The Displaced Plainsman graces us this Sunday with a link-rich indictment of evangelical support for Donald Trump. My friend from Yankton ties together Scripture and secular philosophy to show that Trump has less empathy than Nietzsche, has turned Norman Vincent Peale’s power of positive thinking into “pagan disdain” for Christianity, and may be far closer than Hillary Clinton to the Lucifer Ben Carson imagines Saul Alinsky worshiping.
The Plainsman’s well-sourced prose deserves your full attention. I cite just two passages. First, he reminds Christians amen-ing Carson and Trump that “that it’s not enough to hate evil, one must also cling to the good. There’s no discernible good in Trump’s politics.”
The Plainsman then jumps back from Romans to Jeremiah and Psalms to remind fellow believers of the Scriptural warning against a false prophet who urges listeners to place all faith in him:
Finally, if the political, theological, and philosophical musings are not convincing arguments that this overwhelming support for Trump will bear no fruit, consider Christianity’s source material. Jeremiah warns,
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.[Leo Kallis, “Oh You Foolish Evangelicals!” The Displaced Plainsman, 2016.07.24]
Note the title. Note the source, Galatians 3:1, and the Plainsman’s immediate use of the next line, “Who has bewitched you?” That’s good use of Scripture, more honest than I’ve heard from any Trump supporter.
Christians, read the Plainsman’s full essay, then, if you’re still voting for Trump, please tell him where he got Scripture (and Nietzsche!) wrong.
I will admit that I am not much of a God’s people in that I am kind of commando in many respects. Having said that, this guys is. I speak of President Obama and the words he spoke a couple of days ago with the president of Mexico, our third largest trading partner (who would have thunk that?) Anyway, if you believe in the words of a song that “God shed his grace on thee”, then we all should be glad and proud that God did indeed shed his grace on thee with the election of President Obama (twice for all of you non believer republicans). Read his words and relish them as they articulate actual thought and reason. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/22/remarks-president-obama-and-president-pena-nieto-mexico-joint-press
Now imagine your brain on meth and you get the idea behind Trumps disconnect with words.
Oh for crying out loud….the GOP names Obama as the Devil, the DEMs name Trump as the Devil….devils everywhere but no attention to actual corruption based upon law and reason – and the DNC tried to oust/discredit Bernie Sanders for not having a religion. Ship of Fools!
Leo, get the facts straight you goofball. The DNC did not try “to oust/discredit Bernie Sanders for not having a religion.” One staffer wondered about going down this road and it went nowhere in point of fact. For this infraction, heads rolled.
Bernie fully supports Hillary Clinton and knows she is someone he can work with to effect change.
D…E…M…E…X…I…T for people like Darin Larson, blind loyalists to Hillary Clinton who have consistently discredited, and always insulted (“goofball” for example) Bernie Sanders and his supporters despite evidence to the contrary.
Leo, when you stop distorting the facts, I will stop calling you a goofball. You are deliberately overstating the infraction here.
The DNC did not try “to oust/discredit Bernie Sanders for not having a religion.” I notice you did not argue with me on your deliberate distortion.
You seem like a Trump supporter who does not care about the facts. Why else would you ignore the fact that Bernie Sanders supports Hillary Clinton? If you were an actual Bernie supporter, why are you ignoring Bernie’s position now?
I am a Bernie supporter, Darin. Bernie is doing what he thinks is right, and I respect him for that. I am doing/thinking what I think is right, and there is some self-respect that comes of it. I presume you think that you are doing what you think is right, and you can claim what you will. I will never vote for Trump, and I think you are abhorrent. Are you a lawyer by chance? You seem well paid.
The voters ousted Bernie in the primary not the DNC, now back to Trump.
Back to Trump? Do you love the foil? I’d rather clean up our own political house Roger and all its riggings, wouldn’t you? I thought you were anti-corruption, wherever it might occur. Am I wrong?
Leo, don’t fall for the false equivalency. Kallis’s analysis of the incoherence of evangelical votes for Trump is far more thoughtful and consistent than the absurd linkages the radical right has made between Obama and Clinton and the Devil. The language Obama has used is far more explicitly and consistently Christian than the language Trump has used.
And Roger’s right, Leo. There are plenty of other posts under which to express your passion for a convention outcome that isn’t happening. Let’s stay on topic here and hear more analysis of The Displaced Plainsman’s remarkable synthesis of Scripture and commentary.
“God did indeed shed his grace on thee with the election of President Obama”
God has turned America over based on Romans 1. And are we electing a pastor or a president?
” Let’s stay on topic here and hear more analysis of The Displaced Plainsman’s remarkable synthesis of Scripture and commentary.”
Jeremiah’s warning also applies to atheists “who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
God just called, me of all people, He wants a new refrain so it can fit our current anti-Christ, Trump.
It should go like this. “God wants to take Trump to the wood Shed to teach some grace to he”
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Sibson.
Ru oh, Leo is correct. http://fortune.com/2016/07/24/wasserman-schultz-clinton-campaign/
Romans 1 and……? Did god call the game on account of lightning? Does the other team not get a chance to even the score? Or is this the final?
Got to pay back those supporters who are working from the inside destroying any integrity your party had left to push the personal agenda of a corrupt politician. This is SOP for Hilary.
” One staffer wondered about going down this road and it went nowhere in point of fact. For this infraction, heads rolled.”
Nothing rolled…..only an apology after getting caught.
Leaked DNC email floated plan to question Sanders' religion
Top DNC staffer apologizes for email on Sanders religion
This is only going to get better.
If Leo can’t stay on topic here and wants to discuss what is going on with the Democratic Party maybe he can make his way over to the Powers Dump Site and see what he has to say about it.
Or better yet, maybe, just maybe sibbyonline will discuss it on his ever popular blog.
It seems that the republicans used the words evil, devil, Lucifer, etc. more than they used Good, Jesus, or God. Why is that?
Trump refuses or can’t even talk about God or the Bible and goes even further in suggesting that he doesn’t have to ask God or anybody for forgiveness.
Isn’t asking for God’s forgiveness a tenet of evangelical Christians?
When Josiah was king in Judah, southern Isreal the part is left yet, he did everything as God wanted to the last detail. Then it says, that since the peoples heart was not with God that they would get no more good kings and after about six bad ones they went into captivity in Babylon. So even a good or perfect leader does not guarantee success. A great nation has great people more than great leaders. I do think that honest visionary leaders are a good thing. But they are not the main point of success. If one is not spiritual or trust in their own hard work and ethics to bring success, then not following a leader would seem scary. One can not successfully complain about others doing wrong, leaders or not, if they do not do right themselves.
Here is Putin, er Trump on ISIS, these boys words are interchangeable. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-islamic-state-syria-223399
When do you republicans get to put the sickle and hammer superimposed on your elephant? Thune, Rounds and NOem should be careful so they do not make a Freudian slip and call congress their politburo.
Daniel, let me know when you get to collusion between dumbass dubya and dumbass Blair that have us mired in a volatile Middle East of right wing manufacture. I wanna see how you react to real crimes that can/should have been prosecuted ,but, weren’t because they didn’t rise to the level of a Democrat lying about an affair.
D..E..M..E..X..I..T for Roger. Not on topic? Didn’t realize this was a Chris Christie forum – my mistake. Thought we were talking about the fear of the Lord. Weren’t we?
What are you talking about, Leo?
Do you have ADD or ADHD?
Not a chat room Roger, stay on topic! Stop casting asparagus like Gohmert!
Leo, the post topic is:
Trump: the man that Jeremiah and Psalms warned God’s people about.
Have you said one word on topic here?
Not a chat room Roger! Stop it.
What, may I ask, is this chat room? Mr. C has never told me about the chatting room. Like the room where we have breakfasts at Talley’s?
Maybe there is a small god. Dylan Roof got the bejeebers beat out of him in prison by a black man and everybody’s favorite white Hispanic-George “I shot an unarmed Trayvon Martin and got away with it” Zimmerman was apparently bragging about it in a restaurant and some guy punched him in the face.
If there is one small god there are likely dozens. Maybe hundreds. The small god of iowa corn. The small god of half-filled beers left in the garbage upright. The small god of free orders of extra sausage gravy.