"I am your retribution" is the opposite of "Love your enemies." White, conservative, Evangelical Christianity is phony.

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/right-wing-trumpism-is-denial-of.html

So, be honest. If Trump is a Christian's retribution, then that Christian has failed to acknowledge and practice this basic, core principle of his or her faith. And it means that all of the other evil that goes along with Trump, his adulterous affairs, his pathological lying, his cheating, the hatred and vitriol he spews against those he perceives as disloyal to him, also belongs to those who support him and accept this rhetoric. There's no way around it. And there's no Christian theological or doctrinal argument that can be made from biblical evidence to support this position.

Jesus told his disciples and followers, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." So, in Christian practice, following Trump as retribution is denying Christ as redemption. And it is not taking up a cross, it is taking up the adulterous affairs, greed that perpetrates dishonesty in business dealings, pathological lying, and all of the worldly evil that Trump claims as his identity.

The support this man receives as a candidate for this nation's highest office is evidence that many conservative Evangelicals are no longer sincere Christians, if they ever were, but in believing what amounts to heresy, are in a state of apostasy.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Isn't it amazing how easily you can confuse a christian

By quoting the Bible to them. We give a lot of money to charitable and medical causes. We stretch our dollars a very long way by. CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN. Nothing from us for the collection plate.

[JT45242]

2. Agreed...and hate that they give real Christians a bad name

I work as a volunteer with the youth group at our church. We spent yesterday working a free lunch program where we served 135 people. Last month we worked with houses into homes. This summer we have habitat for humanity, a homeless shelter, and a food pantry.

We strive to teach the youth to love their neighbors, and everyone is your neighbor. We want to live a Matthew 25 ministry.

But, then again we are open and affirming (LGBTQ+ designation), green chalice (taking care of the Earth), and believe that every one is welcome at the table.

The evangelical movement became a skin for white supremacy in the 70s with Bob jones university.

[Ponietz]

3. Phony since Constantine

Organized religion is a perennial tool for consolidating political power; in some eras, like ours, more so.

[ancianita]

5. Somewhat but not entirely true. What he did was more like a win-win for Jewish Christians persecuted for 300 yrs. even

if it helped consolidate his power as emperor. The real thing that kept him in power was his military and control of currency.

Upon his ascension in 324, Constantine enacted numerous reforms to strengthen the empire. He restructured the government, separating civil and military authorities.

Although Constantine lived much of his life as a pagan and later as a catechumen, he began to favour Christianity beginning in 312, finally becoming a Christian and being baptised by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop, although the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church maintain that he was baptised by Pope Sylvester I.
He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire.
He convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325 which produced the statement of Christian belief known as the Nicene Creed.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on his orders at the purported site of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem and was deemed the holiest place in all of Christendom. The papal claim to temporal power in the High Middle Ages was based on the fabricated Donation of Constantine. He has historically been referred to as the "First Christian Emperor", but while he did favour the Christian Church, some modern scholars debate his beliefs and even his comprehension of Christianity. Nevertheless, he is venerated as a saint in Eastern Christianity, and he did much to push Christianity towards the mainstream of Roman culture.
The age of Constantine marked a distinct epoch in the history of the Roman Empire and a pivotal moment in the transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages...

The edict is popularly thought to concern only Christianity and even to make it the official religion of the Empire (which did not occur until the Edict of Thessalonica in 380). Indeed, the edict expressly grants religious liberty to Christians, who had been the object of special persecution, but also goes even further and grants liberty to all other religions:

When you see that this has been granted to [Christians] by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made that we may not seem to detract from any dignity of any religion.
— "Edict of Milan", Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors (De Mortibus Persecutorum), ch. 48. opera, ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, II, p 288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat. XI).[15]

Since Licinius composed the edict with the intent of publishing it in the east[16] upon his hoped-for victory over Maximinus, it expresses the religious policy accepted by Licinius, a pagan, rather than that of Constantine,[16] who was already a Christian. Constantine's own policy went beyond merely tolerating Christianity. He tolerated paganism and other religions but actively promoted Christianity....

[Ponietz]

6. Good stuff

Thanks

[ancianita]

7. Agree.

Thanks for reading .

[sprinkleeninow]

4. "....in believing what amounts to heresy, are in a state of apostasy."

I used the descriptive 'heresy' in one of my posts. 'Apostasy' is also definitely apropos. I felt there was another appropriate word, but didn't look further. Thank you for this post.💜