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Thursday, February 29, 2024

This is What the Conservative Agenda Looks Like. Are You Willing to Accept This?

Rick Pidcock: Conservative's Agenda for America Looks Like my Bob Jones University Handbook 

In the third paragraph of the linked article, author Rick Pidcock, who was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, says this: 

"In my two decades growing up in fundamentalist Christian institutions, the schools dictated to our families where we could go to church, how we were to dress, what music we were allowed to listen to or movies we could watch, even what coffee shops we could patronize.  In short, they had complete authority over our family.  

So imagine those people expanding their territory to include entire cities, states and countries."  

Imagine, indeed.  

Get a clear picture of what that would be like, because that is exactly what the part of the MAGA political movement that has emerged from within the Evangelical Christian segment of the American church is aiming to do.  

When people like this tell you they are going to do something, when they get the power to do it, believe them.  And then do everything you can to keep them from getting the power to do it.  

Pseudo-Christianity is at Work

The conservative agenda blended with conservative Evangelicalism is not what I call "Biblical" Christianity.  That is to say, it is not the Christian gospel, nor is the practice of faith which emerges from the faith formation caused by the Christian gospel political in nature, nor does it promote any of the controlling aspects described by Pidcock in his experience at fundamentalist colleges and universities.  That kind of perspective and means of control is based on "proof texting," which is simply citing single verses from the Bible out of their context to justify a controlling practice.  

There's a wide gap between the academic study of the Bible, in its historical context, along with using the literary forms of its original languages, contrasted with the single-verse citations of fundamentalist Christianity, which doesn't even consider the fact that the authors never intended to have fragments of their work lifted out of context in a "verse," which is neither a literary device nor a complete thought, but merely a numerical reference added by the early printers of the Bible to find specific passages.  It's not possible to come up with a literal application of a 2,000 year old work written in the ancient version of several foreign languages, Greek and Aramaic specifically, which are not easily translated into English without understanding its historical context.  

Fundamentalists and many Evangelicals get around this by simply declaring that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, and that it's spiritual inspiration is both verbal, meaning the very words were inspired by God himself, and plenary, meaning that the whole, which is the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible according to them, is inspired, and nothing else.  

The practice of Christian faith that emerges from that blend of error compounded with error is a legalistic system of works, required to please God into blessing the nation in which one lives, specifically, a "Christian" nation, meaning one in which a majority of the population is Christian.  It is as far from the genuine, Apostolic-inspired Christian gospel as any other cult that has emerged from Christianity, like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or Christian Science.  

But it has become dangerous because it has inserted itself into far right wing politics, via leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and to a lesser extent, Franklin Graham and Rush Limbaugh, the latter of whom helped build the bridges between the secular aspects of far right extremism and fundamentalist Christianity.  There's no trusting human nature, so instead of a faith that is based solely on God's grace for the forgiveness of human sin, a set of required works is substituted for the salvation experience.  Morality cannot simply be inspired, according to these people, it must be enforced.  And since their own leadership includes the only pastors and church leaders who know the truth and aren't afraid to tell it, no other churches can be trusted, the Catholics and mainline Protestants have all gone apostate, according to them, and attendance at their worship services and classes is required, along with a set of rules to obey to prove individual worthiness to God in order to live correctly and go to heaven at physical death.  

If America Doesn't Follow These Rules, God Will Judge it and Destroy It, Just Like Ancient Israel 

The centerpiece of this false gospel has been the Roe v. Wade decision.  Abortion is the main reason for God bringing down his judgment on America like he did to ancient Israel for their idolatry.  Never mind that there's no such covenant found in the scripture pertaining to any other people on the face of the earth, except Israel, or that the covenant of the Christian gospel is not made with nations or countries, but with individuals.  So instilling the fear that God will judge America like he did Israel because of the sin of abortion is the centerpiece of the union between ultra right wing Christianity and ultra right wing politics.  

The only way to save ourselves, according to them, is to submit to their rules, and their authority, let them have the power and maybe their righteousness will appease God and keep him from destroying the country.  This will also involve the destruction of all of the evil elements in society holding it back from God's favor.  The name for this, in some Christian circles, is post-millenialism.  It's the idea that if the Christians are in political control of a country, they are helping to usher in the return of Christ.  

Are You Willing to Live Under This System and Rule?  

So I'm going to ask a straight up question.  Is this the America you want to live in?  Because this is what it will become if Trump is ever elected again.  So if this is what you want, then do everything in your power to facilitate Trump's re-election, because he will give these people the power to do whatever they want to do, in order for him to be President, and get away with doing as he pleases.  

Here's a very simple way to prevent this from happening.  Keep this, put it on your refrigerator, and remind yourself that you still have the power to stop this from happening to our country.  

  • You must cast a ballot in the next presidential election.  
  • Set aside all of your petty little issues, Biden's age which is a non-factor, your tendency toward hyper-progressivism or reserved moderate tendencies, and all of the side issues that are trendy to talk about but dangerous to vote for, and cast your ballot for Joe Biden.  Not Jill Stein.  Not RFK Junior.  Not No Labels.  Not some irrelevant distraction funded by Russia.  
  • Vote ONLY for Joe Biden for President.  No protest, no uncommitted.  Joe gets your vote.  
  • Do not fail to show up or make sure you drop your mail in ballot in the box in plenty of time for it to be counted.  You must vote, and any vote that a Democrat or committed independent makes for anyone besides Biden will be a vote for Trump. 
  • Vote STRAIGHT PARTY DEMOCRAT for down ballot races.  Not third party, STRAIGHT PARTY DEMOCRAT.  
Is that simple enough?  


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