It's a Chinese Communist virus but it's fake. The police are
heroes and Christians support a heavy regime of law and order but when there's
public outcry – it's the Leftists.
This kind of spin and obfuscation is common enough in
Right-wing circles but when it's promoted by professing Christians it's
especially offensive.
Pulpit and Pen is a veritable cyber-rag – a Christian
click-bait travesty run by bought and paid for liars. This story is no
exception.
Normally this website and those like it are vigorous
defenders of the authoritarian state and the police – especially when it comes
to so-called 'law and order' issues – which interestingly often overlaps with
minority crime.
In the case of George Floyd, police misconduct is so blatant
and egregious that they cannot defend it. And so rather than acknowledge that
there's a problem with police, racism or even (gasp) class – they turn to spin.
Blame the Leftists.
Once again the lame quality of their argument tells us
something of them and a great deal about their audience – and the fact that the
editors of the site are comfortable enough in their mendacious audacity to
promote such a line. Clearly they are confident that their readership is stupid
and ignorant enough – and morally compromised enough to fall for such bile.
We ought to be concerned about the heavy hand of the state
and the militarisation of the police but I won't hear it from the likes of
Pulpit and Pen. Because again in other context they praise the state's iron fist
and are quick to defend the police.
Pulpit and Pen represents the Right-Libertarian ethos that
has overtaken not just the Right but Evangelicalism. Hyper-individualistic, the
ideology inconsistently embraces authoritarian statism and the warfare state.
In some respects it echoes the worst elements of Libertarian ideology but
combines them with what is little more than Far-Right thinking and politics.
But perhaps I ascribe too much to the likes of Pulpit and
Pen. It's the end justifies the means for these folks. Lie with abandon in
order to score your political victories. Power is all that matters in the end
and if the truth is murdered or people for that matter – then it's worth it.
I saw another story on the site about the controversy of
Trump visiting the Episcopal Church for a photo-op – the scandal being the
dispersal of protestors in order for him to do it. The site in this case
downplays the heavy hand of the police and Secret Service or even the question
of what Trump was doing or why but instead turns to an ad hominem attack on the Episcopal Church.
Now we agree, the American Episcopal Church is apostate – but
interestingly they never address the problem of Trump pulling his Bible stunt
in front of the apostate entity and what that says about his understanding of
Christianity as clearly he thought it was a church – and indeed I can truly
with all being say that I don't care what the Episcopal priestess has to say in
response. But the statements of an apostate body are frankly immaterial. The
larger issues concerning Trump's actions are conveniently ignored. The story is
spun.
Most believe Trump was fit to be tied over media reports of
him being taken to the bunker on a previous day when the protests outside the
White House got pretty intense. He was humiliated by these reports and wanted
to make some kind of symbolic gesture and appeal to his base. At least that's
everyone's guess.
As far as the protestors go – the fact that violent protests
had taken place just a day or two before means that their claims of being
peaceful are in question. The fact that the state uses a heavy hand to disperse
them is no surprise – they should expect it.
But the real story here is about Trump and why he chose to
exercise power in that way and at that specific moment.
Pulpit and Pen doesn't want to discuss that. It's too
complicated for their readership and they're not interested in nuance. All they
want to do is spin and manipulate.
Pulpit and Pen? Cauldron and Pen is more like it. They are sorcerers,
weavers of mists, spellcasters – the veritable offspring of Balaam.
And sadly it is but one of many such 'news' sites – and they're
numbers are growing. A new Evangelical culture is rising and as bad as the
1970's and 1980's Moral Majority was – I'm starting to miss it. The Bircher
ethos was always around but it more or less stayed in the background. Now it's
become a dominating force within the Right and the Christian Right. Who could
have seen this coming?
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