Should this be part of the coverage? I thionk so.
from Dana Milbank’s column in the WaPo yesterday regarding the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem and who was present.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nothing-says-peace-like-58-dead-...
"And Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who spoke at a reception for the U.S. delegation, after which Kushner and Ivanka Trump asked for Yosef’s blessing. The rabbi made waves recently for comparing black people to monkeys and proposed blessing only “a person with a white father and mother.”
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"with Israeli soldiers killing dozens of Palestinians"
What a stunningly deceptive claim. A more accurate description would be "with the attempt by the Hamas terrorist organization to invade Israel being repulsed by Israeli soldiers."
1
According to this account the Evangelical right’s religious tenet might be paraphrased thusly:
The enemy of my enemy is my friend (no matter his morals, behaviour, or crassness).
Politics makes for strange bed-fellows indeed.
2
HE went to Jared. And not for jewelry, unfortunately. SAD.
3
This article ignores the anti-American, poisonous, virulence of the Trump/Evangelical axis. From the Times article, "Pastor Who Said Jews Are Going to Hell Led Prayer at Jerusalem Embassy Opening"
From that article:
"A Dallas evangelical pastor who once said that Jewish people are going to hell and a megachurch televangelist who claimed that Hitler was part of God’s plan to return Jews to Israel both played prominent roles on Monday in the opening ceremony of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem. Robert Jeffress, who spoke at President Trump’s private inaugural prayer service and is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, delivered a prayer at the opening ceremony on Monday, while the Rev. John C. Hagee, a televangelist who founded Christians United for Israel and leads a San Antonio megachurch, gave the closing benediction....Mr. Hagee said in an interview on NPR in 2006. 'Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the City of New Orleans.'”
Those who believe America is better than that and that our fundamental values can be restored need to develope the pragmatic focus of this Christian extremism. Their eye is on the Supreme Court, and if it takes a lying, demeaning, self-serving, fondler and adulterer to get there, so be it. Somehow people of good will must get past the Democrats circular firing squad that thinks Al Franken is the enemy. They need to understand, as does the Christian Right, that the perfect is often the greatest enemy of the good.
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Kudos to Trump. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That was on the ballot. Trump won. Deal with it.
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Is this the same Christian base that delights in being anti-Semitic? Too many Israelis have sold their souls. The enemy of your enemy is your friend? That doesn't end well, friends. It never ends well.
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By seizing the levers of political power, these "christians" are doing precisely what their leader refused to do. Which leads to the question, "Who are they following?" The only one of Jesus' early followers we know of who saw Jesus as a means to establishing a Jewish State was Judas, who was easily flipped for money. Jesus was crystal clear: "My kingdom is not of this world." He was operating at a level far beyond the mere political and far beyond the comprehension of this present cult who have co-opted his movement.
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I don't know Paula White but the article says that she has been a pastor to Trump for sixteen years. Kudos. From Trump's behavior, we can how well that's been going. All that marital fidelity and lovingkindness. All that empathy. Cue the choir.
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How about playing that video that shows him mimicking a physically challenged man? That is your president, Christians ...or do you need a golden rain and a storm?
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The suggestion that evangelicals are "friends and supporters" of Israel is simply a perverse form of mutual exploitation. The Israeli government overlooks the fact that evangelicals are interested in the existence of Israel in order to bring about the apocalyptic Second Coming, thereby subjecting all Jews and Moslems to eternal damnation. The evangelicals figure their support of morally questionable (at best) behavior by the Israeli government can be overlooked for the greater cause of their own eternal salvation. And thus innocent blood continues to be shed bolstered by all kinds of sickening justification.
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This article ignores the anti-American, poisonous, virulence of the Trump/Evangelical axis. From the Times article, "Pastor Who Said Jews Are Going to Hell Led Prayer at Jerusalem Embassy Opening"
From that article:
"A Dallas evangelical pastor who once said that Jewish people are going to hell and a megachurch televangelist who claimed that Hitler was part of God’s plan to return Jews to Israel both played prominent roles on Monday in the opening ceremony of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem. Robert Jeffress, who spoke at President Trump’s private inaugural prayer service and is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, delivered a prayer at the opening ceremony on Monday, while the Rev. John C. Hagee, a televangelist who founded Christians United for Israel and leads a San Antonio megachurch, gave the closing benediction....Mr. Hagee said in an interview on NPR in 2006. 'Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the City of New Orleans.'”
Those who believe America is better than that and that our fundamental values can be restored need to develope the pragmatic focus of this Christian extremism. Their eye is on the Supreme Court, and if it takes a lying, demeaning, self-serving, fondler and adulterer to get there, so be it. Somehow people of good will must get past the Democrats circular firing squad that thinks Al Franken is the enemy. They need to understand, as does the Christian Right, that the perfect is often the greatest enemy of the good.
3
'Victory' in a Donald Trump sense, usually ends with someone getting quite dirty.
In this case, Trump's Christian Base has already paid the price.
Much of America sees them as either hypocrite opportunists, or gullible shills.
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It's mind boggling that all this was done for Trump's reelection campaign!
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We can’t handle Trump and his motley crew, the United States deserves better.
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Can we stop calling them Christians? Real Christians do not condone a pointless symbolic move that was guaranteed to result in loss of life, support a President who has lied 3,000+ times since taking office according to fact-checkers, cuts taxes for the rich while trying to take food from the hungry, pays off his mistresses, attacks the weak (immigrants and refugees) and takes healthcare away from millions of poor people (4 million so far and counting).
Let's call them what they are "Evangelical cult members."
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“...another contingent has raised the plight of Palestinian Christians and others in the region...”
So even the most compassionate Evangelicals cannot envision themselves showing true empathy or humanity towards non-Christians. What “people of God.”
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Trump’s white evangelical followers “won”. The world lost.
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Isn't there some sort of Biblical prophecy about the end-times and Jerusalem being restored as the seat of Israel ... or something of the sort. Kushner has financial trouble as it relates to one of his properties at 666 Park Avenue (let he who has knowledge know the number of the beast) and the rest of you Christians just can't wait for the "Rapture" but you will be sorely surprised when Saint Peter repeats to you that well-worn phrase "... for the Lord thy God is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth ... that shall he also reap".
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Evangelicals who support an immoral man like Trump have sold their souls. Trump breaks all 10 Commandments every day, how could a "Christian" support him?
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Fundaments Christians believe that Trump will bring about the end of the world. After wiping out Palestinians from the territories, they will test down the Done of the Rock and rebuild the Temple Solomon.
Only then will Jesus return and the world will end at Armageddon (a place in Israel). All Jews will be destroyed or convert.
Scarily, this is what they believe.
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How unChristian are the things Trump's Christian base craves. It give Christianity a bad name, just like Israel's treatment of Muslims and Arabs gives Judaism a bad name. In fact, all the religions in their hostile superiority over others are contemptible: the Shias and the Sunnis, the Catholics and the Protestants, and on and on and on. The sooner we human beings get to the heart of what behavior makes us truly good, and promote and honor that good behavior (as opposed to promoting and honoring prideful, violent, and superficial religious labels) the better.
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Why doesn't this article state why these Christians support Israel so vehemently--it has to do with the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus. Nothing to do with Israel per se.
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Only for the evangelicals who are not Christian.
3
This Presidents sheer ignorance fuels racism and hate. We were in dignified hands with Obama regardless of my disagreements with many decisions as he had real knowledge and complex intelligence, a moral compass, brilliant legal mind and understanding of the U.S. Constitution. DACA is an intelligent meaningful program that Trump resists. Should have been finished and final. Trump couldn’t accept because it was from Obama’s administration. The planet is worse with Trump.
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"Penny Young Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, said she has been praying for 20 years that the embassy would be moved to Jerusalem". Gee Penny, maybe you could have prayed for peace instead?
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I'd wager a month's income that a money trail can be found funneling cash from AIPAC and/or secret offices of the Israeli government and/or bigots such as Sheldon Adelson to the evangelical "ministers" and spokespersons who lobbied for the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem--when they weren't lobbying for the billions of off-budget funds we send to Israel every year. I'd like to think that some good- minded evangelicals in this country have no idea that their movement and their churches have been hijacked by fanatical Zionist forces. This entire situation is a travesty, likely beyond the understanding of Trump himself. He is just Netanyahu's stooge.
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Gaza has been and remains an open air Prison. The people of Gaza are not permitted to travel and its people are living in Extreme poverty and youth unemployment nears 60%. I believe in Israel's right to exist but under the present administration in Israel the country is nothing more than an apartheid state. It is also important to understand that at no time was their containment breach, the protesters only needed to come close to the fence and 2700 were picked off one by one By military sharp shooters. With accuracy so great that they shot them below the knee. Which further suggest that these people were standing still and not running. At this point in my life I have lost all respect for this State of Israel under it's current administration. Now for the US policy, or lack there of. Under this US administration, there is a belief this was just another step in the fulfillment of a radical fundamental Christian prophecy. It is apparently foretold as one of the requirements before the rapture. You cannot make this stuff up, insanity is at the helm. When will this current administration of Neophytes and his enabler’s end? The visual of Ivanka and Jared representing the US nauseates me.
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Trump brought people who despise Jewish people to speak - he brought people who believe that Israel must exist, not as a homeland for Judaism but for Armageddon, the last war of humanity - he brought his own "televangelist" pastor.
Every one of those facts makes me feel sick. Why don't they make more people feel sick?
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Trumps a hatful man surrounding himself with the wrong people, those who follow his path.
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"Paula White.....who has been a pastor to Mr. Trump for 16 years....." That is as nauseatingly ludicrous as it gets. Jeffress, Haggiss, Huckabee, Reed: they haven't heard the part about " love thy neighbor. " The juxtaposition of the shiny, happy people in Jerusalem with the death and desperation of Gaza is unbearable. A recipe for disaster.
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Evangelicals like those represented see the restoration of a Jewish state as the precursor to the return of Christ. In their minds the future of Israel matters not at all. They are not friends of Israel and not a few of them are anti-semites. I think that Netanyahu is in denial about Israel’s future being long without a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians with safety being determined by mutually beneficial relations.
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The omission of why the evangelicals care so much about Jerusalem being the capital of the Jewish state of Israel is perplexing. It’s such an obvious question that needed to be answered in this article.
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I listened Young Turks who explained what this means to these evangelicals. I also don’t understand why the NT times doesn’t just come out and say it.
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I heard ,during the Bush years a question,I’ll bring it up again.
What would Jesus do?
Kill those who disagree with him?Start a war among the 3 religions?and the best killers win?
Send your relatives to the site and have them celebrate your win
While those who get near your fence are shot,or tear gassed
Did I hear Trump was playing to his
Christian base?This is Christian behavior?
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I don’t know why but the first thing in my mind was this Steven Weinberg’s quote:
“ Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
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Since this is such a great Biblical event that signals the neo-Christian "end of days" fantasy, Evangelical leaders should step up and have themselves crucified -- surely one of them is the second-coming of Christ.
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"Christian base"? Clinton, Obama and GWB all repeatedly said that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and that the US Embassy belongs there. Congress passed a law to that effect. This is no more about the "Christian base" than it is about dairy subsidies or pollen counts. This is about picking a side in Israel. if you don't like the side we picked, fine, then say THAT -- but don't pretend this is some kind of narrow political pandering, or at least not NEW narrow political pandering.
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I do not think the term "evangelical" should apply to the people described in this article. Let's face it, none of them apparently place God (or Jesus) ahead of mammon -- political and financial. A real evangelical preaches the Gospels and at least in most things, tries to emulate those who are holy in thought and spirit, and give of their time and talents to help the poor and less fortunate in their midst.
Does that sound like these people? Of course not. A better term for them as a group would be the God Pack. Then, Trump could go to one of his rallies and thank the God Pack, and everyone could hoot and holler in hollow jubilation.
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What’s missing here is any question of WHY evangelicals want this to occur — and the only answer I know of is their desire that it hasten the coming of the End Times. Trump has aligned himself with a mass contingent who pray that the Apocalypse will come in their lifetime (because they’d hate to miss it.) The only thing more thrilling to them than the opening of the embassy was the sight of violence and death it helped trigger.
2
I'm an American Jew, and while I don't speak for other American Jews, I think there are a lot of us, who don't like the way this whole scenario of moving the embassy to Jerusalem is playing out! And darn it, I for one am not fooled by these evangelicals, who claim to be not just Israel's friends, but our friends! As far as I'm concerned, they and their motives, can go to their ....!
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Does the writer think -- as Pastor Jefferies has thundered that Catholics aren't really Christians?
If memory serves, not only Palestinian Catholics but the Vatican believe the Holy Places are a shared responsibility of Jews, Christians and Muslims. In those circumstances, the Catholic Church has looked with favor on the ideal of a Jerusalem which serves a capital of both Israel and an independent Palestinian State.
The Catholic Church was once anti-Semitic, e.g. the Spanish Inquisition's torture and expulsion of Spain's Jews but arguably it is much more hospitable to Judaism than fanatic evangelical preachers, who see a strong Jewish state as prelude to a "rapture" in which Jews will be left behind.
Temporary alliances are just that, temporary.
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Foreign policy guided by The Book of Revelation. So much for separation of Church and State.
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It was a terrible decision. He is hurting Israel who has been in a life and death struggle from the start with Arafats unrelenting attacks and no recognition of the countries right to exist. The only uniting factor is Iran propels terrorism. That’s escalated now with Trump pulling out of the Iran deal. Direct relationship. The embassy decision was ill chosen to say the least.
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"Penny Young Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, said she has been praying for 20 years that this day would come."
Just remember, folks - it's because they think the end of the world will happen there.
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This is no surprise - one issue drives these folks and since pre historic times it has been that way. Walter Scott novels show this in great detail.
What is most interesting not covered here is WHY evangelicals support this move. Especially perplexing when some of them are explicitly anti-Semitic. This incongruity can be explained by their teleology: the restoration of Jerusalem is meant to trigger the war of Armageddon and mark the Second Coming. So far, they are doing a good job of it.
1
As a Catholic Christian, I think making the city of Jerusalem the Jewish capital is wrong. Jerusalem is inhabited by not only Jewish people but also Christians. There are many Churches in the city such as the famous Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Many Christian denominations share this beautiful Church and will feel slighted that Christianity is not fairly represented. Muslims also live here and they must feel ignored and not truly cherished. All faiths should be treated as equal partners within this city and not only one faith. If Christians or Muslims were given priority treatment, I would state the same sentiments.
Not all Christians agree with this change for Jerusalem and they too should have a voice. There seems to be a bias against some faiths and Christians must voice their dissent. I hope Pope Francis, the head of over 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, speaks out against this injustice. Jerusalem should be a multi-faith city represented by all religions and religious leaders must speak up and not be afraid to voice their disappoint with this change.
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As someone who considers himself a Christian, I couldn't be more appalled and disgusted by the collection of "Christians" at this event. Ralph Reed, the Huckabees, Jeffress, Rick Scott... They hold their hands up, make a big show of praying in public and praise God, as though he cares about an embassy. God is referring to these people when he says in Matthew 7:23 "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness."
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I am appalled at the religious fervor the American Evangelical Christians brought to a political maneuver to establish state power in the holiest city on earth. Jerusalem should always remain stateless, an international city that is sacred to the 3 Abrahamic religions. Anyone with any spiritual integrity would be protecting the sacredness of the city, not using it for political gain and power.
I am so ashamed of the American flag and embassy in Jerusalem. The ceremony itself was spectacularly WRONG.
I vow never to vote for anyone who was at this ceremony -- and that includes Governor Rick Scott, from Florida, who will be running for Senate in November. All of these people need to be purged from any government positions - Kushner, Ivanka, Mnuchin - the whole lot of them. They are toxic and fantastically spiritually misguided. They certainly are not leaders.
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I'm sure the Nobel Peace Prize committee will be taking note...
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More likely the Oscar committee. :)
Democrats, progressives, left-leaning, however you think of yourself politically - if you are against the killing of people, what trump and his bullies stand for, please unite to vote to defeat all reactionary candidates. The future of the world depends on it.
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And that means if you're presented with another Hillary-type Democratic candidate again who doesn't meet all the points on your purity test, you vote for him/er regardless because otherwise, you're voting Republican in this two party system that's the reality we're living. Your "conscience" is what's determining the fate of the world.
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Waaaaaaay ahead of you.
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Regardless?
Yup.
But only because trump is a russian pawn and a white supremacist.
Is this what evangelicals want? The militants will call this another crusade. Henceforth in addtion to the 58 souls today how many Americans will now die due to some screwball idea from folks out if touch with this planet. Well thanks Jared etal.
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I think it's exactly what that sort of evangelical wants, and after that conflagration if the Jewish people won't convert, well, they've played their part. I can't fathom why those "men of god" are welcome in Israel.
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You can be sure there won't be any Trumps, Kushners, Reeds, Huckabees, Jeffresses, Scotts, Hannitys or Falwells on the front lines when we go to war...again.
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One more nail in the coffin of Evangelicalism. Keep it up Trump, Jefferess, Graham, Falwell, Dobson,etc., because you are motivating a base of voters who may not necessarily vote for Democrats, but they will surely vote against Repubs just to send the Evangel/Trump cohort a message.
29
Trump's Evangelical base (talk about strange bedfellows!) is evidently willing to turn the other check when it comes to Trump's moral and ethical failings - to say nothing if his eradication of protections for the environment, the poor, etc. -- so long as he delivers on their precious agenda. I guess it's no surprise that autocracy and theocracy often go hand-in-hand.
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Why should they -- Trump's evangelical base -- worry about the environment and the poor when they're due to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven for all eternity? You know, green pastures, streets of gold, etc.
1
"turn the other cheek" is what I meant to type, but extrapolate what you will from my "slip."
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The religious dimensions behind this story are what insures Trump continues to receive unqualified support from evangelical Christians. Trump can now claim he delivered Jerusalem to them so that the end times can get started. The prophecies in the Book of Revelation will now come about according to this line of reasoning.
None of these events bode well for any type of peaceful settlement of anything in the Middle East. In fact it all has the look and feel of yet another war across the region.
29
I still don't understand. Why is Israel's capital so important to evangelicals in this country?
23
Evangelicals want apocalypse, so that their god returns. Presumably it is important for the US Embassy to be in this city so as to help bring about the end of humanity.
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There’s some bogus deal that the return of Jesus to earth signalling the end of times cannot occur until a Hebrew king rules again in Jerusalem.
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Because if Israel is strong and secure, then all of the American Jews will want to go there, and America will become the Great Christian Nation they believe it should be.
2
The collective wisdom and understanding of global politics of those running the White House would not fill a thimble. It is beyond comprehension how two bigots can be given an opportunity to appear before the world as representing the United States of America. That doesn’t even address the the absurdity of that ceremony celebrating the disastrous move of the embassy to Jerusalem.
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Apparently, with the right wing Evangelicals there's a right to life unless you're a poor Middle Eastern person of color. Those people's lives don't count.
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In their defense, it isn't just people of color. Lives don't count at all to them unless you are unborn. Once you're born, you're on your own.
38
I'm so glad our policy is determined by the cultish mythology of so-called Christians. It makes all the sense in the world - shining light on the hill and all that.
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So two anti Semite evangelical conservatives bookend the opening ceremony at the new embassy while people who see Jewish faith as either illegitimate or the precursor to the only true faith ie evangelical Christianity look on & the Israelis think these are their allies? What a strange thing it is.
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This article doesn't mention *why* the evangelicals are so excited by this: they see it as bringing us one step closer to the apocalypse and the second coming. They have no concern for anyone living in the present.
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I'd also really like to see the why printed here.
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Evangelicals believe that when Jerusalem is anointed as the capital of the Jews, Jesus will descend from Heaven and begin the Rapture - the selection of the good Christian believers from the rest of us, their ascension to God and the burning and destruction of the rest of us.
Pro-life indeed.
7
Thank you. The NYT dropped the ball on this. Tell the truth: evangelicals long for world-wide, devastating war.
4