A Re-Writing of the Beatitudes Based on the Influence of Extremist Right Wing Politics

Southwest Airlines Attorneys ordered to Attend Religious Liberty Training at the Alliance Defending Freedom

We are slowly seeing some wonderful examples of behavior from people claiming to be Christians, demonstrating for us just how far from Christian principles and values churches are being led by the intrusion of far right wing extremism into the churches of conservative Evangelicalism.  While the article from Baptist News Global cited here references a court order to attorneys for Southwest Airlines, the case that got them there in the first place involved a lawsuit by former flight attendance Charlene Carter, who was fired by the airline for bullying and harassment, based on a string of emails she sent to union officials and fellow employees.  

The claim on which she won the lawsuit was that her religious freedom was violated by the company firing her for sending out what she had determined was her own religious expression.  She sent videos of aborted babies, expressing her opposition to abortion to fellow employees and to union officials, chastising them for what she claimed was their support for a woman's right to choose.  Among her messages was the use of vulgar language in several instances, and personal name calling and blatant rude behavior which she claimed was "trying to initiate a conversation."  

We've apparently gotten to the point, in our culture, where we are no longer content to accept other people's rights if their perspective disagrees with our own.  While Carter's criticisms and accusations, especially against union leaders, even though she was not a union member, may constitute free speech, though her approach was abrasive and rude, it is certainly well outside the boundaries of expectations of Christians who are following the gospel and giving a testimony for their faith in Christ.  There's no reference in the article to whether or not Carter claims any kind of Christian faith, though the implication is that since she opposed abortion rights, she must have been one.  Her approach wouldn't lead to that conclusion, but Jesus did say that we are not to judge.  

These kind of people, who insist on their rights while demanding that others not have any of their own, are re-writing the Christian gospel to suit their own purposes.  It's apparently not too far of a leap from supporting a presidential candidate with no morals or values to being unacceptably rude and aggressive in pursuing one's own agenda.  

So we might need to do some re-writing of the Beatitudes, those verses at the beginning of Jesus' sermon on the mount, where he lays out the characteristics of the Christian gospel.  I have a few suggestions. 

Blessed are the arrogant, for they shall always get their own way. 

Blessed are those who rejoice in the hardships of those with whom they disagree, for they will have their vengeful spirit satisfied. 

Blessed are the bullies, for they will be temporarily happy with who they are.

Blessed are those who ignore righteousness, for it is inconvenient and does not lead to worldly success. 

Blessed are the unmerciful, for those who are targets of anger probably deserve it because they are liberal. 

Blessed are the corrupt, for they will be rich. 

Blessed are the peace-haters who see war as their own way to win.  

Blessed are those who persecute the libs, who  utter all kinds of evil against them falsely, for while this displeases God, he doesn't matter, and we don't care as long as we get our way.  

If this doesn't seem to let loose enough, feel free to take what's here and turn it into something that really expresses the kind of morally bankrupt, value-less system that the union of far right wing political extremism and ultra-conservative Christianity have produced.  Integrity seems to be the biggest value that so many of those taking this path seem to lack.  I'm always tempted to ask, when I see something like this, "What church was it that taught you that?"  

Christianity is Being Invaded and Subverted Through Far Right Politics

Bill Leonard: Isn't it Really Fundamentalist Christian Nationalism?

Russell Moore: Evangelicals Call Jesus "Liberal, Weak"

Even if you're not into Christian doctrine and theology, but politically, you're a Democrat or a Progressive Democrat, stick with me for long enough to grasp the conclusion that's being drawn here.  The Signal Press has been informing, educating, and warning people about the dangers of the blending of far right wing Trumpian politics with conservative, Evangelical doctrine and theology to create an entirely new religion that is proving to be a grave danger, not only to American democracy, but to the Christian church as well.  

In his shortest church epistle, known to us as the book of Second Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul describes the prophetic appearance of a person he describes as "the man of lawlessness."  This person, who, in conservative doctrine is also called "The Antichrist," though that term only appears in the New Testament in John's epistles, was a prophetic reference to the coming persecution of the church at the hands of the Roman emperors in the first and second centuries.  

In their literalist interpretation of the New Testament, conservative Evangelicals, including fundamentalists and those in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement, blend this description together with a similar, symbolic description of the same kind of "lawless" authority, found in Revelation, and make his appearance a precursor to the second coming of Christ and the "rapture" of the church, a term also not found in scripture.  It's an incorrect application of these passages of scripture to the "end times," meaning "end of the world," rather than "end of the age" which the Apostles and Jesus meant as a warning to the churches about the coming destruction of the temple and the end of the theocratic old Covenant, in favor of the new Covenant, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

But, like many of the references in the New Testament to the end of the age, this one in Second Thessalonians does provide some prophetic insight into those figures in history who put themselves against the Christian gospel and the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, and try to take his place as the savior of the world.  And when I look at these prophetic references, and look at the political events happening in our day, I see something that could very well serve as a warning to our time, as much as it was a prophecy for what was about to transpire in the churches.  The description of the "man of lawlessness" in 2 Thessalonians shouldn't require a lot of deep thought or creative imagination to equate it to a modern day political personality in America.  The description is uncanny.

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.  Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.  

He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God....

The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the work of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.  

Among Christians, there are a couple of ways to interpret this. In the historical context of this particular Pauline epistle, the Apostle is issuing a prophetic warning to the Christians of this particular church to whom it is addressed about the growing threat of Roman imperial rule and the increasing tendency toward worship of the Emperor himself as a god.  

But there's an approach to biblical eschatology, the study of the "end times," that emerged from the more literal, less historical approach to interpreting the Bible that came from American fundamentalism which didn't develop until the late 1800's, that sees this as a reference to a particular world ruler who will appear just prior to events that will set in motion the physical return of Christ to the earth who they call the Antichrist, even though that term in the Bible is not applied to any specific person, but is a general identification for any spirit that denies Jesus as the Christ.  Far right wing Christians claim that the "man of lawlessness" and "The Antichrist" are the same person, who will appear at the time that a series of events will usher in the Second Coming.  

This person, in that particular theological view, is not initially identified as evil, or as a subversive of the Christian faith, but is, according to their interpretation, initially adored by the church, before denying the person of Jesus Christ and the entire Christian gospel, and demanding to be worshipped himself.  While I don't particularly believe that kind of futuristic interpretation of this part of the Bible is accurate, it does bear a certain resemblance to a particular extremist right wing politician who has mesmerized and hoodwinked millions of Americans and that delusion now includes direct attacks on core Christian teachings of Jesus himself. 

Keep reading.  There are Christians who are calling their pastors "liberals" and "woke," because they preached from Christ's Sermon on the Mount.  The son of this particularly bellicose politician has publicly stated that the idea of "turning the other cheek" is not going to work for them, because it is not "worldly" enough.  

Contributing Evidence from Two of My Favorite Authors

Russell Moore, current editor of Christianity Today, one of the few publications circulating among conservative Christians that retains a semblance of credibility and doesn't repeat conspiracy theories, has documented Christians claiming that the teachings of Jesus are "weak," and are accusing pastors preaching sermons based on the Sermon on the Mount of being liberal.  Moore is a former executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, pressured out of that position because he has considently articulated a "never-Trump" position from a Christian perspective.  No matter how conservative one's Christianity makes them when it comes to politics, Moore has been very clear that it is inconsistent to support the kind of worldliness, immorality, lying and fraud that is the trademark of Trump.  Those Southern Baptists who attacked him, and helped pressure him to resign have lost the essence of the Christian faith, and as far as I am concerned, they have lost their minds and are preaching a "different gospel," which the Apostle Paul says leads to anathema.  

Getting his information from pastors, Moore reports that the most offensive part of what Jesus had to say, from the conservative Christian perspective has to do with his admonition to "turn the other cheek."  He reports that a pastor told him members of his congregation came up to him after a recent sermon and asked, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?"  

The pastor responded, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ."  The response?  "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore.  That's weak."  

"When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus are seen as subversive to us," says Moore, "we are in a crisis.  

This is more than a crisis for the church.  It's an intrusion of heresy, the result of blending extremist right wing politics with ultra-conservative Christianity.  It is, as the Apostle Paul says in the passage I cited earlier from 2 Thessalonians, "a powerful delusion, leading them (Christians in the church) to believe what is false."  

So if you've ever wondered why it is so difficult to argue using facts and truth with a Trumpie, then the explanation from this Christian epistle may offer a real and legitimate explanation of what you see.  These people are deluded and beguiled by a man of lawlessness who is subverting the Christian gospel and the church for worldly political power.  

Bill Leonard, a former professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who is the founding dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, goes a bit further in explaining how this delusional theology has taken hold in the church and is denying the character and teachings of Jesus and the whole doctrinal and theological foundation of the church.  Leonard points to the words of the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, Robert Jeffress, who said: 

"Evangelicals still believe the commandment, 'Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star.  However, whether [Trump} violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him" [emphasis mine.] 

So, according to this Baptist pastor, the Christian gospel is totally irrelevant to Christian practice when it comes to supporting conservative, right wing extremism in politics.  You can't make this stuff up.  He might as well have told his congregation, "Everything I've ever preached to you up to this point has been a lie.  So ignore it and reject it."  

With that statement, Jeffress disavows his belief in the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture, essentially saying that when it comes to politics, we can set Jesus aside and believe whatever we must believe in order to give a man of lawlessness our loyalty and our trust.  So in other words, it's OK to replace Christ at savior and Lord with a right wing, immoral politician. It is perfectly fine to set up an immoral man as an example of living for other Christians to see who now obviously depend on a gospel that leads to a different savior than Jesus.  

Make up Your Own Mind

The term "antichrist" doesn't appear in the book of Revelation, as many people seem to think that it does.  It is found in two of the Apostle John's epistles, in I John 4:2-3 and in 2 John 7.  In both cases, the term is associated with being deceitful regarding the identity of Jesus Christ.  

"By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world."  I John 4:2-3

Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh."  John 2:7 

It's also not a coincidence that the same author who identifies the evil of antichrist, also goes to great lengths to emphasize that the Christian gospel rests on a foundation of love, and mentions this multiple times in the short epistle.  What we are seeing, in this political intrusion into the church, is the opposite of love being preached, and the gospel of Jesus dismissed and attacked as weak and liberal.  What we are seeing bears all of the described characteristics of what Paul defines as the man of lawlessness and what John calls anti-Christ.  

I'll let my readers draw their own conclusion about that.  But it is clear that this intersection of extremist right wing politics with conservative, Evangelical Christianity is pulling its churches into apostasy.  

This is also a crisis for our country, because there are those among the more conservative groups of Evangelicals who ignore the apostolic instructions about respecting government, because it operates under God's authority, and because being lawless was not a value or a characteristic that Jesus intended for his followers to exhibit.  That principle is mentioned twice in the New Testament, in Romans 13:1-7 and in I Peter 2:13-17.  By claiming some kind of "chosen by God" status that allows them to ignore the Christian gospel and the teachings of Christ, they put themselves in the position of claiming to be his instruments doing is will, which is what they have already determined that to be.  

Republicans, not Democrats, Conspired to Steal the 2020 Election and They'll Try Again

Previously hidden Cyber Ninjas texts revealed in Republic records lawsuit over 'audit' 

As is often the case, those who squeal the loudest and make the most noise about a grievance are often perpetrators of whatever it is they are squealing about.  Since he first began running for President, Trump squealed and whined about "rigged" elections.  There's a good reason for that.  In his business, and in his politics, Trump has only been able to survive by rigging things his way.  His business "empire" has turned out to be mostly a mirage, phony claims, exaggerated resources and scams to make it appear as if there's real wealth there, instead of massive debt, much of which never gets paid back.  

He planted the idea in the minds of his mindless supporters--there's an oxymoron for you--that Hillary Clinton would cheat to get elected.  Rigged elections are his ongoing theme.  He never offers proof, just makes statements and expects reporters to act like he's uncovered some scandal in reporting what he said.  But, as more and more evidence comes to light, the reality is that Republicans, especially connected to Trump, have indeed laid out strategies to rig elections in their favor.  They've looked at trying to scam vote counting machines and voting equipment, they've resorted to intimidation of poll workers and they have attempted to cover it all up by making accusations against the Democrats.  

After-the-Fact Scams in Arizona and Georgia

The Trump campaign in particular was stung by the reality that population growth and shift in Arizona and Georgia caught them off guard in 2020, and gave narrow wins to Joe Biden in states that were considered reliably Republican.  So of course, legislatures in those states wanted to be absolutely sure, since the margins were less than 15,000 votes in both cases.  Audits found elections in both states were conducted correctly and accurately and that the vote totals reflected the will of the voters.  

It should have been a clue when the normally frugal state legislature in Arizona listened to their then-Senate president Karen Fann, a Trumpie nut job election denier, and decided to spend money on a third audit, focused not on the entire state, but on Maricopa County, which had flipped blue in 2020 and where the margin of victory for Biden was found.  Why, after two professional election audits had come up with the identical results and vote totals, was a third audit, of Maricopa County alone, necessary?  Apparently, it was necessary in order for an outside group to get their hands on voting machines and ballots and change enough votes, more than 40,000 in Maricopa County, to give Trump the win.

The whole thing turned into a comedy of errors.  The county elections board, suspicious from the very start,  verified the vote totals from the two audits, handed it over to the secretary of state who when signed off and gave it to the state's Republican governor, Doug Ducey, a semi-Trumpie conservative, who certified the totals before the Cyber Ninjas got their hands on the ballots and equipment.  So their audit would prove to be moot before it ever got off the ground.  

But the Ninjas, as tech savvy as they claimed to be, with equipment they claimed could detect "bamboo fibers" to prove ballots had come from China, had to go back to the election board multiple times to figure out how to read voter registration lists, how to find signatures to verify mail-in ballots, how to operate the counting machines for the samples they wanted to run.  The GPS maps they were using were ten years old, outdated and useless in a county that is one of the fastest growing in the country.  At one point, an outside observer noted that the room in the old coliseum where they were working was scattered with open ballot boxes, ballots strewn over tables and floors, almost intentional in its chaos and confusion.  

The state senate hadn't authorized much frivolous spending of taxpayer dollars, so Logan was left to raise money on his own for the Ninja job in Maricopa County.  Apparently, they decided that since Fann wasn't going to get the Senate to fork over any more money, they were not going to provide her with the result that she wanted.  They never managed to complete their report, and when asked to provide a count, claimed to have discovered that, surprise, surprise, it was off by a few hundred votes, but in Biden's favor.  No written report was ever produced, since Logan didn't raise the kind of money he needed to cover lawsuits that ate up the $6 million or so he claims to have collected.  

This disaster, perpetrated by the GOP, served one good purpose.  The publicity it generated for Republicans was so bad, that Democrats won every statewide office in 2022 except superintendent of public instruction.   Katie Hobbs, who was the secretary of state at the time, and who went out of her way to protect the property of the state of Arizona from thievery, won a narrow victory for Governor. 

The same kinds of intimidation and scamming were used in Georgia, where Trump and his cronies are now charged, and some of them have decided to come clean and plead to lesser charges in order to avoid going to prison for trying to commit voter fraud.  The biggest problem they had here, aside from law enforcement and county officials protecting the integrity of their election and tabulation process from prying eyes and hands, was the intimidation and threats against Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who refused to give access to what the Trump campaign needed to mess with votes.  They did succeed in Coffee County, where Missy Hampton, the election supervisor, caved into the intimidation and gave access to the voting machines so they could change the totals. 

This Will Happen Again

The Cyber Ninja affair in Arizona had a disastrous outcome for Republicans.  In spite of severe gerrymandering on the state level, they still lost ground.  Karen Fann, the former senate president, was a casualty of her own fraud attempt, choosing not to run to protect her seat for the GOP, which would almost certainly have flipped if she'd run again.  Thank goodness she's gone, though, unfortunately, the district elected another ballot-restricting election denying conspiracy theorist.  Idiocy succeeds itself in Arizona, more often than most people realize. 

But there are some facts out on the table that we must acknowledge will open the door to right wing attempts to commit fraud and steal elections in 2024.  You can count on it.  

Thanks to some of the brilliant timing of all of this, It does not appear that the Justice Department or the court system will move fast enough to render Trump ineligible to run again, based on the constitution, nor does it look like he will be headed to prison in time.  It appears they're trying, but there's no guarantee. Maybe that will happen, but if he's on the ballot, we can count on massive cheating attempts.  They know he cannot win an honest and fair election.  So in as many places as they can get their hands on voting and counting equipment, they will.  And if they're not being closely watched, there will be massive voter fraud.  

This is not an easy thing to do.  Not anywhere near as easy as Trump has made it out to be in his claims of the other side doing it.  But it can be done, and it is certain that these people will give it a try.  There are election officials in many places who are willing to commit fraud and go to prison and risk getting caught to make sure the orange headed buffoon goes back to the White House.  

We can stop it by turning out in numbers large enough to make it impossible to commit fraud.  And we can stop it by exposing the perpetrators when we know who they are and can see what's going on.  We need an army of election help.  We need plenty of Ruby Freemans and Shaye Mosses.  

There's No Better Time Than the Present to Pay Attention to the GOP's Loud and Clear Message

"We can't govern!"  

Three unprecedented weeks without a speaker of the house has sent a loud and clear message about the Republican party's respect, or lack thereof, for the Constitution and for the representative democracy that it created, a government of, by and for the people.  The Republicans, collectively, are none of those things.  

The irony of this whole situation is that the chaos is so incredible, the GOP is frittering away its entire agenda that was on the table when they got control of the House after the midterm elections.  It's not much control, since the red wave they were predicting, and the polls were supporting, never materialized.  Beyond that, all of the investigating into "weaponizing" the DOJ, Hunter Biden and the whole impeachment farce, is sitting there, going nowhere, unable to advance because, well, because the GOP can't get a speaker.  

By now, most Americans with a reasonable amount of intelligence, combined with observation and discernment, know what this means.  And I hope they have enough discernment to avoid casting a ballot for anyone who would even remotely support this confusion and idiocy.  But the longer it goes on, the less likely it is that the voters will let the GOP have the reins of power for much longer.  In the circles where I travel, there are some died in the wool, staunch conservative Republicans who are increasingly turned off by all of this.  And believe it or not, they're turned off by the Trumpies, too.  I just don't think the combination of a failed presidency and now a failed Congress, will be a winning one come November 2024.  In fact, I think we are looking at what is shaping up to be the biggest landslide, in the current political context, that we've seen for a while. 

Political Divisiveness has Come to This 

The ridiculous winner-take-all, no compromising with the Libs polarization that is ruining American democracy and which was introduced through the no-nothing ignorance of Rush Limbaugh and those of his ilk is counterproductive to the democratic experiment introduced to the world by the likes of men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington.  What we now have are Republicans at the opposite end of the patriotic spectrum, haters of Democracy because they have difficulty winning elections that aren't fixed in their favor and because it allows everyone, including people of other racial, ethnic, religious, social and economic backgrounds, full guaranteed individual rights.  

It produced a candidacy and a presidency under Trump, who had absolutely nothing to offer and who subverts patriotism and loyalty to country with loyalty to himself.  More recently, as his election defeat in 2020 produces increased insanity on his part, it has produced more chaos on the part of those who remain loyal to him and more hiding from the real world in conspiracy theories and fantasy scenarios.  Denial notwithstanding, his unpopularity was partly responsible for the Republicans not coming anywhere near the kind of majority in the House they were expecting, and not getting control of the Senate back in a mid-term that was, traditionally and historically, a loss for the party in power in the White House.  The string of special elections Democrats have won since then, impressive and unprecedented, and in some cases, such as in Wisconsin, of landslide proportions, is an indication of what is coming in 2024.  

In the one branch of Congress where Republicans did manage to eke out, in the narrowest of ways, a slim majority, the outcome has been predictable, and it's now heading toward being disastrous for them.  They cannot agree on who will be the Speaker of the House.  This position, second in line for the Presidency and next to the White House, one of the most influential in government, is being used by Republicans to play political games.  

Voters seem to be taking most of this at face value, which is a really good thing for the future of American democracy.  

What Does it Take?  

There's a segment of the population in this country that lacks the discernment and the education to make wise political decisions.  They are easy prey for fraud, they can be made victims of scams and they buy into ridiculous conspiracy theories.  When you have people becoming furious at pizza parlor owners because they won't show them the way to the non-existent basement, that puts them in a category of their own with regard to common sense, intelligence and discernment, as well as education.  

The looks on the faces of Trumpies when they are talking about politics and the content of their words says it all.  These people really are insane.  There's no other explanation for believing in things that do not exist.  

But they are nowhere near a large enough group to affect a Presidential election.  And while there is an additional segment of the American public that doesn't understand how its government works, and many who couldn't care less, our democracy rests on those who are educated, informed, reasonable and sane.  And those who are not yet convinced that voting for Republicans will be detrimental to their freedom need to be convinced of that now.  

We do not have a speaker of the house, because the Republican party is incapable of governing, and should not be in charge of Congress, the Presidency, or of any aspect of our government.  This is that moment, that turning point, when, regardless of anything else that may be going on, voters need to realize this inability to govern rises to the very top of the list when it comes to casting their votes.  Those votes should not support Republicans.  And we must do our best to convince as many people as we can that this is that point in history where we will no longer tolerate this ignorance and stupidity.  

The eight members of Congress who initiated the dumping of Kevin McCarthy may have done us a favor by ridding the House of a weak, conciliatory, duplicitous incompetent. They have also pointed out their lack of interest in serving as they do, and even though most of them are in districts that are so heavily gerrymandered, it may not be possible for voters to oust them, they are helping us convince many other people to oust other Republicans.  

We have seen that this can be done.  Jessica Piper, an unsuccessful candidate for a state legislative seat in Missouri, is working in her state to make sure there are Democratic candidates for every seat, causing Republicans to spend money and, in some cases, picking up seats.  Leaving Republicans unopposed is no longer an option.  What happens in places like rural Missouri is that Democrats get a feeling that their votes don't matter, and they don't participate, especially if they don't have a candidate from their party.  Piper has picked up on success of other Democrats in states where seats have been gained when the slate of candidates on the left is full.  More Democrats turn out.  That's never a bad thing. 

Piper knew when she ran that she would likely lose, but she made her opponent spend money to win the seat, money that would have gone to help other candidates in contested races, and she increased the Democratic party vote total state wide with the almost 4,000 people who cast ballots for her, most of whom would otherwise not have voted at all.  Look at how close this Congress is at the moment.  What a difference it could have made, if every state legislative office across the country had been responsible for getting 3,000 more Democrats out to vote than would have done so otherwise?  

I'm encouraged by the awakening I'm seeing among Democrats, who know what is at stake and seem to have the energy and desire to make a difference.  There will be all kinds of attempts to divide, suppress turnout and divide the party off on side issues.  We need to keep the focus on preventing a party that isn't interested in governing from being able to do so.   

 

Liberty University President Blames Leak About Their Sexual Abuse Coverups on the Biden Administration

Liberty's Mishandled Crime and Abuse Claims Report Leak Blamed on "Conspiracy Theory" 

This is getting old.  And its losing its punch.  

"It's Biden's fault!"  

A leak of a government report detailing multiple failures of the administration of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, the university founded and operated by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, to protect students on campus from sexual abuse has been blamed on a conspiracy to attack religious conservatives by the Biden Administration.  The Baptist university's president wasn't necessarily horrified or upset by the report itself, detailing Liberty University's failure to keep its students safe from sexual abuse, he was outraged by the leak.  

I'm kind of horrified by the fact that these people knew what was happening, and in fact, according to the report, discouraged the reporting of crimes committed on campus, under-reported what it did receive and then proclaimed itself as one of the safest campuses in the country.  Let's just call it what it is.  It's lying for the sake of public relations, and money.  There is no respect or practice of any Christian value in what they've done.  They've shown their true colors, something that many of its former students, including those who have been victims of abuse or crimes on campus, already knew about.  

And it is money that the university is protecting.  The law that was being investigated, the Clary Act, requires schools that participate in federal financial aid programs to disclose crime statistics and other information about campus safety.  The investigation found multiple instances of abuse that went unreported, or under-reported, and deliberately misled those responsible for monitoring this activity under the Clary Act to protect the money the school receives from government sources for financial aid to students, some $874 million in 2020-21, a significant portion of its budget.  

Liberty University, with roots in independent Baptist fundamentalism, and still known and operated as a Baptist-affiliated university, with the founding church, Thomas Road Baptist, where Jerry Falwell was pastor when the school was founded, right on the campus, is the very heart of the religious right movement.  It is quite appropriate that the duplicity and the lying that has taken place here, which is not limited to this Clary Act report, but includes the sexual escapades of a highly publicized affair involving a Miami "pool boy" and other sexual escapades, on the university's dime, is happening in the very place where fundamentalist Evangelicalism originally intersected with right wing extremist Republican politics.  

That characterizes this whole "religious right" Republican movement.  Think about that when you head into the ballot box.  

Christians Telling Lies: John Hagee, The Israel-Hamas War, Ron Desantis and Other Assorted Republican Idiocy

Trump Praises Hezbollah; Desantis Says There are no Innocent Palestinians

The Republicans have given Democrats some real political fodder in this report of recent events focused on support for Israel.  From Trump's praising of Hezbollah and its intelligence, to a conference given by heretical Texas pastor John Hagee, where he gave Mike Pence a "Defender of Israel" award, the Istael-Hamas war has provided a number of moments when the conclusion must be drawn that "you just can't fix stupid."

Hagee's group, Christians United for Israel, is purely political.  Hagee has disqualified himself as an end-times prophet under the Deutoronomy 18:20-22 principle, but he uses his unqualified support for Israel as a way to bash democrats.  So along comes one of his inamoratas, Trump, who clearly has no knowledge or insight on what's going on between Israel and Hamas, and praises the intelligence of Hezbollah, while at the same time getting his digs in at Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he despises.  Hagee's group is left either having to defend that, which, of course, they can't, or ignoring it and hoping the hypocrisy and inconsistency will resolve itself.  

And right in their faces, President Biden hops on Air Force One and flies into the war zone that Israel has become, in a show of support that they can't match and only wish they could.  Not only does Biden demonstrate unqualified support for Israel, and pledge financial help that the Republicans can't deliver at the moment, he also correctly and diplomatically separates Hamas, and its hatred, from the Palestinian people who, for the most part, are pawns being used by Hamas as human shields. Biden became the first American President to visit Israel during a war, adding that to his accomplishment of being the first American President since Roosevelt visiting a war zone not under the control of the United States military.  Not a bad day for an octogenerian, I'd say.    

Then there's the manure that Ron Desantis stepped in and spread all over the place.   

"We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees," he said, creating a huge straw man issue to puff his politics.  "I am not going to do that.  if you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas but they are all antisemitic," he said.  

Palestinians live in Gaza, and make up more than 90% of its population.  Someone in Desantis' campaign or entourage should have pointed out to him that Palestinians are Arabic and that's the semitic language they speak.  Being descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael, they are as semitic as the Jewish sephardim, and heirs to the same promises that the Jewish people claim through the same inheritance.  

Two pseudo-Christian political organizations have also engaged in the Biden bashing and have been exposed in their lies.  Family Research Council and Tony Perkins, said, "The $6 billion in funds that the Biden administration released to Iran in exchange for hostages helped fund the attack."  

But the facts don't support that claim.  First of all, Iran came to acquire the $6 billion, which is their money, not ours, through an oil deal with South Korea when Trump lifted the embargo and permitted the sale.  And second, the money is still in the bank.  There are still conditions placed on its use, enforced by the Biden administration, that will not allow it to be used for a purpose like this, and that can easily be checked.  

James Dobson, the fallen director of Focus on the Family, now at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, acknowledged the truth, at least partially, about the funds still in the possession of the United States.  But he said that it just means they can use other money for building and launching missiles and underwriting the October 7th attack.  

Nikki Haley managed to step into the manure here as well.  Not as extreme as Desantis, she nevertheless turned on "the Squad," advocating censorship, which is antisemitic in that at least two of the four members who are identified that way are Arabic, and Muslim.  So instead of offering a real solution to the problem, or better than that, simple support without hostility, Haley chooses antagonism and hatred as her platform.  

And we've completed yet another day without a speaker of the house being elected.  The news media keeps all of this in front of us and is making us think that Republicans are still getting support from their base and this isn't moving the political needle at all and this is some kind of political showdown and battle of wills.  Nah, I'm not buying that.  Not at all.  It's like they're in a barrel about to go over Niagara Falls.  The media needs the ratings they get from reporting suspense.  I honestly don't think it's that close.  And if it is, then God help us because we're too ignorant and stupid to be trusted with democracy and we're going to lose it.  

Educators Should Understand what Religious Freedom, Freedom of Conscience and Separation of Church and State Mean

Baptist News Global: Louisiana Principal Removes SGA President for "Not Living Up to God's Ideals"

The principal of a public high school in Louisiana removed a student from her position as student government president because of a video showing her dancing at an off campus homecoming party.  His rational for the removal was that she was not living up to "God's ideals," and that there was a policy in place, giving the principal power to remove student government officers for any behavior that the principal deemed to be inappropriate.  

Two Clear Issues With this Incident

There are two issues that come to the surface regarding this incident.  The first is the use of a school policy placing discretion to determine "inappropriate behavior" in the hands of a principal who used it to impose his own religious convictions on someone else's conscience.  The second is the fact that someone in position as a school administrator could not distinguish the boundaries between his role as a school administrator in public school and his own personal religious convictions.  

Christianity is not a faith that works when its values and principles must be enforced by law.  There are some common moral values that Christianity shares with the rest of society, some of which were the result of their influence.  But in the context of the Christian gospel, found in the Bible and rooted in the recorded words of Jesus, Christian values are produced by a spiritual conversion experience, a transformation and renewing of the mind, as one of the Apostles describes it.  Trying to enforce specific, personal convictions by either passing them into law or making them institutional rules does not lead to conversion or transformation.  

According to the article in Baptist News Global, the principal told the student that he was worried about her afterlife and that she was not living up to God's ideals and morals.  But beyond that, he withdrew his endorsements on college scholarship applications she had submitted.   

In his public apology, the principal stated, "While that conversation was meant with the best intentions, I do understand it is not my responsibility to determine what students' or others' religious beliefs may be--that should be the responsibility of the individual."  And with that, he has taken a leave of absence for the remainder of the school year.  

Missing the Point

The aggressive, "in your face," confrontational attempts at conversion, where Christians think they are entitled to preach their version of the gospel and attempt to win converts anywhere and any time they choose is not protected free speech, nor is it freedom of conscience.  My rights end where your rights begin, and your right includes not being made a captive audience in a situation in which your presence is mandated, such as in a school.  Students cannot just walk away from a classroom, and they can't ignore the enforcement of rules designed to promote order and a solid learning atmosphere.  

But how does this principal think that what he did would be a positive witness or testimony to his faith?  

Where to Draw the Line

I think there are a couple of lines that should be drawn as far as schools are concerned.  Students attending a public school, and their parents, have every right to expect that there will be no religious coercion in their classroom or on their campus.  Public schools are publicly funded institutions and are subject to the Constitution's freedom of religion amendment, and establishment clause which separates church and state.  Conversely, students and parents have the right to expect that there will be no attempts to dissuade, or disparage their religious beliefs.  That should be easy in a school, where the purpose of the institution is education, not social reform.  

It's possible to make schools safe environments for students from all kinds of religious groups, the whole spectrum of Christian denominations, world religions, even cults, and at the same time, be open to those who practice no religion, do not believe in God, and whose lifestyle reflects their perceived identity.  That requires sticking to the curriculum objectives and the learning goals, and not promoting anything not related to that, including in-your-face insistence on acceptance of everything and anything.  

There's an educational requirement for those who work in schools, teaching students and managing the whole operation.  That requirement should include their ability to understand where to draw the line when it comes to their personal religious beliefs and what the Constitution means by freedom of religion and "respecting the establishment of religion."  

Schools work better when nothing is being jammed down anyone's throat, regardless of the perspective. 

"Blessed are the peacemakers," said Jesus, "for they shall be called the children of God."