Bill Kristol: "Christianity has morphed into an identity group, untethered from much Christian teaching"--

[tblue37]

"Christianity has morphed into an identity group, untethered from much Christian teaching. It has become another tribal association jockeying for power and pursuing grievances.

The problem is when religions devolve into identitarian movements, bad things happen."

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

— Bill Kristol (@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social) 2025-10-03T14:40:43.190Z

[RockRaven]

1. All of that sneering and tut-tutting from the right about "identity politics" was

ONCE AGAIN projection about their own flaws and bullshit.

[JI7]

2. It's alsoi mainly white Christians

most Latin Americans are Christians but they are one of the targets of this group.

[rampartd]

4. latinos, poles, sicilians, irish . we immigrants are catholic

and thus heretics to be dehumanized. their justification is our reverence for the pope as a competitor to their current dear leader.

we're all on their list eventually. eventually these retrograde humans will devolve into "know nothings"

the "know nothings" were merged into the republicans during their 19th century founding. i think of them whenever a repub pretends to have never heard of the thing he was railing about yesterday.

The American Party, known as the Native American Party before 1855[a] and colloquially referred to as the Know Nothings, or the Know Nothing Party, was an Old Stock nativist political movement in the United States from the 1840s through the 1850s. Members of the movement were required to say "I know nothing" whenever they were asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its colloquial name.[4]

Supporters of the Know Nothing movement believed that an alleged "Romanist" conspiracy to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States was being hatched by Catholics. Therefore, they sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in defense of their traditional religious and political values. The Know Nothing movement is remembered for this theme because Protestants feared that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters. In most places, the ideology and influence of the Know Nothing movement lasted only one or two years before it disintegrated due to weak and inexperienced local leaders, a lack of publicly proclaimed national leaders, and a deep split over the issue of slavery. In parts of the South, the party did not emphasize anti-Catholicism as frequently as it emphasized it in the North and it stressed a neutral position on slavery,[5] but it became the main alternative to the dominant Democratic Party.[4]

The Know Nothings supplemented their xenophobic views with populist appeals. ]

[Duncanpup]

6. Exactly

[betsuni]

3. The white Americans feeling like discounted generic items left on the shelf are defensive, have identity envy.

[Blue Full Moon]

5. It's a death cult. Jesus would tell them, "I never knew you."

Had a run in with a MAGAt at of all places Tai chi class. An acquaintance is a retired nurse who has worked in several countries during her career. She said that she had been sick and last month had Covid for the first time. I said that we had been sick and seems to keep coming back. I asked if could be RSV. That I had never heard of it before until I guy I worked with newborn got it and had to children's hospital and was in serious condition. She said that it's getting mentioned now because of the vaccine. Then talked about the HPV vaccine preventing cancer and other vaccines for cancer are being developed. So when we got in circle the teacher asked what we were talking about and she told him. The woman standing next to him chirped up that the vaccines should not be allowed because we were all going to die anyway. His wife who helps teach the class has cancer is getting over the chemo and radiation treatments.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. what do *you* think it "really" says?

[hatrack]

9. I'd say this is some AI (or other flavor) of bullshit, cobbled together by tighty-righties . . ..

[yardwork]

12. You've never met a drag queen in real life, haven't you?

Drag queens don't play with children's bodies. That never happens.

You're repeating a lie.

[Polybius]

10. MAGA are gonna say that Kristol is Jewish

So therefor he has no say in this. Bank on it.

[Ping Tung]

11. Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man. Thomas Paine

"If Christ were here there is one thing he would not be—a Christian." Mark Twain

[obamanut2012]

13. Not for the Episcopal Church

I am proud to be a member.

[Buckeyeblue]

14. White supremacist, KKK, even southern slave owners used the bible as a shield for their hate

The evangelicals are no different. They make up their beliefs, claim they are Christian and demand constitutional protection.

I've always thought that when someone claimed they had a deeply religious belief in something that they should have to prove it. Where does thus belief come from? How do you live your life in accordance with this belief?

[gulliver]

15. Superficiality is the new normal

However, I'm seeing some very hopeful signs that Gen Z is getting deeper in their analyses of their information input.