"Jesus, guns, babies": Religious violence is now at the core of the Republican Party

[marmar]

"Jesus, guns, babies": Religious violence is now at the core of the Republican Party
Lauren Boebert prayed for Biden's death — and that's not even close to the craziest item on the GOP wish list

By THOMAS LECAQUE
PUBLISHED JUNE 14, 2022 6:30AM


(Salon) At the tail end of last week, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado took the stage at the Charis Christian Center's Family Camp Meeting. The event claims that, "you will hear God's Word shared through speakers who have proven God's Word," and follows the speakers' list with Acts 2:17-18:

And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

The apocalyptic context notwithstanding, Boebert's talk made quite a splash because of her invocation of Psalm 109:8 in the context of praying for President Biden — "May his days be few and another take his office" — before laughing at the cheers of the crowd. This is certainly not a new use of that text by the GOP — Sen. David Perdue of Georgia invoked it against Obama in 2016, and it became an anti-Obama slogan featured on bumper stickers. With the passage divorced from its full context, people can laugh — but Psalm 109 is a war psalm, calling for the death of the man in question, with 109-9 reading "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." And that's the point: As with so many aspects of contemporary Christian nationalism, give the line people can nod along to, and hold back the violent context. This is a prayer for the death of the president, and it is one we can honestly say has become normal for Republicans to use about Democratic presidents.

Maybe that's a big enough problem that we should acknowledge it not just as a fringe phenomenon, but as part of the core problem of the contemporary, MAGA-infused GOP.

....(snip)....

I would also suggest, rather forcefully, that Christian patriarchy and Christian nationalism are linked to the "great replacement" theory, the deeply racist and xenophobic notion that nonwhite people are being brought into Western countries to "replace" white voters, in order to further a specific political agenda, leading to the supposed extinction of white people. As is well understood, this delusional ideology has fueled multiple massacres, including the mass shooting in Buffalo in May and earlier mass shootings in El Paso, Pittsburgh and Christchurch, New Zealand. Forced-birth laws and abortion bans are also part of this perceived demographic war, part and parcel with the spiritual battles Christian nationalists believe they are fighting and the very real stockpiling of arms, association with militia groups and opposition to government. PRRI's August 2021 survey shows that "great replacement" ideas are growing in evangelical circles, and have only become more mainstream since then. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/14/jesus-guns-babies-religious-violence-is-now-at-the-core-of-the-party/

[PXR-5]

1. But if I pray for Trump's death that would be a sin.

This is why people are getting tired of religion.

Here's another one; when St. Patrick Day fell during Lent you had permission to eat corn beef in Eastern NC, but in Western NC it was a sin.

So God, what if I drove east and ate it and return home did I still sin?

[walkingman]

3. Hell yeah! Now give me a couple of Hail Mary's

[True Blue American]

5. That is pitiful.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

17. That is so ludicrous.

These Catholic Church and Evangelical leaders are on one serious power trip.

[Scrivener7]

2. I disagree slightly. The babies are not what they are after. It should be:

Jesus, guns, UTERUSES.

[True Blue American]

8. Republicans,along with the Evangellical Right want total power, nothing else will do.

The Far Right are using Evangelicals to succeed.

[True Blue American]

4. I do not suspect

I know that is right! Dealing with what modern Religion has become, a hodge podge of what hateful people want, using the Bible verses to pretend what they want them to mean, I am finished!

I choose to believe my own conscience.

[ReluctanceTango]

7. What modern religion has become?

You cannot be serious. The main religion here has been tormenting, enslaving, murdering and mass-murdering everyone they didn’t like for centuries now.

Good grief, they’ve even killed each other over their religion. Anyone who’s taken a European history class knows that.

Nothing is new about what they are. They’re what they’ve always been.

[True Blue American]

9. True, but I am speaking of our recent History.

[ReluctanceTango]

6. Gee, took them long enough.

We’ve only known that religious right wingers were murderous bigots for decades now.

Were these dolts wringing their hands about it now not paying attention to all those murdered abortion doctors? The bombed clinics? McVeigh and Eric Rudolph? That idiot Weaver at Ruby Ridge, and Koresh at Waco? The KKK and all the other right wing terror groups? The scumbags shooting up Jewish sites all over the country—even the Holocaust Museum?

Where the FUCK have they been not to notice it long before now?

[dlk]

10. Guns are killing our babies

A very twisted and perverted message

[slightlv]

11. When I left Xtianity and became a Seeker at 14,

I thought I could easily tolerate just about any religion as long as I could ferret out the core truths. That's what I wanted... to find, correlate and contrast the core truths among the great and small religions and somehow... out of all that... come out with a grain of absolute truth. Ha! How naïve a teenager I was.

I finally settled into my own truth, which is what I think most of us tend to do, anyway... religion or no. But I find I can no longer be so forgiving or tolerant of (especially) structured religion. Most of them, especially those descended from the Middle East, are patriarchal and treat women like crap. Even when you do just a modicum of digging you'll find great stories of women in their old books; whereas, in their newer books, those old stories are completely wiped out (or at least the female figures are wiped out or turned into prostitutes).

All of those religions are based in violence. They're testosterone founded, because they're all descended from the religion of Marduk, who was the original Pagan religion that overthrew the matriarchal religions of the Middle East. Up until that point in time, when a region was conquered, the gods and goddesses of the conquered were incorporated into the victors' "family" through marriage to their gods and goddesses and life went on. Not so with Marduk. He conquered; he killed the gods and goddesses -- especially the goddesses. He was the flaming finger of God's vengeance. And we've been dealing with the patriarchy ever since. Damn him.

[lees1975]

12. I'm amazed that people are just now waking up to this. It's been coming for a while now.

There's a branch off American Christianity that has completely changed the whole scope of theology and doctrine by their belief that spiritual "revelation" is ongoing, and that a "revelation" that comes to a self-appointed prophet can actually change or erase a core teaching of Jesus and change the interpretation of Biblical doctrine. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Boebert and Palin both belong to that sect, which by definition, is not Christian. It should also not come as a surprise that the failed former President 45 considers one of the more extreme "ministers" of this cult, a self-appointed "prophetess" named Paula White, as his "spiritual advisor".

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/06/christian-dominion-theology-intersects.html

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/06/no-theology-or-doctrine-justifies.html

Those are both long, but they give explanations. I know a lot of Democrats don't care too much for the discussion, but it's past time to pay attention because these people are going about completely changing historic Christianity and they believe they have been especially chosen to bring the world back to God and he has told them that now is the time. They set aside every core Christian doctrine and since they believe they are doing the "will of God" without a shred of evidence of that claim, and are his "chosen," they are exempt from all human law, and are entitled to murder whoever gets in their way. And they believe the pathway to world domination is to take over the United States government.

When you see someone in a Jesus t-shirt, carrying a banner with an American and Christian flag on it, with a sharp edge at the bottom stabbing a police officer on the steps of the Capitol, that's a wake up call.

[lees1975]

13. BTW, that passage she cited from Acts was fulfilled 2000 years ago and doesn't mean our time.

That's actually a quote from the Old Testament prophet Joel, in a sermon given by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, telling those gathered that the prophecy was being fulfilled as they were standing there at that moment. It was the dawn of the church age and the reference to "last days" means last days of the old covenant, not the last days of human history.

Pentecostals and Charismatics, and Evangelicals who are of a certain sect, have completely screwed up the literal meanings of all of the "end times" references in the Bible. They have a 20th century mis-interpretation of them. But that's what they use to justify their stepping out of faith into violence and insurrection.

[SidneyR]

14. I'm struck by how every single religion I look more closely at reveals fundamental attitudes

of vicious cruelty. I envision a multicultural society of equality for all, but religion, the scourge of humanity, holds us back as a reservoir of reactionary and fascistic ideas.

[keithbvadu2]

15. Politics and religion use each other to gain power and wealth.

[Mozeltov Cocktail]

16. Kandiss Taylor ran for governor in Georgia using "Jesus, guns and Babies"

...as her campaign slogan. Kemp beat her and Perdue, Perdue conceded but not Kandiss. She claims Jesus told her to go door to door with a notary and ask people who they voted for and notarizing their answers... Kandiss got like 3% of the vote.
There's a lot wrong with every aspect of Kandiss and her actions, but the audacity and the illegality of her actions are being excused because "Jesus told her to".