An Evangelical Pastor Helps In Getting Democratic Party Votes

"Our guest this week recently traveled down to the border to confront the so-called “Army of God” as part of a larger project of providing alternative ideologies to Christian nationalism. Doug Pagitt is a pastor, author and the executive director of Vote Common Good, an organization aimed at influencing evangelical Christians. His group has been on a nationwide tour focused on directly engaging evangelicals in key swing states with the hope of swaying a critical percentage of them against former President Donald Trump. Pagitt believes a small portion of these voters are swayable and that if they are engaged, election outcomes can be flipped. He joins WITHpod to discuss the trajectory of evangelical politics, what he’s learned on tour, and what’s at stake in this year’s election."

Click on the link below for an hour podcast that delves into what one evangelical pastor is doing in an attempt to get fellow evangelicals who are wavering over Trump/MAGA to see enough reality regarding the 2024 vote to do the right thing:

Confronting Christian Nationalism From Within

And You Thought The Catholic Church Was Bad

"For most of us, it is clear not just beyond reasonable doubt, but ALL doubt, that Donald Trump is manifestly unfit for office. And yet, he’s making a third tilt at the presidency. The biggest reason is that the religious right is still bowing and praying to an orange god it helped make—and is attempting to bully the nation into doing so. We shouldn’t have been surprised when the nation’s so-called moral guardians told us that Trump’s debauched comments didn’t matter nearly as much as his promises to give them everything they wanted and then some on policy–and above all else, stack the courts with conservative judges.

"Granted, we already knew why the nation’s so-called moral guardians prostrated themselves before Trump. But how they were able to do so remained far less clear. How could the prospect of rolling back abortion and marriage equality be so important to them that they were willing to condone this man?

"A large part of the answer to that question can be found in the way a number of evangelical leaders have responded to sexual assault in their own ranks. In recent years, we have heard stories of survivors turning to their churches or other faith communities for support, only to be greeted with indifference or even outright hostility. If these leaders are willing to take such a cavalier and unsupportive attitude toward their own, it should come as no surprise that many of them were willing to dismiss Trump’s depravities with women.

"For example, when Guidepost Solutions delved into the extent of a years-long cover-up of sexual assault in the Southern Baptist Convention, it revealed that one of the SBC’s longtime titans, Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, willfully and recklessly disregarded his legal and moral duty to protect children. According to the report, when Graham learned his youth pastor, John Langworthy, had molested a number of boys, Graham simply hustled him out of town rather than report him to the police. Langworthy would remain at large for 20 more years, during which he molested boys at his new church in Mississippi."

Click on the link below for more sordid details of the bastards:

Evangelicals REALLY don't get it about sexual assault

Intellectualism Is A 4-Letter Word To Republicans

• Ignorance, or an aversion to reason, has allowed things like gun violence and racism to define American culture.
• Anti-intellectual societies fall prey to tribalism and simplistic explanations, are emotionally immature, and often seek violent solutions.
• Corporate interests encourage anti-intellectualism, conditioning Americans into conformity and passive acceptance of institutional dominance.

Click on the link below for more. Oh, this was published BEFORE Trump was elected. It's only gotten worse:

The exaltation of ignorance in America

Christian Nationalism: The Death Of The USA?

"So, a high-ranking Republican speaks to a secretive Christian Nationalist conference…no big deal, right? Unless the person is 2nd in line for the Oval after the VP…are you hearing warning bells yet?"

Click on the link below for a concise but deep dive into the greatest threat to the representative democracy of the USA. The country is acting like the frogs in a slowly boiling pot!! Wake up and

VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!!:

Will the GOP’s Self-proclaimed “Moses” lead the destruction?

Ponder the courage of the Founding Fathers when they fought against religious factions that wanted another Christian theocracy based on THEIR brand of such.

There Is NO Equivalency Between The Two Major US Political Parties

Anyone who watches Rachel Maddow knows her political views. The same can be said about Lis Cheney. There is no better example of polar opposites in political views. However, they agree 100% on ONE important matter: DONALD TRUMP MUST NEVER RETURN AS POTUS!!

Click on the link below for one of the best exposes of the dangers of Trump and his cult to the future of US representative democracy:

He is not the lesser of two evils’: Cheney emphasizes the severity of Trump threat

The Republican War On Critical Thinking

"History has shown us repeatedly what happens when tyrants take education away from the public. Can the Republican led war on public schools turn generation Z, from Doomers to dumber? OR, will we learn from history so as not to repeat it?"

Click on the link below for the details of the Republican effort to end public education so that ignorance, unsupported ideology, and autocracy reigns in the USA:

The Frightening Reason Behind the Republican War Against Critical Thinking in Schools

Why Jews Have Been Hated For 2,000 Years

The conflict in the Middle East between the State of Israel and the Palestinians is relatively new in the history of the Jewish people. After the beginning of Christianity, there was a movement called the Jewish deicide:

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"Jewish deicide is the notion that the Jews as a people will always be collectively responsible for the killing of Jesus, even through the successive generations following his death.[1][2] A Biblical justification for the charge of Jewish deicide is derived from Matthew 27:24–25. Some rabbinical authorities, such as 12th-century scholar Maimonides and, more recently, ultranationalist Israeli rabbi, Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891–1982), have asserted that Jesus was indeed stoned and hanged after being sentenced to death in a rabbinical court.

"The notion arose in early Christianity, the charge was made by Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis as early as the 2nd century.[3] The accusation that the Jews were Christ-killers fed Christian antisemitism[4] and spurred on acts of violence against Jews such as pogroms, massacres of Jews during the Crusades, expulsions of the Jews from England, France, Spain, Portugal, and other places, and torture during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions."

"In the catechism that was produced by the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century, the Catholic Church taught the belief that the collectivity of sinful humanity was responsible for the death of Jesus, not only the Jews.[5] If one were to claim that only the Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death, the logical corollary to this would be that Jesus’ redemptive suffering, death and resurrection was for the sins of Jews alone and not all of humanity, as is taught by the Church. In the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued the declaration Nostra aetate that repudiated the idea of a collective, multigenerational Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus. It declared that the accusation could not be made 'against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today'.[1]

"Most other churches do not have any binding position on the matter, but some Christian denominations[which?] have issued declarations against the accusation.[6][7][8]"

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_deicide)

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"CHRISTIANITY’S UNDERSTANDING OF ITS ORIGINS centers on the New Testament, particularly the poetic rendering in the gospels of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, which is traditionally known as the Passion.5 In the gospels’ rendition and as interpreted for centuries, the Jews are perceived as 'the Christ killers,' a people condemned forever to suffer exile and degradation. This archcrime of 'deicide,' of murdering God, turned the Jews into the embodiment of evil, a 'criminal people' cursed by God and doomed to wander and suffer tribulation to the end of time. No other religious tradition has condemned a people as the murderers of its god, a unique accusation that has resulted in a unique history of hatred, fear, and persecution. When it came to Jews, the central doctrine of Christianity, that Jesus was providentially sent into the world to atone by his death for mankind’s sins, was obscured."

(https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781403979124_2)

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"After a few centuries of freedom from harassment during the Carolingian period (800-1000), the Jews of western Europe began to suffer new indignities as the crusades came on. The Muslims were the 'infidel' targets in the attempted recapture of the holy places in Palestine. However, the pillage and slaughter committed by Christian mobs against Jews on the way linger long in Jewish memory."

" - - - Martin Luther in his early days naively imagined that the Jews, to whom he was attracted by his studies, would flock to the Church in his reformed version. When nothing of the sort happened, he denounced them in a set of pamphlets written in vituperative fury. He had produced the early, favorable "That Christ Was Born a Jew" in 1523, but after he turned on this so-called "damned, rejected race," he wrote Against the Sabbatarians (1538) and On the Jews and Their Lies (1543)."

"Germany was populated with more Jews than any country in Western Europe when Hitler came to power. It also had the same ugly heritage of anti-Jewish sentiment as all Christian Europe. The short-lived Weimar Republic could not deliver Germany from the severe economic hardships it experienced after World War I. Jews had been the Republic’s strong supporters and a few of them were the architects of its constitution, a fact that Hitler capitalized upon. Huge inflation in 1923 and the depression of 1929 increased Germany’s problems. Some leading capitalist families, gentile and Jewish, managed to escape these problems, but the eyes of the angry populace were trained on the Jews rather than the gentiles."

(https://www.ushmm.org/research/about-the-mandel-center/initiatives/ethics-religion-holocaust/articles-and-resources/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-the-centuries/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-the-centuries)

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My comment on the above:

It is clear to me that, without Christianity, the Jews would not have been subjected to the horrors of the last two centuries. Ah, religion. Isn't it wonderful?

It is also clear to me the irony of the strongest supporters of the State of Israel, besides conservative Jews, are conservative Christians. Could it be because of how they interpret Scripture regarding "The End Times?"

Israel: There Is No Excuse For USA Support Of Apartheid

"Israel's politics have been upended by the return of Netanyahu as Prime Minister, put in office with the help of extremely far-right factions who have now pushed through reforms to the Israeli Supreme Court that fundamentally undermine their democracy. All this while they were already a farce of a democracy due to the maintenance of an apartheid-like system of differing rules applying to different residents based on ethnicity."

Click on the link below for a podcast exposing a country that should not be allowed to hoodwink the USA with its religious bigotry (heads up, Evangelical ideologues). 

Israel's Political Upheavals (and more)

Evangelical Christians Have A Lot To Answer For

"On May 29, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a new anti-gay law that puts the country’s already persecuted LGBTQ+ community at risk of life imprisonment for same-sex relations and calls for the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” This draconian legislation is the latest blow to fundamental human rights in Uganda, and it has deep links to American evangelicals who have for years sought to export US culture wars over gender and sexuality to African countries and Uganda in particular."

Click on the links below for the evil details. Christian morality is an oxymoron 😡:

The Unholy Relationship Between Uganda's Anti-LGBTQ+ Law and US Evangelicalism

How US 'Christian Values' Helped Uganda Become An Evil African Presence

How U.S. Evangelicals Helped Homophobia Flourish in Africa

An Antidote Against Religion In Public Schools

In recent years, conservatives in the US have been trying to insert Evangelical Christianity into public schools through "After-School Clubs" within the schools, specifically "Good News Clubs." To combat these harmful, and unconstitutional, gatherings, some secular groups have organized "After School Satan" clubs. These clubs, with the "tongue-in-cheek" title, are actually promoting good character traits and critical thinking skills. Needless to say, since most of the culture is religious in general and Christian in particular, there has been significant push-back to them: (link), (link), (link), (link).

THE Major Danger Of Christianity In The USA?

"A federal court ruling allows a Kentucky photography business to openly discriminate against protected classes of citizens under the guise of religious freedom. Constitutional and civil rights attorney, Andrew Seidel, joins us to discuss how this is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the victories already proclaimed by a literal cabal of Christian Crusaders pulling the strings at the highest levels of U.S. power."

Click on the link below for a 40-minute video delving into this constitution-breaking movement within the US culture:

How Christian Crusaders Weaponized the Court to Steal a Country

More PragerU Debunking

 A major reason the USA has its Repugnant problem is folks like Dennis Prager. When Christians ask me why I am so hard on them, I tell them that there is no such thing as "Good" Christianity. It is false and harmful, even if good people are members of the cult. Click on the link below for more debunking of it:

Revenge is Justice?

Creationism Vs Abiogenesis

Abiogenesis: the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but an evolutionary process of increasing complexity that involved the formation of a habitable planet, the prebiotic synthesis of organic molecules, molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and the emergence of cell membranes. Many proposals have been made for different stages of the process. (link)

This blog has posted several times on the subject (link). There is little doubt that, eventually, science will confirm it as a fact, as confirmatory evidence continues to mount. However, conservative Christians continue to hold unsupported dogma in defense of their anti-evolution beliefs. Click on the link below for a video exposing the bad arguments against abiogenesis:

Creationist Misrepresents Abiogenesis

The USA Is BOTH A Republic And A Democracy!

"Since 2020 Republicans across the U.S. have been undermining democracy by fabricating claims of voter fraud and passing laws to make it harder to vote. But a disturbing new report by Robert Draper in The New York Times Magazine shows how Arizona Republicans are increasingly committed to waging a war on the idea of democracy itself, in part through a bid to call the U.S. only a “republic” and not a democracy. These Republicans think they’re defending American traditions of governance, but they’re not in touch with the history they believe they’re championing, and they’re catalyzing more virulent anti-democratic extremism on the right."

Just more evidence of the harm from today's Republicans. Click on the link below for the details:

Arizona Republicans are making a case against democracy itself

Abiogenesis: Closer To Understand It

"Diverse microbial life existed on Earth at least 3.75 billion years ago, suggests a new study led by UCL researchers that challenges the conventional view of when life began. 

"For the study, published in Science Advances, the research team analyzed a fist-sized rock from Quebec, Canada, estimated to be between 3.75 and 4.28 billion years old. In an earlier Nature paper*, the team found tiny filaments, knobs, and tubes in the rock which appeared to have been made by bacteria. 

"However, not all scientists agreed that these structures – dating about 300 million years earlier than what is more commonly accepted as the first sign of ancient life – were of biological origin. 

"Now, after extensive further analysis of the rock, the team has discovered a much larger and more complex structure – a stem with parallel branches on one side that is nearly a centimeter long – as well as hundreds of deformed spheres, or ellipsoids, alongside the tubes and filaments." (link)

Kirk Cameron: He Never Grew Up

"In this video, I talk about Kirk Cameron's rise to fame on "Growing Pains" and his conversion to evangelical Christianity. I also talk about his debates with Ray Comfort against renowned atheists, and what he's up to now. I review an interview he had with TP USA founder Charlie Kirk on freedom of religion."

Click on the link below for the results of never looking outside of your gullible beliefs:

Kirk Cameron Lost The Wheels And Kept On Driving

A Rarity: Jewish Support For Palestinians

"Why is dreaming of return laudable for Jews but pathological for Palestinians? Asking the question does not imply that the two dreams are symmetrical. The Palestinian families that mourn cities such as Jaffa or Safed lived there recently, and remember intimate details about their lost homes. They experienced dispossession from Israel-Palestine. The Jews who for centuries afflicted themselves on Tisha B’Av – and those who created the Zionist movement in the late 19th century, in response to rising nationalism and antisemitism in Europe – only imagined it."

Click on the link below for information that one will not usually get from most US media, let alone conservative propaganda.

A Jewish Case For Palestinian Refugee Return

The Brains Of Conservatives

It is clear to most reasonable people that there is something different about how Republicans process information. Click on the following links to get several insights into their psychological makeup:

https://www.desmog.com/2011/11/07/republican-brain-science-why-they-don-t-believe-science-or-many-other-inconvenient-truths/

https://slate.com/technology/2017/11/why-conservatives-are-more-susceptible-to-believing-in-lies.html

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/conservatives-war-on-science/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-reason-some-republicans-mistrust-science-their-leaders-tell-them-to/

https://theconversation.com/many-conservatives-have-a-difficult-relationship-with-science-we-wanted-to-find-out-why-165499

Oh, since the Evangelical Christians put their Bible above anything else, especially science, they may be the sub-group most resistant to change.

https://www.nae.org/evangelicals-anti-science/

Pat Robertson Exposed

This post is dedicated to presenting an individual who is a prime mover in Repugnant circles. In no way does he deserve the praise and attention he gets from the superstitious, ignorant, and gullible. Click on the links below to fully understand the evil he has produced:

Slamming science

Controversies

The case of the 700 Club

Pat Robertson Explains His Faith Healing Scam

Former 700 Club Producer Apologizes

50 Controversial Pat Robertson Quotes

"Pro Lifers": Attack The CAUSES Of Abortion

"The decision to have an abortion is typically motivated by multiple, diverse, and interrelated reasons. The themes of responsibility to others and resource limitations, such as financial constraints and lack of partner support, recurred throughout the study." (link)

"In most countries, the most frequently cited reasons for having an abortion were socioeconomic concerns or limiting childbearing." (link)

"THE RATE AT WHICH WOMEN are getting abortions has dropped across the developed world as access to effective contraception has increased, according to a new report, which also concludes that laws restricting abortions do not result in the procedure occurring less frequently, merely less safely." (link)

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The Anti-Choice side of the abortion issue focuses on the potential person within the body of the women and resists the efforts of those who are working to rid society of the causes of abortion. Why? The vast majority of those who are against abortion are conservative and very religious. Conservatives resist governmental efforts to improve the socio-economic status of those in need. (link)

IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THIS, NAME ONE HUMAN RIGHT WHERE CONSERVATIVES ARE IN THE VANGUARD.

MAGICAL THINKING IS A BRAIN POISON