I surf in many Never Trump circles, and they are all beginning to ooze with hopium that Trump is dissembling into a tub of quivering goo. Alas, Trump is the mascot (Patrick from Complex Simplicity coined that yesterday), but the assembled team is pushing the accelerator pedal to the firewall, focused on destroying the tattered remnants of our democracy, and as Mike mentioned in this, this project to instill the authoritarian, unitary executive has a long arc with plenty of waypoints on the journey.
Trump was and is the perfect vehicle for their end state.
They may be doing more harm to Christianity in American than to democracy. In their presentation, reference to Gospel is but a veneer over their total allegiance to a living Prince of Lies. Can there be a Marshall Plan to enable Christianity to recover and be rehabilitated, as we had for Germany after WWII? Or would we do better to recognize especially the congregations in which the likes of Johnson conspire as covens of terrorism, out to destroy not just democracy, but the entire world in their insane goal of a apocalyptic End Time?
"He lectures about America abandoning God while demonstrating that he’s abandoned God..."
You can't really say that he, or America, has abandoned God; after all, God has so many faces just in the Old and New Testaments, not to mention the Torah, the Quran, and the dozen of other "holy books" that form the foundations of various religions, and not to mention the Norse and Greek deities, and so on. Certainly, there's a God somewhere there that the Speaker's words and actions are compatible with. Maybe Sauron; you could say that he's the Mouth of Sauron. Or maybe he's Grima Wormtongue. And I would have to argue with the article title; I'm sure that on every date with the Devil, it's the Speaker who pays.
You can say that for a Christian, he has very little of Christ in his words or actions, but you can say that of an awful lot of Christians these days. I'd say that he doesn't have any Elvis in him, either; he's the anti-Elvis.
Mike Johnson, a scurrying mouse of a man that Jesus (if he were ever even a man) would condemn full-throated to his face. Thanks for doing that for Jesus since he’s not here on Substack. I find the Idea of Jesus can have just as dramatic an effect in one’s life as imagining him as Christ. Actually more Substantial.
Mike's brand of Christianity has long since ceased to be about the actual life and morals of Jesus of Nazareth and has become nothing more than a political movement attached to the Republican Party, the "American Heresy". https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3loqsfhswjk2r
Spot on, Mr. Brock. Like the character in bluesman Robert Johnson’s song, “Crossroad Blues,” Speaker Johnson came to a metaphorical crossroad - where the MAGA way led to more worldly wealth, power and status, the other way to dedicated public service - and made his Faustian bargain. It must be a cosmic irony that Mike Johnson professes a deep Christian faith, represented by an actual cross, but rejects carrying this cross along the road of suffering and surrender that leads all Christian faithful through a “dark night of the soul” as the practice demands. As the mephistophelian Trump well knows, Mike Johnson can wear the cross but he cannot bear it…
Li'l Mikey was chosen Speaker completely by default, and promised fealty to the trump agenda...and the consequence of his elevation was to become trump's shameless bitch. House Dems dismiss him as a feckless lightweight, while the (bare) GOPer majority only just tolerate him because trump...but as the latter loses his power and influence, Johnson is exposed as the craven weasel and pathetic gofer that he chose to play.
A mere footnote come Jan 2027...if he even lasts that long.
I think there is a major hole in Johnson's character, one he tries to fill with whatever words sound rational to him. It isn't clear to me that he even knows that there's a difference. He may know he's lying, but it's all the same to him; truth has no particular value in a world of one-upmanship at any cost. I think he never got grounded in emotional self-mastery (a "loser" in that sadly unfair sense), but has tried to (however thinly) paper it over with performative word-spewing. Only other half-wits buy into it, but they can actually do no other.
I surf in many Never Trump circles, and they are all beginning to ooze with hopium that Trump is dissembling into a tub of quivering goo. Alas, Trump is the mascot (Patrick from Complex Simplicity coined that yesterday), but the assembled team is pushing the accelerator pedal to the firewall, focused on destroying the tattered remnants of our democracy, and as Mike mentioned in this, this project to instill the authoritarian, unitary executive has a long arc with plenty of waypoints on the journey.
Trump was and is the perfect vehicle for their end state.
They may be doing more harm to Christianity in American than to democracy. In their presentation, reference to Gospel is but a veneer over their total allegiance to a living Prince of Lies. Can there be a Marshall Plan to enable Christianity to recover and be rehabilitated, as we had for Germany after WWII? Or would we do better to recognize especially the congregations in which the likes of Johnson conspire as covens of terrorism, out to destroy not just democracy, but the entire world in their insane goal of a apocalyptic End Time?
So well said. Thanks!
"He lectures about America abandoning God while demonstrating that he’s abandoned God..."
You can't really say that he, or America, has abandoned God; after all, God has so many faces just in the Old and New Testaments, not to mention the Torah, the Quran, and the dozen of other "holy books" that form the foundations of various religions, and not to mention the Norse and Greek deities, and so on. Certainly, there's a God somewhere there that the Speaker's words and actions are compatible with. Maybe Sauron; you could say that he's the Mouth of Sauron. Or maybe he's Grima Wormtongue. And I would have to argue with the article title; I'm sure that on every date with the Devil, it's the Speaker who pays.
You can say that for a Christian, he has very little of Christ in his words or actions, but you can say that of an awful lot of Christians these days. I'd say that he doesn't have any Elvis in him, either; he's the anti-Elvis.
Mike, you always say the words I’m searching for.
Powerful
Mike Johnson, a scurrying mouse of a man that Jesus (if he were ever even a man) would condemn full-throated to his face. Thanks for doing that for Jesus since he’s not here on Substack. I find the Idea of Jesus can have just as dramatic an effect in one’s life as imagining him as Christ. Actually more Substantial.
Mike's brand of Christianity has long since ceased to be about the actual life and morals of Jesus of Nazareth and has become nothing more than a political movement attached to the Republican Party, the "American Heresy". https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3loqsfhswjk2r
Spot on, Mr. Brock. Like the character in bluesman Robert Johnson’s song, “Crossroad Blues,” Speaker Johnson came to a metaphorical crossroad - where the MAGA way led to more worldly wealth, power and status, the other way to dedicated public service - and made his Faustian bargain. It must be a cosmic irony that Mike Johnson professes a deep Christian faith, represented by an actual cross, but rejects carrying this cross along the road of suffering and surrender that leads all Christian faithful through a “dark night of the soul” as the practice demands. As the mephistophelian Trump well knows, Mike Johnson can wear the cross but he cannot bear it…
Li'l Mikey was chosen Speaker completely by default, and promised fealty to the trump agenda...and the consequence of his elevation was to become trump's shameless bitch. House Dems dismiss him as a feckless lightweight, while the (bare) GOPer majority only just tolerate him because trump...but as the latter loses his power and influence, Johnson is exposed as the craven weasel and pathetic gofer that he chose to play.
A mere footnote come Jan 2027...if he even lasts that long.
🙂↔️ We’re not all worthy of the same level of LOVE aka respect.
Right, Mike⁉️
😕God understands what YOU are trying to do, right⁉️🤔
😌Sin is ACCEPTABLE as long as HIS heart is in the right place despite the image of God that HE is setting for the lost souls… 🤨 right⁉️
❌wrong🚫
❌wrong🚫
❌wrong🚫
The #ImageOfGod that Mike has displayed to all of us has proven to us that as long as our hearts are in the right place, actions don’t matter‼️
❌wrong again, Mike🚫
Just because the people in his orbit are harming others, Mike’s behavior proves that we’re only responsible for ourselves‼️
Right, Mike⁉️
Silence isn’t really compliance‼️
My passive acceptance of the #DevilAtWork won’t imply to those insecure during their #WalkWithGod to keep silent while our peers sin too‼️
Just go along to get along, people‼️
It won’t hurt #TheKingdom at all‼️
I think there is a major hole in Johnson's character, one he tries to fill with whatever words sound rational to him. It isn't clear to me that he even knows that there's a difference. He may know he's lying, but it's all the same to him; truth has no particular value in a world of one-upmanship at any cost. I think he never got grounded in emotional self-mastery (a "loser" in that sadly unfair sense), but has tried to (however thinly) paper it over with performative word-spewing. Only other half-wits buy into it, but they can actually do no other.