Conservative Evangelicals are paying a financial price for the intrusion of Trump extremism into their churches.

[lees1975]

10. There was a huge disconnection in this denomination already in existence between people in the pew and

its educational institutions. I became a political liberal growing up in a union household with working class parents. I became a social reform supporting theological liberal after four years and a B.A. from a Southern Baptist affiliated university, and then an M.A. from another one. The theology courses I had to take challenged the superstitions and folk religion that was preached and taught in the church where I grew up, and completely undermined the Christo-fascist politics and white supremacy and Christian nationalism streams that were present in many local churches.

While its theological seminaries, under the control of the national denomination, have purged liberal theologians and have been taken over by Falwell brand fundamentalists, most of the colleges and universities, under the control of what they call state conventions, have held on to historic Baptist theology, which includes radical, woke principles based on the Christian gospel, like loving one's neighbor, loving one's enemies, living according to values, and the freedoms that Baptists have always championed in the face of state church oppression, including soul freedom and individual accountability for a free conscience before God, independent, autonomous congregational churches, the complete separation of church and state, as well as protected religious liberty. There are informal groups of Baptist churches that have continued to carry out these historic principles in spite of the takeover of most Baptist denominations and churches by fundamentalists, who have introduced heretical apostasy into Baptist churches.