Each week I throw a spotlight upon news items that qualify as weird religious news. Did people who are religious act with decency, integrity, and honour during the past seven days? Seriously yes, many did, but there were also those who were inspired by what they believe, and so they incarnated and manifested stupidity, intolerance, and bigotry.
So who popped up in the news cycle this week?
Let’s take a look.
- White Evangelical Christian Support for Donald Trump is at an All-Time High
- Christian Nationalism: Good for Trump, Bad for America And The World
… and don’t step out of line or you will be in trouble …
All hail our Saviour … Trump …
So whatever comes next, remember to thank the White Evangelicals for it, because they put him there.
As for opposing voices, apparently that is all Satan’s fault …
- Mat Staver: The Media Is Attacking Trump With Satanic “Psychological Warfare”
- Liberty Counsel Lawyer: Satan is Behind Public School Sex Ed Programs
In fact, if it is not Trump, then apparently it is evil witchery …
- Lance Wallnau: If Democrats Win In Midterms, ‘It’s Going To Inaugurate An Hour Of Darkness’ Over America
- ‘May Thy Right Hand Find All The King’s Enemies’: Lance Wallnau Prays Against Trump’s Critics
- POTUS Shield Prays For Protection Over Trump From Deep State ‘Evil Forces’ And Curses Of ‘Witches And Warlocks’
For some we are still in the 2016 election cycle where the myths and lies persist, so for Hillary is evil incarnate …
- Liz Crokin: I Know “100%” There’s Tape of Hillary Clinton Sexually Abusing a Kid
… but she also said this, and so confirms that she is a true nutter …
Beyond the cult of Trump, other weird stuff also happened.
I don’t pay taxes because Jesus …
- Oregon Man Doesn’t Pay Taxes Because He’s a Christian Who Opposes Abortion
The all too common stories about sexual abuse by the god squad pops up each and every week …
- Daughter of TLC’s Willis Family Says Her Christian Father Sexually Abused Her
- Piety Redefined: Priest Prayed For Forgiveness While Raping a 13-Year-Old Girl
- Hasidic Sect Sees Rapist Rabbi as God; Believers Allow Him to Do “Anything”
Dial an Exorcism …
- Catholic Priests, Adding Another Layer of Waste, Are Offering Exorcisms By Phone
Belief and bigotry are still married …
- Christian Radio Host: Lesbians Are “Not Mentally Capable” of Raising Children
Give me your money and you will no longer be poor …
It’s not just the US …
- Buying Facebook Likes is Now Against Islamic Law, But Child Marriage Still Isn’t
- How a Young Girl’s Rape and Murder in a Hindu Temple Divided India
- Turkish Conservatives Are Getting Alarmed By the “Plague” of Deism and Atheism
Spotlight – The Cult of Trump
I quite honestly do not agree with much of what Reza Aslan writes, but his latest Big Think observation truly nails it and is spot on …
Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in the previous election. That’s a record. That’s more white evangelicals than voted for George W. Bush—and George W. Bush was a white evangelical.
This makes no sense to people, especially when you consider that Trump is not just the most irreligious president in modern history, that his entire worldview makes a mockery of core Christian values like humility and empathy and care for the poor; That this individual who couldn’t even name a single verse in the bible when asked to do so, and yet – and yet – received a record number of votes by white evangelicals.
He goes on to address why this is the case …
Number one, it’s white evangelicals. Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump, but 67 percent of evangelicals of color supported Hillary Clinton.
…
The second reason I think has to do with the pernicious influence of something called the prosperity gospel, which has gripped the imaginations of white evangelicals.
This is that version of Christianity preached by these charlatans like Joel Olstein and T.D. Jakes, the essential gist of which is that God wants you to drive a Bentley, that what Jesus really wants for you is material prosperity—and indeed that’s how you know God has blessed you, is by your material prosperity.
Many white evangelicals looked at Donald Trump, and what they saw was a wealthy man. And that wealth, as far as they were concerned, was just a sign of God’s blessings.
…
Thirdly, Donald Trump did something that no other president, not even any Republican president courting the evangelical vote ever did. He expressly promised secular power to these white evangelical groups.
But …
none of this explains the most important phenomenon about white evangelicals in America, and that is this: In the span of a single election cycle, white evangelicals have gone from being the group in America that is most likely to say that a politician’s morality matters to the group that is now least likely to say that.
Atheists in America think that a politician’s morality matters more than white evangelicals in America do—White evangelicals who continue to refer to themselves as value voters.
… and here is the punchline …
the only explanation that I have for it is that Donald Trump has turned a large swathe of white evangelical Christianity into a cult, into a religious cult, a dangerous religious cult. All the signs are there.
If you are not so sure about that, then review many of the items that popped up in the news cycle in the past week. This really does explain it.
Reza also points this out …
Pat Robertson, the head of The 700 Club, a very influential white evangelical, literally said that God took him in a dream up to heaven and he saw Donald Trump sitting at the right hand of God.
You know who actually sits at the right hand of God, according to evangelicals? Jesus Christ.
In other words, Pat Robertson is saying that Donald Trump is essentially Jesus Christ. In fact, that’s not that weird.
His own evangelical advisor, a pastor by the name of Jeffers, said not too long ago that he would prefer Donald Trump as a candidate over someone who “expresses the values of Jesus.”
Consider this …
when a religious cult begins to deal with this kind of situation, when their cosmic ideas are suddenly butting up against the reality of a failed leadership, they tend to double down. And that’s why I think that we’re in a very dangerous place as a country right now. Because the only thing more dangerous than a cult leader like Trump is a martyred cult leader.