To start? This is NOT directed to all those True Christians out there who actualy practice and live their Lord and Saviors commandments. Especially? The second part of his greatest commandment and the bibles commands against hate, non-judgment, forgiving your enemies, treating all others as you would want them to treat you, and sowing good things.
I know there are a whole lot more of you True Christians out there than there are the ones who have hijacked your Christianity and preach and do everything opposite of what your Jesus ever commanded you to do. Yes, whether you believe it or not? We atheists? Have no problem with True Christians. We like you actually. You are really good and decent people. You do in fact? A lot to make the world a better place and do a whole lot helping others.
So PLEASE understand? This is against your Fake Christians ok? Again? I have no beef with you True Christian, I honestly and really do not. And yeah, I GET PISSED over THE FAKE CHRISTIANS I keep reporting on in this blog.
YES, I believe ANYONE who rapes a child? Should in fact? Get the death penalty. If we use that punishment? Then it should be for the most deserving of all scumbag criminals on our planet, those who harm innocent and basically defenseless infants, toddlers, children and teens. I do not care what you religion you claim to abide by, I do not care whether you are rich or poor, I do not care if you are a proclaimed saint or sinner. YOU harm a child? YOU should have your life taken from you. There should be absolutely NO MERCY to those who harm children.
Even still? It should be an automatic death penalty punishment if your victim? Is under the age of consent in the state they commit their crime in, and especially? If your victim is under the age of 10, or if you have more than one victim, or if your victim or victims? Are truly defenseless as in handicapped, like the deaf/mute children that were being brutally raped at the Antonio Provolo Institutes in Italy and Argentina.
But? This applies even more to those who DARE call themselves Christian priests or pastors, or Jewish rabbis, or Muslim clerics. They not only rape the bodies of their victims, they rape the mind, soul and heart too. This is even more evil in the scale of things if you actually listen and pay attention to the victims and survivors of this.
AGAIN, THIS IS NOT DEMANDING ANY HARM TO ANY TRUE CHRISTIAN, THIS IS AGAINST THOSE FAKE CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS IN THE FIRST PLACE. AND THEY ARE NOT CHRISTIANS IN ANY SENSE OF THE MEANING.
And PLEASE UNDERSTAND, I find ALL pedophile and rape crimes EVIL. The harm done to the victims is uncalculable.
What I am saying here is? Again? These religious people who do these things? Should in fact? Pay the ultimate price with a death penalty punishment, given to them under a legal system with a court of law, a judge and jury to make that decision. NO PEDOPHILE especially? Should EVER get a slap on the wrist, but at the very least? ALL Pedophile justly convicted in a court of law? Should receive LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE TO NEVER BE RELEASED UPON SOCIETY AGAIN.
Tag Archives: Fake Christians
NOT 15 YEARS FOR BRUTALLY RAPING A 9 YEAR OLD GIRL ON HER FATHERS GRAVE, OR 5 YEARS FOR RAPING DEAF/MUTE CHILDREN, OR EVEN? NO TIME AT ALL. EITHER BECAUSE THEY HID BEHIND THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS TO GET AWAY WITH THEIR CRIMES, OR THEY WERE CONSIDERED TOO OLD, TOO FRAIL ETC TO BE SENT TO PRISON, OR THEY “REPENTED” ENOUGH NOT TO BE. PEDOPHILES? ARE THE DISGUSTING PART OF OUR HUMAN SOCIETY? WHOM NEVER CHANGES. THEY NEVER STOP AND THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT SOCIETY FROM THE HARM THEY CAUSE? IS EITHER PUT THEM TO DEATH IN OUR PRISONS, OR LOCK THEM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY AND NEVER ALLOW THEM TO WALK OUR STREETS EVER AGAIN.
I DON’T HATE TRUE CHRISTIANS, I FEEL SAD FOR THEM
I spent years studying the teachings of Jesus Christ. And? I remember above all? His greatest commandment. That as a True Follower of Jesus? You were above all else? To love all of your neighbors as you were supposed to love both, your God and Jesus, with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and? All of your body.
Jesus’s other teachings included turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, even more than you love your neighbors. That you were to help the poor, the immigrants, the old, etc. All those teachings he gave, about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, treating foreigners as if they were members of your own family and never deny them justice. He even told a rich man to go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor and when the rich guy couldn’t? Jesus stated it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
I have absolutely no problem with Christians who follow the teachings of their Jesus Christ and? I have met many Christians in my 60 years who do. I generally have absolutely no problem with anyone who is a theist. I believe you have just as much a right to believe in a god as I have in not to believe in one. I am not here to “shove” my atheism into anyones faces. I am an atheist because? There is absolutely no proof to me of a god, of ANY GOD that humans have created and then spread as real. If anything? There is absolute proof that these gods are nothing but a lie and a creation of human minds to explain things that they could not explain at their time they lived because they were basically brain-washed into believing in the first place. Humans are basically programmed to believe in a creator more than themselves and the Universe for that matter. We are programmed by our parents, our relatives, the world around us. It is said, if you do not believe in a god? Then you cannot have any morals, etc. Well history proves? The opposite is the truth.
The three major religions, the Abrahamics, if you actually studied their rises? All rose not on the message of peace, love, forgiveness, not-judging others, etc, but on violent persecutions and forced conversions of others. This also goes for a few of the Native American Nations like the Mayans and Incas, where they practiced human sacrifice of those who were their conquered, or many of the Pagan religions such as the Celts, the Welch and the Saxons.
Yet? The three major ones, the Abrahamics? Have a lot of innocent blood on their heads so to speak.
It is not the True Christians who piss me and many others off. We have no damn problem with you. There are actually? More of you than there are of these Fake Christians that piss us all off. But it is these Fake Christians of hate, of vile evil? That sadly? Brings down shit on all you True Christians. And the problem is? It is you True Christians who are the cause of and the solution to the problem of these Fake Christians.
Christianity got flipped on it’s head
Christians got to admit, finally, just how their religion became the powerful religion it is today. It rose to the power it is through almost 1,700 years of forced conversion programs and persecutions of others. And yes, that is mostly in the past. But not truly. Christians committed Crimes Against Humanity against Pagans, Native Americans, Africans, and many others and? Nothing can change any of this. Nothing can bring back any of these dead people. But? We can all work together to do all we can to put a stop to this ever happening again, and this includes? Christians.
No Christian can they deny the fact there are many Fake Christian Pastors and Preachers of pure hate and death out there, with their flocks, that are causing problems. When you have these Fake Christian Pastors, pushing, foaming at the mouth, like a rabid dog, how Christians should have the right to put to brutal deaths atheists, lgbts and others? And they have their flock foaming at the mouth with them? Shouting hearty praise the lord and amens to this spewing of hate and death? Then it is up to you True Christians to put a stop to it and not get mad at us who are standing up to these truly dangerous psychopaths.
These types of Fake Christians? Are the cause of many lgbts, atheists and Pagans being persecuted, bullied, and? Beaten and outright murdered. And all I ever hear from True Christians is how wrong this is and how Jesus did not preach this to happen. Or how these are not real Christians. Well? They proclaim themselves as such. Yes, they are FAKE CHRISTIANS, but it is you True Christians who have allowed these kinds of Fake Christians to run rampant and screw everything up that your Lord and Savior would be pissed off about if he was real and saw what was going on in his name. Do you think your Jesus would love all these people and their hate speech? Hell no, he would treat them as he commanded you all to do. Go and teach them the right way, and after three times? They do not change? Denounce them and turn your backs on them and work to put a stop to their spreading of hate and death in the name of your Lord and Savior.
There can be no more hypocrisy or games with True Christians. If you demand that all Muslims stand up to their radicals and extremists? Then True Christians must do the same to their own Fake Christian radicals and extremists who spew hate and death from their pulpits. By you True Christians refusing to stand up to your Fake Christians? This is what brings down anger and hate upon ALL Christians. And? This hate and anger is justified. The people who are subject to the hate and vile evil of these Fake Christians? Have every damn right to stand up to them and defend themselves against them. NO ONE should be able to hide behind any religious belief, or god, or Savior and spread hate and death against others. Those they do against? Again? Have every damn right to stand up to them, call them out, and defend themselves, their lives, the lives of their loved ones should it come down to it. We should not be martyrs for your psychotic Fake Christians who use your bible and religion to spread hate and death against us.
YOU may be a great follower of Jesus Christ, living all of his commandments, treating everyone in love, etc. BUT, that does not mean all who declare themselves Christian? Do. And as Christians apologists use for one of their excuses for not truly dealing with this? These are wolves in sheeps clothing and these are the wolves that all you True Christians MUST stand up to. Those who spread hate and death in the name of your Lord and Savior, your religion Christianity?
MUST BE STOOD UP TO BY THOSE OF YOU WHO DECLARE YOURSELVES TRUE CHRISTIANS. OTHERWISE? YOU ARE THE TYPE OF CHRISTIANS THAT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SPOKE ABOUT WHEN HE STATED THE FOLLOWING:
If you as a True Christian who allow False Christians standing in their pulpits, leading sermons on how Christians should have the right to brutally murder others, based on these Pastors interpretation of the bible? Or demand our government does the same in the name of their religion? Then if YOU as a True Christian do not stand up to them, call them out and defend those they attack? You are in fact? Responsible for their actions and the harm they do IF YOU DO NOT SPEAK OUT AGAINST THEM AND DENOUNCE THEM. By your not doing so? Then YOU ARE passively accepting their evil and by your silence? YOU ARE cooperating with those who promote this evil. And the blood of their victims? Are not only staining their hands? But your hands as well, because as a True Christian? YOU ARE supposed to be standing up to these Fake Christians as commanded to do in your bibles.
Bible verses commanding True Christians to stand up and correct False Christians
Matthew 18:15-18:
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Galatians 6:1:
Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
Romans 16:17:
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.
Titus 3:10-11:
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
James 5: 19-20:
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
2 Timothy 4:2:
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Acts 20:28:
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
How a True Christian is supposed to walk
Ephesians 4:1-6:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:11-16:
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4: 29-32:
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Again, I do not hate True Christians, I feel sad for them, it is their Fake Christians that I hate and stand up to. Because someone has to.
I do have many friends who are True Christians. I have many friends who are Pagans, and some who are Muslim and some who are Jewish, and some who practice just about any religious and spiritual beliefs you can think of. And? I have many atheist and agnostic friends. I also have many friends who are straight, and or lgbt.
The horror stories I hear, especially from my atheist, lgbt and Pagan friends, from the shit they get from Christians and Muslims online? On social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter? Or on blogs? Is incredibly vile and evil, seriously hateful, and to be blunt? Hate Crimes. If any atheist, lgbt, or Pagan said the things that Christians and Muslims have said to us? Christians and Muslims would scream Hate Speech and cry we are persecuting them. Why is it alright for Christians to tell us that we all deserve to be put to death simply because we are atheists? Or because someone loves who they love as in lgbts? As long as they are two consenting people and not harming each other? Then what the hell is it the business of mine, or yours? Or Christians or Muslims? I mean Christians already ignore all the commands about what to do to adulterers. And to slaves, and to selling their daughters into sex slavery, and all kinds of other things prohibited in their bibles, and they really love to still stick it to lgbts.
Even when I do this satirically in my postings on this blog, or in comments I leave on radical, hateful Christian blogs on WordPress or other sites? You Christians flip the hell out. NO, I do not want all Christians to be put to death. NO I do not want all Christians to lose all their rights. NO, I do not rejoice when Christians, or anyone else for that fucking matter, is slaughtered, in their homes, in their churches, or anywhere else.
But I use satire shock to see how Christians react and feel, let’s see if Christians can understand the shoes we atheists, or lgbts, or others that Fake Christians persecute have to walk in, the daily, constant threats, the shitty hate thrown at us, the death threats, the threats to some atheist and Pagan and lesbian women of rape, of sexual assaults, by those who declare themselves Christians. This is no lie, This is no exaggeration, atheists, Pagans and lgbts go through this on a daily basis on Facebook, on Twitter, on other sites, and? At schools, or just walking down the street or walking out of a gay bar.
And this is what pisses me and others off. Atheists, lgbts and others that Christians and Muslims attack? Have every damn right to live as these Christians and Muslims do. We have every damn right to our civil rights and those rights granted to Christians and Muslims, in the United States at least, in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. And no Christian or Muslim has a right to tell anyone else? How the fuck to live their lives or demand that other people, like us atheists, or lgbts, to be put to death without us atheists and lgbts fighting back tooth and nail to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
I have no problem with a religion or a religious, or spiritual belief. I liken them all to rocks. Worship any rock you wish to. Just do not smash someone elses head in with your rock because they either worship your rock in a different way, or worship a different rock, or do not worship a rock at all. Your rock is your rock. You have every right to believe in your rock. Your right to believe in your rock ends when you attempt to force others to believe in your rock or to follow the rules of your rock. Or seek to murder someone based on your belief in your rock.
That is what pisses me off and this is what I stand up to. And it seems most of the time? I am standing up to these Fake Christians, because it seems they got the loudest damn voices right now, spreading their hate and death from their pulpits.
Now, I am not saying there are not True Christians out there who are not standing up to these Fake Christians, but there are too few doing so and it is far past time, that if all True Christians want to stop the bullshit? Then they must get off their asses and also stand up to these Fake Christians who push hate and death and their psychotic followers.
This includes all those White Supremacist groups of psychos who cause a whole lot of division, a whole lot of spreading of hate, bigotry, misogyny and death, and hide it behind their version of White Christian superiority. And we all know what these kind of people who push this rhetoric have brought us in the name of their version of White Jesus and hate, such people as Adolph Hitler, his psycho Nazis and real death camps and horror. And this is something ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS MUST FINALLY TAKE A STAND AGAINST.
A Message to ALL True Christians
Imagine, if your Jesus and your Christianity was not spread in hate as it was spread, but in true love? Imagine if your religion was built upon this one great teaching of your Lord and Savior you proclaim to follow?
If you who proclaim yourselves True Christians actually all got together? You would defeat all these Fake Christians who spread this evil in your name. Because this is exactly what they are doing, spreading this hate, this death, in the name of Christianity and your Lord and Savior. And sadly? YOU are just as responsible for this if YOU do not speak up and speak out against it and put a stop to it. YOU are just as responsible for the spreading of hate and death in the name of your Jesus as those who do these acts. YOU may not like what I just said, it may piss you off, but that is because my Truth just hit you squarely in the chest now didn’t it? Your Holy Spirit soul just jumped and said, hey, he is right.
I am not saying or doing any of this to piss you all off. I got enough of your Fake Christians pissed off at me for the work I do exposing them and standing up to them. I am doing this in hopes it might wake some of you True Christians up and start a movement where all you True Christians finally gather together and put a stop to all these Fake Christians spewing hate and death and causing fellow human beings great harm by their actions.
Yes, they are Fake Christians, YES they are using your religion of peace and love in the wrong ways. But that is YOUR FAULT because you all refuse to truly stand up to them.
So if you True Christians want all the hate to stop? Then do the world a beautiful favor will you? Use the love you have for your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and your God and each other? And start damn spreading that and start using it to stand up to your haters.
Because as Dr Martin Luther King Jr once proved? Love can overcome hate any day. And you do have a problem with the Fake Christians spreading a whole lot of hate in the name of your Jesus and Christianity and it is far past time? You all gather your nuts and stop it.
Cause isn’t it better to live in love than to live in hate?
I WONDER HOW A CHRISTIAN FATHER OR HUSBAND WOULD FEEL IF DONALD J TRUMP GRABBED THEIR WIVES OR DAUGHTERS BY THEIR PUSSY?
Whether the Evangelicals and Christians currently supporting and defending Donald J Trump accepts, knows or believes this? They are not Christians. They are in fact? Christian In Name Only.
EVERYTHING TRUMP STANDS FOR OR HAS DONE? GOES DIRECTLY AGAINST THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE, THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE TEACHINGS OF THE APOSTLES. HE IS IN FACT? THE FALSE PROPHET RIGHT WING EXTREMIST EVANGELICALS AND CHRISTIANS HAVE FORMERLY STATED THAT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA WAS THE ANTICHRIST AND NOT A TRUE CHRISTIAN.
All a Christian has to do is? Open their bibles and read the following verses themselves and apply all of this to both, Donald J Trump and the Republicans, who all declare themselves Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry, Rudy Guiliani, William Barr, Jim Jordan, and their synchopaths like Kellyanne Conway, Stephanie Grisham, and of course the liars and propaganda spinners of Fox News like Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Tomi Lahren, Geraldo Rivera, Brian Kilmeade, Bret Baier, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, or such ChristoTaliban psychotic pastors like Robert Jeffress, Paula White, Jim Bakker, Franklin Graham, Rick Wiles, Mark Burns, many of these calling for “blood in the streets” and a new “Civil War 2.0” should Trump be removed from office, and all the rest of those who defend and support Trump and dare call themselves Christians? All really need to pick up their bibles and read the words in them.
But just in case they do not?
BIBLE VERSES THAT PROVES DONALD J TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS, ALONG WITH THESE SYNCHOPATHS OF TRUMP, ARE IN NO WAY? CHRISTIANS, BUT CHRISTIAN IN NAME ONLY AND THE REAL ANTI-CHRISTS
Matthew 7:15-23: 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Malachi 3:5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Leviticus 19:33,34 : ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.’The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.
Jeremiah 22:3-5: Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
1 Kings 8:41-43: “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.
Matthew 25: 35-40: 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 19: 16-30: 16 A man came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?” 17 Jesus answered, “Why do you ask me about what is good? Only God is good. But if you want to have eternal life, obey the law’s commands.” 18 The man asked, “Which ones?” Jesus answered, “‘You must not murder anyone, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not tell lies about others, 19 you must respect your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor the same as you love yourself.’ 20 The young man said, “I have obeyed all these commands. What else do I need?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, then go and sell all that you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me!” 22 But when the young man heard Jesus tell him to give away his money, he was sad. He didn’t want to do this, because he was very rich. So he left. 23 Then Jesus said to his followers, “The truth is, it will be very hard for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom. 24 Yes, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”
Matthew 22:36-40: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 7: 21-23: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
CHRISTIAN PASTORS WHO GOT IT RIGHT ABOUT TRUMP AND DO NOT SUPPORT HIM NOR DEFEND HIS VILE ACTIONS.
Gary Dorrien, Professor of Religion, Columbia University and Theologian at the Union Theologian Seminary
Gary Dorrien, a professor of Religion at Columbia University and theologian at the Union Theological Seminary says that Trump’s speeches and actions don’t support the idea that Trump is as good of a Christian as he says.
“The basis of his campaign is morally repugnant. ‘You shall love the stranger’ is a bedrock principle of Hebrew Scripture (Deuteronomy 10:19 and Leviticus 19:34), which is expounded in Christian Scripture as “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27) and “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44), among many other similar injunctions in both Scriptural traditions,” Dorrien told ABC News.
Dorrien is also a member of the Presbyterian church, the same church to which Trump belongs, and notes how the Presbyterian faith in particular is known its “pro-hospitality policies.”
“I am not saying that Trump’s entire campaign is antithetical to the teaching of his church…But his appeals to racial and religious bigotry, his advocacy of torture, and everything else that he says along these lines are repugnant from a Christian standpoint or any minimally decent one,” he said.
Above quote from Meet the Pastors Who Support Donald Trump
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/meet-pastors-support-donald-trump/story?id=38406350
Donald Trump Is a Scam. Evangelical Voters Should Back Away (CP Editorial)
By CP Editors
https://www.christianpost.com/news/donald-trump-scam-evangelical-voters-back-away-cp-editorial.html
Editors’ Note: The Christian Post has not taken a position on a political candidate before today. We are making an exception because Trump is exceptionally bad and claims to speak for and represent the interests of evangelicals.
We the senior editors of The Christian Post encourage our readers to back away from Donald Trump.
As the most popular evangelical news website in the United States and the world, we feel compelled by our moral responsibility to our readers to make clear that Donald Trump does not represent the interests of evangelicals and would be a dangerous leader for our country.
Trump claims to be a Christian, yet says he has never asked for forgiveness.
While God, in His wondrous creativity, has drawn people to Himself through the saving grace of Jesus Christ in many different ways, there are certain non-negotiable actions needed to become a Christian: One must repent of their sins and follow Christ as Lord and Savior. Trump doesn’t talk this way, even when urged to.
Further, his words and actions do not demonstrate the “fruit of the spirit.”
Trump is a misogynist and philanderer. He demeans women and minorities. His preferred forms of communication are insults, obscenities and untruths. While Christians have been guilty of all of these, we, unlike Trump, acknowledge our sins, ask for forgiveness and seek restitution with the aid of the Holy Spirit and our community of believers.
On Sunday, Trump’s apparent reluctance to disavow David Duke until late in the day was extremely distasteful. The Ku Klux Klan is an evil, unholy movement representing the worst of America. Anyone who will not immediately denounce their support is unfit to be president.
Trump claims he will “protect Christians.” We already have a Protector, and He is not Trump.
The grievances of Trump’s supporters are legitimate. Politicians for too long have promised to represent the best interests of all Americans before an election, only to represent the interest of their cronies after the election. But Trump’s followers are being fooled into believing that he can help them.
Trump is promising many things that he cannot possibly deliver, but the most frightening part is Trump’s stated willingness to ignore the authority of the Supreme Court, Congress and the U.S. Constitution if he were to become president.
Trump has been surrounded by controversy for decades because of his untruthfulness, questionable business practices, reported association with organized crime, and abrupt changes in fundamental positions. Many of these controversies involve defrauding the working class and decisions that compromised American workers. He has taken a political position both pro and con on virtually every subject and major political party. This should give evangelicals great pause and concern about supporting such a mercurial and chameleon-like candidate. Past performance is the best predictor of future behavior.
Trump said he wants to make it easier to sue newspapers that criticize him. When it was pointed out to him Sunday that he would have to amend the Constitution’s freedom of speech and freedom of press clauses, Trump was unmoved, simply noting that England has weaker protections for the press.
Many evangelicals, including our friends, have criticized Trump on our own opinion page and elsewhere, such as Matt Barber, Dr. Michael Brown, Kristi Burton Brown, Susan Stamper Brown, Rev. Mark Creech, Wallace Henley, E.W. Jackson, Max Lucado, Dr. Russell Moore and Rep. Reid Ribble. If Trump were to become president we fear he would use the levers of government power to silence them and others.
We are already concerned about the expansion of executive power to dangerous and unconstitutional extremes in the current and previous administrations. Plus, in just the past year we have seen Christians put out of business and jailed for living according to the dictates of their faith.
Trump, an admirer of Vladimir Putin and other dictatorial leaders, may claim to be your friend and protector now, but as his history indicates, without your full support he will turn on you, and use whatever power is within his means to punish you.
This is a critical time in American history and we call on all Christians to pray for personal repentance, divine forgiveness and spiritual awakening for our nation. It is not the time for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump Supporters: You’re Being Duped!
By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor
Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/donald-trump-supporters-youre-being-duped.html
Do not be duped by Donald Trump!
The issue is not whether he’s a true Christian.
The issue is whether he can be trusted and whether we even know what his real positions are.
So I ask you, if you are a Trump supporter, with all respect for your zeal and with affirmation of your frustration with status-quo politics, how can you know what Trump really believes or what he will actually do if elected?
He changes his views from one day to the next — sometimes diametrically — and flatly contradicts his previous positions, then insults and mocks those who challenge him, often in the most puerile ways. No other candidate in memory — perhaps in our nation’s history — has vacillated so wildly and dramatically in such a short period of time.
Trump truly is the vacillator-in-chief.
Decency For President
By Pastor Max Lucado
https://maxlucado.com/decency-for-president/
The leading Republican candidate to be the next leader of the free world would not pass my decency interview. I’d send him away. I’d tell my daughter to stay home. I wouldn’t entrust her to his care.
I don’t know Mr. Trump. But I’ve been chagrined at his antics. He ridiculed a war hero. He made a mockery of a reporter’s menstrual cycle. He made fun of a disabled reporter. He referred to the former first lady, Barbara Bush as “mommy,” and belittled Jeb Bush for bringing her on the campaign trail. He routinely calls people “stupid,” and “dummy.”1 One writer catalogued sixty-four occasions that he called someone “loser.”2 These were not off-line, backstage, overheard, not-to-be-repeated comments. They were publicly and intentionally tweeted, recorded, and presented.
Such insensitivities wouldn’t be acceptable even for a middle school student body election. But for the Oval Office? And to do so while brandishing a Bible and boasting of his Christian faith?
I would not have said anything about Mr. Trump, never — I would never have said anything if he didn’t call himself a Christian. It’d be none of my business whatsoever to make any comments about his language, his vulgarities, his slander of people, but I was deeply troubled … that here’s a man who holds up a Bible one day, and calls a lady “bimbo” the next. Here’s a man who calls himself a Christian and yet just has the audacity to make fun of a lady’s menstrual cycle. … He didn’t just do this on occasion, but repeatedly, unrepentantly. Somebody sent me a list of 64 people he’s called loser. Just this week it’s continued. …
It deeply concerns me that somebody who knows little or nothing about the Christian faith would hear Mr. Trump call himself a Christian and then make a decision based on the Christian faith, based on his behavior. And so I just felt like I should say something. I did not expect to stir up the dust storm that this blog has stirred up.
many people have said, “This is what I was thinking, thanks for saying it on my behalf.” But there are many people who were just really ticked off that I would dare to suggest that this behavior is inappropriate.
Pastor Max Lucado: Pastor Max Lucado Baffled Over Evangelical Trump Supporters
https://www.npr.org/2016/03/06/469371887/pastor-max-lucado-still-baffled-over-evangelical-trump-supporters
14 conservative Christians who are not supporting Trump
By Emily McFarlan Miller
https://religionnews.com/2016/06/21/7-conservative-christians-who-are-not-supporting-trump/
This post was updated on Oct. 11 and again on Nov. 7, 2016, to add the names of several more prominent figures who have come out against voting for the Republican candidate.
(RNS) Donald Trump may have met with hundreds of conservative Christian leaders, mostly evangelicals, in New York on Tuesday, June 21, but not all Christians have lined up behind him.
Johnnie Moore — national spokesperson for My Faith Votes, one of the groups that organized the meeting — said beforehand he had seen “a real consolidation of evangelical support” for the GOP presumptive presidential candidate.
But here are several Christian leaders who have made less-than-enthusiastic statements about the businessman-turned-reality TV star-turned candidate.
1. Russell Moore
Perhaps no evangelical leader has been more outspoken in opposition to Trump than Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. In a single weekend, Moore penned an op-ed in The New York Times and made an appearance on “Face the Nation,” in which he called Trump’s campaign “reality television moral sewage.”
Trump’s retort on Twitter called Moore “a terrible representative of Evangelicals and all of the good they stand for. A nasty guy with no heart!”
Moore has since changed the bio on his Twitter profile to reflect the jab: “terrible representative of evangelical Christianity, due to nastiness.”
2. Denny Burk
A professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, Denny Burk blogged in March that though Trump has said he would appoint conservative Supreme Court justices, it was unclear what kind of justices he actually would choose; he does not seem to understand the pro-life position; and his statements supporting torture present a “real threat to our constitutional order.”
“I am not joking or being hyperbolic when I say that he is a Mussolini-in-waiting,” Burk wrote. “He must never be allowed near the Oval Office. Ever.”
3. Max Lucado
In a February blog post titled “Decency for President” that he later expanded for The Washington Post, Oak Hills Church pastor and popular Christian author Max Lucado said Trump wouldn’t pass the “decency interview” he required for his three daughters’ dates.
Lucado wrote:
“I’m a pastor. I don’t endorse candidates or place bumper stickers on my car. But I am protective of the Christian faith. If a public personality calls on Christ one day and calls someone a “bimbo” the next, is something not awry? And to do so, not once, but repeatedly? Unrepentantly? Unapologetically? Can we not expect a tone that would set a good example for our children? We stand against bullying in schools. Shouldn’t we do the same in presidential politics?”
4. Thabiti Anyabwile
The pastor of Anacostia River Church and council member of The Gospel Coalition has called Trump a racist and many of the positions both Trump and Clinton have taken “evil.”
In a blog post in June titled “Can We Talk? Or, Why I Think A Trump Presidency Is Intolerable Even Though You Might Not Agree,” Thabiti Anyabwile wrote: “It seems to me, it’s past time Christians with minds bound by the word of God forsake party politics for party politics sake.
“If this election proves anything, it proves there remains among Christian people a lot of uncritical allegiance to the parties of men and even some idolizing of them,” Anyabwile wrote.
And this was after he published a guest post by Nick Rodriguez, a leader at his church, that asked Christian leaders to vote for Clinton.
5. Erick Erickson
The conservative blogger behind The Resurgent told Katie Couric in May, “If the Republican Party wants to go in (Trump’s) direction, I guess I’m not a Republican anymore.”
Erick Erickson previously had said he would support Trump if he became the party’s nominee. Then in February he wrote on his website, The Resurgent, “I Will Not Vote For Donald Trump. Ever.“
“Donald Trump has had no ‘road to Damascus’ conversion. He only wants to date the preacher’s daughter,” Erickson wrote.
6. Robert P. George
Warren Throckmorton posted a statement Monday (June 20) on his Patheos blog from Robby George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, who declined to attend Tuesday’s meeting. George is Catholic.
George’s statement read in part:
“I have been a severe critic of Mr. Trump and there is nothing he could say at a meeting in which he is courting conservatives that would alter my low opinion of him. I trust that I do not need to go into detail about the words and actions that have caused me to form that opinion. Perhaps the only politician in America of whom I have an even lower opinion is Hillary Clinton, so I certainly understand why some are urging us to hold our noses and support for Mr. Trump. But I fear that he will, in the end, bring disgrace upon those individuals and organizations who publicly embrace him.”
Earlier that month, he tweeted, “Good people, reject (Clinton) but don’t associate yourself with Trump. He will disgrace & taint all who snuggle up to him.”
7. Alan Noble
“For conservative evangelicals like me, the 2016 election really is a choice between two evils,” said Alan Noble, editor of the website Christ and Pop Culture, in a June article in Vox.
In his post, in which he advised evangelicals to abstain from voting for president and focus instead on congressional and local and state elections, Noble wrote that voting for Trump would undermine “decades of the religious right’s insistence that character matters in politicians.”
He called the candidate “a deceptive, infantile, racist demagogue with no political principles aside from his own self-interest.”
He also pointed out Trump’s comments that he does not ask for forgiveness, saying, “Any man who is so unaware of his own depravity that he cannot recognize his need for forgiveness is incapable of justly leading any country.
“There simply is no way around this fact for evangelicals.”
8. Eric Teetsel
Winning the award for most prophetic rebuke of Trump is Marco Rubio’s former faith outreach director, Eric Teetsel.
Teetsel stood outside the Republican nominee’s June meeting with conservative Christian leaders in New York, protesting with a handwritten poster board: “Torture is not pro-life. Racism is not pro-life. Misogyny is not pro-life. Murdering the children of terrorists is not pro-life. Proverbs 29:2.”
That’s because, he told Yahoo! News, “I think we know enough about Donald Trump to know that a Christian response should be prayer for him, but also a prophetic witness about what is true.”
9. Owen Strachan
“We … boggle at how some Christians and conservatives still defend Donald Trump,” Owen Strachan wrote in a post for the Center for Public Theology at Midwestern Seminary, where he is associate professor of Christian theology and director of the Center for Theological and Cultural Engagement.
That post came after the release of the 2005 recording. But it’s a case the president of the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has made against Trump in several previous posts.
Remarks describing attempted affairs and assaults on women like the ones Trump was caught making on a live mic during a recording of “Access Hollywood” must be condemned and spoken against, Strachan said. And enthusiastic support for a man whose left a string of broken homes behind him could put evangelicals “in grave danger of hypocrisy,” he added.
That left him wondering in August if, “in our efforts to engage our country politically, we have become more Machiavellian and less Pauline.”
“In other words, we’re willing to do almost anything to elect officials, preserve rights, and gain seats on the Supreme Court,” he said.
10. Matthew Lee Anderson
“There is no world in which I would vote for Bernie Sanders. But I would consider it before I would ever consider voting for Donald Trump,” Matthew Lee Anderson wrote in February for Mere Orthodoxy.
Anderson looks back on the sentiment as “almost endearing” now, he wrote on Oct. 6.
To him, it seems evangelicals are despairing and will vote for anybody who isn’t Clinton. But he, at least, hopes that won’t be for Trump. (He instead has suggested Evan McMullin, the former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives and a former CIA operations officer.)
“The story on November 9th could be that the constituency which claims the gospel as its leading identifier finally became fed up with Trump’s antics and opted to vote for a third party instead,” he said.
11. Trillia Newbell
Trillia Newbell, director of community outreach for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention, said she cried when a loved one shared he or she was supporting Trump for president. And those don’t appear to have been tears of joy.
“Actually in tears after seeing someone I love post that they are voting for Trump. I can take the Christian celebrities but friends are hard,” Newbell tweeted.
Like Strachan, she also denounced the now-infamous “Trump tape.” She also pointed out the nominee’s lack of remorse about his comments, urged her followers to think of sexual assault victims before sharing memes about them and encouraged occasionally logging off during the contentious election cycle.
I’m not one to encourage disengagement but I wonder if our minds & hearts are meant to be on the 24hr news cycle. I don’t think so #restwell
— Trillia Newbell (@trillianewbell) October 13, 2016
12. David and Nancy French
Both David French and his wife Nancy French have been outspoken in their opposition to Trump — and it’s cost them.
David French, senior fellow at the National Review Institute, has written about the online abuse he and his wife have received from Trump supporters, including “psyche-scarring” images left in comments or sent to them on social media. And bestselling author Nancy French has written about how Trump’s defenders on the religious right bring flashbacks of her own sexual assault.
But David French wrote, “Ideas matter, and supporting Trump means advancing ideas I find not just wrong, but destructive.”
“I’ve defended the unborn my entire career; he praises Planned Parenthood. I believe that marriage is a sacred covenant between husband and wife; he’s a serial adulterer. I believe America should lead the world in defense not just of its territorial integrity but also of civilization itself; he would retreat into glorified isolationism. I believe that free trade has made America more prosperous and enriched the lives of its citizens; he threatens to start ruinous economic conflicts. I believe that a core American value is that we can and must judge our citizens by the content of their character, not the color of their skin or their families’ roots; he attacks a federal judge because of his parents’ Mexican heritage.”
David French
13. Albert Mohler
R. Albert Mohler Jr. called it a “crisis of conscience” for evangelicals. Or, more specifically, him: “The immediate and excruciating crisis has a name — Donald Trump,” Mohler wrote in the Washington Post.
The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville joined his fellow Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Trillia Newbell in calling on evangelical Christians to distance themselves from the Republican candidate after the “Trump tape” release. And yet, he said, those tapes didn’t reveal anything about Trump that wasn’t already clear.
“Married three times, flaunting Christian sexual mores, building his fortune and his persona on the Playboy lifestyle, under any normal circumstances Trump would be the realization of evangelical nightmares, not the carrier of evangelical hopes,” Mohler said.
14. Deborah Fikes
Deborah Fikes not only doesn’t support Trump, she has thrown her support behind his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Fikes, a former executive adviser of the World Evangelical Alliance, wrote in the New York Times that it was the first time she’d felt compelled to reject evangelicalism’s “unquestioned political alignment with the G.O.P.” In her work with Christians around the world, though, she came to realize their “pro-life” and “pro-family” views didn’t look much like Trump’s — or the Republican party’s.
In fact, she said, “Evangelicals from all regions, but particularly in Africa, consider Hillary Clinton a ‘sister in Christ’ and someone who lives out the Golden Rule in all the good she has done for women and children. Many affectionately call her ‘Sister Hillary.'”
OTHER CHRISTIAN PASTORS AND TRUE CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE SPOKEN OUT AGAINST TRUMP
Peter Wehner
Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
We need best commander in chief possible. In Trump we’d get the worst. There’s no turning this frog into a prince. https://t.co/UdnmHRQFX3— Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) June 29, 2016
Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has lashed out at Trump and the values he represents in numerous essays for The New York Times. He compares Trump’s approach to morality to the one held by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, which prioritizes strength and power over care for the poor and powerless. Trump’s contempt for the weak, his bullying nature, and lack of compassion and empathy form a worldview that Wehner believes is “incompatible with Christianity.”
The calling of Christians is to be ‘salt and light’ to the world, to model a philosophy that defends human dignity, and to welcome the stranger in our midst. It is to stand for justice, dispense grace and be agents of reconciliation in a broken world. And it is to take seriously the words of the prophet Micah, ‘And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?’
Evangelical Christians who are enthusiastically supporting Donald Trump are signaling, even if unintentionally, that this calling has no place in politics and that Christians bring nothing distinctive to it — that their past moral proclamations were all for show and that power is the name of the game.
Rep. Reid Ribble
Three-term Republican Congressman from Wisconsin
.@RepRibble tells @ErinBurnett that @realDonaldTrump uses the language of “an 8th grade bully” https://t.co/MapUK8TUb5— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) May 12, 2016
Rep. Reid Ribble has refused to budge on Trump throughout this election cycle. The congressman accused the candidate of being a “racist” after Trump’s disparaging remarks toward a judge of Mexican heritage. Ribble told CNN that he is considering voting for the Libertarian Party this November.
In an op-ed for Christian Post, Ribble wrote: “The Evangelical community’s values include repentance, forbearance, uprightness, and the value of a hard day’s work. With that in mind, I am dismayed by the excitement I have seen from parts of the Evangelical community over Donald Trump’s campaign for president. In his personal life, his often-changing political beliefs, and especially his language, he totally disregards the values that we hold dear.”
President Jimmy Carter
Former President of The United States, Sunday School Teacher
President Jimmy Carter, the first U.S. president to call himself a born-again Christian, has said that Trump violated “basic human rights” with his comments about Mexican immigrants and his call to ban Muslims from entering the country.
In an interview with The New York Times, Carter said that Trump’s campaign has “tapped a waiting reservoir there of inherent racism.”
Jim Wallis
President and Founder of Sojourners
Jim Wallis is a Christian writer and activist who has been critical of both Trump and of his evangelical supporters. In blogs for The Huffington Post, Wallis has claimed that Trump’s rise to dominance in the race has brought to light the racism that is still troubling this country.
In a post titled, “It’s Embarrassing To Be An Evangelical This Election,” Wallis wrote about how the word white is “wiping out” the word evangelical.
“White evangelicals should have to explain, on the basis of their biblical faith … how they can feel comfortable with Trump’s proposed policies of rounding up, deporting, and destroying the families of 11 million immigrants; killing the families of terrorists; restricting the religious liberty of Muslim citizens; banning Muslim refugees; and appealing to the worst and most dangerous instincts of white Americans,” Wallis wrote. “It’s time to put ‘evangelical’ ahead of ‘white’ and to revisit Galatians 3:28, ‘There is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female; for we are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
Ex-evangelical pastor says supporting Trump has been ‘damaging’ to church
By Aris Folley 11/04/19
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/468844-ex-evangelical-pastor-joshua-harris-says-supporting-trump-has-been-damaging
Former megachurch pastor and evangelical author Joshua Harris said in a recent interview that he believes some of the massive support President Trump has enjoyed from the evangelical community has been “incredibly damaging to the Gospel and to the church.”
Harris, an influential evangelical teacher and writer during the late 1990s and up until he announced he’d abandoned his faith earlier this year, added that having “a leader like Trump I think is in itself part of the indictment” of Christians.
Evangelicals have been staunch supporters of Trump since his 2016 election, with his job approval higher than average among white evangelical Christians throughout the three years of his presidency, according to Pew Research Center data. In a poll earlier this fall conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, about 77 percent of evangelicals approve of the president’s job performance, compared to an average 43 percent in other polls.
“I don’t think it’s going to end well,” Harris said in a clip of an interview on “Axios on HBO” released Monday.
“And I think, you know, you look back at the Old Testament and the relationship between the prophets and really bad leaders and kings, and oftentimes it was, it’s not something you unwind because it’s, it’s actually in the scriptures presented as God’s judgment on the False Religion of the day,” Harris said.
“You think Christians today who are embracing President Trump are due for a judgment?” Allen asked.
“I think it is the judgment,” Harris responded. “I think it is part of the judgment.”
“What do you mean by that?” Allen asked.
“To have a leader like Trump I think is in itself part of the indictment, that this is the leader that you want and maybe deserve,” Harris answered. “That represents a lot of who you are.”
Harris, who served as the senior pastor at the Covenant Life megachurch Gaithersburg, Md., for more than a decade before resigning from his post in 2015 amid controversy over the church’s handling of a child sexual abuse scandal, rose to prominence shortly after the 1997 publication of “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” at age 21. The book was once highly influential to evangelical youth group teaching.
Despite the book’s huge success in the ’90s, Harris raised eyebrows last year after he said he “no longer” agreed “with its central idea that dating should be avoided” after reevaluating the book.
“There are other weaknesses too: in an effort to set a high standard, the book emphasized practices (not dating, not kissing before marriage) and concepts (giving your heart away) that are not in the Bible,” he continued. “In trying to warn people of the potential pitfalls of dating, it instilled fear for some—fear of making mistakes or having their heart broken.”
“The book also gave some the impression that a certain methodology of relationships would deliver a happy ever-after ending—a great marriage, a great sex life—even though this is not promised by scripture,” he also wrote before announcing his decision to discontinue the book’s publication in the statement.
Harris also captured headlines earlier this year after announced he was no longer a Christian.
In an Instagram post from July, Harris wrote that he has “undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus.”
“The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction, the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian,” he wrote then. “Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.”
The evangelical women who reject Trump
By Tara McKelvey
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45956033
Evangelical women helped Trump get elected. Now some of them are turning against him and his candidates – and could sway the outcome in key elections in November.
Rebecca Olsen, 21, a Southern Baptist who dresses conservatively in classic-red lipstick and black, ballet-style flats, was “gung-ho” for Trump in 2016.
She had concerns about the way he treated women, she says, but she brushed them aside.
“At the time I let a lot of things slip,” she says. “And upon the past two years of reflection, I regret being so much in favour of him.”
Since then the treatment of women has become a core issue for her and for others across the US. The MeToo movement brought the subject of sexual harassment onto centre stage last year, with a similar phenomenon, the ChurchToo movement, unfolding within the Southern Baptist community.
The hearing of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh opened up wrenching discussions about sexual assault.
A life-long Republican who was raised in Atlanta, Olsen says she has turned against the president and his endorsement of candidates are a mark against them.
“I think we should be doing our best to empower women,” she says, explaining why she’s disillusioned with Trump. “I think the president should be doing that as well.”
She describes the demeaning way that he talks about women and says: “I question myself: ‘Rebecca, how could you be so in favour of this man?'”
Her disappointment with the president and her rejection of his candidates is even more striking because of the backdrop.
She’s standing outside a restaurant that’s filled with her classmates from Liberty University, the nation’s biggest evangelical college, in Lynchburg, a town known as the “buckle in the bible belt”.
As a Trump critic, Olsen’s in the minority. Students here voted overwhelmingly for Trump and are campaigning for his candidates, a roster that includes Corey Stewart, a Republican who’s campaigning for the US senate in Virginia and is, as the New York Times reports, supported by white nationalists.
Liberty University is run by Jerry Falwell Jr, the son of the nation’s most famous evangelical. Falwell brags about his friendship with the president and lauds his accomplishments in office, telling me: “He’s done more for evangelicals than any previous Republican administration.”
But despite the massive support for Trump in Lynchburg, Olsen’s not alone in her views.
Another student, Rebecca Pickard, shows me around the university on a Saturday afternoon, pointing to a Noah’s Ark in a children’s play area, and says that even in this conservative Christian world, it’s OK to reject the president.
“It’s not something I feel self-conscious about,” she says.
Olsen and Pickard belong to a tiny sliver of this Christian world – white evangelical women who do not like Trump. But their numbers are growing incrementally.
Support for the president among women in their demographic group dropped from 73% to 67% from 2017 to 2018, according to Pew Research Center (in data they have yet to publish). Support for the president among white evangelical men dropped too, from 84-79%.
The decline in the president’s approval ratings among evangelical women is not huge, yet many of these women are determined to express their views at the ballot box.
They don’t want to vote for Trump candidates in states like Virginia, Georgia and Texas, they say. Although small in numbers, these women could change the outcome in congressional districts where candidates are running neck and neck.
Evangelical women have already thrown out one of their leaders, Paige Patterson, the former head of the Southern Baptist Convention, because of the demeaning way he spoke about women.
Olsen says that she won’t support a Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate, Brian Kemp, in Georgia. In Texas, some white evangelical women are supporting Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, according to the New York Times, rather than Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican with a strong evangelical following.
These evangelicals – and their dismay over the way that the president treats women – reflect a broader trend. “A majority of Americans feel that Trump doesn’t respect women,” says GBA Strategies’ Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster.
Some pollsters like FiveThirtyEight have identified a huge gender gap between women largely voting for Democratic candidates and men supporting Republicans. So evangelicals are reflecting a wider trend but it’s surprising because as a group they so strongly backed Trump in the past.
“I’m amazed and heartened to see evangelical women tackle this,” says Jennifer Butler, who grew up in an evangelical family in Georgia and now heads up an organisation called Faith in Public Life.
Republicans say they’re unconcerned, pointing out that the vast majority of white evangelical women still support the president and will choose his candidates in November.
Olsen’s twin sister, Rachel, is one of them – she doesn’t like Kemp, she tells me, but she’ll “begrudgingly” vote for him, explaining: “I don’t want the state to turn blue.”
One of the biggest mysteries of the 2016 election was that evangelical women helped to usher Trump into office despite the fact that he seldom goes to church and used to live a life some might say was contrary to Christian values.
Before the election, they knew that he’d said vulgar things about women in an Access Hollywood tape and that he’d been married three times. More recently they heard him refer to a woman as “horseface”.
Heather Quintero, a math teacher who grew up in Lynchburg, acknowledges that it must be hard for some people to understand why female evangelicals would support Trump, given the way that he treats women.
She draws on her own experience as an evangelical Christian to help unravel the mystery. As a child, she says, she was taught church lessons such as: “My body does not belong to me.”
It “belonged first of all to my father”, she says. “When I was married, it would be given to my husband.”
Looking back, she sees a connection between these teachings and the support that female evangelicals have shown for Trump.
Evangelical women support Trump “because it’s what we’ve been socialised to do”, says Quintero – this means “placing your own well-being below the idea of stopping abortion”.
Many don’t like the way the president talks about women but support his conservative policies, she says.
Paula White, the president’s spiritual adviser, spoke to me recently near the White House about women’s issues and conservative politics.
She sympathises with the women who were disturbed by the Supreme Court hearing since she herself was “sexually and physically abused”.
She says: “I understand that pain.” Yet she applauds the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, a Catholic who’s seen as “pro-life”.
She and other Christians applaud Trump and the vice-president, Mike Pence, both of whom are rock stars on the evangelical circuit.
One of their fans is Laurel Bryant, a college student from Amherst, a town near Lynchburg. I saw recently her in a Washington hotel during a “Values Voter” summit after she’d met Pence. “I’m shaking like a Chihuahua,” she says, describing her excitement.
Bryant says she hopes that Christian women will stay away from “feminist ideology” and recognise the importance of “compromise” – that means voting for candidates who may be flawed but who are fighting against abortion.
For Bryant and many evangelicals, that’s the key issue and seen through this light, the way the president treats women becomes less important.
But just as some evangelical women have expressed their unhappiness with the president, so have some men. Writing in USA Today, a Minneapolis pastor, Doug Pagitt, describes evangelicals: “Their insistence on walking in lockstep with the Republican Party often is primarily motivated by a single issue: abortion.”
Karen Swallow Prior, a Southern Baptist and an English professor at Liberty University, brought me into the world of evangelical women one autumn afternoon in a Main Street coffeehouse.
Prior is the author of a book entitled On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, and she introduces me to her friends, “Lynchburg Liberals” as she calls them.
These women range in age from 20 to post-retirement, and most are affiliated with the university. They’d be seen as conservatives in US cities because of their hardline stance on abortion but are viewed as progressives in Christian country because of the way they talk about gender issues and because they oppose the president.
They sat around a wooden table with lovers’ initials and a universal Christian symbol, the cross, carved into its surface. Outside the café, a student plays on a piano a “worship song” that he wrote himself.
Pickard’s grandfather gave her a Winchester rifle when she was in middle school, she tells me, and she grew up listening to Sean Hannity on her dad’s car radio.
Despite her conservative upbringing, she’s planning to vote for a Democrat, Tim Kaine, a Virginia senatorial candidate, instead of Stewart. “I’d like to vote for someone who won’t embarrass us,” Pickard says. Quintero says she’s also voting for Kaine.
Others baulk at voting for Democrats – but refuse to support the president’s candidates. Prior now tells me that she’ll vote for a libertarian. Another woman says she’ll write in Mickey Mouse, only half-joking.
Democrats have an edge in November’s elections, according to polls, but a key factor will be turnout.
“This is going to be so close,” White says. Ultimately the fate of the president, the US congress and state-level leaders could turn on a small number of votes cast by evangelical women.
On that day at the restaurant, Olsen says she doesn’t see herself as a radical.
Still she concedes that her decision to write in a name on a ballot rather than vote for Trump’s candidate is “a protest in some way”.
Atheist Militants Rising 
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