It is more than sadism, and worse than sadism. While they may profess guilt in some form (especially Catholics), guilt and shame are either non-existent or extremely shallow. True belief causes people to be defective in a host of ways that 'normal' people take for-granted. They often become paranoid, hate-ridden, secretive, bullying (if they can get away with it), obsessive, thin-skinned, irrational, and overly-trusting of those within the cult.

What is really going on is the transition from a single self organism into a colonial life-form. The us-versus-them becomes exaggerated to the point of obsessive psychosis. Each person may show this dementia in their own way, but the ways do follow patterns. Mainly, they become cognitively handicapped. Not only do they not understand reality, they don't want to understand it. They carefully block information that is damaging and thus painful to their perspective. They have abandoned aspects of their individuality to support the cult-colony.

Who's normal? Most christians are masochist, they like being dominated.

Mother Teresa was a sadist, she allowed people to suffer saying it was their way to god. There was a "good catholic" nurse who decided to spend a year serving in one of her "homes" in India. She left after three months broken and depressed. They reused hypodermic needles, there was never enough food or blankets for the women, when she complained she was shut down. She described conditions that were unacceptable but the nuns said it was fine. Soon after she left the church (don't know if she stopped believing) Never has any of the money donated to teresa been scrutinized to see where it goes (I would suggest the church) as this woman said enough money was donated but never seemed to get spent on the women. It was eye opening to read, that and the magdelene laundries tell you everything about the mindset of cultists.

That article cleared up some behaviors for me. I DO see/hear people deriving glee from saying deprecating or snided remarks about others. I told myself they were ‘mean spirited.’ Now I believe they are sadist!

Secondly, they are very caught up in the world of "Authoritarianism," which sets them to accept, without question, sadly, that which they are told by their church. This is a trait of those who are vulnerable to be caught up in a cult.
I was once talking to a fellow who had a marital problem, and had his own way of seeing a solution. when we had discussed the situation a while, i commented that he had a very black and white view of the world. He was proud to proclaim "Yes, I do!" It was, again, sadly apparent that he was missing all the marvelous nuances of human life and the universe. Maybe this was why he was having marital problems. Living in a tightly prescribed, maybe proscribed way does not seem, to me, to make for consideration of one's partner's needs. is not a particularly

Assuming I qualify as a "normal" person in the context of the discussion: I have never thought of the Evangelicals as sadists. My problem with them is that they are, apparently, very much caught up in narrow-minded adherence to their fairy tale interpretation of the fairy tale bible. From this comes the concept that they can't think, because they are trapped in their very black and white perspective.
If they think punishment for being "different" is valid, and god proclaimed, then it makes sense, in their world, to be fine with it. I would guess that would then give them pleasure, seeing purported "enemies" being hurt. Not sadists, in my perception, but fools.
When I see the bumper stickers, and the like, that proclaim "Jesus is the answer!" I see the question as being "Excuse me, but, whose make believe world do you live in?"

They could read news other than from Faux?

What and who are normal people?

Having observed them from the outside, and to this day, yes, they’re angry, vindictive and frightened entities. Invested in a corrupt system they know is bogus, they resent anyone willing to challenge it -- thus taking it upon themselves to punish that ‘challenger,’ as there’s obviously no god/s to do it for them.

They lacked the courage - and too enjoyed the perks of their twisted make-believe world to stand up to it. Again, resenting forever anyone daring to be honest.

As an Atheist, I can most often pick my battles with them. Homosexuality would be too obvious, thus hell - their Hell. I’ve often thought ...it’s a good thing Atheists are above them in deed, and homosexuals lack the aggression necessary to kill them in their sleep..

I didn’t read the link that was provided just the post and these comments. Seems like if the word “ some was “ or the phrase “ there are those that have this pattern “ , there perhaps Would be some more revealing dialogue. The group all based on their beliefs based on the actions of a few is one of the greatest tragedies that plague this planet . The same categorizing of Christian Evangelicals that is noted in your statement is the same type of thinking that is used against those who identify as Atheist, Agnostic and so on . Many just think they are right in their position, and thus we have conflict.

So my siblings are sadists? Wow, I would never have suspected! And my parents? How did they manage to conceal their sadism all those years that I was growing up?

It’s a damn good thing Hilary Clinton was not elected because she is a card-carrying member of the United Methodist Church, which openly admits to being evangelical. We’d have had an actual sadist in the White House.

I couldn’t read the article without donating to their stupid website. It’s just as well because I just had breakfast and don’t want to vomit.

Evangelical Protestants make up a quarter of the US population. According to a Pew poll 11% of them are “Christian Conservatives”. For historical reasons most protestants are in the South and Midwest, regions that are generally conservative for various reasons. There are also many Catholic and Mainline Protestant Conservatives, and they predominate in the Northeast where these slimy news sources are located.

If you are going to slur, scapegoat and demonize entire categories of the population it makes sense that you would exempt your parents and grandparents.

I really don’t think that this is essential Christian or religious. In fact, the most caring, loving, kind, and helpful people I know are Christians, although I have met the sadistic kind, too. I just think Christianity provides a convenient place for these personality types to thrive.

Well said here. I think I can agree with every word of this. Put that thinking into our current political situation and you have defined it very well. This is what Trump, the Mercers, Kochs, and DeVos are all about. Their brand of "white Christian" has defined everyone else. If you hear someone say "Trump is not hurting all those he needs to be hurting" you start to understand it. The white nationalist is in power and divine justice will fall on everyone. Your religion and politics become you.

BTW, the word "sadist" does not have to be associated with sex. A sadist can get pleasure from poking your eye out or braking your arm. His pleasure does not have to be sexual pleasure.

There is no such thing as “normal”...it is a completely subjective word, and based entirely on one’s personal circumstances and viewpoint. Sadism is deriving pleasure from seeing and inflicting pain on others, it’s usually sexual, but not necessarily so. However, as the word was derived from the French sadisme named after The Marquis de Sade who was notorious for cruel and degrading sexual practices, that is the more usual definition of the word.