This week, I was talking with a Trump supporter who claims to be Christian, and I brought up the inhumanity of indiscriminate I.C.E abductions, baseless mass deportations, and unrepentant abuse of immigrants.
Red and yellow, black and white. They are purchasing this site. Jesus loves a little children of the world is what I was taught . am I glad I got out of there
Are you saying that you are glad you got out of believing that Jesus loved the little children, red, and yellow, black, and white, They are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world? Did I misunderstand your statement?
Yeah you must have misinterpreted or maybe I didn't mention it properly. But no, that's what it was when I was growing up. I learned those wonderful values and I have them today but my family 40 years later. They're not abiding by that stuff that I learned when I was younger. So it's it's hypocrisy and it's it's just sad. The transformation is amazing. No I believe I've had a tough life but I believe you know I just have to get it all sorted out because Calvinism is pretty tormenting on your psyche. But yeah thanks for your response
I watched the movie BAD FAITH. There i saw the story more clearly and that this started long ago . Also CALVINISM of all religions.. Is mentioned as a major contributor.
They believe that you are chosen or not.. And it instills fear, anger, and shame in it's teaching... It was definitely an indoctrination I've lived under for 60 years, not after seeing that movie I am FINALLY able to look at that, challenge that and breathe and put on the boots and start my real journey
I agree that he is the perfect representation of who they are. Trump is their god and they cannot separate him from the one and true God. Our God is the antithesis of the false God they worship. I believe that America has always been a perfect haven for white nationalist sentiment. Generations pushed against this but those in power have laid the groundwork for this day. The exceptionalism we lied to ourselves about was really that we never wanted to be a diverse and open country.
As someone once put it, "You know you have made God in your own image when God hates all the same people you hate." To proclaim, sickly and ridiculously, that Trump's vileness has anything to do with "God" is beyond words. As some others here have noted, it's the very idolatry that true Judeo-Christian religion condemns. The blindness and hypocrisy in all this Trump worship, among the evangelical fake-Christians, is just astounding. Do they "know not what they do," or do they know perfectly well what they're doing and are just choosing evil, because, well, they never were Christian (Jesus-followers) at all.
I didn't recognize them anymore.. That have crossed over into another dimension...I told my sister once that the more fact that she used to love me and now I'm her enemy should tell her something about the path she is on.... Nothing
I completely understand. In 2020, my sister in law said to me on FB, “screw you and everyone who hates Trump”.
That was the day I left FB in hopes of salvaging our relationship. Sadly, her views have only gotten worse and now we barely speak. That is the real tragedy of the cult.
I went through that with my only sibling (sister) back in the late 90s before MAGA was a thing. She threatened to disown me and I called her bluff. We've barely spoken since then. I've seen people who I thought were strong in their faith become rabidly hateful.
Losing my 97 year old HEALTHY living on her own, driving , mother whom I share my birthday with in 2 weeks because she would rather cast me aside and cling to this instead for her last days on earth.... Is Major distressing
So true! Do we feel sympathy for those others because they "know not what they do," or do we simply refuse to associate with them? Honestly, I think John said it best in his post: "They have chosen to abandon any sense of truthfulness, in favor of the most convenient lie available that ratifies their desired narrative about those they harbor prejudice for." And in that sense, I've always said it - the people who voted Trump in are scarier than the man himself. We are still so very very racist. My real fear is, even if we totally dismantle democracy in America, if we have to live in a fascist regime for a number of years, and if we some how come out on the other end ready to re-build a democratic nation, we still have that history, the only history we know, of racism, we will re-build the nation on racism again?
My feelings towards them and for them changes just evolve. It's like going through a death you know grieving because some points you're really angry. Some points you want to fake them and other points. You're just truly sad that a devout Christian can do about turn to face. It is truly scary so I do have a little bit of compassion I guess and worry
I was raised on hellfire and damnation. As an adult, I started rejecting that in favor of mercy and grace. While many of these folks are quick to invoke the Bible as infallible, they spend an ungodly amount of energy picking and choosing what they do and do not apply to their lives... and the lives of others. Hypocrisy runs rampant in the church and they have proven themselves to be some of the least self-aware people on the planet. I have reached a point in my faith journey where the letters in red are the focus. These are the words of Jesus, Who is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus did not judge and He told us not to. He showed mercy, love and grace to every person He encountered and His only conflict was with the religious leaders of His day. We are called to imitate Him and live as He did with those around us, loving our neighbor as our selves and being constantly reminded that our neighbor is literally anyone and everyone we meet every moment of every day. The Bible speaks to the fact that God raises up leaders and that He does so sometimes to bless a nation and other times to judge a nation. While the christo-fascist Bible-beaters are convinced that Trump was chosen by God to bless the nation, I believe that Trump was appointed for judgment. To have 70 to 80 percent of evangelicals vote repeatedly for Trump looks suspiciously like apostasy to me. Were Trump a Godly man or even a good and wise one, I might feel differently, but the man literally has not even a single redeeming quality. He is not a Godly leader and he is bringing nothing but judgment and destruction to this country. The fact that his cult cannot see this speaks to the depths of their depravity on a deeply personal level. Jesus was clear when He said that there will be those who say "Lord, Lord, look at what we did in Your name." and He will cast them out as evildoers. He was talking about religious people whose hearts are evil, those who neglected the poor and the naked and the hungry and the widow and the oppressed and the immigrant. Sounds like Trump's cult to me...
Amen & amen. It is so nice to see other Christians who believe as I do. I left the formal church years ago when my Christian friends did not care that my self-employed children did not have access to health care. But my faith is strong. Surely God will help us find a way out of this without total destruction.
The twisting and turning of their Bible verse "justifications"and hypocrisy got so bad that I turned away entirely. I'm definitely a "none" in the truest sense.
Same. You are correct about self awareness and introspect. They mock me for all my years of therapy and trying to improve my self and outlook.. Uphill battle for sure BECAUSE of that CALVINISM. Sometime s I think I'm TOO AWARE.
Remember the saying about how the Devil's greatest accomplishment is convincing people that evil does not exist? I firmly believe the Orange Man and his cabal have sold their souls to the Devil. And he has managed to convince so many of the "justice" of cruelty and that somehow they DESERVE better than the guy next door. I don't know what mental pretzels they have to contort themselves into to justify their support for this vile human and all his sick enablers, but they obviously manage. But I do believe karma does ultimately work - if not in this life, than in the next. Eventually, they will have to answer for their cruelty.
I just have to ask - who told them Trump is the anti-Christ? It seems like a Christian conspiracy that promoted him that way. They chose him. He isn't a "chosen one."
But doesn't the Bible warn the Christians about the Antichrist in that people will be fooled and actually pulled away from their belief or system and walk down an entirely different path, and that they would want to avoid that? I mean, isn't that what the Bible says? The Bible doesn't say follow him. Does it say by following him that will bring torment to the rest of the people that still believe in Christ? Which would be us? So we're up for persecution, but? My mother says Trump has been so persecuted. Poor baby... When all my life she has told me to forget about it, get on with it, telling me always that everything must be my fault or wrong doing. Mind-boggling. Yet for this vile creature... He has done no wrong???????
He is chosen alright and these far right power hungry folk have jettisoned all the teachings of the faith for power including the leaders of their congregations who aid and abet the white "christian" nationalism that governs their lives. It is choosing to wear blinders and see only those you want to see. His immorality, lies, delusions would have been abhorrent even in the 1990s and early 2000s. Now they accept this flawed and sick man as their messianic savior. It is really sad that have exchanged the Jesus of the Gospel for a reprehensible man who is really their idol. The golden calf of the far right. Or as some have said, they have all drunk the Kool Aid. It is a cult not a faith based on a holy book but on the power they believe this man will give them.
I don't believe in an isolated "being" named Satan but I would say that Donald Trump and the people surrounding him represent all that is evil in human consciousness. They forget that Jesus his teachings could be summed up in the words "Love one another." They are suffering from mass brain washing thanks to a concerted effort over the last 50 years by the evangelical "christian" right. Hate transformed into mass blindness. Thank you for your messages.
I could be incorrect but my understanding of who Satan is, is that he was originally an angel in the heavens with the name Lucifer until he he believed he could have more power than God. Spiritual warfare ensued, God won, he was stripped of his angelic name Lucifer and given the name Satan, then dismissed from the heavens. Satan is alive and "well" on Earth doing as much evil and deception as he can until Christ returns.
Pretending that”God”has ordained this is a very transparent admission of not wanting to take responsibility for anything. These people are scared to admit that they, not God could have caused all this hate against diversity. Stop blaming others and admit your ugliness. We see it… take a look in the mirror.
What interesting timing. This subject has been totally on my mind for the last 2 days.
My sister (both in our 70’s & her widowed last June) after a sad split over Christmas now pretended for my 92 yo mother. But it’s all on the surface, too much has been said. We are both convinced that truth & God are on our side. I feel facts and evidence are on my side. But sadly it won’t be ‘I told you so’ when she gets it. If she ever gets it, it will just be too late. Nothing short of a holocaust will convince her & her family that Trump is not an honorable man. I’ll NEVER understand. I have prayed for years, God PLEASE open the eyes of your people.
Anyone else ever notice how many times the scriptures say that God blocked people from seeing?
That's what's so bad is because I left the church and my mother always said I rebelled and she's been a god-fearing woman all her life and I think the part that's sad is they're lost. They may miss the mark if there is one
No matter how tightly they wrap themselves in the Christian flag, it will never be enough to cleanse them of their abject cruelty.
Christian conservatives have abandoned not only Jesus's principles, but also the "law and order" they once effectively used as a cudgel to pummel Democrats. The lawless and loveless liberals in their telling.
Well, look who's on the side of the criminals now? trump's lawless gang is tearing down government agencies established by Congress, human trafficking immigrants to a foreign country without due process, and helping themselves to the spoils.
And they have the unmitigated gall to lay this on God? FFS.
Does God put out a news bulletin that I've missed? How do they know that God chose the most corrupt and sociopathic piece of pond scum?
Exactly my question. How is this mass delusion so well coordinated?
And are they redacting the forbidden “DEI” words from the Sunday School lessons, the hymns, and the version of the Bible they use?
Red and yellow, black and white. They are purchasing this site. Jesus loves a little children of the world is what I was taught . am I glad I got out of there
Are you saying that you are glad you got out of believing that Jesus loved the little children, red, and yellow, black, and white, They are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world? Did I misunderstand your statement?
Yeah you must have misinterpreted or maybe I didn't mention it properly. But no, that's what it was when I was growing up. I learned those wonderful values and I have them today but my family 40 years later. They're not abiding by that stuff that I learned when I was younger. So it's it's hypocrisy and it's it's just sad. The transformation is amazing. No I believe I've had a tough life but I believe you know I just have to get it all sorted out because Calvinism is pretty tormenting on your psyche. But yeah thanks for your response
Probably like the 100th monkey theory. A couple false prophets and bingo--here we are.
I watched the movie BAD FAITH. There i saw the story more clearly and that this started long ago . Also CALVINISM of all religions.. Is mentioned as a major contributor.
They believe that you are chosen or not.. And it instills fear, anger, and shame in it's teaching... It was definitely an indoctrination I've lived under for 60 years, not after seeing that movie I am FINALLY able to look at that, challenge that and breathe and put on the boots and start my real journey
We were sick that day. We did not get the memo
I agree that he is the perfect representation of who they are. Trump is their god and they cannot separate him from the one and true God. Our God is the antithesis of the false God they worship. I believe that America has always been a perfect haven for white nationalist sentiment. Generations pushed against this but those in power have laid the groundwork for this day. The exceptionalism we lied to ourselves about was really that we never wanted to be a diverse and open country.
Sadly, you're right.
As someone once put it, "You know you have made God in your own image when God hates all the same people you hate." To proclaim, sickly and ridiculously, that Trump's vileness has anything to do with "God" is beyond words. As some others here have noted, it's the very idolatry that true Judeo-Christian religion condemns. The blindness and hypocrisy in all this Trump worship, among the evangelical fake-Christians, is just astounding. Do they "know not what they do," or do they know perfectly well what they're doing and are just choosing evil, because, well, they never were Christian (Jesus-followers) at all.
I didn't recognize them anymore.. That have crossed over into another dimension...I told my sister once that the more fact that she used to love me and now I'm her enemy should tell her something about the path she is on.... Nothing
I completely understand. In 2020, my sister in law said to me on FB, “screw you and everyone who hates Trump”.
That was the day I left FB in hopes of salvaging our relationship. Sadly, her views have only gotten worse and now we barely speak. That is the real tragedy of the cult.
I went through that with my only sibling (sister) back in the late 90s before MAGA was a thing. She threatened to disown me and I called her bluff. We've barely spoken since then. I've seen people who I thought were strong in their faith become rabidly hateful.
Sorry you have had to go through that. Sadly, there are many stories like yours.
SMH
I understand. It’s very, very sad to loose a sister or anyone you love because of this.
Losing my 97 year old HEALTHY living on her own, driving , mother whom I share my birthday with in 2 weeks because she would rather cast me aside and cling to this instead for her last days on earth.... Is Major distressing
So true! Do we feel sympathy for those others because they "know not what they do," or do we simply refuse to associate with them? Honestly, I think John said it best in his post: "They have chosen to abandon any sense of truthfulness, in favor of the most convenient lie available that ratifies their desired narrative about those they harbor prejudice for." And in that sense, I've always said it - the people who voted Trump in are scarier than the man himself. We are still so very very racist. My real fear is, even if we totally dismantle democracy in America, if we have to live in a fascist regime for a number of years, and if we some how come out on the other end ready to re-build a democratic nation, we still have that history, the only history we know, of racism, we will re-build the nation on racism again?
My feelings towards them and for them changes just evolve. It's like going through a death you know grieving because some points you're really angry. Some points you want to fake them and other points. You're just truly sad that a devout Christian can do about turn to face. It is truly scary so I do have a little bit of compassion I guess and worry
Simply blind and deaf 😭
I was raised on hellfire and damnation. As an adult, I started rejecting that in favor of mercy and grace. While many of these folks are quick to invoke the Bible as infallible, they spend an ungodly amount of energy picking and choosing what they do and do not apply to their lives... and the lives of others. Hypocrisy runs rampant in the church and they have proven themselves to be some of the least self-aware people on the planet. I have reached a point in my faith journey where the letters in red are the focus. These are the words of Jesus, Who is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus did not judge and He told us not to. He showed mercy, love and grace to every person He encountered and His only conflict was with the religious leaders of His day. We are called to imitate Him and live as He did with those around us, loving our neighbor as our selves and being constantly reminded that our neighbor is literally anyone and everyone we meet every moment of every day. The Bible speaks to the fact that God raises up leaders and that He does so sometimes to bless a nation and other times to judge a nation. While the christo-fascist Bible-beaters are convinced that Trump was chosen by God to bless the nation, I believe that Trump was appointed for judgment. To have 70 to 80 percent of evangelicals vote repeatedly for Trump looks suspiciously like apostasy to me. Were Trump a Godly man or even a good and wise one, I might feel differently, but the man literally has not even a single redeeming quality. He is not a Godly leader and he is bringing nothing but judgment and destruction to this country. The fact that his cult cannot see this speaks to the depths of their depravity on a deeply personal level. Jesus was clear when He said that there will be those who say "Lord, Lord, look at what we did in Your name." and He will cast them out as evildoers. He was talking about religious people whose hearts are evil, those who neglected the poor and the naked and the hungry and the widow and the oppressed and the immigrant. Sounds like Trump's cult to me...
Amen & amen. It is so nice to see other Christians who believe as I do. I left the formal church years ago when my Christian friends did not care that my self-employed children did not have access to health care. But my faith is strong. Surely God will help us find a way out of this without total destruction.
The twisting and turning of their Bible verse "justifications"and hypocrisy got so bad that I turned away entirely. I'm definitely a "none" in the truest sense.
I grew up in hypocrisy. I was singled out of five kids and look at us now. I got out. They didn't. They're all following my mother the matriarch. Wow!
Same. You are correct about self awareness and introspect. They mock me for all my years of therapy and trying to improve my self and outlook.. Uphill battle for sure BECAUSE of that CALVINISM. Sometime s I think I'm TOO AWARE.
Very well put. Thank you.
Love this, John. Thank you.
Remember the saying about how the Devil's greatest accomplishment is convincing people that evil does not exist? I firmly believe the Orange Man and his cabal have sold their souls to the Devil. And he has managed to convince so many of the "justice" of cruelty and that somehow they DESERVE better than the guy next door. I don't know what mental pretzels they have to contort themselves into to justify their support for this vile human and all his sick enablers, but they obviously manage. But I do believe karma does ultimately work - if not in this life, than in the next. Eventually, they will have to answer for their cruelty.
They believe in an anti-Christ and they have chosen him
I just have to ask - who told them Trump is the anti-Christ? It seems like a Christian conspiracy that promoted him that way. They chose him. He isn't a "chosen one."
Exactly
Self fulfilling prophecy.
But doesn't the Bible warn the Christians about the Antichrist in that people will be fooled and actually pulled away from their belief or system and walk down an entirely different path, and that they would want to avoid that? I mean, isn't that what the Bible says? The Bible doesn't say follow him. Does it say by following him that will bring torment to the rest of the people that still believe in Christ? Which would be us? So we're up for persecution, but? My mother says Trump has been so persecuted. Poor baby... When all my life she has told me to forget about it, get on with it, telling me always that everything must be my fault or wrong doing. Mind-boggling. Yet for this vile creature... He has done no wrong???????
The Bible does warn and people are fooled whih makes the rest of us sad wjen they are our friends and relatives.
It is not only Christians. i am a jew and the most observant of my faith have chosen him
Sad
Very much agree with Mr. Schmidt. I know Canada is not perfect but they seem a whole lot more the path to a democracy for all than the USA
Oops… Mr. Pavlovitz! Sorry
Reading too many Substack posts can do that to you. 😎
He is chosen alright and these far right power hungry folk have jettisoned all the teachings of the faith for power including the leaders of their congregations who aid and abet the white "christian" nationalism that governs their lives. It is choosing to wear blinders and see only those you want to see. His immorality, lies, delusions would have been abhorrent even in the 1990s and early 2000s. Now they accept this flawed and sick man as their messianic savior. It is really sad that have exchanged the Jesus of the Gospel for a reprehensible man who is really their idol. The golden calf of the far right. Or as some have said, they have all drunk the Kool Aid. It is a cult not a faith based on a holy book but on the power they believe this man will give them.
I don't believe in an isolated "being" named Satan but I would say that Donald Trump and the people surrounding him represent all that is evil in human consciousness. They forget that Jesus his teachings could be summed up in the words "Love one another." They are suffering from mass brain washing thanks to a concerted effort over the last 50 years by the evangelical "christian" right. Hate transformed into mass blindness. Thank you for your messages.
I could be incorrect but my understanding of who Satan is, is that he was originally an angel in the heavens with the name Lucifer until he he believed he could have more power than God. Spiritual warfare ensued, God won, he was stripped of his angelic name Lucifer and given the name Satan, then dismissed from the heavens. Satan is alive and "well" on Earth doing as much evil and deception as he can until Christ returns.
I believe you are correct. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted by Satan and that Satan entered Judas. Satan does exist.
As my mother's 97th and my 62nd birthday is rounding the corner near us, we will not be spending it together. It's just truly sad
I am sorry.
Thank you
Bless you, I totally understand.
Thank you
Pretending that”God”has ordained this is a very transparent admission of not wanting to take responsibility for anything. These people are scared to admit that they, not God could have caused all this hate against diversity. Stop blaming others and admit your ugliness. We see it… take a look in the mirror.
They believe they are saved by faith alone not works.. That is all forgiven and by the way they are the chosen so they are IN?
What interesting timing. This subject has been totally on my mind for the last 2 days.
My sister (both in our 70’s & her widowed last June) after a sad split over Christmas now pretended for my 92 yo mother. But it’s all on the surface, too much has been said. We are both convinced that truth & God are on our side. I feel facts and evidence are on my side. But sadly it won’t be ‘I told you so’ when she gets it. If she ever gets it, it will just be too late. Nothing short of a holocaust will convince her & her family that Trump is not an honorable man. I’ll NEVER understand. I have prayed for years, God PLEASE open the eyes of your people.
Anyone else ever notice how many times the scriptures say that God blocked people from seeing?
That’s a part of scripture I have trouble with. Why would a loving God block people’s eyes from seeing?
I view it as God saying to them, "You're choosing to be blind, so have at it. Be as totally blind as you really want to be."
I like that explanation. It fits the examples in my family & friends. As we pray for God to guide this mess we’re in, free will is the hardest part.
So focusing on my own journey with God instead of overly judging others is my daily battle especially in these days.
That's what's so bad is because I left the church and my mother always said I rebelled and she's been a god-fearing woman all her life and I think the part that's sad is they're lost. They may miss the mark if there is one
No matter how tightly they wrap themselves in the Christian flag, it will never be enough to cleanse them of their abject cruelty.
Christian conservatives have abandoned not only Jesus's principles, but also the "law and order" they once effectively used as a cudgel to pummel Democrats. The lawless and loveless liberals in their telling.
Well, look who's on the side of the criminals now? trump's lawless gang is tearing down government agencies established by Congress, human trafficking immigrants to a foreign country without due process, and helping themselves to the spoils.
And they have the unmitigated gall to lay this on God? FFS.
A very sad but true reality. Lost souls🙏🏻