Last month Trump vowed to defend Christianity and urged Christians to vote for him
Last month Trump vowed to defend Christianity and urged Christians to vote for him
“This is really a battle between good and evil,” evangelical TV preacher Hank Kunneman says of the slew of criminal charges facing Donald Trump. “There’s something on President Trump that the enemy fears: It’s called the anointing.”
The Nebraska pastor, who was speaking on cable news show “FlashPoint” last summer, is among several voices in Christian media pressing a message of Biblical proportions: The 2024 presidential race is a fight for America’s soul, and a persecuted Trump has God’s protection.
“They’re just trying to bankrupt him. They’re trying to take everything he’s got. They’re trying to put him in prison,” author, media personality and self-proclaimed prophet Lance Wallnau said in October on “The Jim Bakker Show”, an hour-long daily broadcast that focuses on news and revelations about the end times that it says we are living in.
If I believed that an antichrist could exist, I would be convinced it was Donald Trump. He is the opposite of what Christianity teaches yet somehow he's become their Messiah.
In that warped eschatology subculture, a common belief is that the antichrist will be raised in the church and come to power by deceiving the church into thinking he's a prophet or messianic figure. Basically any authoritarian they choose to follow is the perfect figure to fit their beliefs. With Trump, for instance, they can point to "Christian" actions like blind support for Israel as the representatives of the original "chosen people" or his role in anti-choice enforcement or any us-vs-them conflict action that makes them feel like they are the current chosen people. Then if he turns out to be just another bad person who deceived them, they'll mark it off as a fluke, immediately forget all the evil they helped him do, and look for the next antichrist candidate.
Evangelicalism is a very sinister belief system. They literally want the rapture/tribulation to come about as soon as possible, preferably in their lifetime. They don't actually care about any of the people they think are non-chosen. I would say the Calvinists/Reformed Protestants are even worse, because they believe the verses about some people being ordained before birth to be "elected" by God to be saved without any say of their own, and the vast majority of people are also predestined for eternal destruction (https://www.learnreligions.com/five-point-calvinism-700356).
While I think they would nail him to a cross, without noticing the irony, rather than burn him, you're not wrong. Jesus is too woke for them.
Moore told NPR in an interview released Tuesday that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the part that says to “turn the other cheek,” when preaching. Someone would come up after the service and ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”
“What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak,’” Moore said. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”
Ehhh, the issue is that's not really well-enforced, and the churches know that. They know that as long as they aren't OUTRIGHT telling people "go down to the polls and vote for Trump", but instead couching it in semi-religious language, they're pretty safe from anyone poking at them for this - the IRS is extremely gun-shy about trying to nab anyone on this anymore.
Remember this is not a failure of conclusions (Trump is sent by god), but a failure of proceedings (belief and faith is superior to facts and reality).
They lack the critical thinking skills to even begin to digest and elaborate an argument that relies of evidence and principled thinking. They don't evaluate reality on principles, they evaluate reality on emotion, identity and authority above all else. Therefore, fact checking is not even a possibility.
From what I gather, many evangelicals who support Trump see him as a fighter against a corrupt worldly government and a champion of their causes.
Then there's the MAGA concept, which plays into their Great Replacement paranoia (the fear that the white Protestant American majority is being replaced by non-whites and non-believers).
The fact that he is about as far from Christ-like as it's possible to be doesn't seem to deter them all that much.
Because you aren't following "the Spirit" (aka listen to your religious leaders dogmatically and tell yourself you are correct because you misinterpret your confirmation bias as spiritual guidance).
Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.
That's because it was a sidestep answer. In that religion, all things belong to God. Caesar minted the money using their own gold. So, all roman money belonged to caesar and you had to pay your taxes using roman money. The question is then "what exactly is Caesar's and whats gods?" The rabbis couldn't follow up with that question without getting crucified themselves.
That "interpretation" of that story came about after king Charles wanted to raise taxes to raise an army to put down an Irish rebellion. Rightly, parliament didn't trust him to do that and not use the army on them straight after. So, they refused and said the king has no right to force them to do so.
Then, all of a sudden, as if by magic, king Charles was like "you'll never guess what I just found in the bible. Yup, it says so right here. God says you all have to give me money. I know, I know, I couldn't believe my luck when I found it too. Good job I'm a king and wouldn't lie about such things."
...I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.
But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways.
An apocryphal statement nearly 2,000 years old that seems to have underestimated people's taste for the opiate of the masses
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name...23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matt 7:22..., 23 NIV
The man is the living embodiment of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. And this is the guy God sent? Maybe there is a reason for that.
It's not worth arguing with the folk that push this narrative.
If they are as poorly informed to make the argument it's likely in large part because of an affinity for the concept greater than an affinity for knowledge of any details surrounding it.
So providing a counterpoint or more details just falls on willfully deaf ears.
To be fair though, the blame falls more on proselytizers deafening so many ears with their bullshit than on the people with such an acquired distaste for the canonical Jesus that they feel the need to throw out historical Jesus with the bathwater. I definitely get the sentiment, even if the historical Jesus became one of my hyperfocus interests over the past few years.
If there is a God he probably rarely thinks about us.
Think about it. How often do you think about ants? Probably close to never, and if you do it's probably because they're in your shit or because you accidentally killed a bunch of them.
But what do you do when you accidentally kill some ants? 🤷♂️ oopsies
It's interesting how over time the known universe keeps growing so as you put it any god out there keeps getting more distance from us.
At one point earth was it and the stuff in the sky moved under a dome. Also monotheism wasn't a thing yet so your god was basically just some dead warrior that sometimes took human form. Like Spawn or something. That is a god you can sorta relate to.
Now they are saying there is at least 2 trillion galaxies possibly 8 trillion and also the universe might be a lot older than the 13 billion number. That is a lot less relatable.
God: stop bothering me for a cure for your cancer, I am busy making elementary particle strings do probability wiggles things in like 15 spacial dimensions on a single rock 12 billion light years from you.
Yeah thankfully that’s the only part of the metaphor that holds… american evangelicals are about as far from a hardened warrior society as you can get…