Photo: thedailybeast.com
There’s no way to sugarcoat what I have to say about religion. Organized religion. I am fully aware of the pros and cons. I am cognizant not every place of worship ought to be painted with the broad brush I am about to unleash. Many a wonderful human participates in some type of god-worshipping.
I’ve described myself as the son of god-worshippers — one an actual member of the clergy — many times in my past writings. The role religion played in my upbringing was significant and sustained for two decades. The lessons continue to measure my course and embroider my days.
I’ve already mentioned I attended church service every Sunday I lived under my parents’ roof. I attended special church events. I ate the figurative body of Christ and I drank the figurative blood of Christ. I sang Christian hymns gladly and boisterously next to my mother.
Confident that she would drown my voice out.
I took Confirmation and — I assume — I must have passed muster. I was baptized. I was circumcised. Not in that order.
When Jesus Christ Superstar — the hip rock opera from the 60s/70s — came out, I listened to it over and over and over. If you were eavesdropping my bedroom during that time period, you would swear I was born-again. I knew all of the lyrics.
Like most Christian males, there was a time period when I wondered if I might be the Second Coming. How was I to know? Who knew when one of the ubiquitous Gold Queen standard suburban landscaping bushes might spontaneously combust and announce that I was the Son of God? Who knew when I might be called on to die for society’s sins?
I don’t know how long that time period lasted but it was not a fleeting moment.
All of this to say, I am no stranger to the siren call of organized religion. I am not the product of a pair of atheists or secularists or humanists. I am not the inevitable outcome of a couple of “woke” college professors. I have arrived at my opinion of organized religion honestly.
Back before America was America, Northern European immigrants fled their homelands in an effort to escape religious persecution. This is American History 101. Our ancestors wanted to practice the religion of their choosing. Later on, they went to some trouble establishing the separation of Church and State. It was not a slam dunk because everyone wants to believe their beliefs are the only true beliefs but — after much gnashing of teeth and sweating beneath wigs — the founders of the new world’s government agreed there would not be a national, state-sanctioned religion. The inhabitants of this new country would be allowed to practice their own religion or practice no religion.
Hallelujah!
In theory.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Jeff Tiedrich said this in his column today which was prompted by the Alabama Supreme Court Justice who obviously slept through American History 101, and another class that might have been helpful considering his degree of choice, Interpreting The Constitution for Dummies. Jeff’s comment put me over the top, even though I had finished my third mug of — as always — strong coffee:
this is why the evangelicals lined up behind a twice-divorced pussy-grabbing rapist. they knew he could be flattered, cajoled and manipulated into embracing their entire christofascist agenda. - Jeff Tiedrich
It makes so much more sense now.
One of my high school classmates grew up to be one of those powerful evangelical ministers who stumped and defended Trmp relentlessly. Circled around him in the Oval Office and ACTED like he WAS the Second Coming. My former classmate turned Trmp toady leads one of the largest evangelical congregations in the country and he enthusiastically threw his support for the pussygrabber-in-chief early on in his first term.
Never has the saying “the end justifies the means” been more suited to the circumstances. Never has a man so far from being Christian been so embraced by those who purport to follow the teachings of the “son” of their “god”.
Religious fundamentalists, those whose hands grip the levers of power, Ivy League/Wall Street/K Street capitalists ALL see clearly who Tr*mp is. They always have.
They don’t care. He’s their means to an end. They will follow him to ends of the earth because they believe he will usher in the resounding end to — what they consider to be — the over indulgences of the 60s cultural revolution.
A Tr*mp administration will stand aside and allow ALL of their authoritarian impulses to rise to the fore. It’s happening anyway, though in fits and starts. It’s happening despite a majority of voters in red states, swing states and blue states rejecting the authoritarian playbook every time they have an opportunity to vote on it. It’s happening because fanaticism of all kinds has been given a green light.
Y’all, The Handmaid’s Tale was a novel — fiction — by Margaret Atwood. You may have been able to stomach watching the television series. I couldn’t.
But, you must admit, the war on women is real.
I forewarned y’all about Project 2025. The authoritarian blueprint for the next right-wing administration. You should also be fully aware of the Seven Mountains Mandate. The IVF ruling in Alabama sprung from this line of thought. The rolling back of Roe v. Wade. The drive to criminalize the morning after pill.
It’s classic Christianity run amok.
Here are the seven “mountains” to be transformed, according to the seven mountain mandate:
1) Education
2) Religion
3) Family
4) Business
5) Government/Military
6) Arts/Entertainment
7) MediaThese seven sectors of society are thought to mold the way everyone thinks and behaves. So, to tackle societal change, these seven “mountains” must be transformed. The mountains are also referred to as “pillars,” “shapers,” “molders,” and “spheres.” Those who follow the seven mountain mandate speak of “occupying” the mountains, “invading” the culture, and “transforming” or “taking back” society.
Some teachers of the seven mountain mandate use Isaiah 2:2, which mentions mountains, to support their view: “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.”
You might want to note the 7 aspects of society they want dominion over are — every — aspect of society. As horrifying as that is, I am confident the purveyors of this horseshit will be welcoming to all those “others” who do not profess a love of Jesus.
By the way, this dominionist attitude from Christians is not new.
Genesis 1:26-28
King James Version
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
It’s easy to see why animal rights has made so little headway all these years.
The scary thing about the emergence of the Seven Mountains Mandate is how easily it folds into the Project 2025 rubbish and how alluring it is for those who want power.
I am of the belief that organized religion — not small “c” christians, not those who just want to practice their beliefs and not proselytize or power-grab — is at the core of much of the planet’s ills.
I fear their lust to dominate and their desire for all of their prophecies to come to pass.
I fear how they bend words from centuries ago to do their bidding.
I fear their embrace of hypocrisy as a means to an end.
I fear their appeal to people who long for community and who will overlook lunacy because of a need to belong.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is a Seven Mountains Mandate evangelist. He invited a minister to give the opening prayer to the House of Representatives on January 30th which elicited this letter from Democrats (whom I’m sure all have professed their love of religion because — otherwise — you would not be in Congress. Like college athletes who are probably encouraged by their agents to thank God for every little thing — but I digress):
According to the letter, signed by more than two dozen Democrats, Pastor Jack Hibbs promoted Donald Trump's 2020 election fraud lies "and inflamed his followers by preaching that Jan. 6th would go down in history alongside the War of Independence and the War of 1812.
He was invited as guest chaplain to give the opening prayer to the House on January 30.
"By preaching that God has anointed the Trump administration and could still intercede to save Trump's presidency on Jan. 6th, Hibbs advanced a religious permission structure that led to violence by those who believed any means were justified to carry out what they viewed as God's plan," the letter stated.
The allegations continue: "On Jan. 6, Hibbs attended the MAGA rally at the Ellipse that preceded the attack. Immediately after the sacking of the Capitol, he went on Tony Perkins' 'Washington Week' program to tacitly justify what had just happened by repeating the lie that the election was 'manipulated' and claiming: 'This is what you get when you eject God from the courts and from the schools' and teach children they are 'evolutionary byproducts.'"
The authors also cited past comments Hibbs made calling transgender people part of a "sexually perverted cult" who are in "violation of the word and will of God" and part of an "anti-God, anti-Christ plan of none other than Satan himself."
How about this is what you get when you inject God into the courts?
There.
I fixed it for “Pastor” Jack Hibbs.
I’d never heard of Jack Hibbs until I started this rant. I’m hoping I’ll never hear about him again. Here’s his website. It’s his goddamn name. Somebody should have bought it out from under him but — sadly — hindsight — once again — is 20/20.
He looks like someone who would sell you a car without a motor. And then convince you the motor was “extra”.
He puts the smarmy back in smarmy.
He is a handsome devil though. I’ll give him that.
The original Billy Graham convinced people he could heal them through their television sets. All they had to do was palm the screen. However, he made sure they realized it wouldn’t work until they’d sent him some money.
As far as I am concerned, religious charlatans deserve a special place in hell. This guy’s website reeks of a certain money-grubbing charlatanism. After all, the fastest way to becoming a millionaire in America is to start a religion.
Photo lifestreamnetworks.com
Presidents ranked worst to first. This is a slightly older list than one I recently heard about. Tr*mp was dead last in the latest list. In this one I found on CBS News he was third to last.
In both, Tr*mp ranked worse than William H. Harrison who only inhabited the office for 32 days. A president, who barely had time to get his bearings in the White House and figure out where to find the closest bathroom, outranked Herr Pumpkinführer!
Of course, Biden and Obama trounced him on both lists.
Sad! All this winning is tiring.
TING SHEN/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Joe was about 24 slots higher in the ranks than The Man Who Would Be Dictator on Day One.