Mike and Jenny were raised in a denominational church. When they got married, they tried Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Methodist churches. As they had children, there were two things they discovered. Many of the members of these churches were incredibly old, relative to them. They were nice, and they were well-meaning, but the experience was just not right for them.
Then, a church opened up the road. It was weird as it was called a word salad of Christian names. Yet it had pre-school and daycare. Jenny was attracted to this immediately. The church was filled with young, white people. The pastor was a hip, cocky talker, and Jenny felt his emotional tug in each sermon. The music program had guitars, drums, and keyboards. The three singers made it feel like a rock concert. It was really cool. As Mike and Jenny got to know people, the people in the church went out of their way to make them feel welcome. Small groups, kids’ activities, self-help groups, Bible studies … you name it, they had it.

After a few months, things were great. But there were a few alarms that went off. In one women’s group, the women started an informal discussion about their husbands being “strict disciplinarians.” What? One wife said if she spent too much at the grocery store her husband spanked her like a child. Weird? Another said her husband forbade her to vote in elections. His vote was the only one required.
Mike found the same. MAGA men often peeled off the Bible study groups to talk about their guns and the militia they were in. Mike was asked about his political affiliation. He said he was in the middle of the road, an independent person. Three of the men told him this was a sin. He had to convert to MAGA or Jesus would not like it.

It took six months for Mike and Jenny to decide to go back to their Presbyterian Church. It was the right thing for them. The underlying rumblings which lurked in the Poli-Evangelical church were uncomfortable. They had gotten stressed out at the judgement always around the corner. Poli-Evangelical meant MAGA. MAGA meant … anything but God.