Hobby Lobby Knows Its Customers

And Pope Francis knows how to work the media

• Welcome to our newsletter! Let’s get right to it.

• Before the parents of LGBTQ parents fawn over Pope Francis for his latest proclamation that 

  “[God] loves your children as they are … because they are children of God,”

  they may want to be reminded of how he’s used a similar sentiment in the past, and it’s not a full stop. Claiming to love LGBTQ people as they are is the bare minimum effort to get right with social modernity. What about when these children act on their born sexuality? Can we pass the mic back to the pope for comment? There are far too many examples of homophobia in catholicism, and with this pope in particular, to overlook what wasn’t said.

  EmmaPeel @WelcomeSilencio

  @SkyeDawn @kayak175 Yet he refused to approve the nomination of the French ambassador to Vatican City because the guy's openly gay. Quite hypocritical...

  Oh yeah, and there’s this.

• Here’s the first of two stories to file under “This Administration Does Not Respect the Constitution”: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke at a Texas church over the weekend, telling the congregation about “America’s foundation as a Judeo-Christian nation” and that “Connecting faith to America’s foreign policy is imperative. It’s a good thing.” It’s a narrative he’s been caught pushing before, but remains as unlawful today as it was when the Founding Fathers forged documents to protect us from state-sponsored religion.

• And the second: The Department of Defense has released new guidelines that make room for U.S. military leaders to proselytize to their inferiors. Contrary to the saying, there are atheists in foxholes, among the spectrum of those who identify as non-Christian, who stand to be discriminated against under this new directive.

• We’ve got to hand it to Hobby Lobby for nailing their target demographic:

  Kristin Kobes Du Mez @kkdumez

  I’ve said more than once that if you want a good look at the culture of white evangelicalism, just browse the aisles of your local Hobby Lobby. But this. I did not expect this. 😳

  

• There could easily be a daily newsletter dedicated to what public figure has been compared to Hitler in the past 24 hours. I really, really don't want this to be that newsletter, but it’s in our wheelhouse again because the offender is right-wing Christian Nationalist Dave Daubenmire. Daubenmire goes next-level by claiming pro-choice Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is worse than Hitler, because “Hitler condoned the killing of at least 6 million, Ginsburg — 60 million.” The rest of his sickening attack on the beloved and accomplished justice can be heard here, if you can stomach it:

• What happens when a pastor who's already overloaded with satanic pedophilia conspiracies and fantasies of Christian supremacy stumbles upon QAnon? Pastor Johnny Enlow uses it as the binding agent in his recipe for absolute nonsense. According to Enlow, once he learned of QAnon, “everything just clicked.” A few fringe conspiracy theorists aren’t going to stop the world from turning. But Pastor Enlow is a public example of how unhinged Trump supporters are becoming as the election draws closer, and the dangers of this irrationality shouldn’t be dismissed.

• And finally tonight, the next Supreme Court justice may belong to a Catholic sect that (quite literally) inspired The Handmaid’s Tale.

• BUT (you didn’t think we’d leave you on a sad note, did you?) we’re working on a story for tomorrow on the website that could give you reason for optimism this election season. Stay tuned…