cult of fools

The Cult of Fools (June 18, 2023) – “MAGA Pastor: Be willing to die … like suicide bombers”

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By bdk, CC BY-SA 3.0

Whenever I am tempted to think that the fanatical cultish religious MAGA rhetoric has reached its peak, up pops somebody to disabuse me of that notion. This past week MAGA Pastor Kent Christmas passionately promoted some “guidance” for his flock of deeply gullible devotees …

“Be like fanatical Muslim extremists because that has worked out so well for the Muslim world“, is not exactly a traditional Christian sermon by any measure, yet this plate of verbal vomit is what is now being dished up while being told, “now eat it all up, because this is yummy stuff“.

Bereft of nuance, devoid of any actual philosophy, just raw unadulterated fanaticism…

“I am at war with evil! This is one preacher that is not backing down. I can tell you this: I will give my life for the Gospel.”

“You want to know why the Muslim faith has had its advancements? It’s because the Muslims were willing to die for their beliefs. They were willing to strap bombs to their chest. They believed in the afterlife.”

“God, give us some men and women that will get a hold of some passion in their spirit and say, ‘I will lay down my life for the Gospel!’ This thing was born in blood.”

Like all these guys, it will be, “I am called to inspire YOU to act, this is up to YOU to do it“

“evil” … “die” …”bombs” …”afterlife” …”blood“.

Given the observation that those that embrace him as a truth teller have already been self selected to be the stupidest most gullible people available, what could possibly go wrong here?

Some might quip, that its all just imagery and that nobody actually does anything bad when “inspired” like this.

Er no … hit pause and hold that thought.

Also from this past week …

Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s dive in.

They have been working ever so hard to merit lots of mockery, so let’s not disappoint them.

Christian Nationalism

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland Says This Nation ‘Should Be Completely, Totally Based on What George Washington Said to Jesus’

  • Fact Check: While it is true that George Washington in his inaugural remarks expressed gratitude and devotion to the “Almighty Being” and “Great Author of every public and private good,” he did not mention Jesus or Christianity. 
  • I can only speculate that the driving force here is that Copeland is in the market for a new jet and needs even more donations. He learned long ago that religion was the best way to get lots of money tax free. He started off in life as a chauffeur for Oral Roberts and soon realised that he could also run the same scam.
  • Meanwhile, when considering the jacket he was wearing, we could always discuss the flag code.

A reminder that David Barton isn’t going to stop spreading Christian nationalist disinformation even after it has been debunked.

  • Mr Barton is an award winning author. His bestselling book on Jefferson is officially recognised as … “the least credible history book in print“. He must be ever so proud of that achievement.
  • I just love this quote by a critic of the book … “As Jefferson did with the Gospels, Barton chooses what he likes about Jefferson and leaves out the rest to create a result more in line with his ideology.”
  • I must admit, via Mr Barton I have indeed learned new things. For example, via him I became aware of the concept of pseudohistory. That’s basically a way of saying that it looks like historical scholarship but it’s not. Instead it is a deliberate distortion crafted to promote a specific religious or political agenda.

David Lane believes that “throughout the 17th, 18th and much of the 19th-century Christians were manning the spiritual, intellectual, educational, economic, vocational and cultural levers of power. Although never a perfect nation, the union of church and state caused few, if any, issues.”

  • The ever so tiny flaw in his argument is the obvious one, it’s not actually true, his “union of church and state” was never an issue because it never existed in the US. The US was established as an explicitly secular nation.
  • If what he is saying reminds you of David Bardon, then yes, they are indeed buddies, and he does indeed strive to promote Barton’s made up history for religious reasons.
  • If you are wondering who this guy is, then that’s not a surprise, he likes to stay below the radar and does not give press interviews. Wikipedia has a page on him, see here. SPLC also has a page dedicated to him and flags him as an extremist.

Sean Feucht held a worship service inside the U.S. Capitol Monday night and took communion: “We’re gathering with senators and sitting members of Congress inside of the most sacred real estate in America.”

  • To be clear about this, Sean is part of a religious movement that wishes to transform the US from being a nation where you are free to be a Christian into a specifically Christian dictatorship. The term used to describe them is 7 mountains dominionism.
  • If asked, he will tell you this. He doesn’t like being called a Christian nationalist but also admits that’s exactly what he is: “I want a country where Christians are making are making the laws. … I actually do believe that.”
  • I do have to ask Sean something. Given the observation that there are literally thousands of churches in America, how can he justify his claim that the very secular Capitol Rotunda is the most sacred piece of real estate?
  • Meanwhile, if you check the earlier clip you can see the “vast” crowd of people that turned up … roughly about 50 of them.
  • Famous quote: “do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others” … gosh, I wonder who said that?

The Cult of Trump

In response to Trump’s latest indictment, MAGA cult pastor Shane Vaughn delivered a screaming two hour sermon this past weekend: “This is war!”

  • It’s understandable, his beloved messiah is facing some serious jail time.
  • What is truly mind blowing here is that his yelling-for-Trump religious cosplay was two hours long. You need to be really far down the rabbit hole to sit through that degree of craziness for that long.

A group of QAnon conspiracy theorists and self-proclaimed “prophets” held an event at Mount Rushmore recently and, according to Donna Rigney, an image of Trump appeared in the clouds (see above)

  • Bad news for MAGA, that’s not Trump, it’s Biden. (See what happens when I suggest an interoperation, your brain then latches on to that).
  • Further inspection of the image by people who aren’t deranged cultists reveals that it was just a regular cloud.

Shane Vaughn (yes, him again) urges President Donald Trump to do everything he can to drag out the legal proceedings stemming from his mishandling of classified documents until he is reelected in 2024, so that he can then just pardon himself.

  • So yes, this convicted fraudster was banging this drum once again. I’m not exactly convinced Trump will be taking any legal advice from him.

Ali Alexander asserts that “Trump was already going to be remembered for 100 years. Now, he will be remembered for more than 1000 years. IF, Jesus isn’t back before then.”

  • Trump will indeed be remembered … not for any good reasons, but instead as the very worst most corrupt and inept US president ever.

Further Trump Cult Reading …

Ex-Cult members

Bill Mitchell built an entire career on being one of former President Donald Trump’s most cultish supporters, but he has recently soured on Trump and is going all-in for Ron DeSantis. Today, Mitchell announced that if Trump becomes the GOP nominee in 2024, he “will be stepping down as a political pundit.”

  • Oh wow, so there really are some benefits to Trump being the 2024 nominee
  • Actually, you know how all this plays out. If indeed Trump is the 2024 nominee, then Bill will be back to vigorously licking Trump’s arse once again.

Homophobia on Steroids

The Family Research Council accuses the Biden administration of “ideological colonialism” because it has “systematically elevated the importance of LGBT ideology in American foreign policy.”

  • The FRC claim is that it all … “diverts U.S. attention from focusing on human rights issues” … er seriously! … gay rights are human rights.
  • They also bang on about it being an infringement of “religious freedom.“. The demand that everybody should tolerate their intolerance and bigotry is not a human right. They fail to grasp that the term “religious freedom.” means we all have the right to tell them to take their bigotry and F*** off.

Ella Maulding wants to make something clear: “We are not homophobic. We are anti-gay.”

  • Oh well, I guess that clears that misunderstanding up then.

AFA’s Jameson Taylor Chastises Sen. Cruz for Criticizing Uganda’s Draconian Anti-LGBTQ Law

  • Given the observation that Mr Taylor cited “divine law” as a defence for the recently enacted law in Uganda that imposes prison or the death penalty for “the offense of homosexuality.”, he really can’t in any way claim to be “pro-life”.

Jason Rapert has a message for the Democrats: “You have turned our country upside down. Stop killing babies, pushing homosexuality on our kids, pushing pornography on children, and pushing your radical LGBTQ agenda.”

  • Fact Check: Nobody is killing babies, nobody is forcing porn on kids, and nobody is forcing anybody to be gay. This has-been Arkansas politician is simply pressing hot buttons to try and make himself relevant once again.

Same playbook, just a different group being targeted now …

Meanwhile …

Further Reading …

Truly Bizarre

Ali Alexander declares that “If Trump gets taken out” of the 2024 presidential race because his various legal problems, then “Tucker [Carlson] and Ye [Kanye West] must form a unity ticket against [Ron] DeSantis!”

  • That would not exactly be a vote winner in any reality.

Stew Peters is outraged that no political party today is catering to what “real Americans” want, like seeing the border militarized, the FBI abolished and its agents arrested, and the CDC and FDA declared to be “terrorist organizations.”

  • Wait sorry, run that last bit past me once again, he is seriously “outraged” about food and drug safety and deems them to be “terrorist organizations“.
  • I guess it gives an entirely new spin to “pro-life” … every germ and virus is sacred.

MAGA Pastor Todd Coconato predicts that the “deep state” will fake an alien invasion in order to “discredit God, discredit the Bible” and “discredit Christianity.”

  • For clarity, he means from outer space, not from across the border.
  • He claims to be an evangelist, the more correct term would be “whackadoodle religious conspiracy theorist”, but you don’t need me too tell you that.
  • As for “discrediting Christianity”, no deep state required. Many of today’s Christians are doing a rather fine job of that and don’t need any support to achieve that.

Monica Crowley says the U.S. has been under “a Marxist assault for nearly a century,” but now it is “happening on a much higher spiritual plane”: “It is God vs. the enemy. It’s good vs. evil.”

  • “happening on a much higher spiritual plane” … Translation … “not actually happening at all, it is all in her befuddled head“

The False Profit$

This past week fanatical MAGA Pastor Shane Vaughn, (yes, a third item from him this week), is now literally declaring that former President Donald Trump is “above the law,” absurdly insisting that Trump can’t be prosecuted for mishandling classified documents because the taking of those documents “took place while he was in office.”

  • Alex, I’ll take “Doesn’t Understand the Law” for $1,000 please.
  • Reminder: As I often point out when Pastor Shane pops up, when it comes to deliberately mishandling documents, lying about it and then going to jail, Shane is a Subject matter Expert – Preacher/insurance agent Shane vaughn faces fraud charges. Shane did 3 years in jail for that.

Lance Wallnau reports on what God is saying at this time: “Know that what is happening to Donald Trump, and what is about to happen to Joe Biden, is actually all working together to answer your prayers and to advance the progress of righteousness and the gospel in the United States.”

  • The is actually a great example of a strategy deployed by these self-appointed “prophets”. Notice the deeply vague wording of the claim … “…what is happening … what is about to happen…“, with nothing specific at all. So no matter what happens, and that could be absolutely anything at all, he can pop up and claim “See, I predicted it, I’m a true prophet, so you can send your donations to me”.
  • To save you the bother of checking, in Lance’s FB posting, he does not give any specifics at all. All he has is a picture of him in Jerusalem. Under it are comments from a few of his cult devotees suggesting that because he was there, God supposedly speaking through him is not a long distance call, just a local call (yes, insert facepalm here). And yes, that’s not a quip I made up, they really did.
  • Least you wonder, via his Facebook page he also has fundraising links, and a shop where you can buy a talking Trump doll for $29.95 or pay $1,997 to attend his conference, and a way for you to subscribe to his FB babbling for $18.49 per month. It really is all about $$$

Self-appointed “prophet” Johnny Enlow claims that Watergate was really about pedophilia: “It’s a book that had the list of pedophiles in government!”

Rep Luna

Republican Stalking …

Southern Baptists

I truly shocked, I tell you, shocked, that a religious denomination, literally created to support slavery and segregation — and that spent decades opposing interracial marriage and the civil rights movement — has horrible views on gender equality too.

I can only admit to being totally bewildered as to why SBC keeps losing members. I simply don’t understand why.

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap

Mumble mumble leopards and faces … you know the rest.

There was yet another Rapture prediction … set for yesterday.

So did you all enjoy the rapture … oh wait, once again absolutely nothing happened.

Statistic of the week

https://twitter.com/ryanburge/status/1669703138498998272

Interesting Articles

  • Justin Horowitz @ Media Matters: The right-wing media’s shameful history of defending pedophilia and sexualizing children.
  • David Edwards @ Raw Story: Marjorie Taylor Greene lashes out at CDC director: ‘I don’t want my staff educated.’
  • Mark Joseph Stern @ Slate: The Next Republican President’s Supreme Court Picks Will Be Far Worse Than Trump’s.
  • Hemant Mehta @ Friendly Atheist: Utah Republicans are furious schools banned the Bible to comply with their book-banning law.
  • Emine Yücel @ Talking Points Memo: Judge Imposes Sanctions On Michigan GOP Chair Karamo After Baseless Election Lawsuit.
  • Erik Maulbetsch @ The Colorado Times Recorder: Colorado GOP Plans to Hire John Eastman for 2nd Try To Overturn Voter-Approved Open Primary Law.
  • Kevin Drum: The Department of Justice went easy on Trump.
  • Matt Cohen @ The American Independent: Watchdog group launches directory of far-right extremist symbols.
  • Arthur Delaney @ HuffPost: Clay Higgins Insists He Was Trying To Calm Trump Supporters Down, Not Rile Them Up.
  • Lauren Weber, Caitlin Gilbert and Taylor Lorenz @ The Washington Post: Documents show how conservative doctors influenced abortion, trans rights.
  • Elaina Plott Calabro @ The Atlantic: A Star Reporter’s Break With Reality.
  • Joe Jervis: Sarah Palin Steps On Rake In Denying MAGA Is A Cult.
  • David Gilbert @ Vice News: This County Chose an Election Denier, 9/11 Truther, and QAnon Conspiracist to Run Its Elections.

Meanwhile …

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