the Evangelical Right is a Politcal Creation.

Cap

Well-known member
This thread was meant to controversial, so in that spirit:
The women-voters who preferred a "strong, dominating, aggressive" male personality to be Conman-in-Chief, rather than an intelligent, politically experienced woman, are the equivalent to women who prefer wearing a burka and living under Sharia law. :smile:

US elections are just a show for the sheep. Corporations and Wall St. are in control. They always have all options covered, they are never in danger of losing.

trump_lying.jpg


wall_st_hillary.jpg


bernie.jpg
 

david starling

Well-known member
Cap, you really think HRC would have been as bad for the Environment and renewable energy as Trump? Or as against Food Stamps and child-nutrition programs, or women's access to birth control or abortion? Or that she would have pushed for those massive tax cuts for the super-wealthy and mega-Corporations?
I agree that the Powers-That-Be didn't want her as President-Elect, and easily manipulated a win for Trump, but it wasn't just Tweedledee/Tweedledum for a lot of reasons domestically.
 

Cap

Well-known member
She would have been just the same. In today's world politicians are hired by wealthy people to do what they are told. It's a job like any other job. If you think that she or any other politician has free hands to do as she would like, then you are under illusion that your vote has some significance in a "democratic deception game".

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david starling

Well-known member
They chose Trump to deliver their tax-cut, something Hillary couldn't have done, as a Liberal Democrat. The greatest act of rebellion against the Super-wealthy would have been HRC as President-Elect. Even with the vicious (still) unrelenting smear campaign against her, she won the Popular-vote. But I think she went along with the charade, and was actually content with the result.
Cap, since you've apparently given up on the voting process, what's the alternative? Total apathy? Or, developing a viable Counterculture?
 
Muslims have no problem killing anyone at anytime for any reason - abortion, killing gays, adulterers, female family members for not marrying whom they are told to marry, beheading people who belong to the 'wrong religion' or who draw a cartoon of Mohammed.

They are a religion of peace, after all.
 
This thread was meant to controversial, so in that spirit:
The women-voters who preferred a "strong, dominating, aggressive" male personality to be Conman-in-Chief, rather than an intelligent, politically experienced woman, are the equivalent to women who prefer wearing a burka and living under Sharia law. :smile:
No, the Russians hypnotized all of us with Facebook ads and told Hillary not to wear herself out campaigning.
 

rahu

Banned
805
http://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/tru...t-but-he-can-still-help-criminalize-abortion/

Trump evangelicals tell MSNBC: His racism is ‘contrary to Christ’ but he can still help ‘criminalize abortion’
..........................................................................................................
the evangelical right appeared out of nowhere in the 1950's. they have been used by rightwing political groups every since.
the most blatant use has been by the Bush during the2000 Iraq war and by Netanyahu's call for a divine monarchy in Israel.this is because the messiah mustcome first before Israel can become a country again. there are religious factions that maintain Israel is a rogue state because the messiah has not come back. but netanyahu uses the evangelical credo that jesus Christ is the messiah and therefore Israel does have the religious right to exist. the ignorance and political undercurrents of the evangelical right are obvious when one realized messaiah means"a man anointed by god". if one reads the synoptic gospels, you will notice that Jesus is always referred to as Jesus the messiah. by definition the messiah cannot be god but must be a man.

the facts become apparent when one realizes that all religions have had prohibition of death of infants. but in all of recorded history ,not one religions ever placed the value of a unborn child over the mother.

whenever child it was recognized a pregnancy was endangering the mother's life, the mother's life was more important.

the only "religion" that challenged this ancient precept were the evangelicals, beginnning in the1950's. there is no religious belief of heritage prior to the 1950's that placed the unborn child's life over the mothers life and safety.

.

and now we have evangelicals saying ridiculous things such as above,
His racism is ‘contrary to Christ’ but he can still help ‘criminalize abortion’


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/palestinians-to-bury-58-people-killed-in-us-embassy-protests

days after Israeli snipers kill babies men women and children.
Drumpf instead of offering any sense of even condolence Drumpf instead met with evangelicals and extols their belief and commitment to protecting human life.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/us/politics/donald-trump-abortion.html
This shows exactly the use of evangelicals politically.
Keep in mind that no other religion had every placed the value of an unborn child over that of his mother. this innovative religiousview occurred in the early 1950’s to become todays rigid stand on abortion.

elk.com/trump-evangelicals-support-millennials-888267

While Israel needs political support for there killings and while trump is cheering Netanyahu’s strategy of genocide, he is stroking the back of a central dogma, he is also using them politically as evangelicals believe jesus was the messiah. Netanyahu needs someone to being projecting this thought because with out a messiah appearing, technically the state of Israel has not right to exist. Gods or Netanyahu’s interventions can only righteous occur after the messiah comes. It is excepted that the messiah hasn’t comeyet.
This political use of the nature of jesus is why bush started sucking up to the evangelicals before the first gulf war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/us/politics/donald-trump-abortion.html
 

rahu

Banned
http://beforeitsnews.com/police-state/2018/06/fema-is-beta-testing-fema-camp-incarcerations-in-hawaii-4969.html
The late Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, predicted that the Supreme Court would one day look the other way and either by overt commission of by benign neglect, authorize another FEMA camp style incarceration in the midst of the presence of war, or in the midst of domestic disturbance leading to the abuse of the civil rights of civil rights of specific Americans. Consequently, this would lead to another round of history repeating itself as Americans are sent off to internment camps (i.e. FEMA camps). Scalia referenced World War II era Japanese-Americans and the internment camps they were sent off to internment camps as a prime example of his point.

That day has arrived. It happened in Houston and it happening, right now, in Hawaii.



Clark’s words sound appropriate, based upon national defense, until we realize that his comments followed the infamous 2008 MIAC report which characterized Ron Paul supporters, Christians, Constitutionalists, pro-Second Amendment supporters and other patriotic Americans as being domestic terrorists. This puts Clark’s comments in a much different light where the context of his words shift from protecting America to one of supporting the imposition of the American Gestapo.


There is a single source that has been reporting about the detainment of Hawaiian citizens in the face of the volcanic disturbance. I ordinarily would not post a single anonymous source that I did not know, personally, and that had impeccable credibility and a history of accurate reporting. However, I have a source, that confirms that the evacuations are mandatory and in some cases, the people are not given a choice of where they are taken and they are being detained for this own safety because of the safety concerns for people who MIGHT try to return to their homes to retrieve prized possessions. My source is impeccable.

This sounds benign doesn’t it? When we dig deeper, we are witnessing a very disturbing set of circumstances that I have seen before. The confidential source went on to say:


Rescue stations such as Pahoa Community Center and Sure Foundation Church were filled to capacity, unable to accommodate the throng of confused persons pleading for food, shelter, and safety. Instead of sanctuary, they found FEMA; a small convoy of agency vehicles—hummers, SUVs, and a pair of cattle cars—and armed agents arrived on scene to “escort displaced people to places of safety.” These agents, our source said, carried loaded M4 assault rifles and side arms, and told nervous citizens they needed weapons to repel potential looters or threats to national security. They promised safe passage to, and free accommodations at, a hotel miles away from the lava flow.

…those graciously accepting help and a minority who wished to stay behind. Those who accepted help were placed on a air-conditioned bus and promised free accommodations at a hotel in a safe location. Those who refused were given another choice…cattle cars….

…The people in the buses, the people in the cattle cars—they all ultimately arrived at the same destination. Those in the bus were told the hotels were filled and the ones in the cattle cars were told nothing until they arrived at a fortified encampment with armed guards and electric razor wire fences designed to keep people within the compound…

I believe this account for other reasons as well. Under the heading that the best predictor of the future is to look at past events, we have been down this road before.

Pastor Walter Mansfield, the Clergy Response Teams and FEMA Camps

President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law which in addition to allocating $662 billion to the Pentagon also contains a measure which allows U.S. citizens to be taken into custody and held indefinitely without ever being charged with a crime.

Not only can any citizen deemed a threat to “national security interests of the United States,” be held forever without receiving a trial, but the military will be the ones arresting those citizens.


NDAA Section 1022, subsection c allows “(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”

The National Emergency Centers Act or HR 645 mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of to providing “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” according to the bill.

The legislation also states that the camps will be used to “provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-based organizations”.


Pastor Mansfield was recruited to become a member of the Clergy Response Team which would operate under the control of NOVAD and DHS. Mansfield’s revelations about his experiences are stunning and concerning at the same time.

Pastor Mansfield attended several briefings and he could barely believe his ears. He learned of the government’s plan to enact martial law as well as to implement forced population relocations. Mansfield emphasized that when martial law is enacted, the enforcement would be immediate. In other words, family members will be separated from each other and part of the training that the clergy received was how to comfort separated family members.

The pastors were trained to go to homes were people refused to be relocated by the authorities and their immediate job was to convince the reluctant to willingly go to the relocation camps. Ostensibly, this was to be done in lieu of sending in the SWAT teams.

I asked Mansfield if FEMA camps were real and he stated that much of the clergy training focused around this scenario of pastors operating within the forced relocation centers. The main goal of a pastor assigned to a FEMA was to bring order and encourage compliance with DHS requests, hence, the emphasis on Romans 13.

The pastors were forced to sign non-disclosure. Interesting, the pastors were told not to quote Scripture. The DHS document which was prepared for the pastors clearly stated that Scripture had been used to “oppress” people in the past and the presenters strongly discouraged the its use. Please see the following excerpt from one of the DHS training manuals:
“During a time of crisis people do go through a “crisis of faith.”


Sometime quick mention of God and scripture may not be helpful. As we all know the Scripture has been used to oppress, dominate and at the same time used for healing and reconciliation- renewing of relationship with God and people. If the pastor senses it is appropriate to use the scripture and prayer, it must carefully be done for healing of victims not to uphold pastoral authority.” (Page 14)

In other words, all legitimate pastoral authority was abrogated by the pastors who participated in the roundup of American citizens.

Also on page 14 of the same training document, pastors were admonished to avoid “Unhealthy God talk….” Specifically pastors are ordered to avoid using references to God when helping people cope with the loss of a loved one:
“4. God must have needed him/her more than you.”
“5. God never gives more than we can handle.“
Pastor Mansfield also revealed that pastors will be issued badges under the Clergy Response Team program. Any pastor not displaying the badge, indicating that they have been trained under these guidelines, will not be permitted into the established and designated “DHS safety zones”. This reminds me of the banishment of religious figures from Plymouth Colony who, in good conscience, refused to go along with some of the extremism of that day. Along these lines, the Clergy Response Team is also a “Kool-Aid drinking program”. Pastors are absolutely forbidden to publicly to speak about any aspect of the program. If you were to ask your pastor if they are a FEMA trained pastor, they will not likely tell you.

Disturbingly, Pastor Mansfield reiterated several times that the number one job of these pastors is to calm down people and encourage their compliance within the people’s new surroundings.


Continued on Next Pageekly
 

Cap

Well-known member
Cap, since you've apparently given up on the voting process, what's the alternative? Total apathy? Or, developing a viable Counterculture?

I do believe democracy is the best political system. Word "democracy" has been so abused, people have forgotten its true meaning.

1.
government by the people or their elected representatives
2.
a political or social unit governed ultimately by all its members
3.
the practice or spirit of social equality
4.
a social condition of classlessness and equality
5.
the common people, esp as a political force

The only true democracy is direct democracy, or at least, liquid democracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBMD5Hw77AM

True democracy is not compatible with capitalism nor with any society where you have class struggle. The current system, so called "representative democracy", is actually a plutocracy since representatives can be bought. That's why ruling 1% calls democracy "a rule of mob". We the people of the Earth, we the 99%, we are that mob they are so afraid of.
 

Cap

Well-known member
The system will inevitably collapse by itself. But it may take a lot of time and the process will produce a lot of suffering. At some point people will rise, when they cannot take it any more.

But, there are many artificial ways to prolong the life of capitalism. Universal basic income is one such idea. On the surface it may sound very "socialist" but the idea is to prolong the status quo where you'll have ultra rich on one side and "the masses" on the other side. Universal basic income is not even 1/100 part of abundance that people could have in some other system.
 

Cap

Well-known member
I don't want to direct this thread off the topic, there is a need for specialized anti-capitalism thread :w00t:, so I'll create one...
 

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
Re: the Evangelical Right is a Political Creation.

PilgrimsProgress, I'm not sure what part of California you live in. We spent 7 weeks this winter in a small desert community in southeastern California, and it was fine. Of course, you'd be happy to pay more taxes to fix the serious urban problems you mention.

Jesus said, "He who has two coats, let him give one away to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise." (Luke 3:11)

Jesus said, "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.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" (Matthew 25:35-40, NIV translation)

More proof texts where these came from.

Rahu, I feel the evangelical right has lost its moral authority. Ironically, it seems to be political liberals who want to put the words of Jesus into political practice.

Waybread, glad you enjoyed your vacation in the Palm Springs area here in the CA desert. Most likely, you were in between Cathedral City and Indio (my hometown) like Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and La Quinta. PilgrimsProgress describes Desert Hot Springs and Coachella (LOL), both among the worst and poorest towns in the state. I find Indian Wells an example of how powerful the rich surely are in the USA and the whole world, they're mostly conservative (esp fiscally) and registered Republican than in more liberal Democrat Palm Springs, a community with a LGBTQ majority and Latinos are a plurality there.
 
CapAquaPis, are you sure you live in California? The majority of the elites are Dems who have been bankrolling the Dem legislature in Sacramento for decades. But there is a shift to Conservatism due to deterioration of the state as people get fed up paying more tax while getting less 'bang for the buck.'

Look for the misnamed Jobless thread (might be in Chat forum) where you can see dozens of photos of the job shy, professional bums, mentally ill and druggies living on the streets in nice neighborhoods and near schools. People are angry!

Republican businessman John Cox has a good chance of becoming governor against far left Gavin Newsom, former mayor of SF.
 

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
CapAquaPis, are you sure you live in California? The majority of the elites are Dems who have been bankrolling the Dem legislature in Sacramento for decades. But there is a shift to Conservatism due to deterioration of the state as people get fed up paying more tax while getting less 'bang for the buck.'

Look for the misnamed Jobless thread (might be in Chat forum) where you can see dozens of photos of the job shy, professional bums, mentally ill and druggies living on the streets in nice neighborhoods and near schools. People are angry!

Republican businessman John Cox has a good chance of becoming governor against far left Gavin Newsom, former mayor of SF.

Yes, the increasingly pricey good parts (Palm Desert) and the first 28 years in the morphed into bad parts (Indio). Except 1991-98, the state has been a Democratic majority state assembly for half a century. Reagan, Deukmejian and Schwarzenegger were Republican governors though and the latter two didn't have a good record. Cus of Silicon Valley, agriculture and Hollywood did well in the 1990s mega-recession, Pete Wilson didn't get elected out. CA from statehood (1850) to 1965 was slightly Republican, but not bipartisan, since most newcomers until the late 20th century were from the Northeast/ Midwest states, except the 1930s were from South-Central states (the non- stereotypically Californians known as the "Okies" like my maternal grandpa). California had 25 years of economic problems between 1987 (the crash) and 2011, just when Jerry Brown was re-elected, governor 1975-83 and follows his father Edmund Pat Brown's tenure 1959-67, these were the golden years for Californians, plus Ronald Reagan in between to later become US president had to work with the liberal/progressive/innovative state he represented. BTW I'm 38 years old who registered as Democrat for my adult life, now I'm rethinking whether I wanna remain one, and as you can see, I'm anti-Republican and doesn't want to support the likes of Trump.
 

rahu

Banned
1008
reading the response on this thread shows that it makes no difference what your political beliefs are. the 2 party system itself is part of the new worlds order control over people minds.
this is obvious because while wasting time nit picking left versus right, the demonic war goes on in the middle east with Netanyahu's policy of genocide.

the facts are the middle east war was enabled by the criminally fallacious twin tower destruction being place on ben laden ,when all the while it was a mossad/cia false flag. the outcome was that a republican, George bush , started middle east war.then a democratic nobel peace prize recipient escalated the war he said he would end and now a republican ,Donald drumpf, dropped more bombs in the middle east during his first 7 months of reign than Obama ben Kenya did in his entire 8 years of fraud. democrats versus republican is an obsolete dialectic because they are all drug addicted sex perverted lying pawns.

rahu
 

rahu

Banned
1008
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/right-wing-evangelicals-blame-sharp-decline-christians-survey/

Right-wing evangelicals are to blame for the sharp decline in Christians: survey
f there’s one thing the Millennial Generation is known for, it’s their love of everyone regardless of their differences. Perhaps that is why they see the turn Christianity has taken to intolerance and has become far too conservative.

A poll from the Public Religion Research Institute revealed that the recent decline in people describing themselves as a particular religion, the Daily Beast cited.



The generation born between 1980 and 2000 is the most diverse generation in history and was raised during the rise of the LGBT rights movement and strive for equality. So, seeing anti-choice, anti-LGBT white evangelicals co-opting Christianity and supporting President Donald Trump to the tune of 75 percent, isn’t exactly good for the religion’s branding.

According to surveys by the Pew Foundation, 23 percent of Generation X (born before millennials in 1965-1980) claim no religious affiliation. That number shoots up to 34 percent of older millennials (born between 1981-1989). It’s even higher, 36 percent for younger millennials (born between 1990 and 1996). The Washington Post conducted their own survey in 2017 that had similar results.

The shift didn’t happen with Trump, however. There was a time that former President Bill Clinton had a strong relationship with the late Rev. Billy Graham, whose son Franklin Graham has taken his father’s somewhat compassionate conservatism and turned it into rants about morality while justifying Trump’s adultery.

An important moment in the life of millennials came during the 2004 election, when Karl Rove and the right-wing collaborated to put nearly a dozen initiatives on the ballot to outlaw same-sex marriage during the 2004 election. It mobilized 10 million evangelicals to the polls and ushered in a wave of Republicans. Churches across the country railed against the immorality of homosexuality, bumping up against pop-culture icons coming out of the closet and anti-bullying campaigns aimed at teens.



White evangelicals have coopted mainstream Christianity, and an entire generation has never lived in an world without hypocritical pastors worshiping the almighty dollar and begging the poor to send Jesus their retirement funds.

Then there is Christianity’s science problem. Rather than embracing science and finding new ways to frame religion around kindness, humility or service, the evangelical movement has fought tooth and nail to ban science. From textbook lies to biology rewrites that demand teaching a religious text next to religious text, the right wing has tried to turn an generation into being science-stupid. They might win small battles with Baby Boomers but they’re losing the long-term war with the largest generation in history also being the most educated in history.

Global, the decline in Christianity has been steady over time. Western European countries, Australia and New Zealand have all seen declines in religious affiliation. The United States has historically maintained it’s stronghold. Until now. The Beast points out that the decline in the U.S. is unprecedented in American history. “Until the last decades of the 20th century, they fell in line with the denominational attachments of their parents.”

While millennials share very close relationships with their parents, they’ve formulated their own ideas and opinions. Today, millennials have now become key influencers in changing the culture and the minds of Baby Boomers along with it.

The days of Focus on the Family and Pat Robertson warning you about the evil homosexuals coming to take your soul are coming to an end — and they might take the majority of Christianity down along with it.
 

rahu

Banned
1052
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/age-trump-evangelicals-back-self-styled-top-us-pimp/

Dennis Hof, a legal brothel owner and recent winner of the Republican primary election for Nevada State Assembly District 36, gets a kiss from Misty Matrix, his girlfriend and a legal prostitute, at his Moonlite BunnyRanch legal brothel in Mound House, Nevada, U.S. June 16, 2018. Picture taken June 16, 2018. REUTERS/Steve Marcus






He styles himself as America’s best-known pimp, a strip-club owner who runs multiple brothels and looks set to win a seat as a Republican in the Nevada legislature with the blessing of many conservative Christian voters.


Meet Dennis Hof, whose political rise reflects fundamental changes in electoral norms that have roiled the Republican Party and upended American politics during the era of President Donald Trump.




“This really is the Trump movement,” Hof, 71, told Reuters in an interview at Moonlite BunnyRanch, his brothel near Carson City in northern Nevada that was featured on the HBO reality television series “Cathouse.”


“People will set aside for a moment their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs, to get somebody that is honest in office,” he said. “Trump is the trailblazer, he is the Christopher Columbus of honest politics.”


When news broke that Hof had won the nominating contest for a state Assembly seat on June 12, evangelical pastor Victor Fuentes said he closed his eyes and prayed.


He did not ask God to deliver Nevada and the Republican Party from Hof, the thrice-divorced author of “The Art of the Pimp” who campaigned as the “Trump of Pahrump.” Although Christian groups have long rallied against the state’s legal brothel industry, Fuentes was willing to overlook Hof’s history as a champion of the flesh trade and gave thanks for his victory.


“People want to know how an evangelical can support a self-proclaimed pimp,” Fuentes said in an interview at his home in Pahrump, an unincorporated town of 36,000 people that is the largest community in the sprawling, rural district where Hof is favored to win in November’s general election.


He said the reason was simple. “We have politicians, they might speak good words, not sleep with prostitutes, be a good neighbor. But by their decisions, they have evil in their heart. Dennis Hof is not like that.”


The pastor said he felt Hof would protect religious rights, among other things.


In Hof’s Republican-leaning district, seven evangelicals said they voted for him because they believed that he, who like Trump is a wealthy businessman and political outsider, would also clean up politics and not be beholden to special-interest groups and their money.


“I’m kind of rich, I’m kind of famous, and I’m surrounded by hot chicks. I don’t give a **** what anybody says about me,” Hof said.


The source of Hof’s wealth – he owns a strip club and five legal brothels – did not deter his supporters.


Nor did the allegations by several women that Hof sexually abused them. Hof denied the accusations, including a former sex worker’s claim that he raped and choked her several years ago, and the voters interviewed by Reuters dismissed them as lies.


Hof was reluctant to discuss his own Christian faith.


“I don’t share my beliefs with the public,” he said. “I don’t feel the need to go to church on a regular basis.”


LOSING FAITH IN ESTABLISHMENT
For decades, evangelical voters have been a pillar of the Republican Party in the United States, using grassroots muscle to turn out votes and engage in political battles over hot-button social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.


But in recent years, many conservative Christians have lost trust in establishment Republicans, whom they accuse of not fighting for values they feel are under attack in modern America.


For them, Trump symbolizes a new breed of politician who is willing to upend long-held political norms — a quality they say outweighs any real or perceived moral flaws.


“It’s more important for evangelical voters that Trump is fighting for an idealized, white Christian, conservative America,” said Dan Cox, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan organization that researches the intersection of religion, culture and public policy. “Tribal values now supersede personal morality as an animating force.”


Convinced Trump would go to bat for them, a majority of evangelicals looked past the Republican’s two divorces and allegations of marital infidelity to provide him key votes in the 2016 presidential election.


Their support remains robust: 71 percent of white evangelical voters said they approved of Trump’s job performance, according to the nationwide Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted online from June 1-18, compared with 43 percent of U.S. registered voters overall.


TRUMP THE TORCHBEARER
Hof beat a three-term incumbent legislator even as party activists pushed to get Hof’s legal brothels shut down. Voters in Lyon County, where he operates four of his brothels, will be asked in November if they want the businesses closed.


Brothels have been permitted in parts of Nevada since the 1800s and were first licensed in the 1970s. They are not permitted in highly populated areas, including the counties containing the cities of Las Vegas and Reno.


Voter Debbie Thomas said she signed the petition to shutter brothels but also backed Hof, who campaigned on issues including repealing Nevada’s commerce tax, protecting gun rights, improving education and protecting residents’ water rights against the federal government.


Hof has gotten a mixed reception from Republican leaders. The chairman of the state party said it welcomed “fiscal conservatives” such as Hof. But Brian Sandoval, Nevada’s Republican governor, Dean Heller, the state’s vulnerable Republican U.S. senator up for re-election this autumn, and much of the party establishment have not endorsed him.


No matter, said Hof. He credits Trump as the torchbearer for a new era of Republican, eager to embrace the support of the religious right, eschew the establishment and break the mold of a traditional candidate.


Trump has not weighed in on the race. But Hof held a rally with former Trump adviser Roger Stone and said he would not be in a position to win the district without the president’s transformation of the without the president’s transformation of the party.


Some conservative Christian voters, however, were quick to note that their affinity for Trump did not extend to Hof.


Paul Goulet, a pastor who leads the International Church of Las Vegas, a megachurch, said he was disappointed the brothel owner had earned a spot on the general election ballot.


“For me, it goes back to faith and values,” Goulet said in a telephone interview. “Hof has a profession making money out of young women who sell their bodies for sexual favors. It’s demeaning to women. I can’t wrap my brain around supporting someone who does that.”


Others were willing to set aside the morality test of the past to back Hof.


Robert Thomas, a retired prosecutor and evangelical who along with his wife, Debbie, voted for Hof, said Hof’s brothels “bother me a lot” but that he was willing to overlook them.


“Dennis Hof seems to me to be a man of his word and he does what he says,” Thomas said.


Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney
 
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rahu

Banned
1070
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/carl-hiaasen/article213665839.html

Evangelical leaders were too silent for too long

It feels surreal, as our country approaches the 242nd anniversary of its freedom, to be celebrating the fact that our government is no longer pulling crying toddlers and infants away from their parents along the southern border.
Equally strange has been the sluggish response of some evangelical leaders, whose notion of biblical mercy is one that shines less brightly on immigrants. Rev. Franklin Graham, for example, only last week acknowledged that the U.S. policy of separating migrant families was “disgraceful.”
That word should have thundered two months ago from his pulpit. And other words, too: Heartbreaking, inhumane, cold-blooded, shameful, un-Christian, un-American, immoral, indefensible.

All the same things we’ve heard from people of all faiths who don’t claim to be on God’s personal speed-dial, yet who have no difficulty recognizing cruelty when they see it.
Even when he finally spoke out against the separating of migrant families, Graham refused to blame the president. “This is not the administration’s fault. I don’t point the finger at Trump,” said the son of the late, iconic Billy Graham.


He then shrunk behind the same outlandish lie that President Trump’s allies had been using to defend what was happening: Immigration law requires border officers to yank some kids away from their parents. It’s all the fault of Congress!
Not even the White House, which solely made the decision to warehouse more migrant children, successfully adhered to that narrative. In fact, Trump’s flailing team changed its story more than a dozen times.
In the beginning, the aggressive push to split up families at the border was described as a new Justice Department policy. Then, on June 18, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said No, it wasn’t a new policy. A day later, Marc Short, another Trump official, said, Yes, it was.
Nielsen had also asserted it was “offensive” to suggest that taking children from their parents was intended to deter illegal immigrants from coming. Within hours, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said exactly the opposite to Fox News.
Trump, Sessions and Nielsen all spouted the line that forced separation was required by flawed legislation and that Congress must act to fix it. Then the dependably muddled Kellyanne Conway told CNN that nobody ever claimed the law imposed mandatory separation of children from their mothers and fathers.


The dizzying whirl of contradictions culminated with a memorable flip-flop by Trump himself. Five days after telling reporters that the family-separation policy couldn’t legally be rescinded by an executive order, he sat down and signed one.
“I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated,” he explained.

. Yeah, it’s a total bummer, seeing all those kids fenced in. Frightened. Confused. Tears in their little eyes.
But what had Trump imagined such scenes would look like and feel like, back when he approved the plan? How did he not foresee a national outcry?
It wasn’t the president’s tender conscience that made him back down, but rather the strong reaction from his own family, worried Republican lawmakers and high-profile preachers including — belatedly — Franklin Graham.


As ideologically fractured as our country is, there remains a core decency that transcends politics and religious doctrine. It has been animated by compassion for children in distress, and also profound sympathy for any parent forced to watch a son or daughter taken away.
The administration limited media access to the camps and compounds, because the White House understood that the optics were “horrible,” in the words of Robert Jeffress, a popular Baptist pastor and avid Trump booster.
And, sure enough, it didn’t take much to horrify a majority of the public. Aerial shots gave the impression of prison flyovers, and an audio recording of crying children at a detention center went viral.
Yes, fix the immigration laws. Improve border security. But, as moral common ground, can we at least agree not to lock up innocent kids as a political strategy?
Trump’s executive order last week temporarily halted most family separations at the border, but it did nothing to help more than 2,300 children who’ve been taken from their loved ones and remain incarcerated.
The TV prayers and professed dismay of pastors Graham and Jeffress are a weak substitute for action. They should use their political friendship with Trump to help expedite reuniting all these youngsters and families as quickly as possible.
True evangelicals try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, a man who would be sickened by what’s happened here, and would never have waited so long to speak up.

 
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