What if the far-right God is the true God?

Posted on November 12, 2017 by luckyotter

Even though this article is less than four months old, I’m reblogging it because it provides a kind of lead in to the article I plan to write later on today. I also think its message is comforting in these turbulent times. Stay tuned for my later post!

Lucky Otters Haven

god

I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of God lately. The insidious rise of Christian fascism in this country is forcing me to do so.

The radical religious right’s beliefs about God — punishing, angry, and intolerant — are incomprehensible and repugnant to me. The prospect of the Old Testament Law-based Christian theocracy this radical group of zealots are attempting to impose here in America fills me with terror, righteous anger, and makes me literally sick to my stomach.

No matter how hard I try to understand these far right religious leaders, their dominionist views, and their need for total control over every aspect of our lives (this is the same group that talks about “small government”), I just can’t. I don’t get it at all. They might as well be aliens from another planet.

Their message and plan for America (and yes, eventually the world)…

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I’m having doubts about Christianity.

Posted on October 29, 2017 by luckyotter

bare lonely tree in black and white

I feel like my soul is lost in a snowstorm, and it’s because of the political situation.

The religious right is causing good people to leave their churches, or even Christianity altogether. This is because so many churches, especially evangelical ones, have become little more than bullhorns for right wing propaganda that praise Trump as some sort of biblical hero.

Mainline Protestant churches and the Catholic Church have kept a healthy distance from politics, and if they lean any way at all, they tend to lean to the left and preach social justice, especially the mainline Protestant denominations.

The Catholic Church is awkwardly placed in all this. While it’s always emphasized the importance of social justice and helping vulnerable populations, and is headed by a Pope (Francis) who appears to dislike Trump and is decidedly left-wing in his views, the Catholic Church is still vehemently pro-life and is against artificial contraception (even though most Catholic women of childbearing age use it anyway). It also considers homosexuality to be a sin and does not ordain female priests. Many people have left the Catholic Church because they perceive it as being behind the times and out of touch with the needs of women.

Two years ago, I became Catholic, because of all the Christian religions, Catholicism had the most mystery and beauty, and I’ve always loved the liturgy. Although some Protestant churches (Episcopalian and Lutheran) also have a liturgy that’s almost identical to the Catholic one, I wanted the purity of the original one. I also always liked the doctrine of transubstantiation: the idea that the Eucharist is a real sacrament and the bread and wine actually turns into the body and blood of Christ, instead of being merely symbolic.

Catholicism is the oldest existing Christian religion, and I was attracted to all its rich and colorful history, both the good and the bad. I loved the art, especially the serene paintings of Mary and baby Jesus. I liked the saints.

I also was attracted to Catholicism because it was comforting to me. Even though my family is not Catholic (my mother was but she left the Church during her teens), I grew up in a heavily Catholic neighborhood in New Jersey, and attended two Catholic schools between 5th and 10th grade. Every Friday we attended mass in school, and I was so envious of the girls who got to take Communion, while I had to remain sitting in my chair. I also was envious of all the cool stuff they got: the lacy white Confirmation dresses, the Confirmation names (I finally got mine: it’s Catherine), the rosary beads. I was given a set of blue plastic rosary beads one day at school (maybe they forgot I wasn’t Catholic?), even though I had no idea how to use them. They were among my favorite possessions and I liked to finger them like worry beads.

During those years I attended Catholic school, it was like my home away from home. I loved the nuns, who were always so serene and kind to me. Things were very bad at home during those years, with both my parents drinking and fighting, and I felt unloved at home. At school, that wasn’t the case. A couple of the nuns treated me like loving parents, and I also had friends at school. Their families welcomed me as if I was one of them. One girl, Lynn, came from a loud, big, boisterous Italian Catholic family. Her grandmother, who spoke Italian, used to tell stories from the Old Country and they actually had a wine-making press in their basement where once a year they’d have a grape crushing party that all the neighbors were invited to. Her grandmother used to cook a big Italian meal every Sunday after church. What a contrast to my own home, where meals were a silent, stressful affair where my mother constantly criticized me if I wanted seconds and hounded me about my weight, even as a child. When our dinners weren’t silent, they were interrupted by drunken arguments or either my mother or me in tears.

I’ve always been a spiritual seeker. I dabbled in a number of different religions during my adult life, both Christian and not. Still, I always found myself drawn to the Catholic church, and while I never seriously considered becoming one, on occasion I would attend Mass and take Communion whenever I went.

I finally made the decision to become Catholic in 2014, and for a year attended RCIA classes at my local church. At the Easter Vigil Mass in 2015, I was confirmed Catholic (my Methodist baptism, to my surprise, was accepted as valid). I received my confirmation name of Catherine, and my sponsor gave me a set of rose-scented rosary beads. My father was perfectly fine with my Catholic conversion and sent me a crucifix. It was one of the last gifts I would receive from him before he died in June 2016.

Overall, I like Catholic doctrine. I like the idea of Mary and the saints, who are not actually worshipped the way Jesus is, but merely venerated and seen as intercessors (you ask them to pray for you, not pray to them directly). I love the Sacraments, even Confession (penance), which to me seems like a way to unload. It’s therapeutic rather than punishing or guilt-inducing. At the same time, it keeps my conscience clear. I always feel cleansed and relieved when I leave Confession (which is done in a small room facing the priest, rather than in a dark confession box). The “penance” is usually nothing more than saying a couple of Hail Marys or Our Fathers. I always wonder why so many people are so turned off by this sacrament. To me, it’s like an exercise for the soul. More than anything, I love Communion. After I eat my wafer, I really do feel different, as if Jesus is in me. Maybe it’s a placebo effect of some kind, but I choose to believe it really is Christ’s physical presence, and that makes all the difference.

I like the fact that Catholicism is science friendly. Many of the greatest scientists and academics in history were Catholic clergy. I was surprised when I found out during the RCIA classes that in spite of the Catholic doctrine of original sin, evolution is accepted (albeit God-inspired, which I’ve always believed anyway). Most of the books of the Old Testament, including the Adam and Eve story, are regarded as allegorical rather than literal (as they are in mainline Protestantism). I’m not sure how that squares with the concept of original sin, but so be it.

There are still some doctrinal points I have issues with, and becoming Catholic hasn’t changed my feelings. One is the literal bodily assumption of Mary into Heaven. Also the idea that Mary was a virgin and remained so after Christ was born. Since Mary was also human and not divine, I don’t believe she was conceived without original sin.

I also still consider myself pro-choice, although with limitations. Actually, I’m sort of on the fence about abortion. I certainly don’t think it should be used as a form of birth control, or that abortion is okay just because a pregnancy is inconvenient, but I also think there are times it’s the only viable option, especially in cases of rape or incest, if the fetus has a fatal condition and will die anyway, or if the mother’s life is at stake. The Catholic position is no abortion for any reason, ever. I can accept this though, because the Catholic Church is pro-life across the board: they are also anti-war, anti-death penalty, and have a long tradition of helping the poor. There is consistency there and so, to me, their position is not hypocritical.

I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with birth control. As for homosexuality, well, I have always had gay friends and my son is gay, so I just can’t condemn it. Some of my favorite people ever are gay. I also disagree with the Catholic position about women in the clergy, although this may change in time (my priest doesn’t really know why women are barred from the clergy and said there’s no Biblical basis for this other than tradition).

In spite of my issues with some Catholic doctrine, I never once regretted my choice, and until about two months ago, I attended Mass regularly. But lately, I’m having problems with my faith. Not Catholicism in particular, but with Christianity in general. And it’s because of the religious right and the Trump administration. My church has never taken a position either for or against Donald Trump, and in fact politics is rarely if ever talked about during the homily (sermon in the Protestant faith). We are merely asked to pray for our leaders.

It disturbs me that so many Catholics (not necessarily in my church but in general) are Trump supporters. The Trump administration also includes Catholics and I have a problem with that too. Never before have I judged people based on what their politics are or which politician they support, but that changed this year. Because of the politicization of Christianity and its growing association with the far right, Christianity in general has been giving me a bad taste in my mouth, and unfortunately that includes my own faith.

I still consider myself a believer in Jesus Christ and I still pray a lot (mostly for a strengthening of faith these days), but mention the word “Christian” to me and I recoil. I am aware there are Christian leftists and a growing movement toward the social gospel, and that’s attractive to me — but the Christian right eclipses that. I consider myself a “red letter Christian,” which means I focus on the words of Jesus himself that appear in the gospels. Unfortunately, those lessons of love, charity, and tolerance are minimized or even ignored by the Christian right. In this country, the religious right is a lot more powerful and a lot louder than the Christian left, and it’s turning many good people off to Christianity. It seems that these days, the loudest and most powerful voices of Christianity belong to horrible people devoid of empathy or any true sense of morality or grace toward others.

So I find myself being turned off by the whole idea of Christianity, even though I know real Christianity isn’t like that at all. I pray about it all the time, but the doubts still remain. One result of this cognitive dissonance is that I haven’t been to church in almost two months. I’m going to have to call my priest and set up a time to talk to him about these issues, but it’s hard to motivate myself. I feel like a hypocrite attending church or taking communion again until this is resolved. It’s actually occurred to me this is exactly the way Satan would get people to leave the Christian faith. He would hijack the churches and fill them with heartless and judgmental authoritarians and narcissists. He would corrupt faith by making it political. He would use religion as a weapon of hatred intended to divide and create a culture of fear, which is the opposite of what Jesus intended. Good people who otherwise might embrace Jesus would reject Christianity altogether.

Maybe this is just a “dark night of the soul” — a spiritual crisis in which I’ll emerge with my faith stronger than ever, or maybe I really am “losing my religion.” I just don’t know anymore. I’ll keep praying, though.

Should we be hasty about Trump’s impeachment or removal?

Posted on October 28, 2017 by luckyotter

mikepence

Many people are demanding Trump’s impeachment, if not for probable Russian collusion and obstruction of justice, then for mental incompetence. I certainly agree with that. In fact, I just ordered the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a compilation of essays from 27 mental health professionals, including those who specialize in Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorder (there’s a consensus he has both — when they appear together we call it malignant narcissism), that explain why Trump’s impulsivity, general abusiveness, lack of conscience, and lack of empathy is all wrong for the presidency and is in fact extremely dangerous to the planet and all life on it. I’m happy that so many psychologists and psychiatrists are abandoning the Goldwater Rule, which for decades meant that unless a leader was officially assessed in a clinical setting, a mental health professional could not offer a diagnosis. The book, a project of Yale University’s “Duty to Warn” project, is gaining momentum in the mental health community and is a New York Times bestseller. The conclusion of all the authors is that Trump must be removed from office under the 25th Amendment.

I wholeheartedly agree with these professionals, but there is one glaring problem I have with Trump’s removal: Mike Pence.

On the surface, Pence appears to be a less dangerous choice to have in the White House. He’s even-tempered, cool under pressure, doesn’t lash out at his real and imagined enemies on Twitter, and seems willing and able to work with others. He’s probably a lot less likely to start nuclear war.

He’d also be able to get a lot more accomplished. Hardline Republicans who dream of dismantling our institutions, removing healthcare from millions, and giving tax breaks to the most wealthy would be able to actually get their agenda through under a Pence presidency.

Pence would be dream come true for the religious right. Pence has made no secret of his contempt for homosexuals and his desire to remove their civil rights and make them undergo conversion therapy, a brainwashing process that has been deemed by mental health professionals as both ineffective and traumatic. Pence would also be able to pass legislation that would make womens’ healthcare, including birth control, harder to obtain (if not outright illegal).

Pence is a far right evangelical, and also a dominionist. Christian dominionism/reconstructionism is an extreme form of Calvinism/neo-Puritanism: it’s a religio-political cult whose ultimate goal is the replacement of our Constitution with Old Testament biblical law, including the return of slavery, the stoning of homosexuals and adulterers, capital punishment for dissenters, the abolishment of public education, and the dismantling of the civil rights women have gained, including the right to vote. Dominionists believe that the wealthy are wealthy because God is rewarding them and has given them “dominion.” They believe if you’re poor, it’s because of your “moral failures” and therefore it’s wrong to interfere with God’s will by providing governmental safety nets. They believe environmentalism is a form of earth-worship or paganism and that’s why they think it’s okay to keep raping and pillaging the planet. After all, God will clean it up. Their attitude reminds me of entitled teenagers who trash the house while their parents are away and don’t think they should have to clean up their mess because “my parents will do that.”

There is a lot of rhetoric among far right evangelicals and dominionists about religious freedom, but this has been redefined from the freedom to worship as you choose, to the “freedom” to impose your beliefs on others. They think their inability to enforce or legislate their religious beliefs means they are being persecuted. They trot out phony non-issues like the “war on Christmas” or the teaching of evolution in schools as proof of how persecuted they are. This is a dangerously Orwellian mindset and unsuspecting evangelicals have bought it hook, line and sinker.

Christian dominionism/reconstructionism is basically a Christian version of the Taliban, with its own terrifying form of Sharia Law. Their “Christianity” isn’t based on the Gospels or the New Covenant; instead it borrows heavily from the harsh Judaic legalism of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Dominionists talk a lot about the need for Jesus, but rarely quote from the Gospels and certainly don’t follow anything Christ taught during his ministry. In fact, what they propose is the opposite of anything remotely Christian, and their toxic legalism and religious fascism is turning a lot of good people away from Christianity (isn’t that the way Satan would operate?).

While overall this fringe group of Christians (really a cult) is a tiny minority of the population (even among conservative evangelicals), there are many dominionists and reconstructionists very high up in government right now, including Mike Pence, and they wield a scary amount of power. Donald Trump, in spite of his own beliefs (or lack thereof) is enabling these religious extremists (and vice versa) and he welcomes their support. They actually believe Trump is “opening the door to Christ’s kingdom” and has been “anointed by God” to destroy our democracy, which they see as satanic. This, of course, gives Trump massive narcissistic supply and the effect is to embolden him even further. Trump, having no real ideals or positions of his own, embraces whatever group gives him the adulation he craves, no matter how damaging their agenda. That being said, these extremist evangelicals haven’t been able to get much or any of their agenda through due to Trump’s combativeness, talent for creating chaos and discord even within his own party, and general incompetence.

There’s another group of hard right Republicans that are also a tiny minority and have an overwhelming amount of power: hardline fiscal conservatives, or “federalists,” who aren’t so much religiously motivated, but are instead motivated by the gospel of Ayn Rand. Instead of an angry, punishing old Testament God, they find their spiritual mentor in the Koch Brothers and other billionaire oligarchs. Their goal is the same as the religious extremists: replacing our democracy with a “federalist” regime that would favor property owners and the wealthy — and punish and oppress the most vulnerable. Nancy MacLean’s exhaustively well-researched book Democracy in Chains (you can read my review here), outlines their entire terrifying agenda. The federalist oligarchs wielding all this power aren’t necessarily religious (in fact some are atheists, like their mentor Ayn Rand was). They don’t concern themselves much with social issues or hard right “family values,” which has come to mean being anti-gay and anti-abortion and that’s about it. They are willing though, to ignore this as a mere inconvenience and work with the dominionists if it means they can get their cruel agenda through and gain even more power and wealth than they already have. To them, the end always justifies the means. If that means they have to hold their noses and put up with religious oppression (which wouldn’t effect them anyway, because their wealth would give them immunity from oppression), then so be it. The alliance between the federalists and the dominionists is evil to the core, and their agenda is frighteningly close to being fulfilled. Religious demagogues and white supremacists like Alabama’s Roy Moore are becoming more common in high government positions and their outrageous claims and hatred of those not like themselves are becoming normalized. This is extremely concerning to those of us who value our freedom and democracy.

Pence is fully on board with both groups of far-right conservatives. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and slimy as they come. There’s something sinister about a man who addresses his wife as “Mother” and refuses to be in a room alone with another woman for any reason. I believe if Trump were removed from office — whether through impeachment or the 25th Amendment — a Pence presidency could be even more dangerous to democracy, because the man is more politically savvy and less likely to sabotage his own goals. I think he’s just as sociopathic as Trump, but more purely psychopathic than narcissistic, and thus will be able to get Congress and Senate Republicans to work with him. Trump’s narcissism and fragile ego stands in the way of his being able to pass any agenda. Pence might be less likely to start nuclear war, and might be less appealing to Trump’s racist base, but he’d have a lot more clout with those who can pass legislation that would destroy our democracy. So be careful what you wish for.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure if living in a real-life Handmaid’s Tale would be preferable to the threat of nuclear holocaust. We can and should demand Trump’s removal, but Pence must go with him. Better yet, the entire cabal must be taken down and a new election must be held.

If nothing else, we must wait this travesty out, but we cannot afford to be apathetic about the next election, or even the midterm (2018) elections. The stranglehold the hard right has on both Congress and Senate must be loosened, and ALL of us voting is the only way to do that.

Don’t call yourself pro-life…

Posted on October 2, 2017 by luckyotter

george-carlin-abortion

Don’t even think about calling yourself pro-life if…

You support taking health insurance away from low income, sick, and disabled people.
You support abolishing or cutting Medicaid (which covers HALF of all pregnant women and 45 million children).
You support privatizing or cutting Medicare and Social Security.
You want to abolish Planned Parenthood, which is NOT an abortion clinic (only 2% of their services are abortion-related) but provides healthcare (including pregnancy care) and birth control information to low income women.
You’re OK with a president who allowed CHIP (a health insurance program for low income children who do not qualify for Medicaid) to expire, leaving millions of children uninsured.
You support dismantling public schools.
You support removing laws that protect college women from on-campus rapists and give more rights to the rapists.
You think programs like Meals on Wheels and school lunches are a waste of taxpayer money.
You think climate change is a hoax.
You support fracking, drilling, and mining on our public lands.
You believe in removing laws that protect our air and water against pollution.
You think laws that protect consumers from dangerous products and predatory practices is interfering with free enterprise.
You support the death penalty.
You support the idea of using torture on suspected terrorists.
You believe in detaining documented immigrants, even when it means separating parents from their children.
You support deporting refugee mothers and their children, even when it means they could die horribly in their countries of origin.
You support deporting productive young people who came here as children with their parents, even when it means sending them back to countries they can’t remember and know nothing about.
You think Puerto Ricans who have been devastated by a Category 5 hurricane and have no food, electricity, or drinking water “aren’t doing enough for themselves.”
You demand “respect for the flag and the Anthem” but don’t respect people’s right to exercise their First Amendment rights.
You’re okay with a president who plays nuclear chicken on Twitter with an unstable rogue nation dictator because his ego is hurt.
You think we should “completely destroy” North Korea, even its innocent civilians, women, and children.
You’re okay with a president who in all likelihood sold our democracy out to a hostile foreign power.
You’re okay with police brutality, especially against people of color.
You admire dictators and bullies.
You think white supremacy, Naziism, and racism are okay.
You’re okay with a president who treats women with disrespect and brags about grabbing their private parts.
You don’t see anything wrong with a president who plays golf and complains about NFL players exercising their First Amendment rights when people are dying of thirst and starvation in Puerto Rico.

If you oppose abortion but support the things above, you aren’t pro-life. All you are is a hypocrite.

ETA: Since last night’s tragic Las Vegas shooting, I would like to add one more: Don’t call yourself pro-life if you agree with Trump lifting gun checks on people with mental illness.

Fundies: I Hope This Breaks Your Hard Hearts

Posted on August 9, 2017 by luckyotter

Comments are disabled. Please comment under the original post.

Flee from Christian Fundamentalism

A training manual rests on a shelf in the library of my church. It claims there is no such thing as poverty in the United States. Evidence point? People defined as poor in the United States own and use cellular telephones and other modern conveniences. People who own such things cannot possibly be classified as poor. Therefore, no authentic poor people live in the United States. True Biblical poverty exists only in foreign countries, and it looks like this photograph:

Poverty in Africa

This training manual was prepared and published by The Heritage Foundation, apparently for use in American churches. Some person unknown to me brought this despicable, God-hating training manual into my United Methodist Church and sneaked it onto a library shelf. Best I can tell from flipping through this training manual, it is designed for adult Sunday school teachers so they can teach the members of their Sunday school classes…

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What if the far-right God is the true God?

Posted on July 31, 2017 by luckyotter

god

I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of God lately. The insidious rise of Christian fascism in this country is forcing me to do so.

Their message and plan for America (and yes, eventually the world) doesn’t contain a shred of love, compassion, forgiveness, or mercy. They show nothing but contempt for just the kind of people — the vulnerable and weak — that Jesus loved and instructed us to care for. They only care about power and money. They will cheat, lie, exploit, destroy, kill, and even commit treason in order to get more of what they crave. They have hijacked the Republican party by appealing to religious conservatives and their churches, and now those churches have become as corrupt and self-serving as they are. It’s no wonder so many good people are leaving the churches. They have managed to Christianize greed and hatred. They believe oppressing or punishing everyone who is different from them is their holy duty to bring about their longed for Christian America. They are no different from the Taliban or ISIS.

But there’s an enormous disconnect, because their real god is “the market” — which they consider infallible and think will solve all the world’s problems. This is idolatry. Trickle down economics has never worked and never will work. Singing the praises of an unregulated free market that will always self-correct if left alone is just an easy way for them to rationalize trashing and poisoning our small planet, not having to pay their fair share, or contribute to the common good. Make no mistake — their plan for America, if it succeeds, will cause widespread, massive suffering, misery, sickness, poverty, injustice, and death — all things associated with evil and utterly alien to any civilized society.

I don’t know if I believe in end times or not, but 2 Timothy 3 is telling about the nature of the people who have claimed all the power:

3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Sound familiar?

The supporters of their fascist movement and its chosen leader are almost as bad, selling their souls at hate-filled Trump rallies held so he can puff himself up with narcissistic fuel, where they are encouraged to rough up and act out in violence against people their Dear Leader deems unfit to be treated as human beings.

A few days ago, Dear Leader told assembled police it was okay to hit suspects’ heads on car doors as they are roughly pushed inside. “Don’t be too nice,” he instructed them while laughing, then he turned around and spread his arms out wide as if he was expecting applause. And of course, he got it. Have those police sold their souls too? People seem to be selling their souls everywhere these days.

America is meaner and colder than it ever was. Virtues of empathy, forgiveness, charity, and mercy are today seen as weaknesses or even sins — you’re called a snowflake, or a Marxist, or a bleeding-heart liberal. If you try to remind these Bible-thumping legalists that these are the ways in which Jesus expected his followers to behave, they scoff and pull out their King James bibles and point to some passage in the Old Testament, while self-righteously telling you your God is false and “unbiblical.” They tell you that good works don’t matter, and only faith does.

It may be true we are saved by grace alone, but if so, I believe your heart will change and you will begin to do good works and to care about others, especially the most vulnerable. For the fake Christians in power, saying good works are meaningless simply gives them carte blanche to say they are Christian, but still go ahead and keep hurting and exploiting people. “By their fruit you shall know them,” said Jesus, and that’s what I go by. Are they bearing good fruit or not?

As Jack Johnson sang, Where did the good people go? Do good people even exist anymore? America just seems to get so much meaner and colder every day.

statue-liberty-hands473x488

But the truth is that good people are still here. We are expressing our alarm, anger, and terror on blogs, in Facebook groups, in forums, on the streets, and in the comments sections of increasingly disturbing news stories as the country marches toward Christian Fascism. We are crying out as our hearts break, hoping and praying someone will listen and care. We are scared and yes, grieving that the country we love seems to have been lost. If we are Christian, our hearts are hurting over what has been done to Jesus and his message of love, compassion, and forgiveness. The gentle people are being persecuted and vilified just because they care — or because they need care themselves.

The silencing and oppression of the gentle people is due to differences in personality, I think. It’s a war of values: gentleness vs. aggressiveness, humility vs. pride, empathy vs. callousness, civility vs. rudeness, altruism vs. selfishness, egalitarianism vs. authoritarianism, critical thinking vs. ignorance, acceptance vs. exclusion, forgiveness vs. vindictiveness, integrity vs. lock-step obedience.

By their nature, gentle people have difficulty rising to the top of society. Most get nowhere near it, because they lack the aggression and willingness to step on top of and exploit others to get there. But the falsely macho, arrogant, conscienceless and predatory get there because because they are wired to do so. The gentle and meek have little power because they do not go around seeking it aggressively or destroying whatever’s in their way to get it. If they are Christians, they share their faith quietly and sincerely without requiring huge donations, huge audiences, or political power.

Like all scapegoats, the gentle people are blamed for their failure or inability to take power, or become wealthy. If they suffer, they are callously told they brought those sufferings on themselves and got what they deserved.

The gaslighting and projection keeps getting worse. We are told our beliefs are wrong and demonic. We are told that if we were real Christians, we should accept that Trump’s America is also God’s America and Trump was anointed by God to usher in Christ’s Kingdom. We are told we are evil liberal obstructionists (even though it’s the president and his billionaire sycophants and donors who are the real obstructionists) and that we are cherry-picking the “nice” parts of the Bible that we like.

You begin to feel like you’re going insane. If you were a member of a narcissistic family or were close to a narcissist in your life, you know how crazy-making the mind games and manipulations and gaslighting can be. You begin to doubt yourself and your own beliefs. You start to question reality itself, because after all, everyone around you is telling you you’re crazy, or stupid, or deluded, or hysterical, or overreacting, or too sensitive.

That’s what’s happening on a much larger scale in America today. The accusations from far-right Trump-supporting zealots (I’m not talking about garden variety conservatives here) sometimes make me wonder if my beliefs really are wrong. What if the far-right preachers and pundits and politicians are right after all? What if God really is a big bad bully in the sky who hates gays and Muslims and nonbelievers, and wants the rich and powerful to keep getting richer and more powerful because they are his golden children who are predestined to inherit heaven and earth? Never mind the fact that the Bible itself says the meek shall inherit the earth — you question and wonder anyway. What if my God is the false one?

And then I start to think: if they really are right, and their God is really the way they insist he is, would I want anything to do with him? Would I want to live in a society ruled by their God? Would I want to spend eternity in a heaven filled with those who worship a God who could be that cruel and heartless — a heaven where everyone looks the same and thinks and worships exactly the same way? Would I want to live in a heaven where there are no liberals, no gays, no thinkers, no dreamers, no gentle souls, and where people don’t care about each other? A heaven where the likes of Betsy DeVos, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell rub elbows and congratulate themselves over their moral superiority and how much power they held while on earth?

My answer is always, no, I do not. To me, such a heaven would be hell. And if there is a hell (I have doubts that hell really exists, but that’s a topic for another post), I think I might rather spend eternity there, with all the gentle and thinking and oppressed people. I’d rather spend eternity burning in solidarity with Muslim mothers and their children, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, rainbow-clad gays, open-minded liberals, feminists, artists, dreamers, curious thinkers, intellectuals, tree huggers, social misfits, truth-tellers, and civil rights activists. I’d rather spend eternity suffering with all the people the religious right’s legalistic and narcissistic God does not favor: the weak and the oppressed and the persecuted and the brokenhearted.

They have created a God in their own image — a God who is as sociopathic, rage-filled, greedy for power, and narcissistic as they are, and I refuse to worship such a God.

And then I look around me at the natural world. I gaze at the sunset over the mountains, I listen to the night-birds and the crickets and the trees singing in the wind. I feel the warm summer rain on my face, look up at the night sky and marvel at the vastness of the universe and all its billions of stars and galaxies. I listen to the rhythm of the ocean and feel humbled and grateful to be standing next to it. I watch the intricate, delicate rosebuds on the bush outside my window burst into full flower. I listen to my cat purr and feel his warmth on my chest as I fall asleep.

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And I realize: no God as evil and cruel as theirs could possibly have created such a world. No, the world is not perfect, far from it. But it’s still beautiful, and evil cannot create beauty or goodness. There’s no way a sociopathic tyrant of a God could have made something so beautiful and magnificent. The bad things in the world exist because of us, not because of God.

They will keep attempting to silence us, to make us think we are the crazy ones, the evil ones, the ones spreading (or listening to) fake news, the ones who are destined to spend eternity in a lake of fire. They will try to convince us that we are the cause of the world’s problems, while they remain blameless and favored by the Almighty. They will try to wear us down and exhaust us, because that’s how narcissists and sociopaths operate. A sociopathic society brings out the worst in everyone, so we will be tempted to bury our heads in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening, or become filled with despair, apathy, cynicism, or hatred. We have to stay mindful and not succumb to feelings of powerlessness and fear, because that’s what they want from us. Remember that they feed off our pain because it makes them more powerful.

We must not listen to them. We must listen to our own truth and our own hearts. We will be required to go against our non-aggressive, possibly introverted, sensitive, and artistic natures and speak up loudly against those who wish us harm — in righteous anger if necessary — but we cannot lose control or act out in violence and hatred. If we are Christians, we need to pray for our enemies, no matter how outraged we may feel. We are fighting a spiritual war, a war against truth and goodness, and if we don’t fight for ourselves, we must fight for the survival of those we love and those who have no voice. If we allow them to beat us down and exhaust us into submission (which they are already trying to do), then they win, and all hope will be lost.

The following verse gives me courage when I start to feel hopeless and despairing and exhausted from fighting against this scourge, and I hope it helps you too, even if you’re a non-Christian.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. — Matthew 11:29

The Religious Right cares about control, not morality.

Posted on July 27, 2017 by luckyotter

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Christian Right leaders (in both politics and the churches) — many who embrace the horrific theology of Dominionism/Reconstructionism — pretend to care an awful lot about morality. They rant on endlessly about abortion and homosexuality. They want to roll back laws that protect women’s health and reproductive rights. Today, Trump passed a bill that bans transgender people from military service.

But do they really care about morality?

I don’t think so. Their hero (who is supposedly going to make America a “Christian nation”) is a philanderer, adulterer, tax cheater, con-man, possible traitor, narcissist, bully, and only worships himself and money. He holds himself above the law and doesn’t even think he needs God’s forgiveness.

Trump talks an awful lot about God — such as his tweet today that said (the caps are his own), “IN AMERICA WE DON’T WORSHIP GOVERNMENT. WE WORSHIP GOD.” Yet I doubt the man has ever darkened a church door, said a heartfelt prayer, or ever really read the Bible. Trump doesn’t give a hoot about God, only about power and control. He’s a man without a conscience or a moral compass, but he sure does seem awfully concerned with everyone else’s morals.

To the powerful leaders of the Christian Right (including many church leaders), morality means only one thing, or maybe two things (and they are closely related): gender roles and sexual behavior.

They care nothing about being kind to others, helping those in need, welcoming strangers, turning the other cheek, loving their enemies, telling the truth, calling out wrongdoing, being ethical in business dealings, paying their fair share, and loving their neighbors as themselves. In fact, when you hear them talk, they hardly ever mention the Gospels and Jesus’ message of love.

Instead, the cherry pick the most punitive passages from the Old Testament (and ignore those like the one illustrating this post) to justify their greed, hatred, bigotry, racism, sexism, denial of facts, and lust for power and control. Certain passages have come in handy for instilling fear and terror which are used to dominate. They talk about hell an awful lot, and seem pretty sure they’re not going there but YOU are if you disagree with them. Dominionist church leaders even tell their followers that they will burn in hell if they didn’t vote for Trump or don’t support his policies. It’s a toxic stew of religious abuse, fear, and hate — and unfortunately, it works. It operates in the same manner as a cult — because it is a cult.

They use the talking points of abortion and homosexuality to instill fear (of going to hell), and control. To a lesser extent they focus on other things that offend them — strangely, almost all are related to gender roles and the patriarchal belief that women are biblically mandated to be submissive to men (even when the man is an abuser): women’s reproductive health (including birth control), adultery, divorce, private sexual behavior, and sex roles in the family. Oh, and there’s a few other things they condemn: Muslims, atheists, and liberals.

They justify their patriarchy and narrow minded views by quoting selectively from the Bible, but ignore the words of Jesus, who rarely if ever mentioned sex roles or homosexuality, never sent away a stranger, and never once said women were required to submit to men or tolerate abuse. I don’t know for certain what Jesus’ actual views about sexual behavior were (since he never really went there), but I do know that there were things that were far more important to him, such as being kind to your neighbor, not being greedy and selfish, welcoming strangers, and caring for the needy and sick.

Jesus was gentle and kind. He never turned his back on the “least among us.” He was even loving toward sinners, as he was toward the adulteress who approached him. But he only had harsh words for the powerful Pharisees, who were the equivalent of today’s legalistic right-wing Christian leaders and politicians.

America has a long history of the separation of church and state, and for good reason. The Founding Fathers weren’t stupid. They knew that when you try to mix the two, you wind up corrupting both. That is what’s happening now. There’s nothing un-Christian about keeping church and state separated. In fact, it’s what’s kept Christianity from turning into a cult of power and hate.

Things that until very recently were considered sinful or at best, secular — greed, selfishness, seeking wealth and political power, corruption, hatred, bigotry, and taking from the poor — have now all been embraced by the Christian Right, using the heretical doctrine of dominionism to justify their actions. Incredibly, they have Christianized the diabolical. It makes you wonder who their real “god” really is.

They go on about the “sanctity of life” but seem to care only about fetuses and embryos. But they are anything but pro-life. Anyone who wants to take Medicaid away from pregnant women, make women’s health (including pregnancy) a pre-existing condition, support the death penalty, build more weapons, support torture, start wars, remove laws that keep the mentally ill from buying guns, gut education funding, destroy the environment, remove laws that make our workplaces safe, and kick millions of people off healthcare are definitely not pro-life.

I find it hard to believe far right Christian leaders even have much empathy for the unborn. They seem incapable of empathy, so it makes absolutely no sense that they would care so deeply about unborn babies but at the same time be so callous about the health and lives of born babies, children, women, refugees, and humanity in general. Especially when you consider that Medicaid covers nearly half of all deliveries. If you toss all those pregnant women off Medicaid, what will happen? A hell of a lot more abortions, that’s what. So how are they pro-life? They aren’t.

The truth is, they don’t care about people, born or not. The abortion issue (and other gender-related issues such as homosexuality) is a talking point they’ve latched onto in order to control people, especially women. It’s also how they’ve managed to marry together religion with politics. Far right politics has hijacked the churches and corrupted Christianity. Their “morality” is all about control, and they will do the most immoral things imaginable to get it, as we see with this presidency.

I’m fed up with right wing politics’ bastardization and corruption of Christianity to suit their own agendas. Over time, they have twisted Christianity into something dark and diabolical. These heretics have held Jesus hostage for almost 40 years and it’s time to take him back.

I apologize about how harsh this may sound, but I’ve been feeling pretty strong about it lately, and sometimes the truth hurts.

Christian Dominionism has taken over the GOP.

Posted on June 19, 2017 by luckyotter

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Many Christians may wonder how the heartless, draconian, dangerous, and mean policies of the current GOP can be reconciled with anything Jesus Christ actually taught.

The truth is, they can’t. Although our current president (who by all indications is not a religious man, nor has he repented for his many indiscretions both before and after he was elected) panders to the Christian Right, has surrounded himself with “Christian” politicians (mostly fundamentalists and dominionists — more on dominionism in a minute), and has taken on their anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage rhetoric (to obtain support and votes, since these are the two issues that seem to concern these so-called Christians the most), Trump’s behavior (and those of the people he has appointed) is anything but Christ-like. Yes, it’s true the Bible tells us to “judge not, lest ye be judged,” but we are also told (by Jesus) that “by their fruits you shall know them [the evildoers],” and so far, this administration has borne nothing but bad fruit. So, going by that, I feel justified in judging the regime that has taken control of our country.

The ugly truth is that they have an agenda: turning our democracy into a religious theocracy — an Old Testament-based dictatorship that is to real Christianity what the Taliban/ISIS is to real Islam. They want a Christian version of Sharia Law in which women and minorities are silenced and repressed and “know their place,” in which political or religious dissent is made illegal, in which non-Christians can be treated as second class citizens with limited or no rights, in which the land, sea and sky is raped and pillaged for human purposes (because taking care of our planet means we “lack faith” in God’s ability to replenish the Earth), in which personal sin (abortion, homosexuality, adultery, etc.) is punished harshly and maybe even by death, and in which material wealth is regarded as proof of God’s approval/love and in which it’s justified to let the poor and sick perish and die because they are “moral failures”who have not been so blessed with good health or wealth because they are not among God’s elect (a Calvinistic doctrine that we are all predestined for heaven or hell before we are born, which of course begs the question as to how we can also have free will).

If you are thinking about how far this is from what Jesus preached in his most famous of all sermons, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), you are right. Jesus instructed us us to welcome immigrants (his own parents would have been banished from Bethlehem and Mary not allowed to give birth there because they were foreigners), take care of the poor and the sick (one of the most famous, but far from the only, verse in the Bible addressing this is the one about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get to heaven), and turn the other cheek (be humble.) He railed against pride, greed and legalism. He counted among his friends the beggars and the homeless. He valued women as much as he did men. He gave us the “new Covenant” which was to replace the old Biblical laws found in books such as Leviticus.

Now, the old Testament has much to recommend it, and of course the Ten Commandments are just plain old common sense. Personally, I have no objection to the Commandments being displayed in courthouses or “In God We Trust” being printed on the dollar bill, because these things don’t necessarily favor only Christians and they’re simply good advice for anyone. They don’t repress, oppress, or marginalize anyone. They don’t hurt people or the environment. They don’t undermine the Constitution or our freedoms. People who object to these things really ought to turn their minds to more important issues that actually affect their lives.

Yet we have a bunch of Christian heretics high up in government who actually want to set up a fascist regime based not on the Constitution drawn up by the Founding Fathers, but on Old Testament Biblical Law. This is the desire and goal of cultists (yes, to my mind they are a cult) who embrace an ugly and dangerous doctrine called Christian Dominionism, and Donald Trump, in spite of not himself being religious, is their cult leader.

Here is a comprehensive definition of what Christian dominionism is:

https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-dominionism.html

Christian dominionists may tell us they are saved and insist we need “more Jesus” but they practically ignore the Gospels. Instead, they cherry-pick passages in the Old Testament that they feel support their beliefs, usually the ones that show God at his most angry, intolerant, and punishing. There is no Jesus in what they preach and to my mind, they are Christian in name only. They also have somehow come up with the idea that America is God’s chosen nation (after Israel) and that Jesus will return here, which justifies everything they do that represses or punishes non-believers and the “non-elect.” But there is absolutely nothing in the Bible that supports the notion that America is somehow regarded as God’s chosen country.

They (as well as many fundamentalist Christians, whether they are dominionists or not) believe that Donald Trump, while not the second coming of Jesus himself, is nonetheless “preparing the way” for Jesus’ return. They may acknowledge that Trump is a sexually and personally amoral narcissist, but this is okay because in the Bible, God often used sinful people to fulfill his wishes. They compare Trump to King Cyrus of Persia, a deeply flawed and cruel man who nonetheless freed the Jews.

According to this website,

“He came in, this king, as a secular ruler and decreed for the building of the house of the Lord. He literally made it possible for the Jews to end the captivity,” Lance Wallnau, an evangelical leader and author, told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “Trump has the Cyrus anointing to navigate in chaos.”

Trump as “Cyrus,” President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as “Babylon,” the Jews as either modern-day Israelis or Americans? It’s not only evangelical Christians who buy it. Before the election, Rabbi Matityahu Glazeron predicted a Trump victory based on an analysis of Bible codes, which he said also pointed to the new president as a Cyrus-like figure.

In a pre-inauguration faith gathering, Likud Knesset member Yehuda Glick, in Washington, D.C. for the festivities, expressed a like sentiment. Calling the new president “the king of the United States of America,” Glick said that if Trump moved the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, “He will be the latter-day Cyrus!”

Trump has also sometimes been compared to King David, a similarly flawed man of the Old Testament who was a hero to the Israelites and made Jerusalem its capital.

Here is a list of “Christian” justifications for the evil, un-American agenda the Trump regime and much of the GOP are trying to make reality. I am not making this up. I wish I were. The source I used for this list can be found here. There are many other sources, and a quick Google search should point you to them, but I found this source the most comprehensive and will serve for the purposes of this article. I will warn however, that this website makes for some disturbing reading. I don’t recommend reading it if you want to get any sleep. You can read about their plan for taking over the Republican Party (we are seeing many indicators of their agenda being fulfilled under the Trump administration) here.

Public education for all is to be abolished in favor of religious, private education. If you can’t afford a private, religious education, too bad, you must not be one of God’s elect. Ignorance is good, because it keeps the undesirables in line. Educated people ask too many questions. How long before our child labor laws (because that’s socialism) are repealed? Put those indigent kids to work!

Defunding protections for the environment. Apparently, for Christian dominionists, stewardship of the earth is irrelevant, in spite of numerous Bible passages that tell us that the Earth belongs to God, and we are only to use it sustainably. They believe that because in Genesis, Adam and Eve were told to “fill the earth and subdue it,” and “take dominion over it,” that means it’s okay for us to vandalize God’s creation and expect Him to clean up after us like parents coming home to find trash all over the house and graffiti drawn all over the walls after their unruly teenagers threw a drunken weekend party. They justify unsustainable environmental practices such as strip mining or fracking by saying that only a person of no faith in God’s restorative ability would want laws that protect earthly resources.

Why the mainstream media should be suppressed.

The GOP war against women. It ain’t just about abortion. They want a patriarchy where women are treated as second class citizens with fewer rights than men and where women’s health is legislated and controlled by high ranking men. If you want to get an idea of what life might be like for women if the current GOP gets their way, read Margaret Atwood’s eerily prophetic 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

Why it’s “Christian” to take “entitlements” away from the poor and middle class. According to Christian dominionists, God has selected certain individuals to take power over America (a Christian nation!) in preparation for Christ’s return. In order for them to have the power they need to do what God has ordained, He has blessed them with material wealth like some cosmic lottery machine. So if you aren’t rich, then God has not chosen you, and in fact you are probably predestined for hell anyway. This is a morally repugnant (and uniquely American) theology based on Calvinism and the Puritanism that grew from that. It explains how some far right Christians can reconcile their faith with Ayn Rand’s (herself an atheist) philosophy of selfishness, otherwise known as “objectivism.” Never mind all that socialist business about Jesus loving the poor and weak — he didn’t really mean it! Using dominionist logic, Saudi Arabian oil sheikhs must be even more favored by God, since they are richer than any American Christian.

While “the little people” need more rules and regulations (Jeff Sessions wants to bring back the War on Drugs — hey, gotta fill up all those for-profit prisons!), corporations shouldn’t have any regulations (laws that keep them from exploiting or abusing people, animals, and the environment) because regulation cuts into their profits, and we already know those profits are ordained by God and should not be interfered with.

There is much more, but I’ll leave it at that. These are the same people that condemn radical Islam for its treatment of women and their tyrannical governments that suppress religious liberty and terrorize those who don’t believe, but they want to do the very same thing here under the rubric of Christianity. They are hypocrites who twist real Christianity into something more closely resembling a fanatic religious cult in which “freedom of religion” means the freedom to force their religious beliefs on others by making them the law. They whine about Christians being persecuted because of creationism not being taught in public schools or because some people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” (personally, I doubt Jesus cares whether we celebrate his birthday or not), but they feel perfectly free to persecute those who don’t believe exactly as they do and just want to live in a country where everyone is equal and treated fairly.

It’s time to stop blaming Trump supporters.

Posted on May 27, 2017 by luckyotter

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Credit: Chicago Tribune

I consider myself progressive politically, but I have a bone to pick with some people on the left. Unlike the modern GOP and their wealthy backers, we’re supposed to care about the “little people” — the poor, disenfranchised and otherwise vulnerable. Understandably, we are angered by the millions of working class red state voters who will be hurt by Trump’s draconian policies and cruel budget but voted for him anyway, because we will all suffer as a result of their ignorance too. Those of us who aren’t swayed by Fox News and right-wing radio and are able to think critically have a hard time understanding why so many poor and working class whites would vote against their own interests and doggedly continue to support a man who is dead set on taking away the little they have.

I understand the anger. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around their ignorance — maybe even their willful ignorance. But I’m seeing so many comments lately from people who consider themselves progressive, yet who not only blame working class Trump voters for the mess we’re in, but who seem to take pleasure in the prospect of seeing them suffer as a result of their folly. They say things like, “They deserve to lose their healthcare for voting for a monster,” or “let them taste their own medicine,” or “I’ll laugh in their faces when they lose their healthcare and food stamps.”

It’s natural to be angry and even feel a bit of schadenfreude (even though we’re being hit too), but this attitude seems as heartless as the cruel budget and healthcare bill the GOP has unleashed. How far a leap is it from “she made her bed, now she should lie in it” to the far-right refrain “if she had made better life choices, she wouldn’t be poor, sick, etc.” Not much, if you ask me.

The country is deeply divided. Things that were unthinkable in the past have become our new normal. Mudslinging, namecalling, and even violence abounds on all sides. This isn’t a left vs. right, GOP vs. Democrat issue. It’s an all out war and it’s not normal. Trump supporters hate “libruls” as much as they hate Muslim immigrants and Black Lives Matter — maybe more so. They are encouraged at Trump rallies to physically attack and intimidate those who oppose them. Reporters, in particular, are fair game. But it’s not just on the Republican side we are seeing aggression and hatred. Democrats who voted for Hillary hate hardcore Bernie supporters (“Berniebots”) who they blame for helping Trump win by refusing to vote for Hillary. In turn, Hillary-hating Bernie supporters (in some cases they hate her even more than they hate Trump) blame the neoliberal “corporate shills” of the DNC who foisted such a terrible candidate on the nation. Some even voted for Trump as a vote against Hillary. I have seen them talk about violent revolution, even homegrown militias to overthrow the government. Both the far left and traditional liberal Democrats blame working class Trump voters for what’s coming to them, even reveling in the prospect of seeing them suffer or even die when it happens.

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This isn’t an uncommon sentiment on the left.

Like the far right who blame the poor and immigrants for all the nation’s ills, when it’s really social Darwinist policies that target the vulnerable and reward the super-wealthy that are to blame (and create even more poverty in doing so), some people on the left are just as guilty of blaming the victim. I’m annoyed and tired of far left ideologues who say, “they made their bed, let them lie in it.” No one deserves to suffer because they made a mistake — even if they still stick by their mistake.

Granted, some Trump supporters are racist, homophobic, intolerant, full of hate, and admire authoritarian leaders and a “strongman” approach to governing. Some of them really are terrible people. But not all of them are. Most are just ignorant. They’re not bad people and might even be kind and caring toward others in their daily lives, but they know no better. Their minds can’t be changed because they have been lied to all their lives and their only point of reference is Fox News and whatever their churches and equally uninformed neighbors and families tell them. Many lack the education and critical thinking skills to realize they have been misled and lied to.

In Trump, working class red state voters saw an anti-establishment, colorful character who refused to be politically correct and who shared their their anger at the “liberal corporate elite” — well heeled granola crunching opera-attending types who drive foreign SUVs and seem to care more about Mexicans, Muslims, and blacks more than they care about them, and who look down their noses at their way of life and lack of education. They heard Trump’s promises of “healthcare for everybody” and “the Mexicans will pay for the wall” and “we are going to eradicate terror once and for all” and saw someone who would make their lives safer and more prosperous. Finally, someone who seemed to care more about the white working class (and appealed to their religiosity even though Trump himself doesn’t seem to care much about God) than about immigrants, abortion rights, and urban gays.

Trump is a swindler and a conman who promised them an easier life and assured them they would not be forgotten. He played right into their fear and paranoia, and their anger at the corporate elite, who they understandably saw as the enemy. Without the critical thinking skills or education to know better, how were they supposed to know they were being lied to? It’s human nature to resolve cognitive dissonance by making excuses for an abuser who blatantly lies to you and is now targeting you. It’s easier to say, “he doesn’t really mean it” or blame the “fake news” than to say “I was wrong,” especially when you were never trained to think critically about anything or were raised in a subculture that encourages or even celebrates authoritarianism. Call it willful ignorance if you want, but it’s still ignorance. As Jesus said in Luke 23: 34, “forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

It’s not fair to place all the blame on the shoulders of ignorant Trump supporters because there were other factors at play in his winning the election. These voters are a minority of Americans. Trump did not win the popular vote, just the electoral college vote, but that’s the one that determines the outcome of our national elections. We had the same problem in the 2000 election of George W. Bush, who also did not win the popular vote. The electoral college is obsolete, even destructive, and needs to go. Are Trump supporters to blame for an outdated and unfair system of counting votes? No, they are not.

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Another factor — and it’s the one most in the news right now — is Russia’s infiltration into the election. The far right media loves to target all the stories about Russian interference as fake news, but there’s just too much evidence for anyone with a working brain to not see that Russia had a lot to do with why Trump won. Are Trump supporters to blame for Russian interference? No, of course they aren’t.

There’s also the propaganda pushed by right wing media outlets like Fox News. People who don’t have much money who pay for cable usually will pick the most basic cable package. Unfortunately, these bare bones packages often don’t include progressive or even centrist news channels. So the only news they have access to, besides the local news (which is often conservative) is Fox News, which is included in every basic cable package. Fox’s selling point is “fair and balanced” and Fox News watchers see (now fallen) pundits like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity as one of them. Both O’Reilly and Hannity (as well as Rush Limbaugh from right wing radio) have a blue collar image and seem able to relate to their concerns and lifestyles better than a Rhodes scholar like Rachel Maddow ever could. Is it working class Trump supporters’ fault that they are never exposed to the facts or more progressive viewpoints? Is it their fault the left makes no effort to relate to their concerns, and seems to care more about immigrants and people of color (who they see as the enemy) more than them? Is it their fault that well to do liberals very often blame them for their lot and look down on them as much or even more than Republicans do? No, it isn’t.

Finally, there are the churches, especially the evangelical or fundamentalist variety so common in red states, especially the South. Organizations like the Southern Baptist Convention, which is notorious for mixing far right politics into religion, goes as far as warning their parishioners they will displease God if they do not support Trump. These churches use talking points such as abortion or homosexuality, knowing their followers will vote based on these issues, regardless of where the candidate stands on other issues. Because they cannot think critically or see the bigger picture, they can’t see that the “pro-life” candidate may actually not be pro-life at all, just pro-birth. People who can think critically can see how out of touch and easily swayed they are, but to a less-educated person who has been programmed all their lives to believe whatever their pastor tells them and is accustomed to appeals to their primitive emotions rather than their intellect, can we really blame them for supporting he candidate their pastor tells them is “opening the door to Christ’s kingdom?” Is it their fault they have been brainwashed into believing if they vote for anyone other than Donald Trump, they will make God mad and go to hell? Again, no, it really isn’t.

It’s time to stop blaming poor and working class Trump supporters and start placing the blame on the real problem: our broken political system where neither of the major parties addresses the needs and concerns of the average American and thus led to the rise of someone like Trump.

The Exodus

Posted on May 8, 2017 by luckyotter

I’ve been seeing a lot of this sentiment in the past few months, but I’ve been aware of the problem with American Christianity for a long time. The election seems to have wakened a sleeping tiger.

I saw a comment today that was so shocking and so true I felt like I’d been hit by a bowl of ice water:

“I’ve often wondered, if Satan started a religion, what would it look like? It wouldn’t involve hooded red and black robes, pentagrams and blood sacrifice. That would be too obvious. It would pose as Christianity, but subvert all the parts that matter. It would look a hell of a lot like the Religious Right.”

This poem really resonated with me and begged to be shared. I believe God is speaking to us all through this blogger’s stunning words. Please leave comments under the original post.

Dave Barnhart