2017: Rise of the Religious Reich.

President Trump hosts conservative leaders at the White House on September 25, 2017 (Photo: WhiteHouse.gov)

Right Wing Watch has a comprehensive timeline of the ascension of the religious reich into the current regime, and it’s a very ugly look at the coming Theocalypse, if these people get their way, which so far, they are. We do not need to be all concerned over the rise of AI. We do need to be concerned with the rise of the religious reich, and we need to be concerned with the rise of stupid.

Donald Trump wasn’t exactly the dream candidate of the Religious Right. Throughout the Republican primary contest, many in the social conservative movement urged voters to pick what one group of anti-choice activists called “anyone but Donald Trump.”

But once it became clear that Trump was going to win the GOP nomination, he started aggressively courting the evangelical Right, including holding a massive meeting for Religious Right leaders in New York that many cite as a turning point for their support. On the day of that meeting, Trump announced the formation of an evangelical advisory board that included Religious Right leaders including James Dobson and Michele Bachmann. Trump’s selection of Mike Pence as his running mate sealed the deal for many on the Religious Right. Trump’s “amen corner” of prosperity gospel preachers and domininionists eventually expanded to include the large share of Religious Right leaders, who offered various theological explanations for their embrace of a morally flawed candidate.

Once he was elected—with 80 percent of the white evangelical vote—Trump kept his evangelical advisory board intact and promised to give it unprecedented access to the White House. He stacked his Cabinet with friends of the Religious Right, including Tom Price at Health and Human Services, Betsy DeVos at Education and Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development. Far-right pastor Ralph Drollingerworked with Trump’s transition team to set up weekly Bible studies for Trump’s Cabinet members. The conservative Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society vetted potential judicial nominees.

The White House continues to hold weekly calls with evangelical advisory board members. Conservative leaders also receive a weekly email from the White House compiling “highlights for—and requests for action from—the conservative world.” And Religious Right leaders report enjoying an open door with the Trump administration. Former Southern Baptist Convention official Richard Land told The New York Times that conservative evangelical leaders have a “regular, ongoing and continuing dialogue” with the administration.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkinssaid in August, “I’ve been to the White House I don’t know how many more times in the first six months this year than I was during the entire Bush administration.” The Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser said she visited the White House seven times in Trump’s first 100 days in office. Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America said in September, “I’m told from people before me that even under George W. Bush, we didn’t have this kind of access. It certainly is unprecedented and we’re very grateful.” Land gushed about evangelicals having “unprecedented access” to the White House, adding that there “are more evangelicals in this administration as personnel than any administration in my lifetime.”

The timeline is extensive and heavily link rich, there’s enough reading for a day or two. It’s all recommended, because we are at one terrifying confluence here. The Year The Religious Right Moved Into The White House.

It’s Best to Lie! It’s Biblical!

Screengrab.

Coach Dave is teachin’ and preachin’ – about lying. Like lying for Jesus, lying for Jehovah is right good too.

Religious Right activist Dave Daubenmire said that Roy Moore has no obligation to tell the truth regarding multiple allegations that he pursued sexual relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s and that, in fact, it is better for him to lie about it if doing so will help to advance the kingdom of God.

Daubenmire, who has been an ardent Moore supporter for years and even interviewed Moore on his program back in 2013, likened Moore’s efforts to become a U.S. senator from Alabama to using misdirection in a football game, employing subterfuge during a military battle or hiding Jews from the Nazis, saying that deception and dishonesty in such endeavors is acceptable because doing so furthers a greater good.

Lying through your teeth about being a skeevy asshole with a taste for teenagers is not the same as strategy, sportsball or military, and it’s certainly not the same as hiding Jews from Nazis. The finely fucked up morals of a christian, right there. (Yeah, yeah, #notallchristians, but you all still aren’t standing up against these fanatical asses.)

“When I hear people say, ‘Well, Judge Moore is not worthy of the office if he’s lying about what he did,’ I want to grab ’em and I want to slap ’em upside the stinking head,” Daubenmire said. “Judge Moore is trying to infiltrate an ungodly system and the stakes in this campaign are so great for the cause of Christ and Judge Moore is being lambasted by the holier-than-thou Christians who think [the Bible] says we can never lie.”

Golly, such language! Tsk. Infiltrate? He’s running for senate, not trying to pass a super secret seal test or anything. Any idiot can run for the senate. You’d think there’d be requirements or something, but no. (You have to be 30 years old, been a citizen for at least nine years, and live in the state you wish to represent, that’s it. That would be why so many lying idiots.)

“It’s best to lie if it advances the kingdom of God,” Daubenmire stated. “There, I said it.”

Yes, you did, and thanks, Coach Dave, for having the spine to admit that, unlike most christians, who believe firmly in lying, but always deny that.

Via RWW, there’s video.

JerUSAlem.

View and Plan of Jerusalem.--Fac-simile of a woodcut in the "Liber Chronicarum Mundi" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:View_and_Plan_of_Jerusalem_Fac_simile_of_a_Woodout_in_the_Liber_Chronicarum_Mundi_large_folio_Nuremberg_1493.png">Source</a>.

View and Plan of Jerusalem.–Fac-simile of a woodcut in the “Liber Chronicarum Mundi” large folio, Nuremberg, 1493. Source.

RWW has the full rundown on all the christians who have been pushing for the Jerusalem move, and how excited they are over finally having a puppet who gave them what they most desire: the apocalypse. The apocalypse they want so very much won’t happen, but a different sort might, given this unbelievably bone-headed decision. Christians do excel at coming up with batshit nonsense to shore up their position on anything, and this is no exception:

Anti-BDS activist and filmmaker Laurie Cardoza-Moore, reportedly considering a run for Congress from Tennessee, contributed a column to Haaretz welcoming “Trump’s obedience to God’s word on Jerusalem.”  “We as a Judeo-Christian nation have a responsibility to uphold the word of God” she had said earlier this month, urging Trump to act.

Cardoza-Moore told Gordon Klingenschmitt that people often ask her where the United States is in the End Times, and she always tells them, “Look at the English spelling of the word Jerusalem. What are the three letters in the center of that word? U.S.A. … That is our prophetic place to be.”

Oh look, there’s the USA! It’s right there, in another word, must be a god! Only in the English spelling mind, because Amerikan English is the one true language of Jehovah.  I might not mind this bonnaconshit so much if it weren’t for the mind-numbing stupidity. We really don’t need people thinking we are that stupid. It’s so embarrassing.

RWW has the full, depressing story.

ETA: Bannon is also speaking about this:

“Isn’t this really showing the muscle of the evangelical community? Because President Trump, one of the reasons he did this, besides the reason that he knew was the smart thing to do and the right thing to do, was the fact that his base, right, particularly that part that’s evangelical Right, which is a huge part of his base, really has been demanding this for quite a while,” Bannon said.

Full story here.

The Hobnail Boots of The Homosexuals.

Anti-LGBTQ hate group C-Fam sent this meme in a fundraising email about its United Nations work.

Dear Friend of the Friday Fax,

A teacher in Canada shows a video of a free speech hero who stood up against the homosexual fascists.
The Teacher is about to lose her job.

Also called teaching inappropriate material, i.e., bigotry, intolerance and hate. This is not about a freeze peach superhero.

The state of Michigan just took a child from the home of a Christian family because they refused to
allow their daughter to transition into a boy.

Good, that’s doing right by the child. Your ‘good’ christian family would have condemned that child to abuse, agony, and misery.

The state of Colorado wants to shut down the Christian baker because he won’t celebrate a gay wedding.

He doesn’t have to celebrate anything, you fuckstick. He just has to bake a fucking cake, because that’s his business.

Friends, we are living in fascistic times except this time the hobnail boots are worn by homosexuals and
their allies in government and major corporations.

Yes, we are surrounded by fascists and nazis. I’m looking at a fine example of such zealotry right now.

These fascists are out to get Christians who view men and women as God made them and who live their lives
that way. They seek to stamp us out.

:near fatal eyeroll: Oh please, no one is out to get you. We just want you to mind your own damn business. You’re free to have any view you like. A bit of advice though: If you’re going to act like cockroaches, don’t be surprised if people start looking at you like you need to be stamped out.

Want to be shocked? Would you like to know the one place where you are free to stand up to the LGBT fascists?
Want to know where Christians actually win victories against the LGBT fascists?

The UN that’s where. How do I know? Because we do it every single day and we have many goverments behind us.

You have no business peddling your desire for an inquisition anywhere, and it’s a travesty you are able to spread your poison at the UN.

Keep us going!

[Donate Button]

And I will tell you the secret. It is because we are brave. We are fearless. We will not be bullied, we will not
step back, and we will always call homosexual behaviour sinful, offensive, and deeply harmful to the individual
who practices it and to society at large.

And I will tell you the secret. We are brave. We are fearless. We will not be bullied, we will not step back, and we will always declare we are human, deserving full rights, bringing light, love, acceptance and inclusiveness to all within our community and to society at large.

Keep us going!

[Donate Button]

[repeat]

[Donate Button]

You will not find “mainstream” religious conservatives speaking this way. They talk about religious freedom.
Let me tell you another secret. If we are having to defend religious freedome, then we are fighting the enemy
in our own house. We are not on offense. We are on defense. And we are going to lose.

Well, we are on offense. Want to be on offense with us? Tired of being on defense? Then help us now. Join us!

You certainly are offensive. And disgusting. And repellant. Altogether, quite vomit-worthy.

Yours in Christ,

Austin Ruse
President/C-Fam
Publisher/Friday Fax

PS Keep in mind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights uphold free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly,
all the freedoms and rights the fascistic left wants to take away. I promise you we will stop them.

No one is looking to take your rights away. It would be you fucking fanatics who are looking to take basic rights away from others. Also, I hate to break this to you, but all manner of queer folk are religious. Most of them manage to hold onto their beliefs without trying to infringe on the rights of others, and aren’t looking to start an inquisition.

Ruse has also said that all countries should pass laws against homosexual behavior “even if unenforced,” in order to “help society to teach what is good” and “prevent such truly harmful practices as homosexual marriage and adoption.” According to GLAAD, Ruse has claimed that, rather than bullying and social stigma, LGBTQ people and activism are the real cause of LGBTQ teen suicide and alcoholism.

Brennan Suen has the full story, and it’s important reading. These asshole christians are those who applaud imprisoning gay people, executing them, and if nothing else, want to make being queer unlawful. Regressive doesn’t cover them. (Any errors in the transcription are mine.)

Trumpy Bear, The Real Red Pill, & Snowflakes.

These are, sad to say, real products, which you can purchase at over-inflated prices.

At the Values Voter Summit earlier this year, President Trump declared that he will be “stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values” and that Americans will finally be “saying Merry Christmas again” after avoiding the phrase because “it’s not politically correct.” Now that the shackles of politically correct culture have been unlocked by our president, Right Wing Watch can finally release its 2017 annual gift guide for the holiday Christmas season.

You can see and read more at RWW, with full links to all the conservachristian goodies. You might want to put off any eating until after you peruse the gift guide. Lots of gag worthy stuff to behold.

The Voice of God at the Gates of Hell.

Oh, it’s Lance Wallnau again. Lance has decided to be the voice of god with presidential access, because um, someone has to do it?

Lance Wallnau posted a video on Periscope today in which he declared that if Americans rebel against the will of God and give Democrats control of Congress in the 2018 elections and allow them to impeach President Trump, it’ll mean that “the spirit of Antichrist” has triumphed over the church.

Streaming from inside the Center for National Renewal in Washington, D.C., with whom he apparently has an official connection, Wallnau declared that charismatic Pentecostal Christians such as himself have been called to “have access to presidents as the voice of God” so that they can “release this warrior angel for America.”

The Center for National Renewal expends quite a bit of time and energy to come across as mild and humanitarian, and I suppose for christians, they might slant a bit to that side, but their main drive is the ‘centrality of christ’, which they feel should be front and center in every facet of life, including government. They seem to think they’ll be successful in bringing together all the 30,000something factions of christianity. They are firm believers in National Christianity, which should worry the hell out of everyone.

Of course Lance decides that his particular flavour of christianity will be the voice of god with access to presidents. The plural is interesting. I guess Lance wants a lock on more than just the Tiny Tyrant. Oooh, a warrior angel. That would be something to see. Too bad we never will.

“If America goes down,” he warned, “if we screw up these midterms coming up, if we let the devil put a false impeachment on this president, if the will of man rebels against the will of the majority of the people that put him in through the Electoral College, then the spirit of Antichrist beat the spirit that was in the church of Christ.”

Boring. So boring. The talk about the antichrist has been going on for fucking decades, people have been so sure that this or that president is the antichrist, yadda, yadda, yadda. So now it’s just the spirit of the antichrist, is it? I guess you can’t blame an antichrist of getting tired of waiting and wandering off. Seems to me that people have been rebelling and fighting against the crime called the electoral college ever since the election, which the Tiny Tyrant lost. The electoral college is an unnecessary appendage, which was first dreamed up as yet another protection for slave owners. It has no business in a modern constitution which disavows slavery altogether. Unsurprising you find christians in favour of the spirit of slavery. As for impeachment? I live in hope, and it would not be false. The idiot king has no right to be in office.

“So that is why I am at the gates of influence,” Wallnau added. “Because Washington is where the gates of hell want to take over and it’s not gonna happen.”

Mm hmm. Which is it, gates of influence or gates of hell? I think you’re going to have to pick, Lance. Some would say there’s little difference between the two, given lobbyists and the wealth of corruption bubbling away. Personally, I think you just want to get in on some of that oh so sweet corruption, stuffing those pockets with more cash.

Via RWW, there’s video.

The Heartland Institute.

The Heartland Institute is still busy, somewhat behind the scenes, in their quest to mold the constitution to their desires, none of which are good.

The Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank that promotes free-market ideology and denounces climate-change “alarmism,” published an interview this week with Neal Schuerer, an advocate for a “convention of states” to propose a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The BBA effort is one of several active right-wing campaigns to convene a convention under Article V of the Constitution in order to limit the powers of the federal government. Under Article V, if 34 states submit calls for a convention to propose constitutional amendments on a given topic, Congress must call a convention of states.

[…]

Proponents of a convention to promote a balanced budget amendment have been sparring in recent years with an even more aggressive effort that aims to dramatically limit the jurisdiction and power of the federal government, replacing our current constitutional order with one focused on states’ rights. That effort is backed by Religious Right leaders, including Alliance Defending Freedom’s Mike Farris, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, Christian-nation “historian” David Barton and anti-marriage-equality activist Robert George.

Just like our evangelical government, this too is serious business, and needs to be known about and taken seriously. Now that all the christians slavering over end times have gotten their Idiot King to make the Jerusalem move, they are feeling powerful and unstoppable. And they just might be, given that the Tiny Tyrant cannot say no to them, and most people being blissfully unaware of what they are doing.

Schuerer himself calls the BBA a “first step”:

A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is the first step in reining in an all-powerful, all-consuming central bureaucratic government that our founding document attempted to guard against.

We as citizens of the United States have the right and duty to bring about responsible reform to our founding document, reflecting the values of the people and the nature of free and independent states. We know what needs to be done. All we need is the courage to just do it.

It’s important to realize that this is not about constitution reform and dragging that moldy document into the current century; this is about making it even more regressive. These are people who want the power and right to oppress and prosecute all those people they have problems with, which amounts to most people.

Schuerer says his group Campaign Constitution is working with the Heartland Institute’s Center for Constitutional Reform to “bring all the competing interests together.” And he talks about how close his group’s effort is to reaching the threshold of 34 states:

The Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force entered the 2017 state legislative year with great expectations, following the Trump election and the number of Republican governors and legislature majorities growing.

Twenty-eight states had active applications, with the goal of adding four to the number—Arizona, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Wyoming—bringing the number of active applications to 32.

Arizona and Wyoming approved the BBA application resolution. Maryland, New Mexico, and Nevada rescinded applications, making a net loss of one and bringing the number of active applications to 27. Recently, Wisconsin approved the BBA application, returning the total to 28.

Moving into 2018, there is very little margin. Idaho, Kentucky, and South Carolina are a must, bringing us to 31 active applications.

Montana will likely join in when it gets that close, to 32.  Minnesota and Virginia are tough calls because of internal political disagreements on the issue of an Article V amendment convention. Washington state and Maine are anyone’s guess.

That brings the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force and the national Article V movement to 32 states by the end of 2018.

Now would be the time to get very worried, and to try and find ways to counter these evil assholes who are intent on making things much, much worse. Every day, we get closer to the Theocalypse.

Via RWW.

Profiling Pence.

By college, Pence had slimmed down and developed something akin to swagger. The yearbooks from his time at Hanover College, in southern Indiana, depict him as a popular, square-jawed hunk. (Hanover College).

No man can serve two masters, the Bible teaches, but Mike Pence is giving it his all. It’s a sweltering September afternoon in Anderson, Indiana, and the vice president has returned to his home state to deliver the Good News of the Republicans’ recently unveiled tax plan. The visit is a big deal for Anderson, a fading manufacturing hub about 20 miles outside Muncie that hasn’t hosted a sitting president or vice president in 65 years—a fact noted by several warm-up speakers. To mark this historic civic occasion, the cavernous factory where the event is being held has been transformed. Idle machinery has been shoved to the perimeter to make room for risers and cameras and a gargantuan American flag, which—along with bleachers full of constituents carefully selected for their ethnic diversity and ability to stay awake during speeches about tax policy—will serve as the TV-ready backdrop for Pence’s remarks.

When the time comes, Pence takes the stage and greets the crowd with a booming “Hellooooo, Indiana!” He says he has “just hung up the phone” with Donald Trump and that the president asked him to “say hello.”

The Atlantic has an in-depth look at Mike Pence, and what drives him. He seems to have a whole lot of not-so-humble ambition inside all the evangelical coating, which, while thick enough, doesn’t stop Pence from being a primary Trump apologist, or supporting all those who are certainly not in the good ethics/morals camp.  It makes for interesting reading.

War on Christmas: Won!!1!

The Cephalopodmas Tree. © C. Ford.

Oh, the war on xmas, it be won! It’s the Trump effect! People can say merry christmas again! :eyeroll: The dumbfuckery of this is overwhelming. Who gives a fuck if you want to say merry xmas or have a safe and sane saturnalia? All this crap, yet another attempt by idiotic christians to pretend they are long-suffering martyrs who are oh-so-persecuted. Everyone in the world isn’t an exclusive asshole like we are! *sob*.

This morning on “Breitbart News Daily,” host Alex Marlow spoke with Williams about international issues and the White House tree lighting ceremony. Marlow asked Williams if there was “more for the president to be doing” to promote Christmas, to which Williams responded that he hopes the Trump administration continues the work it’s doing because “people were really fed up with the war on Christmas that we’ve seen over the last few years and really during the entire Obama years.”

“Part of the swing toward populism, toward nationalism, is also a swing toward religion and a recovery of some sort of Christian identity, the importance of faith. And I think that we’re seeing more public expressions of that,” Williams continued. “There are the new tallies on Christmas card sales and things, and ‘Merry Christmas’ is blowing away ‘Happy Holidays’—you know, these kind of whitewashed greetings from past years are looking more and more like a thing of the past.”

Your christian identity and the importance of your faith is dependent on a commercial holiday greeting? Puddles have more depth than you sanctimonious hypocrites. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, and Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings were quite popular back then. I don’t remember anyone having shit fits and compleat meltdowns over it. There’s room for a whole host of holiday greetings and sentiments. In our house, we have Ratmas and Cephalopodmas, none of which is taken seriously. It’s a silly holiday, it should be fun. I’m not twisting in the wind because you christians are ignoring Brumalia, and will ignore the upcoming Saturnalia. Also, most christians are well aware that your precious Jesus wasn’t born on the 25th December.

“So what I’m seeing, and I’m very delighted with, is people are more overtly expressive of their own faith and religiosity, and that’s part of the Trump effect,” Williams said.

Marlow said he agreed and thought there has been a “substantial war on Christmas.” He also alluded to a newfound “war on Thanksgiving” taking place in which liberals want to “ruin Thanksgiving for us.” He expanded that he thought it was interesting that liberals want to destroy holidays that feature religious components.

Since when is ‘thanksgiving’ religious? It’s people stuffing their faces and watching sportsball. Granted, those things are near religious in Ustates. I have no love for fucking liberals when it comes to ‘thanksgiving’ either, because if they wanted to do something, they’d give up their day of overeating in favour of the National Day of Mourning, seriously boosting the voices of indigenous peoples. They could also stop patting themselves on the back for having their “giving Tuesday” the week after their food and shopping overindulgence. You should be fucking ashamed of yourselves.

Williams said the wars on Christmas and Thanksgiving are “a real globalist push from certain Americans on the left.”

Excuse me? The ‘thanksgiving’ disease is Amerikkan, and like most diseases, has infected other countries, but certainly not all. There’s no war. Much like your god, your holiday wars are all in your head.

Via RWW.

Sunday Facepalm.

Today we have Judy Reyher, a Colorado repub who was recently appointed to the state legislature. Ms. Reyher has some all too common views.

The Denver Post reports that Judy Reyher posted multiple offensive statements and memes on her Facebook page, including one that questioned why Muslims would come to the United States if they “hate pork, beer, bikinis, Jesus and freedom of speech.”

Hateful bigots always come up with the oddest assortment of words in their pitiful attempts to paint Amerikka. Pork, beer, bikinis, Jesus, freedom of speech. Wow, that’s more than a bit of a mess. A lot of people aren’t into pork, and they aren’t insulted and ostracized for it. A lot of people don’t care for beer. Bikinis? What the fuck, Ms. Reyher? It really couldn’t have been all that difficult to come up with something somewhat relevant. A lot of christians are into modest swimwear, and have no use for bikinis. Oh, and you know, women who happen to be muslim go to the beach, too, and their beach gear is along the same lines as christian modest, perhaps not quite as severe.

I have  no use for Jesus, and I wish all those who yak about that particular god all the time would shut the fuck up, and mind their own business. Once again: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, all based on the same damn books. Same god, different interpretations. I think by now everyone knows that “freedom of speech” is bigot code for “I can’t yell hate speech all over the place without people reacting! Woe is me! I am so persecuted!”

Reyher also questioned the authenticity of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, and subsequently told the Denver Post that “the black community and the Democrats are the most racist group of people that exist,” while also claiming that black people “hate white people with a passion.”

Oh dear. No, black people don’t hate white people with a passion. I might be reaching that point though. White people suck at listening, and they really truly suck at coming to terms with their privilege and sense of entitlement, to everything. If you’re going to go around assuming people of colour hate you, and behave as though they do, you certainly aren’t giving them much reason to consider you kindly.

“I would like to apologize for the comments or posts on Facebook that have been found offensive and racist,” she wrote to the newspaper. “However, the fact of the matter is, I am not a racist. This country was founded by immigrants, and I embrace all Americans, no matter their walk of life. Diversity is what makes America, America.”

Oh yes, you are racist, Ms. Reyher. Very much so. Announced it, actually. This country was already founded and occupied when you all decided to steal it. Oh sure, diversity makes Amerikka, after all, there are just so many shades of white, right?

Via RawStory.

A Double Demon Day.

We’ll go with minor demons today, because Wiles & Wallnau don’t deserve anyone grander. To the left is Ukobach: a demon of an inferior order. He is shown with a flaming or red body, large eyes and ears and often a pan full of coals or a hot poker. He is said to be the inventor of fireworks and the art of frying foods. He is charged by Belzebuth to maintain the “oil in the infernal boilers”, which is made of the blood of the damned, “forged in the west where the sun sets”. To the right is Xaphan: a fallen angel, rebelled with Lucifer, a demon of the 2nd order. He is said to have an inventive mind and came up with the idea to set fire to heaven before he and the other fallen were cast out. He has a bellows as an emblem, but must fan the flames of the abyss with his mouth and hands.

It’s rather interesting that heaven was considered to be flammable. Okay, on with today’s dose of ineffable nonsense. We start with Rick Wiles, who has figured out who is at fault for all those powerful men who sexually assault and harass.

“The left has viciously waged a war against Christianity in America for over 50 years,” he said. “You, the left, you demanded that children not read the Bible in schools. You demanded that nobody in public schools pray to Jesus Christ. You, the left, you demanded the removal of the Christian cross and Ten Commandments from public buildings and town squares and city parks. You, the left, you demanded a godless secular society, void of biblical morality.”

50 years ago is 1967. At that time, I was stuck in catholic school. There was no end of fucking praying, having to go to mass, and of course, having to go to confession three bloody times a week. Christianity in general was still going strong at that time, in spite of no verbal mandatory prayer in public schools. I couldn’t wait to get into a public school. When the time came, there was fight, because it was expected I’d go to Mater Dei HS, but I managed to make my way into a happily public school. I can honestly say that removing mandatory prayer from schools was a great thing. Personal religious beliefs don’t belong in an institution where the aim is to educate. It’s easier having a talk with a stone than it is getting through to you idiotic asses that students can still pray. They can pray all day long, just not out loud. When I was in my public HS, there were student bible studies and the like; they weren’t stopped or stomped on. Crosses and monuments to the 10 commandments don’t need to be in every public building, town square, and city park. FFS, it’s not like people pay attention to them, or bother to obey them much, and that includes christians. You assholes break those things every damn day, and you don’t care about that at all. What you do care about is being able to force all that crap on everyone else. If I want to see that nonsense, I’ll go to a church.

We’re living in a godless, secular society? Where? I’d like to go there. Being void of biblical ‘morality’ is good thing. A very good thing. Have you read that mess? It’s an instruction manual on how to be the very best psychopath you can be. I’ll pass, I have much higher morals than the bible.

Using the news media, the entertainment industry, academia and the internet, Wiles said, the left has “systematically indoctrinated tens of millions of children and teens and young adults to embrace atheism or Eastern religions.”

Goodness me, people using their brains! Yeah, there’s a horror. Choice is not a bad thing. Education is not a bad thing. Being able to communicate easily with people from all over the world can open a person’s mind in wonderful ways. That’s good too. You only ascribe it all to evil because it’s a matter of you losing control.

“You arrogantly mocked on television God-fearing Christians, the Holy Bible and morality,” Wiles said. “You demanded a godless society. Well, you got it. All these allegations of sexual misconduct are the byproduct of your godless society.

Well, there’s so much material to mock. No, we don’t have a godless society, and you damn well know it. But you christians, you can’t manage to breathe without complaining. Sexual assault and harassment are not the byproduct of a godless society (the one we don’t have). You can take a very good look at societies which are truly secular, and they don’t have anywhere near the level of problems we have here in Ustates. Now, it’s beyond fucking wrong to pretend that in the 1950s and 1960s and on that men just didn’t do this sort of thing. They did. There was plenty of harassment, sexual assault, and rape. People had little recourse back then, and that sort of thing was in the “don’t talk about it” category. It’s taken a long time for people to be able to speak out. That does not mean this behaviour is brand new.

When it comes to sexual assault and harassment, there’s been one hell of a lot of christians behind it. Most of the people who did such thing would describe themselves a good, upstanding christians. People still do that sort of shit – Roy Moore. There’s no one who will stand and defend the very worst of behaviour like a white, christian man. Personally, I don’t give a shit about what religion an abuser may or may not embrace; that should not be a focus. Behaviour should be the focus. A great many priests are abusive. Christians get caught with their pants down every other day. Obviously, that biblical morality isn’t so great.

You ripped out of America’s heart her affections for God and His Holy Bible. Why are you now indignant that people are acting like godless heathens?”

America is not a person. To my 60 year old eyes, people are acting like “good christians”. I’ve always been indignant when it comes to sexual abuse. Again, this isn’t new at all. Been going on since forever. What has changed is that people now have the tools to come out about abuse, and they have support in doing so. That still does not make it easy in any way, shape or form. People who come out with sexual abuse are often hounded and harassed, they receive death threats, and much of that shit comes from “good christians”. You have no high horse, Mr. Wiles. Nor do you have a cross, so get yourself down.

Honestly, reading such shit makes me feel the need to take a shower. Moving on to Lance Wallnau, below the fold…

[Read more…]

Nazi Mind Control! Sabbatean Kabbalists! Druids!

Roman soldiers murdering druids and burning their groves on Anglesey, as described by Tacitus. Wiki.

Oh, so much batshit, so little time. Radical right-wing commentator and unhinged crackpot Sheila Zilinsky recently interviewed fellow conspiracy theorist Dr. Ted Broer on her “Weekend Vigilante” podcast, and things got a little…nuts.

After explaining how fluoridation is really a Nazi mind-control program, Broer warned that America has been “duped” by its corrupt and compromised elected representatives.

When I was growing up, fluoridation was a commie plot.

“They have been compromised because of impropriety with money—with wire transfers, with money transfers, et cetera—pedophilia, human sacrifice, satanic sacrifice, adultery, alcoholism, or drug use,” Broer said. “Over 50 percent of Congress—in my opinion, probably closer to 70 percent—has been compromised or is being controlled in one way or the other. Not all of them, but a large percentage of them.”

Let me guess: everyone except the so-called ‘freedom caucus’. Wow, some of those things on that list aren’t like the other things.

“They have basically given control of the government to the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about,” he continued. “They have, in turn, taken this military industrial complex and they have given it over to the CIA. The CIA has given it over to the Sabbatean Kabbalists … These are the Druids, these are the ones that were taught the ancient forms of worship by the fallen angels. These are the bad guys that run the planet and they, in turn, have given over their control to Lucifer to control the energy field around the planet.”

Uhhh, wow. That’s one hell of a mash-up. I think you need to pick your villain and stick with it. Too many villains in the soup, and really, it’s not fair play to blame people who are long dead and had a lot of stupid and nasty stories stuck on them.

“It’s all to control the thoughts and the minds of everybody on the planet,” Broer concluded.

FFS, once more – America is not the world, and we can all be thankful for that. I’d certainly like to know what’s controlling your mind, dude. Those are some serious drugs. I’m tempted to think these people are playing with Belladonna.

Via RWW.

Our Evangelical Government.

From Ralph Drollinger’s September 26, 2017 Bible study for members of Congress.

Serious business, this. The Evangeliholes are pushing like crazy, because that takeover they thought they were assured of isn’t such a certainty now, and they are desperate to grab control and get that Theocalypse up and running. If anything, they are more rabid in their hatred of anything which is a societal good. The Tiny Tyrant doesn’t dare not give them whatever they want, they are the majority power behind him.  This is an in-depth article, which needs to be read in its entirety, I’m just going to grab bits here and there which strike me as particularly scary.

Ralph Drollinger, the Christian nationalist who leads Bible study meetings for members of Trump’s Cabinet and members of Congress, is aggressively seeking to expand his reach in state capitals and local governments as well as overseas. Drollinger teaches that there is one “absolutely critical preeminent duty of the Church in an institutionally separated society: to convert the soul and disciple—Christianize—the leaders of the State and its citizenry.”

That’s blunt enough. How do you deal with that terrible separation of church and state? Force christianity on everyone. And they have the nerve to complain about terrorists.

When we wrote about Drollinger in July, we noted that he teaches that God only hears the prayers of Christians, that Christians in government have an obligation to only hire other Christians, and that social welfare programs are un-Christian. That kind of exclusionary theology and dominionist worldview haven’t gotten Drollinger into any trouble with the Trump administration or his other admirers, and they don’t seem to be slowing his expansion.

A fine example of religious terrorism. People who hold beliefs like this don’t have any moral brakes; as far as they are concerned, the end justifies the means, whatever those means may comprise. They don’t believe in things like empathy or compassion, those are weaknesses, and in any case, only applicable to other christians of their particular zealotry. They believe in compliance, and if compliance comes at the harsh end of force, that’s fine with them. Drollinger also believes in male domination, those women, they aren’t allowed to teach. Bible says so.

In a recorded speech to the Hillsboro, Oregon Prayer Breakfast in October, Drollinger said there are 12 Cabinet members taking part in the weekly White House Bible studies, and about 30 House members and 12 senators taking part in the congressional versions. Drollinger and his Capitol Ministries have big growth plans.

Perry Gauthier, the Nebraska-based North America director for Capitol Ministries, has reportedly traveled to 30 states this year to help reach the organization’s goal of creating 50 Bible studies in 50 state capitals. The group also launched CivicReach, “a ministry that partners with local churches to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to city council members and county commissioners.” Drollinger says there are 40,000 local governments, mostly without “outposts for Christ,” and the project’s goal is to “foster” in local officials “a Christian worldview.”

[…]

In Capitol Ministries’ 2016 annual report, which celebrated the group’s 20th anniversary, several state “ministry leaders” were interviewed. “Lawmakers need to have a biblical core and know that Jesus Christ is the way, the Truth, and the life,” said Mike Shreve of California.

Just want to point out that it doesn’t matter what state you live in – you can’t afford to be smug and assume these folks won’t get anywhere in your state. They are already long there, and they have gotten somewhere. The rot is well set in, and the fungus is spreading.

Price is quoted endorsing the CivicReach project, saying “an aggressive, active, robust Bible study at every single level of governance is exactly what can turn things around.”

Yes, it certainly would, and it would help to further turning UStates into a regressive backwater.

A review of the past few months’ worth of Bible studies confirms that the public officials who attend Capitol Ministries events are being trained in an ideology that claims a biblical basis for right-wing policy making.

In September, Drollinger returned to his attacks on government social spending, which he says is rooted in the “bad theology” of theological liberalism and the social gospel, one of the major strains of Christian thought in the U.S. in the 20th century. While the social gospel gets respectful treatment at the new Museum of the Bible, Drollinger treats it with contempt, saying it is “not Christianity whatsoever! It is another religion!”

That’s not the only place where Drollinger expresses his contempt for liberal Christians. In a Bible study that claims modern archaeology has undermined “the postulations of liberal theologians,” he writes, “It is not the conservative Christian with a high view of the inspiration of Scripture who is the simpleton, who clings to his or her beliefs with blind faith, ignorant and lacking intellectual, scientific, and historical support. Rather, it is the one who espouses a liberal ‘understanding’ of God’s Word.” Drollinger has also defended calling Catholicism “one of the primary false religions in the world.”

Drollinger might be on the ‘catholics are evil’ bandwagon, but I expect he wouldn’t mind borrowing from them a bit: say hello to the new inquisition.

Drollinger writes that it is important for public officials to understand why the social gospel is a “perversion, or a corruption of what the Bible actually teaches.” And if liberal political ideology comes from liberal theology, “then liberal political ideology too (specifically entitlement programs) is lacking in a basis—i.e. any basis of biblical authority.”

[…]

Drollinger follows that with another study entitled “God’s Design for a Societal Safety Net,” which he grounds in a passage from one of Paul’s epistles, a Bible verse that Republican members of Congress have cited as justification for cuts in food stamps: “If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” He cites another letter in which Paul says young widows should not receive charitable help; they should instead get remarried, have children, and keep house. Drollinger says specifically that government should not take care of elderly people when they have relatives like grandchildren who could do so.

[…]

In a study focused on property rights, Drollinger cites Old Testament teachings to support his argument that “God is a Capitalist not a Communist.” And he warns that “as America jettisons its trust in the Torah, it follows that there would be and are increasing threats to, and the erosion of private property ownership,” including excessive environmental regulation.

The bible has no fucking business in government, let alone making policy, but here we are, with toxic sociopathy spreading out all over. Jehovah/Yahweh/El Shaddai/Whatthefuckever is one of the most psychopathic, evil gods ever invented. Drollinger and his henchpeople are fully behind that. They love it, and they want to force that evil on everyone. The bible being what it is, can be conveniently twisted about to support whatever you want, and what these people want is far beyond simply being immoral.

God’s job is to “suppress evil” and “punish evildoers,” Drollinger says, and he argues in a November 21 Bible study that the Bible not only permits but requires the death penalty, particularly for murder: “Fear of the State and its power to execute equal and proportional justice is a necessary force in a fallen world.” He says directly, “as a lawmaker it is incumbent on you to stand for the death penalty relative to the good of the citizens of the country.”

It has been shown, time and time again, that capital punishment is not a deterrent. It can actually make things worse – if someone does something they believe might get them a death penalty, well, they have nothing to lose, do they? As it stands, the prison system in Ustates is a regressive, nightmarish, barbaric monstrosity, which has long been out of control. Other countries have much better prison systems, which focus on rehabilitation. And in many cases, rehabilitation works. Of course, for it to work, you need a stable, secure society, with social safety nets. And, y’know, it it’s Jehovah’s job to “suppress evil” and “punish evildoers”, then let the nasty piece of work get off its ass and do that. I am past sick to death of christians and their “god does this, that, and the other.” That god of yours doesn’t do jack fucking shit.

Drollinger argues for the importance of public officials maintaining what he says is God’s one-man, one-woman design for marriage. In an earlier study, he explained that men and women have different “unambiguous responsibilities” outlined in scripture. For women, those duties are homemaking, home management, mothering, teaching younger women, displaying hospitality, and “differentiating in dress”—for the latter citing 1 Timothy 2:9 which says “I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes” (New International Version). Men’s “primary functions” are providing for the household, leading in the church, leading in the home, sacrificing for and sanctifying his wife, and fathering children into adults. “When America in any way denigrates God’s ordained Institution of husband and wife Marriage,” he writes, “our nation loses one of God’s primary means of heralding His nature to our country!”

Mmm. Drollinger has a quite lenient interpretation of the bible when it comes to him being divorced and remarried. I rather expect he’d also find a way to be surprisingly lenient when it comes to all those fine, upstanding, christian men who engage in sexual harassment and sexual assault. Probably get the same bullshit on the fact that christians have higher rates of cheating and divorce, too.

Drollinger warns lawmakers not to think that there is a legislative fix for racism, which he blames in part on evolutionary theory. While he said in a September Bible study that anti-discrimination laws “have their place and are necessary,” he also declared, “they will never eradicate the problem from society—so don’t think the answer is in more legislation. It is not. The wise public servant will therefore always work toward religious freedom and incentivization of the Church—so that it can best facilitate evangelism and change hearts.”

Oh sure, everyone knows there’s not a drop of bigotry in ‘the church’ or christians anywhere. Nope. :near-fatal eyeroll:

There’s much more to read at RWW, and it’s important reading. This is not something to dismiss.