Conservative faith leaders stand by Trump despite his defense of white supremacist rally

[turbinetree]

Source: Think Progress

As President Donald Trump struggles to manage the firestorm of criticism over his controversial remarks on white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, conservative faith leaders are sticking by his side — although his recent comments defending Confederate statues may be testing some of them.

The Trump administration has been caught in a whirlwind of negative press this week after the president initially failed to condemn the white supremacists who stormed Charlottesville on Saturday, saying the ensuing violence that left one woman dead was the fault of “many sides” (the man charged with mowing down the woman and other protesters is alleged to be a white supremacist). The president eventually condemned Nazi sympathizers by name after mounting political pressure, only to ignite a media frenzy a day later by telling reporters that some of those who protested with white nationalists were “very fine people” who wanted to protect an “important” statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

“Regarding any calls to resign from the advisory council, I’m not going to do that. I think that we have the heart of pastors. We have a pastoral heart. We don’t walk away in times of trouble. I believe that’s why we were called to our job.”

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/conservative-faith-leaders-defend-trump-0771add0a415/

[geek tragedy]

1. Gee, what a shock. the American versions of ISIS standing by their head mullah nt

[workinclasszero]

37. Yep. The religous right dominunists, Nazis and KKK terrorists

are Trump/republican base voters.

[NastyRiffraff]

2. No surprise there

They've heavily invested in him, financially and otherwise.

[deminks]

3. The Xians have hitched their wagon to a pussygrabber. A pig without a moral compass.

What are they expecting?

[luvtheGWN]

12. I agree with the sentiments of your first sentence, deminks.

I wholeheartedly disagree with your second. Pigs are one of the smartest and (believe it or not) cleanest of all animals. They defecate in only one corner of their pen, and they roll around in mud in order to get rid of pesky insects (have you heard of mud baths, BTW?). They have been denigrated (and anthropomorphized) for far too long. I finally (and belatedly) decided that every time anyone (friend or foe) uses the word "pig" to describe a deplorable human being, I would speak out in defence of these defenceless creatures.

I know how easy it is for us to denigrate other animals when describing others whom we find deplorable -- snakes, apes, dogs come to mind. "Pussygrabber" is another one (from one who has two adorable feline furbabies). But it doesn't look good on us humans, does it?

[Aristus]

36. It's hard for some people to grasp, but pigs,

along with rats, cockroaches, and houseflys, are all compulsively clean animals.

Roaches and flies we associate with filth, largely because they feed on our wastes, and our disgust for them relegates them to dark, dirty parts of our world. Watch a housefly sometime when it's not flying around. It spends most of its ground time cleaning itself.

In the 1979 re-make of Nosferatu, the crew took white lab rats and dyed them black to play the roles of European plague rats. They discovered that the rats kept licking the dye off themselves.

[Downtown Hound]

4. Hypocritical assholes, every last one of them. n/t

[Kleveland]

5. And let us never forget...

Jesus is white!

As is Santa Claus....

[Permanut]

26. And you can plainly see Jesus is white..

From all the millions of pictures of him. I'm pretty sure some of them are photographs.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. Since their particular use of religion lines their pockets, no surprise here.

If any of these folks truly believed what they preached, they'd be shaking in their boots.

Nice little business plan they have, though.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Dominionist theo-fascists. Christian supremacists. . . . nt

[Achilleaze]

8. The anti-christ applauds the republican evangelical cowardice & sell-out

[Crash2Parties]

9. Conservative Christianity *is* racist. Esp. Fundigelical sects w/ Southern roots

That's half his base.

The atheist other half tends to be what used to be the atheist, right-leaning Ayn Randian Libertarians (ie MRA's).

And yes, there is overlap.

[heaven05]

10. per your OP

of course....ameriKKKan KKKristians, especially SOUTHERN BAPTIST, are some of the most racist people living....period.

[Plucketeer]

11. Hoooooooooooooooooo boy!

These folks are gonna LOVE them some president Pence!

[Cosmocat]

13. That stuck to me watching Brian Williams last night

He noted business leaders bailing, the heads of each branch of the armed services making statements, but not faith leaders had spoken out ...

Telling ...

[oegthe]

14. "despite"???

Ha ha ha! That's hilarious.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. The term "conservative faith leaders" is totally misused in the article. These jagoffs

are nothing of the sort.

[vi5]

16. "MAY be testing SOME of them"

HA! Yeah, right. I'm sure they are sooooo conflicted.

[Sunlei]

17. expected Rs to stand w/ him.Many of Americas churches & church leaders are still VERY segregated

[AllyCat]

18. Of course they do. They worship the Anti-Christ. This is their man.

[lindysalsagal]

19. Cons gonna con.

Religion is sanctified politics. Fall for it if you have nothing better, like, maybe independent cognition.

[lordsummerisle]

20. You might peel off some of them if

Trump were to suddenly become pro-choice...

[Initech]

21. If I was a member of a church like that I'd be leaving and letting them know why.

Fuck this shit.

[atreides1]

22. Traitors

They just want the chance to betray this country, and Trump and Pope Pence will provide them with that chance!!!

[Yonnie3]

23. Having been raised in a strange mixture of Judism and Southern Baptist and having seen their worst,

I personally give no allegiance to any organized church. These people believe in a hell of fire and brimstone and if there is one, I am certain they have reserved their places.

They can repent their present evil ways and be saved, but they are blind to their sins.

[dalton99a]

24. White supremacist Jesus approves

[keithbvadu2]

31. What did Jesus look like?

What did Jesus look like?

The correct answer::: It depends on whose living room wall his picture is hanging.

http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-did-jesus-look-like?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1tjYne_e1QIVUFp-Ch24JQ76EAAYASAAEgLiUvD_BwE

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35120965

------------------------------

The typical Jew of his time vs today's Western White Jesus.

[keithbvadu2]

32. Ben Carson's Jesus

Ben Carson's Jesus
.
?quality=90&strip=all

[procon]

25. These so called pastors are not teaching the gospel of Jesus, they are

protecting their own income. They know that if Trump goes down, his base, which is also their largest church membership, will evaporate, and empty pews do not fill the offering plates at their gilded mega churches.

[BigDemVoter]

27. Arrrrgh. . .

I fucking HATE these people.

[ffr]

28. With consumer debt rising fast again, recession won't be far behind. Then we'll see

how many broke-ass conservative supporters will remain.

Another republican recession to follow the last in 2007-2009, that followed the previous before it in 1992-1993 and the Great Depression before that, all brought on by conservative economic policies.

I suppose Barack Obama's economy lifted enough people up so they were able to forget about their wallets and vote against their own best interests. It's a vicious cycle. One we haven't figured out how to make sink in with uninformed voters.

Americans' debt level notches a new record high
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-debt-idUSKCN1AV1PY

[FiveGoodMen]

29. Conservative faith leaders are mostly Southern Baptists

That's the denomination that was created to support slavery.

No surprise that they don't care for any of the love your neighbor stuff. They rejected that when they formed the SBC.

Don't EVER judge 'christians' by what Jesus said. Many of them only like his name, not his message.

[LiberalLovinLug]

30. I left the 'faith' as a teenager, but this is what solidified my decision years later

Grew up in a fundie conservative right wing voting household. I'm in Canada. I've always been interested in politics, both in Canada and the US, where what happens there affects what happens here. We are each others largest trading partners.

When I was finally able to vote, at 18, I eagerly voted Conservative, just like my dad, because he knew best. Then I left home and went to college and was enlightened as to what right wing and left wing really meant. I never voted right wing again.

But religious faith is another beast. It is more difficult to break free of. Once a Catholic always a Catholic I've heard, and the same is true of Evangelicals. At least a tiny part of the brain. Because one is conditioned as a child. And through the years there were times when I flirted with the idea of coming "back to Christ". But Conservative politicians here in Canada and Republicans in the USA put an end to that idea.

When Bush claimed to be a 'born again Christian" and then lied the country into a devastating war all the while claiming God told him to invade Iraq, and he, Cheney, and his cabinet made millions off of no-bid contracts and oil rights, while young men and women died and were maimed, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis died horrible violent deaths. And then to watch evangelical leaders in the US defend Bush and stand with him was disgusting to me. But to see the "good" flock of sheep be so easily led astray simply because someone noticed them, a President said they were important, that he shared their faith...and that meant he could do any unethical, illegal thing after that...it opened my eyes to the dangers of organized religion.

Especially fundamentalist sects. How easily they can be led around by the nose with a few sweet nothings whispered in their ears. Promises of taking the country back to a time where Billy Graham was a celebrity, when many more Americans went to church. Christian church. Before they had to see gays on TV, or uppity women wanting equal employment rights, before legal abortion was even thought about ever. Where there was one provider in the family and that was the man. And women's job was raising the children and doing house chores. Where it was just assumed there was only one real religion.

It is the hypocrisy of saying they don't care about the "world". That Jesus teaches them that they will be ostracized and abused and marginalized anyways so don't worry about what the world thinks of you. And yet time and time again they display the very human trait of envy, and pride, and for some a lust for power. They don't want to turn the other cheek as their saviour tells them to. They don't want to have to submit to the knock on the door to let in diversity, other religions, marriage equality in, they want to be the ones that knock.

[bluestarone]

33. good by there choice they now

carry the mark of the beast Can't wait til judgement day

[FreeStateDemocrat]

34. "University" president Falwell jr. rotten to the core, authentic, reeking POS:

Others have taken even stronger supportive stances. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty, called Trump’s words “bold” and “truthful” on Twitter.

Finally a leader in WH. Jobs returning, N Korea backing down, bold truthful stmt about #charlottesville tragedy.So proud of @realdonaldtrump

— Jerry Falwell (@JerryFalwellJr) August 16, 2017

[rockfordfile]

35. They are that. KKK and Conservative churches are one in the same.

[geretogo]

38. These so called " faith leaders " are sticking by Trump just like Joseph Goebbels stuck by Hitler

to the death . They are the modern day Pharisees and Hippocrates Jesus spoke of in the Bible .