Buy Bull Scholar Señor T Woos The Evangelicals
Evangelical types love feeling two things above all others: that they are martyrs for their professed faith and the combination of grievance and sublime self-righteousness. Almost as joyful and fundamental to American evangelicism as raping a 15year old boy. And on Saturday, their living God on Earth visited them at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority Conference.” And if you think Jesus was angry at the money-changers in the Temple, just imagine how he’d feel at this event, in his name no less! They lapped up Trump’s seduction about how Biden wants to arrest then for their allegiance to God in Heaven. The event also included other hypocritical anti-Jesus “Christians” like Josh Hawley (R-MO), Kari Lake (R-AZ), Tulsi Gabbard (R-HI) and corrupt gambling lobbyist Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the organization. Jason Sattler (LOLGOP) nailing it: “Have to keep saying that far-right evangelicals love Trump for the same reason Trump loves Rubio, Vance, and Cruz. A repentant supplicant who must continually show devotion is much more trustworthy to anyone bent on control than anyone with convictions.”
The most profane occupant of the White House in history gaslit the gathering that “As you know, the radical left is trying to shame Christians, silence you, demoralize you, and they want to keep you out of politics. They don’t want you to vote. That’s why you have to vote. If Joe Biden gets back in, Christianity will not be safe. In a nation with no borders, no laws, no freedom, no future. Not going to be safe. You’re not going to be safe as a person, and your religion certainly will be, I think, in tatters. We answer to God in Heaven. You’re not even allowed to say that anymore. Today, if you say that they want to arrest you. If you say that, they want to arrest you… But we need Christian voters to turn out in the largest numbers ever to tell Crooked Joe Biden, Joe— the Apprentice— Joe, you’re fired. You’re fired, Joe, get out of here, Joe! You’re no good. You’ve been the worst president ever. You’re fired, Joe! Get out! No, worst president in the history of our country.”
AP’s Michelle Price reported that Señor T, who doesn’t display the Ten Commandments at any of his properties, “endorsed displaying the Ten Commandments in schools and elsewhere… ‘Has anyone read the “Thou shalt not steal?” I mean, has anybody read this incredible stuff? It’s just incredible,’ Trump said… ‘They don’t want it to go up. It’s a crazy world.’ Trump a day earlier posted an endorsement of the new law on his social media network, saying: ‘I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???’”
He portrayed Christianity as under threat by what he suggested was an erosion of freedom, law and the nation’s borders.
He returned several times during his roughly 90-minute remarks to the subject of the U.S.-Mexico border and at one point, when describing migrants crossing it as “tough,” he joked that he told his friend Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to enlist them in a new version of the sport.
“‘Why don’t you set up a migrant league and have your regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league, these are the greatest fighters in the world, fighting the champion of the migrants,’” Trump described saying to White. “I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are. He didn’t like that idea too much.”
His story drew laughs and claps from the crowd.
Biden’s campaign responded to Trump’s remarks by saying it was “fitting” that Trump, convicted of a felony, spent time at a religious conference making threats about immigration and “bragging about ripping away Americans’ freedoms.”
“Trump’s incoherent, unhinged tirade showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let anywhere near the White House again,” campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
The fact that Trump made this proposal to a crowd of conservative professed Christians was particularly creepy. After all, even if this would be news to Trump, the attendees are very much aware that the early Christians, who were persecuted and forced to fight in the Colosseum, were subject to brutality at the hands of a pagan empire that viewed them as subversive and dangerous. The whole ugly concept of a migrant fighting league, presented to a group of conservative Christians, is deeply ironic and hypocritical. In a very knee-jerk way these days, American Evangelicals still claim values like compassion, charity and the sanctity of human dignity, principles that starkly contrast with the dehumanizing and violent nature of Trump's proposal.
Let’s keep in mind that the historical persecution of Christians in the Colosseum was a manifestation of a broader moral contradiction in the Roman Empire, which valued public order and spectacle over individual human lives. This latest nonsense, entertainment-value proposal to evangelicals highlights a significant moral contradiction, juxtaposing the purported values of Christian love and compassion with the suggestion of exploiting migrants for savage entertainment, not exactly upholding and advocating for the dignity and humane treatment of all individuals. Trump’s idea of promoting human suffering as public entertainment is, as it was in Rome, a form of social control and desensitization, reinforcing the power of the state over marginalized groups. It suggests a normalization of exploiting marginalized individuals. The Roman state often manipulated religious sentiments and events to maintain control and justify their actions against perceived threats like the Christians, so by presenting this idea to conservative Christians, Trump may be seen as instrumentalizing religion to solidify his political base, despite the proposal's glaring inconsistency with Christian ethical teachings. This manipulation not only undermines the moral integrity of the “religious” audience but also highlights a cynical use of religion for political gain.
Migrants aren’t disposable dehumanizing entertainment any more than Christians were in Rome. This suggestion turns their existence into a spectacle, feeding off the “nasty, mean, and tough” stereotypes that Trump perpetuates for his own political gain. Thanks to him and other xenophobes, we tend to lose sight of the fact that migrants are more often than not fleeing violence and hardship— a vulnerable group seeking refuge. The same way that Rome scapegoated Christians and depicted them as enemies of the state, Trump demonizes them as dangerous and “other,” justifying unChristian hatred, as well as harsh and inhumane policies towards them. The laughter and applause from Trump's audience at the suggestion reflect a dangerous— if not unexpected— desensitization to the dehumanization and potential exploitation of migrants, normalizing cruel and inhumane ideas as acceptable discourse, reflecting a callous attitude towards vulnerable individuals.
A few hours later, Trump was preaching his ignorance and bigotry in Philly, repeating the same proposal. If his idea catches on with his MAGA audience, how long will it be before he suggests a fighting league for other minorities? Transgender people? It would be right up his alley. But will Christians stand for it? Stand for it? They stand and applaud for it— at least the anti-Jesus Christians who John Pavlovitz was referring to in his Beautiful Mess post yesterday, Hell Is For Homophobic Christians. He wrote that the “malice and sadism” that drive ‘Christians’ “simply defies explanation and fully denies the heart of Jesus. Incredibly, these folks are somehow able to simultaneously claim faith in Christ, while responding with a cruelty, viciousness, and violence that he never once demonstrated, continually condemned, and wouldn't tolerate from anyone in his presence then or now.”
It's the very kind of galling hypocrisy that is rendering organized Christianity fully irrelevant to more and more of a watching world who can see it from a mile away. I see it too— and it's a flat-out, deliberate sin they need to repent of.
Every single day, queer people in America are subjected to relentless vile, profane, abusive attacks from Christians.
Continual, horrible bullying— from Christians. Not Atheists. Not immigrants or refugees or terrorists or Democrats. Not from any of the go-to boogeymen religious folks like to throw out there as the ever-present danger to us all.
…The cognitive dissonance on display is astounding; that these people can manage to believe they're actually doing the will of God or sharing the Gospel, while berating and bullying and beating the hell out of strangers simply because of how they identify or who they love.
Worse still, is that these sanctimonious, high-horsed zealots will try to use the very same Bible they persecute the LGBTQ with— to glorify guns, justify war, refuse refugees, endorse racism, perpetuate misogyny, and validate Donald Trump. (Talk about miraculous.)
It's an exercise in wildly selective Bible usage and self-serving theology— and it would be laughable if it wasn't such a complete perversion of Jesus' life and ministry.
…[T]he spectacular irony on display, is that while Jesus never mentions any restrictions on who can follow him based on gender identity or sexual orientation, he speaks explicitly and often about those who profess faith, while living with contempt for others; those who do damage and leverage power to inflict wounds, those who neglect and ignore and prey upon the marginalized, those who wield religion like a weapon. If there's anything the road to Hell is paved with, it's bigotry and violence done in the name of Jesus.
The truth, is that an LGBTQ Christian isn't an oxymoron, but a hateful one most certainly is.
The choice to be horrible and to use religion as the reason, is a disconnect of the greatest order. The Gospel testifies to this over and over again, and we who come in love, loudly amen this— and we're not having this nonsense anymore on behalf of our faith tradition.
To the millions of people around the world who identify as LGBTQ, both those who claim faith and those who do not— I'm sorry for those trying to retrofit Jesus to their hateful hearts; for the way they twist the Bible and distort the voice of God that you hear in your head, and for the daily, living Hell you go through at their hands and words. They don't speak for anyone but themselves— not for me, not for millions of Christians, and certainly not for God.
And to the religious who believe they can oppress and harass and insult people until they are driven to isolation or tears or self-harm or suicide, all in the name of Jesus— I'd take a good, long look in the mirror, I'd let your knees hit the earth, and I'd do some serious soul-searching.
You may be closer to Hell than you think.
You may be getting really, really warm.
Former Trump Organization vice president Barbara Res told Ali Velshi yesterday that Trump’s pretense at religiosity is “absolute nonsense… [He] used to hate Christmas because he had to go to church one day a year… He was an agnostic, maybe he was an atheist. He mocked religious people. He thought they were stupid for believing in things that were obviously, intellectually to him, not true.” MAGA!
