Ofccc

I'm not a fan myself, but I tend to think about religion and Christianity through various lenses: cultural, political, and personal. People are born into conservative Christian families and default to being conservative Christians themselves. It's hard for them to leave it because they have been raised to depend on it for their community, as their main tool for coping with mental health problems, and because of the risk of being ostracized for losing their faith.

On a larger scale, Christianity spreads through conquests and domination, through missions and evangelism, through prison programs and homeless shelters. It preys on the weak and desperate.

From a political perspective it's easier for Christians to find allegiance with right-wing activists because they are more likely to share similar values than progressives. The Church was the locus of political power before the secular state came about, so the reactionary elements of today look to return to a politics of the past, and that past is largely one of theocracy.

So yeah, odd and stupid - but certainly not beyond explanation, it exists and has life for a reason - and the theology and rationalizations of scripture likewise have life for reasons.

The sometimes mind-boggling apologetics can be found just as well in "liberal" forms of Christianity, e.g. the arguments around homosexuality in which both sides struggle with producing a convincing exegesis.