Midnight Meme Of The Day!

 

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

Tonight's meme presents a simple synopsis of the argument that Donnie The Death Machine's lawyers are currently making before the "Supreme" Court in yet another effort to deep six Obamacare, and, it's one of the main reasons why Moscow Mitch's fellow psychopaths in the $enate rushed through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett. They especially didn't want to wait until the pandemic ends. What fun would that be to a bunch of psychopaths that live to spread as much human misery as they possibly can? After all, even Moscow Mitch proudly calls himself "The Grim Reaper."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts

There are so many great stories of Republican Orange Jesus in the Republican New Testament but I chose the one mentioned in tonight's meme. A close second was the one where he has Betsy DeVos send some of his militant penis-challenged jihadists to the Michigan state capitol to wave their guns in the air like the terrorists that they aspire to be. Then there's the one about the Flor-i-duh pipe bomber with the white van encrusted with his stickers of lunacy. And, speaking of lunacy, there's screaming bad drunk Jeanine. There's Alex Jones, with or without his gag and straitjacket. There's the Gospel According To Tiki Torch Tucker, and fellow white supremacy advocate Sean. And, speaking of Sean, there's the always sweaty, spitting, beady-eyed Rudy! Can't forget Rudy! There's Moscow Mitch and Lindsey the Lisp! Princely Pence? Yep, him too! Barr the Bear the Kneepad King? He's never far away! The oval office has a very big desk! And let us never forget Melania Magdalena. That's 12 in all, and never fear; not a one will ever betray Ol' Republican Orange Jesus! He was smart enough to give them all 30 pieces of silver up front, from our pockets no less.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Easter Sunday Thoughts:

Republicans have their Jesus. I have mine.

I like mine.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

On the surface, the question posed in tonight's meme would be a logical one to ask, but not when you realize that the Jesus Republicans worship is a vengeful, nasty, vindictive Jesus, not the idealized Jesus of the New Testament. The Jesus Republicans believe in would never provide meals made from loaves and fishes for the masses. No, the Jesus Republicans worship would take food away, even from the mouths of toddlers. The Jesus that Republicans kneel down before would never be for healing the sick. Instead, the Jesus that Republicans cheer decapitates funding for disease protection and the scientific research that could prevent unnecessary deaths. The Jesus that Republicans support would never turn over the tables of the money changers unless he could take all the money, every penny, for himself and his backers. The Jesus that Republican voters vote for is incapable of love for anything or anyone but himself.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

As I always say, IF there is a God, he or she is the Galactic Emperor Of Practical Jokes, and a real sadist, too!

A Twisted, Unrecognizable Christianity-- The Newest Testament: Fake News

Evolution by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday, after noting the alternative constitution that MoscowMitch seems to be using, I saw a post from John Pavlovitz about the Newest Testament: Excerpts from The MAGA Bible, like McConnell's alternative constitution, discovered in Louisville, Kentucky. I recommend reading the whole thing at his website, but here are some noteworthy excerpts. Forget the Luke, Mark, Matthew and Juan... these are the Gospels of Don. It is being handed out at Straight Pride parades.

Let's begin with the MAGA Commandments:

Hear the MAGA Commandments:

• You shall grab women by the genitalia.

• You shall declare countries with brown people, shitholes.

• You shall declare protesting black NFL players, sons of bitches.

• You shall declare undocumented Mexicans, rapists.

• You shall declare Muslim politicians, terrorist sympathizers.

• You shall call real news, fake-- and Fox News, real.

• You shall ignore every white
• mass shooter (which is almost all of them.)
• You shall not see women as equals-- even if you are a woman.

• You shall dehumanize immigrants coming from the South (not the good, European kind.)

• You shall ignore Science, and instead use Donald Trump tweets to determine weather patterns.

• You shall bow down, not to a Golden Calf-- but to an Orange Jackass.

There's lots more where that came from. A few samples:

2 Republicans, Chapter 1, verse 1:


In the Beginning, Don created fake news.


On the first day he manufactured emergencies, demonized Muslims, attacked the Free Press, praised Putin, ranted about Obama, spewed racists epithets, and screamed at windmills.
The other six days he played golf and tweeted out abject nonsense, littered with factual errors, grammar abominations and spelling errors.

2 Republicans, Chapter 1, Verse 11-13:

“White Jesus declared, ‘You will call yourself ‘pro-life.’ In doing so, you will be able to ignore death to migrants, Muslims, people of color, LGBTQ human beings, the poor and sick, mass shooting victims-- and the planet itself. Life beyond embryos you force women to carry to term-- is not actually life.”

2 Republicans, Chapter 5, verse 6:

“Faith is the evidence of things unseen-- like Donald Trump’s Christianity. Despite never uttering a word or doing a thing resembling Jesus of Nazareth, your simple and steadfast declaration of his faith in Christ will be enough to convince easily suggestible believers. Repeat the lie until it becomes the truth."

The Gospel According to Don, Chapter 7, verse 10:


“In Gun You Trust: God is small and impotent and cannot protect you. You need to be packin’ heat at the grocery store, the little league game, and at church services-- because the almighty and omnipotent maker of all things, needs backup from a perpetually-petrified “good guy with a gun, supremacist delusions, and a jittery disposition.”

The Gospel According to Don, Chapter 9, verse 3:

“And white Jesus said. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself-- providing of course, your neighbor is white, was born in America, and votes Republican. Otherwise, screw your neighbor, pad your 401K-- and make America great. Thus sayeth the straight white, Republican LORD.”

Corporate American Christianity vs The Pure Gospel Of Grace

This morning, in churches all over America, there were discussions about why one cannot follow Jesus and support Trump. Michael Kipman, who holds a BA in Youth Ministry and Biblical Theology from Moody Bible Institute, wrote for Red Letter Christans that "Throughout the Gospel narratives, the Jesus we most often encounter is one of kind and encouraging words delivered with a divinely-inspired and gentle grace, purposeful poise, radical hospitality, and an unconditional love-- which is why it can be startling to read many of his interactions with the religious leaders of his day. Jesus wasn’t nice to them. He called them names: hypocrites; white-washed tombs, full of rotting corpses; unwashed dishes; serpents; a brood of vipers; murderers. He even called them 'children of the devil.' He challenged their God-concept within the public square and warned others not to follow in their wicked footsteps. He mocked their prayers as 'meaningless repetition,' and challenged both their integrity and ability to make a distinction between what is morally right and wrong, or to even speak anything worthwhile to the people. 'You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?' (Matthew 12:34) Jesus accused his contemporary religious leaders of creating and employing heavy burdens on people which they themselves were either unable or unwilling to follow, warning the crowds not to emulate their hypocrisy. He called out their motivation to feigned and self-righteous piety as nothing more than a desire for public recognition and a hope put not in the God of Abraham, but rather in their positions of prestige and their coveted seats of power and honor. He told the religious authorities their attempts at proselytizing merely made folks 'twice as much a child of hell' as themselves. In one story, Jesus even has himself a 'Temple Tantrum,' taking the time to make a bull-whip which he used to interrupt the religious leaders while zealously running the animals of sacrifice out of the area, flipping over tables, and pouring their ill-gotten sacramental coinage out onto the floor. He said they turned the holy place of prayer into a 'den of thieves.' Jesus wasn’t pulling any punches."

Neither should we.

Much ink has been spilt analyzing the fact that an overwhelming 81% of white American evangelicals voted for Donald J. Trump in 2016-- and just over two years into his first term, an astonishing majority continue to pledge their allegiance to the president. Trump enjoys a favorability rating nearly double the rest of the country among white evangelicals, which make up the majority of his GOP’s #MAGA base.

Despite a litany of what many previously hoped would be moral deal breakers for the party once described as, “the party of family values” (such as his braggadocious admission to sexual assault in the Access Hollywood tapes, the proven hush-money-payments to cover up his adulterous affair with a porn star, and at least two dozen credible accusations of rape and other sexual misconduct, etc.), Trump continues to reap the benefits of an almost cult-like support from the voting bloc which traces its roots to the 1980s Moral Majority movement.

The echoes of that era’s cries to “Make America Great Again!” come aligned with a renewed, emboldened, and even blatant racism. From Trump’s imagined Obama-birther-ism conspiracy, to announcing his own presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “murderers and rapists,” to hailing tiki-torch-toting Nazis in Charlottesville as “very fine people,” culminated this week in his tweeted attacks of four freshman Democratic Congresswomen of color to ‘Go back’ where they came from, Trump’s propensity to pander to white supremacists is nothing new.

His lack of compassion to the plight of migrant families from Central America at the country’s southern border is now accompanied by sworn testimony of the horrific conditions in the detention camps from journalists and government representatives alike, along with irrefutable images, court documents, Congressional testimony, and all kinds of definitive evidence of innocent young children and toddlers lacking even basic sanitary conditions or care. This, on the heels of being forcibly removed from their parents and guardians and housed under armed guard on overcrowded concrete floors surrounded by chain-link fencing as a result of the “Zero-Tolerance Policy” enforced by the administration.

As I review the president’s executive orders, his press interviews, and daily Twitter feed while simultaneously reading the supportive reactions from folks within my own religious tradition of Evangelicalism, I’m reminded of another seemingly harsh saying from Jesus:

“Whoever receives a child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a heavy millstone tied around their neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the seas” (Matthew 18:6).

Damn. Seems a bit harsh.

So might this-- yet it is entirely appropriate and perhaps necessary to avoid confusion over what it means to be a follower of Christ. One simply cannot be a follower of the life, teachings, and example of Jesus and also support Donald J. Trump and his policies.

It’s just not possible.

While most often a unifying figure, the Jesus of the scriptures was downright divisive regarding his willingness to stand up against bigotry and religious hypocrisy, and equally steadfast in his commitment to standing in solidarity with the marginalized and the oppressed. Imputed with divine wisdom, Christ was deeply dedicated to defending the defenseless, and seemed entirely comfortable with calling out the fundamental errors found in what he described as the faithless teachings of the religious leaders of his day.

If we are unwilling to do the same, how dare we call ourselves followers of Christ? Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent-- and often even vocal-- sanction of things as they are.”

Even our secular institutions are doing more. Recently, the United States House of Representatives voted to condemn Trump’s use of race-baiting language by a vote of 240 to187. Only four Republicans broke with their conservative colleagues and called his racist attacks unacceptable, while others such as Sen. Lindsey Graham obfuscated the context and instead directed his animosity toward the Congresswomen whom he described as “…a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country.”

In coming days, it seems we’re destined to repeat a familiar dynamic that has thus far defined this administration in the midst of deep-seated partisan disagreement. Republicans will continue to claim the condemnation is clearly inspired by partisan politics and a Democratic party preoccupied with bitterness and hatred toward the president and country. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are literally going on-record offering a formal rebuke from Congress of a sitting president for the first time in more than 100 years, sending what one lawmaker called “a message that the country will not tolerate bigotry, racism, hate, xenophobia, Islamophobia.”

But what about white evangelicals?

Are Trump’s biggest and most staunch supporters willing to abandon the teachings of the founder of their faith in favor of supporting the politics of this president? Will white evangelicals continue to turn a blind eye to his repetitive racist rhetoric and willfully voice their support of Trump?

Will they remain relatively apathetic to the mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse-- even deaths!-- of immigrant children confined to cages at our nation’s southern border simply because they don’t have appropriate documentation?

Will these self-professing Christians carry on ad nauseam with their excuses of supporting Trump’s immoral actions and policies, regardless of their direct conflict with even the most simple and elementary teachings of the very Jesus they claim to follow?

As unfortunate as it is unconscionable, it appears many are… and while saying so may not be popular, and is likely to invite ample amounts of criticism and disagreement, it must be said again: One simply cannot be a follower of the life, teachings, and example of Jesus and also support Donald J. Trump and his policies.

Based on the red letters in the scriptures, I am convinced if Christ were physically present, he too would join me in unleashing his harshest chastisement for those who hypocritically claim to follow his teachings, yet are seemingly marching in the opposite direction.

Chris Kratzer has been a pastor for 22 years. He writes that he has been captured by the pure Gospel of God’s Grace and that his focus is communicating the message of wholeness, equality, affirmation, and the beauty of Jesus particularly as it relates to life, culture, and church." You can imagine someone serious about that vocation is not a fan for a satanist carnival barker like Trumpist. His new book, Leatherbound Terrorism, about the evils of predatory evangelicalism, which he was part of for 21 years, speaks to the radical change of heart and mind that led him to walk away from that corrupted world. The book confronts racism, sexism, homophobia, religious greed, hypocrisy, nationalism, white supremacy, privilege, and the weaponizing of the Bible, mainstays of the white evangelical church. Today he posted a piece, Sorry, Christian, You Can’t Love Jesus and Support Trump, which starts by telling believers that "it's time to draw the line," as Jesus did.

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” Matthew 23:15

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:17-28

In all of these instances, Jesus makes it crystal clear, there comes a certain point where if you hold to certain things, allow certain things, and do certain things, you can’t claim a love and faithfulness to Him, period. Your devotion to one is to despise the other. There is no in between.

In the same way, the Spirit again is raising Her voice. God isn’t going to let anyone fake it anymore, play their self-righteous cards, nor disguise the wolf inside of them under the cover of sheep’s clothing. The prepackaged excuses that, “He was better than Hillary,” “I can’t stand abortion,” or “Our country needs to get back to Christianity,” are like filthy rags before the Lord.

The time has come for the truth to be revealed and declared upon the mountain tops, you can’t support Trump and love Jesus. Your devotion to this man is to despise the Son of Man. There is no in between.

To be sure, beyond a shadow of doubt and party politics, President Trump is an unrepentant, habitually lying, bullying, racist, glutinous, profane, special needs mocking, sexual assaulting man whose character, vision. and leadership stand in stark opposition to that of Jesus. In examination of his past and present record, he couldn’t even pass the screening process to serve in a church nursery.

However, was it most alarming and defining is what the Trump presidency reveals about you who support him and your brand of Christian believing. As our attitudes and actions in regards to money reveal who we truly worship, your actions and attitudes in regards to Trump unveil the same. You believe Trump was sent by God, I believe that is true. Yet, you believe his purpose is to return our nation back to you, your prosperity, and your faith understanding. I believe it is to reveal an x-ray of your heart, soul, and the god you truly worship. And sadly, the results aren’t good, in fact they are terrifying-- inhumane, anti-Christ, and even un-American.

By your support of Trump and what he represents, it’s clear that you love your own financial security and prosperity more than Jesus, whose way is to place special care, sacrificial favor, and first priority to the vulnerable, poor, and marginalized.

It’s clear that you love the dominance of your Christian faith in society more than you love morality, Godliness, biblical holiness, and ethical integrity.

It’s clear that you love white privilege and supremacy more than God-authored equality and the divine image God mirrored into all humanity, regardless of color, creed, race, or sexuality.

It’s clear that you love the kingdom of white American Christian conservatism more than you love the diverse, color-blind, least-of-these focused, servant-hearted Kingdom of Jesus.

It’s clear that Christian prayer and priority in the public square is more important than your living of Jesus at home, work, and in all of society.

It’s clear that you worship the Bible when it serves your agenda to lord your brand of faith over society, but cleverly discard it when it serves the agenda of Jesus to align your creeds to His ways of service, sacrifice, and placing others above self.

In the end, by your support of Trump, your true confession of faith rings for all to hear.

Money is more important than morality.

Power is more important than principle.

Privilege is more important than people.

Your faith brand is more important than freedom for all.

Loving your way of life is more important than loving your enemies.

Your will and ways are more important than the will and ways of Jesus.

In fact, when it’s all said and done, it’s increasingly clear, the only reason why you support Trump is because of what you perceive he is doing to protect and prosper your white, conservative Christian power, privilege, and elite way of living. So much, that it seems as if Satan were to agree to accomplish the same, you’d find  a way to embrace every rationalization needed,  and proudly wear his hat and chant his slogans too. For with over 11,000 proven lies and misleading statements since taking office, with an average of 15 lies per day, the Father of Lies apparently has an eager understudy, his name is Donald Trump.

Yet, most tragic, is the sure result of how his lying and misleading of the American public has greatly increased your capacity and willingness to lie and mislead yourself.

In fact, it’s hard to look away as the hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance has become overwhelming.

You’re pro-birth when it favors you politically, but anti-life when minorities threaten your majority.

You’re pro-Jesus when He’s portrayed as being wrapped in the American flag, white-skinned, Republican, and carrying a machine gun, but you’re anti-Jesus when He’s welcoming the immigrant, defending the marginalized, loving people equally and uninterruptedly, treating the outcast and vulnerable with favor, condemning violence, and confronting your selfish imperialism.

You’re socialistic when it pours wealth into your cup, no matter the economic divide it creates, but anti-socialistic when it calls you to pour out from your prosperity, privilege, and power to close the systematic oppressions that keep people from challenging and sharing your status.

You say it’s all about making immigration “legal” while you chant “send her back” to a brown-skinned, female, “legal” citizen and Congresswoman of the United States of America who isn’t politically loyal to your agenda.

Like a serial killer who enjoys holding His grandchildren, your love of people only extends as far it benefits you and doesn’t distract for your underlying and overriding impulse to feed your insatiable lust for power and privilege, no matter who or what it kills in the process.

Just because you have color-skinned friends, adopt a child from another country, go on mission trips, give minorities jobs, or raise their level in society a few pegs, doesn’t mean you aren’t a bigoted racist. It may just mean you can’t help but deceive yourself into believing that allowing people some crumbs off your table and fashioning the appearance of caring makes you a genuine follower of Jesus and justifies your brand of believing.

Unfortunately, to the detriment of your integrity and faith credibility, the way of Jesus isn’t to merely tolerate others as a lesser human being, but rather to see yourself as completely and thoroughly equal to them and in inseparable divine kinship with them.

This is the love and way of Jesus you refuse, and quite frankly, your brand of Christianity stands vehemently against. This is the Kingdom of Jesus coming down upon the earth that you rush to wall off from entering into your heart, home, schools, government, society, and country.

The thought that, under heaven and by God’s design, you are no better, no more favored, no more anointed, and no more approved than any other sends your heart into a tailspin of hatred and frustration. The call upon your faith and life to go to the back of the line, sacrificially serve those who believe and act differently than you, and give priority and favor to the minority and the marginalized causes your veins, like those of the rich young ruler and the workers in the field, to swell up with rage. This is why, even when given biblically faithful alternatives, you are determined to use and interpret the Bible in ways that give license and promotion to your desires to rule the world, highjack America and her equal freedoms, be granted privilege within it, cleanse it of all that is different from you, and subdue your perceived enemies under your feet.

Claiming to love Jesus while supporting Trump may be fooling yourself, but it’s not fooling God nor the rest of us.

You can sing, pray, and declare that you love Jesus with every breath in your lungs, but your actions confess your true beliefs and the god of your ultimate worship… self.

In your mind, what this life, what this world, what your god, and what this country should be centered upon is you and your white, conservative Christian faith, prosperity, and way of life. Apparently, even it means the exclusion of all others, even Jesus.

For until you seek true equality for all, you seek Trump, not Jesus.

Until you value morality more than money, you value Trump, not Jesus.

Until you prioritize people over your privilege and power, you prioritize Trump, not Jesus.

Until you place self last and others first, you place Trump first and Jesus last.

Until you are pro-all-of-life, not just pro-birth, you are pro-Trump and anti-Jesus.

Until you desire mercy, sacrifice, and enemy love above condemnation, greed, and violence, you desire the kingdom of Trump, not the Kingdom of Jesus.

Until the mind of the perfect Christ within you is more influential than your imperfect, biased interpretation of the imperfect Bible in front of you, Trump is more influential to you than Jesus.

Until you welcome and give safe harbor to the immigrant and the refugee, you welcome Trump and wall off Jesus.

Until you stop condemning, marginalizing, and demonizing those who believe, choose, live, love, and act differently than you, you condemn, marginalize, and demonize Jesus and idolize, normalize, and worship Trump.

In much the same way that you can’t serve God and money, you can’t love Jesus and support Trump.

So, as the words of an Old Testament writer admonish, “Choose this day whom you will serve…”

Sadly, it’s becoming all to clear, you’ve made your choice.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

The picture for tonight's meme was taken last week when VP Mike Pence led a delegation of Neo-Nazi $enators and sympathizers down to McAllen, TX to view some of the administration's handiwork at the camps. The picture begged for captions. In addition to the one in tonight's meme, here are some others that I have seen or thought of myself.

• Khakis Are The New Swastika.

• Did Pence Wet Himself In His Excitement?

• Good Thing Melania Hooked Onto Trump, Ha Ha.

• Now Would Be A Good Time For The Rapture.

• I Don't Get This Performance Art Stuff.

• How Many Can We Fit Into A Boxcar?

• Is This Slave Auction Gonna Start Soon Or What?

• My Jesus Loves Brown Guys In Cages!

• Lindsey, Don't You Just Love Men In Cages?

• I Feel A Heil Trump Comin' On! Can I Get A Heil Trump?

• These Human Suits Are Starting To Itch!

• We Are DEVO.

• So Glad The Party Had My Compassion Chip Removed.

• Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!

• Let's Try To Blend In So The Press Doesn't Notice Us.

• Marsha Blackburn! Did You Fart Again??!!?

• Damn, I Could Go With A Baloney & Processed American Cheese With Mayo Right Now!

• Eight To Beam Up To The Whites-Only Ship! Now Scotty! Now! Scotty?? Scotty?? Scotty!!!

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

It's no secret. When Republicans say they welcome all religious denominations, they're talking solely about 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s (Absolutely no Harriet Tubmans, please. No, No. No!), 50s, and 100s. Those who worship Republican Jesus believe in their own Green Deal!

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

Damn, I love Republican Jesus! Hell, his mutant form of Christianity, aka-- his message of hate-- sure makes Republicans feel all nice, warm, and superior. You might even say holier than thou! Let's just take a look at the Republican mantra of Thoughts and Prayers. Sure, Republicans preach about no regulating and personal responsibility, but Thoughts and Prayers mantra is the Republican cure for all things under heaven. They'll chant and chant it to you for 40 days and forty nights and then just start a new cycle of the same, again and again. You know it sure makes them feel better!

Republikooks will tell you straight to your face, if they have to, that Thoughts and Prayers is the answer to all things, and I can't help but think of a few big problems that the good old mantra of Thoughts and Prayers will easily solve. Think not? Trust me. Just trust me. Believe in Republican Jesus. After you read my list, you, too, will be convinced that Thoughts and Prayers can solve any problem. In fact, you'll be left wondering why Republicans haven't tried it for their big wall of hate and bigotry. Problem solved! Non-existent or not. It's a miracle!

1. School Shootings: Solution: Thoughts And Prayers!

2. Global Warming. Solution: Thoughts And Prayers! The End Times are just around the corner anyway!

3. Polluted streams. Solution: Thoughts And Prayers!

4. The New York Jets have not been to the Super Bowl in 50 years. Solution: Thoughts And Prayers!

5. H.I.V. research costs: Solution: Thoughts And Prayers! Oh, wait. Republicans don't want an H.I.V. cure. They just want you to "Pray Away The Gay!"

6. Paychecks for federal workers. Solution: Thoughts And Prayers! Oh, yeah, and selling all your worldly possessions on ebay, baby sitting, and bake sales! Let everybody eat cake!

7. A treasonous Manchurian President? Solution: Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil! And of course, Thoughts And Prayers! Lots of Thoughts And Prayers, but only if you think treason is bad which, I guess, leaves Republicans out.

So, Republicans, why not your Thoughts And Prayers for that wall you want? It worked for Jesus with that loaves and fishes thing. How do I know? The Buy-Bull told me so! Think of all the money you could save! And you could spend all those billions on yourselves, which is what you'd rather do anyway.

Jesus vs White Evangelicals

Wonderful video above; please watch the whole 3 minutes. It starts with GOP Jesus condemning a refugee child to a detention center. Ha, ha… right? Currently, American evangelical Christians, in selling out to TV hucksters and snake oil salesmen, have allowed their lot to be thrown in with Trump, utterly forsaking the actual Jesus. 100%. So they have the Jesus in the video instead.

A couple of weeks ago, Samuel Smith, writing for the Christian Post reported, that according to new polling data from the Public Religion Research, ”most white evangelicals say immigration, increasing racial diversity harms America. White evangelical protestants are the only religious demographic in the United States in which the majority views immigrants as a ‘threat’ to American values and sees the country's increasing racial diversity as a bad thing, a new survey has found.”

That’s what they’ve come to believe, the hell with Jesus’ message. And they’re “at odds with all other identified religious groups on many questions relating to immigration, race, the #MeToo movement” and of course, the illegitimate, fake “president.” And their self-satisfied bigotry goes well beyond the abortion issue. In contrast to their anti-Jesus beliefs, 80% of black Protestants, 75% of religiously unaffiliated, 74% of Hispanic Catholics, 73% of non-Christian religious Americans, 52% of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics hold a negative opinion of Señor Trumpanzee and his fascist orientation and policies.

While white evangelicals are known for having strong conservative stances on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, the survey showed that white evangelicals are the religious group most opposed to immigrants and immigration.

As data shows that the U.S. will become a minority white nation by the year 2045, the survey asked respondents whether or not the nation's ethnic and racial "realignment" is positive or a negative thing.

The majority of all major religious demographics surveyed said they see the realignment as positive thing except for white evangelicals. Fifty-four percent of white evangelicals surveyed said they see the U.S. becoming majority non-white as a mostly negative trend.

…When asked about the growing number of "newcomers" to the United States, white evangelicals (57 percent) were the only major religious group to have a majority say that immigrants "threaten traditional American customs and values."

…PRRI also found that although most Americans oppose a hypothetical law to ban refugees around the world from being able to come to the United States, about half of white evangelicals (51 percent) would support such a law. Almost as many white mainline Protestants (47 percent) said they support a refugee ban.

The data also finds that white evangelicals were the group least likely to oppose a policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

A majority (56 percent) of white evangelicals opposed such a policy while 68 percent of white mainline Protestants, 69 percent of white Catholics and 71 percent of Hispanic Catholics, 81 percent of Hispanic Protestants and 85 percent of black Protestants said the same.

When it comes to a "temporary travel ban for people from some majority-Muslim countries," 72 percent of white evangelicals favor such a policy. Meanwhile, 63 percent of white mainline Protestants and 60 percent of white Catholics also favor a temporary travel ban. Hispanic Protestants were more divided with 46 percent favoring a ban and 54 percent opposing. Thirty-four percent of Hispanic Catholics and black Protestants also favor a temporary ban on travel from some majority-Muslim countries.

…"When you look at the [PRRI] report, [marriage and abortion] are a very low priority for Republicans and for white evangelicals. The real key to understanding white evangelicals is through their anti-immigrant attitudes and fear of demographic change," [author and professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland Janelle] Wong explained. "They are the group that is most conservative on the travel ban. They are also the most conservative of family separation, which to many people is a moral issue."

"They are also the only religious group to contend that immigrants threaten American values," she added. "It is really this potent mix of nativism and racial anxiety and white Christian nationalism that underlines many of the other policy attitudes that you see presented in this report."

While 69 percent of Americans feel that Trump has "damaged the dignity of the presidency," White evangelicals are the only religious group to have a majority (53 percent) that says that Trump has not "damaged the dignity of the presidency."

"Why do they stick with Trump?" Wong asked during the panel. "Because Trump's immigration agenda is the white evangelical immigration agenda. I think that has become very clear."

Midnight Meme Of The Day

-by Noah

Republicans have memes, too! Here's one. It's been making the rounds amongst the Republikook population for the past week or so. Are you surprised to see it here? Yeah, they don't do the humor thing very well; at least not intentionally. But, they do claim to own Christianity, so, I thought it would be nice for DWT readers to see this meme on a Sunday. Here's the Big White Republican Jesus (As the insipid Megyn Kelly said, "Jesus is white. Get over it"). Big White Republican Jesus is shown guiding the tiny hand of Big Fat Orange Republican Fascist in the newly renovated golden oval office.

Republicans see this incredibly tacky painting as a depiction of Jesus guiding the tiny hand of Trump in their Christian jihad. Once again, they are wrong. Jesus would never do that. What he would do is what I happen to think this painting is really depicting. I see it as Jesus guiding Trump's hand to write the words "I hereby resign the office of the President Of The United States Of America." What else would the real Jesus do? It's only logical.

Garry Wills, contemplating Pope Francis and his critics, says there are "two forms of Christianity now on offer" -- and it's up to Catholics to choose

A homeless man uses an umbrella to shield himself from the water from the system installed by San Francisco's Cardinal Sal "The Faucet" Cordileone to drench riffraff trying to sleep under the overhang of St. Mary's Cathedral -- in Jesus's name, of course.


"I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal the wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds."

-- Pope Francis, in an August 2013 interview,
quoted in a new NYRB blogpost by Garry Wills

by Ken

By the above standard, the pope should have a place toward the top of the list for the rampaging American so-called Christians who are waging a war of terror against, well, anyone who doesn't agree with them, to preserve their God-given right to do unto anyone they fucking well please. (Hey, man, Jesus did say something about doing unto others, didn't he?) You know, the kind of people Indiana Gov. Mike Pence says are afraid they're being picked on, and so need Right to Discriminate laws to be able to stick it to their goddamn prevert enemies.

In the depths of their delusions and just plain prevarications, and considering the threat they pose to decent folk, aren't these people among the world's most grievously wounded, mentally and morally?

In a new NYRB blogpost, "The Pope Is a Christian!," Garry Wills tells us about a man who asked him, at a recent talk he gave about the pope, "Why do more non-Catholics like the pope than Catholics do?" In fact, Wills says,

A Pew poll two months ago found that 90 percent of Catholics like what the pope is doing—and the number is even higher (95 percent) among the most observant, Mass attending Catholics. The percentage of non-Catholics who view the pope favorably does not get above the 70s.

"Yet the question was understandable," he says. Because the Catholic naysayers are really noisy, and "extremists get more press coverage than blander types."

[S]ome Catholic bloggers have suggested that the pope is not truly Catholic. They are right to be in a panic. They are not used to having a pope who is a Christian. They call Francis a radical because he deplores the sequestration of great wealth for a rich few and deprivation of the many poor. But Francis is a moderate. Jesus was the radical.

UH-OH, AMERICA'S RAMPAGING CHRISTIANS
REALLY DON'T LIKE TALK ABOUT JESUS

At least they really don't like real talk about Jesus, which is to say talk about what he actually believed, taught, and did. The Jesus they like to talk about, or maybe pay lip service to, is more of a mental and moral defective created in their own image. It's not as if they lack role models.

So are we ready for Jesus the radical?

“How hard it will be for the wealthy man to enter the kingdom of God….It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:23,26). In the Gospel of Luke (16:19-31), when the rich man (Dives) calls for succor from hell, Abraham, holding the poor man (Lazarus) in his bosom, answers: “All the good things fell to you while you were alive, and all the bad to Lazarus; now he has his consolation here, and it is you who are in agony.”

Not only rich people, but not-so-rich people who identify with the rich people and in their own way fund the churches that demand the right to do unto others, never enjoy hearing about that camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle being a better bet than that rich man entering the kingdom of God.

Jesus must have been misquoted. Or maybe quoted out of context.

"Some right wing Catholics," Wills says, "would haul Dives up and enshrine him in the one percent of rich men who trickle wealth down on the rest of us."

They are also descendants of those Pharisees who tried to keep people away from Jesus because “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:1-2). The modern Pharisees try to refuse the Eucharist to politicians who do not meet their doctrinal tests. Pope Francis’s response to this patrolling of the communion line is in his major statement so far, The Joy of the Gospel (No. 47):

The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.

And just to make it worse, there's that damned Jesus mouthing off for a change, saying, "It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick; I did not come to invite virtuous people, but sinners."

At which point you'd think those right-wing Catholics would have the practical sense to wave their arms and shout, "Ooh, ooh, sinners! Pick us!"


TWO WAYS OF CARRYING FORTH JESUS'S MISSION

We've already seen Pope Francis's "battle" image, wherein he "see[s] the church as a field hospital after battle." "Some 'traditional' Catholics," says Wills, "also see the church as a battlefield; but they go out after battle to shoot the wounded."

Cardinal Sal "The Faucet"

They are typified by hierarchs like Cardinal Raymond Burke, who says Catholics who remarry outside the church are like murderers, living defiantly in public sin. Or like Cardinal Salvatore Cordileone, who issued a guide for teachers in the Catholic schools of San Francisco, requiring them to oppose—in the classroom and in their private lives—abortion, contraception, artificial insemination, same sex marriage, adultery, fornication, masturbation, and pornography. He also installed a water system in the overhang at Saint Mary’s Cathedral to soak homeless people who were trying to sleep there. Every hour or half hour, for 75 seconds, the pipes would gush down on those below and flush them away like human refuse.

I bet Jesus would just laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more. Pope Francis, not so much. "Contrast that," says Wills, "with the reaction of Pope Francis when he found that homeless people were sleeping at the entrance to the Vatican piazza."

Pope Francis

He sent bedrolls out to them, set up showers for them to use in the morning, and sent four hundred more bed rolls to be distributed to the homeless around Rome. The difference between flushing people away and comforting them recalls one of the pope’s favorite parables, that of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). A man wounded almost to death lies by the road. A Temple priest and a member of the priestly (Levite) tribe pass him by so as not to be polluted by a corpse. But a Samaritan (whom Jews thought of as an outcast) rescued the man and paid for his healing. The pope also loves the story of the prodigal son, who wastes his patrimony but is welcomed back by his father, though the prodigal’s elder brother resents this treatment of a sinner.

INSTEAD OF A "CATHOLIC RIGHT" AND "CATHOLIC LEFT" --

"It may be more fitting," Wills suggests, to think of the "Catholic right" as "the defenders of Dives, or the Pharisees who do not want people to eat with Jesus, or the flushers of the homeless, or the priestly Levites, or the prodigal’s elder brother," and "their opposites" as "the lovers of Lazarus, or the sinners who eat with Jesus, or the bedroll people, or the 'outcast' Samaritan, or the prodigal's father."

"These are the two forms of Christianity now on offer," he concludes. "Let Catholics make their choice."

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Religion-- Like Spraying Perfume On A Casket

Powerful video... and it's been watched by over 18 million people on YouTube.

Religion puts you in bondage
While Jesus sets you free
Religion makes you blind
Jesus makes you see

I spoke to a candidate for Congress the other day, a devout Catholic with a devout Catholic wife. They go to church every Sunday and they're active in the charitable works of their church. They're pillars of the community and the parish-- and friends with the bishop. They forbade their sons from becoming alter boys or ever being alone in a room with a priest.

The American unrepentant Catholic bishops took some time out from molesting children to rail against the Obama administration on behalf of their allies in the Republican Party. But a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that, as usual, the bishops are out of sync with most Catholics. A majority, 58%, "support including birth control in health care plans and back the decision by the Obama administration that requires most employers to include such coverage."

Their views are in contrast to leaders in the Catholic Church, who are vigorously opposing a rule by the U.S. government that says most employers must include contraception coverage in their health care plans.

Despite the opposition of Catholic leaders, Catholics are actually more likely than non-Catholics to support including contraception in health plans, according to survey results by the Public Religion Research Institute.

About 58% of American Catholics "believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception," the survey showed. That was higher than the percentage of white mainline Protestants (50%) and white evangelicals (38%) who believe that. The Catholic Church officially forbids contraception use, but 98% of Catholic women who have been sexually active have used birth control. The survey comes as Catholic bishops and their supporters are protesting a decision last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The decision clarified a rule that came about after the passage of a health care bill in 2010 that calls for universal health coverage. Part of that includes contraception for women.

The Jan. 20 decision allows an exemption for religious groups such as churches. So a Catholic parish, for example, does not have to provide contraception in its health care plans. But the decision also says that religiously-affiliated institutions that serve people outside its religious groups-- such as a Catholic hospital that treats patients of different backgrounds-- are not exempt and must include contraception in its health plans for employees. The decision would affect metro Detroit institutions like St. John Providence Health System, which currently does not provide contraception coverage for its employees.

Tuesday Blue America welcomed our newest candidate, Cecil Bothwell into the fold. We didn't talk about Cecil's religious views but they fit in pretty well with the founding fathers-- and, perhaps, with the videos on this page. Sarah Jaffe at Religion Dispatches poked around how Cecil's reputation for atheism has impacted his career as a community organizer and public official. Cecil, she reminds us, "actually prefers the term 'non-theist' to 'atheist'.”

“I know that some atheists feel that stance ducks the issue and that we should force the issue,” he says, “But my ethical/spiritual beliefs ought not to be of any import in holding public office. I’m not in any way running as an ‘atheist.’”

But that hasn’t stopped efforts by others to use his beliefs to gain political points. During his Asheville City Council campaign in 2009, two direct mailings were sent around warning voters of his non-belief, and after his election opponents tried to prevent him from being sworn in. The US Constitution, of course, forbids religious tests for office; so the former green builder, journalist, and author (of a political biography of preacher Billy Graham) was able to take his seat.  


...GetEQUAL NC’s [Angel] Chandler who, like Bothwell, is a volunteer escort at a local family planning clinic that provides abortion services, says “[Bothwell] will likely be attacked at every angle due to his position on LGBT rights, women’s reproductive rights, ending the drug war, and due to his religion or lack thereof.” She continues, “What I hope folks see is Cecil’s commitment to giving people power in their own lives to make their own decisions rather than empowering the government to tell us what we can and cannot do, who we can and cannot have a committed relationship with.”  

Bothwell thinks that his message will resonate with rural voters. “So-called conservatism includes a large number of populist and libertarian voters whose real interests are much more closely aligned with progressive politics than with corporatist politics in either major party,” he notes, pointing out that despite being a non-theist, he is an active member of the local Unitarian Universalist church, a member of its Social Justice Council, and the founder of a jail ministry.

Here's another video I thought you might like, the infamous "Tea Party Jesus" clip. Before you watch it-- or after you watch it-- please consider making a contribution-- in a grassroots campaign like his even $5 and $10 contributions make all the difference-- to Cecil's campaign... here at our Blue America ActBlue page. 

Crap Christianity is out there, it's evil, and I worry about "good" Christians who don't seem to notice

TARA: So all the people who thought he could talk to their loved ones on the other side, what's to stop them from falling for the next Dalton Rand?
NATE [after thinking a moment]: Not a thing.

-- from last week's episode of Leverage, after

Nate's gang has successfully exposed a fake psychic

by Ken

This is what comes of not keeping up to date on your TV-watching. Over the weekend I finally caught up with last week's episode of Leverage (i.e., not from this past Wednesday but from the week before), a show we talked about just recently, and out pops this nugget on the ceaselessly predictable gullibility of a chunk of the public. This might have come in handy the other day when I was replying to a commenter who had, I think, misread what I wrote on a favorite subject of mine, Crap Christianity.

Here's what commenter Mikbee42 wrote:

" aided and exhorted by the colluded forces of darkness around them, starting with the fortresses of mind-controlling Crap Christianity."

wtf ken?
how about starting with the mind controlling israeli-jewish crap media, wall street and zionist politicians a la lieberman.
the real cult of ignorance.
your bigoted blanket statement about "Christianity" is not what i expected from you or dwt.
lets keep it fair and balanced!

And here's what I replied:

Sorry I was unclear, Mikbee42, but I didn't make a "blanket statement about Christianity," bigoted or otherwise. I referred specifically to Crap Christianity, which I've written about here frequently: It's the virulent, exploding version, generally but not exclusively evangelical, that has infested the U.S. in, say, the last 50 years.

If this is the first time you're encountering my reference to Crap Christianity, I can see where you might not have gotten my meaning. Still, it seems to me quite a jump to reading that as a statement that Crap Christianity = Christianity. That's not only not what I meant but not, I'm pretty sure, what I wrote -- though again I can appreciate the possibility of confusion.

(There is, of course, the larger subject of the stupendous historical wreckage wrought proudly in the name of mainstream Christianity -- and of course by most religions that have had the opportunity. But that's a subject for another time.)

I don't think anyone could complain that DWT devotes too little attention to crap media or to crappy Joe LIeberman. However, I guess it would be my opinion that neither of these has had anything like the effect of the organizers of Crap Christianity in turning some 40 percent of the population into ungoverning and ungovernable mental zombies.

I don't know that anyone particularly cares about my views on religion, but in the interest of clarity, I don't believe it's inherently good or bad. Like most creations of humans, it's both -- it reflects pretty much the exact spread of motivations and behaviors, from the best to the worst, that we find in most human endeavors and activities. Religion can be used in the service of moral and humane ends, and it can be used to justify and promote the worst impulses of mankind.

By Crap Christianity what I mean, in case it isn't obvious, is basically the Christian Right, in which small groups of people seek to control the thinking and behavior of (they hope) much larger groups of people, in the interest of the controlling group's egos or thirst for power or greed for wealth. It is fundamentally an authoritarian system, and in all its facets it's about control.

Here's how I put it in what was basically a music post last September, "Bach's faith rouses devotion, not ennui (or ridicule), in this nonbeliever -- his Jesus isn't the Right's 'macho Jesus'":

Bach's belief in Jesus as a representation of the best in us, the fullest and most meaningful humanity of which we are capable, the Prince of Peace, doesn't require much of a stretch for me. In fact, that belief, not to mention the actual teachings of Jesus, is what makes me crazy in the incessant braying of modern-day crap Christianity. Longtime DWT readers have heard both Howie and me sound this theme frequently. The ignorant, lying, bellicose, immoral crap Christians not only seem blitheringly unaware of what Jesus actually preached, but represent something very close to the forces of oppression and inhumanity that were Jesus's lifelong antagonists.

By coincidence (or is it coincidence?), in the Introduction to Max Blumenthal's book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, I just encountered this remarkable description of the "macho Jesus" central to "the authoritarian mindset driving the movement that has substantially taken over the modern Republican Party: the Christian Right," as he experienced it personally in five years of interviewing hundreds of its leaders, attending dozens of rallies and conferences, listening to "countless hours" of radio broadcasts, and sitting "in movement-oriented houses of worship where no journalists were permitted."

As I explored the contours of the movement, I discovered a culture of personal crisis lurking behind the histrionics and expressions of social resentment. This culture is the mortar that bonds leaders and followers together. . . .

The movement's Jesus is the opposite of the prince of peace. He is a stern, overtly masculine patriarch charging into the fray with his sword raised against secular foes; he is "the head of a dreadful company, mounted on a horse, with a double-edged sword, his robe dipped in blood," according to movement propagandist Steve Arterburn. Mark Driscoll, a pastor who operates an alternative Christian rock venue from his church, stirs the souls of twenty-something evangelical males with visions of "Ultimate Fighting Jesus." This same musclebound god-man starred in Mel Gibson's blood-drenched The Passion of the Christ, enduring bone-crushing punishment at the hands of Jews and pagans for two hours of unrelieved pornographic masochism.

A portrait of virility and violence, the movement's omnipotent macho Jesus represents the mirror inversion of the weak men who necessitated his creation. As [psychologist Erich] Fromm explained, "the lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness [italics in original]. It is the expression of the individual self to stand alone and live. It is the desperate attempt to gain secondary strength where genuine strength is lacking."

No indeed, Bach's Jesus has nothing in common with this macho Jesus. And I imagine Bach's deep Christian faith must be an irrelevance if not an outright outrage to the crap Christian worshippers of macho Jesus. Indeed, having come this far with Max, we need to continue on at least one more paragraph:

The movement's macho Jesus provided purpose to Tom DeLay, a dallying, alcoholic Texas legislator transformed through evangelical religion from "Hot Tub Tommy" into a dictatorial House majority leader known as "The Hammer." Macho Jesus was the god of Ted Haggard, a closet homosexual born-again and charismatic megachurch leader, risen to head of the National Association of Evangelicals, preaching the gospel of spiritual warfare and anti-gay crusades. And he was the god of Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., an eccentric millionaire whose inheritance of massive wealth literally drove him mad, prompting his institutionalization, who found relief as one of the far right's most reliable financial angels. Macho Jesus even transformed the serial killer Ted Bundy, murderer and rapist of dozens of women, who became a poster child for anti-pornography activists with his nationally televised death row confessional. . . .

Although we now have a number of excellent books exploring the seamy world of Crap Christianity, Republican Gomorrah remains an excellent basic source, with its frighteningly consistent accounts of the twisted histories of the men (yes, they're all men) who made Crap Christianity such a commanding force in American politics. Not surprisingly, Howie has also devoted quite a lot of attention to this cancer on our body politic, and has also used Republican Gomorrah as a basic resource.

Crap Christians don't believe in Jesus or his teachings, on which they basically defecate. Not only have they manufactured their own Jesus, in all essential respects their "macho" Jesus is an Antichrist, clearly intended to undercut the actual teachings of Jesus. Now, in fact, the Crap Christians have undertaken to actually rewrite the Bible to conform to their fundamentally fascist vision, as Noah reported in awarding his "Why Do You Hate the Bible? Award" (among his year-end Scorn Awards) to Ned Flanders look-alike Andy Schlafly of Conservapedia --

for their Bible Project, which aims to “translate” the Bible into a conservative world view -- "to render God's word into modern English without liberal translation distortions" -- because in the demented minds at the Conservapedia madrasa, not only does real life itself have a liberal bias, but so does the Good Book. ("Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations.")

Translation: The Bible needs to be pounded into the service of the ultra-right-wing vision of modern American Movement Conservatism.

Does Joe Lieberman serve the interests of Israel's Likudniks in the Senate? No question about it, and Howie in particular has written about that a lot. Has Joe Lieberman engaged in activities designed to control the minds of Americans? Well, actually, yes, most notably in his efforts to impose censorship on American music -- in league, of course, with the Crap Christians. I don't doubt that his heart is with them, but he hasn't personally done much to advance the cause.

Whereas the Crap Christians have converted, at conservative estimate, tens of millions of Americans into zombielike tools of their authoritarian religious-political vision, creating an electoral force beyond the reach of truth, reason, or even reality, thereby rendering the country increasingly ungovernable, unless perhaps by some eventual mind-controlling authority that's consistent with theirs.

Widespread human gullibility is the Crap Christians' marching weapon. Just this past Saturday Glenn Greenwald wrote a post called "Religious faith in government accusations," in which he noted:

[I]f one hears only the Government's unchallenged, untested accusations about detainees and others whom it labels Terrorists and Enemy Combatants, it semes clear and obvious that the person is an Evil, Dangerous and Bad Man. But when those accusations are actually subjected to scrutiny by courts, it turns out that -- in the overwhelming majority of cases -- there is virtually no reliable evidence to support them. Even beyond those cases, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, had access to detainee files and revealed that a huge number of Guantanamo detainees -- constantly accused of being the Worst of the Worst -- were, in fact, completely innocent, as even the Bush administration came to acknowledge.

Glenn went on to point out: "Despite those facts, a religious-like faith in government pronouncements continues to dominate debates over Terrorism and civil liberties."

It's no accident that far-right-wing government pronouncements are greeted by this segment of the population with "religious-like faith." Their faith has been brainwashing them to do so.

I used to feel a lot more anger than I do now toward the "good" Christians who look the other way. What's changed is that I've come to understand how under siege many of them feel in the face of the onslaught of Crap Christianity, which has the show-biz pizzazz and a savvy combination of the right mix of rewards and punishments to lure their people away. But when so-called good Christians deny the existence of or danger from the Crap Christian movement in this country, I have a real problem.

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