64 Comments

It is difficult for me to understand how good, decent people I know still support Trump.

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Maybe they're not as good and decent as yoi think.

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You beat me to it, because I don't think anyone would support Trump if that supporter didn't agree with most if not all of what he stands for..

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If Trump isn't the Antichrist, it's probably J.D. Vance (haha). I read a news article yesterday where J.D. said that due to his conversion to Catholicism, he is now a "post-liberal." The term postliberal was new to me, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It appears to be thinly veiled white Christian Nationalism/Fascism. Is this the new way the Royalists (another word for wealthy oligarchs) intend to fool the masses into following what they call a "moral central government?"

Post liberalists supposedly don't believe in an unfettered free market anymore because it resulted in great inequality; so far, so good. But they don't believe in individual freedom and want a unified culture led by a religious government force. Wow. 1930s Germany deja vu!

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Pretty scary that people are scammed by it, eh? This is why education is so important, and why the Right is agin’ it.

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Spain under Franco (Opus Dei started there) and Italy under Mussolini. They all embraced a corrupted version of Christianity and the pope of that era allowed it.

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Encouraged it, and helped a lot of Nazis escape the aftermath of the Hol I caust they had un L washed on Humanity , not just the Jewish people.

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founding

This is a really cool piece, Thom.

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Good and evil is a religious concept to me. I'm agnostic, so I don't see him as anything but a psychopath. Trump has demonstrated this every day we have seen him.

As his awful actions accumulate, the MAGA cult only loves him more. It isn't a stretch to say they worship him, his lies, and the misery he inflicts. It is sadistic more than evil.

If there is a god or goddess, they are going to be very busy with this crowd on judgement day.

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To me it’s even worse that some 73 million

of us had a good look at his four years in office and decided to vote for him again . And , he seems tied with Kamala this time even with

34 felonies and multiple charges pending.

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As a fellow non-believer, I would simply point out that our psychological conditions “psychopathy”, “toxic narcissism”, “sociopathy” and the like, all have equivalents in the religious world view, either as cardinal sins or other proscribed forms of behavior. Certainly in the Bible, old and new, stories contain villains who exhibit these traits, and saints and sages who oppose them. What is so vexing about Trump’s ascendency is how vulnerable supposedly Bible-literate people have been to his blandishments and how the fiercest voices warning against him are more secular and humanist.

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I personally would not need a religious basis to reject the orange antichrist, but......

Who said, it is easier for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle than for Trump to enter the kingdom of heaven?

Evangelicals for Harris. https://www.evangelicalsforharris.com/

Kamala's Faith Story

A loving God, the Good Samaritan, serving others, and a deep respect for all faith traditions — these experiences, teachings, beliefs, and values Vice President Kamala Harris grew up with have shaped her into the leader she is today.

Her faith journey started when she was a little girl, singing in the children’s choir at the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, where she was born and raised. This was where she learned to have a living faith, one that expresses itself through one’s life, especially through service to others, particularly the vulnerable and powerless.

As she has said, “I’ve learned that faith is not only something we express in church and prayerful reflection, but also in the way we live our lives, do our work, and pursue our respective callings.”

For Kamala, her calling is to public service:

“I can trace my belief in the importance of public service back to learning the parable of the good Samaritan and other biblical teachings about looking out for our neighbors — and understanding that our neighbors aren’t just those who live in our ZIP code, but include the stranger, too. Over the course of my career, I’ve always tried to be an advocate for the voiceless and vulnerable …”

Harris’ favorite Bible verse — “We walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7) — recognizes that we don’t have all the answers, but also that we do not face life’s challenges alone. Our loving God is with us. “The God I have always believed in is a loving God.” It is this God in whom Kamala puts her trust.

​God is also with her through her church family. From them she draws strength and feels “grounded in a complex world.” Her church provides Kamala “a sense of community and belonging where we can build lasting relationships and be there for one another in times of need.” Her pastor, the Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, says Harris is there for others: “She is an encourager; she encourages all people regardless of their social station in life.”

While a deeply committed and faithful Christian, Vice President Harris has great respect for other faith traditions. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan and relatives in India took her to Hindu temples. She joins her husband, Doug Emhoff, in Jewish traditions and celebrations.

This respect syncs with her Baptist tradition, which has a long and distinguished legacy of support and activism for religious liberty and the separation of Church and State.

​Especially now that she is at the pinnacle of power, Vice President Harris keeps her trusting relationship with God at the center. “Like many people of faith, I have private conversations with God where I usually ask for the strength and protection to make good decisions and do the right thing.”

__________________________________________________________________

Mixed Marriage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGxQXmu7Os

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Here is something to consider Danel, Scenario:

Kamala wins, and despite all of the shenagins legal and extra legal, the boxes of Electoral votes gets to the Capitorl

Republicans might argue that Kamala Harris cannot certify her own Electoral College victory because she is the sitting vice president. Never mind that vice presidents have performed this awkward function since the beginning of the Republic and never mind that the law requires it. The fact that the vice president is tasked with performing this function was of course part of the Trump strategy for overturning the election results in 2020/21—but in 2024/25 it might be used as to argue that Kamala Harris’s election is illegitimate and rigged.

The case goes to SCOTUS, and SCOTUS rules that the Speaker of the House, next in line, counts and certifies the ballots and Mike Johnson did what Pence would not do, and the election goes to the Congress, where each state gets one vote, and Red states outnumber blue states.

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What, this demonstrably corrupt, accountable to nobody SCOTUS hand the election to the he-demon?

Yikes!!!

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In essence they already have. It boggle the mind, the High Unholy Catholic Supremacist Court had handed the country to an infidel, a blasphemous, lying perverted infidel, but he has great company in the Cult of Rome, it has been a scam since the Emperor Constantine created it.

Satire or not, the folowing is true: John Bale describes how the Pope gave a contemptuous response to a Cardinal Bembus who asked a question based on the Gospel. In his Paqgeant of the Popes that "All ages can testifie enough howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie," is commonly attributed to Pope Leo X, but it actually originated in a satirical piece by John Bale.

This fable has served well the carnal and secular designs of power hungry men who lust after wealth and sex and have a need to control the sexual object..and her womb.

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founding

Well, there's that.

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I agree with you William, they will try to steal the election, using the states and the Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States. I predict Trump will lose by about 10 million or more votes.

JD Vance switch to Catholicism after checking out atheism in the year 2019. He went from Evangelical to atheism to Catholicism? He sounds like one mixed up puppy or a lying grifter or both to me. Now he is the same religion as the Supreme Court of the United States how convenient? The pope has sent his teaming masses of immigrants over the border for the last 40 years and the right were blaming the left for it! The cult were afraid of the replacement area it looks like they're going to get it anyway. It is simple math, who would Trump rather hire, two immigrants for $10 an hour or one maga for $10 an hour?

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Replacement theory not area, sorry.

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Would it be to much of a Marxian stretch to recast the eternal battle of good and evil as the eternal class war between labor and wealth? It's evident that trickle-down economics is the most persistent scam ever perpetrated on the long-suffering working classes by the ownership class and their lapdogs in government and media.

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Jeffrey you are correct, the reason the nation is so messed up is because of voodoo economics that started when Nixon normalized relations with China or maybe even earlier with the assassination of John F Kennedy. With free trade, immigration, unfunded wars, bank bailouts, capitalist healthcare, GOP obstruction, Treason and gerrymandering by the GOP the last 45 years or so. Now the cult is brainwashed by the people who supported voodoo economics!

I think it goes all the way back to their Early childhood when they were taught that the "meek shall inherit the earth"! If you can get a child to believe a big lie, they will believe anything they are told and you can make them into soldiers slaves and servants! And they'll make it shall inherit the earth is the biggest lie ever told even bigger than Trump won the election!

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Interesting how drumpf snared the religious right with his promises to end Roe v Wade, only to come to them as a wolf in sheep clothing. Brilliant and evil, but what did they expect? They were not listening then, perhaps they’ll listen now. They’re not listening still.

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I am an atheist, but when I look at the predictions set out by the Christian faithful over the centuries, I see that they describe not only Donald J. Trump, but the response to him by our people who claim to be the Christian faithful. Predictions were that The Anti-Christ would stride into churches and convince the faithful to follow him, presenting himself as the rightful spiritual leader, and leading them into perdition.

What could be a more accurate description of the Trump trajectory since the Laying on of Hands, consecrating him as God’s chosen leader, and the fawning contention that their god would use a flawed person to realize its godly aims … Ah, all ways to keep “the sheep” following this Anti-Christ.

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"Freedom for the wolves means death to the sheep" as Stiglitz says when discussing unfettered markets.

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Sep 10·edited Sep 10

We all know people who are "anti-Christs." I'm not religious so I don't attribute the awfulness of awful people to "the Devil" or demonic forces. I do think when governments allow unfit individuals to amass too much wealth and power, expect an anti-Christ to emerge. The problem with awful leaders like Trump, Putin, Kim Jung Un, etc. is that they want the highest seat of authority but are in way too deep over their heads. Running a corporation is elementary compared to running a country. Contrary to popular misbelief, being a successful business person is not enough to lead a country, especially the most powerful and wealthiest country worldwide. As President , Trump was awful because he was in way over his head and he had too much pride to admit it. He had sycophants around him feeding his ego and convincing him that he was the best and the brightest, the top of the pyramid. In a way, the people and professionals around him faciilitated his incompetence. He's not an anti-Christ, just a man in over his head. That's the plain truth under all this discussion about anti-Christ.

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Trump is anti good and God! His kind will turn America into a third world place where the living will envy the Dead!

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I was moved originally when I read Jesus' explanation of how to act in life. It was well put here. I knew about Donny's Grandfather. His whorehouse was in Canada during the gold rush. When he wanted to go back to Germany, they wouldn't have him back because he had not put in his national service in the German army. So he moved to the States.

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He originally left Germany to avoid the draft, although it's not clear if he also claimed Bonespurs. He actually got back to Germany, where he was promptly evicted and Shipped back to us, and got past Immigration, probably by lying. Cowardice and Lying run deep in DonOlds genetics.

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This conversation is very disturbing. Christ is imagined by millions to be super-human, the son of God, the savior of all who believe and the powerful being who condemns non-believers to eternal damnation and misery. That makes the Anti-Christ powerful, superhuman, and an evil mastermind. All that is superstitious and mythological nonsense that we should have outgrown by the time we were twelve or thirteen. Trump is a weak, pathological, misguided, power-hungry nitwit. His power is derived from the large number of gullible and confused souls who have become his hapless victims. His evil is in his acts and policies which should be our focus. He is a blip on the radar screen and is disappearing rapidly thanks to our still functioning legal process and little else. Self-destruction is in his genes. Religious interpretations, doctrine, and fantasies are only slowing down the process.

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Trump is a false prophet. Jesus Christ warned us that there would be false prophets and false messiah’s (Matthew 24:24) during the “birth pains”. I died in 2008 in the ICU. Saw the entrance to Heaven but was sent back by my late father in law and my White Andalusian stallion - told I was to fight.

Jesus brought Lazarus back. There are stories from people who have seen the other side going way back. But Covid increased our number dramatically.

Heaven is about love. It is real.

There is another place.

Many people have written about their experiences.

So while Trump was letting people die from Covid - The Lord was increasing the numbers of his returned on earth.

We are stronger than we would be at this age. And we no longer fear death because we have already crossed over.

Trump is everything The Lord hates.

Proverbs 6:16-19

Those who follow Trump - the MAGA risk 2 Peter 2

MAGA=2Peter2

Trump is a liar - who is the prince of lies?

What does trump offer versus Harris/Walz? John 10:10

Trump, musk, the oligarchs and the autocrats fell for the second temptation - rule the kingdoms of the earth.

What are Christians supposed to do?

What the Love others as Jesus loved us. Jesus died for our sins. He sits in judgement of us.

Judge not or so shall you be judged.

Stop judging other people like these false prophets, false teachers and false christians.

They are spreading hate and division

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Don't judge. Run the other way.

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Gosh, people in Christianity have been naming opponents and/or dictators "anti-Christ" since Emperor Nero started burning believers in the First Century. The rationalwiki site named dozens of them that somebody said fit the bill, including Hitler, FDR, Napoleon, Reagan, Kissinger, Biden, Gates and so on. But we don't need angels and devils as humans are quite capable of reach both the heights and depths of their natures.

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Thank you Thom, as a life long non-believer, that last line of "you do unto me" is all that I really remember. I was the next Acolyte in line for the pastor's pleasure when word got out about the several previous and my parents decided Sunday school was not worth the risk.

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Sean, I am respectfully asking you to slow down. If you really want people to read your remarks, please don't use them to spam the other commenters.

Saying something once will get you readers. Turning it into spam will get you ignored. Thom and Nigel had a lot of trouble with trolls and bots before, so I hope you are neither.

Your list is good, but you can ruin it by repeating it and stepping on others' comments.

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author

I've blocked Sean from posting for 24 hours for flooding the site, and deleted all his previous posts. Hopefully when he returns he can restrain himself.

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Very fair as you always try to be here or on-air, Thom. I know I have to restrain myself everyday in these crazy times!

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I don't see Trump as the Antichrist or an agent of Satan (or Sauron, for that matter). I don't even see him as an agent of Putin. If he serves a purpose, that purpose is up to us to decide, and it's up to us to decide what to do about it. To look for divine, demonic, or otherwise supernatural explanations for Trump is to let us off the hook. Trump's arrival on the political stage wasn't inevitable, but if you go back a few decades and examine political and economic decisions that were made or (often) not made, he looks more and more plausible. It helps to trace at the same time the degradation and eventual disintegration of the Republican Party. Without that I doubt Donald J. Trump would ever have risen above New York City slumlord and failed casino owner.

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Sep 10·edited Sep 10

I agree that had not the seeds of his calumny been planted at least as far back as McCarthy or even before, then nurtured by the likes of Nixon and especially Ronnie Raygun, he'd never have been anything but a bargain basement failure.

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Susanna, you might reconsider the Putin issue.

There was a 2017 article in the WAPO titled "House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump".

This was a hot-mic situation, and they tried to pass it off as humor. Not funny, and the fact they said they'd keep it in the family makes me think they were not trying to be funny.

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Maybe I wasn't clear what I meant by "agent of Putin"? I mean someone who consciously carries out Putin's directives, or more broadly those of a Russian agency. Trump admires Putin, sucks up to Putin, but he's at best a useful idiot, a dupe. Putin uses Trump but he's way too smart to trust Trump as an agent. Trump pretty clearly has dictator-envy. He'd love to be one himself. Fwiw, I just finished reading Ruth Ben-Ghiat's STRONGMEN. Trump is one of the authoritarians/dictators she covers, along with Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Mobutu, and Gaddafi. He's nowhere close to the smartest one in the bunch.

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We absolutely know what you have stated is what we see with our own eyes.

On the other hand, if he has taken money from Putin, that's the very definition of an agent. I believe he has taken money and is an agent.....those Republicans believe it too.

Not all agents are spies, they just sell what they know or let people copy what they have stored in their bathroom, and they do it for the money.

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Of course he is ! No doubt at all

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