General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublican Openly Endorses Assassination and Sedition in the Name of Jesus
State Rep. Matt Shea of Spokane Valley in conservative eastern Washington has been under fire since he acknowledged in a Facebook video last week that he had distributed the four-page document titled, "Biblical Basis for War" to some of his supporters.
The document condemns abortion and same-sex marriage and describes how those who don't follow biblical law should be punished. At one point, the document says, "If they do not yield, kill all males."
Amazingly, it's actually worse than that. In this blueprint for a violent theocracy, there's an entire section about how good Christian soldiers should respond to "tyranny." It involves assassination, sedition, and civil war.
-----------
The worst part about this is the fact that Shea has not been forced to immediately resign. Never mind the whole "Imagine a Democrat had been caught advocating terrorism" spiel; just think about what it says about the Republican Party that one of their own is outed as a violent jihadist, yes I'm using that word quite deliberately, and they collectively shrug. That should tell you how acceptable this kind of extremism is in the GOP. It's not an outlier at all. That's how far off the deep end they've gone.
[link:https://thedailybanter.com/2018/11/03/violent-republican-theocrat-exposed/|
American Taliban - alive, well and more concerning than ever....
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,342 posts)Why won't Trump just say it? The biggest threat to democracy in the U.S. is the radical Republican extremists Party.
NOMOGOP
(87 posts)old, white, flag wavin', 'murican, make believe man in the sky was for peace and other liberal crap? Geezuz had bible in one hand and club in the other.
rurallib
(62,411 posts)Roy Rolling
(6,917 posts)Reminds me of this:
"If Jesus had a gun he'd be alive today".---Homer Simpson
dalton99a
(81,475 posts)Trump Shut Down Programs to Counter Violent Extremism
By Peter Beinart
The Atlantic
October 29, 2018
Set aside the question of whether President Donald Trumps rhetorical flirtations with white nationalism enabled Saturdays mass shooting in Pittsburgh. Whats undeniable is that his administration has hobbled the infrastructure designed to prevent such murders.
In the waning days of Barack Obamas administration, the Homeland Security Department awarded a set of grants to organizations working to counter violent extremism, including among white supremacists. One of the grantees was Life After Hate, which The Hill has called one of the only programs in the U.S. devoted to helping people leave neo-Nazi and other white supremacy groups. Another grant went to researchers at the University of North Carolina who were helping young people develop media campaigns aimed at preventing their peers from embracing white supremacy and other violent ideologies. But soon after Trump took office, his administration canceled both of these grants. In its first budget, it requested no funding for any grants in this field.
Its part of a pattern of neglect. The grants were administered by the Office of Community Partnerships, which works intimately with local governments and community organizations to prevent jihadist and white-nationalist radicalization. In Obamas last year, according to the former director, George Selim, the office boasted 16 full-time employees, roughly 25 contractors, and a budget of more than $21 million. The Trump administration has renamed it the Office of Terrorism Prevention, and cut its staff to eight full-time employees and its budget to less than $3 million.
Under Obama, the Office of Community Partnerships housed an interagency task force on countering violent extremism that included officials detailed from the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services. Today the task force exists in name only. Its staff members have all returned to their home agencies and departments. Under this administration, says Selim, who now works at the Anti-Defamation League, theres been a precipitous decline in the dedicated staff and program funding devoted to combatting ideologically motivated violence.
This decline cant be chalked up to general budget cuts. Although Trump has slashed funding for many domestic departments, he increased Department of Homeland Security spending by more than 7 percent in his first budget and another 4 percent in his second. The cuts stem instead from two biases. First, in keeping with their law-and-order mentality, Trump officials would rather empower the police to arrest suspected terrorists than work with local communities to prevent people from becoming terrorists in the first place, as the Office of Community Partnerships did. Second, they believe the primary terrorist threat to Americans is jihadism, not white supremacy. The Office of Community Partnerships committed the sin of working on both.
From a public-policy perspective, thats exactly what the government should be doing. In 2017, the FBI concluded that white supremacists killed more Americans from 2000 to 2016 than any other domestic extremist movement. But Trump advisers have shrugged off these inconvenient facts. In an interview in 2017, White House Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka declared that there has never been a serious attack or a serious plot [in the United States] that was unconnected from isis or al-Qaeda. When critics cited the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Gorka responded, Its this constant Oh, its the white man. Its the white supremacists. Thats the problem. No, it isnt.
....
47of74
(18,470 posts)Who feel the need to arm themselves for protection.
Lonestarblue
(9,981 posts)I personally do not own a gun and dont want one, but the gun-toting Republicans like the multiple self-appointed militias who seem to be preparing for a civil war may be counting on liberals not being armed. I hope we can count on our National Guard to counteract the militias, but with Trump in charge we cant quite have faith that violence will be stopped.
KPN
(15,643 posts)I just havent been able to get there personally. Largely because I still have some optimism that good people will ultimately step up and save our country through voting, acting on impeachment or the 25th Amendment in time to make these slugs crawl back under the leafs from whence they came.
safeinOhio
(32,674 posts)No where does he quote Jesus Christ. I suggest he reads the Red Letter Bible, with the words of Jesus are written in red letters. So, he must be Jewish with a tad of Catholic added.
How can anyone claim to be a Christian when they ignore the words of Christ? Jesus never said a word about abortion or gay marriage, so how can those issues be the main focus of some Christians. If they want to stick to the OT, there are many references to when a fetus becomes a person, first breath or a year or two old.
Being an Atheist, I love to bring up the actual words of the NT. When I bring this up to the crazies, they turn and walk away with no answers.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)safeinOhio
(32,674 posts)As Catholics are the largest single Christian Sect in the US, does that make us a Catholic Nation, making the Pope our moral leader? They don't like that question either.
keithbvadu2
(36,788 posts)Volaris
(10,270 posts)Religion as an arm of State Power in Europe was absoutley a thing to the Protestants who wrote the constitution, and (at the time) their fear of the papacy as Moral Tyrant was legit--even if it's expression was rooted in the bigotry of English Bias.
That question was why they kinda didn't want us here in the first place, I get that.
The Opus Dei loons piss me off. My church, is the liberal church.
safeinOhio
(32,674 posts)At least half of the members are Atheist.
pazzyanne
(6,551 posts)All protestants are not evangelicals, and all evangelicals are not protestants who live by the teachings of Christ.
KPN
(15,643 posts)but in my own reading of the NT, nowhere have I found Jesus actually saying what the evangelical Christians today profess as the word of God.
I have never heard of the Red Letter Bible. Is there one?
safeinOhio
(32,674 posts)I always point them to RedletterBible.org. Then tell them to focus on the words of Jesus or stop calling themselves Christians.
KPN
(15,643 posts)Mariana
(14,856 posts)is just as valid as anyone else's. Every Christian picks and chooses which parts of the Bible are important and which parts they ignore. No one can follow all of Jesus's teachings in the Bible, either, because some of his teachings completely contradict each other.
DinahMoeHum
(21,784 posts). . .lest somebody on the other side takes up the offer and uses it on HIM.
Does he really believe his folks are the only ones with firearms?
Just sayin'
safeinOhio
(32,674 posts)tell them to study history and google Shays Rebellion. Washington came out of retirement to put it down.
marble falls
(57,080 posts)Secret Service be talking to Rep Shea?
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)Guys like this say that Trump is God's vessel. So everything he does is God's will.
marble falls
(57,080 posts)of the beatitudes. He willingly breaks any number of commandments while exhorting others to the same. Takes some tortured reading to make him even seem a tool of G*d. Though I have to say, cheetolini is a huge tool, otherwise.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)but you are taking an objective approach. I've read the quotes from the true believers, guys like Shea thought Obama was the tyrant, but Trump is good and he is working God's will so he can't be a tyrant.
Does it make any sense? No, but you're trying to apply logic. This isn't reason, it's rationalizing.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)I read about this several days ago. I realize that many people will say, that isn't Christian etc. etc., but is it any different that the sentiment expressed by Franklin Graham the other day that Christians should follow/obey Trump. He didn't say "Don't follow the violent stuff." It's open interpretation on what to follow, just obey. Trump says CNN is the enemy of the people, what in Graham's guidance would preclude sending them bombs?
This is just a more open attempt to create a "moral" justification for genocide. The only thing I see different between this and what the Dominionist movement has been saying for years is identifying which verses say it's OK to kill the men. I guess we're lucky he didn't use the ones that says it's OK to kill everyone except the little girls who haven't had sex yet, or the ones that say kill everyone.
This was and is entirely predictable. As is our outrage. The question isn't what liberals will think, it's what conservatives will do. My guess is nothing, because while even they'd agree that saying so is "Politically incorrect," I doubt there's actually much disagreement with the intent.
pazzyanne
(6,551 posts)All protestants are not evangelicals, and all evangelicals are not protestants who live by the teachings of Christ.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)but the evangelicals claim to be the true (read only) Christians. There are a minority of others who object, but they have essentially no visibility.
You may not like it, and I agree it's not true, but they own the brand now. Hostile takeover or not, the media has accepted them as Christians.
pazzyanne
(6,551 posts)I find a lot of people who are out there practicing Christian principles. I do not use the capital "c" when I speak of evangelicals because they have taken Christ out of their religion and replaced Him with tRump. You are speaking of the cult that follows tRump, not Christians in general. I personally don't care (about evangelical branding), do U?
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)Do I care about Evangelical taking over the branding of "Christian." On the one hand, no. I don't think they're Christians, but then by definition, I don't believe in the trinity therefore I'm not a Christian. This really isn't my fight. I'll pursue this from another angle, and I do care, and I think you do too.
There are enough people who will accept the high volume of the rhetoric and it's alignment with their prejudices as evidence that the evangelical movement is Christian. By taking over that brand they can and do make the claim to represent Christ. If Christians who disagree with them don't fight for that label it becomes a weapon to attack not only other religious groups but Christians as well, because by the evangelical definition they're not real Christians.
It was long ago stated that when fascism come to the US it would be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. I feel that the non-evangelicals have ceded their symbols to groups with strong if not overt fascist leanings. You may be moved by ideas and not the symbols, but I don't believe it is a majority position for human beings.
pazzyanne
(6,551 posts)However on other web pages I visit, when this question comes up, most people are using the cult word to express their opinions. There are also discussions taking place in bible study classes, at least in this area, where analogies are being made about the tRump cult and its members. We can hope that there are enough people not taken in by the evangelical ideology that it will not make huge inroads into our culture. Let's just say there are many people who are aware of the cult and are resisting.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)I found this on the DU home page. I think it pretty much sums up both our positions. My question is, what will people do about it?
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211362086
pazzyanne
(6,551 posts)I think most people understand what is going on, as I have heard many people refer to the RWNJs as a cult. Hopefully that segment of the population will be growing.
LakeSuperiorView
(1,533 posts)The new testament is where Jesus comes in. You can't be Christian if you ignore the words of Christ.
Mariana
(14,856 posts)"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34)
"I have come to bring fire on the earth." (Luke 12:49)
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sistersyes, even his own lifehe cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)
"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." (Luke 19:27)
He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." (Luke 22:36)
The New Testament is more than a few cherry picked verses to prove a personal point. If you read those verses in context, it shows the total picture, not the cherry picked version. It also looks like you are quoting from the King James version of the Bible translated by the Church of England. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the newer versions of the Bible have been translated from Greek, not the Church of England version. There is a vast difference in the newer versions transcribed from original Greek.
samnsara
(17,622 posts)plimsoll
(1,668 posts)Step outside the city limits, all bets are off.
LogicFirst
(571 posts)Perhaps the $6.3 million settlement and the forfeiture of the compound will force him to move his operation, preferably to Russia or a place similar.
pazzyanne
(6,551 posts)...and they are fully supported by right wing evangelicals. How do I know? My sister is a charter member.
Oneironaut
(5,493 posts)The government is totally clueless. Theyre worried about Islamic terror while the real terror problem is growing under their noses.
KentuckyWoman
(6,679 posts)He said
Sin = Tyranny
Assassination to remove tyrants.
Trump is a man who goes out of his way to break all of the 10 commandments every single day. It looks to me like Matt Shea is calling for assassination of Trump.
SMoss
(112 posts)If these terrorists think they are scaring liberals they are wrong. Some of us are familiar with guns. The last deer I shot was 280 yards away. I have friends.