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Tag: 2024 Presidential Election

Why Can’t Evangelicals Speak the Truth About Donald Trump?

Bruce Gerencser 28 Comments
trump the liar

While there are certainly Evangelicals who publicly speak out against Donald Trump, they are black swans in a bevy of white ones. They exist, but largely have no meaningful voice within Evangelicalism. In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, over 80 percent of voting white Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. And come November, I have no doubt that most of these “godly” followers of Jesus will vote for him again. What has happened to Evangelicals that they can no longer see things from a Biblical or moral perspective? How is it that Evangelical churches have become the “ministry of truth” for Trump and his fellow MAGA Republicans? What happened to Evangelical commitments to holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord?

Remember the President Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal? Remember Clinton’s lies? At the time, I was the pastor of Somerset Baptist Church — an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation in the Appalachian foothills of southeast Ohio. The Sunday following news reports of Clinton’s immoral, adulterous behavior, I took to the pulpit and lambasted him, pointing out that he claimed to be a Christian, yet he seduced a young college intern and had sex with her. I know of other Evangelical preachers who did the same. It seemed clear to me at the time that our political leaders, including President Clinton, must be held to high moral and ethical standards. If churches and pastors were to be clarions of morality and virtue, then politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — must be held accountable for immoral and unethical behavior. While my view has moderated a bit over the ensuing years, I still believe that people who work for and serve the public, be they politicians, preachers, lawyers, policemen, doctors, or school teachers, must be held to high standards. Using your power and authority to seduce and take sexual advantage of vulnerable women (and men) is morally wrong, and people who engage in such behavior, including presidents and congresspeople, should lose their jobs.

My how things have changed. Trump, who claims to be a Christian — James Dobson called him a “baby Christian” — is immune from criticism and accountability for his immoral, unethical, and sinful behaviors; sins so heinous that the Bible says that people who commit such sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Charisma News is, by far, the biggest defender of all things Trump. There is no crime or sin so bad that Charisma can’t find a writer to defend, justify, or deflect Trump’s wickedness. Take Oscar Amaechina, the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network and a frequent author for Charisma. With Trump’s orgiastic juices dripping from the corner of his lips after giving his small-dicked hero metaphorical head, Amaechina has nothing but praise for Donald J. Trump — a man well known for his sexual and financial crimes; a man who lies so often that it is impossible for him to tell the truth.

Recently, Amaechina had this to say about twice impeached ex-president Trump:

Now, it is clear to everyone that Donald Trump has many moral failures.  Some have described him as a racist, others a corrupt leader, and some say he is a liar. But If he wins the primary of his party, between him and Biden, who do you think will create an environment for Christianity to thrive? Or do we pretend that our faith does not matter when politics are concern? Sincere answers to these questions will guide your decisions come November.

I know that Trump has his weaknesses, but he did something that endeared him to us in Nigeria. On September 8, 2020, our then-president Muhammadu Buhari said: “I believe I was about the only African amongst the least developed countries that Trump invited and when I was in his office, only myself and himself, only God is a witness, he looked at me in the face and said, ‘Why are you killing Christians?’”

It takes a man who believes in the sanctity of life and love for humanity to ask such delicate and sensitive questions. I must confess that I was touched by this question which indicated that someone cares about the survival of the Nigerian Christians. Now that no one is asking this question, we have seen how Nigerian Christians are slaughtered on a daily basis recklessly.

This is not the time to be politically correct, nor the time for interdenominational criticisms. The evangelicals should also know that this is not the time to discriminate or claim that they can do it all alone. This is the time to bring everyone who calls on the name of Christ together. All should pray and work hard so that all will be free to practice their faith when religious freedom is restored first in America and then all around the world, including in my own country of Nigeria.

When one of you says, “’I am a follower of Paul,’ and another says, ‘I follow Apollos,’ aren’t you acting just like people of the world?” (1 Corinthians 3:4) A house divided against itself shall not stand (Mark 3:25). I am not oblivious to the fact that Trump and Biden claim to be Christians, but it is not about their claims that should matter to American Christians, but their dispositions.

Who between the two will favor the course of the Christian faith? Let all American people of faith vote to have freedom to serve their God without intimidation or harassment.

Amaechina admits that it is clear that Trump has many moral failures, yet he ignores them because all that matters is what Trump will deliver for Christians politically. Amaechina adds “Some have described him as a racist, others a corrupt leader, and some say he is a liar.” What I want to know is this: does Amaechina think Trump is a racist, corrupt leader, and a liar? The evidence is clear, Trump is all three. He is also a pussy-grabbing rapist and pervert, a man with licentious sexual appetites. We know just by listening to the man that he cannot tell the truth, even when there is no need to lie. We know he is in bed with dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Viktor Orban. We know he is a narcissist, a psychopath, a man without empathy or sympathy for other people. We know he wants to be a dictator, using the U.S. Justice Department and the military to punish his enemies, including the press. We know he wants to deport or incarcerate millions of people of color. We know he wants to lock up socialists, atheists, Muslims, and other undesirables in internment camps so they can be re-educated in proper American thinking. We know Trump is a racist and a misogynist. And Amaechina KNOWS all these things too, yet instead of speaking truth to power and condemning his vile, violent behavior, he justifies and condones Trump’s debauchery. Why? Well, Trump is nice to Evangelicals and delivers gifts from their wishlists on Christmas, Easter, and their birthdays. Amaechina and his fellow Evangelicals have sold their souls for bowls of pottage, trading moral authority for naked political power. In doing so, they have ceased to be Christian.

Amaechina says, with a straight face, that Trump is “a man who believes in the sanctity of life and love for humanity.” The only “humanity” Trump loves is the man who stares back at him when he looks at a mirror. As far as the “sanctity of life” is concerned, Trump is not pro-life. He sees Evangelicals and their commitment to forcing women to have babies as tools he can use to advance his political cause. Without the Evangelical vote, Trump cannot win the 2024 presidential election. He is willing to tell Evangelicals what they want to hear; that he alone is the pro-life president; that he alone overturned Roe v. Wade; that he alone is the defender of the one truth faith; that he alone will restore religious (white Christian) liberty and freedom. Never mind the fact that Trump rarely, if ever reads the Bible, never attends church, doesn’t pray or ask God to forgive him of his sins, and shows no signs that he knows one thing about what Christians believe and practice.

Amaechina concludes his sticky defense of Trump by saying, “I am not oblivious to the fact that Trump and Biden claim to be Christians, but it is not about their claims that should matter to American Christians, but their dispositions.”

There is no question that Joe and Jill Biden are practicing Roman Catholics. There is also no question that Trump is not, in any meaningful sense of the word, a Christian. It shouldn’t take an atheist to point out that Trump is an egotistical maniac; a man who has no regard for Christianity, Jesus, or the Bible; and that Evangelicals are nothing more than a political prop to him; a means to an end. Amaechina wants his fellow Evangelicals to ignore both Trump’s and Biden’s claims of faith. Instead, he wants people to focus on their “dispositions.” That’s a good idea, and if Evangelicals follow his advice, there’s no doubt that they will vote for Joe Biden in November. Of course, that ain’t going to happen. All that matters to Evangelicals is what Santa Trump can deliver to them. Now that Evangelical churches are overrun by white Christian Nationalist pastors and congregants, all that matters to them is turning the United States into a Christian nation. All that matters is enacting and enforcing the Evangelical version of Sharia Law. All that matters is returning America to the glory days of the 1950s. You know the days when Christianity was the de facto religion of most Americans, women were barefoot, pregnant keepers of the home, Blacks knew their place and lived in segregated communities, LGBTQ people were buried deeply in dark, dank closets, children read the Bible and prayed in public schools, and abortion, birth control, divorce, miscegenation, shacking up, adultery, and homosexuality were illegal. In other words, most Evangelicals want to roll back over a hundred years of social progress, going back to when stupid, silly women were given the constitutional right to vote.

A Trump win in November will be the end of American democracy, as we know it. We must not let this happen. I am no fan of Joe Biden, but I recognize that Trump is an existential threat to me, my family, and the American people, so I plan to vote for Biden. I will hold my nose and stifle the urge to vomit, knowing that Biden is the only man who can save our Republic from the white Christian National horde.

CPAC: The Home of Christian Nationalists, Racists, Bigots, and Donald Trump

Bruce Gerencser 2 Comments
trump idol worship

By Abby Zimet, Used with Permission From Common Dreams

CPAC is back! Weirder, shriller, fringier, more paranoid than ever, with many empty seats but God allegedly still on the side of the cranks and zealots. Cue vapid, vicious, fear-mongering goons who, now saying the ugly part aloud, bray about evil trans people, stampeding “aliens,” looming communists and pet-marrying while heralding Christian nationalism, “cool” dictators, the “Bible Uncancelled” and the glad “end of democracy.” A republic if you can keep it: Welcome to today’s forsaken, brutish GOP. 

Of course CPAC 2024, in all its shabby lunacy, reflects the increasingly rabid party – Free J6! – from which it sprang. Once a marquee conservative event that drew top GOP lawmakers and presidential contenders, it’s become an “emptier, jankier, lower-rent” affair by a party lunging ever further into the wingnut galaxy, its hapless denizens endlessly spouting stupid, awful things. Klan Mom MTG: Judge Arthur Engeron should be “disrobed” for undervaluing Mar-A-Hellhole. Trump lackey: His overlord’s “Never Surrender High-Tops” will get him black votes because “Black America loves sneakers, especially in the inner city.” DeSantis: Their V.P. should be a white man because “we don’t want people representing 10 or 15% of the party to be in the driver’s seat.” Tommy Tuberville: “These socialists and Marxists (want) to control our children” like Hillary’s “it takes a village” because “she doesn’t like your home (and) she wants to indoctrinate your children”; also, the government “has become the father, they hate Christianity, they are going to come after you.” 

The creepy avatar for this assemblage of “craven rodeo clowns” is House Speaker Mike Johnson, a smarmy, doe-eyed,  coup-plotting, Christian fundamentalist who’s spent his career working for hate groups, arguing deviant” homosexuals will destroy democracy, same-sex marriage is like people marrying their pets, and abortion is the killing of both “unborn children” and potential “able-bodied workers in the economy.” Boasting the Bible is “my worldview,” he took his then-13-year-old daughter to a Purity Ball where she pledged to him and God her “purity of mind, body and soul,” he promotes a “Covenant Eyes” app that allows him and his 17-year-old son/ “accountability partner” to monitor each other’s porn habits – clean slates all around! – and before he became Speaker God began waking him at night to prepare him to serve as Moses leading the nation through a “Red Sea moment…The Lord impressed upon my heart something was going to occur.” And it was: The House was in such chaos they chose a backbench demagogue who thought governance meant saving America from heathens.

Evidently, it doesn’t. Teetering with a bare majority and boisterous hard-right clique, having lost another special election, seen its fake Biden impeachment implode and failed to address not just a looming shutdown but in fact anything at all, the bumbling House threw a dim-witted Hail Mary and decided to impeach Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas – a move widely derided as “ridiculous” – for failing to fix the border after they sabotaged a bi-partisan bill to fix the border. Then they holed up at a Miami resort to lick their wounds at a leadership retreat where, rather than giving them leadership, Johnson gave them a sermon complete with Biblical references about America’s ungodly moral decline, which made lawmakers worried about keeping their jobs grumble they were “not at church” and what the hell? Meanwhile, with the GOP’s SCOTUS-facilitated war on women, IVF, and even “recreational sex” in full swing, Johnson fudges on his past (and future?) efforts to go after contraception – “I really don’t remember any of those measures” – and lurches ahead crafting the patriarchal theocracy of his dreams.

In that he’s in step with The Big Orange Guy, who says once in power he’ll create a task force to fight imaginary “anti-Christian bias” by “Marxists and fascists” (FYI not the same); he’s also plotting with a right-wing think tank whose mission is to re-define America as “a nation under God,” with a mandate declaring, “Freedom is defined by God, not man.” In pursuit of Gilead – and because last month his PAC raised $8,508 as he spent $3.9 million, mostly on lawyers – he just spoke to a gathering of evangelical broadcasters while hawking gold IRAs “to protect your retirement from D.C.’s policies” and Ivermectin: “Make Care Great Again.” He decried Dems murdering babies, “taking away knocker fields from children” and creating “dirty roads, crime, graffiti, swastickers.” He also boasted “everybody on both sides” agrees Roe had to go, he’s beating Haley by 91 points, “Israel is the capital of Israel,” and “you’re going to say as you want (and) believe in God” through “the love of Christ and the voices of famed…evangell…lllical….people and…eee-vangelis.” Ok, so he can’t say evangelical, but sure he’s your guy.

Big Awful Guy’s implausible fervor was dutifully, garishly replicated atCPAC, held at the fantastically named Gaylord Convention Center outside D.C., where his and God’s faithful touted “the greatest nation in all the world,” except for, you know, the swastickers. Amidst red, white and blue everything and pounding bad music, the meager crowd drifted through a half-empty exhibit hall offering a Jan. 6-themed pinball game, a vibrating board to stand on to magically lose weight, an 18th-century-style booth likening Biden to King George lll, and a mountain of tawdry MAGA merch: “Woke Tears” water – “identifies as transparent” – rhinestone hats blaring “I Love Jesus” and “Fuck Biden,” Trump shirts, hammocks, bobbleheads, sparkly gun-shaped purses. Sponsors were fewer and tackier: Moms For America, many groups with the word “liberty,” Newsmax with ads shouting “you don’t need those woke streaming services,” and now they’re letting their fascist flag fly proudly, the previously banished John Birch Society. Streaming was by the insurrectionist-favored Rumble; links often didn’t work, but went to a donation page.

Attendance was much sparser than previously, down from around 13,000 to the hundreds; when photos emerged of speakers facing a sea of empty seats, a right-wing site wailed, “What an embarrassment.” Country singer Natasha Owens sang the national anthem in a huge black dress declaring“2nd Amendment Protects the First,” and a banner trumpeted the new theme, tweaked from the unfortunately DeSantis-themed “woke” shtick: “Where Globalism (WHO and the UN) Goes To Die.” Speakers were mostly not totalitarian BA-listers: The mayor of Riverton, Utah, an Oklahoma rep, the head of CPAC Australia, Peter Navarro who’s headed to jail, a “businessman” who like everyone railed against transgender health care: “Woke doctors should be in prison.” But there were several big shots: Stephen ‘Goebbels’ Miller, Mike ‘Pillow’ Lindell, Disgrace to All Brain Surgeons Ben Carson, the new authoritarian presidents of Argentina and El Salvador, and a ragged array of VP hopefuls – Noem, Vance, Scott, Stefanik, Gabbard, Ramaswamy – all of whom, in a relative universe, Big Guy has called “good” and “solid.”

Welcome speeches were by CPAC’s devout Queen and molesting King, Mercedes and Matt Schlapp. Greeted with limp applause – “Lemme hear you! Wake up!” – Mercedes declaimed, “Be not afraid!” before telling her 17 listeners, “We’re gonna take this country back (from the) leftist propaganda machine.” “You are instruments,” she said. “God has put you here at this time to do this great work that needs to be done…Communism pushes the culture of death, we push the culture of life. You are assembled here in front of God to be the front line in this battle.” Facing multi-million-dollar sexual assault – and now document-shredding – charges by several young men, Matt announced, “This is our time, this is our moment.” Pledging his support for the “unique American who is being persecuted, who is being tortured” by communist “lawfare,” he turned to his sorcerer in the sky: “Lord God, you said that if we trust in you we will mount up with wings like eagles. Well, God, we’re ready to soar.” Like many, Tik Toker Incrediberry is dubious in a country where, in an election between Jesus and Satan with an “R” by his name, “Jesus would lose in a landslide.”

Still, they gathered for workshops titled The Bible Uncancelled, No Woke Warriors, God’s Children Are Not For Sale, Bidenomics: Bad For America’s Health, Would Moses Go to Harvard?, Putting Our Heads in the Gas Stove, Ramaswamy Unplugged, Going Full Hungarian: Stopping Georgey (sic) Soros, From Gaza to Greenwich Village: A Guide to Fighting Contemporary Jew-Hatred, and What You Talkin’ Bout Fani Willis,presented by esteemed legal scholar and Black linguist Jim Jordan. He was also among a host of out-Trumping-Trump speakers – paranoid losers, zealots, liars, a “who’s who of who won’t accept the results of the election” with wildly unintelligible notions and short attention spans – to offer 20-minute rants about an amorphous, all-powerful “left” who control damn near everything, which is why they can’t have nice things. “The left controls big media, big tech, big corporations, big sports, academia, Hollywood, the Senate and White House,” he whined, before bravely adding, “But the left doesn’t control we the people.” 

But we the people, it turns out, often make little sense. Lara Trump said Dems think “you can change your gender like you change your shoes, and that at night she and the other son lead their kids in saying their prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance. Elise Stefanik said Ivy League campuses are “dens of anti-Semitism” where “radical leftist rot (is) destroying the minds of the next generation.” The Daily Wire‘s Michael Knowles, quoting Humpty Dumpty – “the question is which is to be master?” – said trans people reveal the decline of religion and marriage, which is “nothing other than a sign of God’s love.” “Liberals think they’re God, but they can’t really turn a couple of men, or a couple of women, or three men and a billy goat for that matter into a marriage.” Former Trump something Monica Crowley warned patriots to beware an upcoming “CATFIGHT: Michelle v. Kamala” – it was a workshop – because “Democrats (are) communists, and communists always have a plan…The left has a host group of power brokers working with the deep state, which is real.” 

Kristi Noem said right now “there are people who love America and there are those who hate America” and “Joe Biden is destroying America.” Stephen Miller said Trump’s legal cases “are proof big broad laws will be used to crush us.” Kurt Schlichter said “Joe Biden is the capo of a criminal organization.” The U.K.’s Liz Truss said “we need a bigger bazooka against the deep state” after Joe Biden helped destroy her 7-week reign; nobody knew who she was, but one guy thought her speech was “on the same parallel” as U.S. politics. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, “the world’s coolest dictator,” who’s detained 80,000 people in his.war on gangs, said he welcomes the fight against “dark forces” in America. And conspiracist Jack Posobiec said when liberals “say democracy, they mean authoritarianism.” “Welcome to the end of democracy! We’re here to overthrow it completely,” he crowed. “We didn’t get all the way there on Jan. 6, but we’ll endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here.” Going full clerical fascist, he clutched a cross. “Because all glory is not to government. All glory to God.” 

Meanwhile, Orange Jesus keeps jabbering. On Friday, he told a Black Conservative Gala his criming makes him just like them: “I got indicted and a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me.” At CPAC on Saturday, after a tinny national anthem by Jan. 6 rioters on a prison phone, he launched into a garbled, bilious, endless tirade, spewing apocalyptic visions of a fever-dream country and “Judgment Day” that will be “my ultimate and absolute revenge.” He said “millions of illegal aliens (are) stampeding across our border” from insane asylums like Hannibal Lecter and “they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of – it’s a very horrible thing.” He said “ruthless gangs will explode (into) the suburbs” and while “weaponized law enforcement hunts for conservatives and people of faith, Hamas and Antifa will terrorize our streets (with) their brutal iDEEEo-ology.” He said he’s “a proud political dissident,” Biden is “surrounded by some very bad fascists,” he flew into Iraq with “the best-looking human beings I’ve ever seen” and maybe a guy named “Raisin Cane,” and “they’ll say ‘he rambled'” but “it’s total genius.” Sweet Jesus. Be afraid.

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Bruce’s Hot Takes for February 11, 2024

Bruce Gerencser 13 Comments
hot takes

The Forty-Niners will beat the Chiefs by three in the Super Bowl. Right-wingers will go nuts over Taylor Swift, and the halftime show will suck.

We need term limits based on age. Neither Biden nor Trump should be running for president. Both show signs of mental decline. I support an age seventy cutoff.

Biden isn’t the first president to be managed by his spouse, cabinet members, or trusted advisors. Ronald Reagan, by Nancy, and George W. Bush, by Dick Cheney/Donald Rumsfeld, come to mind.

Biden’s unwillingness to speak out against Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians may cost him the election in November. I suspect Biden is more worried about losing more Jewish votes than Arab votes. What should matter is the violence and bloodshed. That it doesn’t says a lot about the American people and their political leaders.

Evangelicalism is in an uproar over whether Christians should attend a same-sex/transgender wedding, revealing the hateful bigotry that lies underneath the surface in many churches. Jesus said, “It’s just a fucking wedding.” Alistair Begg said Christians should attend LGBTQ weddings. He was promptly deplatformed by John MacArthur and other notable Evangelical leaders.

Our NATO allies should pay their fair share of mutual defense costs — a minimum of two percent. The question is what do we do when they don’t? Let Russia attack them, as the orange Cheeto said?

If Texas wants to protect their border so bad, Biden should let them, removing all border patrol agents and federal national guard soldiers from the border.

I’m re-reading James Michener’s book, Chesapeake. I last read it forty-four years ago. I’m a Michener fan, but his books tend to voluminous. It will take me several weeks to read the book.,

Catchers and pitchers for the Cincinnati Reds begin spring training this week. I’m so ready for baseball. I predict the Reds will win the Central Division. Hope springs eternal. 🤣

Warning about using your cellphone number for two factor authentication. Change your phone number and you are screwed — as I’m learning firsthand.

Bonus: Corporations continue to make gaudy profits by gouging the American public — raising prices just because they can, regardless of whether costs have increased. Thieves, the lot of them. This is the primary reason most Americans think the economy is in bad shape. All they see is rising prices.

If Joe Biden Loses the 2024 Presidential Election, This Will Be One of The Reasons Why

Bruce Gerencser 11 Comments
genocide joe biden

Israel continues its genocidal slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli armed forces and bombs have killed over 25, 000 Palestinians — most of whom are civilians. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Andrew Blinken, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continue to pretend that Israel’s murderous actions are justified; that Israel is just defending itself.

Now it seems that President Biden and his fellow warmongers want to expand the conflict in the Middle East to Yemen and the Houthis — both of whom are proxies for Iran. It would not surprise me to wake up one day and find out that the United States has dropped bombs not only on the Houthis, but Iran itself. This, of course, would spark a regional war that could result in thousands of casualties and horrific property and infrastructure destruction. Successive administrations had a hard-on for Iran, going back to the days when George H.W. Bush illegally invaded Iraq and Kuwait in the Gulf War. Biden’s approach to the Middle East is not that much different from that of the presidents who preceded him. Unwilling to stand up to Israel and its American supporters, Biden refuses to call out Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people. From illegal settlements, apartheid practices, and violence against innocent civilians, Biden says not a word, thinking that doing so is in his political best interest. What Biden will learn on election day is that he grossly underestimated American anger towards his callous, indifferent response to the plight of the Palestinian people. These angry Americans, many of whom are younger adults, vote. Biden’s actions have also outraged Arab-Americans, leading some Arab leaders to suggest that Biden risks losing their votes if he doesn’t change course.

Over the weekend, Representative Nancy Pelosi only made matters worse by saying that pro-Palestinian demonstrators were working on behalf of Russia’s president, Vladamir Putin, and called for some of them to be “investigated” by the FBI:

For them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin’s message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It’s about Putin’s message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia.

When asked if she believed the protesters were “Russian plants,” Pelosi replied:

Seeds or plants. I think some financing should be investigated. And I want to ask the F.B.I. to investigate that.

After being called out for her anti-American, anti-First Amendment sentiments, Pelosi, in classic Capitol Hill fashion tried to cover her ass by releasing the following statement:

Speaker Pelosi has always supported and defended the right of all Americans to make their views known through peaceful protest. Speaker Pelosi is acutely aware of how foreign adversaries meddle in American politics to sow division and impact our elections, and she wants to see further investigation ahead of the 2024 election.

I hate to tell the former speaker of the House, but her bare ass is still showing. Suggesting that protesters of any stripe should be investigated by the FBI is reminiscent of the days of Edgar Hoover and Donald Trump’s presidency from 2016-2020; days when law enforcement and the power of the state were used to stifle dissent and protest.

Nihad Awad, The Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director, condemned Rep. Pelosi’s statement:

Her comments once again show the negative impact of decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by those supporting Israeli apartheid. Instead of baselessly smearing those Americans as Russian collaborators, former House Speaker Pelosi and other political leaders should respect the will of the American people by calling for an end to the Netanyahu government’s genocidal war on the people of Gaza.

While losing the Arab vote — less than one percent of Americans are Arab — alone won’t cost Biden the election, added to an increasing number of disaffected younger Americans, it could tip the election in favor of the Republican Party. Biden has time to course correct, but I have no confidence that he will do so, or if he does, it will be too little too late, much like Hillary Clinton did in the 2016 presidential election.

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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I Refuse to Play the “Both Sides Do It” Game

Bruce Gerencser 16 Comments
trump and satan

Every time I write a political post that is critical of disgraced ex-president Donald Trump or the present iteration of the Republican Party one or more commenters will object, saying “both sides do it,” or they will attempt to distract by trying to play “whataboutism.” The goal is to ignore/dismiss what I have said or paint me as some sort of hypocrite. Anything except interacting with what I actually wrote.

I make no apologies for the fact that I am a liberal, socialist, and pacifist. I don’t often write about my political beliefs, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have strong opinions and beliefs about all sorts of political, social, and religious beliefs. I am aware of the fact that when I write about politics, it often causes controversies. I have lost numerous readers over this or that political issue. Some people love my atheism, but hate my politics.

Yesterday, I wrote Letter to the Editor: Do Republicans Really Believe in Freedom and Liberty? Here’s what I had to say:

If rural Ohio Republicans were surveyed and asked if they believed in freedom and liberty for everyone, to the person they would say YES! However, words are cheap, and when we take a close look at Republican behavior and practices, we learn that they only believe in freedom and liberty for some people.

Most rural Ohioans voted for and currently support Donald Trump. They overwhelmingly voted for the disgraced ex-president in 2016 and 2020, and plan to do so again in 2024. Does Trump believe in freedom and liberty for everyone? Of course not. He routinely threatens people like me, calls for my arrest, and says that I should expelled from the country of my birth. Why? I have political and religious beliefs different from Trump and his MAGA followers. Evidently, freedom and liberty only apply to people who agree with Trump and the rhetoric of white Evangelical Christians. Everyone else is an enemy of God and state.

When local Republicans talk glowingly about their commitment to freedom and liberty, I don’t believe them. These same people are working diligently to undo the express will of the people as they try to neuter recently passed initiatives that legalize abortion and recreational cannabis. If Republicans truly believe in freedom and liberty, then they would accept the will of the people. Instead, both at state and local levels, Republicans are intent on forcing their moral beliefs on others.

Republicans want public school students to have freedom to attend release time programs such as Lifewise Academy — an Evangelical organization — yet when The Satanic Temple wants to sponsor a release time program, all of a sudden freedom only applies to Evangelical Christians. Everywhere we look, we see right-wing Republicans prosecuting the latest iteration of the culture war. For all their talk about freedom and liberty, Republicans deny that same right for everyone. Not for LGBTQ people, nor socialists, atheists, or humanists. Not for women seeking abortion care, nor people with moral beliefs different from the Christian majority.

I am in the minority when it comes to my political and religious beliefs. Even local Democrats distance themselves from me because I am a Democratic socialist, too liberal, or a godless heathen. That’s the price I pay for living in rural Ohio. That said, I demand and expect the same freedom and liberty as my Republican neighbors.

After reading my letter, several people commented and sent me messages that said there is “no difference between Republicans and Democrats.” Others played the “whataboutism” game, suggesting that Biden and the Democrats have done things just as bad as indicted Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans. Really? Do otherwise thoughtful, rational people really believe there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans; that President Biden is just a bad Donald Trump?

Donald Trump is a fascist and authoritarian. In 2020, he tried to overthrow the government and remain in power. He is currently facing numerous criminal charges in three jurisdictions. If re-elected in 2024, Trump has made it clear that he intends to upend the federal government and the rule of law. Invoking the Insurrection Act, Trump intends to use the military to advance his domestic cause, which includes rounding up and incarcerating people such as myself. One need only look at Project 2025 to find out Trump’s intentions. Does anyone seriously believe there is no difference between Trump and Biden; that Trump is not a direct threat to the future and health of our Republic?

The Republican Party has, for the most part, been taken over by Donald Trump and MAGA zealots. Centrist Republicans have either given up or left the party altogether. Trump IS the Republican Party. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with a Party that is racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ? Are you okay with a Party that doesn’t give a shit about immigrants, pregnant women, children, or the poor? Shall I go on? Explain to me how one can be a Republican and a humanist. The Republican platform is antithetical to the humanist ideal.

That is not to say that the Democratic Party is without its own problems. That’s why I am no longer a Democrat, I may vote Democratic, but I am not a Democrat. I am not a supporter of Joe Biden, but when forced to choose between the most unfit man to ever be president and Joe Biden, I am going to choose Biden every time. I am a pragmatist, not an idealist, when it comes to politics. If other Democratic presidential candidates show themselves to be viable candidates, then it is likely I will vote for one of them. Biden wasn’t my first, second, or third choice in 2020 (and neither was Clinton in 2016), and he is most certainly not my choice today. However, we have a two-party system, so that means I will likely have to vote for Biden in 2024. The United States can survive another Biden presidency (provided he doesn’t drag us into a world war). It cannot survive another Trump presidency.

The same goes for Republicans at the state level. MAGA zealots have taken over virtually every state Republican party. Here in Ohio, a supermajority of Republicans rule the roost without any regard for the will of the people. Last month, Ohio voters overwhelmingly voted to legalize abortion and recreational marijuana use. Did Republicans respect the will of the people? Of course not. They are doing everything they can to neuter the abortion amendment and recreational marijuana initiative. These Republicans are Christian nationalists and fascists who are hell-bent on shaping Ohio according to the teachings of the Bible.

So, enough of this idea that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans and between Biden and Trump. Instead of playing the “whataboutism” game, how about actually justifying the policies of Trump and the MAGA-controlled Republican Party? How about justifying why ANYONE would vote for Donald Trump (or Ron DeSantis)? I don’t see it. Hate Joe Biden? Fine, don’t vote for him. However, if you care about the future of our country, for the love of Loki, please don’t vote for Trump. He is not the lesser of two evils, he is evil, period.

Vivek Ramaswamy Disingenuous About His Religion

Bruce Gerencser 14 Comments
Vivek God is Real

Guest Post by Troy

If you’ve seen parts of the first Republican Presidential debate, you likely noticed the brash young neophyte (and obnoxious) Vivek Ramaswamy. Not only is he a practicing Hindu, he’s also the highest caste in the Hindu religious system. So I found it interesting when he makes a list of “truths” (many of which are not or are nuanced to the point of not being a “truth”), the first being “God is real.” This does have a strategic value to him. He can stave off questions about his, let’s face it, alien religion and does so because his audience isn’t thinking about sacred cows and the non-person Hindu god Brahman. By doing this he can cauterize the political wound his religion will no doubt have on the evangelical base of the GOP. Americans are so unacquainted with Hinduism that at least for now he’ll likely get a free ride on his religion. There is no religious test to be President, but since he seems to be wearing his religion on his political sleeve, I think it is fair game. Ramaswamy also gets a free ride on the caste system which no doubt has been part of his success. While he is asked questions about American racism based on skin color, the media aren’t even primed to ask about the Hindu caste system that is based on societal traditions. I suppose one question that one might ask is this: Will American evangelicals tolerate a polytheistic Hindu so long as he kisses Trump’s keester? After all, Trump is not and never will be an evangelical. In addition, can Ramaswamy “hide” his Hinduism in plain site by proclaiming “God is Real dammit!”? For those of us who’d like to see less church in our state, I’m sorry to say Ramaswamy would be as bad as Trump or Pence. The best way to hide this deficit is to overcompensate–he will overtly and loudly be a cheerleader for evangelical church-state entanglements. Hopefully, it doesn’t get that far, but I’ll be interested to watch and we need to make sure the media is asking the right questions to take Ramaswamy to task.

Video Link

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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There is No Hope for MAGA World

Bruce Gerencser 12 Comments
maga world
Cartoon by Pat Bagley

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away . . . And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. (2 Thessalonians 2:3,11)

Millions and millions of MAGA Republicans have come under a strong delusion, believing that the twice impeached ex-president Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election. Many residents of MAGA (Make America Great Again) World think Trump is actually still the president; that he is actually controlling the military.

Recently, Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper went to a “Trump Rally, Not a Rally” to interview Trump’s most avid supporters. Listen, laugh, and weep.

Video Link

We are at a dangerous point in American history. Millions and millions and millions of Americans believe things that are not true. From Trumpism to QAnon to Creationism, large swaths of our country have bought into lies. And don’t think for a moment that if Trump isn’t the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, we are out of the proverbial woods. Candidates such as Ron Desanctimonous DeSantis, Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley are hardly any better. If anything, these candidates are even more dangerous. They don’t have the temperamental problems that Trump does, yet they are every bit as racist and bigoted as the ex-president. One need only watch what is going on in Washington D.C. with Republicans to see Christian nationalism and white supremacy on full display. My God, congressmen are espousing racist, bigoted, homophobic beliefs and conspiracy theories right on the floor of the House of Representatives. It is hard, at least for me, to see a better tomorrow in the short term. I fear our Republic is hanging by a fraying thread.

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Connect with me on social media:

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Bruce Gerencser