Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, in his first remarks after being elected Wednesday afternoon, told Members of Congress that “Scripture” and “the Bible” are clear that they have been “ordained” by God.

  • @baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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    2112 years ago

    Democrats should name all their laws after the Bible. Eye of the Needle bill: wealth tax and just demagogue that we need to pass this to save American souls. Mark 1:40 bill: universal healthcare

    • @Iunnrais@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      I legitimately and unironically would support this initiative. It’s a good idea.

    • @PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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      242 years ago

      It’s a great idea but unfortunately it has some significant flaws.

      First, I imagine quite a lot of the Christianity in American politics is performative. The politicians could just hand wave away the passages and say “That’s not what Jesus meant, he personally told me so”.

      The fundamentalists suckers would believe them and vote for them even harder and the ones that are drawn to religion for the excuse to abuse people won’t care as long as their abusive itches get scratched.

      The other problem is that if it did work, it’s comes across as more than a little Christofascist.

      The far-right and religious “in it for abuse” crowds would take to it like flies to dog shit and the bible has some horrific stuff in it that you’d definitely never want becoming law.

      Better to just pry fundamentalists and neoliberals from power so all they can do is seethe while progressives pass these kinds of laws. With genuine end times just around the corner, time is a factor.

      • @baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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        102 years ago

        Republicans will always find a way. Even if it contradicts what they just said a minute prior. You’re not gonna stop suckers from going along with ppl using them for power/money. We should just take the win.

      • @Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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        22 years ago

        The biggest flaw is democrats have too much tact. They couldn’t possibly offend the people trying to oppress their constitutes.

      • Ænima
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        62 years ago

        When lemmy gives you lemons, make lemmy-nades! 💣

    • @hansl@lemmy.world
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      722 years ago

      Even Jesus thought so. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” means exactly that.

          • GONADS125
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            2 years ago

            Bringing up God summoning 2 bears to slaughter 42 children for calling one of his deciples a “baldhead” is always a fun tid bit!

            I would not call that a just or kind god.

            • @evranch@lemmy.ca
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              132 years ago

              Many of the OT stories are horrifying. Book of Job is probably the worst, where a petty God destroys a good and pious man to win a wager with Satan.

              Who would be interested in worshipping a God who would do such a thing to his own followers, and whose omnipotence is so limited that he can be tricked by Satan into performing evil acts?

      • @bemenaker@lemmy.world
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        32 years ago

        Come on man, that would take way too much intelligence and critical thinking skill, for GOP voters to understand.

    • @PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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      162 years ago

      “Prosperity theology” often goes hand in hand with neoliberalism.

      If you’re not quite psychopathic enough for “I don’t care about the morality of using child slaves, only the profitability”, you can assuage that guilt with “If God didn’t want me to profit from child slavery, he would have stopped me doing it”.

      • @abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world
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        132 years ago

        I feel like even the smart ones who built rockets and bombs saw us killing nazis and were like “yeah that’s probably for the best”

      • Ænima
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        72 years ago

        A lot of Nazis, the high ranking ones, fucked off to Venezuela and other places when they saw the end in sight and knew their necks were on the line (literally in some cases) if caught. I can imagine some used their stolen wealth to continue that brand of hate for the last 80+ years. “The smart ones” were intentionally sabotaging the Nazi war effort and defecting to the Allies with information on the Nazis’ attempts at nuclear weapons. A lot of those scientists were never allowed to leave or live past the end of the war in Nazi Germany.

      • @Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        42 years ago

        They were inspired by our fascists. Bringing them here change things so little that even the number of fascists overall in the United States and barely had a bump in their growth.

  • @Furbag@lemmy.world
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    1122 years ago

    What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?

    I don’t care how much he enjoys talking about his favorite fairy tale novel, congress is not a book club.

    • @Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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      242 years ago

      Oh, but that’s totally different! You see, their holy book is just a bunch of heathenish drivel, whereas our holy book is the one and only god given truth! How do I know? It says so right here in my holy book!

      • @bemenaker@lemmy.world
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        72 years ago

        I had some bible thumping baptist going door to door tell me almost exactly that. I had time, and decided to amuse myself in engaging these two guys. I talked to them for about 20 mins before they left. I kept asking them to compare their religion to various religions around the world, including eastern relgiions, and was quoting passages from many of them. These guys clearly had never studied anything but their version of christianity. Their only defense was, “But this was written by our lord and savior, Jesus Christ”

        • TXL
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          132 years ago

          But this was written by our lord and savior, Jesus Christ

          Did they say which part? I’m no theologian, but I don’t remember mentions of any actual writings by Jesus himself.

          • @afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            12 years ago

            He didn’t exist so he couldn’t have written anything. If he had existed and was raised in Nazareth he would have been in a village so small that it didn’t even have a place to pray and in a region so backwards that the literacy rate was around 1%. There are no works that people claim that he wrote. Even that was a bridge too far for them. Walking on water was more believable than being literate in that region.

    • @seaQueue@lemmy.worldOP
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      122 years ago

      What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?

      That’s an easy mistake to make, this guy’s a Talibangelical

  • make -j8
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    762 years ago

    Quetiapine 50mg, twice per day. Increase dosage if voices persist

    • Enma Ai
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      182 years ago

      That’s way to low of a dose for hallucinations.

      Start with 300mg XR and up the dose of necessary

  • @Treczoks@lemm.ee
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    762 years ago

    And the Constitution and its Amendments are very clear about a separation of church and state.

      • @RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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        182 years ago

        It actually explicitly doesn’t say you can’t relate churches.

        “Shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

        If we’re going strictly by what the words say, as long as the people are still legally allowed and freely allowed to practice their religion, Congress technically has the right to regulate religious institutions to their hearts content.

        It’s not like it says “shall make no law regulating an institution of religion.”

        • @GraniteM@lemmy.world
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          62 years ago

          The Vermont Constitution has a much more explicit freedom from religion:

          Article 3. [Freedom in religion; right and duty of religious worship]

          That all persons have a natural and unalienable right, to worship Almighty God, according to the dictates of their own consciences and understandings, as in their opinion shall be regulated by the word of God; and that no person ought to, or of right can be compelled to attend any religious worship, or erect or support any place of worship, or maintain any minister, contrary to the dictates of conscience, nor can any person be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right as a citizen, on account of religious sentiments, or peculia[r] mode of religious worship; and that no authority can, or ought to be vested in, or assumed by, any power whatever, that shall in any case interfere with, or in any manner control the rights of conscience, in the free exercise of religious worship. Nevertheless, every sect or denomination of christians ought to observe the sabbath or Lord’s day, and keep up some sort of religious worship, which to them shall seem most agreeable to the revealed will of God.

        • @afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          22 years ago

          “no law” is not literal it is aspirational. At least according to what I have heard. If it was literal there could be zero rules about speech which breaks the constitutional ideas of oath of office and treason charges.

          The aspirational would be a government that doesn’t even know religion exists. It is taxed, regulated, and given the same respect as any other institution.

      • cannache
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        -22 years ago

        Who watches the nightwatchers? Who or what systems could regulate the government? Ask yourself

          • cannache
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            12 years ago

            Can the argument not go both ways? I’m not saying I would trust the church to watch over the government or vice versa I’m simply making an observation that tyrannical government overreach etc is plausible and a potential cause for concern for any person that places a degree of their trust in the systems or bodies around them

  • Carighan Maconar
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    2 years ago

    Imagine if religious fundamentalism wasn’t acceptable for a statesman. What a crazy modern world we could be living in.

    Although I guess in the case of the US, the country was founded out of religious fundamentalism in its entirely, and from a clean slate. Much more difficult to untangle it.

    • qyron
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      302 years ago

      Unless my history lessons are evading me, your country was founded by deists running from fundamentalists.

      • @jarfil@lemmy.world
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        342 years ago

        Fundamentalists running from people not letting them be as fundamentalist as they wanted.

        • @orrk@lemmy.world
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          62 years ago

          only some of the people were fundamentalists running from people who didn’t let them be fundamentalist, they also had a great many wars with the government because of it

          • @paintbucketholder@lemmy.world
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            12 years ago

            Anabaptists had an end-time cult, took over cities, instituted religious law, legalized polygamy for their leaders, and publicly beheaded their opponents. They were basically the ISIS of their day.

        • @Eldritch@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          You’re both right. Though the diests tended to be the ones more in the government itself. We had our fair share of fundamentalists to fundamental for back home.

        • qyron
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          32 years ago

          The sad part is that your constitution was considered groundbreaking for the time and some say it influenced the french revolution.

      • @RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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        62 years ago

        Yes the USA was founded by deists, after the fundamentalists had settled the frontier land. It’s both basically.

  • ohmyiv
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    2 years ago

    He did it. He said the magic words that turn on a neverending money tap from “christian” conservatives who aren’t smart enough to tell when they’re getting grifted.

  • @Harpsist@lemmy.world
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    512 years ago

    If you express grandiose delusions you should be sitting in a psychiatric chair. Not a senate chair.

  • @macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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    502 years ago

    He believes that all leaders are raised up by the hand of God. Better get those sainthoods lined up for Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Putin, Mugabe, etc.

    • @masquenox@lemmy.world
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      92 years ago

      Those people - including Johnson - aren’t leaders. They’re bureaucrats with fancy titles and institutionalized power - the exact thing Jesus wasn’t.

    • cannache
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      12 years ago

      Humanity once again assumes no accountability. All good things and Inventions are apparently important to us, but give authority to one mass murderer and apparently it’s acceptable to blame God, after the fact. Consider an alternative possibility, that your conscience is begging for mercy.

    • @JdW@lemmy.world
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      212 years ago

      At least the Taliban have the excuse their holy book is read in its original language. These jokers base themselves on a translation of a translation. Dogma and theocracy are wrong in any version, but if you are spouting ignorant bigotry at least make sure it’s what the bronze-age sheepherders really intended…