Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
I have been pondering this article for a while. I have been using the term The Party and Death and Fascism to describe the GOP and people like Trump, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbot, Ran Paul, many other GOP political figures and their propagandists on Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and in the process I have been developing this article.
I have watched in horrid fascination as the Death Cult of the Trumpified Republican Party and its various propaganda outlets, especially Fox News, have been on a crusade against responsible people trying to keep people from being infected and dying from the Delta Variant of the Coronavirus- 19 Virus. The most frightening part of this sorry exploitive campaign is that it targets Trump’s most ardent supporters. No longer are the people with obvious risks for COVID most of the new the victims are divided along political political lines; Trump supporters and GOP loyalists are refusing the vaccine and being infected and dying in increasing numbers. The only saving grace at the moment is that over half of the population has been vaccinated, otherwise the numbers would be far worse.
Frankly, I hate to see that I saw the endgame when I left the GOP in 2008 shortly after Sarah Palin was nominated for Vice President. I realized then that the party was now in the hands of conspiracy theorists, most of who are Evangelical Christians. Many were raised on the most paranoid aspects of Premillennial Dispensational theology with its focus on the coming one world government of the Antichrist coupled with a long history of dualism in which the elect are spiritually at war with Satan and his minions, demonic and human. This is coupled with a new variant of Christian Nationalism, this one based on Christian Dominionism and what is called seven-mountains theology. Under the spell of the self-proclaimed of the New Apostolic Reformation, many of who have stood by the side of former President Trump and every one of the lies of QAON. Since the beginning of the pandemic all of these people; the politicians, the preachers, and the pundits of the radicalized authoritarian GOP have done all that they can to flaunt every public health recommendation, from masks and social, distancing to vaccinations. They include GOP leaders including a large number of prominent GOP leaders including Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Marjorie Greene, Greg Abbot, Ron DeSantis, and many more.
These people claim to be “pro-life” because they oppose and are attempting to end legal abortions even as they cut healthcare for mothers and children and support policies that lead to high infant mortality and doom poor and minority children to lives of poverty with little chance of escape. However, it is their opposition to and successful propaganda that has been a direct cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths linked to COVID.
They are shameless in promoting lies and conspiracy theories, claiming that they are being persecuted and comparing vaccinations and government mandates of masks to the Holocaust. They are seriously sick and deluded sociopaths. They are dangerous and will kill to display their faith.
The truth of the matter is that all of these people have a profound disrespect for life that cannot be attributed to anything in the Gospel. Their “god” is a “no-god” based on the Social Darwinism of the Ayn Rand Cult of the Libertarians which has taken over the GOP. As such they have created something that they call Christian but has nothing in common with the Christian faith, not that Christians, churches, and Christian movements have not often participated in many of the world’s worst atrocities and genocides. But this is different, it is insidious and is a clear and present danger to everyone in this country and other countries where similar people have either taken over or have major influence.
sadly, no matter how many people die these people will continue to ensure that more die, like the 635,000 Americans already dead of COVID are not enough.
As for me, my patience with them has run out. If they get infected and die I will not mourn them, but I will mourn those who they infect and kill.
I could go on, but that is enough for the night. Until the next time,
Peace,
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 
Reblogged this on Redvince's Weblog.
Interesting that most the anti-vaxxers who insist on their right to chose don’t accord the same right to women regarding their reproductive choices.
Glad to see someone else say the same things I’ve been saying. Apparently “my body, my choice” applies to the covid vaccine but NOT reproductive rights.
Yes, you are not alone. But logical consistency has never been the hallmark of the religious right.
I know. The irony is rich.
I thought it was the term. “My body my choice”
Also there are far to many red flags to trust anyone about whether the vacc is harmful or beneficial.
But I guess when I really start to doubt is when people call me a tin foil hat nut or murderer because I don’t trust the government or media who are perpetual liars.
Bottom line is they are doing a very bad job of salesmanship.
Don’t let your lack of trust prevent you from what is being shown to be the responsible thing. The vaccine is not just to protect you, but others. 95% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated people, and now young people are getting terribly sick from Delta. If it was just about us as individuals I would say go ahead don’t get vaccinated, but it is about others, especially kids who are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
I live in England; I have declined to have the vaccine, as I also have withthe flu vaccine but I’m not a fanatic for that decision, nor a death cultist!
I don’t proselytise about my decision, it’s mine to make. People are being pressured into having the vaccine, to keep their jobs, in order to have a holiday, to go to see football or being bribed with free pizza, etc; very strange times and nit in a good way.
Daniel, I respect your Right not to get vaccinated and to take the risk. What you are missing is the chance that if you get infected that you will infect others, especially children who are not eligible to get vaccinated yet. The vaccine serves a twofold purpose, protect the vaccinated and reduce the spread. I don’t know about you but I don’t wan the deaths of others on my hands.
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Very interesting read … the GQP current status!! … “The truth of the matter is that all of these people have a profound disrespect for life that cannot be attributed to anything in the Gospel. Their “god” is a “no-god” based on the Social Darwinism of the Ayn Rand Cult of the Libertarians which has taken over the GOP.” … and more!!
Yep.
In case you have missed this Padre…
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/schwarzenegger-schmuck-mask-vaccines/619746/
I saw. I was pleased with his comments.
I didn’t know this many crazy bullies (Trumpettes) were out there until Trump became president. Who is going to stop them from making it hard for people to vote? Why are they allowed to pass such crazy laws? Really, is there no stopping them? They want to see people who don’t agree with them, locked up. The crazy pillow guy and more. They are going to try and uproot the politicians who stand against them. What can be done.
I know, we have a whole lot of dictatorship loving Christofascists running amok.
Religion = MIND FUCK https://youtu.be/8r-e2NDSTuE
Hey, How ’bout those Midterms?
Comin’ fast.
Get oot the vote, before they block ya.
If you have been vaccinated why worry about those who are not.
After all isn’t the purpose of being jabbed to be protected?
I have a certain amount of care and empathy for others. I am confident that I am protected and if I got the Delta variant that I would be asymptotic or have a mild case. That being said I could infect others who are not vaccinated. Vaccination has two purposes, one to immunize the one vaccinate and two to protect others from getting the virus. While I am getting to the point that if the willingly unvaccinated who refuse to mask get the disease and die, I still don’t want others, especially children infected. So in effect I am doing it for the kids.
I should like to address this, and in doing so touch on the reference made by those who refuse to be vaccinated to “my body my choice”.
A pluarl democracy is built upon two poles, which in turn rest upon a single foundation. The poles are the organising principles of law and the exersise of liberty, an the foundation is the public weal.
It is the demand of the public weal–the good of the entire society, state, or community–that differentiates the choice of largely private concerns from largely public ones. A private concern is one that has no true impact upon the body of the society, state, or community; with whom one elects to live, for example. But a public concern is evident when what appears to be a private decision has wider implications which materially effect the society, state, or community.
Vaccination against disease is a public concern, because those who refuse the vaccine do not also elect to remove themselves from the society of others; they go to schools, shops, churches, and public places. They shop at stores for food and necessaries. These activities place them in proximate contact with others, thereby exposing these others to diseases considered severe enough to warrant vaccination; polio, plague, diptheria, measles, mumps, and yes, the current SARS-V2.
Spreading a virulent disease which has an exceptionally high mortality is no one’s right. Because the nature of modern society is communal, therefore, the demadns of the public weal must overwhelm the demands of private liberty. Just as the right to keep and bear arms does not grant the right to use those arms unlawfully, so the demands to determine one’s own fate must be balanced against the woe one may inflict on others.
That one has the right to take one’s own life is obvious. Those materially effected by that decision are strictly limited. So, too, with the choice of sexual congress. Both have limits—one may not take others’ lives along with one’s own; one may not engage in sexual congress without informed consent.
The right to terminate a pregnancy is similar, therefore, to these other private rights. Not without limits, but not subject to the intrusion of society, the state, or the community, within those limits.
So if one wishes to refuse the vaccine in these times, one must surrender all manner of privledges one has come to see as rights; the right to shop for one’s self; to visit public spaces; to dine out, or to stop by a public house. One must, in short, accept that the demands of the public weal—like the demands for public services, the need for military forces, and the need for public order—outweighs the claim to private liberty…
…because it materially impacts the life, liberty, and hapiness of a majority of others, and is contrary to the maintenance of order and the common good.
KAH
Yep
Hey Padre,
A very solid write. You do a good job of making your indignation clear, without spilling over into a rant; I expect having greater freedom to write is a help.
I am afraid I disagree with your final assertion, that this manifestation of the demagoguery inherent in mass-appeal belief systems is different from the previous eruptions of hate and violence spurred by the Christian religion. Like the other monotheistic religions–whatever their exact dogma and canons–the Christian religion relies upon a foundational belief that wends its way inevitably to demagoguery and thence to whatever uses the demagogues wish to turn it; the superiority of its belief system, as deriving from the One True Source of All.
You cannot, as a scholar, truly believe that the hate riled up and greedily stoked by what you term Evangelical Christians, is any different in kind or degree from that inflamed by the Catholic Inquisition, or the Reformation, or the Counter-Reformation, or even the Crusades–which included at least two against other Christians.
Hate is the one *continual* thread of Christian practice. Oh yes, I know, many a solitary Christian has practiced Charity, Love, and Humility. Certainly the original did.
The organisation of religion is contrary to its practice.
So I agree with most of your post, just not your attempt to exculpate organised Christian religion from its history.
SFH
Actually Steven I wasn’t attempting to give Christianity a pass by any means, especially in this country, I could have mentioned the inquisition, the persecution’s, pogroms, genocides, wars fought in the name of Christianity, but was too tired. American Christians are exhibiting the worst aspects of it but certainly are not the first to do so. I do concur with your comment.
Well, way to take the wind out of my indignant sails!
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http://dontwantyourcivilwar.com/2021/04/30/swanns-model-of-radicalization/