{"id":30996,"date":"2020-10-24T16:10:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T21:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=30996"},"modified":"2020-10-24T16:10:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T21:10:21","slug":"the-greatest-need-the-greatest-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/10\/24\/the-greatest-need-the-greatest-con\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Need, The Greatest Con"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theologian Gregory Thornbury remarks on the mixture of QAnon<\/em>, White Evangelicals, and President Trump:<\/p>\n

With his drug-fueled \u201crecovery\u201d from COVID-19 on recent display after leaving Walter Reed hospital, pundits scrambled to describe what they were seeing. Joy Reid notably referred to the president\u2019s stunt on the balcony Monday night as a \u201cMussolini moment.\u201d Others saw something different on their screens. Trump\u2019s evangelical supporters beheld a positively biblical moment unfolding before them. \u201cIs there anyone like unto him?\u201d tweeted evangelical radio host Eric Metaxas, echoing Moses\u2019 post-Exodus awe at the wonder-working powers of the Lord God himself (Exodus 15:11). Shortly before his diagnosis, Kaitlin Bennett, another Trump booster, had posted a photo of herself on Twitter in a t-shirt that read, \u201cTrump is my KING!\u201d\u2014not \u201cjust my president.\u201d [<\/span>Religion & Politics<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Generally, I figure religion is the shortcut to a plausible morality, but, like that unseen mole on your backside that might be cancerous, the flip side of religion comes when its theology, with its foundational element of irrationality, assumes such prominence that it drowns out the voice of reason.<\/p>\n

So what comes next?<\/p>\n

These days, the evangelical political imagination is so impoverished it\u2019s not enough to see Trump as a hero or strongman fighting for them. For right-wing America, there\u2019s only one move left: Trump has to be the Messiah incarnate.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The consecration of Trump by QAnon<\/em> may be new, but religious manias are nothing new. This is ironic in the case of American religious manias, as America was originally conceived, in part, as a refuge<\/em> from monarchies that considered themselves to be Chosen by God; that this refuge became infected, right from the get-go, with religious mania is disappointing, and speaks to the terror of mankind in the face of a Universe beyond our ken.<\/p>\n

Thornbury is worried about White Evangelical fascination with a chronic and prolix liar …<\/p>\n

As in Oz, this time around we find white evangelicals saying, \u201cPay no attention to the man behind the curtain!\u201d Forget that he\u2019s the man who cages children, a eugenicist who allegedly demands\u00a0hysterectomies<\/a>\u00a0on immigrant women, and a demagogue who lies about the coronavirus while hundreds of thousands die. \u201cJust hang in there,\u201d whispers Q, standing in as the Holy Spirit. \u201cThe scrolls are about to be broken, although we but see dimly right now. Your salvation is nigh!\u201d All you have to do is vote on November 3rd, one more time, \u201cand the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, I could argue that Thornbury is part of the problem. However, that would be a little cruel at this point. Watching those you consider your spiritual brothers and sisters praise, and even indulge in, behaviors that should be repulsive to them, is indicative of the fundamental confusion and disconnect from reality of the basis of his moral philosophy, and that is a hard enough blow. While he obviously, to his credit, cares for them, I doubt he’s willing to walk away from the theology that leads them down a road to metaphorical Hell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theologian Gregory Thornbury remarks on the mixture of QAnon, White Evangelicals, and President Trump: With his drug-fueled \u201crecovery\u201d from COVID-19 on recent display after leaving Walter Reed hospital, pundits scrambled to describe what they were seeing. Joy Reid notably referred to the president\u2019s stunt on the balcony Monday night as \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30996"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30999,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30996\/revisions\/30999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}