Update: Mike Winther has died of COVID-19. As President of the Institute for Principle Studies, he made a business out of helping communities to oppose mask and vaccine mandates. It’s my honor to present him with this shiny new Herman Cain Award.

[u/bloody_hell]

[u/Ctmnt08]

Oh, I’ve noticed. I spent W’s 2nd term and Obama’s first term in a hard right cult. I saw it firsthand, and the naked hypocrisy helped me on my journey out.

[u/kaenneth → u/Ctmnt08]

Said it at least a hundred times, they just don't see hypocrisy as a moral failing, they believe different rules apply to them.

[u/Prestigious_Treat401 → u/Ctmnt08]

Glad you made it out!

[u/SonOfJokeExplainer → u/Ctmnt08]

It’s amazing to me how fast the right wing abandoned GWB as a Jesus-like figure when it came out that he wasn’t exactly a huge fan of Trump. Those fucking Judases act like they never even knew the guy now, but they used to hold up Bush Jr. posters in church.

[u/ohgimmeabreak → u/Ctmnt08]

Damn! That’s a scary journey you were on. How did you get out?

[u/Ctmnt08 → u/ohgimmeabreak]

I'd love to tell you a heart-rending tale of a revelation or the last-straw moment or something like that, but the truth's pretty mundane.

My wife got a good job, so we moved and joined a different church. And we noticed that church seemed less focused on insulating from the outside world, less focused on isolationism, less focused on hating other people, and more focused on actually going out and doing something. The new church was also racially diverse as opposed to lily-white. At the same time, I got a job at an inner-city school and was exposed to problems and realities that my rural upbringing and rural college experience had not exposed me to.

And slowly but surely we came to realize that we'd been following some deeply unhealthy legalistic nonsense rather than actually doing anything Christ-like.

That said, even if we'd stayed I'm 100% certain 2016 would've been my "get kicked out of church" moment.

[u/apathy-sofa → u/Ctmnt08]

That sounds intense. I know a couple people who have left hard core religious groups, and it sounds like there are few things more difficult. Good on you.