The Trump type has been known for centuries

  It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs.

 -- Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Trump Doesn't Care If He Wrecks Global Economy

Alex Shephard, The New Republic

 

Pope Leo attempts to put an end to all that Mary "co-redeemer" jibber jabber

 

 Jesus, not Virgin Mary, saved the world, Vatican says

... In a new decree approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican's top doctrinal office instructed the world's 1.4 billion Catholics not to refer to Mary as the "co-redeemer" of the world.

Jesus alone saved the world, said the new instruction, settling an internal debate that had befuddled senior Church figures for decades, and even sparked rare open disagreement among recent popes.

"It would not be appropriate to use the title 'co-redemptrix'," said the text. "This title ... (can) create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith." ...

The Devil, flanked by Famine and Death

 A Devilish Photo of Trump Sparks an Online Firestorm

Should he not know better by now?

 

I mean, the gaudy gold ornamentation above the "horns" in the current photo from the Cabinet Room is new. It is missing in the 2020 photo, so he's aware of this setting and what happened to him last time, isn't he lol?

 

The Devil has only himself to blame.

 

October 9, 2025

July 9, 2020

Elon Musk is a dangerous know-nothing: He calls US government payments to Lutheran Family/Social/Immigration Services illegal when they are not and never have been

 

One can disagree that public funds should be distributed to religious organizations who specialize in aid to immigrants as a matter of policy, but the programs are not illegal, and were even heralded a quarter century ago when they began under George W. Bush.

O tempora, o mores.

 

In 1999, then-presidential candidate George W. Bush called for the funding of religious groups that fed the hungry and housed the homeless, part of what he called the “armies of compassion.” During his first month in office, in 2001, the Republican unveiled an office to help faith-based groups partner with government, calling them “some of the finest America has got to offer.”...

... on the social media site X, right-wing Trump ally Mike Flynn accused Lutheran organizations that receive federal grants to help the needy of committing “money laundering.” Flynn put quote marks around the word “Lutheran” — one of America’s largest Protestant groups — in the post.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s then shared Flynn’s post, calling “illegal” multiple Lutheran organizations that work in the United States to provide health care to homeless people, run food pantries, and help migrants and refugees. “The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments,” Musk said, referring to his U.S. DOGE Service, also known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

More.

Um, that was Judaism last time I checked

 In WaPo of course, reproduced here:

Christianity was a particularly blood-obsessed religion, with the Nile transformed to a river of blood in the Old Testament plagues of Egypt . . .  Christianity was a blood-soaked, even blood-obsessed, religion . . . All of this gives some of [Trump's] Christian supporters permission to reembrace the darkest aspects of the symbolics of blood that saturated their religion for centuries. These are old ideas. They are deeply and historically Christian ideas. And they are terrifying.

The guy never mentions Judaism and the Jewish Temple with its elaborate, obligatory centuries old sacrificial system, which disappeared with its destruction in 70 AD, nor Islamic Qurban, the ritual slaughter of tens of millions of animals which happens every year all over the world during Eid al-Adha right up to the present.

Stupidest, most bigoted anti-Christian newspaper in the country, curated for you by the Jew Matt Drudge right on time for Good Friday:

The ancient, volatile Christian ideas behind Trump's obsession with blood...

 

 

Study finds most people who stop going to church do so for the banal reason that they love money and status more

 Enthusiast for the Christian communist Bruderhof Gang Jake Meador, here:

Davis and Graham also find that a much larger share of those who have left church have done so for more banal reasons. The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children. Workism reigns in America, and because of it, community in America, religious community included, is a math problem that doesn’t add up.     

Same as it ever was.

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

-- Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13

For the love of money is the root of all evil.

-- I Timothy 6:10

Pope Francis, Vatican II reactionary, reinstates restrictions on Old Latin Mass, echoing reactionary Biden administration

The old symbolism of the priest facing the altar with the congregation, emphasizing the unity of priest and congregants, is completely lost on these people:

In 2007, [Pope] Benedict removed a rule requiring a local bishop’s permission to celebrate the old Latin Mass. Francis not only reinstated that rule but added other restrictions.  

In dioceses where groups celebrate the old rite, also known as the Tridentine Mass, bishops must also work to determine that the celebrants “do not deny the validity and the legitimacy” of the Second Vatican Council, which helped shape many church reforms. Among those changes were the popularization of Mass in the vernacular, making worship more accessible to regular Catholics.

In a letter accompanying his decision, Francis said he was “saddened” that the use of the old Latin Mass often doubles as a rejection of the Second Vatican Council, under the argument that its reforms “betrayed” the church’s true traditions. But Francis said that to doubt the council is to “doubt the Holy Spirit himself.”

“The great issue for the Catholic Church has always been the question of change,” said David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture. The old Latin Mass had become “a wedge issue, to divide, to elevate one part of the church as superior to other parts of the church,” Gibson said. “And that is intolerable.”  

In the Latin Mass, the priest often faces away from the congregation. The rite also includes the use of particular — often elaborate — vestments.

More.

 

Meanwhile the Biden administration, which has deliberately ceded control of the US southern border with Mexico where tens of thousands of illegals now routinely cross seeking "asylum", has put its foot down and publicly warned Cubans fleeing communist tyranny that they are not welcome in the United States, resurrecting the intransigence of the late Clinton administration made infamous in the affair of Elian Gonzalez, who was forcibly repatriated to Cuba.

Cuban refugees do not make reliable Democrat voters.

 

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How hardly shall the pastors that have riches, or anyone else, enter into the kingdom of God

Preachers and their $5,000 sneakers: Why one man started an Instagram account showing churches’ wealth :

From his couch in Dallas, Ben Kirby began asking questions about the lifestyles of the rich and famous pastors when he was watching some worship songs on YouTube on a Sunday morning in 2019. ...

Kirby said he has been to churches where a volunteer was designated solely for the purpose of carrying the pastor’s Bible. Often, he writes, these pastors have private entrances, reserved parking spaces, security details and a gaggle of personal assistants or handlers. And, often, they promise blessings from God to their followers if their followers bless the church. ...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the median salary for clergy was $53,180 in 2019 [55% higher than the median wage in 2019 of $34,248 for all Americans], but Kirby’s Instagram feed showcases how a nationwide evangelical market has become lucrative for leaders with celebrity status. Like other social media influencers, sometimes these pastors are gifted the shoes and clothes they wear. ...

Since starting the Instagram account, Kirby has been dipping his own toes into the evangelical marketplace, entering a world that he has so openly critiqued. Like church leaders, his income is partially dependent on his podcast advertising and book sales, and he sells merch based off the brand. ...

Kirby doesn’t want Christians to abandon fashion or celebrities, but he does want more transparency and accountability.

“I’m getting people to question the status quo within the church and hopefully push for a reevaluation of what we value,” he said. “People aren’t going to reach God without this guy wearing Yeezys? Come on.”

C’mon man.

United Methodist Church to split in May 2020 over gay marriage

Friday’s announcement came as new sanctions were set to go into effect in the church, which would have made punishments for United Methodist Church pastors who perform same-sex weddings much more severe: one year’s suspension without pay for the first wedding and removal from the clergy for any wedding after that. Instead, leaders from liberal and conservative wings signed an agreement saying they will postpone those sanctions and instead vote to split at the worldwide church’s May general conference. They said the agreement was brokered by Kenneth Feinberg, the mediation expert who handled the compensation fund for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, among other major negotiations. 

More.