Judgment days. God, Trump, and the meaning of morality

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, commenter Butch at Joe.My.God: Trump Hails “Greatest” Tariffs Ahead Of EU Meeting

Judgment days

In a small Alabama town, an evangelical congregation reckons with God, President Trump and the meaning of morality

Story by Stephanie McCrummen Photos by Michael S. Williamson
JULY 21, 2018

....
The presidency of Donald Trump has created unavoidable moral dilemmas not just for the members of First Baptist in Luverne but for a distinct subset of Christians who are overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly evangelical and more uniformly pro-Trump than any other part of the American electorate.

In poll after poll, they have said that Trump has kept his promises to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices, fight for religious liberty, adopt pro-life policies and deliver on other issues that are high priorities for them.

At the same time, many have acknowledged the awkwardness of being both self-proclaimed followers of Jesus and the No. 1 champions of a president whose character has been defined not just by alleged infidelity but accusations of sexual harassment, advancing conspiracy theories popular with white supremacists, using language that swaths of Americans find racist, routinely spreading falsehoods and an array of casual cruelties and immoderate behaviors that amount to a roll call of the seven deadly sins.

The predicament has led to all kinds of reactions within the evangelical community, from a gathering of pastors in Illinois described as a “call to self-reflection,” to prayer meetings with Trump in Washington, to hours of cable news reckoning in which Southern Baptists have taken the lead.
....

Credits: Story by Stephanie McCrummen. Photos by Michael S. Williamson. Designed by Joe Moore. Photo Editing by Thomas Simonetti. Copy editing by Wayne Lockwood.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. You can't fix magical thinkers/cultists without sketchy deprogramming

[world wide wally]

2. I notice they didn't discuss "thou shalt not lie"

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Religious hypocrites...using religion to further their aims against the rest of their fellow ...

Americans and our rights. Remember, according to them,

'we' don't have any rights,
'we' don't exist,
'we' don't have any voice(s) in anything that's goes on in this country,
'we' are evil,
'we' don't know what we are talking about,
etc.

In reality, great strides have been made w/o the profoundly negative influences of religious hypocrisy in many areas, such as health care, technology, etc. These people prefer to operate in silence and prayer, and hope that that a medical cure for the cancer that ails them magically appears on a burning bush.

These people, in the guise of pretending that their rights have been trampled on, and that attendance has gone down in churches due to some nefarious reason (and I'm sure 'we' had something to do w/ it), when all that has happened in reality is that people have turned away from these so called churches of hatred, to other sources of true inspiration, other sources of love, other sources of knowledge and giving.

This is one of the greatest reasons this country was established apart from Europe and all of its long established religious craziness...freedom of religion (right to pick what religion, if any, wanted). Another civil rights movement needs to be undertaken to take back our true freedom of religion constitutional rights.