posted January 25, 2020 01:54 PM            

...no more politics, this is a war between good and evil...there are monsters among us...

\Evangelical Occultists are trying to murder us all

Privately, Trump tells those around him that he is the son of g-d, sent to earth to bring on Armageddon and bring the righteous to the side of Jesus, his brother by another mother.

If only we were making this up, we aren’t. Ask Pompeo or Barr, both cultists.

Hell is coming to earth, some think it is here already. Certainly satanism and all that goes with it, hate, ignorance, ritual abuse and cannibalism abound, and have for a very long time, among the bloodline classes and their “evangelical” demon smooching red-state freaks.
We see it every day, we all know it, we have always known it, the worst kept secret of all time. Watch Paula White. Is Trump the new “King of the Jews” as he claims? We don’t think the Jews want Trump but the demonically infested bloodline monstrosities that rule much of the world certainly do accept the orange buffoon as King of Israel. This is the person Trump has nominated to bring the world to Armageddon… http://youtu.be/5w0kSkvusjI http://youtu.be/BCRNB-8mHt4

Paula White says g-d had lots of kids, including Donald Trump and nightclub owner, Lucifer Morningstar. Please support this Netflix show that depicts a strangely heretical view of Christianity but is pure fun:

Wikipedia: (Yes, Wikipedia is run controlled by enemies of the US, we admit that) White is a proponent of prosperity theology.[4][50] Along with other televangelists who have made millions of dollars through the prosperity gospel, her ministry Without Walls was the subject of an inconclusive 2007–2011 Senate Finance Committee investigation with which she refused to cooperate. The committee had investigated financial improprieties that could have affected the religious organization’s tax-exempt status.[51][52][53][54]

Southern Baptist theologian and ethicist Russell D. Moore said that “Paula White is a charlatan and recognized as a heretic by every orthodox Christian, of whatever tribe.”[55] Michael Horton, a professor of theology at Westminster Seminary California, wrote in early January 2017 that White represented a heretical movement and that her then-upcoming address at President Trump’s inauguration was helping to introduce heresy into mainstream public life. Horton addressed White’s denial of the Trinity and the prosperity gospel’s position that Christ died on the cross not for the forgiveness of humankind but to rescue people from financial hardship.[55]

Other allegations of heresy have emerged among conservative Christians, such as that White has denied the Trinity, partly as a result of a video shared by Christian author Erick Erickson that shows White assenting to the viewpoint that Jesus Christ was not the only son of God, in contravention of the Nicene Creed.[22][56] Erickson has stated:
The President of the United States putting a heretic on stage who claims to believe in Jesus, but does not really believe in Jesus, risks leading others astray…. I’d rather a Hindu pray on Inauguration Day and not risk the souls of men, than one whose heresy lures in souls promises of comfort only to damn them in eternity.[56]
Connor Gaffey has drawn attention to a 2007 televised event at which White stated, “Anyone who tells you to deny yourself is from Satan.” Gaffey contrasts that with Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”[38]

White has denied all allegations of heresy.[22][56] In a January 5, 2017, CNN interview, White responded to some of the criticism saying “I have been called a heretic, an apostate, an adulterer, a charlatan, and an addict. It has been falsely reported that I once filed for bankruptcy and — my personal favorite — that I deny the Trinity!” During her interview, she also said in her defense, “My life and my decisions have been nowhere near perfect, though nothing like what has been falsely conveyed in recent days.”[57]

White has also been criticized for being introduced as having or claiming to have a doctoral degree when she has no college or seminary degree.[58]

In July 2018, White was discussing illegal immigration and said that although Jesus migrated to live in Egypt, “it was not illegal. If he had broken the law, then he would have been sinful and he would not have been our Messiah.” In response, Reverend William Barber II called White a “Christian nationalist” and said that “Jesus was a refugee & did break the law. He was crucified as a felon under Roman law.” Matthew Soerens of the Evangelical Immigration Table group has stated that the concept of illegal immigration did not exist at the time and also questioned White’s argument that breaking a law is sinful by noting that the Bible had written about Jews defying an Egyptian ruler’s order to kill children and Jesus’s apostles being jailed for breaking Roman laws.[59][60]

posted February 08, 2020 05:24 PM            

Pastor Calls on Christians Everywhere To Reject "Christian Zionism
http://youtu.be/3zspnehHeJY

One of the greatest things that has hamstrung the American Church is the belief that modern-day Israel is somehow biblically prophetic and that antichrist, unbelieving “Jews” are somehow God’s people and the entire area promised to Abraham and his descendants are promised to unbelieving, unrepentant modern-day Israel. Such teachings were popularized by the likes of C.I. Scofield and John Nelson Darby and even more popularly promoted on fake Christian television such as TBN and popular “prophecy teachers.” Not only has it had ramifications on the Church, especially concerning eschatology, but it has impacted American culture, law and foreign policy. Pastor Chuck Baldwin recently called upon all Christians to reject what has been labeled as “Christian Zionism.” It is not an attack on those that call themselves Jews nor is it an attack on the state of Israel. Rather, it is a call to repentance to the Scriptures to see who the true Israel of God is and how the promises of God have been fulfilled in the person of Christ and His Church, resulting in a glorious hope for Christians that they not only hold onto, but they present to others who repent and obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Baldwin made the comments prior to a message he gave at his church just a couple of weeks ago.

The post that he put out is titled, “An Appeal To My Preterist, Postmillennialist, Amillennialist, Reformed & Premillennial Historicist Brethren.”

Take heed to the message and repent accordingly.

Before I get to the main point: This column was written before the vote in the Senate to acquit Donald Trump of corruption charges took place—but it doesn’t matter. The verdict to acquit was made before the “trial” ever began. And as for the so-called State of the Union Address, I haven’t paid much attention to this carnival act in decades.

Like almost everything in Washington, D.C., Trump’s impeachment was all public theater. The real decisions are made in backrooms. And the decision to keep Trump in the White House for a second term was made before he won his first term. Anyone who thinks that voters really elect a president is duped beyond belief. Presidents are not elected; they are selected. And that goes double for Donald Trump.

Contrary to Trump’s phony façade and the accepted wisdom of conservative Republicans that Trump is an “outsider,” a “non-globalist” and an “America-first” president, the globalist establishment, military-industrial complex, Police State promoters and neocon/Zionist warmongers LOVE Trump. He is doing more of their bidding than Barack Obama ever did. All of the media criticism against Trump and Pelosi’s circus impeachment only made him more popular and all but seals his re-election. That, in addition to the fact that the Democrat Party presidential contenders—except for Tulsi Gabbard and Joe Biden—are a bunch of unelectable wackos. And, of course, that is the plan.

Trump’s acquittal and re-election will end up eviscerating whatever vestiges of constitutionalism that yet remain in this country. Make no mistake about it: Donald Trump is on his way to becoming America’s first monarch. And the truly amazing and disgusting part of it all is that Christians and conservatives are the ones that will be the happiest when it happens.

Just as in 1998 when Bill Clinton was impeached, Trump’s senate “trial” was a complete fraud. As with Clinton, Trump is as guilty as guilty can be. And just as with Clinton, again the Republican Senate conducted a kangaroo court to acquit. Clinton’s and Trump’s senate trials were as rigged as any mafia trial. Chicago mobster Al Capone would be as proud as a peacock.

In case someone is interested, which most aren’t, here is the oath that senators took for Trump’s impeachment trial:

I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeaching of President Donald John Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws. So help me God.

Before the trial even started, Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham (and several others) boldly stated that they had no intention of being impartial. By doing so, those men told the whole world that they care absolutely nothing about their oath to the Constitution and are totally unfit to hold public office. By virtue of those public statements alone, McConnell and Graham should be removed from office. But almost nobody—conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, Christian or secularist—cares a tinker’s dam about the Constitution anymore, so McConnell and Graham have absolutely nothing to worry about.

It was necessary to write the above, given the events of the week. But the focus of this column is actually not about any of the above. As the title of the column states, this is an appeal to my Preterist, Postmillennialist, Amillennialist, Reformed & Premillennial Historicist brethren.

My remarks below are archived on video, and I urge readers to watch the video (only 6 minutes long) and share it far and wide.

This appeal is heavy on my heart. For the benefit of those readers who do not use computers (yes, those people still exist), here is the transcript of my video address:

We are at a decisive moment in Church history. We stand on the shoulders of the great Protestant Reformers, our Pilgrim forebears, the fearless Black Robed preachers of Colonial America and two Great Awakenings.

Most of us arrived at our current prophetical understandings via circuitous routes. And let’s acknowledge that the nuances of our varied understandings of Biblical prophecy will never be totally reconciled this side of eternity, at which time we will surely discover that none of us was 100% accurate about every jot and tittle of the matter.

But I want to talk about what unites us, not what divides us.

Whatever our disagreements, we all share the illumination from the blessed Holy Spirit to the hellish doctrines of so-called Christian Zionism, otherwise known as Prophetic Dispensationalism.

We rightly understand that the faux State of Israel created in 1948 has blinded and beguiled the vast majority of evangelicals and has taken control of our political, educational, media, entertainment and military establishments to the point that our country stands on the precipice of national disaster.

We also understand that the fascination and intoxication with faux Israel would not be taking place if not for the mass acceptance by pastors, teachers, college professors and televangelists of the false doctrines of Darby and Scofield.

We need a Second Reformation and a Third Great Awakening. We need an awakening to the deception and dangers of Christian Zionism—a term we all understand to be the quintessential oxymoron.

Our disagreements regarding the literalness, allegories, timing and placement of the characters and events of the Book of Revelation pale next to our agreement regarding the finished work of Christ on the Cross, the establishment of the New Covenant, the blessed promise of salvation through Christ alone by faith alone and that Christ has both fulfilled and abolished Jewish law and has broken down the wall between Savior and sinner—between Jew and Gentile.

We stand shoulder to shoulder against the attempts of Christian Zionists to split the singular Body of Christ, comprised of Jew and Gentile (“the Israel of God”) under one Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, into a freakish two-headed, two-bodied Jewish and Gentile monster.

We all understand the significance and prophetic fulfillment of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. We all understand that Christ fulfilled the promises given to Abraham and David. We all understand that the only Jerusalem for New Covenant believers is a Heavenly One.

Christian Zionism—or Israel-based Dispensationalism—has taken our country to the precipice of global war and domestic tyranny. It has divided the Church, obfuscated the truth, enslaved the mind and given false hope to millions.

I believe God has already begun calling a remnant out of the false gospel of Christian Zionism. I’m seeing people by the thousands repudiating Israel-based prophecy doctrines. I truly believe this is the beginning of that Third Great Awakening our country so desperately needs.

I call on Preterists, Full and Partial, I call on Postmillennialists, Amillennialists, Reformed and Premillennial Historicists to agreeably disagree on the nuances of prophecy and understand that none of us is the enemy of Christ.

I call on each of us to unite our hearts and our prayers in working together to help the masses of Christians and unchurched alike, whom God is already moving with His Spirit, and in exposing the fallacies of Christian Zionism—complete with its racial divisions, hatred and warmongering—and in tenderness and boldness bring the wanderers home: home to Peace, home to Love, home to God.

Again, here is the video address.
http://youtu.be/3zspnehHeJY

More than anything else, the false doctrines of Christian Zionism are taking America into a deep, dark abyss—an abyss from which, if not stopped, there may be no return (at least not for hundreds of years).

We will never completely agree on all of the nuances of Bible prophecy, but we should be able to recognize the essential truth we share in rejecting the false doctrines of Christian Zionism and unite together on that basis.

Christian Zionism is a scourge; and it will take the unified efforts of all New Covenant believers to help bring the masses of evangelicals out of this devilish deception. If you agree, please share this video far and wide.

PLEASE, watch the six-minute video, and share it with everyone

posted February 09, 2020 05:53 PM            

Trump’s evangelical followers haven’t actually scored any policy wins they were promised

( of course not trump ia a kabbalist and doesn't care the least for the evangelicals any further their acceptance of the genocidal fief of the rothschilds, Israel todd)

ey willFor right-wing Christians, it’s all about anti-choice judges taking over the country to get rid of laws that remove the government from private healthcare decisions. Outside of those judges, however, President Donald Trump hasn’t done a lot more than that.

A Bulwark column explained Sunday that it’s because they don’t know how to parlay their strength into actual legislative progress on their policy issues.

“In order to bring about change in a democracy, political groups must (1) win elections, and (2) transform their electoral success into policy change. Trumpvangelicals have enjoyed some success with (1) but haven’t yet figured out (2),” The Bulwark piece explained.

.

Other than his pledge for judges, Trump promised to get rid of the Johnson Amendment, which prevents non-partisan nonprofit groups like churches from being able to make political donations or endorse candidates. Another promise was to defund Planned Parenthood completely.

“He has not delivered on either. In fact, he’s barely even tried,” The Bulwark wrote.

Trump told evangelicals in Miami last month that he got rid of the Johnson Amendment, “and we’re going to make it permanent.” It was a lie.

What Trump did was issue an executive order “to the extent permitted by law, respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech.”

However, as Bulwark explained, “the extent permitted by law” still has limits on churches and political speech under the Johnson Amendment. The executive order doesn’t “get rid of” the amendment; it confirms support for it.

When it comes to Planned Parenthood funding, Trump used his regulatory abilities to grant states the ability to ban federal funds to abortion providers and deny Title X funding to any clinic that provides referrals to abortion clinics. No reforms passed into law. The second a Democratic president comes into office, those regulations will be gone.

Under Trump’s administration, Planned Parenthood has done exceptionally well, with massive support from Americans shelling out a record level of donations. At the same time, the Planned Parenthood annual report showed record highs in 2019 for government funding and abortions.

“One of Trump’s main selling points was the idea that he’s a successful dealmaker,” The Bulwark recalled. “He entered the presidency with Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. So if he couldn’t deliver for Trumpvangelicals on their issues, then either he wasn’t a very good dealmaker, or he wasn’t actually willing to fight for them on substantive policy grounds that they care about.”

Trump’s only legislative achievement was his corporate tax cuts. He’s fought for funding for his border wall, but that can’t get passed either. So, he shifted fundings to take it from the Pentagon funding. The courts shut him down.

After three years, Trump has held rallies with loud-cheering evangelicals who are giddy about the work he has done. They don’t seem to understand their unfaltering loyalty hasn’t gotten them the laws they wanted.

The Bulwark outlined how to their wield power, but realistically, with less than a year before Election Day, they’re not likely to get anything before November.

posted February 15, 2020 04:30 PM            

Reuters’ Sarah N. Lynch broke a big story on Monday morning highlighting one of the more outrageous examples of the Trump administration’s penchant for rewarding supporters and punishing opponents:

A U.S. Justice Department anti-human trafficking grant program is facing internal complaints, after two nonprofits were denied funding in favor of two less established groups whose applications were not recommended by career DOJ officials.

The groups in question, the Nevada-based Hookers for Jesus, and the South Carolina-based Lincoln Tubman Foundation, had their grants pushed through by Katharine Sullivan, head of the Orwellianly named Office of Justice Programs, against the formal recommendations of career Justice Department officials which had been made based on the reporting of outside experts. The two recommended organizations that were pushed aside, Chicanos Por La Causa and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Palm Beach, appear to be victims of a political vendetta. Per Lynch:

Chicanos Por La Causa has opposed the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The head of Catholic Charities in Palm Beach has participated in past Democratic National Committees as a delegate or standing committee member.

Meanwhile, Hookers for Jesus and the Lincoln Tubman Foundation have right-wing Christian bona fides in spades. The latter’s founder is the daughter of a 2016 primary election Trump delegate. But what blew up into one of Twitter’s top trends Monday night was the offensively named Hookers for Jesus, founded by born-again Christian Annie Lobert, who participated in a panel discussion on “Saving Souls in Sin City: The Secret Life of Ministry in the Party City” at last September’s Religion News Association Conference in Las Vegas.

According to Lynch’s report, Lobert’s previous grant funding “was not renewed in 2018 after the state obtained Hookers for Jesus program manuals saying it was ‘mandatory’ for guests of the group’s shelter, Destiny House, to attend services and volunteer at a specific church.” Furthermore, “Its staff training manual said homosexuality is immoral and abusing drugs for pleasure is ‘witchcraft.’”

As a survivor of Christian school indoctrination I’m far from indifferent to the topic of religious indoctrination and coercion, and I find it particularly disturbing when—as happens all too often in the United States—believers use social programs and public goods, often with state and federal money, to control people and to advance their religious agendas. While most of the public shrugs, for example, the Christian Right has come to dominate sex education in America’s public schools, while also receiving taxpayer money for Christian schools that teach “alternative facts.” Right-wing Christians are also widely known to abuse addiction recovery programs for the purposes of proselytizing to captive audiences and forcing conformity to their religious norms.

The ensuing Twitter storm revealed not only how fed up so many are with this kind of corruption, but it also helped to locate this episode in the larger context of taxpayer supported religious abuses:

“Hookers for Jesus operates a safe house for female adult trafficking victims that, in 2010 and in 2018, maintained a policy of requiring guests to participate in religious activities.”

Your tax dollars at work supporting born again coercion#EvangelicalsForTrump #EmptyThePews https://t.co/P6Y2ndEgjV

— Chrissy in the Dumbest Dystopia (@C_Stroop) February 10, 2020

so we're doing Magdalene Laundries again, cool, cool https://t.co/N30icyb1QP

— Jessica Price (@Delafina777) February 10, 2020

When Hookers for Jesus isn't even the worst one on the list. "The Lincoln Tubman Foundation, awarded $549,345 over three years, was launched by the daughter of a prominent local Republican who supported President Donald Trump." #DrainTheSwamp https://t.co/ITFDZxC6wS

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 10, 2020

A president who boasts of grabbing women by the genitalia, who is defended by @AlanDersh mired in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and Attorney General Bill Barr who hands out federal money to “Hookers for Jesus.”
Anyone tired of the Country being run by a bunch of dirty old men?

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) February 11, 2020

They're cutting SNAP & disability & medicare. However, Hookers for Jesus gets a cool half mill.

Please somebody tell me what's going on. https://t.co/WKBWowlrf3

— DebbieDoesResist (@DebraReaves9) February 10, 2020
#HookersForJesus is trending.

Why did Joel Osteen do now?

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) February 11, 2020

While opposition to Hookers for Jesus is clearly more visible on Twitter than support, a few supporters did turn up to defend the organization against the deluge of criticism.

https://twitter.com/SRWells3/status/1227106715327438849?s=20

Hookers for Jesus does really good work – I did a story on them a few years back…https://t.co/tX9gSSE71A

— harmonleon (@harmonleon) February 11, 2020

1) The org Hookers for Jesus does really good work helping women who want to get out of the sex industry but can't bc of difficult situations.
2) It's not okay if there was shadiness happening w this distribution of money.
BOTH of these things can be true https://t.co/q0qdqq26wK

— Irene M. Cho (@irenemcho) February 11, 2020

Most awkwardly, and probably unwisely, Annie Lobert herself took to Twitter to defend her organization, both under her own account and under the Hookers for Jesus account. Despite all the evidence to the contrary obtained by government officials and Reuters, Lobert denies that Hookers for Jesus coerces anyone:

No one pushes anything. This report is untrue.

Unless you have experienced sex trafficking yourself & run a safe house that IS and was the FIRST of it’s kind—you will never understand what has gone on or is going on currently with us. Put your rocks down. Do you think we don’t know what coercion is?! We have NEVER done this.

— Annie Lobert (@annielobert) February 11, 2020

It’s always good to see attention being drawn to corruption, and it’s equally important for the American public to understand the extent to which this president pursues the agenda of conservative, mostly white evangelicals and radical traditionalist Catholics. Theocrats and kleptocrats make for natural bedfellows as I’ve argued in Playboy and elsewhere. Despite all the hand wringing and pearl clutching of pundits supposedly seeking to understand how Christians can support such a corrupt and sinful president, there’s no contradiction whatsoever in the behavior of these authoritarian believers whose version of Christianity is intertwined with white supremacist patriarchy.

When it comes to programs for those who need it most, authoritarian Christians often have a large degree of control, which they often abuse. This was a problem in America long before Trump came on the scene, but under Trump it has only gotten worse.

posted February 18, 2020 05:43 PM            

Trump ‘spiritual adviser’ tells followers to skip paying electric bills so they can send her church more cash

Paula White, a prosperity gospel minister who serves as President Donald Trump’s “spiritual adviser,” apparently believes her followers should live in the dark to help keep the lights on at her church.

A lengthy report on White by Mother Jones reveals that the Trump-loving preacher recently told followers at her Supernatural Ministry School in Miami that they could secure God’s favor by sending her church as much money as possible — even if that meant skipping their monthly electric bills.

In particular, White said that followers who send their money to Florida Power and Light (FPL) every month instead of giving it to her church are treating the electric company better than they treat God.

“Instead of writing [that check] to the house of God as I’m instructed to, then what I’m saying spiritually is, ‘FPL, I have now established a spiritual law that put you first,'” White explained to her flock. “So, FPL, save my family, FPL, deliver my drug addicted son. FPL, kill this cancer that doctors say is in my body.”

posted February 19, 2020 07:46 PM            

Trump’s Christians: Evangelical historian explains how right-wingers are able to ignore Jesus to embrace racism and support the president

To quote the bumper sticker: “What would Jesus do?”

Assuming that he existed and held the views imputed to him, Jesus Christ would not support Donald Trump.

Donald Trump’s behavior, values, policies and their consequences are the opposite of what Jesus Christ represented. Trump has put migrants and refugees in cages and delighted in their suffering. He feels contempt for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable and the needy. He has lied at least 16,000 times. He is corrupt and wildly greedy.

Donald Trump is violent, a militarist, a nativist and a white supremacist. He has given aid and comfort to anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and other hate-mongers.

We are told that Jesus Christ lived a life of love, humility and sacrifice. Donald Trump has lived a life of selfishness, greed and wanton cruelty.

Why are white evangelical Christians so overwhelmingly supportive of Donald Trump? While some have tried to present it as a riddle with no evident solution, the answer is quite simple: Donald Trump does the bidding of the Christian right. He has advanced its policies in a war against secular society, women’s freedom, LGBTQ rights, multiracial democracy and the U.S. Constitution.

But it’s important to note that the Christian evangelical community is not a monolith. There are many people within it who oppose Donald Trump and his movement, because they see it as antithetical to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

One such voice is historian John Fea, a professor at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. His new book is “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.” Fea recently published an op-ed in USA Today entitled “‘Evangelicals for Trump’ was an awful display by supposed citizens of the Kingdom of God,” in which he explained that he had spent his “entire adult life in the evangelical community” following a “born-again experience” at age 16:

But I have never seen anything like what I witnessed as I watched President Donald Trump speak to a few thousand of his evangelical supporters at King Jesus International Ministry, a largely Hispanic megachurch in Miami, during the kickoff to his “Evangelicals for Trump” campaign…Trump painted himself as a president who is protecting American evangelicals from those on the political left who want to “punish” people of faith and destroy religion in America. …

I am used to this kind of thing from Trump, but I was stunned when I witnessed evangelical Christians — those who identify with the “good news” of Jesus Christ —raising their hands in a posture of worship as Trump talked about socialism and gun rights.

I watched my fellow evangelicals rising to their feet and pumping their fists when Trump said he would win reelection in 2020.

Trump spent the evening mocking his enemies, trafficking in half-truths in order to instill fear in people whom God commands to “fear not,” and proving that he is incapable of expressing anything close to Christian humility.

His evangelical supporters loved every minute of it. That night, Christians who claim to be citizens of the Kingdom of God went to church, cheered the depraved words of a president and warmly embraced his offer of political power. Such a display by evangelicals is unprecedented in American history.

I usually get angry when members of my tribe worship at the feet of Trump. This time, I just felt sad.

I recently spoke to John Fea about the rise of Trump and his power over Christian evangelicals and the Christian right. Fea explained that the Age of Trump is a continuation of a long history in America where too many white Christians have supported racism, nativism and other regressive social causes. Fea also argued that while the “dark side” of Christian evangelicalism is flourishing under Donald Trump, the groundwork for this moment was laid down decades ago by the likes of Jerry Falwell Sr. and Pat Robertson.

Fea also told me that evangelicals have begun to use religious language about “demons” and Satanic power as a way of publicly targeting the Democrats and others who oppose Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy.

You recently wrote a USA Today op-ed about Donald Trump’s corruption of evangelical Christianity and his power over its adherents. How are you feeling?

I’ve had my ups and downs. It’s been an emotional roller coaster since Donald Trump got elected. It started out with anger. I can honestly say that I’ve gotten rid of that anger. It’s not anger towards Trump per se. Trump is Trump. He’s a fool, he’s absurd, he’s a narcissist. What bothers me are the Christians, the evangelical community, who are so supportive of Trump, who are so willing to look the other way when he does these blatantly and grossly immoral things.

I’m an academic by nature, so I want to try to step back at times and try to understand what gave rise to Trumpism and his power over Christian evangelicals. Sometimes I’m numb. Sometimes I’ve debated whether or not I still belong in that faith community. I am still an evangelical. That is how I identify. But this has all been a roller coaster ride.

What’s really affected me the most is being on the road with my new book, “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.” It came out in 2018, and talking to people who are hurting and emotionally scarred from how they’ve been treated in evangelical churches, simply because they don’t support Trump and what he represents, has really impacted me.

What are some of those personal stories?

At first, I believed that I would have all these Trump supporters criticizing me, yelling at me at my book talks. But what actually happened was that I encountered people who were looking for some kind of community, as they sought out like-minded evangelicals, or former evangelicals, who were looking for other Christians who do support Donald Trump. We would talk for hours after my events. People were sharing with each other how they were more free having a conversation here at this book talk than talking to people about politics in their own churches. That was a huge eye-opener for me.

There were a lot of tears. I prayed with people. Many of these people were women who were struggling not only with the fact of evangelicals supporting Trump, but the misogyny that went along with it. They were also struggling with how the misogynistic attitudes within American evangelicalism were foregrounded by the Trump election. There were also people at my talks sharing how they were ostracized from their church in 2008 or 2012 because they voted for Barack Obama. There were also people who had spoken out about sexual harassment in the evangelical community and were then told to remain quiet by their pastors and other church leaders.

Most of the people I talked to were just saying, “How could I have worshiped with these people all these years and not have realized that they would have supported everything that Donald Trump stands for, both in terms of his character and his policies?”

Some of them would tell me that they are “pro-life” but that there are other more important issues. They would explain how they are willing to put that issue to the side right now because there are issues which are much more important with the Trump presidency, such as immigration, his personal character, religious liberty for non-Christians or just Trump’s blatant lying to the American people.

In the United States white Christianity, especially in the South, was a tool for enforcing and legitimating white supremacy against nonwhites. Why is there any surprise about Donald Trump — who is an evident white supremacist — being a natural partner and champion of right-wing Christians?

I know the history of evangelicalism. I still had hope in 2016 that evangelicals were going to do the right thing and not vote for Trump. They’re my tribe. I was optimistic that Christian evangelicals were going to do the right thing and make the right decision and oppose what Trump stands for.

It took me a few days, not long, to take off my scorned evangelical hat and replace it with my historian’s hat. So yes, you are exactly correct. There is a dark dimension of evangelicalism. One sees that wherever there were moments of demographic change within United States history. There is always a backlash to those changes in American history and it is usually evangelical Christians who are not only part of the backlash but are largely leading that backlash.

I would also argue that there are many things that evangelicals do and have done throughout American history that have brought about some moral improvement in our country. That would include anti-slavery causes, international relief in poverty-stricken countries, actions in support of social justice and other forward-looking issues and concerns. That is not the dimension of the evangelical tradition tapped into by the 81% of white evangelical voters who voted for Donald Trump. Donald Trump appealed to all the darkest sides of American evangelicalism in 2016.

Part of what my work since 2016 has been trying to get evangelicals, a group who are largely an anti-intellectual bunch, to think about the fact that they should not have been surprised by the rise of Donald Trump and the evangelical community’s relationship to it. My book is dedicated to the 19% of evangelicals who did not support him. My book’s message is, “Let’s not pretend that Trump is new. Let’s come to grips with the fact that Trump is just the latest manifestation of a long string of dark moments within our faith’s history in America.”

Did Trump just give right-wing evangelicals permission to be who and what they really are?

The dark side of Christian evangelicalism flourishes under Trump. Did Trump create these racist evangelicals or is he just a manifestation of racism in that faith community? I would probably say it’s the latter.

Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, conservative evangelicals in the Moral Majority, such as prominent figures like Jerry Falwell Sr., Pat Robertson and others, began engaging with politics with the goal of trying to reclaim and renew and restore America’s “Christian” roots. They were very disappointed with Jimmy Carter for a variety of reasons and they began to turn towards Reagan and the GOP. We began to see a political playbook develop. A generation of white evangelicals embraced a strategy of “elect the right people, elect the right president, appoint Supreme Court justices, change the world, and bring about Christian witness in the world through the pursuit of political power.” In many ways that political power is normally associated with fear.

Much of this is driven by a fear-mongering narrative about white Christian America: We’re going to lose our “Christian nation” that we believe the country was founded upon. We need to make America great again, as if it was great in the 1950s or the 1920s with Jim Crow and other forms of oppression. We need to revisit the past, as if it was a much more moral Christian era — which it wasn’t. The right-wing Christian leaders were and are essentially longing for an era that never really existed in the first place.

Now, what’s fascinating about Trump is for many white evangelicals that political playbook was always associated with a Republican candidate. In the minds of most white evangelicals, they believed that person would be of moral character. A Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush or John McCain or Mitt Romney were, in the eyes of white evangelicals, people of moral character. As compared to Donald Trump, they would not be tweeting out lies every day. Yes, they were liars, but they weren’t doing it to the extent of Trump. Most evangelicals would admit Donald Trump does not have the same kind of character as a Reagan or a Bush. Would the evangelical political playbook survive with a person that most evangelicals believed was not a person of moral character? As we discovered, the answer is yes.

When the Christian right talks about “religious freedom” and says that America is a “Christian nation,” what do they really mean?

No one was debating whether the United States was a “Christian nation” until the 1970s. It was manifested through a culture war debate and trying to superimpose that assumption about a “Christian nation” onto the founding fathers who were never asking the question to begin with.

There are two ways of considering that claim. One is the historical argument. The Christian right will make this case that the Constitution is somehow a “Christian” document even though it never mentions God or Jesus. They also try to make a claim about the Declaration of Independence. That document contains four references to God. Most of them are these vague references to a kind of deist God. There’s nothing in the Declaration of Independence about a God who sacrificed his son for the sins of the world or anything of that manner.

There is also an argument that the larger ethos of the culture was Christian and somehow it seeped into to the mindset and the framework of the founders. There is no empirical evidence to suggest such a thing.

So how do you connect that with religious liberty? I think within the Christian right’s mindset, you saw a real transition in the rhetorical approach of the Christian right after Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. But once they lost that battle, unlike Roe v. Wade — which the Christian Right still fights — they were like, “Hey, we lost this and we’re never going to get it back.”

Then the Christian right begin to switch their rhetorical strategy to “religious liberty,” which is something they rarely spoke about before a period of 2000 to 2010. Now the narrative is, “We have a traditional view of marriage and we have all of these traditional values that we uphold, and we want the liberty to be able to continue to practice these values without the government interfering.” For them, “religious liberty” is always the right of white conservative evangelicals to uphold their position.

There was a time when I could have written that essay in a place like Christianity Today or in some other periodical that most evangelicals read. But evangelicalism is so diverse at present. Evangelicals are fractured. There is no longer any kind of mass publication for that community. My thinking was, given that there is no flagship evangelical publication, let me try to pitch this to USA Today. I wanted to speak to my fellow evangelicals — but not the ones who were at the Trump rally I wrote about in the USA Today op-ed. They’re not going to listen to me. There is a group of evangelicals that do not want to listen to reasoned arguments. They are politically calcified.

I was trying to write to the evangelicals who voted for Trump in 2016 because they couldn’t stand Hillary Clinton. I wanted to get those evangelicals to see how our people are sitting in a house of worship and raising their hands singing praises to this morally corrupt individual. I also wanted to show that not all evangelicals support Donald Trump. We are not homogeneous.

How do right-wing evangelicals reconcile Trump’s obvious wicked behavior with their claims to be Christian?

I think it’s mixed. I believe that there are people from within certain sectors of evangelicalism, these are mostly charismatic Pentecostals, who really do believe that Donald Trump is the chosen one. They really believe that Donald Trump is anointed by God for “such a time as this.” He is a new King Cyrus and they know this because they have received prophecies telling them that this is the case. God has told them.

We can laugh at that or say such a belief is foolish, but there’s a world of charismatic Pentecostal evangelicalism that is deeply committed to their leaders, who argue that Donald Trump is the chosen one. They have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of followers. These are large communities. They are led by very strong and powerful personalities. Paula White, counselor to Trump, is one of these leaders. Lance Wall is another one. He actually made the prediction about Donald Trump and King Cyrus. He had a vision of Trump as King Cyrus. As to these prophetic visions, I really do believe that some of these evangelicals, especially charismatic Pentecostals, think their visions are true. And yes, there are some who use it for political gain.

Many of the evangelicals and other people who I wrote about in my USA Today op-ed probably do believe that Donald Trump is an anointed figure from God who will deliver us out of the clutches of secularism and socialism, the latter being largely understood by most of these anti-intellectual evangelicals as some kind of a Soviet-style socialism. In the uneducated evangelical mind, there is no ability to separate a democratic kind of socialism from Joseph Stalin.

When right-wing Christians, especially evangelicals, start talking about “demons” and “the devil” attacking Donald Trump and that they need to use “spiritual warfare” against Trump’s “enemies,” what do they mean?

Evangelicals have always talked about demonic forces in the world and spiritual warfare. In their minds, God and Satan are still battling with each other, and then one day at the great battle of Armageddon or something akin to it, Satan will be defeated and we’ll move into a new heaven. For evangelicals, the world is always enchanted. There are always angels and forces of evil and devils and demons and so forth. That’s how they see the world around them. What’s fascinating about these discussions of spiritual warfare, though, is that they normally take place behind the closed doors of churches. Now evangelicals are bringing this type of talk and logic to American public life in defense of Donald Trump.

Evangelical leaders such as Franklin Graham and others have recently been saying, “There are forces out there that are trying to undermine this president.” If someone who is not a Christian evangelical were to hear the word “forces,” they would think that means the Democrats or the deep state. But any evangelical who hears someone like Franklin Graham say that knows exactly what those forces are. These are demonic forces.

After the impeachment, evangelicals upped their game. “Demonic” and “spiritual battle” and “the devil” did not come into the public discourse in the way they are at present until Donald Trump was impeached. When the impeachment inquiry started, you had all these people saying that this is the devil at work trying to undermine God’s anointed. Devils are trying to undermine a nation and its president who is trying to bring that nation back to its godly roots.

If right-wing Christian leaders are saying that the Democrats are demonic forces, is that an encouragement to violence?

Perhaps I am naïve, but I guess I have enough faith in my fellow evangelicals to prevent this from moving towards violence. But to affirm what you’re saying, I think you’re right. The logical implications of this certainly could be, at this point, very harsh, un-Christian like attacks on people who do not support Trump.

What do right-wing evangelicals and other Christians want? What is the Christian right’s dream for America?

There’s a theological concept in the New Testament known as the “Kingdom of God.” Many non-evangelicals and non-Christians become very concerned when they hear Trump cabinet member Betsy DeVos or someone else with power saying, “We want to bring about the Kingdom of God.” Outsiders see that as a kind of dominionist, reconstructionist, theocratic kind of statement. But when evangelicals theologically talk about the Kingdom of God, they’re normally talking about what the world would be like if Jesus was King and if you put Jesus on the throne of the so-called Kingdom of God. We’re all citizens of this kingdom as believers. I think they’ve confused this idea of a Kingdom of God” with some form of American exceptionalism or the idea that America is a “City on a Hill” and that God has specially blessed us.

When they talk about the nation becoming more Christian, again, it’s all filtered through this recent history of the last 40 years. So how do we create a Christian nation? Well, we fight against abortion. We fight for religious liberty for our views only. We try to privilege Christianity, our version of Christianity, above everything else. If you push many of these Christian right leaders, it is hard to find an answer as far as what they actually want this vision to look like in practice.

For example, they are against abortion. What does that look like in practice? Do you want to take every woman who had an abortion and put her in prison? Put abortion doctors in prison? What is the logical outcome of these kinds of policies? And they would immediately back off and say, “Oh, no, no, no. We don’t want to create a theocratic state, or a state governed by the teachings of the Bible.” But in some ways, they do.

Most evangelicals, because they’ve committed to this notion of reclaiming America as a “Christian nation,” have no model for pluralism. They cannot grasp any idea of a pluralistic society in which there are people who differ from them and question what American evangelicals believe. How do white evangelicals live together in a society with people who have deep differences on a variety of issues?

How do right-wing Christians reconcile the public policies they support with the actual teachings of Jesus Christ? The contradictions are obvious and stark. Jesus would not be a Republican or a conservative.

They ignore it. They don’t try to make sense of it. They completely ignore the contradictions between Trump’s behavior and the Bible. Or they might talk about what their church is doing locally. They would say, “We have a food pantry in our church, or we help the homeless in our community through our church,” and so forth. But when it comes to public life and national life, that is not what they are focusing on. Culture is the national state of the nation. These evangelicals do not possess an integrated view of the way their faith and practices are related to American culture as a whole.

To me, this is a great advertisement for why religion really should not be included in government. This is exactly why we have separation of church and state. Faith is a belief in that which cannot be proven by empirical means. Faith is not part of empirical reality. How does one litigate matters of faith, and other types of magical thinking, relative to a proper government?

I believe that politics is generally a corrupt sphere. Politics is the best example, the best kind of microcosm of that brokenness. What are we as a church doing mixing ourselves up in politics? Our religious convictions can lead us toward certain policy issues. But when we’re arguing in the public square in a pluralistic society and using demons and the Bible and these kinds of things as evidence, there is a problem. Evangelicals are awful at not understanding those distinctions and the problems that result.

posted February 21, 2020 05:26 PM            

End Times Heretic And False Teacher Paula White Makes Outrageous Claim That She Was Taken To Heaven And Saw The Face Of God In The Throne Room

End times heretic and false teacher Paula White claims to have recently been transported to the Throne Room of Heaven, where she received a new mantle and anointing from God.

It’s starting to feel more and more like I am writing for satire site The Babylon Bee instead of bringing you actual end times news about the lukewarm Laodicean church, and yet, here we are. Another day, another outrageous false claim by end times heretic and Donald Trump spiritual adviser Paula White. Is there no limit to her false claims, is there no end to her distorted and heretical presentation of the gospel? Apparently not.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3,4 (KJB)

Our apostle Paul tells us that in the end times, false teachers will tickle the ears of lukewarm Laodicean churchgoers with fables, and Paula White is firmly in the fable business. Why? Because she found out what Kenneth Copeland, Sid Roth, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Hagin, Joel Osteen and all the others figured out. Telling gullible, bible-deficient Christians what they want to hear instead of what the truth is pays big dividends. So here it is, video of false teacher Paula White lying about going to Heaven, seeing God face to face, then coming back so she can “be blessed beyond measure”. If you believe that, you probably need to get saved.

“It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 (KJB)

Paula White did not travel to Heaven, Paula White did not physically see the actual face of God, and Paula White did not enter the Throne Room we see in Revelation. When Paul who actually went there, he was told to keep his mouth shut about it, but yet we are to believe that Prosperity Gospel phony Paula can talk all about it??? She is either insane, deceiving you on purpose to enrich her bank account, or a combination of the two. You many not know that Paula White is the official spiritual advisor to President Trump, which is one of my many reasons why I don’t think he’s saved. Follow the teachings of Paula White to your own Laodicean destruction.

Paula White Claims to Have Gone to the Throne Room of Heaven Where She Saw the Face of God

FROM RIGHT WING WATCH: In a video posted on YouTube by user Jennifer Veterans4truth, Paula White appears to have recounted her trip to Heaven while recently preaching at Apostle Guillermo Maldonado’s church in Miami, Florida, judging by the fact that she is wearing the same outfit and preaching in the same chapel as in this other video posted on Maldonado’s King Jesus Ministry YouTube page on February 11.

PROSPERITY GOSPEL DECEIVER PAULA WHITE TELLS FOLLOWERS TO SEND HER ONE MONTH OF THEIR SALARY TO ‘HONOR GOD’
PAULA WHITE TELLS SO MANY LIES SHE’S EARNED HER OWN CHANNEL HERE ON NTEB, CHECK IT OUT

Paula White, a prosperity gospel preacher and current White House aide, claimed that a weight suddenly fell upon her that pushed her to the floor, at which point her spirit ascended to Heaven.

“I literally went to the Throne Room of God,” Paula White said. “There was a mist that was coming off the water, and I went to the throne of God, and I didn’t see God’s face clearly, but I saw the face of God … I knew it was the face of God.”

“He put a mantle on me and it was a very distinct mantle,” Paula White continued. “There was a mantle, and I saw it very distinctly, the color was like a goldish, a yellowish goldish … and then I saw the Earth for a moment, and God brought me back, and he put me in certain places, one being the White House, one being certain continents.”

“I didn’t come out of that really until the next morning,” White reported. READ MORE

posted March 12, 2020 08:54 PM            

Mike Pence’s secret Christian empire is now in charge of public health

If you’ve been following the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak, you probably saw at least some snippets of President Trump’s visit to the CDC last Friday. It will stand as one of the most astonishing appearances by this or any other president — and that’s saying something. When asked if he regretted firing the entire staff of the Office of Pandemic Preparation, Trump said, “This is something that you can never really think is going to happen.” He said that everyone who wants to be tested for this virus can get tested, which is not even close to true. He called Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state, who is on the front lines dealing with this epidemic, a “snake.”He made it clear that he wants to cook the numbers so it doesn’t look as if the nation is in the midst of an epidemic. This has been obvious from the outset, but for the president to come out and say it is something else again:

If you’ve been following the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak, you probably saw at least some snippets of President Trump’s visit to the CDC last Friday. It will stand as one of the most astonishing appearances by this or any other president — and that’s saying something. When asked if he regretted firing the entire staff of the Office of Pandemic Preparation, Trump said, “This is something that you can never really think is going to happen.” He said that everyone who wants to be tested for this virus can get tested, which is not even close to true. He called Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state, who is on the front lines dealing with this epidemic, a “snake.”He made it clear that he wants to cook the numbers so it doesn’t look as if the nation is in the midst of an epidemic. This has been obvious from the outset, but for the president to come out and say it is something else again:

Mostly, however, he patted himself on the back:

You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, “How do you know so much about this?” Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for President.

As Wired science reporter Adam Rogers wrote:

As a reporter, in general I’m not supposed to say something like this, but: The president’s statements to the press were terrifying. That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions.

Let’s put that another way: The CDC was considered one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions. It has not been covering itself in glory during this crisis.

The most unnerving aspect of the government response so far has not been Trump’s gibberish. He’s in over his head and it shows, as usual. And we know from his response to Hurricane Maria and other natural disasters that his only concern in a crisis is for his own political well-being. But I wouldn’t have expected to hear the director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, laud Trump like a a Fox News pundit:

"First I want to thank you, for your decisive leadership … I also want to thank you for coming here today … I think that's the most important thing I want to say" –CDC Director Redfield slathers Dear Leader-style praise on Trump during his tour of CDC headquarters pic.twitter.com/erxQxbYh1x

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 6, 2020

It’s a full-blown ritual at this point for members of the Trump cabinet and Republicans in Congress to genuflect to the president as if he were a 15th-century pope. And we know that public health experts have had to tread very softly in order not to upset him.

Still, it was surprising to hear such a slavering tribute from a scientist in the midst of a global health crisis. Likewise, it was strange to hear the highly esteemed U.S. global AIDS coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, make similar comments when she was introduced as part of the coronavirus task force back on March 2:

It is clear the early work of the president over travel restrictions and the ability quarantine has bought us the time and space to have this task force be very effective. I have never worked with such incredible scientists and thoughtful policy leaders…

It seemed just a bit over the top. But these two weren’t the only ones:

Here's Surgeon General Jerome Adams telling Jake Tapper that President Trump "sleeps less than I do and he's healthier than what I am." 😳 pic.twitter.com/bDpQWWAgUU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 8, 2020

There’s something important happening under the surface here. It may not simply be that these health policy professionals are trying to keep the kooky president happy so they can do their work on behalf of the country. They may be Trump true believers.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, for instance, is a Mike Pence crony who previously served as the Indiana state health commissioner. He was intimately involved in the horrific HIV outbreak in that state, where Pence refused to authorize a needle exchange program until a number of people had died unnecessarily. Naturally, Trump appointed him surgeon general.

Redfield and Birx are both evangelical Christians who have been associated with HIV research for many years, going back to the 1980s. Birx runs PEPFAR, George W. Bush’s global AIDS initiative, and both she and Redfield have been involved with Children’s AIDS Fund International, which lobbies for abstinence-only sex education around the world.

The Washington Post reported back in 2018 that they belong to a network run by an important power broker in the evangelical world:

Evangelical activist Shepherd Smith has spent more than three decades cultivating relationships with leading AIDS researchers and policymakers to promote abstinence-only sex education and other programs. Those connections now could influence government programs and funding within the Trump administration. Among the most prominent: Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

[His wife] Anita Smith is now a consultant within PEPFAR to Deborah Birx, a physician and ambassador at large who oversees the program’s estimated $5 billion annual budget. Birx is also a former board member of Children’s AIDS Fund International and served until she was hired by the CDC in 2005, a PEPFAR spokesman said.

Anita Smith was hired by Birx to “improve prevention programs aimed at preteen girls.” I’m pretty sure we know what she recommended.

Redfield and Birx both served in the military doing AIDS research in the mid-1980s. Redfield is well-known for recommending measures that were considered extreme even within the Reagan administration, including the forced quarantine of AIDS patients. He later had a financial interest in an HIV vaccine that didn’t work, but which he continued to push. Birx, on the other hand, has maintained a stellar reputation.

To be clear, none of this means that these people aren’t qualified for the jobs they hold. They both have medical degrees and relevant experience. But they seem to be part of a conservative subculture of evangelical Christians who have found a foothold in the Trump administration clustered around Mike Pence’s office. Along millions of other evangelicals, it appears they really believe in Donald Trump.

Setting ideology aside, however, what Trump wants these people to do — cover up his own ignorance and incompetence — is totally at odds with what they must know is best for the health of the American public. Is their worshipful admiration for this man blinding them to the need to communicate honestly with the American people about this crisis? Because that would explain a lot.