“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.”
So, I’m an atheist, but I was raised in a religious atmosphere and this particular bible verse has been running through my mind almost non stop lately.
It sort of sums up how I feel about myself right now.
I sit here in my air conditioned home, reading Twitter and Reddit and SDMB and I feel so much angst, but here I sit.
The president of my country, which I love, is a fucking bigot. Children are being horribly abused in my country at our border. Asylum seekers are treated like animals. I literally cry when I watch the news.
But here I sit.
I’m an atheist , and yet I believe that I will pay a price for my apathy.
OP, did you happen to watch Gangs of New York over the past weekend? Bill the Butcher spews those very words (maybe right before he beats that dude with his shillelagh?) I had no idea it was from the bible.
Anyhoo,I feel ya. I wonder how I’m going to feel about myself a few years down the road when / if this shit gets REALLY UGLY.
If it turns out Trump is the antichrist from the Bible (and he’s 180 degrees from Christ-like, for sure), his followers will still support him–for the same reason they support Israel–he will help bring about the second coming.
Sometimes I’m tempted to say the same thing about “protesting.”
What can you or I do that would actually make things better, as opposed to just making us feel like we’ve done something? (Although, come to think of it, maybe I shouldn’t be so dismissive of making us feel like we’ve done something—that might be more mentally healthy than just feeling powerless.)
I feel your pain. I’ve felt it, and will feel it tomorrow. You are hag-ridden by that ruthless bitch, Conscience. If you are poor she will sneer at your weak-willed apathy, that you did not work harder to provide for your beloved family. If you are modestly secure, she will nag your for your stingy refusal to provide for your idiot brother-in-law, who spent his money for Powerball tickets. Turn away a beggar, she will condemn your cruelty, generously provide, and she will point out that you should have refused, to provide a stern lesson in self-reliance.
If you have even a moment of satisfaction for genuine and sincere effort, she is resting, gathering her strength, and will soon return.
Those who do less than you are petty and small, those who do more are self-righteous Pharisees, flaunting their virtue with smug self-approval. Those who do precisely as you? Well, you know how shabby and poor those efforts are!
Take heart. Heaven grades on the curve, the noble soul I pretend to be is still an improvement over the bitter sumbitch I really am.
Words of The Master on the subject. Laugh, and be well. Love, forgiveness are gifts that cannot be deserved.
It’s not so bad. As grotesquely disgusting as it may be, once you are “vomited out”, it’s done. Just take a long, hot shower and have a few drinks. You’ll be fine.
White evangelicals have become increasingly result-driven. Once it became clear Trump was going to get the 2016 GOP nomination, they reluctantly or enthusiastically fell all-in. I’m still a bit baffled they didn’t go for the likes of Rubio, but once it was Trump vs. Hillary they swallowed their bile and picked the (R). I still am perplexed how it is that they endorse Trump rather than merely tolerating Trump. I totally get it that for them, nearly any R is preferable to nearly any D, but there has been virtually no movement to replace Trump with Pence, who would be far more suitable for white evangelical purposes. Pence would give evangelicals almost everything they wanted with Trump - if not even more - with considerably less baggage.
They’re the same people who would have voted for George Wallace in the '60s. The moral standards they hold up are about controlling and belittling others, not making for a better society unless “better” is understood to mean “with them lording it over everyone else”. White evangelical Christianity is a religion that sought to justify and protect a society based on slavery and segregation and it’s still infected with the memes it required to do that.
Because most of these folks have demonstrated that they value angering liberals and harming migrants far, far more than the Christian values that they proclaim they value.
It’s not a mystery. It wasn’t a mystery when most Southern white Christians opposed Civil Rights, and opposed legalizing interracial marriage, and opposed gay rights, etc. It’s not a mystery now. These (the white Christians who still enthusiastically support Trump) are folks who, politically speaking, are generally motivated by hatred and grievance more than any political issue.
