Which, again, we have our own home-grown religious extremism that far predates any of that Islamism. So, let’s not do that anyways. It makes little sense and it makes it seem like there is no actual homegrown extremism, just yet another thing we can blame no “those people”…
The media makes choices about which voices to elevate and which voices to make the public face of any particular thing in our society. It’s incredibly distorting often times…
And, much like the point that @chgoliz is making above, distorts what’s actually happening here. The current wave of Christian extremists are pulling from a long history, while much of the modern Islamism goes back to earlier in the 20th century (though you can make an argument that Wahhabism is rooted in the 18th?).
Did anyone else notice he called him “Donald Chump” at first? Maybe just a brain fart, or that is what this guy calls him behind his back. They are using him and his base to expand Christian Nationalism.
Simple; they’re not. They’re serious about white supremacy, suppressing education and wielding religion as a cudgel. But fidelity to the teachings of Christ? Not a chance.
The verse he cites is a perfect example. It very clearly says that Biden is the legitimate power that god has chosen in this moment, but they are able to manipulate it to mean the exact opposite.
Also; fuck that verse. If god is ensuring that the powers that be are divinely chosen, he needs to let someone competent take over. Like, 2000 years ago.
Dude sounds like he got into the sacramental wine before he got to the podium. Of course, if it’s like the midwestern churches I grew up in, it’s just Kirkland Select™ grape juice cocktail.
The white evangelicals are people whose “Christian faith” is a right-wing folk religion that basically just codifies their political beliefs as religious ones. There’s been this cognitive dissonance for a while between the teachings of Jesus and what they actually believed, which is now over because they’re explicitly rejecting what Jesus said, according to the Bible. That’s thanks to Trump - the evangelicals (at first reluctantly) embracing Trump despite his overtly un-Christian ways, because they liked his political agenda, paved the way to him being allowed in as the (im)moral standard. He was given the evangelical seal of approval. He allows these people to openly be the tribalistic assholes they always wanted to be, but had to pretend to be otherwise, previously.
Biblical “prophecies” aside, Trump is, in a non-religious sense, quite literally the “anti-Christ.” In that he consistently holds views that are the opposite of what are traditionally ascribed to Jesus. This has long been true of many American conservatives, so he’s a perfect fit for their new savior.
Hey now, that’s unfair! Cthulhu and his cultists actually provide a morally superior alternative to the MAGAts and their leader. They’re absolute angels in comparison.
Inspired by something that a famous Captain once asked, if Trump’s cultists really believe he’s God then “What does God need with a starship campaign contributions?”
This guy, reading a bible verse about followers of Christ submitting to government authority because God put our leaders in power, and then skipping right into how great that is for Trump’s dream of a future dictatorship without even pausing to consider that this very verse currently applies to God’s chosen president, Joe Biden and that any Republican who doesn’t condemn the insurrection or who supports impeaching Biden is therefore explicitly doing Satan’s work, makes me wish that devine retribution is actually something that would happen.
The authorities that exist have been established by God
Unless those authorities are a currently sitting POTUS, an epidemiologist suggesting we should wear masks or get vaccinated, librarians or educators saying banned books are a bad idea, climatologists saying we’re destroying our planet…
I no expert but didn’t Jesus say “ Let he who is with out sin cast the first stone “
I seem to remember , my Lutheran minister Grandfather and a group of Jesuits who tried to teach me as a teenager , both talking about not casting the first stone , because no one is perfect
Ah, but you forgot the loophole. Indeed, Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, but that leaves the narcissists free to act as they like, because they are blameless and without sin. You don’t need to ask them, they’ll tell you all about it, at length. While throwing stones at you.
Most religion has one fundamental underlying goal and that is teaching unconditional respect for authority. Of course authoritarians are going to use religion to advance their goals for total control. One of the reasons America was founded was to escape the control that religion had over Europe.
My opinion has always been that the fundamental test for government is that it governs with the consent of the governed. Once you lose majority consent for your laws and rules, the laws and rules are to be put into question. No religious mandate overrides public acceptance.
