Warned of populist demagogues empowered by religionists claming special "annointing" for their leader and his movement.
God has allowed us a democratic system free of religious restraint and the dominion of churches. He moves, but in the hearts of the people.
I'm not sure that religionists were Trump's primary voters. He forged genuine working class support. Granted, his shenanigans cost him the suburban voters and therefore the election. But I think the evangelicals were always a little wary of him on account of his lax morals. But you're more a part of that community than I am, so I may be completely wrong here.
Doesn't really matter. The church's conduct, however, certainly does. That is the crux of the issue here.
I think there's also a big difference in the concept of prophecy in the sense of God speaking to an individual or small group, and prophecy in the sense of God speaking to an entire church or some other large group. I'd agree that it's hard to see how predicting the winner of an election does anything to build the church.
Jewish Laser Beams. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/anti...s-laser-beam-comments-are-indefensible-657202
So... yeah. This is where we find ourselves. It was funny for about a minute until I realized this lunatic is a member of our government. How much misery and suffering has been inflicted on Jews because of outlandish lies that were told and believed? We financed wars, we poisoned wells, we tortured holy wafers, we murdered gentile children for their blood, and now, we have a space laser that starts forest fires. You want to know why Jews vote overwhelmingly Democrat? This. This is why. Because the Christian right in Europe did horrible things to Jews, and so Jews are afraid of Christians and the right. And some [expletive] like this has to rear her ugly head and say, "Hey, we're still here! We still believe the very worst of you!"
Interestingly a lot of accusations of antisemitism in England were directed at the Labour Party when Jeremy Corbyn was its leader. If I recall many Labour politicians were censured (possibly including King Jeremy himself) for antisemitism. The party tagline was "for the many, not the few" and a number of Jewish people turned it into "for the many, not the Jew". The way those on the left seem to endlessly pander to Islam, however radical, it seems hard to choose between the nutjobs on one side and the nutjobs on the other side. I'd have thought that pandering to a religion whose more extreme adherents refuse to acknowledge your right to life would be a pretty big turn-off. Fenris, from your general posting here I get the sense you at least lean Republican. As a Jew how would you typically balance idiotic comments from the right about space lasers against the left kowtowing to Islam?
As to how I lean politically, I'm a registered Republican. I believe in small government and maximum personal freedom. Nothing is going to change that. But I won't vote for a small government candidate who's an antisemite. Neither should anyone else. It's unAmerican and I expect better of my fellow citizens. Obviously the voters in Georgia weighed the matter differently, much to my sorrow. And anti-Semitism has no party, no political leanings. Historically in Europe in came from the right. Nowadays in Europe it lives on both the right and the left. Here in this country it was never as common or as pronounced as it was in Europe. But that's changing now. In my local elections I had to vote straight Democrat ticket because the Republican party in my county is infested with antisemites, up to and including the county exec who told me that he blames antisemitism on Jewish behavior. Of course it lives in the left in this country too. Democrats AOC, Ilan Omhar, and Rashid Tlaib (aka "the squad") have all embraced antisemitic tropes. Jews in America have led very nice lives. Truly it has been a golden age, and it benefitted both the Jews and this wonderful country that has accepted us. But perhaps this time is at an end.
Indeed. What were the voters thinking? Of course the Georgia voters also elected Warnock to the senate in spite of troubling statements that he has made about Israel. So maybe anti-semitism is becoming tolerable to the American electorate?
Hoping and praying not, but the new reality reveals some very troubling trends, affecting every demographic. It's hard to understand what has unleashed this recent spate of seeming psychosis.
I can't help wondering if this sort of thing drives people to just not vote at all. It seems pretty lame when the only thing that's attractive about a candidate is that they aren't the other candidate. If you've got two main candidates and both of them express views that are in some way unacceptable it seems like a sad state of affairs. Voting for the lesser of two evils doesn't seem like the way anything should be. A friend of mine here who has some Jewish roots (he's not an observant Jew in any way that I can see but has Jewish ancestors and a Jewish name) said he thought antisemitism had got worse under Trump. Normally he leans Democrat but is more of a libertarian. But then it's the political left who seem more worried about appeasing Islam. Do you think some people resent the Jews because they have led good lives? When I think of places like Hatton Garden in central London where all the diamond merchants are based and where most of the business owners are Orthodox Jews I wonder if any resentment towards them is because of their wealth. But presumably they didn't just find someone randomly dumped a few million in their bank account so they could have a fancy jewelry store - I'm assuming they started small and worked for what they now have. If antisemitism is rising in tandem with growing resentment at people who have worked hard for what they have, do you think the two are related? A shift from a mindset of "what would I need to do to achieve what you have achieved?" to a mindset of "life won't be fair until what you have is taken away from you and shared with me" naturally hurts the people who work the hardest. Do you get the impression that resentment is directed at Jews because they are Jews, or because of a more widespread resentment against successful people when it's easy to see areas where Jewish people have been successful (places like Hatton Garden, as I described above)?
I wonder how much the media is responsible for that sort of thing. When news reports gloss over Palestinian rockets fired into Israel and talk endlessly about how the nasty Jews are oppressing the poor Palestinians it's easy to see how peoples' opinions can be swayed to seeing Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as doing nothing more than trying to get themselves a place to call home (never mind how fast those same people would demand Something Must Be Done if they faced suicide bombers on their daily commutes) I remember as a teenager wondering which among the Palestinian teenagers thought it was a good idea to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers with machine guns. To me, even as a teenager, the idea seemed like a pretty effective form of suicide (based on the machine guns, not the nationality of the person wielding them). But apparently it's acceptable to throw rocks at soldiers, as long as they are Israeli soldiers.
My linking of this Marjorie Taylor Greene stuff was likely unwise, but she is certainly representative of these fringe groups that have made their way into prime-time as of late, even into Congress, and almost all infected with the "Q" madness, among others. I found her so bizarre as to be almost comical, but this is certainly anything but funny. And she claims to be a Christian.
Unfortunately, being a Christian is no guarantee of lack of stupid. I know waay too many Christians that are, as my old drill sergeant used to say, "locked and loaded in the dumb mass position." I could move 10 miles and be in her district. Then I could primary her sorry carcass. If I didn't hate the idea of actually having to go to DC, I'd do it in a red hot minute. (Oh, other than my wife killing me.... that part would be bad) That district is so heavily Republican that a 12 year old in a MAGA hat could win over any candidate with a "D" next to their name. All you have to do is win the primary. How she finished first in the primary and then won the run off to be in the general is nuts. I spoke yesterday with someone that is a power hitter in the Dalton area. Dalton is, as a bit of trivia, the carpet capital of the universe. They make enough carpet in Dalton in a week to carpet Texas, with enough scraps to cover Rhode Island. Big, big money, and very conservative. Word on the street yesterday was that the carpet boys are just deciding who they want to buy ... I mean "back" to toss her on her keister as soon as possible, and are already lobbying the governor for her replacement is she gets crap canned during her term. This is what happens when the free press turns into the paid propagandists. When one side launches propaganda, the other side launches a counterstrike. As we've been placing this stupid game for decades, the rhetoric simply becomes more and more idiotic until some people tune out, which creates the opening for loons on both sides of the political aisle to take advantage of demographics and get enough votes to get a national platform as a US Congress member of the House of Representatives. Thus, you end up with Greene and AOC, both claiming the moral high ground. And while that ridiculous kibuki theatre plays out, people get hurt, and policies targeting entire people groups get enacted. And just in case anyone was wondering, no, you can't recall a Representative or Senator.
I know, with some of these candidates I'd rather not cast a vote at all. There's more issues with leftist antisemitism than just the appeasement of Islam. There's also the maligning of the state of Israel and the idea that Jews in general are overprivileged and need to be brought down a peg or two. Leftism is about equality before productivity or individual rights, and so traditional Jewish cultural strengths like valuing education and hard word and general excellence are perceived as negative and must be punished. 100%. There's an excellent book written by a (gentile) economist by the name of George Gilder. It's title is "The Israel test". He posits that when an individual or a culture sees success, they can react in one of two ways: They can either try to emulate that success, or they can resent it. Jews and the state of Israel are successful outside of normal measures, and this draws a lot of attention. The resenters hate this and so hate Jews and the Jewish state. That the left is all about equality, not just of opportunity but also of outcome, means that this sort of successful productivity must be punished. I don't believe that's the only reason for antisemitism, but it certainly is a compelling one.