“As a Christian, I don’t think you can be both MAGA and Christian,” one person wrote in the comments of the video.
Two weeks ago, Jen Hamilton, a nurse with a sizable following on TikTok and Instagram, picked up her Bible and made a video that would quickly go viral.
“Basically, I sat down at my kitchen table and began to read from Matthew 25 while overlaying MAGA policies that directly oppose the character and nature of Jesus’ teachings,” she told HuffPost.
In the comments of the video ― which currently has more than 8.6 million views on TikTok ― many (Christians and atheists alike) applauded Hamilton for using straight Scripture as a way of offering commentary. Others picked a bone with Christians who uncritically support Trump.
If jesus came back today, mega will definitely deport him to a concentration camp
The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus, an excerpt from Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them - Beliefnet https://share.google/SHxHP3CZmxXC7m8j0
this has always been relevant
There isn’t a meaningful difference between the most moderate Christians and the Accelerationist Doomsayers, the only difference is the random person who controls the flock and what ideology they force on the group.
But if this gets idiots to shame religious people for falling for con men hopefully it does some good?
You know the David Frum quote?
“ If conservatives become convinced they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”
That doesn’t just apply to democracy. It applies to religion, too. They were never believers in scripture or Jesus socialist-humanist teachings. They are blind adherents of authoritarianism, and that is ultimately all that matters. Everything else is a smoke screen.
When you corner an authoritarian with “their own” scripture (which is very easy because very few actually know any of it, besides a few choice out-of-context snippets fed to them by their leaders), they will casually dismiss the entire conversation and walk away. Maybe they will say something like “even the devil can quote scripture”, without ever bothering to engage with the topic itself.
I also think it’s crazy how few American Christians understand to what level their ideology has been coopted by right wing extremists.
Nixon, and then Reagan, worked with celebrity megachurch pastors to manufacture abortion and anti gay beleifs in churches as a wedge issue.
Almost all political rhetoric from large churches since the 70s has been an attempt to create issues that Christians never had and then abuse their religious faith to maintain loyal and hateful voters for conservatives.
And it worked.
If you interpret monotheism as incompatible with materialism and as prescriptive of equality, most Jews, Christians and Muslims lose it at the first commandment.
Edit: Self included, naturally.
Why though? Don’t get me wrong, I probably agree with your point of even not your numbered selection.
“I am the lord; thy god” doesn’t even really say anything.
I think they might have meant the second commandment.
Maga Christianity is be good to people who look like you and everyone else is a demon
I wish Christians in red states were Christians.
I’ve taken to begging churches in my state to investigate the states systemic refusal to investigate the physical and sexual abuse of children. I’ll see if our “Christians” believe in the words of Christ.
They will pray about it. God’s will and all that.
Yeah, probably.
But like Kierkegaard’s Knight of Faith, I’m attempting to make the infinite movement and have hope in the impossible. We’ll see if the someone shows up to save Isaac.
Praying is literally just thinking with extra steps.
Strictly speaking, I don’t think there’s a single scripture that specifically calls out sexual abuse of children. There’s general prohibitions against sex outside of marriage and such, but nothing that applies directly to pedophilia.
You get there by not being a monster. Literal, direct interpretations of the Bible won’t do it.
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Matthew 18:6
It often interpreted to refer to people who are new to the faith, but I think that it includes children too.
I wish Christians in red states were Christians.
They are whether you like that or not.
I’ll see if our “Christians” believe in the words of Christ.
Pretty sure your savior had a lot to say about judging others.
Faith Without Works Is Dead
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without [a]your works, and I will show you my faith by [b]my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is [c]dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made [d]perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was [e]accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
They are whether you like that or not.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
-Matthew 7:21
Pretty sure your savior had a lot to say about judging others.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
-Matthew 7:15
I don’t think they are. Just calling yourself Christian doesn’t mean you are.
^understanding falls short.
Oh? Please, explain to me how the “No true Scotsman” fallacy doesn’t apply to the argument.
And do I really need to quote the verses about judging not lest ye be judged, and the plank in your own eye, etc?
I have a pretty deep understanding of Christianity, which is why I’m disgusted by it.
Please, explain to me how the “No true Scotsman” fallacy doesn’t apply to the argument.
Yeah, sure, let’s do that. Throwing out some random fallacy names without understanding what the fallacy actually is is easy. Actually understanding what the referenced fallacy actually means is more difficult.
So let’s go to the Wikipedia definition:
The “no true Scotsman” fallacy is committed when the arguer satisfies the following conditions:[3][4][6]
- not publicly retreating from the initial, falsified a posteriori assertion
- offering a modified assertion that definitionally excludes a targeted unwanted counterexample
- using rhetoric to signal the modification
So u/andros_rex said:
I wish Christians in red states were Christians.
That was their initial assertion, which asserted that those who call themselves “Christians” in red states don’t follow the definition of what Christians are.
To which you answered:
They are whether you like that or not.
So we have an initial assertion, which you didn’t falsify, you just claimed that it was false.
To which u/ABetterTomorrow (note, a different user) answered
^understanding falls short.
Which means, the original commenter didn’t change anything about the original assertion, and neither did u/ABetterTomorrow.
Since no modification happened, points 2 and 3 or the definition of the “no true Scotsman” fallacy don’t apply either.
The whole situation really has nothing to do with the “no true Scotsman” fallacy, except of sub-groups within a larger group being part of an argument.
Which makes your argument that this is a “no true Scotsman” fallacy in fact a strawman argument, which itself is a fallacy.
Do you now understand what the “no true Scotsman” fallacy is and why you should actually try to understand what terms mean before using them?
Edit: What’s also important to know is why is the “no true Scotsman” fallacy a fallacy? It’s because the argument becomes a tautology, something that’s always true. “No true Scotsman will do X” means “A Scotsman who does X is no true Scotsman, thus no true Scotsman does X”. That’s always true, so it doesn’t mean anything. It takes the original claim “No true Scotsman will do X” and transforms it into a meaningless argument. That’s the fallacious part.
What u/andros_rex actually said meant was “If you don’t follow Christ’s teachings, you shouldn’t call yourself a Christian”. It’s a subtile difference, but an important one. The “no true Scotsman” fallacy argues against doing X by saying that no true Scotsman would be doing X. But what u/andros_rex argues for is that these supposed Christians don’t live up to the standards of Christ/being a Christian. It’s basically the opposite reasoning.
Your understanding of Christianity seems more r/atheism and less informed by any actual engagement with the text.
Matthew 25:41-46 is pretty clear on who the “goats” are.
I’m not even a Christian, but that’s a really cute way to understand Matthew 7:1-3, and not really relevant here :)
Oh so you have authority to judge other as being “real” Christians or not? You sure your book supports that?
I’ll tell you exactly why these trump supporting Christians don’t realize this, it’s because most of them don’t actually think critically about what’s actually in the Bible. They have piss poor media literacy, and their example of Christianity is what their probably racist parents and community instilled into them. That’s how my father is.
…pretty much this: they’re conformant authoritarians and christian nationalism just happens to be the cultural identity in which they were raised…
Exactly. It has nothing to do with following Jesus, and everything with cultural identity. They identify as Christian because they were raised that way, not because they actually care about anything Jesus said.
So, which one keeps giving it septic tanks full of dead babies?
And why the fuck do we tolerate this shit existing when that’s the benign version?
MAGA is a cult. There’s nothing Christian about it.
Most white evangelical Christianity is a cult as well, with beliefs that directly contradict their own scriptures.
Most blatant is the “Prosperity Gospel”, which blatantly and directly preaches the polar opposite of what Jesus said explicitly several times.
Seeing prosperity gospel in action is crazy. They really chant shit like “give me the money now, give me the money now”. It’s really a money cult. Religion Americanized. As far away as one could get from Jesus really.
“Prosperity Gospel” seems such a copout for cult-leaders to justify getting rich on their congregation.
So much for “eye of a needle”…
There’s nothing Christian about it.
You fucking wish.
They seem pretty inline with much of Christian history
I’m just glad people can tell the difference between Christ and Trump, the beast of revelation
This is why you hang out with Catholics instead of the evil christians.
This is why you hang out with people with good heart no matter the religion.
Are you joking?
Like Paul Ryan and Rick Santorum?
The more conservative American Catholics have a theology that’s close to the right-wing, protestant-derived groups around them. Ask Paul or Rick about how their views on evolution jive with the Vatican’s official position, and they’ll start to squirm.
Yeah its why you hang with the Jesuits. And mostly stick to talking about the natural world
I don’t think the US evangelicals really qualify as christians. They’ve created their own thing based on the same symbology, and have kept some of the names, but it has very little in common.
Everything they say, do, teach, and proselytize is overtly “anti-christ”.
They (Christian MAGA) don’t care. I have a family member I shared this verse, and many others with, and they only got angry at me. This was months ago.
They simply don’t care. Not about what Jesus said, and not about any of us.
Realizing cognitive dissonance can often manifest as anger - is it possible you were beginning to get through to them? Obviously I wasn’t there, I’m just looking for more information!
It’s always best to address stuff like this with a very wide grin and say “Ah, it’s good to know that for all your self-righteousness and false piety, you will burn in hell, and Jesus will weep knowing his sacrifice meant nothing to you. Ta!”
You don’t even need to believe it, it just really gets under people’s skin. Fuck 'em.
Or as ol’ JC would have called them: pharisees, liars, hypocrites.
My brain is still as broken as my relationship with my father when he looked me straight in the eyes and told me that yes, Jesus would be ok putting kids in cages.
Yeah shit is rough, man. I haven’t spoken to my parents since January 20.
I put the ball in their court and said that all they need to do is disavow Trump, or even just say they made a mistake by voting for/supporting him. That’s it.
Nothing.
It’s so bonkers man. I’m curious but afraid to watch The Brainwashing of my Dad cuz I know it will cut too true.
They got…angry? What, typical “don’t sass me” or what? What did they saaaay?
I know it’s not my place to ask but just soooo curious ;-;
Not the person you were asking, but I got kicked out of youth group for saying evolution and the bible could co-exist. There’s that verse about how a thousand years is like a day for god, so clearly the 7 days of creation means evolution could have been god’s mechanism of creation, right?
The youth group leader just told me I was wrong and said I could leave if I wanted to disagree, so I left.
A few years after that, I quit the church for good because they didn’t want to help the community after a tornado because said community was full of demon worshipers (aka, catholics). It made me realize the bible was full of shit, because the pastor was able to believe that god somehow loves sinners, and but also we shouldn’t help sinners, because god wants them to suffer for not loving him back the right way? If heaven is full of those people, I really don’t want to go there.
If heaven is full of those people, I really don’t want to go there.
Matthew 25 is pretty explicit about that that’s not where they’re headed.
got kicked out of youth group for saying evolution and the bible could co-exist
That’s now accepted Catholic doctrine.
because said community was full of demon worshipers (aka, catholics)
Yeah, I was brought up as one. Now there’s a reactionary fringe within Catholicism that allies itself with the fundies, and the fundies no accept the traditional Catholic loathing of abortion, which Protestants used to tolerate.
My own journey that led me away from the Church started because the Dominican brothers that taught catechism encouraged critical thought. And one day, I realized that Adam and Eve didn’t know the difference between good and evil until they ate the apple. So they were thrown out of Eden because they were being punished for their God-given innocence. And, of course, there are all the other contradictions, bigotries, cruelties and outright stupidity. The extent to which St Paul contradicts Jesus is quite breathtaking, to name one instance.
Not just Catholic. Most Christians understand very well that if God created the universe, he also created all the mechanisms within that universe, including evolution.
Seeing God as contradictory to evolution to me betrays a very small and limited view of God, as if he’s just some Slartibartfast creating just this one planet.
Thanks for the response anyway! So basically “Don’t sass me”. This is simply sad, but even more sadly fits our current times :/
Hahahha american christianity is schisming
To be fair, the schisms have been occurring for like 200 years.
More like 500. At this point, they’re fractally schismatic.
I always laugh when I hear shit like this, there is an old german saying my father taught me. “When there are 9 Nazis at a table, and you go sit with them, there are 10 Nazis at the same table”.
If you are sharing the same church with them then you are sharing the same ideology. Start kicking these maga fucks out of your churches and I might start believing you.
Start kicking these maga fucks out of your churches
You say that, but when people start saying these MAGA fucks aren’t Christian the only response they get is “No True Scotsman. Anyone who claims they are a Christian is a Christian.”
So they aren’t free to disassociate from the MAGA fucks and then are vilified for being associated with them. For all we know this nurse’s Church has kicked out these MAGA fucks, but the MAGA fucks go to a different unconnected church so this nurse is still accountable for them for some reason.
It’s very fucking easy to dissociate from those fuck sticks, you kick them out or you leave. you don’t speak to them, you don’t tolerate them in any way.
Myself and many people like me have managed it quite easily.
All you are doing is further enabling them with your stupid apologetics horse shit.
They will never kick out a donor. As long as they keep tossing cash or checks into the donation plate, then they will accept them with open arms.
It’s a crying shame that I’ve had to do the same with some of my extended family. They’ve gone ultra MAGA and I’m sorry I cannot support you when you want to harm others.
I lost a childhood friend to the MAGA cult. It sucks, I knew him since elementary school. He slowly became angrier, then he one day was just all out hateful saying the most vile hateful crap he could and I just cut ties completely.
The stupidest part is I heard through someone else that “he has no idea why I wont talk to him”. I didn’t ghost him, I told him to his face on my way out his door for the last time that “I will not tolerate hatred, never speak to me again.”
I suspect most of maga are the same way, they know full well what a massive piece of shit they are, the problem is that they are proud of it.
That always reminds me of the “missing missing reasons” post. It’s about estranged parents specifically, but I think the behavior shows up elsewhere. People’s ego is too fragile to let them remember or admit some details, and their emotions are creating their whole reality.
https://www.issendai.com/psychology/estrangement/missing-missing-reasons.html
I haven’t seen that page before but its the way things are. My parents died last year and I didn’t go to their funerals. They of course had a opportunity to reach out but doing so would have been an admission that they had done something wrong. I had a couple of their flying monkeys come at me from time to time. I just call them fools and move on with my life. That is what you have to do. You will never get resolution from narcs. They can never see any wrong they do as wrong. They will never seek help because they fear it.
Edit: I will say one of the things I miss about reddit is the raisedbynarcissists sub. It is where I discovered I wasn’t alone. That in itself was validation for me. Reading about others in similar situations to mine really helped me end a life long cycle of depression, anxiety and anger.
Damn, that is incredible. I am somebody who comes from a conservative white religious family. I am not estranged from them and we actually have a good relationship, but I do keep them at a certain distance because of it.
But while the estrangement context is unfamiliar to me, all of the issues discussed absolutely ring true.
The whole “emotion creates reality” versus “reality creates emotion” thing is a fantastic was to phrase it. I think that simple description might hit the nail on the head for what the hell is going on with conservatives/religious constantly trying to fuck up the world and having ridiculous beliefs.
It also speaks a lot to narcissism, which does admittedly go hand in hand with the whole conservative need for social hierarchy and the expectation that oneself is obviously at the top.
This is an absolutely fascinating read; as someone with parents that tread a very thin line this is an incredible validation of what I’ve observed. And with multiple examples.
Are you me?
I had a very similar experience, except it involved them running after me and trying to punch me in the face, after I’d walked 5 minutes down the street.
Then a few weeks later they messaged an “apology” saying we’re both to blame that things got out of hand.
Fuck Trump, fuck Farage, fuck Republicans, fuck Reform, fuck racists, fuck hatred, fuck intolerance. I just want my dumb, funny, stoner friend back, but that’s not possible now that he’s a hate filled arsehole.
I was genuinely sad when it happened. I miss my friend he was a fun goofy guy, I just deal with it as if he died because it hurts less than knowing hes become everything he hated.
Red-Letter Christians is a non-denominational movement within Evangelical Christianity. “Red-Letter” refers to New Testament verses and parts of verses printed in red ink, to indicate the words attributed to Jesus without the use of quotation marks.
The organization was founded by Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne in 2007 with the aim of bringing together evangelicals who believe in the importance of insisting on issues of social justice mentioned by Jesus (in red in some translations of the Bible). They believe Christians should be paying attention to Jesus’s words and example by promoting biblical values such as social justice issues. These issues include the fight against poverty, the defense of peace, building strong families, respecting human rights and welcoming foreigners.
Or, you know, Just don’t be a dick. It’s really not that hard.
It’s really not that hard.
It would seem like it’s pretty fucking hard.
Everyone I associate with doesn’t seem to struggle with it.
Same here, but we’re clearly not MAGA Nazi Jackboot crayon munchers eh?
On the other hand, I have known many hard dicks in the past.
LOL, but at least these those can be fun.
Phrasing
30But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? 31And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. 32I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Luke 5
They aren’t repenting and don’t consider themselves sinners.
So Jesus didn’t come for them.
There are more than one church.
The kid said “churches”. It’s right there.
But it was a generalization all the same. Who says there are MAGAists in the church of the person who commented that one can’t be Christian and MAGA?
Grammar. I can’t parse what you are trying to say, but I am going to guess that it is a defence of Paulism.
Sorry, English, as you probably understood, is not my first language. But I think my idea is quite simple: asking all Christians to eject the MAGA from their churches is like asking all Muslims to eject terrorists from their mosques, or all Jews to stop supporting the Gaza genocide. A lot already do, so that demand makes no sense, and is just bigotry.
So, when someone posts: “As a Christian, I don’t think you can be both MAGA and Christian,” answering saying that all people eating with Nazis are Nazis makes no sense and is bigotry, as the author of the comment doesn’t necessarily prays with people supporting Trump. They even probably doesn’t.
is like asking all Muslims to eject terrorists from their mosques, or all Jews to stop supporting the Gaza genocide
Both of those are perfectly reasonable things to ask.
This is a terrible statement on ethics, or an excellent condemnation of organized faith under authority.
You can choose a mosque or church or temple, or choose not to associate at all where the common practice is to include unrepentant authoritarians. This does not require you to abandon your core beliefs.
The basic lesson of the 20th century, for all humanity, is to tolerate all behaviour except the oppressive and, ironically, the intolerant.
I’m sorry, my English must suck quite more than I knew: my message is in favour of kicking the oppressive and intolerant. The thing I oppose is to consider by default that the Christian who published the Tik Tok comment tolerated the MAGA Christian, when they probably didn’t.
And yet all of them are full of bastards.
You do understand that acceptance… is the point…
And what I’m saying is that Christians will accept hateful people because they believe God’s love will change them.
So… yes, acceptance is kind of the point.
Edit: we’re saying the same thing, I’m saying that expecting any kind of worthwhile change from Christians is unrealistic.
Ah, I see what you are saying now. I assumed you were just another apologist, my bad.
No, former Christian disillusioned with Christians. Easy misunderstanding to have, though — in these troubling times. I understand you.
Like tolerance, acceptance is a social contract.
What I’m saying is that Christians will accept MAGA because that is the point of Christianity.
Sinners are sinners waiting to be saved.
Edit: I’m not Christian.
I think most atheists I know are much closer to the christian values that the church and people who consider themselves christians are. Almost funny how a religion that’s supposed to be built on sharing, tolerance and love have produce to most selfish intolerent people filled with hatred.
Just a quick reminder that stonetoss is a nazi
TIL.
This guy?
Daily reminder that the correct response to people accusing someone of being a racist or a nazi isn’t: “But is he really?” it’s actually: "so what?
Holy f This statment could not be more wrong.
Where is that quote from? I didn’t see it in the link aboveI see it now. It was right at the top and a quote from the Nazi
Yes, pebbleyeet is a Nazi.
I mean, that guy looks pretty athy, but is he really the athiest?
He doesn’t believe in Dog nor Deer Jesus
Studies have consistently shown that atheists/agnostics are also as knowledgeable or more knowledgeable about world religions and even Christianity than Christians themselves, especially in the USA.
This pissess me off so much. I was raised in christian family. And I mean motherfucking christian. I was taught from young age to show compassion, to help other, to help others up even if I don’t personally like them. This is what it means to me to be christian. Compassion, love, and charity. Help others without asking for anything back.
Which is also core of fucking theoretical communism, so no wonder that also fell.
But it pissess me off when I meet people who are soooooo fucking hardcore believers, each sunday in church, always praising god and then they start the goddamn gossip of the day. Because Annie has a man of a slightly darker carnation, it’s obvious Annie is abused, poor Annie but in the end Annie knew what she was doing, oh that poor hoe hope she finds god in her life. FFS these gossipin pseudo-christians should find god in their life -.-’
There’s epigram in polish, fun little thing by Jan Kochanowski. Translation would be
“If you’re not sinning, as you’re telling me, why are you, dear, confessing so often?”.
MAGA Christians would be so pissed to learn about the real Jesus if they could read
