LOL, Presbyterian David French is completely unfamiliar with the far-right road show in revolutionary America which repeatedly called the people to arms from Protestant pulpits

He's shocked, I tell you, shocked:

 If you think it’s remotely unusual that a truly extremist event (which included more than one person who’d called for hanging his political opponents) was held at a church, then you’re not familiar with far-right road shows that are stoking extremism in church after church at event after event. ... We know that fanatical religious subcultures can do an immense amount of damage to the body politic. ... what we face is an Christian subculture that is full of terrible religious purpose. The seeds of renewed political violence are being sown in churches across our land.

 More.

In 1776 the David French of 2022 would almost certainly have been a Loyalist, and the sworn enemy of the Presbyterian Rebellion condemned by George III.

Unlike today's fire-breathing right-wing lunatics, French is a proud proponent of "elite Evangelicalism" and "elite American culture" for whom "Christian nationalism" is an oxymoron. Those crazy Pentecostal patriots supporting Donald Trump come from the other side of the tracks, in case you needed reminding. David French is above all that, and stands for everything good, proper, and reasonable, you see. Like the Pharisees did. He is not like other men.

But his idea that a "new insurrection is being organized, in a sanctuary near you" is just as crazy as his idea that January 6th actually was one.

How a now de-Christianized America is suddenly going to embrace a bunch of religious fanatics with their hair on fire is not explained, but the "apocalyptic message" of "national doom" comes for us all, including for David French.

Is there a public Christian today who is more out of touch with the deeply political nature of the history of Protestant experience in America than he?

The 32-year old Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia promises liberalization of Islam

Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Quoted here:

"We want to go back to what we were, the moderate Islam that is open to the world, open to all the religions.

"We will not waste 30 years of our lives dealing with extremist ideas, we will destroy them today". 

There's a lot of liberalizing to do, based on the death penalty being allowed at least theoretically for apostasy, atheism, blasphemy, sorcery, witchcraft, etc.

The difference between Muslim extremism and Christian extremism

Muslim extremism produces all in the same profane person expert cheating, lying and murder of unbelievers.

Christian extremism produces all in the same person serial monogamy, moonshining and snake handling which gets only themselves and sometimes their followers killed.

Tacitus criticized the Christians for their hatred of humankind, but he obviously never met a Muslim.

61.6 million Trump voters just extinguished Western civilization, according to Stephen Prothero of Boston University

Wow, was that easy or WHAT?!

You can push the apocalyptic extremism out of a religion, and Oops!, it pops up somewhere else, as here in America's crummiest newspaper from the mind of a latter day Puritan:

"Americans like myself who hold dear such values as free speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion — values already under attack in Russia, Turkey, France and India — must turn to citizens in Europe, Asia and elsewhere to keep the beacon burning that American voters extinguished Nov. 8. At least for now, the United States is no longer the foremost defender of Western civilization. It is its greatest threat."

Muslim Democrat Congressman says Donald Trump is deplorable

Wow, talk about fresh insight. Simply amazing!

What will he call Trump when Trump starts sinking the Iranian navy in the Straits of Hormuz? An extremist, perhaps?

Story here.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali names religion academics John Esposito and Karen Armstrong "apologists for Islam"

It's about time somebody did.

Here in "Islam is a religion of violence" in Foreign Policy:

'Popular academics such as John Esposito at Georgetown and author Karen Armstrong believe that religion — Islam, in this case — is the “circumstantial” bit and that the real causes of Islamist violence are poverty, political marginalization, cultural isolation, and other forms of alienation, including real or perceived discrimination against Muslims. These apologists for Islam use words such as “radicalism,” “violent extremism,” and “terrorism” to describe the various attacks around the world committed in the name of Islam. If Islam is mentioned at all, it is to say that Islam is being perverted, or hijacked. They are quick to assert that Islam is no different from any other religion, that there are terrible aspects to other religions, and that Islam is in no way unique. That view is more or less the “official” view of policymakers, not only of the U.S. government, but also of most Western countries (though policy changes are beginning to appear on this front in some countries such as the U.K., Canada, and Australia). But the apologists’ position has been a complete policy failure because it denies the religious justifications the Quran and the Hadith provide for violence, gender inequality, and discrimination against other religions. ... [T]he intolerant and violent aspects of the Quran and the Hadith are never acknowledged or rejected.'

Extremism Incompatible With Christianity? Extremism Defines Christianity.

"All forms of xenophobia, racism and extremism are incompatible with Christianity," Bamberg Archbishop Ludwig Schick told a news conference in Wuerzburg on Wednesday.

-- quoted here

"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own."

-- Luke 14:33

Christmas is Vanity: Had St. Paul Known of Christmas, Would He Have Approved?

"[H]ow can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have labored over you in vain."

-- Gal. 4:9 ff.

"One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike."

-- Rom. 14:5

"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ."

-- Col. 2:16 f.

That said, and quite apart from the well-known atheist war on Christmas, there is now some competition, or is it help?, from a small band of Christian extremists in Arkansas who think we're all guilty of idolatry in celebrating it.

Video here.