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They shall take up serpents: God, Guns, Abortion and Trump – politicalbetting.com
They shall take up serpents: God, Guns, Abortion and Trump – politicalbetting.com
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.”
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In planning the usual position is no change, or an overegged tweak which does little more than add yet more bloody paperwork.
"Gucci or Porsche frames: what do you think?"
One of the groups who are most supportive of Trump are non-churchgoing evangelicals.
Being evangelical once suggested regular church attendance, a focus on salvation and conversion and strongly held views on specific issues such as abortion. Today, it is as often used to describe a cultural and political identity: one in which Christians are considered a persecuted minority, traditional institutions are viewed skeptically and Mr. Trump looms large...
But as Mr. Trump gained ground in the early primaries, his growing strength among white evangelical voters became clear. Polls showed that the future nominee was most popular among one group in particular: white evangelicals who seldom or never went to church
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/us/politics/donald-trump-evangelicals-iowa.html
Beyond even the buzz of the megachurch, there is the buzz of the televangelist, which manages to line up with MAGA even more.
A match made in heaven, one might say.
I couldn't possibly comment.
That's Mark 16:18 btw and golly there's some wacky stuff in the NT
The photo of the trumpies with ear dressings is why as UK commentators we should accept that our own gut feeling about any of this is of no predictive value whatever. This is just incomprehensible.
Pentacostalism has moved a long way from the homespun Appalachian church in the video clip, to the razzmatazz of modern mega-churches. The key is that personal relationship with Jesus, and an acceptance of modern consumerist lifestyles.
As an agnostic/secular kind of chap this stuff in politics is incomprehensible to me.
About 25 years ago there was this twenty quiz about who said x comments either
a) the Mullahs in Afghanistan/Ayatollahs in Iran
or
b) Christian evangelicals in America
I think I only got four questions right, it was quite the eye opener.
I did a shoot in Phoenix where I was told the crew were all evangelicals and they did show a few distinct oddities which I put down to that part of the country rather than their evangelicalism but now i realise that is probably not the case
There is a parallel to some of our recent rioters professing that this is a Christian country, but more likely in pub than pew on a day like today.
Everyday a school day on PB. Thanks.
There are lots of USA evangelical style churches to choose from in the UK. Be thankful the CoE (like ECUSA in the USA) offers an alternative for us appalling liberals, non-fundamentalists, universalists, 1662 fans and so on.
But one of Welby's big ideas has been a hefty expansion in That Sort Of Thing, by getting Holy Trinity Brompton (and its children and their children) and others to plant new congregations into struggling parishes.
And one of the people behind that is Paul Marshall. Yes, that Paul Marshall.
Arizona is 26% Evangelical, 21% Catholic for example, and you can drill down into the data to some surprising findings. Half of Catholics and a third of Evangelicals support legal abortion for example. The data is getting a little old but still relevant.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/
However evangelicals are not just white evangelicals, longer standing southern Baptists, the largest US Protestant denomination, as well as Pentecostals but also black Pentecostals too and they tend to emphasise civil rights more and social justice and will be strongly for Harris and the Democrats. If they turn out in Georgia and NC that could help her.
As in the UK now Roman Catholics tend to be swing voters in the US, they voted for Trump in 2016 but Biden in 2020 and both candidates will be courting them. The Pope has said both candidates are wrong, Trump on asylum and Harris on abortion.
https://news.sky.com/story/choose-the-lesser-evil-in-us-election-says-pope-as-catholic-leader-criticises-kamala-harris-and-donald-trump-13214341
US Anglican Episcopalians are much smaller than in the UK and now tend to lean Democrat whereas in the UK they tend to be Tory with a number of LDs too. Atheists in both nations tend to vote Labour or Democrat and Muslims Labour or Democrat too (though they want Harris to be harder on Israel). Hindus are becoming more conservative and Jews are likely to vote for Trump more than they usually vote GOP which will help him in NY, Florida and California
https://news.sky.com/story/us-election-latest-trump-posts-fake-image-of-kamala-harris-as-democrats-condemn-him-over-jewish-voters-comments-polls-give-mixed-picture-13209921
“The largest organization representing the Christian faith in Ohio issued a scathing letter in defense of Haitian migrants in Springfield.
“The letter released Friday evening by the Ohio Council of Churches (OCC) decried the false statements from Republican vice presidential nominee and U.S. Sen. JD Vance and running mate, former president Donald Trump, that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating pets and wildlife.”
https://eu.dispatch.com/story/news/state/2024/09/19/haitian-immigrants-springfield-catholic-bishops-vance-ohio/75293214007/
“The Catholic Conference of Ohio, which represents bishops from diocesan groups across the state, published a letter Thursday asking for the public to treat Haitian immigrants in Springfield with respect and dignity, warning against "unfounded gossip" and "scapegoating."”
https://survivingchurch.org/2024/05/03/htb-extraordinary-influence/
https://www.savetheparish.com/
My CofE church is actually voting today* on whether the congregation agrees with the leadership that we should leave. We're a bit unusual, because we're an old congregation that's not a parish church, and own our own building, so we can pretty much tell the Bishop "so long and thanks for all the fish", but that is true of a lot of the new churches planted by outfits like HTB and St Helens Bishopsgate.
Incidentally, I've no real problem personally with gay people being gay. I think it's sinful, active homosexuals are called to repent like all sexual sinners, but ultimately it's God's job to make them give an account of their lives, at his judgment, not mine.
My problem with the CofE blessing gay marriages is that this is the leadership blessing something their doctrine teaches is sinful. I'd say the same if they wanted in church blessings for adultery, gluttony, lying or greed. It's just that in our context, homosexuality is a fashionable sin, unlike the others.
*actually, electronically, over the next two weeks, starting today
It seems to me the Democratic party and their supporters don't get this. It looks to me like the Harris campaign is heading over a cliff and attempts to correct course are treated as pro-Trump denial. This very much reminds me of 2016.
(You probably meant to post something light-hearted and inconsequential but I thought this point was worth making nonetheless, you'll have to forgive me.)
But it would suit Starmer's PMship which is echoing Blair's, but thoroughly distorted and less competent.
And I wouldn't bet against a Musk Potus team getting someone to mars in 4 years anyway.
Rayner: well I never saw this Alli at no 10
Considering the large number of Evangelicals in the USA, it is a surprisingly small number. Nearly all other presidents have been either traditional denominations or not particularly interested in religion at all.
I think some of the mutual antipathy we see between MAGA Republicans and coastal Democrats arises from this lack of Evangelical representation and priorities on the national stage. Trump being a businessman with no political hinterland prior to 2016 helps him ally with this anti-elite mindset.
Good morning, everyone.
A middle aged white man putting a MAGA flag on Sytris Major and claiming Mars for the USA, Evangelical Christianity and the capital owning class is the type of thing that appeals to DJT.
but why on earth would you put 20,000 migrants in to one small struggling Midwestern town in the first place, almost over night. I've seen many African Americans also complaining about the situation and not being able to get jobs in an area that was already struggling with job creation. How are the local resident people meant to compete?
There are legitimate concerns although the pet eating stuff is racist bs.
(also it is close to 20,000 because there are 7,500 children enrolled in the schools at the last count)
You might think there is nothing wrong with it, and that view seems entirely reasonable. But that, apparently, isn't the view of a mysteriois supernatural entity who exists outside the normal context of space and time.
Though some of those who interpret his views think he might have changed his mind recently on this very particular point.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/space cadet
I've just finished reading "Lone Survivor" by ex SEAL Marcus Luttrell. Top tip: don't bother, Markie Mark ( no, not that one) in the film is much more likeable) I got offered it free on a kindle deal, a couple of nights of my life I won't get back.
The link between god, guns and US patriotism is a large theme in the book. God is on the US Navy SEAL team and they pray to him all the time. The SEAL teams do god's work via Uncle Sam.
Luttrell spent most of the battle falling down the Afghan mountainside and because god was watching over him he avoided death many times. No matter what happened, his rifle landed never more than two feet away, because god wanted him to keep it. God gave him the strength to carry on, god made his aim true, even when badly injured.
All of his SEAL buddies were/are deeply religious and hate the "liberal media ". He more or less blames the liberals for the death of his team- they didn't kill the goatherds who discovered them because the liberal media in the US would slaughter them and they'd do time for murdering innocents.
Basically, God is a Navy Seal, The US is god's chosen land and ultimately God is a Republican. I'd say the MAGA movement would be in agreement.
We do not do these things because they are easy...
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/09/19/us/springfield-ohio-haitians-immigration-cec
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/fact-checking-jd-vances-claims-haitian-migrants-springfield/story?id=113844705
But the main issue is one of agency. These people haven’t been “put” there. They’re people who have decided to move to Springfield.
There’s a kind of narrative promoted by the Republicans that dehumanises Haitians by pretending they are just some herd of undifferentiated masses who are “put” in places by, presumably, Democrats.
In return this is the Republican Governor of Ohio yesterday talking about Springfield.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/opinion/springfield-haitian-migrants-ohio.html
These guys have a biological imperative to eat protein, a religious imperative to sacrifice small animals, and no money. How do *you* think they might solve these problems?
"20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way."
But these Evangelicals are not content to leave Caesar's things with the state. They are not content with living their own lives according to these teachings. They want everyone else to live in accordance with their beliefs too. It is that intolerance of other views that I find objectionable. Jesus's own teachings, as recorded in the New Testament, seem to me to show far more tolerance and compassion than they do.
This is a problem with Islam vs Christianity. The bible is the work of fallible sinful humans, whereas the Holy Q was dictated straight by Allah to the prophet pbuh, so leaves less wriggle room.
And in the Gospels, the man himself had more sense to opine on the matter, on the record anyway. His teachings were much cleverer than that, judge not lest ye be judged and all that.
But yes, the church often messes up by using God as an excuse for cultural mores of the moment. Apartheid was a notorious example. Postwar boarding school purity culture might (or might not) be another. There's already been a hefty shift there compared with thirty years ago.
And on that note, harvest festival calls.
Any second (or third, etc) wave of immigrants tends to go to a place where co-religionists, people from one's country of origin etc have settled already.
Good article, @Foxy : I really enjoyed reading it.
Guest: "Boris Johnson is a liar!"
Kuenssberg: "That is quite a charge."
Gotcha! February 2023.
A phobia is an irrational persistent fear or hatred of something. It's not "dislike".
I don't like yoghurt but I'm not yoghurtphobic.
I'm not even phobicphobic. But I dislike it.
You can do so from cherry-picking the Old Testament and disregarding anything about pork etc that you don't care about.
The scriptures being man-made over a long period of time have many prejudices and contradictory and otherwise unpleasant viewpoints in them. No "Christian" observes every single scripture, you couldn't since some directly contradict others, so its all about what elements you choose to cherrypick and what you choose to ignore.
Jason Groves
@JasonGroves1
·
36m
Education Sec Bridget Phillipson tells
@SkyNews
that £14k birthday parties funded by Labour donor Lord Alli were 'in a work context'. I seem to remember someone else trying this defence one...
Luke Tryl
@LukeTryl
·
37m
In today’s
@thetimes
@cazjwheeler
covers our latest polling which shows how quickly the Govt’s honeymoon vanished. 17% of Labour voters regret voting for the Party & the public are slightly more likely to think they are exaggerating the state of public finances than being honest
https://x.com/LukeTryl/status/1837772001357779387
Anyway, never mind your taste in tinned fish, I’m much more interested in the specific reasoning behind non-homophobic @theProle thinking homosexuality is sinful and whether it amounts to any more than “I read it in a book” or “the man in the white dress said it so it must be so”.
As It happens, it is also a trap for lots of scientists. They shift from understanding that they are describing or modeling the observed universe to a belief that they have revealed some more fundamental 'truth'. This is independent of their religious beliefs. Mathematicians are particulary prone, largely because their abstractions continue to be "spookily" good at then being adapted into said models of observed phenomena and often indistinguishable from revealed truth. Peak experiences when everything falls into place tend to reinforce this sense of revelation.
I don't really support that outrage (about policies resulting in some deaths) because I think it leads to things like lockdown, where many more lives are blighted (and actually lost) in the cause of a few, but it is where we are, and it is the emotional landscape that Starmer and his team have been making hay with for the last 5 years.
If we're all sinners why does it matter that being gay is "sinful" any more or less than that eating pork is "sinful"?
Some people seem to want to put homosexuality as a higher tier of "sin" than mixed fabric clothes, pork or a gazillion other "sins" when their belief system is predicated on a belief we're all sinners and sins are forgiven anyway.
Sir Keir was in Spurs hospitality box last weekend with Sue Gray and Katie Perrior, a lobbyist behind the Euro Super League breakaway. I wonder what she had to say to the PM and his advisor.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13877225/Sir-Shameless-PM-Sue-Gray-enjoy-Spurs-freebie-lobbyist-backed-breakaway-football-super-league-advises-tax-avoiding-tech-giants.html
In Vance's book though he makes the point that in his community, and across the fly over states in general, there were a lot of people who would talk proudly about their church going and their religiousness - but didn't actually go near the church in reality. Makes me a bit sceptical of this kind of polling.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13878459/Angela-Rayner-holiday-Lord-Alli-Sam-Tarry-New-York.html
If, or now looking like, when Labour confirm that they really are all the same and are too busy lining their own pockets to fix the mess, then he will be taking those 2nd place Reform seats to first in large numbers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-ip47WYWc
Why people cherrypick gay as "sin" but not the other elements is a pretty meaningful question.
It just seems odd that God would sweat over the small stuff.
Many local councils have council tax discount schemes (put in place when council tax benefit was ended and responsibility handed to the local councils) these also seem likely for the chop. A lot of people currently not paying any council tax, or derisory amounts are going to start getting bills.