Another jaw dropping moment while monitoring right-wing media. I guess, if we are to believe this wingnut preacher, the evangelicals are massing to destroy America’s form of government and thereby her way of life. This is as far over the line as anything I’ve ever heard. You listen and see if you can figure it out. The best conjecture I can come up with is he used the word “liberalism” and that’s something he wants to destroy and then he said, “disease of democracy.” I think he meant Democracy, big “D” as in the Democratic party. But it doesn’t work that way. Democracy is the whole enchilada. This is a democratic republic and I don’t think this moron has the first clue what that means.
America is God's garden, says right-wing pastor Shane Vaughn, and Christians are called "to pull out the weeds of liberalism [and] to pull out the disease of democracy." pic.twitter.com/7TwgA1PIco
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) September 7, 2021
I never thought I would be looking to shut down churches, any churches, but this isn’t religion as I have ever known it. Even Billy Graham made the comment that he didn’t want to see fundamentalist Christianity associated with far-right politics. He saw the handwriting on the wall but his son and all the prosperity gospel grifters don’t care. They’re just looking to fleece people.
Barry Goldwater also declared that it would be a disaster if the GOP got too aligned with a radical sect of the Christian religion.
These warnings were issued long ago and look at where we are now. I have met evangelicals. The ones I’ve met are stone cold nuts. They are people who somehow got displaced in life, or never really found their place, and so they turn to religion — and that’s not a bad idea in those circumstances. What distinguishes the evangelicals and the prosperity gospel people from real worshippers of God is that it’s more of a cult than anything else. It takes over your entire life, dictates your behavior, your worldview, your politics. That’s a different kettle of fish from love thy neighbor.
I think it’s time to pull the tax exemption. These preachers are political subversives, they’re not religionists. They are sure as hell not Christians. Jesus must look at this and weep.
Spoken like a man that this “disease” is going to kill his entire world very soon. GOOD.
Perhaps he meant “disease OF democracy”, as in democracy is sick with a disease? It’s terribly worded even so.
Nahh – he probably wants a Trump led autocracy
Technically though, what you have in the US isn’t a ‘democracy’ (where everything is run by referenda with all the people voting) but an ‘elective oligarchy’ (where you send a small bunch to run it for you)
If nothing else, it’s DEFINITELY time the IRS takes a hard look at all these “churches” and reconsider their tax-exempt status.
If these nuts want to engage in blatantly political activity (including speech), then they need to pay their taxes for that *right*. And what this guy is spouting comes dangerously close to seditious speech.
This crosses the line? What line? The road marker that says we crossed the border from acceptable to unacceptable 100 miles back? Lol.
There’s a reference to Jesus weeping. There is no reference in the New Testament that he ever laughed. Guess he didn’t find this shit funny.
I like the one comment about this being the reason for the separation of church and state. Ya think dude?
Seriously tho’, why isn’t the IRS yanking tax exempt statuses from these and the rest of the x-tian yahoos? If the IRS won’t do their job then maybe all concerned citizens need to start up their own churches (John Oliver does a piece showing just how easy it is) and fight fire with fire. I’d like to start my own and call it the First Unified Church of the Kingdom: the F.U.C.K. Our creed would be We Have No More F*cks to Give.