#and the only people that point out what that resembles are violent bigots while allies are AFFRONTED to be compared to evangelicals

[valentineish]

The sins of Pentecostalism are innumerable, and I truly believe it to be an example of a mainstreamed cult. It is to my horror, then, to realize three things:

Growing up in that environment equipped me with phenomal grace and charisma – even with people I despise

That universal cordiality has become so synonymous with evangelicism, few other groups bother with such social skills

... But proselytizing has become so typical, I find its use across communities and political alignments in the Western world.

#part of this comes down to evangelical branches coming from the intersection of imperialism and christianity #thus 'proselytizing' just being an extension of western european colonialism and cultural genocide #but it's just very striking to me that people kind of get THAT part and try to reinvent it for the better anyways #yet the myriad of social skills necessary for organized proselytizing are treated as the real evil in all this #it feels like. backwards. like the actually morally neutral soft skills became the scapegoat to protect their conversion attempts #there is a dissonance people do pick up on and i think this has become part of the radicalization toolset y'know? #because well-meaning allies will do Really Weird Things like fucking leaving info pamphlets about queer rights in public like chick tracts #and the only people that point out what that resembles are violent bigots while allies are AFFRONTED to be compared to evangelicals #i'm rambling about this in tags bc i'm still stewing on this and connecting dots but. yeah. does that make sense. #open mic night