The Sickness of Christian Politics & Christian Nationalism

[jackd]

It would probably be helpful, if beneath him, for Fauci to sue this asshole for slander and rip away all of his assets.

[LFC]

Another "pastor" preaching violence and inimidation. I guess he'll follow up with a reading from the Book of Threats.

A right-wing pastor explicitly called on his followers to "terrify national Democrat leaders."

Evangelist Mario Murillo gave a sermon posted on the Destiny Image YouTube channel, which gave no information about the date or location where he preached, but Right Wing Watch noted he appeared to be speaking at dominionist pastor Ché Ahn's Harvest International Ministry in Pasadena, California.

"[Christians] organize, educate ourselves on how to terrify national Democrat leaders, how to win local elections and train our people to know why they believe what they believe and to believe it with conviction," Murillo said.

Murillo, who backed former president Donald Trump, insisted that Democrats caused and perpetuated racism, while also promoted bigotry himself against LGBTQ people.

"This means that the pulpit must take on abortion, gay marriage, transgender indoctrination of our children and, yes, racism," Murillo said. "Because if we really want to get rid of racism, we're not going to allow this artificial equality because that in itself is nothing but the plantation owner trying to lure you back and tell you that, 'I'm going to take care of you if you just come back and start to be a servant of me.' The party that invented the Ku Klux Klan, the party that fought the civil rights movement is the Democrat Party."

"The Lord wants the prophetic movement to take its stand in the arena, to barge open the doors of influence and say, 'We belong here," he added. "Mayor, we belong here. Governor, we belong here. Congressman, we belong here. If you're going to try to legislate immorality, we're going to fight you with every last drop of the anointing of Almighty God."

[LFC]

Texass has been pushing The Big Lie for months and months. They are involved in one of the most sweeping voter suppression drives in American history. Republicans are still stinging from the failure of their power grid this winter. What to do? Pass an insanely restrictive abortion bill that legalizes anybody to sue anybody over an abortion. The sickness of these people continues to descend into ever lower depths of depravity.

Texas lawmakers have sent Gov. Greg Abbott a bill that would allow anyone in the state to sue over an abortion performed past six weeks—essentially turning right-to-lifers into courthouse vigilantes.

The law is a twist on the increasingly popular “heartbeat” laws that ban abortions past the date that a heartbeat can be detected—usually around six weeks gestation. (Experts say most embryos do not have a heart at this point, and that the technology is likely picking up an electric signal flutter.) Nine states have passed such six-week bans since 2013; all have been challenged in court and have yet to go into effect.

What differentiates Texas’ bill—and what some lawmakers hope will make it more effective—is the ability for private individuals to sue to enforce it. Under the law, any person who believes that an abortion occurred after a fetal heartbeat can be detected can sue—for minimum suggested damages of $10,000. And they can sue any number of people: the abortion provider, an abortion fund that helped pay for it, even a friend or family member who drove the woman to the clinic.

“It’s unprecedented, there's no question,” Amy Hagstrom-Miller, CEO of Texas-based abortion clinic Whole Woman’s Health, told The Daily Beast. “The idea that just anybody should be able to police a highly trained physician and their staff—that any Joe on the street can make that claim—is just totally shocking."

More than 200 physicians and almost 400 lawyers sent letters to the legislature this month pleading with them not to pass the bill, claiming it contradicts the state constitution and would have a “chilling effect” on a wide swath of medical professionals. Religious leaders held their own press conference at the state capitol to protest it.

But the bill sailed through the state House last week, with every Republican representative and one Democrat voting in its favor. (Almost every Republican in the Senate is either an author or sponsor of the bill.) And Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled he will sign it as soon as it reaches his desk.

In a press release last week, Texas Right to Life said the bill would “further bolster the ultimate goal of ending all elective abortion.”

“After the battle leaves the Texas Capitol, the next stop is the courthouse,” the group said.

[goldenvalley]

May 14, 2021 15:58:05 GMT LFC said:

Texass has been pushing The Big Lie for months and months. They are involved in one of the most sweeping voter suppression drives in American history. Republicans are still stinging from the failure of their power grid this winter. What to do? Pass an insanely restrictive abortion bill that legalizes anybody to sue anybody over an abortion. The sickness of these people continues to descend into ever lower depths of depravity.

Texas lawmakers have sent Gov. Greg Abbott a bill that would allow anyone in the state to sue over an abortion performed past six weeks—essentially turning right-to-lifers into courthouse vigilantes.

The law is a twist on the increasingly popular “heartbeat” laws that ban abortions past the date that a heartbeat can be detected—usually around six weeks gestation. (Experts say most embryos do not have a heart at this point, and that the technology is likely picking up an electric signal flutter.) Nine states have passed such six-week bans since 2013; all have been challenged in court and have yet to go into effect.

What differentiates Texas’ bill—and what some lawmakers hope will make it more effective—is the ability for private individuals to sue to enforce it. Under the law, any person who believes that an abortion occurred after a fetal heartbeat can be detected can sue—for minimum suggested damages of $10,000. And they can sue any number of people: the abortion provider, an abortion fund that helped pay for it, even a friend or family member who drove the woman to the clinic.

“It’s unprecedented, there's no question,” Amy Hagstrom-Miller, CEO of Texas-based abortion clinic Whole Woman’s Health, told The Daily Beast. “The idea that just anybody should be able to police a highly trained physician and their staff—that any Joe on the street can make that claim—is just totally shocking."

More than 200 physicians and almost 400 lawyers sent letters to the legislature this month pleading with them not to pass the bill, claiming it contradicts the state constitution and would have a “chilling effect” on a wide swath of medical professionals. Religious leaders held their own press conference at the state capitol to protest it.

But the bill sailed through the state House last week, with every Republican representative and one Democrat voting in its favor. (Almost every Republican in the Senate is either an author or sponsor of the bill.) And Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled he will sign it as soon as it reaches his desk.

In a press release last week, Texas Right to Life said the bill would “further bolster the ultimate goal of ending all elective abortion.”

“After the battle leaves the Texas Capitol, the next stop is the courthouse,” the group said.

It will end up in court, as did California's Prop 187 that tried to require doctors, teachers, whatever to report people they believed to be undocumented immigrants back in the '90's. It was not enforced but back then the courts were different.

[LFC]

May 14, 2021 15:58:05 GMT LFC said:

Texass has been pushing The Big Lie for months and months. They are involved in one of the most sweeping voter suppression drives in American history. Republicans are still stinging from the failure of their power grid this winter. What to do? Pass an insanely restrictive abortion bill that legalizes anybody to sue anybody over an abortion. The sickness of these people continues to descend into ever lower depths of depravity.

Texass governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law. One provision is that it would prohibit abortions after 6 weeks, before some (many?) women even know they're pregnant.

[pnwguy]

One provision is that it would prohibit abortions after 6 weeks, before some (many?) women even know they're pregnant.]

Why should it matter if they know?  A pregnant woman is the property of the state of Texas now.

[goldenvalley]

May 19, 2021 21:07:01 GMT LFC said:

May 14, 2021 15:58:05 GMT LFC said:

Texass has been pushing The Big Lie for months and months. They are involved in one of the most sweeping voter suppression drives in American history. Republicans are still stinging from the failure of their power grid this winter. What to do? Pass an insanely restrictive abortion bill that legalizes anybody to sue anybody over an abortion. The sickness of these people continues to descend into ever lower depths of depravity.

Texass governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law. One provision is that it would prohibit abortions after 6 weeks, before some (many?) women even know they're pregnant.

Achh this makes me incandescent with rage.  I can count at least 8 women that I personally know who suffered miscarriage after a heartbeat was detected.  And then to give any busy body a private right of action...Gilead ain't far off.

[Traveler]

This is all agitprop. It wont survive the court challenges.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2021 17:52:29 GMT Traveler said:

This is all agitprop. It wont survive the court challenges.

Why won't it survive court challenges? Doesn't the law define who has standing to sue? Or, is there a generalized law or constitutional interpretation guiding standing the law violates?

[goldenvalley]

May 21, 2021 18:46:08 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

May 21, 2021 17:52:29 GMT Traveler said:

This is all agitprop. It wont survive the court challenges.

Why won't it survive court challenges? Doesn't the law define who has standing to sue? Or, is there a generalized law or constitutional interpretation guiding standing the law violates?

Usually standing comes if a person has been damaged in some way by the activity complained about and I don't know that it is necessarily established by statute.  I'd think precedent via judicial decision has a lot to do with it. A private right of action in the absence of personal damage...I don't know if the Trump era court system would find that contrary to pretty standard judicial thought.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2021 20:16:28 GMT goldenvalley said:

May 21, 2021 18:46:08 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Why won't it survive court challenges? Doesn't the law define who has standing to sue? Or, is there a generalized law or constitutional interpretation guiding standing the law violates?

Usually standing comes if a person has been damaged in some way by the activity complained about and I don't know that it is necessarily established by statute.  I'd think precedent via judicial decision has a lot to do with it. A private right of action in the absence of personal damage...I don't know if the Trump era court system would find that contrary to pretty standard judicial thought.

However, the law says someone other than government can sue and seek damages, doesn't it? Does it set forth conditions on who can sue, i.e. who has standing? If the law doesn't require specific harm then anyone has standing, unless of course, standing has been defined elsewhere by statute or the constitution, and the law somehow violates such definition.

So paging jackd...

[LFC]

I'm putting this here without hard evidence that these people are Christians but I think I'm making a pretty safe assumption. Welcome to the American Taliban. Women, know your place.

It's not odd for there to be a little drama when high school yearbooks are released at the end of the year, but at Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Fla., the drama has reached national attention.

That's because 80 of the students' portraits were digitally edited — many of them clumsily — to add more clothing to chests and shoulders.

All of the students are female. None of them were consulted.

Students and parents told local news outlets that they were shocked and embarrassed when they got their copies of the $100 yearbook last week.

Check out the linked article. It's insane. It's public slut shaming for something that is in no way, shape, or form indecent or even suggestive. At least one of the incidents I read borders on sexual assault by a teacher IMHO. These people are seriously f***ed up.

Students at Bartram Trail High said teen girls are being taken out of class and sent to the dean’s office to change clothes or face suspension. That’s the focus of an online petition created by students calling for change, which had more than 3,000 signatures as of Monday evening.

One student said she was taken out of class and asked by school staff to unzip her jacket in front of other staff and students. She said it’s happening to other female students. The school district confirmed that 31 girls received dress code violations on Friday.

The student, who did not wish to be named, said she was walking in a hallway at the school with her jacket fully zipped when she was asked to unzip the garment.

“I was wearing a tight sports bra underneath. That’s it,” the student said. “I was stopped by a male teacher and he told me, ‘You’re very out of dress code.’”

The student said she asked and was then sent to a female teacher who approved of her attire and sent her back to class.

The student said that minutes later, the male teacher pulled her from class and told her to unzip her jacket in front of people in the main hallway. The student said she would rather not, but said staff members kept asking her to unzip the jacket. She said when she did, she was told what she was wearing was incredibly inappropriate.

“I was walked downstairs got it taken which was my bra and was told I have detention,” the student told News4Jax.

Freshman Riley O’Keefe, who started the online petition, said many of the girls flagged over dress code violations on Friday were wearing zip-up jackets with tank tops underneath.

“Girls were being told to unzip their jackets to see what was underneath to see if it was appropriate. But the thing is, if its zipped up, it should be fine,” she said. “It’s like our bodies are sexualized and it’s more important than our education.”

More important than your education? Well, duh. What does a girl need with an education anyway. She needs to learn to please her man, keep the home, have babies, and raise children.

[jackd]

What part of "No cleavage!" don't they understand?

[goldenvalley]

May 25, 2021 21:24:24 GMT jackd said:

What part of "No cleavage!" don't they understand?

Another article I read about this said the boys swim team picture featured the boys in their racing Speedos.  

[RichTBikkies]

This thread has been renamed in the transfer here; on the old board it was "The Sickness of Christianist Politics".

I approve of the change. The proportion of Christian politics that is not Christianist is so small it can be neglected. I'm still waiting for an example of a self-boosting Christian politician who has ever taken a right decision based on their faith knowing that it would damage their career.

[LFC]

They really can't take responsibility for their own words and actions and really do love playing the perpetual victims. No wonder they make such good Republicans.

A Catholic priest known for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 has been asked to resign from his Wisconsin post, the Kansas City Star reports.

Rev. James Altman, who was the pastor of St. James the Less Roman Catholic Church in La Crosse announced that Bishop William Callahan considers him to be "divisive and ineffective." According to Altman, "cancel culture" is responsible for his stepping down and "no good Catholic" would want him removed.

"If the left whines, like they do, like a spoiled brat often enough, they succeed in canceling so many voices of truth," Altman said. "And now that they are whining like, if I may say it, the pansy babies that they are, to cancel me."

"I regret to inform you, they want my head on a platter," he said. "They want my head now, for speaking the truth. I apparently have created enemies in the hierarchy."

As the Kansas City Star points out, Altman's rants about COVID-19 have been causing controversy for the past year. In April, a flier circulated in his church declared that the COVID vaccine is a dangerous "experimental drug."

"It is diabolical for anyone to virtue-signal/shame/compel you to take such an experimental drug — making you nothing other than a GUINEA PIG," the flier read. "How does that make you feel? How does it make you feel to see the government, the media and even some in the Catholic Church shaming you in to (sic) being a GUINEA PIG?"

[LFC]

There's no date on this. Do any of you know further details?

[Deleted]

Is the piece about GA even true? I couldn't find anything after a quick search. Also, the matter is in the courts.

[AnBr]

[LFC]

Jun 1, 2021 2:46:54 GMT AnBr said:

OUCH!

[LFC]

TDB has a piece on actor Jim Caviezel losing his grip with reality and mixing his religious beliefs with going full blown Q. It sounds like religion is a near perfect amplifier for this nonsense with the catch-phrase "the children need us" tying the two together.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 1, 2021 18:15:36 GMT LFC said:

TDB has a piece on actor Jim Caviezel losing his grip with reality and mixing his religious beliefs with going full blown Q. It sounds like religion is a near perfect amplifier for this nonsense with the catch-phrase "the children need us" tying the two together.

Did you see his performance in the Jesus movie that Mel Gibson made.  He has the look of a fanatic and playing that part probably fed into his grandiosity too.  

[LFC]

Jun 1, 2021 18:21:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Did you see his performance in the Jesus movie that Mel Gibson made.  He has the look of a fanatic and playing that part probably fed into his grandiosity too.  

I couldn't imagine watching that movie.

[goldenvalley]

Jun 1, 2021 18:25:06 GMT LFC said:

Jun 1, 2021 18:21:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Did you see his performance in the Jesus movie that Mel Gibson made.  He has the look of a fanatic and playing that part probably fed into his grandiosity too.  

I couldn't imagine watching that movie.

I didn't last through the whole thing, but I was curious to see what Gibson would do.  It was pornographic in the examination of the "suffering" of Christ.  

[LFC]

There's a sign of a little bit of sanity at Liberty University.

Now, 14 years after Jerry Falwell Sr. died and nine months after Jerry Jr. was ousted in a scandal, Liberty is enmeshed in a debate that could have profound implications for the nation’s religious right: Whether it should keep nurturing Jerry Jr.’s focus on politics and maintain its high-flying role in the Republican Party, or begin to change its culture and back away from politics, an approach increasingly favored by younger evangelicals.

As part of their discussions, the Liberty trustees are considering naming Jonathan Falwell as the university’s chancellor—an important and highly symbolic post—in order to maintain the Falwell family connection but not their political baggage, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

Donald Trump looms large over the university’s dilemma. Jerry Jr. shocked many in the religious right with his early endorsement of Trump over many Republicans with far greater evangelical ties; during Trump’s presidency, Jerry Jr. spent university funds on ads and programs that highlighted Trump and his followers. But Jonathan has been far cooler toward Trump. And in the wake of Jerry Jr.’s ouster, some in the Liberty community question whether the university would do better to concentrate on its religious values rather than casting its lot with the former president.

Liberty’s ultimate path will influence the greater evangelical world, which is having its own reckoning with the post-Trump Republican Party. With more than 100,000 students, Liberty has long been one of a small handful of top cultural institutions for evangelicals, its board studded with famed pastors and movement leaders. Observers believe that even a small change in direction at Liberty could signal shifting winds among one of Republicans’ most important voting blocs.

“Liberty University is a reflection of evangelicalism at large. Good, and bad, and everything,” said Karen Swallow Prior, a professor at Liberty for 21 years before leaving in 2020. “There’s a battle going on between the pro-Trump, pro-conspiracy theory, anti-vaccine crowd and Christians who might or might not have some overlap with those things, but who care most about the ministry.”

The pro-Trumpers still wield most of the power.

In April, the trustees replaced their acting chairman, Allen McFarland, the first Black person to serve as Liberty board chairman, who had an interest in increasing tolerance and diversity at Liberty. He was replaced with Tim Lee, a pugnacious pro-Trump pastor.

Lee—who also refers to himself as “Marine Tim Lee” and “Evangelist Tim Lee”—recently took to task a former Democratic operative who tweeted about how thrilled he was to be getting the Covid vaccine, for example. “Did not quite anticipate the wave of euphoria and emotion that comes with that first shot” of the Covid vaccine, the operative said.

“I’m guessing you have a fairly boring life. This is the best you’ve had in a year?” Lee responded on Twitter. “Eat a WHATABURGER and see how that feels.”

But as Lee and others have taken increasing control of the school, a growing chorus of campus critics has been calling on the trustees to enact greater reforms, and they appear to be listening. A week before they took their strongest step yet to distance themselves from Jerry Jr., suing him for failing to reveal the alleged blackmail scheme, they designated Jonathan Falwell as campus pastor. Liberty’s reformers are now pushing for Jonathan to assume an even bigger leadership role at Liberty and help transform the university into a more genteel place. That would mean halting the university’s uncritical embrace of Trump’s party. Today’s GOP, they allege, simply does not represent Christian values.