Those on the Religious Right claim that Trump is a Christian president who cares about Christian values.
Those on the Religious Right also claim that Trump is going to protect Christians from being persecuted for practicing their faith.
But those who are on the front lines of being the hands and feet of Jesus know differently– Trump’s Amerika knows nothing of Christian values, nor is he a president committed to protecting the free exercise of Christian principles.
I’ve often and very publicly criticized the “Conservative Christian persecution complex” that we see perpetuated by the Religious Right– it’s an absolute joke, and everyone knows it. When the government tells you, “I’m sorry, but your business isn’t allowed to discriminate- if someone has the money to buy a cake, you should be fair and sell it to everyone.” you’re not being persecuted– you’re just being told to stop doing the persecuting.
While the Christian persecution complex has been harmful for the Church in that it’s made us look petty, whiny, and overall made the Gospel unattractive by how we live, the biggest tragedy of it all is that it’s caused us to completely miss the actual persecution of Christians in Trump’s America.
No, there is not systematic persecution of Christians in America– America is a country that’s nearly 80% Christian, and overwhelmingly governed by Christians at every level of government.
But yes, some Christians in America are being persecuted for practicing their faith– because if obeying what Jesus commanded gets you arrested and thrown in jail, I don’t know what other word to call it.
I suppose the tragic irony of the Religious Right selling their soul in exchange for a promise to not have to sell any more gay wedding cakes, is the reality that they’ve not just ushered in actual Christian persecution, but have turned the most basic things someone would learn in a Jesus 101 class into a criminal act.
Case in point: one need not even be a Christian to recognize one of the most well-known statements Jesus made to his followers:
“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, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me…”
In fact, when Jesus makes this statement in Matthew 25 he’s not issuing some suggestion on what his followers should do– he’s actually warning people that divine judgement awaits those who refuse to give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and shelter for the stranger.
This is basic Christian stuff– but obeying Jesus and practicing your Christian faith in this basic area will land you in jail with a felony charge in Trump’s America.
Just ask Scott Warren. He’s a volunteer for a humanitarian aid organization called No More Deaths, a ministry founded by a coalition of community and faith leaders that is committed to faith-based principles of immigration reform.
Those community and faith leaders have found themselves deeply concerned with how many people die from lack of water while wandering the desert in an attempt to cross into the United States from Mexico. In an effort to care for the stranger in their midst, as Jesus commanded, they’re known to leave random jugs of water in the desert, along with other basic supplies that some immigrants may need to survive in that hostile environment. And in cases where they encounter an immigrant who is hungry, thirsty, and in need of shelter– they’ve been known to provide it, just as Jesus said to.
But following Jesus is a criminal act in Trump’s America. Warren was arrested and thrown in jail last week for giving immigrants water, food, and clean clothes. And he isn’t alone– nine members of the faith-based group have been arrested and charged with federal crimes recently by the Trump administration, mainly for leaving jugs of water in the desert in hopes of saving a human life.
So, I take back what I’ve said in the past regarding anti-Christian persecution in America.
Christians are being persecuted.
They are being thrown into jail for practicing the basic tenets of the Christian faith.
But it has nothing to do with wedding cakes, and everything to do with giving water to those who are thirsty, food to those who are hungry, and clothes to those who are naked.
And until you, my random Christian brother or sister somewhere on the internet, stand up in defense of those jailed by the Trump administration for following Jesus 101 type stuff– for literally giving water to people who would die without it– I’m not interested in hearing about how “oppressed” those cake shop owners are, or anything else you have to say about the persecution of Christians in America.
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So keeping up to date on conservative theology.
Apparently their god is now a child abuser.
When Jesus said ‘suffer the little children….” he meant suffer especially the gay ones.
It’s hard to conceive how one can view God under those terms, but it comes from being programmed into that kind of doctrine. I walked away from ECT primarily because I didn’t think it could be adequately supported from the preponderance of evidence even biblically speaking. Once I became extricated from dogma, I then began to start thinking logically. Like why would a God of love allow human beings to be tortured forever when I would not even torture a rat, which I hate?
There god has always been an abuser of these that are weaker.
Thank you Bones for continuing to call out the stream of blatant lies that are so important to U.S. White Evangelicals. By the way, please feel free to visit Sojourners blog if your schedule allows. We could really use your clarity and integrity right now.
That’s sad how they interpret His every word by *their* personal approval or disapproval of others who are different.
Fortunately, Jesus wasn’t like that. He truly loves everyone, gay, straight, trans, tall, short, white, black, blue eyes or brown.
It is only persecution if the law is not applied to everyone equally.
That said, Christians have a moral obligation to stand against unjust laws and sometimes that means being punished by the government of man.
Oh the irony of this article.
*DISCLAIMER*
Yes, it is wrong to criminalize someone for leaving random jugs of water out in the desert (except under the auspices of littering–which, of course, isn’t the real issue).
Yes, it’s also wrong to discriminate based on, well, anything.
Claim 1: It’s a good thing to leave jugs of water out “to save a human life”.
Claim 2: It should be illegal to not sale your property to anyone you want, even if your religious convictions inform you that the goal is “to save a human life.”
Regardless of the poignancy, do you not realize that these to claims rest on the mandates of the State?
If you want less say of government for the first claim, then fight for less say of government in both claims.
Don’t be arbitrary or really you are just persecuting people who want to sell their property to only the people they want; it’d be the same hypocrisy of those who claim the rights of the baker to discriminate but not the rights of CIVILians to leave water jugs….in fact, the first claim even has the externalities of ecological damage via littering and BPA poisoning.
It doesn’t matter YOUR convictions on this matter, because I’m sure there are bakers who’ve felt strong in their (ADMITTEDLY MISLEAD) convictions.
But ya know what, if this were a matter of private property and not government overreach, we wouldn’t have hypocritical blog posts about a subject you care much about and believe it is more important than those religious right Christians you despise so greatly.
“People should be free to go to hell in whatever way they want.” I forgot what libertarian (philosophy, not politic) I stole that quote from.
You might say, “Feeding the hungry and clothing the poor are more important than selling a cake.”
I’ll say, “That’s a value judgment. Some people don’t believe that and it’s not your place to impose upon them your moral standards. Recognizing the natural rights of an individual and their property is also vitally important, unless you just don’t want ‘those who exclude’ to be included–in the irony of all ironies.”
As Jesus said, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?”
And the Good Samaritan said “I’d love to help you out dude, but I’m in a hurry to get back to my shop & sell straight people some cakes. A mans gotta have priorities, right?”
This assumes that the amount of government interference is an inherent evil. It’s not.
The government needs to allow us to do good while preventing us from doing evil. If it gets in the way of doing a good thing, that is bad. If it fails to prevent the commission of an evil act, that, too, is bad.
Yes, it is a value judgment. A good government should reflect the social value that human life is more important than sale of a luxury good.
Cite, please?
“The government needs to allow us to do good while preventing us from doing evil. ”
That’s just nonsense; there are dozens of evil things we do that we’d recognize as oppressive if the government stopped us.
I’ve lied to my parents. I’ve driven 3-5 over the speed limit. I’ve earned cash and not paid taxes on it.
“A good government should reflect the social value that human life is more important than sale of a luxury good.”
But government, particularly acute to the industrialized world doesn’t reflect “social value” of a human life. Governments have exterminated more people in the last century than all nations in times prior. And that’s not even accounting for abortion or one’s stance on it.
“Cite, please?”
Parable of the vineyard workers.
The fact is that your very own argument rests on a uniform ideal (or even a majority ideal) of “social value”.
What we see clearly is that substantially-sized groups oppose eachother’s views as to what should and should not be legal.
The fact that this is an addressed topic makes your argument for a government based on “the good thing” worth nothing. For those on the pro-law side, they oppress those on the con-law side. And Corey, here, is now complaining of government intervention that is in the same vain of what he supports to oppress those horrible Christian bakers: government intervention. This time it’s his social values that aren’t honored, and he doesn’t like it.
They’re both making arguments as to what is “morally right” and “good for one’s soul”, but Corey thinks he’s more right and thus his belief should be law.
“This assumes that the amount of government interference is an inherent evil.”
I won’t argue over this claim here, but government interference IS ALWAYS an inherent evil for reasons cited above: Christians now have the opportunity to force their wills on others in very non-Jesus fashion.
“Corey thinks he’s more right and thus his belief should be law.”
Well no he isn’t. He’s pointing out that if the religious right were interested in freedom of religion as a principle, rather than specifically their own right to do whatever they want and bash gays because they don’t like them, they would be interested in the religious freedom of those Ben highlights, not just the bakers.
That’s hardly a counterargument to the notion that government should stop whatever evil is reasonable.
Ah, but that’s Christ talking about God’s property, not ours.
I disagree with this unilateral statement. Oppression!
… doesn’t that seem weird?
He was referring to this https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A1-14&version=NIV
…. though im not sure what his point was. If he’s gonna quote scripture, he should probably quote it all, instead of “some convenient bit of it” out of context.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?”Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.'”When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'”The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.”
“instead of “some convenient bit of it” out of context.”
Out of context? The only context needing representation is that Jesus recognized a person’s right to own property–and that it isn’t right for others to begrudge him for what the owner does with it–in this case be generous. After all, they agreed to transact with him (and, notably, he agreed first to transact with them).
This, Corey doesn’t do; but he sure cares about it when it suits his value judgment–and calls it persecution when the same government bars those doing what they want with their property (what he agrees with). I just would like him to extend the same right to those bakers who choose do what they want with their property (not sale the things they own to people they don’t want to).
One thing is for sure about this website is they clearly know little about Jesus & they’ve sadly missed the ONLY reason He came, died & rose again!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44196845e6bf7c7ebbafb2972e1ab387b21b80eafe11f08123a710f072acb8fb.jpg
He said to Dry Bones!
Alas we weren’t hopeful of anything approaching a meaningful conversation seeing you’ve been such a condescending prick since you’ve been here.
Really; Do tell…
I do, Tim!
Either you’re thick, or being intentionally evasive. You made a broad statement about this website, and my comment was in effect asking you to expound upon this, as Herm’s was.
But if I have to, I’ll spell it out for you: What makes you think “they” know little about Jesus, and that they’ve missed the “only” reason that Jesus did those things? What is that “only” reason, in your opinion?
In the same vain as Josh said before me, what did Dr. Corey miss? Expound, please!
“One thing is for sure about this website is they clearly know little about Jesus”
I’d disagree; he sometimes gets it right–it’s extension of rights that he’s particularly wrong on, imo.
“they’ve sadly missed the ONLY reason He came, died & rose again!”
What did he miss?
This whole article is premised on works. Works are a fruit of the Spirit. God only calls us to belief in Him & obedience & submission to Him & His Word. Works & the desire to share the Good News with & minister to the physical & spiritual needs of our fellow mankind will only naturally follow. Being good will NEVER get anyone into Heaven! Too many people, including many ‘Christians’ put the emphasis in the wrong place, get it backwards & attempt to appease God through their good works. 1 Samuel 15:22…
Jesus only came to die for the sins of the World & to rise again that we might have Eternal Life with Him! He came to seek & to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). No. 1 & only reason!
He did NOT come to minister to the physical needs of people! He came to change hearts & bring people into a saving knowledge of Him & obedience to His Word. Performing miracles & meeting the needs of those who came to Him during His short ministry on this Earth was only an extension of His ministry & a way to speak to & heal their real need, which was their lost & dying souls. As it is today.
This is why the religious leaders of the day were enemies of Christ & why the Jews missed their Messiah. Their eyes were completely on themselves, their plight & solely their physical needs.
So, submission to Him and his word doesn’t involve all the instructions he gave us on how to treat others?
We’re not talking about works based salvation here, we’re talking about what James said; “I will show you my faith by my works.”
Too many people get hung up on the Luther’s extreme view and end up using this logic as a cop-out.
And not enough Christians put the emphasis in the right place, which is actually imitating Christ. The parable of the sheep and goats is all over this. We are never judged on what we believe, but on what we do. The mechanism behind it is important to understand as far as that goes, but that should never be an excuse to not actually do it.
“Works & the desire to share the Good News with & minister to the physical & spiritual needs of our fellow mankind will only naturally follow.”
This is precisely what these people were doing, leaving water in the desert, mercifully ministering to the needs of people. It seems you are equating ILLEGAL with unclean, similarly to the man who was robbed and left on the side of the road. Sounds like you would have passed him by. So leaving water in the desert for thirsty aliens will get you arrested but consider: it was, very similarly, this type of radical love and going against the powers of the day (the Jews and Romans), that got Christ crucified.
Additionally, I have not seen anyone here say that Jesus came “only” to minister to the needs of people; however, that was a part of it. If I were you I would calm down a bit and be careful you do not put yourself in the same place as the enemies of Christ.
*Edited to add:
It seems you may be new here. Lots of others have come charging in here thinking they can rebuke and correct all this “heresy and false teaching”. Let me warn you, it will only be a very frustrating and a possibly demeaning experience for you. If you are open to give and take discussion then you can find it here. If you think you already know it all and are just here to preach and rant, it will not turn out well. Your choice….
So trying to get a free pass to heaven is the only motive you can imagine for trying to save human lives? Wow.
It must be a relief for you that acts of compassionate aren’t how one gets into heaven.
Yeah I wouldn’t be losing any sleep over any criticism from you.
Especially when you can’t even interpret a basic parable.
Are you interpreting a ‘basic’ parable?
Maybe you should really get into the Word of God?
Should “old fashioned,” traditional Mormons be permitted to practice their religion in Utah?
Should Islamic worshipers be permitted to announce the call to prayer 5 times a day from an amplified PS system?
And then there are traditional religions that practiced temple prostitution in St Paul’s neghborhoods . . . .
I wonder what the chances are that the Right will want this guy prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!
Shane Claiborne has also faced prosecution for following Jesus in contravention of laws. One example was, back around, 2002, when he helped deliver food, medicine, and other necessities in a humanitarian mission to Iraq. He got fined for violating the sanctions that were in place. So, to protest the impact the sanctions had on Iraq, Claiborne and Co paid the sanctions in Iraqi dinars…at the pre-sanction exchange rate. (The fine was a few thousand dollars, but the dinar was so devalued that the pile of money that had been a few thousand dollars was only worth $6.)
It is stories like these that make me cringe when liberals conplain that Right Wing Christians want to use their religion to avoid the law, and should just follow the law, gosh by darn it! The reason I don’t like “Just Follow Teh Law” is that it is a boomerang that hurts humanitarians like this. In addition, it commits an argument from authority fallacy.
I agree. Would we even know who MLK is if he had just followed the law?
Let me be even more provocative, how much of an impact would Jesus have had if he had just followed the law?
I’m confused. When did Jesus break the law?
By claiming to be the son of God before the Sanhedrin, what he did was considered blasphemy and broke Jewish law. That would be the obvious one.
Jesus is just a catalyzer. If you are a good person, he’ll help you to be even better. If you’re a bad person….. well, look at what they all do with Jesus’s teachings.
Joke? Where’d you concoct that made up story from?
This isn’t Christain prosecution.. I mean really. If it were then they’d be arrested for being Christain soley. They would have still been arrested no matter their religion or lack of. I agree they shouldn’t have been arrested at all for helping a life, but that doesn’t mean that their belief had anything to do with the arrest.
*Christian * Solely *Persecution.
And you are incorrect. Being arrested for simply holding an ideology IS higher-level persecution, but that doesn’t mean that being arrested for practising your faith isn’t persecution.
Yes but they weren’t arrest for practicing their faith. If an athiest did the same thing they did the arrest would still have been made. Helping someone survive isn’t an act of Christianity. It’s an act of humanity.
In one sense this is true. I guess in that particular situation, we’d have to be able to assess if any other mitigating factors were involved in the arrest.
Exactly! Apparently this misinformed writer believes that law enforcement asks the beliefs & faith of everyone before arresting them.
What an absolutely bogus & ridiculous article! All under the guise of following Jesus…
What about when it does eventually come out that these folks, because of their committment to the teachings of Jesus, were leaving water for
thirsty people in the desert? What then?
Actually doing what Jesus taught has never been a popular strategy with Christians. But then, Jesus was a Jew.
Oh please! You’re either saved & a Christ follower, or you’re not! You obviously have NO clue what it means to be a Christian & only delight in making blanket condemning & accusatory statements.
So you are saying Matthew 25 has nothing at all to do with Christianity? Am I just not getting Jesus’s offbeat sense of humor?
I can respect at least some of the teachings of Jesus without believing in virgin birth, miracles, rising from the dead, or theistic fatherhood.
And of course, some Christians, a few, do not engage in, for instances, public prayer, the acquisition of wealth, and condemnatory judgments of the deeds and omissions of others.
Now, I realize that some folks like clear distinctions, and have to fit everyone into a classification, good or evil, Christian or non-Christian, … all sorts of tribal labels, to separate “us” (the good guys) from “them” (the bad guys), but I just see people acting like people and what “I do” is always, somehow, justified or forgiven, but what “he does” is reprehensible.
Religion is a label and the different brands are distinguished by the different types of nonsense they profess. Whether the believers shout “Hallelujah” or “Hare Krishna”, it is religion that allows them to slip the bonds or strip the gears of reason and logic, and indulge in wishful thinking while polishing the self-image.
Good for you!
Thanks for the gobbledygook anyway!
Religion is just that. Ritualistic & man made. A follower of Jesus Christ is about a personal relationship!
I can be perfectly comfortable with the teachings of Jesus (or some of those attributed to him) without believing he performed miracles, was born of a virgin, rose from the dead, and is an immortal son of a deity. I have noted that Christians, are fond of public prayer, the acquisition of wealth, and passing judgment on the actions and omissions of others. They like to remind us how special they are, and parade humility before the crowd. Not all of them of course!
And that, Mr. Teichroew, is the whole point of religion: It is a display of tribal solidarity, and the badge of that solidarity is the profession of utter nonsense.
Go for religion because you obviously display an affinity for tribal solidarity!
NOT for me!
Was Jesus not a Jew? Where in the Bible does it describe him as something other than the Son of God or a Jew? More importantly, where does it describe him as a Christian?
Seriously?
Your point is?
Where do you think the name ‘Christian’ came from? Surely it didn’t come before Christ, did it?
He was called other names also, such as a Nazarene & of course The Messiah.
A powerful and on-target message.
“While the Christian persecution complex has been harmful for the Church in that it’s made us look petty, whiny, and overall made the Gospel unattractive by how we live, the biggest tragedy of it all is that it’s caused us to completely miss the actual persecution of Christians in Trump’s America.”
Thank you for this.
Yes. That is such a good point, and it is very sad that decent Christians have to deal with these people degrading their faith. Nobody in the US hated Christians until these people caused many of us to view Christians as unkind, immoral hypocrites. It is very unfortunate & quite unfair to the many wonderful people that are also Christians.
Christians are being persecuted but its ok…its only the brown ones….
ICE arrests of Iraqi Christians in US cause detainee families to feel betrayed
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/16/ice-arrests-iraqi-christians-in-us-cause-detainee-families-to-feel-betrayed.html
Maybe they should’ve baked a cake.
“But yes, some Christians in America are being persecuted for practicing their faith”
Why do you not believe the bakers refusing to serve a gay couple’s wedding is practicing their faith?
Where in the Bible is baking turned into a holy sacrament? I see lots of passages saying that you should share your food, love your neighbours and not judge…but not a word about baking.
Bec, that’d be worth conversation, if that were the actual issue.
If you deny that it’s the same persecution by government, then you really don’t care about freedom of religion.
The Greatest Commandment is indeed terribly offensive to White Evangelicals. This has already been well-documented.
What commandment?
The Greatest one. It’s the one that is greater than your lustful, self-serving desire to justify discrimination against your neighbors.
Yes, that sentence stuck out like a sore thumb to me as well. The government is taking action against both the baker and the “No More Deaths” group for practicing their faith.
Boom diggity. But author only affirms one of these as oppressive.
Yeah, there’s a definite lack of logic.
For the same reason that Christians hanging black people weren’t practicing Christianity.
They thought they were practicing Christianity. Just like the bakers think they are practicing Christianity. This is what is totally misunderstood. These people truly believe they are pleasing God by their actions. Killing a black person was believed to be for the greater good and their reasons for doing it were approved by God. They truly believed that.
What is being misunderstood?
My belief on religion is the same as on rights. That is my rights end where you nose (ok on some of us stomach) begins.
But it was their faith. And refusing [the service of what you own] is much different than taking [a life someone else owns].
There is more then one way to destroy a life that (as you put it) someone else owns.
Do some research on number of bullied teens that take their own lifes.
Despite not being Christian, or even religious, I donated to No More Deaths after reading this post. What an excellent idea. Thank you for sharing! (+1 this comment if you did the same!)
Refusing to serve a gay couple is not an act of faith. It’s an act of fundamentalism. Conservative/fundamentalist Christian belief removes faith and allows for things like racism/slavery, misogyny, homophobia, violence of all kinds, justification of cultural genocide by missionaries, unbridled greed by televangelists, influencing/polarization of politics in ways to undermine the most vulnerable in society just to name a few. Faith produces fruit like leaving water so people don’t die.
Maybe Warren was arrested , not for providing water , but encouraging illegal immigrants to break the law…?
Jesus would be in favor of people following the law of the land.. even countries in the OT had borders…and laws…
Jesus was crucified as an insurrectionist…that was the law of the land…..
Did Jesus need a green card to live in Egypt?
Except when he wasn’t in favor of it.
“but encouraging illegal immigrants to break the law” . How about all the businesses that encourage them to come? To work at jobs whites think are beneath them. In meat packing plants , dairies, produce farms, so you can have cheap food to eat. Hotels, and food service, so you have a clean room and dinner served to you. The shallowness of understanding the real reasons by conservative white Christians equals the blindness of the Pharisees that Jesus confronted.
“beneath whites”, = racial statement, plenty of whites do labor intensive work, my grand father picked cotton, etc…
“the shallowness of understanding by conservative whites” = racial and judgmental… try again…
You try again. The majority Illegals come here because businesses hire them. Or is your understanding and thought processes to shallow to address that.
Jesus, the dark-complected Middle Eastern refugee crossing borders, is indeed terribly offensive.
See, you can’t argue with “these people”. There’s only one right way to live: theirs. Everyone else is just a terrible offended White Evangelical. Their way only respects your right to person as long as you care about those people who “FEEL” oppressed–though they might be victims of non-aggressive prejudice, like not be served by someone (though, of course, someone else would be glad to serve them). But that doesn’t matter, because when it’s you, the “terribly offended white evangelical”, their vote in government has legitimate right over you as a person and therefore your property. Got a problem with that, you can kiss their ass, pay their tithe, and do what they’ve commanded you anyway.
Yes, you’re oppressed because you’re a white conservative male who suddenly found libertarianism (yet enjoyed conservative governments legislating morality).
I have a hard time saying that either Jack Phillips or Scott Warren is being persecuted for his faith. Both of them are (presumably) breaking laws of the land that apply to everyone, not just Christians. Laws that prohibit discrimination in retail or prohibit aiding people crossing the border illegally aren’t singling out Christians for particularly harsh treatment.
American Christians aren’t being persecuted. We should save words like that for Christians who are intentionally singled out for harsher treatment like they are in some other countries.
You mean, Trump isn’t really an evangelical?!
If he acts like one, he must be?
Evangelicals pretend that he is
Only pretend if they don’t believe it.
Yeah, great point. That’s even scarier
Look its time everyone just blocked the dms character.
He is a troll who feeds on attention and offers nothing to this site.
His comments are designed to create attention on himself and he has no life outside of the internet. No relationships. No job.
He will spend his time picking at your sin while ignoring the lies, abuse, threats and condemnations which he spews out once again.
He will make stupid comments to evoke a response and will lie about you and what he himself has written.
They are all designed to create attention for himself.
He is in fact an Attention Whore.
Block him and dont give him what he craves.
Done!
Agreed and done.
Yeah, responding to him just allows him another platform to respond again. In kind of a weird sort of way, responding to him actually reinforces his behavior. It allows him to continue to think he’s “doing the Lord’s work.” We need to do ourselves (and even him) a favor by not responding to him. Otherwise, it enables him to continue with his antics.
I actually feel sorry for DMS. I have never met anybody so ridiculously brainwashed who simply cannot comprehend basic common sense, science and reality. If anything he is a prime example of the ignorance of; well, of ignorance.
It is truly sad.
And I truly feel sorry for you as well. It’s truly, sad.
I’m not the one who has abandoned reality and facts for a deadly violent mythology.
That would be you.
About the only message DMS has, at least on this site, is believe like him or go to hell. And yet when pressed, he can’t tell you WHY to believe like him. Just do it. Otherwise you’ll be tortured. For me, as a Christian I would wish to appeal to others with respect to Jesus’ kingdom message. Justice, mercy, compassion, and love. Yet, religionists just aren’t enamored with that message. Seriously. The religious elite pushed back on Jesus because he was inclusive. Those he brought to the table did not fit the mold the religious elite had constructed in their mind of what a ‘godly’ person should look like. For most of my Christian life I literally had missed this. What DMS apparently doesn’t get is that many of us on here have escaped from his way of thinking. Yeah, we weren’t vitriolic about it like he is, but components of that kind of mindset were nevertheless present within us. He thinks we’re blind to truth and there’s really nothing we can do to convince him otherwise. And yet we know better because once you really ‘see,’ you then cannot ‘un-see’ (borrowed that from Rob Bell, who incidentally, got kicked out of the evangelical ‘fold’ himself). Just yesterday, a coworker came into my office (he is a life-long Christian, raised in a religiously conservative environment). And out of the blue, with tears in his eyes, he says to me, “Ron, the other night I had trouble sleeping. For the first time in my life it dawned on me that this thing is really about demonstrating love to everyone.” By the way, he and I had never had that convo before. I responded that a similar thing happened to me several years ago and I’ve never been the same since. Call it a revelation or whatever. He then said, “I’m embarrassed that it took this long for me to see it though.” I just told him that he can be happy that at least he sees now. So many still don’t. Like the light bulb hasn’t come on yet.
And some of us became disciples of Christ after we figured out that the Christian Right had Jesus wrong.
It’s self-worship. D.M.S. simply takes the self-serving self-worship of U.S. White Evangelical Fundamentalism to its logical, unfettered conclusion. He’s emboldened in Trump’s era of rising White Nationalism endorsed by White Evangelical millionaires and their megachurch patriarchal culture of siding with bullies, sexual predators, and the single largest military in global history. The behavior and theology of D.M.S. is what the worship of death looks like.
Maybe mental illness?
Perhaps
Definitely a compulsive disorder…..
Good point.
This is complete BS. Trump is helping lessen persecution, he isn’t making it worse.
the “Conservative Christian persecution complex”
The simpler name for it is “martyrbation.”
This is my eldest daughter.
She only just turned 13…and last year told us she was gay. (When she told us she said she didn’t care if we hated her because we were Christians)
She has an amazing compassionate heart.
Apparently the god of the conservatives is going to torture my baby. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d18e00cc05e3e3fb70e78595e652e4d8decb89d81e8f1709315009961ed8b037.jpg
Your child is beautiful and so are you for accepting her fully, as who she is, made wonderfully in the image of God. I’m so proud of you for accepting and loving your daughter! 🙂 ?
Love the new evangelical tactic by the self righteous conservative morons.
Apparently you act like a jerk and just say ‘god loves you’.
Like really? How f***ing infantile.
These people have no idea and think they’re dealing with infants .
They don’t see that their ideology is despicable and dangerous and we won’t be distracted by empty platitudes which are just a distraction to excuse their own disgraceful behaviour towards other people on this thread…