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#41
Current Events / Re: Israeli-Hamas war
Last post by Icarus - April 15, 2024, 03:48:49 AMBilly I do not think many of us are condoning the starvation of the Palestinian people.
I agree with the other statement that our country has gone off the rails. We have, of late, discovered that we now share the nation with a huge number of religious crackpots who have gained positions of influence.
Their boisterous and sometimes politically influential presence has persuaded otherwise rational people to believe in space lasers, Orwellian type chips concealed in vaccines, socialists demons taking over our democracy, Obama secretly running the government, and a whole gaggle of other bullshit stuff to believe in.
I agree with the other statement that our country has gone off the rails. We have, of late, discovered that we now share the nation with a huge number of religious crackpots who have gained positions of influence.
Their boisterous and sometimes politically influential presence has persuaded otherwise rational people to believe in space lasers, Orwellian type chips concealed in vaccines, socialists demons taking over our democracy, Obama secretly running the government, and a whole gaggle of other bullshit stuff to believe in.
#42
Politics / Re: Dominionists in the United...
Last post by Recusant - April 15, 2024, 03:46:13 AM
This thread is only four years old--I've been watching the progress of the Dominionists for at least a decade, but . . .
"It's a Good Time to Start Worrying About Christian Nationalism" | Mother Jones
QuoteIn response to rising concern among liberals and others about the spread of Christian nationalism, conservative voices have been pressing a counterattack, claiming all this fretting is just lefty hysteria from secularists who are not willing to acknowledge the role of Christianity in American society and who want to brand all politically active Christians as extremists. Last year, the far-right Heritage Foundation published an article declaring that Christian nationalism is a term "mostly used as a smear against conservative Christians who defend the role of religion in American public life" and that the "lack of standard definition allows critics to bundle evils like white supremacy and racism with standard conservative views on marriage, family, and politics." More recently, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, addressing liberal unease, wrote, "Today's religious conservatives are mostly just normal American Christians doing normal American Christian politics, not foot soldiers of incipient theocracy." He added, "It's not clear to me that secular liberals should really fear Christian nationalism more today than in 2000 or 1980."
Really?
By now, you've heard of Project 2025, the enterprise established by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing outfits to both set a radical-right agenda for a possible second Trump term and recruit Dear Leader loyalists for government posts in that administration. As I've noted, this venture has cooked up plans and measures with an authoritarian bent. It also has been preparing to inject Christian nationalist ideas into a Trump 2.0 presidency. One example from the Project 2025 handbook: "maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family." That does sounds a bit Gilead-ish.
The anti-anti-Christian nationalists' effort to cast libs as the-sky-is-falling worrywarts is either naive or a purposeful effort to deflect attention from this threat to civil society. And though it usually is best to avoid dependence on one data point, allow me to zero in on a single tweet that appeared recently to highlight the danger.
Following President Joe Biden's recent State of the Union speech, William E. Wolfe, a midlevel official at the Pentagon and the State Department during the Trump administration and a Christian nationalism advocate, tweeted out his response. Here it is in full:QuoteMy response to the #SOTU:
We need to see the deeper spiritual realities at play. This ain't just a political fight, it's a spiritual war. Heaven and Hell are real. Demons exist.
And there are two main demons being worshipped in America right now:
1) Molech, who demands child sacrifice (abortion)
2) Baphomet, whose demonic goat-like representation is gender-bending (LGBTQIA+) The "Equality Act" and "Reproductive Rights" aren't just "policies" that the radical Left/Democrats support
They are sacraments, acts of worship to their demon gods
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12
It's time for Christians to call on America to repent of our idol worship of demons and return to the One True Living God and His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ
Maybe God raise up more idol smashers for our days yet.
This tweet illustrates a basic component of Christian nationalism: spiritual warfare. That's the notion that all that transpires in our world is a manifestation of the mammoth and eternal clash between God and Satan. The tussle over abortion is not an argument between fellow citizens with conflicting views on bodily autonomy or the question of when life begins; it is a battle between Jesus and Lucifer. Consequently, those who support reproductive freedom are demons or, at the least, in league with or controlled by demons.
[. . .]
Now why should we care about the radical view of this one fellow? Wolfe is a close associate of Russell Vought, who was budget director for the Trump White House and now is president of the Center for Renewing America, one of the right-wing organizations behind Project 2025. As Politico recently reported, "Vought's beliefs over time have been informed by his relationship with Wolfe. The two spent time together at Heritage Action, a conservative policy advocacy group. And Vought has praised their yearslong partnership. 'I'm proud to work with @William_E_Wolfe on scoping out a sound Christian Nationalism,' he posted on X, then Twitter, in January 2023."
Wolfe, who is now the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership (which battles liberalism within the Southern Baptist Convention) and who has advocated ending sex education in schools, surrogacy, and no-fault divorce, is far from a rando. He's intimately tied to the fellow who is the architect of the next possible Trump administration and who has been mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff for Trump.
[Continues . . .]
#43
Current Events / Re: Israeli-Hamas war
Last post by Recusant - April 15, 2024, 03:34:41 AMOn paper and in self-congratulatory rhetoric. Aspirational speeches.
#44
Laid Back Lounge / Re: What's on your mind today?
Last post by billy rubin - April 14, 2024, 10:19:42 PMin america, we live in a world where law isnt the final arbiter for legality.
#45
Laid Back Lounge / Re: What's on your mind today?
Last post by Tank - April 14, 2024, 09:30:44 PMWell Al Capone ended up in jug for tax evasion 
#46
Life As An Atheist / Re: Does atheism have anything...
Last post by billy rubin - April 14, 2024, 08:23:56 PMi once made octopus curry. not bad.
i used to eat squid regularly at the local cuban restaurant in san jose. the rice was always purple because of the ink.
then they sold to some other cubans and the reciepe changed to a tomato-based thing that was pretty different.
i used to eat squid regularly at the local cuban restaurant in san jose. the rice was always purple because of the ink.
then they sold to some other cubans and the reciepe changed to a tomato-based thing that was pretty different.
#47
Laid Back Lounge / Re: What's on your mind today?
Last post by billy rubin - April 14, 2024, 08:18:33 PMtomorrow an ex president of the united states goes on trial for a felony. yet anopther first in america.
the orange jesus has sidestepped every attempt to bring him to account for anything so far. this mostly worthless offense is the first time he will actually be on trial for criminal activity.
we ll see whether anything comes of it.
the orange jesus has sidestepped every attempt to bring him to account for anything so far. this mostly worthless offense is the first time he will actually be on trial for criminal activity.
we ll see whether anything comes of it.
#48
Current Events / Re: Israeli-Hamas war
Last post by billy rubin - April 14, 2024, 08:14:10 PMmy country just spent a billion dollars defending a regional troublemaker from a country that was exercising a reasonable self-defense.
seriously, my country is making every accusation that its enemmies levy at it come true.
the US shouldl have let the drones through to emphasize to israel that acts like bombing an embassy are not okay, for crying out loud.
but no. we sternly advise iran not to defend itself, while condoning israels destruction of an entire people through starvation.
we have gone way off the rails in the united states of america. we used to stand for something better than this.
seriously, my country is making every accusation that its enemmies levy at it come true.
the US shouldl have let the drones through to emphasize to israel that acts like bombing an embassy are not okay, for crying out loud.
but no. we sternly advise iran not to defend itself, while condoning israels destruction of an entire people through starvation.
we have gone way off the rails in the united states of america. we used to stand for something better than this.
#49
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Doesn't fit under any othe...
Last post by billy rubin - April 14, 2024, 08:10:44 PMive still got my grandfathers crossed flag collar pins in the trunk of junk here with me
he was also a telegraph operator in indian territory back before oklahoma was a state. that was a previous reality.
he was also a telegraph operator in indian territory back before oklahoma was a state. that was a previous reality.
#50
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Reasons to be cheerful!
Last post by billy rubin - April 14, 2024, 08:07:50 PMQuote from: Tom62 on April 13, 2024, 05:55:39 AMMy health insurance finally approved my off-label chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy. My first treatment will be on Wednesday.
excellent
best of luck