lees1975
lees1975's JournalThere's an existential crisis among conservative Evangelicals and the rhetoric of Trumpism is making it worse.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/11/american-conservative-evangelicals-are.htmlThe falling away from the Christian gospel that has plagued conservative Evangelicals in the United States for quite some time did not originate with Trump. It was Ronald Reagan, running against the openly born-again Jimmy Carter, who invited Evangelicals into the GOP, via several prominent leaders, including Evangelist James Robison, and the now infamous Jerry Falwell. Evangelicals who went along with this traded their first love for worldly, political power which was an admission that they didn't really believe there was anything to the spiritual power upon which they once claimed to rely.
And it just keeps getting worse. The agenda he has laid out is as anti-Christian as it is anti-Patriotic and anti-American. It's fascist, no denying that. And the bigotry that drips from the rhetoric is a denial of the very nature of God and of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Jude wrote, in his short but to-the-point epistle near the end of the New Testament, Trump is an intruder who has stolen in among the church, introducing licentiousness and perverting the grace of Jesus Christ.
"But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct...These are blemishes on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever." Jude 10, 12-13, NRSV
Though these verses aren't a specific prophecy for our time, they are certainly prophetic in terms of being an accurate description of Trumpism, and of Trump, and should be heeded by any sincere Christian as a warning to stay away and not be associated with this apostasy in any way.
Establishment Christianity failed to be a bulwark against European Fascism. And it's failing in America, too.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/11/we-have-history-to-inform-us-of-danger.htmlWhy is this happening in the freedom and democracy under the Constitution of the United States?
Both Mussolini and Hitler exploited weaknesses in the established churches to neutralize what should have been the greatest opposition to their ideology. German Protestants embraced the nationalism embodied in the National Socialist agenda, an ideology not unlike that of American Christian Nationalism, the idea that God has placed a special blessing upon people of a particular ethnic and racial identity for the purpose of bringing justice to the world. Regardless of whatever means they chose to use to bring about this "will of God," including precipitating a bloody, destructive, inhumane war, they believed he would hold their coat-tails and cheer them on. The Protestant state church actually dedicated church buildings in the name of the Fuhrer.
The Catholic Church had billions of dollars in church property to protect inside Germany and Italy. The Vatican was, of course, just down the street from the headquarters of Italian fascism. In 1933, in a move aimed at its own self-preservation, abandoning the message of the Christian gospel, the Church negotiated the Reichskonkordat which required clergy who take office in the church to also take an oath of loyalty to the governor or president of the German Reich.
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There is nothing that Trump brings to the political table that Christians should be endorsing, or supporting with their votes. This political campaign has taken a clear and dangerous turn, not only away from foundational American values and democratic principles, but in a direction that is antithetical to every principle and practice of the Christian gospel. There's nothing there that bears any resemblance at all to the Christian gospel, not one thing, including the openly anti-Christian sentiments of the movements' leader, Trump.
Just curious about what people are thinking.
Regarding the upcoming 2024 election cycle:
How much ignorance of history does it take to be doomed to repeat it?
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/11/how-much-ignorance-of-history-does-it.htmlLady Gaga's hit "Bad Romance," which debuted in November, 2009 and stayed on the charts for quite a while, including spending about eight weeks at the number 2 spot in the United States, popped into my mind today as I was listening to an afternoon talk show host chat with a guest about the state of politics and the ignorance of history in this country. There are some lyrics in the song which would be fit descriptions of what we are seeing happen in front of our very eyes.
"I want your horror, I want your design,
'Cause your a criminal as long as you're mine,
I want your psycho, your vertigo shtick,
Want you in my rear window, baby you're sick."
"Caught in a bad romance."
We have a former President, running for the office again, who committed the biggest crimes against the Constitution of the United States, and against American representative democracy, that any politician has committed to date, and that's saying something. If that weren't enough of a "world turned upside down" scenario, this candidate is currently the front-runner in the whole field of candidates in the Republican party. Now he's talking about concentration camps, vermin, and imprisoning and pushing out all of those identified as political and soclai enemies, including many of those who think he's on their side. It's not just a bad romance, this is the nightmare that we are living right now.
Will we do anything about it or will we let it happen?
With all the protests over Gaza, a cease fire and the war against Hamas, there has been little discussion of exactly how
it was that Hamas fighters got across the border into Israel without being detected and carried out a successful attack against a defense force that is virtually impregnable and secure against exactly this kind of thing. There are a lot of "we wouldn't be here if's" being discussed, but the biggest one is how one of the most secure borders in the world, and one of the shortest, was penetrated without advanced intelligence or hint of notice. How in the world did Hamas get into Israel unseen and wreak havoc?
And honestly, do we expect to ever know that? We're still sitting on the evidence regarding 9-11. Maybe Israelis will get more information out of their government than we get out of ours.
Mike Johnson's Theology is Wrong
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/11/mike-johnsons-theology-is-wrong.htmlJohnson's rhetoric is very common among Evangelicals who base their worldview on the assumption that the covenant relationship described in the Old Testament between God and Israel also applies to the United States. It's also a way to indirectly blame their political opposition for the immorality and claim they're the ones dragging the country down, and to justify their desire to use the power of government to enforce a morality that they can't seem to maintain by depending on God's spiritual power alone.
If Speaker Johnson is looking for hypocrisy, he needs to face a mirror.
Being disrespectful of judges and district attorneys is setting a new precedent.
Trump's behavior toward judges and toward District Attorney Fani Willis has been well beyond the bounds of any measure of acceptable standards almost from the moments that the indictments came out. Other than Aileen Cannon, who seems to think being a judge means serving the president who appointed you rather than the people, Trump's lashing out is not only unacceptable behavior, it has the potential to incite violence.
But that's a different world than the one the rest of us live in. He's rich, influential, and a former President. He thinks the law doesn't apply to him.
And he's been right so far. He's benefitted from a hesitation to even start an investigation and bring charges, to making public statements against anyone in authority he sees as a threat. A couple of slaps on the wrist and a few fines, drops in the bucket really, are the full extent of restraint, as opposed to what any other American citizen who isn't a rich former President would have to endure if they behaved the same way.
This is not justice.
Jen Psaki is building a reputation as one of the best commentators in cable news.
She zeros in on the main themes, I can see why she was the press secretary for the President. Factually objective, but with a very keen sense of what should be brought to the top and get attention, she is clear, concise, understandable and she gets the significance of where history is being made, and what really counts and makes a difference.
She has a different style than Rachel Maddow, but she's right up there in terms of being that kind of commentator.
Her program last night was right on target. If the DNC doesn't make her some kind of offer to be one of their chief spokespersons and campaigners, they'll be losing out on a huge asset.
Is peace even possible in the Middle East?
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/11/is-peace-in-middle-east-beyond.htmlThis is a problem that seems beyond even the highest level of human intellect to resolve. I've heard several politicians, among them Bernie Sanders, who I respect both as a member of the Senate, and as a progressive, say that Israel's security is married to Palestinian justice. The complications of that statement are numerous, tiring to even think about.
What's remarkable is that among the Jewish population in Israel, and the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza, there are people who are hopeful it can be done, want to see it happen, and recognize the obstacles that are in the way. I think, in this country, we've been taught to look at it through one set of perspectives, not objective at all, and it set the context for us. It's not the first time that's happened here, either, relegating events to "the course of history" is a bad American habit.
We've also been trained to believe that the world is getting better, we learn from our mistakes and don't repeat them. This while it appears, once again, that the world could be on the brink of yet a third world war.
Pew Survey Poll shows Putin popularity shrinking everywhere in the world except among Republicans in America
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/08/17/how-russian-media-skewed-a-pew-poll-on-putin-a58684Nice spin. Putin's popularity goes down everywhere in the world. But the spin they put on it in Russian media is that his support among American Republicans has doubled.
It's wake up time, people. This is a major, in house threat. They're going to try to mess with the election and it is quite possible that all of the crap we're seeing in the media, including the regular attacks on a highly successful Presidency, is coming from Russian instigation. That includes screwy opinion polls.
