Opinion | Trump just promised an authoritarian ‘task force’ to impose Christian ideology
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The former president is still feeding the Christian right’s persecution complex

The former president is still feeding the Christian right’s persecution complex

In recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian-right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden administration is persecuting Christians, aren’t just Trump’s typically dubious claims. Much like Trump’s lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom.

In a Dec. 19 speech in Iowa, for example, Trump pledged, “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don’t know if you feel it. You have a war. There’s a war.” Speaking just after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from appearing on the state’s GOP primary ballot, Trump tied this “war” to his own legal woes. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted and government has been weaponized against religion like never before. And also presidents like never before,” he added. “I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.”

Trump has promoted the theme of Christian persecution in the past, but is elevating it again as these legal issues mount. His clear purpose is to deflect attention from his own criminal liabilities by insinuating that the same Biden administration he falsely claims is unfairly targeting him for prosecution is similarly persecuting religious Americans.

  • rdyoung@lemmy.world
    314·
    11 months ago

    What’s even better is that Christmas isn’t even a religious holiday (not in the way they think it is). The current version of Santa was created by Coca-Cola in the 30s iirc and Jesus’ birthday would have actually been sometime in the summer or early fall. Basically, Xmas as we know it here is less than a century old and originally had nothing to do with Jesus or any other religious nonsense.

    Xmas, Easter and more have been preempted by the catholic church. They were originally pagan holidays based around the seasons, the sun, etc

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
      351·
      11 months ago

      You’re mixing things up a little. Santa wears red and white because of Coca Cola advertising. He used to wear all kinds of crazy colors. Jesus’s “birthday” is celebrated in December to coincide with winter solstice celebrations that already existed in Roman times. It’s hard to tell when it “should have been”, but there wouldn’t be shepards outside with their flock at night in December. Maybe Spring.

      • GentriFriedRice@lemmy.world
        13·
        11 months ago

        The shepherd at night is probably a red herring. Shepherds stay out at night during lambing season which is February-April in Europe and North America but November-March in Israel

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
          8·
          11 months ago

          Possibly. But also a census (the reason for Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem) in wintertime would not have been practical in Ancient Judea.

          There’s a surprising number of people writing about this:

          A great deal more could be said, but for now I simply want to draw the reader’s attention to the time period which keeps coming up in relation to the first census headed by Quirinius: the years 8–6 BC. Keeping in mind that the Magi gave Herod information that prompted him to kill all the Bethlehem boys “from two years old and under” (Mt 2:16, probably meaning between the ages of one and two), plus they visited Herod at Jerusalem rather than at his winter quarters at Jericho, this visit probably took place in the summer or early fall of 5 BC (we have to allow for their travel time to and from Persia while avoiding the hardships of a winter journey). Add between one and two years to that, and early spring in 6 BC seems to be a good fit for Quirinius’ census.

          The Roman and Judean rulers knew that taking a census in winter would have been impractical and unpopular. Generally a census would take place after the harvest season, around September or October, when it would not seriously affect the economy, the weather was good and the roads were still dry enough to allow easy travel…Luke’s account of the census argues strongly against a December date for Messiah’s birth. For such an agrarian society, an autumn post-harvest census was much more likely.

          https://biblearchaeology.org/abr-projects-main/the-daniel-9-24-27-project-2/4368-pinpointing-the-date-of-christ-s-birth

      • rdyoung@lemmy.world
        3·
        11 months ago

        Santa also used to put things like coal in people’s shoes when they left them on the front stoop. Saint Nicholas" colors also vary from country to country. I am specifically talking about the USA here as that is what this is about.

        Ye exact details don’t really matter because it’s all history at this point. What matters is that neither xmas or easter or whatever other holiday the church took over, isn’t as old as time and the original version of it was nothing like how we see it now. Basically, the church can get fucked and we should take this shit back.

        Who’s with me to start celebrating winter instead of Xmas, fertility instead of when a mythical person supposedly came back to life after being killed for speaking about peace and love? Does any of that sound familiar? Jesus was a got damn hippy, I tell ya hwat.