Trumpianity Has Nothing To Do With Jesus' Message To Man

Benjamin Corey is a prominent evangelical religious figure-- but not in the way most of us think about evangelicals, especially since the so much of the evangelical movement has sold itself to Trump. Corey is an outspoken critic of American Nationalism within the Christianity and writes that Christians should pledge their loyalty only to God, and never to a government . A few months ago, he wrote a post on his very popular and influential blog, Patheos, 10 Signs You’re Actually Following TRUMPianity Instead of CHRISTianity that takes on Trump and his followers directly.

In the Era of Trump’s America, I must admit that I hardly recognize the very people who raised me. I was brought up by the Religious Right, and went on to become a faithful foot soldier for the cause of conservative Christianity and right-wing politics until my mid 30’s. However, long gone is their commitment to the values they tried to instill in me, and so much else that once consistently encompassed their collective identity.

Sadly, my old tribe seems to collectively struggle to realize they’ve done exactly what they spent the entire Left Behind series warning me not to do: they have fallen in line behind a worldly leader who arose to power during a time of “wars and rumors of wars,” who did so by falsely pretending to be a Christian, but who would ultimately lead them to follow an entirely new religion.

To help my former right-wing family out, here’s the top 10 signs you’re now following TRUMPianity instead of CHRISTianity:

10. You spent 8 years criticizing every move of Obama, but the minute Trump was sworn in you started telling everyone that “Christians should respect the president” and that being “divisive” is a sin.

Remember the you of two years ago? That’s okay, because I do-- and you certainly didn’t seem to believe that Christians should “respect the president” or that being politically divisive was any sort of sin.

Here I am recalling you taught me that, “sin is always sin” and doesn’t change just because culture changes. Huh!

9. You think, “but we’re a nation of laws” somehow trumps biblical teachings on how immigrants are to be treated.

You didn’t expect me to forget all of those years where you taught me that the Bible is the “final authority for all matters of living,” did you?

Good, because I didn’t-- but it certainly sounds like you did. I’m reminded every time you dismiss what the Bible teaches about the treatment of immigrants with, “But, but… we’re a nation of laws!”

I thought you’d said, “We have a responsibility to follow God’s law, not man’s law!” just a few weeks ago. Silly me!

8. Your church is planning a “patriotic worship service” for the 4th of July.

Let me simplify this for you: there’s no such thing as “patriotic worship” unless you’re willing to simply admit you’re worshipping your own country.

You were the ones who taught me that if God isn’t the focal point of our worship, that it’s sinful idolatry. Surely you remember Jesus saying, “It is written: worship the Lord your God and serve him only”?

Apparently there’s now room for two. Strange!

7. You instinctively applaud when Trump threatens to “bomb the shit” out of people, but quickly push back if someone quotes what Jesus taught about violence and enemy love.

Jesus commanded we love our enemies, and that we never repay evil with evil but instead repay evil with good. I mean, it’s right there in the red words. I still have it underlined from 1984.

But now when I quote that in response to your thinking that it’s all cute when Trump wants to “knock the crap” out of a protestor or nuke a country, you tell me that I’m twisting scripture.

Sorry, but I think siding with Trump over Jesus is… as Trump would say: Sad!

6. You think that having a filthy mouth and boasting about sexual immorality is a sign of being unsaved, but when it comes to Trump you all of a sudden have a “Who am I to judge?” attitude.

I mean, c’mon. I grew up under your guidance and I think we both know that neither one of us ever thought we’d see the day when you became an advocate of not judging. You told me that if I had sex before marriage or used the F-word that it would be evidence I was never saved to begin with.

Doesn’t it seem odd to you that it was Trump, and not Jesus who got you to (selectively) soften up on the whole judging others thing? Interesting!

5. You think it’s God-honoring to refuse to bow to a national statue, but that you should be fired from your job, kicked out of the country, or even charged with treason for refusing to stand for the flag.

Let me get this straight: When everyone obeyed the king and bowed down to the national statue and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused-- under the pain of death-- to pledge their allegiance to anyone except God, they were the good guys of the story...

But fast forward to present day America, and the good guys are actually the ones who want to force everyone to pay respect to the national symbol? Plot twist!

4. You want the nation to return to "biblical values"... except for all those socialist sounding biblical things like caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, giving food to the hungry, etc.

So you really want the nation to return to “biblical values”? You do realize that when Israel lived under God’s law (which you love to quote when talking of same sex marriage) also included laws that mandated the rich be taxed, even down to the food they had, and that the wealth was to be redistributed to the poor and immigrants, yes?

Or is this the one situation where you’d rather not remember that you keep saying, “But God’s law never changes”? Confused!

3. Your church spends one month a year celebrating the story of refugee family who fled their violent homeland and secretly crossed the border to safety, only to return home years later where their son became another unarmed person of color killed by the state’s violent security forces because they “felt threatened”...

Yet you spend 11 months of the year missing the obvious. Ironic!

2. You claimed Barack Obama’s election was the result of evil forces, but the minute Trump was sworn into office you started quoting verses about how “God picks a nation’s kings and queens.”

For real, how does this work? Did God only get involved and start deciding elections with the past election cycle, or did you just start quoting this verse after the black guy left?

There’s a lot in this world I don’t know, but I do happen to know the answer to that one. Easy!

1. You spent the 90’s saying “character counts” but now say, “We don’t vote for a national pastor.”

Ahh, my absolute favorite sign you’re following Trumpianity instead of Christianity.

Version of you from today, I’d like you to meet the version of you from the Clinton administration. You were supposedly so morally outraged that you coined the term, “Character Counts” to explain why you felt Clinton was unfit for office. The version of you from today? My, my… as I listen to you explain that “We don’t vote for a national pastor…” I am keenly aware of how having the political power changes things. Totally!

So you’re a loyal Trump supporter and a loyal Christian?

I’m not so sure.

You might want to take a more self-critical look and make sure you’re following Christianity, and not Trumpianity. Really!

That brings us right to the Vote Common Good "Flip The House" bus tour. Yesterday Newsweek reported that while evangelical Christians have traditionally stuck by the Republican Party, a group of them who are anti-Trump enough to hit the road ahead of the midterm elections to convince their peers to ditch the GOP. They want to help flip Congress so the Democrats have control.

With the message that Republicans have fallen short of pushing for the beliefs of core Christians, the "Vote Common Cause" bus tour is traveling to 30 congressional districts where Democratic challengers seek to defeat conservative incumbents. The tour will visit 14 states. It began last week in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is slated to wrap up two days before the November midterm elections in Fresno, California.

"The need to flip Congress has some of us behaving in ways we have never had to before,” Minneapolis pastor Doug Pagitt, the executive director of Vote Common Good, told the Huffington Post Monday.

“These times call for a response that matches the outrageous nature of what’s happening," Pagitt said. "This is not a typical partisan conversation.”

The tour is unusual since white evangelical Protestants have traditionally backed the GOP for its conservative approach to abortion and LGBTQ equality, among other social issues. In the 2016 presidential election, a whopping 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight.

"We need candidates who would not turn their back on the poor and the sick, who would not separate children from their parents, who support liberty and opportunity for all people,” Arkansas pastor Robb Ryerse, the political director for Vote Common Good, said in a statement to the Huffington Post.

“What we’re doing is trying to give courage to people whose hearts are already opened, whose beliefs have already shifted, to say that they can vote and act according to their own beliefs,” Pagitt said.

Vote Common Good claims it is nonpartisan and backs candidates based on how their platforms match with evangelical values. This year, the group is solely supporting Democratic candidates. The tour is scheduled to stop for six days in Texas to push for Democratic Representative Beto O'Rourke, who seeks to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

The tour kicked off in eastern Pennsylvania and the Vote Common Good rally for Susan Wild seems to have done some good. According to WFMZ-TV a brand new poll of district voters from DeSalles University shows Wild crushing her right wing opponent, Marty Nothstein, 50.0% to 31.2%.. 80% of Democrats, 8% of Republicans and 39% of independents say they plan to vote for Wild, while just 67% of Republicans, 3% of Democrats and 16% of independents plan to vote for Nothstein. Tomorrow the Vote Common Good tour bus pulls up to the Grandview Park Bandshell on Grandview Blvd in Sioux City, Iowa to help introduce congressional candidate, progressive Democrat J.D. Scholten, to evangelical voters. Aside from J.D., speakers include Frank Schaeffer, Doug Pagitt, Samir Selmanović and Brian McLaren.

Not All Evangelicals Want To See Trump Mocking Jesus From The Oval Office

The VoteCommonGood bus tour started out on Tuesday night in Bethlehem, PA with a rally for progressive Democrat Sue Wild in a swing district the Democrats are counting on flipping. Not all evangelicals are happy with Trump-- not with his demeanor, not with his policies and not with the way he's been handling his job. Vote Common Good is seeking to introduce evangelical communities across the country to Democratic candidates in the hope of helping to flip the House. Last night they were in Lancaster doing exactly that with Jess King. Tomorrow they'll be in Asheville, Tennessee. Christina Tatu and Laura Olson covered the first rally for the Morning Call: Bucking their brethren, Evangelical group brings message to Lehigh Valley: Vote Democratic to flip U.S. House. "Darlene Sinclaire of Allentown considers herself a Christian," they wrote, "but unlike most of her church-going friends, she doesn’t plan to vote for the conservative candidate in this year’s election. Sinclaire, who was once a registered Republican and is now a Democrat, was among those attending a rally in Bethlehem on Tuesday night to sway religious voters to Democratic candidates. 'I’m upset with the current administration. … I feel like there’s a general lack of humanity,' she said during the Vote Common Good rally at Bethlehem’s Rose Garden Park. Most of Sinclaire’s religious friends support President Donald Trump because they believe he could overturn abortion, but Sinclaire says voters need to 'look at the bigger picture. I can’t look at just one issue anymore,' she said, citing women’s issues and immigration as among her top concerns."

Robb Ryerse is an evangelical pastor from Arkansas as well as the VoteCommonGood political director. He came up to Pennsylvania for the start of the bus tour. "Beautiful things get born in places called Bethlehem," he reminded us. "Yesterday, a new movement was born, a movement to call people of faith back to the common good as our motivating impulse for political engagement." Back to Tatu and Olsen:

Conservative evangelical voters have been a reliable constituency for Republicans for years. In 2016, more than 80 percent of white evangelical voters supported Trump, according to Pew Research Center.

But organizers of Tuesday’s rally in Bethlehem believe the demographic can play a role in seeking to flip the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrats.

“Religion is lock step with Republicanism without any concern about what kind of Republicanism it is,” said said Doug Pagitt, a pastor from Minneapolis who is leading the Vote Common Good effort.

“We believe there are people who are not comfortable with the choices. Their faith calls them to one thing and their Republican impulses call them somewhere else,” Pagitt said, describing some of those involved as frustrated with Trump’s nomination in 2016 and others who found they could no longer support him after he was elected.

So Pagitt and others are embarking on a 31-city tour across the country, bringing their message to voters in districts seen as the most likely to flip parties and where they made connections with similar-minded pastors and activists working on the ground on immigration and other issues.

Pagitt said he’s a bit of an activist and has been involved in rallies for issues like abolishing the death penalty and stricter gun control. Part of his activism is getting other church leaders to participate, which led him to organize Vote Common Good.

The effort has support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to the New York Times, with Democratic nominees across the country participating.

Democrat Susan Wild, who is running to represent the Lehigh Valley in Congress, said Tuesday that she is seeing more voters “cross the aisle” from Republican to Democrat for a variety of reasons, from wanting to see more women in office to the stance on immigration.

“I don’t think this is a partisan experience. I think this is a moral experience. People who cross the aisle this year are doing so because of their moral compass,” she said, adding that this year’s slate of political candidates seems to be more diverse than ever before.

Wild said she attended the rally to reach out to religious voters, who make up a significant portion of the Lehigh Valley’s voting population.

The event was also about unity and working together for the common good instead of against each other, she said.

“I want to reach across the aisle. The only way we can move forward is together,” Wild said.

There were about 60 people at the rally Tuesday night. The majority of those in attendance were Democrats.

Organizers said the event was intended to feel more like a “block party” than a political rally, with a positive message and live music. Organizers also shared their own stories, like Christy Berghoef from Holland, Mich., a mother of four young children who decided to spend the next five weeks touring with Vote Common Good.

“My friends have said, ‘Why are you doing this? Why would you leave your four young children to travel in cramped quarters for five weeks?’” said the lifelong Republican.

For Berghoef the decision was easy.

“We have a responsibility to balance systems that oppress. We have a responsibility to feed the hungry and care for the sick,” she said. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. As a follower of Jesus, I believe we need to leave the world brighter than we left it,” she said.

On Wednesday, Democratic congressional candidate Jess King will join organizers for an event in Lancaster. The rest of the tour includes stops in the Carolinas, West Virginia, Texas and New Mexico, before ending in California.

Pagitt said Wild and King have the “right spirit and attitude,” and said many of the candidates they are supporting on the tour are women.

A spokesman for Wild’s opponent, Republican Marty Nothstein [another GOP sex predator], said in a statement before Tuesday’s event that Vote Common Good “appears to be another wing of the Democratic campaign.”

...“From fear to faith, we are calling on people to set aside their fears, whether they have faith in God or believe in this country,” Pagitt said.

Our friend, Samir Selmanović, who is on the tour, explained what this journey means to him. "Something outrageous is going on in the world. And it requires a response that asks us to take new and outrageous risks. We will no longer be subsumed into an 'American Christian' stereotype built by the Right, be marginalized due to our faith by the Left, or be politically timid for fear of appearing partisan.

"We will use our voices and wield our votes as we work together towards the Common Good that Jesus invited us to imagine and embody. As such, we reject any special privilege, position, or influence accorded Christianity by the American nation in its principles, laws, or practice.

"We measure the value of our religion by the value it brings to its non-adherents. Especially to its non-adherents. Right now, interested only in privileging Christianity, Christianity of self-serving sort, Republican Congress and the President could not possibly care less about Jesus and about what is, for them, Jesus' naive worldview and agenda.

"For most Christians in Congress, Jesus is a liberal wussy. For us, he is the teacher and the Lord."

Samir and the rest of the VoteCommonGood crew is up against quite a machine in this David v Goliath battle. The religionist right has been bullshitting their congregants for a long time that the profane and anti-God Trump is "the chosen one." And now they have a film. "More than 1,000 US cinemas are screening The Trump Prophecy-- which posits that God chose the philandering billionaire to restore America’s moral values." Far right crackpot, Franklin Graham, said last year that Trump’s victory was the result of divine intervention. "I could sense going across the country that God was going to do something this year. And I believe that at this election, God showed up."

The filmmaker claims that "Trump will serve two terms, the landmark supreme court ruling on abortion in the Roe v Wade case will be overturned, and that next month’s midterm elections will result in a 'red tsunami,' strengthening Republican control of both houses of Congress. Barack Obama will be charged with treason and Trump will authorise the arrest of 'thousands of corrupt officials, many of whom are part of a massive satanic paedophile ring.' Trump will also force the release of cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s that are currently being withheld by the pharmaceutical industry."

Vote Common Good, isn't completely in feeling the Trump Regime is a fraud when it comes to Jesus' message. Yesterday America's nation’s largest coalition of Christian churches, the National Council of Churches issued a statement that they believe Brett Kavanaugh has "disqualified himself from this lifetime appointment and must step aside immediately." They were offended by his lying and stated that he "exhibited extreme partisan bias and disrespect towards certain members of the committee and thereby demonstrated that he possesses neither the temperament nor the character essential for a member of the highest court in our nation."

Susan Wild's Lucky Break In Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley: Another GOP Sex Scandal

The board complained Nothstein had "ego" problems but didn't fire him until after the sex scandal

When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court oversaw the redrawing of the state's gerrymandered congressional districts, Charlie Dent's 15th district got somewhat friendlier for Democrats. Dent had already decided he couldn't stand working in a Trumpified Washington and had announced his premature retirement. The new 7th district is 71.6% from Dent's 15th CD, 24.8% from Matt Cartwright's old 17th district and a tiny bit from Tom Marino's old 10th district. The 15th was an R+2 district. The new 7th is a D+1. In this Trumped-up political environment, it's nearly unimaginable that a Republican could win it this year. Under the new boundaries, Hillary beat Trump 48.7% to 47.6%.

6 Democrats ran in the primary May 15. There was tremendous apprehension because among the top three candidates there were 2 progressives-- Greg Edwards and Susan Wild-- and one Republican-lite candidate, John Morganelli. Morganelli was financed by GOP billionaires through a network of shady SuperPACs controlled by No Labels-- a right-wing group that works to elect conservative Democrats. In the end, though Wild won:

• Susan Wild- 15,262 (33.45%)
• John Morganelli- 13,754 (30.15%)
• Greg Edwards- 11,602 (25.43%)

The GOP primary was very close and now we're getting to Wild's good luck.

• Marty Nothstein- 16,241 (50.49%)
• Dean Browning- 15,923 (49.51%)

First note that 45,622 voters participated in the Democratic primary, while only 32,164 participated in the Republican primary, a great sign for November. But, even better, at least from a partisan perspective is that the local media this week is filled with a Nothstein scandal. Nothstein, a cyclist, has been working as executive director of the Lehigh Valley velodrome (an arena for track cycling) for a decade. The velodrome board put him on unpaid leave in February, something he's tried to hide from voters, after it came to their attention that he has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct. Since then, they fired him. Nothstein, like every single Republican politician accused of sexual impropriety in history, denies everything and claims it was a "political hit job." Nothstein has been able to hide the scandal for 6 months and flipped out when the Morning Call, after a 3-month investigation blew the whistle. The other Republican in the primary, Dean Browning, who lost by just 318 votes, says he was unaware of the scandal and had no idea Nothstein had been put on leave (and then fired) because of it. When the Lehigh County GOP, asked Nothstein if he had any skeletons in his closet he lied and said he didn't, according to Browning, who added "If I was in his situation if an allegation came up, I would take it upon myself to explain to voters whether any of it is true or not."

A source with direct knowledge said Nothstein’s being placed on leave came within days of the board receiving the email indicating he was under investigation for alleged misconduct by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, an independent wing of the congressionally sanctioned U.S. Olympic Committee.

SafeSport has “exclusive authority” to conduct internal investigations of “actual or suspected sexual misconduct” and underlying problems related to sexual misconduct at 47 Olympic-sanctioned sports programs no matter how old the claim may be. It was created in 2014 following mounting abuse complaints and public pressure.

...Jonathan Whiteman, a USA Cycling risk protection manager who fields abuse claims, said his office received the complaint about Nothstein on Oct. 30. That was 11 days after Nothstein publicly announced his bid for Congress.

Whiteman forwarded it to SafeSport on Nov. 1. Before referring it, Whiteman said he gathered “enough specificity to allege a policy has been violated,” as is required.

“What I can confirm is USA Cycling received an allegation involving Marty Nothstein that included sexual misconduct,” Whiteman said in a May phone interview. “When USA Cycling receives an allegation of sexual misconduct, we are not making any determination of validity before reporting it to the U.S. Center for SafeSport.”

...The February timing of the decision matches a big drop in the salary Nothstein listed on his most recent congressional candidate filing. The May 15 filing shows Valley Preferred paid Nothstein $23,781 this year-- which equaled two months of his gross $148,688 salary.

Neither the nonprofit’s board nor Nothstein publicly announced his departure from the velodrome or the reasons behind it even as the nonprofit labored to get the track ready for its opening season.

...Two weeks before the May 15 primary election, Nothstein would only say he was campaigning full time when repeatedly questioned by a reporter about his employment status at the velodrome. Board members declined to comment or did not return requests for a comment this spring.

...Nothstein and velodrome officials publicly ended their relationship this month. That’s when the velodrome started to advertise on its website a job listing for executive director. Nothstein said Thursday he received no financial settlement from the velodrome.

Paul Ryan's shady SuperPAC has been funding Nothstein's race but is refusing to comment on the scandal and a spokesman won't say whether or not they will continue their activities on his behalf.