The New Calvinist Dismantling the CFPB

The battle continues over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The courts in some cases resist the attempts to shut it down - in other cases the courts are facilitating its termination.

One outlet posted an editorial rendering the CFPB superfluous as 'we have the courts' - never mind the fact that most of the people who might turn to the CFPB lack the funds and means to file lawsuits, let alone wait for the results - all the more considering that large financial institutions can simply adopt a strategy of attrition to force the plaintiffs to give up.

The whole financial sector is rotten, deeply so and far more than most have even begun to conceive.

The truth is the CFPB is hated by Wall Street interests including Elon Musk and so they conveniently found a New Calvinist zealot (Russell Vought) to implement their plan. Because no doubt a Christian Worldview aligns perfectly with the designs of the billionaire class that sits atop the American Oligarchy. Vought, a Christian Nationalist heretic also runs the Office of Budget and Management and is working hand-in-glove with DOGE to dismantle large sections of the federal bureaucracy.

I do not weep for laid off and fired federal workers and yet these moves are purely political and given their partisan flavour, the principle narrative being sold to the public is farcical. It angers me that Christians are leading the assault and facilitating the campaign of lies.

The CFPB was founded in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as it became clear that deregulation had opened the door to all manner of salacious financial practices. The Right-wing of course pinned the blame on consumers who took out loans beyond their means.

A greater discussion could be had about Capitalism at this point and how it tends toward monopolisation and how this in turn creates entities that transcend the market and from a national security standpoint become strategic. Their interests become inseparable from that of the state.

And yet given the amount of wealth (in reality fictitious capital) that was lost, the incoming Obama administration felt compelled to throw the dogs a bone, to let some crumbs fall for the masses so that they could at least have an agency to turn to which would advocate for them in the case of egregious deception - of which there is plenty.

Vought like all Christo-Americans worships mammon which is always tied to power and concern for others or to follow the ethics of the New Testament play little if any part in his thinking. He has also called for the military to be used against political opponents. His supposed fidelity to the US Constitution is laughable.

And because leaders in the New Calvinist movement (like the SBC-Founders leader Tom Ascol) also serve this agenda, they celebrate Vought and his attainment of a significant position of power and influence. They rightly condemn the Social Gospel, but then do everything they can to support the entrenched and monied powers and engage in endless rounds of political activism, supporting their faction of the Establishment - which has increasingly been overtaken by Trumpism. Their collaboration with figures like Glenn Beck, and the CPAC crowd demonstrate their concerns regarding the confusion of the gospel with social transformation are revealed as completely bogus and disingenuous. They are advocates of a social gospel - merely a right-wing version of it.

In fact as I recently browsed Ascol's Sword and Trowel podcast (a title appropriated from the 19th century English Baptist Charles Spurgeon), I notice that a good number of the recent episodes are little more than a reinforcement of the Trumpite agenda. It's no surprise that Vought has also appeared on his show.

For those who think these men stalwarts in the faith - think again. They are compromised and in addition to deceiving, they are being deceived. Follow them at your own peril.