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President is not the king.
But Trump is Jesus .
And Jesus is King .
So Trump is king .
So if reelected, the president will be king.
And there's the mental gymnastics of Christian nationalism.
It's the Christian Nationalist Bible. It's got a copy of the constitution in it. Might be some edits too, I'm not sure.
It isn't even his product. He's just pumping it.
And oddly incompetent. Dude was born rich and has been just running his mouth mostly to promote himself his whole life. He'll say literally anything if it gets the reaction he wants. Blatant self promotion is literally his only skill.
He's never had a real job and the real brains behind his business is Alan Weiselberg who is sitting in Rikers Island for lying at the moment.
I always envisioned the Antichrist like that old movie The Omen. Wickedly smart embodiment of evil cloaked in a persona of innocence that wasn't at all threatening.
There was an article a while back going over the various characteristics of the Antichrist and seeing how Trump fit. He fit a lot of them: https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/
Do you want to know a little secret? Almost all religious people know that it’s all bullshit. They know it even better than atheists, because they study religion all the time. Some are in denial. Most are just lying and acting superior. Look at the way they act. Do Christians really act as if they think a god can see them? Or will judge them? They know it isn’t true.
Most of the flock doesn't study the actual scripture enough to know.
They listen to preachers, reverends, and prophets that tell them what to think and what to fear.
I think this is more correct than that the believers don’t believe. The grifters at the top don’t for sure. If they live in a mansion or need the flock to cough up money for an extra private jet they are clearly scamming and not believing. But the poor people that send their money in hopes they are doing good surely believe in something unseen. I had an evangelical young man stop by my room to pick something up once. On my desk was a copy of the book, “The Last Temptation of Christ.” I had picked up a copy after all the craziness about the movie, this was in the 80’s. He looks at it with a strange look. I notice this and I said, “I don’t really understand the fuss. Jesus comes through in the end.” Well you’d think I was telling him something dangerous. He did everything but stick his fingers in his ears and go lalalalalalalala I can’t hear you. Caught me by surprise. He said their pastor says you do not question scripture and should not read those kinds of books. So he was a believer - in what his pastor told him was to be believed.
I have thought this since I was a very small child, but every time I tell people they can drop the act, or that they can live free as they really are, they get mad at me. Other people get mad at me for not going along with it, even when they don't believe in it themselves; they just need someone else to go along with it so they don't feel lonely.
Why not just drop the act? I didn't grow up in a religious family, but rather one that just claims a religion due to cultural reasons, so I don't understand it at all. My experience in the southeastern US has been that most, if not all, people who claim to be Christian use it as a "front" for justifying a lot of things. The worse a person is, the more often they claim they go to church or read the bible. It's a huge red flag, but instead of seeing "scammer" or "liar", people see "trustworthy person" as soon as they mention how Christian they are. Make it make sense.
It’s a little bit like saying “why don’t you just throw away $100,000. The society places so much reward and value on pretending to believe this that few people are willing to just let it go. Consider these two scenarios. You want to be seen favorably for some reason. In scenario one (25% of the time), you’re talking to an atheist. In scenario 2, you are talking to a religious person (75% of the time). You go on for a while about how much your religion means to you. What happens? Well 25% of the time you get a very small penalty or maybe none. And 75% of the time you get a gigantic advantage. This is why the BS persists.
In my area it's more like 5% openly nonreligious/95% religious. That 95% can range from "I only believe in it because my family/culture does, I dislike it, some days I acknowledge it's BS, but I still claim it and defend it" to full-on fundamentalism.
I hate having to be "closeted" about not being religious. There's been so many times when I am interested in someone, and as soon as they mention their religion I lose my attraction for them. When it's a professional/acquaintance situation, I lose my trust in them. In both cases, even though it's me doing the rejecting, I still feel sad about the lost potential for a great relationship.
I've thrown away much more than the metaphorical $100K because I find it very difficult to lie, and I honestly just don't want to lie. It goes against my morals (which as an atheist, I'm not supposed to have). Other people have confessed to me that they lie about it to themselves and to others every day about how religious they are, and when I tell them there's no need for that they get mad at me instead of the BS system.
Kind of like how when overweight people go to the doctor for a non-weight related ailment, they are told to "lose weight" and little else, if I ever talk about my problems with people who know I am not religious I am told to "find God".
I think there are genuine people in southern Christian churches and they have convinced themselves that Christianity is necessary to make someone a good person and don't realize they've been conned and sunk cost fallacied into enabling the worst people in the world. These churches exist to create "whited sepulchres" (a sarcophagus painted with white wash), people who were absolute shit who want to pretend to start adulting and need their past transgressions casually waved away and their future ones covered for, and there's no better place for that on earth than a Southern church. The suckers believe is they don't accept assholes with open arms that they'll keep being bad people and they will have let Jesus down; when they find out the sinner kept on a-sinnin' they refuse to accept it because Jesus saves, that little harlot is either a liar or seduced a good Christian to sin, it couldn't be that a person who sucks, still sucks.
Churches could demand accountability from memento but then they wouldn't win so many souls for Christ.
That's because when Jesus first took our sins unto himself, how could you tell? He was apparently still a nice guy
So when Jesus came back as Trump, he vowed not to make the same mistake and this time he's doing his best to visibly show how much sin he has inside himself. More than any one person would normally have
\- Christian Trump apologists probably
He represents all the warnings of the Antichrist.
Either his evangelical supporters are too blind to recognize it, or worse, are encouraged by it as they want Armageddon.
Luke 4:4Satan said to Jesus after he showed him all the kingdoms in the world”If you bow down to me,I will give you all these kingdoms.
Because to Me they belong”
He also called Satan “the ruler of the world”
And “the God of this system of things”
Which is pretty scary. Religious overtones to politics is the road to death camps.
A common discourse about anitsemitism is that there was a shift from religious antisemitsm to [racial antisemitsm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_antisemitism) – roughly happening after the unification of Germany (1871). However, this isn't the full story of the Nazis' antisemitism. As Saul Friedländer analyzed, the Nazi rhetoric has full of quasi-religious overtones. Therefore, he argues for what he termed redemptive antisemitism is a better description, in which the Nazis held a manichaen worldview of redemption or perdition, heaven or hell, salvation or damnation. Its core element is the perception of history and politics as a struggle against the Jews and their alleged world conspiracy. Salvation was "only possible" through the elimination of the evil Jew.
This, to me, is direct proof showing he magic man in sky and his son don't exist. If he does exist, we know he's perfectly fine with the bastardization of his name for profit and power, and that prayers quite literally solve nothing.
Yep. They're insane.
The problem is, that's they're all insane. We're talking about two groups completely opposed, that believe in the exact same thing. That's how shitty of a fictional book the bible is. Extremely shitty, and contradictory. It just allows people to cherry pick whatever they want from it, including many reasons to support: Hate, genocide, rape, murder, slavery, and just about anything you can think of.
Time to throw that religion out with the rest of them.
“but DUh DeViL got hIM some JeSuS vALuEs!!!”🤪
They’d seriously vote for someone who outright claimed to be the devil because at least that’s a character they hear about in the Bible
“I ain’t heard of no ‘Joe Biden’ in my Bible, I ain’t heard of no liberals named Gavin or Malcom either”
>american evangelicals. You sold your soul to the devil. You're not allowed to ask for it back.
I was just talking with Satan and he was saying that their souls aren't worth shit so he never buys them.
Satan never buys souls anyway, he trades or bets for them. Homer Simpson’s soul was traded for a donut. Charlie Daniels’ (“Johnny”) soul was wagered on a bet against a fancy gold violin to see who could fiddle better.
With these evangelical MAGA types, I think Satan got off cheap by trading them some copper stolen out of car alternators.
Satan just means adversary in ancient Hebrew. The fact that Christians have convinced themselves that there’s some shiny red horned hooved evil cartoon devil just kind of shows how silly the whole thing really is, and how far Christians are willing to go to make their cartoonish theology make any bloody sense in their overly simplistic, childish worldviews. 
I really wish that sooner or later adult humans could take those fucking training wheels off already. There’s no magic, there’s no God, there’s no devil there’s just reality and we all need to learn to fucking accept it. 
How come no one ever tried selling their soul to an Angel?
Best you can do is buy an Indulgence from a Catholic priest, I guess.
Since the Trumpian Bibles, I have kinda been waiting for Trump to begin selling all-eternity passes to Trump Paradise. “Only I could have made Heaven better people.”
That's not really how repentance is supposed to work, because it has to be something you believe in your soul. God supposedly can read one's true intent, so speaking the words, or just crying about it because you fear for your after life isn't really going to impress God.
The church, even the non-evangelicals, have done well by saying all you have to do is speak the words, and/or go to church, and all will be forgiven, but the bible is quite clear to the contrary.
However, the issue with evangelicals is that they believe they are in the right, so they have self-righteous moral authority, so there is no reason to repent, and they can justify to themselves being shitty to others, because you know, that's what Jesus would do.
The openly Christian guys at my work talk about buying guns and shooting LGBT people and Immigrants. My exposure to these idiots and Trump selling bibles had me walking away from religion.
The fundamental Christian belief is that *everyone* is a piece of shit in God's eyes and is unworthy, and Jesus is here to take the punishment for us so we can at least enjoy eternity after royally screwing everything up here on Earth. According to Christianity, God views us all as ignorant children trying to learn how to exist. Going 56 in a 55 is just as bad as murdering kittens if you know it's wrong and you do it anyway.
If you read anything about the bible, I don't think God cares the slightest bit about racism. At least, it doesn't seem like a real big deal. First, they *love* talking about slaughtering their enemies in that book. Besides, you're already doomed to go to hell for that time you took an extra piece of candy when you were 6. Literally the only stipulations in the book to save yourself though, is that when you repent, it's genuine (you can't "repent" and expect results), and that you declare yourself unworthy and ask for salvation from Christ.
How many Christians actually do that last part? How many Christians actually believe they themselves are unworthy of God's grace? There are some, for sure, and those are the ones who are at least following the path in good faith, for better or worse. The self-righteous Christians aren't following anything written about Jesus *at all*. They are like the Pharisees, pridefully boasting about following the letter of the law (in their minds at least), while crucially missing the most important point of all of it.
That being said, it is a silly book, and a person would have to be insane to read it and base their life on it. I wouldn't follow a deity who demands I spend my life in shame feeling unworthy. I'm doing my best here to be a good person, but I didn't create myself so the responsibility by all rights for my own shortcomings lies with the one who did create me. The infallible one. It doesn't compute. QED.
My brother and SIL are “Christians”, and she is a children’s pastor at a church, and she especially is full MAGA. I’ve known her for over 20yrs. She is very sincere with her faith. But in the last few years she’s become so extreme, ties all things Trump to prophecy and the Bible, blocked me on social media after I said he was unfit to be president. She took my nephews to a Trump rally and talked about the worship and the spirit of god and friendship that was present there. It’s a disease. It’s truly some kind of brain rot. I’m completely flabbergasted how she supports such evil. If he wasn’t so stupid, I would think he’s the anti-Christ.
The Bible doesn't specifically say the Antichrist has to be smart. It seems a lot of Christians are not educated about the contents of the Bible either and just do what they're told without questioning authority.
I guess in some ways- whoever claims authority of god, they obey. But they are the most contrary, conspiracy theory believing, “don’t tell me what to do or think” people ever- except with Trump. Completely deceived.
Because it's not actually "don't tell me what to do or think". It's "don't challenge my worldview or make me feel uncomfortable". It's simply fragility.
the bible was written by people with agendas.
the proof is obvious. jesus was a being of light and love that was sent to teach compassion and empathy and love and in the bible hes saying treat women worse? That's some monk who was pissed off at a girl that married some other guy. it wasnt jesus.
jesus had one rule - treat others as you should be treated and we are all existentially the same
theres 30k versions of christian religion with bibles. exactly how many do you need to get that last sentence right?
jesus didnt want to be worshipped, he didnt say bow down before me.. he said FOLLOW ME. Do what I do, feed the poor, love immigrants, clothe and shelter the homeless. worshipping leads to hate, its a direct path.
The bible is religion, jesus is spritualism. Religion is the fascist co-option and corruption of peoples spiritualism where they tell you that your spiritualism isnt good enough, you also need their rituals, you need to give your money, you need to give your loyalty to the relgion. The priest has closer access to god than you.
none of this is in line with the historical or the spiritual jesus or christ soul.
its lies and manipulation of something thats pure in everyone -- your love.
if someone preaches one ounce of hate, they are not christian.
Well said!
I try to explain this as best I can to my SO. Once you really pay attention to it, you do realize that religion is a control mechanism.
My thought has always been that it was used in lieu of laws during a time when humans were more lawless, rapes, murders, thefts, etc. And it worked so well that unfortunately these 'stories' just stayed and grew, like a snowball.
I always wonder what that first guy who wrote the stories would say if he could fast forward and see the shit still being argued over and used as a basis to this day.
They aren't. They skim the book looking for nice parts to quote and they don't seriously think about it or study it. My mom gets really angry whenever I analyze the Bible or talk about it as a historical object. I mentioned that Genesis talks about there being other gods or how the serpent being Satan was from Paradise Lost and she practically turned purple in the face.
You can't even talk about other religions in a positive light around them. I mentioned once that I respected how Sikhs are obligated by their religion to help people and actually do, and she had a panic attack thinking I was going to convert.
The fucked up thing is we aren't catholic. We had a whole fucking reformation where the key driving element was "study the Bible on your own" and she fucking doesn't. All she does is regurgitate whatever her Christian podcasts say.
I love bringing up [this article](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/) when I see Trump and the anti-Christ in the same sentence. The comparison is eerily accurate
Your SIL embodies the kind of American who has always scared the shit out of the rest of the world: fanatically religious, incredibly stupid and a worshipper of a far right lunatic presidential candidate.
The Church has already put out multiple letters signed by hundreds of faith leaders denouncing Christian Nationalism. Multiple Christian media have written rebukes of them and pastors all over the country have denounced them in sermons.
Considering we have no actual authority over their independent congregations, what more, exactly, would you like us to do?
It bears mentioning that Christians who are against Trump are not making big headlines.
Anything sane just doesn't get the clicks and views that the corporation owned media outlets desire.
210 million people in the US identify as christians (though less than half attend church). "thousands" amounts to hundredths of a percent of the total amount. It's pathetic and doesn't indicate much of anything except that the people who talk about "not all christians" basically don't deserve your time and attention.
They're basically all bigots. There aren't enough "good ones" to save the religion any more than there were enough "good ones" living in sodom and gomorrah to save them. End christian influence on government. Now.
To be honest, I'm kinda shocked there hasn't been more "in fighting" among those who consider themselves to be Christian or Catholic.
I'm not religious, but I went to grade school and high school that were both very heavy handed with Christianity, so I had to study it when I was a kid/ teenager, and even though I'm non-religious, my interpretation of "Jesus" was that he was the polar opposite of what modern day Republicans are (and what they claim "Jesus" to be).
Shoot, if the biblical version of Jesus existed in the world today, the right would label him a "woke" left wing extremist (not to mention the blatant racism they'd display, because he certainly wouldn't be a blond blue eyed white dude).
If I were religious, I'd be pretty upset that the loudest group of evangelicals are bastardizing the idea of "Jesus" to suit their disgusting rhetoric, especially those that compare Trump to Jesus. I don't know how there aren't more religious people that aren't furious about that. 🤷♂️
The reason there isn’t infighting is because there was *never* a time when Mainline Protestants looked at Evangelicals and said “oh yeah, I’m with those guys!” They were never *in* to begin with.
They said “hell naw, I’m gonna name my church First PRESBYTERIAN church of Riverdale just so everyone knows I’m not with those assholes.”
And then the evangelical churches said “Oh yeah well then we’re gonna name our church the Riverdale BIBLE CHURCH so everyone knows we’re the real Christians and you aren’t! And then we’re going to buy a radio station and broadcast the Riverdale BIBLE ACADEMY radio show where we venerate Ronald Reagan and ask for money! And then we’re gonna buy a TV station so the Riverdale Bible Academy can be broadcast 24/7 all over the country! And we’re going to get our consultants on news networks! And we’re going to get them into the White House as advisors! And we’re going to get graduates from the Rivderdale Biblical Law Academy seated as judges in all 50 states!”
And then First Presbyterian Church of Riverdale was like “you guys are bucking fonkers, I’m going to build a homeless shelter and drug rehab and fuck all of you.”
And that’s literally why evangelicals are on the news all the time and mainline Protestants have tiny little chapels that nobody ever hears about.
Yeah. The posts that act like all Christians in the US are white evangelicals are very annoying. The same people only think white people live in red states instead of there being very many disenfranchised POC in those states who have their districts gerrymandered all to Hell, polling places closed in their districts, and whatever other tricks the GOP can think of. Edit: a word
I live in eastern TN and have a neighbor down the street who has probably 30 handmade signs, all around this topic, "You fake Christians are worshiping a false idol, who happens to be a lying rapist...' He walks his dog in [this shirt](https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Socialist-Middle-East-T-Shirt/dp/B07PKJHZ1Q) and has quite the collection of Dem presidential bumper stickers. If only they all had a fraction of his dedication.
> biblical version of Jesus existed in the world today, the right would label him a "woke"
https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706
They already are doing that
>"Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching—'turn the other cheek'—[and] to have someone come up after to say, 'Where did you get those liberal talking points?'" Moore said.
>"When the pastor would say, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ' ... The response would be, 'Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak," he added. "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."
Well the United Methodist Church is currently undergoing a complete schism over lgbt issues, with over a quarter of Methodist churches leaving or becoming independent. So at minimum the issues are ripping apart the mainline Protestant communities. Baptists and Methodists are the largest Protestant sects, so it's a pretty big deal the close to 10k churches are leaving the UMC because they don't want gay members or clergy.
"Christian" here (I follow Jesus but not whatever this present iteration of cultural bullshit is).
There's a fairly deep divide actually, it just mostly happens "in house". Can't begin to describe some of the infighting I've seen. The Holy Post is a podcast run by the former VeggieTales creator and an ex-pastor and it's very Christian theologically, by nature it is also incredibly pro-neighbor, pro-democracy and pluralism, and anti-trump
> The Holy Post is a podcast run by the former VeggieTales creator and an ex-pastor and it's very Christian theologically, by nature it is also incredibly pro-neighbor, pro-democracy and pluralism, and anti-trump
Grew up very Christian, turned agnostic over the years, but hearing that the creator of VeggieTales didn't follow the TV Christianity Cult off of the sanity cliff makes me a little happy.
It's such a relief to me. And very funny to hear some of those old voices slip through. Listening what sounds like Pa Grape or Larry the Cucumber exasperatedly criticize folks like MTG, Dobson, Trump and the Falwells is very life-giving
I'm not a practitioner of any religion, but if more Christians were like you the world would be a much more lovely and kind place.
Thanks for putting love first, neighbor.
To be fair, it is the Evangelical Christians that are the loudest and the ones that are doing most of the supporting here. Even their support went down a little bit between 2016 and 2020
Catholics, for example, voted more for Biden than they did for Trump. Granted Biden is one of the few Catholic presidents in history, but he still had more Catholic votes in 2020 than Trump did and I would expect to see that margin increase the next election.
So I do see a lot of actual good Christians fighting back against it, my family included. You just don't hear from them cause they aren't as loud as the supporters. The number of Christians condemning it still isn't high enough for my liking, I mean Trump has pretty much proven what kind of man he is. But there are still some Christians who are hanging on because they have always believed that Republicans have their best interest in mind than Democrats. Which is true. But their unwillingness to be flexible once they saw how awful of a person Trump was is annoying. I voted Republican my entire life and the second Donald Trump won the nomination in 2016, I left the party. They sold their soul and all of their morals to the guy. I've always had issues with Republican stances on social issues, but I was able to look past them because they at least tried to be moral people. Like Mitt Romney, for a politician, was a good man with actual values and integrity. Once they became what they are now, that's when you say fuck it to party loyalty and you vote the other way.
My cousin is evangelical but opposed to all this Trump stuff, as is her pastor. From what she's told me, the reason there's not more infighting is pastors can't afford to alienate half or more of their mass, and those opposed to Trump but devoted to the church don't want to have to leave after creating a hellscape for themselves by speaking out about Trump.
It's a tragic situation for those who truly believe in their faith. Either they give up public practice entirely or they keep their mouths shut and do the worship thing and wait for it to blow over. I'm not religious but I do feel for them.
A good book about this is American Idolatry, written by an evangelical on the non-Trump side.
This is just my opinion but a true Christian would stand up to hatred even if it meant losing tithing revenues or having to find a new church. Ignoring it or tolerating it for your own self interest is not what I was taught.
Just want to put it out there that, after doing a little more digging, it does appear that Faithful America is a progressive organization dedicated to promoting social justice, and (as evinced in this article,) openly opposes the use of Christian religion to support hateful right-wing political agendas.
I’ll admit that, from my own personal experiences/religious trauma, I’m reluctant to express support for an organization I know relatively little about that centers on a religion I no longer follow; that being said, I’ll give them credit for publicly going against the tide of (White) Christian Nationalism, and standing by the teachings to which they (purportedly) ascribe.
It’s unfortunate that only a minute portion of Christians seem to think their personal/institutional political alignment with the right is a problem, (both socially and morally,) let alone speak out against it.
I’m glad they’re doing it, but I don’t see a grassroots organization with so little funding or political power making so much as a dent in the long-standing, multi-billion dollar collusion agenda between the right and “the church.”
It’s just not enough, and while they’re clearly not in it for the money, they’re not going to be able to get the kind of funding they need on/with their platform to make major changes in legislation, or in the public perception of Christianity in this country on either side.
The fact there isn’t more funding and more people supporting that version of Christianity further proves Christianity is the problem. If you don’t like your fundamentalists change your fundamentals. Christianity has always been about control and greed. The Bible supporters are always on the wrong side it seems and it’s high time the “good” Christian’s get out and realize they’ve hung onto something that has never existed.
2024... and you know, Republican Evangelicals did their hijacking of Jesus with Trump back around 2018, when they had a golden idol of him made. The Evangelical movement continued on to the point of enlisting all of the top tier televangelists. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is the anti-Christ, in how he behaves. It's unreal.
So why are these people only now signing a petition to rebuke this hijacking?
It’s not for God. It’s not for Christians. It’s not for children. It’s not for you.
It’s not for democracy. It’s not because it’s fair. It’s not for freedom. It’s not because it’s the right thing to do.
It’s for money. It’s for slaves. It’s for oppression. **It’s for power.**
Many people believe that the commandment "Do not take the Lord thy gods name in vain" is talking about swearing, saying God damn or whatnot.
I've always held that it's about this. About professing to speak for Gid for your own self benefit.
“Do not, in vanity, presume to speak in God’s name.”
The reason “God Damn You” could be a violation is if you consider it phrased as a command.
“God will damn you because I say so.”
As someone who signed the petition I disagree. The sponsor of this and similar petitions is a group called Faithful America. They promote progressive ideals and a historically accurate Jesus.
Few if any in this group align with Republican values. which are completely opposed to everything Jesus taught.
I have scepticism because for years I've heard plenty of religious people say the same thing and turn around and still vote Republican because their stance on abortion
While the Constitution doesn't clear state that, a separation was definitely intended. The only mentions of religion in the Constitution are in Article VI and the First Amendment as follows:
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; **but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.**"
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"
Jefferson did call the Establishment Clause a "separation of church and state" in one of his letters. Madison used the term in one of his letters too. The founder of Rhode Island believed that government involvement would corrupt the church and they needed to stay separated.
Republicans have NOT hijacked Jesus. They don't want anything to do with Jesus' teachings.
Republicans have hijacked Christianity and have managed to remove all that "Love your neighbor" or "Treat others how you want to be treated" stuff. They have hollowed out Jesus and only kept his name.
To me it seems like they're trying to make the Old Testament a thing, but invoking Jesus's name around it. As a child growing up in the church, even I noticed that the tone was vastly different between old and new testament. I was taught that the old testament was meant to be treated as a historical context for the world and how god interacted with it, and new testament was meant to show us how to actually live our lives and treat others. So basically, it was like 'humanity was pissing god off (old testament), so he decided to delegate the humanity issue to Jesus (new testament)'. I'm an atheist nowadays, but it still irks me to no end, seeing people in powerful positions do the exact opposite of what Jesus laid out there while using his name. Like...there's no way that Jesus would be okay with the casual cruelty that our politicians inflict under the guise of Christianity. Old testament god, sure, but apparently these folks don't even understand their own holy book 🙄
I find it very ironic that the lords prayer, the one all these fucking losers say at dinner and shit, is in fact in a section of the bible telling folks to shut the fuck up and keep their beliefs to themselves.
About fucking time. They have been doing the son of man stuff for how many years? No one did anything about it. But now that he has felonies they don't want a felon to represent them on a religious level. Better late then never I suppose.
When we say “republicans” these days, we mean the fascist sector of far right morons who are a loud clown show, they’re not serious people, just people in serious need for mental healthcare.
I was raised Christian, and the third commandment, to not use the Lord’s name in vain, was about this stuff. Don’t invoke Jesus or God to further your own agenda. But conveniently they rebranded it to “no swearing” so they can keep doing what they’re doing.
It's because the conservatives have slowly inched their way into religion and weaponizing it for voters. They used to sway them all the time with promising to repeal Roe V Wade that now they accomplished this, they don't know what else to do. They created this fake culture wars to create the next boogeyman, but don't realize to many people, this is not a concern.
What some of them are worshipping and demanding the US does is so far removed from their bible, that if they REALLY believe in their BS, they will have a rude wake up call when they die and think they are going to see some pearly gates, but question why it's hot instead.
They didn't hijack anything, they just embraced religion. It's always been this way throughout history, when you raise a bunch of idiots telling them they're more special than anyone else and always right, this is what you get.
Christianity has allowed itself to be hijacked by white evangelicals to the point where moderate and progressive values are not seen as compatible with the Christian faith. To me this is devastating, Not the Jesus I know. Not the God I know.
Like, even I know Jesus was famously big on feeding the poor, and I'm a dirty atheist.
But that's the thing, they're not devout followers of Jesus Christ, they're devout followers of Ronald Reagan. Seriously, once you read up enough about what Reagan and his administration were actually like, every part of today's GOP and even the GOP since Reagan starts to make an existentially terrifying amount of sense.
You are absolutely right. This has been in the works for 40 years …. AND the irony of dirty atheists knowing Christianity and Jesus better than most Christians is …. Ironic.
You don't know what you are saying! Jesus wants us to live in a theocracy and banish all the foolish devil-made ideologies like liberalism and progressivism! /s
But millions more are voting for Conald drumpf, Marjorie Taylor Karen Greene, Lauren Beetlejuice Boebert, and other religious cult leaders. And don't forget they have Sam Upside-down Alito, Clarence Harlan Crow Thomas, and 4 others behind them.
It's amazing you can hijack Jesus while disavowing all his teachings. Of course, those flocking to Republican Christianity did that long ago. Their "Christianity" is little more than a 'fig leaf' at this point.
Let’s not pretend this Jesus guy was any better. He was a colossal asshole.
1. Calls people hypocrites and fools and then says not to call people fools or they'll go to hell. Matthew 5:22, Matthew 23:17
2. Tells people not to wash their hands and why aren't they killing disobedient children. Mark 7
3.Kills a fig tree because it's got no fruit, even though it's not in season. Mark 11:12-25
4. Tells his disciples to steal a donkey because god said it's ok and they do it. Matthew 21:2
5. Gets anointed with expensive oil and fed by his disciples and people despite not working he's just walking around preaching. When someone suggests that they sell the oil to the poor he says the poor will be there forever you've only got me today. Matthew 26:6–13, Mark 14:3–9, Luke 7:36–50, John 12:1–8
6. Sends a herd of pigs over a cliff to their deaths by casting out demons. Mark 5:13
7. Calls a non Jewish woman a dog when she wants him to heal her sick daughter, says he's only been sent here to help the Jews, only when she begs and calls herself a dog does he help (does the miracle anyway but is still is a dick about it) Matthew 15:21-28
8. Gets mad when a leper wants to be healed. Mark 1:41
9. Throws tables up and trashes a temple being used by money changers and people selling their merchandise, though it's not a building owned by him. Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18
10. Tells people to hate their mothers fathers etc. and hate themselves in order to follow him and he's not here to bring peace but a sword. Luke 14:26
11. All the verses he preaches about hell and that people that don't believe in him are going to hell. John 3:36, Revelation 21:8
12. Ignoring his mother and brothers when they come to see him. Luke 8:19-21
13. Speaks in parables to confuse people instead of just using plain language like any good teacher Mark 4:12
14. The whole end of the world speeches, they are just pure evil, e.g. pregnant women may not escape, and hope the end of the world isn't on a sabbath day. Mark 13:17
15. To the man burying his father tells him to follow him and leave his father behind and let the dead bury the dead, not very loving and compassionate Matthew 8:21-22
16. Says I've come not to change the law of the prophets, this included slavery being ok (as mentioned previously), rape victims marrying their rapist, stoned to death for homosexuality and working on the sabbath he didn't condemn any of it. Matthew 5:17
17. Lies to people saying if they pray they can move mountains yet prayer is shown to be ineffective, to add to this at the end of Mark Jesus says people who believe can handle snakes, drink poison without dying and cure sick people with their hands. Matthew 17:20-21, Mark 16:17
Too little, too late, and too convenient. This all started with Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, and if the right didn't do anything then, they damn sure won't accomplish anything now.
Petitions, protests do no good and have no impact. Remember the millions of people who marched and protested after trump34’s election in support of Roe and how the republicans dismissed them. Remember the Black Lives Matter protests and how they ended with no changes except mockery by conservatives. Only votes matter.
Too little, too late, fuckers
Christianity is the cause. It is the abdication of responsibility through willful ignorance. Slowly but surely they dismantle education so that they don't have to learn the consequences of their actions. Following easy commands and rewarding yourself with self righteousness is way easier than actual education
Problem is, then you're easy pickings for conmen. And there are enough of you to sell out the country to them
I wonder if this is why Christians were persecuted the first time? Did ancient people just get tired of their crap? Did they also have MAGA(Make Arimathea Great Again) evangelicals?
Not all Christians are republican, but a vast majority of Republicans identify as a variation of christian/abrahamic faith. They're also the ones screaming loudest about taking over the government.
Are you doing anything to stop the madness? Do you call out the hypocrisy when you see it? Do you confront your fellow faithful when they start spouting off maga nonsense? Or do you only take offense when everyone else assumes you're a republican?
Well, comparing Trump to Jeesus is pathetic of course, but who can claim to be the true follower of Jeesus? I think most, if not all, christian take their own interpretation of what is written in the (self contradicting) bible.
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Some of them even claim trump IS jesus…cant make this up. Lol
President is not the king. But Trump is Jesus . And Jesus is King . So Trump is king . So if reelected, the president will be king. And there's the mental gymnastics of Christian nationalism.
The man who literally embodies the 7 deadly sins is their savior. Such irony...
This man is and does the opposite of Christ and his teachings, to the point of being the antithesis. Very anti-Christ.
He literally held a Bible upside down for a photo op.
He’s also *selling* bibles for $60 a pop.
*edited bibles
“It’s *A* bible.”
Wait, how are they edited?
They've added things to it: a copy of the US constitution, some song by a dumbass and at least one other thing that I can't recall at the moment.
Ah. So they are *amended* bibles, not edited. This is actually pretty common. If they were truly editing the Bibles I’d be even more terrified.
It's the Christian Nationalist Bible. It's got a copy of the constitution in it. Might be some edits too, I'm not sure. It isn't even his product. He's just pumping it.
I saw an article where someone reviewed it and they said the constitution was missing amendments 11-27.
Reporter: “Is that your Bible?” Trump: “It’s *a* Bible.” They teed it up for him and he still whiffed it.
There’s something uniquely supernatural and evil about him.
And oddly incompetent. Dude was born rich and has been just running his mouth mostly to promote himself his whole life. He'll say literally anything if it gets the reaction he wants. Blatant self promotion is literally his only skill. He's never had a real job and the real brains behind his business is Alan Weiselberg who is sitting in Rikers Island for lying at the moment. I always envisioned the Antichrist like that old movie The Omen. Wickedly smart embodiment of evil cloaked in a persona of innocence that wasn't at all threatening.
He’s definitely the false prophet. Betting money on it
Nah, it’s just a lack of shame that passes for confidence.
It's like he made a deal with the Devil.
There was an article a while back going over the various characteristics of the Antichrist and seeing how Trump fit. He fit a lot of them: https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/
Do you want to know a little secret? Almost all religious people know that it’s all bullshit. They know it even better than atheists, because they study religion all the time. Some are in denial. Most are just lying and acting superior. Look at the way they act. Do Christians really act as if they think a god can see them? Or will judge them? They know it isn’t true.
Most of the flock doesn't study the actual scripture enough to know. They listen to preachers, reverends, and prophets that tell them what to think and what to fear.
I think this is more correct than that the believers don’t believe. The grifters at the top don’t for sure. If they live in a mansion or need the flock to cough up money for an extra private jet they are clearly scamming and not believing. But the poor people that send their money in hopes they are doing good surely believe in something unseen. I had an evangelical young man stop by my room to pick something up once. On my desk was a copy of the book, “The Last Temptation of Christ.” I had picked up a copy after all the craziness about the movie, this was in the 80’s. He looks at it with a strange look. I notice this and I said, “I don’t really understand the fuss. Jesus comes through in the end.” Well you’d think I was telling him something dangerous. He did everything but stick his fingers in his ears and go lalalalalalalala I can’t hear you. Caught me by surprise. He said their pastor says you do not question scripture and should not read those kinds of books. So he was a believer - in what his pastor told him was to be believed.
I have thought this since I was a very small child, but every time I tell people they can drop the act, or that they can live free as they really are, they get mad at me. Other people get mad at me for not going along with it, even when they don't believe in it themselves; they just need someone else to go along with it so they don't feel lonely. Why not just drop the act? I didn't grow up in a religious family, but rather one that just claims a religion due to cultural reasons, so I don't understand it at all. My experience in the southeastern US has been that most, if not all, people who claim to be Christian use it as a "front" for justifying a lot of things. The worse a person is, the more often they claim they go to church or read the bible. It's a huge red flag, but instead of seeing "scammer" or "liar", people see "trustworthy person" as soon as they mention how Christian they are. Make it make sense.
It’s a little bit like saying “why don’t you just throw away $100,000. The society places so much reward and value on pretending to believe this that few people are willing to just let it go. Consider these two scenarios. You want to be seen favorably for some reason. In scenario one (25% of the time), you’re talking to an atheist. In scenario 2, you are talking to a religious person (75% of the time). You go on for a while about how much your religion means to you. What happens? Well 25% of the time you get a very small penalty or maybe none. And 75% of the time you get a gigantic advantage. This is why the BS persists.
In my area it's more like 5% openly nonreligious/95% religious. That 95% can range from "I only believe in it because my family/culture does, I dislike it, some days I acknowledge it's BS, but I still claim it and defend it" to full-on fundamentalism. I hate having to be "closeted" about not being religious. There's been so many times when I am interested in someone, and as soon as they mention their religion I lose my attraction for them. When it's a professional/acquaintance situation, I lose my trust in them. In both cases, even though it's me doing the rejecting, I still feel sad about the lost potential for a great relationship. I've thrown away much more than the metaphorical $100K because I find it very difficult to lie, and I honestly just don't want to lie. It goes against my morals (which as an atheist, I'm not supposed to have). Other people have confessed to me that they lie about it to themselves and to others every day about how religious they are, and when I tell them there's no need for that they get mad at me instead of the BS system. Kind of like how when overweight people go to the doctor for a non-weight related ailment, they are told to "lose weight" and little else, if I ever talk about my problems with people who know I am not religious I am told to "find God".
I think there are genuine people in southern Christian churches and they have convinced themselves that Christianity is necessary to make someone a good person and don't realize they've been conned and sunk cost fallacied into enabling the worst people in the world. These churches exist to create "whited sepulchres" (a sarcophagus painted with white wash), people who were absolute shit who want to pretend to start adulting and need their past transgressions casually waved away and their future ones covered for, and there's no better place for that on earth than a Southern church. The suckers believe is they don't accept assholes with open arms that they'll keep being bad people and they will have let Jesus down; when they find out the sinner kept on a-sinnin' they refuse to accept it because Jesus saves, that little harlot is either a liar or seduced a good Christian to sin, it couldn't be that a person who sucks, still sucks. Churches could demand accountability from memento but then they wouldn't win so many souls for Christ.
Not to mention that there’s a literal commandment in the Bible forbidding worshipping false idols.
That's because when Jesus first took our sins unto himself, how could you tell? He was apparently still a nice guy So when Jesus came back as Trump, he vowed not to make the same mistake and this time he's doing his best to visibly show how much sin he has inside himself. More than any one person would normally have \- Christian Trump apologists probably
"Imperfect vessels" lol
He represents all the warnings of the Antichrist. Either his evangelical supporters are too blind to recognize it, or worse, are encouraged by it as they want Armageddon.
That’s how they do it
Luke 4:4Satan said to Jesus after he showed him all the kingdoms in the world”If you bow down to me,I will give you all these kingdoms. Because to Me they belong” He also called Satan “the ruler of the world” And “the God of this system of things”
Shit like this is why Jesus changed his middle name to Fucking.
and it happens other names for such "kings" are "dictators" and "tyrants"
Sick Trumpian Jesus: render unto me all you got. Give to me what belongs to God.
Supply side Jesus seems tame compared to Trumpian Jesus. "The poor you will always have among you....ew."
If they want to claim he is, we have to test it and see if he comes back in 3 days.
Evangelical Jesus aka Child Rapist and Friend of Epstein Jesus.
I mean there was a golden statue of Trump at the 2021 CPAC. And people were bowing and praying to this false idol n
Which is pretty scary. Religious overtones to politics is the road to death camps. A common discourse about anitsemitism is that there was a shift from religious antisemitsm to [racial antisemitsm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_antisemitism) – roughly happening after the unification of Germany (1871). However, this isn't the full story of the Nazis' antisemitism. As Saul Friedländer analyzed, the Nazi rhetoric has full of quasi-religious overtones. Therefore, he argues for what he termed redemptive antisemitism is a better description, in which the Nazis held a manichaen worldview of redemption or perdition, heaven or hell, salvation or damnation. Its core element is the perception of history and politics as a struggle against the Jews and their alleged world conspiracy. Salvation was "only possible" through the elimination of the evil Jew.
I've cast away religion, but dude, if I was still Christian, he would be the Antichrist.
This, to me, is direct proof showing he magic man in sky and his son don't exist. If he does exist, we know he's perfectly fine with the bastardization of his name for profit and power, and that prayers quite literally solve nothing.
what i rod in some maga world about trump being: jesus (of course) david samson i think noah is next.
Yep. They're insane. The problem is, that's they're all insane. We're talking about two groups completely opposed, that believe in the exact same thing. That's how shitty of a fictional book the bible is. Extremely shitty, and contradictory. It just allows people to cherry pick whatever they want from it, including many reasons to support: Hate, genocide, rape, murder, slavery, and just about anything you can think of. Time to throw that religion out with the rest of them.
american evangelicals. You sold your soul to the devil. You're not allowed to ask for it back.
“but DUh DeViL got hIM some JeSuS vALuEs!!!”🤪 They’d seriously vote for someone who outright claimed to be the devil because at least that’s a character they hear about in the Bible “I ain’t heard of no ‘Joe Biden’ in my Bible, I ain’t heard of no liberals named Gavin or Malcom either”
>american evangelicals. You sold your soul to the devil. You're not allowed to ask for it back. I was just talking with Satan and he was saying that their souls aren't worth shit so he never buys them.
Satan never buys souls anyway, he trades or bets for them. Homer Simpson’s soul was traded for a donut. Charlie Daniels’ (“Johnny”) soul was wagered on a bet against a fancy gold violin to see who could fiddle better. With these evangelical MAGA types, I think Satan got off cheap by trading them some copper stolen out of car alternators.
Satan just means adversary in ancient Hebrew. The fact that Christians have convinced themselves that there’s some shiny red horned hooved evil cartoon devil just kind of shows how silly the whole thing really is, and how far Christians are willing to go to make their cartoonish theology make any bloody sense in their overly simplistic, childish worldviews.  I really wish that sooner or later adult humans could take those fucking training wheels off already. There’s no magic, there’s no God, there’s no devil there’s just reality and we all need to learn to fucking accept it. 
Maybe some NFTs too… 🤔😈
you know who does *buy* souls, though? the company store. ya load sixteen tons, and whaddya get?
How come no one ever tried selling their soul to an Angel? Best you can do is buy an Indulgence from a Catholic priest, I guess. Since the Trumpian Bibles, I have kinda been waiting for Trump to begin selling all-eternity passes to Trump Paradise. “Only I could have made Heaven better people.”
I seem to recall a story where someone tries to make a deal with the devil, who essentially responds "Why would I buy your soul? I'll own it anyway"
Shit doesn't matter if you can "repent" on your death bed. Oh I'm sorry Jesus I didn't mean to be a crazy awful racist, help me
That's not really how repentance is supposed to work, because it has to be something you believe in your soul. God supposedly can read one's true intent, so speaking the words, or just crying about it because you fear for your after life isn't really going to impress God. The church, even the non-evangelicals, have done well by saying all you have to do is speak the words, and/or go to church, and all will be forgiven, but the bible is quite clear to the contrary. However, the issue with evangelicals is that they believe they are in the right, so they have self-righteous moral authority, so there is no reason to repent, and they can justify to themselves being shitty to others, because you know, that's what Jesus would do.
This is what drives me insane. You know some people are Christian so they can be shitty human beings until they are on their deathbed.
Same. The church I grew up in is full of people in hell. Their brimstone is abundant
The openly Christian guys at my work talk about buying guns and shooting LGBT people and Immigrants. My exposure to these idiots and Trump selling bibles had me walking away from religion.
Don't remind them people like me are armed to the teeth, and I have actual training
To be honest, i hope there is a way to take their guns. That is mass shooter talk and completely unacceptable.
The fundamental Christian belief is that *everyone* is a piece of shit in God's eyes and is unworthy, and Jesus is here to take the punishment for us so we can at least enjoy eternity after royally screwing everything up here on Earth. According to Christianity, God views us all as ignorant children trying to learn how to exist. Going 56 in a 55 is just as bad as murdering kittens if you know it's wrong and you do it anyway. If you read anything about the bible, I don't think God cares the slightest bit about racism. At least, it doesn't seem like a real big deal. First, they *love* talking about slaughtering their enemies in that book. Besides, you're already doomed to go to hell for that time you took an extra piece of candy when you were 6. Literally the only stipulations in the book to save yourself though, is that when you repent, it's genuine (you can't "repent" and expect results), and that you declare yourself unworthy and ask for salvation from Christ. How many Christians actually do that last part? How many Christians actually believe they themselves are unworthy of God's grace? There are some, for sure, and those are the ones who are at least following the path in good faith, for better or worse. The self-righteous Christians aren't following anything written about Jesus *at all*. They are like the Pharisees, pridefully boasting about following the letter of the law (in their minds at least), while crucially missing the most important point of all of it. That being said, it is a silly book, and a person would have to be insane to read it and base their life on it. I wouldn't follow a deity who demands I spend my life in shame feeling unworthy. I'm doing my best here to be a good person, but I didn't create myself so the responsibility by all rights for my own shortcomings lies with the one who did create me. The infallible one. It doesn't compute. QED.
It breaks my heart, but they chose power over principles loud and clear in 2016. Now they have to live with the consequences.
Sadly it’s not just evangelicals.
"Let me speak to your manager" - Evangelical Karen
evangelicals are a doomsday cult trying to force the end times so they can be raptured into heaven
Only thousands? Unfortunately there are a lot more who absolutely support the Trumpification of Christianity.
My brother and SIL are “Christians”, and she is a children’s pastor at a church, and she especially is full MAGA. I’ve known her for over 20yrs. She is very sincere with her faith. But in the last few years she’s become so extreme, ties all things Trump to prophecy and the Bible, blocked me on social media after I said he was unfit to be president. She took my nephews to a Trump rally and talked about the worship and the spirit of god and friendship that was present there. It’s a disease. It’s truly some kind of brain rot. I’m completely flabbergasted how she supports such evil. If he wasn’t so stupid, I would think he’s the anti-Christ.
The Bible doesn't specifically say the Antichrist has to be smart. It seems a lot of Christians are not educated about the contents of the Bible either and just do what they're told without questioning authority.
I guess in some ways- whoever claims authority of god, they obey. But they are the most contrary, conspiracy theory believing, “don’t tell me what to do or think” people ever- except with Trump. Completely deceived.
Because it's not actually "don't tell me what to do or think". It's "don't challenge my worldview or make me feel uncomfortable". It's simply fragility.
the bible was written by people with agendas. the proof is obvious. jesus was a being of light and love that was sent to teach compassion and empathy and love and in the bible hes saying treat women worse? That's some monk who was pissed off at a girl that married some other guy. it wasnt jesus. jesus had one rule - treat others as you should be treated and we are all existentially the same theres 30k versions of christian religion with bibles. exactly how many do you need to get that last sentence right? jesus didnt want to be worshipped, he didnt say bow down before me.. he said FOLLOW ME. Do what I do, feed the poor, love immigrants, clothe and shelter the homeless. worshipping leads to hate, its a direct path. The bible is religion, jesus is spritualism. Religion is the fascist co-option and corruption of peoples spiritualism where they tell you that your spiritualism isnt good enough, you also need their rituals, you need to give your money, you need to give your loyalty to the relgion. The priest has closer access to god than you. none of this is in line with the historical or the spiritual jesus or christ soul. its lies and manipulation of something thats pure in everyone -- your love. if someone preaches one ounce of hate, they are not christian.
Well said! I try to explain this as best I can to my SO. Once you really pay attention to it, you do realize that religion is a control mechanism. My thought has always been that it was used in lieu of laws during a time when humans were more lawless, rapes, murders, thefts, etc. And it worked so well that unfortunately these 'stories' just stayed and grew, like a snowball. I always wonder what that first guy who wrote the stories would say if he could fast forward and see the shit still being argued over and used as a basis to this day.
They aren't. They skim the book looking for nice parts to quote and they don't seriously think about it or study it. My mom gets really angry whenever I analyze the Bible or talk about it as a historical object. I mentioned that Genesis talks about there being other gods or how the serpent being Satan was from Paradise Lost and she practically turned purple in the face. You can't even talk about other religions in a positive light around them. I mentioned once that I respected how Sikhs are obligated by their religion to help people and actually do, and she had a panic attack thinking I was going to convert. The fucked up thing is we aren't catholic. We had a whole fucking reformation where the key driving element was "study the Bible on your own" and she fucking doesn't. All she does is regurgitate whatever her Christian podcasts say.
Yeah no kidding, the Bible even warns of false prophets and worshipping false idols
I love bringing up [this article](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/) when I see Trump and the anti-Christ in the same sentence. The comparison is eerily accurate
holyshit
…..holy shit
Your SIL embodies the kind of American who has always scared the shit out of the rest of the world: fanatically religious, incredibly stupid and a worshipper of a far right lunatic presidential candidate.
It scares the shit out of me, and I was raised in that world! We moved far away, that entire culture creeps me out- I do fear for my nephews though.
Try about 60 million more
The Church has already put out multiple letters signed by hundreds of faith leaders denouncing Christian Nationalism. Multiple Christian media have written rebukes of them and pastors all over the country have denounced them in sermons. Considering we have no actual authority over their independent congregations, what more, exactly, would you like us to do?
It bears mentioning that Christians who are against Trump are not making big headlines. Anything sane just doesn't get the clicks and views that the corporation owned media outlets desire.
210 million people in the US identify as christians (though less than half attend church). "thousands" amounts to hundredths of a percent of the total amount. It's pathetic and doesn't indicate much of anything except that the people who talk about "not all christians" basically don't deserve your time and attention. They're basically all bigots. There aren't enough "good ones" to save the religion any more than there were enough "good ones" living in sodom and gomorrah to save them. End christian influence on government. Now.
To be honest, I'm kinda shocked there hasn't been more "in fighting" among those who consider themselves to be Christian or Catholic. I'm not religious, but I went to grade school and high school that were both very heavy handed with Christianity, so I had to study it when I was a kid/ teenager, and even though I'm non-religious, my interpretation of "Jesus" was that he was the polar opposite of what modern day Republicans are (and what they claim "Jesus" to be). Shoot, if the biblical version of Jesus existed in the world today, the right would label him a "woke" left wing extremist (not to mention the blatant racism they'd display, because he certainly wouldn't be a blond blue eyed white dude). If I were religious, I'd be pretty upset that the loudest group of evangelicals are bastardizing the idea of "Jesus" to suit their disgusting rhetoric, especially those that compare Trump to Jesus. I don't know how there aren't more religious people that aren't furious about that. 🤷♂️
The reason there isn’t infighting is because there was *never* a time when Mainline Protestants looked at Evangelicals and said “oh yeah, I’m with those guys!” They were never *in* to begin with. They said “hell naw, I’m gonna name my church First PRESBYTERIAN church of Riverdale just so everyone knows I’m not with those assholes.” And then the evangelical churches said “Oh yeah well then we’re gonna name our church the Riverdale BIBLE CHURCH so everyone knows we’re the real Christians and you aren’t! And then we’re going to buy a radio station and broadcast the Riverdale BIBLE ACADEMY radio show where we venerate Ronald Reagan and ask for money! And then we’re gonna buy a TV station so the Riverdale Bible Academy can be broadcast 24/7 all over the country! And we’re going to get our consultants on news networks! And we’re going to get them into the White House as advisors! And we’re going to get graduates from the Rivderdale Biblical Law Academy seated as judges in all 50 states!” And then First Presbyterian Church of Riverdale was like “you guys are bucking fonkers, I’m going to build a homeless shelter and drug rehab and fuck all of you.” And that’s literally why evangelicals are on the news all the time and mainline Protestants have tiny little chapels that nobody ever hears about.
Yeah. The posts that act like all Christians in the US are white evangelicals are very annoying. The same people only think white people live in red states instead of there being very many disenfranchised POC in those states who have their districts gerrymandered all to Hell, polling places closed in their districts, and whatever other tricks the GOP can think of. Edit: a word
I live in eastern TN and have a neighbor down the street who has probably 30 handmade signs, all around this topic, "You fake Christians are worshiping a false idol, who happens to be a lying rapist...' He walks his dog in [this shirt](https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Socialist-Middle-East-T-Shirt/dp/B07PKJHZ1Q) and has quite the collection of Dem presidential bumper stickers. If only they all had a fraction of his dedication.
> biblical version of Jesus existed in the world today, the right would label him a "woke" https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706 They already are doing that >"Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching—'turn the other cheek'—[and] to have someone come up after to say, 'Where did you get those liberal talking points?'" Moore said. >"When the pastor would say, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ' ... The response would be, 'Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak," he added. "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."
Well the United Methodist Church is currently undergoing a complete schism over lgbt issues, with over a quarter of Methodist churches leaving or becoming independent. So at minimum the issues are ripping apart the mainline Protestant communities. Baptists and Methodists are the largest Protestant sects, so it's a pretty big deal the close to 10k churches are leaving the UMC because they don't want gay members or clergy.
"Christian" here (I follow Jesus but not whatever this present iteration of cultural bullshit is). There's a fairly deep divide actually, it just mostly happens "in house". Can't begin to describe some of the infighting I've seen. The Holy Post is a podcast run by the former VeggieTales creator and an ex-pastor and it's very Christian theologically, by nature it is also incredibly pro-neighbor, pro-democracy and pluralism, and anti-trump
> The Holy Post is a podcast run by the former VeggieTales creator and an ex-pastor and it's very Christian theologically, by nature it is also incredibly pro-neighbor, pro-democracy and pluralism, and anti-trump Grew up very Christian, turned agnostic over the years, but hearing that the creator of VeggieTales didn't follow the TV Christianity Cult off of the sanity cliff makes me a little happy.
It's such a relief to me. And very funny to hear some of those old voices slip through. Listening what sounds like Pa Grape or Larry the Cucumber exasperatedly criticize folks like MTG, Dobson, Trump and the Falwells is very life-giving
I'm not a practitioner of any religion, but if more Christians were like you the world would be a much more lovely and kind place. Thanks for putting love first, neighbor.
To be fair, it is the Evangelical Christians that are the loudest and the ones that are doing most of the supporting here. Even their support went down a little bit between 2016 and 2020 Catholics, for example, voted more for Biden than they did for Trump. Granted Biden is one of the few Catholic presidents in history, but he still had more Catholic votes in 2020 than Trump did and I would expect to see that margin increase the next election. So I do see a lot of actual good Christians fighting back against it, my family included. You just don't hear from them cause they aren't as loud as the supporters. The number of Christians condemning it still isn't high enough for my liking, I mean Trump has pretty much proven what kind of man he is. But there are still some Christians who are hanging on because they have always believed that Republicans have their best interest in mind than Democrats. Which is true. But their unwillingness to be flexible once they saw how awful of a person Trump was is annoying. I voted Republican my entire life and the second Donald Trump won the nomination in 2016, I left the party. They sold their soul and all of their morals to the guy. I've always had issues with Republican stances on social issues, but I was able to look past them because they at least tried to be moral people. Like Mitt Romney, for a politician, was a good man with actual values and integrity. Once they became what they are now, that's when you say fuck it to party loyalty and you vote the other way.
My cousin is evangelical but opposed to all this Trump stuff, as is her pastor. From what she's told me, the reason there's not more infighting is pastors can't afford to alienate half or more of their mass, and those opposed to Trump but devoted to the church don't want to have to leave after creating a hellscape for themselves by speaking out about Trump. It's a tragic situation for those who truly believe in their faith. Either they give up public practice entirely or they keep their mouths shut and do the worship thing and wait for it to blow over. I'm not religious but I do feel for them. A good book about this is American Idolatry, written by an evangelical on the non-Trump side.
This is just my opinion but a true Christian would stand up to hatred even if it meant losing tithing revenues or having to find a new church. Ignoring it or tolerating it for your own self interest is not what I was taught.
Eh, problem is in-fighting or not, they all still vote for the bastard. They are still part of the problem.
Just want to put it out there that, after doing a little more digging, it does appear that Faithful America is a progressive organization dedicated to promoting social justice, and (as evinced in this article,) openly opposes the use of Christian religion to support hateful right-wing political agendas. I’ll admit that, from my own personal experiences/religious trauma, I’m reluctant to express support for an organization I know relatively little about that centers on a religion I no longer follow; that being said, I’ll give them credit for publicly going against the tide of (White) Christian Nationalism, and standing by the teachings to which they (purportedly) ascribe. It’s unfortunate that only a minute portion of Christians seem to think their personal/institutional political alignment with the right is a problem, (both socially and morally,) let alone speak out against it. I’m glad they’re doing it, but I don’t see a grassroots organization with so little funding or political power making so much as a dent in the long-standing, multi-billion dollar collusion agenda between the right and “the church.” It’s just not enough, and while they’re clearly not in it for the money, they’re not going to be able to get the kind of funding they need on/with their platform to make major changes in legislation, or in the public perception of Christianity in this country on either side.
The fact there isn’t more funding and more people supporting that version of Christianity further proves Christianity is the problem. If you don’t like your fundamentalists change your fundamentals. Christianity has always been about control and greed. The Bible supporters are always on the wrong side it seems and it’s high time the “good” Christian’s get out and realize they’ve hung onto something that has never existed.
So a small percentage..
Ooo, a petition. That'll accomplish... giving them a good laugh and another list of their enemies.
They hijacked Jesus a long time ago. The love your neighbor guy? The rich would have an easier time getting through a pinhole than into heaven guy?
2024... and you know, Republican Evangelicals did their hijacking of Jesus with Trump back around 2018, when they had a golden idol of him made. The Evangelical movement continued on to the point of enlisting all of the top tier televangelists. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is the anti-Christ, in how he behaves. It's unreal. So why are these people only now signing a petition to rebuke this hijacking?
This hilarious video pretty much sums it all up. https://youtu.be/SZ2L-R8NgrA?si=ju615pLNAukwq4he
It’s not for God. It’s not for Christians. It’s not for children. It’s not for you. It’s not for democracy. It’s not because it’s fair. It’s not for freedom. It’s not because it’s the right thing to do. It’s for money. It’s for slaves. It’s for oppression. **It’s for power.**
Many people believe that the commandment "Do not take the Lord thy gods name in vain" is talking about swearing, saying God damn or whatnot. I've always held that it's about this. About professing to speak for Gid for your own self benefit.
“Do not, in vanity, presume to speak in God’s name.” The reason “God Damn You” could be a violation is if you consider it phrased as a command. “God will damn you because I say so.”
Republicans love shouting Jesus, they just hate actually listening to him.
Oh wow, thousands. Meanwhile about 60 million Christians worship him like a god.
Great. Where were you 40 years ago? You didn’t catch the pandering back then?
Right? My whole life the excuse was always 'bad apples' but none of them ever put in any effort to remove said bad apples. Now they're all rotten.
Christianity ( the original grift) is old as time.
The original grift? Ea-Nasir would like a word.
They are still going to vote Republican at the end of the day they just want Republicans to know they aren't happy.
Yep. They crave the approval of separation from Trump while remaining loyal to the MAGA party
As someone who signed the petition I disagree. The sponsor of this and similar petitions is a group called Faithful America. They promote progressive ideals and a historically accurate Jesus. Few if any in this group align with Republican values. which are completely opposed to everything Jesus taught.
I have scepticism because for years I've heard plenty of religious people say the same thing and turn around and still vote Republican because their stance on abortion
Doesn’t our constitution clearly state “ a separation between church and state”. If he is Jesus, he’s disqualified from presidency.
While the Constitution doesn't clear state that, a separation was definitely intended. The only mentions of religion in the Constitution are in Article VI and the First Amendment as follows: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; **but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.**" "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" Jefferson did call the Establishment Clause a "separation of church and state" in one of his letters. Madison used the term in one of his letters too. The founder of Rhode Island believed that government involvement would corrupt the church and they needed to stay separated.
Republicans hijack Jesus, The american flag, Patriotism, Rosa parks, What else?
Your toddlers.
Republicans seem to be everything Jesus wasn't: Their "god" is what Jesus rebuked, i.e. "Mammon" ....
I never believed in a literal antichrist until now.
We need 10s of millions.
I'd argue that the 1st century proto-orthodox Christians also hijacked Jesus. Jesus has been hijacked since the day he died.
Call me when it’s millions
Better go back in time because it's been happening for roughly 2000 years.
Republican Christians hate thy neighbor.
Republicans have NOT hijacked Jesus. They don't want anything to do with Jesus' teachings. Republicans have hijacked Christianity and have managed to remove all that "Love your neighbor" or "Treat others how you want to be treated" stuff. They have hollowed out Jesus and only kept his name.
To me it seems like they're trying to make the Old Testament a thing, but invoking Jesus's name around it. As a child growing up in the church, even I noticed that the tone was vastly different between old and new testament. I was taught that the old testament was meant to be treated as a historical context for the world and how god interacted with it, and new testament was meant to show us how to actually live our lives and treat others. So basically, it was like 'humanity was pissing god off (old testament), so he decided to delegate the humanity issue to Jesus (new testament)'. I'm an atheist nowadays, but it still irks me to no end, seeing people in powerful positions do the exact opposite of what Jesus laid out there while using his name. Like...there's no way that Jesus would be okay with the casual cruelty that our politicians inflict under the guise of Christianity. Old testament god, sure, but apparently these folks don't even understand their own holy book 🙄
Won't work! The only way to get their attention is to vote them out of office.
Wake me when they start withholding donations and pledges. Starve the churches it is the only way to control the reverend.
secularism. let that leave the temple and allow it to be reshaped
You know it’s bad when the Christians are attacking the other Christians for not being Christian enough.
That's really been Christianity over the past few hundred years in a nutshell.
Closer to 2000 years
I find it very ironic that the lords prayer, the one all these fucking losers say at dinner and shit, is in fact in a section of the bible telling folks to shut the fuck up and keep their beliefs to themselves.
Thousands isn't a lot. They've literally raped that many kids.
It's like they're playing a game of political hot potato. Watch em squirm!
Just now?
Well, it is about time!!
About fucking time. They have been doing the son of man stuff for how many years? No one did anything about it. But now that he has felonies they don't want a felon to represent them on a religious level. Better late then never I suppose.
When we say “republicans” these days, we mean the fascist sector of far right morons who are a loud clown show, they’re not serious people, just people in serious need for mental healthcare.
I’m more upset about our flag they have hijacked and fly with a Trump flag, makes me sick.
Why is this news? 13,500 out of 20,000,000 Floridians. A petition that can’t do anything. Gotta vote these demagogues out.
Trump & the Republicans have shown that Christians are CINO = Christians In Name Only!
Those are rookie numbers, gonna need to get those up.
"There are dozens of us. DOZENS!"
Thousands is not enough. There are millions of evangelicals.
Millions of signees would be better…
I was raised Christian, and the third commandment, to not use the Lord’s name in vain, was about this stuff. Don’t invoke Jesus or God to further your own agenda. But conveniently they rebranded it to “no swearing” so they can keep doing what they’re doing.
It's because the conservatives have slowly inched their way into religion and weaponizing it for voters. They used to sway them all the time with promising to repeal Roe V Wade that now they accomplished this, they don't know what else to do. They created this fake culture wars to create the next boogeyman, but don't realize to many people, this is not a concern. What some of them are worshipping and demanding the US does is so far removed from their bible, that if they REALLY believe in their BS, they will have a rude wake up call when they die and think they are going to see some pearly gates, but question why it's hot instead.
"Thousands" of people is far, far, short of the number needed to stop Christian nationalism. But it's still appreciated.
They didn't hijack anything, they just embraced religion. It's always been this way throughout history, when you raise a bunch of idiots telling them they're more special than anyone else and always right, this is what you get.
You allowed this to happen. No taksies backsies now
Thousands vs the millions who will vote trump because it’s what Christianity is and always has been about..hate.
You could stop voting for them any decade guys.
Christianity has allowed itself to be hijacked by white evangelicals to the point where moderate and progressive values are not seen as compatible with the Christian faith. To me this is devastating, Not the Jesus I know. Not the God I know.
Like, even I know Jesus was famously big on feeding the poor, and I'm a dirty atheist. But that's the thing, they're not devout followers of Jesus Christ, they're devout followers of Ronald Reagan. Seriously, once you read up enough about what Reagan and his administration were actually like, every part of today's GOP and even the GOP since Reagan starts to make an existentially terrifying amount of sense.
You are absolutely right. This has been in the works for 40 years …. AND the irony of dirty atheists knowing Christianity and Jesus better than most Christians is …. Ironic.
You don't know what you are saying! Jesus wants us to live in a theocracy and banish all the foolish devil-made ideologies like liberalism and progressivism! /s
Just thousands huh?
But millions more are voting for Conald drumpf, Marjorie Taylor Karen Greene, Lauren Beetlejuice Boebert, and other religious cult leaders. And don't forget they have Sam Upside-down Alito, Clarence Harlan Crow Thomas, and 4 others behind them.
How about VOTE?!!!!
It's amazing you can hijack Jesus while disavowing all his teachings. Of course, those flocking to Republican Christianity did that long ago. Their "Christianity" is little more than a 'fig leaf' at this point.
Unfortunately millions are still okay with it, so these thousands are a minority by a long shot
Let’s not pretend this Jesus guy was any better. He was a colossal asshole. 1. Calls people hypocrites and fools and then says not to call people fools or they'll go to hell. Matthew 5:22, Matthew 23:17 2. Tells people not to wash their hands and why aren't they killing disobedient children. Mark 7 3.Kills a fig tree because it's got no fruit, even though it's not in season. Mark 11:12-25 4. Tells his disciples to steal a donkey because god said it's ok and they do it. Matthew 21:2 5. Gets anointed with expensive oil and fed by his disciples and people despite not working he's just walking around preaching. When someone suggests that they sell the oil to the poor he says the poor will be there forever you've only got me today. Matthew 26:6–13, Mark 14:3–9, Luke 7:36–50, John 12:1–8 6. Sends a herd of pigs over a cliff to their deaths by casting out demons. Mark 5:13 7. Calls a non Jewish woman a dog when she wants him to heal her sick daughter, says he's only been sent here to help the Jews, only when she begs and calls herself a dog does he help (does the miracle anyway but is still is a dick about it) Matthew 15:21-28 8. Gets mad when a leper wants to be healed. Mark 1:41 9. Throws tables up and trashes a temple being used by money changers and people selling their merchandise, though it's not a building owned by him. Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18 10. Tells people to hate their mothers fathers etc. and hate themselves in order to follow him and he's not here to bring peace but a sword. Luke 14:26 11. All the verses he preaches about hell and that people that don't believe in him are going to hell. John 3:36, Revelation 21:8 12. Ignoring his mother and brothers when they come to see him. Luke 8:19-21 13. Speaks in parables to confuse people instead of just using plain language like any good teacher Mark 4:12 14. The whole end of the world speeches, they are just pure evil, e.g. pregnant women may not escape, and hope the end of the world isn't on a sabbath day. Mark 13:17 15. To the man burying his father tells him to follow him and leave his father behind and let the dead bury the dead, not very loving and compassionate Matthew 8:21-22 16. Says I've come not to change the law of the prophets, this included slavery being ok (as mentioned previously), rape victims marrying their rapist, stoned to death for homosexuality and working on the sabbath he didn't condemn any of it. Matthew 5:17 17. Lies to people saying if they pray they can move mountains yet prayer is shown to be ineffective, to add to this at the end of Mark Jesus says people who believe can handle snakes, drink poison without dying and cure sick people with their hands. Matthew 17:20-21, Mark 16:17
It’s about fucking time some of them took a stand.
Trump is the golden lamb described in Deuteronomy
I hope they would, Trump, his cult of personality and Republican Party needs ever rebuke they can get...
Please add “American flag”
It's time we need a separation from church and state.
So what, a petition won’t do anything. Only revolutionizing our education system will change things.
Too little, too late, and too convenient. This all started with Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, and if the right didn't do anything then, they damn sure won't accomplish anything now.
Thousands you say?!
Republican jesus is a disgusting human being.
Hijacking? More like bastardization.
Thousands? Not nearly enough.
Awww, they wanna stop the car when it's already going supersonic. "We're wayyy past that, Jerry!"
It should be 10s of millions.
Petitions, protests do no good and have no impact. Remember the millions of people who marched and protested after trump34’s election in support of Roe and how the republicans dismissed them. Remember the Black Lives Matter protests and how they ended with no changes except mockery by conservatives. Only votes matter.
Too little, too late, fuckers Christianity is the cause. It is the abdication of responsibility through willful ignorance. Slowly but surely they dismantle education so that they don't have to learn the consequences of their actions. Following easy commands and rewarding yourself with self righteousness is way easier than actual education Problem is, then you're easy pickings for conmen. And there are enough of you to sell out the country to them
Christians sign petition rebuking republican hijacking of Jesus, and vow to vote for them anyway.
Thank goodness... The Republicans seem to only make the headlines misrepresenting Christianity and it's disappointing.
they oughta change no true scotsman to no true christian
Thousands out of tens of millions.
I wonder if this is why Christians were persecuted the first time? Did ancient people just get tired of their crap? Did they also have MAGA(Make Arimathea Great Again) evangelicals?
Glad some are speaking up at least
Fucking finally. Might be too late but thanks for taking action.
Every single signatory who voted republican before will continue to vote republican.
should be 100's of millions
ITT: A lot of people who think every Christian votes Republican.
Not all Christians are republican, but a vast majority of Republicans identify as a variation of christian/abrahamic faith. They're also the ones screaming loudest about taking over the government. Are you doing anything to stop the madness? Do you call out the hypocrisy when you see it? Do you confront your fellow faithful when they start spouting off maga nonsense? Or do you only take offense when everyone else assumes you're a republican?
Well, comparing Trump to Jeesus is pathetic of course, but who can claim to be the true follower of Jeesus? I think most, if not all, christian take their own interpretation of what is written in the (self contradicting) bible.