Why Is the Pope Holding Up Baby Yoda?
Finally, something we can all laugh about.
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Donald Trump attended a church service Sunday, where he was showered in enough idolatry to make God feel like chopped liver.
Pastors Marc and Denise Goulet of the International Church of Las Vegas hardly played it cool for the incumbent president, pointing at Trump in the audience and praising him, while amateur majorettes swayed American flags to the beat of the worship band— not a mask in sight. It was high on the cringe scale, but Trump will flash his okay-let’s-call-it-a grin at anything that translates to votes.
At the International Church of Las Vegas, where Trump is attending this morning, a worship band is singing while flag-wavers twirl American flags emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty. (Technically, a violation of the U.S. flag code) No one onstage I can see is wearing masks.During the impromptu MAGA rally, the pastors told Trump that they received a sign from God that he’d be re-elected. In that case, let’s hope they all cast their votes via prayer.
It’s a fact: Even conservative blogger Matt Walsh doesn’t listen to conservative blogger Matt Walsh:
While it may seem evangelicals are living in Heaven on Earth while Trump is in office, a closer analysis suggests otherwise. Peter Wehner of The Atlantic asks: “If politically conservative evangelicals have things they can rightly claim to have won [with a Trump presidency], what has been lost?”
For starters, by overlooking and excusing the president’s staggering array of personal and public corruptions, Trump’s evangelical supporters have forfeited the right to ever again argue that character counts in America’s political leaders. They might try, but if they do, they will be met with belly laughs. It’s not that their argument is invalidated; it is that because of their glaring hypocrisy, they have sabotaged their credibility in making the argument.
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But the problem goes far beyond an inconsistent application of a biblical ethic. What the Trump years have exposed is something more fundamental, which is that many evangelical Christians have not brought anything distinctively Christian to politics.
Wehner notes young Christians have been walking away from evangelicalism, and some from religion all together, at a time when conservatism is at odds with the social values in the majority, such as immigration, LGBTQ rights, and reproductive justice. White evangelicals have dug themselves into a hole of obsolescence with a Trump-shaped shovel and not even their young will bail them out.
Here’s a breath of fresh air: Michigan pastor Keith Mannes gave his final sermon at East Saugatuck Christian Reformed Church last week, citing the congregation’s support of Trump as his reason for leaving.
It’s not only me, but quite a number of pastors I know are just like, ‘This is it? All this preaching we did about Jesus and there’s this big of a disconnect?’ I think that’s a real burden on a lot of pastors’ hearts. I love these people, I love God, I love Jesus, I love the church, but there’s something happening here.
It’s unfortunate that Mannes’ decision to stand up for decency is viewed as courageous by those of us on this side of the fence, but we’d be better off if more pastors shared his attitude.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco performed an exorcism at the site of a vandalized and toppled statue of Junipero Serra, the former Roman Catholic priest turned saint.
Cordileone splashed the surrounding shrubs and sidewalk with holy water and said a prayer “to drive out evil and defend the image of Serra.” But he’d need a fire hydrant of that holy stuff to defend this tyrant. The Guardian corrects the whitewashed history of Serra and clarifies the atrocities his leadership inflicted on Native Americans in 18th-century California:
… these natives were brutalized – beaten, pressed into forced labour and infected with diseases to which they had no resistance.
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When Native American women were caught trying to abort babies conceived through rape, the mission fathers had them beaten for days on end, clamped them in irons, had their heads shaved and forced them to stand at the church altar every Sunday carrying a painted wooden child in their arms.
The five people who gave the monument the updating it deserved were arrested on vandalism charges. The statue is expected to be repaired and put back up.
If I were any more cynical, I’d say this pandemic has been a gift to the Christian persecution kink. Actually, I’m going to call it for this next story: They’re absolute freaks for theatrical oppression.
Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California just hosted a maskless, non-socially distanced, one-day event titled “Non-Essential,” a self-pitiful insinuation that health and government officials don’t think Christians matter because gathering at church in large groups is discouraged.
The event was nothing short of a COVID disinformation conference, with speakers like Dr. Dan Erickson comparing the danger of COVID to “eating gas station sushi” and Pastor Rob McCoy promoting the dangerous falsehood that only 6% of COVID deaths are actually related to COVID. The event looked to be packed, but could also be viewed via livestream for those less faithful.Are your hands too holy? Don’t worry. There’s a way to fix that.
If only the Brooks Pentecostal Church in Maine had the foresight to prevent the COVID outbreak that followed their “fellowship rally” earlier this month. At least 17 positive cases have stemmed from that one event so far, and the contact tracing isn’t over yet. All that in a state that’s been otherwise exceptional relative to the rest of the country at limiting the spread of the virus.
Some Catholics are a little cranky over the latest round of memes featuring the Pope holding whatever-the-hell-you-want in place of a communion wafer.
One tweet of disapproval came from a nun, Sister Theresa Aletheia, who said, “The pope meme is not funny. If you’re Catholic (or anyone who desires to have a modicum of respect for someone else’s deeply held religious beliefs) don’t tweet or retweet it.”
I say this as an inclusive-minded liberal: You’ve got to wonder how these people navigate the internet, let alone Twitter, with such a crippling propensity for being offended.
You’d think everyone would rejoice over this rare occasion of Catholicism trending for non-scandalous reasons.
I know these stories seem like a dime a dozen, but they’re big deals. A Texas pastor literally told his church to vote for Trump, violating an IRS rule that should threaten the church’s tax-exempt status. Will that exemption be revoked? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean Christians are allowed to break the rules.
Were you sleeping during the entire scandal involving Jerry Falwell, Jr.? Don’t worry! Rolling Stone has you covered with a comprehensive story of everything that went down.
Finally, if you need some reading material, here’s the entire King James Bible. In alphabetical order. By word.
