Dominionists in the United States

[Tank]

For people who allegedly like 'small government' they sure as hell like using the law when it suits them! 

[Asmodean]

You don't even need a central government to enforce laws, so... So?

Even if you maintain the law enforcement aspect of government, you could still get rid of many more, less or way-less necessary functions. (Necessity as it relates to a society being able to "tick along.")

[Recusant]

This post could go in the putrid mountebank thread, but it's really about the nature of his cult. In my opinion Dominionism has always had the stink of the prosperity gospel permeating it. That is, if you're successful in exerting dominion over family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government ("all in God's name" of course) then naturally you'll be wealthy beyond your dreams. On the other hand "God helps those who help themselves." 

A state in the US requires by law that Bibles will be placed in every classroom (grades 1-12) in the state. Specifications for those Bibles which were apparently created by something called the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services are only filled by the Trump Bible and one other on the market, That one is "endorsed" by Junior. 

Giving credit to a headline editor for once, I like the title from the place where I found this item ("Holy Grift! Trump Bibles Miraculously an Exact Match for Oklahoma Public Schools Mandate" | Common Dreams) but they're mainly citing another source:

"State Education Department Seeks Bids for 55,000 Classroom Bibles" | Oklahoma Watch

Superintendent Ryan Walters isn't just talking about buying Bibles for schools.

Bids opened Monday for a contract to supply the state Department of Education with 55,000 Bibles. According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.

A salesperson at Mardel Christian & Education searched, and though they carry 2,900 Bibles, none fit the parameters.

But one Bible fits perfectly: Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and commonly referred to as the Trump Bible. They cost $60 each online, with Trump receiving fees for his endorsement.

Mardel doesn't carry the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible or another Bible that could meet the specifications, the We The People Bible, which was endorsed by Donald Trump Jr. It sells for $90.

[Continues . . .]

But, eh, Harris is a DEI hire! Never actually worked at McDonalds! etc.

[Tank]

America is going mad!

[Icarus]

The Trump grifter is now selling toy electric trains with his face emblazoned across the sides of the box cars. Get yours for only *$89.99 plus shipping and handling.  Hurry, before supplies are exhausted.

[Asmodean]

So rather than getting on the Trump train, you could own yourself-self an Trump train..?

...Eh. A bit weak, as political symbolism goes, but I'm sure it will sell.

[The Magic Pudding..]

The Trump grifter is now selling toy electric trains with his face emblazoned across the sides of the box cars. Get yours for only *$89.99 plus shipping and handling.  Hurry, before supplies are exhausted.

On the box cars? that's rubbish, something like this would be better.

[Tank]

[billy rubin]

i didn t believe that could possibly be true, so i looked it up and it is.

[Asmodean]

i didn t believe that could possibly be true, so i looked it up and it is.

What? The Trump Train?

Why would it strain credulity? They've sold fridge magnets and designer coffee mugs for ages. It would be far from the first useless "collectible" to reach the market.

[Recusant]

I agree a Thomas-style Trump locomotive would be a better product but it's not about the product, it's about the grift. Much simpler to just silk-screen some crap on the side of a boxcar and ship them off to the suckers. Don't worry, the Trumpy Bear is still available to provide "comfort" to the unfortunate offspring of MAGA parents. It's been provoking nightmares reliably for years. 

Meanwhile prominent Dominionists are working closely with the Trump campaign. They dream of using Trump's fascist ambitions as a stepping stone to their Christofascist theocracy.

"Dominionist 'Courage Tour' Heads to Pennsylvania in Bid to Put Unleashed Trump in Power" | Right Wing Watch

The Courage Tour, organized by Trump-promoting dominionists Lance Wallnau and Mario Murillo, and co-sponsored by the MAGA movement organization America First Policy Institute, rolls into Pennsylvania this week on its tour of 19 swing counties that could decide the outcome of the presidential election. The event will be held Friday night and all day Saturday in Monroeville, which is located east of Pittsburgh.

Scholar Matthew Taylor, who attended a Wisconsin stop, called the tour "the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever," adding that "they're doing it hand in glove in many ways with the Trump campaign and with the apparatus of the Trump campaign through an organization like AFPI."

Indeed, the Courage Tour exemplifies the de facto merger between the MAGA movement and dominionist Christian nationalists. AFPI, a "think tank" organized by and filled with former Trump administration officials, is an active participant in Project 2025, another example of the shared authoritarian goals of Trumpworld and the Christian nationalists who helped put Trump in power in 2016 as part of their long-term plan to take "dominion" over every sphere of influence in society. Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk has also supported the tour.

In 2023, AFPI President Brooke Rollins, a former Trump adviser who had been preparing his second-term agenda before he lost the 2020 election, held an America First Summit where she discussed AFPI's Vision 2025, a preview of Project 2025's plans for the aggressive use of government power to promote the far-right agenda. Rollins happily admitted that their "ideologically revolutionary" goal is to "seize control of the administrative state" as part of "an America First confrontation against anti-conservative institutions."  That echoed language used by the Heritage Foundation when it launched Project 2025 as a plan for the MAGA movement to "take the reins of government."

[Continues . . .]

[Recusant]

Here's another fairly comprehensive examination of the history and present manifestation of the Christian theocracy movement in the US (I use "Dominionist" as a shorthand term, but there are various names used by various elements).

This thread has already covered at least some of the information in the article of course, but it gets into deeper history, and so is a fairly long read. For instance it covers RJ Rushdoony. I'm pretty sure he's featured in some of the articles that have been linked in this thread, but I don't think I've ever mentioned him. He's responsible for a significant number of the ideas that gave rise to the Dominionist movement.


"The Genesis of Christian Nationalism" | ProPublica

In recent years, the Christian right has become an increasingly powerful force in American politics. The belief that God has called on conservative Christians to rule over society has extended into all levels of government, from school boards to the White House.

Many pundits call this movement Christian nationalism. But while it may seem like a phenomenon born out of our current political moment, it represents the culmination of various movements with roots that trace back decades. The more extreme elements didn't just materialize a few years ago. They've been there from the start.

In the beginning — in this case, the 1970s — some Christians feared their influence in society was waning. The Supreme Court had outlawed school-sponsored prayer and Bible readings and had legalized abortion.

In response, religious figures began to organize around the idea that they had a duty to bring Christianity back into public life. Several Christian-influenced organizations, including Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and James Dobson's Family Research Council, were soon formed and went on to shape Republican policies for decades to come. Evangelical Protestants of different denominations joined forces and united with conservative Catholics, like Paul Weyrich, the founder of the think tank the Heritage Foundation, to advance their shared political goals. Under the banner of "pro-family politics," the New Christian Right movement fought against abortion access, feminism and gay rights as attacks on traditional family values.

[Continues . . .]

[Recusant]

When it happened I didn't post about US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson spouting a completely spurious prayer that he claimed Thomas Jefferson said every day. It was just another not particularly noteworthy example of the incorrigible dishonesty of the Christofascist movement in the US. I've come across an article that tears Johnson's lies into little pieces and makes the point that mendacity is at the heart of their agenda.


"Why Mike Johnson's fake 'Jefferson prayer' matters" | Salon

One cannot say for certain that Rep. Mike Johnson was deliberately lying during his acceptance speech to return as Speaker of the House. He read what he claimed was a prayer recited by President Thomas Jefferson "each day of his eight years of the presidency and every day thereafter until his death." It is always technically possible that the Louisiana Republican is so profoundly ignorant of history that he didn't know that statement is preposterous on its face. As the Thomas Jefferson Foundation notes on its website, Jefferson doubted "the efficacy of prayer." They add that "Jefferson rejected the notion of the Trinity and Jesus' divinity. He rejected Biblical miracles, the resurrection, the atonement, and original sin." He saw Jesus as a secular philosopher and wasn't a "Christian" in the way most people understand the term.

Perhaps Johnson is unaware of this, but it is worth remembering that Johnson has previously proven to be an enthusiastic liar, usually displaying his telltale smirk when he's about to let loose with one of his whoppers. Last week, for instance, he backed Donald Trump's lies that the U.S.-born terrorist who attacked New Orleans was to be blamed on the "wide open border." Johnson wasn't just one of 147 Republicans who tried to steal the election on January 6, 2021, by refusing to certify it. He was a leader in the effort to use false claims of a "stolen" election, heading the amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court, demanding they use these lies as an excuse to throw out the election results. So it's entirely plausible that the fake "Jefferson prayer" was searched for on Google before copy-pasted into the teleprompter. When one searches for the prayer, however, at the top of the results is the debunking offered by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which notes that the text appeared to have been written decades after Jefferson's death.

However, the biggest tell that Johnson was knowingly lying was how he introduced the prayer, saying it's "quite familiar to historians." Why mention historians if you didn't consult a single one? Johnson was likely trolling, snidely mocking historians, who would soon correct his "mistake" in mainstream and social media. Whatever deliberation Johnson used in his mendacity, however, what matters is that by using a fake "Jefferson prayer," he was nodding to and advancing one of the primary tactics of Christian nationalists: rewriting history to favor right-wing lies over truth.

Johnson is tight with David Barton, a Christian nationalist advocate who masquerades as a "historian" and has spent decades passing off lies as "history" to advance his false claim that America was never intended to be a secular nation. Barton's lies are so egregious that his 2012 book about Jefferson was pulled by his publisher. This did not curtail his enthusiasm for disinformation one bit. He's also a big believer that "demons" are everywhere, invisibly pulling the strings wherever progressivism or secularism are advanced or protected.

Barton's main contribution to the Christian right — helping transform it into Christian nationalism — was instilling the idea that facts do not matter, and "history" can be whatever conservatives want it to be. This tendency accelerated and became normative in the Republican Party under Trump, whose non-stop lying offered even more permission to right-wingers to tell themselves dishonesty is no sin if it serves their cause. Writing for UC Berkeley research in 2022, media specialist Edward Lempinen explained that Christian right leaders routinely preach now that they are in an "all-or-nothing struggle for existence, where the end justifies the means."

[Continues . . .]

So yes, the Religion board may be quiet but this thread continues to cover at least one sordid aspect of religion--its use as a tool for domination and oppression. The Dominionists are just one repulsive contemporary manifestation of that but it can be seen all over the world and all through history.