TGHusker

I like listening/watching Lawrence O'Donnell. Smart guy.

@BigRedBuster posted this tweet on a different thread and I want to make this a topic of its own because I have great concerns about our country but more importantly, I have greater concerns about the direction that American Christianity is heading. While the topic is centered around Christian faith in America, since it is the majority, the big picture is to discuss the role of any faith in the public marketplace of ideas. First let me detail my perspective- forgive me ahead of time for getting into the weeds to document the depth of my concern. 1. True Personal Christian faith - is alive and well in the USA and across the world. The Christian faith is growing in many nations so much so, some of those nations are sending missionaries to the USA!. 2. This isn't an apologetic discuss - defending the faith. I have no concerns about the need to defend the true Gospel of Jesus Christ - Christ died, Rose again, and is forever making intercession for ALL people and I've come to believe that ALL people past and present, regardless of time and place or background will eventually come to faith in God through Jesus - either in this life or the next. (Yes that is a controversial statement - just do an unbiased study on all of the 'all inclusive' scriptures in the New Testament as well as early church history and take a deep dive into what the early church- prior to Augustine believed about judgment and hell. This was a belief held by the church for the first 3 centuries up to Augustine and the 'Roman Conquest of the Church". A few more recent books if you are interested: Her Gates will Never Shut by Brad Jersak, The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbot, The Triumph of Mercy by George Hurd, That all Shall be Saved by David Bentley Hart. ) BUT I DIGRESS, AGAIN (ADHD!!) 3. I've come full circle personally. Years ago, I was all in on the idea of the 7 Mountains - that Christians were to 'take over' the primary influence centers of Govt, Education, Business, Media, Religion, Family, Entertainment. Now, I think this is 'another gospel' that Paul warned against in the New Testament. 4. I believe the 7 Mountain 'theology' is the catalyst behind the current Christian Nationalism and the fuel behind Trumpism. Trump would be nothing without this support. 5. While I believe in separation of church and state: The separation was to ensure that there would not be a state-run church or that the state could dominate church life. Both the govt and the church are to have a positive, restorative, and order building/maintaining effect on society. Separate but both doing what the other cannot do on its own to build society. 6. We have seen many members of church caught in the Trump personality cult. This has become a false gospel. This isn't the church's mission. No where do you find in the Bible that the church is to take over 'Rome" but instead we are called to serve. To follow Christ in: Because He has anointed Me To (1)preach the gospel to the poor; (2)He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, (3) To proclaim liberty to the captives (4) And recovery of sight to the blind, (5)To set at liberty those who are oppressed; (6)To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD Luke 4:18. This is the mission of the church- period. 7. With all of that said, I believe people of all faiths have a roll to play in the public market place of ideas. We aren't exulted but it isn't to be our primary focus. 8. When we are active in the public marketplace of ideas it is to promote mercy and justice (Micah 6:8 "He has showed thee O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God") 9. Recent history has shown that when we lose sight of the mission of the church, all 'hell' breaks out. J6, oppressive laws and SC rulings, power driven politics that drive division and distract from the true business of governing. So my big question to all of you: How do we preserve/balance the rights and freedoms of faith and its expression in the public square while also preserving the separation of spheres of influence? Perhaps this thread can be used for discussions of all church/state issues. https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/alabama-supreme-court-chief-justice-spreads-christian-nationalist-rhetoric

There are actually 5 @BigRedBuster s - 1 for each US time zone and 1 in New Zealand - just in case one of us wakes up during the middle of the night and we need HB to help us get back to sleep. They all log in under the same log in info.

ussia

Yes and look at the types who are now in Congress due to trump's low quality coattails - MTG, Bobert, Gaetz, etc. The low quality representatives now have an inept MAGA Speaker of the House who is even worse than the previous Speaker McCartney. You are right - during the Trump presidency, he had some quality people in some key spots. None of them will service with him again and that will just leave ring kissers to fill the open offices.

This is very true. In my state of Oklahoma, we have seen it become more and more red over the years. When I moved here just prior to Tom's 1st victory over OU in 1978 - which I enjoyed rubbing it in to my new Okla friends - but I digress, Okla was solidly, firmly a Democrat run state. Dem Congressman Carl Albert was the Speaker of the US House - 3rd in line in 1972. Things began to change in 1980 with Reagan and his coattails. In recent elections, Oklahoma has become the reddest of red states. We have elected a Trump want-to-be business guy as governor, a crackpot is now US Senator Mullen, and all kinds of MAGA crazies on the state level. I think the evangelical vote was the biggest reason the state turned more red - plus the state wide country commissioner scandal that rocked the state in the early 80s turned many way from the heavily Democratic run local and state govt's. The Dem party continued tilt leftward accelerated the process, It took 20-30 years but now Okla is a one party state - this time all Red. Interesting article on how Okla went from solid blue to solid red. I think as Tulsa and OKC grow we may see a moderation - maybe not all the way back to purple but going that direction. Urbanization tends to point that direction. https://projects.oudaily.com/oklahomapolitics/

So he likes to play with other people's money- let's see how fun it will be for him.

It is the Butterfly Affect - if a butterfly in Tulsa flaps its wings, will it eventually cause a windstorm in Africa. They hope the ripple affects add up to a gotcha moment for Biden senior.

UHM, IT IS ON A TABLE SAW, IT IS ALL OVER THE FLOOR - if it looks like, tastes likes, act like saw dust it is saw dust. But wait - there are 3 lines. I guess he was snorting saw dust. All of my younger years in home building, if I only knew I could get high on saw dust.. oh what a shame for such wasted years!!! And to tell you how much of a creep Hannity is - he brags about being the poor construction worker who worked so hard that he is where he is today - starting from his days in construction. He knows better and his lies and gaslighting only proves him to be a lying cult member all the more.

And NYAG will start to seize TRump assets if he doesn't pay up. CHICKEN MEET ROOST https://abcnews.go.com/US/letitia-james-shes-prepared-seize-trumps-assets-pay/story?id=107381482 Four days after a judge ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $354 million in his civil fraud case, New York Attorney General Letitia James told ABC News that she is prepared to seize the former president's assets if he is unable to find the cash to cover the fine. "If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets," James said in an interview with ABC News' Aaron Katersky. Trump was fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest on Friday after Judge Arthur Engoron determined that he inflated his net worth in order get more favorable loan terms.

You got to know that he is living out one of those nightmares - you know the one where you are running with the football towards the goal line at 1 mph while the would be tacklers are coming your way at 99 mph. His goal line is to get back into the WH and stop all of these legal issues in their tracks before he gets tackled just short of the goal. Well, I think he will get tackled and there won't be a referee to throw a flag that would give him the TD. Biden won't and Haley would be stupid to give him a 'get out of jail free' card. Anyone who would pardon Trump (Biden, Haley, other Dem, other GOPer) are only opening the door for more trouble from Trump himself and also from future actors who would want to follow the trump game plan.

Speaking of Trump's financial problems, as I was above, here is more bad news for the orange man There may be candidates for local dog catcher who raised more money than one of Trump's PACs did in January. https://dnyuz.com/2024/02/21/donald-trumps-cash-crunch-just-got-much-much-worse/

If you woke up each morning knowing you owed $87k more that day in interest payments it would be a very bad day. Trump is having many of those bad days. THE HIGH COST OF CHEAP LIVING: Fraud is always a cheap way to live until it isn't. (cheat investors, vendors, stockholders, students, bankers etc) https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/02/20/donald-trump-owes-87k-daily-interest-on-historic-fraud-penalties/ When most New Yorkers wake up, they might splurge by spending a few bucks on coffee and a bagel. Every morning Donald Trump wakes up, he now owes another $87,500 in interest on the massive legal penalties he received last week. The pain is set to continue until he pays off the entirety of the nearly half a billion dollars in fines and interest in his Manhattan civil fraud case. The devastating judgment handed down by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron on Friday against the former president and his longtime Trump Organization executives will increase by 9% annually until resolved.

More of the cult doing Putin's bidding.

I don't think Trump or Biden would be that quick witted in answering that question. But you know, Reagan said the Dem party left him. Now he would say that the GOP party left him. In many ways, not all, he is closer to the Dems than current GOP. On Russia and Ukraine he'd stand with the Dems to support Ukraine. Reagan was for humane immigration reform - thus the 1986 Immigration reforms. 2 of the biggest issues of this day, Reagan would have been on the Dem side. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672 The bold would have put him in the crosshairs of the ungodly (yes I said ungodly - anyone who hates his neighbor is ungodly) GOP leaders and cult members. Today's GOP has no compassion and no sense of mission of being the 'City on the Hill' so often quoted by Reagan.

A quick google search: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-informant-who-lied-about-bidens-ties-ukrainian-energy-company-high-level-russian-contacts-doj https://www.rawstory.com/fox-news-alexander-smirnov/ https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-hosts-are-reacting-collapse-their-fbi-informant-story

Agreed - trump kidnapped the party, changed the branding and it is now a wholly unrecognizable party to that of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan. The name should be changed.

John Branyan, a clean, very funny comedian has these thoughts on the subject above

Basically my story. I was 25 in 1980 and voted for Reagan then and in 1984 and would still vote for him versus any of the current GOPers. I haven't voted for the GOP nominated presidential candidate since Romney. I'm becoming more moderate the older I get - people matter thus policy matters. The GOP only views policy as the thing that matters.

Good review of Trump's legal fees and fines up to this point

I asked @Mavric to move the posts to the presidential thread

As someone said: Don't know what this is about yet, but as they say, when you see a turtle on a fence post.... it didn't get there by accident.

Agree. Very hard to wash the trump stain off. Just show a video of DeSantis looking around during that first debate to see if he should raise his hand in supporting a convicted felon if Trump wins the nomination. That was such a pitiful sight.