Congresswoman Boebert's Lack of Constitutional Knowledge is an Indication of her Lack of Qualification to Serve in Public Office

Representative Lauren Boebert told a church in her home state of Colorado, "The church is supposed to direct the government, the government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk. It's not in the constitution."  

She got it wrong, of course.  But the church gave her a standing ovation, making them just as wrong as she was.  Personally, I think she should be held to a higher level of accountability for demonstrating such ignorance of the constitution as an elected official who should know better.  But this is an egregious example of an ideology that has made its way into the Christian faith across the board in most of its American denominational, and non-denominational, expressions.  

I think that anyone who wants to run for public office at any level, and especially for Congress, should be required to answer every question correctly on a constitution exam.  If they can't, then they are disqualified from seeking their party's nomination.  If becoming a member of Congress requires an oath of loyalty to defend the constitution, then everyone taking the oath should have an understanding of the constitution.  

The establishment clause itself, along with the various historical interpretations of it by the courts, is clear separation of church and state.  It should be disqualifying for a member of Congress to claim that "it isn't in the constitution."  There is plenty of written evidence to conclude that both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who were the primary influences behind the establishment clause, believed that religious freedom depended on separating church from state.  After the constitution was drafted and ratified, Madison wrote, "The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."  

Thomas Jefferson was more direct.  In his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, he wrote, "I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and state."  

That's sixth grade American history content.  How did Boebert, and so many members of the church she was addressing, miss that?  She clearly doesn't have an understanding of the first amendment's establishment clause, nor of the intentions of the founding fathers whom she misquoted.  And she doesn't have an understanding of the mission and purpose of the Christian church, of which she claims to be a member.  

"I'm Tired of This Separation of Church and State Junk" 

Boebert is at least partially correct in asserting that "the government is not supposed to direct the church."  The constitution prevents the government from "prohibiting the free exercise of religion".  Like all other freedoms, citizens have a right to practice their religion free from government interference as long as that practice doesn't interfere with anyone else's rights or conflict with public morals or a compelling interest of the people.  Perhaps the Congresswoman, or anyone in the church who applauded her, can point to a specific example of where the government is "directing" the church.  

The constitution prevents the church from "directing" the government, and that's pretty clear.  Congress cannot pass laws which "respect the establishment of religion."  That has historically been interpreted to mean that there is no "state church" recognition by government, which may include support from tax dollars or by passing laws which favor Christian practice over that of other religious beliefs or those who do not practice any religious faith.  It prevents churches from using the power of government to require adherence to their particular beliefs and practices.  

Christian churches, according to their own theology, claim spiritual empowerment.  There is a long, long history of "established" relationships between churches and the governing authorities, mostly the monarchies of European countries, which weakened the church, in most cases making it a vassal of the governing authority and a tool of political movements that changed its mission and purpose and corrupted its leadership.  It has had a much different, and much more prosperous history in America under constitutional separation of church and state.  

I'm not sure exactly what Representative Boebert is referencing in getting "tired" of the separation of church and state.  American Christianity is wildly prosperous, accumulating unfathomable riches, owning massive amounts of tax-free property, most of which is occupied for a couple of hours a week, and it is a pervasive influence over society, culture and, yes, over government.  Somewhere around eighty-five percent of Boebert's colleagues in the Congress belong to a Christian church of some kind.

Boebert Misses the Christian Perspective of Government, Too 

Boebert's office denies that her words were an indication of a Christian theocratic perspective.  But her choice of words, "The church is supposed to direct the government," is a mischaracterization of the mission and purpose of the Christian church.  For most Christians, and particularly for those of the Evangelical branch of the church which uses the term "born-again" to describe their Christian experience, as Boebert does, the Bible is the sole authority for the church's doctrine and theology that governs its teaching, preaching and practice.  

The teachings of Jesus Christ are the contextual standard for interpreting the whole Bible, and specifically, for the New Testament where the Apostles defined Christian faith and practice for the church in its formative years.  The Christian church is a spiritual body, not a political party, united by common faith and belief in Jesus Christ as God's son.  It is empowered by the Holy Spirit, not government authority, it does not depend on that government for its power and ability to carry out its mission and purpose.   

Jesus, when asked if it was morally consistent with belief and faith in God to pay taxes to the pagan, secular Roman government said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's."  Not only was that a recognition of the reality of government and politics of the time, but it was a clear separation of Christian faith and practice from government authority.  The mission and purpose of the Christian gospel is to convert individuals, regardless of their race, nationality or social position, not to control or direct government.  

In establishing the new covenant of Christianity, under the authority he had as the divine son of God, Jesus moved away from the old covenant, which was based on theocratic Israel.  The limits that had developed, including a sense of exclusivity as the "chosen" people, which had led to some catastrophic circumstances for the Jewish people, including conquest and captivity in pagan countries, were preventing God's purposes from being achieved.  The new covenant of Christ was a spiritual one, without the racial, ethnic and cultural restrictions of the old covenant, separated from the domain of government and politics by its spiritual nature.  

"My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus said to Pontius Pilate during one of his trials prior to his crucifixion.  And no offer of a covenant relationship between Christ and any other country, nationality, ethnicity or political identity group was ever offered.  The church's commission is to win disciples who will influence the world around them with the virtues and values of Christian faith, not to direct the government's activities.

Both Apostles Paul and Peter acknowledge Christian respect for and obedience to the authority of the government, which in their case was the pagan, secular, Roman government, as a visible testimony of a Christian's faith in God.  Those acknowledgements are found in Romans 13:1-7 and I Peter 2:13-17.  It was the steadfast obedience of Christians to these instructions of the Apostles, in the face of severe persecution at the hands of the Roman emperors, over a period of time lasting more than 200 years, that resulted in the conversion to Christianity of tens of thousands of people of all races and nationalities in the Roman Empire. 

The mission and purpose of the Christian church is found at the end of Matthew's gospel: 

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Christianity converts individuals, not governments.  Christians, in a democracy, are free to be the kind of influence described by the analogies to salt and light according to the teaching and example of Christ.  But the church is not commanded to "direct the government."  

The Influence of Christian Nationalism is Concerning

In spite of the fact that Congresswoman Boebert's spokesperson claimed that she was not advocating for theocratic government in her remarks to the church, I'm still concerned about the way she worded her statement, and about the kind of response she got.  Christian nationalism is a pervasive influence among Evangelicals, many of whom believe that America should be a theocracy under Christian rule in the same way that Israel was a theocracy in the Old Testament.  Her statement, "the church should direct the government," calls her denial into question.  And it is still a statement that is completely inconsistent with the Christian gospel.  

I'm also concerned that an elected official exhibits such a complete lack of understanding of the constitution, and that as a professing Christian, also exhibits a lack of understanding of the Christian gospel.  I'm of the opinion that this is an indication that she is not qualified to serve as a member of Congress.  The only means of holding her accountable is for the voters in her district in Colorado to recognize this fact, and not re-elect her.  

There's Plenty of Reason For Optimism Among Democrats About the 2022 Midterm Elections

For more than a year now, most media outlets have been repeating over and over the standard line about the party in power in the White House losing seats in Congress during the mid-term elections.  The reports are predictable and frankly, they're getting boring.  The fact that polling data, at this point, is not supporting the trend, doesn't seem to deter most reporters and news media sources who keep showing us the President's job approval ratings and using that as their only piece of evidence to support the traditional trend.  

Politics have changed, drastically, over the past five years.  Some trends that were reliable and predictable have proven to be very unpredictable and unreliable in a time when voters seem to be less educated and informed, and more fickle, than at any point in modern American history.  Our quirky way of electing a president, inflating minority influence in a way that undermines democratic choice, has produced two minority-elected Presidents this century, one who lost the popular vote by the largest margin in any of the previous minority-elected presidencies.  

Even the President's job approval rating is defying definition and clarity.  Some media sources have decided that it is more sensational to use a little phony drama, choosing to emphasize the lowest outlier among the polls in order to make things appear worse than they are.  It would be just as easy to focus on polls showing the current job approval at 47%, which two polls in the composite list are showing, as it is to focus on the one poll that has him at 38%.  But clearly, the President's job approval rating is having much less of an effect on people's potential vote choices as it may have had in past mid-term elections, a lot less, in fact.  

It is unprecedented to have a former President whose own personal popularity is a factor in election choices on the Republican side.  But since Trump wants to create the impression that he may run again, and wants to control who gets elected from the GOP, his own "job approval rating," or approval numbers, are as much of a factor for Republicans as the President's are for Democrats.  And Trump's negative numbers, getting slowly higher as time passed, as more comes out about January 6th, and as the possibility seems to increase that he will run again, stand at 67%.  And that's not an outlier.  

But getting inside the numbers in the polling data state-by-state and race by race, the Democrats are doing far better than the gloom and doom reports of the mainstream media that remain anchored to Presidential job approval ratings.  Battlegrounds have moved into red states, or should I say, recently red states that have become purple, like Arizona and Georgia, where numbers in house races and senate races are much further in the favor of the Democrats than they were at this point in 2020.  Ohio, a red state in the last two Presidential elections, appears to be giving Tim Ryan a lot of good news.  Pennsylvania looks like a potential blue wave, at least, for its statewide elections.   The governor's race in Texas is now a dead heat, as are the Senate races in North Carolina and Florida.  As the data firms up, and the primaries produce candidates, we'll see where the house races go, but at the moment, there's no sign of much of a shift, in fact, no sign of a shift at all at this point. 

Kansas proved, on Tuesday, August 2nd, that turnout wins elections, and that the backlash from the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade, will indeed have a major impact on the turnout of Democrats and the outcome of the midterm elections.  Voter registration has surged to record levels among Democratic party constituencies since that decision was handed down, especially among younger women and black women.  The gun legislation issue is causing major panic among Republicans who are scrambling to figure out how to position themselves on the legislation now coming out, mainly to do damage control and try to keep their gun nut voters motivated to vote in November.  And January 6th is the gift that keeps on giving.  

Please Allow Me to Share a Few Words of Encouragement From Fellow Democrats

"I have continually argued that this election cycle is going to buck historical trends," writes Joe Trippi, of the Lincoln Project. 

"The GOP has nominated a crop of loons, and continues to do so.  Their policies are extremely unpopular.  Their assault on women's rights has motivated Democrats like never before," he says.  

I agree with that, except I will add that a majority of independent voters are also motivated to vote against the GOP "loons", as are some Republicans.  It will be difficult for Republicans to lose that much support off the top and still win enough elections to become a congressional majority.  

About the election results in Kansas on August 2, Trippi writes, "I cited a recent poll showing that Democrats are more enthusiastic [about voting] than Republicans post-Dobbs.  But the proof is in the results.  Kansas, a reliably Trump state, voted by a large margin to protect abortion rights in the state despite a heavy push from the far right.  Looking at turnout numbers, this is what stands out:  90% of the Biden turnout came out to vote in favor of keeping abortion legal, while onl 50% of the Trump vote came out to support the ban."  

"This is how you win a statewide election," he continues.  "Energized turnout against an unpopular policy.  And it clearly shows that the polling we have seen in recent weeks showing this to be a real fight is no fluke.  The conventional wisdom was proven wrong last night.  We are in this and we can win both houses of Congress this year.  Another poll from Monmouth that came out just this morning asks, 'which party do you prefer to have in control of Congress?'  Last month, it was Republicans 48, Democrats 46.  Today, it's Democrats 50, Republicans 43.  That's a nine point swing."  

The emphasis in the quote is mine.  The conventional wisdom was proven wrong last night.  We're not talking about voters in Massachusetts or California, we're talking about Kansas.  And we're talking about record numbers of new voter registrations across the board, everywhere, following the Dobbs decision.  I've said, since the leak of the potential overturning of the Roe decision came out, that this was a sleeping giant, and that the celebration among the far right would be short lived, because the hammer would fall in the next election.  Well, celebration muted, the hammer fell hard in Kansas on Tuesday. 

"The other key factor," says Trippi, "is these insane candidates themselves."  

He says that there is plenty of polling data to show Latino voters in Arizona in particular are turned off, and conversely, are motivated to go to the polls to vote against extremists like Blake Masters, who won the GOP nomination for the Senate seat now held by Mark Kelly, and Kari Lake, who could potentially win a very razor thin nomination for governor.  Unpopular candidates, as well as unpopular policy, can also energize voters.  Kelly and Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor of Arizona, offer competence and reason against the insanity of the Maga-endorsees.  

"It's time for plain talk," says a post on a discussion board for Democrats.  "No nuance, no nicey-nice, no soft pedaling the obvious truth.  As a whole, the Republican party has been invaded and taken over by Trump and his cult of Anti-American thugs.  They are not simply politicians; they are ruthless revolutionaries intent on destroying American democracy and installing a dictator like Putin or Orban."  

From my perspective, that's exactly the very best reason I can think of to make sure I vote, in every election in which I am qualified and eligible to vote, at every level, from school board and city council to the presidency.  

The same author notes that Republicans are openly talking about ending social security within five years.  That's not just a scare tactic.  Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, is on the record with a similar remark this week.  That's what's at stake in this year's mid-term elections.  We Americans are really not great at paying attention when politicians talk like this, but we'd better pay attention and we'd better take a good, long, hard look at all of them, including Democrats, just to make sure we're getting what we want when we vote.  Ending Social Security and Medicare benefits the billionaire class, not average Americans, a majority of whom are depending on their money that they paid into the system sustaining them when they are no longer able to work.  Republicans, for the most part, couldn't care less about average Americans.  They always have been, and still are, the party of the rich.

That's not a tired, old message.  It's the major political reality of our time, so why not keep it in front of people so they can make an informed and educated decision about who to vote for, instead of listening to some radicalized, insane, nut job, Trumpie?  

Our education system was designed to be the safeguard for democracy.  It is supposed to provide the nation with an educated electorate that is capable of preserving our democracy and electing a representative government by informed voters with solid critical thinking skills, who, for the most part, understand the background of constitutionally guaranteed rights.  But it is having a hard time making progress against the radicalization of extremism.  The results of the November 2022 election must hit the reset button, as we figure out how to handle extremism and at the same time protect free speech and freedom of conscience.  

Note:  To the writer of the post at DU, I want to give you credit for your words and ideas.  If you read this, and would like to have an acknowledgement entered, please let me know.  

 

It's a Miracle! 281 "Dead" People in Arizona are now Alive!

Washington Post: AZ Attorney General says No Dead People Voted in 2020 Election

The Cyber Ninjas are a gift that keeps on giving--to Democrats in the state of Arizona.  This group, headed by known Trump supporter Doug Logan, was commissioned by the state senate, at the instigation of its president, Karen Fann, to perform an "independent" audit on the ballots cast by over 2 million registered voters in Maricopa County, the state's largest.  The reason was that Republicans just could not wrap their minds around the fact that the county, which flipped from red to blue in 2020, helped Joe Biden flip the state and pick up its 11 electoral votes.  

There was perhaps nowhere else in the country where the lip flapping, shrieking and screaming about "massive voter fraud" was louder, and absolutely nowhere else where the conspiracy theories and claims of how the election was "stolen" were more outlandish, absurd and baseless.  There was "sharpiegate," a baseless accusation claiming that voters had wrongly been instructed to mark ballots with sharpies, which bled through the paper and caused counting errors. No evidence ever turned up to support that accusation, but how stupid would someone have to be to believe that only Republicans who voted for Trump were duped into using a sharpie on their ballot?  

Uh, don't answer that question.  

A Genuine, Authentic, Live Reality Show and Comedy of Errors

So, Senate President Karen Fann recruited Doug Logan and the Cyber Ninjas, and paid them taxpayer dollars to conduct a "neutral, independent audit" of Maricopa County's ballots.  Not the whole state, mind you, just Maricopa County.  Neither Logan, nor any of his Ninjas, had ever conducted an election audit before, or, in fact, any audit of any kind.  This was done after two other legitimate, independent audits had been conducted on statewide ballots, generated by the closeness of the final vote total, conducted by experienced election auditors who knew what they were doing.  As is always the case, the independent, thorough professional auditors did catch some voting irregularities, including several attempts to commit fraud.  

Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.  The independent auditors identified about 20 cases of voter fraud or irregularities, almost all of them by Trump voters.  But Fann wasn't satisfied and insisted on further waste of taxpayer dollars.  

Give credit where credit is due, the media outlets in the state documented the disaster from the moment Logan stepped foot in Arizona.  The Cyber Ninjas thrived on the conspiracy theories emanating from the Trump campaign, including believing that ballots were stuffed into the counting machines from China, and could be detected with special cameras which would show microscopic bamboo fibers.  If that sounds like second rate science fiction, that's because it is.  No such cameras, or ballots, exist. Needless to say, they found nothing.  

It is, in fact, accurate to say that the Cyber Ninjas didn't find anything, at all.  They were fortunate to find the boxes of ballots.  They couldn't operate the computers with the county's voter database, after repeated instruction from the county clerk's office.  They had no idea how to put ballots back into boxes after they ran them through the counting machines, which they were also unable to operate without assistance.  They took far longer than their estimated time, running into scheduling problems and had to relocate from the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum, the aging, crumbling former basketball arena where they set up and violated numerous state laws in moving the ballots.  They somehow managed to mess with the programming of several counting machines, invalidating their results and costing the county taxpayers thousands of dollars to replace them.  

Months after the original deadline was set for completion, pressure was building on them to produce a report.  Costs of the pseudo-audit had run up to over $6 million and they had nothing, and I mean literally nothing, to show for it.  A partial report, which said virtually nothing, and which claimed to have discovered that Joe Biden actually got several hundred more votes in Arizona than was originally reported, was delivered to the Senate. Was that a ruse, to make them look legitimate? But a final report never got there.  The Cyber Ninjas, after consuming more than $8 million, declared bankruptcy.  

Dead People Can't Vote, and in Arizona, None Did

There were some allusions to inaccuracy of the addresses of registered voters, and claims that some addresses were actually just open desert, alluding to possible fraud.  However, since the Ninjas were using five year old GPS maps, multiple subdivisions that had been built since their maps were published, had been built, accounting for over 70,000 of the votes they claimed came from "open desert."  The current maps, provided to them after this big goof was uncovered, showed neighborhoods and subdivisions that had been developed and built since the date of their outdated survey.  The only possible source of any fraud at all, in the information they provided, was the charge that 282 people who signed the voter roster and cast a ballot, were actually dead.  

Now 282 votes, even if all of them had been for Biden, would not be nearly enough to change the outcome of the election, close as it was.  But what this lone piece of "evidence" does for the Trumpie cause is cast doubt in the minds of those who already have a predisposed bias about the accuracy of the election and undermine the whole process, along with confidence in the officials, Republican or Democrat, in charge of the election itself.  $8 million is a high price to pay for such a small piece of "evidence," but given the stark absence of any evidence to support any of Trump's claims about election fraud, it was all they had.  

But, after the charge was levelled, the state attorney general, a Republican, Mark Brnovich, investigated each claim.  Every.  Single.  One.  And what he found was yet another example of the monumental stupidity and inexcusable incompetence of Logan and the Ninjas.  Brnovich found that at least 281 of the 282 people the Ninjas claimed were dead were still very much alive, most were still active registered voters and all of them had cast ballots in 2020.  

Because Trumpies are never wrong, and can never admit to making mistakes, we can come to only one conclusion.  Maricopa County, Arizona, has been the scene of the greatest and most miraculous resurrection ever to take place in the whole history of the world.  Jesus is known to have resurrected at least two people, other than himself, from the dead during his ministry.  But somehow, somewhere, someone resurrected 281 residents of Maricopa County, Arizona after they had died, and then, while dead, somehow managed to vote before being brought back to life.  

Monumental Stupidity

I love that expression.  Yes, Karen Fann and the Cyber Ninjas are well described by it.  But so are media outlets in Arizona who speak as if the Cyber Ninjas were legitimate, and who reference anything they did, out of the very little that they ever reported, as factual.  This is, in fact, one of the most egregious and serious attempts at subverting American democracy, undermining confidence in our electoral process, and destroying our constitutional republic, that occurred anywhere in Trumpland after the 2020 election with the exception of the January 6th Trump Insurrection.  Everyone involved in it, and anyone who helped make this look legitimate in anyone's eyes, has betrayed everything we stand for as Americans.  

Arizona's Republican faction may well be the single most backward, provincial, profoundly ignorant group of Republicans anywhere in the country, worse even than Texas, Alabama or Florida.  Dominated by a religious sect that believes God is a man with thousands of wives who lives on the planet Kolob somewhere out in the universe, haunted by the ghost of Barry Goldwater, and emerging from a 2022 primary with some of the more crazy extremists from the lunatic fringe of the GOP on the ballot, the choice in 2022 may be more of one between sanity and insanity, reality or fantasy, democracy or fascism, than anywhere else in the country. 

On a more positive note, I believe change is coming to Arizona and 2020 was just the beginning.  It's been building for more than a decade.  Helped along by the cruel extremism of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who motivated thousands of mostly Latino voters to register and oust him, and then continue to show up and keep him out, and by economic growth that is attracting a stream of new residents across the Colorado River from politically liberal California, the Democrats have emerged with a slim, but growing majority of voters while the GOP declines in voter registration in the state. Much of the GOP decline is due to the defection of white, college educated women from the party, noticeably accelerated by the recent Dobbs decision of the Supreme Court.  The polling data looks great for both Katie Hobbs' run for governor, and for Mark Kelly to keep his Senate seat, and, thanks to Fann and the Cyber Ninjas, to capture the majority of both houses of the legislature.  

Stay tuned.

 

  

Contenting for the Faith: Christianity Doesn't Fit Inside a Political Box

Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain intruders have stolen into among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  

These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage.  Jude, V. 3-4, 16

I saw this tweet and just had to put it here: 

"I'm so sick of seeing Christians in America claim persecution.  You aren't being persecuted for loving Jesus, you're being held accountable for not acting like him.  

In the midst of a decline in attendance and membership among Evangelical Christians in the United States, a trend that is highly disconcerting to many of its leaders who have boasted for decades that their church growth, compared to the declines in the "liberal," left-leaning Mainline Protestants, was a sign of God's blessing on their "correct theology", it has become popular to create analogies between the biblical accounts of the nation of Israel living in exile in Babylon, and the Christian church in America living in a "cultural Babylon."  

It's easy to blame the declining attendance and membership in their churches on pressures and influences of what many Christians label a godless, immoral culture, with hints that certain political party affiliations advocate and promote it, and not on their own ineffectiveness in preaching the Christian gospel and in evangelism that has been watered down by chasing after money and prioritizing wealth, and an inordinate investment of time and resources in the pursuit of political power.  People are leaving churches because the gospel of Jesus Christ has been pushed off to the side in favor of the gospel of conservative, right-wing politics with economic priorities that favor big money interests.  

The fact that some Evangelicals who are considered leaders in the church or the movement are themselves executives of multi-million dollar non-profit entities, like Samaritan's Purse, which has amassed $1 billion in assets, makes it difficult to sympathize with complaints about persecution.  Megachurches require gigantic infusions of contributions from members to keep facilities operating, and to pay large payrolls for staff members who head up "ministries" which are designed, not for evangelistic outreach, but to attract more members and their checkbooks from smaller churches which can't offer the smorgasbord of programs.  Christians in other parts of the world where there is real persecution might have trouble applying that term to those in America whose biggest problem on Sunday is having to decide between walking to the church auditorium from the outer parking lot, or waiting for a shuttle.  

I don't believe the Babylon analogy is valid.  It sounds biblical, and it's easy to convince those who already presuppose that anything they don't understand, or don't like, is to blame on the evil around them. They are also presupposed to believe anything that their pastor, or an evangelical leader who heads up a large ministry or pastors a megachurch, says or writes.  But Christian churches in America have complete freedom to gather, worship, preach, teach, operate ministries, raise tax free money, operate schools, children's homes and crisis pregnancy centers, without any interference whatsoever, and absolutely nothing like the restrictions the Israelites faced in Babylonian captivity. There is some religious discrimination in America, but not against Christians.  It's a nice propaganda gimmick to gather support, but America isn't Babylon, the church is not being held captive in a foreign empire and white, Protestant Christians are still privileged with a measure of freedom that others don't have.  

The answer to the often asked question, "How can you be a Christian and vote for a candidate who supports abortion?" is simple.  If I let that single issue determine how I cast my vote, to the exclusion of all other issues, I will be contributing to the election of many incompetent politicians who do not support representative democracy, equal rights and individual freedom, regardless of their stance on abortion.  In most cases, they're really not pro-life so much as they are interested in how they can profit off of that position in terms of getting elected.  I'm free to practice my Christian faith because of constitutionally guaranteed religious liberty.  If the religious liberty of those who hold a different faith perspective than I do is in jeopardy, then so is mine.  

The Real Problem is That Intruders have Stolen into the Church and are Wreaking Havoc

It seems to me to be a little bit on the inconsistent side (I'm really being tongue-in-cheek here, so bear with me) to moan and complain about Christians being captives in an immoral, pagan, Babylon-like culture, while supporting politicians, specifically one in particular, who spent their entire life crafting a public image that bears the same marks as Babylonian paganism.  Since the rhetoric is being used, I'll consider that permission to put my point in those same terms.  If the secular culture of America is analogous to that of ancient Babylon during the captivity of Israel, then Trump is the chief Babylonian. 

Making deals by throwing in a few political points that appeal to the religious right is not the same thing as actually having personal integrity and convictions, and believing in the principles associated with those issues.  Trumpism has an agenda, and those few bones that he throws to his Evangelical supporters are just a means to an end, which includes the dismantling of the Constitution and American representative democracy in favor of a Putin-style oligarchy with himself and his billionaire allies in control.  

There's no such thing as a "Christian" way to vote.  Voting for candidates who promise a short list of political reforms judged to be "favorable" to right-wing Christians, while those votes support candidates from a party in which the current direction is to dismantle voting rights, the representative democracy and the constitution that limits government power, overturn religious liberty in favor of an established, approved religion and set up an oligarchy of the billionaire class.  I don't believe for a minute that every candidate who claims to be pro-life holds that position out of conviction.  It's a bargaining chip. 

The verse I cited at the top is a warning from the Apostle Jude to a specific church where a pagan ideology was finding its way inside because the church wasn't careful about the people they were trusting when it came to leadership and teaching.  These intruders were pushing the gospel of Jesus out, replacing it with pagan ideology and teaching, using their personal power and influence, "bombast" as the Apostle describes it, denying the disciplines of the faith with a licentious lifestyle and even using flattery as a means of gaining influence.  Sound familiar?  It's happening in churches everywhere now. 

Don Jr., speaking at a Turning Point USA gathering in Phoenix last year, told the audience that he "sort of understood" the Christian practice of turning the other cheek, but that doing those kinds of "Jesus" things was not getting them anywhere in domains of worldly power.  Trump has mentioned the practice of being "meek," in some of his rallies, noting that meekness is a trait exhibited by "suckers and losers."  Those kinds of statements, along with denying having ever done anything requiring forgiveness, defines a set of values that I cannot vote for, and which are clearly opposite the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Yes, My Christian Values do Influence My Vote

Thomas Jefferson once said, "Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.  It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg,"  

The American constitutional republic, and the Bill of Rights, have protected religious belief and practice since it was ratified in 1789.  I am able to be a Christian and practice my faith without hindrance in this country because of the separation of church and state, set in place by the establishment clause of the Constitution.  That's not worth a trade off to abandon support for democratic principles in exchange for the support of a politician for one or two issues in a platform that may align with my religious beliefs, or may just be some kind of deal.  It's not worth losing voting integrity and voting rights, and risking the abandonment of the Constitution of the United States, along with my own religious liberty.  

There's nothing in a whole long list of Christian values, like integrity, equality, community, good stewardship, righteousness, meekness, perseverance, and being a peacemaker, whom Christ said would be known as the children of God, that has the ability to generate controversy or spark violence, especially not an insurrection aimed at subversion of the peaceful transfer of power.  And the fact of the matter is that if anyone's freedom is at risk in this country, because their rights have been threatened, then no one is truly free.  And that includes the basic guarantee of the rights of those who hold no religious belief, or are Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim, as well as the rights of Christians. 

It has become more apparent, over the past four years, that my best chance at keeping my religious liberty, lies with electing Democrats to office.  The Republican party has been moving toward establishing an oligarchy of the rich, something they do every time they are in position to get legislation passed.  They can't seem to win elections at the state or national level where they cannot manipulate the way congressional and state legislative districts are drawn, so they are now placing the outcome of elections in the hands of their own party's elected officials, not in the hands of the voters.  That's a long first step toward selective application of constitutional rights for the privileged and powerful, not for the meek, disadvantaged or for non-Christian religious minorities.  Doing so supports the whole scope of Christian faith and practice.  I won't judge Christians who vote differently, like some of those who insist that voting Republican is synonymous with "voting Christian."  Depending on the candidate and what the party is doing, voting Republican is a vote against religious liberty.  But that's a personal conviction, just like my choices are.  

There is no "Christian way to vote," because Christian faith does not need any political power to fulfill its mission and purpose.  The current intrusion of ungodly, bombastic, grumblers and malcontents, using flattery to deceive, is pushing the Christian gospel out of the churches that have embraced it and they are seeing the consequences of that.  "It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions," says Jude.  "And have mercy on some who are wavering."  

My loyalty as a Christian is to God, and my Christian faith is practiced according to the gospel message of Jesus, the Christ.  As an American citizen, it is to the constitution and the freedom it protects, to the principles it upholds and the institutions it creates to protect freedom, and to all of my fellow American citizens who share in it.  My vote is cast to elect politicians who will protect this, not tear it apart for their own self interests.  

Please Note:  Comments are welcome, and are published at the discretion of the author.  Please note that those who identify as Christians and who want to comment are governed by principles of faith, including the Apostle Peter's words in his first epistle 3:16.  Comments must reflect a spirit of gentleness and respect.

Your words will demonstrate your faith, or your lack of it.  Comments which take the position that their author is more doctrinally and theologically "correct" than those with whom he or she may disagree, and which judge the points in the post based on their own presupposed beliefs will not be included in this dialogue.  

If you are claiming to be a Christian, your comments will reflect on the character and integrity of your own testimony, as well as on Christianity in general.  

Where the Christian Church Should be Leading in American Social and Cultural Life, But Isn't

Baptist News Global: A Conservative Case for Why the Church Should Lead the Way in Being "Woke"

Texas Baptist Standard: We Have Mourning to do and Action to Take

I strongly recommend clicking this link and reading this article, written by Stephen Baldwin, a media producer and author, in Baptist News Global.  Baldwin writes, "It is the very wholesale rejection of 'social justice' and anything they deem 'woke' that gives the appearance that Christians lack compassion."  That's the statement that captured my interest and got me to read the article, and then decide to share it here.  It's excellent, even for those who are not Christian and claim no religious faith.  

The focal point of the Christian experience is conversion.  It is that point where terms like conviction and repentance, forgiveness and restoration describe the spiritual and intellectual act during which one is forgiven of sin because of their dependence on Christ, acknowledgement of his divine and human nature, turning from sin.   

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?  Can faith save you?  If a brother or sister is naked, lacks daily food, and one of you says to them , "go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill", and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead.  James 2:14-17 NRSV

The good works that follow are not what brings about the conversion experience.  They are a demonstration of conversion, evidence that there has been a spiritual transformation which has taken place.  And good works are not the immediate result of conversion.  A new convert to Christian faith needs guidance and instruction, along with motivation and inspiration, in order for their values to be aligned as an expression of their faith and their identity as a Christian.  Those instructions are found in the Bible, so a working understanding of how faith fits together and is lived out depends on an understanding of what Christ, and the early church apostles, had to say about it. 

An Infinite Set of Virtues and Values

The Apostles and leaders of the early Christian church who wrote the New Testament, most of them eyewitnesses to the three year ministry of Jesus, were absolutely convinced that he was the promised Messiah, belief in which was the focal point of Judaism and the Old Testament writers.  Their assertion is supported by their meticulous connection of their observations to Old Testament prophecy they contend was fulfilled by Jesus.  In fact, in Matthew's gospel, Jesus himself makes this claim.  

The long, troubled political history of the Jewish people, from the time of their exile in Babylon to the coming of Christ, had cause many of them, including most of their religious leaders, to believe that the promised Messiah would be a king, restoring the throne of David which had been unoccupied since Zedekiah was killed by the Babylonians.  But it's clear from the words of Christ himself that he never intended to establish another Jewish political kingdom.  He used the terminology to apply to his church, connected Old Testament prophecy that talks about the restoration of the Kingdom of God in the Messianic age to the establishment of the Christian Church on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 2, and declared while he was on trial before Pilate that his kingdom "is not of this world."  

And so, while evangelistic activity aimed at converting pagans to Christian faith is the starting point, the Christian faith is defined by its virtues and values, which are found in absolute abundance throughout the New Testament.  Observation of the lifestyle of Christians was designed to be the lifetime fulfillment of the conversion experience, as well as a means of attracting those mostly pagan people around whom they lived to the Christian faith.  Volumes of commentary interpreting the New Testament's words on good works of righteousness--not self righteousness--and the values which are intended to identify the Christian church have been written.  

How that should look was characterized by the Apostle Peter.  Speaking to the gathered church on its first day of existence as the "Christian church", the day of Pentecost, describing the unusual happening, he explained and defined the church's mission and purpose: 

"This is what was spoken of by the Prophet Joel: 'In the last days it will be , God declares, that I will pout out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.  

And all of those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'"  Acts 2:16-18, 21, NRSV

Peter ended his explanation of what was happening by declaring that Jesus was Lord and Messiah and the Kingdom of God that he was establishing would be the church, not the political kingdom with successors to the throne of David, but a spiritual kingdom that did not require human political power or favor to exist, and thrive.  

Christian Faith and Practice

Faith is what makes a person Christian.  It is the conversion experience, which includes repentance and the receiving of God's grace through Christ's Messiahship.  It is both an identifiable event and a lifelong process.  The life and teachings of Jesus Christ form the interpretive lens through which the Bible is interpreted and Christian faith is discerned.  

Practice is exactly what it sounds like.  It is the application of the spiritual values and principles in the systematic theology laid out by Jesus and his apostles as they interpreted the covenant relationship between God and humanity in the context of Christ's gospel message.  It includes the inward spiritual transformation as well as what James refers to as "works," or actions that are motivated by faith.  

So what does this look like?  

According to Jesus, in more than one of the gospel accounts, the two greatest commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  From the way he conducted his ministry, it becomes very clear that the primary means of identification as a Christian isn't in proclaiming belief, or condemning others who don't share the same faith, but is seen in how other people are treated.  Because the definition of neighbor, according to Jesus, was not limited to just those who are like minded or who are fellow Christians.  

Christian practice is an influence which produces character and testifies to their value.  Jesus, after laying out a set of values known as the "Beatitudes" in a narrative called "The Sermon on the Mount" recorded by Matthew, calls on his followers to be "salt" and "light."  "In the same way," he said, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."  That's obedience to the two great commandments in one sentence.   

Jesus responded to a question about his identity as Messiah from John the Baptist by sending a message to tell him, "the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. (Luke 7:22),  In the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, he read from Isaiah 61 and then told those gathered that "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled within your hearing. (Luke 4:21).  The prophecy he read said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Christian practice looks like Jimmy Carter, who humbles himself, puts on a pair of coveralls and an old shirt and spends countless hours volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, in addition to promoting the program itself and helping to raise money for it.  It looks like Danny Thomas, who said, "A dream is one thing.  A realization is something entirely separate," about the establishment of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where childhood cancer research has been highly successful in saving lives, and providing essential treatment and care to children whose parents receive no bill for the services. 

It looks like Dr. Martin Luther King, the Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson and a host of others.  The American Civil Rights Movement, which began in the 1960's, is one of the best examples we have of Christians taking the lead in American social and cultural life, in a positive way, using the influence of the church to make a positive change.  Most of its leaders stood behind pulpits on Sunday.  

It looks like Mother Teresa, who took her calling into one of the world's most impoverished cities and made a difference.  It looks like George Mueller, who provided orphanage care to over 10,000 orphans and educational opportunities to over 100,000 children from poor families who never would have been able to afford it.  He did so much for the poor in England that he was accused of raising the poor above their station in British life.  

But it also looks like ordinary, everyday people who do things on their own for others without prompting, simply because they see a need.  Most of what they do is inconspicuous, because those who do this because they are motivated by their faith aren't looking for recognition or accolades.  They aren't self-promoters and they're not using their good works as a launching pad for influence or fame. They're paying attention, they see a need and within their own ability and means, seek to meet the need.  

It looks like a small congregation in a gritty, inner-city neighborhood of a large, eastern American city, buying a run-down house next door, investing time and volunteer labor in a complete renovation, setting up a community center where career skill training and counseling is available to women in poverty.  The center provides job skills training, help with child care, food and rent while their clients get on their feet, interview and resume skills, arranges job interviews, serves as a reference and referral, and provides shoes and clothing appropriate not just for the interview, but to wear to work as well as counseling support to help the women stay on the job.  

Connected to it is a crisis pregnancy center, a real one, where women get more than just an ultra sound and a lecture that passes as counseling.  They arrange pre-natal care, assistance with food, clothing, rent, child care, helping relieve some of the effects of poverty that are factors in many abortion decisions.  The services for women are available to the clients during and after the pregnancy.  They also provide adoption referrals if that is needed.  The center was able to expand its clientele, almost tripling the number of women it served during the Obama administration, when federal funding was available to help with expenses.   

Christianity is an Intentional Influence on Culture and Society, Not a Political Control on it

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored.  It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.  You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:13-16, NRSV

Christianity, allied with a partisan, political party and worldview, is salt that has lost its saltiness.  It is a dimmed lamp, casting long, dark shadows instead of brightly illuminating a room.  That's the way I interpret what is happening among some branches of American Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic, as an ungodly, pseudo-Christian political cult infiltrates churches and subverts their purpose and preaching away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Christian practice cannot be legislated into acceptance.  If it isn't motivated by the inward spiritual transformation that occurs in conversion, then it becomes dead ritual.  If it is visible, then the practice of values like honesty and integrity, sense of community and purpose that includes a lifestyle of simplicity, avoiding excess and being good stewards of common resources, having a desire for the common good, the equality, giftedness and inherent rights of all humanity and living a life that promotes peace, are the influences Christianity contributes to society and culture, as well as government in a democratic union.  If it does not do this, then it is not Christian.

A Pseudo-Christian Threat to Both Church and State: White Christian Nationalism

Ellis Orozco: Male Hierarchy and Dominion Theology are Threats Within the Southern Baptist Convention

Marjorie Taylor Greene to GOP: "We Should be Christian Nationalists"

Phil Gorski: The Threat of White Christian Nationalism

Arkansas' Minister of Hate: Arkansas Encyclopedia

Rachel Maddow led her show off this evening with a story about Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith.  Smith passed away in 1976.  He retired in the 1960's in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, purchasing and renovating a Victorian mansion, and then, on the property he owned, building a large statue of Jesus Christ, known as the "Christ of the Ozarks" on Magnetic Mountain, overlooking the town.  A nearby hillside provided a place for 6,000 seats and the backdrop for the set of a seasonal Passion Play, depicting the last days in the life of Christ.  The tourist attraction also features a Bible museum.  

Smith was not the original white Christian nationalist, but he was a passionate advocate for it all of his life.  He was a Nazi sympathizer prior to and during the Second World War, his rhetoric was virulently anti-Semitic and violently racist, referencing "mongrel" races and using many of the same sources the Nazis did for their anti-Semitic rants against the "conspiracy of international Jewry".  He founded both the America First political party, and please make the connection to that name, and ran as its nominee for President in both 1944 and 1948, never earning very many votes, but gaining enough support to finance the campaigns, and the Christian Nationalist Crusade.  The latter earned a citation for being anti-Semitic from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith.  

Bubbling beneath the surface of Republican party politics for a long time, the intersection of far right politics with some elements of the Evangelical branch of American Christianity has brought this pseudo-Christian Fascist cult to the surface and revealed that a number of politicians adhering to this philosophy have already been elected to state legislatures, several governors and members of both the House and Senate.  

White Christian Nationalism is Not Orthodox, Mainstream Christianity; It is a Pseudo-Christian Worldview and Perspective

Without going into a long doctrinal discourse, it is very clear from the gospel narratives recording the words of Christ himself, and from the apostles and other authors of the New Testament that the Christian church, which Jesus declared to be his spiritual kingdom, "not of this world," crossed the racial, ethnic, language, economic and social boundaries that existed at the time of its founding.  The first organized Christian church existed in Jerusalem, and was made up mostly of Jewish converts but it crossed over to the "gentile" population, specifically Romans and Greeks, shortly after persecution broke out and many of its members were forced to flee.  

The Apostle Peter had a series of encounters with people who were not Jews, but who converted to Christian faith, and he became convinced, after some strong persuasion from God and from the Apostle Paul, that the concept of a "chosen people", which he had always associated with race, was a spiritual concept related to conversion, without any connection to race or ethnicity at all. 

To a multi-racial Christian church, he wrote, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.  Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."  (I Peter 9-10 NRSV)  

The identity of Christianity, at this point, was becoming separate from just being a "Jewish sect" because of the diversity of those who were converting.  Churches were made up of people who prior to their conversion, wouldn't have associated with each other.  Many Christians were slaves, while others owned property, including some who were wealthy enough to own homes large enough to hold the worship gatherings.  There were Greeks, Romans, Jews, and members of every local and regional ethnic and language group that existed in each community in the local churches. 

Christianity "conquered" the Roman Empire without any military, political or financial resources, in the teeth of severe persecution. By exhibiting steadfast commitment to the faith in a pagan society, following the Apostles instructions to demonstrate gentleness and respect for those they encountered, living out the values taught by Christ as a testimony to their faith, by the time Constantine became emperor and ended the persecution against Christians, the church was one of the predominant influences in the empire. Jesus never intended for his church to "conquer" in any other way.  

Based on Christ's gospel, the New Testament record and the early history of the church, any idea that a particular nationality or race of people have been chosen by God to use political power and military might to "claim" territory on his behalf is pseudo-Christian in that it is using language and symbolism from the Christian church, and anti-Christian in that it completely subverts and changes the Christian gospel.  That is destructive to the ministry of the church.  It would also destroy American democracy, since it only recognizes the liberties of individuals who belong to the preferred racial or ideological group.   

Trumpism is at the Intersection of White Supremacy, Christian Nationalism, Dominion Theology and the Prosperity Gospel 

The use of terms like "America First" should be ringing alarm bells among anyone who understands the background of American Fascism and the Nazi sympathizers of the early 20th century.  Gerald Smith's Christian Nationalist Crusade is also echoing among those on the far right.  The racism is back, along with the Fascism, being expressed in the old "international Jewish conspiracy" phrases and in the violent opposition to racial reconciliation on terms other than those dictated by white culture.

Donald Trump is a pathological liar.  He's not a Christian nor has he ever made a statement that would qualify as a testimony to a conversion experience.  Yale sociologist Phil Gorski says that some Christians believe he is one of them, because some of their leaders, like Franklin Graham, support that idea.  

"They see Christianity as under attack," according to Gorski, "and believe that he will stand up for it.  If they are choosing between a politician who has religious faith and somebody who is prepared to fight, they prefer the person with the fight to the person with the faith."  

Where, exactly, is Christianity "under attack"?  

Christians, and specifically white, Protestant Christians, already have a virtually unlimited measure of freedom that is well beyond the scope of that of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and members of other, smaller, religious sects.  They have more freedom and are extended more opportunities and privileges--and yes, I am going to use that word--than agnostics, atheists, or Latino Catholics. They are an ongoing majority in state legislatures, governorships and in Congress and the judiciary.  There are no obstacles or hindrances to their free exercise and extending the same rights to others doesn't diminish their influence or interfere with their practice.  

But, even those who realize Trump is not Christian at all are still willing to support him. I have never understood how a coarse talking, God-cursing, woman abusing, frequent adulterous business fraud, liar and corporate-world exploiter has attracted support from a group of people who, if they really were in charge of a Christian nationalist government, would execute those who did what he's done.  He's everything the Christian right defines as "worldly," which is the exact opposite of what the Christian gospel proclaims.  

One of the "intersections" that brings Trumpism into the White Christian Nationalist picture is the connection he has to his "spiritual advisor," the self-proclaimed prophetess, Paula White.  White is part of the "Prosperity Gospel" movement, which associates God's blessings to people with money, a branch of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement which is where most of the dominion theology and "Seven Mountains" dominionism exists.  It's easy to see how Trump was more attracted to White and the prosperity gospel message than to Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas who still preaches repentance from sin and accountability to God, in spite of being tempted by and enamored by Trump's flattery.  Trump has made it clear that he has done nothing for which he needs to ask forgiveness or to be repentant, a frustrating position requiring his prominent Evangelical supporters like Franklin Graham, along with Jeffress, to ignore, pass it over and not discuss.  

As a self-proclaimed "prophetess," diviner of spirits, preacher and pastor of a large church, White would be condemned by conservative Evangelicals for her heretical doctrine which includes the belief that the Bible can be altered or changed by new "revelation," the fact that she is a woman but has usurped a male leadership role of pastor, preaches with authority over men, her "name it and claim it" approach to wealth, all of which are serious violations of their non-negotiable theological points.  But she's with Trump, so many of them are forced to either include her in the "good ole boys club" with them, or to hypocritically pretend she's not really there.  "Believe what we preach, except when it applies to anything Trump."  

Trump is clearly as ignorant of Christian faith and practice, and anything that can be found in the Bible, as any human being on the face of the earth.  His white supremacy and lust for money and the power that comes with it is his attraction to White and in turn, she is more than likely the source of his support for White Christian Nationalism.  Speaking on his father's behalf at Turning Point rallies, Don Junior articulates the idea that Christians have been left out of the places of worldly power and influence because they are too hung up on turning the other cheek and loving their enemies, and other core principles that come with following Christ which get them labelled as "losers" and "suckers."  The losers and suckers applaud this.  

Where, exactly, is Christianity under attack?  It is with this pseudo-Christian nonsense.  

White Christian Nationalism is a Threat to Both Church and Democratic America

The increasing entanglement and relationship between far right politics and conservative Evangelical Christians has sparked a rapid decline in church attendance and membership, on a scale that exceeds the declines experienced by Mainline Protestants in the 60s and 70s which Evangelicals pointed to and claimed was the result of their "liberalism."  And as much as Evangelical leaders are loathe to admit the decline, they are even more resistant to making the connection between the ramping up of their right wing political connections, especially with Trumpism, and the decline in membership and attendance in the churches.  But it is difficult to deny, since the decline corresponds to the same time frames.  

The church is Christ's spiritual kingdom.  It exists on a different level than government, political institutions, business and finance, foreign relations and the temporal world.  It was designed to be an influence for good, "salt and light" as Jesus said, with integrity, gentleness, restraint, good stewardship and management of resources, avoiding excesses, building relationships between people based on trust, and promoting peace in the broadest sense of the word, at every level.  

The infiltration of far right politics, with its conspiracy theories, propaganda, dishonesty, self-interest, love of money and the use of worldly power has intruded on the spiritual kingdom and it demands primary loyalty, including loyalty to both God and country.  More than anything else has done in American history, including the Civil War, this pseudo-Christian philosophy has disrupted the mission and purpose of Christian churches and denominations, subverting the message and using its resources for purposes that have no redeeming Christian value. (See Jude, verses 4, 8-16)

White Christian Nationalism will also destroy democracy.  It will use democratic tools to get elected, and will then dismantle them, as it is already doing.  Since it promotes inequality between people, those who are, in its perspective, "less equal" or subservient in some cases, are not extended any rights that permit them to participate in the government through the prescribed means, mainly the ballot box.  And what we're seeing, through Trumpism and some of its promoters, is virulently anti-Semitic and violently racist, particularly against African Americans, though they also consider Latinos as "mongrels" and part of the plot to "mongrelize" America.  

For those who are guided by reason and intellect, this is the result of ignorance.  From a Christian perspective, the author of the Biblical book of Jude, says "These are grumblers, and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage."  (Jude, v. 16)  

Here's the link to Rachel Maddow, July 25, 2022

And one more link, Interfaith Alliance, Rauschenbusch: Christian Nationalism a Threat to Democracy

 

 

What Chuck Todd and NBC's "Meet the Press" Left Out is Part of the Problem Democrats Are Facing

My television would normally not be tuned in to Meet the Press on a Sunday morning.  It was tuned to NBC from something I was watching last night, and I left it there while getting breakfast in the kitchen.  The panel discussion caught my attention, because they were putting up polling data and discussing its effects on the mid-term elections.  I got teased in to sticking it out because of an appearance by former Vice President Al Gore but the panel discussion, featuring host Chuck Todd, along with Yamiche Alcindor, Maria Teresa Kumar, Stephen Hayes and Jake Sherman, was quite informative. 

Informative, that is, in that what appears to be a round-table discussion with media-types that attempts to appear intellectual, authoritative and spontaneous can make some observations while looking at facts, and at the same time, miss some obvious points altogether.  I'm sure that these discussions are not anywhere near as spontaneous as they appear, and that the talking points have been outlined before they go on camera.  The presence of Kumar and Alcindor lent some credibility to the discussion, and they helped insert some perspective that didn't support what's becoming the tired, old narrative about the party in power losing in the midterms, which was the theme that Todd kept pushing.  

The other two panelists--and this is my personal opinion--are not anywhere in the same ballpark with the two women, especially in journalism.  Hayes is pretty low-level, with no connection to any major media source, not all that well known except among some media elites, and is not particularly good at being unbiased.  Sherman has a slightly higher profile, editor of Punchbowl News, which is a not-so-widely-read daily newsletter focusing on Congress.  I started reading it when it first came out, because Sherman, who is also an analyst and consultant for MSNBC, and was at Politico, attracted my attention.  But with limited time, I stick to the columnists and commentators at the Washington Post, New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.  

Too Much Focus on the President's Job Approval Rating but not the GOP's Rating, or the Generic Ballot

Some polling data was selectively chosen this morning, including a Quinnipiac poll showing that Joe Biden's job approval rating has fallen to 31%.  In a cluster of job approval polls out from the past week, that was the lowest number in the group.  Most of them are hovering at 40%, there's one or two at 41% and on the high end, I did find one from Marist at 43 and The Economist at 45.  So why pick the lowest one and go with it?  Why not start with the 40% average, since Quinnipiac is the lowest outlier?

There's really no question that the President's job approval rating is a problem, especially heading into the midterms.  I'm sure Todd picked the Quinnipiac poll because it was the lowest one, and he had to find one that put the President under the Supreme Court's showing, with just a 37% job approval rating.  If he used the composite rating for the President, then he becomes the most popular man in Washington, compared to the courts, his own party in both houses, and the GOP at the very bottom. 

The lowest scoring in this week's polls, 23% job approval, was earned by Republicans in Congress!  Kumar and Alcindor both went that direction, while everyone else, including Todd, turned the focus to past midterms where Presidents had higher job approval ratings.  I think the relevance of those circumstances is questionable, since the political situation in this country has changed dramatically since then.  The two ladies also, to their credit, pointed out that as much as the President's job approval record may be on the ballot, even though he is not, the former President's extremely high negative numbers, now averaging well above the 60% line in strong disapproval, and in saying "NO!" to a second term, 

Kumar managed to squeeze in a comment that polling data is showing a change in the dynamics for Democratic candidates in Republican-majority districts when a Trump endorsed candidate wins in the primaries.  Both ladies also did an excellent job with the time they had in pointing out that it is looking good for Democrats running for the Senate to hold their seats, and to take the seats in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and along with the generic ballot, head to head polling across the board has made a significant swing toward Democrats over the past month, and that the January 6th hearings and the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court are still helping trend in the Democrat's favor.  

Some of the Inherent Problems in This Presentation

Though the whole program was not blatantly one-sided, it was pretty clear, especially in that panel discussion, that Kumar and Alcindor, who try to be objective and unbiased, were put in the awkward position of having to correct and challenge misinformed or irrelevant statements, or redirect the conversation when facts were ignored.  Though I don't watch this program very much, that seems to be the pattern of the other panel discussions I've seen there over the past year.  Sherman and Hayes just took up time, made their comparisons and analysis of 2022 in comparison to the GOP waves that occurred in Clinton and Obama's first terms, avoiding most of the relevant facts of the discussion. 

There was no discussion at all, in speculating about Trump's potential run for 2024, of the fact that he is very likely to be indicted, tried, and ultimately convicted for his role in the January 6th Trump Insurrection.  Nothing.  January 6th was mentioned, briefly, as a factor that is starting to benefit Democrats in the mid-terms, but the implications of a Trump trial and conviction aren't part of the speculation.  Nor did they mention that a whole cluster of polls came out this week showing both Biden and Harris ahead of Trump in head-to-head polls taken over the past week or so.  

It's not the media's job to promote a political candidate or political party, and I get that.  But it is also not to manipulate the circumstances in order to give some sort of appearance of fairness and balance, if I may use those two terms. It's not their job to "level the playing field" either.  It's pretty clear that in the extremist right wing media, there are "personalities" who don't hide their attempts to control and direct the Republican party's agenda in the way they want it to go.  Rush Limbaugh carefully planned his programs to send direct messages to Republicans to implement policy and push legislation that he supported.  Sean Hannity was a de-facto Trump advisor.  Is that what Chuck Todd wants?  Is he trying to influence  the Biden administration and the Democrats in Congress?  Is his negativity, as it comes across, an attempt to get some kind of action out of them?  

The Bright Spots

The momentum has shifted toward the Democrats.  The Republicans haven't offered much to excite their voters and the Trumpies seem to be more about alienating voters in their own party who aren't Trump loyalists, and appealing to the extremist elements of the party than in doing anything positive or beneficial.  The Democrats find themselves on the favorable side of issues from the Ukraine War, to gun legislation, to Roe v. Wade and January 6th.  Will that be enough?  Yes, it will, to hang on to the current small house majority, and potentially add a couple of senate seats.  I think the fact that Trump keeps hanging around, maintaining a rally schedule at smaller venues with vastly shrinking crowds will do as much to motivate independents to vote Democratic as anything else at this point. 

With a generic polling average of just under 40%, an out of control party leader with 67% disapproval, and a 23% approval rating of their own job in Congress, that's not a formula for taking back the house and Senate in November.  Not even close.  

And while there's really not been anything wrong with the economy, and I hate to admit that Americans are so shallow as to elevate the price of gasoline, and issues with inflation, to decisions about which Senator or Representative to elect, things are changing there, as the President said it would.  This was a temporary burst, due to the restrictions of COVID, as the President said it was, and it is following the pattern he said it would.  Our local news, just this evening, made a big deal about the drop in gas prices, 40 cents a gallon over the past two weeks.  The trend line in crude prices is also heading south.  If there were a Republican in the White House, their media outlets would be claiming it was because of the President's recent trip to Saudi Arabia, and his release of crude from the national reserves.  

And oh, did I mention?  Bread is down 20 cents a loaf this week.  

There are also some Republicans who are worried that an announcement by Trump about a candidacy for the Presidency in 2024 will cost them several gubernatorial races in 2022.  Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, who is term limited and can't run this year, is concerned that a Trump announcement will cause problems.  Maryland GOP Governor Hogan Worried About a Trump Presidential Candidacy Costing the GOP Gubernatorial Races 

And as always, the bottom line for Democrats is go to the polls and elect Democrats.

A Side Note

During the same hour, Representative Elaine Luria was interviewed by Chuck Todd, and she really took him down.  She didn't bend to his manipulations, made her point clearly, redirected his negative, off-base comments, pointed out his errors and incorrect assumptions and stood her ground.