Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore revealed this week that many evangelical pastors have become alarmed that their Trump-loving congregants have become so militant that they are even rejecting the teachings of Jesus Christ.In an interview with NPR, Moore said that multiple pastors had told h...

Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore revealed this week that many evangelical pastors have become alarmed that their Trump-loving congregants have become so militant that they are even rejecting the teachings of Jesus Christ.In an interview with NPR, Moore said that multiple pastors had told h…

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
    1644·
    1 year ago

    Then maybe they should have corrected them when they were just starting out on all the crazy, rather than endorsing the dude that’s literally the closest thing this world has seen to the anti-christ.

      • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
        40·
        1 year ago

        Remember, the Antichrist is not just “really evil person”. It’s “really evil person who convinces a lot of people that he’s a good person and a prophet”.

      • Raltoid@lemmy.world
        311·
        1 year ago

        If you’re thinking of the modern pop-culture version of the anti-christ, then no.

        If you compare his behaviour to how the bible actually describes the anti-christ, then yes.

        According to the bible he is supposed to:

        • Be a divisive non-politician who comes into power against peoples expectations.

        • Be overly arrogant with great boastful speeches

        • Lead many people away from Jesus and cause them to blindly follow himself.

        • Lead a very powerful military nation

        • Publically threaten people as a common tactic

        • Be very focused on winning/conquering

        • Rise to power through collusion, lies and corruption.

        • His election into power will by some be seen as a miracle

        • Will use his power to enrich themselves and their allies

        • Spread lies and falsehoods as truth, general lies and deception.

        • It specifically says he will reward his allies with land/property

        • Become angry and threaten the “King of the south”(Mexico)

        • Be supported by some of the nations most powerful religious leaders(super churches and such support him)

        • See themselves as above everyone else

        • Disregard the needs of the most vulnerable in society

        • Some will rise up in protest and face violence in return

        Some things that are almost too on the nose:

        • Only see one term

        • Attempt to stay in power but defeated by the legal system

        • Use his armed forced to remove people from a church for their own nefarious needs

        • During their rule there will be large inflation in food cost, while oil remains cheap

        • There will be a pandemic and mass death during their rule

        • Supposed to worship the “god of fortresses” (in reference of walls and keeping people out)

        • Followers will wear a mark on their forehead (maga caps)

            • Raltoid@lemmy.world
              2·
              1 year ago

              The bible has a bunch of different references to oil, as it was used a lamp fuel(and some rituals).

              This one refers to Revelation 6:6

              And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

              From KJ or this one from the NIV

              Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

              Referring to how the price of food would go up, but oil and alcohol would not.

              • prole@sh.itjust.works
                1·
                1 year ago

                Pretty disingenuous to suggest that has any relation to fossil fuels and using them in internal combustion engines.

                But, then again, that’s what Christians excel at: rationalizing their awful beliefs.

        • j4yt33@feddit.de
          1·
          1 year ago

          That’s an interesting read, thank you! Although I would still say most points on this list still apply to many fascist dictators

          I’m not sure about the point regarding “one term”, surely the bible didn’t know about the system of presidential terms? How exactly does it say there? Same about oil, what is the biblical equivalent?

          • Revan343@lemmy.ca
            0·
            1 year ago

            It’s all from the Benjamin Corey post I linked in a reply to the comment you’re replying to. The BIble is talking about different oil-- either food, or lamp oil. 'One term’s is a happy coincidence, the bible says ~3.5 years

      • morrowind@lemmy.ml
        18·
        1 year ago

        Man there was this (satirical, but not inaccurate) blog about how trump actually matches many features of the anti-christ, but I can’t find it now, only a bunch of blogspam copying it

      • donuts@kbin.social
        5·
        1 year ago

        Just think about how many of the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth) Trump embodies. Like… fuckin’ all of them?

          • donuts@kbin.social
            21·
            1 year ago

            I’m not saying it’s “special”. Hypocritical, counterintuitive, ironic, sure…

            What I’m saying is that Trump represents the very antithesis of what Christianity preaches. He is a very high-profile and public embodiment of their “seven deadly sins”. Which, to me at least, is very anti-christ-like. I’m not sure why you need that spelled out…

            • j4yt33@feddit.de
              11·
              1 year ago

              I mean, if we’re being all passive-aggressive I’ll also happily point out that the seven deadly sins have nothing to do with the antichrist technically, they are not even mentioned in the bible afaik. So bit of a crappy argument really

      • Hogger85b@kbin.social
        41·
        1 year ago

        It may be there are worse people but they are more akin to satan (e.g Hitler was atheist (well not really he believed in the occult but didn’t go down religion). Trump claims to be some sort of Jesus figure to religious so hits some.of the “pretends to be Christ” points of.the antichrist

        (Edit Hitler religious views are very complex but I still. Stand by point he less acted like “Christ” figure than trump)

        • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
          6·
          1 year ago

          I’m going to take issue with your simplification and classification of Hitler, and the wider Nazi ideology here because I think this is very important given some of the patterns we see repeating from the early 20th century. There was a lot of nuance to the public and politically expedient viewpoints that Hitler professed regarding religion throughout his life versus his private viewpoints which colored the ideological mechanisms of Nazism.

          It is tacitly incorrect to state that Hitler was an occultist, or an atheist by modern convention.

          Regarding Occultism: He detested the mysticism, neo-paganism, and occult underpinnings that Himler brought to the party (specifically the SS). Hitler made it very clear that he considered these viewpoints to be sophistry and repugnant to his own view of the world, but he allowed them in so far as he supported Himler as a leader of the party.

          Regarding atheism: Hitler, likewise, considered atheism to be an ideological evolution of Jewish Bolshevism that he believed was essentially responsible for the rise of Soviet Communism. It is well documented from close confidants who surrounded Hitler, and wrote about his views contemporaneously that he believed atheism was an ignorant and dangerous return to the animalistic hedonism of humanity.

          Why am I bothering to quibble over these distinctions? Well, for one thing because truly dangerous political leaders generally possess the intelligence, as well as tactical forethought to manipulate and twist at the very heart of the tribal labelism that proliferates through the uneducated masses of society. They then warp these convenient in-group / out-group dynamics to fit the needs of their political ambitions. We see this today, although in a much lazier fashion, with the alliance of convenience between the neo-conservative and christian nationalist movements that have proven to be a foundational undergirding to the “Trump Cult” as it were.

          We should all understand the complicated historical relationship of religion and politics from the 20th century. Especially regarding the manipulation of those relationships which lead to the rise of authoritarianism on a scale never seen before or since. Lest we go down that same road again, except the next time will invariably be the last time because the power of the technological panopticon we are now capable of creating would enslave humanity or destroy our species.

          PS: If you’re interested in understanding the complexities of the religious and ideological positions espoused by Hitler throughout his life as well as the Nazi party as a whole this Wikipedia article on the subject is actually really good.

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler

      • TWeaK@lemm.ee
        41·
        1 year ago

        I agree, you don’t have to look far down the road to see even worse (DeSantis).

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
    811·
    1 year ago

    …did the pastor just wake from a 6 year coma?

    ‘Christians’ switched to Cult-45 the day Trump entered into politics.

    • LNSY@lemmy.world
      43·
      1 year ago

      I grew up fundamentalist, and they had abandoned his teachings in the 80’s in service to Emperor Reagan.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        201·
        1 year ago

        I mean, really, when did Christians ever follow Jesus’ teachings considering how many people were converted by the sword…

        • ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world
          351·
          1 year ago

          It’ll be the ones you don’t hear about, for example my grandparents who are some of the kindest, most compassionate people you’d meet. They hosted refugees, consistently voted progressive, and changed church when their previous one started being more anti-LGBT. There’s just no headlines in Christians actually acting like Christians.

          • Asafum@feddit.nl
            9·
            1 year ago

            Because they’re actually following the teachings of the Bible especially the notes on the hypocrites. They just do good, they don’t talk about doing good in places where people will hear them.

            Good on them :)

    • el_twitto@lemmy.zip
      101·
      1 year ago

      Christians have ignored the teachings of Jesus from the start. Just one example: You cannot serve God and money. Matthew 6:24. I think Jesus was a communist who would probably also be crucified today by the people who proclaim to be Christians.

      • RavenFellBlade@startrek.website
        31·
        1 year ago

        Paul derailed the Church right out of the gate. Here’s a guy who has had an absurd amount of control over the fate of Christianity who never met Christ, and who advocates principles that directly contradict Christ’s own teachings while being very similar to the teaching of the Jewish temple Paul previously held power in as a Pharisee. Paul took Christ’s teachings and merged them into a contemptible, incoherent hybrid of Christ’s message and the Jewish law-focused faith, brought full circle back into a religious bureaucracy by the Roman Catholics.

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
    58·
    1 year ago

    He’s not wrong. But what he’s leaving out is that all this is very rich coming from him personally, a bit of too little too late when he was actually well-placed in 2016 to make a real stand.

    It is true that Russell Moore has been speaking out to some extent against Donald Trump for years. But it is also true that when it would have counted most, during the 2016 campaign season, Moore walked back the strength of his anti-Trump statements in order to keep his highly-positioned job as president of the internal ethics board of the Southern Baptist Convention (an organization I consider to be deeply corrupt anyway):

    On June 1, 2013, Moore became President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns. . . . [Three years later,] Moore’s vocal criticism of then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election season drew a backlash from fellow Southern Baptists, triggering a crisis in which more than 100 churches threatened to withdraw donations to the denomination’s Cooperative Program in protest of Moore’s stances and leading to calls for his resignation. After Moore issued statements of apology in December 2016 and March 2017 for “using words… that were at times overly broad or unnecessarily harsh,” Southern Baptist leaders affirmed their support for his leadership and he remained in his post. (Wikipedia)

    It’s hard to call upon the rules and be taken seriously when you have not taken the rules seriously yourself:

    “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth." – Jesus

    EDITED TO ADD: I am not a Christian myself, just comparing idolatry to idolatry here.

  • VCTRN@programming.dev
    57·
    1 year ago

    Shouldn’t he be like the false prophet they warn themselves about? I mean, is not that I expected some of those dumbfucks to even know what the bible says, but fuck, the level of idolatry is astounding.

  • graycube@kbin.social
    48·
    1 year ago

    They like the “is Lord” part. The idea of divine royalty and unquestioning loyalty. They aren’t so keen on teachings of kindness, introspection, self awareness, caring, mutual respect, humility, poverty, etc.

      • Hallainzil@startrek.website
        4·
        1 year ago

        In the 30+ year old words of Bill Hicks:

        They believe the bible is the exact word of God - Then they change the bible! Pretty presumptuous, huh? “I think what God meant to say…”

  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
    451·
    1 year ago

    They keep saying that Jesus will return. Yet if he ever did they would dismiss him as a “dirty hippie” and cheer for the cops who beat him to death.

    • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’d just like to sit in on the closed door leadership meetings where they admit they think Paul masterfully hijacked the gospels and grew Christianity into a tool for oppression. Then watch as they divise ways to fuck over their own congregations.

  • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
    34·
    1 year ago

    Almost as if they never gave a shit about Jesus’s teachings in the first place and only cherry picked a couple of things that fit their existing desires.

    Now they’re just going mask off.

  • style99@kbin.social
    34·
    1 year ago

    “Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — ‘turn the other cheek’ — [and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liberal talking points?’” Moore revealed. “And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.’”

    Looks like these “churches” are in desperate need of salvation. If only they knew someone who could provide that…

  • Arotrios@kbin.social
    33·
    1 year ago

    There you have it. They’ll turn away from Jesus before they turn away from Trump.

    There’s something in the Bible about that, if I remember correctly… ahh here it is - 1 John 4:3:

    And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

    Who am I to argue with one of the 12 disciples?

  • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
    341·
    1 year ago

    Moore also said that one problem is that many Christians simply feel alienated and lonely, as politics have come to take over the community outlets that churches once held.

    Oh, hey, it’s basically me. There isn’t room for “love your neighbor as yourself” in the Republichristian party. I don’t feel welcome at church anymore.