Pastor walks out on Trump's 'demonic' Florida rally: 'My 11-year-old daughter was sobbing in fear'

[DonViejo]

DAVID EDWARDS
21 FEB 2017 AT 12:25 ET

Joel Tooley, lead pastor at First Church Of The Nazarene in Melbourne, said that both he and his daughter were traumatized after attending President Donald Trump’s rally in Florida over the weekend.

In a lengthy Facebook post written after Trump’s Saturday rally, Tooley explains that he had not supported the Republican presidential candidate but he felt that attending a presidential speech would be a good civics lesson for his daughter.

Tooley writes that he was disturbed by the “almost church-like” way Trump supporters sang Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA. “People were being ushered into a deeply religious experience…and it made me completely uncomfortable,” the pastor recalls. “I felt like people were here to worship an ideology along with the man who was leading it. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the song per se – it was this inexplicable movement that was happening in the room. It was a religious zeal.”

Tooley describes First Lady Melania Trump’s reading of the Lord’s Prayer as “theatrical and manipulative.”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/pastor-walks-out-on-trumps-demonic-florida-rally-my-11-year-old-daughter-was-sobbing-in-fear/

[yallerdawg]

1. That one observation.

It is exactly like southern college football fanaticism.

The R's have a national championship! That is the be-all and the end-all.

[They_Live]

33. I have thought the same thing for a long, long time

regarding Republicans. It's a football game. To hell with people's lives, we have to win. No matter how ridiculous.

[Hortensis]

36. Nazarenes are very fundamentalist themselves,

and intense religious devotion is an important part of their lives. For this one to be disturbed by what he saw as misdirected religious passion says a lot. He stopped short of wondering what role Satan and his demons might be playing these days, but he knows they are with us. I'm sorry his daughter was so upset. If this family's like the ones I once knew, she is very carefully and closely raised and her eyes probably normally shine with sweet serenity. (Not kidding.)

What Melania was reportedly up to is, to me, the very worst thing I've heard about her yet. If true, and it seems likely that other accounts will corroborate.

[yallerdawg]

38. Nothing creeps me out more than religion at political events.

Melania opening with "The Lord's Prayer" made the rest unwatchable for me, I can't take the mix.

I've seen Democrats open with camp-meeting style events, and I have to find the more secular Democrat! Even in the South, many candidates keep church and state separate. As they should.

[Hortensis]

39. The combo can be scary, as described here. I just

googled M and Lord's Prayer, and three screens and more are full of raging hostility against Democrats for objecting. Of course, it's not just Melania's cynical pandering that creeps us out.

It's the sick connection these so-called Christians are making with this abomination of a man. Whatever control the official precepts of their churches may have had over the behaviors of these people has clearly been destroyed by their political passions.

[mrs_p]

2. Sounds like a cult. Nt

[bdamomma]

45. I wonder if he (45)

did the "Jim Jones" thing would they comply?????

[lunasun]

3. Super freaked me out too pastor. Scary as shit and televised

and I didn't even see the whole thing just some you tube clips but enough to get the pastors drift it is called facism . Lord 's prayer I saw
Civic s lesson ? Oh most definitely it was yes but at what cost ? An older teenager perhaps who could talk about what they experienced also I could see maybe.

[get the red out]

4. The gist I got

was that he was clueless about what was going to happen.

[lunasun]

9. Wait till the pussy grabbing starts . Hide her . Kidding aside, maybe yes he didn't really know

What he was thinking or Trump s reputation and the rally lure and violence that surrounds them in the past. Maybe ,just heard speech &POTUS close by let go see it but really to see his religion used as a facist chant which ended in cheering and probably high fives must have been so disgusting to him as a man of faith. Melania trump He said it made him sick
It's not even my thing , and don't want it forced on us like trumpers do, but I have empathy for him and what that must of meant to have his beliefs defiled by that rally culture
The daughter seeing all that at 11 and being a pastors kid , I just hope she can forget those people.

[exboyfil]

5. My grandma was a life long Nazarene

Very conservative church that emphasizes sanctification. I appreciate the Pastor's honesty. T

[raccoon]

6. Some quotes from the pastor's Facebook post that especially struck me:

The tickets were being given away by the Trump-Pence campaign; I found it odd that the tickets indicated that this was not a government/White House event & that this was a campaign event... What I discovered was that by hosting this as a campaign event, Mr. Trump could determine who was and was not allowed in the venue. If he came on an official visit, they could not prohibit anyone from entering and he couldn't sell his campaign merchandise.

So, in essence, he was only allowing his supporters in the room


From my view, the crowd was 99.9% white folk. I did see a row of about 10-12 supporters who were black, wearing T-shirts that said, "Trump and Republicans are not racist" - they were positioned in the seating area directly behind the podium.

[dembotoz]

16. that explains a lot i now understand thank you

i think we can expect to see more events like this

[MyOwnPeace]

40. Then the RNC

had better pay for the flight down and back for the hack and his followers!

this was not a government/White House event & that this was a campaign event...

[raccoon]

42. An excellent point. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. An important fact came up in this description (read the whole thing!) -

Apart from the description of the fanatical nastiness of many of those at the rally (nothing new there), he mentions that this was specifically advertised as a campaign rally. Why would someone who has just been elected president be holding a campaign rally when there won't be another election for almost four years, you ask? Here's why:

The tickets were being given away by the Trump-Pence campaign; I found it odd that the tickets indicated that this was not a government/White House event & that this was a campaign event. I have, of course, posted a joking post about that earlier. What I discovered was that by hosting this as a campaign event, Mr. Trump could determine who was and was not allowed in the venue. If he came on an official visit, they could not prohibit anyone from entering and he couldn't sell his campaign merchandise.

So: obviously this was another opportunity for fund-raising and grifting (nothing new there, either). SCROTUS' having filed for the 2020 election makes this possible. But what's important is that this indicates that there will be more of these - probably a lot of them - not just to sell merchandise and give SCROTUS the adoration he craves, but to keep whipping his supporters into a state of blind rage and ensure their fanatical, even violent loyalty.

Weird and scary.

[Chiyo-chichi]

15. I didn't even realize that he had "filed" for 2020. I didn't even know one could do it this early.

But he did indeed send a letter to the FEC on inauguration day & asked them to consider it his Form 2, aka his statement of candidacy, for 2020.
Such a barrage of crap and malfeasance coming from this administration I can't keep up.

[raccoon]

43. Such a shyster. nt

[flygal]

8. I attended a Quayle rally and a Clinton rally in '92 - stark differences

The Quayle rally was started with a prayer service, only patriotic music and his speech was full of anti-liberal crap.
Clinton's music was more popular style and the atmosphere was just way more hip and uplifting.

[bullwinkle428]

10. I would imagine that Melania has become accustomed to praying,

every time she sees that naked thing coming toward her like Godzilla.

[Zero System]

11. :'(

I cried reading this. I guess I commend this man's willingness to keep his mind that open...but I guess I also don't understand taking his daughter there in the hopes that she would see anything presidential or have a "sentimental" experience. She experienced exactly what I would expect, which is why I would never take my grandchildren near one of these events.

I appreciate his taking the time to write this. I don't think it will change the minds of any of his friends who blindly support this presidency...but I hope it plants a seed in the minds of his friends who, like him, aren't so blind.

Some days lately, I'm angry. But some days, I can't be anything but sad about our country's situation.

[Hekate]

13. Welcome to DU. We'll try to get thru this together...

...with true information and action.

[Zero System]

14. Thank you, very much.

And I agree - we WILL get through this. I'm still trying to collect myself to figure out where my actions are most needed, but I do believe in good people, truth and action.

[Hekate]

46. Just came back from a rally in support of Planned Parenthood. The keynote speaker was ...

...our new Congressman.

I'm on a lot of local email lists: Democratic Party of__, Dem Women of __, Planned Parenthood, Progressives of ___, and Indivisible of__.

It gives me a lot of activities to choose from, just picking and choosing because no one can do it all, and I also know when there is going to be a rally.

Check out the group INDIVISIBLE, if you have not already. They are growing rapidly.

Believe me, you are not alone.

[Zero System]

48. Thank you!

There is an Indivisible group that meets three blocks down the street from me...one of the benefits of living in the capital city. I'm definitely going to check it out.

[Hekate]

12. A pastor is is a position to see ritual and cult-like behavior for what it is.That he is speaking...

....out about the truth of this is something I appreciate very much. His daughter got a civics lesson all right -- a very scary one.

[BeckyDem]

17. theatrical and manipulative. He gets their con.

I hope more of them figure it out by 2018.

[pansypoo53219]

18. drink the koolaid.

[Liberal In Red State]

19. How awful! What I can not understand is how this is acceptable to the moderate GOP! Why do

they not turn on him! As long as it appears to others that it is anti-liberals it is acceptable. When will real Americans begin to see this is intolerable! That is policies, speech and actions are so unacceptable and unAmerican that they want him out of office? Now . . . not in 4 years! How could otherwise moderate GOP be accepting of this tiny orange a$$ just to achieve their political goals? They are in every way as deplorable says he is!

[Initech]

20. Trump is a cult leader. And his extreme far right supporters are his cult.

[progressoid]

22. Makes Scientology seem tame.

[Initech]

49. I want to see Leah Remini make a show about Trump cult escapees!

[world wide wally]

21. And that is why fake religion is worse than no religion at all

[Angry Dragon]

28. yes

[StevieM]

23. It's going to get worse before it gets better. (eom)

[TNLib]

24. I lived near Melbourne as a child growing up

I was the only Hispanic in the school. I received allot of bullying and was tormented with racial slurs. That part of Florida is one of the worst, so I'm not surprised.

[LS_Editor]

25. Great argument for secularism.

I turned it off immediately when Melnlania was reciting that prayer. Trump and his family are ideologues, and dangerous to the republic.No policiea or patriotiam. Just self-serving engrandizement.

[Kimchijeon]

26. Poor kid

That would really skeev me out too, I can't blame her for that reaction.

[catbyte]

27. So telling that this was listed as a CAMPAIGN EVENT. He could keep out who he wanted &

could sell his shitty, Made in China stupid hats, buttons & shirts. If it were an official Presidential event then he couldn't do any of those things. And I remember him bitching when Obama went to a campaign event. Hypocrite. What a despicable piece of shit. The whole Facebook post is horrifying--especially when "enraged" people started to go for the elderly lady with a walker & the severely disabled child in a wheelchair.

This goes way beyond deplorables--these people are evil. They are the new Nazi Party.

[usaf-vet]

29. 45th the con man with his biggest CON

He is about as religious as my pet goldfish. His complete lack of empathy is a flashing red light saying to me caution this guy is dangerous.

[3catwoman3]

30. "He is about a religious as my pet goldfish."

With an attention span to match.

[Blue Owl]

31. The bowels of hell...

n/t

[Grammy23]

32. I watched parts of the spectacle...for that it what was.

It was like they were waiting on the second coming of Christ and they were not disappointed. The build up of the arrival of tRump and Melania in Air Force 1 was quite the show. It was like a crowd being held back from rock stars. All theater of the absurd.

tRump has learned that the use of emotion is a quick way to the hearts and minds of his followers.... worshippers. Churches have used this method for ages because it works.

And who better to manipulate his audience than this master of manipulation. They are being fleeced and deceived at every turn, but are conned into believing THEY are the ones getting something. Sad but true. At some point they will catch on but sadly, only after they've been hurt by their hero. We can shout to them, reason with them and beg and plead. As long as they are under his spell and not feeling the pinch of what he is doing to them, they will be loyal subjects. Until the bitter end. 😢

[raccoon]

44. Your post reminded me of two things I heard in a series of lectures about Hitler.

Some time ago I checked out a series of lectures about Hitler from the library.
A professor was giving the lectures. Wish I could remember specifics, but I can't.

One thing he said, a Hitler rally was like a rock concert.

The other, that Hitler had the ability to get people to stop thinking and start emoting (sic).

[Mariana]

51. I wonder how many churches actively supported Hitler, early on.

I'm sure someone has an idea, but I do not. There are an awful lot of them actively supporting Trump.

[LongTomH]

34. This is absolutely terrifying!!!! It sounds like something out of a Nazi rally in the 1930s.

[catbyte]

35. The one hopeful thing in the whole depressing post was that it wasn't that well-attended

The room wasn't filled & there was absolutely no need for the Jumbotrons set up for the "overflow." This is a cult. Malaria reciting "The Lord's Prayer" sounds horrific. Bannon's idea? I'm fairly certain it wasn't Dolt 45's.

[geek tragedy]

37. I gotta ask, who on earth would think a Trump rally would be (a) a good place to learn about civics

or (b) an appropriate environment for a small child?

Trump rallies are the political equivalent of cock-fighting matches.

[JNelson6563]

53. i will take: Someone interested in martyrdom for $500 Alex

[geek tragedy]

55. not quite Parlockian, but closer than I would want to be nt

[Cha]

41. Jesus.. the Pastor describes it as what I imagined

[Lifelong Protester]

47. Mixing politics and religion? Didn't we try that once?

Unsuccessfully, if I remember. People were burned at the stake.

[Initech]

50. That's how you get the Taliban, ISIS, and Boko Haram.

[JNelson6563]

52. Ok, it was billed as a Rally.

Trump has not made the slightest indication that he was going to start behaving Presidential in any way at all. Why did this man think it would be any different from any other Trump rally? At a point in the campaign I saw protesters going to those rallies showing up on social media bloodied and bruised with horror stories of crazed supporters getting violent...well it was just inviting martyrdom at a point. there's no way those folks later in the season didn't know what would happen to them, what made this guy think it would be any different??? I question his parental judgement.

And that bit about "the holy spirit" being the reason they are unscathed...yeah, those people in the horrific war zones? fuck 'em, I gotta save this guy at a Trump rally. Omg. the modesty is overwhelming. /sarcasm

[Kentonio]

54. While I sympathize with his overall impression of Trump and his rabid supporters..

This is a guy who thinks that demons walk amongst us. I think his daughter already probably has fear issues.