The universe just whacked me upside the head with a two-by-four yesterday.

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. Pentecostal churches are the most right wing.

Last edited Mon Sep 14, 2015, 09:49 AM - Edit history (3)

Because those are the churches where the right wing political framework was originally set up as a base of operations (also the pentecostal doctrine provides a perfect "Trojan horse" vehicle for propagandizing people). It fanned out from there, with people from the pentecostal churches deliberately infiltrating the non-pentecostal churches of all denominations including Catholic (only they use the term "charismatic", same thing).

Pentecostals call non-pentecostal churches "dead", so look for a nice dead church, with no "Holy Spirit" activity: no speaking in tongues, etc. The very traditional churches like the Brethren for instance or Church of the Nazarene are usually good bets. Forget the big churches, they're always Pentecostal or influenced by them. Some of the traditional Lutheran ones are often good too, it just depends on where you are. Call up the pastor and ask if it's a "spirit filled" congregation. If they say yes, it's probably very right wing. The right wing/pentecostal churches are also, unsurprisingly, very anti-rational -- they're into mysticism, not reason.

Hope you find a good one.

p.s. If interested in the background of all this since @1980 when its current form got underway, check out the writing of Frank Schaeffer Jr., for one. His father, Francis Schaeffer was the main "philosopher" of the right-wing church movement, and foundational writer of its ideology. Frank Jr. realized how wrong it was as an adult and defected, and knows quite a bit about it, naturally, to write about. His autobiography is titled Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back (2007). Don't know if he still does, but he used to write essays sometimes for HuffPo too.