I hope John Calvin is burning in hell without air conditioning. What this belief system really does is absolve the clergy of responsibility because everything is on you. I'm rich: God's plan. You're poor: God's plan.
After finding that my member of the House of Representatives hasn’t even been recorded in the Congressional Record as speaking yet this session let alone my state’s two new senators being silent frankly this bothers me. It is one thing to say God has a plan. It is another to effectively disenfranchise people to the point that the 1930s Germany feeling is inescapable.
If these bozos in DC want to go down this road the best Old Testament book to consider would be Lamentations. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The elected leader of the nation is barely in touch with reality. We’re fairly vulnerable to enemy attack of the more traditional sort. That we have a loon like RFK Jr destroying our healthcare system will lead to pestilence and plague starting with measles outbreaks that make the Samoan epidemic in 2019 that he helped cause look like a test run.
Throwing around “God has a plan” like that is a way to be cruel and try to assuage your conscience. We have free will. If you see suffering and can help then you should help. If you can’t help let others know so they might help. We’re not automatons devoid of agency.
I am stuck in a rat’s nest of politicians spewing these sorts of things here in Ohio. There has to be a way forward somewhere.
Bottom line: They have to fear what their constituents may do to them more than they fear their Big Daddy Dictator. And since many of their constituents aren't stochastic terrorists, we seem destined to lose that war.
It sounds about right. If it's correct, they're not acting to keep their jobs, but the question is just whether we have anything resembling free and fair elections next year, if we even get that far.
I don't personally care. It is their JOB to defend the Constitution. That is what they SWORE to do when they took office. If you didn't want to get to the place where Big Daddy Dictator started threatening to kill your family, maybe you shouldn't have gotten in bed with that dude in the first place.
Yeah. I'm just saying what congress isn't doing is a (non) response that will accelerate the unpopularity of Republicans. Whether and how that matters are different questions.
Good morning, Andra. I was wondering about the connections between Russia and Christian Nationalism. I mean, I can guess. However, I was wondering if you had any writings on this that I missed.
Putin uses a form of Russian Orthodox Christianity as part of his authoritarian nationalism. But the framers of Project 2025 (the Heritage Foundation) worked directly with Hungary's Viktor Orbán and followed the steps he used to turn Hungary into a theocratic autocracy. (It's charitable to call it an illiberal democracy.) Since Orbán is a fan of Putin, it wouldn't surprise me to find out Russia helped him author his Hungarian playbook.
Thanks. Those were my thoughts. I finally got Greg Olear's book 'Dirty Rubbles' today. Chattel Project 2025 is Viktor Orban's policies without a doubt. I've read it. They're 30% complete, in 30 days. Agent Orange is destabilizing the country so he can claim patrimonialism.
Alford has a direct line to god? He must, otherwise how would he know there’s a plan? It would be kind of him to tell each constituent what the plan is, so they can prepare. Gitmo? Losing their house? Some dread disease courtesy of HHS? 🙄🙄🙄
He would tell his constituents to talk to God themselves and do whatever God leads them to do. Whereupon he will feel absolutely justified to disagree with anything that God leads them to do that violates his interpretation of the Bible, and thus blame them for their continued lack of VICTORY. It is always a circular shell game with these assholes.
The adoration of a ragey, vengeful God is in line with the code of masculinity embraced by MAGA in general and Christian Nationalism in particular. Jill Filipovic recently wrote in "The Atlantic" that this brand of masculinity (endorsed also by Christian Nationalist women) is really a teenage view of how men (and by extension God) should behave--the badass Daddy God will whip one's enemies into shape in a virtuoso display of hyper-masculinity. People who buy into this version of the Deity represent an arrested stage of emotional development. They seem quite comfortable to be teens forever. It's hard, adult mental work to love one's enemies and easier to call on ragey God (a wonderful epithet!) to get on with the smiting.
I shouldn't be surprised that well before I knew I had been indoctrinated in a cult or understood the ravages of emotional and mental abuse, I used to look at these dynamics and say, "What grade are we in?"
Because it felt like I was perpetually trapped in junior high school. Dealing with all the UBER MASSIVE SHIT that happens to everyone then. Only so many people in my orbit never outgrew it. So I was left with, "Wow. What grade are we in?" Which almost nobody got when I said it.
I hope John Calvin is burning in hell without air conditioning. What this belief system really does is absolve the clergy of responsibility because everything is on you. I'm rich: God's plan. You're poor: God's plan.
It doesn't only apply to the clergy. Christian Nationalists use this ALL THE TIME to justify watching people suffer and refusing to help.
After finding that my member of the House of Representatives hasn’t even been recorded in the Congressional Record as speaking yet this session let alone my state’s two new senators being silent frankly this bothers me. It is one thing to say God has a plan. It is another to effectively disenfranchise people to the point that the 1930s Germany feeling is inescapable.
If these bozos in DC want to go down this road the best Old Testament book to consider would be Lamentations. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The elected leader of the nation is barely in touch with reality. We’re fairly vulnerable to enemy attack of the more traditional sort. That we have a loon like RFK Jr destroying our healthcare system will lead to pestilence and plague starting with measles outbreaks that make the Samoan epidemic in 2019 that he helped cause look like a test run.
Throwing around “God has a plan” like that is a way to be cruel and try to assuage your conscience. We have free will. If you see suffering and can help then you should help. If you can’t help let others know so they might help. We’re not automatons devoid of agency.
I am stuck in a rat’s nest of politicians spewing these sorts of things here in Ohio. There has to be a way forward somewhere.
Bottom line: They have to fear what their constituents may do to them more than they fear their Big Daddy Dictator. And since many of their constituents aren't stochastic terrorists, we seem destined to lose that war.
Here's a theory why Republicans in congress have been acting more like legislators in Russia or China.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/republicans-trump-threats
It sounds about right. If it's correct, they're not acting to keep their jobs, but the question is just whether we have anything resembling free and fair elections next year, if we even get that far.
I don't personally care. It is their JOB to defend the Constitution. That is what they SWORE to do when they took office. If you didn't want to get to the place where Big Daddy Dictator started threatening to kill your family, maybe you shouldn't have gotten in bed with that dude in the first place.
Yeah. I'm just saying what congress isn't doing is a (non) response that will accelerate the unpopularity of Republicans. Whether and how that matters are different questions.
Good morning, Andra. I was wondering about the connections between Russia and Christian Nationalism. I mean, I can guess. However, I was wondering if you had any writings on this that I missed.
Putin uses a form of Russian Orthodox Christianity as part of his authoritarian nationalism. But the framers of Project 2025 (the Heritage Foundation) worked directly with Hungary's Viktor Orbán and followed the steps he used to turn Hungary into a theocratic autocracy. (It's charitable to call it an illiberal democracy.) Since Orbán is a fan of Putin, it wouldn't surprise me to find out Russia helped him author his Hungarian playbook.
Thanks. Those were my thoughts. I finally got Greg Olear's book 'Dirty Rubbles' today. Chattel Project 2025 is Viktor Orban's policies without a doubt. I've read it. They're 30% complete, in 30 days. Agent Orange is destabilizing the country so he can claim patrimonialism.
Alford has a direct line to god? He must, otherwise how would he know there’s a plan? It would be kind of him to tell each constituent what the plan is, so they can prepare. Gitmo? Losing their house? Some dread disease courtesy of HHS? 🙄🙄🙄
He would tell his constituents to talk to God themselves and do whatever God leads them to do. Whereupon he will feel absolutely justified to disagree with anything that God leads them to do that violates his interpretation of the Bible, and thus blame them for their continued lack of VICTORY. It is always a circular shell game with these assholes.
Yep, it’s all just a lot of hooey
The adoration of a ragey, vengeful God is in line with the code of masculinity embraced by MAGA in general and Christian Nationalism in particular. Jill Filipovic recently wrote in "The Atlantic" that this brand of masculinity (endorsed also by Christian Nationalist women) is really a teenage view of how men (and by extension God) should behave--the badass Daddy God will whip one's enemies into shape in a virtuoso display of hyper-masculinity. People who buy into this version of the Deity represent an arrested stage of emotional development. They seem quite comfortable to be teens forever. It's hard, adult mental work to love one's enemies and easier to call on ragey God (a wonderful epithet!) to get on with the smiting.
I shouldn't be surprised that well before I knew I had been indoctrinated in a cult or understood the ravages of emotional and mental abuse, I used to look at these dynamics and say, "What grade are we in?"
Because it felt like I was perpetually trapped in junior high school. Dealing with all the UBER MASSIVE SHIT that happens to everyone then. Only so many people in my orbit never outgrew it. So I was left with, "Wow. What grade are we in?" Which almost nobody got when I said it.