I will never understand how we got here. I have family members who are one-issue voters (abortion) but I don’t get ignoring the hateful rhetoric and anti-democracy policies for that one issue.
John and Jalane, I agree with both of you. I also have family members who have been totally brainwashed about abortion. Totally. EVEN Trump is just fine because he has an R after his name. It is insane, truly insane.
John, every thing you mentioned today was what I also thought was the base line for my fellow citizens. I was obviously wrong. It had caused a major crisis of faith for me. I am still a Christian, an “evangelical” one at that, and still barely a Baptist, of the Jimmy Carter variety, NOT Mike Johnson perversion, but to see this sickness is soul crushing. I am old enough to have voted for Carter twice and would again.
Thank you for your voice. Keep using it for good and right and freedom and justice and kindness and humanity not the cruelty and vulgarity and evil that is ascendant in the church and elsewhere today. God help us and God have mercy on this country. We deserve his divine retribution for this abomination.
I have never been much for “end times” hysteria, or for Antichrist talk, but I swear, Trump surely seems to fit the bill……..being born in 1953, I would never have dreamed in a million years this country would have descended into such madness……
And the anti-abortion loonies are often men. Well, pay for your seed ! Don’t have one….. your choice. Leave my choices alone. To support anything done in the MAGA barnyard is evil and terrifying. Don’t let these sad sacks get away with this.
Me. too. As long as he's against abortion there is absolutely no crime he has or would commit that would make any difference. I can't fathom how abortion has become such a GIGANTIC issue to evangelicals. But I do know it began with a GOP operative. A film shown through KINEMA entitled "True Believer," tells the personal story of the producer, her deconstruction from evangelism along with her mother who was an enabler of misogynistic Christian evangelism, and the history of how the anti-abortion crowd came to the forefront. I believe KINEMA is offering the film on your computer on October 29th. I'll include the information here:
A One-Night Streaming Event: Help Us Make True Believer Available to ALL Before the Election!
True Believer, a new feature documentary touring the US
As her faith community betrays the Jesus they taught her to love, an evangelical filmmaker reckons with the ‘pro-life’ political identity she built her life on, and that threatens our very Democracy.
This topic has been a heavy one for so many. I think about it daily as more yard signs are going up in front of houses of folks I truly thought were decent. I now feel so hypocritical of having any type of "relationship" with them simply because of what I personally stand for, honesty, ethics, empathy, and equality. It can be really difficult to seek out the positivity in these times, but John's writing does bring hope that there are more people with a moral compass than without.
I have many neighbors whom I consider to be decent people, but some, I am sure, who have been misguided by Trump and his toadies. Trouble is, I haven't figured out which ones I may be able to speak with about these issues without alienating them completely. This disease will take a generation to root out, and an unbiased education in civics and ethics will be key to this.
I think that too many people have not learned enough about World War II in the last few decades. I don’t think they touch on it in school and history classes often don‘t touch on it as they spend so much time on the 18th century. In fact they call it Social Studies now! Too many people romanticize the Nazis !
I find it amusing and infuriating that I, as an atheist, am told I am without morals because I don’t believe in a supernatural being, but those who beat the bible and pontificate about how religious they are, are the ones who violate basic morality. My father was a bomber pilot in WWII, one of the lucky ones who survived. I am glad he is not here to witness our descent into fascism.
John, I agree with you and am deeply concerned about the way this reptilian in human form has deceived such a swath of humanity with his guile! How do people blindly set aside the depth of his treachery in twenty different ways when they go to support him? The only other true thing from him that I can think of, is his claim of how easy it is for him to sucker ordinary people with his lies! There is no bottom for his calumny!
I blame the patriarchal construct of religion. None of what Jesus was all about has trickled down to today's charlatan conglomerates that exist to collect money, not pay taxes and impose their puritanical beliefs on everyone, and on women in particular.
Being a blue dot in a rural red area, I've seen the slide, pretty much a marriage of twisted "Christianity" & political power. They are what I'll call a CINO (Christian in name only).
I too have contemplated this cataclysmic event, how a once thought moral society can be swayed so easily to abandon one’s principles towards a pathway to an abyss of hypocrisy and cruelty. I keep coming to the same conclusion, gullible stupidity believing the lies of their leadership who are only concerned about holding on to power for personal gain. Facts be damned, along with the ones that buy into their mantras, even though the leadership knows what they’re doing. It’s truly evil personified. With all the lies being force fed to them on an hourly basis on Faux News, it’s no wonder why they’ve become Manchurian candidates against democracy.
Unfortunately there are a lot of deeply hateful racists in our country. Their lack of eduction, critical thinking and compassion for others has turned their grievences into what they think is attainable retribution with bowing to their cult leader. The Trump cultists are all for the fascist regime because they literally cannot see past their own fears and hatred.
We were warned by Jesus that this would happen. False prophets whose lies will lead their followers into darkness.
We are witnessing the statements of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago made manifest.
The false prophet and his accolades are twisting the words of the Bible for their own very earthly purposes.
We are watching people we love and those we thought we knew follow lies that make no sense to us.
It was foretold by The Almighty.
Some can be saved, others will go over the cliff like the pigs Jesus sent the demons into when He freed the human suffering from them.
President Eisenhower put In God We Trust on our currency and over the Dias in the House. The one the “shaman” stood on when the January 6 crowd broke through the police line.
Remember the lambs blood over the doors of the Hebrews - Eisenhower had just defeated Hitler.
I had a NDE - we are all Messengers - that is the message I have been receiving for years. Others have been getting similar versions of the same message. One way or another God has this.
I will never understand how we got here. I have family members who are one-issue voters (abortion) but I don’t get ignoring the hateful rhetoric and anti-democracy policies for that one issue.
John and Jalane, I agree with both of you. I also have family members who have been totally brainwashed about abortion. Totally. EVEN Trump is just fine because he has an R after his name. It is insane, truly insane.
John, every thing you mentioned today was what I also thought was the base line for my fellow citizens. I was obviously wrong. It had caused a major crisis of faith for me. I am still a Christian, an “evangelical” one at that, and still barely a Baptist, of the Jimmy Carter variety, NOT Mike Johnson perversion, but to see this sickness is soul crushing. I am old enough to have voted for Carter twice and would again.
Thank you for your voice. Keep using it for good and right and freedom and justice and kindness and humanity not the cruelty and vulgarity and evil that is ascendant in the church and elsewhere today. God help us and God have mercy on this country. We deserve his divine retribution for this abomination.
I have never been much for “end times” hysteria, or for Antichrist talk, but I swear, Trump surely seems to fit the bill……..being born in 1953, I would never have dreamed in a million years this country would have descended into such madness……
Fellow evangelical ..... my faith in God still holds....not as much for my fellow Christians.
And the anti-abortion loonies are often men. Well, pay for your seed ! Don’t have one….. your choice. Leave my choices alone. To support anything done in the MAGA barnyard is evil and terrifying. Don’t let these sad sacks get away with this.
Me. too. As long as he's against abortion there is absolutely no crime he has or would commit that would make any difference. I can't fathom how abortion has become such a GIGANTIC issue to evangelicals. But I do know it began with a GOP operative. A film shown through KINEMA entitled "True Believer," tells the personal story of the producer, her deconstruction from evangelism along with her mother who was an enabler of misogynistic Christian evangelism, and the history of how the anti-abortion crowd came to the forefront. I believe KINEMA is offering the film on your computer on October 29th. I'll include the information here:
A One-Night Streaming Event: Help Us Make True Believer Available to ALL Before the Election!
True Believer, a new feature documentary touring the US
As her faith community betrays the Jesus they taught her to love, an evangelical filmmaker reckons with the ‘pro-life’ political identity she built her life on, and that threatens our very Democracy.
A Virtual Screening & Reproductive Justice Rally on October 29th, Exactly One Week Before Election Day! https://kinema.com/events/true-believer-ixr5uy
Thank you!!
This topic has been a heavy one for so many. I think about it daily as more yard signs are going up in front of houses of folks I truly thought were decent. I now feel so hypocritical of having any type of "relationship" with them simply because of what I personally stand for, honesty, ethics, empathy, and equality. It can be really difficult to seek out the positivity in these times, but John's writing does bring hope that there are more people with a moral compass than without.
I have many neighbors whom I consider to be decent people, but some, I am sure, who have been misguided by Trump and his toadies. Trouble is, I haven't figured out which ones I may be able to speak with about these issues without alienating them completely. This disease will take a generation to root out, and an unbiased education in civics and ethics will be key to this.
Unfortunately many don’t want that education - which may be partly how we got here.
I think that too many people have not learned enough about World War II in the last few decades. I don’t think they touch on it in school and history classes often don‘t touch on it as they spend so much time on the 18th century. In fact they call it Social Studies now! Too many people romanticize the Nazis !
I find it amusing and infuriating that I, as an atheist, am told I am without morals because I don’t believe in a supernatural being, but those who beat the bible and pontificate about how religious they are, are the ones who violate basic morality. My father was a bomber pilot in WWII, one of the lucky ones who survived. I am glad he is not here to witness our descent into fascism.
John, I agree with you and am deeply concerned about the way this reptilian in human form has deceived such a swath of humanity with his guile! How do people blindly set aside the depth of his treachery in twenty different ways when they go to support him? The only other true thing from him that I can think of, is his claim of how easy it is for him to sucker ordinary people with his lies! There is no bottom for his calumny!
I blame the patriarchal construct of religion. None of what Jesus was all about has trickled down to today's charlatan conglomerates that exist to collect money, not pay taxes and impose their puritanical beliefs on everyone, and on women in particular.
Being a blue dot in a rural red area, I've seen the slide, pretty much a marriage of twisted "Christianity" & political power. They are what I'll call a CINO (Christian in name only).
I too have contemplated this cataclysmic event, how a once thought moral society can be swayed so easily to abandon one’s principles towards a pathway to an abyss of hypocrisy and cruelty. I keep coming to the same conclusion, gullible stupidity believing the lies of their leadership who are only concerned about holding on to power for personal gain. Facts be damned, along with the ones that buy into their mantras, even though the leadership knows what they’re doing. It’s truly evil personified. With all the lies being force fed to them on an hourly basis on Faux News, it’s no wonder why they’ve become Manchurian candidates against democracy.
Unfortunately there are a lot of deeply hateful racists in our country. Their lack of eduction, critical thinking and compassion for others has turned their grievences into what they think is attainable retribution with bowing to their cult leader. The Trump cultists are all for the fascist regime because they literally cannot see past their own fears and hatred.
Not all Trump cultists fit your description, although, sadly, a number of them do.
We were warned by Jesus that this would happen. False prophets whose lies will lead their followers into darkness.
We are witnessing the statements of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago made manifest.
The false prophet and his accolades are twisting the words of the Bible for their own very earthly purposes.
We are watching people we love and those we thought we knew follow lies that make no sense to us.
It was foretold by The Almighty.
Some can be saved, others will go over the cliff like the pigs Jesus sent the demons into when He freed the human suffering from them.
President Eisenhower put In God We Trust on our currency and over the Dias in the House. The one the “shaman” stood on when the January 6 crowd broke through the police line.
We trust in God and God hates liars,
Trump and his crew will fail.
Remember the lambs blood over the doors of the Hebrews - Eisenhower had just defeated Hitler.
I had a NDE - we are all Messengers - that is the message I have been receiving for years. Others have been getting similar versions of the same message. One way or another God has this.
You’ve described the minimum basic requirements of civilization itself.