The U.S. Has a White Christian Problem, and It's Imperiling American Democracy: My Commentary on New PRRI Report re: American Attitudes Towards Immigrants

Today, Public Religion Research Group (PRRI) published results of a study it has just done entitled "Are Immigrants a Threat? Most Americans Don’t Think So, but Those Receptive to the 'Threat' Narrative Are Predictably More Anti-immigrant." Some key findings of this report:

"This Is Happening in our Country Today and Is Being Done in All of Our Names": An Advent Sermon by Lisa Koop

Christian Trump supporters, take note. https://t.co/xn3kCgkjaA

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 24, 2019

I'm happy to be able to share with you this Christmas day an Advent sermon Lisa Koop preached at Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana, on 15 December. The sermon asks a question that haunts me as other Americans and I celebrate Christmas: How, in fact, does one or can one celebrate Christmas when this is happening in our country today and is being done in all of our names? How does anyone in the U.S. who claims a connection to Jesus and the gospels cope with the fact that what is happening in our country now — what is being inflicted on fellow human beings who are immigrants and refugees — was set into motion by the votes of more than half of the nation's white Christians in 2016?

Lisa Koop's sermon follows:

"Responding with the Biggest Ever Anti-Immigrant Raid to the First Ever Anti-Latino, Anti-Immigrant Gun Massacre in This Country: This Will Be History"

Regardless of whatever they say and whatever comes out of the president's mouth, this IS the story of how our government responded to an anti-immigrant massacre committed by someone who quoted the words of the president's re-election campaign about needing to stop an immigrant invasion .... That is how this will look in history. 

The administration responding with the biggest ever anti-immigrant raid to the first ever anti-Latino, anti-immigrant gun massacre in this country: this will be history. This will go down in history as what our government did. 

~ Rachel Maddow

SIX HUNDRED ICE Agents Haul Away 680 Workers as Man in White House Heads to El Paso: What "Pro-Life" White Christians Have Wrought

HAPPENING NOW: In Forrest, Mississippi where one of the #ICE raids happened nearby Children of those who were arrested are left alone in the streets crying for help. Strangers and neighbors are taking them to a local gym to be put up for the night. FULL STORY TONIGHT ON @WJTV. pic.twitter.com/s2zuTTRYfM

— Alex Love (@AlexLoveWJTV) August 8, 2019

SIX HUNDRED armed thugs ICE agents.

They hauled away 680 workers.

"We Must Call the El Paso Shooting What It Is: Trump-Inspired Terrorism" — Commentary on White Supremacist Roots of Recent Mass Shootings

El Paso Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

Parkland Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

Tree Of Life Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

Las Vegas Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

Borderline Bar Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

Sandy Hook Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

Charleston Shooter:
Not an immigrant.

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) August 4, 2019

Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear, "El Paso Shooting Suspect's Manifesto Echoes Trump's Language":

"We Are Watching as a President Returns Naked Racism to the White House": Commentary

The graphic above is the lead headline on Huffington Post this morning.  My commentary about it:

"If Evangelical Christians Stood Up for These Children…"

If evangelical Christians stood up for these children, things could change in the camps very quickly. 

~ Caitlin Flanagan, "Christ in the Camps"

Commentary re: Religious Issues, Hot Off Press: Catholic Abuse, Evangelicals & Trump, LGBTQ People & Church, U.S. Catholic Resistance to Pope Francis

"Whom Would Jesus Shoot?," Karen Fiorito

From the graphic above through the tweets and article excerpts below, some valuable commentary on a wide range of matters religious (and political) I've gleaned from social media or browsing the internet in the past several days. Hans Zollner's good statement on the spiritual damage done by sexual abuse of minors dates from a year ago, but is receiving attention right now because Mark Stephen Murray tweeted this article again today.

Tweets About the Bishops' Retreat: "Secrecy, Hypocrisy, and an Arrogant Refusal to Be Held Accountable"

Things are likely to be tense when the US Catholic bishops meet at their closed-door retreat near Chicago this week. The credibility of the president of the U.S. bishops' was just called into question with the leak of a Vatican letter. https://t.co/myU3QVCBx1

— Laurie Goodstein (@lauriegnyt) January 2, 2019

Here's a selection of tweets commenting on the U.S. Catholic bishops' retreat in Chicago — with one or two comments focusing on the state of the U.S. Catholic church in general:

Death of 7-Year-Old Girl in U.S. Custody, a Family Funeral, and the Inexplicable Cruelty of Right-Wing U.S. Catholicism: An Advent Conundrum

Sometimes I follow threads in Catholic discussions on Twitter down rabbit holes. I know I shouldn't do this, because the holes inevitably turn out to be dark, claustrophobic, and stifling. 

Putting Christ Back Into Christmas: The Death of Jakelin Ameí Rosmery Caal Maquin

Donald Trump as Defender of "the" Faith: "These Children Are Barefoot. In Diapers. Choking on Tear Gas"

Huffington Post Lead Headline, 25 November 2018

Mike Allen, "Franklin Graham: Trump 'defends the faith'":

I never said he was the best example of the Christian faith. He defends the faith. And I appreciate that very much.

Internet Responds to POTUS' Personal Theologian Paula White & Her Clownish Theology of White Nationalism: "Do You Not Read Your Bible, Sis?"

.@Paula_White - who commits theological malpractice with nearly every word - advises the president of the United States.

Where did she get her theological education? She didn’t. Her highest degree is a high school diploma. https://t.co/s31RO8Ciws

— Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) July 11, 2018

Baptist theologian Fred Clark is superb today on precisely how the POTUS' personal theologian Paula White "beclowns herself" through her recent statement that Jesus — who was executed by the Romans via a sentence of capital punishment ordering his crucifixion, a punishment reserved in the Roman empire for the lowest order of criminals — never ran afoul of any laws, and "if he had broken the law then he would have been sinful and he would not have been our Messiah."Here's an excerpt from his commentary:

#HelloICE? On Laughter as Good Medicine for the Addictive Drug of White Nationalism

Hello, ICE? I need to report a dangerous illegal in my church.

He breaks the law all the time — heals on the Sabbath, sits and eats with public sinners. From what I understand, he and his parents entered Egypt illegally — no papers at all.

Can you please come and pick him up?

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 12, 2018

Someone on Twitter today provided a snapshot of posters that have gone up on electric poles in Kansas Omaha, Nebraska, urging "American citizens" to call ICE and report anyone they suspect of being "illegal" — since THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW. I let that tweet get away from me and can't find it now, so I can't link to it here. (Later: this is the story I saw tweeted this morning, regarding these signs.)

Linda Gordon's Second Coming of the KKK: "Klan's Mobilization of Evangelical Ministers Foreshadowed — and Probably Helped Generate — the Entry of Christian Right Preachers into Conservative Politics"

I've just finished reading Linda Gordon's The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition (NY: Liveright, 2017). It's an excellent historical study of the reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Linda Gordon is a history professor at New York University.  

"Pro-Life" White U.S. Christians Don't "Risk" Being Implicated in the Horrors Unfolding on the Nation's Borders: They Are Directly Responsible for Those Horrors

Huffington Post lead headline, morning of 15 June 2018.

Charles Camosy, "You Can't Be Pro-Life and Against Immigrant Children":

Given their support of the administration, and an unwillingness to speak critically about immigration policy, "pro-life, pro-family" organizations now risk being tied to these and other horrific practices.

"The Bible Is Trending Because It Was Just Used to Justify Ripping Babies from Their Mothers’ Arms and Putting Them in Interment Camps"

Because it needs to be documented: think of how documentation now allows us to see Catholic religious leaders in Germany and Austria, Catholic priests and nuns, raising their hands in Nazi salutes, blessing the Nazi state. We should never let ourselves forget what's possible: the bible, religion, can be used to justify almost any heinous practice under the sun, if people are willing to stoop to that use of the bible and religion:

Quote for Day: Michael Gerson on Selective Biblical Inerrancy of Christian Republicans

Michael Gerson, "Trump Exposes the Hypocrisy of Christian Republicans":

Ireland Apparently Knocks Down Abortion Ban; Children Being Taken from Parents by ICE; Pope Francis Does Usual Two-Step with LGBTQ Humanity and LGBTQ Lives: My Commentary

What does it mean to be pro-life if you defend the life of a child in the womb, but not the life of a child on the border?

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 25, 2018

Father James Martin tweets the above (as it happens, on the day that the predominantly Catholic nation of Ireland votes overwhelmingly, election results are suggesting, to strike down its draconian anti-abortion law — and see here), and all hell breaks loose. All hell breaks loose from so-called "pro-lifers," who issue ugly insinuations about immigrants being in thrall to organized crime outfits — so that it's justified for ICE officials to rip the children of immigrants from the arms of their parents, these "pro-lifers" want to maintain.

Week's-End Commentary: "The Judgment of God Has Come"; "The American Gospel Is Garbage. Something Toxic and Perilous Is Going on in Our Churches. Save Your Soul"

Phillip Bump, "The group least likely to think the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees? Evangelicals":

Pew's new research includes a fascinating detail: No group agrees less with the idea that the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees than white evangelical Protestants.