This isn't the first time the evangelical right has steered us away from science because... of their own stupid reasons.

It probably just depends where you grew up, and how you played the game. COVID is just another way to insulate people from reality.

Allow me to explain...

I attended elementary schools in both Georgia and North Carolina. No matter where I went, I was exposed to bad teachers.

Allow me to make this clear: If you're teaching children anti-science, you are a bad person.

My teachers openly mocked science.

Parents took it a step further. In 2002, long after I was out of elementary school, parents from Cobb County, GA decided to sue the school district for teaching the theory of evolution.

... and they WON their case. https://ncse.ngo/selman-v-cobb-county-textbook-disclaimer-case

The Theory of Evoution is just a theory, and it's always changing. We learn more about adaptations, traits, extinctions, etc -- every single day. (This is because science is built on doubt, rather than dogma.)

But in Cobb County, parents got their way, and unseated science.

This isn't just something to laugh at. I have one aunt and one uncle who firmly believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and that even dinosaur bones are a hoax, or were planted by the government to... you know I have no fucking idea.

My point is, they vote.

Asking the evangelicals to follow conservative politicians in their rejection of science is nothing new. They've done it with evolution, fetal development, anthropogenic climate change, and now with COVID-19.

These are all just the tools of manipulation.

I mean, just look at this nonsense. This started from nothing, and ended with nothing -- but I guarantee you the damage here was already done. Somewhere in Oklahoma, a woman named Tammy is telling Facebook that the LIBS want to remove God from our world.

Because she's scared.

I want you to understand who these people are, because they live in a world that isn't like your world. It's so insulated, so... completely detached from reality... it's WHY Trump can maintain his 35% hold on America.

They live in a bubble.

My aunt, let's call her K. My Aunt K is a teacher at a charter school. She's paid less than a public school teacher, isn't in a union, and her benefits were stripped down a long time ago.

Republicans convinced rural America that charter schools were "better".

In rural West Georgia, if you teach at a charter school, you can technically teach students about religion in the classroom. Parents love this, because it means Jesus is back in school.

Republican lawmakers love this because it means they can spend less on education.

Aunt K is in her 50s, with three kids, making $36K a year, with no benefits, teaching at a charter school.

But the good news is, she's rich in the blood of Christ. You see, Jesus has just BLESSED her, and everything is a blessing.

She's rich in FAITH.

Aunt K lives in a tiny little house, and she can't afford to maintain it. She's divorced, needs medical attention she can't afford due to chronic pneumonia, and her world sucks.

But she's got her church and community. She's got her women's Bible study classes.

She listens to Christian talk radio on her way to work. They cover news and events in a way that makes OANN look like The Atlantic. Every day, the "left" is attacking yet another Christian family.

Seriously. Go listen to Christian radio sometime. It's insane.

She goes to church on Sunday morning, and then does the church social in the afternoon. She volunteers on Wednesday, with the youth group -- and the same students she has in her classroom see her at church.

There is no division between school and church for them. It's one world.

Now, you may be thinking: "But how can these Christians support someone like Trump? He's been married three times, numerous sexual assaults, etc."

Y'all. Have you ever been to a Southern Baptist church? Domestic violence is common. REALLY common.

Don't get some crazy idea that these deeply evangelical men are somehow good "family men" -- because many of them are abusive assholes who see women as baby-making machines, and that's about it.

Southern Christianity LOVES some patriarchal bullshit.

Remember when Rep. Ted Yoho called Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez a bitch?

Think about his apology for a moment.

"I cannot apologize for my passion, or for loving my God, my family, and my country."

This is a TEXTBOOK evangelical apology.

Rep. Yoho and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez were not having a heated debate about theology on Capitol Hill.

But he brought God into his apology, because he knows that's how it works. Evangelicals hear "someone attacking their God" and all of a sudden, they're on his side.

Leaders of the evangelical right are clever, because they know how to rope in non-Christian issues, and make them part of the persecution complex.

A mask is not a religious statement, at all. But church leaders have been able to easily spin masks into the rest of their doctrine.

I guarantee you, there are Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Methodist, and other preachers talking right now (Sunday morning) , about how masks are just another "teaching evolution" or "making teenagers take sex ed".

It's "against God" to force "liberalism" on you.

I can't communicate with my Aunt K. She lives in a world where science doesn't exist. She's in Bible World™, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In fact, I gave up, years ago.

Why? Because it really is a cult. These people will sacrifice their own children.

TW// Child abuse, sexual abuse

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Years ago, my aunt started dating the local youth leader. He coached tennis, and seemed like a decent dude.

But, he had a dark side.

Youth Leader B? He was molesting children.

When my own cousin finally spoke up about being molested by Youth Leader B, I was ANGRY.

I thought that surely my aunt would be ballistic.

But she wasn't. Why? Because it was a "misunderstanding" and a "back rub" -- because B was a good Christian man.

Multiple teenage girls came forward and said Youth Leader B had touched them inappropriately.

In fact, it was a pattern. He had previously dated a woman in Tucker, GA -- and he had molested her daughter as well.

... And nothing happened.

In small town, "Church America" -- the Sheriff's deputy that was supposed to investigate the charges of child abuse? He was a member of the church. So was the woman who worked for social services.

Heck, even the assistant DA, the *prosecutor*... she was a member of the church.

So why is the anti-mask thing so effective in church circles? Because they'll sacrifice anyone. Children. The elderly. Abused spouses. Whatever it takes to maintain power.

Christianity in the South is "us against them" -- because that's the whole point.

I remember this anecdote Aunt K used to tell me, about this woman who got a "back alley" abortion. She had sex before marriage, and she tried to get an abortion.

She died because she bled to death internally.

Why? That was God punishing her for her sins. I shit you not.

A sane person might have heard about a woman getting an abortion from a non-doctor and thought, "Holy shit, that's terrible. We should try to make sure this doesn't happen."

My Aunt saw it as someone being punished for sinning.

You won't fix someone like that.

I know that people laugh at these folks, like the ones we saw in Florida, speaking up at the Palm Beach City Council meeting.

But... these people aren't the extreme outliers you think they are. These people are everywhere.

It's almost impossible to describe their political compass, moral compass, theological compass, or... how their values really work.

They tend to pollute each other, and cross streams so often, "liberty" and "Christianity" have fused into one idea.

In our post 2020 world, we need to be doing a lot more reaching out to rural America. They're poor, and their quality of life is declining. They don't have any context for why it's happening.

They don't understand that the GOP has stripped rural America for parts.

This is why I think we need more Southern Democrats, who understand these isolated Christian communities, running for office.

You have to understand their language if you're going to turn them against their whole world. (Their church is their whole world.)