many churches, but in the end it's treated as a difference of opinion to overlook, rather than a toxic heresy that betrays the entire religion and now endangers the entire planet.

Also similarly, the reason it's been accepted into the mainstream of "Christianity" is because those who believe in it, whether they believe it overtly or tacitly, tend to be very wealthy.

What it says is very simple and very attractive and comforting to rich people: that God shows His (definitely His) favor on His chosen by showering them with wealth.

Combine this with the idea of a chosen elect, and you've got a real hell's pudding of self-reinforcing dogma.

So now you've: people who matter, who God intrinsically loves, so they're going to live forever in off-world paradise ... and people who don't matter, who God is going to punish forever because they deserve it after he burns the world.

And wealth is how you tell the groups apart

How does it strike someone who believes that if they learn that there is a behavior that will vastly increase the wealth of the already wealthy to the detriment of the poor, and will ALSO destroy the environment?

Billions killed AND wealth for the elect?

That's a win/win.

You'll get churches that preach against these ideas, by the way. Plenty.

But it's usually prefaced by the idea that opinions are just opinions, and unity is the most important thing.

Just a little intro to make sure the wealthy and powerful stay comfy and donating.

I think the most important thing to understand is that the people who claim to believe these things about the afterlife—the elect and the preterite, the rapture, the end-times—they believe that about THEN because it reflects how they want to live NOW.

Of course they focus in on how heaven is golden streets and mansions. Of course they focus on the separation of the chosen and the damned.

That's how they want to live now.

They're not waiting for a rapture to come. They're building one.

They believe in climate change. Their response is a targeted evacuation.

What they're doing is DESIGNED to let everyone else die, just like their God, who hates everyone but them, who is going to torture everybody but them, wants.

Being Left Behind is for other people, you see.

Of course they ignore pictures of heaven as a feast to which everyone has been invited. They believe in gated communities. High walls. Tough borders. Guest lists.

That's how they live NOW.

If you're at a feast with everyone ... why, you're one of the left behind. Horror.

Of course being compelled to give up your wealth—any of your wealth—is horrifying, unless it's you doing it, directly from you to someone you've deemed deserving.

Money going to the undeserving?

But money is how you know you're in and they're out.

Wealth disparity, and even the suffering caused.

Catastrophic climate change, and even the death.

All these things we read are bad, they read as good.

The proof is how they talk about it, and how they live, and what they support.

That's where we are.

So the final takeaway is:

You can't solve a problem by compromising with people who think the problem isn't a problem, who in fact think the problem is good and should be accelerated.

It's a fight we'll have to fight. Not a compromise to work out.

And to be clear, I'm saying this as a Christian, or as somebody who takes Jesus seriously, depending on what your definition of "Christian" even is.

Believe it or not, I've left my church.

Happy Sunday and whatnot.

Again, these people’s long-term strategy is Armageddon.

Also their short-term strategy. https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1078298857434501120?s=21

Again, Armageddon is the goal and the strategy. The fact that it would involve the death of billions already pre-consigned to eternal torture is a selling point.

They themselves would never kill, understand. They're just really hoping for that day. https://www.newsweek.com/trump-will-bring-about-end-worldevangelicals-end-times-779643