“There’s been a tectonic shift in how the leadership of the religious right operates. These folks aren’t as interested in democracy or working through democratic systems as in the old religious right because their theology is one of Christian warfare.” -- Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, who grew up evangelical
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I don’t put any credence into what anyone who’s a supporter of former president/pathological liar/sexual assaulter/tax fraudster/wannabe dictator Donald Trump has to say. I care even less when they put the word “Christian” beside their name.
Still, we all better pay attention to the direction these Christian fanatics want to take our country. We better take note of their not-even-close-to-Godly methods of operation.
And we better never forget that they see the Constitution not as the foundation for our government and our laws, but instead a document of suggestions to be ignored so they can inject their hate-based religious fanaticism into our daily lives.
POLITICO reported recently that Trump allies are preparing to infuse “Christian nationalism” into his second administration. This isn’t a drill. This is a threat to all of us.
Just envision that thrown into what would be an historically corrupt, rule-of-law-ending, democracy-destroying administration if Trump is elected in November.
The point man for all this is Russell Vought, president of The Center for Renewing America, an influential think tank that’s developing plans for this holy takeover. Vought served as Trump’s director of management of budget and has been called a potential chief of staff in his second administration. Now there’s a scary thought.
Christian nationalists believe the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. They claim there are universal rules derived from God that can’t be superseded by government or judges. That’s how they gin up opposition to the LGBTQ community, abortion, and contraception.
This paranoid bunch has come to believe the United States’ evolution to a less religious and more diverse nation has brought them under assault. Obviously, they’ve never really been under assault if this stuff is scaring the hell out of them.
Here’re some ideas they’re bandying about, according to POLITICO:
*Invoking the Insurrection Act on Trump’s first day in office to quash protests. Because the Lord said to his people: “Shut the hell up and go home.”
*Refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects. I guess they get to decide what’s unwanted. Forget that pesky Constitution that gives Congress the power to authorize spending.
*Restricting immigration where whether someone is allowed to enter the country would be based on whether that person “accept[ed] Israel’s God, laws, and understanding.” So, add to “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” on the Statue of Liberty the disclaimer “Well, we don’t really mean all of you. Just the Godly ones.”
*Having the United States withdraw from NATO and using military force against Mexican drug cartels. For those of you keeping score at home, that two thumbs up from God with walking away from our commitment to our allies and the ensuing death, disaster, and, chaos that would cause, and ignoring the law by making the military part of law enforcement and harnessing its killing power in the process.
For his part, Trump has said that once he’s in office he’ll “create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that’s fair and equitable.”
That means he’ll weaponize the federal government to support the bullying and oppression of folks whose way of life his Christian followers find unacceptable.
All this from a God that I thought was supposed to be merciful and who loves everyone. I guess I must have misheard.
POLITICO reported this disturbing overreach: “Freedom of religion would remain a protected right, but Vought and his ideological brethren would not shy away from using their administration positions to promote Christian doctrine and imbue public policy with it.”
America should be recognized as a Christian nation, “where our rights and duties are understood to come from God,” Vought wrote two years ago in Newsweek.
Vought is so satanic that he’s defended Trump’s practice of family separation at the border. Hey, if any denomination wants to support terrorizing and traumatizing children, while some of them remain separated today and may never be reunited with their parents, then sign up for it and own it.
What the …oh never mind. I forgot we’re talking about brown kids.
You can read the POLITICO story here.
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For the record, we’re a nation founded by men, not God. Our freedoms come from the laws created by those men (and eventually women, too). From the Constitution they wrote. From the institutions – like the three branches of government -- they established.
Some of them, maybe a lot of them, worshiped God and to varying extents developed their morals, ethics, characters, and world views from their religious experiences. This, of course, could affect how they went about their duties. That’s fine.
And that’s all God’s got to do with it.
Besides, who gets to say what God thinks? The men – it’s never women – who formed the various religious denominations and then said, “Hey, come join us. We’ve got this church, and we’ll worship God, and we’ll make it really easy for all of you to go to Heaven because we’ve got a bunch of rules here for you to follow. Just trust us. We know what we’re talking about?” Really?
As these Christian fanatics work to establish the minority’s control over the majority in this country, they’re throwing out some dubious claims about what God wants from us.
For instance, why does the religious right say this loving and merciful God gives the high sign to hatred and discrimination against the LGBTQ community, crucifying trans kids by ostracizing them and keeping them from getting the health care they need, torturing women with failed pregnancies to carry their fetus to term despite the emotional and physical damage that could cause them, demanding a 10-year-old girl deliver her rapist’s baby, or even sitting back while GOP politicians spew out their firehose of lies every day.
If these Christian persecutors are representing God, should we assume that God really hates the people they hate, wants to punish the people they want to punish, and desires to destroy the lives of those whose lives they want to destroy?
I thought God said, “Vengeance is mine.” Not Donald Trump’s, the Republican Party’s, or these Christian fanatics’.
There’s nothing Godly about well-funded conservative groups working their asses off to elect a man in Trump who seeks to rule as a king, to shape our government so it will contort to his every whim, who’ll weaponize that very government to seek revenge against his perceived enemies, when man decided long ago – using the “free will” that God is supposed to have given him -- that we elect a president, not a king.
That proverbial wall that we have between church and state is there for a reason. Christians think it’s there to protect their religious freedom, and they do have that.
The problem is too many of them believe that includes forcing their values and beliefs on others, including by enacting laws that punish those whose lifestyles and actions they don’t agree with. That has nothing to do with religious freedom. It has everything to do with victimizing others. There’s nothing Godly about that, either.
I think another view of the separation of church and state, found in an article on the Bridgewater State University website, makes more sense. It said, “(Thomas) Jefferson, like many other of the early leaders of the United States, were committed to what is commonly called a secular state, in which citizens can openly hold religious beliefs and participate in religious services, but not seek to influence the direction of the state on matters of national policy.”
Bingo. (Now there’s a word a lot of church folks can relate to.)
In this country, we elect the men and women who make our laws. Elect enough Christian fanatics and Vought’s wet dream about a Christian nation comes true. You get what you vote for.
Republican politicians go along with all this bullshit. Maybe some of them believe it, I don’t know, but all of them figure that playing up to their evangelical base is a way for them to win the power they lust for.
And speaking of lusting for power, that’s what these Christian fanatics want. The power to control those around them. To impose their will on the whole country. To reduce our choices to their choices.
They’ll talk about freedom and liberty while taking away the freedoms of the people whose lifestyles they don’t like, whose choices they don’t approve, whose beliefs -- even of those who worship God -- don’t jibe with theirs.
This week, while this story was being discussed on MSNBC, commentor Basil Smikle asked, “Are you scared yet?”
I know I am.
You should be, too.
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