Soon they will demand that gay and transgender people wear yellow stars on their clothing. This is fascism pure and simple as the immature poorly educated folks look for the “other” to blame their own failures upon!
Eileen, this is truly scapegoating and moves us a few steps closer to the 1930s insanity of Nazi Germany. I find it so interesting that the Christian Nationalists keep whining that they should not be compared to Nazi Germany while they keep doing things that prove they are indeed moving steadily in that direction. I and many others, knew that when Roe v. Wade was overturned by an ignorant Supreme Court set of conservatives that the whiny Right would need other targets. Forcing women to be pregnant, valuing a fetus over the life of the woman bearing it, and causing more poverty are not sufficient cruelty for them. I wonder if they see themselves as the Christian witch hunters who gloried in the light of burning women. They are just looking for those they can see harmed to pay for white inadequacy. We the People could stop them by voting the crazies out of office, but we need to do it soon since the crazies are warping our ability to vote for anyone but them. President Biden can just say "no" to the debt ceiling insanity and invoke the 14th Amendment as he could to deny public office to anyone who participated in, planned, or benefited from the January 6th insurrection. We Democrats, Progressives, and others who care about our democracy need to step up, demand more of our media, and stand for what is democratic and defend our Constitution.
I keep hoping the Movement Conservatives that have roused and mixed in with Christian Nationalists will split into a different party from the “relatively” more moderate, traditional Republicans. Unfortunately, neither side is willing to give up the name recognition. They both cling to those die-hard Republicans, the never-be-a-Democrats, who won’t change their vote even though their party has drastically changed.
Anne. I do find it sad that so many Republicans vote for the "R" instead of the person. What makes them think that the "R" stands for anything but cruelty and pain for anyone the leaders think deserve their vitriol, these days? I don't see how they can claim to be Christian when they support the level of hate and cruelty Republicans are up to currently. I wonder if they are even reachable. They may just love being part of a group that is into doing harm to people who are vulnerable. Why is this OK with them? Are they unaware of what such cruelty can lead to, like 1930s Nazism in Germany?
Ruth. What really boggles my mind, is they don’t seem to be aware how they are enabling potentially fundamental changes of our governmental systems, in ways that might be difficult to reverse, and may become adverse for them. They, too, down the road, could find themselves on the receiving end of actual oppression when power changes hands. Not the perceived “oppression” they think they are victims of now, for example: having to share resources and negotiate in good faith with non-like-minded citizens. Where will they turn, if the courts are following a skewed, warped interpretation of our Constitution? Move to Hungary or Belarus?
Anne, you are right about the reversal that can come at any time. It has happened all over the world. The masterminds of this anti-Constitutional set of moves right now don't want the scared white people to imagine things could be turned against them in the future. They are carefully grooming automatons who will do just what they are "told" to do, hurt as many people as possible to give their masters more and more power they don't deserve. Just like with Trump, if those scared white people get in the way, don't go along, they can be ignored (right now) but set aside in future actions. How do we reach these folks to show them how they are being used, and it is not to please god or for any other high purpose. It is for money and power for those who believe they deserve more, and those used people will get none of it.
LUCKILY, only about 30% of Americans and FALLING are stupid, yes STUPID, enough to fall for Bunkerbaby's lies. America is naturally marching towards PROGRESS and a few uneducated bigots will be TRAMPLED if they stand still or crawl backwards on their bare bellies. "Sad!" ? No, not really.
Donnie Dump and his Trumpturds have lost the last 3 elections, plus some specials, recently, yes? Good trend. Sanity, in the face of the bottomless fascist bs! T Carlson being fired was not a bad thing, either. Let's Impeach Thomas, now, along with BK and Amy, for contempt and perjury. Plus, push to enlarge the SCOTUS. With term limits. And ethics controls. No big donors, buying judges, etc., alllowed. End Citizen's United. Corporations are NOT people!!! Lastly, Biden needs to ignore the GQP's hypocritical, hostage taking, simply used to "feed their insane base", pay off their greedy, autocratic owners and deliberately, tank the booming Biden econ, for 2024 election advantage.....using our money, in this latest, debt ceiling debacle. Deplorable. This party of Stupid, Seditiious Scumbags, Christofascist Hypocrites and malignant morons, must end, stat! Enough, already! Vote Blue..... always.
I fear for the next election. Biden is pretty feeble. If Trump were to win again just don't know what action I might take. I have relatives in Ireland who might help with process of being an immigrant and being a stranger in a stranger land.
I felt that the former president was treading this path of authoritarian government when he started out his campaign. But it became very clear he was on the side of the white supremacist's not long after he took office. From there the GOP just followed him down the road we are non. They have become a threat to our democracy and G-d help us if one of two things ever happens. 1). That they get all three back both houses of Congress and the WH or 2). they get enough states to call a Constitutional Convention because that will be the end of democracy in this country.
Beth, Republicans have gone off the deep end and our media seem to be on board through their fake balancing act. When even NPR refuses to call Little Kevvy out on his bad destructive behavior, I know we are in trouble. and with the Supreme Court conservatives unable to serve our Constitution, rewriting as they go along. We may not even need a Constitutional convention because the SC is already changing things almost beyond recognition, warping the first and second amendments, ignoring the 14th, 15, 19, and 26th by allowing Republicans in the red states to do whatever they want to deny the vote to anyone who is not white, rich, and Republican (OK in the South, those are pretty much the same thing). We the People are being attacked on so many fronts it is hard to defend and oppose. republicans pretend global warming isn't happening and that somehow they will escape. They truly despise children, including their own and care as little for the rest of the people as they can while pretending they are just soooo patriotic. The SC conservatives are corrupt to a person and are totally OK with it as they warp our Constitution and legitimate laws. Disgusting!
The SC has become a joke all in itself. The last straw was that religious you know what that the Republicans shoved down our throats. She and at least Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh all need to be kicked off and Robert's too now that we know what his wife has been up too. If we could clean it up that would help if not expand it to balance it. I'm 75 so not to many more years here but I don't want to find myself living in a fascist country and I have children and grandchildren who will be here after I'm gone.
Beth. I am with you. I don't want to live in a fascist state either, especially when there is no reason we should. We have the means to stop the insanity. I just can't understand why we don't use it. The January 6th insurrectionists should be indicted, all of them, including the big shots and anyone who still claims Biden is not president should be kicked out of Congress as insurrectionists who should not have been permitted to run for office ever again as the 14th amendment says. We have a Department of Justice that should be challenging the laws in Florida, Texas, Idaho, Arkansas, Iowa, and the other white states that are trying to take away the rights of American citizens and others living in this nation. How is it pseudo-Christians have been able to undermine our first amendment right to worship as we please or not worship at all if we so choose? What gives those people the right to dictate to anyone? How is it the law can't come down on the bad behavior of judges and justices? Why are we not doing any of this? I honestly don't know. I am guessing money is involved. Why is that money not on the side of our democracy? Any corporation supporting the insurrectionists and others who are working to take away the rights in our Constitution should be taxed into oblivion. Maybe if there were some meat behind our claims of a democracy, we would have fewer laws being passed that deny our rights, including our right to vote unimpeded. It was the Supreme Court under Roberts, a racist, corrupt child-man who undermined the Voting Rights Act despite the people's desire to keep it in place, and we have seen what happened just after that decision. So much damage was done by Trump, a fool who didn't even win the popular vote, but appointed appalling judges and justices and worked hard to undermine our government. This all needs to be stopped and good people in positions of respect, need to step forward and start saying "no." Then they need to speak up for our most vulnerable people including trans youth and adults, the next target for those who don't think putting women's lives at riskwas enough cruelty.
How will you hide from the fascists when they come to your door because of some slogan on your bumper or on your window? I am underground man. I hide in plain sight. I have an American flag on my car and a flag pole in the yead . I am a true blue American communist.
Before the Nazis began their mass murders at concentration camps, there was the 'war with bullets' in which Jews were forced out of their homes, walked to the edge of town, shot and shoved into ravines.
Verbally and legally espousing hate for marginalized people usually results in violence being done to the marginalized. Fascists often make that jump really quickly. History recycles. The same hateful attitudes that carry out genocide NEVER, EVER go away. They just go underground.
Not many people have noticed yet, but one of the bills he signed denying gender affirming care to minors also implemented a requirement that trans adults receiving gender affirming care must go before multiple oversight boards appointed by the governor to ask permission to receive that care. When they do so, they have to provide all of their personal information, including medical records.
This is how DeSantis gets away with establishing a registry of trans folk in order to facilitate further persecution.
DeSantis has created his own fascist country, with laws and punishments that provoke hate and violence. Doesn’t the Constitution protect citizens from his state sanctioned political and social vitriol and policies?
Irenie, our Constitution should protect us from the DeSantises of our nation. We'll see if it actually does by the way our Department of Justice responds or does not.
Makes sense as "protecting" trans youth from thesmelves implies that something is wrong with being Trans. He might as well have a Don't be Trans law. Creep discrimination in little by little.
E.C., I didn't know that DeSantis had gone so far. Where is the courage in the medical community. I would love to see the doctors, nurses, psychologists, and others of Florida, Texas, and the other states that are attacking the LGBTQ community and women, refuse care to any of the legislators, governors, and other officials and their families who voted for those appalling bills. There are not enough prisons to hold all the refusers. When police or vigilanties go after those nurses and doctors, they and their families should be refused care too. It might help them to see that others can have power too. The Department of Justice should be stepping in now, suing Florida for its laws that are clearly unconstitutional, but DeSantis et al are counting on our government just letting those laws pass. So, medical world, teachers, students, we do need you to stand up. We particularly need white folks who don't want to participate in their parents' and pseudo-Christian BS anymore. Then we need our media to call out DeSantis et all for their cruelty. There is no way to balance that cruelty with something less cruel. Cut the balance crap Media and work to bring down the fascist DeSantis and his crew.
DeSantis is only for his rule of law. He is a tyrant and wants to spread that to all of America. Trump and the others will go right along with all of this. We are under siege right now with the same BS in Congress.
Straight out of Hitler's nazi era playbook, but it is NOT for play. After the book burning, only one national media radio program, separation of different classes of people, and ULTIMATELY the "Final Solution". This is sick and it is very unfortunate that you have supposed journalists (NOT!) FOX "NOT NEWS" and others NOT CALLING THIS OUT!! If they cannot see the replication from Germany in the 1930s, they should NOT call themselves journalists. Furthermore, our OWN government agencies should NOT be feckless and just watch on the sidelines as OUR DEMOCRACY is stripped away. As an example, after what we learned about FOX "NOT NEWS" and their KNOWINGLY LYING to their OWN VIEWERS for MONEY!!, WHY haven't they had their license to broadcast REVOKED?? I see a violent dystopian future if we do NOT raise up and call them out on this AS IT HAPPENS! SHOW people what is going on with these authoritarian changes and what it leads to!!
P.S. Stelton, N.J. was a community stitched together of many different "to the left" political groups (who basically didn't get along -- what's new?). My grandfather was one of the founders of that community. I lived there for the first 6 years of my life. Anyhow -- welcome!
Along with the 'educated' but clueless control freaks who want to use fear and confusion and outright lies to manipulate people and gain power. Like Ron DeSantis.
Sane people need to put huge billboards all over America showing DeSanity and hitler holding hands.. better yet ,hugging each other as they propel themselves into the darkness of hell.
Or are we really just going to sit back and allow this poor, sad, angry boy foam at the mouth and deluge us all with vomit?
The problem is there are a lot of active Hitler glorifiers. These laws and sentiments galvanize them. I had no idea there were so many white christian nationalists and supremacists until these last few years. They are being emboldened every day. It terrifies me.
Since antiquity, the Indian subcontinent has recognized a third gender, Hijras, neither male nor female. Children are born in America every year with genital anomalies. Too prudish to acknowledge their very existence, the American society simply pretends they have never existed. These visible gender issues are a small measure of humans with non-visible genders beyond the two reproductive stereotypes. It is a tragedy to see the state sponsored abuse being systematically directed at our fellow humans and Americans who were born along the great Bell curve of gender identity. Hunan life is complex and diversity enriches our understanding of the triumphs and tragedies of the lives of our fellows.
My mother was a devote Catholic and would say "for the grace of god there go I." I am not a religious women but what she said has stayed with me throughout my life and it is the best lesson she ever taught me. She passed in 1996 and I say thank you mom, for teaching me grace and love of all humans.
If you knew a transgender person, you would not necessarily believe that God withheld the grace of “normal” gender identity from them. They are beautiful and graced in a unique way. I am grateful for and not at all pitying of transgender-identified people, except for the rough lifetime of prejudice that they face.
Why as a people do we seem to move the cross hairs of hate from one group to another? There are a ton of people in this country who wouldnt even know what a trans person is. Then the 1st thing they hear is they need to hate trans people. Definitely feels like we need to educate our kids to all the wonderful different forms of our species so they dont fall prey to othering propaganda.
My answer to your rhetorical question: projection and the desire to feel better than someone else (while not feeling very good about themselves). It disturbs their worldview that someone should have the right to be themselves. Education would be wonderful; how can educated people help reverse the trends in places like Florida?
“Except for the rough lifetime of prejudice that they face” is, I believe, what Rosemary was referring to in her comment. How blessed she was to learn early to practice grace and love for all humans. This does not sound like pity to me.
You are right MLRGRMI...I have rarely pitied a person. I am somewhat different in that my background was a bit rough and we lived an extremely poor household. I have seen cruelity, hunger and experienced "going without" throughout my childhood. So I know what pity is and it's does not feed you. I also worked as an RN during the AIDS crisis in the late 80's through the 90's. I never pitied our patients, I simply loved them for the humainty they maintaned during the stress of that period of time. I have had my fair share of the criticisms from others, for being who I am, but now it just feels like little puppies nipping at my heals, it does not hurt anymore. I have always had the courage of my convictions. As I said, I am not religious but I treat everyone as that man Jesus (or for some a god) would. That is always my strarting point.
It is sad that those who are different must be the object of someone being glad they were not born that way. But anyone saying that was correct at the time. There is an acknowledgement that this person would be discriminated against. Even attacked. Deemed a 'freak' and not acceptable. This should end.
“There but for the grace of god go I” says there is something wrong with the other person. That they aren’t loved by god.
It is NOT a sentiment that recognizes the inherent worth and equal status of the other person. It’s a graceful sounding sentiment that is actually about putting someone above another.
I recognize that your interpretation is usual, and the sentiment expressed is meant kindly. But it also demonstrates a basic blindness that is common to religious people. Ask yourself this: if it is because of god's grace that you are not suffering as that other person is, why do you suppose that other person did not receive the same grace? Is it because the other person is not worthy of god's grace? Is it because god's grace is dispensed randomly? Neither answer is a comfortable one.
Except Catholics don't actually believe people are punished or rewarded for any reason--it's quite random. Nobody who suffers deserves it and nobody who doesn't suffer is better. This is why misfortunes are generally interpreted as something you should expect and deal with, never be blamed for, which has its own kind of issues. It's a major difference between Catholic & Protestant theology, as you see in Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic. Calvinists believe life outcomes reflect something about the person's worthiness whereas horrible affliction can make you a saint for Catholics. So Protestants take control of their fate, to display their worthiness, on Weber's theory. Maybe it's then stupid to say this 'there but for the grace of god go I' but I interpret as possibly a way of saying 'I am just the same as anyone in the shit except I was inexplicably lucky...so far, anyway.' However, it does possibly have that connotation you describe. It's not supposed to, though.
I often ponder how the USA and its use of endless chemicals that are “endocrine interruptors” add to the gender challenges of our youth. That leads me to think “big business” food suppliers are creating the confusion and yet the USA does not want to own up to that very possible sequence of events. I feel more research is needed.
Catherine ; a few decades ago there was a story in the news (not the front page),about hormones being fed to chickens to make them bigger. There was concern when even very young children in Puerto Rico were having ' secondary sex characteristics' like enlarged breasts . Apparently,, too much hormone was added by mistake to the feed Even little boys. You are right on target. I think there is a reason that those who buy 'clean' food are willing to pay more for it. If they can afford it. Vegetables are tainted too, with chemical pesticides and other junk.
I think it would help if our society would more freely accept personal preferences for behavior, dress, hairstyle that may not conform to their perceived gender. If people are bullied or sanctioned for expressing their true selves, it may pressure some, in order to be more accepted, to undergo chemical & surgical procedures they otherwise wouldn't have & might regret later.
You may not want to use the Talmud as an authoritative foundation for your position. It contradicts the Torah that preceded it. It was tainted by Babylonian tradition and allows for sex with 3-year-olds among other immoral practices that I doubt any moral individual would agree with.
Nya the Talmud was the basis for scholarly debate about the Torah which is imbedded in Jewish tradition. Btw, I reached out to my rabbi in hopes of better responding to your points, but in the interim you might find these links interesting:
Thanks for sharing those links. They too conform to the teaching that the Israelites gleaned during their captivity and have little to do with the guidelines of the original Torah if not strictly antithetical to them. They align more closely with the teachings from those Jesus described as white washed sepulchers rather than the morality he himself taught. The position is like prosperity preachers. They use religion to make a point for something so far from what it's really about.
Comparing or contrasting intersex (visible physical, especially genital anomalies) and trans (not visible) is a distinction without a difference. This national hate campaign is not based on technicalities of DNA, it is inventing & targeting “otherness” and using children as bludgeons to sew hatred among us all. The goal is to destroy America by any and all means.
Thank you, Brenda! It is astounding to me that the people who are punishing our children for being born "different," don't seem to understand that they are not trying to be "gay" the way we elders viewed some rock stars. In other words, they do not LIKE the way that biology has messed with their genes! Does anyone really think that being born with undeveloped sexual organs is a CHOICE?
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think it's part of God's plan--to limit the unbridled expansion of humanity on this fragile planet! We just keep multiplying, and it is utterly unsustainable! Many of these transgendered people will not be able to produce offspring. And it's a curiosity, isn't it, that white folks are the most visible opponents of assisting these marginalized people? My while Irish skin is taking a beating from the sun's intense rays! The future of humanity means that the darker-skinned races will prosper in the future and be able to avoid skin cancer. For too long, us white folks have treated our darker brothers and sisters terribly, and the time for comeuppance is upon us.
As a sociologist, we studied fruit flies in Soc 101, and learned that when the population in the jar got too crowded, some of those little guys turned "queer!" Don't laugh! I swear, of all the things i learned back in 1959, that stuck in my head! Think about these things, and somebody PLEASE come up with a way to teach the critics of "different" people the truth about their predicament! Maybe then they will learn to be not only tolerant, but helpful.....
Bureaucrats love to classify and label people. They want to know: "race", gender, education level etc. on official forms. It's none of their business. It perpetuates division thought. It's not like this in other countries, so it doesn't occur to people to hate.
The Lakota—and other tribes—allow that anomalous gendered people are considered to have special powers, and the community gives them a special place. They are revered within the community.
David: Yeah and here's hoping that crowd is motivated enough to vote and that even the least progressive Democrats among us understand the critical importance of pushing that agenda.
I agree. But how many of those votes will Republicans be successful in suppressing? We have so many directions of deep concern to worry about in this country. So many ways Republicans have manipulated the system to more than tilt it on their favor. They’ve upturned it.
I'm a middle-aged trans person and the parent of a young adult trans woman. I have a fairly large following on Tumblr - I've been there since 2012. The comments that I get on my posts from young trans people in Florida when I talk about our community issues would totally break your heart.
The one that really got me today:
"The healthcare I need has just been banned and I can't leave my house for longer than I can hold my bladder, and all I hear from the people who claim to care about me is crickets."
So much of my time online these days is spent helping people find resources and just asking them to stay alive until they can change their situation.
We nearly lost my daughter before she came back, and we feel like we got her back when she did come out, like she climbed out of a cave back into the sunlight. I had no idea how lucky we were that she came out seven years ago.
My trans sister came out late in life. Before coming out, a relationship with her was impossible, fights, alienation, lack of communication, fear, anger. Now that she is her authentic self, she is a totally different person--more centered, part of the family, communicative, helpful, responsible. It's been such a blessing to live in a state where care and support is available. The fear and anger from before though is still present, now the fear and anger is about what the US is becoming for the trans community.
Not one person from whom I am reading actually states what a grim time they would face if “they” were facing these issues that are simply a natural ( Nature) phenomenon.
Centuries and centuries of human development have dealt with issues that are incomprehensible to those who don’t experience them.
The saddest issue is that of those who need to drown the rest of us in hate.
These are the sickest people. They have no where to go for a “hate change”! No doctor can heal a broken soul... none I’ve run into.
Thank you for sharing so the rest of those who can empathize learn the tragedy that comes from physical crisis.
Spider: Thank you for being there as a support person for those in need. If only society had more love and respect for spiders and their work, the better off we'd be.
Spider: that leaves me sobbing. I am old, and facing what seems like another health issue almost weekly, struggling with just getting through each day, and with finding enough energy to support my wife as she goes through yet another major surgery. I wish I had the health and energy to get involved in the fight to protect those being scapegoated and harmed by ignorant and hateful people. I know that “thoughts and prayers” can seem empty gestures, but I am sending Love and Light.
When I chose my Hebrew name, which I kept after transition, I chose Yocheved, because of the Talmudic story that she and Miriam were the midwives who lied to Pharoah and saved the Israelite children. So I've ended up Mother of Ten Thousand.
That said, as I tell "my kids": you cannot pour from a cracked pitcher. You have to care for yourself first. It's *okay* that what you do is care for yourself and your wife first. If you are voting, if you are speaking to those around you about this, if you are SURVIVING in a world and a country that really is trying to kill us, and that's all you can do right now?
Thank you, Mr. Reich. My daughter is gay and has been with her partner for 25+ years. I am saddened by the attacks on this community. These people have been through a lot and I honestly thought our country had moved past this ridiculous need to target vulnerable minority groups. Apparently, the republicans have proven me wrong.
DeSantis and Trump are playing to the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the ultra conservative “Christians.” People who blame others for their own failures. They are playing by the fascists playbook.
I’m very concerned and frankly shocked that this is happening in 2023. Trump should not be allowed to run. He removed his eligibility to participate in any government office by inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. So why hasn’t he been stopped?
His first big public campaign for his presidency of 2024 was held in Waco. That was a blatant attempt to get the attention of the domestic terrorist crowd he loves so well. The 1993 incident in Waco brought together all of the various militia groups, white supremacist and neo-Nazis in wanting to overthrow the government. Before Waco these groups didn’t like each other and didn’t communicate but Waco brought them together. It was around then they started calling themselves “patriots”instead of neo-Nazis or white supremacists new branding but the same bigoted ideology. These people have a misplaced fascination with the American Revolution. They believe they are heroes and Mr. Trump encourages that fantasy. On Jan. 6 they fancied themselves as patriotic revolutionaries.
In the opening of Mr. Trumps Waco get together, he played a recording of the jailed insurrectionists singing the national anthem. While that recording played Mr. Trump recited the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Trump has also promised pardons to those convicted of crimes committed on Jan. 6 when he is elected president.
I don’t understand why Mr. Trump is being allowed to run and why the government doesn’t see this huge red flag.
Personally, if either of those two fascists are elected, I’m moving to Canada before they decide to build a wall.
Same here, i am moving to Canada too... if either one of those 2 Fascist/NAZI's are elected. I am not going to put up with Dictator TUMP or a Dictator DeSatan.
Republicans have made it abundantly clear they’re no longer interested laws, fairness, democracy, freedom or people’s health, well-being & lives- all they do care about is maintaining power so they can continue abusing it. In reality, the GOP sold the US out years ago & the monster it’s become is the inevitable result of the sickness & bigotry at the core of their belief system
It’s the most horrific behavior I’ve ever seen from a politician. The 2nd “FL man” is extremely dangerous and can’t speak about anything at all with any clarity. He’s a extremely horrendous person to have in any place of power. This serious alternate ‘woke’ hatred has to stop. I’m a nurse in Florida. He is okay with any and all destruction and cruelty. This man cares only about power- his own. 🙏🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸
This is evangelicalism at its worst. DeSantis and those like him look through the narrow lens of the Bible, written by men and for men. I know the Bible well and appreciate its historical content, though it is symbolism, myth, and allegory. I love the Psalms, Proverbs, and other certain books.
But how did Moses know, if he did indeed write Genesis (no one knows who wrote what), that a Divine force in this multi-verse was only male? I do not believe that God is only male or female, and nothing in all of Nature is one or the other. And there is androgyny from before time began. Jesus said in Matthew, "Some are born different."
The Point: White Male Christian Nationalism is the goal of these 'little hitlers.' It is terrifying. And it is all based on the Bible, which, though worth at least one read-through, is a product of men who subjugated women in the context of their time. It was and still is, patriarchy. What makes our current patriarchy so scary is that they cherry-pick the Bible to suit their needs, creating a trance state for hate, violence, intolerance, and the potential of enforced Christianity on our nation. If one genuinely follows Jesus, I don't remember one word he supposedly uttered that carried any of these characteristics but quite the opposite.
True that they are demagogues, yet some are bonafide radical evangelicals. They use the Bible's narrow, patriarchal "selected" text to manipulate people into this irrational trance-like state I wrote about above.
In "Confessions of an Evangelical" on Substack, I wrote an essay about a harrowing experience. In that piece are quotes from Jennifer Rubin and, possibly, Heather Cox Richardson, specifically on White Christian Male nationalism. "Believers" are hard-core.
They are politically and spiritually opposed to their own economic and physical health. It's easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for DeSantis or Trump to enter heaven. Marx had the followers pegged as the lumpen proletariat.
I am in agreement with you; especially with respect to words attributed to Christ. They were words of love, compassion, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness & being non judgemental. He said any judgement was God's province.
Don't blame Moses (at least not for the claimed gender of God). The name God gave Moses has no gender, but is far larger than human ideas and ideals. Overall it can be translated as "I am who I am," "I am being who I am being," AND "I am becoming who I am becoming." Any attempt by religious people to dumb that down into a particular gender with a limited, definable set of human attributes, ignores the meaning of that name in favor of creating God in the image required by that human leader's need to have a "god" who agrees with and supports their own human dysfunctions (and dislikes all those with whom that particular human feels uncomfortable because of that leader's own dysfunctions). The Bible, itself, describes God in both masculine and feminine terms. In Hebrew, the word for Holy Spirit has a feminine designation. In other words, according to the Bible God has no specific gender and can even be accurately described as multi-gendered.
"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." and that is where one either views this as literal or vast energy, divinity, and more. Evangelicals view the Bible as the literal word of God. That is their rigidity, rejection of your interpretation, and, sadly, the never-to-be-acknowledged presence of the feminine. Man is the headship of the home, according to Paul and hard-core "believers." There is Sophia (Wisdom), of course, and she was part of Creation, and she is never acknowledged as such among Christians, not even known by many. This subject is huge, and today's column may not be the forum.
E.O. Wilson wrote a chapter on Altruism in his book "On Human Nature". In it he makes a clear case that the reason genetics for homosexuality (his term 45+ years ago for all LGBTQIA people) is their non-reproductive status gave them the opportunity to help a community survive. In other words, a case for the value of LGBTQIA people to live and be an important part of a wholistic community. Denying this is to deny value in our communities, and adds to the destructive "only people like me" attitude characteristic of a fascist, exclusionary mindset. It is also a denial of a basic Christian and really universal religious principle of "loving your neighbor as yourself". Get rid of the guns, not the people.
SO frightening! This man is cruel and crazy. He is actually worse than Trump. Please explain to me why male sociopaths are controlling our world. Putin, Trump, DeSantis… where are the drones???
We need more women to run for political offices. I also look at countries that thrive on misogyny and authoritarianism and when I see political upheaval in the streets on the news footage and coverage of these conflicts, I often ask myself, "where are the women?" The women's absence in the streets is so glaringly and so disturbingly obvious during any and all of so many of certain foreign countries' protests.
Women like...Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Kari Lake, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ivanka Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Kaleigh McEnany...? Let's not romanticize the feminine.
Agree, but the women you mention aren’t for anyone but themselves. They don’t fight against injustice, they stand with it for their own perceived advantage. People have to stand up for themselves and others.
I am in full agreement, Professor Reich, as will the majority of us on Substack. The problem is, we aren't the ones needing convincing. How do we get ordinary [as in not the MAGA nutcase cult] to understand the dangers of authoritarianism. Our democratic Representative Republic, may have been too successful. Those 'others' have no idea how depraved living becomes under a dictatorship. They think they will have the 'promised land' of white workmen, making a good living, living high on the hog. By the time reality sets in, it may be too late. BTW, I don't think raising billions of dollars will solve a damned thing..
I spotted this article in Newsweek: “Christian” pastor Jason Graber recently called for the execution of all LGBTQ people as well as the parents of transgender people: “They just need to be shot in the back of the head and then we can string them up above a bridge.”
I am picturing a white male all red in the face preaching hatred, passing a collection plate, and not having to pay any taxes, all in the name ‘Christianity’.... honestly, if Jesus was here He would be overturning the tables on the steps of the temple & trying to negotiate his own inner rage at the hypocrisy!
Christians NEED to SEE this pastor Graber for what he is. Certainly NOT an instrument of God's hand. Unless your view of " God" & life in general is a very dark one.
Soon they will demand that gay and transgender people wear yellow stars on their clothing. This is fascism pure and simple as the immature poorly educated folks look for the “other” to blame their own failures upon!
Scapegoating, just like they did in Nazi Germany.
Eileen, this is truly scapegoating and moves us a few steps closer to the 1930s insanity of Nazi Germany. I find it so interesting that the Christian Nationalists keep whining that they should not be compared to Nazi Germany while they keep doing things that prove they are indeed moving steadily in that direction. I and many others, knew that when Roe v. Wade was overturned by an ignorant Supreme Court set of conservatives that the whiny Right would need other targets. Forcing women to be pregnant, valuing a fetus over the life of the woman bearing it, and causing more poverty are not sufficient cruelty for them. I wonder if they see themselves as the Christian witch hunters who gloried in the light of burning women. They are just looking for those they can see harmed to pay for white inadequacy. We the People could stop them by voting the crazies out of office, but we need to do it soon since the crazies are warping our ability to vote for anyone but them. President Biden can just say "no" to the debt ceiling insanity and invoke the 14th Amendment as he could to deny public office to anyone who participated in, planned, or benefited from the January 6th insurrection. We Democrats, Progressives, and others who care about our democracy need to step up, demand more of our media, and stand for what is democratic and defend our Constitution.
Well said!
I keep hoping the Movement Conservatives that have roused and mixed in with Christian Nationalists will split into a different party from the “relatively” more moderate, traditional Republicans. Unfortunately, neither side is willing to give up the name recognition. They both cling to those die-hard Republicans, the never-be-a-Democrats, who won’t change their vote even though their party has drastically changed.
Anne. I do find it sad that so many Republicans vote for the "R" instead of the person. What makes them think that the "R" stands for anything but cruelty and pain for anyone the leaders think deserve their vitriol, these days? I don't see how they can claim to be Christian when they support the level of hate and cruelty Republicans are up to currently. I wonder if they are even reachable. They may just love being part of a group that is into doing harm to people who are vulnerable. Why is this OK with them? Are they unaware of what such cruelty can lead to, like 1930s Nazism in Germany?
Ruth. What really boggles my mind, is they don’t seem to be aware how they are enabling potentially fundamental changes of our governmental systems, in ways that might be difficult to reverse, and may become adverse for them. They, too, down the road, could find themselves on the receiving end of actual oppression when power changes hands. Not the perceived “oppression” they think they are victims of now, for example: having to share resources and negotiate in good faith with non-like-minded citizens. Where will they turn, if the courts are following a skewed, warped interpretation of our Constitution? Move to Hungary or Belarus?
Anne, you are right about the reversal that can come at any time. It has happened all over the world. The masterminds of this anti-Constitutional set of moves right now don't want the scared white people to imagine things could be turned against them in the future. They are carefully grooming automatons who will do just what they are "told" to do, hurt as many people as possible to give their masters more and more power they don't deserve. Just like with Trump, if those scared white people get in the way, don't go along, they can be ignored (right now) but set aside in future actions. How do we reach these folks to show them how they are being used, and it is not to please god or for any other high purpose. It is for money and power for those who believe they deserve more, and those used people will get none of it.
LUCKILY, only about 30% of Americans and FALLING are stupid, yes STUPID, enough to fall for Bunkerbaby's lies. America is naturally marching towards PROGRESS and a few uneducated bigots will be TRAMPLED if they stand still or crawl backwards on their bare bellies. "Sad!" ? No, not really.
Donnie Dump and his Trumpturds have lost the last 3 elections, plus some specials, recently, yes? Good trend. Sanity, in the face of the bottomless fascist bs! T Carlson being fired was not a bad thing, either. Let's Impeach Thomas, now, along with BK and Amy, for contempt and perjury. Plus, push to enlarge the SCOTUS. With term limits. And ethics controls. No big donors, buying judges, etc., alllowed. End Citizen's United. Corporations are NOT people!!! Lastly, Biden needs to ignore the GQP's hypocritical, hostage taking, simply used to "feed their insane base", pay off their greedy, autocratic owners and deliberately, tank the booming Biden econ, for 2024 election advantage.....using our money, in this latest, debt ceiling debacle. Deplorable. This party of Stupid, Seditiious Scumbags, Christofascist Hypocrites and malignant morons, must end, stat! Enough, already! Vote Blue..... always.
I've called them "the stupids" since 2016.
I fear for the next election. Biden is pretty feeble. If Trump were to win again just don't know what action I might take. I have relatives in Ireland who might help with process of being an immigrant and being a stranger in a stranger land.
Ruth - a guest on a TV talk show, The View, stated that the Christian Right is America's Taliban.
Your comments are spot on...I completely agree with you.
I felt that the former president was treading this path of authoritarian government when he started out his campaign. But it became very clear he was on the side of the white supremacist's not long after he took office. From there the GOP just followed him down the road we are non. They have become a threat to our democracy and G-d help us if one of two things ever happens. 1). That they get all three back both houses of Congress and the WH or 2). they get enough states to call a Constitutional Convention because that will be the end of democracy in this country.
Beth, Republicans have gone off the deep end and our media seem to be on board through their fake balancing act. When even NPR refuses to call Little Kevvy out on his bad destructive behavior, I know we are in trouble. and with the Supreme Court conservatives unable to serve our Constitution, rewriting as they go along. We may not even need a Constitutional convention because the SC is already changing things almost beyond recognition, warping the first and second amendments, ignoring the 14th, 15, 19, and 26th by allowing Republicans in the red states to do whatever they want to deny the vote to anyone who is not white, rich, and Republican (OK in the South, those are pretty much the same thing). We the People are being attacked on so many fronts it is hard to defend and oppose. republicans pretend global warming isn't happening and that somehow they will escape. They truly despise children, including their own and care as little for the rest of the people as they can while pretending they are just soooo patriotic. The SC conservatives are corrupt to a person and are totally OK with it as they warp our Constitution and legitimate laws. Disgusting!
The SC has become a joke all in itself. The last straw was that religious you know what that the Republicans shoved down our throats. She and at least Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh all need to be kicked off and Robert's too now that we know what his wife has been up too. If we could clean it up that would help if not expand it to balance it. I'm 75 so not to many more years here but I don't want to find myself living in a fascist country and I have children and grandchildren who will be here after I'm gone.
Beth. I am with you. I don't want to live in a fascist state either, especially when there is no reason we should. We have the means to stop the insanity. I just can't understand why we don't use it. The January 6th insurrectionists should be indicted, all of them, including the big shots and anyone who still claims Biden is not president should be kicked out of Congress as insurrectionists who should not have been permitted to run for office ever again as the 14th amendment says. We have a Department of Justice that should be challenging the laws in Florida, Texas, Idaho, Arkansas, Iowa, and the other white states that are trying to take away the rights of American citizens and others living in this nation. How is it pseudo-Christians have been able to undermine our first amendment right to worship as we please or not worship at all if we so choose? What gives those people the right to dictate to anyone? How is it the law can't come down on the bad behavior of judges and justices? Why are we not doing any of this? I honestly don't know. I am guessing money is involved. Why is that money not on the side of our democracy? Any corporation supporting the insurrectionists and others who are working to take away the rights in our Constitution should be taxed into oblivion. Maybe if there were some meat behind our claims of a democracy, we would have fewer laws being passed that deny our rights, including our right to vote unimpeded. It was the Supreme Court under Roberts, a racist, corrupt child-man who undermined the Voting Rights Act despite the people's desire to keep it in place, and we have seen what happened just after that decision. So much damage was done by Trump, a fool who didn't even win the popular vote, but appointed appalling judges and justices and worked hard to undermine our government. This all needs to be stopped and good people in positions of respect, need to step forward and start saying "no." Then they need to speak up for our most vulnerable people including trans youth and adults, the next target for those who don't think putting women's lives at riskwas enough cruelty.
How will you hide from the fascists when they come to your door because of some slogan on your bumper or on your window? I am underground man. I hide in plain sight. I have an American flag on my car and a flag pole in the yead . I am a true blue American communist.
Before the Nazis began their mass murders at concentration camps, there was the 'war with bullets' in which Jews were forced out of their homes, walked to the edge of town, shot and shoved into ravines.
Verbally and legally espousing hate for marginalized people usually results in violence being done to the marginalized. Fascists often make that jump really quickly. History recycles. The same hateful attitudes that carry out genocide NEVER, EVER go away. They just go underground.
Maryk ; almost like they are doing in Ukraine.
?? Are you talking about WW II?? And Baba Yar?? What does that have to do with 2023??
Marching people to the edge of a village ; shooting them and pushing them into a mass grave.
Same fascism, different war.
That happened in Vietnam and Korea at one time or another. It happens in all wars where men become animals.
And this occurred in various regions in the area-- with the help of the locals.
Not many people have noticed yet, but one of the bills he signed denying gender affirming care to minors also implemented a requirement that trans adults receiving gender affirming care must go before multiple oversight boards appointed by the governor to ask permission to receive that care. When they do so, they have to provide all of their personal information, including medical records.
This is how DeSantis gets away with establishing a registry of trans folk in order to facilitate further persecution.
DeSantis has created his own fascist country, with laws and punishments that provoke hate and violence. Doesn’t the Constitution protect citizens from his state sanctioned political and social vitriol and policies?
It only protects them if SCOTUS says it does, and you know this court is salivating to insist that it doesn't.
Irenie, our Constitution should protect us from the DeSantises of our nation. We'll see if it actually does by the way our Department of Justice responds or does not.
His own personal police force or Stasi as well.
I'm waiting for the Justice Dept. to step in,he's trampling amendment rights big time!
For the Constitution to protect us we have to protect it. I think we do that by insisting on its application in practice and defending civil rights.
When you attack DeSantis you will eventually raise the ire of the MAGA crowd and they will try to get you kicked off this board.
I never will.
Makes sense as "protecting" trans youth from thesmelves implies that something is wrong with being Trans. He might as well have a Don't be Trans law. Creep discrimination in little by little.
But let kids be killed by guns because that is profitable.
Bill Reitz : This is not little by little; It amounts to almost a blitzkrieg!
E.C., I didn't know that DeSantis had gone so far. Where is the courage in the medical community. I would love to see the doctors, nurses, psychologists, and others of Florida, Texas, and the other states that are attacking the LGBTQ community and women, refuse care to any of the legislators, governors, and other officials and their families who voted for those appalling bills. There are not enough prisons to hold all the refusers. When police or vigilanties go after those nurses and doctors, they and their families should be refused care too. It might help them to see that others can have power too. The Department of Justice should be stepping in now, suing Florida for its laws that are clearly unconstitutional, but DeSantis et al are counting on our government just letting those laws pass. So, medical world, teachers, students, we do need you to stand up. We particularly need white folks who don't want to participate in their parents' and pseudo-Christian BS anymore. Then we need our media to call out DeSantis et all for their cruelty. There is no way to balance that cruelty with something less cruel. Cut the balance crap Media and work to bring down the fascist DeSantis and his crew.
Morning Joe does it all the time.
E.C Chang ; I keep asking,: What happened to HIPPA? and the rule of law?
DeSantis is only for his rule of law. He is a tyrant and wants to spread that to all of America. Trump and the others will go right along with all of this. We are under siege right now with the same BS in Congress.
Facisam starts with the persecution of one group then they moved to the next group. This must be nipped in the bud before it’s too late!
First they came for Trans people...
Good grief! That's medical action; where did DeSantis get his medical training?
Straight out of Hitler's nazi era playbook, but it is NOT for play. After the book burning, only one national media radio program, separation of different classes of people, and ULTIMATELY the "Final Solution". This is sick and it is very unfortunate that you have supposed journalists (NOT!) FOX "NOT NEWS" and others NOT CALLING THIS OUT!! If they cannot see the replication from Germany in the 1930s, they should NOT call themselves journalists. Furthermore, our OWN government agencies should NOT be feckless and just watch on the sidelines as OUR DEMOCRACY is stripped away. As an example, after what we learned about FOX "NOT NEWS" and their KNOWINGLY LYING to their OWN VIEWERS for MONEY!!, WHY haven't they had their license to broadcast REVOKED?? I see a violent dystopian future if we do NOT raise up and call them out on this AS IT HAPPENS! SHOW people what is going on with these authoritarian changes and what it leads to!!
He’s got a big ocean to do his dirty work and dump their remains.
DeSantis should suffer a retroactive abortion this instint.
PINK TRIANGLES
That is what the gay ppl in the concentration camps had to wear on their clothing.
Actually, they had to wear them on the street, before they were sent to the camps.
Yep, we all have to work together now to end this fascist regime before they takeover our country!
Emma: I found you. Here's a citation you might enjoy re: your namesake:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://longreads.com/2019/04/16/the-anarchists-who-took-the-commuter-train/&ved=2ahUKEwiCgpKHr43_AhXpR_EDHbvSCWIQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2RB2rj3xzWgCQDm4Pu7opy
P.S. Stelton, N.J. was a community stitched together of many different "to the left" political groups (who basically didn't get along -- what's new?). My grandfather was one of the founders of that community. I lived there for the first 6 years of my life. Anyhow -- welcome!
Along with the 'educated' but clueless control freaks who want to use fear and confusion and outright lies to manipulate people and gain power. Like Ron DeSantis.
You won his last election by landslide no one was manipulated it is you guys spewing lies and propaganda you're nothing but a bunch of pedophiles
Looks like there is a brainwashed MAGA among us!
It's a fake news troll!
This is ONLY because the Trumplicans have ZERO policy ideas. ZERO.
Desadsack and mein Trumpf do have policies. They are not commanding a march to fascism off the top of their heads. Policies from the fascist playbook.
Sane people need to put huge billboards all over America showing DeSanity and hitler holding hands.. better yet ,hugging each other as they propel themselves into the darkness of hell.
Or are we really just going to sit back and allow this poor, sad, angry boy foam at the mouth and deluge us all with vomit?
The problem is there are a lot of active Hitler glorifiers. These laws and sentiments galvanize them. I had no idea there were so many white christian nationalists and supremacists until these last few years. They are being emboldened every day. It terrifies me.
There will be more they define as "other" also. This is pure and simple hate and ending freedom in America.
More likely a rainbow band, bur entirely possible.
No, probab,y rainbow stars.
The Nazis put pink triangles on us, the yellow stars of David were put on a larger scapegoated group, Jewish people.
Since antiquity, the Indian subcontinent has recognized a third gender, Hijras, neither male nor female. Children are born in America every year with genital anomalies. Too prudish to acknowledge their very existence, the American society simply pretends they have never existed. These visible gender issues are a small measure of humans with non-visible genders beyond the two reproductive stereotypes. It is a tragedy to see the state sponsored abuse being systematically directed at our fellow humans and Americans who were born along the great Bell curve of gender identity. Hunan life is complex and diversity enriches our understanding of the triumphs and tragedies of the lives of our fellows.
My mother was a devote Catholic and would say "for the grace of god there go I." I am not a religious women but what she said has stayed with me throughout my life and it is the best lesson she ever taught me. She passed in 1996 and I say thank you mom, for teaching me grace and love of all humans.
If you knew a transgender person, you would not necessarily believe that God withheld the grace of “normal” gender identity from them. They are beautiful and graced in a unique way. I am grateful for and not at all pitying of transgender-identified people, except for the rough lifetime of prejudice that they face.
Why as a people do we seem to move the cross hairs of hate from one group to another? There are a ton of people in this country who wouldnt even know what a trans person is. Then the 1st thing they hear is they need to hate trans people. Definitely feels like we need to educate our kids to all the wonderful different forms of our species so they dont fall prey to othering propaganda.
Acceptance and tolerance is a good goal.
My answer to your rhetorical question: projection and the desire to feel better than someone else (while not feeling very good about themselves). It disturbs their worldview that someone should have the right to be themselves. Education would be wonderful; how can educated people help reverse the trends in places like Florida?
“Except for the rough lifetime of prejudice that they face” is, I believe, what Rosemary was referring to in her comment. How blessed she was to learn early to practice grace and love for all humans. This does not sound like pity to me.
You are right MLRGRMI...I have rarely pitied a person. I am somewhat different in that my background was a bit rough and we lived an extremely poor household. I have seen cruelity, hunger and experienced "going without" throughout my childhood. So I know what pity is and it's does not feed you. I also worked as an RN during the AIDS crisis in the late 80's through the 90's. I never pitied our patients, I simply loved them for the humainty they maintaned during the stress of that period of time. I have had my fair share of the criticisms from others, for being who I am, but now it just feels like little puppies nipping at my heals, it does not hurt anymore. I have always had the courage of my convictions. As I said, I am not religious but I treat everyone as that man Jesus (or for some a god) would. That is always my strarting point.
Her mother was trying to instill respect for those who face adversity because of being different,, without any choice in the matter.
I am sorry you think I pity trans people. I need not say more.
It is sad that those who are different must be the object of someone being glad they were not born that way. But anyone saying that was correct at the time. There is an acknowledgement that this person would be discriminated against. Even attacked. Deemed a 'freak' and not acceptable. This should end.
My mom said something similar - “There but for the grace of God, go I”. It has always stuck with me also.
“There but for the grace of god go I” says there is something wrong with the other person. That they aren’t loved by god.
It is NOT a sentiment that recognizes the inherent worth and equal status of the other person. It’s a graceful sounding sentiment that is actually about putting someone above another.
It probably depends on what you’re referring to. If you are referring to persecution, then you would always realize anyone could be persecuted.
I recognize that your interpretation is usual, and the sentiment expressed is meant kindly. But it also demonstrates a basic blindness that is common to religious people. Ask yourself this: if it is because of god's grace that you are not suffering as that other person is, why do you suppose that other person did not receive the same grace? Is it because the other person is not worthy of god's grace? Is it because god's grace is dispensed randomly? Neither answer is a comfortable one.
Except Catholics don't actually believe people are punished or rewarded for any reason--it's quite random. Nobody who suffers deserves it and nobody who doesn't suffer is better. This is why misfortunes are generally interpreted as something you should expect and deal with, never be blamed for, which has its own kind of issues. It's a major difference between Catholic & Protestant theology, as you see in Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic. Calvinists believe life outcomes reflect something about the person's worthiness whereas horrible affliction can make you a saint for Catholics. So Protestants take control of their fate, to display their worthiness, on Weber's theory. Maybe it's then stupid to say this 'there but for the grace of god go I' but I interpret as possibly a way of saying 'I am just the same as anyone in the shit except I was inexplicably lucky...so far, anyway.' However, it does possibly have that connotation you describe. It's not supposed to, though.
I often ponder how the USA and its use of endless chemicals that are “endocrine interruptors” add to the gender challenges of our youth. That leads me to think “big business” food suppliers are creating the confusion and yet the USA does not want to own up to that very possible sequence of events. I feel more research is needed.
Catherine ; a few decades ago there was a story in the news (not the front page),about hormones being fed to chickens to make them bigger. There was concern when even very young children in Puerto Rico were having ' secondary sex characteristics' like enlarged breasts . Apparently,, too much hormone was added by mistake to the feed Even little boys. You are right on target. I think there is a reason that those who buy 'clean' food are willing to pay more for it. If they can afford it. Vegetables are tainted too, with chemical pesticides and other junk.
And don’t forget all the chemicals in plastics…
Yes: BPA in plastics and cans is bad news.
I think it would help if our society would more freely accept personal preferences for behavior, dress, hairstyle that may not conform to their perceived gender. If people are bullied or sanctioned for expressing their true selves, it may pressure some, in order to be more accepted, to undergo chemical & surgical procedures they otherwise wouldn't have & might regret later.
And it was under British Colonialism that these citizens became politically persecuted by the passage of laws against their lifestyle.
and the Victorians
Multiple genders has a genetic basis & legislation denying their rights can't change that scientific fact.
The Jewish Talmud similarly believes they're are multiple genders.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-eight-genders-in-the-talmud/
https://nyti.ms/3mSxjZW?smid=nytcore-android-share
thanks, Traci. very interesting.
This is awesome!!! I didn’t know this. Thank you!!!
You may not want to use the Talmud as an authoritative foundation for your position. It contradicts the Torah that preceded it. It was tainted by Babylonian tradition and allows for sex with 3-year-olds among other immoral practices that I doubt any moral individual would agree with.
(Gemara in Tractate Yevamos 11b,) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yevamot-57/, https://www.simpletoremember.com/media/a/attack-on-talmud/
Nya the Talmud was the basis for scholarly debate about the Torah which is imbedded in Jewish tradition. Btw, I reached out to my rabbi in hopes of better responding to your points, but in the interim you might find these links interesting:
https://rac.org/blog/what-torah-teaches-us-about-gender-fluidity-and-transgender-justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_and_Jewish_Studies
Thanks for sharing those links. They too conform to the teaching that the Israelites gleaned during their captivity and have little to do with the guidelines of the original Torah if not strictly antithetical to them. They align more closely with the teachings from those Jesus described as white washed sepulchers rather than the morality he himself taught. The position is like prosperity preachers. They use religion to make a point for something so far from what it's really about.
This isn't about intersex people.
Comparing or contrasting intersex (visible physical, especially genital anomalies) and trans (not visible) is a distinction without a difference. This national hate campaign is not based on technicalities of DNA, it is inventing & targeting “otherness” and using children as bludgeons to sew hatred among us all. The goal is to destroy America by any and all means.
Thank you, Brenda! It is astounding to me that the people who are punishing our children for being born "different," don't seem to understand that they are not trying to be "gay" the way we elders viewed some rock stars. In other words, they do not LIKE the way that biology has messed with their genes! Does anyone really think that being born with undeveloped sexual organs is a CHOICE?
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think it's part of God's plan--to limit the unbridled expansion of humanity on this fragile planet! We just keep multiplying, and it is utterly unsustainable! Many of these transgendered people will not be able to produce offspring. And it's a curiosity, isn't it, that white folks are the most visible opponents of assisting these marginalized people? My while Irish skin is taking a beating from the sun's intense rays! The future of humanity means that the darker-skinned races will prosper in the future and be able to avoid skin cancer. For too long, us white folks have treated our darker brothers and sisters terribly, and the time for comeuppance is upon us.
As a sociologist, we studied fruit flies in Soc 101, and learned that when the population in the jar got too crowded, some of those little guys turned "queer!" Don't laugh! I swear, of all the things i learned back in 1959, that stuck in my head! Think about these things, and somebody PLEASE come up with a way to teach the critics of "different" people the truth about their predicament! Maybe then they will learn to be not only tolerant, but helpful.....
Bureaucrats love to classify and label people. They want to know: "race", gender, education level etc. on official forms. It's none of their business. It perpetuates division thought. It's not like this in other countries, so it doesn't occur to people to hate.
The Lakota—and other tribes—allow that anomalous gendered people are considered to have special powers, and the community gives them a special place. They are revered within the community.
Heck yeah
"If Republicans really cared about protecting kids, they’d focus on gun violence ..."
I predict Gun Violence, Abortion, and Voting Rights will be on the ballot in '24 for the under 30 crowd.
David: Yeah and here's hoping that crowd is motivated enough to vote and that even the least progressive Democrats among us understand the critical importance of pushing that agenda.
It's all a lie. "The cruelty is the point." ~Thom Hartman 6/2023
Someone came up with a good term for this: The Maga people are in it for the “angertainment”.
I think any age would want these on the ballot. It is about justice and fairness.
If you don’t read Jay Kuo’s substack please check it out! It absolutely already IS on the ballot for gen z.
I would like to quote you in a post I'm entering. Thank you.
Please do.
I agree. But how many of those votes will Republicans be successful in suppressing? We have so many directions of deep concern to worry about in this country. So many ways Republicans have manipulated the system to more than tilt it on their favor. They’ve upturned it.
They came for the transgender kids, and we didn't do anything. Then they came for us....
Exactly Benjamin R. Stockton.
I'm a middle-aged trans person and the parent of a young adult trans woman. I have a fairly large following on Tumblr - I've been there since 2012. The comments that I get on my posts from young trans people in Florida when I talk about our community issues would totally break your heart.
The one that really got me today:
"The healthcare I need has just been banned and I can't leave my house for longer than I can hold my bladder, and all I hear from the people who claim to care about me is crickets."
So much of my time online these days is spent helping people find resources and just asking them to stay alive until they can change their situation.
We nearly lost my daughter before she came back, and we feel like we got her back when she did come out, like she climbed out of a cave back into the sunlight. I had no idea how lucky we were that she came out seven years ago.
My trans sister came out late in life. Before coming out, a relationship with her was impossible, fights, alienation, lack of communication, fear, anger. Now that she is her authentic self, she is a totally different person--more centered, part of the family, communicative, helpful, responsible. It's been such a blessing to live in a state where care and support is available. The fear and anger from before though is still present, now the fear and anger is about what the US is becoming for the trans community.
Dear HealThe Soil,
Not one person from whom I am reading actually states what a grim time they would face if “they” were facing these issues that are simply a natural ( Nature) phenomenon.
Centuries and centuries of human development have dealt with issues that are incomprehensible to those who don’t experience them.
The saddest issue is that of those who need to drown the rest of us in hate.
These are the sickest people. They have no where to go for a “hate change”! No doctor can heal a broken soul... none I’ve run into.
Thank you for sharing so the rest of those who can empathize learn the tragedy that comes from physical crisis.
Be well and at peace for all you share!
Sincerely,
🥰🎶❤️
Spider: Thank you for being there as a support person for those in need. If only society had more love and respect for spiders and their work, the better off we'd be.
They're my community and my family. I couldn't do otherwise. Thank you, though, on both counts.
Spider: that leaves me sobbing. I am old, and facing what seems like another health issue almost weekly, struggling with just getting through each day, and with finding enough energy to support my wife as she goes through yet another major surgery. I wish I had the health and energy to get involved in the fight to protect those being scapegoated and harmed by ignorant and hateful people. I know that “thoughts and prayers” can seem empty gestures, but I am sending Love and Light.
When I chose my Hebrew name, which I kept after transition, I chose Yocheved, because of the Talmudic story that she and Miriam were the midwives who lied to Pharoah and saved the Israelite children. So I've ended up Mother of Ten Thousand.
That said, as I tell "my kids": you cannot pour from a cracked pitcher. You have to care for yourself first. It's *okay* that what you do is care for yourself and your wife first. If you are voting, if you are speaking to those around you about this, if you are SURVIVING in a world and a country that really is trying to kill us, and that's all you can do right now?
That's enough. It is really enough. I promise.
Thank you, Mr. Reich. My daughter is gay and has been with her partner for 25+ years. I am saddened by the attacks on this community. These people have been through a lot and I honestly thought our country had moved past this ridiculous need to target vulnerable minority groups. Apparently, the republicans have proven me wrong.
Peggy Freeman ; The party of bullies.
DeSantis and Trump are playing to the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the ultra conservative “Christians.” People who blame others for their own failures. They are playing by the fascists playbook.
I’m very concerned and frankly shocked that this is happening in 2023. Trump should not be allowed to run. He removed his eligibility to participate in any government office by inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. So why hasn’t he been stopped?
His first big public campaign for his presidency of 2024 was held in Waco. That was a blatant attempt to get the attention of the domestic terrorist crowd he loves so well. The 1993 incident in Waco brought together all of the various militia groups, white supremacist and neo-Nazis in wanting to overthrow the government. Before Waco these groups didn’t like each other and didn’t communicate but Waco brought them together. It was around then they started calling themselves “patriots”instead of neo-Nazis or white supremacists new branding but the same bigoted ideology. These people have a misplaced fascination with the American Revolution. They believe they are heroes and Mr. Trump encourages that fantasy. On Jan. 6 they fancied themselves as patriotic revolutionaries.
In the opening of Mr. Trumps Waco get together, he played a recording of the jailed insurrectionists singing the national anthem. While that recording played Mr. Trump recited the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Trump has also promised pardons to those convicted of crimes committed on Jan. 6 when he is elected president.
I don’t understand why Mr. Trump is being allowed to run and why the government doesn’t see this huge red flag.
Personally, if either of those two fascists are elected, I’m moving to Canada before they decide to build a wall.
Same here, i am moving to Canada too... if either one of those 2 Fascist/NAZI's are elected. I am not going to put up with Dictator TUMP or a Dictator DeSatan.
That is the major question: Why hasn't Trump been stopped.
We need to come together and March to the DOJ. Ask it why these crazy terrorist are allowed in the name of freedom to take ours away!
Freedom is about “order”. Not about “I can do anything I want with no accountability “!
Amen!
In my big book about the future, it was called "The Canadian Curtain."
Republicans have made it abundantly clear they’re no longer interested laws, fairness, democracy, freedom or people’s health, well-being & lives- all they do care about is maintaining power so they can continue abusing it. In reality, the GOP sold the US out years ago & the monster it’s become is the inevitable result of the sickness & bigotry at the core of their belief system
What belief system is that? I wasn't aware they had one. Nazism?
Something like that
Among other evils, I guess. Unfortunately not all belief systems are built around good moral conduct & generosity
Thank you so much for correcting the record and making this clear statement of the situation. It is frightening.
It’s the most horrific behavior I’ve ever seen from a politician. The 2nd “FL man” is extremely dangerous and can’t speak about anything at all with any clarity. He’s a extremely horrendous person to have in any place of power. This serious alternate ‘woke’ hatred has to stop. I’m a nurse in Florida. He is okay with any and all destruction and cruelty. This man cares only about power- his own. 🙏🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸
I think what DeSantis is doing is racist and also facism.
It's "fascism" not "facism". Common mistake.
This is evangelicalism at its worst. DeSantis and those like him look through the narrow lens of the Bible, written by men and for men. I know the Bible well and appreciate its historical content, though it is symbolism, myth, and allegory. I love the Psalms, Proverbs, and other certain books.
But how did Moses know, if he did indeed write Genesis (no one knows who wrote what), that a Divine force in this multi-verse was only male? I do not believe that God is only male or female, and nothing in all of Nature is one or the other. And there is androgyny from before time began. Jesus said in Matthew, "Some are born different."
The Point: White Male Christian Nationalism is the goal of these 'little hitlers.' It is terrifying. And it is all based on the Bible, which, though worth at least one read-through, is a product of men who subjugated women in the context of their time. It was and still is, patriarchy. What makes our current patriarchy so scary is that they cherry-pick the Bible to suit their needs, creating a trance state for hate, violence, intolerance, and the potential of enforced Christianity on our nation. If one genuinely follows Jesus, I don't remember one word he supposedly uttered that carried any of these characteristics but quite the opposite.
Probably not religious. Demagogues play to their audiences.
True that they are demagogues, yet some are bonafide radical evangelicals. They use the Bible's narrow, patriarchal "selected" text to manipulate people into this irrational trance-like state I wrote about above.
In "Confessions of an Evangelical" on Substack, I wrote an essay about a harrowing experience. In that piece are quotes from Jennifer Rubin and, possibly, Heather Cox Richardson, specifically on White Christian Male nationalism. "Believers" are hard-core.
We press on with hope!
Inward
Sure, but they aren't running for president.
They are politically and spiritually opposed to their own economic and physical health. It's easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for DeSantis or Trump to enter heaven. Marx had the followers pegged as the lumpen proletariat.
I am in agreement with you; especially with respect to words attributed to Christ. They were words of love, compassion, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness & being non judgemental. He said any judgement was God's province.
💜
Don't blame Moses (at least not for the claimed gender of God). The name God gave Moses has no gender, but is far larger than human ideas and ideals. Overall it can be translated as "I am who I am," "I am being who I am being," AND "I am becoming who I am becoming." Any attempt by religious people to dumb that down into a particular gender with a limited, definable set of human attributes, ignores the meaning of that name in favor of creating God in the image required by that human leader's need to have a "god" who agrees with and supports their own human dysfunctions (and dislikes all those with whom that particular human feels uncomfortable because of that leader's own dysfunctions). The Bible, itself, describes God in both masculine and feminine terms. In Hebrew, the word for Holy Spirit has a feminine designation. In other words, according to the Bible God has no specific gender and can even be accurately described as multi-gendered.
That is beautifully said, and I agree!
"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." and that is where one either views this as literal or vast energy, divinity, and more. Evangelicals view the Bible as the literal word of God. That is their rigidity, rejection of your interpretation, and, sadly, the never-to-be-acknowledged presence of the feminine. Man is the headship of the home, according to Paul and hard-core "believers." There is Sophia (Wisdom), of course, and she was part of Creation, and she is never acknowledged as such among Christians, not even known by many. This subject is huge, and today's column may not be the forum.
E.O. Wilson wrote a chapter on Altruism in his book "On Human Nature". In it he makes a clear case that the reason genetics for homosexuality (his term 45+ years ago for all LGBTQIA people) is their non-reproductive status gave them the opportunity to help a community survive. In other words, a case for the value of LGBTQIA people to live and be an important part of a wholistic community. Denying this is to deny value in our communities, and adds to the destructive "only people like me" attitude characteristic of a fascist, exclusionary mindset. It is also a denial of a basic Christian and really universal religious principle of "loving your neighbor as yourself". Get rid of the guns, not the people.
SO frightening! This man is cruel and crazy. He is actually worse than Trump. Please explain to me why male sociopaths are controlling our world. Putin, Trump, DeSantis… where are the drones???
We need more women to run for political offices. I also look at countries that thrive on misogyny and authoritarianism and when I see political upheaval in the streets on the news footage and coverage of these conflicts, I often ask myself, "where are the women?" The women's absence in the streets is so glaringly and so disturbingly obvious during any and all of so many of certain foreign countries' protests.
Recent protests against the government & religious overlords in none other than Iran, Afghanistan & Sudan have been led by women.
True, thanks for pointing that out.
Women like...Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Kari Lake, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ivanka Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Kaleigh McEnany...? Let's not romanticize the feminine.
Agree, but the women you mention aren’t for anyone but themselves. They don’t fight against injustice, they stand with it for their own perceived advantage. People have to stand up for themselves and others.
You're so good at parody of crazy MAGA people!
Blocked
I am in full agreement, Professor Reich, as will the majority of us on Substack. The problem is, we aren't the ones needing convincing. How do we get ordinary [as in not the MAGA nutcase cult] to understand the dangers of authoritarianism. Our democratic Representative Republic, may have been too successful. Those 'others' have no idea how depraved living becomes under a dictatorship. They think they will have the 'promised land' of white workmen, making a good living, living high on the hog. By the time reality sets in, it may be too late. BTW, I don't think raising billions of dollars will solve a damned thing..
Read Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. By Ruth Ben Ghiat
I spotted this article in Newsweek: “Christian” pastor Jason Graber recently called for the execution of all LGBTQ people as well as the parents of transgender people: “They just need to be shot in the back of the head and then we can string them up above a bridge.”
I am picturing a white male all red in the face preaching hatred, passing a collection plate, and not having to pay any taxes, all in the name ‘Christianity’.... honestly, if Jesus was here He would be overturning the tables on the steps of the temple & trying to negotiate his own inner rage at the hypocrisy!
Jesus as The Lone Ranger -- it warms my heart.
This is terrifying.
That incitement of violence should be actionable. How has he not been arrested?
Keith Olson: Wow! The truth comes out!
Christians NEED to SEE this pastor Graber for what he is. Certainly NOT an instrument of God's hand. Unless your view of " God" & life in general is a very dark one.
Ah Yes, our ever-present evangelical Judeo-Christian antisemitic community!! Need more need be said? You can't make this stuff up!?