"Author and radio host Eric Metaxas—long one of the most insufferable voices on the Christian right—exulted that “it’s hard to believe it took two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand.”"
< Tim rubs his temples >
Does anyone else realize how truly insane and unhinged this statement is? Out of all the souls who have ever wandered this earth throughout all of time, Metaxas will have you believe that Our Creator was waiting for *exactly* this time and place to "raise up" the biggest fuckin' moral degenerate to ever hold office in the United States. And since the target audience for blasphemy has the collective critical thinking skills of a paper clip, they don't even bother to question it.
Hey, Eric...are you sure it's The Lord you're speaking for?
Well, I HAVE read Scripture from cover to cover (including the bits not included in the Protestant version) and will confidently say that while a ballroom does not figure in Scripture, specifically, the practices of the rich, powerful, and pretentiously/hypocritically pious and religious do...
and not in a good way. And not to a good end for those people w/o sincere repentence.
The only sincere things in Trump are his anger, his love for himself (accompanied by a sense of entitlement), and his sense of victimization. Things that he shares with his most ardent cult followers, which is why they are so tightly joined.
In the intial sense (passage) you are correct--positive and hearfelt... but the same is also true for the second in that it is certainly heartfelt (by Trump and his followers), but not positive from our perspective.
It still makes me laugh just how much time they spent in Sunday school explaining how “actually” that just referred to a particular gate in Jerusalem that camels had to duck a little to get through…
Didn’t Jesus give a Sermon on the Mount saying build a grand golden ballroom on this mount for the Roman overseers so they don’t have to get mud on their togas.
That God has a Plan, that He works in Mysterious Ways, and that He chooses Unlikely Instruments means that in Christianity, everything is possible--nothing is off-limits. Expect the Spanish Inquisition.
Repeating what I've said in other posts. I’m not religious, but if I had to identify an Antichrist in my lifetime, Trump would definitely be it: “A charismatic deceiver who fools Christians into worshipping him and turning away from Christ.” MAGA are completely unable to make the obvious connection.
That definition is down pat for what Trump is doing to his followers. I still say Trump is a Satanist - they revel in sadistic torture of innocent people.
And the head wound. The most bizarre part of this is the evangelicals I worshipped with - for a (very eye-opening) time - were obsessed with the end times stuff. And now they are the worshippers of a false deity. Those who claim to "know" were so easily deceived.
When these Nationalist-Christians (or Nat-C for short) said nothing when Trump portrayed himself as Jesus, you know they're all going to believe that the Lord Christ wants a $1.4 BILLION Ballroom for Trump.
My thought was, if god truly raised up an incompetent, hateful, greedy swamp creature like Trump, then god either hates the world, or he has the worst sense of humor of all time time.
"God is currently on leave in the Andromeda galaxy. He'll get back with you in around 5,000 years." Sincerely, Recovering Catholic & Recovering Christian
Like with all those fake “fossils” He buried, to fool us into thinking biological evolution was real? Or like with Job, maybe? Makes me wonder if there’s a DSM-V diagnosis for what’s ailing Him. I guess if we’re made in His image then pulling the wings off of flies and grafting blue corneas onto brown-eyed people may not be so strange.
He is not speaking for the Lord, the Republican party is definitely the party of Satan. Trump surrounds himself with the worst of the worst.... sexual predators, fraudsters, drug lords. His supporters cannot see the forest for the trees.
The Christian nationalist project has always seemed sort of short sighted to me, because even if they win and get their way, the next question will inevitably be: which *sort* of Christian will the nationalists be? Part of the reason why the separation of church and state was important to the founding was that the founders looked at the history of religious sectarian conflict in Europe and said: "Hey, maybe a bunch of people dying over dogmatic esoterica like whether or not peasants can drink communion wine (and so on, etc.) or not is bad?"
You're totally right--and this doesn't just go for the Christian nationalists but for all the different flavors of MAGA nationalist period. I wrote about this after attending the "National Conservatism" conference last year:
"It should be easy going for the NatCons now: Trump is the great uniting figure. Their intellectual project is ascendant, for the moment. But it’s far from clear how any of these people are supposed to keep playing nice when they no longer have Trump’s banner to march behind—or their shared enemies to kick around anymore."
The Christian Nationalist agenda is laid out in Project 2025 and in the minds of neanderthals like Rev. Doug Wilson from Moscow ID. They won't need Trump in order to keep pushing it.
It's basically an anti-female agenda; no abortion, no contraception, no right to vote, et al. Also, Rev. Wilson is a spiritual mentor for War Secretary Hegseth.
If you do a deep dive into Satanists, you will find that their members include teachers, clergymen, government leaders - all respected because of the facade they put on to fool their followers. It is a documented cult with many followers, some who do truly heinous things - but our country does not want to see it squarely in the eye. We turn away because it is too painful to contemplate. Trump has given them the best chance they have had in years to gain the power they desire. We ignore this at our peril.
Maybe some satanic entities. Might want to do further research there. For example, the Satanic Temple (if I have the name right) is anything but satanic. Also, hard core religionists require an enemy of some sort to make their lives meaningful. Satanists are among those they target.
I can’t wait for this group to kick off the 2nd round version of the 1618-1648 30yrs war. 🍿Not a soul in this group has ever picked up and read a history book.
Also plenty of the founders were descendants of people who fled homes in Europe to find THEIR OWN religious freedom. That doesn’t mean they were particularly tolerant the same contradictions were there from the beginning.
The Puritans / Pilgrims in Massachusetts Bay were among the least tolerant of the colonists. Conservative preacher Roger Williams was forced to leave Massachusetts Bay and became the primary founder of Rhode Island. Williams may have been the first colonial author to write about the need for separation of church and state.
Just need to mention the pilgrims were also deep misogynists. Women needed to be suppressed or they were witches. In general the reformation was not kind towards women’s participation in religious or civic life.
The Founders realized they'd lose the Revolutionary War without help from France and Spain and therefore they had to appease the Catholic faction. Therefore, we get freedom from religion.
Also, each of the thirteen colonies was founded by different Protestant denominations (except for Pennsylvania). So they needed freedom of religion, Pennsylvania style, to get along.
I think that was during the English Civil War? Maryland always confuses me. Anyway, the Baltimore family was forced to convert to Protestantism or be run out of the state per Wikipedia.
"Later, in 1689, the year following the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain, John Coode led a rebellion that removed Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, from power in Maryland. That power was restored to the Baltimore family in 1715 after Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, declared in public that he was a Protestant."
You may be right. I was using an old reference given to me by my late father; a two volume "Youth's History of the United States" from 1500 CE to 1900 CE.
England already had freedom of religion for "congregationalists." I think, but I'm not sure, everyone in America just pretended to be a congregationalist.
To be fair, many of the Christian Nationalist folks come from the same denominational group: Fundamentalisty "non-denominational" evangelicals, usually some variety of "Reformed" Calvinism. Sure, there are some far right Roman Catholic types in there, but they'll figure out how to get along.
My mom, who is deeply MAGA but not deeply Christian (yep, it's possible) was telling me about a friend of hers who is a very fundamentalist MAGA. Yet this woman could not even tell my mom exactly WHAT religion she is. My mom kept saying, are you Baptist, Methodist, etc,etc? Nope. Her friend is just "Christian." The most mom could get was Protestant. How does that even happen? That is what radical Fundamentalists are now. They can't even say what their own religion is called.
The problem here is that many of these people--I would wager most--do not actually know much about their own religion. They aren't too clear on doctrine or theology (those stupid egghead things).
They know them some Scripture. Usually some version of the 10 commandments and throw in some carefully curated passages that say things that they like and agree with, carefully cherry-picked by smarter people to make sure the peons are "thinking" properly.
They know more OT stuff than NT, most likely. Especially thae various tales told in vairous kid's books, Sunday school, TV/Movies. Noah and the Ark, Moses and the Exodus, Samson, David and Goliath, King Soloman, Nativity and Crucifixion.
It is a cultural thing, not really a thoughtfully religious thing. Not a thing of substantive doctrine, principles or defined structure.
And, again, all carefully cherry-picked or interpreted to justify what they do and believe.
Particular denomination is meaningless, because denomination is a function of doctrine/dogma. These people have none.
Many of these people are like my parents--who basically belonged to their own little church with about 20 people in it (including the children who probably did not care or want to be there) who all were in general agreement, listening to sermons by someone who didn't really know much more about this stuff than they did--but who certainly had... Opinions.
I mean, my father used to teach in that church and *I* was the guy looking over what he was doing/thinking and answering his questions. Me. An avowed atheist--basically because I knew more about the stuf than him or anyone else there (which is kinda WHY I was an atheist)..
Addendum: when you think about it, Protestantism is kind of the first major exercise (in Western religious culture) in the whole "I did my own research" thing. Instead of relying upon the theology and doctrines established by the religious hierarchy (the "experts," basically the Roman Catholic Church), the advent of mass communication (printing) provided the kind of access to information (for that time/context) that the internet has provided for OUR time.
Revolutions in communication often lead to revolutions in culture. Langauge made us human, writing created information durability, organization (bureaucracy) and large communication networks, mass media (radio, TV, movies) enabled large-scale propaganda, broader cultural cohesion, digital media "democratized" and fractured information (and expertise), leading to confusion and increased conflict.
It is a general similarity, not to be confused with being identitcal--but I think there are lessons in THAT experience (and the horrible-at-times-aftermath) for us to look at now.
The New Evangelicals often call their churches The Church in [wherever] because they believe they are the only biblical Christians — unlike those whoring after strange gods in every other Christian church. They truly do not think that history — if they are even aware of it — is relevant to revelation, so to speak.
No they won't. If the Calvinists win this (and in terms of sheer numbers that's the most likely outcome), they'll immediately start marginalizing Catholics. Doug Wilson (Pete Hegseth's guy) has said there should be laws banning public processions honoring saints or holy days (a Catholic tradition).
Pope Leo has warned against this....there's a deep vein of anti-Catholicism in the U.S. It's been papered over temporarily as conservative Christians have built alliances to grab political power, but it has not gone away.
This is one of those situations where "traditional" Catholics should be very, very careful about what they wish for.
This is a topic that’s been fascinating me for a while.
They (the extreme right wing US Catholics who I’ll refer to as trad Catholics for brevity) have got their man one not particularly healthy heartbeat away from the presidency. What happens if Trump has a medical event in the next 32 months and they want Vance to honour the chits he’s written them? What’s the plan given, as you note, the history of anti-Catholic sentiment in the US and among fundamentalist Protestants generally? A theocracy only has room for the One True Denomination of the One True Religion.
I’ve seen a few interesting theories.
One is that US trad Catholics believe that after 50 or so years of propaganda they’ve moved US Protestantism so close to what they see as the true Catholic view on what they regard as the important matters; like abortion, contraception, homosexuality, gender roles and women’s rights; that ‘trivial’ differences - on things like confession, veneration of the saints, respect for papal authority and sacred tradition in addition to scripture as opposed to the Protestant view that scripture alone is the sole source of religious authority (sola scriptura), and the Protestant idea that faith alone is enough to guarantee salvation (sola fide and sola gratia) compared to the Catholic view that salvation must be continuously earned by living a righteous life of good works - won’t matter. Essentially it’s an argument that agreement on culture war issues will be more important than divergences on the ‘esoteric’ details of religious practice and dogma so differences on the latter will be tolerated. That strikes me as optimistic given the history of those disputes.
Another is that the trad Catholics believe that with control of the head of state and more than a few SCOTUS justices they’ll be able to keep US law in line with their view of Catholic dogma and even orchestrate a grand reconciliation between US Catholics and the various Protestant denominations. To which I can only say - gestures vaguely at six centuries of Europeans trying the same thing only to further entrench sectarian divisions - good luck with that. It’s even more optimistic than the first but grandiose enough that I’m sure at least a few of them believe it.
The third is that the trad Catholics view the global Catholic Church as so irredeemably infected by liberalism they’ll attempt to form a US breakaway church which only incorporates the parts of Catholicism they agree with (i.e. pre Second Vatican Council). I’m not sure if that would technically make them heretics, schismatics or Protestants with confession and a Pope (strictly, I suppose, an Antipope). However, it’s probably the most feasible practically (potential religious wars notwithstanding).
Ultra right Catholics were the foundational movers, strategists, and financers of the entire political Christian right. They saw Southern Evangelicals could be the GOP foot soldiers and undertook to politicize them beginning with Reagan's first campaign. These Catholics like Paul Weyrich and Leonard Leo convinced the Koch bros to finance think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society and Tea Party. Ultra rightwing Catholics are now and have been from the first, the puppet masters.
Yes, Opus Dei heavily influenced both Weyrich and Leo. KofC's transition came later in the process, and like EWTN was sort of reverse converted by the Evangelicals.
I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the various denominations that existed when I was a kid...never sure how a Presbyterian was different from a Methodist. I guess the non denominational folks don't know either and that's why their Christianity is sort of "none of the above." Their doctrine is whatever a popular preacher says it is or maybe they just react to something they don't like and say the doctrine is "this thing we don't like is the work of a demon" or something. I don't get it.
Yep. I have been telling my MAGA/Trump supporting Christian Nationalist Mormon compadres that the MAGA religious right does not number the LDS Church among their list of Christians
As an irreligious taxpayer I deeply resent these MAGATs using my tax $$ to attempt to impose their narrow minded, bigoted, hateful brand of Christianity on this country. Yep. These are the Christians I see, although I’ve heard there are Christians who are nice, caring people. I hope these nice Christians will step forward and help others who can no longer afford to buy food, pay rent or drive to work.
As a religious taxpayer, I deep resent those MAGA Christians causing people like you to associate us with narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and hate, and I REALLY resent them setting up a slush fund of my money to reward those 1600 insurrectionists who tried to negate a free and fair election by sacking the nation’s Capitol and beating policemen. To me, that’s a bigger outrage than the frickin’ ballroom.
I know. (I think the separation of church and state was God’s idea.). Seeing what my own Church did with the Holy Roman Empire, and what happened in England at the time of Henry Vlll, those seem like good examples of the need for that separation.
My odd little congregation is in there pitching. We struggle to pay our bills but somehow we do provide food English classes to a lot of people. Though we have noticed a significant falling-off in the numbers of Latinos and Haitians. I wonder why.
I know you're kidding but it actually is an undercovered core truth of Trump's evangelical base that they tend to be people with residual Christian heritage and a little half-remembered doctrine but who are not embedded in Christian institutions--don't go to church, don't really practice their faith in any way--and whose core religious identity had become a bit of a vacuum that faith-inflected MAGA political/cultural identity has now filled.
Evangelical cultural Christians are vernacularly called the "Unchurched" by those who are born and raised in the church and go regularly throughout adulthood. This trend became common in the 1960s, when people were rejecting their families' faiths and seeking new familial ties. This shopping around for faith was deemed a weakness until it became politicized. MAGA attacks on Mainline Protestants and Catholics stem from the "normies" refusal to reject Biblical humanitarian beliefs.
Agreed - and I’ve been saying this for years. A lot of these people are cultural ‘Christians’ who haven’t stepped into a church or read scripture since childhood - if ever. “Something-something-God, says men should be in charge, Christians are being persecuted, gays are bad, and women should stay home and be quiet. Sounds like MAGA to me!”
Yes, an identity with a few common threads and plenty room left over to be a Rorschach ink blot to fill in one’s blank spaces.
At a local anti ICE prison rally this past weekend I had some related conversations with several people about both Christianity and the US flag. Some of us hesitate to ‘own’ either because the meanings have been so distorted, and we can therefore be so mischaracterized by others. I had taken small leaps of faith though - small flag, plus one of my signs read, “Jesus told me to be here for my neighbors - Matthew 25:35”
Funny, this sounds vaguely familiar from a recent episode of The Boys. It's like you've got a Trump insider writing for that show! Homelander has replaced Jesus as the Chosen: all unbelievers must be converted (killed).
Seems to me it should be very easy to tie every Republican to Trump. The party is Trump’s party. Everyone says it, no one denies it. Stop trying to attack Trump solely, and destroy the party itself. Attack the Republican Party relentlessly. Stop pretending there is something to be saved there. Go scorched earth and destroy Republican Party - not just Trump.
Exactly, everything from Lindsey Graham telling the world that the Republican party is Trumps party to Marco’s ridiculous clown shoes needs to be highlighted. Especially tie that Trump statement about not considering oyr financial well being at all to that whole party. There is not a one of them thst cares about us. Say it loud and clear.
Lindsey Graham is the most prominent example of a split personality that's ever existed in the political creatures of my lifetime (assuming Fetterman has some sort of organic brain lesion causing his apparent dichotomy).
We’ve started to enact your advice, Jeff, in the signs we display during our overpass protests. Most recently: “Prices Rise; GOP & 47 Lie”
My hope is that the drivers on Interstate 80 in Iowa who see our signage will internalize that everything they dislike in the tRumpy Dumpty regime applies equally to every GOP candidate in November.
Please recall that we have the Bulwark due to courageous Rs who were NEVER TRUMPERS over what was the Grand Old Party, and many, if not most of them still identify with an R. They may not speak like Lapdog Graham, but agree with him on whose party it has become.
I totally respect the Bulwark's founders. I may be a life long Dem, but I never wanted the GOP to go down in flames. People of integrity and principles in healthy debate with other principked people of integrity is what helpd drive democracy. This is something that us missing from our politics and our society right now. Obe if t he reasons i'm part of this community us because I believe it exists here.
I agree that "People of integrity and principles in healthy debate with other principked people of integrity is what helpd (sic) drive democracy." Unfortunately those people who truly are RINOs do not qualify.
I agree. It totally blew my mind to give money to Bill Kristol In 2016. But I’ve noticed that some of them seem to be moving left. JVL said recently that he was never a Republican. Tim says he was really just an opportunist. Bill says maybe we should’ve listened to the Social Democrats. The only real RINO left is Sara!
"Why not?" Because it will be a waste of time and your "scorched earth" won't work. Ever driven around in the rural and exurb west or midwest and have your AM radio on? What you hear is likely a station owned by far right wing Sinclair Broadcasting or far right wing Salem Broadcasting. Same for down south. Add to that all the other mis-information coming from Fox and elsewhere in the far right blogosphere, including You Tube influencers being paid by front groups for Putin.
A currently bad Republican party is just a symptom of, and distraction from, the real evil that exists below the surface and which must be rooted out to the extent possible. The bigotry and rampant sexism will still be there despite what you might think of the Republican Party. Rooting it out won't be easy. Buckley and Goldwater tried hard to purge the Birchers & white sheet lovers out of the conservative movement. Never fully worked.
Meanwhile, the progressives sit in their urban towers and ponder how they can be more woke. The Dems haven't bothered much to create their own alternatives to the far right blogosphere. So, it was a big surprise and cause for pious hand-wringing when the Trumpers come for the likes of Harvard and Columbia; and for corporate diversity programs. Another big surprise when Hegseth starting purging out generals & admirals who were female or POC. Hopefully you're beginning to see a trend here.
I am an old, retired man and got a wakeup call this weekend from my two children. My life is quiet and easy, and I go where I want to go and stay home when I want to stay there. This is not the reality of my children, both of whom independently mentioned that the price of gasoline and groceries is heavily determining what they can and can't do.
They have children to clothe and feed, so decisions about leisure travel come way after meeting those necessities. Money for gasoline is used to get to and from work, to and from school, and not to meet the whims of an old man who wants to see his grandchildren.
I scattered some largesse around - another benefit of my position - but the weekend made me realize how sheltered I had become, even with members of my own family. May we all live and learn from those around us.
With each new incident and each new poll showing the ship of state sinking, the Republican base looks more and more like an addict thinking that their turn is just around the corner if they keep with it just a little longer. Staying with an abusive partner. Just one more pull of the slot machine handle. The next drink will be the last. One more hit of a drug and then it's quits. All born of a bad mix of hope and desperation, not common sense or wisdom. And so the hole gets deeper and the situation more tragic, for lack of an ability to cut losses, walk away, and demonstrate the courage to change what is not working and never will work.
Still more proof that politics is as corruptive and addictive as any other vice, but with an even greater power to change the world around us, not just our own little corner of it. But you know that. It is beyond sad that they cannot see the warning signs and take positive action before it leads the rest of us to ruin along with them.
Unfortunately, often the only way people thus addicted turn it around is to hit rock bottom, if rock bottom doesn't outright kill them. Should be a fun ride.
And to the glee of our opponents around the world, watching us implode in real time and commit a form of national suicide for no good reason at all. It is fun for them beyond their wildest dreams.
Saw a political cartoon this morning: Xi patting the Felon on the back saying, Good, Donald, keep on doing what you are doing, XI's thinking bubble showing the Felon driving a car shaped and flag-colored like the US over a cliff at high speed.
I don't see the Rs and DJT stopping their digging! DJT can't help himself, and the others have chosen to follow like lemmings, only they fear they WILL fall off the cliff of their cushy jobs if they don't follow.
aha! kind of a 2-sided wooden nickel: addicted TO their golden calf; addicted AGAINST their chosen fears... never doing much soul searching about either
Donald Trump and his anti- American, elitist agenda, lavishing wealth and power onto the already rich and powerful disparaging the poor as parasites on the system is running out of steam.
Trump knows it. The GOP knows it. Do MAGA zealots know it yet? We'll see.
However, we can be sure of two things coming our way.
1. BIG TIME RACISIM. Black, brown and Asian citizens will be discredited as non-American 2nd class citizens, not worthy of the vote.
2. TRUE RELIGION. White Christians will be exalted while all others religions and ethnic groups will be demeaned and considered not of the one, true American faith.
The MAGA propaganda bullhorn will be blasting away in overdrive trying to convince working Americans to vote against their own interest. Give up healthcare, education and a host of social services.
Trump will be lying his head off trying to convince Americans not to believe their eyes or their bank accounts.
Let's be prepared for the onslaught. Worry Less. Fight Back More. We will WIN in Nov. and then again in 2028.
What may help Trump’s downfall is that even MAGA now sees that it’s really not America First, but Trump first and only. The corruption helped bring down Orban, let’s just hope it doesn’t take us 16 years.
Regarding #1, I can never get over the MAGA Asian immigrants I have come across over the last 10 years. I don’t know if they will ever wake up from this slumber unless they are personally impacted à la Japanese internment camp and Chinese exclusion act.
Yes, that’s correct. And then there are a bunch who are newer arrivals (came here in the late 80’s to 2000’s) who made it economically and socially post civil rights act. They are beneficiaries of a workplace culture that is open to diversities but are now pulling the ladder for other immigrants.
I'm there with you about the Latino magas. Half of my family are all in for the orange one. They don't think they'll ever share the fate of our less fortunate Brown brothers and sisters. Be prepared to show your papers.
Preach, sister. I’ve been saying this on behalf of my brown nieflings for the last ten years. We live near the Canadian border, but have a lot of immigrant agricultural labor up here. I keep asking family members how nephew X or niece Y is going to prove they’re citizens when they’re pulled over for driving while Latino. The only one who gets it is white SIL whose husband is Black. 🤦🏻♀️Beyond frustrating.
I like that: "Worry Less. Fight Back More." I think we should post your words regularly as part of comments on the wonderful writings by HCR, Joyce Vance, Miles Taylor, Paul Krugman, The Contrarians, and others I'm not thinking of at the moment!
The thing I have to push down us the fear that we don't win vack any power in November. If yhat happens, everything you outlined accelerates exponentially. If we spend time worrying about that, it will paralyze us now! Stay Xalm abd Fight MAGA!
One wonders who the good lady Lindsey Graham will attach herself to barnacle like once Trump is gone. His attachment to John McCain lulled us into thinking he was a moderate, when he had no real convictions or beliefs.
The same for the Republican Party sans Trump. If he drags them into the deep, will those running in 2028 claim his mantle or pretend they never knew him. Will they be lining up promising to complete the fascist remake of DC or let this ballroom wither in the ground. It may be the party of Trump for the moment, but his time will soon be up, and what the for the party of one.
The National Mall yesterday was filled with people for whom the line between politics and religion has been erased. Their politics have become their religion, and their faith is in the corporeal world of politics in which they now worship the false prophets who so handsomely profit from their credulity, rather than the spiritual world that requires real, actual faith to obtain. Here in this world, instant gratification now trumps the hereafter.
And if you scratch the surface of any of them you'll only find more surface, because just as with their leaders, there's no true depth to their beliefs. Other than perhaps the one that tells them there are only two types of people in our country: the *true believers* like them, and the heretics which all the rest of us are.
A long time ago I used to wear a small cross around my neck.
As I said to another commenter above: It actually is an undercovered core truth of Trump's evangelical base that they tend to be people with residual Christian heritage and a little half-remembered doctrine but who are not embedded in Christian institutions--don't go to church, don't really practice their faith in any way--and whose core religious identity had become a bit of a vacuum that faith-inflected MAGA political/cultural identity has now filled.
I wear a crucifix or a Miraculous Medal, to remind me to comport myself so as not to bring shame on them, especially when wearing my “Never Trump From the Jump” shirt. To me, Trump and MAGA are the exact opposite of the teachings of Christ. Being closer to them is why I’m a Democrat.
I get it, Linda. No knock on anyone who wears a cross or other Christian symbol if they're really trying to follow what it *actually* represents and not some *political* version.
Linda - your sincerity with that symbol is the point 💖 During my years in the AZ borderlands I grew in appreciation for Guadalupe and the connections her image brings to so many. Much deeper meaning than the childish sense i had in catholic elementary school
They have soiled the meaning of so many good and true things - the flag, crucifixes, the word patriot. They've even vulgarized God, his Son Jesus, true Christianity.
Andrew, I know you're worried that the left will turn away from true Christians, but I don't believe that will happen. The true Christians I know are just very nice and giving people. You would not know that they belonged to any one denomination or another because they don't carry a sign, don't talk about it, they just DO for their fellow man - no questions asked.
I was raised in the Catholic Church but am no longer a practicing one. I just remember a song I learned in the church school, "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love".
I don't think anyone would accuse me of being Christian but I do try to live a grateful, generous and loving life, most of all not harm my fellow human.
Jeri - I’m no preacher. I understand where you’re coming from; pretty much in sync. My upbringing was catholic, 8 years of nuns in school, later went my own way. Have had a couple church families that didn’t last. Currently a septuagenarian freelance follower of Jesus.
One reframe I want to offer tho, regarding “They've even vulgarized God, his Son Jesus” - my thought is that when people take god in vain that way, they’re vulgarizing themselves. The Jesus whose teachings and actions I try to follow - that spirit can’t be sullied (in my opinion). The divine really is divine. God’s worst-behaved (supposed) followers can be bad advertising but they don’t diminish the spirit by betraying it. They just put themselves farther away from what could be
Thank you, I appreciate your reframing. To me, they make him not a loving God, so maybe vulgarizing is too strong. They've distorted His love for all peoples.
I really like your comment. This from a 68 yr. old freelancer just trying to do the right thing.
I’ve found a lot of people are surprised when I mention *anything* churchy - while wearing a nerdcore shirt and zero religious paraphernalia. My sister gets the same while wearing her gay pride gear. At this point it’s like mentioning you’re of middle-eastern descent after 911 - “But you don’t *look* like a crazed religious extremist!” Just not spooking the horses and keeping the idea we exist alive ;-)
Ask and ye shall receive. I'll drop JVL a note explaining that he can skip the pinball machine for your birthday and just get you a giant cross on a gold chain. (And by giant, I'm thinking roughly equivalent to Flava Flav's clock.)
Much like flying the American flag, I suspect that the culture will need to radically shift for me to not instantly be wary of someone wearing a cross. I hope it can once again be seen as a sign of a decent person and not a zealot who would instantly hate me for my politics and my family.
Robin - i understand this and juggle my thoughts around it. No judgements! When I go to our local street side sign rallies or to No Kings, I carry a flag with my sign. I want to proclaim what I believe my country should stand for. Don’t fly one on my house though cuz I can’t add the context of what I advocate my flag to mean. Kinda similar with my spiritual views…
I couldn't agree with you more. In 2016, I used to compare our hyperpolarized politics to sports fandom - it was as though the country was split into Yankees fans and Red Sox fans, and the Yanks and Sox were playing each other all day, every day.
Fast forward to 2024, and the devotion amongst the MAGA faithful has increased well beyond rabid fandom. Now, the MAGA diehards view their politics as a core - if not the core - pillar of their personality. That, combined with their belief that Trump is all but infallible, shows that for the MAGA faithful, politics *is* their religion.
The fact that the GOP is a personality cult in which even the mildest criticism of Trump is verboten- even as he grows more unpopular- gives Democrats a fantastic opportunity in the midterms. Better not screw it up, guys !
Exactly this. You can see it play out in real time whenever a GOP gets branded as a RINO. It doesn't matter what their core beliefs are or how they vote - disagree with Trump, on literally anything, and you've betrayed the party and become a Republican in name only.
“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking,” Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday, “and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.”
As a measure of the insanity of the moment, I would just observe that you didn't bother to mention that Trump posted some AI slop showing him pushing the nuclear button. Threat of nuclear annihilation: Must be Monday.
Nobody talks about the big things. Ever. And we wonder why we're in the situation we are in. We are in an abusive relationship with a eugenicist rapist who is stealing the Treasury and needs people like us to be the enemy so he can get away with it. He loves violence, it's his modus operandi, which is why he was elected, and nukes are very probable at this juncture.
Don't know if I agree with "very probable." But if I new a plane had the same probability of crashing as there is of Trump using a nuke, I wouldn't get on the plane.
Is "very probable" the same as "not likely but certainly more in the realm of possibility than at any time since the Berlin Wall fell"? I guess it's not. I've never been so afraid of nukes, though, and I was alive in the 1980s.
I’ve mentioned before my (very smart, very autistic) daughter trying to come up with a work around for the driving age requirement, back when she was in elementary school. “What if… it was a very *small* car?”
I realized I could 100% hear Trump asking, “But what if we used a very *small* nuke?” He’s as fixated and unaware of consequences as my then eight year old. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t keep me awake at night.
Thank you for sharing your daughter’s clever, creative, out of the box thinking. Neurodivergent kids can really open up our minds with their ways of looking at things 🩷
"He’s as fixated and unaware of consequences as my then eight year old." Yes. He's demonstrated this a thousand times. Why have any confidence that he has any better awareness about using a nuke?
“Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution,” Cassidy said in his concession speech. “And if someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power . . . that person is not qualified to be a leader.”
If only he had the courage of these convictions for the last 10 years, perhaps we wouldn’t be here today!
Another cheap snake oil salesman and perennial Sheeple bites the dust: Good riddance!
"Author and radio host Eric Metaxas—long one of the most insufferable voices on the Christian right—exulted that “it’s hard to believe it took two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand.”"
< Tim rubs his temples >
Does anyone else realize how truly insane and unhinged this statement is? Out of all the souls who have ever wandered this earth throughout all of time, Metaxas will have you believe that Our Creator was waiting for *exactly* this time and place to "raise up" the biggest fuckin' moral degenerate to ever hold office in the United States. And since the target audience for blasphemy has the collective critical thinking skills of a paper clip, they don't even bother to question it.
Hey, Eric...are you sure it's The Lord you're speaking for?
I admit I haven't read the Bible from cover to cover, but "ballroom for the rich" somehow didn't come up in what I've gleaned from the New Testament.
Well, I HAVE read Scripture from cover to cover (including the bits not included in the Protestant version) and will confidently say that while a ballroom does not figure in Scripture, specifically, the practices of the rich, powerful, and pretentiously/hypocritically pious and religious do...
and not in a good way. And not to a good end for those people w/o sincere repentence.
And your last two words are two that the Felon most assuredly has never heard, whether alone or in tandem.
The only sincere things in Trump are his anger, his love for himself (accompanied by a sense of entitlement), and his sense of victimization. Things that he shares with his most ardent cult followers, which is why they are so tightly joined.
DJT: Mirror, mirror on the wall. What's good for Trump is good for all.
I thought you were using sincere in a positive "heartfelt" way, not in a "really, yes or no, felt" way.
In the intial sense (passage) you are correct--positive and hearfelt... but the same is also true for the second in that it is certainly heartfelt (by Trump and his followers), but not positive from our perspective.
Eye of the needle and all that......
It still makes me laugh just how much time they spent in Sunday school explaining how “actually” that just referred to a particular gate in Jerusalem that camels had to duck a little to get through…
Trump has concepts of a plan for haggling with St Peter.
I have read the Bible cover to cover, and I’d like to direct the good Metaxas to, well, any of it.
Didn’t Jesus give a Sermon on the Mount saying build a grand golden ballroom on this mount for the Roman overseers so they don’t have to get mud on their togas.
Isn't Heaven a kind of ballroom for the rich--for Calvinists, anyway?
Oh man, that's horrifying. Really Lovecraftian when you think about it.
"Come, dance with oligarchs, forever and ever and ever."
Holy moley, I finally figured out the end of The Shining movie.
Come to think of it, the Ballroom has a capacity of 999. Flip that over and... .
As Camus said, hell is other people. Specifically those people.
Saw an ad for a t-shirt on my feed last night...
Black t-shirt with the word PEOPLE across the top in white, underneath the word is the standard star rating thing. 1-star rating, with the comment:
Absolute nightmare, would not recommend.
I absolutely want one of those shirts.
I believe it was Sartre that said that....
Ya know, some French guy
That's what I get for trying to be clever before I've finished my coffee. :-)
Pretty sure it isn't in the O.T. either ;)
I don't remember Jesus needing a ballroom to feed the 5000. Just sayin'.
That's heretic talk. 😀
I'd rather be a heretic than a blasphemer.
Touche! 😀
That God has a Plan, that He works in Mysterious Ways, and that He chooses Unlikely Instruments means that in Christianity, everything is possible--nothing is off-limits. Expect the Spanish Inquisition.
... and all the other religions on earth, according to Christian Nationalists' reading.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Repeating what I've said in other posts. I’m not religious, but if I had to identify an Antichrist in my lifetime, Trump would definitely be it: “A charismatic deceiver who fools Christians into worshipping him and turning away from Christ.” MAGA are completely unable to make the obvious connection.
That definition is down pat for what Trump is doing to his followers. I still say Trump is a Satanist - they revel in sadistic torture of innocent people.
And the head wound. The most bizarre part of this is the evangelicals I worshipped with - for a (very eye-opening) time - were obsessed with the end times stuff. And now they are the worshippers of a false deity. Those who claim to "know" were so easily deceived.
Pretty sure...he said his name was Leonard, or Lionel, or something that started with an L.
When these Nationalist-Christians (or Nat-C for short) said nothing when Trump portrayed himself as Jesus, you know they're all going to believe that the Lord Christ wants a $1.4 BILLION Ballroom for Trump.
"Nat-C"... perfect
My thought was, if god truly raised up an incompetent, hateful, greedy swamp creature like Trump, then god either hates the world, or he has the worst sense of humor of all time time.
"God is currently on leave in the Andromeda galaxy. He'll get back with you in around 5,000 years." Sincerely, Recovering Catholic & Recovering Christian
Or maybe Trump was God's way of testing us to see what we'd do?
Like with all those fake “fossils” He buried, to fool us into thinking biological evolution was real? Or like with Job, maybe? Makes me wonder if there’s a DSM-V diagnosis for what’s ailing Him. I guess if we’re made in His image then pulling the wings off of flies and grafting blue corneas onto brown-eyed people may not be so strange.
Maybe he meant Voldemort?
He is not speaking for the Lord, the Republican party is definitely the party of Satan. Trump surrounds himself with the worst of the worst.... sexual predators, fraudsters, drug lords. His supporters cannot see the forest for the trees.
Metaxas says he was joking and I believe him because that sentence is a complete joke.
Perfectly said, Tim Coffey. God, I am so thankful for SUBSTACK.
"The Americans may have the wristwatches, but we have the time": Iran Edition
I always heard the phrase as “Americans hold the clock, but Iranians (or insert ME nation under attack)—have the time.“
Although your interpretation makes sense given the current zeitgeist:
https://gettrumpwatches.com
Trump watches? Is that what his buddy Jeffrey said about him?
Touché!..:)
Trump watches! And his voice came on… 🤮
The Christian nationalist project has always seemed sort of short sighted to me, because even if they win and get their way, the next question will inevitably be: which *sort* of Christian will the nationalists be? Part of the reason why the separation of church and state was important to the founding was that the founders looked at the history of religious sectarian conflict in Europe and said: "Hey, maybe a bunch of people dying over dogmatic esoterica like whether or not peasants can drink communion wine (and so on, etc.) or not is bad?"
You're totally right--and this doesn't just go for the Christian nationalists but for all the different flavors of MAGA nationalist period. I wrote about this after attending the "National Conservatism" conference last year:
"It should be easy going for the NatCons now: Trump is the great uniting figure. Their intellectual project is ascendant, for the moment. But it’s far from clear how any of these people are supposed to keep playing nice when they no longer have Trump’s banner to march behind—or their shared enemies to kick around anymore."
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/downbeat-gathering-at-maga-dead-natcon-national-conservatism-conference
And that was before the bottom fell all the way out of his popularity!
The Christian Nationalist agenda is laid out in Project 2025 and in the minds of neanderthals like Rev. Doug Wilson from Moscow ID. They won't need Trump in order to keep pushing it.
It's basically an anti-female agenda; no abortion, no contraception, no right to vote, et al. Also, Rev. Wilson is a spiritual mentor for War Secretary Hegseth.
So, per Andrew & Kotzsu’s question, once they’ve eliminated all the current enemies, they’ll return to witch-burning.
I was impressed by the article in The Atlantic that basically said, you think their motivated by racism? Wait until you hear their opinions on women.
If you do a deep dive into Satanists, you will find that their members include teachers, clergymen, government leaders - all respected because of the facade they put on to fool their followers. It is a documented cult with many followers, some who do truly heinous things - but our country does not want to see it squarely in the eye. We turn away because it is too painful to contemplate. Trump has given them the best chance they have had in years to gain the power they desire. We ignore this at our peril.
Maybe some satanic entities. Might want to do further research there. For example, the Satanic Temple (if I have the name right) is anything but satanic. Also, hard core religionists require an enemy of some sort to make their lives meaningful. Satanists are among those they target.
I may be mistaken, but I believe the Satanic Temple is more irony and parody than an actual religion.
I can’t wait for this group to kick off the 2nd round version of the 1618-1648 30yrs war. 🍿Not a soul in this group has ever picked up and read a history book.
In the seventeenth century only a third of wider Germany’s population died as a result of wars. Pretty sure Trump can do better.
Of course he can; he had a German grandfather and the line went back (in history and thinking) from there.
And the outcome…….whatever religion your prince followed, that was your religion.
No, that was earlier. Peace of Augsburg, 1555.
Also plenty of the founders were descendants of people who fled homes in Europe to find THEIR OWN religious freedom. That doesn’t mean they were particularly tolerant the same contradictions were there from the beginning.
The Puritans / Pilgrims in Massachusetts Bay were among the least tolerant of the colonists. Conservative preacher Roger Williams was forced to leave Massachusetts Bay and became the primary founder of Rhode Island. Williams may have been the first colonial author to write about the need for separation of church and state.
Just need to mention the pilgrims were also deep misogynists. Women needed to be suppressed or they were witches. In general the reformation was not kind towards women’s participation in religious or civic life.
The Founders realized they'd lose the Revolutionary War without help from France and Spain and therefore they had to appease the Catholic faction. Therefore, we get freedom from religion.
Also, each of the thirteen colonies was founded by different Protestant denominations (except for Pennsylvania). So they needed freedom of religion, Pennsylvania style, to get along.
I think that Lord Baltimore, the primary founder of Maryland, was Catholic.
I think that was during the English Civil War? Maryland always confuses me. Anyway, the Baltimore family was forced to convert to Protestantism or be run out of the state per Wikipedia.
"Later, in 1689, the year following the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain, John Coode led a rebellion that removed Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, from power in Maryland. That power was restored to the Baltimore family in 1715 after Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, declared in public that he was a Protestant."
You may be right. I was using an old reference given to me by my late father; a two volume "Youth's History of the United States" from 1500 CE to 1900 CE.
England already had freedom of religion for "congregationalists." I think, but I'm not sure, everyone in America just pretended to be a congregationalist.
Thomas Jefferson considered his legislation on religious freedom in Virginia to be his greatest achievement.
I seem to recall that question spawned centuries of religious wars in Europe.
To be fair, many of the Christian Nationalist folks come from the same denominational group: Fundamentalisty "non-denominational" evangelicals, usually some variety of "Reformed" Calvinism. Sure, there are some far right Roman Catholic types in there, but they'll figure out how to get along.
My mom, who is deeply MAGA but not deeply Christian (yep, it's possible) was telling me about a friend of hers who is a very fundamentalist MAGA. Yet this woman could not even tell my mom exactly WHAT religion she is. My mom kept saying, are you Baptist, Methodist, etc,etc? Nope. Her friend is just "Christian." The most mom could get was Protestant. How does that even happen? That is what radical Fundamentalists are now. They can't even say what their own religion is called.
Well, actually, she did: "Christian."
The problem here is that many of these people--I would wager most--do not actually know much about their own religion. They aren't too clear on doctrine or theology (those stupid egghead things).
They know them some Scripture. Usually some version of the 10 commandments and throw in some carefully curated passages that say things that they like and agree with, carefully cherry-picked by smarter people to make sure the peons are "thinking" properly.
They know more OT stuff than NT, most likely. Especially thae various tales told in vairous kid's books, Sunday school, TV/Movies. Noah and the Ark, Moses and the Exodus, Samson, David and Goliath, King Soloman, Nativity and Crucifixion.
It is a cultural thing, not really a thoughtfully religious thing. Not a thing of substantive doctrine, principles or defined structure.
And, again, all carefully cherry-picked or interpreted to justify what they do and believe.
Particular denomination is meaningless, because denomination is a function of doctrine/dogma. These people have none.
Many of these people are like my parents--who basically belonged to their own little church with about 20 people in it (including the children who probably did not care or want to be there) who all were in general agreement, listening to sermons by someone who didn't really know much more about this stuff than they did--but who certainly had... Opinions.
I mean, my father used to teach in that church and *I* was the guy looking over what he was doing/thinking and answering his questions. Me. An avowed atheist--basically because I knew more about the stuf than him or anyone else there (which is kinda WHY I was an atheist)..
Addendum: when you think about it, Protestantism is kind of the first major exercise (in Western religious culture) in the whole "I did my own research" thing. Instead of relying upon the theology and doctrines established by the religious hierarchy (the "experts," basically the Roman Catholic Church), the advent of mass communication (printing) provided the kind of access to information (for that time/context) that the internet has provided for OUR time.
Revolutions in communication often lead to revolutions in culture. Langauge made us human, writing created information durability, organization (bureaucracy) and large communication networks, mass media (radio, TV, movies) enabled large-scale propaganda, broader cultural cohesion, digital media "democratized" and fractured information (and expertise), leading to confusion and increased conflict.
It is a general similarity, not to be confused with being identitcal--but I think there are lessons in THAT experience (and the horrible-at-times-aftermath) for us to look at now.
I'm surprised your mom's friend knows she is Protestant.
The New Evangelicals often call their churches The Church in [wherever] because they believe they are the only biblical Christians — unlike those whoring after strange gods in every other Christian church. They truly do not think that history — if they are even aware of it — is relevant to revelation, so to speak.
Because it’s a cult.
No they won't. If the Calvinists win this (and in terms of sheer numbers that's the most likely outcome), they'll immediately start marginalizing Catholics. Doug Wilson (Pete Hegseth's guy) has said there should be laws banning public processions honoring saints or holy days (a Catholic tradition).
Pope Leo has warned against this....there's a deep vein of anti-Catholicism in the U.S. It's been papered over temporarily as conservative Christians have built alliances to grab political power, but it has not gone away.
This is one of those situations where "traditional" Catholics should be very, very careful about what they wish for.
This is a topic that’s been fascinating me for a while.
They (the extreme right wing US Catholics who I’ll refer to as trad Catholics for brevity) have got their man one not particularly healthy heartbeat away from the presidency. What happens if Trump has a medical event in the next 32 months and they want Vance to honour the chits he’s written them? What’s the plan given, as you note, the history of anti-Catholic sentiment in the US and among fundamentalist Protestants generally? A theocracy only has room for the One True Denomination of the One True Religion.
I’ve seen a few interesting theories.
One is that US trad Catholics believe that after 50 or so years of propaganda they’ve moved US Protestantism so close to what they see as the true Catholic view on what they regard as the important matters; like abortion, contraception, homosexuality, gender roles and women’s rights; that ‘trivial’ differences - on things like confession, veneration of the saints, respect for papal authority and sacred tradition in addition to scripture as opposed to the Protestant view that scripture alone is the sole source of religious authority (sola scriptura), and the Protestant idea that faith alone is enough to guarantee salvation (sola fide and sola gratia) compared to the Catholic view that salvation must be continuously earned by living a righteous life of good works - won’t matter. Essentially it’s an argument that agreement on culture war issues will be more important than divergences on the ‘esoteric’ details of religious practice and dogma so differences on the latter will be tolerated. That strikes me as optimistic given the history of those disputes.
Another is that the trad Catholics believe that with control of the head of state and more than a few SCOTUS justices they’ll be able to keep US law in line with their view of Catholic dogma and even orchestrate a grand reconciliation between US Catholics and the various Protestant denominations. To which I can only say - gestures vaguely at six centuries of Europeans trying the same thing only to further entrench sectarian divisions - good luck with that. It’s even more optimistic than the first but grandiose enough that I’m sure at least a few of them believe it.
The third is that the trad Catholics view the global Catholic Church as so irredeemably infected by liberalism they’ll attempt to form a US breakaway church which only incorporates the parts of Catholicism they agree with (i.e. pre Second Vatican Council). I’m not sure if that would technically make them heretics, schismatics or Protestants with confession and a Pope (strictly, I suppose, an Antipope). However, it’s probably the most feasible practically (potential religious wars notwithstanding).
Ultra right Catholics were the foundational movers, strategists, and financers of the entire political Christian right. They saw Southern Evangelicals could be the GOP foot soldiers and undertook to politicize them beginning with Reagan's first campaign. These Catholics like Paul Weyrich and Leonard Leo convinced the Koch bros to finance think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society and Tea Party. Ultra rightwing Catholics are now and have been from the first, the puppet masters.
I wonder if Leo XIV knows that....Excommunication anyone?
Knights of Columbus, Opus Dei, etc.
Yes, Opus Dei heavily influenced both Weyrich and Leo. KofC's transition came later in the process, and like EWTN was sort of reverse converted by the Evangelicals.
I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the various denominations that existed when I was a kid...never sure how a Presbyterian was different from a Methodist. I guess the non denominational folks don't know either and that's why their Christianity is sort of "none of the above." Their doctrine is whatever a popular preacher says it is or maybe they just react to something they don't like and say the doctrine is "this thing we don't like is the work of a demon" or something. I don't get it.
Sadly it seems like Bishops Dolan and Barron are working very hard to be part of the group.
Yep. I have been telling my MAGA/Trump supporting Christian Nationalist Mormon compadres that the MAGA religious right does not number the LDS Church among their list of Christians
Its already happening with their return to nativist anti-Catholic bigotry.
As an irreligious taxpayer I deeply resent these MAGATs using my tax $$ to attempt to impose their narrow minded, bigoted, hateful brand of Christianity on this country. Yep. These are the Christians I see, although I’ve heard there are Christians who are nice, caring people. I hope these nice Christians will step forward and help others who can no longer afford to buy food, pay rent or drive to work.
They usually run the food pantries and homeless shelters, so should run into them more and more over the next couple of years.
As a religious taxpayer, I deep resent those MAGA Christians causing people like you to associate us with narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and hate, and I REALLY resent them setting up a slush fund of my money to reward those 1600 insurrectionists who tried to negate a free and fair election by sacking the nation’s Capitol and beating policemen. To me, that’s a bigger outrage than the frickin’ ballroom.
Mixing religion and government hasn't worked since the days of the Eastern Roman Empire. And then only for a few centuries.
I know. (I think the separation of church and state was God’s idea.). Seeing what my own Church did with the Holy Roman Empire, and what happened in England at the time of Henry Vlll, those seem like good examples of the need for that separation.
My odd little congregation is in there pitching. We struggle to pay our bills but somehow we do provide food English classes to a lot of people. Though we have noticed a significant falling-off in the numbers of Latinos and Haitians. I wonder why.
Andrew- These people don't need church. Their lord almighty speaks to them on Truth Social every night.
I know you're kidding but it actually is an undercovered core truth of Trump's evangelical base that they tend to be people with residual Christian heritage and a little half-remembered doctrine but who are not embedded in Christian institutions--don't go to church, don't really practice their faith in any way--and whose core religious identity had become a bit of a vacuum that faith-inflected MAGA political/cultural identity has now filled.
It disgusts me the way that MAGA has hijacked Christianity. I am equally disgusted by the way they call their blood and soil nativism patriotism.
Very good piece by the way.
Evangelical cultural Christians are vernacularly called the "Unchurched" by those who are born and raised in the church and go regularly throughout adulthood. This trend became common in the 1960s, when people were rejecting their families' faiths and seeking new familial ties. This shopping around for faith was deemed a weakness until it became politicized. MAGA attacks on Mainline Protestants and Catholics stem from the "normies" refusal to reject Biblical humanitarian beliefs.
You mean reject the teachings of Christ -- that liberal peace-and-love hippie?
Agreed - and I’ve been saying this for years. A lot of these people are cultural ‘Christians’ who haven’t stepped into a church or read scripture since childhood - if ever. “Something-something-God, says men should be in charge, Christians are being persecuted, gays are bad, and women should stay home and be quiet. Sounds like MAGA to me!”
Yes, an identity with a few common threads and plenty room left over to be a Rorschach ink blot to fill in one’s blank spaces.
At a local anti ICE prison rally this past weekend I had some related conversations with several people about both Christianity and the US flag. Some of us hesitate to ‘own’ either because the meanings have been so distorted, and we can therefore be so mischaracterized by others. I had taken small leaps of faith though - small flag, plus one of my signs read, “Jesus told me to be here for my neighbors - Matthew 25:35”
Many, many times per night.
Way to cut to the chase, Christine. Nicely done.
Funny, this sounds vaguely familiar from a recent episode of The Boys. It's like you've got a Trump insider writing for that show! Homelander has replaced Jesus as the Chosen: all unbelievers must be converted (killed).
Seems to me it should be very easy to tie every Republican to Trump. The party is Trump’s party. Everyone says it, no one denies it. Stop trying to attack Trump solely, and destroy the party itself. Attack the Republican Party relentlessly. Stop pretending there is something to be saved there. Go scorched earth and destroy Republican Party - not just Trump.
Exactly, everything from Lindsey Graham telling the world that the Republican party is Trumps party to Marco’s ridiculous clown shoes needs to be highlighted. Especially tie that Trump statement about not considering oyr financial well being at all to that whole party. There is not a one of them thst cares about us. Say it loud and clear.
Lindsey was also prescient back in 2016 when he said that Trump would destroy the GOP if elected President.
Lindsey should’ve listened to that guy,
Lindsey's big motivation is being next to power. First it was John McCain. Now it is DJT.
He's really had to up his drinking game to be next to trump.
Lindsey Graham is the most prominent example of a split personality that's ever existed in the political creatures of my lifetime (assuming Fetterman has some sort of organic brain lesion causing his apparent dichotomy).
Lindsey’s a remora, a lazy, puny fish feeding off the crumbs of the shark.
Too bad he's contributing to the decline.
We’ve started to enact your advice, Jeff, in the signs we display during our overpass protests. Most recently: “Prices Rise; GOP & 47 Lie”
My hope is that the drivers on Interstate 80 in Iowa who see our signage will internalize that everything they dislike in the tRumpy Dumpty regime applies equally to every GOP candidate in November.
Please recall that we have the Bulwark due to courageous Rs who were NEVER TRUMPERS over what was the Grand Old Party, and many, if not most of them still identify with an R. They may not speak like Lapdog Graham, but agree with him on whose party it has become.
I totally respect the Bulwark's founders. I may be a life long Dem, but I never wanted the GOP to go down in flames. People of integrity and principles in healthy debate with other principked people of integrity is what helpd drive democracy. This is something that us missing from our politics and our society right now. Obe if t he reasons i'm part of this community us because I believe it exists here.
I agree that "People of integrity and principles in healthy debate with other principked people of integrity is what helpd (sic) drive democracy." Unfortunately those people who truly are RINOs do not qualify.
Agreed!
I agree. It totally blew my mind to give money to Bill Kristol In 2016. But I’ve noticed that some of them seem to be moving left. JVL said recently that he was never a Republican. Tim says he was really just an opportunist. Bill says maybe we should’ve listened to the Social Democrats. The only real RINO left is Sara!
Uh, let's not and say we did. Or maybe just agree to disagree?
Why not? What is worth saving? Other parties will rise in the ashes. Treat the party like the garbage it is - nothing is forever.
"Why not?" Because it will be a waste of time and your "scorched earth" won't work. Ever driven around in the rural and exurb west or midwest and have your AM radio on? What you hear is likely a station owned by far right wing Sinclair Broadcasting or far right wing Salem Broadcasting. Same for down south. Add to that all the other mis-information coming from Fox and elsewhere in the far right blogosphere, including You Tube influencers being paid by front groups for Putin.
A currently bad Republican party is just a symptom of, and distraction from, the real evil that exists below the surface and which must be rooted out to the extent possible. The bigotry and rampant sexism will still be there despite what you might think of the Republican Party. Rooting it out won't be easy. Buckley and Goldwater tried hard to purge the Birchers & white sheet lovers out of the conservative movement. Never fully worked.
Meanwhile, the progressives sit in their urban towers and ponder how they can be more woke. The Dems haven't bothered much to create their own alternatives to the far right blogosphere. So, it was a big surprise and cause for pious hand-wringing when the Trumpers come for the likes of Harvard and Columbia; and for corporate diversity programs. Another big surprise when Hegseth starting purging out generals & admirals who were female or POC. Hopefully you're beginning to see a trend here.
I am an old, retired man and got a wakeup call this weekend from my two children. My life is quiet and easy, and I go where I want to go and stay home when I want to stay there. This is not the reality of my children, both of whom independently mentioned that the price of gasoline and groceries is heavily determining what they can and can't do.
They have children to clothe and feed, so decisions about leisure travel come way after meeting those necessities. Money for gasoline is used to get to and from work, to and from school, and not to meet the whims of an old man who wants to see his grandchildren.
I scattered some largesse around - another benefit of my position - but the weekend made me realize how sheltered I had become, even with members of my own family. May we all live and learn from those around us.
I remember the 70s. Hugh gas prices plus extremely high interest rates.
Ich auch, Frau Katze.
With each new incident and each new poll showing the ship of state sinking, the Republican base looks more and more like an addict thinking that their turn is just around the corner if they keep with it just a little longer. Staying with an abusive partner. Just one more pull of the slot machine handle. The next drink will be the last. One more hit of a drug and then it's quits. All born of a bad mix of hope and desperation, not common sense or wisdom. And so the hole gets deeper and the situation more tragic, for lack of an ability to cut losses, walk away, and demonstrate the courage to change what is not working and never will work.
Still more proof that politics is as corruptive and addictive as any other vice, but with an even greater power to change the world around us, not just our own little corner of it. But you know that. It is beyond sad that they cannot see the warning signs and take positive action before it leads the rest of us to ruin along with them.
Unfortunately, often the only way people thus addicted turn it around is to hit rock bottom, if rock bottom doesn't outright kill them. Should be a fun ride.
And to the glee of our opponents around the world, watching us implode in real time and commit a form of national suicide for no good reason at all. It is fun for them beyond their wildest dreams.
Saw a political cartoon this morning: Xi patting the Felon on the back saying, Good, Donald, keep on doing what you are doing, XI's thinking bubble showing the Felon driving a car shaped and flag-colored like the US over a cliff at high speed.
"Rock bottom" is always defined as "the point when I stopped digging."
I don't see the Rs and DJT stopping their digging! DJT can't help himself, and the others have chosen to follow like lemmings, only they fear they WILL fall off the cliff of their cushy jobs if they don't follow.
DJT is the night king and MAGA are the wights.
MAGA/Republicans: When in a hole, keep digging!
The MAGA/Republican party: When you are in a hole, keep digging!
Deutsch - so apt an analogy. I’m not expecting many to work all the steps though.
They can work their own version of the first step, though: I’m powerless over those radical Marxist crazies, and they make my life unmanageable.
aha! kind of a 2-sided wooden nickel: addicted TO their golden calf; addicted AGAINST their chosen fears... never doing much soul searching about either
Donald Trump and his anti- American, elitist agenda, lavishing wealth and power onto the already rich and powerful disparaging the poor as parasites on the system is running out of steam.
Trump knows it. The GOP knows it. Do MAGA zealots know it yet? We'll see.
However, we can be sure of two things coming our way.
1. BIG TIME RACISIM. Black, brown and Asian citizens will be discredited as non-American 2nd class citizens, not worthy of the vote.
2. TRUE RELIGION. White Christians will be exalted while all others religions and ethnic groups will be demeaned and considered not of the one, true American faith.
The MAGA propaganda bullhorn will be blasting away in overdrive trying to convince working Americans to vote against their own interest. Give up healthcare, education and a host of social services.
Trump will be lying his head off trying to convince Americans not to believe their eyes or their bank accounts.
Let's be prepared for the onslaught. Worry Less. Fight Back More. We will WIN in Nov. and then again in 2028.
What may help Trump’s downfall is that even MAGA now sees that it’s really not America First, but Trump first and only. The corruption helped bring down Orban, let’s just hope it doesn’t take us 16 years.
The core is still chanting it’s the Democrats fault. And the left isn’t doing a very good job explaining or breaking through.
Or, “but Hunter’s paintings”.
The core is still defending him. ☹️
Regarding #1, I can never get over the MAGA Asian immigrants I have come across over the last 10 years. I don’t know if they will ever wake up from this slumber unless they are personally impacted à la Japanese internment camp and Chinese exclusion act.
For many of the Vietnamese it comes down to communism like the Cubans in Miami and seeing the Democrats as leftists who are weak on the topic.
Yes, that’s correct. And then there are a bunch who are newer arrivals (came here in the late 80’s to 2000’s) who made it economically and socially post civil rights act. They are beneficiaries of a workplace culture that is open to diversities but are now pulling the ladder for other immigrants.
Unfortunately I have seen this first hand in my own immigrant community.
A family member insisted that Kamala Harris was a Communist so they had to support Trump.
So sad! We need to do better at countering these perceptions!
I'm there with you about the Latino magas. Half of my family are all in for the orange one. They don't think they'll ever share the fate of our less fortunate Brown brothers and sisters. Be prepared to show your papers.
Preach, sister. I’ve been saying this on behalf of my brown nieflings for the last ten years. We live near the Canadian border, but have a lot of immigrant agricultural labor up here. I keep asking family members how nephew X or niece Y is going to prove they’re citizens when they’re pulled over for driving while Latino. The only one who gets it is white SIL whose husband is Black. 🤦🏻♀️Beyond frustrating.
And how about Vance's wife, as well as the other Indian immigrants (or children of immigrants) that have risen in the GOP?
"Risen" is a funny way to describe "disposal token".
I don’t know how she can stand him.
Amazing what you’ll give up for power.
True.
I like that: "Worry Less. Fight Back More." I think we should post your words regularly as part of comments on the wonderful writings by HCR, Joyce Vance, Miles Taylor, Paul Krugman, The Contrarians, and others I'm not thinking of at the moment!
Not to be overly ironic we ought to pray that Tucker’s demon drags our president and his unspeakable vanity ballroom into the fiery pits of hell.
All true. Worry less is important.
The thing I have to push down us the fear that we don't win vack any power in November. If yhat happens, everything you outlined accelerates exponentially. If we spend time worrying about that, it will paralyze us now! Stay Xalm abd Fight MAGA!
One wonders who the good lady Lindsey Graham will attach herself to barnacle like once Trump is gone. His attachment to John McCain lulled us into thinking he was a moderate, when he had no real convictions or beliefs.
The same for the Republican Party sans Trump. If he drags them into the deep, will those running in 2028 claim his mantle or pretend they never knew him. Will they be lining up promising to complete the fascist remake of DC or let this ballroom wither in the ground. It may be the party of Trump for the moment, but his time will soon be up, and what the for the party of one.
Graham's need for a strong daddy is truly pathetic.
There has to be polymarket odds on this. If not, that's passing up a golden opportunity.
I am hoping Graham loses. There's a good Dem running for Senate. If in SC, vote Dr. Annie Andrews!
Andrew: "MAGA Christianity: Now featuring 100 percent less repentance of sins!"
This made me laugh out loud -- because it's accurate. Unlike the 600 percent reduction in drug prices.
The National Mall yesterday was filled with people for whom the line between politics and religion has been erased. Their politics have become their religion, and their faith is in the corporeal world of politics in which they now worship the false prophets who so handsomely profit from their credulity, rather than the spiritual world that requires real, actual faith to obtain. Here in this world, instant gratification now trumps the hereafter.
And if you scratch the surface of any of them you'll only find more surface, because just as with their leaders, there's no true depth to their beliefs. Other than perhaps the one that tells them there are only two types of people in our country: the *true believers* like them, and the heretics which all the rest of us are.
A long time ago I used to wear a small cross around my neck.
These days I wear my heresy on my sleeve.
As I said to another commenter above: It actually is an undercovered core truth of Trump's evangelical base that they tend to be people with residual Christian heritage and a little half-remembered doctrine but who are not embedded in Christian institutions--don't go to church, don't really practice their faith in any way--and whose core religious identity had become a bit of a vacuum that faith-inflected MAGA political/cultural identity has now filled.
Sounds right to me. No pun intended.
What's that old saying... Nature abhors a vacuum? Too bad when a vacuum occurs that it often gets filled with some of the stuff that it does.
I wear a crucifix or a Miraculous Medal, to remind me to comport myself so as not to bring shame on them, especially when wearing my “Never Trump From the Jump” shirt. To me, Trump and MAGA are the exact opposite of the teachings of Christ. Being closer to them is why I’m a Democrat.
I get it, Linda. No knock on anyone who wears a cross or other Christian symbol if they're really trying to follow what it *actually* represents and not some *political* version.
Linda - your sincerity with that symbol is the point 💖 During my years in the AZ borderlands I grew in appreciation for Guadalupe and the connections her image brings to so many. Much deeper meaning than the childish sense i had in catholic elementary school
I will not wear a cross anymore, either, just focusing on taking up mine and following His.
They have soiled the meaning of so many good and true things - the flag, crucifixes, the word patriot. They've even vulgarized God, his Son Jesus, true Christianity.
Andrew, I know you're worried that the left will turn away from true Christians, but I don't believe that will happen. The true Christians I know are just very nice and giving people. You would not know that they belonged to any one denomination or another because they don't carry a sign, don't talk about it, they just DO for their fellow man - no questions asked.
I was raised in the Catholic Church but am no longer a practicing one. I just remember a song I learned in the church school, "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love".
I don't think anyone would accuse me of being Christian but I do try to live a grateful, generous and loving life, most of all not harm my fellow human.
I think of that song a lot with this lot of "Christians" who claim to follow Jesus.
Jeri - I’m no preacher. I understand where you’re coming from; pretty much in sync. My upbringing was catholic, 8 years of nuns in school, later went my own way. Have had a couple church families that didn’t last. Currently a septuagenarian freelance follower of Jesus.
One reframe I want to offer tho, regarding “They've even vulgarized God, his Son Jesus” - my thought is that when people take god in vain that way, they’re vulgarizing themselves. The Jesus whose teachings and actions I try to follow - that spirit can’t be sullied (in my opinion). The divine really is divine. God’s worst-behaved (supposed) followers can be bad advertising but they don’t diminish the spirit by betraying it. They just put themselves farther away from what could be
Best regards - j
Thank you, I appreciate your reframing. To me, they make him not a loving God, so maybe vulgarizing is too strong. They've distorted His love for all peoples.
I really like your comment. This from a 68 yr. old freelancer just trying to do the right thing.
If only more people would do exactly that.
I’ve found a lot of people are surprised when I mention *anything* churchy - while wearing a nerdcore shirt and zero religious paraphernalia. My sister gets the same while wearing her gay pride gear. At this point it’s like mentioning you’re of middle-eastern descent after 911 - “But you don’t *look* like a crazed religious extremist!” Just not spooking the horses and keeping the idea we exist alive ;-)
I gotta say, these days I react to someone wearing a cross as if I were a vampire. Even on people who I've known for more than a decade.
I don't wear jewelry really but I'd wear one! My wife wears one!
Ask and ye shall receive. I'll drop JVL a note explaining that he can skip the pinball machine for your birthday and just get you a giant cross on a gold chain. (And by giant, I'm thinking roughly equivalent to Flava Flav's clock.)
I appreciate the sentiment but I cannot guarantee I would wear it for a video. Maybe once to be nice.
Much like flying the American flag, I suspect that the culture will need to radically shift for me to not instantly be wary of someone wearing a cross. I hope it can once again be seen as a sign of a decent person and not a zealot who would instantly hate me for my politics and my family.
Robin - i understand this and juggle my thoughts around it. No judgements! When I go to our local street side sign rallies or to No Kings, I carry a flag with my sign. I want to proclaim what I believe my country should stand for. Don’t fly one on my house though cuz I can’t add the context of what I advocate my flag to mean. Kinda similar with my spiritual views…
The best and truest virtue signaling is how one lives one's life, not what one wears while doing it.
I'm old enough to remember when the best and truest virtue signaling was driving a Prius.
Yeah, but it's pretty hard to hang one of those around your neck. :-)
Those cross wearing people like Karoline Leavitt have spoiled it.
See also Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kayleigh McEnany, and Pam Bondi.
I’d prefer not to see them anymore!!!
I couldn't agree with you more. In 2016, I used to compare our hyperpolarized politics to sports fandom - it was as though the country was split into Yankees fans and Red Sox fans, and the Yanks and Sox were playing each other all day, every day.
Fast forward to 2024, and the devotion amongst the MAGA faithful has increased well beyond rabid fandom. Now, the MAGA diehards view their politics as a core - if not the core - pillar of their personality. That, combined with their belief that Trump is all but infallible, shows that for the MAGA faithful, politics *is* their religion.
Oh - he is *so* beyond golden calf idol. It’s evidence most of them are either profoundly unread or heretically indifferent.
The fact that the GOP is a personality cult in which even the mildest criticism of Trump is verboten- even as he grows more unpopular- gives Democrats a fantastic opportunity in the midterms. Better not screw it up, guys !
Exactly this. You can see it play out in real time whenever a GOP gets branded as a RINO. It doesn't matter what their core beliefs are or how they vote - disagree with Trump, on literally anything, and you've betrayed the party and become a Republican in name only.
“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking,” Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday, “and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.”
As a measure of the insanity of the moment, I would just observe that you didn't bother to mention that Trump posted some AI slop showing him pushing the nuclear button. Threat of nuclear annihilation: Must be Monday.
Nobody talks about the big things. Ever. And we wonder why we're in the situation we are in. We are in an abusive relationship with a eugenicist rapist who is stealing the Treasury and needs people like us to be the enemy so he can get away with it. He loves violence, it's his modus operandi, which is why he was elected, and nukes are very probable at this juncture.
Don't know if I agree with "very probable." But if I new a plane had the same probability of crashing as there is of Trump using a nuke, I wouldn't get on the plane.
Is "very probable" the same as "not likely but certainly more in the realm of possibility than at any time since the Berlin Wall fell"? I guess it's not. I've never been so afraid of nukes, though, and I was alive in the 1980s.
No worries. TACO Tuesday will be here shortly.
It's all the rantings of a madman. Until it becomes something else from a madman.
I’ve mentioned before my (very smart, very autistic) daughter trying to come up with a work around for the driving age requirement, back when she was in elementary school. “What if… it was a very *small* car?”
I realized I could 100% hear Trump asking, “But what if we used a very *small* nuke?” He’s as fixated and unaware of consequences as my then eight year old. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t keep me awake at night.
Thank you for sharing your daughter’s clever, creative, out of the box thinking. Neurodivergent kids can really open up our minds with their ways of looking at things 🩷
"He’s as fixated and unaware of consequences as my then eight year old." Yes. He's demonstrated this a thousand times. Why have any confidence that he has any better awareness about using a nuke?
Trump's Iranian "2 weeks from now" is rinse/lather/repeat on steroids...
It’s hard to keep up!
“Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution,” Cassidy said in his concession speech. “And if someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power . . . that person is not qualified to be a leader.”
If only he had the courage of these convictions for the last 10 years, perhaps we wouldn’t be here today!
Another cheap snake oil salesman and perennial Sheeple bites the dust: Good riddance!
He thought he was profound. I was embarrassed for him. Briefly.
👍
Take RFK Jr. with you senator. He's your boy.