I beg this very stupid man's entirely irrelevant pardon, but how does he think in this day and age that folks in Central American have not heard about Jesus? Just hordes of uncontacted tribes "with languages nobody heard before" I guess. https://t.co/n1LFvvPmJE
— Vixen Strangely (@VixenStrangely) March 1, 2024
There is a lot going wrong here in just a few brief sentences. The first thing I take issue with is that we need "God" in government at all. Individuals might take something from having the presence of a deity in their lives and have comfort and strength in their faith, but government itself--our government, is made of laws. Our country's population is made up of people with many different faiths. I think that the First Amendment to our Constitution is the remedy against the sectarian wars and religious persecutions our forefathers were well aware of in Europe--and Tuberville here completely demonstrates why the Christian nationalist desire to get God in government is folly.
Whose God? Because the various immigrants crossing the border aren't ignorant of the concept of God. It seems to me that Tuberville is concerned that they might be followers of the "wrong" God. All of my ancestors came from countries where Protestants and Catholics clashed. Does Sen. Tuberville think Papists follow the Whore of Babylon? Or has he been misguided into thinking "foreigners" are probably some sort of untutored heathens? Is he unaware that Protestant evangelism has penetrated Central and South America? The same religion, roughly, he himself follows?
This is a man who should be very careful indeed whom he considers to be untutored. I've met many a non-Christian whose grasp on theology is very likely better than the Senator's grasp on anything.
If government is to function, it needs to meet the common needs of people. People need food and water and highways and commerce and national defense. People need those things--this is why we have a nation of the people, for the people, and by the people. God does not need things.
What do I mean by that last sentence? God--in the sense that Tuberville and most Christians conceptualize Him, made the Earth and the Heavens. He does not need someone else to make food, provide clean water, build highways, etc. He built all the things we build other stuff from.
If our freedoms come from God--why do people suffer oppression? If God is all-powerful, why do Christians need to capture...anything for Him? Christian nationalism is a power grab of certain men for themselves with God as a sock puppet. These people may very well be bigger atheists than I am. Think about it--if you were to speak for your brother, your mother, your good friend, and insert words into their mouths they did not say, knowing they could find out and contradict you--would you? If you would, it would be very dishonest, wouldn't it? Imagine speaking for God as if He would never know or contradict? As if there were no God but the God you made up to agree with you?
This is the Christian nationalist position--they claim speak for God and act as if they know a mind that is not just higher than theirs but is watching them and knows when they are lying! They claim "prophecies" for their political views and support people like Trump--open and obvious sinners without repentance. They bear false witness, they take the Lord's name in vain, they promote false prophets, and cause suffering even to little children, the hungry, the homeless, the stranger, the refugee, the angels in disguise among us.
I am familiar with Tuberville's God. I've been to masses and classes and have read that book he thinks he knows. I like much of what I know about that Gospel of Matthew ethicist, the rabbi, Jesus. I don't like that whited sepulcher of a senator that much though. And insofar as he has seen fit to judge, I do not mind returning the favor.
As for my above Tweet, the Trump notion of people who speak languages nobody else speaks is so peculiar to people who assume they are the "default human". It's a way to say "barbarian." As if there is no culture but that which they recognize or are familiar with. And yet, this is a very parochial way of thinking, small. Averse to being challenged.
I might even say it is weak. O these of little faith, and little of anything else!
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