This happened the day that Trump, Jr.’s collusion with Russia became public knowledge.
Nominally, the laying-on of hands is “… a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit primarily during baptisms and confirmations, healing services, blessings …” Practically, being surrounded and touched by babbling ignoramuses does no good for anybody — except, of course, that it comforts pious morons. Which, in politics, is everything.
This is fun: It seems that the far-right loonies are finding Christianity just too constricting and gravitating toward paganism.
The far right have a definite need to identify with a faith. This is because a good deal of their prejudice is targeted at those with differing religious beliefs. Historically they have attempted to align themselves with Christianity in order to fuel their prejudice against Muslims and Jews but as the tactics the far right deploy in their persecution of UK minority faiths move further and further from the teachings of Jesus Christ they have increasingly started to usurp the Pagan faith as an alternative.
The fluidity of Paganism is one of the elements that attracts the far right. As a non-prescriptive faith there are no hurdles to overcome to self-identify as a Pagan. There are no mandatory rites of passage, no set holy days, no learning or memorising of scripture. There is no formal initiation into Paganism. It is therefore perceived by some as a faith that requires minimum effort to adopt.
The author of this piece is in Britain, and maybe he’s right about what is happening there. I don’t see this catching on here, though — at least not in the south. Here, Southern Baptist is cultural identity, and only vaguely has something to do with theology and that Jesus guy.
Jerry Coyne, on gluten-free communion wafers and unleavened Passover matzos
Coyne is absolutely right. Yes, it’s their club, and they can have any rules they like, but if communicants et. al. actually believe that some sky-god is beaming and cooing with joy and pride that the communion wafers have gluten, or that the matzos are unleavened, they’re living in a dangerous fantasy world.
The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.
Anon.
Well.
The New York Times is now reporting that Donald Trump, Jr., knew that his meeting with a Russian lawyer was part of a Russian operation to help his father win the presidency.
We’re now moving into territory where words like ‘collusion’ and ‘treason’ are terms of art, where we need to parse acts into their component parts so that we can identify whether all the elements of specific offenses as defined in the law are present, but let’s be clear: Cooperating with a hostile foreign power to undermine your country’s rightful and legitimate interests meets any reasonable common-sense understanding of the word ‘treason.’
When we add to that The Donald’s refusal to acknowledge the well-established fact that Russia meddled in the campaigns, and his efforts to derail the investigation of Michael Flynn, I don’t know how any reasonable adult can reach any conclusion but that Trump, Sr., knew that his campaign enjoyed the active support of Russia and that its intelligence services were aiding him.
Trump knew.
We can see the future from here; after all, we have the Watergate scandal to guide us and, so far, the parallels are downright eerie. Drip-drip-drip. Trickle-trickle-trickle. Stream-stream-stream. Defection-defection-defection. Soon … cataracts, and there will be no keeping-up. In spite of Trump’s obvious, conspicuous, unfitness for office, I no longer think the 25th-Amendment will be invoked to remove him from office; a Cabinet that has submitted to the humiliations Trump has already inflicted upon them lacks the self-respect and backbone needed to intervene. But the Republican whores who toadied up to him, and who are now catching an earful back home, will join Democrats to vote-out articles of impeachment, and when they do Trump will be convicted.
The only really interesting question is this: Will Trump leave office peacefully, or will he try to stay? I think he’ll try to stay and, aided by Russian skill at manipulating the booboisie, the Cliven Bundys and Robert Spencers and David Dukes and Franklin Grahams and Sean Hannitys and sundry commonplace morons will rally to the White House.
I say again: We are headed toward an unprecedented Constitutional crisis.
