My deceased father in law, bless him, contributed money to Hillsdale College when he was alive(he suffered from Alzheimer’s and had no idea.) We continue to receive solicitations addressed to him, though I’ve written them that he died in 2018. Hillsdale is shameless. And hardly “Christian.” DeSantis is no “Christian.” States on the receiving end of these so-called “immigrant dumps” by DeSantis, Abbott, et al. should see them for what they are: blessings for both the immigrants who get a free trip out of the God-forsaken states of Texas and Florida, and the people in Cali, DC, and Mass, among others, who have mostly hardworking Catholic people eager to contribute (and fill jobs in need). Good grief! We could solve our jobs problem by simply opening the borders! (As you know, I didn’t make that up). JVL - you keep on lighting up the hypocrites and heretics. You speak for me and my peeps - Catholics, Jews, Agnostics, and Athiests.
I hope Florida voters realize that DeSantis is using their taxpayer money for political stunts. What has he done to make the lives of Floridians better? Nothing as far as I can tell. He claims to be a Christian but his actions are completely opposed to the values espoused by Jesus.
Great article JVL. It is dismaying that self proclaimed Christians treat those in need like toxic waste. But those same people want no abortion access while cutting welfare and SNAP program funds at every turn. I’ve stopped expecting Christian behavior from those in power proclaiming it. It resembles no Christianity that I read in the New Testament.
After faithfully coming to The Bulwark for a couple of years I think I’m about to give up on the site. Over the last year or so some of the writers here (not naming any names!) appear to have moved from being Never Trump Conservatives (which is a good thing to be!) to being indistinguishable from a Progressive Democrat (of which I don’t sure need to pay to read, there’s thousands of free websites with the thoughts of progressive Democrat opinion writers). If you guys are going to always be taking the Left side on all the latest culture war issues, especially all the ones where Trump isn’t a main character, then you are no longer “Never Trump”, you’re just another of the hundreds of liberal opinion web sites.
What really baffles me is the fact that Mary plays such a large part in the Catholic faith, when she plays such a small part in the synoptic Gospels. Is she a vestigial God "transported" up from earlier/more ancient religions that had both male and female gods? That's the only explanation I've heard. Otherwise it's baffling. Except for the Magnificat in Luke, she has very few speaking parts.
There seems to be a huge difference between " political Christians " vs actual Christians, ie those who profess to know Jesus and to follow His teachings. Political Christians appear to have created their own Jesus and discarded the One in the Scriptures who teaches us to " welcome the foreigner", to treat them as family. Political Christians appear to believe that Jesus rejects these folks, same as He rejects liberals or anyone else who does not mock the people their Jesus mocks: the poor, the sick, LTBQ...I mean, Jesus would for sure never serve a gay person...the horrors!
Perverting the teachings of Christ is foremost what political Christians do. It's ok to be cruel, to lie, cheat, steal an election even. Just say it's in Jesus name.
Hey Jonathan, I can't think of anything to add but I wanted to say thanks for this. As it happens I made some of the same points (but less eloquently) when I was responding to MAGAs' gloating hateful comments on Glenn Beck's FB site, "White House Brief." I even quoted the same bible verses. Spending time interacting with fellow Americans who are MAGAs can be soul draining. Hearing from others like you who also see this kind of evil for what it is and are speaking up about it - is like taking a dose of good medicine.
The more I read about this, the angrier I get. Somehow the mealymouthed responses saying "welllll it may be bad but DeSantis has a point" are worse than the outright gleeful hatred. I needed to go for a walk after reading Douthat's tweet: https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/1570795786669268997.
Sending illegals to Martha's Vineyard is obvious grandstanding, and using people as props -- not acceptable.
Sending illegals who want to go North and West to "sanctuary" cities and states is just spreading the pain to the people who insist that the pain should be tolerable, if it's borne by other people in other parts of the country. The elephant in the room that a lot of people refuse look at is that we KNOW that most of these people are economic migrants, not refugees eligible for asylum under international law. Perfectly acceptable to distribute the beneficiaries of open borders to the people who support open borders, if not in their own states and cities.
Re: the cruelty is the point: "One of Trump’s political innovations was to realize that his followers wanted cruelty...they had various subsets of Americans whom they hated. What they wanted was a strongman who would target these othered peoples and hurt them."
I respectfully refer you to Crystal Minton, Florida resident who, feeling the practical effects of the government shutdown in 2019, made the following complaint, live and on the TV: "...but he isn't hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting."
Cruel people view life as a zero-sum game. Should they be discommoded or disadvantaged in any regard, "someone" must pay dearly for that affront. Should "someone" be too powerful for them to pursue and punish, cruelty must be satisfied nevertheless, hence The Other, Them, Enemies of the People, etc. What's truly awful, though, is once these people taste performative cruelty--or more especially, normative cruelty--they quickly develop an appetite for it that cannot be satisfied merely by "hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting." No, their hunger for cruelty grows so immense, it can only be sated by the food of cruel gods everywhere, i.e. human sacrifice.
While I don't think Cruel America is quite there yet, we can't say Crystal Minton didn't give Not-Cruel America a big ol' heads-up.
The articles about Christianity and immigration were spot on. I enjoyed the short write up on Patagonia and was excited about watching the documentary. I just checked my Amazon Prime for 180 Degrees South and sadly it’s currently not free.
Thanks for pointing out some of the many contradictions most Christians display today between their positions on immigrants and what Christ taught and exampled. And, of course, their defense and support of Trump. I'm a Christian and was for 50 years a Republican. I find it appalling that people claiming to be Bible based believers can be so blind to how unChristian Trump and most conservatives' actions and policy desires are. Some even think Trump is a Christian. And DeSantis too. Sad. Somehow most Christians, including pastors, think that power and selfishness are ideals consistent with the teachings and life of Christ. Satan has surely twisted their minds.
JVL, you are absolutely right that more Christians ought to speak out. DeSantis’ stunt, and other Govs before him, are simply inhumane & shouldn’t be tolerated by our society. But they are. And we are supposed to tolerate that as “legitimate political differences.”
Here is a subject I would like the Bulwark to delve into. We all are upset about illegal immigrants but we fail to address the incentives. How many illegal employers face zero consequences, reap the profits and line their pockets employing all these illegal immigrants? If illegal employers were treated like drug dealers, their assets seized, arrested, imprisoned, wouldn't the incentive decrease?
How many plant raids, bus loads of illegal workers do we have to see before we demand E-Verify get passed? How many plant raids does it take before the ill gotten gains are seized? How many CEO's lining Wall Street's pockets walk away? We all know why they are coming here, they can get jobs! If they couldn't get jobs, they wouldn't keep coming in such numbers. No one wants to actually address the underlying problem.
Go after the employers. Period, full stop. Take their companies, their assets, their ill gotten gains and start putting them in prison for human trafficking because that is exactly what they are doing. But, no, no one wants to actually sink to the story that is causing it all.
My deceased father in law, bless him, contributed money to Hillsdale College when he was alive(he suffered from Alzheimer’s and had no idea.) We continue to receive solicitations addressed to him, though I’ve written them that he died in 2018. Hillsdale is shameless. And hardly “Christian.” DeSantis is no “Christian.” States on the receiving end of these so-called “immigrant dumps” by DeSantis, Abbott, et al. should see them for what they are: blessings for both the immigrants who get a free trip out of the God-forsaken states of Texas and Florida, and the people in Cali, DC, and Mass, among others, who have mostly hardworking Catholic people eager to contribute (and fill jobs in need). Good grief! We could solve our jobs problem by simply opening the borders! (As you know, I didn’t make that up). JVL - you keep on lighting up the hypocrites and heretics. You speak for me and my peeps - Catholics, Jews, Agnostics, and Athiests.
I hope Florida voters realize that DeSantis is using their taxpayer money for political stunts. What has he done to make the lives of Floridians better? Nothing as far as I can tell. He claims to be a Christian but his actions are completely opposed to the values espoused by Jesus.
Great article JVL. It is dismaying that self proclaimed Christians treat those in need like toxic waste. But those same people want no abortion access while cutting welfare and SNAP program funds at every turn. I’ve stopped expecting Christian behavior from those in power proclaiming it. It resembles no Christianity that I read in the New Testament.
After faithfully coming to The Bulwark for a couple of years I think I’m about to give up on the site. Over the last year or so some of the writers here (not naming any names!) appear to have moved from being Never Trump Conservatives (which is a good thing to be!) to being indistinguishable from a Progressive Democrat (of which I don’t sure need to pay to read, there’s thousands of free websites with the thoughts of progressive Democrat opinion writers). If you guys are going to always be taking the Left side on all the latest culture war issues, especially all the ones where Trump isn’t a main character, then you are no longer “Never Trump”, you’re just another of the hundreds of liberal opinion web sites.
What really baffles me is the fact that Mary plays such a large part in the Catholic faith, when she plays such a small part in the synoptic Gospels. Is she a vestigial God "transported" up from earlier/more ancient religions that had both male and female gods? That's the only explanation I've heard. Otherwise it's baffling. Except for the Magnificat in Luke, she has very few speaking parts.
No other way to explain DiSantis other than a complete stinking asshole !
Luke O’Brien
Foster City CA
There seems to be a huge difference between " political Christians " vs actual Christians, ie those who profess to know Jesus and to follow His teachings. Political Christians appear to have created their own Jesus and discarded the One in the Scriptures who teaches us to " welcome the foreigner", to treat them as family. Political Christians appear to believe that Jesus rejects these folks, same as He rejects liberals or anyone else who does not mock the people their Jesus mocks: the poor, the sick, LTBQ...I mean, Jesus would for sure never serve a gay person...the horrors!
Perverting the teachings of Christ is foremost what political Christians do. It's ok to be cruel, to lie, cheat, steal an election even. Just say it's in Jesus name.
sigh
Hey Jonathan, I can't think of anything to add but I wanted to say thanks for this. As it happens I made some of the same points (but less eloquently) when I was responding to MAGAs' gloating hateful comments on Glenn Beck's FB site, "White House Brief." I even quoted the same bible verses. Spending time interacting with fellow Americans who are MAGAs can be soul draining. Hearing from others like you who also see this kind of evil for what it is and are speaking up about it - is like taking a dose of good medicine.
The more I read about this, the angrier I get. Somehow the mealymouthed responses saying "welllll it may be bad but DeSantis has a point" are worse than the outright gleeful hatred. I needed to go for a walk after reading Douthat's tweet: https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/1570795786669268997.
Sending illegals to Martha's Vineyard is obvious grandstanding, and using people as props -- not acceptable.
Sending illegals who want to go North and West to "sanctuary" cities and states is just spreading the pain to the people who insist that the pain should be tolerable, if it's borne by other people in other parts of the country. The elephant in the room that a lot of people refuse look at is that we KNOW that most of these people are economic migrants, not refugees eligible for asylum under international law. Perfectly acceptable to distribute the beneficiaries of open borders to the people who support open borders, if not in their own states and cities.
Re: the cruelty is the point: "One of Trump’s political innovations was to realize that his followers wanted cruelty...they had various subsets of Americans whom they hated. What they wanted was a strongman who would target these othered peoples and hurt them."
I respectfully refer you to Crystal Minton, Florida resident who, feeling the practical effects of the government shutdown in 2019, made the following complaint, live and on the TV: "...but he isn't hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting."
Cruel people view life as a zero-sum game. Should they be discommoded or disadvantaged in any regard, "someone" must pay dearly for that affront. Should "someone" be too powerful for them to pursue and punish, cruelty must be satisfied nevertheless, hence The Other, Them, Enemies of the People, etc. What's truly awful, though, is once these people taste performative cruelty--or more especially, normative cruelty--they quickly develop an appetite for it that cannot be satisfied merely by "hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting." No, their hunger for cruelty grows so immense, it can only be sated by the food of cruel gods everywhere, i.e. human sacrifice.
While I don't think Cruel America is quite there yet, we can't say Crystal Minton didn't give Not-Cruel America a big ol' heads-up.
The articles about Christianity and immigration were spot on. I enjoyed the short write up on Patagonia and was excited about watching the documentary. I just checked my Amazon Prime for 180 Degrees South and sadly it’s currently not free.
Steve Schmidt is calling DeSantis "The Little Eichman." Over the top or justified?
Thanks for pointing out some of the many contradictions most Christians display today between their positions on immigrants and what Christ taught and exampled. And, of course, their defense and support of Trump. I'm a Christian and was for 50 years a Republican. I find it appalling that people claiming to be Bible based believers can be so blind to how unChristian Trump and most conservatives' actions and policy desires are. Some even think Trump is a Christian. And DeSantis too. Sad. Somehow most Christians, including pastors, think that power and selfishness are ideals consistent with the teachings and life of Christ. Satan has surely twisted their minds.
JVL, you are absolutely right that more Christians ought to speak out. DeSantis’ stunt, and other Govs before him, are simply inhumane & shouldn’t be tolerated by our society. But they are. And we are supposed to tolerate that as “legitimate political differences.”
Here is a subject I would like the Bulwark to delve into. We all are upset about illegal immigrants but we fail to address the incentives. How many illegal employers face zero consequences, reap the profits and line their pockets employing all these illegal immigrants? If illegal employers were treated like drug dealers, their assets seized, arrested, imprisoned, wouldn't the incentive decrease?
How many plant raids, bus loads of illegal workers do we have to see before we demand E-Verify get passed? How many plant raids does it take before the ill gotten gains are seized? How many CEO's lining Wall Street's pockets walk away? We all know why they are coming here, they can get jobs! If they couldn't get jobs, they wouldn't keep coming in such numbers. No one wants to actually address the underlying problem.
Go after the employers. Period, full stop. Take their companies, their assets, their ill gotten gains and start putting them in prison for human trafficking because that is exactly what they are doing. But, no, no one wants to actually sink to the story that is causing it all.