Religion

He’ll Do It…

by MyBaconPress

I know a story about a man who was born to a woman who had never had sex. He traveled around the countryside with a group of people performing amazing feats – and they were not magic tricks. God had blessed him. He’s even said to have brought people back from the dead. There are no objective, living witnesses to challenge or confirm the story.

One day, he ran afoul of local authorities and that eventually led to his execution. According to the story, he died, as one will after being executed, but only stayed dead for three days, essentially avoiding the consequences of his actions. Then, he got up and went for a walk.

According to the story, he never did die again. He promised he would come back for a visit before that generation perished from the Earth. To this day – and, coincidentally, many, many generations later, people are still waiting. But his followers will tell you: promises made, promises kept.

It’s not a story I’ve ever been able to accept, as presented. It goes against everything I know about where babies come from and the permanence of death. But there are plenty of people who DO believe that story, exactly as written, or, more accurately, exactly as presented today.

It’s a very old story. I suspect through the years, it has been corrected, adjusted, and embellished. Even the protagonist’s name changed through the years, from ‘Joshua’ to ‘Jesus.’ First editions often need later edits. The fact that there’s not a shred of evidence to support the story doesn’t shake the beliefs of those who DO believe. By and large, they believe because they’ve been conditioned to believe.

Someone told them their special friend would protect them and they believe they’re being protected, despite that fact that successes and setbacks visit them at about the same rate as those who don’t believe. In faith, facts are problems to be overcome, not reasons to reconsider.

Because the story was written for a simpler audience, one can easily find conflicts and contradictions. I could spend hours talking to a believer – and have done – pointing out the problems with the tale and never shake their faith – because it IS a matter of faith. But THIS faith, at least, is faith rooted in morality, if one follows the actual teachings of Joshua/Jesus…

I know another story about a man born to vast wealth but who managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps, anyway, and become super-de-duper rich and it did NOT have anything to do with crime. God had blessed him, too. He is said to be a brilliant businessman and negotiator. There are no objective, living witnesses able to confirm the story. One day, he ran afoul of local authorities and was prosecuted. He, too, managed to avoid the consequences of his actions. Then he got up and ran – for public office.

So far, his actions have not been in keeping with his words. He has made many promises but has failed to keep most of them. In fairness, he DOES seem to be all in on the cruelest of them. Where he promised salvation, he has delivered only distress. He has a tendency to MAKE people dead, rather than bring them back, but those are the kinds of niggling details that can be corrected in later editions. Meanwhile, his followers will tell you: promises made, promises kept.

It’s not a story I’ll ever be able to accept, as presented. It goes against everything I know about where hyper-wealth comes from or how a brilliant negotiator operates. But there are plenty of people who DO believe that story, exactly as written, or, more accurately, exactly as presented today.

See, this is a newer story, clearly in need of correction, adjustment, and embellishment. THIS story is still in it’s first edition, though the protagonist’s name has already changed. The fact that there’s not a shred of evidence to support the story doesn’t shake the beliefs of those who DO believe. By and large, they believe because they’ve been conditioned to believe.

Someone told them their special friend would protect them and they believe they’re being protected, despite the fact that serious harm and setbacks are being visited upon them at about the same rate as those who don’t believe. In faith, facts are problems to be overcome, not reasons to reconsider.

Because MAGA is a simple audience, one can easily find conflicts and contradictions in their story. I could spend hours talking to a believer – and have done – pointing out the problems with the tale and never shake their faith – because it IS a matter of faith.

This is WHY they can move so quickly and easily from one position to the next, as though the original position never even existed. When he said he would fix a given problem on day one, they KNEW he would fix the problem on day one. They didn’t NEED to hear the plan. Their faith told them so. When he changed his story to “This is going to take some time, so be patient,” they made an easy pivot. “Oh,” they’ll adjust, “he meant he was going to START fixing it on day one.” They KNEW he had only ever said it was going to take some time. Their faith told them so.

The MAGA faithful are currently defending his latest shift: “Christmas is probably going to suck” as the only message he has ever delivered. Any one of them will tell you, all he ever said was it was going to take months and months to fix the problems, but he’ll do it. Their faith tells them so. When he gets to his final shift, “I can’t fix this. It’s too hard,” they’ll defend that, too. Faith.

I’m not sure MAGA realizes theirs is a faith-based movement, but it helps ME to realize the fact. I watch them shift their positions with the shifting stories and find it quite mind-boggling, but I understand. They have no choice but to adjust. Faith can’t withstand evidence if the evidence is accepted. So it isn’t. HOURS of video evidence proving their story false does nothing. It never even penetrates. “Fake news,” they call it.

Personally, I prefer fact-based reality. I remember the line that went around after 9/11. “Science flies people to the moon. Faith flies people into buildings.” That’s commonly true. MAGA faith, sadly, is the worst kind of faith. It’s faith completely removed from morality. It’s very dangerous. But it perfectly explains why Uncle Jim-Bob can’t be convinced of anything based on facts. He doesn’t need or care about facts. He has his faith. And if that faith asks him to fly into a building…

Easter, 2025…

by MyBaconPress

Oh, yeah, Happy Easter! It IS Easter, the day we recognize the resurrection of Jesus and, um, some rabbit, for some reason. Maybe God’s Holy Recharge Blaster was on wide beam and the rabbit just got caught up in it by accident. It seems the Holy Recharge Blaster may cause side-effects. I can’t speak to any possible changes in Jesus, but the rabbit, apparently, started laying chocolate eggs – which is not normally a rabbit thing. Still, chocolate eggs are a much happier side-effect than ‘anal leakage.’ Good job, God! Well done.

‘For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son…’ That’s from the Bible. John 3:16. It’s not quite true, though, right? He LOANED his only begotten son. Three days later, he roused him and brought him up to Heaven, ostensibly for a cold beer and a hot shower and a two thousand year head-start on watching ‘Game of Thrones.’ (God is omniscient. That means He knows everything that has happened, is happening, and WILL happen. He knew ‘Game of Thrones’ was coming. HE’S been fuming about that b.s. last season for a LOT longer than the rest of us.)

But the rabbit abides. The chocolate eggs endure. Somewhere along the way, we got chocolate bunnies, too. That’s good, but I think it’s a ‘near-miss.’ (It’s a near-hit, fella…) In order to cover ALL of the Easter bases, shouldn’t God have given us a chocolate Jesus, maybe holding a chocolate egg? I mean, we should at least TRY to keep the religious part in there, somewhere, right? I think Chocolate Jesus would have to be solid chocolate. Hollow Jesus just sounds… disrespectful. Unfortunately, in view of the tariffs, solid chocolate Jesus is prohibitively expensive.

“Ask and it shall be given you.” (Matthew 7:7) If you do a search on ‘Chocolate Jesus,’ you’ll find it. Actual chocolate Jesus’s (Jesi?) but also a novel by Stephen Jaramillo, published in 1997 by Berkley Books and a song by Tom Waits. “Only chocolate Jesus can satisfy my soul…”

Okay, kidding aside, there ARE some lessons many have turned away from, say, about a third of this once-great nation. It might be good to revisit some of the more prescient messages from Jesus on this fine day. Let’s start with this one:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” (Matthew 7 : 15-19, KJV)

Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing, right? We’ve all heard that. Now we’re seeing it, playing out on a daily basis by one of the most corrupt men ever to walk the Earth. Felon 47 is there and he’s a fact. FAR too many people are following him and his example. But they should pay closer attention to that last sentence from Jesus. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” That’s a warning. If your efforts bring forth corrupt fruit, you WILL BE cast into the fire. Every tree.

“No,” you might say. “I tell EVERYONE I’m a Christian and I always make a great show of it.”
“But you follow the example of 47, not the teachings of Jesus.”
“I go to church every Sunday. I sing hymns the loudest and hold my folded hands in prayer the longest. You can SEE how religious I am.”
“Yes,” I answer, skeptically, “I can.”

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25 : 45) I’m thinking, here, of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly accused of being a gang member and criminally deported without due process. The case offered against him – only in the court of public opinion, NEVER in a court of law – is based, entirely, in lies. 47 even went so far as to show a photo that purports to be Abrego Garcia’s hands with ‘MS-13’ tattooed on the fingers.

The thing is, the photo isn’t what it’s held out to be. Abrego Garcia RAN FROM gangs. He didn’t join any. He has some tattoos on his fingers. The Felonious Fraudster says they’re symbols for MS-13. The “MS-13” part has clearly been Photoshopped onto the photo. The actual tattoos are other things. According to experts, actual members of MS-13 tattoo ‘MS-13’ all over their bodies. They don’t WANT you to need a super-de-duper decoder ring to know they’re MS-13.

The First Felon, the False Prophet, the Father of Lies, is offering his flock some of that evil fruit we just talked about. He CANNOT make an honest case against Abrego Garcia, so he makes a false case. Remember, a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit.

“Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.'” (Matthew 7 : 21-23) ‘Iniquity’ is defined as a gross injustice, wickedness.

I don’t accept so-called ‘Christian Nationalists’ AS Christians. I classify them as ‘Christian in name only.’ (CINOs?) In my mind, one has to follow the teachings of Jesus – or at least TRY to – in order to qualify. But who am I? I think they’re putting a LOT of hope in that slogan, ‘Christians aren’t perfect – just forgiven.’ But that’s the thing. It’s just a slogan. You won’t find that in the Bible.

What you WILL find is, “And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,” and “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.“

So on this fine Easter, I’m here to remind the followers of the Felon, you are being deceived and you WILL suffer the consequences, even though you were deceived, because He gave you the tools you needed to keep from being deceived – and you turned away from them. I know you by your fruits. The world knows you by your fruits. Jesus will know you – or not – by your fruits, as well.

Go in peace…

Lessons In Deception…

by MyBaconPress

Today is Sunday so I’ve decided to stand aside and let the First Speaker of the Doctrine of Universal Harmony (still me) offer up some lessons. Today’s focus is on lying and the effects of lying. It turns out, lying is a bad thing and, in the long run, liars tend to suffer from their defect of morality MORE than the people they attempt to deceive.

Personally, I spend a great deal of time trying to excuse the disgraces of the MAGA rank and file based on the idea that they’re deceived – and it’s true, they are. But, apparently, I’m willing to bring more grace to our situation than their God, who seems to take a VERY hard line on this.

“For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 NASB)

Okay, in truth, you’re being judged already by the world around you, but according to this, you’ll be judged in the afterlife, too. And, according to this, you’ll be judged whether you were deceived or not. If you’re one of those people clinging desperately to Christianity in hopes of seeing a long lost loved one again when you get to Heaven – according to the Bible, you ain’t gettin’ to Heaven…

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will not escape. (Proverbs 19:5)

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Have you heard The Felon blaming DEI for, well, everything? The inherent message to MAGA DEI taunts is this: you hired someone who was NOT a white male, therefore you didn’t get the best possible person. How bigoted is that? The automatic insinuation is that the most competent people are, obviously, white males. The insinuation is that if you hired a woman, it was because she’s a woman – so she couldn’t possibly be competent. The insinuation is that if you hired a black person, it was because he’s black – so he couldn’t possibly be competent. The obvious subtext is that the ONLY way to get the most competent person is to hire a white male.

Dear MAGA, if you ONLY hire white males, you can only get the best possible WHITE MALE person, not the best possible person. You might want to sit down for this, but it’s possible a woman or a person of color or, Heaven forfend, a woman of color IS the best possible person – and, yes, even if she’s a lesbian.

And if the clown car in the White House is any indicator (and it is), there’s no reason to automatically presume the white person is the best person. From MY point of view, there’s a huge pile of, um, very much NOT the best people (even though they’re white) running things now…

There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16 – 19)

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One of the refrains we commonly hear in relation to The Felon is, “Promises made, promises kept.” Oh, GOD, they love that. It’s wrong, of course. The ACTUAL slogan SHOULD be, “Lies told, lies responded to.” It’s far more accurate.

He makes promises all the time. He breaks them just as often. The price of eggs is up, not down. Promise made, promise broken. Wars still rage around the world. Promise made, promise broken. He STILL hasn’t built his wall and Mexico never DID pay for it. Promise made, promise broken. Tariffs won’t increase inflation. Promise made, promise broken. (MAGA just ignores the broken promises so they can maintain their delusions of his pretended “skills.”)

But he cracked down on DEI. Lie told, lie responded to. He released the J6 rioters because it was “just a day of love.” Lie told, lie responded to. Most undocumented immigrants are NOT violent and/or dangerous criminals, but he’s going to deport them viciously, anyway. Lie told, lie responded to. He said he was going to lower prices but every action he has taken, so far, will absolutely RAISE the cost of living. Lie told, lie responded to. He imposed his tariffs because he said international trade should be a zero-sum game. Lie told, lie responded to.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue mutters wickedness. (Isaiah 59:2-3)

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“Our nation, our beloved Canada, is under threat. It is an economic threat, but it’s also a threat to our values of decency and inclusion. It’s a threat to our sovereignty and our very future as a nation. The threat comes, of course, from the President of the United States (sic), a convicted felon and known predator. He’s threatening massive tariffs to try and break us as a people. But the threat is also being driven by the hate algorithms of the oligarchs like Elon Musk. And there is the threat from people in our own country, who would sell out our birthright to appease the gangster class from Mar-a-Lago. That is not going to happen.” Charlie Angus, Canadian MP

One of the things the greed class who now own our government seem to forget is that, for the most part, nobody is dependent on any one source of anything, for anything. When 47 was 45, he decimated the American Soy Bean production with tariffs. The world just went elsewhere. He could have, should have, learned. But he didn’t, maybe can’t. The First Felon thinks he’s being “tough” on our closest ally, Canada, by imposing tariffs. Canada is free to – and more importantly, able to – sell their goods elsewhere.

Meanwhile, America NEEDS Canadian crude oil, for example. Canada exports oil to the US so there’s infrastructure in place, but they also export to other places so there’s infrastructure in place for that, too. If Canada responded to Trumps delusional tariffs by, say, turning off the oil spigot, Canada would feel that for a short time, but then they would ramp up their other sources and be back on track. That’s actually what I think Canada should do. “We’ll turn the oil flow back on once those tariffs are lifted, eh?”

The US would feel that MUCH worse and for MUCH longer and…, oh, hey, lookee here. In this morning’s Guardian, the first headline I see is, “Trump warns Americans that tariffs may cause ‘pain.’” THAT’S Trump’s big plan?!? In order to “punish” Canada into submission, he intends to harm the hell out of AMERICANS?!? MAGA is very much a defect of morals…

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:43 – 44)

A “Christian” Example?

by MyBaconPress

Wow. When President non-elect Musk decided to stick his privileged nose into the business of America, he DID create some upheaval. Cons had to cut something to try and make him happy. The thing that made Musk happy to cut? Cancer research for children. Yeah, that’s real.

A young lady, 10-year-old Gabriella Miller, died of an inoperable brain tumor. In 2014, an Act was passed in her name that funded research. It offered up $126 million over the following decade toward pediatric cancer research. It had to be re-authorized in 2024. The 2024 plan was to allocate $190 million for the next 10 years.

Pay attention to the kinds of numbers Congress talks about. Really, $190 million dollars over the course of 10 years is a drop in the bucket. It’s nothing. Here, let’s do a comparison. The average salary of a Congress critter is currently $174,000/yr. That’s base pay. They get perks and benefits and the leadership positions all get premiums, but let’s use that number. There are 535 voting members of Congress between the House and the Senate. Ready?

$174,000 x 535 = $93,090,000 per year.
Multiply their oh-so-generous annual salary by 10, the number of years the cancer research bill would have covered. It comes to $930, 900,000! We’re going to give those useless pieces of, um, politicians $931 million dollars over the next 10 years to do little more than posture and pose, but $190 million dollars to research cancer in children was just too much – a bridge too far – for Musk, so it had to go.

Here’s the real key. It was an easy target, low-hanging fruit. How many voters have kids with cancer? Personally, I think ONE is too many, but the hard truth is, whatever the number, there aren’t enough voting parents of kids with cancer to be a threatening bloc. So, maybe the cons can just quietly dump research into cancer in kids and save a few bucks.

Just like Jesus would have wanted. You know, because of “Christian morals…”

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My favorite thing about the pseudo-Christians (which is most of them, these days) is the unintended consequences of their oh-so-pure attitudes combined with their complete LACK of knowledge as to exactly what is in that book they pretend to revere, the Holy Bible. But in Texas, Canyon Independent School District Superintendent Darryl Flusche has announced that the Holy Bible, as a whole, is not suitable for inclusion in school libraries due to a Texas law intending to protect schools from sexually explicit content, though some individual stories from the Bible remain.

The law he cites, House Bill 900, defines sexually explicit material as “any communication, language, or material” that describes sexual conduct in a way that is “patently offensive” according to the Texas Penal Code. He didn’t specify which sexually explicit material he was referring to. Was it the rapes? The Coitus Interruptus? The incest? Who knows?

Apparently, NONE of those things, all of which are actually in the Bible, are deal-killers. Listening to the pseudo-Christians squeal about it is quite telling. One parent, a woman named Regina Kiehne told school officials, “It seems absurd to me that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books. It just makes sense to have the Word of God in our school library. After all, it (the Bible) is the book of wisdom.”

In other words, the kids NEED to read the story of Lot’s daughters getting him drunk and sexing him up, right? I guess it helps explain why Uncle Daddy gets to do those things to the young girls. Did Ham sodomize Noah? Texas school kids need to know. Oh, maybe they get their examples of “morals” from Moses!

Oh, c’mon, you remember. It was that time he told his soldiers, “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. Hubba-hubba.” (Numbers 31:17) (I may have added a bit at the end, there.) That’s when the Israelites had been commanded to commit genocide against the Midianites. They had already killed all the men. So now they just needed to kill the rest – even babies, if they were boys! But not the virgin girls.

“Christian morals,” indeed…

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I live by a basic adage. It goes like this: When your out-go is greater than your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. It’s a good rule. It has the advantage of being undeniably true. The GOP has been working as hard as they can for the last 40+ years to convince everybody that the government of the United States is overspending and the ONLY way to address that problem is by cutting spending. Guess what? That’s wrong!

As it happens, there are TWO ways to address that problem, not one. Yes, one IS to cut spending and we should ALL want to be on the lookout for wasteful spending. (Pentagon, anyone?) It IS, after all, OUR money they’re spending. But there’s a better way. They could raise revenues. Think of it as getting a better job. (That’s what working Americans do when they want more money and can’t get it where they’re at.)

That involves tax increases. It’s clear that much of our society can’t face another tax shift from the wealthy. The rich really need to participate at a rate commensurate with the rate they extract from our society. That’s reasonable. It’s possible for the country to increase it’s revenues to address our financial woes. Financial woes, by the way, that have been artificially created by the very self-same greedy people who think they deserve more than others because they steal more than others.

Whenever I write this kind of thing, I get push-back about how the rich pay the most taxes, so how is that fair? Yes, the rich pay most of the taxes, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, but they control the vast majority of the wealth. They SHOULD pay the most taxes. Just looking at the hard-dollar amount they pay is insufficient information. One needs to consider the rate they extract and the percentage of wealth they control.

Here’s a fact: high taxes on high incomes causes the wealthy to actually do that which they pretend low taxes might someday encourage them to do…

Guess What? The Bible DOES Talk About Trump…

by MyBaconPress

Alright, this is Sunday, and as the First Speaker of the Doctrine of Universal Harmony, I think I ought to talk religion from time to time – especially on Sunday. So here is my sermon for this fine day. I hope it offers some insight. I know the people who need it most won’t accept it and that’s too bad, but if YOU see it, it will arm you with even more information about who represents evil in this race…

I think I started calling myself an atheist around age 14. I call myself an atheist because I had never seen anything from the Bible that might cause me to believe it as anything more than a story – and it’s a kind of weak story at that. There are LOTS of plot holes and inconsistencies and some of it seems to have been written on LSD. (It was probably peyote. LSD didn’t exist back then…) To be sure, I didn’t stop checking out religions at 14, but I was quite comfortable with the designation for myself.

You see, I was raised in a fairly religious household. We weren’t evangelical or fundamental but we did go to church regularly (read: without fail), my parents didn’t just attend, they participated, and we had ministers hanging around our house throughout my younger years. (My father had intended to be a Methodist minister but ended up in education, instead.) But one does NOT just easily walk away from the threats and fears (I mean, “teachings”) inculcated into a child’s mind before they can even think. It’s rather scary.

So, I hung around different faiths, trying to see if any of them could offer up some answers to questions I had that, in my mind, MUST have answers. I hung with the Baptists for a while. I hung with Catholics for a while. I even hung with an offshoot of Islam called the Baha’i faith for a while. (I don’t think they like being identified as an offshoot of Islam, but they are.) I never found answers and over time, decided that’s because the answers don’t exist. I don’t DO “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” According to the story, he’s supposed to be teaching us. One does NOT teach by telling people there’s something they MUST know, now guess what it is.

But who could spend so much time with religions and not have some of that stuff rub off on them? Nobody, that’s who. I’m no different. So I’ve got all these notions kicking around in my brain. It’s weird, being an atheist who references the Bible on a regular basis, but here I am. I like the philosophies. I mostly reject the theologies. I’ve gone on that way for, like, well, let’s just say a LOT of years. So, imagine my surprise when I realized I was seeing actual things, theological things, from the Bible that were supported by real life evidence – and ALL of them describe one man, Donald J. Trump.

If you count yourself a Christian but you support Donald Trump, this list is for you. Don’t worry. I don’t have any idea that you might re-consider your support. At this point, your fate is probably sealed. (That’s not up to me.) But you ought to know what you’re doing, according to the book you pretend to revere. So, what DOES the Bible say about Trump, I mean, the Anti-Christ? Actually, a LOT. Listen, this is LONG. Get a cup of coffee, relax, settle in, enjoy.

Oh, I should probably add that I didn’t pull all of these together. There’s a person on the web who did a video on the topic. I took his good work and ran with it. I don’t know his name, or I’d credit him. Or, if you’re MAGA, I don’t know his name so you can’t attack him.

I’ve written before that I like the King James Version (KJV) for it’s fiery orations but I ALSO like the New American Standard Bible (NASB) for easier understanding. Those “Thees” and Thous” get awfully confusing sometimes. So, I’ve referenced those two Bibles, depending on which translation I thought was most clear. MOST come from the NASB. Feel free to look them up. You can double check to see if you’ve been deceived by something I wrote, or warned…

For your edification:

The Anti-Christ will come in his own name and he will be accepted…
“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.” (John 5:43 NASB)

Who promotes his own name more than Donald Trump? He slaps it on buildings. If you want to be in Trump’s good graces, say his name. Trump has come in his own name. The pseudo-Christian community has embraced him like he’s the second coming of Jesus. (Hey guys, wrong direction, there…)

The Anti-Christ has the mouth of a lion…
“…and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.” (Revelation 13:2 NASB)

A lion’s mouth and roar are one of the lion’s defining characteristics. It lets every other animal know that the lion is king of the beasts. In the Bible, having a mouth like a lion means you roar a lot in an attempt to let everyone know YOU are king, especially when you feel threatened. Think of the way Trump attacks his accusers and rejects all responsibility for wrong-doing. Many of Trump’s supporters have actually embraced seeing him being portrayed as a lion even though the Bible describes Satan as a lion walking around seeking someone to devour…
“…be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 NASB) See?

The Anti-Christ is called the little horn…
“…behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were plucked out before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like human eyes, and a mouth uttering great boasts.” (Daniel 7:8 NASB)

‘The Little Horn’ is one of the names given the Anti-Christ in the Bible. It refers to an actual horn but in this case, the horn was a metaphor. Just for fun, in the King James version, the word ‘trump’ appears twice, both times, in reference to a small trumpet. In this case, the horn (or trump) had eyes of a man and boasted great things.

The Anti-Christ is named the man of sin…
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that the man of sin be revealed, the son of Perdition.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV)

I’ve said before, Trump is the physical embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins. But if you’re unsure, listen to him. He BRAGS about his lust, his greed, his wrath, his vengeance, and his inability to forgive.

The Anti-Christ is named the Lawless One…
“Then that lawless one will be revealed.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8 NASB)

This is part of the previous entry and is pretty self-explanatory. It’s interesting to note that the King James version refers to “that Wicked” instead of the “Lawless One.” A ‘man of sin’ and the ‘Lawless One’? BOTH seem excellent descriptions of Trump…

The Anti-Christ is deceitful and arrogant and magnifies himself above others…
“And through his shrewdness He will make deceit a success by his influence; And he will make himself great in his own mind…” (Daniel 8:25 NASB)
“After an alliance is made with him he will practice deception, and he will go up and gain power with a small force of people.” (Daniel 11:23 NASB)

Trump is filled with excessive pride about himself and he commonly exhibits contempt for people around him.

He’s not who he says he is. To hear him tell it, nobody knows more about anything good than Donald Trump. He knows it best. He knew it first. Maybe he invented it, he doesn’t know. But only if it’s something he counts as good. If not, he knows nothing about it, never heard of it, has no idea. Kind of a genius/moron…

The Anti-Christ is extremely boastful…
“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself and boast against every god and will speak dreadful things against the God of gods.” (Daniel 11:36 NASB)
“A mouth was given to him speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.” (Revelation 13:5 NASB)

Trump regularly describes himself as the best, the smartest, the greatest, the most successful. Hey, let’s play a game of ‘Who Said It?’ Satan or Trump?

“You know I’m the coolest that’s ever come around.
You’ll notice things get hotter whenever I’m in town.
I mean I gotta be the coolest. Who else could it be?
Everybody knows who’s really cool…Me!

Let’s face it, I’m the greatest. I’m Mr. Number One.
My hometown built a statue to their favorite son.
I mean, I gotta be the greatest. I’m just a ball of fun.
I mean, I’m definitely the greatest. I’m also the coolest.

You can’t leave a package like me sitting on no shelf.
Let me tell you I’m so cool, sonny, I’m gonna save a little for myself.

Come here, come here, baby, Come over here a minute.
Who is the coolest? I mean how do I look?

You know the day I was born there were these four dudes up on a hill.
And they saw this star hanging out over town and the whole world seemed to stand still.
It made the Sunday papers. I guess it proves for sure…

I am the coolest. I’m also the greatest.
I am the baddest, I am the smoothest.
I’m just the best…”

Okay, trick question. The answer is Alice Cooper (a minister’s son) who captured Trump’s message back in 1976 with his album ‘Alice Cooper Goes To Hell.’ In the song, Satan is singing. (It’s a great album…) But it could easily have been Trump – and you know it…

The Anti-Christ will be a despicable person…
“And in his place a despicable person will arise, on whom the majesty of kingship has not been conferred; but he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue.” (Daniel 11:21 NASB)

The King James version describes the Anti-Christ as a vile person. Vile, despicable, despicable, vile. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. He lacks class and decency. He’s a crass and vulgar person. This is a guy who rapes women, brags about it, and then doesn’t understand why the women in question are upset, suggesting it’s some kind of “honor” to be raped by Trump. Yeah, that’s despicable.

The Anti-Christ will disguise himself as an angel of light…
“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14 NASB)

This passage might be the most important on this list right now. It teaches that the Anti-Christ will come as a strong supporter of Christianity and of Israel and masquerade himself as a defender of Christian values. He’s the kind of guy who might use violence to clear a path so he could get to a photo op outside a church (they wouldn’t let him in) and have a picture of himself taken while holding a Bible – upside down; The kind of guy who is SO religious, he knows to refer to one of the books of the Bible as “Two Corinthians.” Who does that?

The Anti-Christ will throw truth to the ground and do as he pleases…
“…and it will hurl truth to the ground and do as it pleases and be successful.” (Daniel 8:12 NASB)

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself and boast against every god and will speak dreadful things against the God of gods; and he will be successful until the indignation is finished, because that which is determined will be done.” (Daniel 11:36)

Yeah, sure, this means he’s a pathological liar but, really, the truth just holds no value to him. He’ll use it if it works in his favor. He’ll set it aside if it doesn’t. And it’s all the same to him. It’s always to his advantage to leave people wondering what’s true and what’s not and if he can arrange that by lying willfully about everything, he will…and does…

The Anti-Christ will deny the Father and the son…
“This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22 NASB)

Trump, himself, said he never seeks God’s forgiveness. He doesn’t think he needs it. Christians are supposed to seek forgiveness from time to time…

The Anti-Christ will love money as it’s the root of all kinds of evil…
“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10 NASB)

Hey, here’s a quote from Donald Trump: “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy for money. I grabbed all the money I can get, I’m so greedy.” Also? He’s SO evil…

The Anti-Christ is revealed by the falling away…
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that the man of sin be revealed, the son of Perdition.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV)

The people who fall away from the faith (MAGA), will fall towards the man of sin. This refers, specifically, to falling away from the teachings of Jesus and towards the Anti-Christ. So, they become someone who claims Christianity but rejects the teachings of Christ. Those people are readily identifiable when they espouse positions that are directly opposed to the teachings of Jesus. Pay attention to the person THAT person gravitates toward. The person they gravitate toward (Trump) is the Anti-Christ…

As an adjunct to that verse, the Bible talks about how Satan deceives the fallen Christians…
“For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness…” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 NASB)

Second Thessalonians, I’m sorry, I obviously meant ‘Two Thessalonians.’ What was I thinking? I guess that’s what I get for not knowing the Bible as well as the Trumpster. Anyway, that passage is reinforcing the idea people will believe what is false and they WILL be judged for it in the end, even though they were deceived. Put more simply, MAGA faith in Trump instead of God is going to cost them, bigly, in the afterlife.

The Anti-Christ has the ultimate ego to call himself God…
“…the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 NASB)

No, he doesn’t SAY he’s God. He just claims the power of God. His followers may not realize it, but every time he claims to be the “only one who can save us,” he’s equating himself with God, and that’s a very clear no-no. It’s the result of his unbelievable, unrestrained ego…

The Anti-Christ understands ‘dark sentences…’
“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” (Daniel 8:23 KJV)

“Dark sentences” is also translated as “sinister schemes.” Donald Trump very definitely understands sinister schemes…

The Anti-Christ will amaze the world…
“I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;” (Revelation 13:3 NASB)

He’s running around right now talking about how he MAY have been “shot in the head.” I guess the ear IS attached to the head so, technically, it’s correct. I think “shot in the head” evokes a different image than a teeny, tiny owie to the ear but, whatever. Then his ear “healed” miraculously (most likely because there was never any injury) and people noticed. MAGA fell into line and is following after the beast right now.

The Anti-Christ will know great success…
“And his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and be successful and do as he pleases; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people.” (Daniel 8:24 NASB)

Trump’s power is unquestionably mighty but he gets great support from conservative and even mainstream media. Conservative media just lies for him and mainstream media tends to “clean up” his insanity. It’s so bad, a name has been coined for the process: “Sanewashing.” But he’s not using his power to help anybody but himself. In fact, he harms people with his word and he does, in fact, “destroy mighty men” with his lies…

The Anti-Christ has a stout look…
“…that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts, and which was larger in appearance than its associates.” (Daniel 7:20 NASB)

The King James version uses the word ‘Stout’ instead of ‘larger in appearance.’ ‘Stout’ is defined as haughty, full of oneself, and even heavyset. Frankly, I think the angel was just calling the Anti-Christ a fatty, but it IS an apt description of Trump…

The Anti-Christ spreads strife…
“A worthless person, a wicked man, is one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers; who, with perversion in his heart, continually devises evil, who spreads strife.” (Proverbs 6:12 – 14 NASB)

Trump is running around right now spreading strife. His lies about the help available to the victims of Helene and now Milton are keeping people who believe him from seeking the help they need and that IS available. He’s actively harming people in an effort to score a few political points. But if we’re honest, this is just the latest example. Trump harms people all the time – and every time he does, MAGA defends him and doubles down on their faith in him. Their faith…IN HIM. I kinda wonder why the “jealous God” of the Bible doesn’t just…slap him down…

The followers of the Anti-Christ see him as a unique, unstoppable force that can’t be fought against…
“And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” (Revelation 13:4 KJV)

For clarity: “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Revelation 12:9 NASB)

See? I told you it was long. It’s a pretty scary read, eh? I’d bet buttons to beans MAGA never made it through the list. They wouldn’t dare. Once they realized how accurate this is, they declared it bullshit and went back to their doom scrolling. Kudos to those who started, though, and kudos to you for making through. Now you know more than you knew before. Me, too, but I’ll tell you this: I wish I didn’t. I wish it didn’t fit so effing well. I wish people who call themselves ‘Christian’ would take it to heart. But I know many won’t…

Fakin’ It…

by MyBaconPress

Wow, Trump’s choice of a running mate, JD Vance, seems to be hurting the ticket. What, for having a little sex with a couch? I’ve never done that, never even thought about it. But hey, maybe it was a really sexy couch. For being a fraud? MAGA doesn’t care about frauds. MAGA depends on fraud. MAGA is built on fraud.

Now, suddenly, it’s MAGAGOP that wants to replace a candidate. To be clear, Trump keeps saying he’s fine with Vance. Possibly, Vance wrote the biggest check and it cleared first, so Vance is the guy. But the base doesn’t seem happy.

Apparently, he’s not too magnetic at the microphone. So far, he’s been nothing but storms for the campaign. He’s pretend Appalachia, and very likely pretend MAGA. He was once a ‘Never Trumper’ but seems to have gotten over that.

It’s weird. I know how they feel. The left was just in the exact same conundrum a mere two weeks ago. Knowing you have a candidate who doesn’t appeal to people is challenging. But what does Trump do?

If he keeps Vance on the ticket, he’s hurting his own chances in the election. If he dumps Vance, I guarantee you the left will pounce on that as an error Trump made. (At least, this corner of the left will.) Trump picked him. Trump named him as the running mate. Trump thought he would be good for the ticket. Trump was wrong. WAY wrong. I wonder if MAGA will be able to see that their infallible leader made an egregious mistake.

No, I don’t. They see it. They just re-write it to make Trump a hero anyway. Or, they’ll suddenly embrace Vance. Either way, they won’t have to face the reality that Trump messed this one up pretty badly – just like everything else he touches…

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MAGA keeps trying to convince somebody, somewhere that it’s absolutely unacceptable that people in the White House may have lied about Joe’s situation. (They haven’t.) They’re acting like it’s a major breach of ethics to lie. Excuse me a moment.

A-ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh, tears! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha – Oh, my sides hurt. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… heh, heh… ohh…

I think the party that LIVES on lies trying to make a single, possible lie into the worst thing ever might be among the funniest things we see all summer…

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One of the stories MAGA loves to tell is that illegals are bringing Fentanyl into the country. It turns out – you’ll never guess – they made that up! It turns out, if you ask former head of Border Security Gil Kerlikowske, nine out of ten convicted Fentanyl traffickers are US Citizens. He even says the cons KNOW that most of the traffickers are US Citizens. It’s just a nice, little attack line they made up out of whole cloth because they don’t have anything real to complain about.

I guess that’s why the cons were so comfortable shooting down that bi-partisan border bill, written by a Republican, supported by Dems AND the border patrol, and denounced by Donald J. Trump because he didn’t want Dems to have a “win.”

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Wait, was it just yesterday I wrote, “I find it ironic as hell that it’s the pseudo-Christian community ushering in the age of the Anti-Christ by putting their faith into this Earthbound clod but, hey,that’s how the Bible said it was going to happen…”

In fact, it was. So, here. A little bit of support for my position. Shall we open our Bibles to Second Timothy? Not ‘Two Timmy,’ as some Trumps might have it. It’s toward the back. A lot of the pseudo-Christians never got that far. Ah, here it is.

2 Timothy 3, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…but they will not make further progress; for their foolishness will be obvious to all…”

Does any of this sound like any (every) MAGA you know? It seems, to me, to be a pretty accurate (read: perfect) description. Leave it to the “lovers of light” to lead the world into the darkest darkness…

Inexplicable…

by MyBaconPress

Bill Maher’s show, ‘Real Time’ is broadcast on Friday nights. I usually don’t watch until Saturday sometime. That was true again this week. He had Tulsi Gabbard on as a guest. It was the second time in a week I watched cons come out and lie (no surprise there) with absolutely NO pushback. The first was the debate, itself. Trump just stood there and lied. Nobody fact-checked him at the time.

With one exception, that includes Biden, which was one of Biden’s problems. The one exception? Trump said there was no inflation under him. Biden pointed out that was because the entire economy had flat-lined and there is no inflation where there is, essentially, no functioning economy. But other than that, Trump just lied and Biden just couldn’t hit those easy pitches at all, let alone out of the park.

But, then, on ‘Real Time,’ Maher let Gabbard get away with it, as well. She spewed the lies. Maher, mostly, sat there and let her. Very little pushback, very little correction of the record. I’m curious why Democrats aren’t calling out MAGA lies. It’s not that hard. The lies are obvious and have been debunked completely. When MAGA tries to repeat them to me, I respond with, you know, facts. MAGA doesn’t like facts, but I still think they’re important. Apparently, that’s quaint, these days.

The Dems are going to foist Biden on us, like it or not. The very LEAST they could do is try to look like they’re putting up a fight. When you just sit there and let the liars lie, you’re NOT putting up a fight of any kind. In a very real sense, you’re enabling the liars. Hell, you might as well be Fox Not-News!

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But not every false statement is provably false. Some are more… opinion oriented. For example, in the debate, Trump pointed out (correctly) that Putin took land under Obama and Putin has taken land under Biden but never even tried when Trump was in the Oval. That makes perfect sense to me. I believe (but can’t prove) Putin went to a LOT of trouble to get his mole into the White House and he wasn’t going to do ANYTHING to mess with that coup. In my opinion, Trump had FAR more value to Putin in other ways, like complete access to American intelligence. What, you think Trump stole all of those classified documents because he likes paper?

I also suspect Trump is playing word games when he insists he didn’t have sex with a porn star. I mean, he had sex with her but if he doesn’t count her a “star,” then he didn’t have sex with a porn star. Yeah, weasel words but that kind of parsing is right up Trump’s alley. I DO, however, feel obligated to point something out. Trump didn’t have sex with Daniels while Melania was pregnant. He was having sex with Karen McDougal while Melania was pregnant. (That would be the whole time. It was an ongoing affair.) He had sex with Daniels AFTER Barron was born…

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I don’t really expect tired old Sleepy Joe to just step down quickly. There’s a process to this. Acceptance can be hard to achieve. Meanwhile, people are doing what they can to try and prop him up. Some call the debate “just a bad performance,” a one-off. Some point out how hard it would be to get someone to replace Biden.

They have a point. Replacing Biden at this point would be difficult. But NOT replacing Biden is suicide. So which do you want, difficult or suicide? Some lovely choice there, eh? Bill Maher once referred to Biden as Ruth Bader Biden. It’s a reference to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s decision to stay on the court rather than step down just because she was old and dying of cancer. That selfish, short-sighted decision set the stage for the end of Roe (and, apparently, the United States as a whole) and now Biden is making the same, selfish, short-sighted decision…

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Recently, in an effort to show everyone just how awesomely Christian the state is, Louisiana required every classroom in the state to post Jewish Law on the walls, for some reason. Not to be outdone, in an effort to show everyone just how awesomely Christian that state is, Oklahoma is going to require teachers to teach the Bible in their classrooms.

Do you think they’ll focus on that story about the time the daughters get their father drunk so they can have sex with him? You know, for the benefit of the children. No? Maybe it will include the OTHER time the daughters got their fathers drunk and had sex with him. Yeah, that IS an uplifting book of purity, isn’t it? No? How about the story where a man orders his slave to perform a task, which she does, and afterwards, he has her put to death and her body cut into pieces and spread to the four corners of his kingdom, do you think they’ll cover that one?

I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s all a show. A kind of competition. How Christian can WE appear? Here’s how dumb I am: when I think about Christianity, I like to look to Jesus and the words he taught. I don’t much care about some televangelist’s interpretation (that somehow always puts money into the televangelist’s pockets). So, since this is Sunday, let’s just take a look at what Jesus thought of these ostentatious displays of pseudo-Christianity.

Please open your Bibles to Matthew 6:5. 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

That’s the New International Version. I still like the King James, which includes the line “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Jesus really thought one’s Christian works should be handled privately…

Dear Wonder Christians,
You REALLY should be embarrassed that I’m an Atheist and I know – and live – your favorite story book FAR better than you… (Apparently, I’m still working on the ego thing…)

The Newest Religion…

by MyBaconPress

Truth?  I’m not much on religion.  But I’d take any one of the “Big 3” Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) over this newest entry known as “Movement Conservatism” any day.  At least the Big 3 are acting like they’d like to make the world a better place.  Movement Conservatism is quite blatant about their desire to damage people, places, and things.  It’s the ‘Crush, Kill, Destroy’ part of their dogma.

If you didn’t recognize Movement Conservatism as a religion, you can be forgiven.  It arrived masquerading as a political movement but the more one interacts with a Movement Conservative, the more one sees the parallels to more mainstream religions and, after awhile, the similarities are simply too abundant to ignore.

Consider: the first and most important aspect of any religion is faith, right?  Archie Bunker best sums up faith when he says, “Faith is believing in something you’d have to be crazy to believe in!”  Basically, it comes down to accepting positions despite available evidence rather than in keeping with it.  I don’t advise accepting things on faith if you have a choice but religious thinkers live that way on a day to day basis – and then wonder why things don’t work the way they’re “supposed” to…

But faith, alone, isn’t the only aspect of religion.  Religions promote sacred texts.  A few of the favorites of Movement Conservatism include ‘Atlas Shrugged’, written, ironically enough, by Ayn Rand – an atheist.  There’s also ‘Democracy in America’ by Alexis de Tocqueville, ‘The Conscience of a Conservative’ by Barry Goldwater and ‘The Turner Diaries’ by William Luther Pierce…

Religions thrive on myths and other sacred stories, as well.  We’ve all heard them.  One of the favorite myths of Movement Conservatives involves their patron saint, Ronald Reagan who once said, “…tear down this wall” and, in the myth, the wall was gone the next day – a miracle!  (Okay, so it took years after that speech before the wall came down and, yes, every President from Kennedy to Reagan gave some version of the same speech but only Reagan gets the “win.”  See the entry on ‘Faith.’)  There are others, of course.  “Tax cuts for the rich benefit everyone” and one of the newest, “They’re sending criminals.”  The stories are intended to reinforce the teachings.  They’re supposed to make the faith-based aspects seem real…

Religions use symbols.  Christians have crosses.  Jews have the Star of David.  Movement Conservatives have Pepe the Frog, the Confederate Flag, and various forms of the Swastika.  Symbols are important to religions.  They give the acolytes something tangible to look at to remind them who they are…

There are supporting social structures to Movement Conservatism, too.  These can best be seen in the rallies that take place from time to time, hosted by their current leader, Donald Trump but the daily gatherings at Fox “News” serve to keep the acolytes believing…(and contributing)…

Religions are supposed to offer ethical and moral directives to their followers that teach them how to behave and Movement Conservatism is no different.  They offer teachings like, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it”, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, and “Knock the crap out him, would you?”  This is probably my biggest issue with Movement Conservatism; it intentionally seeks the worst of humanity rather than trying to support the best.  As an example, Christianity teaches that among the worst qualities of humanity are pride, greed, envy, gluttony, and wrath.  But those are the very attributes Movement Conservatism embraces and promotes…

“Wait,” you might wonder, “what about their God?  It can’t be a religion without a God to worship, can it?”  Well, no, it can’t but they’ve got that, too.  Movement Conservatives worship the great Prophet Profit.  There can be no greater God and all things must be done in His holy name…

Religions are often born of other religions.  Christ was a Jew, for example.  In the same way Jews left Judaism to become Christians, Christians have now, in turn, left Christianity to become Movement Conservatives.  It’s often a slow-moving thing.  Early Christians continued to count themselves Jews for a long time but after awhile, it became clear that the beliefs of Christianity had so deviated from Judaism, they needed to be their own group.  The same is happening to Christians today.  The Movement Conservatives sprang from Christianity but the differences have already separated the goats from the sheep – if you take my meaning.  (If you don’t, check Matthew 25:31 in the Christian Bible.)

Many Movement Conservatives still count themselves Christians – but they aren’t.  Not anymore.  When one embraces Movement Conservatism, one rejects Christianity.  The teachings are at odds – diametrically opposed as a matter of fact.  You can be one or the other…but you can’t be both.

I’ll tell you this: the next time you find yourself in a discussion with someone who seems perfectly reasonable but WILL NOT accept factual information no matter what you say, what source you cite, what proof you offer, realize you’ve fallen into a religious, NOT a political, debate.

Jesus Is Disappointed In You…

by MyBaconPress

I need a little help, here.  I’m not “in the club” so I may have missed some of the nuance that only an insider can appreciate.  I’ll just give you the bits I get and you stop me when we get to the part I missed, okay?  Religions – ALL religions – come with rules.  These are not suggestions, they’re rules.  If you subscribe to a religion – any religion – you’re supposed to follow the rules, right?  In Christianity, all the rules are all the rules.  They all “count” but some seem to be…bigger than others.  Some (10, apparently) are SO big, they have a special name: Commandments.

If I break down that word, Commandments, I see it contains the word ‘command’, which indicates to me that it’s’ MORE than just a simple rule…it’s, well, a command.  Because it’s sort of highlighted, I feel it’s SO important that it required special handling.  A person who claims to follow a given religion must, at a minimum, follow the Commandments, right?  How am I doing so far?

I’ve read the Bible.  I don’t pretend to have memorized it and there are some parts that will cause your eyes to glaze over in boredom – the “begats” spring immediately to mind – but I do not recall any part anywhere that allows believing ‘a la carte.’  It’s a package deal.  You take the whole thing.  No substitutions.  (I always think about that when I see someone with a ‘Jesus loves me’ tattoo on their arm.  No tattoos.  Leviticus – look it up…)

One of those commands says this:  Thou shall not bear false witness (Exodus 20:16).  This command has generally been understood to mean you’re not supposed to lie, right?  Misleading is a lie, right?  I’ve never seen the asterisk in the Holy Book directing me to the caveat “unless you need to in order to defend your political position.”

So, I hear – and I mean I hear it a LOT – that this is a “Christian nation.”  If all of the preceding is correct, that means this is a nation of people that don’t lie, right?  That’s not really my experience.  People will readily tell you they’re Christians, then proceed to say whatever they feel they need to say in order to “win” an argument, true or not.

I know there are a lot of people out there who claim to believe in a “hedge their bet” kind of way.  They don’t actually believe and they don’t want to live by the rules but…just in case, they’d better SAY they believe.  According to the book, God knows their heart so that one is clearly not going to work.  Those people are only deceiving themselves.  Ooh, two strikes with one swing…

I guess the rest are counting – heavily – on that “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven” bit.  Now, this is a bit of a “deep dive” into the subject but my understanding is that forgiveness isn’t automatic.  You have to ask for it and even then, you have to ask with a “contrite heart.”  ‘Contrite’ means feeling remorse.  That is, you have to be genuinely sorry and genuinely intend never to do it again.  (Sure, you might do it again but you have to intend not to when asking…)

But if you KNOW that you’re going back to your false-but-win-at-any-cost stance right after church this morning, your prayer for forgiveness is probably going to fall on deaf ears, right?  More importantly, the person, er, Being who will be judging you is not the guy on the other end of social media you just managed to deceive.  It’s a GOD whom YOU claim is omniscient.  Omniscient means He knows EVERYTHING, right?

The God you claim to believe in is going to know that you’ve been lying your ass off in an attempt to win a freaking argument on Facebook and that doesn’t slow you down?  What, may I ask, do you plan to tell your ‘God’ when you stand for judgement?

I’ll tell you this: something isn’t right.  Based on what I read and hear, either there is no “serious” Commandment prohibiting lying or I’ve overlooked the ‘unless you need to’ bit or, perhaps, there are just precious few actual Christians…

 

Agnostic or Atheist?

by MyBaconPress

I’m an Atheist.  I don’t mind writing those shocking words because I’m comfortable with my position.  I’m not evangelical.  I don’t need you to be an Atheist.  I won’t come knocking on your door handing out tracts.  I’m not militant.  Even though in God I don’t trust I don’t mind touching money.  When some little old lady “blesses” me, I don’t feel the need to blast her.  I know she’s just wishing me well in language she understands and I can live with that.  I’ve even been known to return the sentiment, as a well wish I know she’ll appreciate.

I confess, I wasn’t always like that.  Back in high school, I used to seek out religious people for a good debate.  I thought I was helping them to see the folly of their silly beliefs.  I realized at some point it was more like kicking the crutches out from under a disabled person.  So, I stopped.  I still hold that organized religion has done more harm than good for/to humankind and I can still defend my position should someone feel the need but I don’t need to seek them out…

It’s funny, though.  It’s quite common, when people hear me say I’m an Atheist, to try to “save my soul”.  Commonly, this takes on one of two tacks.  Sometimes, they’ll take the “just in case” position.  You know the one.  “Shouldn’t you just SAY you believe in case you’re wrong?”

Um, the story is that your god is omniscient.  That means he knows everything, right?  That means he would know I was fibbing, one of the BIG no-no’s of religion.  Even if he didn’t have that extra “know everything” edge, any god that could be so easily fooled…probably isn’t worthy of worship, you know?  I’m pretty sure I’d need my gods to be, at the very least, smarter than me.  It’s not THAT high a bar – a god should be able to manage it…

The other common tactic people use is to try to “move” me off of atheism toward agnosticism.  Sometimes people will call atheism a religion.  By definition, it isn’t and I find those people the most obnoxious on the subject.  I think they’re trying to be, too.  They’re the same kind of obnoxious I was back in high school when I was trolling for believers…

Sometimes, they’ll simply deny atheism even exists.  As the argument goes, if I can’t absolutely state with 100% certainty that no god exists, I’m not atheist, I’m agnostic and since I can’t prove god doesn’t exist, the very best (worst?) I could be is agnostic.  It’s a silly position, really.  Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof and I hold that the existence of an invisible cloud being that bestows and denies requests on whims is the extraordinary claim.  The burden of “proof” falls to the believer.

I was recently in one such exchange with a person who tried to sprinkle in a bit of science.  Physics, he suggested, currently holds there are as many as twenty-two different dimensions and since I couldn’t possibly prove that no gods exist in any of those dimensions…BAM!  I’m agnostic.  (His words…)  I replied that my position is, basically, that I’ve never seen anything that would cause me to take the story seriously in this dimension or any other so…BAM!  Still atheist…

The exchange, though, put me on a thought path I hadn’t actually considered before.  Atheism exists, even if theists don’t like it.  But agnosticism?  Hmmm.  ‘Agnostic’ means one who doesn’t know; the opposite of Gnostic, one who knows.  For all the talk of “proof” and “knowing” that’s not what religion is about.  The best summation on the topic I know comes from Archie Bunker.  Yes, the 1970’s television show blue-collar bigot, THAT Archie Bunker.  “Faith means believing in something you’d have to be crazy to believe in!”

He’s right, right?  Faith doesn’t demand proof but it requires belief.  A person who says they “don’t know” is saying they don’t automatically believe; that they’d like a bit of evidence to help sway their opinion.  But faith doesn’t allow for that.  With faith, you either do or you don’t.  You’re either in or your out.  The question, “Do you believe?” only has two possible answers, yes or no.  A hand shoots up at the back of the class.  “But what if I don’t know?”  Well, then you have to check ‘no’.  The only people who get to check the ‘yes’ box are the people who are certain they believe.  If you’re ‘not sure’, you’re a ‘no’.

I’ll tell you this: I was a bit surprised by the epiphany.  Theists and Gnostics exist.  Atheists exist.  But there’s no such thing as an agnostic!  “Not sure” and “just in case” equate to “no”, like it or not…