The Sickness of Christian Politics & Christian Nationalism

[LFC]

Onward Christianist fascist soldiers! "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

A team of scholars, faith leaders and advocates unveiled an exhaustive new report Wednesday (Feb. 9) that documents in painstaking detail the role Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and calling it an unsettling preview of things to come.

Christian nationalism was used to “bolster, justify and intensify the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sponsored the report along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Tyler’s group is behind an initiative called Christians Against Christian Nationalism.

The organizations touted the report as “the most comprehensive account to date of Christian nationalism and its role in the January 6 insurrection,” compiled using “videos, statements, and images from the attack and its precursor events.”

The report, written chiefly by Andrew L. Seidel, an author and director of strategic response at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, details Christian nationalist rhetoric and symbols that cropped up at events that preceded the insurrection, such as the Million MAGA March and Jericho Marches that took place in Washington in Dec. 2020 and Jan. 2021.

Christian nationalist symbols and references, Seidel writes, were ubiquitous at those gatherings, as well as the insurrection itself: flags with superimposed American flags over Christian symbols; “An Appeal to Heaven” banners; prayers recited by members of the extremist group Proud Boys shortly before the attack or by others as they stormed the Capitol.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Seidel highlighted what he called the preponderance of “openly militant” rhetoric that conflated religion and violence. He pointed to William McCall Calhoun Jr., a Georgia lawyer who reportedly claimed on social media that he was among those who “kicked in Nancy Pelosi’s office door” on Jan. 6. (Calhoun later claimed in an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he did not personally enter any office.)

“God is on Trump’s side. God is not on the Democrats’ side,” Calhoun allegedly wrote in a social media post. “And if patriots have to kill 60 million of these communists, it is God’s will. Think ethnic cleansing but it’s anti-communist cleansing.”

In the report, Seidel recounts a conversation with New Yorker journalist Luke Mogelson, who recorded widely shared footage of insurrectionists attacking the U.S. Capitol and praying in the Senate chamber.

“The Christianity was one of the surprises to me in covering this stuff, and it has been hugely underestimated,” Mogelson told Seidel. “That Christian nationalism you talk about is the driving force and also the unifying force of these disparate players. It’s really Christianity that ties it all together.”

[Bact PhD]

No surprise. Forty years of propaganda and activism culminates in shit like this.

[goldenvalley]

Look at the thousands of miles the Crusaders traveled to retake the Holy Lands from the Muslims.  Why not work in defense of their version of democracy & Christianity in the same spirit and even battle style...clubs?

[LFC]

They just can't resist the tempting target of a captive audience of children. So many young minds to brainwash.

Some students' rights were violated during a revival assembly led by an evangelical preacher at a high school, a West Virginia school district investigating the gathering said in a statement.

Students involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a nonprofit Christian sports ministry, conducted the assembly during a noninstructional homeroom period at Huntington High School in Huntington on February 2.

Student Samuel Felinton, who is Jewish, told CNN that during the meeting Nik Walker, an evangelical preacher, instructed the auditorium to close their eyes, raise their arms in prayer to give their lives over to Jesus for purpose and salvation. Those who didn't follow the Bible, Walker said, would go to hell when they died, Felinton told CNN.

Students told CNN they were made uncomfortable, confused and angered by the meeting and said they were not given an opportunity to opt out.

"At this point in the investigation, it is my belief that some students' rights have been violated. As the investigation continues, we must follow due process, which takes some time, in addressing any responsible employee while working to ensure a situation like this never occurs again," said Ryan S. Saxe, superintendent of Cabell County Schools, in a statement on the district's website.

"The district honors students' rights to express their views. The district also respects students' rights to religious expression. However, forcing religious expression on those with differing beliefs is not acceptable and is not in alignment with district, state, or federal policy and will not be tolerated by my administration or the Board of Education," the statement said.

Whoever is responsible needs to be fired immediately. This isn't a remotely close call.

[LFC]

Onward Christian fascists.

It’s hardly a surprise: More than half of the funds donated on at least one crowd-funding website raising money for protesters involved in the Canadian anti-vax trucker demonstrations came from U.S. donors.

The “Christian” crowd-sourced fundraising website GiveSendGo, which is similar to its more mainstream rival GoFundMe, was hacked on Sunday night, reportedly illegally, revealing new information about supporters of the anti-vax trucker cause.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 16, 2022 14:50:09 GMT LFC said:

Onward Christian fascists.

It’s hardly a surprise: More than half of the funds donated on at least one crowd-funding website raising money for protesters involved in the Canadian anti-vax trucker demonstrations came from U.S. donors.

The “Christian” crowd-sourced fundraising website GiveSendGo, which is similar to its more mainstream rival GoFundMe, was hacked on Sunday night, reportedly illegally, revealing new information about supporters of the anti-vax trucker cause.

If you are interested in a long paper about Christian Nationalism, here's a report sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  It's mostly about the insurrection.  Some fascinating stuff in there that makes me realize who walks among us.  

[LFC]

Feb 16, 2022 17:13:23 GMT goldenvalley said:

Feb 16, 2022 14:50:09 GMT LFC said:

Onward Christian fascists.

If you are interested in a long paper about Christian Nationalism, here's a report sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  It's mostly about the insurrection.  Some fascinating stuff in there that makes me realize who walks among us.  

You didn't provide a link. Is it the one referenced in the link above? There also a set of pieces at the Pulitzer Center on Christian nationalism after the insurrection. These people are superstitious, utterly nuts, and definitely dangerous.

[pnwguy]

"Kill them all and let God sort it out"

[goldenvalley]

Feb 16, 2022 17:18:28 GMT LFC said:

Feb 16, 2022 17:13:23 GMT goldenvalley said:

If you are interested in a long paper about Christian Nationalism, here's a report sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  It's mostly about the insurrection.  Some fascinating stuff in there that makes me realize who walks among us.  

You didn't provide a link. Is it the one referenced in the link above? There also a set of pieces at the Pulitzer Center on Christian nationalism after the insurrection. These people are superstitious, utterly nuts, and definitely dangerous.

Sorry.  I was multitasking...doing it badly. This paper is more about the run to and the insurrection itself.  

bjconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Christian_Nationalism_and_the_Jan6_Insurrection-2-9-22.pdf

[andydp]

Found this while looking for today's diatribe.  Looks like the problem isn't just a "Christian" one.

Half of disbelief in Allah in the world is caused by people who make religion look ugly due to their bad conduct and ignorance

Al-Ghazali

[andydp]

I was hankerin' for the Good ol' Salem Witch Trial Days. Here we go !!  (See above)

MAGA Pastor Threatens To Expose Six 'Witches' He Supposedly Uncovered In His Congregation In Unhinged Sermon

A controversial, anti-LGBTQ pastor went off the rails during a sermon in which he accused some members of his congregation were witches and that they were on a mission to destroy the church.

A nearly two-minute video of right-wing pastor Greg Locke's raucous sermon–in which he said the word "witches" numerous times and threatened to expose the supposed coven infiltrating his house of God–went viral.

www.comicsands.com/maga-pastor-threatens-six-witches-2656678657.html

Funny how all the infiltrators are witches, as if warlocks did not exist.  

[LFC]

Feb 22, 2022 14:59:11 GMT andydp said:

I was hankerin' for the Good ol' Salem Witch Trial Days. Here we go !!  (See above)

From that link. This ... is ... awesome.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 22, 2022 15:19:21 GMT LFC said:

Feb 22, 2022 14:59:11 GMT andydp said:

I was hankerin' for the Good ol' Salem Witch Trial Days. Here we go !!  (See above)

From that link. This ... is ... awesome.

This Pastor Locke is a supporter of insurrection and is anti vaccine.  His book is titled This Means War published in 2020.

When the insurrection attempt at the Capitol was just two days away, Locke tweeted, “If you don’t have convictions worth dying for, you’ve never learned what living is,” and, “Rise up!”

On the eve of the insurrection, Locke tweeted from Washington D.C., “God is about to sweep through this place like a mighty flood.” For his final tweet before the Capitol was ransacked, he said, “God is about to dethrone some wicked people that have been in power. Very soon Twitter will be trending the unthinkable. Remember this tweet. God will not be mocked.” 

snip


Regarding COVID, Locke bragged about “celebrating multiple Thanksgiving meals with lots of people at every gathering.” He also boasted of having, “800+ people at church this morning. No masks, no temperature checks, no social distancing and no apology.”

He said, “One day they will drop the ’S’ in mask and add an ‘R’,” insinuating that wearing masks were preparing Americans for the pre-tribulationalist conspiracy theories about the “mark of the beast” in the book of Revelation.

While claiming that the “political elites” were getting fake vaccinations, he called vaccinations “the sheep shot,” and accused Anthony Fauci of being, “a lying genocidal psychopath.”

[andydp]

Things are coming to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade private life.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

[Bact PhD]

From the guy who brought you “Blame 9/11 on the Feminists and Gays!”, we now have “Heeeere’s Armageddon!” (Apologies to Ed Mc Mahon):

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/01/pat-robertson-putin-god-russia-ukraine/

Televangelist Pat Robertson said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “compelled by God” in his decision to invade Ukraine, suggesting that Russia’s attacks are a precursor to an end-times battle in Israel.

The Christian media mogul returned to “The 700 Club” a few months after he retired from the show he hosted for 55 years on the Christian Broadcasting Network. In his return, Robertson claimed that Putin was simply following God’s wishes when Russia invaded Ukraine — to fulfill a biblical prophecy.

“I think you can say, well, Putin’s out of his mind. Yes, maybe so,” said Robertson, 91. “But at the same time, he’s being compelled by God. He went into the Ukraine, but that wasn’t his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately.”

[snip]

It’s hardly the first time Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate, has claimed that the end of the world was near. The televangelist startled his audience in 1980 when he told them he knew exactly when the end was coming.

“I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world,” Robertson said at the time. But 1982 came and went without the “judgment” Robertson referenced.

In 2006, Robertson relayed an inaccurate prediction he said he received from God about a possible tsunami devastating the Pacific Northwest, according to the Associated Press. The next year, he said God told him there would be a terrorist attack on the United States: “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.” According to his 1990 book, “The New Millennium,” Robertson predicted that the world would end on April 29, 2007. Again, the world was not destroyed.

I had forgotten all those bogus prophecies, tbh.

As expected, the comments are…entertaining.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 1, 2022 19:33:01 GMT Bact PhD said:

From the guy who brought you “Blame 9/11 on the Feminists and Gays!”, we now have “Heeeere’s Armageddon!” (Apologies to Ed Mc Mahon):

He must be disappointed to still be alive.  It seems he thought he'd be in heaven sitting at the right hand of God by now.

[LFC]

Mar 1, 2022 19:45:39 GMT goldenvalley said:

He must be disappointed to still be alive.  It seems he thought he'd be in heaven sitting at the right hand of God by now.

I know I'm disappointed he's still alive.

[LFC]

A large slice of American "Christianity" has always been racist. Here's a short history of the last major book burning / banning push by so-called moral people and in part lead by the utterly immoral Jerry Falwell.

A conservative leader found fault with how “respect for our nation’s heritage” had been mostly stripped from the textbooks of public schools.

“From kindergarten right through the total school system, it almost seems as if classroom textbooks are designed to negate what philosophies previously had been taught,” the conservative leader lamented. “[M]any textbooks are actually perverting the minds of literally millions of students.”

A teachers organization shot back, saying the underlying motive for some attacks against books has “unquestionably been racial.”

This might sound like a back-and-forth from recent debates over removing books from school classrooms and libraries. Often, critical race theory – an academic framework for understanding racism – has been at the center of these debates. But in reality, both quotes are more than 40 years old.

The first quote came from a 1981 book by the Rev. Jerry Falwell titled “Listen, America!” Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, was one of the leaders of the book-banning efforts of the 1980s. It was during this period – with Ronald Reagan in the White House – that Christian fundamentalists became a growing influence in conservative American politics.

The second quote comes from a 1981 publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, “The Students’ Right to Read.” The council was one of the major groups opposing Falwell and other conservatives.

And yes, it is all about not wanting to acknowledge systematic racism.

Critical race theorists took these and other concepts, reinterpreted them and applied them to the American legal system. Scholars in education have done the same in trying to understand education as an institution. After 40-plus years of teaching and writing about race and diversity, I know that it is impossible to accurately discuss American racial conflict without using these concepts. But that’s what many lawmakers would have American educators do.

According to a Pen America report, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression in literature, 156 “educational gag order” bills in 39 states have been introduced since January 2021. Twelve have become law in 10 states, and 113 are pending in 35 states. As of March 2022, at least seven states specifically ban the teaching of critical race theory. “Cumulatively,” says the Pen report, “they represent a national assault on our education system, censoring both what teachers can say and what students may learn.”

Of course, some white students – and other students, too, for that matter – will feel uncomfortable upon learning not only about the history of American racism but also its present manifestations. Reality is sometimes uncomfortable.

That’s where good teaching comes in. Good teaching means taking the students’ age into account. It also means being supportive of students who may feel uncomfortable or guilty about certain events in American history.

[LFC]

Could have gone in the climate change thread but the God(tm) angle is too big to ignore.

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said that God will “give us time” to fix climate change—“if” it exists, he emphasized—if the U.S. acts now to increase fossil fuel production to respond to the burgeoning energy crisis thanks to the invasion of Ukraine. I can’t believe I just typed that sentence, but here we are!

The remarks came during a public briefing Justice gave on Monday that was supposedly a covid-19 update for West Virginia. After spending about 10 minutes talking about the pandemic, Justice took a sharp pivot and started discussing the war in Ukraine and its implications for energy in the U.S.—or, rather, what Justice thinks is happening here.

“Our coal miners, our gas workers, our oil workers, they get up every morning, they get their dinner buckets, and they go get dirty, don’t they,” he said. “Oftentimes they’re doing stuff that is extremely risky.” After describing the recent death of a West Virginia miner, Justice lauded how coal miners “saved us in World War II and everything by giving us the coal that was mandatory to make steel, and absolutely preserved this country.” He then goes on to blame the Biden administration for “trying to extinguish them…Now all of a sudden we’re on the brink of World War III, maybe, and now who do they call? …They call screaming, ‘drill, baby, drill!’”

[pnwguy]

Mar 17, 2022 17:34:29 GMT LFC said:

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said that God will “give us time” to fix chattel slavery climate change—“if” it exists

That could have been said by a similar governor 160 years earlier.  It's just like the Crusades.  Kill them all and let God sort them out.

[LFC]

I wonder what Rod "Live Not By Lies" Dreher would have to say about this.

Douglas Frank entertained a church crowd in Topeka with bogus conspiracies about hacked voting rolls, fake ballots, machines secretly connected to cellphone towers and a plot by technocrats to predetermine the outcome of elections.

The March 15 performance followed a presentation hours earlier before the House Elections Committee, where the Republican chairman admonished Frank for denigrating and promoting violence against government officials.

Frank, backed by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, travels the country propping up the Big Lie with talk of “a sixth order polynomial,” Frank’s discredited algorithm for finding irregularities in voting data. In his appearances before state legislatures, Frank describes himself as a math teacher from Ohio. Community Church in Topeka billed Frank as “a world-renowned physicist” for a “special event” that would answer the question: “Are elections in Kansas safe?” Four Republican members of the House were among an estimated 50 people in attendance.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 21, 2022 21:03:06 GMT LFC said:

I wonder what Rod "Live Not By Lies" Dreher would have to say about this.

Douglas Frank entertained a church crowd in Topeka with bogus conspiracies about hacked voting rolls, fake ballots, machines secretly connected to cellphone towers and a plot by technocrats to predetermine the outcome of elections.

The March 15 performance followed a presentation hours earlier before the House Elections Committee, where the Republican chairman admonished Frank for denigrating and promoting violence against government officials.

Frank, backed by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, travels the country propping up the Big Lie with talk of “a sixth order polynomial,” Frank’s discredited algorithm for finding irregularities in voting data. In his appearances before state legislatures, Frank describes himself as a math teacher from Ohio. Community Church in Topeka billed Frank as “a world-renowned physicist” for a “special event” that would answer the question: “Are elections in Kansas safe?” Four Republican members of the House were among an estimated 50 people in attendance.

Nothing...exposing voter fraud something, something, collapse of human life due to gays. Dreher can read that into any statement made by anybody for any reason.

[LFC]

Right-wing indoctrination at its worst. Get 'em while they're young. Notice that the school hasn't said if the teacher was disciplined.

A Southern California private school apologized to parents after a teacher shared a video last month of her leading preschool students in a chant denouncing President Joe Biden.

The video obtained by ABC 7 News in Los Angeles shows the unnamed teacher at Turning Point Christian School in Norco asking the 4- and 5-year-olds, “Who’s our president?”

When they answer in unison, “Biden,” the teacher then asks, “What do we want to do with him?”

The students shout back, “We want him out!”

Parent Christina McFadden told ABC 7 the video from the President’s Day lesson was shared through the school’s messaging app, before it was taken down.

Turning Point officials said in a statement to parents that the school was “sorry for any misunderstanding” caused by the video.

Uuuuuhhhhh, "misunderstanding?" REALLY? I guess bearing false witness ain't no thang when trying to cover up "Christian" teacher misbehavior. Makes you wonder if there are other cases of inappropriate behavior they're covering up.

[pnwguy]

Mar 22, 2022 17:35:00 GMT LFC said:

Right-wing indoctrination at its worst. Get 'em while they're young. Notice that the school hasn't said if the teacher was disciplined.

Disciplined? She probably got a commendation. If she had been a man, she could have gotten a pay raise too. 

[goldenvalley]

Here is why some folks believe that public schools are indoctrinating their students instead of educating them.  In this case...preschool students.  

Standing in a semicircle on a green and blue patterned rug, a group of 4- and 5-year-old children in Riverside County, Calif., performed a call-and-response with their teacher.

“Who’s our president?” the teacher asked in a video filmed last month.

“Biden!” the children responded.

“What do we want to do with him?” the teacher said.

“We want him out!” they chanted, swinging their thumbs back in a “get out” gesture.
The teacher, who is not seen in the video and has not been publicly identified, posted the recording to an app that staff members at Turning Point Christian School, a private school in Norco, Calif., use to communicate with parents.

Let's use our best pre school teacher voices "Can you say projection?