Folgen
-
Your friends on social media may have reposted inspiring graphics in which Pope Leo XIV (AKA Robert Prevost) said, âTo be called woke in a world that sleeps through suffering is no insult.â
Itâs bogus. Pope Leo XIV never said any such thing.
An atheist made up the fake quote using an artificial intelligence chatbot in order to see how many people would fall for the hoax. âThe fact that so many of you wanted this to be true shows how far Catholicism is from real progress,â he said, revealing the fake.
Pope Leo XIV also never said that âTo be woke is not a threat. It is a calling.â Thatâs another fake quote. Pope Leo XIV has never defended the woke perspective. In fact, he has criticized it.
What about the following statement, though?
"You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test you. And many are failing."
Nope. Itâs another fake quote. Pope Leo XIV didnât say it.
Thereâs a longer quote claiming to be from Pope Leo XIV that people have been forwarding around in which the new Pope directly criticizes Donald Trump:
âTrump, the immigration policies you've implemented are a blatant trampling on both the teachings of the church and the promises of the American dream. You've made a big show of declaring a state of emergency at the border, dispatched the military to enforce the law there, canceled birthright citizenship and even had law enforcement officers barge into places like churches and schools which are supposed to be inviolable to arrest illegal immigrants. You're turning the United States into a country that has no room for tolerance, going completely against the diversity that the U.S. has always advocated. In order to win those so-called votes and pander to some extreme voters, you've resorted to all means to create external enemies and have intensified social conflicts. All of your actions are a hideous manifestation of white supremacist ideology. What's more, the incident of you accepting an airplane from the cartel is truly despicable. Such behavior of yours has seriously damaged the image of public officials. You're simply using your power as a tool to seek personal gains. I, Robert Prevost, firmly oppose everything that you stand for. Every single thing you've done is dragging the United States into the abyss of darkness and undermining the very foundation of this country.â
By this point, you know what Iâm going to say. Yes, itâs a completely fake quote. This supposed statement by Pope Leo XIV was uploaded in a video that was explicitly labeled as generated by AI tools.
When Pope Leo XIV did not speak up for liberal social values, liberal Christians seized upon fake quotes in order to avoid confronting the brutal reality that the Catholic Church is an anti-liberal organization.
What Pope Leo XIV Actually Has Said
In a previous episode of this podcast, I noted Pope Leo XIVâs verbal attack against atheists, accusing them of causing all of the problems that have in fact been caused by Christian Nationalists. Pope Leo XIV said:
"A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society."
Now, Pope Leo XIV has issued a new statement criticizing LGBTQ marriages, saying that governments around the world should only support families that are âfounded upon the stable union between a man and a womanâ. Pope Leo XIV has also criticized what he calls the âhomosexual lifestyleâ.
Pope Leo XIV has not made a single statement or gesture that criticizes Donald Trump. At the same time, Pope Leo XIV is criticizing the acceptance of non-Christians and LGBTQ people.
People are spreading false quotes from Pope Leo XIV because the real statements the new Pope is making are unpalatable. Pope Leo XIV is not a liberal. Like every other Pope before him, Pope Leo punches down.
Pope Leo XIV is turning a blind eye to the abuses of Christian Nationalism. He wonât be coming to the rescue of an America that is falling into Christofascism.
-
The traditional American view of politics is that the population chooses leaders who represent their interests, and manage a government that meets their needs. The government is organized into different departments, which are staffed by people who have studied their areas of expertise, and deliver specialized services for the good of the country.
The Christian Nationalist view of politics is quite different from that. Under Christian Nationalism, people hope that their needs will be met through the magical services of spirits whose powers can be summoned through ritual incantations.
Consider the following prophecy made by Christian Nationalists in July, 2020. The prophecy said that Democrats seek to destroy the United States through spellcraft, political assassination, and allegiances with monsters.
âThe goal is to put an evil black Communist woman in the White House, who is dedicated to the tearing down of America and the shredding of the Constitution. If she is a real witch, so much the better, since the Democrats have been using witches and wizards against Trump since he became president. Satan wants to control the White House. She will be the Vice President for Biden, and immediately after he is inaugurated, there will be a fatal accident and Biden will become history. Biden has committed himself to the Marxist agenda of Communist Bernie Sanders, so that is already the goal of the Democrats. And once this poor, senile, incompetent is vanished, freedom in America will be banished.â
In hindsight, we can see that this Christian Nationalist prophecy was not true.
Joe Biden did not advance a Communist agenda while in the White House.
Joe Biden was not assassinated by Kamala Harris.
Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris destroyed the Constitution. Neither did they banish freedom.
I shouldnât have to say this, but wizards are not real. Witchcraft is not real. Demons are not real.
That this prophecy is nonsense should be obvious. The tragically absurd reality is that it isnât obvious to many Americans.
When I was a kid, if you asked me about what life would be like for an American in the year 2025, I would have predicted that our world would be defined by astonishing technological advancements.
I would not have predicted that the person who became President of the United States in 2025 would be elected by people who believe that secret societies of wizards and witches control use magic spells to control the American political system. I would not have predicted that fear of Satanic plots motivated Americans to elect a Christian Nationalist fascist with ambitions of becoming the first dictator of the United States of America.
When I was a child, I believed that the political culture of the United States would continue to improve, that Americans would learn from the mistakes of the past and find new ways to live with each other in an enlightened peace with respect for differences. Instead, America has reverted to the superstitions of the medieval Puritans.
In medieval times, people had some excuse for believing in magic, monsters, and evil spirits. Many people were not literate, and did not have access to formal education. Science was just beginning to emerge as a beacon of light in the darkness of religious conformity.
There is no excuse for believing in wizards and witches and demons today. Americans have access to scientific knowledge. They have schools in which they have the luxury of learning how to think clearly over years free from the burden of childhood labor.
32 percent of Americans have chosen to believe in absurd magical nonsense. They have thrown away the opportunities of democracy in favor of idiotic conspiracy theories that donât even have any internal logic.
32 percent of Americans have voluntarily given their government into the hands of Christian Nationalists who believe that worshipping a prophet who has been dead for two thousand years is more important than feeding and educating children today.
32 percent of adult Americans voted for Donald Trump.
31 percent of adult Americans voted against Donald Trump.
34.7 percent of adult Americans chose not to vote in the 2024 presidential election at all.
34.7 percent of adult Americans could not bring themselves to oppose a campaign that was blatantly fascist and Christian Nationalist.
Because of them, and because of the 32 percent of adult Americans who voted for Donald Trump, we now have a US federal government organized around the belief that an ancient magical incarnation of a vengeful cosmic spirit could return to the Earth at any moment. The USA is under control of people who believe that the return of this ancient cosmic spirit is the foundation of what America stands for.
I shouldnât have to explain why thatâs an absurd basis for a national identity in the year 2025, but I do.
In the year 2025, America is being run by people who are obsessed with a fear of dark wizards and demons.
It is difficult to hold out any hope for a country this moronic.
Christian Nationalism is the ideology of a new Dark Age.
-
Fehlende Folgen?
-
Thereâs a new Catholic Pope this week. He named himself Pope Leo XIV, and he gave his first speech.
The obvious question on everybodyâs mind was how the new Pope would address the danger posed by Donald Trump, who is threatening war with Canada, ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and an end to democracy in the United States, with new concentration camps in Guantanamo, El Salvador, and Alcatraz.
Pope Leo XIV chose to respond to this historical moment of growing fascism by blaming atheists for it all. He declared:
"A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society."
This statement is astonishingly out of touch with the reality of social struggle today, especially given that Robert Prevost, the man who now calls himself Pope Leo XIV, is from the United States. Letâs break down his statement, point by point.
Is the loss of meaning in life caused by lack of faith?
There certainly is a general feeling of a loss of meaning in society these days, but it doesnât come from a lack of faith.
Donald Trumpâs rapid dismantling of American democracy is causing huge numbers of people to feel a loss of meaning, and not just in the United States. People around the world had come to regard the USA as unshakably democratic, with a strong system of constitutional law that established and protected liberty for generations. Now, Donald Trump is violating that system of civil liberties, transforming the United States into an authoritarian regime that upholds few principles other than that Donald Trump can do whatever he wants. Americans, and liberals around the world, are dumbfounded by this turn of events, and many are left feeling unmoored, struggling to find a sense of meaning now that the promises of liberal democracy have been abandoned.
Donald Trump was elected with the support of the majority of American Catholic voters, and through the organized political influence of right wing Catholic organizations.
Pope Leo XIV did not choose to talk about any of that in his homily, however. Instead, he warned against the danger of people entering âa state of practical atheismâ.
Is the neglect of mercy caused by lack of faith?
In the world today, the most tragic examples of neglect of mercy come from Christian Nationalist governments, not atheists.
The government of Russia, which aligns itself strongly with Christianity, is mercilessly attacking the nation of Ukraine.
Israel is waging a campaign of explicit ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and is doing so with the strong encouragement of the Christian Nationalist government of the United States.
The Christian Nationalists in charge of the US federal government have begun to defund medical research and disaster response, and have taken systematic action to eliminate programs that deliver food to the hungry and medicine to the sick. Millions of deaths are projected to take place by the end of this year because of this Christian Nationalist neglect of mercy.
None of the perpetrators of these cruelties were atheists. To the contrary, the leaders responsible for this neglect of mercy are both personally religious and politically connected with religious political organizations. Lack of faith has nothing to do with their motivation. In fact, these leaders frequently cite religious faith as a motivation for what they do.
Are appalling violations of human dignity caused by lack of faith?
Donald Trump, the Christian Nationalist President of the United States, has begun systematic programs of the torture and humiliation of prisoners who have no record of criminal activity. He has described entire nations and ethnicities of human beings as âanimalsâ who deserve to be hunted down like âverminâ.
Trump does these things even as he declares that he is âbringing religion backâ using the power of the US federal government.
Trump is a lifelong Christian who frequently cites experiences going to church and talks about how his special relationship with the Christian god has brought him to power.
Lack of faith has nothing to do with any of this.
Is a crisis of the family caused by lack of faith?
Donald Trump is ripping families apart, splitting up married couples during ICE raids, putting people into prisons from which they cannot contact their families, and even deporting young children who are citizens of the United States while denying them life-saving medical care.
At the same time, Christian Nationalists are clamoring to declare same-sex marriages null and void. Catholic organizations funded by the US federal government are refusing to allow LGBTQ married couples to adopt children. Christian groups are banning books from public libraries for no other reason than that the books dare to mention that same-sex married couples exist.
In the United States of America, Christians, not atheists, are causing a nationwide crisis of the family. The power of faith is proving corrosive to family life, as religious groups spread divisive conspiracy theories and encourage their adherents to shun family members who refuse to submit to the authority of faith leaders.
Atheists just arenât doing that.
Lack of Faith Leads to Resistance to Fascism
The Christian Nationalists who control the US federal government are destroying democracy and establishing fascism as an expression of their faith.
Non-religious Americans are the strongest most reliable opponents of Donald Trumpâs cruel Christian Nationalist fascism. Americans who live without faith voted against Donald Trump by the largest margins of any cultural group in the United States.
The majority of Christian voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump, and months into Trumpâs second presidency, the majority of American Christians strongly support Trumpâs seizure of totalitarian power.
Atheists and other non-Christian Americans are the ones most reliably holding the line against cruelty, corruption, and social chaos of fascism. Only 14 percent of American Christians are willing to identify themselves as liberals.
Faith Organizations in America Are Using Fascism to Gain Power
Last week, Donald Trump announced the creation of a new governmental bureau, headquartered in the White House itself, that is dedicated to protecting Christian power in America.
At a ceremony announcing the creating of the bureau, called the Religious Liberty Commission, Trump stated explicitly that the purpose of the government bureau is to blend the power of church and state, defying the First Amendment to the Constitution from the Bill of Rights. Trump gave a wandering speech, in which he acknowledged that this mixture of church and state defies all legal precedent in the United States. Trump said:
âYou know, they work right out of the White House. Theyâve never done that. Thatâs never been done before. No other president allowed that. I think, you know, they say separation, they say separation between church and state, they told me. I said, all right, letâs forget about that for one time. We said, really? Separation? I donât know. Is that a good thing or a bad thing. Iâm not sure, but whether there is separation or not, you guys are in the White House, where you should be, and youâre representing our country, and weâre bringing religion back to our country, and itâs a big deal⊠Today, as the American people turn to God and prayer, we continue a tradition that is older than our independence itself⊠and interestingly, I had none of them, had I had a rigged election, had the election not been rigged, I would have been out of here. I would have been gone. The radical left would have said, we got rid of him, finally. But no, now they have me for another four years. We talk about that⊠and weâre going to always bring God with us. Weâre going to bring God to those celebrations. Weâre not going to forget about God⊠We rejoice that God answered those prayers, and I think God answered other prayers, because he has put in an Administration to run this country that is going to make you proud again. Itâs going make you believe and believe more again. Just a hundred days, we are respected all over the world. Every leader is calling and wants to have a meeting, appointments.â
âWeâre not going to forget about God,â Donald Trump said. This is not the voice of a person who is suffering from what Pope Leo XIV called âa lack of faithâ. Donald Trump is proposing the opposite of a lack of faith. Trump is proposing that the US federal government âmake you believeâ, that it force the faith of Christianity on the American people whether they like it or not.
Donald Trump was talking to the members of the Religious Liberty Commission, who are:
Dan Patrick, chair of the Commission
Dan Patrick is Lieutenant Governor of Texas. As Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick has declared that members of the Democratic Party must be fought against because Democrats are either controlled by demons (âpowers and principalitiesâ) or are demons themselves. Patrick said:
âScripture says the horse is made ready for battle but the victory is the lordâs, but we have to be ready for battle. We have to be ready for the fight, because we are not in a fight any longer of Republicans and Democrats of the old days. We are in a fight of lightness and darkness. We are in a fight of powers and principalities.â
Dan Patrick has stated that the United States was created by the Christian god, not by any human political leaders. Patrick declares that the Christian god wrote the Constitution.
The Constitution itself contradicts that claim. It declares that it was written by the people of the United States, and that the Constitution was established by people. The first words of the Constitution are:
âWe the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.â
There is no mention of any god or spirit or ghost or anything other supernatural in the Constitution, and thatâs by design. The only time the Constitution mentions religion, it is in order to separate government from religion. Dan Patrick either doesnât understand that, or is willingly exploiting the ignorance of religious Americans about this aspect of American history and law.
Ben Carson
Ben Carson is not a religious leader, but is a politician, a former Trump cabinet member who has embraced Christian Nationalism.
Ryan T. Anderson
Ryan T. Anderson is a former staff member of the Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025, a document that urges Donald Trump to replace constitutional freedoms with the freedom to obey. Ryan has preached against sexual freedom, decries âthe widespread acceptance of contraceptionâ, and argues that LGBTQ marriages must be broken up, in order to comply with Christian beliefs. Thatâs not, âreligious libertyâ, but Christian Nationalists use the phrase âreligious libertyâ as a euphemism for Christian power.
Robert Barron
Robert Barron is a Catholic bishop. He is a Christian Nationalist who claims that legal rights of people in the United States were not established by any government, but were established by and are subject to the arbitrary power of the Christian god. âIt is exceptionally dangerous when we forget the principle that our rights come from God and not from a government,â Barron writes. Barron has embraced the totalitarian dictatorship of Donald Trump in order to promote this idea that the United States of America is the creation and property of the Christian god, and must submit to that godâs absolute power.
Carrie Prejean Boller
Carrie Prejean Boller is a former beauty pageant contestant who opposes legal equality for LGBTQ Americans. She is a former member of the advisory board for Women for Trump. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Boller paid children to go into public spaces without any mask to protect them from infection.
Timothy Dolan
Timothy Dolan is a Catholic archbishop. Dolan is an anti-LGBTQ activist who has argued that the marriages of LGBTQ Americans âimperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriageâ and has stated that LGBTQ people do not have the right to engage in sexual relationships with each other. Dolan also coordinated with the Vatican to conceal $57 million dollars from legal courts so that the money could not be used to compensate children who had been raped by Catholic priests.
Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham inherited the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from his father. He is a preacher who called upon the Christian god to physically attack President Barack Obama, and has claimed that Barack Obama collaborated with the âSpirit of AntiChristâ.
Eric Metaxas
Eric Metaxas is a radio talk show host, who says that recognizing the legal rights of transgender Americans is part of âa Satanic warâ and claims that separation of church and state is âSatanâs willâ.
Kelly Shackelford
Kelly Shackelford is the CEO of a legal firm that specializes in establishing legal precedents for overturning separation of church and state.
Paula White
Paula White is a Christian preacher who claims to have the power of prophecy. After Donald Trump lost the presidential election of 2020, she attempted to use magic chanting to call angels from Africa to fly over the Atlantic Ocean in order to use their supernatural abilities to overturn the election. White has argued that the American people are not capable of handling the responsibilities of ruling themselves in a democracy, which is why the Christian god should be allowed to take over the USA.
Meir Soloveichik
Meir Soloveichik is the only non-Christian member of Donald Trumpâs Religious Liberty Commission. He is an orthodox Jewish rabbi who has spoken against separation of church and state.
â
These American religious leaders (well, only some of them are actual religious leaders) did not challenge Donald Trump at this ceremony. They were happy to stand side by side with Americaâs fascist dictator, endorsing his government, in exchange for political power. Instead of criticizing the sadistic crimes and abuses of Donald Trump, they shook his hand and smiled.
Their faith led them to embrace Donald Trumpâs crimes, to embrace his fascism.
These religious leaders show that lack of faith is not the problem.
An excess of faith is the problem.
âThe loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our societyâ are problems that result of the lack of healthy skepticism, the lack of critical questions, the lack of independent thinking, and the lack of resistance to people and institutions that claim arbitrary authority.
If he were to approach his new job as Pope Leo XIV with an attitude of honesty and humility, Robert Prevost would focus on the role of Christian Nationalist ideology in promoting the cruelty of fascism. He would preach about how faith can create a vulnerability to exploitation by authoritarian regimes.
For the new Catholic Pope to use this historical moment to blame atheists for the problems created by Christian Nationalists is beyond disappointing. Itâs despicable.
-
Secretary of State Marco Rubio uses Easter to promote the idea that Jesus is king over the entire world, as a matter of official US State Department policy.
In Texas, teams of Christian Nationalists from a group called My God Votes have been laying hands on each other to magically protect the Texas state legislature building from attacks by demons and other spirits.
The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case where the state government of Oklahoma is seeking to provide taxpayer funding for religious schools with the explicit mission of indoctrinating children in Catholic theology and rituals.
Amidst all this rampant Christian Nationalism, a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute finds that non-Christian Americans provide the strongest opposition to Donald Trumpâs dictatorship, while the majority of American Christians want to see Donald Trump seize even more power.
-
Donald Trump has announced that he will disobey a unanimous ruling by the US Supreme Court, placing himself in the position of a totalitarian dictator above the law. Trump also has declared plans to begin sending American citizens to massive concentration camps in El Salvador, each one capable of holding tens of thousands of people as prisoners.
As this new wave of fascist crackdowns in the United States begins, We Are Higher Ed is sharing statistics indicating that thousands of foreign students are having their visas revoked. These nonviolent, non-criminal students are being declared illegal aliens even though they entered and remained in the United States legally.
The Christian Nationalists in charge of the White House are deporting and detaining large numbers of university students at the same time that billions of dollars in funding for colleges and universities is being withdrawn. The goal is nothing less than the destruction of higher education in the United States.
Christian Nationalists know that education is negatively correlated with church attendance, and Christian Nationalist preachers make money by getting people into the pews. With fewer foreign students paying tuition at American universities, the higher education system in the United States cannot survive, and thatâs just how Christian Nationalists want it.
Christian Nationalism aims for a less knowledgeable, more gullible American public dependent on churches after the destruction of education and other government services.
Christian Nationalist fascism has begun in earnest.
-
This weekâs episode of Stop Christian Nationalism is a bit different. For the first time, Iâm having a guest on the podcast: F.G. Fitzer, who is the author of a new book that confronts Christian Nationalism in an unusual way: By offering a new version of the Christian Bible. The book is called The Demonic Bible: Book of Genesis, and itâs available through Lulu and Amazon, as well as on the Demonic Bible web site as an ebook.
A transcript of our conversation is below.
Clifford Cook:
Thanks for talking with me. Iâm wondering about your choice to write The Demonic Bible. Itâs combining two ideas, demons and the Christian Bible, that most people donât think are compatible. Why did you decide to write this book?
F.G. Fitzer:
Hm. Well, I do realize that The Demonic Bible is an unorthodox book, but let's stop and just think about that word for a minute, okay? Unorthodox. What does that word actually mean? It doesn't mean that something is wrong, or harmful. Something is unorthodox if it fails to comply with the ideological expectations of people in power. The word unorthodox comes from Christianity four hundred years ago, when Christian kingdoms around the world were using bloody military violence to force their religious beliefs on people. It was used to refer to someone who did not have the proper opinions. You know, I think we need to ask who has the power to tell other people that their opinions are proper or improper. How did they get that power?
Clifford Cook:
So, you wrote The Demonic Bible to challenge Christian models of power. What makes that an important project?
F.G. Fitzer:
Look at what is happening to the United States of America right now. The country is in chaos. The USA has never been a perfect secular democracy, but from the beginning, that is what it was designed to be, and the secular nature of American democracy is an important part of what has kept the country from falling backwards into Christian dictatorship, which is what the Christian kingdoms that dominated the world before American independence were really all about. Donald Trump and his followers are trying to drag the whole world, not just America, back into the dark days of religious totalitarianism.
Clifford Cook:
How can you deal with the issues of Christian totalitarianism in history, and as they are returning through the Christian Nationalism of Donald Trump, by writing a new version of the Bible? The Bible was written before all of that history. Why bring up this ancient book again?
F.G. Fitzer:
I would love nothing more than to leave the Bible in the past. Christian Nationalists make that impossible. They are trying to make the Christian Bible into the law of the land in the United States, and around the world. We need to deal with that, by taking their fundamental document, the Bible, and giving it a level of scrutiny. People excuse the actions of Christians in power by saying that the Christian religion is a force for good in society. The Demonic Bible does not take that for granted. It looks at the Christian Bible, line by line, book by book, and then examines the connection between Christian scripture and present day Christian abuses of power.
Clifford Cook:
What did you find when you examined the Bible in this way?
F.G. Fitzer:
For one thing, you can see that Christian Nationalism takes its obsession with nationalism and political domination straight from the Bible. Some people say that Christian Nationalism isnât biblical, but right from the start, in the Book of Genesis, there is an emphasis on dividing people according to national groups, with the story of the Tower of Babel, for example. Violent nationalism is also found in the New Testament, with its promises of a bloody global religious war to establish absolute Christian dominion.
Clifford Cook:
Okay, but why make this a demonic Bible, though? Why not call it The Atheist Bible?
F.G. Fitzer:
I did not want to launch an attack on Christianity from the outside. I wanted to explore Christianity from the inside, but from the perspective of a political dissident. That is what a demon is. Of course, demons are not real. They are mythical creatures. However, the voice of the demon is a useful tool in exploring the problems with Christian politics from within the Christian worldview.
Clifford Cook:
So, how did you find the voice of the demon within Christianity, then?
F.G. Fitzer:
That was simple. I realized that the essence of the Christian Bible is that it makes declarations of reality without allowing any space for questions. Demons are rebels against the divine monarchy of the Bible. Demons are creatures who live within questions. So, I made the voice of the demon a questioning voice. Instead of attacking, the demon merely questions. The conventional interpretation of the Bible falls apart from there.
Clifford Cook:
You represented the conversation between the demon and the angel in The Demonic Bible as a cartoon. Why did you do that?
F.G. Fitzer:
The cartoon format makes The Demonic Bible the most easy to read version of the Bible there is. The traditional Christian Bible is all about the Word. Christians say that the Bible is The Greatest Story Ever Told, but the truth is that the Bible is very difficult to read. Itâs full of unstated presumptions, repetitions, inconsistencies, and profoundly out of date cultural references. Worst of all, however, is that the Christian Bible is dense. Itâs weird, because the book is full of magic, but it puts most readers to sleep.
Clifford Cook:
How does a cartoon format for The Demonic Bible remedy that?
F.G. Fitzer:
The cartoon format promotes a conversational approach to the text. Instead of one voice going on and on and on, there are two voices, and they are interacting with each other. Furthermore, the demon and the angel both represent the practical, real world view of people living today. They ask the questions that Christian preachers never want to deal with, and talk about the issues that churches just wonât touch.
Clifford Cook:
Wonât making the Christian Bible accessible to readers just strengthen the position of Christian Nationalists?
F.G. Fitzer:
Itâs possible, but I donât think so. Most people who leave Christianity do so because they begin to read the Bible for themselves, and ask questions about it. A sincere question is always a challenge to faith. Thatâs why I believe that The Demonic Bible will undermine Christian Nationalism. Not every Christian who reads The Demonic Bible will leave Christianity, but those who remain within Christianity will shift to a more demonic Christianity.
Clifford Cook:
Demonic Christianity? Thatâs an interesting concept. This is a long-term project though. At present, only the first book of The Demonic Bible is available. When will the next book come out?
F.G. Fitzer:
The next book in the Demonic Bible will be out later this year, before the autumn of 2025. That book will cover the Book of Revelation. I think itâs important for critical readers of the Christian Bible to understand both the beginning and the end of Christian scripture before they read the middle, because the beginning and the end together reveal the ideological mission of Christianity. The narrative end of Christianity in the Book of Revelation is essential to an interpretation of the rest of the Bible, but most Christian readers skip over Revelation.
Clifford Cook:
Thank you for talking with me about this fascinating project. I look forward to seeing where you take it next.
Find out more about the Demonic Bible at DemonicBible.com
-
A few weeks ago, we reported on the demand from Christian Nationalist Andrew Isker that when Christian dominion is established over the United States, Jews must not be allowed to persist within the country.
Now, Isker is promoting the conspiracy theory that airport security scanners have secret âgay beamsâ in them that allow Jews hiding behind walls to steal adrenochrome from travelers and transform them into flaming homosexuals.
If you wonder how so many Christians can continue to support Donald Trump, hereâs your answer: Theyâre being trained to accept all manner of nonsense in the name of faith.
-
Yesterday, the Christian U.S. House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben rose to the floor of the House of Representatives as Congress began its day of work.
She prayed to her god, claiming that everything that Congress does is because of the Christian god. Then, she prayed to the Christian god, asking that he direct Congress to take on the weight of its responsibility to glorify Christianity and its god.
It was 6:00 in the evening, and the House was just beginning its work day.
What happened after that?
After being in session for seven minutes and forty-five seconds, the U.S. House of Representative adjourned, and everyone went home to sleep, to get energy for the next day.
Then, today, the U.S. House of Representatives met again. They adjourned and went home to rest after two minutes and fifty-eight seconds of work.
Wow. Thereâs nothing like the power of prayer, is there?
What a sterling example of the contributions that Christian Nationalism is capable of making.
Why isnât Margaret Grun Kibben fired for incompetence?
Why does the US Congress continue to pay a fat salary, plus office expenses, plus the salary of a staff for Margaret Grun Kibben?
Oh, you know why: The congressional chaplains are paid cheerleaders for the political extremism of Christian Nationalism, an ideology that wants nothing more than to destroy democracy in the United States of America.
-
One sign of growing fascism in America is that people are being arrested for âunlawful assemblyâ. Those of you who didnât sleep through civics class in high school will remember that the Bill of Rights specifically guarantees freedom of assembly to all people in the United States.
In Kansas, however, freedom of assembly is being treated as a privilege, not a constitutional freedom. In Kansas, freedom of assembly is only being granted to Christians. Non-Christians are being told that they need to stay out of the public square, and cede that space exclusively to Christians.
Hereâs how it went down. At the end of last week, three non-Christians tried to hold a religious ritual in the state capitol building of Kansas.
You may be thinking to yourself that this doesn't sound proper, and you'd be right. State government buildings do not exist for the purpose of hosting religious rituals. It's better for everybody for religion and the government to remain separate. In fact, the Constitution of the United States declares that government cannot act to establish religion.
The thing is that in Kansas, the state government sponsors Christian religious rituals every day. On some days, there are many different Christian religious ceremonies in the Kansas Statehouse.
Non-Christian citizens and organizations in Kansas, however, have not been given the same access. Government religious rituals in Kansas have been granted to Christians only.
Earlier this year, a group of non-Christians from Kansas requested to be given the ability to hold a religious ritual in the Kansas state capitol, just as Christians do every day. Their request was refused.
So, in protest, the group of non-Christians announced that they would hold their religious ritual in the Kansas Statehouse anyway, as a protest. In response, Governor Laura Kelly, a member of the Democratic Party, issued an order forbidding protests in the Kansas Statehouse.. but only for the precise day when the non-Christians had said they would hold their ritual in protest.
Both houses of the Kansas state legislature also passed resolutions condemning non-Christians in Kansas for trying to hold a ritual as Christians do, and for defying the religious laws of Christianity.
Then, when the non-Christians showed up anyway and attempted to hold their religious ceremony, they were arrested and thrown into jail for âunlawful assemblyâ.
I wonder, will your opinion of this story change if I tell you the name of the non-Christian group?
Their name is The Satanic Grotto.
You may be thinking that Satanists are bad. How do you know if thatâs true, though? Who tells you that Satanists are bad? Christian preachers do, of course. Christian preachers donât tolerate people who disagree with their sermonizing, after all.
The Satanic Grotto doesn't preach violence. In fact, they operate under these principles:
Self-preservation is the priority of the law. Your rights end where another's begin.
Responsibility is the weight of the law. Own your actions.
Respect is the spirit of the law. Treat others how they treat you.
Consent is the measure of the law. Ask permission. Don't take what isn't yours.
Now, contrast that with the Christian Bible. The character of Satan? Barely mentioned. But the character of God? Well, in Job, it's God who makes a deal to test a man's suffering. And in Revelation, it's God who is prophesied to bring destruction upon the world.
So why are Christian Nationalists so enraged by Satanists?
Because The Satanic Grotto represents something they despise.
They are feminists. They support LGBTQ+ rights. They oppose racism.
And Christian Nationalists? Well, they have a history of opposing women's rights, seeking to criminalize LGBTQ+ Americans, and defending systemic racism.
But this isn't just about ideology. It's about rights.
The Kansas government is not just promoting Christianityâit's enforcing it. A theocracy in practice.
In Kansas, if you're not Christian, you can be arrested simply for asking for the same rights Christians enjoy every day.
And that's the problem. Not whether Satanists are right or wrong. Not a theological debate.
This is about whether religious freedom applies to everyone. Or just one group.
Christians in Kansas claim The Satanic Grotto is committing blasphemy.
And you know what? Maybe they are.
But in a truly free country, blasphemy is not a crime.
In Kansas? It is.
This is what Christian Nationalism looks like. This is how freedom dies.
Christian Nationalism is the handmaiden of fascism in America today.
"Handmaiden" is the Christian Bible's term for a sex slave.
The more we look at the role of Christian Nationalism in government in the USA, the more it sinister it seems.
-
All across America, in the federal government, state governments, and for all we know, local governments as well, Capitol Ministries, a network of Christian Nationalists is now instructing government officials that they must obey the teachings of Christianity, rejecting non-Christian religions as false and unacceptable. Government leaders who are tasked with making decisions about foreign relations, science, medicine, and disruptive digital technologies are being told by Christian preachers that the problem they really need to focus on is the infiltration of the USA by evil spirits, demons who have gained magical control over the minds of 4 out of 10 Americans.
Is it any wonder that the Christian Nationalists who now control the federal government are shutting down schools, closing scientific laboratories, and placing law enforcement agencies under the control of religious zealots? Christian Nationalists are taking America back to the era of witch hunts and religious inquisitions.
We know what the results of those campaigns for religious purity lead to. From the Salem Witch Trials to the Spanish Inquisition, Christian Nationalism has led to campaigns of terror, with torture and murder in the name of Jesus.
Capitol Ministries is setting the stage for religious violence, instructing government leaders that people who refuse to comply with Christian Nationalism arenât even really human, having become minions of Satan who must be stopped at any cost.
-
Donald Trump has seized power, thrusting the United States into a constitutional crisis where absolute power rests in the hands of one man. This totalitarian brutality is inspired by the Christian Bible, where one magical dictator sets the rules for the entire world, and nobody else has any right to say no. In Texas, posters of the Ten Commandments in public schools are teaching children that slavery must be respected, that women are objects, and that freedom of religion is sinful. In West Virginia, a proposed constitutional amendment declares that the Bible is scientific truth and an inerrant historical document, while imposing Christianity on all citizens. These three places share the same despotic ideology of Christian Nationalism.
-
In a confirmation of exit polls from November 2024, The Pew Research Center data shows that Christian Americans are the group that most strongly identifies with the cruelty and chaos of Donald Trump.
This podcast episode starts out with Christian Nationalist preacher Andrew Isker explaining that in the new America controlled by Donald Trump, there will be no room for Jews. Even a Judeo-Christian theocracy would be too secular for him. Isker wants to replace American democracy with a Christian monarchy.
And what would that Christian monarchy look like?
Letâs not speculate. Letâs see what social scientific survey data shows American Christians want for the USA.
According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center:
First of all, the more religious you are in America, the more likely you are to identify with the Republican Party.
Confirming exit polls from the 2024 presidential election, among highly religious Americans, this new survey shows that 61% support the Republican Party of Donald Trump. Among Americans who are not very religious, only 27% support Donald Trump and the GOP.
Atheists are the least likely group in America to support Republicans â only 15% of atheists do. The majority of Christians, the survey found, support Republicans and Donald Trump. Thatâs not just Christian Nationalists, by the way. Thatâs Christians in general.
Donald Trump is a particularly Christian problem for America, not just a generally religious phenomenom.
Only 31 percent of Jews, 29 percent of Hindus, and 42 percent of Muslims support Donald Trumpâs Republican Party. The majority of Christians do.
The survey found that 67 percent of atheists say theyâre liberal.
Only 14 percent of Christians said that theyâre liberal.
Being kind to others is mostly an atheist value. When it comes to welcoming of outsiders, for example only 27% of highly religious Americans in the survey said that immigrants make America better.
Twice as many Americans with a low level of religious identity believe that immigrants strengthen America. Whatâs more, a whopping 89 percent of Atheists say that Americaâs openness to people from around the world is essential to Americaâs identity as a nation, a much higher level of acceptance of strangers than is found in any religious group in the USA.
Only 27 percent of Christians say that immigrants make America better.
When it comes ideological diversity, the same pattern holds. Only a minority of Christians said that religious diversity strengthens American society, while 75 percent of Atheists agreed that religious diversity is good for America.
What about helping people in need? If youâre in need in America, who should you go to - Christians or atheists?
Two thirds of Christians said that the government should NOT do more to help people in need.
The opposite is true for atheists. Two thirds of atheists said that the government SHOULD do more to help people in need.
Christian America elected Donald Trump. Christian America helped Republicans install a Christian Nationalist majority on the Supreme Court. Christian Nationalists likewise control both houses of Congress.
The results are not a mystery. The cruelty and chaos that we see, and the destruction of American democracy, is not an anomaly. Itâs not a mistake.
The cruelty and chaos are what Christian Nationalists have been working for all this time.
-
A few days ago, The New York Times released a podcast episode reviewing a book written by its most extreme right wing columnist, Ross Douthat (pronounced, âdow thatâ). Douthat was featured on the episode, but was joined by two other New York Times writers, Michelle Cottle and Carlos Lozada.
The subtitle of the book expresses its central idea: âEveryone Should Be Religiousâ. Carlos Lozada expanded on that assertion, explaining that the goal of Douthatâs book is âto make this rational, empirical, intellectual case for religious belief.â
The odd thing is that the author, Ross Douthat didnât make a single rational argument for being religious in the entire podcast episode. He merely stated,
âThere probably is a God. The universe is probably made with you and with you, Carlos, and you, Michelle, and maybe even me in mind.â
Not once in the entire episode does Douthat provide any rational argument or source of empirical data to justify the belief that the entire universe, with its quasars, black holes, mostly consisting of a vast cold emptiness, was constructed specially for him. He simply states that itâs true, and expects the podcast audience to agree with him as a matter of faith.
Faith, devoid of facts and reason, was a perspective that Michelle Cottle got right on board with. She declared:
âLook, Iâm a big fan of faith, and generally, it might surprise Ross, of organized religion. I do think people have this innate longing for a sense of purpose and order to the universe, and if youâre not believing in a divine power, you tend to gravitate toward less savory options, like political messiahs, whack job conspiracy theories, but look, I grew up Southern Baptist.â
Yes, Michelle Cottle is a Christian, and a big fan of religion. All three of the people participating in the podcast episode are Christians. They didnât think to invite a non-religious person, or even one person from a non-Christian religion, to participate in the conversation. In New York City, that wouldnât have been difficult to do, but the editors at the New York Times seem to have decided that non-Christian viewpoints are no longer appropriate for broadcasting and publication.
The decision to exclude non-Christian voices from the New York Times, in order to make Christian faith seem like the obvious, and default choice, is especially disturbing when one considers that Michelle Cottle isnât just a podcast contributor at the New York Times. Michelle Cottle occupies the US Politics seat on the New York Times editorial board.
Occupying that position, Cottle should know better than to claim that atheists are more likely than religious believers to support demagogues and conspiracy theories. Listen again to what she said.
âIf youâre not believing in a divine power, you tend to gravitate toward less savory options, like political messiahs, whack job conspiracy theories.â
A genuinely empirical consideration of the value of religion would acknowledge that social research and other sources of data have consistently shown Michelle Cottleâs claim to be false. The facts:
In 2021, sociologists analyzing Gallup survey data found that âreligious belief, religious identity and religious participation are all positively and strongly correlated with believing in popular contemporary falsehoods.â
The results of a 2022 meta-analysis published in the Journal of Research in Personality showed that âpeople who believe in conspiracy theories are more likely than other people to hold pseudoscientific beliefs, exhibit paranoid ideation, suffer from schizotypy, be narcissistic, be religious/spiritual and have lower cognitive ability.â
A 2022 study in the journal Environmental Research and Public Health concluded that âpeople with high religious fundamentalism are more likely to endorse conspiracy theoriesâ.
In 2022, a study published in the journal Political Psychology described a âsignificant positive correlation between religiosity and conspiracy mindset and a slightly stronger correlation between religiosity and the tendency to endorse specific conspiracy beliefsâ. The authors explained that, âThe positive correlations suggest that similarities in the cognitive and explanatory styleâlike assuming hidden powers behind eventsâspeak to the same persons and dominate the relation between conspiracy theory endorsement and religiosityâ.
In June of last year, an academic analysis published in the journal Politics And Religion found a ârelationship between religious attitudes, spirituality, and conspiracismâ.
If youâre looking for a âpolitical messiahâ in the United States, thatâs Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been the only presidential candidate since George W. Bush to claim that he was chosen by God and divinely anointed to become President of the United States. There is no alternative messianic politician on the Democratic side of the aisle. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris never even hinted that they believed they had been chosen by spiritual beings as the rightful occupants of the White House, and Democratic voters did not promote any such nonsensical beliefs.
Exit polls in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections consistently showed both that the majority of Americans voting for Donald Trump were Christian and that the majority of American Christian voters supported Donald Trump.
Exit polls in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections show that non-religious Americans were the most reliable group of supporters for candidates opposing Donald Trump.
There is no empirical source of information that supports Michelle Cottleâs claim that lack of religious faith in gods is associated with belief in conspiracy theories and support for âpolitical messiahsâ. All the data points strongly in the opposite direction. Religious people are the most likely to indulge in conspiracy theories and messianic nationalism.
When Michelle Cottle insulted non-religious Americans, she didnât bother to check the facts. She spoke from her faith, and she got it dead wrong. Thatâs the kind of mistake we might expect from a YouTube influencer or a member of Moms For Liberty. To see this kind of sloppy failure of all journalistic ethics from the editor of national politics for the New York Times is alarming.
Itâs alarming because conspiracy theories and a Christian Nationalist messianic cult of personality are tools that Donald Trump is using to attack the very foundations of democracy in the United States of America. Donald Trump has placed extremist Christian Nationalists in almost every corner of the US federal government, and itâs these Christian Nationalists, using conspiracy theories and weird stories about Donald Trumpâs special relationship with God, who are rapidly destroying American society from the inside out.
Yes, Elon Musk is getting a lot of attention for his administrative coup dâetat, and rightfully so. Just as active in the fascist takeover of the USA, though much more quiet in his assault, has been Russ Vought, architect of Project 2025 and White House Director of Management and Budget. Elon Musk is doing dramatic poses with a chainsaw in front of the cameras, but behind the scenes, itâs Russ Vought who is directing the collapse of American democracy through criminally defunding government agencies in defiance of laws passed by the US Congress.
Russ Vought is also one of the most powerful leaders of the Christian Nationalist movement. Vought has explicitly called for an end to freedom of religion in America, in favor of forcing all Americans to obey the harsh religious laws of Christian extremism.
In 2023, Russ Vought appeared on The Sword And The Trowel, a podcast hosted by Tom Ascol, a preacher who has called for homosexuality to be made a crime for which the punishment is death. This is explicitly Nazi ideology, along with the violent Christian Nationalism that the Third Reich used to keep the gullible German public in line. In that podcast episode, Vought said the following:
âWe talk about being a nation that's for God. That's a consensus that we want to renew in this country. That we have religious liberty, but it cannot come from this notion that a country isn't understanding the reality that it has to obey God and there is only one true god and that is Jesus Christ our lord.â
The Orwellian doublespeak coming out of Russ Voughtâs mouth is astonishing. In one breath he declares that America has religious liberty, but in the next breath goes on to explain that religious liberty should only exist to the extent that the entire nation are forced to obey Christianity, which all Americans will be compelled to accept as the only valid religion.
Russ Vought wants to force all Americans to become Christians. So why is he working as Donald Trumpâs Director of Management and Budget?
Christian Nationalists have declared that their goal is to take over every aspect of American society to compel Americans to worship Jesus in every aspect of their lives. The US federal government has been most significant barrier to them achieving that goal. The US federal government has upheld the Constitution, which provides all Americans with equality, regardless of their religion.
When Americans are able to provide for themselves economically, free from all forms of discrimination, they have no need of going to church. Year after year, Americans have been abandoning Christian churches, choosing to live free of abuse by Christian leaders.
Russ Vought wants to herd Americans back into church by destroying civil society. Vought has explicitly said that he wants to âtraumatizeâ Americans so that they wonât want to work with the US government, and wonât be able to expect any help from the government. In the wake of this nationwide destruction, with their economic and social independence smashed to pieces, the plan is for Christian churches to swoop in and regain control.
With public schools destroyed, publicly-funded church-run Christian schools will take their place. With public health infrastructure devastated, publicly-funded Christian hospital networks will take their place. Christian Nationalists plan to do this to every sector of American society, until there is no place left that is not under the control of Christian leaders, who will become wealthy and powerful as the administrators of kind of neo-medieval unelected government under which the will of God and the will of the priestly ruling class will become one and the same.
To achieve the goal of Christian supremacy, Russ Vought is overseeing the destruction of every part of the US federal government that cannot be easily brought under the sway of the Christian Nationalist extremists Donald Trump has appointed in every cabinet department.
As for their Christian values, we can judge them by their works.
They are cutting off medical care for the sick.
They are allowing food to rot in storage rather than giving it out to feed the hungry.
Medical research projects that were saving lives have been shut down.
There is no compassion in Christian Nationalism. There is only the worship of absolute, totalitarian power, with a cruel pyramid of domination that starts with the all-powerful God, then goes down to the all-powerful President, in a structure of religious authoritarianism that ensures obedience through fear.
The Christian Nationalists donât care how many Americans are being hurt in the process. They are willing to destroy the lives of anyone that gets in the way of their accumulation of power.
So it is that last week, U.S. Representative Mark Alford told fired federal workers at a town hall meeting in Kansas City, Missouri that they shouldnât worry about losing their jobs because, âGod has a plan and purpose for your life.â
This is the Republican plan for America: Take away peopleâs jobs. Take away their medicine. Take away their food. Take away their democracy. Then, tell Americans not to worry about it, because a magical spirit from the sky has a plan for them.
What is Godâs plan for the huge numbers of Americans who are out of work, out of food, losing their homes under the destructive chaos of Christian Nationalism? Well, of course, there is no plan. Thereâs only, as Donald Trump put it, a concept of a plan.
So weâre all just supposed to pray to Jesus, and hope that some kind of magical power is going to turn it all around, is going to make it all okay, somehow.
Of course, itâs not going to be okay, if all we do is pray about it.
We need to take action.
Take action:
This Friday, February 28, is a nationwide economic blackout. Donât buy anything on Friday. Donât go to the store. Donât fill up your car with gasoline. Keep your money in your pocket.
Take action:
Next Tuesday, March 4, is a day of nationwide protest, with anti-fascist demonstrations in every city across the nation.
Take action! March forth!
-
Immediately after his victory in the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump met with representatives of Alternative For Germany. Then, Elon Musk, who has become a kind of unelected Chancellor of the United States of America, appeared as an official speaker at a Alternative For Germany convention, declaring that Germany must stop trying to distance itself from its Nazi past. Now, this weekend, Vice President JD Vance made a speech in the German city of Munich in which he announced that the German government must allow for political parties to promote Nazi ideology again, in the name of âfree speechâ, and urged the German parliament to stop trying to prevent the Alternative For Germany Party from taking power.
Vice President JD Vance was, in essence, calling for a return of the Nazis to power in Germany.
In case there could be any doubt at the pro-Nazi agenda of the Musk-Trump governmentâs delegation in Germany this weekend, the new American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who has longstanding ties to American Nazi organizations, came along with JD Vance to Germany. Hegseth brought his own entourage to the event, which included a man named Jack Posobiec. Hegseth appointed Jack Posobiec as an official Trump White House media representative for the American delegation to Germany.
Jack Posobiec is an American Nazi has repeatedly used Nazi symbols and language in his communications, including the code 88, which stands for âHeil Hitlerâ, and the infamous Fourteen Words mantra, which is derived from Adolf Hitlerâs book Mein Kampf, and declares, âWe must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.â
One year ago, Jack Posobiec appeared as a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and announced that it is the intention of the Republican Party to destroy American democracy forever. Listen to his words for yourself:
âWelcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didnât get all the way there on Jan. 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it, and we will replace it with this. Thatâs right, we will replace it with this, because all glory is not to government. All glory is to God!â
With his words âreplace it with this,â Jack Posobiec raised his hand in the air, to display a necklace with a Christian cross. At another microphone, Trump strategist Steve Bannon bellowed, âAmen!â The point was obvious. Jack Posobiec wants to end democracy, and replace it with Christian power.
Jack Posobiec doesnât just talk about smashing democracy. He takes action. In 2017, Posobiec organized an event by a group of neo-Nazis that had a history of bombing Jewish homes in Poland. To anyone who knows the history of Polish Jews under the German occupation during World War II, this action should be shocking. Poland was the home to some of the most horrific concentration camps of the Holocaust.
The link between American Christian Nationalists and German Nazis has become undeniable. They arenât even attempting to conceal what theyâre doing anymore.
Elon Musk, Donald Trump and their minions are openly promoting the new German Nazi Party. Theyâre doing it as an expression of their Christian Nationalism.
Just think about this in terms of whatâs happening in the United States. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are scapegoating and persecuting immigrants in order to âpurify the bloodâ of America. Theyâre opening up a 30,000 person concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay to do it. Theyâre attacking freedom of the press, and theyâre consolidating power in the Executive Branch through a plainly criminal seizure of power.
Theyâre purging the government of everyone who refuses to pledge absolute loyalty personally to Donald Trump, and theyâre doing it in the name of eliminating DEI. DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion used to be bedrock American values, but now, Christian Nationalists are treating these values as if they are something evil. In their hatred of ethnic and cultural diversity, equity, and inclusion, Christian Nationalists are following in the footsteps of the Third Reich.
The goal of American Christian Nationalism is to restore Nazi ideology to Germany, and to do what Adolf Hitler failed to do: To impose Nazi power on the United States of America, and do it in the name of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus, they are replacing DEI with NAZI.
After everything that this country went through to stand up to the Nazis the first time around, are you going to sit still while they try to take power again?
-
At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump envisioned an America in which Christianity controls every aspect of life. He promises to make the United States a nation where nobody can escape the power of Christianity.
Donald Trump announced that he is creating a White House office dedicated to imposing Christian Nationalism, and that the Attorney General of the United States will form a task force to identify ways to impose Christianity through the American legal system. He bragged about his power, and praised the Christian god as a god of power.
He did these things having just ordered an end to US government spending on food for the hungry, medicine for the sick, and shelter for the homeless. He did this right after breaking the law to impose his power as an absolute fascist leader of the United States.
Over and over again, Christian leaders applauded the new fascist leader. They clapped and cheered for the man who gleefully made others suffer as a demonstration of his power.
At the National Prayer Breakfast, American Christian leaders showed their adoration for the raw power of fascism. They did so because they know that as Donald Trumpâs power grows, the power of Christian leaders to enforce their religion across America will grow as well.
Christian Nationalism in a nation where the law is defined by one unchecked strongman is nothing more than a cult of power.
Christian Nationalists have sacrificed compassion to seize power, and in doing so, they have brought with them the worship of the Jesus of the Book of Revelation, a messiah of fury and vengeance. Theirs is a Jesus who lets the hungry starve, who treats the homeless as despicable plague, and who withholds medicine from the sick, all the while blaming them for their lack of faith.
Their Jesus is cruel and cold, and is ready to punish all those who refuse to accept his Almighty authority. Their Jesus is like their Trump. Their Trump is like their god. Theirs is a worship of power.
-
Donald Trump:
âIt should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there. Instead, we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza. This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, twelve. It could be numerous sites or it could be one large site. The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It's right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.
The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.â
Reporter:
âThank you, Mr. President. Mr. Prime Minister. You are talking tonight about the United States taking over a sovereign territory. What authority would allow you to do that? Are you talking about a permanent occupation there? Redevelopment? And Mr. Prime Minister, do you see this idea as a way to expand the boundaries of Israel and to have a longer peace, even though the Israeli people know how important that land is to you and your citizens, just as the space is inherited by the Palestinians as well?â
Donald Trump:
âI do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East. And everybody I have spoken to, this was not a decision made lightly, everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know, nobody could look, because all they see is death and destruction and rubble and and demolished buildings falling all over. It's just a terrible, terrible sight. I've studied it. I've studied this very closely over a lot of months, and I've seen it from every different angle, and it's a very, very dangerous place to be, and it's only going to get worse. And I think this is an idea that's gotten tremendous and I'm talking about from the highest level of leadership, gotten tremendous praise.â
This announcement will utterly delight Christian Nationalists for the very same reason that it will terrify everyone else.
For decades, Christian Nationalists have been agitating for the United States to get involved in a massive military conflict in order to expand the borders of Israel. The reason for this is that Christian Nationalists believe that their divine prophet Jesus can only return to Earth after Israel takes over more land, returning the country to the full territory it occupied in ancient times.
Christian Nationalists believe that the United States is destined to get involved in an enormous war, during which Jesus will return to lead Americaâs armies in a global bloodbath that slaughters everyone who refuses to convert to Christianity, and then be made king of the entire world.
Christian Nationalists donât think that a bloody global war of religion would be a tragedy. They eagerly anticipate it, and they want American politicians to engage in belligerent actions that will provoke such a war, because theyâre tired of waiting for Jesus to come back. They want to see Jesus as soon as possible, and theyâre happy to start a big war in the Middle East in order to make it happen.
Itâs obvious to anybody who understands the history of the two Gulf Wars that any attempt by the United States to permanently own and militarily control any territory in the Middle East will lead to disaster. The First Gulf War under George H.W. Bush was itself brief, but led to a long-term presence of the US military on bases in Saudi Arabia and in the air over Iraq. This military presence is what motivated Osama Bin Laden and his followers to attack the United States on September 11, 2001. That attack that led to the longest wars in American history, with a supposed âWar On Terrorâ in Iraq and Afghanistan that lasted for over twenty years.
Itâs been just a few years since Americaâs military has been home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and now, Donald Trump wants to begin the cycle of war all over again. Donald Trump says that everyone heâs spoken to tells him that a permanent American military occupation of the Gaza Strip is a great idea, but thatâs only because Trump has surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear.
No serious historian or military leader can say that an American occupation of the Gaza Strip that begins with a forced ethnic cleansing of the land can be accomplished without massive bloodshed and a destabilization of the region leading to death and despair for the people in the area and any American soldiers unlucky enough to be sent on the insane mission.
-
A week and a half into Donald Trumpâs new term as President of the United States, and already we he is opening a huge concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. Trump has signed a law that forces all non-citizens to be taken away to Homeland Security prison camps if they have merely been accused of a crime. Pete Hegseth, who has called for the murder of all Muslims and wants to make the United States a Christian theocracy, has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to scientific and medical research and is issuing executive orders forcing public schools to teach a false version of American history. Across the US federal government, career civil servants are being fired and replaced with people who have few professional qualifications other than absolute loyalty to Donald Trump.
At the center of the chaos and destruction from Donald Trump is the ideology of Christian Nationalism, a belief system that rejects the validity of objective reality and demands that everybody and everything in the United States submit to a draconian version of Christianity. Some Americans have a difficult time understanding the relationship between fascist political power and Christian Nationalism. They think of Christianity as something meek and mild, set apart from the crude manner and ruthless agenda of Donald Trump.
In holding to this vision of what counts as Christianity, hopeful liberals ignore what Christianity has come to mean for most American Christians. They pretend that Christian Nationalists are somehow âfake Christiansâ, even though the majority of American Christians now ascribe to the ideology of Christian Nationalism and voted for Donald Trump in 2024 on the basis of that ideology. While Christianity as a whole is on the decline in the USA, the ranks of American Christian Nationalists are rapidly growing.
The ideological roots of Trumpâs fascism in Christian Nationalism are clear to see, if you care to look for them. The religious nature of Donald Trumpâs new fascist hold on power were made clear at the 2025 inauguration. At the height of the inauguration ceremony, Christian preacher Lorenzo Sewell delivered a prayer claiming that Donald Trump was chosen by the Christian god to be President of the United States. Sewell said:
âHeavenly Father, we're so grateful that you gave our 45th and now our 47th President a millimeter miracle. We are grateful that you are the one that have called him for such a time as this.â
This wasnât the first time Lorenzo Sewell had performed for Donald Trump. It wasnât the first time that Lorenzo Sewell told a national audience that Donald Trump is a magically selected prophet of the Christian god. Last summer, at the Republican National Convention, Sewell told an auditorium of wealthy Republican elites:
âIf you believe that Jesus still changes lives, come on, put your hands together and give our great god great glory! I believe that prayer is preventative and prayer is proactive. I believe that praying in the name of Jesus changes everything, and when we prayed for President Trump, only God knew that thirty days later, there would be a miracle by a millimeter. Only God knew that if we prayed for him during his birthday, there would be a miracle by a millimeter. If President Trump had moved one millimeter, he wouldn't have been here on Monday to talk to us about how America was going to be made wealthy again... Before I take my seat, I just got to talk to you about something called providence and something called sovereignty. God's sovereignty is his ability to be able to do what he wants when he wants, because he's God. And God's providence, it's when he does what he wants, when he wants for all of you. Did you know that President Trump was shot on 6/11, and do you know that Ephesians chapter number six, verse number 11 says, 'Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.'
So all my Democrat friends, I want to ask you one question. Do you know anybody that was the 45th president? He was convicted of 34 accounts, he raised $53 million in 24 hours and could be the 47th president of the United States in America, and he was shot one time? Do you know anybody like that? To all my friends back in Detroit who are Democrats, I'm going to ask you just one simple question. You can't deny the power of God on this man's life. You can't deny that God protected him. You cannot deny that it was a millimeter miracle that was able to save this man's life. Could it be that Jesus Christ preserved him for such a time as this? Could it be? Could it be that when we prayed for him, when he came to the roundtable in Detroit, that Jesus asked and he received that we sought him and then he found protection? Could it be that the King of Glory, the Lord God strong and mighty, the God who is mighty in battle protected Donald Trump because he wants to use him for such a time as this? If you believe that, come on and put your hands together and give our great god great glory!â
If youâre listening closely, you have noticed a phrase that Lorenzo Sewell used both at Trumpâs inauguration and at the 2024 Republican National Convention: âfor a time such as thisâ. Sewell preached last summer that âthe God who is mighty in battleâ chose Donald Trump âfor a time such as thisâ, and repeated that assertion at the inauguration last week.
Itâs a strange phrase, because itâs rooted in the archaic language of the Christian Bible. When Christian Nationalist preachers use the phrase âfor a time such as thisâ, they are making a reference to a specific passage in the Bible. Specifically, this phrase is used as a reference to the belief that Christianity has a rightful claim to totalitarian political power, and that violence is an acceptable tool to achieve Christian political domination.
The phrase âfor a time such as thisâ appears only once in the Bible, in the Book of Esther. It is spoken at the dramatic peak of the book, as Mordecai tells Esther that she has been placed through the magical powers of the god Jehovah in the court of the Persian king for no other purpose than to enact Jehovahâs political will.
-
The imprisonment of people in a gigantic military-run prison in a place that has been declared to be outside the reach of both international and American law, a place with an infamous history of torture, can only be described as a concentration camp. One week into his second term in office, Donald Trump has taken the United States of America into full fascism, and heâs doing it with the cooperation of Christian Nationalists like Ryan Walters in Oklahoma.
-
On January 24, 2025, Donald Trump sent ICE agents to rip children out of an elementary school in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago Public Schools refused to allow them into the school building, but they will be back.
The same day, hundreds of people were seized in federal government fascist raids in Newark, New Jersey. The Trump government refuses to name the people it took prisoner, and refuses to say where they are being imprisoned and what will happen to them.
This is what Donald Trump said he was going to do. Americans didnât want to believe him, but now itâs really happening. The United States of America is turning into a rogue fascist regime.
This is what Christian Nationalism looks like.
People will tell you that there is no resistance, that everyone has given up. So,. whatâs the point?
The point is that nobody, certainly not elementary school children, should be grabbed by fascists, deprived of their habeas corpus rights, and sent off to secret prisons.
The city of Chicago stood up to Donald Trump. The city of Chicago is resisting. Will you remain silent, or will you join them?
-
Christian Nationalism asserts that war crimes are only committed by other people. Christian Nationalists in the US House of Representatives passed H.R. 23 yesterday, a bill that defunds the International Criminal Court and threatens to punish anyone who helps the Court to do its job.
The ICC is an organization dedicated to giving fair trials and legal punishment to individuals who commit violent atrocities during war. The court prosecutes human rights abuses without discrimination, and that infuriates Christian Nationalists.
Yesterday, Congress passed HR 23, legislation that withdraws US funding for the International Criminal Court, and requires sanctions against any individual or organization that helps the court to do its job of holding war criminals accountable.
Christian Nationalist support for HR 23 puts to the lie the claim that Christianity is a religion of peace. Christian politicians flocked to protect war criminals yesterday, following the ancient religious standard from the Old Testament and New Testament that atrocities should only be punished when they are committed by other people.
- Mehr anzeigen
