The religious right's hypocrisy now on full display

Jerry, Jr., never built anything.

https://youtu.be/doKkOSMaTk4

Hitches became one of my heroes in college. This clip makes me feel better whenever Falwell says/does the things we’ve come to expect.

Good article posted on The Atlantic website yesterday about the damage that the worship of Trump by many Evangelical Christians is doing to the church as a whole, especially among the younger generation. I found this one passage especially interesting, as fits with my own thoughts:

"How can a group that for decades—and especially during the Bill Clinton presidency—insisted that character counts and that personal integrity is an essential component of presidential leadership not only turn a blind eye to the ethical and moral transgressions of Donald Trump, but also constantly defend him? Why are those who have been on the vanguard of “family values” so eager to give a man with such a sordid personal and sexual history a mulligan? Part of the answer is their belief that they are engaged in an existential struggle against a wicked enemy—not Russia, not North Korea, not Iran, but rather American liberals and the left. If you listen to Trump supporters who are evangelical (and non-evangelicals, like the radio talk-show host Mark Levin), you will hear adjectives applied to those on the left that could easily be used to describe a Stalinist regime...Many white evangelical Christians, then, are deeply fearful of what a Trump loss would mean for America, American culture, and American Christianity. If a Democrat is elected president, they believe, it might all come crashing down around us."

That's where we are in 2019 - conservatives have simply moved their fear, loathing, and opposition to Soviet Communism and Muslim terrorists to American liberals. Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/evangelical-christians-face-deepening-crisis/593353/

Solid article, but the author misses one very crucial element. The above quote is a good point. But that "existential struggle against" American liberals and the left has been going on at least 40 years longer than the author acknowledged. That sense of struggle fueled white evangelicals to support Reagan, a philandering Hollywood actor, over an honest Southern Christian man in Jimmy Carter. The moral outrage of the Clinton era was never earnest. It was always a political tool. Always. And we see saw history repeat itself when white evangelicals demonized a good Christian family man in Obama and rallied around a New York city con man.

While on the Pacific Coast last week, I had lunch with Karel Coppock, whom I have known for many years and who has played an important role in my Christian pilgrimage. In speaking about the widespread, reflexive evangelical support for the president, Coppock—who is theologically orthodox and generally sympathetic to conservatism—lamented the effect this moral freak show is having, especially on the younger generation. With unusual passion, he told me, “We’re losing an entire generation. They’re just gone. It’s one of the worst things to happen to the Church.”

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Similar to the impact the widespread, reflexive evangelical support for Wellman, [Redacted], and Manning among the donor class has had on Wake fans.

Modern conservative Christians are constitutionally prone to apocalyptic thinking.

And to being misled and resolutely, happily unpersuadable by facts.

Among other sins.

Jesus was pretty clear that we should welcome strangers.

It's not like the Bible white evangelicals has anything to say about it:

Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

Exodus 12:49
There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

Exodus 23:9
“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt."

Leviticus 19:33-34
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

RJKarl said:

It's not like the Bible white evangelicals has anything to say about it:

Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

Exodus 12:49
There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

Exodus 23:9
“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt."

Leviticus 19:33-34
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

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Isn't the Book of Leviticus the one that Fundamentalists love so much because it condemns homosexuality? Strange how they love to quote Leviticus on that subject, but then just ignore the passages about how immigrants and "strangers" should be treated. It's almost as if they're selectively using the verses they agree with and conveniently ignoring those that they don't.

hmmmm

What good is Jesus if he couldn't think ahead to address modern American immigration policy?

Junebug said:

Like many areas of contemporary politics, the Bible doesn’t have much to say about American immigration policy. Yes, you can derive a principle that we should treat the people trying to enter — like all people — with decency and dignity, but the Bible doesn’t speak to whether they should be granted entry or not, etc., or immigration policy more broadly. The concept of citizenship and participation in a culture were just totally different in Biblical times. Lifting quotes from the Bible on this topic is too acontextual, as it often is as applied to contemporary politics.

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How were the concept of citizenship and participation in a culture different? Do you think that’s a good thing?

GOP Jesus is real.

Junebug is the master of missing the entire point so he can make (what sounds in his head like) a cool and rational argument for keeping the status quo, no matter what that is.

I remember when it was WWJD. I guess now it’s WWJDICOTCOCAPIAC.

Deacon923 said:

Junebug is the master of missing the entire point so he can make (what sounds in his head like) a cool and rational argument for keeping the status quo, no matter what that is.

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Yep.

Pretty sure Jesus would help these folks seek asylum, not separate kids from families, not let 7 kids die, not let them live in squalor, clothe and feed them properly, and most of all, treat them woh grace, dignity, and compassion. Jesus would definitely not treat them like “animals” or “invaders,” to use Trump’s words.

Yes, we should have a government and abide by laws. We are also commanded to help the least of us (if you believe the gospel, or are just a normal decent person). These aren’t mutually exclusive ideas.

Highland Deac said:

Isn't the Book of Leviticus the one that Fundamentalists love so much because it condemns homosexuality? Strange how they love to quote Leviticus on that subject, but then just ignore the passages about how immigrants and "strangers" should be treated. It's almost as if they're selectively using the verses they agree with and conveniently ignoring those that they don't.

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My wife’s former pastor(Lutheran) shared information relative to the homosexual context, apparently if you go back to the earliest German translation in print that passage as well as the one in the New Testament are actually condemning man Laying with boys not man laying with man. Apparently it is a 20th century construct to change the words to condemn homosexuality as opposed to pedophilia. Kind of makes the rights condemnation more contrived.

Jesus: “Suffer the little children to come onto me...”

GOP Jesus: “Make the little children suffer”

The Bible just tells us what we want it to, it’s like a chose your own adventure of fucking ridiculousness.