I'm usually a little on the fence about Andrew's anaylysis, but on this religious aspect, he is 100% dead on and it's a really insightful read on what's going on.
White American Evangelicals (Black Evangelicals are another story altogether) make a mockery of both Christianity and their own Protestant tradition. Among the foundational pillars of Protestantism were universal literacy (ensuring that each Christian could read and study the Bible for him- or herself) and self-examination (ensuring a private relationship with God).
Diary keeping and spiritual humility were encouraged. One of the signs of being out of favor with God was too much self-assurance in one's own salvation. Human beings being what they are, early Protestants were hardly saints. But if you read a typical diary you can see that many of them actually tried. I recently read the words of an "uneducated" 14-year old Maine girl from around 1800 who had lost most of her family in a boating accident. Her articulate, complex, and heartfelt appeals to her faith actually moved me to tears. Imagine anyone in Trump's orbit doing that. In comparison, Erika Kirk's words after her husband's death were shallow and formulaic. The girl had a genuine sense of human frailty and the difficult road ahead of her. Erika seemed more interested in fireworks and pyrotechnics.
Most Evangelicals these days don't even display familiarity with essential Gospel teachings (love your neighbor, love your enemy, turn the other cheek, pray in secret not on the street corner, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, welcome the stranger, feed the poor, walk in humility, renounce worldly things, etc). As a Christian myself (mainline) I find it all very sad, very tragic, and very maddening.
The Christians who support Trump do NOT follow Jesus, they follow Paul and his interpretation of Jesus. This is not a minor point because, for example, they believe that faith alone brings salvation when Jesus states explicitly that it is "doing god's will".
Therefore, these Christians do not see any need to even consider the well being of others much less act to help others. They subscribe to the Calvinist doctrine that posits that wealth is a sign of one's righteousness, that god rewards the righteous with wealth that leads directly to their belief that taxation is theft and an affront to god's will and their rejection of government's policies to help the poor who god has rejected due to their unrighteousness.
Trump's religious supporters are human garbage. Note that those fucking Christians have NEVER complained about the fact that no one sent to CECOT was found guilty of anything, none was given due process as required by LAW. These fucks support the Republican insurrection that replaced our constitution with their unitary executive.
Paul did say that "faithful" behavior is valid only if it is motivated by love. You can be the most outwardly pious person in the world but if you do not love your neighbor it is all meaningless. Pretty powerful stuff, and all too relevant to today's Evangelicals.
I love you guys and I love what you do, but every time I turn on a video I feel like I should go get a bottle of vodka. That can’t be good for me, right?
Organizations representing taxpayers must intervene in the lawsuit to protect the taxpayers. They can then take Trumps deposition and do discovery to determine whether and how he was damaged. He was not damaged at all. Also an independent special counsel should be appointed to represent the US government. Maybe a judge can insist since the DOJ has such a huge conflict of interest.
Is Bukele on tRump's new Peace Board too? Ridiculous. More & more of these so-called Evangelical Christians seem to be okay with joining up with the Christian Nationalists wing of his Maga Cult Base? It's infuriating & insane that he'd even say he will give it to charity when he tore down the East Wing of the People's WH & now he wants to gut the Kennedy Center too! Which he claimed he'd already updated the Kennedy Center bc he went on & on about how dilapidated & rundown it was. He actually believes that the US taxpayers should just pay $1 Billion dollars to tear down & update his "Free" $400 Billion Jet Bribe to turn it into Air Force One & then let him take it with him when he leaves office! Which is a lie because he doesn't ever plan on leaving office again! He's SUPPOSED to WORK for US. WE DON'T WORK FOR HIM!
I thought that all of the Presidents voluntarily shared their tax statements before they took office. The Liar, hid his statements from the American people, and now he wants to sue US for $10 billion. It's an outrage. The answer is NO!
Trump and the IRS suit: prior presidents voluntarily release their tax returns. It’s suspicious that Trump doesn’t. Having some released shouldn’t be deemed unfair.
Your so right especially since he lied & said he would release his tax returns as soon as they were done auditing him which was just another lie. He's spending US taxpayer money like he's got a orchard full of money trees! It's unforgivable & these GqP maga cult members that put him into office need to reign him in sooner not later. Trump doesn't seem to care that a blue wave in the mid-terms will bring him down or he wouldn't be commiting US Taxpayer Funds to reimburse wealthy US oil companies don't want to pay to redo Venezuala's oil infrastructure & to rebuild
Why should our tax money go to charities that he chooses in the first place? But yeah, never going to charity anyway. He's such a corrupt person, gah. Thank you for the piece.
I'm usually a little on the fence about Andrew's anaylysis, but on this religious aspect, he is 100% dead on and it's a really insightful read on what's going on.
White American Evangelicals (Black Evangelicals are another story altogether) make a mockery of both Christianity and their own Protestant tradition. Among the foundational pillars of Protestantism were universal literacy (ensuring that each Christian could read and study the Bible for him- or herself) and self-examination (ensuring a private relationship with God).
Diary keeping and spiritual humility were encouraged. One of the signs of being out of favor with God was too much self-assurance in one's own salvation. Human beings being what they are, early Protestants were hardly saints. But if you read a typical diary you can see that many of them actually tried. I recently read the words of an "uneducated" 14-year old Maine girl from around 1800 who had lost most of her family in a boating accident. Her articulate, complex, and heartfelt appeals to her faith actually moved me to tears. Imagine anyone in Trump's orbit doing that. In comparison, Erika Kirk's words after her husband's death were shallow and formulaic. The girl had a genuine sense of human frailty and the difficult road ahead of her. Erika seemed more interested in fireworks and pyrotechnics.
Most Evangelicals these days don't even display familiarity with essential Gospel teachings (love your neighbor, love your enemy, turn the other cheek, pray in secret not on the street corner, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, welcome the stranger, feed the poor, walk in humility, renounce worldly things, etc). As a Christian myself (mainline) I find it all very sad, very tragic, and very maddening.
Trump will not win that suit. Hang him.
The Christians who support Trump do NOT follow Jesus, they follow Paul and his interpretation of Jesus. This is not a minor point because, for example, they believe that faith alone brings salvation when Jesus states explicitly that it is "doing god's will".
Therefore, these Christians do not see any need to even consider the well being of others much less act to help others. They subscribe to the Calvinist doctrine that posits that wealth is a sign of one's righteousness, that god rewards the righteous with wealth that leads directly to their belief that taxation is theft and an affront to god's will and their rejection of government's policies to help the poor who god has rejected due to their unrighteousness.
Trump's religious supporters are human garbage. Note that those fucking Christians have NEVER complained about the fact that no one sent to CECOT was found guilty of anything, none was given due process as required by LAW. These fucks support the Republican insurrection that replaced our constitution with their unitary executive.
Fuck them.
Paul did say that "faithful" behavior is valid only if it is motivated by love. You can be the most outwardly pious person in the world but if you do not love your neighbor it is all meaningless. Pretty powerful stuff, and all too relevant to today's Evangelicals.
Evangelicals are so far away from what Jesus told people to do that they are truly lost.
Totally agreed.
The Clintons aren't "now" saying they want to testify publicly. That's been their position all along, Sam.
The rest of his life? For the sake of our country, let’s hope it’s short. Where is that hamburger he’s supposed to choke on?
It'd be better for him to stroke out and then have to live in that private prison, drooling.
If he is still alive, they can pretend he’s running the country.
I’ve never wished for someone’s death. I just want him dead, of natural causes, like shoving too much of a burger into his big fat mouth.
I have no problem with wishing for the death of horrible people like Trump and his supporters. It's me.
I agree with Andrew, there is so much shit all the time. Why is Hillary being called to testify? And Trump will lie.
Charity? No….
I love you guys and I love what you do, but every time I turn on a video I feel like I should go get a bottle of vodka. That can’t be good for me, right?
Organizations representing taxpayers must intervene in the lawsuit to protect the taxpayers. They can then take Trumps deposition and do discovery to determine whether and how he was damaged. He was not damaged at all. Also an independent special counsel should be appointed to represent the US government. Maybe a judge can insist since the DOJ has such a huge conflict of interest.
Pilfering? Pilfering? How about the biggest embezzlement scam the United States judicial system has ever fallen for?
Just finished watching one day late. Sam and Andrew have an excellent discussion. I learned a lot and it all made sense.
Is Bukele on tRump's new Peace Board too? Ridiculous. More & more of these so-called Evangelical Christians seem to be okay with joining up with the Christian Nationalists wing of his Maga Cult Base? It's infuriating & insane that he'd even say he will give it to charity when he tore down the East Wing of the People's WH & now he wants to gut the Kennedy Center too! Which he claimed he'd already updated the Kennedy Center bc he went on & on about how dilapidated & rundown it was. He actually believes that the US taxpayers should just pay $1 Billion dollars to tear down & update his "Free" $400 Billion Jet Bribe to turn it into Air Force One & then let him take it with him when he leaves office! Which is a lie because he doesn't ever plan on leaving office again! He's SUPPOSED to WORK for US. WE DON'T WORK FOR HIM!
I thought that all of the Presidents voluntarily shared their tax statements before they took office. The Liar, hid his statements from the American people, and now he wants to sue US for $10 billion. It's an outrage. The answer is NO!
Trump and the IRS suit: prior presidents voluntarily release their tax returns. It’s suspicious that Trump doesn’t. Having some released shouldn’t be deemed unfair.
Your so right especially since he lied & said he would release his tax returns as soon as they were done auditing him which was just another lie. He's spending US taxpayer money like he's got a orchard full of money trees! It's unforgivable & these GqP maga cult members that put him into office need to reign him in sooner not later. Trump doesn't seem to care that a blue wave in the mid-terms will bring him down or he wouldn't be commiting US Taxpayer Funds to reimburse wealthy US oil companies don't want to pay to redo Venezuala's oil infrastructure & to rebuild
Gaza into Trump Gaza Towers
Why should our tax money go to charities that he chooses in the first place? But yeah, never going to charity anyway. He's such a corrupt person, gah. Thank you for the piece.