is Trumpism helping or harming the position of Christianity in America?

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Catholic Church For Helping Migrants: ‘Satan’s Controlling the Church’

 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tore into the Catholic Church in a recent interview with right-wing activist Michael Voris of Church Militant. In the wild interview, flagged online by Right Wing Watch, Greene charges “Satan’s controlling the church.”

 

In a clip from the interview, Voris charges that U.S. Bishops “taken enormous sums of money from the federal government, federal taxpayers to assist in illegal immigration, some refugee resettlement also” to “essentially skirt around U.S. immigration laws.”

 

“I thought we had a separation of church and state,” Greene said in response.

 

“What it is, is Satan’s controlling the church,” Greene continued. Greene’s campaign website doesn’t list specifically what denomination of Christian is, but notes her “strong Christian faith.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Fan since a Fetus]

Praise Satan and respect women!!!

[China]

[TradeTheBeal!]

[China]

WWJD?  Apparently, commit arson:

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

It’s embarrassing that he started the fire so far way from the actual building if he actually wanted to commit arson. Pretty sure God isn’t working through this dip**** incompetent because God gets results. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[NoCalMike]

4 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

Best part of that is how the crowd barely even reacted to her lame attempt at a joke, and I am assuming this is a crowd who actually thinks Boebert is worthwhile. 

 

[Ball Security]

https://www.kwtx.com/2022/06/24/feds-raid-churches-near-military-installations-including-one-killen-near-fort-hood/
 

[China]

The Christian Right is winning in court while losing in public opinion

 

There's an influential minority of Americans who envision the United States as a Christian nation. Lately, this group has been making significant progress in its mission. Recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade and protecting prayer in schools are chief among these victories.

 

These legal wins for the Christian Right, though, are happening at a time when a growing majority of Americans are strongly opposed to their views.

 

"This is the most disproportionate power that the Christian Right has had in my lifetime," says Robert Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute — a nonpartisan group that conducts research on the intersection of politics, culture and religion.

 

More and more white evangelical Christians are now talking about the U.S. as a Christian nation in ways that verge on or outright embrace Christian nationalism — the idea that the U.S. is a Christian nation and its laws should be rooted in the Bible.

 

On the Sunday after the Supreme Court reversed a decades-old ruling that legalized abortions in the U.S., Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert spoke to a crowd at a church in Colorado. Among other things, Boebert complained that faith communities have long had to deal with laws in the U.S. that they don't agree with.

 

"The church is supposed to direct the government," she said. "The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I am tired of this separation of church and state junk. It's not in the Constitution."

 

Of course, the Constitution does explicitly ban the establishment of a specific religion. It's in the First Amendment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘I Wonder What Bible They’re Reading’: Joe Scarborough Rains Hell On Violent Christian Trumpers

 

On Wednesday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough condemned the Donald Trump supporters who called in violent threats against GOP Reps Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) and Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyoming) for serving on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

 

Kinzinger has received so many threats, that released a compilation of some of those threats —some of them drenched in religious rhetoric.

 

Reacting to the audio clip, Scarborough was disgusted by callers claiming it was “God’s will” that Trump’s enemies should be harmed.

 

“How grotesque, unfortunately, this is how people are thinking these days,” the “Morning Joe” host said. “This twisted version, this Christian nationalism that has absolutely nothing to do with the words of Jesus Christ, contained in the gospels of Jesus Christ — ‘God’s will?’ That woman, and millions of others like her, find God’s will in violence, in beating the hell out of police officers. These people, these so-called Christian nationalists, they have nothing to do with Christianity. They find God’s will in violence, in lies, in the desecration of the United States House, and the destruction of American democracy.”

 

“I just wonder what Bible they’re reading,” he added.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PleaseBlitz]

Boy do I hope we have to rename this thread the Backlash Against Christianity Thread. 

[Captain Wiggles]

What's to wonder? They're reading from the Southern Baptist Evangelical Bible. It's overwhelmingly the predominant religion here in NC and it ain't even close. Any other denomination is like < 5%.

[China]

Fewer in U.S. Now See Bible as Literal Word of God

 

A record-low 20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God, down from 24% the last time the question was asked in 2017, and half of what it was at its high points in 1980 and 1984. Meanwhile, a new high of 29% say the Bible is a collection of "fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man." This marks the first time significantly more Americans have viewed the Bible as not divinely inspired than as the literal word of God. The largest percentage, 49%, choose the middle alternative, roughly in line with where it has been in previous years.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Not sure whether this should go here or the Mental Health Crisis thread:

 

Christian TV host: Vegetarian hamburgers are a ‘Luciferian’ plot to change human DNA

 

Meatless foods is a new food fad that involves companies creating meals that are very similar to favorite meat staples (like burgers, chicken, and so on) that actually contain no meats within them.

 

It’s a movement that has a lot of people making the switch to meatless food alternatives for a variety of reasons, CNN reported — it’s a healthier life choice, proponents maintain, but it’s also a better choice for creating a positive environmental impact on our planet.

 

Not everyone is getting on-board with the newest fad, however, and some are even suggesting it’s a plot to get people to fall from God’s good graces. Seriously.

 

Right-wing pastor Rick Wiles, on his TruNews program Wednesday evening, suggested that meat alternative companies are trying to create the new foods in an effort to alter human DNA in order to cause human beings to no longer being technically classified as humans — a plot that would make it impossible for them to be saved by Christ, he says.

 

Wiles believes people will soon not even be given the choice of real or meatless foods, and that fast food restaurants will make the switch without giving customers an option to keep meat in their diet.

 

“When you go to your favorite fast food restaurant, you are going to be eating a fake hamburger,” Wiles said in a video clip flagged by Right Wing Watch. “You’re going to go to the grocery store and buy a pound of fake hamburger or a fake steak, and you won’t know that it was grown in some big corporation’s laboratory.”

 

Wiles added that he believes this is a “nightmare world” that seeks to change “God’s creation.” Meatless companies want to “be God,” he said.

 

The ultimate goal, Wiles believes, is to bring more people to Satan.

 

God is “watching these Luciferians destroy this planet, destroy the animal kingdom, destroy the plant kingdom, change human DNA,” Wiles said. “Why? They want to change human DNA so that you can’t be born again.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PleaseBlitz]

Brutal

 

https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2022/07/farewell-letter-from-a-whistleblower-to-former-fellow-priests/

[China]

Missouri pastor says congregation is 'poor, broke, busted' for not buying him a luxury Movado watch

 

A Kansas City, Missouri, pastor who said his congregation was "poor, broke busted and disgusted" for not buying him the luxury watch he wanted has issued an apology after his remarks caused a stir on social media.

 

Carlton Funderburke, the senior pastor at Church at the Well, issued an apology video Tuesday for the "inexcusable" remarks he made in an Aug. 7 sermon.

 

"Though there is context behind the content of the clip, no context will suffice to explain the hurt and anguish caused by my words. I've spoken to those I am accountable to and have received their correction and instruction," he said. "I have also privately apologized to our church, who has extended their love and support to me."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Now rightwing Christians don’t want girls to play sports at all

 

It turns out that some far-right Christians aren’t just opposed to transgender girls playing on sports teams, they’re opposed to any girls playing sports at all… and that opposition may have landed one Christian school in legal trouble.

 

Valley Christian Academy (VCA) in Santa Maria, California recently forfeited its scheduled October 29 football game against nearby Coast Union High School (CUHS) after discovering that CUHS had two girls on its team.

 

While it might seem strange that females should be allowed to play on sports teams that are predominantly male, it’s actually required under Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in sports within any schools that receive federal government funding. Title IX states that, in sports where a girls’ team is not available, girls must be allowed to try out for the boys’ team and participate on the same basis as boys.

 

VCA hasn’t issued a public comment about its forfeit against CUHS. However, the school explained its similar decision to forfeit a football game last year against Cuyama Valley High School (CVHS) because it had a girl on its team.

 

At the time, VCA lead pastor and school superintendent Joel Mikkelson told The Santa Maria Times, “Football is a violent game and we understand the value of such in training our young men within the boundaries of an organized sport.”

 

CUHS’ Head Coach Andrew Crosby told The Tribune that he’s upset that VCA singled out the two girls on his team just because of their gender. The girls’ names are Emily Reed and Andrea Aguilar.

 

Crosby said that he would never force Reed or Aguilar to stay off the field to accommodate VCA, nor does he want the girls to feel like the cancellation of the game is their fault.

 

“It’s not fair,” he said, “and I hope that because of the support of their families, the team, and community, that they can have confidence that we support them…. They are part of our team and will suit up for every game.”

 

The forfeited game will count as a victory for CUHS. However, VCA’s decision to forfeit its games could’ve violated federal law and state rules for student-athletes.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Dan T.]

The Washington Post today published a lengthy opinion essay by Michael Gerson that addresses the heart of this topic. It is a long but illuminating read. He delves into the historical context during which Jesus emerged and compares that tableau to today’s America and chastises evangelicals blindly aligned with the Right Wing politics of “righteous resentment.”
 

“Trump Should Fill Christians With Rage. How Come he Doesn’t?”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/01/michael-gerson-evangelical-christian-maga-democracy/

[China]

 

[China]

America's Christian majority is on track to end

 

Eliza Campbell had spent her entire life as a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

She was born in Utah, a state in which the majority of residents belong to the church, and attended Brigham Young University, a private institution owned and operated by the church.

 

"It's part of your whole professional network, your whole emotional community," she said. "Basically, it touches every facet of your life."

 

Then, two years ago, after nearly three decades, Campbell left the church.

 

She is one of a growing number of Americans who were raised Christian but are disaffiliating from the religion.

 

Christianity remains the majority religion in the United States, as it has been since the country's founding, but it's on the decline.

 

A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that America's Christian majority has been shrinking for years, and if recent trends continue, Christians could make up less than half the U.S. population within a few decades.

 

The study found that Christians accounted for about 90% of the population 50 years ago, but as of 2020 that figure had slumped to about 64%.

 

"If recent trends in switching [changing one's religious affiliation] hold, we projected that Christians could make up between 35% and 46% of the U.S. population in 2070," said Stephanie Kramer, the senior researcher who led the study.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Jabbyrwock]

43 minutes ago, China said:

America's Christian majority is on track to end

 

[Cooked Crack]