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MomInTheCrowd

(313 posts)
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 02:38 PM Sunday

The real, real threat...

Listen to the podcast or get the book. Terrifying. We must be reaching out to our friends and family. No more pussyfooting around just to “keep the peace”. These “Christians” have self-anointed as prophets and apostles to destroy democracy.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-state-of-belief/id1691394143?i=1000672839218

From the State of Belief podcast description:

“In his new book, Dr. Matthew D. Taylor sheds light on the alarming rise of authoritarianism in Christian nationalist movements. In The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, Matthew explores the rise of the New Apostolic Reformation, a radical movement within American evangelicalism that is mobilizing in support of Trump and other far-right leaders. This week, he joins host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of The State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance's weekly radio program and podcast, to discuss how this movement intertwines charismatic faith with extreme politics, a dangerous combination that culminated in the January 6th attack on the Capitol – and continues to hang over democracy as a major threat.
Emphasizing the need for a cohesive pro-democracy movement, Matthew and Paul review strategies for countering the impact of extremist groups through education and persuasion – highlighting the importance of reaching out to those who may have been misled but can still be engaged in constructive dialogue.
“We need to try to find all the allies we can, all the fellow travelers we can, and try to build a coalition that is pro-democracy. And I see the edges of that. I see the glimpses of that, and it fills me with hope because I think there are people who are listening to the better angels of our nature right now. We need their voices to be louder. We need them to be amplified.”
- Matthew D. Taylor, Ph.D., senior scholar and the Protestant scholar at the Institute for Islamic Jewish Christian Studies, specializing in Muslim-Christian dialogue, Evangelical and Pentecostal movements, religious politics in the U.S., and American Islam. Before coming to ICJS, Matt served on the Georgetown University and The George Washington University faculty. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies. Dr. Taylor's literary and visual works include Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America, the audio-documentary series “Charismatic Revival Fury: The New Apostolic Reformation,” and his latest book, The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy”

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MomInTheCrowd

(313 posts)
3. And we must be willing to take to the streets to protect
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 02:59 PM
Sunday

our democracy - it is a freight train coming right at us, right now. All they need is the levers of power to overwhelm our numbers.

Cirsium

(483 posts)
4. Yes, if...
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 03:43 PM
Sunday

There's more of us than there are of them, if people take a stand. It doesn't matter how many people believe this or that, it matters how many are willing to fight.

"Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject." John Stuart Mill

Right wing laws are threatening doctors in order to discourage them from caring for their patients. How many doctors have been arrested because they refused to deny their patients the care they need? How many are going along to get along and playing it safe?

Maybe it is "not that bad yet?" Maybe we hope it will pass? Maybe we think that it doesn't matter what we do?

pat_k

(10,431 posts)
2. Yes. Christian Nationalism is corrupting principles we treasure as a nation. . .
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 02:51 PM
Sunday

... as it utterly corrupts true Christian faith.

TX State Rep. James Talarico is a riveting speaker in the fight against Christian nationalism. He is standing against the cancer from a place of true faith. I hope to see him on the national stage in the not too distant future. Some excerpts below. I highly recommend the entire sermon.

. . .
He told us we would know them by their fruits.

Jesus includes.

Christian Nationalism excludes.

Jesus liberates.

Christian Nationalism controls.

Jesus saves.

Christian Nationalism kills.

Jesus started a universal movement based on mutual love.

Christian Nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate.

Jesus came to transform the world.

Christian Nationalism is here to maintain the status quo.

They have co-opted the Son of God. They've turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist.
. . .

If this was truly a Christian nation, we would love all of our LGBTQ neighbors. If this was truly a Christian nation, we would make sure every child in this state and in this country was housed, fed, clothed, educated, and insured.

If this was truly a Christian nation, we would never make it a Christian nation because we know the table of fellowship is open to everybody, including our Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and atheist neighbors.
. . .

The closest thing we have to the kingdom of heaven is a multiracial, multicultural democracy where power is truly shared among all people. Something that's yet to exist in human history.
. . .

When someone asked Jesus to name his most important commandment, he cheats and gives two -- two that he says are related. The first is to love God. The second, he said, "Is like it: love they neighbor as thyself." It's like it because when I recognize the divine image in myself, I can't help but recognize it in my neighbor; whether they're Christian or not, whether they're religious or not. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus specifically defines neighbor as some different from us, racially, economically, politically, religiously. God loves diversity; God loves variety. Just look around this beautiful planet of ours.
. . .

God is so much bigger than our human categories. God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian.

God it not a noun at all.

God is a verb.

God is not A Being.

God is Being itself.

God is love.


And that's why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.
. . .

That's why he says sinners will get to the kingdom of heaven before religious people do. Sorry to everyone here. I know you came all this way.
. . .

The kingdom of God inverts the power dynamics of "all the kingdoms in the world."

True strength is vulnerability.

True status is equality.

True wealth is sharing.

And we as Christians are called to realize that kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven," not by force, but by faith.

Jesus asked us to have the faith of a mustard seed, trusting that by living and dying for love we give birth to a better world.

That's not easy to do.
. . .

Christian Nationalists are more committed to the love of power than the power of love.

And it exposes a lack of faith because the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is a healthy part of any faith.

The opposite of faith is control. When we stop trusting God, when we stop trusting love, we start taking control for ourselves.

Christian Nationalists want to control what we read, who we marry, where we travel, when we have children. They want to control our minds and our bodies.

"O ye of little faith."
. . .




KPN

(16,022 posts)
5. Yup! They are on a crusade. And Democrats are the evil enemy.
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 05:23 PM
Sunday

I have proof of that in a sibling, as well as a neice’s (a different siblings daughter) husband. I have heard them say it! And that was more than 3 years ago.

GiqueCee

(1,228 posts)
6. Hmmm... "intertwines charismatic faith with extreme politics..."
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 05:23 PM
Sunday

... Didn't there used to be a law against preaching politics from the pulpit? Weren't chronic offenders supposed to lose their tax-exempt status as a church? I think maybe it's long past time to dust that one off, and give it some teeth.

I believe it was H.L. Mencken who said, "Religion is the greatest fomenter of hatred and intolerance in the history of humanity." Or words to that effect.

OldBaldy1701E

(6,070 posts)
8. Yeah, that ship has sailed.
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 05:32 PM
Sunday
Emphasizing the need for a cohesive pro-democracy movement, Matthew and Paul review strategies for countering the impact of extremist groups through education and persuasion.


Education and persuasion are too little, too late.

Also, I ain't turning either cheek to a rethug. So sorry, but passive-aggressive answers accomplish nothing.

You want this to stop? Make them understand the depth and breadth of their choice.

MomInTheCrowd

(313 posts)
10. I hate to agree with you...
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 06:16 PM
Sunday

The number of unreachable is daunting, I will, however, keep working through and beyond this election to show the depth and breadth of their choice.

Warpy

(113,000 posts)
11. I've been rereading books I read years ago
Sun Oct 13, 2024, 06:18 PM
Sunday

and one character in one of the books said there is a Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: organized religion.

I think the author had a point. Destruction always arrives with god on its side.

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