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

[mcsluggo]

i'll say it again... we need a "barf" emoji here.

[China]

Ron DeSantis on what being conservative means: 'Our rights come from God, not government'

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he believes the essence of being a conservative today means recognizing that people’s “God-given rights” are on “loan” to the government.

 

“The foundation of it is understanding the American project,” DeSantis told Fox News host Mark Levin on Sunday. “Our rights come from God, not the government. The founders rejected the divine right of kings.”

 

“We have these God-given rights,” he continued. “We loan power to the government under a Constitution to protect those rights.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Christian pastor claims that public schools are ‘hiring actual witches at an alarming rate’

 

During an appearance on conspiracy theorist’s Kandiss Taylor’s show, Tennessee far-right pastor Greg Locke said that actual  witches walk among us — they just don’t ride on broomsticks or have long pointy noses.

 

“First of all, you have to boldly acknowledge their existence,” Locke said. “You gotta get away from this long, pointy nose, green face, Wizard of Oz riding around on a broom idea. Witches are reality.”

 

According to Locke, “our public school system is hiring full-blown, well-known witches at an alarming rate,” and there are “thousands of people in these witches’ covens.”

 

“Witched dress up like Christians and comes to churches all the time,” he said, later adding that he has to make a “standing announcement” before church services that no witches are allowed to lay hands on him and pray.

 

Last year, a video clip went viral showing Locke threaten to expose unnamed members of his church as witches while giving a sermon.

 

“We got first and last names of six witches that are in our church. And you know what’s strange? Three of you are in this room right now,” Locke said. “You better look in my eyeballs, we’re not afraid of you stinking witch, you devil worshipping Satanist witch.”

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

[Metalhead]

[Bang]

 

Ooga Booga!

~Dang

[PleaseBlitz]

I love when people are like "THIS PERSON IS EVIL AND AMONG US RIGHT NOW BUT I WILL NOT BE NAMING NAMES BECAUSE I RESPECT THEIR PRIVACY."

[youngestson]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:22 PM, China said:

Ron DeSantis on what being conservative means: 'Our rights come from God, not government'

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he believes the essence of being a conservative today means recognizing that people’s “God-given rights” are on “loan” to the government.

 

“The foundation of it is understanding the American project,” DeSantis told Fox News host Mark Levin on Sunday. “Our rights come from God, not the government. The founders rejected the divine right of kings.”

 

“We have these God-given rights,” he continued. “We loan power to the government under a Constitution to protect those rights.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

"Laws of Nature" is how it was worded. 

 

And he is right up to a point. The intent of the Enlightenment thinkers discussing natural rights is that a person has them as a result of being. There are not FROM a government. they are yours. Human rights are what people call them these days. 

 

How that relates to banning books, threatening people who don't dress as you want them to, or not allowing a free press is beyond me, but whatever.

[Jumbo]

It's a challenging conundrum for those marketing xtianity cuz the yuge majority of the large fundy sects are right on the money when they liken trump to god "him"-bearded-old-white-male-self.

 

Don is a near twin in many ways to the OT depiction of gawd in terms of "his" emotional, intellectual, and "personality" characteristics.

 

Cosmic level sick-minded evil ignorant immoral violent ****head with great powers and sewer level overall personal development.

 

But I remain open to new data. 😁😇

 

At least Jesus seems pretty cool for a hippie.

[China]

On 2/9/2021 at 11:46 AM, China said:

Jim Bakker, Who Said Christians Would Riot for Trump, Now Denies It Happened

 

Televangelist Jim Bakker spent a part of last year selling (and then defending himself against selling) a fake all-purpose cure for COVID, SARS, HIV, and “all venereal diseases.”

 

He’s no longer hawking fake coronavirus cures but he’s spewing a different kind of poison instead.

 

On his show Tuesday, speaking with End Times author Jonathan Cahn, Bakker claimed that Christians weren’t part of the January 6 insurrection… even though Christians held up Jesus banners and prayed after barging into the Capitol.

 

 

As Right Wing Watch points out, Bakker shouldn’t be surprised for another reason: Back in August, he said that if Donald Trump lost the election, “we’re gonna have a revolution. The church people are going to march in the streets.” That’s obviously not the same thing as an insurrection, but it certainly lays the groundwork.

 

In 2017, Bakker also said a riot would occur if Trump were impeached.

 

 

There are other examples, too. The point is: Bakker set the stage for a riot that included Christians. And now that a riot involving Christians has occurred, Bakker, as usual, is denying reality.

 

Click on the link for more

 

Jim Bakker on people mocking his End Times survival food buckets: ‘I believe they’re Satanic’

 

During a recent segment on The Jim Bakker Show, televangelist Jim Bakker lamented the internet mockery over his food buckets designed to keep you alive until you’re raptured into Heaven, saying his detractors are likely inspired by Lucifer himself. 

 

Bakker has been pushing the buckets for years. In 2017, he encouraged the rich to spend a $1 million on his food buckets because when the End Times come, their money will be worthless.

 

“Do a million dollars worth of food, I’m serious,” Bakker said at the time. “If they’re rich, their money is going anyway … It’s not going to be worth anything. The crash is coming, so why not sow it into the Lord?”

 

On his most recent show, Bakker was baffled as to how people think his food buckets are funny, so much so that he avoids social media. 

 

“It’s so bad,” he said, adding that he recently went on social media just to see how people were reacting to his product. “There’s people who hate my guts. There are people who want to destroy us. … And one of the biggest onslaughts is this,” he said while holding up a food bucket. “One of the biggest things they make fun of me about is the food buckets. I mean, I couldn’t believe it. They have whole websites, laughing, mocking … and I’m just telling you, I believe it’s Satanic.” 

 

Click on the link for the video

[PleaseBlitz]

https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-weird-ways-rich-are-preparing-apocalypse

 

Quote

Bakker, a televangelist, wants you scared of starving like a rabbitless sack of **** once everything goes down. He wants you paranoid that you're going to be locked in your basement while ultra-godless homosexual squid aliens roam the streets, vaporizing hard-working men and women like you and your family. You can't have that! You need to be prepared, and part of being prepared is having a 50-pound bucket of potato soup. Now, you may ask yourself: Isn't this actually just about $30 worth of soup mix? Yes and no. Yes because it is, no because you're spending $160 on it. 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

I find this grift fascinating. 
 

Watch him struggle to get this end-times soup down and gag a little bit starting at the :30 mark. 
 

 

[China]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

Christian Nationalist Jason Rapert Wants to See Right-Wing Christians ‘Take Authority’ Over Every Level of Government

 

Jason Rapert, a former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, appeared on the “Give Me Liberty” program late last year and laid out his vision for a nation in which every congressional seat is occupied by Christian conservatives.

 

“Give Me Liberty” is produced by Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, which was originally named the Falkirk Center in honor of its founders, former Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr. and right-wing youth activist Charlie Kirk. The organization changed its name in 2021 after Falwell resigned in disgrace and Liberty decided to  part ways with Kirk.

 

Despite the departure of Kirk and Falwell, the center’s “Give Me Liberty” podcast appears to have kept its Christian nationalist bent.

 

A longtime religious-right activist and ardent Christian nationalist, Rapert declared on the December 17, 2022 episode of the “Give Me Liberty” show that right-wing Christians must rise up and “take authority” over everything from their local school boards to the federal government.

 

“When people quote the Bible and say, ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord’—Psalm 33:12—how in the world do you expect to ever have that if you are not electing somebody that would adhere to that worldview?” Rapert asked. “You can’t have a nation whose God is the Lord when you’re electing people that are holding up Sodom and Gomorrah as a goal to be achieved rather than a sin to be shunned.”

 

“What we need is a revival of spirit that will change individual hearts, and then once that happens, then we need to have men and women that say, ‘We need to take authority so that in our school boards, our city councils, our state legislatures, and in Congress, that we’ve got people that love God and want to do what is right in the sight of God and man,'” Rapert added.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Who Had It Worse, Trump or Jesus Christ?

 

Some of Donald Trump’s supporters can’t help but see similarities between the plight of their beloved former president, who’s in hot water, legally-speaking, for alleged schemes surrounding hush money to an adult film star, and the suffering of Jesus Christ. 

 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is reportedly preparing to indict Trump in relation to a $130,000 payment from his lawyer and fixer to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence prior to the 2016 election. 

 

Trump has tried to cast himself as a victim of political persecution by “evil and sinister people,” who are “killing our nation as we sit back & watch” in a series of blustering social media posts in recent days.  

 

The former president has long played a key role in the imaginations of Christian nationalists, who believe America is an inherently Christian nation, should have Christian laws, and that Trump is their savior. Christian nationalist language has seeped into MAGA-world rhetoric, but Trump’s imminent arrest has taken it to new heights.  

 

Lawyer Joseph McBride, who is representing a handful of Jan. 6 defendants, thinks that the timing of Trump’s likely arrest is notable. 

 

“President Trump will be arrested during lent—a time of suffering and purification for the followers of Jesus Christ,” McBride wrote on Twitter. “As Christ was crucified, and then rose again on the 3rd day, so too will @realdonaldtrump.”

 

When he faced some pushback on comparing Trump’s plight to Jesus Christ’s hours-long torture, McBride doubled down. “JESUS LOVES DONALD TRUMP. JESUS DIED FOR DONALD TRUMP. JESUS LIVES INSIDE DONALD TRUMP,” McBride tweeted. “DEAL WITH IT.” 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

 

[China]

 

 

[Dan T.]

^^^ Pretty sure at around :55 I heard a lyric from "La Bamba."

[Captain Wiggles]

Quote

"Hot bible my mouth waters for the taste of God"

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[gbear]

stuck between laughing and crying at the how do you explain these things to a 6 year old.  I can only imagine not being able to talk about slavery or sex as you try to tread the very narrow path about manservants and maidservants...It will require one heck of a game of password.

[Captain Wiggles]

Replacing counselors with priests eh. Totes not grooming tho right? 😈

[China]

Kansas senator’s message to non-Christian constituents: ‘I would be happy to try and convert you’

 

A Republican senator told a Muslim woman that he would be happy to convert her to Christianity when she asked him how he planned to fairly represent all his constituents, not just those who shared his religion.

 

Hutchinson Republican Sen. Mark Steffen was meeting with a group of young Kansans from Wichita and Hutchinson in his office when he made the statement March 16.  

 

Rija Nazir, a 22-year-old recent Wichita State University graduate and campaign organizer with Loud Light, said she wanted to give Steffen a chance to explain his perspective when she asked the question, after seeing a large Bible on his desk and knowing his strong religious views.

 

“I obviously knew a little bit of background about him, but I didn’t want to just write him off just yet,” Nazir said. “I wanted to have a chance to let him speak for himself.”

 

Nazir told Steffen she was Muslim and asked him how he approached non-Christian constituents.

 

“I would be happy to try and convert you,” Steffen said in response, while laughing.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

On 12/5/2022 at 8:26 PM, China said:

Elementary school that allowed religious after-school programs must now allow ‘After-School Satan Club’

 

Parents of students at Chesapeake Public Schools in Virginia are voicing concern over a new after-school program titled “After-School Satan Club (ASSC)” which is gearing up to have its first session in a few weeks at a elementary school within the district, WTKR reports.

 

“But now, it’s okay to have devil worshipping in school around impressionable minds and age,” parent Melanie Ballard told WTKR. “Children absorb everything they see and hear and they model what they see adults do.”

 

The club’s campaign director says the club has nothing to do with the supernatural and it’s only concerned with encouraging evidence-based discussion and rational debate.

 

“We do not believe in a supernatural Satan as a symbol because legend has it that Satan was the first to start asking questions and was cast out of heaven for that reason,” ASSC’s June Everett said. As WTKR’s report points out, the club’s flyer insists it’s not looking to convert children into any sort of religion and only wants to encourage them to look at the world scientifically.

 

“A lot of the activities are based on community projects or different kinds of crafts that you can share with families or friends. They can color in a book or make a friendship bracelet,” Everette said.

 

“If we were to name it something like the ‘Fluffy Bunnies’ or ‘Rainbow Club’ and people were to find out it was run by the Satanic Temple, that would be worse,” Everette continued. “We do get a lot of people who say, ‘Why don’t you call it the afterschool science club or afterschool critical thinking club?’ We could do that, but then when people find out it’s run by the Satanic Temple and that Satanists are the ones running the club, we feel that will create more of a problem.”

 

University of Richmond law professor Jack Preis told WTKR that Chesapeake Public Schools don’t really have a choice when it come to allowing the Satan Club because if the school is going to allow one religious club to meet, all other clubs must be allowed — regardless of religion — thanks to the First Amendment.

 

In a statement released on Friday, Chesapeake Public Schools clarified that the club is not district-approved but stated that they are required by law to allow ASSC to host a class.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

In related news...

 

Saucon Valley must allow After School Satan Club to meet, judge rules

 

Federal judge John Gallagher ruled Monday the After School Satan Club can begin holding meetings at Saucon Valley Middle School.

 

The long-awaited decision said the Saucon Valley School District violated the First Amendment when it revoked the club's approval. In his opinion, Judge Gallagher recognized the difficulty Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty faced following a shooting threat related to the Satan Club, calling her position "unenviable."

 

But the judge also said the suppression of the club's speech was not "Constitutionally permissible." Now, more than two months after its approval was revoked, the club is planning to hold its first meeting as early as next week.

 

"We're very happy that the First Amendment prevailed this morning," said Sara Rose, Deputy Director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which represented the Satanic Temple in court.

 

Rose said the school district tried to argue the After School Satan Club didn't follow its advertising rules by not explicitly saying they weren't endorsed by the district, but the ACLU was able to prove a double standard.

 

"I think the most powerful piece of evidence that we had on the Satanic Temple's side was the fact that their advertisement was so similar to that of the Good News Club," said Rose.

 

The Good News Club is the Christian club in the district.

 

Click on the link for the full article