Tag: christians
Our Homegrown Extremists Are 'Christians' Radicalized By Trump

Our Homegrown Extremists Are 'Christians' Radicalized By Trump

The suspect in the Minnesota murders, Vance Luther Boelter, has been charged, for now, with second-degree murder. He allegedly killed two people, Melissa and Mark Hortman, in cold blood, and shot and wounded two others. According to Minnesota police, he showed up at the homes of at least two other people who were on his 45-person hit list (they were away).

What stands out about the descriptions of Boelter we've seen thus far is that everyone agreed he was "deeply religious." In other words, he's a religious extremist. He was also an ardent Trump fan. Those things are obviously related, but it's jarring to consider how much the world has flipped in just 10 years.

Ten years ago, people like Boelter were drawn to Donald Trump at least in part because he seemed to take Muslim religious extremism seriously. They were thrilled when he declared, after the December 2015 jihadist attack in San Bernardino, California, that the United States would shut down all Muslim immigration until we figure out "what the hell is going on."

In the years after 9/11, people became wary of Muslims who were suddenly devout, as this sometimes presaged a violent turn. Jose Padilla, Richard Reid, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and others became seriously religious before proceeding to terrorism.

We didn't feel that way about those who suddenly became devout Christians. Sure, centuries ago, Christians had committed atrocities in the Crusades and during the Inquisition, but that was all over. A more familiar tale was that of George W. Bush, who was able to kick his drinking problem after accepting Jesus as his savior; or Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame, who traded in his political dirty trickster identity to become a lay preacher and founder of the Prison Fellowship after his conversion.

But large parts of American Christianity have been going through some things in the decades since, with certain evangelicals in particular demonstrating a new coolness toward brotherly love. Or, if you read Kristin Kobes Du Mez, evangelical Christianity's ever-present undercurrents surfaced in the Trump era. Christianity Today editor Russell Moore has heard from pastors who've been reproached by parishioners for mentioning the beatitudes in their sermons. "Where are you getting this woke stuff about 'Blessed are the meek?'" they demand.

The problem is not coextensive with evangelicalism: Many evangelicals retain their faith unsullied by ugly politics, and the Catholic integralists are no less abhorrent than the Protestant MAGAs in their embrace of cruelty supposedly for God's sake. But evangelicalism seems to be suffering from politicization more than other denominations and movements, to the point that the public face of evangelicalism has altered.

Boelter seems to have slid into the slipstream of American Christians who are more ideological than spiritual. As Peter Wehner put it in a 2022 interview, whereas churches used to contend over doctrine or practice, things have changed to the point where "a spiritual outlook has been replaced by a core identity that's political."

Though not perceived as particularly strident by his friends, Boelter used the kind of language in a religious context that Trump has normalized in the political context. Speaking to a congregation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he described homosexual and transgender people as "confused," which isn't incendiary, but then he added that "the enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul." Enemy talk is contagious.

Boelter, of course, is not an innovator. Other American murderers and criminals were motivated by radicalized Christianity, and he joins a lengthening list of terrorists motivated by MAGA: James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a group of peaceful protesters in Charlottesville in 2017. David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer. Patrick Wood Crusius, a 21-year-old from Dallas, drove to El Paso to open fire on those he perceived to be immigrants shopping at a Walmart.

In his manifesto, Crusius cited the great replacement theory and said, "This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas." In Buffalo, a man opened fire on Black shoppers at a supermarket. He, too, cited the great replacement theory. Cody Balmer ignited a fire at Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence in April. More than a thousand people were convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and countless MAGA supporters have issued violent threats against their fellow Americans.

Trump himself was the victim of two assassination attempts. But his opponents did not minimize, justify or celebrate these attacks. Trump has signaled again and again that violence in his name or for causes he supports is welcome. People like Boelter have gotten the message. Unlike the Muslim extremists, fear of whom Trump was able to weaponize, the new religious zealots are neither Muslim nor "self-radicalized." They are Christian and radicalized by those who hold the presidency and both houses of Congress.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Trump's New Promise: If He's Elected, 'You Won't Have To Vote Anymore'

Trump's New Promise: If He's Elected, 'You Won't Have To Vote Anymore'

During a recent campaign rally, former President Donald Trump appeared to suggest that voting in elections will be a thing of the past if he gets a second term in office.

The 45th president of the United States made the remarks while addressing a crowd of evangelical supporters at the Turning Point Action summit in West Palm Beach, Florida. After former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson introduced Trump, he launched into a speech that culminated with him calling on evangelicals to vote for him. The former president insinuated that 2024 would be the last election they would have to participate in because society would be “fixed.”

“And again, Christians: Get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore,” he said. “In four years you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not gonna have to vote.”

Trump did not elaborate on how things would be “fixed” if he won a second term, but the remark is yet another signal of a decidedly more authoritarian approach to governing than Trump had in his first term. During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said that he would be a “dictator,” but only on “day one” so he could “close the border” and “drill baby drill.” President Joe Biden, for his part, has overseen a 40% drop in illegal border crossings since passing an executive order cracking down on asylum applications and domestic oil production is at an all-time high under Biden. In May, the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that the United States is producing more oil than even Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The former president’s suggestion that things would be “fixed” so his supporters would no longer have to vote could be a reference to a Project 2025 partner organization’s call for the abolition of the 22nd Amendment, which established presidential term limits. In a March essay for the American Conservative, writer Paul Tonguette framed repealing the 22nd Amendment as expanding freedom for American voters.

“If, by 2028, voters feel Trump has done a poor job, they can pick another candidate; but if they feel he has delivered on his promises, why should they be denied the freedom to choose him once more?” He wrote. “As with Prohibition, it is simply a matter of finding the will to get rid of bad idea that needlessly limits Americans’ freedom.”

“Trump in 2028!” he added.

In recent weeks, Trump has sought to distance himself from the far-right Heritage Foundation’s authoritarian Project 2025 blueprint for the next Republican administration. Even though Trump has repeatedly denied knowledge of the group’s leaders or the details of Project 2025, Heritage has undercut those denials in its own fundraising materials.

Earlier this week, Media Matters for America reported that Heritage has consistently boasted about its close connections with Trump and his first administration, placing dozens of its alumni in his orbit and some in “key positions” in the Trump White House. The group also proclaimed that Trump implemented roughly two-thirds of its policy proposals in his first year in office.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Young Americans Leaving Church Over MAGA Ideology And Christian Nationalism

Young Americans Leaving Church Over MAGA Ideology And Christian Nationalism

In polls conducted in 2015 and 2022, the Barna Group asked respondents how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: "It is becoming harder to find mature young Christians who want to become pastors."

In 2015, 69 percent agreed either "strongly" or "somewhat." In 2022, the number had increased to 75 percent.

Blogger Hemant Mehta analyzes these figures in a column published on his Friendly Atheist blog on September 8. And he cites far-right Christian nationalism and the MAGA movement as key reasons why so many young Americans have no desire to become pastors.

"It doesn't help that the most pressing social issues of our time put conservative Christians on the wrong side of the moral divide — to the point where even younger Christians often disagree with what their churches teach," Mehta argues. "Thirty-eight percent of white evangelicals under 35 support abortion rights compared to 16 percent of those over 65. Younger evangelicals are more likely to support marriage equality. In 2020, younger white evangelicals were less likely than their parents and grandparents to support Donald Trump and Republicans in general."

Mehta continues, "If older pastors are worried about politics dominating their churches, why would younger potential pastors want to run churches made up largely of MAGA cultists? Many of the most devout younger Christians can't even bring themselves to attend churches, much less consider managing them. Why would anyone growing up in a culture where white evangelical cruelty is the GOP's entire platform, and sexual abuse is routinely swept under the rug, and women are treated as second-class citizens, and immigrants are seen as disposable, want the stigma of pastoring a Christian church?"

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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