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

[China]

'Wake up': Trump-loving Evangelicals warned they've been 'taken in by a hoax'

 

In a blunt-talking column published by the Charlotte Observer, a lifelong Evangelical expressed dismay that Christians have been taken in by Donald Trump who could not be less like Jesus Christ.

 

According to Isaac Bailey, Christians who are still standing by the former president despite his record of criminality and incitements to violence need to "wake up" and realize they have been suckered by a con man who has been preying on them since he was first elected in 2016.

 

Referring to comments made by Christian leader Russell Moore about the influence the former president has had on parishioners who are now claiming the words of Jesus show weakness, Bailey wrote, "Maybe in their minds, Trump is the Jesus of Revelation. He’s the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords with a sword in his mouth who has come back to judge the righteous and unrighteous, to wage war."

 

With that in mind, he continued, "It’s why they view every Trump indictment not as democracy working as intended, upholding the principle that no man is above the law, but as akin to a lash from a Roman soldier’s whip on Jesus’ back. I wish it weren’t true. But it is."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Bang]

To be fair, he's trying to wake people up from an entire life of buying into a con game.

Maybe they should just title the column "Here's More Obvious **** You Should Know".

 

~Bang

Edited August 20, 2023 by Bang

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

Remember this one?

 

[China]

Evangelical Christians need Republicans. Does the party need them?

 

hen Donald Trump recalled how his three US supreme court justices helped repeal the nationwide right to abortion, the audience rose to its feet and erupted in whistles, whoops and prolonged applause. But even as the former president basked in the religious right’s moment of triumph, he went on to deliver a warning.

 

“I will say politically, it’s a very tough, it’s a very tough decision for some people, but very, very hard on elections. Very, very hard,” Trump told a gathering of Christian conservatives in the ballroom of a Washington hotel. “We had midterms and this was an issue, you know.”

 

He added: “Now we can win elections on this issue but it’s very delicate and explaining it properly is extremely important. Many politicians who are pro-life do not know how to properly discuss this topic, which is so important to the people in this room, so important to millions and millions of people in our country.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The Christian right’s wish list for Trump is worse than you think

 

At this year’s edition of Pray Vote Stand, the Christian right’s most influential political gathering, activists previewed their campaign to further cement Trump’s Christianization of the federal bench. The Center for Judicial Renewal, which is run by the political arm of the far-right American Family Association, presented a list of lawyers and judges who it says adhere to “Christian faith” and a “biblical worldview,” according to a report by Peter Montgomery at People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch.

 

The list includes Kristen Waggoner, Supreme Court litigator and president of the Christian right legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom; current federal appellate judges James Ho, Kyle Duncan and Lawrence VanDyke; and current and former deans of the nation’s top evangelical law schools at Regent University and Liberty University. If Republicans regain the White House and the Senate in 2024, they will have additional opportunities to further one of Trump’s top achievements in the eyes of his loyal evangelical base: stacking the federal courts with Christian nationalist ideologues.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

Among Republicans, 53% said Trump was a person of faith, ahead of every other person on the list — although he was statistically tied with Pence, who came in at 52%. 

 

Trump also led several of his other opponents in the Republican presidential primary, with 47% of Republican respondents saying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a person of faith, 31% for Sen. Tim Scott, 31% for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 30% for entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and 22% for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

 

[China]

I think if Trump set foot in a church he'd burst into flames.

[PleaseBlitz]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/03/kate-cohen-atheism/
 

Quote

I used to say, when people asked me what atheists do believe, that it was simple: Atheists believe that God is a human invention. But now, I think it’s more than that. If you are an atheist — if you do not believe in a Supreme Being — you can be moral or not, mindful or not, clever or not, hopeful or not. Clearly, you can keep going to church. But, by definition, you cannot believe that God is in charge. You must give up the notion of God’s will, God’s purpose, God’s mysterious ways. In some ways, this makes life easier. You don’t have to work out why God might cause or ignore suffering, what parts of this broken world are God’s plan, or what work is his to do and what is yours. But you also don’t get to leave things up to God. Atheists must accept that people are allowing — we are allowing — women to die in childbirth, children to go hungry, men to buy guns that can slaughter dozens of people in minutes. Atheists believe people organized the world as it is now, and only people can make it better. No wonder we are “the most politically active group in American politics today,” according to political scientist Ryan Burge, interpreting data from the Cooperative Election Study. That’s right: Atheists take more political action — donating to campaigns, protesting, attending meetings, working for politicians — than any other “religious” group. And we vote. In his study on this data, sociologist Evan Stewart noted that atheists were about 30 percent more likely to vote than religiously affiliated respondents.

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

God’s tool bragged about how many married women he’s ****ed and barebacked a pornstar while his third wife was home breastfeeding.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Sacks 'n' Stuff

[The Sisko]

On 8/20/2023 at 8:06 AM, Bang said:

To be fair, he's trying to wake people up from an entire life of buying into a con game.

Maybe they should just title the column "Here's More Obvious **** You Should Know".

 

~Bang

The only question is which con game; his own, the Grand Oligarch’s Party’s, or evangelical Xtianity?

[Jumbo]

Humanity has a long way to go as a species.

 

We're still homo stupiditus.

 

[mistertim]

8 hours ago, Sacks 'n' Stuff said:

God’s tool bragged about how many married women he’s ****ed and barebacked a pornstar while his third wife was home breastfeeding.

 

One of my favorite things is how, when cornered about this stuff, "Christian" Trump supporters often fall back on "Who are we to judge God's plan? We can't understand or know what God is doing or why!" but when you ask "So by that logic it's just as possible that God wanted Joe Biden in the White House, right?" they then say some permutation of "NO WAY! God wants Trump, not the Biden crime family!"

 

[LD0506]

[China]

On 5/2/2023 at 1:23 AM, China said:

 

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

 

School district and The Satanic Temple reach agreement in lawsuit over After School Satan Club

 

An eastern Pennsylvania school district has reached a settlement with The Satanic Temple in a lawsuit that alleged the district discriminated against students by barring one of the group’s After School Satan clubs from using a school building earlier this year.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that the Saucon Valley School District had agreed to pay $200,000 in attorney’s fees and to provide The Satanic Temple and the After School Satan Club it sponsors the same access to school facilities as is provided to other organizations.

 

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in March after the district rescinded its earlier approval to allow the club to meet following criticism. The After School Satan Club, with the motto “Educatin’ with Satan,” had drawn protests and even a threat in February that prompted closure of district schools for a day and the later arrest of a person in another state.

 

Saucon Valley school district attorney Mark Fitzgerald told reporters in a statement that the district denies having discriminated against The Satanic Temple, its club or “the approximately four students” who attended its meetings. He said the district’s priorities were education and the safety of students and staff.

 

“By enforcing its policies regarding the use of facilities, the district maintained a safe educational environment for its students in the face of credible threats of violence that had already caused closure of the schools and panic in the community,” Fitzgerald said.

 

The $200,000 will be paid by the district’s insurance and “all organizations will be following the district’s facilities use policy in the future,” he said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[mistertim]

[skinsmarydu]

OK, so my dad was a Methodist preacher for my whole life...teenage life, he had a 3-point charge out in the hills, then did his own thing. 

He was extremely liberal.  I could play all the heavy metal I wanted.  He actually thought AC/DC and Judas Priest were really cool band names.  (I started with his Beatles albums.) 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/261-georgia-congregations-leave-the-united-methodist-church-over-a-divide-on-lgbtq-issues/ar-AA1kblUL?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=8af14b649fd8445ff3b0fc6378065716&ei=11

 

 

[hail2skins]

Interesting piece about Cal Thomas from the upcoming Tim Alberta book:

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/12/donald-trump-and-the-implosion-of-the-american-evangelical-movement

[China]

Former US Navy pilot Michael Cassidy beheads ‘Satanic’ statue in Iowa Capitol

 

On Thursday, a former Navy pilot and congressional candidate from Mississippi took down a “holiday Satanic display” at the Iowa State Capitol. He claimed that he did it to defend Christianity from the government’s endorsement of Satanism.

 

The Republic Sentinel reported that Michael Cassidy “surrendered himself to the police officers who were present in the Iowa Capitol, and they confirmed that the Satanic Temple of Iowa wants to press charges against him.”

The Sentinel added that “Cassidy faces a charge of fourth-degree criminal mischief for his act.”

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by China

[Larry]

Looking forward to a potential member of the Mississippi Senate testifying in court, under oath, that the presence of a religious display inside the Capitol building constitutes government endorsement of the religion.  

 

But who am I kidding?  They're lying hypocrites.  And completely unapologetic about it.  

[China]

Ex-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis picks a surprising fight against Christian nationalism

 

Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis is a Republican Christian, but she wants you to know she's not a Christian nationalist.

 

Ellis, who already pleaded guilty for her role in the Georgia election subversion scheme for which the former president is also fighting serious criminal charges, on Friday responded to a post by Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk. Kirk, who is battling allegations of antisemitism at his political conference, stated that a "Christian veteran just beheaded a monument to Satan in Iowa’s state Capitol."

 

"If this is Christian Nationalism, we need more of it. Hero," Kirk wrote on X.

 

Ellis replied, choosing to take exception with Kirk's embrace of Christian nationalism.

 

"Christianity teaches that we war not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness (Eph 6). The satanic statue had no more actual power than an idol in Babylon. I hate that this was erected in *anywhere,* especially a State Capitol, but lawlessness in the name of 'Christian Nationalism' is completely missing the point of religious freedom and legitimacy of law," Ellis wrote. "Destruction of property is not okay for the Christian who hates a satanic statue any more than it’s okay for the satanist who hates a nativity scene."

 

Then, the individual Kirk and Ellis were talking about came to play.

 

"I did nothing to any Satanist (flesh and blood), [Ellis]," Michael Cassidy wrote Saturday. "I pray that they will, as billions of pagans have before, repent of their spiritual wickedness and accept Christ as their Savior."

 

Ellis then said she never accused Cassidy "of doing anything to a human Satanist or 'flesh and blood.'"

 

"Have you read Ephesians 6? The point is that the battle against evil is not in the physical realm, but the spiritual," Ellis said on Saturday. "That statue had no authority or power. I pray for them as well to repent and accept Christ. But I’m not going around destroying their property."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I'm still marveling at the concept of this thread that Trump could possibly "help" anything or anyone, anywhere lol...

[China]

1 minute ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

I'm still marveling at the concept of this thread that Trump could possibly "help" anything or anyone, anywhere lol...

 

It's "Trumpism" not Trump himself.  Because we all know that Trump only helps himself.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

10 minutes ago, China said:

 

It's "Trumpism" not Trump himself.  Because we all know that Trump only helps himself.

 

The opening post, though, says "Is Trump good for Christianity in America??"

[PleaseBlitz]

On 12/16/2023 at 6:00 PM, China said:

On Thursday, a former Navy pilot and congressional candidate from Mississippi took down a “holiday Satanic display” at the Iowa State Capitol. He claimed that he did it to defend Christianity from the government’s endorsement of Satanism.

 

I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that Baldy McVandalface missed the point here.  Any time you see one of these "Satanic displays" next to the Christian one, and there is ALWAYS a Christian one, it isn't because "the government endorses Satanism."  It's because, pursuant to the Constitution (which, as a Navy pilot, this guy took an oath to support and defend (but evidently not to read)), the government isn't allowed to endorse ANY religion.  So if the government insists on putting up a manger scene or other display endorsing Christianity, it ALSO has to give equal treatment to any other religion that wants a display.  And the https://thesatanictemple.com/ like to express their displeasure towards government endorsements of Christianity by insisting on displays of Satanism.