There Is Nothing Trump And MAGA Hate More Than Jesus
They're like vampires exposed to sunlight, or, well, to a cross.
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OK, let’s talk about American hero Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.
“The Daily Show” did a montage of the MAGA temper tantrum over Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal diocese of Washington DC, who heroically spoke truth to power during a national prayer service earlier this week when she calmly and gently — one might say meekly — pleaded with Donald Trump to have mercy on the people of this country (immigrants, LGBTQ people, etc.) who are now living in fear because he is president. She asked him to have compassion. She asked him to honor their dignity. She asked him to love his neighbor.
You can tell how powerful her message was by observing how Trump, Republican electeds and his right-wing state media are reacting like vampires who saw sunlight or, well, a cross.
The “Daily Show” mashup is masterful.
Sean Hannity bitching about Budde going on a “woke tirade in front of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, their families, their young children.” Oh no, won’t somebody think of the messages the MAGA children are hearing?
Cut to Budde asking, “in the name of our God, to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.
Laura Ingraham doing her vile little scoffing thing, about how attendees were “forced to listen to the rantings of a lunatic.”
Cut to Budde saying “there are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”
Brian Kilmeade calling Budde a “self-important person who probably had AOC jot some notes down for her.”
Cut to Budde saying that “the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors.”
Will Cain — the ill-behaved “Fox & Friends” weekend boy who has been whining up a storm about how mean everybody is being to his piece of shit former cohost Pete Hegseth, bless his heart — bitching that the “most offensive” thing about Budde’s homily is that “her ‘concerns’ were so cliched and wrong.”
Budde: “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.”
Raymond Arroyo, the walking kick-me sign who comes on Ingraham’s show to provide “comic relief,” said, “She’s a mess! And the speech was a complete discarded propaganda you’d hear in Union Square or something.” Whatever that means. It’s useful to remember ever since Laura Ingraham got demoted to a much earlier timeslot, her show is basically just background noise for nonagenarian Nazis who think “Wheel Of Fortune” is too woke.
Budde: “And that you help those who are fleeing warzones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, the Detroit MAGA pastor who offered that ridiculous prayer at Trump’s inauguration — y’all should see what Joy Reid and other Black commentators are saying about him — said Budde was “so arrogant!” and a “heretic!”
Budde: “May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being.”
Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor: “I thought it was disgusting, and she should be ashamed of herself, and she should apologize!”
Like I said, a good “Daily Show” segment. The juxtaposition is jarring.
Media Matters has a roundup of other things right-wing figures have said about Budde. It’s got the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh saying “hell exists for people like Mariann.” He’s also said she’s proof women shouldn’t be pastors, so his little weenus is clearly feeling stung by this. It’s got the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles calling Budde a “fake priestess lady.” OK, little mister extremist Catholic guy.
LibsOfTikTok appears to think Budde is possessed by demons.
Franklin Graham, who could have been prevented if Billy Graham had worn a condom or just abstained from fucking that day, accused Budde of “lying” and being a “socialist,” unlike well-known teller of truth Donald Trump.
Back on Fox News, Martha MacCallum called it “a gotcha moment,” something she found “uncharitable.” (It’s all projection.)
Judge Jeanine “Boxwine” Pirro called Budde a “nasty clergywoman,” and her “The Five” cohost Jesse Watters said, “She's lucky this didn't happen on day one when he was a dictator because he would have put her in prison.” Greg Gutfeld just called her Satan.
Observe the caterwauling from Trump’s incoming Kayleigh Huckabee Spicer figure “Karoline Leavitt.” Look how well his latest young white woman spokesperson barfs out aggrieved Christian fascist talking points:
“It was supposed to be a unifying and bipartisan church service. Everybody there was shocked and mortified by the disturbing comments from this bishop who chose to weaponize the pulpit. She spewed lies. She should apologize to President Trump for the lies that she told. It’s despicable.”
Go fuck yourself, garbage human.
Some white woman asshole on Fox News whined about how the church has “gone woke,” and there is too much of an emphasis on “the issues of wokeism, whether it’s, you know, helping people of, you know, different race, or different sexual persuasion or whatever, instead of focusing on the Word.”
What do you think the Word says, you heathen fuck?
As I said at Wonkette, Christian Nazis, white supremacists and fascists hate it when you show Jesus to them. In fact, I’d argue that there’s nothing in the world they hate more than Jesus.
To be clear, I don’t even believe in hell, but if you had a problem with one word Bishop Budde said, you are by definition going to hell. There’s something deeply wrong and sick with you, you came out of God’s factory wrong, you are damaged beyond repair.
But this is all of MAGA, and all of white conservative Christianity, be it protestant or Catholic. This sickness has invaded the entire body.
These Fuckers HATE Jesus
Speaker Mike Johnson has been out there this week talking about how much he loves redemption stories. Surprise! He was talking about the January 6 domestic MAGA terrorists Trump pardoned, lest you thought that amoral son of a bitch was talking about acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with one’s God.
We’ve discussed previously how Mike Johnson’s idea of redemption only ever extends to the people of his own tribe, who he thinks are superior to everyone else.
Look at this post that got a lot of attention on Bluesky a few days ago, quoting Daily Wire conservative Christian trash human Megan Basham:
“We are reaching levels of biblical interpretation bent to exclude compassion in ways I never thought possible,” wrote Ben Marsh, a North Carolina pastor, in response to Basham, who had written:
“What you seem to be missing is that the love shown by the good Samaritan is so extravagant that every single person on this planet fails to meet that standard. Only one has ever shown that kind of love. And that was the point of the parable. To show us how far we are from God’s standard so that we realize that only by taking on the righteousness of Christ, could we ever meet it. It’s not actually a story just telling you o be nice to people. It’s a story poitning you to your need for a perfect Savior.”
And here you thought the good Samaritan was just a totally normal person in the story who happened not to be a fucking asshole, and Jesus was saying hey, don’t be a fucking asshole, be like that guy.
Didn’t realize the moral of the story is that nobody could ever be as nice as the good Samaritan, so we’d better not attempt that heavy lift, lest we risk a hernia!
Go fuck yourself with that white supremacist Calvinist shit, oh vile woman who is also going to hell.
You ought to read Marsh’s full, outraged thread and probably follow him, by the way.
UPDATE: Here is a late entry into the “These Fuckers Hate Jesus” contest that I hadn’t seen this morning!
“The sin of empathy.”
Un. Fucking. Believable.
This Is Not Biblically Complicated Shit, Y’all
Despite how conservative white Christians twist themselves into acrobatic Gumby knots to deny the simple fact that followers of Jesus are supposed to fucking try to emulate Jesus and act decent — we’ve even seen some of the Theobros arguing that all that “love your neighbor” shit is only intended for members of their own chosen white supremacist tribe — the Gospels are extremely clear here. The entire Bible is, really.
A lot of these passages are kind of famous too, chart-topping singles on the Now That’s What I Call Jesus box set of CDs. The one about whatever you did for the least of these immediately springs to mind. Conservative Christians hate that verse. There’s this one:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:25-36)
Not a lot of qualifications about who does and does not qualify to be fed, clothed, tended to and loved. Definitely no mention of immigration status.
There’s also what the parable of the good Samaritan actually says:
He asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:29-37)
Literally the moral of the story is that one of these people was a neighbor and the others weren’t.
Mr. Rogers couldn’t have made it any fucking simpler for these morons.
Mariann Edgar Budde Is Not Sorry
On Rachel Maddow’s show the other night, she highlighted a few stories of Catholic bishops and other church leaders declaring Trump’s Nazi immigration crackdown and deportation crusade incompatible with church teachings, churches declaring themselves sanctuaries, and Christian leaders just condemning his actions in general. The teachings of the actual Jesus are being spoken here, and loudly, which probably is a prime reason the right-wing Republican Nazi fascist Christians and their media are in such histrionics right now over what the mean Christlike bishop lady said.
Budde spoke truth to power, and others are doing so too.
In Time magazine, Budde said, “I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others.” She said she hopes this helps put more compassion into the discourse. And about the threats she’s faced, she says don’t worry about her:
“The real people who are in danger are those who are fearful of being deported. The real people who are in danger are the young people who feel they cannot be themselves and be safe and who are prone to all kinds of both external attacks and suicidal responses to them. So I think we should keep our eyes on the people who are really vulnerable in our society. I have a lot of support and a lot of safety around me, so no, I'm not feeling personally at risk. Although people have said they do wish me dead, and that's a little heartbreaking. It was a pretty mild sermon. It certainly wasn't a fire and brimstone sermon. It was as respectful and as universal as I could with the exception of making someone who has been entrusted with such enormous influence and power to have mercy on those who are most vulnerable.”
That is what these people are attacking right now.
Mariann Edgar Budde spoke Jesus to MAGA, and MAGA is responding exactly as Jesus’s enemies always do.
We’ll end with Budde’s interview on Maddow, watch it if you haven’t seen it.
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This reminds me of the Gandhi quote: I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
I’m not particularly religious. I certainly don’t believe in a benevolent god. However even I have been exposed to the Sermon on the Mount, Good Samaritan, those without sin cast the 1st stone. No MAGA, not the Huckabees or any “minister” seems to be acquainted with basic New Testament.
Trump has no idea what Jesus said.