Religion – Page 12 – Politics Plus

Pseudo-Christians on the Trump Hate Train

Posted by TomCat at 12:22 pm Politics, Religion

Aug 172016

Whenever hatred abounds, you can be sure that Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians (the polar opposite of real authentic Christians) will jump on the hate train. And with Rump Dump Trump as the personification of today’s Republican party, you can be sure that the supply of hatred will be endless. The following author listed reasons they are backing Trump.

…Here are just some of the religious arguments made on Trump’s behalf:

1. God is using Trump to pave the way for the Second Coming

Frank Amedia, a pastor who has been serving as Trump’s “Christian policy” liaison, said that God told him personally last year that Trump would win the GOP nomination and help pave the way for the Second Coming. Amedia also suggested that only God could explain how Trump has survived all his blunders:

And the Lord spoke very clearly to me, and he said to me, ‘This man is going to win the nomination and I want you to be ready to serve my cause when I call you.’…In this instance, it’s not because Donald Trump has heralded his faith or the name of God, but the Lord has put His favor upon him, and how amazing it is that the favor of God can overcome so many mistakes, so many bumbles, so many things that otherwise we would think would destroy somebody in business, destroy them in politics, destroy them in relationships. But yet it’s very evident it was the will of the Lord to do this and here we sit now.

2. God is using Trump to get pastors to fight for religious freedom

Pastor Michael Anthony, president of Godfactor and founder of the National Week of Repentance, attended Trump’s June meeting with evangelicals and said he is convinced God is using Trump [pseudo-Christians delinked] to move Christians to act to defend their religious freedom. “I think God was speaking through him at that moment, to the church, to tell us why are you being silent about the most important thing about your lives?”

3. Trump could make America worthy of God’s blessing

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins was a big Ted Cruz backer and has publicly been a somewhat reluctant supporter of Donald Trump. He told radio host Sandy Rios that Trump has made plenty of mistakes, but that if he “walks in that grace that is available” and surrounds himself with good people, he could “cast a vision that moves America back to the country that honors God again and therefore would be a recipient of His blessing.”

4. Trump would make America friendlier to Israel

Many conservative evangelicals have embraced a theological approach to Middle East policy, interpreting Bible verses [pseudo-Christians delinked] to suggest that in order to enjoy God’s blessing, America must unconditionally support the Israeli government. Says [pseudo-Christians delinked] Pastor John Hagee, head of Christians United For Israel, “we have a mandate from the Bible and that mandate is to be supportive of Israel and the Jewish people.” Even though Trump said earlier this year that he would be “neutral” regarding the Israel-Palestine dispute (a position he later backed away from), right-wing leaders have long denounced Obama as an enemy of Israel. The Times of Israel notes [pseudo-Christians delinked] that Hagee, “has all but endorsed Trump by name.” Indeed, Hagee told his viewing audience that God would hold them accountable for their vote, saying, “I’m not going to vote for the party that has betrayed Israel for the past seven years.” Hagee has complained [pseudo-Christians delinked] that “three million evangelicals did not vote in the past election,” saying “God forbid that happen again. We are going to storm the voting booths of America this time around.”…

From <Right Wing Watch>

I’ve shared the first four of twenty-five listed reasons that Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians are on the Trump hate train. Click through for the other twenty-one.

They want Trump in the White House. How do you plan to prevent it?

Republicans Move to Legalize Hate

Posted by TomCat at 10:22 am Politics, Religion

Jul 112016

It’s taken a month for the Republican Party to come up with an official response to the Orlando Massacre. They took an ever so brief timeout from hating, Blacks, Latinos,Women. the poor, etc., to focus their hatred on the LGBT community.

One month ago on Tuesday, a gunman shot and killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. House Republicans plan to mark this milestone with a hearing on a bill that would enable widespread discrimination against LGBT people. The legislation, ironically named the “First Amendment Defense Act” (FADA) rests on the idea that discrimination should be excused when it is justified by religion.

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to consider FADA. The anti-LGBT bill has 171 different co-sponsors, nearly all of them Republicans.

By its own explicit terms, FADA grants special rights to individuals with a “religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” In that sense, it closely resembles a Mississippi law that a federal judge halted earlier this month, in part because it extends special treatment to individuals with anti-LGBT religious beliefs.

Under, the core provision of FADA “the Federal Government shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with” a religious objection to marriage equality or a faith-based belief that sexual relations must be reserved to a marriage between people of the opposite sex. Subsequent provisions define the term “discriminatory action” to include a broad range of sanctions against religious objectors who themselves engage in discrimination. The government cannot deny tax subsidies to religious objectors who discriminate against LGBT people, or deny them a grant or benefit, or, under a catch-all provision, “otherwise discriminate against such person.”… [emphasis added]

From <Think Progress>

Photo Credit: The Great American Disconnect

Essentially this proposal would codify allowing the right to religious beliefs of one person to take precedence over the Constitutional rights of another person, but only if the beliefs, upon which hateful discrimination is based, are the beliefs of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the polar opposite of authentic Christians. As such, it seeks to establish pseudo-Christianity as a state religion, a clear violation of the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment.

Of the 171 co-sponsors of this hateful garbage, I could find only one Democrat. He is Rep. Daniel Lepinski [DINO-IL]. If you’re an Illinoisan, especially from the 3rd Congressional District, would you please give this Trump Humping DINO a call and tear him a new one?

Open Thread – 7/4/2016

Posted by TomCat at 12:35 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jul 042016

It’s a good thing I slept well on Saturday and Sunday nights, because I know I won’t tonight. The main fireworks display is only seven blocks from me. I hope you are all having a happy and safe weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:10 (average 6:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (classic 7/2014): 1. Conservatives opposed the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution and a lot of other righteous stuff as well.

By definition a conservative is one who wishes to preserve and/or restore traditional values and institutions, i.e. to “conserve” the established order. No surprise then that 18th century American conservatives wanted no part of breaking away from the British Empire and the comforting bonds of monarchical government. Those anti-revolutionary conservatives were called Tories, the name still used for the conservative party in England. The Founding Fathers? As radically left-wing as they came in the 1770s. The Boston Tea Party? The "Occupy Wall Street" of its day.

Some of the other "traditional" values supported by conservatives over the course of American history have included slavery (remember that the Republican Party was on the liberal fringe in 1860), religious persecution, the subjugation of women and minorities, obstacles to immigration, voter suppression, prohibition and segregation. Conservatives started off on the wrong side of American history, and that’s where they’ve been ever since.

2. The United States is not a Christian nation, and the Bible is not the cornerstone of our law.

Don’t take my word for it. Let these Founding Fathers speak for themselves:

John Adams: “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797)

Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.” (Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814)

James Madison: “The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.” (Writings, 8:432, 1819)

George Washington: “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” (Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789)

You can find a multitude of similar quotes from these men and most others who signed the Declaration of Independence and/or formulated the United States Constitution. These are hardly the words of men who believed that America should be a Christian nation governed by the Bible, as a disturbing fundamentalist trend today would have it be.

These are just the first two of thirteen listed facts about America that Republicans wish you would forget. Click Through for the other eleven.

From Crooks and Liars: In this web exclusive, John Oliver lets us know just what we’re missing by declaring independence from Britain.

LOL! God save the Queen!!

From TPM: If elected president. Hillary Clinton plans to appoint enough women to the top levels of her administration that females would make up half of the cabinet positions, the New York Times reported. The report is based on interviews with friends and advisors close to Clinton — some on the record, some unnamed — and they told the Times that she also plans to look at talent from Silicon Valley to assemble a diverse cabinet.

Only about a quarter or a third of the president’s cabinet has been female in recent years, according to the Times.

I consider this move as progress in the right direction, but why stop mat half? Also, we’d better have a supermajority in the Senate, or many will not be confirmed.

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 6/30/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:05 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 302016

After staying here nine nights, Julie and Killer Dawg moved out yesterday. I’m feeling lonely. After a while I‘ll get used to my routine again. She will be back for about four hours on Saturday and will help train her replacement for a couple hours on Tuesday. I felt too tired to sleep well last night, so I took a Lona Nap this morning and I am running late.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Because that is what Jesus would do, right? No, wrong. Assault weapons are meant for one thing — to kill. Jesus was against killing.

The Globe reports on a church in Joplin, Missouri, that held a raffle and gave away two Black Rain AR-15 assault rifles on Father’s Day. Fathers were given one free ticket and another for each child they brought in. (I wonder if you could bring in someone else’s child for extra tickets…) Ignite says it was part of a marketing strategy to “lure” young men between 18-35 to follow Jesus. Because that’s what Jesus would do right? No, wrong. No where [sic] does it say Jesus “lured.”

It would appear that church exists to worship Republican Supply-side Jesus, who Republicans invented to justify their false gospel of violence, lies, hate and greed. Republican Supply-side Jesus is the polar opposite of the real Jesus.

From MSNBC: Rachel on Benghazi BS

Republican Benghazi BS had one purpose only, to propagandize against Hillary Clinton. And Nameless was right. It STILL isn’t over.

From Alternet: Donald Trump has been showered with accusations of financial impropriety, from fraud suits levied against his now-defunct Trump University, to charges that the presidential candidate drastically inflates his charitable donations. To add fuel to the monetary fire, Trump is now facing repercussions for poor fundraising acumen; on Wednesday, the Federal Elections Committee filed a complaint against Donald J. Trump for President for “soliciting contributions from foreign nationals” in a series of emails the campaign sent to “foreign nationals in Iceland, Scotland, Britain and Australia.”

Following reports earlier this month that Trump’s fundraising numbers are severely lagging, the presumptive Republican nominee sent emails to members of the British parliament, Talking Points Memo reports.

Sir Roger Gale, British Member of Parliament (MP) complained about the correspondence to the Speaker of the House Commons, Politics Home notes. "Members of Parliament are being bombarded by electronic communications from Team Trump on behalf of somebody called Donald Trump,” Gale said Tuesday. ”Mr Speaker, I’m all in favour of free speech but I don’t see why colleagues on either side of the House should be subjected to intemperate spam."

Click through for more details. Trump has not even tried to hide his criminal foreign fundraising behind bogus nonprofits, the way Republicans normally do.

Cartoon:

They need to Vote Blue!

Open Thread – 6/13/2016

Posted by TomCat at 3:03 pm Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics, Religion

Jun 132016

I’m getting another late start, because I’m so tired I needed a Lona nap this morning. Then I needed to arrange a medical cab for all three trips to and from Casey Eye Institute next week. Then I needed to massage the parade pictures into shape. Finally I ordered a new pad for my wheelchair, as the old one is worn out.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade:

The Rose Queen and her Court. (a better Court than SCROTUS).

After every horse act came a contingent of poop-scoopers. Republicans lack the intellectual capacity to do this job, Winking smile

Short Takes:

From NY Times: …Mr. Sanders said that he and Mrs. Clinton planned to meet on Tuesday and that he would ask her “whether she will be vigorous in standing up for working families in the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, health care for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free.”

“And after we have that kind of discussion and after we can determine whether or not we are going to have a strong and progressive platform,” he said, “I will be able to make other decisions.”

There have been signs that he was winding down his run. While Mrs. Clinton has been hiring campaign workers, Mr. Sanders started laying off at least half of his campaign staff members last week. He has let go of a number of advance staff members who help with campaign logistics, as well as field workers who have been canvassing for votes.

According to a person who attended the meeting at Mr. Sanders’s home Sunday, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private gathering, there was no talk from Mr. Sanders about trying to win the nomination. The group was keenly interested in how the senator’s meeting with Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday will turn out, and whether he would get assurances that she would fight for his ideas, this person said…

By continuing to run, Bernie increases the likelihood that his dream will live-on because it gives him a stronger negotiating position for the platform. As their stance clings to more and more desperate delusions, those who say they follow Bernie, but ignore his overtures toward unity work to increase the likelihood that Bernie’s dream will die in a totalitarian Rump Dump Trump Reich.

From Alternet: …The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, which works to support and empower LGBTQ Muslims, declared in a statement released on Sunday, "This tragedy cannot be neatly categorized as a fight between the LGBTQ community and the Muslim community. As LGBTQ Muslims, we know that there are many of us who are living at the intersections of LGBTQ identities and Islam. At moments like this, we are doubly affected."

"We reject attempts to perpetuate hatred against our LGBTQ communities as well as our Muslim communities," the organization continued. "We ask all Americans to resist the forces of division and hatred, and to stand against homophobia as well as against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry."…

The violence stems from neither Islam, nor Christianity, but from right wing pseudo-Muslims and right-wing pseudo-Christians, who abuse their respective religions to pursue the right-wing hatred and homophobia that they share.

From Think Progress: This morning on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump not so subtly returned to the subject that launched his political career — outrageous conspiracy theories about Barack Obama.

Trump said there were two possible reasons the gun massacre took place in Orlando. The first possibility was that Obama is “not tough” and “not smart” and therefore incapable of stopping terrorist attacks.

The other scenario, according to Trump, is that Obama is fully capable of stopping terrorist attacks but “has something else in mind.” In other words, Obama is purposefully allowing terrorists to kill people in the United States to pursue a hidden agenda.

Barf Bag Alert!!

Perhaps we could use his hair as a filtration mesh for sewerage. I can’t imagine any other productive use for him, at the moment.

Cartoon:

0613Cartoon

Before SCOTUS became SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD)

Last Week’s Most Insane Republican Moments

Posted by TomCat at 4:10 pm Politics, Religion

Jun 122016

Almost every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, they push the envelope on just how insane InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it, when I tell you that last week was no exception.

Good Christian Republican senator just has a teeny tiny request for God.

Boy, those evangelicals sure do know how to have a good yuck-fest, with biblical jokes and everything! But we’re pretty sure Jesus Christ would not have been amused by the prayer offered by Republican Senator Frank Perdue, who made a hilarious joke about Obama at this week’s Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference.

“I think we are called to pray,” the junior senator from Georgia told those who were gathered. “I think we are called to pray for our country, our leaders, and yes, even Barack Obama."

Specifically, he suggested, “we should pray like Psalms 108:9 [sic] says. It says ‘May his days be few.’"

Oh, titter, titter, chuckle, chuckle went the crowd.

Yes, it is the Christian thing, to pray for the death of a president whose politics you don’t like.

The cited psalm goes:

Let his days be few; Let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless And his wife a widow.
Let his children wander about and beg; And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.
Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

Yes, Republicans have plunder in mind.

From <Alternet>

The author made a typo in the verse. It’s actually 109:8

Barf Bag Alert!!

This pseudo-Christian purveyor of hatred is only the second of five listed insane Republican moments from last week alone. Click through for the other four.

Open Thread–4/26/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:13 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Apr 262016

I slept poorly last night, because the druggies partied into the wee hours on the street below and made a lot of noise. So I took another Lona nap this morning. Store to door called and I gave them my grocery order.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:18 (average 5:49). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists who have spent decades acquiring a world-class collection of Republicans, revealed over the weekend that they are considering purchasing their first Democrat.

“We’ve always bought Republicans, and our father bought Republicans before us,” Charles, the elder Koch, said. “They’re bred to be obedient, and they respond to simple commands.”

He said that he and his brother had considered acquiring a Democrat only after determining that none of the Republicans on offer this year was worth adding to their collection.

Fortunately, Andy, both Bernie and Hillary are too principled to become Koch suckers.

From Daily Kos: James Van Kuilenburg, a trans teenager, attended a Ted Cruz rally with his mother on Thursday. His goal was to hear what Ted Cruz had to say, but also, as The Frederick News-Post reported, "to show Cruz supporters that rhetoric about gay and transgender rights hurts real people, like him."

Republicans consider the First Amendment their exclusive property. Nobody else may exercise it.

From Upworthy: Witness this amazing letter he wrote in 1790 to the largest Jewish community in America at the time, the Hebrew congregation of Newport, Rhode Island. The Newport Jews had sent a message to Washington, basically congratulating him on being awesome.

A few days later, Washington responded (emphasis mine):

Gentlemen:

While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

Now try to imagine a similar epistle coming from a President Fecal Dump Trump or a President TRUSed Uranus Cruz to America’s largest Muslim community. Then vote in November!

Cartoon:

0426Cartoon

This Week’s Worst Republican Moments

Posted by TomCat at 12:49 pm Politics, Religion

Apr 172016

Almost every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, they push the envelope on just how bad InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it, when I tell you that last week was no exception.

And from the lunatic Christian fringe, this just in.

The mystery of Stonehenge has been solved, at long last. Turns out that giants created by Satan built it.

Yeah, that makes sense.

This exciting revelation—and when we say "revelation" we mean it in the biblical sense—comes courtesy of televangelist Jim Bakker, who hosted one Dennis Lindsay [pseudo-Christian talibangelist delinked]on his program on Wednesday [pseudo-Christian talibangelist delinked] in order to discuss Lindsay’s latest "discovery" in the realm of Creation Science.

So what happened was, Satan made these giants who moved those big ol’ rocks into the structure we now call Stonehenge. That was pretty smart of Satan to create a supersized labor force.

That’s the reasonable part. Here’s how Lindsay explained how the devil wants to destroy God’s creation, Israel, and "contaminate the whole human race," per RightWingWatch:

Satan wants to “have his own seed and make his own family,” Lindsay explained, and so he created a race of giants who would attack Israel.

“He build his little squatter’s hut up there on the Temple Mount, you know that temple, because he knows what the Bible says about that place,” he said. “I weaved through why and what is the evidence for giant beings on this earth. We all know about Stonehenge, right? That’s just one of hundreds and hundreds of gigantic places around the world that testify that some sort of supernatural power or giants were involved in its construction.”

So there you have it. Satan has a "squatter’s hut" and you have Satan’s giants to thank for those all those "gigantic places in the world."…

Inserted from <Alternet>

I have one major bone to pick with this author for calling these nut-jobs “the lunatic Christian fringe”. They are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians. Nothing could be further from authentic Christians. They are as representative of Christianity as the Daesh is of Islam: not at all!

That said, this is the fifth of five worst Republican moments listed from last week alone. Click through for the other four.

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