(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Are Evangelicals in Iowa Christians? 47% say "NO!" [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-22

I was once confronted by an Evangelical Baptist who said that Catholics were not Christians. This comes from a seven hundred year old, carryover and temporal belief that the corrupt and evil Popes who were attached at the hip to government before and during the Reformation, were the Anti-Christ (devil) mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

In fact, the legal Romanization of Christianity in 325 AD by Emperor Constantine signaled the corruption and moral demise of most Christian sects, then and now, by forcing the modification of Christ’s message to allow for slavery, war, an economic class system and the punishment, even by physical means, of anyone who did not believe in Christ. Then, in the fifth century AD, St. Augustine borrowed from Cicero’s Republic on Roman civil government and wrote the City of God, which allowed for physical punishment within the family unit for not abiding by Christian practices as well as the violent defense via war of Christianity by the Roman church/state. This was used later to morally and religiously justify the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. It eventually morphed into today’s Just War Theory, which then was further adulterated and used by “Christians” to excuse the pre-emptive and pro-active violence (get them first if you think they might get you) of the Iraq War.

So much for following Christ’s example of “do unto others...”, the equality of “the least of these, my children”, redemptive suffering and non-violent resistance. Martin Luther King, Mandela and Ghandi understood. When asked what he thought about Christianity, Ghandi said, “It’s a great idea. Someone should try it.” Christ asked that we follow and imitate him — not worship him. But worshipping him and then doing whatever you want is much easier.

And so, we can thank evangelicals for outing themselves in the latest Iowa poll. They are clearly choosing not to be Christians anymore because they do not follow and imitate Christ. They follow and worship by their vote a selfish, non-Christian, corrupt and unable to tell the truth, wanna-be dictator. They do not evangelize for Christ by example but for Trump as he follows Hitler’s playbook in his rocky rise to power. Fortunately, he’s doing so ineptly. Perhaps he’ll write an updated version of Mein Kampf while in prison. He’s already read its long chapter on propaganda. And, he also believes, as Hitler did, in Stalin’s assertion that, “If you tell a lie long enough it eventually becomes the truth.” That appears to be coming true, at least for those without the ability to discern — to logically separate fact from fiction and truth from lies.

If Trump is elected, he has already pledged a Crusade and Inquisition against… well, anyone who disagrees with his lies — his definition of an “enemy”. His acolytes in the Greedy Old Penises (GOP) have already started. Emperor Constantine, after his “conversion” to Christianity, had his wife and son assassinated in fear of a coup ten years after he presided over the Council at Nicea. That’s where the books to be included in the Bible were chosen. And it then became illegal under Roman law to practice any other religion or to read other religious texts (books were banned and burned - sound familiar?)— with government punishments including fines, flogging, imprisonment, excommunication and/or exile. Thus, after three hundred years of Christian persecution by Romans (more if you consider the millennia that Christ’s people, the Jews, had experienced as a slave class) Christians joined their persecutors. And the Jews, who wrote the Christian Old Testament, were among their first targets. Maybe it will become illegal to be any type of fake Christian other than an Evangelical if Trump becomes Emperor.

47% of Evangelicals in Iowa want to repeat Rome’s co-opting and perversion of Christianity from two millennia ago and, therefore, can no longer claim to follow Christ. The new church/state is something to be feared, which is why our forefathers sought to keep them separated in our Constitution. And, even if evangelical support is passive and by voting only, while they disingenuously, and hypocritically worship on Sundays the exact opposite behavior in the one who they claim is their Savior then, as the old African American spiritual says, “If you don't say it’s wrong, that says it’s right!”

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Or, do they and who’s the Anti-Christ now?

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/22/2188801/-Are-Evangelicals-in-Iowa-Christians-47-say-NO

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/