Chris and Bobbi Foley : "We're Being Run by Satan". Article Posted by BBC

[Alexandre Fedorovski]

A day ago the BBC published a very sharp political article about what is happening to us in America today.
I will try to summarize its main points for discussion.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?


God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.

It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.

"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

“But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.
DogMod: Remainder put in quote and spoiler due to length.

Spoiler: remainder of article

But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?

God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.
It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.
"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.
But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.


The sight of rioters carrying crosses and Christian flags, and even praying together, exposed just how much religious and political identities had begun to merge on the right - bonded by a belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

There were also pastors at the Capitol that day, and some continue to preach that message.

Ken Peters is one of them. He's denounced the violence, but still defends what he sees as a patriotic mission.

He says God has "a special plan for this country" that he'd felt was threatened by the prospect of Trump's election loss.

[Hе says] They feel threatened by immigration and are alarmed by the increased acceptance of different gender identities and sexual orientations that they believe are unbiblical.

He wants the government to ban same-sex marriage because marriage between a man and a woman is "in the Bible".

He says "Christians are going to have to get feisty" because the left is winning. "I'm just putting up a last-ditch effort to try to keep our country as Christian as possible."

His polls find that about one third of Americans and half of Republicans say the US was designed by God to be a "promised land" for European Christians.

What's different now about such Christian political activism is that the country is no longer majority white and Christian, says Jones, noting that the shift into a demographic minority happened when the country had its first African-American president, Barack Obama (Obama IS NOT «Afro-American”!!! – AUTHOR).

"I think that threat - of white Christians no longer knowing they're in control, demographically, culturally, politically - is why we're seeing it kind of come to the fore in the current context," says Jones.

Many reject the Christian nationalist label as a leftist smear.

But a few right-wing politicians have embraced its holy rhetoric, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, two hardline Republicans and Trump allies.

"We need to be the party of nationalism, we should be Christian Nationalists," says Greene.

"We are the Christian Taliban," crowed white nationalist Vincent James Foxx in his webcast after the Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade.

"And we will not stop until The Handmaid's Tale is a reality."

… Patriot Churches expanding to several locations.

His friend, Greg Locke lit a bonfire and burned "objects of sorcery and witchcraft," including Catholic rosaries and Harry Potter books.

In one sermon that went viral, he told members of his congregation they could not be Christian and vote Democrat, calling Democrats "God-denying demons".

[being pressed] repeatedly on the risk of inciting violence by calling fellow Americans evil, he said that was not his responsibility.

"I'm not inciting violence. I'm preaching the Bible."

But another pastor in the Bible Belt, Kevin Riggs, says

"There's division in the church like I haven't seen it [before]," he says.

" It's been a cold civil war about ideology. But that could very quickly become violent.

The right will have a tendency to take up arms to protect their rights."
So far the battle has been political.

Starting from the ground up, conservative Christian activists have increasingly played a key role in school board disputes over what children are taught - about sexuality, gender identity, the history of racism - and over what they should be allowed to read.

They are a minority but their agenda overlaps with that of the Republican Party, which can give them disproportionate political clout.

Chris and Bobbi Foley said they had a powerful experience of the supernatural at one of Locke's deliverance services, and embraced his reframing of American conservative politics as spiritual warfare against a radical left.

"They took away the Bible, they took away Jesus and everything," said Bobbi. "So now we're being run by devils. We're being run by Satan because it's a spiritual war."

One person who might be able to repackage the Christian nationalist message with broader appeal is the right-wing governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis appears to be considering such an approach in a possible run for the presidency.

Christian nationalists are out of step with the direction of the country and with a majority of Christians, determined to harness politics to fight against changing values.

Whether or not the Christian right regains a champion at the national level, it's likely to continue to be a force that deepens the fractures of the union.

"I hope it doesn't end up in a civil war," says Ken Peters, whose church has attracted migrants from more liberal states. "I hope it ends up in us finding a way to have our own, maybe regions, of the nation and living peacefully together."

SOURCE: Christian nationalists - wanting to put God into US government

FROM THE AUTHOR:
Observing all that is going on, contradictions of groups that are inherently irreconcilable, my prognosis is extremely pessimistic.
The behavior of my opponents in the Forum is proof of this.

If... 2024 doesn't bring about a recovery for the country.

 

[Death-Ninja]

Its not the losing end of a debate, the most evil men & women in modern human history, who are poised to become the most evil in all of human history, are not engaging in anything even remotely resembling debate.

No, they are openly censoring and outright silencing by any available means, right up to extreme acts of murderous violence, including the release of bio-attacks upon not just their own but the entire planet, whilst at the same time they flood their nation with illegal aliens with the expressed intention of destroying the nation and recreating it as a totalitarian fascist super-state!

This is not butting heads with change, its not "progress," its utter subjugation and annihilation of the prevailing culture, they are already fixing the outcomes of elections on both the local and national level, its all going to end with tens of millions dead, tens of millions of them....

 

[occupied]

The book of revelation tells of the faithful being led astray by a false prophet. Not saying it's the end times but damned if there are not a host of false prophets lining up to make American Christians forget they are supposed to love their neighbor.

 

[Death-Ninja]

The book of revelation tells of the faithful being led astray by a false prophet. Not saying it's the end times but damned if there are not a host of false prophets lining up to make American Christians forget they are supposed to love their neighbor.

I would suggest you poke nose into the topic of "Babylon The Great," not "Mystery Babylon," but rather the entity referred to as Babylon the Great, the Mystery version is uniformly accepted by scholars to be a religious entity, the Great version is its commercial counter-part, a global economic, political, and military Hegemony, the fist in the Mystery glove so to speak.

The United States fits the description of Babylon The Great to absolute perfection, if it is such an evil, it does not end well for it....

 

[AntonToo]

A day ago the BBC published a very sharp political article about what is happening to us in America today.
I will try to summarize its main points for discussion.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?


God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.

It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.

"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

“But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.

But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?

God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.
It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.
"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.
But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.


The sight of rioters carrying crosses and Christian flags, and even praying together, exposed just how much religious and political identities had begun to merge on the right - bonded by a belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

There were also pastors at the Capitol that day, and some continue to preach that message.

Ken Peters is one of them. He's denounced the violence, but still defends what he sees as a patriotic mission.

He says God has "a special plan for this country" that he'd felt was threatened by the prospect of Trump's election loss.

[Hе says] They feel threatened by immigration and are alarmed by the increased acceptance of different gender identities and sexual orientations that they believe are unbiblical.

He wants the government to ban same-sex marriage because marriage between a man and a woman is "in the Bible".

He says "Christians are going to have to get feisty" because the left is winning. "I'm just putting up a last-ditch effort to try to keep our country as Christian as possible."

His polls find that about one third of Americans and half of Republicans say the US was designed by God to be a "promised land" for European Christians.

What's different now about such Christian political activism is that the country is no longer majority white and Christian, says Jones, noting that the shift into a demographic minority happened when the country had its first African-American president, Barack Obama (Obama IS NOT «Afro-American”!!! – AUTHOR).

"I think that threat - of white Christians no longer knowing they're in control, demographically, culturally, politically - is why we're seeing it kind of come to the fore in the current context," says Jones.

Many reject the Christian nationalist label as a leftist smear.

But a few right-wing politicians have embraced its holy rhetoric, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, two hardline Republicans and Trump allies.

"We need to be the party of nationalism, we should be Christian Nationalists," says Greene.

"We are the Christian Taliban," crowed white nationalist Vincent James Foxx in his webcast after the Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade.

"And we will not stop until The Handmaid's Tale is a reality."

… Patriot Churches expanding to several locations.

His friend, Greg Locke lit a bonfire and burned "objects of sorcery and witchcraft," including Catholic rosaries and Harry Potter books.

In one sermon that went viral, he told members of his congregation they could not be Christian and vote Democrat, calling Democrats "God-denying demons".

[being pressed] repeatedly on the risk of inciting violence by calling fellow Americans evil, he said that was not his responsibility.

"I'm not inciting violence. I'm preaching the Bible."

But another pastor in the Bible Belt, Kevin Riggs, says

"There's division in the church like I haven't seen it [before]," he says.

" It's been a cold civil war about ideology. But that could very quickly become violent.

The right will have a tendency to take up arms to protect their rights."
So far the battle has been political.

Starting from the ground up, conservative Christian activists have increasingly played a key role in school board disputes over what children are taught - about sexuality, gender identity, the history of racism - and over what they should be allowed to read.

They are a minority but their agenda overlaps with that of the Republican Party, which can give them disproportionate political clout.

Chris and Bobbi Foley said they had a powerful experience of the supernatural at one of Locke's deliverance services, and embraced his reframing of American conservative politics as spiritual warfare against a radical left.

"They took away the Bible, they took away Jesus and everything," said Bobbi. "So now we're being run by devils. We're being run by Satan because it's a spiritual war."

One person who might be able to repackage the Christian nationalist message with broader appeal is the right-wing governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis appears to be considering such an approach in a possible run for the presidency.

Christian nationalists are out of step with the direction of the country and with a majority of Christians, determined to harness politics to fight against changing values.

Whether or not the Christian right regains a champion at the national level, it's likely to continue to be a force that deepens the fractures of the union.

"I hope it doesn't end up in a civil war," says Ken Peters, whose church has attracted migrants from more liberal states. "I hope it ends up in us finding a way to have our own, maybe regions, of the nation and living peacefully together."

SOURCE: Christian nationalists - wanting to put God into US government

FROM THE AUTHOR:
Observing all that is going on, contradictions of groups that are inherently irreconcilable, my prognosis is extremely pessimistic.
The behavior of my opponents in the Forum is proof of this.

If... 2024 doesn't bring about a recovery for the country.

And you can bet your sweet cheeks Russians love them some fractures out west.

Sasha over here no doubt got his introduction to the topic on Putin TV. Stories like these make them forget for a second about the depression they have fallen into over getting their imperialist ass handed to them in Ukraine.

 

[jknowgood]

The book of revelation tells of the faithful being led astray by a false prophet. Not saying it's the end times but damned if there are not a host of false prophets lining up to make American Christians forget they are supposed to love their neighbor.

Yes and you are led by the democrat false prophecy.

 

[Alexandre Fedorovski]

And you can bet your sweet cheeks Russians love them some fractures out west.

Sasha over here no doubt got his introduction to the topic on Putin TV. Stories like these make them forget for a second about the depression they have fallen into over getting their imperialist ass handed to them in Ukraine.

Well, the "shards" of the West are not warming - they turn autochthons into slaves of "Western" banks. Natural gas and oil, as well as the sun granted by unspoken higher powers, are warming.

My former high school classmate Olga, our school was recently leveled by exceedingly precise and
peaceful Himars

Yes and you are led by the democrat false prophecy.

Yes and you are led by the democrat false prophecy.

in Donetsk ), is freezing and going crazy with darkness in Kiev .

Well, the culprit, of course, as always, is the Jew Putin and not the Jews in London, New York, and Washington who wanted to аnschluss Ukraine with EXTREMELY "peace-loving" NATO.

 

[Alexandre Fedorovski]

Yes and you are led by the democrat false prophecy.

I am registered as an independent. I am not happy with either the Democratic or the Republican parties.

What do I have to do with it - I don't own the BBC. And they, like the New York Times, would under no circumstances hire me.

 

[AntonToo]

Well, the "shards" of the West are not warming - they turn autochthons into slaves of "Western" banks. Natural gas and oil, as well as the sun granted by unspoken higher powers, are warming.

My former high school classmate Olga, our school was recently leveled by exceedingly precise and
peaceful Himars



in Donetsk ), is freezing and going crazy with darkness in Kiev .

Well, the culprit, of course, as always, is the Jew Putin and not the Jews in London, New York, and Washington who wanted to аnschluss Ukraine with EXTREMELY "peace-loving" NATO.

Is that English? Reads more like Gibberish.

The culprit is of course Putin and his bloody invasion.

Russians are getting smashed on the battle field, so going after Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and making civilians suffer is a desperate play to pressure Ukraine for concessions.

Newsflash: they aren't getting concessions, they are getting a historic defeat that their shitty Putinist empire will choke on.

 

[Alexandre Fedorovski]

Is that English? Reads more like Gibberish.

The culprit is of course Putin and his bloody invasion.

Russians are getting smashed on the battle field, so going after Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and making civilians suffer is a desperate play to pressure Ukraine for concessions.

Newsflash: they aren't getting concessions, they are getting a historic defeat that their shitty Putinist empire will choke on.

Do you not know what the word "Anschluss" means?

Sad, because it is used internationally, in different languages, and assumes people with a good American education.

What about my school-leveled by "exceptionally precision" Hymars?!

And what about the Children's Oncology Department of the Kalinin Hospital, which, today, has been hit by Hymars?

Or are Slavic children not considered "human children", as one sacred book teaches?

Once again, you are avoiding a simple answer to the RIGHT question.


The Ukrainian Armed Forces' strike on the biggest hospital named after Kalinin in the Donetsk People's Republic. Kalinin hospital

The 6th block, where the children's and oncology surgeries are performed, was partially destroyed.
Lots of injured.

 

[OKTexas]

A day ago the BBC published a very sharp political article about what is happening to us in America today.
I will try to summarize its main points for discussion.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?


God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.

It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.

"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

“But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.

But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?

God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.
It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.
"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.
But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.


The sight of rioters carrying crosses and Christian flags, and even praying together, exposed just how much religious and political identities had begun to merge on the right - bonded by a belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

There were also pastors at the Capitol that day, and some continue to preach that message.

Ken Peters is one of them. He's denounced the violence, but still defends what he sees as a patriotic mission.

He says God has "a special plan for this country" that he'd felt was threatened by the prospect of Trump's election loss.

[Hе says] They feel threatened by immigration and are alarmed by the increased acceptance of different gender identities and sexual orientations that they believe are unbiblical.

He wants the government to ban same-sex marriage because marriage between a man and a woman is "in the Bible".

He says "Christians are going to have to get feisty" because the left is winning. "I'm just putting up a last-ditch effort to try to keep our country as Christian as possible."

His polls find that about one third of Americans and half of Republicans say the US was designed by God to be a "promised land" for European Christians.

What's different now about such Christian political activism is that the country is no longer majority white and Christian, says Jones, noting that the shift into a demographic minority happened when the country had its first African-American president, Barack Obama (Obama IS NOT «Afro-American”!!! – AUTHOR).

"I think that threat - of white Christians no longer knowing they're in control, demographically, culturally, politically - is why we're seeing it kind of come to the fore in the current context," says Jones.

Many reject the Christian nationalist label as a leftist smear.

But a few right-wing politicians have embraced its holy rhetoric, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, two hardline Republicans and Trump allies.

"We need to be the party of nationalism, we should be Christian Nationalists," says Greene.

"We are the Christian Taliban," crowed white nationalist Vincent James Foxx in his webcast after the Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade.

"And we will not stop until The Handmaid's Tale is a reality."

… Patriot Churches expanding to several locations.

His friend, Greg Locke lit a bonfire and burned "objects of sorcery and witchcraft," including Catholic rosaries and Harry Potter books.

In one sermon that went viral, he told members of his congregation they could not be Christian and vote Democrat, calling Democrats "God-denying demons".

[being pressed] repeatedly on the risk of inciting violence by calling fellow Americans evil, he said that was not his responsibility.

"I'm not inciting violence. I'm preaching the Bible."

But another pastor in the Bible Belt, Kevin Riggs, says

"There's division in the church like I haven't seen it [before]," he says.

" It's been a cold civil war about ideology. But that could very quickly become violent.

The right will have a tendency to take up arms to protect their rights."
So far the battle has been political.

Starting from the ground up, conservative Christian activists have increasingly played a key role in school board disputes over what children are taught - about sexuality, gender identity, the history of racism - and over what they should be allowed to read.

They are a minority but their agenda overlaps with that of the Republican Party, which can give them disproportionate political clout.

Chris and Bobbi Foley said they had a powerful experience of the supernatural at one of Locke's deliverance services, and embraced his reframing of American conservative politics as spiritual warfare against a radical left.

"They took away the Bible, they took away Jesus and everything," said Bobbi. "So now we're being run by devils. We're being run by Satan because it's a spiritual war."

One person who might be able to repackage the Christian nationalist message with broader appeal is the right-wing governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis appears to be considering such an approach in a possible run for the presidency.

Christian nationalists are out of step with the direction of the country and with a majority of Christians, determined to harness politics to fight against changing values.

Whether or not the Christian right regains a champion at the national level, it's likely to continue to be a force that deepens the fractures of the union.

"I hope it doesn't end up in a civil war," says Ken Peters, whose church has attracted migrants from more liberal states. "I hope it ends up in us finding a way to have our own, maybe regions, of the nation and living peacefully together."

SOURCE: Christian nationalists - wanting to put God into US government

FROM THE AUTHOR:
Observing all that is going on, contradictions of groups that are inherently irreconcilable, my prognosis is extremely pessimistic.
The behavior of my opponents in the Forum is proof of this.

If... 2024 doesn't bring about a recovery for the country.

Sounds to me the freaks at the BBC have never heard of the moral majority. And the vast majority of the criminal aliens xiden is allowing to invade our country are practicing Roman Catholics. So the changing demographics are pointing to the US becoming more religious, not less.

.

 

[luiza]

Would not personally align myself with any religious or pseudo group.

But I have intellectual sympathy with Christians who feel they are being persecuted by other religions and cults , .let alone those associated with the WEF .
Namely , the Godless, I might contend, and the Devil's spawn, I might also colourfully add .

So, in the spirit of preparing the way for the second coming and then Armageddon I would position my new age group as an advance guard or a peace keeping force with the power to cleanse .
As God is positioned as an avenging and jealous type he should be pleased that we are carrying out his work leaving him more time to ensure that Heaven is in top shape with full maintenance guaranteed .
If he does not like that, there are other parties to link up with .

 

[AntonToo]

Do you not know what the word "Anschluss" means?

Sad, because it is used internationally, in different languages, and assumes people with a good American education.

What about my school-leveled by "exceptionally precision" Hymars?!

And what about the Children's Oncology Department of the Kalinin Hospital, which, today, has been hit by Hymars?

Or are Slavic children not considered "human children", as one sacred book teaches?

Once again, you are avoiding a simple answer to the RIGHT question.


The

Ukrainian Armed Forces' strike on the biggest hospital named after Kalinin in the Donetsk People's Republic. Kalinin hospital

The 6th block, where the children's and oncology surgeries are performed, was partially destroyed.
Lots of injured.

Dumbass, do you seriously believe Ukraine will use invaluable military resources to target their own people, in their own country?

Take your laughable "slavic children" propaganda bullshit and shove it up your ass.

Russia invades, Ukraine is in total ruin, cities leveled and you you can't put together cause and effect?

There is only one reason for death and destruction in Ukraine: Putinist Russia.

 

[Mac1958]

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonizes political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.
His polls find that about one third of Americans and half of Republicans say the US was designed by God to be a "promised land" for European Christians.
"We are the Christian Taliban," crowed white nationalist Vincent James Foxx in his webcast after the Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade.
"And we will not stop until The Handmaid's Tale is a reality."
In one sermon that went viral, he told members of his congregation they could not be Christian and vote Democrat, calling Democrats "God-denying demons".

Yeah.

I'm guessing what you'll get on this thread is many insults and deflections and talking points, and very few denials.

I say it all the time: This isn't about politics for them. This is far bigger, in their minds. A "Crusade", ironically. They really do look at this as good vs evil. Real, biblical evil.

One very interesting piece of this is that many of the people pushing this aren't even Christians. They're just hateful, paranoid White Nationalists taking advantage of the moment. I wonder if they really understand what they're enabling.

Like one of them said, "America's Taliban". I don't call them jihadis for nothing.

 

[SweetSue92]

Yeah.

I'm guessing what you'll get on this thread is many insults and deflections and talking points, and very few denials.

I say it all the time: This isn't about politics for them. This is far bigger, in their minds. A "Crusade", ironically. They really do look at this as good vs evil. Real, biblical evil.

One very interesting piece of this is that many of the people pushing this aren't even Christians. They're just hateful, paranoid White Nationalists taking advantage of the moment. I wonder if they really understand what they're enabling.

Like one of them said, "America's Taliban". I don't call them jihadis for nothing.

Well you have lost your mind, so there's that

 

[SweetSue92]

A day ago the BBC published a very sharp political article about what is happening to us in America today.
I will try to summarize its main points for discussion.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?


God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.

It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.

"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

“But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.

But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.

“New battle lines are being drawn in the US by a right-wing Christian movement set on what it sees as its divine mission - to spread its beliefs and messages using political power. So what is Christian nationalism and why is it flourishing now?

God and country is one of the oldest and most influential currents in US politics. It ebbs and flows throughout American history.
It's at high tide now because conservative Christians feel they're on the losing end of demographic and cultural changes.
"We desire to live in a Judeo Christian nation with Judeo Christian values," says Ken Peters, a so-called Patriot Pastor who preaches that God belongs in government.

But this fight against changing moral values is being framed as a battle against evil which demonises political opponents”, says Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

With no room for compromise, he believes it poses a fundamental threat to democracy.

Until recently the reach and power of this muscular Christianity was invisible to most Americans.
But it broke cover during the storming of the Capitol building last year.


The sight of rioters carrying crosses and Christian flags, and even praying together, exposed just how much religious and political identities had begun to merge on the right - bonded by a belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump.

There were also pastors at the Capitol that day, and some continue to preach that message.

Ken Peters is one of them. He's denounced the violence, but still defends what he sees as a patriotic mission.

He says God has "a special plan for this country" that he'd felt was threatened by the prospect of Trump's election loss.

[Hе says] They feel threatened by immigration and are alarmed by the increased acceptance of different gender identities and sexual orientations that they believe are unbiblical.

He wants the government to ban same-sex marriage because marriage between a man and a woman is "in the Bible".

He says "Christians are going to have to get feisty" because the left is winning. "I'm just putting up a last-ditch effort to try to keep our country as Christian as possible."

His polls find that about one third of Americans and half of Republicans say the US was designed by God to be a "promised land" for European Christians.

What's different now about such Christian political activism is that the country is no longer majority white and Christian, says Jones, noting that the shift into a demographic minority happened when the country had its first African-American president, Barack Obama (Obama IS NOT «Afro-American”!!! – AUTHOR).

"I think that threat - of white Christians no longer knowing they're in control, demographically, culturally, politically - is why we're seeing it kind of come to the fore in the current context," says Jones.

Many reject the Christian nationalist label as a leftist smear.

But a few right-wing politicians have embraced its holy rhetoric, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, two hardline Republicans and Trump allies.

"We need to be the party of nationalism, we should be Christian Nationalists," says Greene.

"We are the Christian Taliban," crowed white nationalist Vincent James Foxx in his webcast after the Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade.

"And we will not stop until The Handmaid's Tale is a reality."

… Patriot Churches expanding to several locations.

His friend, Greg Locke lit a bonfire and burned "objects of sorcery and witchcraft," including Catholic rosaries and Harry Potter books.

In one sermon that went viral, he told members of his congregation they could not be Christian and vote Democrat, calling Democrats "God-denying demons".

[being pressed] repeatedly on the risk of inciting violence by calling fellow Americans evil, he said that was not his responsibility.

"I'm not inciting violence. I'm preaching the Bible."

But another pastor in the Bible Belt, Kevin Riggs, says

"There's division in the church like I haven't seen it [before]," he says.

" It's been a cold civil war about ideology. But that could very quickly become violent.

The right will have a tendency to take up arms to protect their rights."
So far the battle has been political.

Starting from the ground up, conservative Christian activists have increasingly played a key role in school board disputes over what children are taught - about sexuality, gender identity, the history of racism - and over what they should be allowed to read.

They are a minority but their agenda overlaps with that of the Republican Party, which can give them disproportionate political clout.

Chris and Bobbi Foley said they had a powerful experience of the supernatural at one of Locke's deliverance services, and embraced his reframing of American conservative politics as spiritual warfare against a radical left.

"They took away the Bible, they took away Jesus and everything," said Bobbi. "So now we're being run by devils. We're being run by Satan because it's a spiritual war."

One person who might be able to repackage the Christian nationalist message with broader appeal is the right-wing governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis appears to be considering such an approach in a possible run for the presidency.

Christian nationalists are out of step with the direction of the country and with a majority of Christians, determined to harness politics to fight against changing values.

Whether or not the Christian right regains a champion at the national level, it's likely to continue to be a force that deepens the fractures of the union.

"I hope it doesn't end up in a civil war," says Ken Peters, whose church has attracted migrants from more liberal states. "I hope it ends up in us finding a way to have our own, maybe regions, of the nation and living peacefully together."

SOURCE: Christian nationalists - wanting to put God into US government

FROM THE AUTHOR:
Observing all that is going on, contradictions of groups that are inherently irreconcilable, my prognosis is extremely pessimistic.
The behavior of my opponents in the Forum is proof of this.

If... 2024 doesn't bring about a recovery for the country.

I will nutshell this for you.

The BBC, like all of the entire world, looks around and thinks, gosh, it seems we're really screwed.

What to do?

Can't blame the poor, brown people, gay people, queer people, women, Muslims, Hindus, immigrants, Leftists, Labour, Democrats, communists, and on and on and on...

AH yes!! White American Christians!

That's what it is, and all it is.

 

[Mac1958]

I'm guessing what you'll get on this thread is many insults and deflections and talking points, and very few denials.

Well you have lost your mind, so there's that

I know these people.

 

[SweetSue92]

I know these people.

"American jihadis" Mac.

Really?

 

[Mac1958]

"American jihadis" Mac.

Really?

I don't usually use the term. The article quotes one of YOU saying it.

You have said that I'm demonic, so you can keep your feigned outrage and victimhood, and file it somewhere.

You're reacting exactly as I predicted. I know you people, because I pay attention.

Done.

 

[Alexandre Fedorovski]

Sounds to me the freaks at the BBC have never heard of the moral majority. And the vast majority of the criminal aliens xiden is allowing to invade our country are practicing Roman Catholics. So the changing demographics are pointing to the US becoming more religious, not less.

.

Yes, what you said makes perfect sense.