Thousands of people gathered today on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to engage in an eight-hour taxpayer-funded evangelical worship event to “rededicate” the nation to Christianity.
Interestingly, those screaming loudest about “freedom” seem terrified of education, dissent, history, science, libraries, journalists, universities and anyone capable of critical thought. Democracies survive through questioning power, not worshipping it.
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." -- Lincoln
Heather in hers today also paraphrased Lincoln, J L, she saying:
"If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights."
As long as schools taught humanities, and essay writing, American freedom of conscience got some exercise.
But what happened to schools when they abandoned the reading of whole books and the writing of essays? Answer: they opened themselves to rule by the testers, whose mission was that testers only ask all questions; the people, never any, none, at least not in any schools being trained but to acquiesce to all the corrupt tyrants.
I must stress this very hard - schools did NOT abandon those things without the pressure of the conservatives leading the way. The conservatives started this testing for accountability which teachers were never against but the conservatives used to discredit the system and demonize educators. This is all on the conservatives with their desire to stop funding public education and now they say "fund students and parents, not schools" and the voters buy it.
Already right after WWII, American philosophy departments invented "analytical philosophy", which basically rejects the entire history of philosophy. Philosophy, they claimed, had to become a "science", so by definition, everything written in the past is obsolete. In doing so, they also lost the method to study philosophy in the first place. With that, the most profound way of thinking was lost.
Then, by the 1990s, after bad translations of contemporary French philosophers (real ones, who never stopped studying the history of philosophy) reached the US, the left used it to invent an ideology that rejects the entire history of the humanities altogether (literature, art, etc.). With no proper method to read anymore, they reduced literature to personal opinions of authors who were representatives of their eras worst violence. The result was that everyone started writing books, books that inevitably were/are of extremely low quality.
Then, as Jonathan Haidt shows, in 2013 Facebook adds emojis to its posts, which dramatically increased the number of hours kids and adults spend on social media a day. That reduced their attention span and ability to engage in real, respectful debates (a crucial art in any democracy) tremendously.
Conclusion: this is as much the result of how the left approach education, since WWII, as it is the result of conservatives (very successful) attempts to keep education limited to the wealthiest and to keep wealth "hereditary".
Rebuilding a civic society worthy of democracy will take a long time, so we better start now, and we better start correcting all the errors we on the left made first.
Rickey, I just had an email round with an acquaintance of my husband who is embittered against public schools. I can understand why in some ways, but he rolled out every nasty thing about public school teachers that I heard for years like those who can't, teach, pensions, 10 month contracts, etc. When I did not roll over, he finally gave up. The problems we have are complicated and what we are seeing in Oregon are huge budge cuts. We are living in a time of chaos where as a society people have carte blanche to be their worst selves. Then we had the pandemic and all the problems that has caused. School board races have become expensive and people must pay attention or they will have a regressive board who do not understand anything about education except getting their agenda in the schools. I read this week that some school district is getting rid of the book Roots in their libraries. Sigh.
In the race to degrade public education don’t forget about the money to be made by the testing and textbook firms-it’s quite a market. There was also a top down bureaucracy created to “measure success” and punish those states, districts, schools, teachers, communities, and most of all students.
The “standards” often undermined opportunities for teaching and learning involving critical thinking, civics, experiential learning and more. Teachers became cogs in a wheel.
Education defined as empowerment is a key to our survival whether it’s formal
or informal especially for the times we’re in now. Each one, teach one. We can learn so much about the truth from history and each other.
Perhaps in Florida, Texas, Louisiana. And what that shows, most of all, is that conservatives in those states know the power of what HCR reminds us of--enlightenment--and will do everything they can to keep young people from it. But the heavy hand of Christian zealotry isn't what's taken away the reading of books or the writing of essays in this country. WE FACULTY are also to blame. It is so much easier to be bolster the egos of our students and to give them all A's. We could, with reason, and with the support of many many parents, raise the bar. But that would make our lives a bit harder--we'd have to defend against the few cranky parents and shitty administrators who want higher test scores. Educators have to hold the line, and we're not doing it.
We can't just blame the schools without seeing the massive, moneyed, far-right campaign against them, specifically ever since the Powell Memo of 1971.
That memo and the hatred of humanities from the far-right resulted in the creation of the Heritage Foundation and ALEC some few months later, and then dozens more cozening to them.
Fascism, corruption big-time, and total rule by the moneyed, hello.
And I think most teachers do their best to humanize instruction. Most of my daughter's teachers did, and i know some teachers quit on account of political demands. Schools are in part training to be a competent citizen/manager of a DIY government of the people, by the people, for the people. Ideal education recognizes tat every person, and their interests and talents is unique, but we also ave to live together, in the realm of the commonwealth, and that involves cooperation, and that is a skill and a discipline in itself, best left to secular inclusion.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or ......" It refers only to Congress since the Constitution gave the Congress the sole authority to make laws. The present Congress has relinquished that authority to the President.
Blaming the schools and teachers for this is frankly outrageous. You want to blame anything blame No Child Left Behind and turning public schools into nothing more than test taking factories.
If the students don't score better than last year on the standardized tests then the schools lose their funding.
The government did this. Not a teacher. Even 'conservative' schools don't like the test scores above all atmostphere. But thanks to George W that's what we get.
One year when my kids were in middle school, No Child Left Behind caught up with the district. Their test scores weren't high enough so they fired almost everyone. 87% turn over in one summer. And the teachers hired to replace the ones that had been there were almost entirely 1st year teachers because they were the only ones who could 'afford' to take a chance on a 'failing' district.
Let's be real here. Conservatives have been trying to break Public Schools since they were instituted. They hate that they are educating other people's kids with their taxes. The easy way to make that happen is to make the quality of education so low that everyone agrees to ditch them and go back to private schools or worse.. private schools funded with taxpayer money (aka Charter Schools)
That's about where we are right now.
But blaming the schools for it is incredibly unfair and shows a lack of understanding about the situtuation.
BLB, having read Phil Balla's comments for some time now, I can assure you that when he talks about what's happening in U.S. schools, he is not blaming the schools or teachers. He holds responsible local, state and federal governments for adopting foolish policies and pressuring school administrations and the teachers they employ to follow those foolish policies.
He also acknowledges the pressures coming from parents, but doesn't blame them, as most parents are products of the faulty educational policies they grew up in.
In my small, rural, K-12 one building district, our attitude toward No Child Left Behind was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Our kids, at all levels of ability, social status and income, were not being left behind, but in order to get Federal dollars, we had to comply and conform. Needless to say, it didn't take long for the actual education to deteriorate.
"They opened themselves to rule by the testers, whose mission was that testers only ask all questions."
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (W Bush with the help of willing Democrats) was the official start of the Testing Movement. However, it was never meant to improve education. The goal was to enrich testing companies while vilifying teachers and their unions. It is well known that accurate test scores can be assigned by zip codes, no testing needed. But that would vilify socioeconomic conditions as a prime factor in uneven educational achievement.
Phil, I agree about testing, but this is much more than just education. As you know, I was in education and did those things that you recommend. We have a friend who is still in the field who has found ways to teach around the tests. He is in a heavily Hispanic district and is bilingual. His wife, from Ecuador, also teaches there. Just this week in Salem were the Crystal Apple awards to outstanding educators. The article described what they were doing in the classroom which was way beyond testing.
Has anyone watched "Lean on Me" starring Morgan Freeman? It's about getting in there and doing the job. Working together. Not wasting time criticizing different philosophies. It does take the necessary amount of money. I came to Colorado in 1970. Education was the number one item in the budget. The right wing passed the TABOR amendment. Colorado is now one of the worst in the nation for education funding.
Critical thinking skills are not being taught adequately in our schools. And I wonder what the topics in history are. Have any a clue of what Fascism is and how it works, that they would be trampled by the leaders? Give Trump credit for spotting and exploiting the racism and ignorance prevalent in the MAGA crowd. The South/KKK are making a concerted effort to put in place a white Christian theocracy here. The study that really exposes the MAGA folks for what they are is in the Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology," entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why" by two Univ. Of Kansas professors, David Norma Smith and Eric Hanley.
Phil, you are so right about the aims of the pseudochristians. They care nothing for their faith, only that they can use it to subjigate all of us to their whims, rob us all into poverty, then demand even more of us, the only folks with rights, rich white men who go along with the christian nationalist BS. No thank you!!!.
I really resent the term "Christian Nationalism". It is NOT Christian. It may be Old Testament, but it is NOT Christian! I am, slowly but surely, starting to understand the disgust that atheists, agnostics and other faiths have for the "Christian" church. Please understand that Old Testament church is NOT Christian. Christianity is defined by the belief that God sent his only son to be crucified because of man's sin. That is human's sins against a God. Despite what these right wing ass hole bigots claim, they cannot save themselves. In order to be a Christian you necessarily believe that Jesus was crucified, becoming the Christ that died and ressurected for our sins. In that belief, as a Christian, you will obey His commands. The first of which is to to love your God above all else and the second is to love your neighbor. Whether a person believes this or not is immaterial to the fact: If you don't believe what I just wrote, you ARE NOT a Christian! The Old Testament was given to humans as a word picture of human's relationship to God. The new Testament was given to humans to understand the way to salvation and how to live with one another. Too many evangelicals have forgotten this. Sorry but that means they forgot what it means to be a Christian; and it ain't christian nationalism. Period!
The Old Testament was handed down by word of mouth. I believe it was written to explain the power of and the need of God, and the need for a Messiah. It was the Jewish story. It created the family tree of Jesus. Mary and Joseph were Jews, so was Christ. So quoting the BIble of the Old Testament is not "Christian" at all. The Christian theology was created after Christ walked the earth and established his Church.
These Trumpers are not Christians in any definition of the word. They do not relate to behave in a "christian" manner. The do not espouse any Christian philosophy or ideals or pracitces that Christ established while he was on earth.
Mark, I have posted this here before, but again I suggest anyone of any faith--or none--read the 2025 book by Fr. Richard Rohr "The Tears of Things". His thoughts on Christianity and how he insists that modern Evangelical "Christian" pastors misinterpret and misuse the Bible for their own power is quite fascinating. I think you would appreciate this book.
And they misuse it primarily in the quest for MONEY. Remove the tax-exempt status of of these mega-churches and watch them disappear into the dust of history.
"I really resent the term "Christian Nationalism". It is NOT Christian. It may be Old Testament, but it is NOT Christian!"
Why do you even bring in the "Old Testament"? This is an age old Christian trope - blame the Jews for bad stuff.
Look, the Christian Nationalist movement is made up of self-identified Christians, recognized as such, and must be addressed as such.
I cannot disown the genocidal Netanyahu regime because it does not comport with my notion of Judaism, any more than Muslims can disown the Taliban - or Christians can disown Christian Nationalism.
Maybe Pushy Puritan type so-called Christians would work. My many times great uncle Ethan Allen seemingly came from Puritan roots that wanted to go so far as to cancel Christmas celebrations in a much purified Church of England.
"...I mentioned it to readers when I heard about it earlier this year. But devoting an entire day to watching our nation be engulfed in everything I warned about and begged Americans not to choose wasn’t conducive to a mentally healthy Sunday.
Instead, I’m going to talk about how the White Christian Nationalist Speaker of the House likely threatened US citizens’ First Amendment rights and tie his words to NSPM-7.
Here’s a clip from Johnson’s pre-show interview with Fox where he says the following: “The naysayers who have created this new term 'Christian nationalism' as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are trying to silence the influence and voices of Christians, and I think that's wildly inappropriate.”
“I think that’s wildly inappropriate” could mean “Anyone who uses the term ‘Christian Nationalist’ as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are anti-Christian and could be charged as domestic terrorists under NSPM-7.”
I can’t read the Speaker’s mind and wouldn’t want to spend one second in such a dark, twisted place if I could. I had a PTSD meltdown watching his smug sanctimoniousness in this clip.
NSPM-7 lists the following subjective speech and expression as possible DOMESTIC TERROR. Half are overtly Christian Nationalist. I added (Parenthesis).
Anti-Americanism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-Christianity (anti-White Christian Nationalism)
Support for the overthrow of the United States government
Extremism on migration
Extremism on race
Extremism on gender (anti-White Christian Nationalist views on gender)
Hostility (disagreement) toward those who hold traditional American (White Christian Nationalist) views on the family
Hostility (disagreement) toward those who hold traditional American (White Christian Nationalist) views on religion
Hostility (disagreement) toward those who hold traditional American (White Christian Nationalist) views on morality
I believe the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the person is who two heartbeats away from the US Presidency, used Fox News to announce that calling anyone a Christian Nationalist in the following ways could result in being charged as a domestic terrorist under NSPM-7:..."
Mark, you can resent the term "Christian Nationalism" all you want, but whether you like it or not, it is the correct term.
In the 1970s, Ford Motor Company marketed a whole lineup of vehicles, including the luxurious LTD, the midsize Torino, the personal-luxury Thunderbird, the sporty Mustang, and the Pinto. The Pinto exemplified Henry Ford's original desire to produce a car that everyman could afford. It was affordable to buy and economical to operate. There was just one problem: the gas tank exploded in flames if the car was impacted from behind. I'm sure that Henry Ford II desperately wished the Pinto wasn't a Ford, but it was a Ford, clearly labeled on the front and back. In fact, it had all the characteristics of a Ford except for that one explosive problem.
Likewise, Christian Nationalists, exhibit most of the characteristics of Jesus-followers. They pray, they read the Bible and they act kindly toward the people whom they like (except when they don't). By all appearances, they are Christians, except for that one explosive problem.
To insist that these folks are not Christians is to engage in the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.
I live in Japan -- in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan -- and I'm surrounded by reminders (Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines) of spirits abounding in trees (hello, Totoro), rivers, mountains, seeds, roots, clouds, and skies.
"Slaves?" Buddhism teaches how we may become prey to our own passions. But then again, too, it affords us New Year's Eve, when by just attending the ringing of 108 temple bells at midnight, in "Joya no Kane," all past year's sins get annulled, forgiven.
My point still stands; the goal of Christian Fundamental Nationalism is to subjugate you, to force you into obedience. Therefore your only future is as slaves. The fact that you live in a Buddhist "paradise" is neither here nor there. Buddhism is a philosophy of life and not a religion.
Therefore you have reinforced my point and not destroyed it. And you should resent all sky fairies. Not one Christian on the face of this planet could tell you when nor where the gospels were written, nor who wrote them except to mention, in passing, that they were written in scholarly, poetic Greek. In much the same way, no Judaic scholar could tell you when nor where nor by who any of the books of the Tanakh were written.
I’ve read many many books about the Holocaust since I was 11 and more recently have volunteered to resettle refugees from other wars. I’m sickened by the power-mad autocrats (and would-be autocrats) who gin up hatred based on religion and then use it to to incite and justify the wholesale killing and violence that puts them in power. I have shared my home with men who were tortured and maimed because they were of the “wrong” faith. The idea that the monsters running our government are following this playbook is the most horrifying event in my life. I see where it can go. And will go unless we can stop it.
Jefferson is an imperfect relative but I appreciate the best he did, especially on religion. Ethan Allen is another relative whom I appreciate for his book "Reason, The Only Oracle of Man; Or, A Compendius System of Natural Religion (much less well known, but to me another indicator of my closer ancestors' thoughts on differentiating church and government by free people).
The NH state motto is Live Free or Die. It is taken from a longer quote by Ethan Allen: "Live free or die, for there are evils worse than death". He was talking about tyranny, and the slavery that always results from it.
A distressing number of my fellow New Hampshireites are choosing slavery. Most, however, are choosing their freedom of conscious, and turning up to rallies and hearing about NH's version of Project 2025 in record numbers.
This is perhaps the most insightful LFAA I have read, and that is saying A LOT.
Not sure, Steve, of "tyranny, and the slavery that always results from it."
Can't we reverse that chronology? Say, instead, that it's always first slavery, as in schools long slave to testing, and then, after decades of that, pustule-arising the tyrant as we have now in criminal Donald and all his fellow corrupted?
Well, the Free Staters in NH just want to get rid of schools altogether (and did, briefly, in one town). No testing or reading or essays. And I say this as a homeschooling parent who values public schools as a foundation of our democracy. People ought to pay attention to what Free Staters are doing in NH, it’s pretty frightening (they’re deliberately moving to NH to put their policies in place).
I found it on Amazon and got the Kindle version while looking up info on an ancestor. It's also listed with other sources on Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37694. It was started as a collaborative project with Thomas Young when both were in Salisbury, but took forever to finally make it to print, amid great resistance in those super religious times (early copies burned).
To me it is just an indicator of some early roots of a fighter (starting 251 years ago in 1775), for religious freedom.
Their intent is real, listen to what they say and are doing. We The People will not obey and comply. Stand up and speak out for freedom and the principles our country was founded on. This is our awakening!
Would somebody please explain to me how a quote from the old Testament book Chronicles thought to be written between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE or between 600 and 200 years before Jesus the Christ lived forms the basis of "Christian" nationalism. Every single thing Christ is said to have said and done in those short years he lived is the opposite of Christian Nationalism. Does anybody understand this emphasis on the books of the Old Testament Hebrew bible to justify this ultra exclusionary and hate filled ideology?
Phil, here I recommend the essays by Mary Geddry and her daughter. Right now Mary is doing a series about how this is like feudalism with lords and serfs. Actually I would say it is like nearly every civilization we read about where the elite syphon off the wealth produced by the peasants.
Phil, for the first time since I've been reading HCR's Letters, I believe she has chosen the wrong word.
Replacing Americans’ civic identity with Christian nationalism . . . demands that Americans do as they are told, turning them into SLAVES, not subjects.
Perhaps terrified most of all of real faith. The screaming and strutting, primping and preening -- and that exhibitionist pontificating is a stage play designed to rid them of their own doubts. What they possess isn't faith at all, but a caricature 00 the Cowardly Lion playing with his tail, going "I DO believe in spooks, I DO believe in spooks, I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO believe in spooks!"
We want the pro-authoritarian movement to confess and they won’t. We, the people, don’t want to confess but we should. I think we can! I think we can!
Confess that calling Christian Nationalists “right-wing” evangelicals is a convenient falsehood. Yes … I agree they started out right of “moral” (enlightenment at top-dead center), and they did keep going right until they got to the 3 o’clock position. But here’s a simple question I could answer as a child (when every clock was analog): What direction were they going between 3 o’clock and “immoral” (the dark side at bottom-dead center)? Think about it … or ask AI if you’ve never heard of the “analog clock” concept. Either way, you get the same answer as me. Left!!!
An “evangelical” promotes the Gospel message, the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A “neo-evangelical” behaves like an automaton. You can use AI to look that up too, but I’ll save you the bother: An “automaton” is a self-operating machine, robot, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a predetermined sequence of instructions. “Neo-evangelical” describes a person who behaves or responds in a monotonous, mechanical, or thoughtless way.
So, the pro-democracy movement can keep employing the false but convenient (in the short term) “circular firing squad” strategy (virtue signaling by referring to Christian Nationalist adherents as right-wing evangelicals), or start employing the true but inconvenient (in the short-term) “moral” strategy (implying intolerance for immoral behavior on a global scale but acting first with the “as local as possible” person in the mirror).
I employ a common term when I refer to the above “inconvenient but true” strategy. I refer to it as a “virtuous cycle.” Call it what you want. Just don’t call it late for November.
I have been reading and writing all morning. But your comment was the first to make me smile. "How to guide!" Indeed.
We keep trying to reason with folks like this as if only they would or could see the error of their ways. But they don't CARE! The WANT to dominate. They WANT to deprive women of their rights. They WANT to hurt anyone who disagrees with their perverted and antiquated views.
The Handmaid's Tale and Project 2025 go together like "horse and carriage". Modern guides to turning back the clock of human history.
God help us ALL! I NEVER want to go back to the way things were for women when I was young! I was able to become a professional and earn enough to care for myself comfortably without depending on a man for my support. Without women (or Blacks, or Muslims, or Latinos, etc.) we lose the many benefits of their unique contributions and society as a whole suffers. We must continue FORWARD, no matter the costs! It’s humanity’s only hope!
Maybe there never was one true religion; man has made god not the other way around, hence man can uncreate him too or is it that once created it becomes impossible to destroy a god? Reason, principles, conscience should be our guiding forces, not superstition. Christianity is a life choice not a doctrine.
Good morning, Stephanie. Christianity comes from an experience of the power of ultimate love: dying for others. It's the way of the cross. Folks who adhere to wCN (to use Georgia's term – thank you, Georgia) want a triumphant God rather than a dying one. They want to force people to accept a way of life that is not based on compassion and mercy but on their brand of righteousness which is harsh, uncompromising, and ignorant. It has no poetry in it. No room for questions. wCN is the enemy of what is truly life-giving.
I think a conversion to a fundamentalist Christian nation, proposed by Voght et al, can only lead to manipulation not collaboration, and will result in a profound shift in how we should live our lives, as well as it becoming an inflection point in our social structure. I foresee unintended harms and consequences. Many Christians believe that their faith imparts virtue, love and forgiveness, yet those who think they are transformed by Christ's love are even deeply intolerant of others and criticism. (Imagine if our govt. actually believed that the world was about to end - this would be an intellectual emergency!) Some of this hate is supported by the Bible. (Some religions enable violence - like flying airplanes into buildings.) In addition, mixing religion and politics serves hypocrites and pretenders to religion and zealots who damage true faith and piety. Perhaps in turbulent times that are being experienced by much of the world leads people to turn to a book or a creed to resolve their moral questions.
As you said, " Reason, principles, conscience should be our guiding forces, not superstition. Christianity is a life choice not a doctrine."
It took me about 70 years to discover my multi-great uncle's book on Reason titled:
"Reason, the Only Oracle of Man; Or, A Compendius System of Natural Religion."
It seems Dr. Thomas Young and Ethan Allen collaborated on the book sometime between 1758 and 1764 when Thomas moved away, taking the manuscript with him. Dr. Young had insisted Ethan Allen inoculate him against smallpox that year when it was still illegal and, I suppose, probably moved to avoid legal consequences. Ethan Allen later got the manuscript back, added changes, etc and finally seems to have gotten it published in 1785.
I'm just starting to learn more of the good Dr. Thomas Young (no relation), finding out he became John Adams personal physician in 1765 and according to Wikipedia:
"...Young is considered to be one of the active organizers of the Boston Tea Party although he himself did not actually participate in the destruction of the tea chests. At the time he was addressing a crowd at the Old South Meeting House on the negative health effects of tea drinking. According to the Boston Tea Party Museum, this was probably a diversion intended to help the Tea Party organizers by keeping the crowd in the Meeting House while the tea was being destroyed..."
Genuine faith considers the possibility that one's own view is incomplete or faulty. Yet we must act on the best understandings we can muster. Genuine faith can endure, even embrace the doubts of others. It comes by its cautious confidence honestly.
Trump is spewing the message that God anointed him and that he, along with Johnson and Hegseth, are determined to destroy our multicultural democracy and replace it with a white Christian Nationalist (wCN) society.
I am a Christian; what Johnson and Hegseth are spouting is not Christ’s teachings. There is no care for one’s neighbor, or the poor, or the sick, or the imprisoned, or for the stranger. Christ accepted those rejected by his society: the tax collector, the prostitute, and the Samaritan woman. These wCN people do not care for others as they do themselves, but instead want to “otherize” others so they can feel they are better than some group, assuaging their grievance mentality. Christ accepted diversity and accepted all people as equal creations in the image of God.
Christ never wanted to rule over an earthly kingdom. The white Christian Nationalists want to rule over the rest of us, and take away our rights and freedoms, especially our freedom of conscience. They want to be able to restrict the books we can read, what our children are taught, the people we can love, the manner we choose to relate to God in our faiths, or whether we believe in God at all.
They are rewriting our history every day to ignore our sins as a nation of slavers and racists, and are now taking us back to Jim Crow 2.0 thanks to SCOTUS. Sunday’s event was not a “renewal”. It was not reminding us of the founding principles of our nation. In fact, it was desecrating them.
I was raised in the Catholic faith. It taught me some good values. I must have been sick or missed the Sunday School classes that would have taught me that Jesus wanted me to traumatize my fellow citizens, forget those who are less fortunate than me... I'm sure Jesus was looking down on that event in DC and saying to himself, WTF, over !!!!
Georgia, I am with you there. This Christian Nationalist posturing is nothing like what I believe, and I have much more respect for Pope Leo than I do for Donald Trump and his Christian Nationalist, techbro, and oligarch backers. The Christian Nationalists distort religion into a political tool.
Paula White-Cain is Trump’s “spiritual advisor.” She has been appointed a Senior Advisor of the newly created White House Faith Office and is described in official communications as a Special Government Employee attached to that office.
This is from her website. There is a lot about her humanitarian efforts , and about prayer and belief in the trinity. But then there is this under the beliefs tab:
Spiritual Warfare
We believe that spiritual warfare is real, and every believer is called to stand in victory through the authority of Jesus Christ. We don’t fight for victory—we fight from victory. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, NKJV). Spiritual warfare is how we silence the enemy and enforce the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.
So who gets to declare who is the enemy? Who will be silenced? Who will be the enforcers? These people are religious zealots.
And here is the meat of the executive order from February 2025 establishing the White House Faith Office.
Sec. 4. White House Faith Office Functions. (a) To the extent permitted by law, the Office shall:
from time to time, consult with and seek information from experts and various faith and community leaders identified by the White House Faith Office and other EOP components, including those from outside the Federal Government and those from State, local, and Tribal governments. These experts and leaders shall be identified based on their expertise in a broad range of areas in which faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship operate, including protecting women and children; strengthening marriage and family; promoting foster care and adoption programs in partnership with faith-based entities; providing wholesome and effective education; preventing and reducing crime and facilitating prisoner reentry; promoting recovery from substance use disorder; and fostering flourishing minds;
make recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, regarding changes to policies, programs, and practices, and aspects of my Administration's policy agenda, that affect the ability of faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship to serve families and communities;
convene meetings with representatives from the Centers for Faith and other representatives from across agencies as appropriate;
advise on the implementation throughout the Federal Government of those aspects of my Administration's policy agenda aimed at enabling faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship to better serve families and communities;
showcase innovative initiatives by faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship that serve and strengthen individuals, families, and communities throughout the United States;
coordinate with all agencies to implement training and education throughout the country for faith-based entity grantees to build their capacity to procure grants;
support agencies in developing and implementing training and education regarding religious liberty exceptions, accommodations, or exemptions;
consult with public and private businesses regarding their policies for employee volunteerism, charitable giving, and payroll deductions;
coordinate with agencies on identifying and promoting grant opportunities for non- profit faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship, especially those inexperienced with public funding but that operate effective programs;
work in collaboration with the Attorney General, or a designee of the Attorney General, to identify concerns raised by faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship about any failures of the executive branch to enforce constitutional and Federal statutory protections for religious liberty; and
identify and propose means to reduce burdens on the free exercise of religion, including legislative, regulatory, and other barriers to the full and active participation of faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship in government- funded or government-conducted activities and programs.
I highlighted some of the language in the EO that I find troubling, in that it sets up mechanisms to funnel money to faith-based organizations instead of through government programs that would benefit all Americans regardless of their faith. Who would select the faith-based programs that get funded? What are the selection criteria?
Well said. I had no idea what was going on in Washington yesterday. These so called Christians, though, who attended have been trying to take over our country for decades. They have no clue about the message of Christ— no clue. And to select trump as their so-called leader-a godless man—proves it. This is all too much to much for me to comprehend.
Thank you for this comment . It was given with wisdom and the knowledge and understanding of genuine faith ie, love, hope, forgiveness, mercy and grace.
Yes when faith is a monomaniacal resistance to cross-examination. It is not religion per se, but it is the way that religion and patriotism, among other things are often packaged, and is a manipulative trick. It is the obstinate and often aggressive hubris of presuming one is right by denying, often aggressively, that certain notions can be wrong. THAT is the mental malware of cult thinking, that has resulted in mass suicide, genocide, torture, and other historical horrors. It ranges from assholian to purely evil, as self-serving ridged certainly (hubris) devoid of self-examination and compassion enables antisocial outrages. It punishes curiosity and diversity. Negates modesty. Demonizes empathy. Glorifies subjugation and self-aggrandizement.
Notably the "Greatest Commandment" attributed to Jesus prescribes love, not hate. Oddly, THAT is the commandment that right-wing "Christian fundamentalists" seem rarely if ever to mention. "Love thy neighbor"; and not the kind of "love we mean when we say "I 'love' chocolate"; but rather illustrated by the hypothetical kindness of a enemy Samaritan. Buddhists speak of "mindfulness", which is similar, pledging to reduce global suffering. Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama were playful fast friends.
Emerson said he considered it a miracle that he could move his arm, and that's the kind I believe in. I was a dyed in the wool science major even prior to kindergarten, though I also loved the arts. "Liberal Arts". I see the epistemological core of the scientific method as a commitment to intellectual integrity; and compassion the gateway to moral awareness; and that such commitments define a quality of self. Not that one is ever the epitome of these aspirations, but that such goals are sincerely and actively sought, accompanied by inevitable failures. I think this might be described as a "faith" but one open to question. Not faith that is "blind".
This Christian Nationalist bull pucky is not what I was taught in Sunday school.That Trump and his cult are trying to ram this faux “Christianity “ down my throat offends me deeply.Not to mention, I don’t think We the People should have to bankroll it.
I agree that the supremacist, brand of "Christianity" is anything but, and that has a long history. My sense is that the humble and caring themes of Christianity and other world religions have been filtered and warped by what those in positions of concentrated power, kings and the like, want to promote and are willing to tolerate. I suspect that is the real source of the really ugly side of what is branded "Christianity", such as genocide, racism, sexism, material greed, subjugation. It's what Tyrants do, is it not? More like those who drove the nails.
Anyway, it seems to me that in a civilized society, one remains accountable for one's antisocial choices even while claiming God is on one's side.
WCN's ability to completely ignore the Ten Commandments is the height of hypocrisy. And even worse, the WCN legislature in TX REQUIRES every classroom to display the Ten Commandments. Imagine class rooms of pre-schoolers with a big banner of which no one in the class can comprehend because a group of morons in Austin think it will somehow create a more perfect union?
What the Republicans are doing with impunity across the US and around the world is MURDER.
The Ten Commandments are a joke to WCN's, to be taken as seriously as the scene in The History of the World Part 1, where Moses breaks the tablet containing 11-15. Getting rid of 6-10 and leaving only 1-5 would make Trump seem much less hypocritical and the WCNs.
Ken Paxton for all his pious posturing is like a lot of these guys. His wife Angela called their marriage quits after he got let off on charges of unlicensed securities peddling by his buds in the Texas senate. In this case, Angela wanted out because Ken had at least two separate mistresses during their marriage. They never heard of the Beatitudes, and they break every one of the Ten Commandments.
This has been brewing off and on for a long time. The two great awakenings and the kkk. It’s a new iteration but under the control of people who use it all as a tool to implant their methodology . I had hoped that few would attend. Frank Schaefer and Jim Wallis usually are the voices who I listen in this regard. I haven’t heard from them. There was a rabbi and supposedly two priests. And what a great pity for all those caught up. The concepts of Philo the Great, Jesus, St Francis,even Harrison Ford’s great graduation speech are lost to them and they are so unaware of the global canon of great intellectual or spiritual thought. I am glad Dr Richardson brought up Tripoli. Obviously we have to do more but the government is not functioning . And the plans coming up are also sickening. Even the awful statue garden. They are not even aware or smart enough to use it as a gun catching operation. Give us your guns for the new statues. We have the highest rate of gun ownership in the world I think and less guns always a good. I doubt they even know of remember the gun buy backs programs and guns into art projects.
Instead of just letting this happen can folks do a shadow type of protest? I don’t know how to break this Gordian knot.
I can tell you that Jesus is not happy. His biggest pet peeve was hypocrisy--the egotistic self-righteous posing as people of faith to coverup their obvious vices. This was on public display on steroids....
wow. how about the people paying taxes that support invasion after invasion in the name of 'making the world safe for democracy', Sophia? what's that called?
I can't help feeling that a prime motivator for the people who promote that so-called Christian assembly and who run the government now with Trump is that Trump gives them a license to do whatever their most base urges tell them to do. MAGAs on social media and in person seem to me to experience overpowering up surges of violence and hatred driving them to unrestrained cruelty.
"Because they can..." the operating principle indeed. The shmuck-on-high gives the go-ahead -- the pale, white nasty things then crawl out of the woodwork.
Just starting on Timothy Snyder's 'On Freedom' - highly recommending it for great clarifications and stories on the meaning of freedom as a positive not a negative
When you are done with that Robin get ahold of “Bloodlands” and brace yourself, it was the most difficult emotionally thing I have ever read, but it lays out clearly the foundation for why our world is so messed up. It all started with mass murder perpetrated by a government that we eventually allayed with to defeat one of it’s erstwhile allays.
Another interesting fact is that 36% of the supposed innocent pardoned J6 insurectionists are back in jail, hopefully jailed by state courts so they can't be pardoned again.
We all should be TERRIFIED and very careful of Peter Thiel's cabal as their true intent is to restructure Western Civilization.
The Myth of Control: remember what happened to Saruman at Orthanc when he used the Palantir to spy on Sauron’s enemies. As Tolkien taught us so well, The Lesson of Saruman is that while populous leaders may use religious platforms (Project2025&Freedom250) to project strength or spread their message, the algorithms and echo chambers they foster inherently consume them.
Both Saruman and Felon47 view themselves as the smartest wizards in the room, and both mistakenly believe they can control the flow of information without being influenced by it.
Instead, Sauron The Devil, controls what Saruman is shown, using the Palantir to gradually corrupt, isolate, and dominate Saruman's mind.
Questioning without "thinking for yourself" becomes mere cynicism though. And that's what happened in society as a whole, during the decades before this neofascist power grab.
And yes, for citizens to learn how to think for yourself, access to high quality education and journalism are necessary.
The demise of the legacy media (whose "questioning" of politicians is mostly sheer cynicism, devoid of any REAL thinking on the part of the journalist (how many of them merely threw Trump tweets at Kamala Harris, in 2024, instead of coming up with their own questions based on the study of the complicated issues the US faces in the 21st century?) made it impossible for all those who don't have access to a good education to learn how to think for themselves.
And for decades already, the GOP made sure that only a minority of wealthiest have access to education, while the left lost itself in "wokism" (an ideology designed to facilitate social change but that violently imposed itself through various forms of "cancelling").
So now we have a minority that wants to use the government to cancel everything this is not Old Testament fundamentalism.
They're also big on guns. Which reminds me of a Mao Zedong line much quoted by Mao sympathizers in my younger days: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Funny how these "Christian nationalists" seem to have a few things in common with Mao. Then there's Trump's determination to put his name and image before us wherever we turn. Didn't Mao do something like that? To be fair, so did Hitler and Stalin. Great company our president is in!
What is amusing to me is that Trump is so religious, he was off playing golf on the taxpayer's dime when this extravaganza was happening on the taxpayer's dime.
As an Eagle Scout and an American, I was appalled when Trump spoke to the Boy Scout Jamboree in 2017. The Boy Scout law that is drilled into us charges Boy Scouts to be -
"Now we know why and when Rex Tillerson called Donald Trump a “fucking moron.”
According to NBC News, the secretary of state muttered the remark to colleagues on July 20 right after a meeting in the Pentagon—a review of U.S. military forces and operations worldwide—attended by Trump, his main advisers, and the top brass.
At one point in the meeting, a briefer showed the president a graph tracking the dramatic reduction in U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons over the past several decades. That reduction is widely interpreted as a success story about arms-control treaties, the end of the Cold War, and the declining dependence on weapons of catastrophic destruction. But Trump viewed it with alarm, telling the group that he wanted more nukes. Pointing to the graph’s peak year, 1969, when the U.S. had 32,000 nuclear weapons, Trump said he wanted that many nukes now."
And now Trump wants the US to build a fleet of battleships at $17 billion per, that cannot be built at any of the current ship building facilities in the world. He is getting major pushback from almost everyone in the Pentagon except, you guessed it, Pete Hogsbreath.
Pete knows he depends on Trump for his job, one he never would have attained if it were based on qualification. Without Trump Pete’s a washed up alcoholic who has failed at every job (and wife) he’s ever had. What a legacy at his (relatively young) age.
Maybe he believes promoting conservative Christianity gets him bonus points with The Almighty as an offset for all the sins he has committed and wrongs he has perpetrated. To him, everything is transactional - even religion.
… “The figures are striking. Trump has played golf on 106 of 482 days since returning to the WH in January 2025, representing 22% of his presidency. It appears that 19 of those days have occurred in 2026 alone - but that isn’t even the most concerning statistic. That honor goes to the estimated total expense of Trump’s golf trips since January 20, 2025, which currently stands at $148.4 million.”
Yes, but for far too many of them he flew AF1 to FL to play on his own course at extremely high cost to the American public in terms of the flights there and back, and the fuel used, the protection needed, the number of guards protecting him, food and drink costs for all the staff he takes with him and his retinue of Secret Service people, etc., etc.
Biden went to church on Sundays - Trump flies to Florida!
Hey Kathy, The Man does more press conferences in a week. Then Joe Biden did in the 2 1/2 years he was president. And he works 18 hour days.
And Joe Biden pissed away $170 billion of your taxpayer money in order to kill 200,000 innocent people how about that one and actually the cause of that was going back to the mid 90s when another president made a major fuck up to allow Russia to do what it’s doing but I don’t want to talk about facts with you because you haven’t a clue
Of the 18 hour day, Trump spends half of it asleep, a quarter of it ranting on truth social and the remaining quarter doing what someone else has told him to do.
And he’s accomplished more in a in a week then Biden did in the 2 1/2 years he was in office. And he’s given more press conferences in a week and then Biden did his entire term.
And for a man that works 18 hours a day, he sure should be entitled to play golf just like Obama did but when Obama, the God plays golf that doesn’t count and Obama did shit for this country on top of that just divided the country in half or actually in thirds and forced socialized medicine down our throat, but it didn’t work did it ooooops
It doesn’t amuse me. The man is a disgusting hypocrite. The whole thing disgusts me. How many agnostics, Jews, Muslims are in our nation? They are being cast aside and unrepresented by this group of “Christians “. It’s enough to make you wish you could protest by not paying your taxes, but that would hurt the nation and everyone. But our hard earned money shouldn’t bankroll illegal wars and purloining funds for illegal gatherings like this one.
When trump lived in Manhattan, he was a member of the Marble Collegiate Church, where Norman Vincent Peale preached the Prosperity Gospel. But I read that one of the ministers there said they hadn't actually seen Trump there for services in years!
~47% of American don't pay taxes. The top 10% of earners pay 70% of taxes. The top 1% pay 40% of taxes. So most "taxpayers dimes" are paid by the people most hated by commenters here. Odd huh? Irony anyone?
I’ve been posting this stuff for a year and a half that I’ve been on here but they don’t want to pay attention. All they talk about is tax the rich and then you have half twitch like AOC you can’t make $1 billion you can’t earn $1 billion. Yeah tell that to Henry Ford and H.J. Heinz and Walt Disney and Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
Mr. Kaufman or Miss Kaufman I put it a little a little different way. The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay 3% of the taxes. It’s unbelievable. And the ignorance about this is astounding so thank you very much for your post.
The reason that they pay so little of the overall tax pot is because they earn so little. The top 10% of earners pay so much in tax because they earn orders of magnitude more than the bottom 50%.
You had a chance in America after the end of WWII when an ordinary man could get a job, probably for life, and get married, buy a house, have children and run a car on the wages from that one job. And now you've screwed that particular pooch
Do you know how many rounds Obama played and he couldn’t play with his shit?
In fact, he couldn’t do a damn thing right, including forcing or trying to force socialize medicine down your throat and including allowing Russia and Putin to take over Crimea what a success
Socialised medicine? You couldn't recognise socialised medicine if it fell on you from a great height.
In the UK we have the NHS, and if anyone, Nigel Farage included, tried to take it away from us, we would rip him limb from limb. It may have problems, mostly because of small-minded Tories just like you, but it's good enough that we can look over to you in America and pity you for having to live in a Third-world Shithole.
Agreed. We have a president where everything he does is grossly offensive, bar nothing that I can think of.
I am currently living in a city that is 1200 years old, and most people here do not want to go back to the past but move forward with things like better environmental protections. More solar, more wind, more renewable energy. It is such a shame that the US is not doing that. Looking at what the country could be in 250 years. Cleaner, more inclusive, instead of dirtier and all Christian, male dominated and White.
Note: Berlin is very very "White." And because of weather conditions, much of the US cannot support solar and wind. Germany gets about 45% from it because they have no reliable sources of fossil fuels and no nuclear. It is not necessarily a policy of virtue, it's a policy of necessity there.
We could support solar and wind in the U.S. if we committed to it. We're a huge country. China is, too, and they're waaaay ahead of us. We loves us our coal and oil!
I don't live in Berlin, just like I don't live in the North Shore of Chicago which is also very White. The city I live in in Germany has a lot of Brown skinned people. So, when I go out I always see other people with brown skin. That is at the bus stop, on the bus, sometimes the driver, in the businesses we go to. More and more. Not always in high skills, but sometimes. Our next door neighbor on one side is from China. She got her graduate degree in architecture in Berlin, and then worked in Munich and now lives in our city. Our city also has a lot of Asians, but maybe not as much as some other cities I go to regularly. On my street, which runs about 2-3 blocks length there are lots of other people with brown skin, of all ages. The school nearby has children with all shades of skin. In fact in Der Spiegel they were talking about how schools can be inclusive with religions. Same issues we have in the US.
Germany could have nuclear, and it is a policy of virtue even if the intentions are not virtuous to get off of fossil fuels. Necessity could be filled in many ways, this country is going the way of renewables.
What nonsense. The USA has vast areas which are suitable for solar and wind power - including offshore. Your continued self-declared reliance on fossil fuels will be your country’s demise. China is making hay while your sun shines.
I have to go poop after reading this. That’s all I have to say or I will get into trouble. And I’m still committed to being the first to poop on the resting place of one Donald John Trump. The line begins here. Take a number, please. No pun intended.
They will never dare publish the exact location of Trump's grave. It would instantly become the most popular public convenience in the World. People would come from the four corners of the Earth to piss on Trump's grave.
It would become like Ed Gein's grave. Or some such similar dead person, whose gravestone is routinely vandalized. Reminds me of the scene from "The Shipping News" when Judy Dench travels all the way with intent purpose of stealing her dead half-brother's cremains. Dead half-brother raped her as a young girl, causing a pregnancy, etc. She brought the ashes back with her to their native land of Newfoundland, back to the family' out house, poured them in the hole, and promptly peed on them, saying, "Welcome back, Guy".
His children will bury him on one of his golf courses so they can get a tax write off demonstrating that he has taught well the rules of the family business
He will probably be in some garish "gold" mausoleum with "gold" gee-gaws everywhere and recordings of him reminding people that he is the greatest president ever! The BIGGEST mausoleum! The BEST mausoleum! Nobody's ever seen anything like it!
I am constantly amazed that there are so many that think it acceptable to force OTHERS to live as THEY believe. It is even more incredible that their belief is in a supernational being that cannot be sensed, measured, or in any way proven to exist. BUT *they* somehow know what *he* wants and we must all live accordingly. Sometimes I really don't think that humans deserve to survive, which is good because I very much doubt that we will!
Not at the rate we're going. I often attend a progressive church where we live in Canada, but my motivations are personal... I like the community I find there (but not only there!), and I appreciate the quiet contemplation I receive, and try to carry into the week ahead. I am not a believer in evangelism, and I know the difference between belief and fact. Some might say I'm not a Christian at all, and perhaps they're right; as the saying goes, I "take what I need and leave the rest."
My comment is not a knock to all those who believe because the truth is: I don't know if there is a 'higher power' or what happens after we die! I just find it galling that others, who also do NOT know, are trying to pretend like they do and forcing all of us to live accordingly.
So appreciate your post, Dana, and wish religious people of whatever stripe would simply be thankful for their lives, and otherwise shut up about them.
Stephen Hawking warned that humanity could face extinction due to factors like uncontrolled population growth, climate change, and the rise of artificial intelligence. He predicted that if these issues are not addressed, the Earth could become uninhabitable by the year 2600.
There have been stories recently about Paul Erlich and his book in the 1970's predicting uncontrolled expanding population. But in the US and some other countries, now we have too low birthrates. Maybe other countries will have large increases.
The flow of immigrants from the South (in Europe and America) are not only controlled by push factors, they are also affected by pull factors such as low birth rates in the North. And why are birth rates low - could it be affordability issues? And could those affordability issues have something to do with the increasing differentials between the lowest and highest earnings even within the same Companies?
You should read about what is happening to AMOC (the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current) When that goes, the World-wide current system could descend into utter chaos. In Europe we are worried about a 3°C - 10°C annual temperature drop. I'm not sure that anyone has made predictions about the rest of the World, but stand on me, it ain't going to be comfortable anywhere.
Dana, I was too, right after I moved to the south. But a friend told me their preachers had taught them THEIR everlasting souls depended on “saving” others.
How convenient for them! Evangelicals got away from the 'doing good works' (which is HARD WORK and requires self-sacrifice) model to the 'you only have to believe Jesus is your Lord and Savior' one. Their version of 'saving souls' just amasses more money and power to themselves.
This was presaged by court capture operative and Knight of Malta Leonard Leo who - like his Fed Soc SC 'originalists' - uses the judiciary as a ouija board game where the hand of Founders long dead always points to novel right wing extremist assertions - such as that there is no constitutional basis for the separation of church and state.
And then AG Bill Barr, who went one further to declare the Founders intended constitutional rights and protections only for the godly.
Leonard Leo's acceptance speech at the 2017 Canterbury Medal Gala - Becket
Liberal Christian group files ethics complaint against Attorney General Barr | National Catholic Reporter
Officials at Faithful America interpreted Barr's speech as disproportionately focused on Christianity. After Barr's remarks, an online petition launched by the group to "investigate William Barr's toxic Christian nationalism" accrued signatures from almost 14,000 people.
You would know a deep dive in if you saw one, Mr. Brianne every liberal here that I’ve seen does nothing but dermatology work they scratch the surface of an issue and then hump on it like a dog in heat instead of checking it verifying it validating it…
Sometimes Lynn, I wonder if you’re actually a mummy because the only thing you talk about is antiquity and it’s gonna be very hard for you to catch up thousands of years to catch up to today but I wish you luck
As an atheist, I don't believe that Jesus was the son of God any more than I believe that he was immaculately conceived. However, having said that, if they ever get to meet Jesus or his heavenly father, **I would not want to be them!!!**
Actually, I recall reading that several of the prime thinkers behind both the Declaration and the Constitution — Jefferson among them — may not have considered themselves solely Christian or Christian at all. Many called themselves adherants of a school of religious practice like —- but not
identical to — today’s Congregationalists or Unjtarians.
As for Sunday’s
expletive-deleted show, if you can remember with fondness shows like Father Knows Best , Donna Reed, Leave It to Beaver and My Three Sons,TrumpWorld!
At least some of the founders appear to have been deists who believed that God had created the world but that we were now on our own. Jefferson assembled his own Bible from which he excised what he considered to be myth.
Completely -- June in her apron, Ward coming home from work .... the kids being rascals and then learning an 'important lesson' at the end of the show.
Try to catch up to current reality shall we. There’s been a revival here without any political interference of the young, getting back to religion. Because the schools that the liberals create and control are teaching them more about their genitalia than they are about succeeding in life in the basics, like math or science or a vocational trade or God forbid free choice of schools.
''Rededicate 250: The National Mall as Circus of Faith and Commerce''
Today America showcased its full transformation into a nation united by golf, ancient scripture, and Shriner-style racing cars barreling past the Lincoln Memorial like armored chariots. The Rededication Jubilee, funded by your tax dollars, treated the National Mall as a stage for a holy carnival, proclaiming that the real founders of the United States were obviously the guys who prefer powdered donuts over the Constitution and think religious broadcasts double as history lessons.
The crowd cheered as spiritual leaders instructed that joy comes from unquestioning obedience, not messy concepts like “rights” or “checks and balances.” Confetti cannons erupted, neon flags waved, and a raccoon mascot—or perhaps a ghost of Madison—danced atop a platform adorned with corporate logos. Jefferson and Madison were nowhere to be seen, reportedly busy coaching flag football instead of shaping the republic. One organizer, eyes glittering, announced the new national motto: “pray hard and obey harder,” which explained nothing but sounded glorious over gospel karaoke.
Meanwhile, corporate sponsors traded prayer points for tax breaks, and an IndyCar driver mistook the Reflecting Pool for a racetrack. Schoolchildren on field trips were taught that history is a prop, a background for selfies, and that Instagram filters are more important than facts. No one knows who actually founded America, but the crowd nodded sagely, certain it must have been someone with perfect lighting, a sparkling smile, and impeccable timing. God bless America, and God bless our ability to convert civic ritual into a televised, grotesque, holy circus where spectacle triumphs over substance.
For all practical purposes, the Christo Nazis who gathered on the National Mall were worshiping and pledging their allegiance to the Egomaniac-in-Chief who promised to Make America White Again.
I disagree. The event shows that in a country as bountiful as America there should always remain a place for the most stupid people in the country where, in lieu of affordable homes, social care, living wages and decent jobs they can nevertheless celebrate in the company of their peers. If it keeps them away from the Capitol building then I'm all for it.
This event was orchestrated by the government and paid for with government funds.
The Constitution protects people's rights to their beliefs - in the pew and in the polling place. It prohibits government from promoting religion and from promoting one religion over another - as is happening with the Republican party privileging Christianity. Republicans in all branches of government are privileging not only religious creed over civic law and individual beliefs over shared civil rights, they are privileging irrational habits of mind over coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence
lin, surely you know “government” funds really belong to Trump. As does everything else, like the WH, the reflecting pool (which he thinks is like a shallow swimming pool), etc, etc.
I do not know how Dr Richardson does it, day after day. WOWerful essay; yet another 'one of the best' I have encountered.💡
This essay is a master-stroke. I wish every concerned citizen of our betrayed allies around the world would read this magnificent, passionate piece. Our neglected friends would realize that we need their help and support to rally us.🤞🏼
WHAT WE DO NOT NEED is our allies enabling a blood-drunk authoritarian. Team Treason in the 0val 0ffice has to twist in the wind. Why is it so hard to call a traitor a traitor?😠
A complete and utter falsification of both Christianity and American history. A trashy farce on a stale MAGA saltine cracker.
In Jesus' words, a spectacle filled with "whitewashed sepulchers, which outwardly appear brilliant, yet truly...are filled with...filth" (Matthew: 23-27).
By their fruits you will know them. Mixing statecraft with religion corrupts both. We don't divine guilt or innocence in a courtroom; ideally we prove (or fail to prove) fault. Proof legitimizes decisions of governance. Personal religious convictions may influence the way we vote, but the state has no business promoting religious doctrine. Not and preserve freedom and justice for all.
Once again, and in perpetuity these people who revel in what they believe to be a deep “ Christian” faith is based on cherry-picking a few sentences or paragraphs from the Old Testament. The context was that god was talking to Solomon, an Israelite, forerunner of the Jewish religion. There WAS NO Christianity at that time in biblical history. The founder of what these people think they own and represent did not come along for a couple of centuries, and according to their bible refuted quite a lot of what the Old Testament required of “god’s people”
What can be said of people who would follow charlatan’s like Jim Jones to the murder of their children and their own deaths because they were told that this was “god’s will”. These modern day evangelicals are just as insane as those who drank the kool aid in the jungle.
And you demonstrate your ignorance all over again every time you post unfathomable you’re actually quite ballsy embarrassing yourself time after time and keep doing it.
So according to professor Richardson, we need to replace Christian nationalism, (not so different from nazism ) with our civic identity. That will rely heavily on society’s understanding of how civics in a democracy works. Americans didn’t seem to learn from history as our counterparts in Europe have.
We will need to revise and reinvent the eduction system so everyone learns from lessons of the past and how people with differing values can thrive together. Germany has had to come to grips regarding the atrocities from the Second World War. Americans need to begin to address slavery in the same way as we cannot move forward without addressing our original sins.
Mike, your stark analogy between Germans under Hitler and Americans under Trump is the ultimate analogy of all people’s ultimate challenge to overcome hate with love.
And, Mike, your recommendation we come to grips with our history of slavery as Germany has done with its history of Naziism is an excellent comparison I never thought of.
Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson speaks to this comparison, highly recommend it. The obvious difference between Nazis in WW2 and American slavery is how the US never actually accounted but Germany did.
And, only recently have we taken down “most” of the Lost Cause statues - Germany eliminated all the Nazi statues, etc.in addition to its acknowledgement of guilt and education of its youth about the truth. Speaks volumes about the difference between the 2 countries’ beliefs! Americans have not yet acknowledged guilt or demonstrated remorse for its atrocities!
If it bleeds it leads? If only a few thousand people showed up for this, what does that say about the WCN movement? And these so-called faith leaders, do they have a real following?
And yet it seemed to me that the Washington Post gave it more prominent coverage than it did the No Kings marches that engaged millions of people around the country.
Professor Richardson -- Thank you for pointing out this blatant misuse of public funds to promote an event based on Christian nationalism. What is happening in America? It's truly crazy. As you eloquently pointed out, the intentions of America's founders have been the opposite of obedience. It's well past time to object to this outrageous behavior and misappropriation of taxpayer dollars.
Our underlying social contract expects obedience to the law, framed with the collective consent of the governed and with certain individual rights guaranteed. "A government of laws, not of men".
"Rededicate 250" was not an appropriate use of public funding. The event promoted an explicitly Christian religious message through government-supported infrastructure, official participation, and taxpayer-backed resources. This potentially violated the Establishment Clause's prohibition against government endorsement of religion. Unlike broadly inclusive ceremonial observances, the event's calls to "rededicate" America under God, combined with predominantly evangelical programming, created the appearance that the state favored a particular religious viewpoint. The event did not serve a secular public purpose.
Donald Trump and his anti- American, elitist agenda, lavishing wealth and power onto the already rich and powerful disparaging the poor as parasites on the system is running out of steam.
Trump knows it. The GOP knows it. Do MAGA zealots know it yet? We'll see.
However, we can be sure of two things coming our way.
1. BIG TIME RACISIM. Black, brown and Asian citizens will be discredited as non-American 2nd class citizens, not worthy of the vote.
2. TRUE RELIGION. White Christians will be exalted while all others religions and ethnic groups will be demeaned and considered not of the one, true American faith.
The MAGA propaganda bullhorn will be blasting away in overdrive trying to convince working Americans to vote against their own interest. Give up healthcare, education and a host of social services.
Trump will be lying his head off trying to convince Americans not to believe their eyes or their bank accounts.
Let's be prepared for the onslaught. Worry Less. Fight Back More. We will WIN in Nov. and then again in 2028.
Listen to Robert DeNiro with Nicolle Wallace and DO SOMETHING—or, as the French said in 1942: “Faire quelque chose”. Some did and helped make Normandy possible.
And these CNs and evangelicals actually think Trump believes as they do. Or maybe they do know he doesn’t but don’t care since he gives them a political platform, which they’ve long craved.
as I've suggested before, there needs to be a digital billboard showing the wasted taxpayers dollars daily and one for trump's grift ,his golfing ( in trump 1.0 vs 2.0). Put it in prominent locations, Time Square, Vegas, Disneyland, etc. The people need to see it daily
Between SCOTUS and Trump, the First Amendment has been so thoroughly violated and shredded in the name of a version of”Christianity” that neither god or Jesus would recognize. Can we call this what it is: mass insanity?
The closing session of the Santa Fe Literary Festival was tonight. The featured speaker was Judy Blume. When asked what she is reading these days, she immediately said “Heather Cox Richardson”. The crowd cheered. Thought you’d like to know…
But it was a LITERARY festival, so people who don't love to read or don't read at all or are opposed to reading or ban books would not be in attendance. It's like preaching to the choir. So, how do we grow the choir?
This is exactly why Christian nationalism is so dangerous. It replaces citizenship with obedience.
The founders absolutely understood the difference between freedom of religion and state-sponsored religion because once political leaders begin claiming divine authority, dissent itself becomes framed as disobedience — not just to government, but to god.
And that has never been the story of democracy. Democracy requires questioning power, not worshipping it.
(1) Nikolas Bowie, the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Daphna Renan, the Peter B. Munroe and Mary J. Munroe Professor of Law at Harvard Law School wrote a seminal opinion article in the NYT on 5/3/2026. “NYTimes.com: Who Will Stand Up to the Supreme Court Justices”. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/opinion/supreme-court-voting-rights-act.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jVA.xTcm.K2_NcKslsW_H&smid=em-share. They discuss the Supreme Court’s decisions from Dred Scott vs Sandford to post Civil War Reconstruction were the Congress changed the size of the court and passed laws and Reconstruction ammendments they thought would guarantee civil rights. But when Congress lost interest the court defined a very narrow interpretation of the amendments which then enabled Jim Crow. But according to the U.S. Constitution Congress has supremacy over the SCOTUS and reestablished this with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 creating the Second Reconstruction. The current SCOTUS has invalidated it but the fight is not over. The Constitution still gives Congress the power over the SCOTUS. And it is up to Congress to now use this power to regulate a rogue Supreme Court.
(2) Lisa Graves, J.D., preeminent legal expert on SCOTUS interviews David Daley, author, journalist, senior fellow at FairVote and author of “Antidemocracy: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections” on LegalAF: “SCOTUS Supremacy EXPOSED as Rulings BACKFIRE!!! - YouTube”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asacY8WTgH0
(3) Dr.Henry D Abraham, M.D., an American psychiatrist, Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient (nuclear arms limitation work), prior faculty member in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Tufts New England Medical Center was interviewed by Anthony Davis on Meidas Touch: “LIVE: Expert BREAKS SILENCE on Trump NUCLEAR THREAT | The Weekend Show - YouTube”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6KyGXgleP0. A expert analysis of Trump’s cognitive state and medical concerns.They discussed a variety of topics including Trump’s mental status, diagnosis, cognitive decline and that Trump is unfit for office and an enormous risk because he has the power to use the nuclear codes.
36 physicians (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) wrote an open letter: “Medical Concerns about President Donald J. Trump and His Fitness for Office” that was entered into the Congressional Record 4/30/2026 by Senators Whitehouse and Reed. You can see it with Google as a pdf at ippnw.org or the Congressional Record.
Thank you. Senators Whitehouse and Reed are Democrats, both from Rhode Island, the Roman Catholic “settlement” part of the Constitution. In a world of ironies, yet another.
Dr John Gartner says the same thing. My frustration is Congress.does.not.care. Period. So who (or what) is or can do anything? We just keep being more and more frightened.
Utter cult-like behavior. These people will not prevail, and they can go back to whatever form of relationship with God they prefer. But we will hold to our values, the values the country was created for as so well summarized in the various quotes of HCR's post. It is hard, it will take perserverance, calm, time (and a zillion other resources). I do want to sometimes turn away, but I WON'T do that. We must carry on energized, and committed.
The easy way to shackle them is for Congress to remove their tax-exempt status. Too many of these RW MAGA pastors seem to be just grifters in it for the money.
It still baffles me how after 2,000 years they're still 'practising'? Trump seems to have got the knack of it with minimal effort and without even having to attend regular church services or read the bible.
I doubt that America is a mostly Christian nation. One cannot count almost all the conservative evangelical churches, especially the mega-ones, as being Christian, notwithstanding that the claim to be so. If, for example, Franklin Graham is a Christian, I'm a money's uncle!
Phil W, I think we're getting into the realm of semantics or nuance here, but the U.S. is NOT a "Christian nation." To use that phrase connotes that the U.S. has adopted an official religion, which it has not.
If we further parse your statement, we can agree that a majority (62%) of U.S. residents identify as "Christian."
Even that percentage must be further unpacked. A distinct minority (24%) of U.S. residents who identify as "Christian" are actually practicing Christians. Some claim this identity because they were born to parents who were Christian. Others claim it because they believe in a deity they identify as God, but are not members of any particular religion. Still others claim the title because they are ashamed to say they are not at all religious. There are probably other reasons I haven't listed.
Beatrijs, I am one who thinks the embrace of "No Kings" as a marketing brand for resistance protest in the U.S. is a regrettable choice. Although it is "short and sweet" and easily rolls off the tongue, it doesn't really address the concerns we have about Donald's despotism.
A constitutional monarchy is not a bad thing. There are many past and present monarchs who have no or limited political power, while acting as an emblematic head of state where one is required, such as in international relations.
A taxpayer funded dedication historically binding the US and largely Protestant Christian religion in a celebration on the national mall while the President is off playing golf, pretty much sums up the administration’s whole approach to the last 250 years. The real celebrations will be the birthday cage fight for the President and the huge Trump constructions. Destroy what was accomplished and put the President’s name everywhere. Religious freedom was the hallmark of American settlement from the pilgrims breaking with the Church of England to Roger Williams fleeing the Puritans to Catholic Maryland to Quaker Pennsylvania to separation of church and state. Golfing during Christian nationalism is just right. Keep your eyes on the prize, contact your representatives, and vote Blue!
Jane, There are counter-programming plans for Sunday June 14, just as there was last year. (No Kings). Tune in to Indivisible's What's the Plan zoom call this Thursday when an announcement is expected: https://indivisible.org/events/whats-the-plan-with-leah-and-ezra/
MLM, I have no doubt this planned event is being called a "race" to promote it to the masses. If it takes place, it will be little more than a parade, with a few chosen drivers passing each other to create a bit of excitement.
Think of it as studio wrestling in Indy race cars.
Amen Heather, I belong to no religious doctrine, none satisfy my belief in spirituality, but I feel it and accept the quest for understanding. Standing out and looking at the stars at night, hearing the wind in the trees, experiencing Love, I know there is a riddle to contemplate. I have found a quiet place in Alaska to ponder these questions. We don't need to agree, only to listen.
At breakfast I told my wife that ithe new America says wives submit … I got the look. I truly think these people never read the founding documents, do not think for themselves and I would guess are the same people who do not have a passport and care less seeing or understanding the world.
I read somewhere that 25% of any population would want authoritarian rule...that is...they don't want to think..they just want to follow rules,live their life and believe they'll be looked after.
Education is the key. People need to understand the difference, and then they can decide if they are Pagan or Christian, or 4D Spacetime like me. For sure, we are a nation of people that are 98% the same DNA as the chimpanzees - they can be a nasty bunch!
Trump needed something to put the spotlight on himself to distract us, because
tomorrow Putin will visit China following Trump’s trip
“Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to ‘further strengthen the comprehensive partnership’, the Kremlin says.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to China from May 19 to 20, the Kremlin has announced.
Putin and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, plan to “further strengthen the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” between Moscow and Beijing, the Kremlin said in a statement.”~ Al Jazeera Staff and AFP
And the media plays into his hands by focussing on this crap and ignoring what really is important. So the media goes all in on ballrooms, reflecting pools etc because its easy and attracts eyes, rather than the more difficult issues that are also the more important. And if you want to avoid the news completely, there's heaps of reality TV shows.
I have no words for how much this tax payer funded event disgusts me. Just this: 🤢🤬🤢🤬🤢🤬
Interestingly, those screaming loudest about “freedom” seem terrified of education, dissent, history, science, libraries, journalists, universities and anyone capable of critical thought. Democracies survive through questioning power, not worshipping it.
Heather's aptly puts what happens if we turn democracy over to our assembly-liners:
"Replacing Americans’ civic identity with Christian nationalism . . . demands that Americans do as they are told, turning them into subjects."
"Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." -- Lincoln
Heather in hers today also paraphrased Lincoln, J L, she saying:
"If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights."
As long as schools taught humanities, and essay writing, American freedom of conscience got some exercise.
But what happened to schools when they abandoned the reading of whole books and the writing of essays? Answer: they opened themselves to rule by the testers, whose mission was that testers only ask all questions; the people, never any, none, at least not in any schools being trained but to acquiesce to all the corrupt tyrants.
I must stress this very hard - schools did NOT abandon those things without the pressure of the conservatives leading the way. The conservatives started this testing for accountability which teachers were never against but the conservatives used to discredit the system and demonize educators. This is all on the conservatives with their desire to stop funding public education and now they say "fund students and parents, not schools" and the voters buy it.
It's more complicated than that, unfortunately.
Already right after WWII, American philosophy departments invented "analytical philosophy", which basically rejects the entire history of philosophy. Philosophy, they claimed, had to become a "science", so by definition, everything written in the past is obsolete. In doing so, they also lost the method to study philosophy in the first place. With that, the most profound way of thinking was lost.
Then, by the 1990s, after bad translations of contemporary French philosophers (real ones, who never stopped studying the history of philosophy) reached the US, the left used it to invent an ideology that rejects the entire history of the humanities altogether (literature, art, etc.). With no proper method to read anymore, they reduced literature to personal opinions of authors who were representatives of their eras worst violence. The result was that everyone started writing books, books that inevitably were/are of extremely low quality.
Then, as Jonathan Haidt shows, in 2013 Facebook adds emojis to its posts, which dramatically increased the number of hours kids and adults spend on social media a day. That reduced their attention span and ability to engage in real, respectful debates (a crucial art in any democracy) tremendously.
Conclusion: this is as much the result of how the left approach education, since WWII, as it is the result of conservatives (very successful) attempts to keep education limited to the wealthiest and to keep wealth "hereditary".
Rebuilding a civic society worthy of democracy will take a long time, so we better start now, and we better start correcting all the errors we on the left made first.
Rickey, I just had an email round with an acquaintance of my husband who is embittered against public schools. I can understand why in some ways, but he rolled out every nasty thing about public school teachers that I heard for years like those who can't, teach, pensions, 10 month contracts, etc. When I did not roll over, he finally gave up. The problems we have are complicated and what we are seeing in Oregon are huge budge cuts. We are living in a time of chaos where as a society people have carte blanche to be their worst selves. Then we had the pandemic and all the problems that has caused. School board races have become expensive and people must pay attention or they will have a regressive board who do not understand anything about education except getting their agenda in the schools. I read this week that some school district is getting rid of the book Roots in their libraries. Sigh.
In the race to degrade public education don’t forget about the money to be made by the testing and textbook firms-it’s quite a market. There was also a top down bureaucracy created to “measure success” and punish those states, districts, schools, teachers, communities, and most of all students.
The “standards” often undermined opportunities for teaching and learning involving critical thinking, civics, experiential learning and more. Teachers became cogs in a wheel.
Education defined as empowerment is a key to our survival whether it’s formal
or informal especially for the times we’re in now. Each one, teach one. We can learn so much about the truth from history and each other.
Perhaps in Florida, Texas, Louisiana. And what that shows, most of all, is that conservatives in those states know the power of what HCR reminds us of--enlightenment--and will do everything they can to keep young people from it. But the heavy hand of Christian zealotry isn't what's taken away the reading of books or the writing of essays in this country. WE FACULTY are also to blame. It is so much easier to be bolster the egos of our students and to give them all A's. We could, with reason, and with the support of many many parents, raise the bar. But that would make our lives a bit harder--we'd have to defend against the few cranky parents and shitty administrators who want higher test scores. Educators have to hold the line, and we're not doing it.
Yes, Rickey.
We can't just blame the schools without seeing the massive, moneyed, far-right campaign against them, specifically ever since the Powell Memo of 1971.
That memo and the hatred of humanities from the far-right resulted in the creation of the Heritage Foundation and ALEC some few months later, and then dozens more cozening to them.
Fascism, corruption big-time, and total rule by the moneyed, hello.
And I think most teachers do their best to humanize instruction. Most of my daughter's teachers did, and i know some teachers quit on account of political demands. Schools are in part training to be a competent citizen/manager of a DIY government of the people, by the people, for the people. Ideal education recognizes tat every person, and their interests and talents is unique, but we also ave to live together, in the realm of the commonwealth, and that involves cooperation, and that is a skill and a discipline in itself, best left to secular inclusion.
I agree!
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or ......" It refers only to Congress since the Constitution gave the Congress the sole authority to make laws. The present Congress has relinquished that authority to the President.
And the second amendment says "A well regulated militia"
Blaming the schools and teachers for this is frankly outrageous. You want to blame anything blame No Child Left Behind and turning public schools into nothing more than test taking factories.
If the students don't score better than last year on the standardized tests then the schools lose their funding.
The government did this. Not a teacher. Even 'conservative' schools don't like the test scores above all atmostphere. But thanks to George W that's what we get.
One year when my kids were in middle school, No Child Left Behind caught up with the district. Their test scores weren't high enough so they fired almost everyone. 87% turn over in one summer. And the teachers hired to replace the ones that had been there were almost entirely 1st year teachers because they were the only ones who could 'afford' to take a chance on a 'failing' district.
Let's be real here. Conservatives have been trying to break Public Schools since they were instituted. They hate that they are educating other people's kids with their taxes. The easy way to make that happen is to make the quality of education so low that everyone agrees to ditch them and go back to private schools or worse.. private schools funded with taxpayer money (aka Charter Schools)
That's about where we are right now.
But blaming the schools for it is incredibly unfair and shows a lack of understanding about the situtuation.
BLB, having read Phil Balla's comments for some time now, I can assure you that when he talks about what's happening in U.S. schools, he is not blaming the schools or teachers. He holds responsible local, state and federal governments for adopting foolish policies and pressuring school administrations and the teachers they employ to follow those foolish policies.
He also acknowledges the pressures coming from parents, but doesn't blame them, as most parents are products of the faulty educational policies they grew up in.
In my small, rural, K-12 one building district, our attitude toward No Child Left Behind was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Our kids, at all levels of ability, social status and income, were not being left behind, but in order to get Federal dollars, we had to comply and conform. Needless to say, it didn't take long for the actual education to deteriorate.
"They opened themselves to rule by the testers, whose mission was that testers only ask all questions."
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (W Bush with the help of willing Democrats) was the official start of the Testing Movement. However, it was never meant to improve education. The goal was to enrich testing companies while vilifying teachers and their unions. It is well known that accurate test scores can be assigned by zip codes, no testing needed. But that would vilify socioeconomic conditions as a prime factor in uneven educational achievement.
Phil, I agree about testing, but this is much more than just education. As you know, I was in education and did those things that you recommend. We have a friend who is still in the field who has found ways to teach around the tests. He is in a heavily Hispanic district and is bilingual. His wife, from Ecuador, also teaches there. Just this week in Salem were the Crystal Apple awards to outstanding educators. The article described what they were doing in the classroom which was way beyond testing.
Has anyone watched "Lean on Me" starring Morgan Freeman? It's about getting in there and doing the job. Working together. Not wasting time criticizing different philosophies. It does take the necessary amount of money. I came to Colorado in 1970. Education was the number one item in the budget. The right wing passed the TABOR amendment. Colorado is now one of the worst in the nation for education funding.
Critical thinking skills are not being taught adequately in our schools. And I wonder what the topics in history are. Have any a clue of what Fascism is and how it works, that they would be trampled by the leaders? Give Trump credit for spotting and exploiting the racism and ignorance prevalent in the MAGA crowd. The South/KKK are making a concerted effort to put in place a white Christian theocracy here. The study that really exposes the MAGA folks for what they are is in the Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, "Critical Sociology," entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why" by two Univ. Of Kansas professors, David Norma Smith and Eric Hanley.
Yes, I think Lincoln's thoughts align with HCR on that.
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Thank You!
Phil, you are so right about the aims of the pseudochristians. They care nothing for their faith, only that they can use it to subjigate all of us to their whims, rob us all into poverty, then demand even more of us, the only folks with rights, rich white men who go along with the christian nationalist BS. No thank you!!!.
I really resent the term "Christian Nationalism". It is NOT Christian. It may be Old Testament, but it is NOT Christian! I am, slowly but surely, starting to understand the disgust that atheists, agnostics and other faiths have for the "Christian" church. Please understand that Old Testament church is NOT Christian. Christianity is defined by the belief that God sent his only son to be crucified because of man's sin. That is human's sins against a God. Despite what these right wing ass hole bigots claim, they cannot save themselves. In order to be a Christian you necessarily believe that Jesus was crucified, becoming the Christ that died and ressurected for our sins. In that belief, as a Christian, you will obey His commands. The first of which is to to love your God above all else and the second is to love your neighbor. Whether a person believes this or not is immaterial to the fact: If you don't believe what I just wrote, you ARE NOT a Christian! The Old Testament was given to humans as a word picture of human's relationship to God. The new Testament was given to humans to understand the way to salvation and how to live with one another. Too many evangelicals have forgotten this. Sorry but that means they forgot what it means to be a Christian; and it ain't christian nationalism. Period!
The Old Testament was handed down by word of mouth. I believe it was written to explain the power of and the need of God, and the need for a Messiah. It was the Jewish story. It created the family tree of Jesus. Mary and Joseph were Jews, so was Christ. So quoting the BIble of the Old Testament is not "Christian" at all. The Christian theology was created after Christ walked the earth and established his Church.
These Trumpers are not Christians in any definition of the word. They do not relate to behave in a "christian" manner. The do not espouse any Christian philosophy or ideals or pracitces that Christ established while he was on earth.
THEY ARE A BUNCH OF SELF-INVOLVED NARCICISSTS.
TRUMP IS THE WORST OF THEM -
Thank you!
Mark, I have posted this here before, but again I suggest anyone of any faith--or none--read the 2025 book by Fr. Richard Rohr "The Tears of Things". His thoughts on Christianity and how he insists that modern Evangelical "Christian" pastors misinterpret and misuse the Bible for their own power is quite fascinating. I think you would appreciate this book.
Concur. Also, recommend LUIS BUNUEL's film about cristianity over the centuries, "The Milky Way".
And they misuse it primarily in the quest for MONEY. Remove the tax-exempt status of of these mega-churches and watch them disappear into the dust of history.
Thank you!
"I really resent the term "Christian Nationalism". It is NOT Christian. It may be Old Testament, but it is NOT Christian!"
Why do you even bring in the "Old Testament"? This is an age old Christian trope - blame the Jews for bad stuff.
Look, the Christian Nationalist movement is made up of self-identified Christians, recognized as such, and must be addressed as such.
I cannot disown the genocidal Netanyahu regime because it does not comport with my notion of Judaism, any more than Muslims can disown the Taliban - or Christians can disown Christian Nationalism.
Maybe Pushy Puritan type so-called Christians would work. My many times great uncle Ethan Allen seemingly came from Puritan roots that wanted to go so far as to cancel Christmas celebrations in a much purified Church of England.
Mike Johnson would have charged him as a domestic terrorist if you look at Andra Watkins take on the Rededication 250 event as described at https://andrawatkins.substack.com/p/what-rededicate-250-really-means
"...I mentioned it to readers when I heard about it earlier this year. But devoting an entire day to watching our nation be engulfed in everything I warned about and begged Americans not to choose wasn’t conducive to a mentally healthy Sunday.
Instead, I’m going to talk about how the White Christian Nationalist Speaker of the House likely threatened US citizens’ First Amendment rights and tie his words to NSPM-7.
Here’s a clip from Johnson’s pre-show interview with Fox where he says the following: “The naysayers who have created this new term 'Christian nationalism' as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are trying to silence the influence and voices of Christians, and I think that's wildly inappropriate.”
“I think that’s wildly inappropriate” could mean “Anyone who uses the term ‘Christian Nationalist’ as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are anti-Christian and could be charged as domestic terrorists under NSPM-7.”
I can’t read the Speaker’s mind and wouldn’t want to spend one second in such a dark, twisted place if I could. I had a PTSD meltdown watching his smug sanctimoniousness in this clip.
NSPM-7 lists the following subjective speech and expression as possible DOMESTIC TERROR. Half are overtly Christian Nationalist. I added (Parenthesis).
Anti-Americanism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-Christianity (anti-White Christian Nationalism)
Support for the overthrow of the United States government
Extremism on migration
Extremism on race
Extremism on gender (anti-White Christian Nationalist views on gender)
Hostility (disagreement) toward those who hold traditional American (White Christian Nationalist) views on the family
Hostility (disagreement) toward those who hold traditional American (White Christian Nationalist) views on religion
Hostility (disagreement) toward those who hold traditional American (White Christian Nationalist) views on morality
I believe the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the person is who two heartbeats away from the US Presidency, used Fox News to announce that calling anyone a Christian Nationalist in the following ways could result in being charged as a domestic terrorist under NSPM-7:..."
Mark, you can resent the term "Christian Nationalism" all you want, but whether you like it or not, it is the correct term.
In the 1970s, Ford Motor Company marketed a whole lineup of vehicles, including the luxurious LTD, the midsize Torino, the personal-luxury Thunderbird, the sporty Mustang, and the Pinto. The Pinto exemplified Henry Ford's original desire to produce a car that everyman could afford. It was affordable to buy and economical to operate. There was just one problem: the gas tank exploded in flames if the car was impacted from behind. I'm sure that Henry Ford II desperately wished the Pinto wasn't a Ford, but it was a Ford, clearly labeled on the front and back. In fact, it had all the characteristics of a Ford except for that one explosive problem.
Likewise, Christian Nationalists, exhibit most of the characteristics of Jesus-followers. They pray, they read the Bible and they act kindly toward the people whom they like (except when they don't). By all appearances, they are Christians, except for that one explosive problem.
To insist that these folks are not Christians is to engage in the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.
https://practicalpie.com/no-true-scotsman/
Doesn’t matter. It’s all magic thinking.
Indeed, you will just become slaves to the all powerful sky fairy.
I don't mind sky fairies, Peter.
I live in Japan -- in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan -- and I'm surrounded by reminders (Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines) of spirits abounding in trees (hello, Totoro), rivers, mountains, seeds, roots, clouds, and skies.
"Slaves?" Buddhism teaches how we may become prey to our own passions. But then again, too, it affords us New Year's Eve, when by just attending the ringing of 108 temple bells at midnight, in "Joya no Kane," all past year's sins get annulled, forgiven.
Phil, lovely observations.
My point still stands; the goal of Christian Fundamental Nationalism is to subjugate you, to force you into obedience. Therefore your only future is as slaves. The fact that you live in a Buddhist "paradise" is neither here nor there. Buddhism is a philosophy of life and not a religion.
Therefore you have reinforced my point and not destroyed it. And you should resent all sky fairies. Not one Christian on the face of this planet could tell you when nor where the gospels were written, nor who wrote them except to mention, in passing, that they were written in scholarly, poetic Greek. In much the same way, no Judaic scholar could tell you when nor where nor by who any of the books of the Tanakh were written.
So, just sky fairies.
I’ve read many many books about the Holocaust since I was 11 and more recently have volunteered to resettle refugees from other wars. I’m sickened by the power-mad autocrats (and would-be autocrats) who gin up hatred based on religion and then use it to to incite and justify the wholesale killing and violence that puts them in power. I have shared my home with men who were tortured and maimed because they were of the “wrong” faith. The idea that the monsters running our government are following this playbook is the most horrifying event in my life. I see where it can go. And will go unless we can stop it.
As a humanistic Jew and atheist, this scares the hell out of me.
Jefferson is an imperfect relative but I appreciate the best he did, especially on religion. Ethan Allen is another relative whom I appreciate for his book "Reason, The Only Oracle of Man; Or, A Compendius System of Natural Religion (much less well known, but to me another indicator of my closer ancestors' thoughts on differentiating church and government by free people).
The NH state motto is Live Free or Die. It is taken from a longer quote by Ethan Allen: "Live free or die, for there are evils worse than death". He was talking about tyranny, and the slavery that always results from it.
A distressing number of my fellow New Hampshireites are choosing slavery. Most, however, are choosing their freedom of conscious, and turning up to rallies and hearing about NH's version of Project 2025 in record numbers.
This is perhaps the most insightful LFAA I have read, and that is saying A LOT.
Stay ornery, speak up, speak out, don't pre-obey.
Not sure, Steve, of "tyranny, and the slavery that always results from it."
Can't we reverse that chronology? Say, instead, that it's always first slavery, as in schools long slave to testing, and then, after decades of that, pustule-arising the tyrant as we have now in criminal Donald and all his fellow corrupted?
Well, the Free Staters in NH just want to get rid of schools altogether (and did, briefly, in one town). No testing or reading or essays. And I say this as a homeschooling parent who values public schools as a foundation of our democracy. People ought to pay attention to what Free Staters are doing in NH, it’s pretty frightening (they’re deliberately moving to NH to put their policies in place).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2022/05/17/in-new-hampshire-libertarians-budget-cuts-and-a-small-town-battle-to-save-public-education/
Where do you find this book of Ethan Allen's?
I found it on Amazon and got the Kindle version while looking up info on an ancestor. It's also listed with other sources on Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37694. It was started as a collaborative project with Thomas Young when both were in Salisbury, but took forever to finally make it to print, amid great resistance in those super religious times (early copies burned).
To me it is just an indicator of some early roots of a fighter (starting 251 years ago in 1775), for religious freedom.
Jim Young: Project Gutenberg remains one of the best things the internet has produced. Thsnks for providing that link.
Better World Books. An awesome source for affordable reading material.
Their intent is real, listen to what they say and are doing. We The People will not obey and comply. Stand up and speak out for freedom and the principles our country was founded on. This is our awakening!
Would somebody please explain to me how a quote from the old Testament book Chronicles thought to be written between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE or between 600 and 200 years before Jesus the Christ lived forms the basis of "Christian" nationalism. Every single thing Christ is said to have said and done in those short years he lived is the opposite of Christian Nationalism. Does anybody understand this emphasis on the books of the Old Testament Hebrew bible to justify this ultra exclusionary and hate filled ideology?
Phil, here I recommend the essays by Mary Geddry and her daughter. Right now Mary is doing a series about how this is like feudalism with lords and serfs. Actually I would say it is like nearly every civilization we read about where the elite syphon off the wealth produced by the peasants.
alphas and all the rest.
Trump’s sure trying.
Phil, for the first time since I've been reading HCR's Letters, I believe she has chosen the wrong word.
Replacing Americans’ civic identity with Christian nationalism . . . demands that Americans do as they are told, turning them into SLAVES, not subjects.
Lin, love the « self-identified Christian » phrase!
Perhaps terrified most of all of real faith. The screaming and strutting, primping and preening -- and that exhibitionist pontificating is a stage play designed to rid them of their own doubts. What they possess isn't faith at all, but a caricature 00 the Cowardly Lion playing with his tail, going "I DO believe in spooks, I DO believe in spooks, I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO believe in spooks!"
And perhaps terrified of their true identity or feelings, for when they are condemning something it usually appears they are confessing something.
We want the pro-authoritarian movement to confess and they won’t. We, the people, don’t want to confess but we should. I think we can! I think we can!
Confess that calling Christian Nationalists “right-wing” evangelicals is a convenient falsehood. Yes … I agree they started out right of “moral” (enlightenment at top-dead center), and they did keep going right until they got to the 3 o’clock position. But here’s a simple question I could answer as a child (when every clock was analog): What direction were they going between 3 o’clock and “immoral” (the dark side at bottom-dead center)? Think about it … or ask AI if you’ve never heard of the “analog clock” concept. Either way, you get the same answer as me. Left!!!
An “evangelical” promotes the Gospel message, the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A “neo-evangelical” behaves like an automaton. You can use AI to look that up too, but I’ll save you the bother: An “automaton” is a self-operating machine, robot, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a predetermined sequence of instructions. “Neo-evangelical” describes a person who behaves or responds in a monotonous, mechanical, or thoughtless way.
So, the pro-democracy movement can keep employing the false but convenient (in the short term) “circular firing squad” strategy (virtue signaling by referring to Christian Nationalist adherents as right-wing evangelicals), or start employing the true but inconvenient (in the short-term) “moral” strategy (implying intolerance for immoral behavior on a global scale but acting first with the “as local as possible” person in the mirror).
I employ a common term when I refer to the above “inconvenient but true” strategy. I refer to it as a “virtuous cycle.” Call it what you want. Just don’t call it late for November.
Bob Dylan's version: You better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone.
🎶 I called for an Ambulance & one was sent ... I'm pledging my time hoping you'll come through too.🎶
Exactly!
Have these people never seen The Handmaid's Tale?
Have they ever seen "The Wizard of Oz"?
🤣😱❤️
They probably think of it as a “how to” guide. I read and have the book and the sequel.
Kathy!
I have been reading and writing all morning. But your comment was the first to make me smile. "How to guide!" Indeed.
We keep trying to reason with folks like this as if only they would or could see the error of their ways. But they don't CARE! The WANT to dominate. They WANT to deprive women of their rights. They WANT to hurt anyone who disagrees with their perverted and antiquated views.
The Handmaid's Tale and Project 2025 go together like "horse and carriage". Modern guides to turning back the clock of human history.
And remember, you cannot shame someone that has none.
God help us ALL! I NEVER want to go back to the way things were for women when I was young! I was able to become a professional and earn enough to care for myself comfortably without depending on a man for my support. Without women (or Blacks, or Muslims, or Latinos, etc.) we lose the many benefits of their unique contributions and society as a whole suffers. We must continue FORWARD, no matter the costs! It’s humanity’s only hope!
Like Trump thinks The Producers' play within the play
"Spring Time for Hitler" is a celebration of the good guys.
Brain, courage, heart.
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
"The Thanatos Syndrome."
"The Stepford Wives."
"Walden."
"The Unsettling of America."
"The Big Short."
"The Education of Henry Adams."
"Superman Comes to the Supermarket."
"The Little Foxes."
"Dead Poets' Society."
"Masters of War."
"Little Boxes."
"You Have to be Carefully Taught."
"Love me Love Me, I'm a Liberal."
"Fixing to Die Rag."
"Fortunate Son."
great that someone remembers Phil Ochs, Phil.
🎶 It's 1,2,3,4 what are we fighting for? I don't know & I don't give damn. Next stop is 🎶 Teheran, Iran.
Whoopee, we're all gonna die....
Have they never seen Animal House?
Blutarski became a Senator in Animal House. Hmmmm
that is their dream society
Utah schools just banned the book. And the banned books have to be burned. There are 34 titles, I believe.
Hilarious. Is Fahrenheit 451 on the list?
Sorry, GJ, I omitted it on my list, above.
Maybe there never was one true religion; man has made god not the other way around, hence man can uncreate him too or is it that once created it becomes impossible to destroy a god? Reason, principles, conscience should be our guiding forces, not superstition. Christianity is a life choice not a doctrine.
Good morning, Stephanie. Christianity comes from an experience of the power of ultimate love: dying for others. It's the way of the cross. Folks who adhere to wCN (to use Georgia's term – thank you, Georgia) want a triumphant God rather than a dying one. They want to force people to accept a way of life that is not based on compassion and mercy but on their brand of righteousness which is harsh, uncompromising, and ignorant. It has no poetry in it. No room for questions. wCN is the enemy of what is truly life-giving.
I think a conversion to a fundamentalist Christian nation, proposed by Voght et al, can only lead to manipulation not collaboration, and will result in a profound shift in how we should live our lives, as well as it becoming an inflection point in our social structure. I foresee unintended harms and consequences. Many Christians believe that their faith imparts virtue, love and forgiveness, yet those who think they are transformed by Christ's love are even deeply intolerant of others and criticism. (Imagine if our govt. actually believed that the world was about to end - this would be an intellectual emergency!) Some of this hate is supported by the Bible. (Some religions enable violence - like flying airplanes into buildings.) In addition, mixing religion and politics serves hypocrites and pretenders to religion and zealots who damage true faith and piety. Perhaps in turbulent times that are being experienced by much of the world leads people to turn to a book or a creed to resolve their moral questions.
and yet life proceeds...one PERSONAL choice at a time...even after reading a book.
more than 700 others were crucified the same year. It was a very common punishment at the time. What about them?
A Kauffmann: It's horrible. Crucifixion is a terrible way to die. The Roman Empire lined the roadway with the crosses.
The very well said!
As you said, " Reason, principles, conscience should be our guiding forces, not superstition. Christianity is a life choice not a doctrine."
It took me about 70 years to discover my multi-great uncle's book on Reason titled:
"Reason, the Only Oracle of Man; Or, A Compendius System of Natural Religion."
It seems Dr. Thomas Young and Ethan Allen collaborated on the book sometime between 1758 and 1764 when Thomas moved away, taking the manuscript with him. Dr. Young had insisted Ethan Allen inoculate him against smallpox that year when it was still illegal and, I suppose, probably moved to avoid legal consequences. Ethan Allen later got the manuscript back, added changes, etc and finally seems to have gotten it published in 1785.
I'm just starting to learn more of the good Dr. Thomas Young (no relation), finding out he became John Adams personal physician in 1765 and according to Wikipedia:
"...Young is considered to be one of the active organizers of the Boston Tea Party although he himself did not actually participate in the destruction of the tea chests. At the time he was addressing a crowd at the Old South Meeting House on the negative health effects of tea drinking. According to the Boston Tea Party Museum, this was probably a diversion intended to help the Tea Party organizers by keeping the crowd in the Meeting House while the tea was being destroyed..."
Genuine faith considers the possibility that one's own view is incomplete or faulty. Yet we must act on the best understandings we can muster. Genuine faith can endure, even embrace the doubts of others. It comes by its cautious confidence honestly.
Trump is spewing the message that God anointed him and that he, along with Johnson and Hegseth, are determined to destroy our multicultural democracy and replace it with a white Christian Nationalist (wCN) society.
I am a Christian; what Johnson and Hegseth are spouting is not Christ’s teachings. There is no care for one’s neighbor, or the poor, or the sick, or the imprisoned, or for the stranger. Christ accepted those rejected by his society: the tax collector, the prostitute, and the Samaritan woman. These wCN people do not care for others as they do themselves, but instead want to “otherize” others so they can feel they are better than some group, assuaging their grievance mentality. Christ accepted diversity and accepted all people as equal creations in the image of God.
Christ never wanted to rule over an earthly kingdom. The white Christian Nationalists want to rule over the rest of us, and take away our rights and freedoms, especially our freedom of conscience. They want to be able to restrict the books we can read, what our children are taught, the people we can love, the manner we choose to relate to God in our faiths, or whether we believe in God at all.
They are rewriting our history every day to ignore our sins as a nation of slavers and racists, and are now taking us back to Jim Crow 2.0 thanks to SCOTUS. Sunday’s event was not a “renewal”. It was not reminding us of the founding principles of our nation. In fact, it was desecrating them.
I was raised in the Catholic faith. It taught me some good values. I must have been sick or missed the Sunday School classes that would have taught me that Jesus wanted me to traumatize my fellow citizens, forget those who are less fortunate than me... I'm sure Jesus was looking down on that event in DC and saying to himself, WTF, over !!!!
Separation of Church and Hate : A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Good Book from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-fleecing Frauds
Fugelsang, John
Georgia, I am with you there. This Christian Nationalist posturing is nothing like what I believe, and I have much more respect for Pope Leo than I do for Donald Trump and his Christian Nationalist, techbro, and oligarch backers. The Christian Nationalists distort religion into a political tool.
Paula White-Cain is Trump’s “spiritual advisor.” She has been appointed a Senior Advisor of the newly created White House Faith Office and is described in official communications as a Special Government Employee attached to that office.
This is from her website. There is a lot about her humanitarian efforts , and about prayer and belief in the trinity. But then there is this under the beliefs tab:
Spiritual Warfare
We believe that spiritual warfare is real, and every believer is called to stand in victory through the authority of Jesus Christ. We don’t fight for victory—we fight from victory. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, NKJV). Spiritual warfare is how we silence the enemy and enforce the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.
https://paulawhite.org/about/#beliefs
So who gets to declare who is the enemy? Who will be silenced? Who will be the enforcers? These people are religious zealots.
And here is the meat of the executive order from February 2025 establishing the White House Faith Office.
Sec. 4. White House Faith Office Functions. (a) To the extent permitted by law, the Office shall:
from time to time, consult with and seek information from experts and various faith and community leaders identified by the White House Faith Office and other EOP components, including those from outside the Federal Government and those from State, local, and Tribal governments. These experts and leaders shall be identified based on their expertise in a broad range of areas in which faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship operate, including protecting women and children; strengthening marriage and family; promoting foster care and adoption programs in partnership with faith-based entities; providing wholesome and effective education; preventing and reducing crime and facilitating prisoner reentry; promoting recovery from substance use disorder; and fostering flourishing minds;
make recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, regarding changes to policies, programs, and practices, and aspects of my Administration's policy agenda, that affect the ability of faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship to serve families and communities;
convene meetings with representatives from the Centers for Faith and other representatives from across agencies as appropriate;
advise on the implementation throughout the Federal Government of those aspects of my Administration's policy agenda aimed at enabling faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship to better serve families and communities;
showcase innovative initiatives by faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship that serve and strengthen individuals, families, and communities throughout the United States;
coordinate with all agencies to implement training and education throughout the country for faith-based entity grantees to build their capacity to procure grants;
support agencies in developing and implementing training and education regarding religious liberty exceptions, accommodations, or exemptions;
consult with public and private businesses regarding their policies for employee volunteerism, charitable giving, and payroll deductions;
coordinate with agencies on identifying and promoting grant opportunities for non- profit faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship, especially those inexperienced with public funding but that operate effective programs;
work in collaboration with the Attorney General, or a designee of the Attorney General, to identify concerns raised by faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship about any failures of the executive branch to enforce constitutional and Federal statutory protections for religious liberty; and
identify and propose means to reduce burdens on the free exercise of religion, including legislative, regulatory, and other barriers to the full and active participation of faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship in government- funded or government-conducted activities and programs.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500240/html/DCPD-202500240.htm
I highlighted some of the language in the EO that I find troubling, in that it sets up mechanisms to funnel money to faith-based organizations instead of through government programs that would benefit all Americans regardless of their faith. Who would select the faith-based programs that get funded? What are the selection criteria?
Well said. I had no idea what was going on in Washington yesterday. These so called Christians, though, who attended have been trying to take over our country for decades. They have no clue about the message of Christ— no clue. And to select trump as their so-called leader-a godless man—proves it. This is all too much to much for me to comprehend.
Separation of Church and Hate : A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Good Book from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-fleecing Frauds
Fugelsang, John
Amen!
Georgia Fisanick,
Thank you for this comment . It was given with wisdom and the knowledge and understanding of genuine faith ie, love, hope, forgiveness, mercy and grace.
You’ve nailed it!!!
Faith = sacrificing your intellectual and moral integrity.
Yes when faith is a monomaniacal resistance to cross-examination. It is not religion per se, but it is the way that religion and patriotism, among other things are often packaged, and is a manipulative trick. It is the obstinate and often aggressive hubris of presuming one is right by denying, often aggressively, that certain notions can be wrong. THAT is the mental malware of cult thinking, that has resulted in mass suicide, genocide, torture, and other historical horrors. It ranges from assholian to purely evil, as self-serving ridged certainly (hubris) devoid of self-examination and compassion enables antisocial outrages. It punishes curiosity and diversity. Negates modesty. Demonizes empathy. Glorifies subjugation and self-aggrandizement.
Notably the "Greatest Commandment" attributed to Jesus prescribes love, not hate. Oddly, THAT is the commandment that right-wing "Christian fundamentalists" seem rarely if ever to mention. "Love thy neighbor"; and not the kind of "love we mean when we say "I 'love' chocolate"; but rather illustrated by the hypothetical kindness of a enemy Samaritan. Buddhists speak of "mindfulness", which is similar, pledging to reduce global suffering. Desmond Tutu and The Dalai Lama were playful fast friends.
Emerson said he considered it a miracle that he could move his arm, and that's the kind I believe in. I was a dyed in the wool science major even prior to kindergarten, though I also loved the arts. "Liberal Arts". I see the epistemological core of the scientific method as a commitment to intellectual integrity; and compassion the gateway to moral awareness; and that such commitments define a quality of self. Not that one is ever the epitome of these aspirations, but that such goals are sincerely and actively sought, accompanied by inevitable failures. I think this might be described as a "faith" but one open to question. Not faith that is "blind".
In a nutshell, is faith really faith if it can only be defended with obstinacy and/or aggression?
This Christian Nationalist bull pucky is not what I was taught in Sunday school.That Trump and his cult are trying to ram this faux “Christianity “ down my throat offends me deeply.Not to mention, I don’t think We the People should have to bankroll it.
I agree that the supremacist, brand of "Christianity" is anything but, and that has a long history. My sense is that the humble and caring themes of Christianity and other world religions have been filtered and warped by what those in positions of concentrated power, kings and the like, want to promote and are willing to tolerate. I suspect that is the real source of the really ugly side of what is branded "Christianity", such as genocide, racism, sexism, material greed, subjugation. It's what Tyrants do, is it not? More like those who drove the nails.
Anyway, it seems to me that in a civilized society, one remains accountable for one's antisocial choices even while claiming God is on one's side.
Personally, I think they are more militant than that.
WCN's ability to completely ignore the Ten Commandments is the height of hypocrisy. And even worse, the WCN legislature in TX REQUIRES every classroom to display the Ten Commandments. Imagine class rooms of pre-schoolers with a big banner of which no one in the class can comprehend because a group of morons in Austin think it will somehow create a more perfect union?
What the Republicans are doing with impunity across the US and around the world is MURDER.
The Ten Commandments are a joke to WCN's, to be taken as seriously as the scene in The History of the World Part 1, where Moses breaks the tablet containing 11-15. Getting rid of 6-10 and leaving only 1-5 would make Trump seem much less hypocritical and the WCNs.
Ken Paxton for all his pious posturing is like a lot of these guys. His wife Angela called their marriage quits after he got let off on charges of unlicensed securities peddling by his buds in the Texas senate. In this case, Angela wanted out because Ken had at least two separate mistresses during their marriage. They never heard of the Beatitudes, and they break every one of the Ten Commandments.
they view all their murderous and hateful ways as a god-ordained and justifiable means to an end. Crazy and hypocritical for sure.
But a convenient way to justify non-Christlike behavior. I see people around me here in the South that believe it.
and yet, I never hear anyone ever ask them about if the 10 Cs are Christian or Hebrew.
This has been brewing off and on for a long time. The two great awakenings and the kkk. It’s a new iteration but under the control of people who use it all as a tool to implant their methodology . I had hoped that few would attend. Frank Schaefer and Jim Wallis usually are the voices who I listen in this regard. I haven’t heard from them. There was a rabbi and supposedly two priests. And what a great pity for all those caught up. The concepts of Philo the Great, Jesus, St Francis,even Harrison Ford’s great graduation speech are lost to them and they are so unaware of the global canon of great intellectual or spiritual thought. I am glad Dr Richardson brought up Tripoli. Obviously we have to do more but the government is not functioning . And the plans coming up are also sickening. Even the awful statue garden. They are not even aware or smart enough to use it as a gun catching operation. Give us your guns for the new statues. We have the highest rate of gun ownership in the world I think and less guns always a good. I doubt they even know of remember the gun buy backs programs and guns into art projects.
Instead of just letting this happen can folks do a shadow type of protest? I don’t know how to break this Gordian knot.
You are right on point!
I can tell you that Jesus is not happy. His biggest pet peeve was hypocrisy--the egotistic self-righteous posing as people of faith to coverup their obvious vices. This was on public display on steroids....
wow. how about the people paying taxes that support invasion after invasion in the name of 'making the world safe for democracy', Sophia? what's that called?
yup....
I can't help feeling that a prime motivator for the people who promote that so-called Christian assembly and who run the government now with Trump is that Trump gives them a license to do whatever their most base urges tell them to do. MAGAs on social media and in person seem to me to experience overpowering up surges of violence and hatred driving them to unrestrained cruelty.
"Because they can..." the operating principle indeed. The shmuck-on-high gives the go-ahead -- the pale, white nasty things then crawl out of the woodwork.
Just starting on Timothy Snyder's 'On Freedom' - highly recommending it for great clarifications and stories on the meaning of freedom as a positive not a negative
When you are done with that Robin get ahold of “Bloodlands” and brace yourself, it was the most difficult emotionally thing I have ever read, but it lays out clearly the foundation for why our world is so messed up. It all started with mass murder perpetrated by a government that we eventually allayed with to defeat one of it’s erstwhile allays.
Amen.
Awomen.
Worshipping Putin and Tsin as DT worshipped (feared) his KKK father. (Apologies for spelling.)
💯
Another interesting fact is that 36% of the supposed innocent pardoned J6 insurectionists are back in jail, hopefully jailed by state courts so they can't be pardoned again.
and of women who are not "obedient," people who are not "white," and citizens who want to vote.
Yes, if those “Christian” nationalists had their way, we’d still be British subjects.
Under Henry Vlll.
Ooh. Say it's not so. Even us English can't stand the stink of the man.
Deep thinking is usually not required of religious adherents.
Excellent point. For whatever reason, they don't want to understand the concept of "separation of church and state."
We all should be TERRIFIED and very careful of Peter Thiel's cabal as their true intent is to restructure Western Civilization.
The Myth of Control: remember what happened to Saruman at Orthanc when he used the Palantir to spy on Sauron’s enemies. As Tolkien taught us so well, The Lesson of Saruman is that while populous leaders may use religious platforms (Project2025&Freedom250) to project strength or spread their message, the algorithms and echo chambers they foster inherently consume them.
Both Saruman and Felon47 view themselves as the smartest wizards in the room, and both mistakenly believe they can control the flow of information without being influenced by it.
Instead, Sauron The Devil, controls what Saruman is shown, using the Palantir to gradually corrupt, isolate, and dominate Saruman's mind.
Questioning without "thinking for yourself" becomes mere cynicism though. And that's what happened in society as a whole, during the decades before this neofascist power grab.
And yes, for citizens to learn how to think for yourself, access to high quality education and journalism are necessary.
The demise of the legacy media (whose "questioning" of politicians is mostly sheer cynicism, devoid of any REAL thinking on the part of the journalist (how many of them merely threw Trump tweets at Kamala Harris, in 2024, instead of coming up with their own questions based on the study of the complicated issues the US faces in the 21st century?) made it impossible for all those who don't have access to a good education to learn how to think for themselves.
And for decades already, the GOP made sure that only a minority of wealthiest have access to education, while the left lost itself in "wokism" (an ideology designed to facilitate social change but that violently imposed itself through various forms of "cancelling").
So now we have a minority that wants to use the government to cancel everything this is not Old Testament fundamentalism.
This is The Handmaid's Tale all over again.
They're also big on guns. Which reminds me of a Mao Zedong line much quoted by Mao sympathizers in my younger days: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Funny how these "Christian nationalists" seem to have a few things in common with Mao. Then there's Trump's determination to put his name and image before us wherever we turn. Didn't Mao do something like that? To be fair, so did Hitler and Stalin. Great company our president is in!
Everyone should also remember Mao Zhedong - no vote; no right to speak.
Spot on and right on!
⬆️🎯👏🏼
What is amusing to me is that Trump is so religious, he was off playing golf on the taxpayer's dime when this extravaganza was happening on the taxpayer's dime.
Trump is SO RELIGIOUS, he has broken all 10 commandments several times! AND he illustrates ALL of the 7 deadly sins! That's remarkable!
Can I get an AMEN to that Dana?
As an Eagle Scout and an American, I was appalled when Trump spoke to the Boy Scout Jamboree in 2017. The Boy Scout law that is drilled into us charges Boy Scouts to be -
TRUSTWORTHY, LOYAL, HELPFUL, FRIENDLY, COURTEOUS, KIND, OBEDIENT, CHEERFUL, THRIFTY, BRAVE, CLEAN and REVERENT.
Trump and the entire Trump clan have broken all of these as well.
Rex Tillerson had arranged for Trump to speak at the event. On July 20, 2017 Rex Tillerson had called Trump a "fucking moron".
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/donald-trump-boy-scouts-speech
And this from a story on Slate -
"Now we know why and when Rex Tillerson called Donald Trump a “fucking moron.”
According to NBC News, the secretary of state muttered the remark to colleagues on July 20 right after a meeting in the Pentagon—a review of U.S. military forces and operations worldwide—attended by Trump, his main advisers, and the top brass.
At one point in the meeting, a briefer showed the president a graph tracking the dramatic reduction in U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons over the past several decades. That reduction is widely interpreted as a success story about arms-control treaties, the end of the Cold War, and the declining dependence on weapons of catastrophic destruction. But Trump viewed it with alarm, telling the group that he wanted more nukes. Pointing to the graph’s peak year, 1969, when the U.S. had 32,000 nuclear weapons, Trump said he wanted that many nukes now."
And now Trump wants the US to build a fleet of battleships at $17 billion per, that cannot be built at any of the current ship building facilities in the world. He is getting major pushback from almost everyone in the Pentagon except, you guessed it, Pete Hogsbreath.
Pete knows he depends on Trump for his job, one he never would have attained if it were based on qualification. Without Trump Pete’s a washed up alcoholic who has failed at every job (and wife) he’s ever had. What a legacy at his (relatively young) age.
and in the most blasphemous statement of all "I have nothing to ask for forgiveness." In Jesus' day that would have been a stoning offense.
And he keeps building his house of adoration in the form of ballrooms and arches with quotes such as trump is great, trump is god.
Maybe he believes promoting conservative Christianity gets him bonus points with The Almighty as an offset for all the sins he has committed and wrongs he has perpetrated. To him, everything is transactional - even religion.
Maybe. But that would mean he actually believed in a higher power than himself. The picture he posted of himself *as* Jesus brings that into doubt.
… “The figures are striking. Trump has played golf on 106 of 482 days since returning to the WH in January 2025, representing 22% of his presidency. It appears that 19 of those days have occurred in 2026 alone - but that isn’t even the most concerning statistic. That honor goes to the estimated total expense of Trump’s golf trips since January 20, 2025, which currently stands at $148.4 million.”
https://meidastouch.substack.com/p/this-weekend-in-politics-bulletin-480?r=fqsxl&utm_medium=ios
With much of it going in his own pocket. No way he’s not charging the govt. for fees, golf carts, lodging for secret service details etc.
And I'd bet most of those 106 golf days were Sundays.
Yes, but for far too many of them he flew AF1 to FL to play on his own course at extremely high cost to the American public in terms of the flights there and back, and the fuel used, the protection needed, the number of guards protecting him, food and drink costs for all the staff he takes with him and his retinue of Secret Service people, etc., etc.
Biden went to church on Sundays - Trump flies to Florida!
GREGORY, they can’t help themselves. When Trump farts it’s national news.
Hey Kathy, The Man does more press conferences in a week. Then Joe Biden did in the 2 1/2 years he was president. And he works 18 hour days.
And Joe Biden pissed away $170 billion of your taxpayer money in order to kill 200,000 innocent people how about that one and actually the cause of that was going back to the mid 90s when another president made a major fuck up to allow Russia to do what it’s doing but I don’t want to talk about facts with you because you haven’t a clue
Of the 18 hour day, Trump spends half of it asleep, a quarter of it ranting on truth social and the remaining quarter doing what someone else has told him to do.
And he’s accomplished more in a in a week then Biden did in the 2 1/2 years he was in office. And he’s given more press conferences in a week and then Biden did his entire term.
And for a man that works 18 hours a day, he sure should be entitled to play golf just like Obama did but when Obama, the God plays golf that doesn’t count and Obama did shit for this country on top of that just divided the country in half or actually in thirds and forced socialized medicine down our throat, but it didn’t work did it ooooops
He's actually accomplished three-fifths of five-eighths of fuck-all since January 20th 2025.
It doesn’t amuse me. The man is a disgusting hypocrite. The whole thing disgusts me. How many agnostics, Jews, Muslims are in our nation? They are being cast aside and unrepresented by this group of “Christians “. It’s enough to make you wish you could protest by not paying your taxes, but that would hurt the nation and everyone. But our hard earned money shouldn’t bankroll illegal wars and purloining funds for illegal gatherings like this one.
...nor ballrooms, nor "arches", nor re-naming and over-hauling performing arts centers, nor flights to FL every weekend, nor...
How about the Roman Catholics who supported Trump in great numbers ? Were they represented on that stage ?
When trump lived in Manhattan, he was a member of the Marble Collegiate Church, where Norman Vincent Peale preached the Prosperity Gospel. But I read that one of the ministers there said they hadn't actually seen Trump there for services in years!
~47% of American don't pay taxes. The top 10% of earners pay 70% of taxes. The top 1% pay 40% of taxes. So most "taxpayers dimes" are paid by the people most hated by commenters here. Odd huh? Irony anyone?
I’ve been posting this stuff for a year and a half that I’ve been on here but they don’t want to pay attention. All they talk about is tax the rich and then you have half twitch like AOC you can’t make $1 billion you can’t earn $1 billion. Yeah tell that to Henry Ford and H.J. Heinz and Walt Disney and Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
Mr. Kaufman or Miss Kaufman I put it a little a little different way. The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay 3% of the taxes. It’s unbelievable. And the ignorance about this is astounding so thank you very much for your post.
The reason that they pay so little of the overall tax pot is because they earn so little. The top 10% of earners pay so much in tax because they earn orders of magnitude more than the bottom 50%.
You had a chance in America after the end of WWII when an ordinary man could get a job, probably for life, and get married, buy a house, have children and run a car on the wages from that one job. And now you've screwed that particular pooch
Do you know how many rounds Obama played and he couldn’t play with his shit?
In fact, he couldn’t do a damn thing right, including forcing or trying to force socialize medicine down your throat and including allowing Russia and Putin to take over Crimea what a success
Socialised medicine? You couldn't recognise socialised medicine if it fell on you from a great height.
In the UK we have the NHS, and if anyone, Nigel Farage included, tried to take it away from us, we would rip him limb from limb. It may have problems, mostly because of small-minded Tories just like you, but it's good enough that we can look over to you in America and pity you for having to live in a Third-world Shithole.
Agreed. We have a president where everything he does is grossly offensive, bar nothing that I can think of.
I am currently living in a city that is 1200 years old, and most people here do not want to go back to the past but move forward with things like better environmental protections. More solar, more wind, more renewable energy. It is such a shame that the US is not doing that. Looking at what the country could be in 250 years. Cleaner, more inclusive, instead of dirtier and all Christian, male dominated and White.
He submits to no law or authority himself. But now requires it from everyone while he’s in power. That’s hypocrisy, sir!
That is the hypocrisy. You are right on that Jack!
Note: Berlin is very very "White." And because of weather conditions, much of the US cannot support solar and wind. Germany gets about 45% from it because they have no reliable sources of fossil fuels and no nuclear. It is not necessarily a policy of virtue, it's a policy of necessity there.
We could support solar and wind in the U.S. if we committed to it. We're a huge country. China is, too, and they're waaaay ahead of us. We loves us our coal and oil!
Yup. China is way ahead of everyone, but not necessarily environmentally.
I don't live in Berlin, just like I don't live in the North Shore of Chicago which is also very White. The city I live in in Germany has a lot of Brown skinned people. So, when I go out I always see other people with brown skin. That is at the bus stop, on the bus, sometimes the driver, in the businesses we go to. More and more. Not always in high skills, but sometimes. Our next door neighbor on one side is from China. She got her graduate degree in architecture in Berlin, and then worked in Munich and now lives in our city. Our city also has a lot of Asians, but maybe not as much as some other cities I go to regularly. On my street, which runs about 2-3 blocks length there are lots of other people with brown skin, of all ages. The school nearby has children with all shades of skin. In fact in Der Spiegel they were talking about how schools can be inclusive with religions. Same issues we have in the US.
Germany could have nuclear, and it is a policy of virtue even if the intentions are not virtuous to get off of fossil fuels. Necessity could be filled in many ways, this country is going the way of renewables.
What nonsense. The USA has vast areas which are suitable for solar and wind power - including offshore. Your continued self-declared reliance on fossil fuels will be your country’s demise. China is making hay while your sun shines.
I have to go poop after reading this. That’s all I have to say or I will get into trouble. And I’m still committed to being the first to poop on the resting place of one Donald John Trump. The line begins here. Take a number, please. No pun intended.
They will never dare publish the exact location of Trump's grave. It would instantly become the most popular public convenience in the World. People would come from the four corners of the Earth to piss on Trump's grave.
I vow to find out where it will be, and to open a beer and asparagus stand next to it.
Asparagus! Ha ha!!!
Ooh. Stinky wee. Fabulous.
It would become like Ed Gein's grave. Or some such similar dead person, whose gravestone is routinely vandalized. Reminds me of the scene from "The Shipping News" when Judy Dench travels all the way with intent purpose of stealing her dead half-brother's cremains. Dead half-brother raped her as a young girl, causing a pregnancy, etc. She brought the ashes back with her to their native land of Newfoundland, back to the family' out house, poured them in the hole, and promptly peed on them, saying, "Welcome back, Guy".
The safest place from vandals and poopers for his grave would be Epstein's island.
The Trump family can set up tourist flights for MAGAs and pocket the profits.
His children will bury him on one of his golf courses so they can get a tax write off demonstrating that he has taught well the rules of the family business
He will probably be in some garish "gold" mausoleum with "gold" gee-gaws everywhere and recordings of him reminding people that he is the greatest president ever! The BIGGEST mausoleum! The BEST mausoleum! Nobody's ever seen anything like it!
It can be done there too,
Who is suggesting peeing? Not I.
You'll be #1 to #2? ; )
X-actly.
Sorry Bill, you are behind me. I took number one YEARS AGO!!!
But did you DO number one?
Lol! :D
Better start clipping coupons for Imodium Bill. It’s only bound to get worse.
I’m sure he will have his body preserved and placed in a mausoleum like Lenin!
I’ll take number 2 (because a part of me is still twelve)
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Look up what has happened to Trump’s Hollywood Star.
I am constantly amazed that there are so many that think it acceptable to force OTHERS to live as THEY believe. It is even more incredible that their belief is in a supernational being that cannot be sensed, measured, or in any way proven to exist. BUT *they* somehow know what *he* wants and we must all live accordingly. Sometimes I really don't think that humans deserve to survive, which is good because I very much doubt that we will!
Not at the rate we're going. I often attend a progressive church where we live in Canada, but my motivations are personal... I like the community I find there (but not only there!), and I appreciate the quiet contemplation I receive, and try to carry into the week ahead. I am not a believer in evangelism, and I know the difference between belief and fact. Some might say I'm not a Christian at all, and perhaps they're right; as the saying goes, I "take what I need and leave the rest."
My comment is not a knock to all those who believe because the truth is: I don't know if there is a 'higher power' or what happens after we die! I just find it galling that others, who also do NOT know, are trying to pretend like they do and forcing all of us to live accordingly.
So appreciate your post, Dana, and wish religious people of whatever stripe would simply be thankful for their lives, and otherwise shut up about them.
Stephen Hawking warned that humanity could face extinction due to factors like uncontrolled population growth, climate change, and the rise of artificial intelligence. He predicted that if these issues are not addressed, the Earth could become uninhabitable by the year 2600.
Yes he did. He also said that when humans to go extinct it will be because of of greed and stupidity....paraphrasing. I agree with him.
There have been stories recently about Paul Erlich and his book in the 1970's predicting uncontrolled expanding population. But in the US and some other countries, now we have too low birthrates. Maybe other countries will have large increases.
The flow of immigrants from the South (in Europe and America) are not only controlled by push factors, they are also affected by pull factors such as low birth rates in the North. And why are birth rates low - could it be affordability issues? And could those affordability issues have something to do with the increasing differentials between the lowest and highest earnings even within the same Companies?
You should read about what is happening to AMOC (the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current) When that goes, the World-wide current system could descend into utter chaos. In Europe we are worried about a 3°C - 10°C annual temperature drop. I'm not sure that anyone has made predictions about the rest of the World, but stand on me, it ain't going to be comfortable anywhere.
Wow! My thoughts exactly!
Dana, I was too, right after I moved to the south. But a friend told me their preachers had taught them THEIR everlasting souls depended on “saving” others.
How convenient for them! Evangelicals got away from the 'doing good works' (which is HARD WORK and requires self-sacrifice) model to the 'you only have to believe Jesus is your Lord and Savior' one. Their version of 'saving souls' just amasses more money and power to themselves.
This was presaged by court capture operative and Knight of Malta Leonard Leo who - like his Fed Soc SC 'originalists' - uses the judiciary as a ouija board game where the hand of Founders long dead always points to novel right wing extremist assertions - such as that there is no constitutional basis for the separation of church and state.
And then AG Bill Barr, who went one further to declare the Founders intended constitutional rights and protections only for the godly.
Leonard Leo's acceptance speech at the 2017 Canterbury Medal Gala - Becket
.https://becketfund.org/leonard-leo-speech-2017-canterbury-medal-gala/.
Education Law & Policy: Luncheon Speech with Former Attorney General William Barr
.https://youtu.be/sjazw1_YaEE?si=3Ci0MkTVWM2uC-E7.
Liberal Christian group files ethics complaint against Attorney General Barr | National Catholic Reporter
Officials at Faithful America interpreted Barr's speech as disproportionately focused on Christianity. After Barr's remarks, an online petition launched by the group to "investigate William Barr's toxic Christian nationalism" accrued signatures from almost 14,000 people.
.https://www.ncronline.org/news/liberal-christian-group-files-ethics-complaint-against-attorney-general-barr.
AMERICANS UNITED
FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
Freedom Without Favor,EqualityWithout Exception
.https://www.au.org/.
Superb deep dive lin. ⬆️
You would know a deep dive in if you saw one, Mr. Brianne every liberal here that I’ve seen does nothing but dermatology work they scratch the surface of an issue and then hump on it like a dog in heat instead of checking it verifying it validating it…
Nitwit.
Sometimes Lynn, I wonder if you’re actually a mummy because the only thing you talk about is antiquity and it’s gonna be very hard for you to catch up thousands of years to catch up to today but I wish you luck
As an atheist, I don't believe that Jesus was the son of God any more than I believe that he was immaculately conceived. However, having said that, if they ever get to meet Jesus or his heavenly father, **I would not want to be them!!!**
So true. Real believers do not live their lives the way these people do.
Indeed, the one thing that American Fundamentalist Evangelicals isn't, in any way, shape or form, is Christian.
Actually, I recall reading that several of the prime thinkers behind both the Declaration and the Constitution — Jefferson among them — may not have considered themselves solely Christian or Christian at all. Many called themselves adherants of a school of religious practice like —- but not
identical to — today’s Congregationalists or Unjtarians.
As for Sunday’s
expletive-deleted show, if you can remember with fondness shows like Father Knows Best , Donna Reed, Leave It to Beaver and My Three Sons,TrumpWorld!
At least some of the founders appear to have been deists who believed that God had created the world but that we were now on our own. Jefferson assembled his own Bible from which he excised what he considered to be myth.
Completely -- June in her apron, Ward coming home from work .... the kids being rascals and then learning an 'important lesson' at the end of the show.
They referred to themselves as "deists".
Try to catch up to current reality shall we. There’s been a revival here without any political interference of the young, getting back to religion. Because the schools that the liberals create and control are teaching them more about their genitalia than they are about succeeding in life in the basics, like math or science or a vocational trade or God forbid free choice of schools.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
I want my tax money back. It was stolen by evangelical Christians. Where is the eighth Commandment when we need it?
''Rededicate 250: The National Mall as Circus of Faith and Commerce''
Today America showcased its full transformation into a nation united by golf, ancient scripture, and Shriner-style racing cars barreling past the Lincoln Memorial like armored chariots. The Rededication Jubilee, funded by your tax dollars, treated the National Mall as a stage for a holy carnival, proclaiming that the real founders of the United States were obviously the guys who prefer powdered donuts over the Constitution and think religious broadcasts double as history lessons.
The crowd cheered as spiritual leaders instructed that joy comes from unquestioning obedience, not messy concepts like “rights” or “checks and balances.” Confetti cannons erupted, neon flags waved, and a raccoon mascot—or perhaps a ghost of Madison—danced atop a platform adorned with corporate logos. Jefferson and Madison were nowhere to be seen, reportedly busy coaching flag football instead of shaping the republic. One organizer, eyes glittering, announced the new national motto: “pray hard and obey harder,” which explained nothing but sounded glorious over gospel karaoke.
Meanwhile, corporate sponsors traded prayer points for tax breaks, and an IndyCar driver mistook the Reflecting Pool for a racetrack. Schoolchildren on field trips were taught that history is a prop, a background for selfies, and that Instagram filters are more important than facts. No one knows who actually founded America, but the crowd nodded sagely, certain it must have been someone with perfect lighting, a sparkling smile, and impeccable timing. God bless America, and God bless our ability to convert civic ritual into a televised, grotesque, holy circus where spectacle triumphs over substance.
Its a bit like the band playing on a certain unsinkable ship, after an iceburg has inconveniently intervened in its path.
For all practical purposes, the Christo Nazis who gathered on the National Mall were worshiping and pledging their allegiance to the Egomaniac-in-Chief who promised to Make America White Again.
Tonight's LFAA was sobering Professor. I thought 7-11 was a retail store. No King Solomons nor Clowns-in-Waiting.
Exactly!
I disagree. The event shows that in a country as bountiful as America there should always remain a place for the most stupid people in the country where, in lieu of affordable homes, social care, living wages and decent jobs they can nevertheless celebrate in the company of their peers. If it keeps them away from the Capitol building then I'm all for it.
Meanwhile, down in Alabama, today's freedom marchers were assembling again to assert that all people are created equal and entitled to vote.
Vote early, vote-by-mail, track your vote digitally & make certain your vote was received & counted AFTER you voted all the was down the Ballot.
This event was orchestrated by the government and paid for with government funds.
The Constitution protects people's rights to their beliefs - in the pew and in the polling place. It prohibits government from promoting religion and from promoting one religion over another - as is happening with the Republican party privileging Christianity. Republicans in all branches of government are privileging not only religious creed over civic law and individual beliefs over shared civil rights, they are privileging irrational habits of mind over coming to consensus through reasoned debate of empirical evidence
lin, surely you know “government” funds really belong to Trump. As does everything else, like the WH, the reflecting pool (which he thinks is like a shallow swimming pool), etc, etc.
I do not know how Dr Richardson does it, day after day. WOWerful essay; yet another 'one of the best' I have encountered.💡
This essay is a master-stroke. I wish every concerned citizen of our betrayed allies around the world would read this magnificent, passionate piece. Our neglected friends would realize that we need their help and support to rally us.🤞🏼
WHAT WE DO NOT NEED is our allies enabling a blood-drunk authoritarian. Team Treason in the 0val 0ffice has to twist in the wind. Why is it so hard to call a traitor a traitor?😠
A complete and utter falsification of both Christianity and American history. A trashy farce on a stale MAGA saltine cracker.
In Jesus' words, a spectacle filled with "whitewashed sepulchers, which outwardly appear brilliant, yet truly...are filled with...filth" (Matthew: 23-27).
By their fruits you will know them. Mixing statecraft with religion corrupts both. We don't divine guilt or innocence in a courtroom; ideally we prove (or fail to prove) fault. Proof legitimizes decisions of governance. Personal religious convictions may influence the way we vote, but the state has no business promoting religious doctrine. Not and preserve freedom and justice for all.
And on our dime! We paid for it!
The pictures I have seen show that there were a lot of empty seats!
Cold comfort
We are still footing the bill
and we keep asking ourselves...How is this being allowed to go on and on and on???
Don't disagree at all. Just wanted to make the comment that this thing wasn't as popular as the admin might make it out to be.
yup
everything so shocking and no matter how much yu think it could not be worse, it is
OUTRAGEOUS!
Once again, and in perpetuity these people who revel in what they believe to be a deep “ Christian” faith is based on cherry-picking a few sentences or paragraphs from the Old Testament. The context was that god was talking to Solomon, an Israelite, forerunner of the Jewish religion. There WAS NO Christianity at that time in biblical history. The founder of what these people think they own and represent did not come along for a couple of centuries, and according to their bible refuted quite a lot of what the Old Testament required of “god’s people”
What can be said of people who would follow charlatan’s like Jim Jones to the murder of their children and their own deaths because they were told that this was “god’s will”. These modern day evangelicals are just as insane as those who drank the kool aid in the jungle.
A lot of Christian faith is based on the New Testament.
Um,yeah. Christianity is named after Jesus Christ. And he is what all the Deciples wrote about in the NEW Testament.
Gosh, was he there as well?
bringing pedophilia to chrisianity. What a concept.
“…and children obey.”😥
I like your stale MAGA saltine description.
And now you are the judge and jury of freedom of religion? Lmao. When was the last time you saw the inside of a church or a synagogue?
And you demonstrate your ignorance all over again every time you post unfathomable you’re actually quite ballsy embarrassing yourself time after time and keep doing it.
Who is that comment meant for?
Well, it wasn’t to you, but if you have a comment to make, I’d be more than happy to hear it
So according to professor Richardson, we need to replace Christian nationalism, (not so different from nazism ) with our civic identity. That will rely heavily on society’s understanding of how civics in a democracy works. Americans didn’t seem to learn from history as our counterparts in Europe have.
We will need to revise and reinvent the eduction system so everyone learns from lessons of the past and how people with differing values can thrive together. Germany has had to come to grips regarding the atrocities from the Second World War. Americans need to begin to address slavery in the same way as we cannot move forward without addressing our original sins.
Mike, your stark analogy between Germans under Hitler and Americans under Trump is the ultimate analogy of all people’s ultimate challenge to overcome hate with love.
Love shall overcome. May it be so.
And, Mike, your recommendation we come to grips with our history of slavery as Germany has done with its history of Naziism is an excellent comparison I never thought of.
Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson speaks to this comparison, highly recommend it. The obvious difference between Nazis in WW2 and American slavery is how the US never actually accounted but Germany did.
it was slavery in the US that Hitler studied to see how a nation could be so persuaded to believe in the enslavement of others
Exactly. Hence so many similarities.. except the German people dealt with the issue after WW2… Americans haven’t. It’s all laid out well in Caste.
And, only recently have we taken down “most” of the Lost Cause statues - Germany eliminated all the Nazi statues, etc.in addition to its acknowledgement of guilt and education of its youth about the truth. Speaks volumes about the difference between the 2 countries’ beliefs! Americans have not yet acknowledged guilt or demonstrated remorse for its atrocities!
Naziism was not defeated by love. It was defeated through war. You need to be prepared to do the same, because it could very well come to that.
The education system needs to teach critical thinking not how to take a standardized test.
And when civics hasn't worked? That's the real dilemma you face.
If it bleeds it leads? If only a few thousand people showed up for this, what does that say about the WCN movement? And these so-called faith leaders, do they have a real following?
And yet it seemed to me that the Washington Post gave it more prominent coverage than it did the No Kings marches that engaged millions of people around the country.
atonement, something America has never done
Own your mistakes. Problem is they don't think this is a mistake.
Professor Richardson -- Thank you for pointing out this blatant misuse of public funds to promote an event based on Christian nationalism. What is happening in America? It's truly crazy. As you eloquently pointed out, the intentions of America's founders have been the opposite of obedience. It's well past time to object to this outrageous behavior and misappropriation of taxpayer dollars.
Our underlying social contract expects obedience to the law, framed with the collective consent of the governed and with certain individual rights guaranteed. "A government of laws, not of men".
"Rededicate 250" was not an appropriate use of public funding. The event promoted an explicitly Christian religious message through government-supported infrastructure, official participation, and taxpayer-backed resources. This potentially violated the Establishment Clause's prohibition against government endorsement of religion. Unlike broadly inclusive ceremonial observances, the event's calls to "rededicate" America under God, combined with predominantly evangelical programming, created the appearance that the state favored a particular religious viewpoint. The event did not serve a secular public purpose.
Like you think they actually follow the Constitution? They look at it as more of a list of suggestions.
Valid point!
Donald Trump and his anti- American, elitist agenda, lavishing wealth and power onto the already rich and powerful disparaging the poor as parasites on the system is running out of steam.
Trump knows it. The GOP knows it. Do MAGA zealots know it yet? We'll see.
However, we can be sure of two things coming our way.
1. BIG TIME RACISIM. Black, brown and Asian citizens will be discredited as non-American 2nd class citizens, not worthy of the vote.
2. TRUE RELIGION. White Christians will be exalted while all others religions and ethnic groups will be demeaned and considered not of the one, true American faith.
The MAGA propaganda bullhorn will be blasting away in overdrive trying to convince working Americans to vote against their own interest. Give up healthcare, education and a host of social services.
Trump will be lying his head off trying to convince Americans not to believe their eyes or their bank accounts.
Let's be prepared for the onslaught. Worry Less. Fight Back More. We will WIN in Nov. and then again in 2028.
Listen to Robert DeNiro with Nicolle Wallace and DO SOMETHING—or, as the French said in 1942: “Faire quelque chose”. Some did and helped make Normandy possible.
You're spot on. The time to fight back is long overdue.
Well put. The USA today resembles 1930’s Germany.
You're spot on. The time to fight back is long overdue.
And these CNs and evangelicals actually think Trump believes as they do. Or maybe they do know he doesn’t but don’t care since he gives them a political platform, which they’ve long craved.
It's probably the latter.
as I've suggested before, there needs to be a digital billboard showing the wasted taxpayers dollars daily and one for trump's grift ,his golfing ( in trump 1.0 vs 2.0). Put it in prominent locations, Time Square, Vegas, Disneyland, etc. The people need to see it daily
Great suggestion!
Between SCOTUS and Trump, the First Amendment has been so thoroughly violated and shredded in the name of a version of”Christianity” that neither god or Jesus would recognize. Can we call this what it is: mass insanity?
The closing session of the Santa Fe Literary Festival was tonight. The featured speaker was Judy Blume. When asked what she is reading these days, she immediately said “Heather Cox Richardson”. The crowd cheered. Thought you’d like to know…
Thank you! Laurie, it’s great news for all of US who are inspired by and learning from HCR.
But it was a LITERARY festival, so people who don't love to read or don't read at all or are opposed to reading or ban books would not be in attendance. It's like preaching to the choir. So, how do we grow the choir?
This is exactly why Christian nationalism is so dangerous. It replaces citizenship with obedience.
The founders absolutely understood the difference between freedom of religion and state-sponsored religion because once political leaders begin claiming divine authority, dissent itself becomes framed as disobedience — not just to government, but to god.
And that has never been the story of democracy. Democracy requires questioning power, not worshipping it.
The irony is that the bible provides that history begins with an act of disobedience.
Here are three things some may be interested in:
(1) Nikolas Bowie, the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Daphna Renan, the Peter B. Munroe and Mary J. Munroe Professor of Law at Harvard Law School wrote a seminal opinion article in the NYT on 5/3/2026. “NYTimes.com: Who Will Stand Up to the Supreme Court Justices”. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/02/opinion/supreme-court-voting-rights-act.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jVA.xTcm.K2_NcKslsW_H&smid=em-share. They discuss the Supreme Court’s decisions from Dred Scott vs Sandford to post Civil War Reconstruction were the Congress changed the size of the court and passed laws and Reconstruction ammendments they thought would guarantee civil rights. But when Congress lost interest the court defined a very narrow interpretation of the amendments which then enabled Jim Crow. But according to the U.S. Constitution Congress has supremacy over the SCOTUS and reestablished this with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 creating the Second Reconstruction. The current SCOTUS has invalidated it but the fight is not over. The Constitution still gives Congress the power over the SCOTUS. And it is up to Congress to now use this power to regulate a rogue Supreme Court.
(2) Lisa Graves, J.D., preeminent legal expert on SCOTUS interviews David Daley, author, journalist, senior fellow at FairVote and author of “Antidemocracy: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections” on LegalAF: “SCOTUS Supremacy EXPOSED as Rulings BACKFIRE!!! - YouTube”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asacY8WTgH0
(3) Dr.Henry D Abraham, M.D., an American psychiatrist, Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient (nuclear arms limitation work), prior faculty member in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Tufts New England Medical Center was interviewed by Anthony Davis on Meidas Touch: “LIVE: Expert BREAKS SILENCE on Trump NUCLEAR THREAT | The Weekend Show - YouTube”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6KyGXgleP0. A expert analysis of Trump’s cognitive state and medical concerns.They discussed a variety of topics including Trump’s mental status, diagnosis, cognitive decline and that Trump is unfit for office and an enormous risk because he has the power to use the nuclear codes.
36 physicians (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) wrote an open letter: “Medical Concerns about President Donald J. Trump and His Fitness for Office” that was entered into the Congressional Record 4/30/2026 by Senators Whitehouse and Reed. You can see it with Google as a pdf at ippnw.org or the Congressional Record.
Thank you. Senators Whitehouse and Reed are Democrats, both from Rhode Island, the Roman Catholic “settlement” part of the Constitution. In a world of ironies, yet another.
Dr John Gartner says the same thing. My frustration is Congress.does.not.care. Period. So who (or what) is or can do anything? We just keep being more and more frightened.
https://youtu.be/pSnsreaKlMo?si=A3xS-HlTBDXbAYFS
Thanks, Fred. These were great. I'll be reminding my 3 reps today that they/we are in charge, not SCOTUS!
Utter cult-like behavior. These people will not prevail, and they can go back to whatever form of relationship with God they prefer. But we will hold to our values, the values the country was created for as so well summarized in the various quotes of HCR's post. It is hard, it will take perserverance, calm, time (and a zillion other resources). I do want to sometimes turn away, but I WON'T do that. We must carry on energized, and committed.
The easy way to shackle them is for Congress to remove their tax-exempt status. Too many of these RW MAGA pastors seem to be just grifters in it for the money.
Congress? Pfft. Not this Congress. But let’s hope (not pray) for the next Congress.
Demand every day of our congresscritters no matter which congress we have (do it with a dash of hope and a pound of commitment)
BARF BARF BBAARRFF!!!
I am so sick of this shit!!!
🤮🤮🤢🤢🤮🤮👺👺👺👿👿👹👹👹👹☠️☠️☠️🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼
Take a poop number. The line stets here.
💩💩💩💩😋
Have you paid your club membership fees?
💰💰💰💰💰🥴
We are a mostly Christian nation concerning religion but we are not a theocracy.
Trump is a great example of someone who does not practice Christianity.
The favoritism shown by the current administration reflects corruption and poor governance.
We need progress, not a regression to a time when equality of opportunity was not practiced.
I take issue with your assertion that the US is mostly a christian nation. It is 100% a secular nation.
We are secular aqnd I hope we stay that way. However, we are predominently Christian by religion as I stated.
There appears to be a substantial minority of Americans who would disagree with you (unless you are using Trumpian percentages).
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/17/americans-tied-to-christian-nationalism-study/88707589007/
It still baffles me how after 2,000 years they're still 'practising'? Trump seems to have got the knack of it with minimal effort and without even having to attend regular church services or read the bible.
I doubt that America is a mostly Christian nation. One cannot count almost all the conservative evangelical churches, especially the mega-ones, as being Christian, notwithstanding that the claim to be so. If, for example, Franklin Graham is a Christian, I'm a money's uncle!
It does depend on the definition of who is a Christian.
Phil W, I think we're getting into the realm of semantics or nuance here, but the U.S. is NOT a "Christian nation." To use that phrase connotes that the U.S. has adopted an official religion, which it has not.
If we further parse your statement, we can agree that a majority (62%) of U.S. residents identify as "Christian."
https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/
However ...
Even that percentage must be further unpacked. A distinct minority (24%) of U.S. residents who identify as "Christian" are actually practicing Christians. Some claim this identity because they were born to parents who were Christian. Others claim it because they believe in a deity they identify as God, but are not members of any particular religion. Still others claim the title because they are ashamed to say they are not at all religious. There are probably other reasons I haven't listed.
https://www.barna.com/trends/faiths-shrinking-influence/
So if you want to be accurate in your appraisal of the importance of religion in the U.S., it's best not to use the label "Christian."
There is only 1 answer.
Please organize the next NO KINGSDAY on the 4h of July.
I am not in your country. I have no access to the organizing committees. So, please, one or more of you, get this message through to the organizers
Better yet do it on the orange felon's birthday in June.
No, then it is about a person again instead of “we the people” and the constitution
You'd better have a NO DEMONS day as well.
You could organize one in your country . . . Like Linda Weide in Germany.
We like our King. He is adorable. And … he has no POLITICAL power 😊
Beatrijs, I am one who thinks the embrace of "No Kings" as a marketing brand for resistance protest in the U.S. is a regrettable choice. Although it is "short and sweet" and easily rolls off the tongue, it doesn't really address the concerns we have about Donald's despotism.
A constitutional monarchy is not a bad thing. There are many past and present monarchs who have no or limited political power, while acting as an emblematic head of state where one is required, such as in international relations.
A taxpayer funded dedication historically binding the US and largely Protestant Christian religion in a celebration on the national mall while the President is off playing golf, pretty much sums up the administration’s whole approach to the last 250 years. The real celebrations will be the birthday cage fight for the President and the huge Trump constructions. Destroy what was accomplished and put the President’s name everywhere. Religious freedom was the hallmark of American settlement from the pilgrims breaking with the Church of England to Roger Williams fleeing the Puritans to Catholic Maryland to Quaker Pennsylvania to separation of church and state. Golfing during Christian nationalism is just right. Keep your eyes on the prize, contact your representatives, and vote Blue!
Janis, the upcoming “cage fight” is the spectacle that may well reflect clearly to each of us how we see the world.
What shall we plan for that day?
Read a good book.
Jane, There are counter-programming plans for Sunday June 14, just as there was last year. (No Kings). Tune in to Indivisible's What's the Plan zoom call this Thursday when an announcement is expected: https://indivisible.org/events/whats-the-plan-with-leah-and-ezra/
An Indy car race around the mall?? Really? Speeds near 200 mph.
What could possibly go wrong?
MLM, I have no doubt this planned event is being called a "race" to promote it to the masses. If it takes place, it will be little more than a parade, with a few chosen drivers passing each other to create a bit of excitement.
Think of it as studio wrestling in Indy race cars.
Amen Heather, I belong to no religious doctrine, none satisfy my belief in spirituality, but I feel it and accept the quest for understanding. Standing out and looking at the stars at night, hearing the wind in the trees, experiencing Love, I know there is a riddle to contemplate. I have found a quiet place in Alaska to ponder these questions. We don't need to agree, only to listen.
At breakfast I told my wife that ithe new America says wives submit … I got the look. I truly think these people never read the founding documents, do not think for themselves and I would guess are the same people who do not have a passport and care less seeing or understanding the world.
I read somewhere that 25% of any population would want authoritarian rule...that is...they don't want to think..they just want to follow rules,live their life and believe they'll be looked after.
I think its more than 25%. After all Trump got more than 50% of the vote last time!
... there is a huge difference between 50% of 'the vote' and 50% of the population.
The ”strongman” leader! If it only was legit!
Education is the key. People need to understand the difference, and then they can decide if they are Pagan or Christian, or 4D Spacetime like me. For sure, we are a nation of people that are 98% the same DNA as the chimpanzees - they can be a nasty bunch!
Abuse of power
National treasury theft
Religious freak show
Trump needed something to put the spotlight on himself to distract us, because
tomorrow Putin will visit China following Trump’s trip
“Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to ‘further strengthen the comprehensive partnership’, the Kremlin says.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to China from May 19 to 20, the Kremlin has announced.
Putin and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, plan to “further strengthen the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” between Moscow and Beijing, the Kremlin said in a statement.”~ Al Jazeera Staff and AFP
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/16/russias-putin-to-visit-china-following-trumps-trip
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And the media plays into his hands by focussing on this crap and ignoring what really is important. So the media goes all in on ballrooms, reflecting pools etc because its easy and attracts eyes, rather than the more difficult issues that are also the more important. And if you want to avoid the news completely, there's heaps of reality TV shows.