Trump dials up rhetoric by tweeting Evangelical leader declaring impeachment a religious 'battle'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Raw Story


Published 26 mins ago on October 25, 2019
By Bob Brigham
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President Donald Trump ramped up his rhetoric against impeachment by tweeting a video calling it a battle between good and evil.

Late on Friday evening, Trump posted a clip of Fox personality Lou Dobbs interviewing Evangelical leader Robert Jeffress.

“Look, 99% of Evangelicals oppose President Trump being removed from office,” Jeffress argued. “They know this is nothing but a farce. This is what — this is a farce to overturn 2016 and attempt to steal 2020 at the same time.”

“They know this is a spiritual battle, Lou, between good and evil and Evangelicals are not going to abandon this president in this impeachment farce,” Jeffress argued.

. . .

Link to tweet

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-dials-up-rhetoric-by-tweeting-evangelical-leader-declaring-impeachment-a-religious-battle/

[olddad65]

1. Well, he certainly has done a great job of representing evil.

[trueblue2007]

12. TRUMP is evil.... he's the Anti-Christ !!

Monster and evil.

[Roy Rolling]

22. You may be right

And if there is a God, maybe this is his plan to discredit hypocrite evangelicals for what they are. They are the evil ones for twisting the words of Jesus. If they do believe in a God, do they not think they will be held accountable for masquerading as religious people?

[Maeve]

29. If so--and I'm not disputing it--there is hope

The Beast only gets to rule for 42 months, so he'll be gone by August 2020!

[SKKY]

40. Isn't the anti-Christ supposed to unify everyone first?

[trusty elf]

2. disgusting

[Ford_Prefect]

3. Pulllleeeeeeze!!! Get a new racket guys. The second rapture isn't due yet.

[Tech]

4. He forgot to say white evangelists. Oops.

[Docreed2003]

5. Lou Dobbs should be ashamed

Not only for supporting these evangelical nutters & for continuing to spew his immigration rhetoric...he should also be ashamed for that obvious dye job mop on the to of his head.

[Grokenstein]

6. Oh, you wanna bring evangelists into this?

Because I never get tired of pointing out that Donald Trump and Damien Thorn have so much in common: initials and letter counts; aversion to houses of worship; concerns about keeping the scalp covered; making followers wear the mark of the beast/MAGA caps upon their heads; risen to power through the machinations of an international cabal; association with "666;" habit of dry-humping icons; and a desire to destroy the world.

"From the Eternal Sea, he rises, creating armies on either shore, turning man against his brother, until man exists no more." -- The Omen

[keithbvadu2]

7. Then Trump supports a religious war between Protestants (good) and Catholics (evil)

Then Trump supports a religious war between Protestants (good) and Catholics (evil)

https://www.newsweek.com/did-satan-create-catholicism-trump-supporting-pastor-robert-jeffress-thinks-so-690176

Did Satan Create Catholicism? Trump-Supporting Pastor Robert Jeffress Thinks So
By Maria Perez On 10/21/17 at 1:55 PM EDT

[Martin Eden]

33. Trump's Attorney General William Barr

... is a Catholic, and most definitely evil.

Is Trump's evangelical base calling for Barr's ouster?

[keithbvadu2]

36. Barr is a useful tool to them.

Barr is a useful tool to them.

Just as they are a useful tool to him.

If either the Catholics or Protestants get total power, you can count on a religious war.

The super Christians want our country run by Christianity but with their version in charge.

[Martin Eden]

38. They are both tools, to be sure

The kind of power they want would be Christo-fascism, not Christianity.

In their soul, the main difference between them and the Taliban is their white privilege.

[SergeStorms]

46. Pompeo is Presbyterian, and an evil bastard.

"politics is a never-ending struggle ... until the Rapture". - Mike Pompeo

I find it interesting that the most immoral man on the planet (Trump) shrouds himself behind a cloak of religious fanatics.

[Martin Eden]

48. When fascism comes to America ...

... it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

[pnwmom]

8. But Trump is right.

It IS a battle between good and evil.

[NBachers]

9. Time to book another Nuremberg Revival Rally.

[dchill]

10. A religious battle between evangelicals...

...and every other religion on Earth. Including atheists and Wiccans.

[truthisfreedom]

11. From the shithead who never ever goes to church unless there's money in it.

Even Evangelicals aren't that stupid. They're just playing along and they're NOT going to show up to vote.

[groundloop]

21. Yes they will vote, because repubs will get rid of abortion rights

Repubs have done a superb job of turning abortion rights into a wedge issue which will stir up enough emotion to bring their people to the voting booth.

[SergeStorms]

47. Abortion rights are the carrot on the stick....

that the GOP keeps waving in front of evanHELLicals. They really are a stupid lot.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Jeffress is evil. His only use for religion is to cause hatred. He frequently sounds insane.

No wonder Trump used his words. He's like a Trump who can use the English language well.

Recent lows from him:

There is no such thing as a separation of church and state in the Constitution…

We have allowed the secularists, the atheists, the humanists to hijack our Constitution and pervert it into something our forefathers never intended.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/09/megachurch-pastor-robert-jeffress-theres-no-such-thing-as-separation-of-church-and-state/

“He is without doubt the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-Israel, pro-consumer president we have ever had, and they don't want to see this warrior in a sense removed from his place of leadership in our country,” he claimed. “There is a fear that if the left ever regains control of this country again our nation is finished.”

Starnes suggested in response that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “and her cronies” wanted to “go after and target Christians in America” based on recent legislation “they've been trying to shove down the throats of the good people of California” and the Equality Act, legislation that seeks to ban anti-LGBT discrimination.
...
“We just assumed they're praying to God,” Starnes replied. “I'm not quite sure. I don't know, Dr. Jeffress. I mean they booed God, tried to vote him out of the party platform.”

"Well, apparently the god they worship is the pagan god of the Old Testament Moloch, who allowed for child sacrifice,” Jeffress said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/464073-jeffress-suggests-democrats-worship-pagan-god-moloch-who

The Civil War comments took off when Trump repeated them on Sunday evening, threading them into a four-tweet warning against impeachment. The specter of a president obliquely predicting violence in response to an investigation caused predictable consternation in Washington. But Jeffress, for his part, has only doubled down. The next day, in an interview with Todd Starnes on Fox’s Todd Starnes Show, he said he had chosen his words carefully, and was neither predicting nor advocating for a new civil war. (It’s worth noting that he prefaced his Fox & Friends comments by saying, “I do want to make this prediction this morning.”) On Monday evening an anchor on the Christian Broadcasting Network, an outlet whose reporting is often friendly to Trump, asked Jeffress to expand on his Civil War comments. Was it really a good idea to compare a constitutional legal inquiry to four years of sustained bloodshed? “It was a perfect idea,” Jeffress replied. Critics of the statement, Jeffress said, either can’t read or are “too stupid” to understand what he meant.
...
The specific charge of paganism was new, though the reference to abortion wasn’t: A few years ago, the pastor told an audience at Liberty University that the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, could be read as retribution for the sin of abortion, just as God punished Israel for worshipping Moloch. Over the years, Jeffress has called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a cult, the Catholic Church a tool of Satan, and “Never Trump” Christians “spineless morons.”

Despite Jeffress’ warning of unprecedented evangelical anger, Trump’s other evangelical advisers have been largely quiet about the impeachment inquiry, perhaps waiting to see if Republican support for the inquiry continues to tick upward. Texas pastor the Rev. Jack Graham tweeted vaguely about an attack from “leftists socialists.” Evangelist and nonprofit head the Rev. Franklin Graham (no relation to Jack) tweeted his cautious support for Jeffress on Tuesday. “Dr. @RobertJeffress warned on @FoxNews that impeachment could ‘cause a civil war-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal,’” Graham wrote. “I don’t know about that, but I can tell you this could lead to conflict that nobody wants if they continue down this road.” He went on to warn that “the socialist Democrats” aim to take Americans’ guns and “impeach your president,” and asked his followers to “pray that God would change the hearts of Democratic leaders in Washington & that they would see the dangerous road that we’re on.” (Graham is scheduled to speak in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Tuesday evening as part of his rolling “Decision America” tour, which blends conservative politics and evangelism.)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/who-is-robert-jeffress-civil-war-trump-impeachment.html

[bobbieinok]

14. In 50s Criswell was pastor of First (So)Baptist Church Dallas

That man!! Led fight against desegregation! Against Catholic becoming POTUS!

Major embarrassment to me and my SoBaptist friends in college in Houston.

We used to get together and try to figure how to get him OUT.

Whenever we were with SoBaptist students from other TX schools we'd trade tales of his latest ravings.

IIRC Criswell held his position and strangle hold on the SoBaptists in Dallas, in TX, and in the nation for decades!!

[Archae]

25. Is this Criswell...

The same guy who was in "Plan 9 From Outer Space?"

Or a different guy?

[bobbieinok]

37. WA Criswell 1909-2002, a 2term president of SoBaptist Convrntion, info in Wikipedia

[Archae]

43. I looked him up at Wikipedia...

In the 50's he was critical of Brown vs The Board Of Education, but in 1968 he looks like he got rid of his racism.

He also was pro-choice.

It was Jerry (Foulwell) Falwell who didn't allow blacks into his church until 1970, kept them segregated until 1976, and created the organization and "college" (Anti-) Liberty Foundation and College.

[bobbieinok]

44. SoBaptists were very publically pro-choice until the Schaeffers helped replace antiblack with

Antiabortion

Fred Clark at his blog slacktivist at patheos has several posts about how Religious Right became footsoldiers for the GOP when Weyrich et al made antiabortion the litmus test for a Real True Christion and transformed the GOP into a completely antiabortion powerhouse

There are several important articles out there about this RW manipulation of fundamentalists/Evangelicals

[MarcA]

45. Oligarchic Force$ weaponized religion to destroy democratic governance. n/t

[Mc Mike]

55. Bircher Hunt family. nt

[Mc Mike]

54. The Sundance Award Winning '88 Documentary 'Thy Kingdom Come'

showed Criswell blaming the high crime rate in 'Christian' Dallas, on 'blacks and mexicans', in an interview with the documentary film makers. Interview may have been from '87, but close to 20 years after the Hunt family promoted 'Rev' got rid of his racism.

[Archae]

56. Unfortunately, it's easy to blame blacks and Mexicans for crime.

I watch and read the TV channel and website for news from a Milwaukee ABC affiliate, WISN.

And very often, when I see actual perps, they are black or Mexican.
I don't know the ACTUAL statistics, just about always when someone cites them they use the "statistic saying blacks are a minority but cause the majority of crimes."
It's a racist meme, I know.

Now I don't blame "the blacks and Mexicans," but I do see how it can be easy to get that POV from news media viewing.

[Mc Mike]

57. Criswell was promoted by the virulently bircher Hunt family because he was their kind of guy.

He was explaining to the doc film crew how it was that the most 'christian' city of Dallas, the buckle on the bible belt, had the highest crime rate. Obviously he didn't need the stats or look them up, he 'knew' it was because Dallas had 'a lot of black and mexican people'.

He's not a passive victim of the news, he's being the news and promoting the POV of the racist Dallas establishment news.

[Archae]

58. Unfortunately yes.

But Criswell was outside of local churches, pretty much a nobody.

Jerry Falwell was far worse, and his brat, Jr, is just as bad.

[Mc Mike]

59. From the wiki article:

"... is regarded as a key figure in the late 1970s "Conservative Resurgence" within the Southern Baptist Convention.
...

The church expanded to multiple buildings covering five blocks in downtown Dallas, eventually becoming the largest Southern Baptist church in the world. The popular evangelist Billy Graham joined the church in 1953, became a close friend of the Criswell family, and remained a member of the Dallas congregation for 55 years.

Criswell was an early pioneer of the modern megachurch phenomenon...

Dr. Criswell served two times as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest non-Roman Catholic denomination in the United States, with some 16 million members. During the twenty years that followed he was perhaps the most popular preacher at evangelism and pastors' conferences in America.

...

Questioned in 1973 about the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade Criswell replied, "I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed." Criswell later became a staunch opponent of the procedure. "


Falwell, Swaggert, Robertson, and Bakker were all worse to me, but Criswell was powerfully sucky.

[Archae]

60. The worst part is where things stand now.

Falwell's brat is now in charge of a college and organization that is fundamentally religiously fascist.
But they call themselves "Liberty."

Billy Graham's brat has taken over his church and now uses every opportunity to lie about, and slam "infidels."

Pat Robertson has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

Jim Bakker is up to his old tricks, selling overpriced stuff "cuz gawd sez so!"

And then there are the "unaffiliated" Baptist churches, that do nothing but preach hate.

[Mc Mike]

62. Many gigawatts worth of lightning bolts seem to be due. nt.

[YOHABLO]

15. Oh now it's a "religious'' battle between good and evil. He's so desperate it's laughable.

[stopbush]

16. So tired of the fucking Christians, their make-believe and their attempts to

foist their fantasies on the rest of us.

[keithbvadu2]

35. Freedom of religion Pence

Freedom of religion Pence

[bucolic_frolic]

17. Lou needs serious help

I doubt there's a bigger wingnut anywhere on TV. Oh, wait ... Hannity

[BumRushDaShow]

18. That whole segment has finally found some useful idiot to promote their cause

I remember under Nixon, they were dubbed the "Silent majority" and under Raygun, the "Moral Majority", and under Poppy and Shrub, they morphed into the "Christian Coalition". Basically we saw how GOP Presidential candidates heavily courted these people but once elected, essentially drop-kicked them into the corner and put their agenda on the back burner.

But now, for the first time, they have not only been courted, but have been embraced and let out into the political wild, with full access in helping to control the nation's agenda despite the fact that the one who let them do this has essentially violated every single "spiritual" intent of Christianity. He is the walking, blabbering textbook case of a "False Prophet".

But in a way, they have found a bizarre kindred spirit. And what I mean by that is that because many of their leaders, and notably the televangelists, are "show people", i.e., they "perform" every Sunday through their sermons (and through any religious-based chatter on radio/television, regardless of whether they believe what they are preaching or not), they are in the company of someone who has been in the entertainment business manufacturing "performances" for decades.

So he has given them the ultimate platform that they want - a "national" one (which comes with more attention and more money through maximum exposure), and in return, they provide their party the votes.

[Vinca]

19. This idiot (Jeffress not Trump) makes me wish everything I don't believe was real.

It would be a pay-per-view event to watch JC return and slap the fool up side the head. If these faux Christians were going to worship anyone, you'd think it might be Jimmy Carter.

[RAB910]

20. It is a religious battle

between the fake Christians who worship Trump and the good people of America

[Mc Mike]

23. Birchers and opus dei catholics can agree that tRump epitomizes holy moral religious values.

His entire life up through today is a holy example to emulate, to get closer to Christ.

Countless times, people come up to him and say 'sir', then they die. And He's had to reach down and give them their life back. Happens all the time, in all the crowds of ordinary chrisitian Americans he's always wandering around in.

They're always trying to touch the hem of his trailing tie, too.

Fuck bircher christians and bill barr.

[lonely bird]

24. It is a spiritual battle for the soul of the country.

Jeffress' problem is that he and the Pharisaical Right have chosen the wrong side.

[turbinetree]

26. Alrighty, the asshole goes to a money changer worth around 15 million dollars and

has him explain what is good and evil...................................FFS........................

And this bunch, thinks it is just fine and dandy to put people in cages, and to go forth with the help another authoritarian asshole to cleanse out people in the middle east, and send troops to protect oil.....................got there prioritizes in align with good and evil from the book ...................got that........................what a bunch of assholes....................good and evil.........................my ass..............I just wonder what this "church" paid in taxes..............................

[Sucha NastyWoman]

27. Man of the Anti-Christ

As opposed to a man of God

[empedocles]

28. dobbs seems to have a certain deeply fervent commitedness like barr

[iluvtennis]

30. Says the cretin who said "Two Corinthians" versus "II[Second] Corinthians" during 2016 election.

[bitterross]

31. I always wonder about people like Jeffress

Do they really believe what they're saying to their sheeple or are they just more of the Joseph Smith/L. Ron Hubbard complete con-man type? Smith set out to create a religion after all his other con games had failed. That worked so well for him, Hubbard did it all over again with Scientology.

I just always wonder if all those people like Jeffress, Osteen and their ilk are just as corrupt or if some are true believers. I tend to be cynical (bitterross for a reason) and think they're all con artists.

[Martin Eden]

32. Yes, this is a battle between good and evil

It is an especially difficult and important battle when some prominent religious leaders carry the banner of evil.

[duforsure]

34. Trump is desperately trying to incite people he's conned into becoming violent for him.

This is what he's done many times before, divide people with issues, promote propaganda to use to incite them, then deny any responsibility for anything they do criminal. Sounds like we have another Charlie Manson nut only with power in our highest office .

[Judi Lynn]

49. Excellent comparison. No one has ever doubted Manson's pure malignancy, either. n/t

[Blue Owl]

39. Trump dials up support from Guiliani's ass

n/t

[Nitram]

41. Trump's "strategies" are so transparent.

But that's one reason they work so well with the demographic they're aimed at.

[TeamPooka]

42. Jesus loves my rapist president - evangelical leaders

[tclambert]

50. In Trump's mind, it's attempted deicide.

[TrogL]

51. They need Trump to start the next world war, bring on Armageddon and the Rapture

They've got their judges, this is the final step.

[Vogon_Glory]

52. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world

and forfeit his soul?

Evangelicals are FOOLS for supporting Donald Trump. They’ve forfeited their religious and moral credibility and Christianity in the US and abroad has been given a black eye it will take DECADES to recover from.

If the politicized Born-Agains hadn’t been so bedazzled by their lust for power, they might have been just clever enough to bail on Donnie in 2018.

[imavoter]

53. Is Jeffress in with "the family" ?? n/t

[bluestarone]

61. These fools actually believe the second coming is for their benefit?

They are going DOWN not UP!!!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

63. Is he Pastor of the Church of the Perpetually Stupid?