'Scripture is very clear': New House Speaker tells Congress God has 'ordained' them
'Scripture is very clear': New House Speaker tells Congress God has 'ordained' them
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.“I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last n...
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.
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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
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I can't describe how much I like this idea.
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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.
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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.
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a lot of the Christianity in American politics is performative
That’s the point. Break suspension of disbelief and see the stage crumble.
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The biggest flaw is democrats have too much tact. They couldn't possibly offend the people trying to oppress their constitutes.
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It wouldn't work since none of the GOP has ever read the Bible.
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Take my Lemmy Lemon 🍋
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When lemmy gives you lemons, make lemmy-nades! 💣
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“The I Stand to be Counted as the Faithful of the Lord Spending and Appropriations Bill will now be voted on.”
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There is no place for religion in government. This is horrifying
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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.
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"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".
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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.
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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!
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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"
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What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?
That's an easy mistake to make, this guy's a Talibangelical
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Same God, different prophet. So not much really. Except maybe that Taliban don't ban abortion as far as I'm aware.
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Nope, the Taliban are like christo-fascist fundamentalists in ignoring or intentionally misinterpreting their scriptures to ban abortion.
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What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?
Beard?
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Skin tone
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Ehhh, mainly access to clean running water
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Hypocrisy.
The Taliban are way less hypcrite.
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The irony would be God disliking this guy
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Didn't know this guy was an officer.
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"I believe that Scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority."
Oh, so since God raised Biden to Authority that means you're going to respect God's plan right?
Lol... Yeah... You'll all continue to pay lip service to the Bible as long as it serves your purpose.
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Yeah. This sort of talk in a lot of organized religion is a well-established cue to the listener that they can shut off their critical thinking. The intended audience is accustomed to hearing it and welcomes it, because they have the same goal as the one who says it: to have the thing they want be right.
So their minds don’t start extrapolating to see if the words hold up to scrutiny. That’s the last thing they’d want to do.
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What do you expect when your government is comprised of a bunch of greedy scummy lawyers.
They will say literally anything to get power. Speech is rhetoric and they care nothing about reality.
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And the Constitution and its Amendments are very clear about a separation of church and state.
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Some idiots think it means the government can't do anything to regulate churches. There a bunch of laws that disagree.
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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."
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A bunch of states don't tax church property and both states and feds don't tax earnings for this reason.
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Ok, show me where it says that then
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All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be Required as a Qualification To any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Specifically, I like this line here, that was present in the third paragraph I quoted from the Constitution:
no religious Test shall ever be Required as a Qualification To any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean that we specifically don't care if God, Allah, Buddha, or whoever says they are supposed to be in power?
Edit: and since we both want to be dickheads, today, why don't you show me where it says in the Constitution to base our laws around the bible?
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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.
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Unless my history lessons are evading me, your country was founded by deists running from fundamentalists.
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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.
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Well, that's because they've been indoctrinated since birth into a cult that exists to gift people.
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Having said this- he should be disqualified from office.
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Lol! Having said that, God has ordained his disqualification
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“I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today, to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country and they deserve it.”
That includes the Democrats, right?
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This seditionist asshat shouldn't even be allowed to be in politics anymore. The more we allow people to try to overturn elections, the more impossible it will be to stay a democracy.
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so thats what bile tastes like
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I guess the Republicans choose to ignore the separation of church and state.
Shame, since they call up the constitution so frequently.
Must be like the bible, they haven't actually read the thing they espouse to take their guidance from.
The sheer pride in ignorance these days astounds me.
It isn't bad to be ignorant, we all have things to learn every day. Its bad to be proud of it and to refuse to elevate oneself above their own shortcoming.
If that isn't the republican party in a nutshell, though.
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Must be like the bible, they haven't actually read the thing they espouse to take their guidance from.
And they just pick out the pieces that fit their narrative and ignore the rest
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Sadly these leaders aren't actually ignorant, they know full well that they are lying. They encourage their followers to be ignorant so that those lies continue to work. This guy goes home knowing that he is full of shit and that he successfully manipulated a bunch of morons into supporting him.
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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.
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Those people - including Johnson - aren't leaders. They're bureaucrats with fancy titles and institutionalized power - the exact thing Jesus wasn't.
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Then why do they complain about Biden, or any Democrat?
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Because they're fuckwad hypocrites with no actual moral center of course
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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.
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Somebody get me outta this backwards country 🥺
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We're either almost on the other side of the critical failure of trumpism, or we're about to fulfill our destiny to actualize idiocracy.
I give it 50/50 odds either way..
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Christ on bike how bad is it that idocracy is better outcome
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Feels more like the prequel to A Handmaid's Tale, tbh.
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You can do it - I did.
- Find a skill in need in Europe (preferably richer Northern) or rich places like Singapore where the QoL is worth moving
- Sell everything or save the equiv of 2-3 months of salary for settling-in expenses
- Write to headhunters, businesses...anyone posting a job in your field; see if they can assist you with an apartment so you can land with a place to live (note: nothing comes furnished - no carpet paint, appliances...my apartment even needed wall switches)
- Move there with everything you now own in 2-3 bags
- Rebuild your life slowly: learn the language, learn to love Ikea - you'll be there a lot, learn that you can't get what you used to love to eat so you'll have to learn to cook to make it, learn to live as an immigrant, with everyone wanting to know why you're there, without full rights, and with constant intrusion of the immigration services.
Yeah - sounds like a pain. 25+ years later, it's been worth it to get the hell out of New Jersey.
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Depending on how much family/real estate you have, moving out of the US isn't as difficult as you might intuitively think it'd be. At least not to other english-speaking countries like Canada, the UK or Ireland. Though do keep in mind that with the UK you're hardly making your situation any better, yes on paper you get public health care and it's still worlds better than the US, but it's in such shambles you don't want to rely on it. Tories! 🥳 🤢
But even outside of that, moving to some other countries such as France or Germany depending on your language skills isn't as problematic as it was even 10 years ago any more, either. While these are still largely language dependent, a lot has internationalized in larger cities and having to rely on some english is no longer a big deal.
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Again, what is the difference between this and Taliban?
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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...
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They also actively fight against ACCURATE translations because they have already built so many false arguments based on the least accurate and most out of date translations available. Even if the book WAS originally in English an original text from the 1600s would be a challenge.
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If you express grandiose delusions you should be sitting in a psychiatric chair. Not a senate chair.
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Yeah this blows my mind. If you wouldn't allow a paranoid schizophrenic to hold office, why are you allowing people who think the earth is 6000 years old and dinosaurs aren't real?
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They WOULD allow a paranoid schizophrenia to hold office if they voted correctly and hated the right people.
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They would allow paranoid schizophrenics to hold office, if the majority of voters were so too.
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Constant brainwashing and decades of undermining public education.
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Well he is not in the Senate he is in the House which is still far to high to be this stupid.
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3rd in line for the presidency.
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I've been pretty damn high in my day but never that stupid.
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Well, fortunately he's only a House Rep.
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I believe that Scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.
I'm not sure which would be worse: that he didn't think this claim through to its logical conclusion, or that he did and didn't see the problem.
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Right? How many mass-murdering psychopaths has God raised up in authority? What an idiot.
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I believe that if God gives power to certain individuals, so too can he take it away. Many systems, positions and meanings in society such as caste, authority and regulation are temporary or exist based on a certain set of justifications with a certain set of rules and boundaries. Humanity would be best to learn or perhaps be reminded that there are certain responsibilities that come with leadership, one of those is to lead by example rather than to justify their leadership by an imaginary authority alone.
For example, if we imagine a God as a being of supernatural capabilities, awareness and intelligence, well beyond our understanding, who allows us to live our lives with a certain degree of freedom, would it not be unreasonable to believe that all our current circumstances, everything from our freedom, the truth of certain issues, down to the very matter of this universe itself as it stands is a gift?
Just my two cents
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Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.
Barry Goldwater
Also relevant:
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Daily reminder that Clinton was a Goldwater Girl. She's never been anything but a class traitor.
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In the context of my post wouldn't that make her a bit ahead of her time, considering she was raised in a politically conservative Illinois family?
I mean by all means get triggered by Hillary Clinton because she lives rent free in your head but realistically Hillary had nothing to do with this post, and in this context being a "Goldwater girl" isn't a negative, especially when you remember that we're taking about the 60's here.
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Another fucking zealot, great.
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And here I thought it was pretty clear that the basis for his authority is the constitution, not in scripture.
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In the country where kids have to pledge allegiance to "one Nation under God" in school?
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Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. -- Thomas Jefferson
But it is long past the time when the GOP cared for what the founding fathers said.
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It's even in the fucking Bible!
"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"
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“We just throw all the money up into the air, and what god wants he takes, and leaves the rest to us.”
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The district containing Charlottesville always votes religious right-wingers lately. They removed Denver Riggleman because he officiated a gay wedding, to put up an anti-gay marriage candidate. The city itself doesn't vote this way, but that's still the representative.
In the town of Thomas Jefferson, who listed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom as among his 3 proudest accomplishments.
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Can we get a citation? I've actually read the bible, and no it doesn't.
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I think he's referring to Romans 13:1.
Of course, it's his interpretation that it's them and the US specifically that God has given special favor. That citation is missing.
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I hate this timeline
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Don't worry, it'll be over soon. Just keep spending.
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well my God hates you, Mike. 🖕
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Even Jesus thinks he’s a dick.
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Yeah? He sure took his sweet fucking time as well, didn't he? Oh, right. "Mysterious ways."
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Oh great, another delusional zealot. What could possibly go wrong...
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And my book here (I am yet to write it but its gonna be a best seller, trust me) says he should go eat a bag of dicks
I don't make the rules sorry, start chomping mate
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What the fuck is this dipshit on about?
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LoL! My sentiment exactly.
Also, "I'm in danger."
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I aint ordained shit.
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Nutjob.
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3rd2nd in line for the Presidency.Thanks @Fraylor@lemm.ee
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Second. people need to stop assuming the actual president is in line. He's already president.
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We are fuckin doomed over here
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So the Republic of Gilead may actually happen? Are there enough checks and balances left to stop the US from becoming a Christian Saudi Arabia? Is it time to leave Canada before their destiny is manifested all over us?
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Canada won't be safe but, on the bright side, neither will anywhere else.
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He did a fair amount of shady shit in the shadows and let other people be the face of it
I wonder how he's going to deal with actually being in the spotlight (other than drying his tears with money)
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Oh great, another christian in a position of power trying to enact a theocracy.
Because we didn't have enough of those already...
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Countries that are dominated with one religion, inevitably break down by religious dissention. "One nation, under my God has no liberty, and justice, for all, * (unless they are members of my religious sect)".
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Suppose it was worth the delay to get a truley shitty choice. What the hell, guys?
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....no
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Can he be voted out by 1 person again?
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Yes for now. That rule might change though
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Traitor
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He is right. The scripture is clear. All the more reason to not follow it.
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I mean, he has theoretical control (barely) over 1/2 of one branch of a fractious, dysfunctional and arguably corrupt federal government. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, buddy.
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arguably?? lmao have a seat my friend have I got some stories for you
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You misspelled "absolutely". You spelled it a-r-g-u-a-b-l-y. You were almost there, but you only got the first and last two letters correct.
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He's 2nd in line for POTUS. Scary.
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Second.
VP > Speaker
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So did things somehow just get even worse?
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I guess if 1 and 2 get taken out things could get a lot worse 乁( •_• )ㄏ
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Aiite so he has full faith in Biden, good to know.
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They feel Romans 13:1 applies when these assholes get power; doesn't apply when they lose power
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FFS you're a grown-ass man!
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slaps a pile of Bronze Age parables about tribal conflicts on the far side of the Mediterranean that have gone through a dozen different iterative translations
Its all crystal clear. Jesus said The American Constitution prohibits dressing outside your birth-certificate assigned gender.
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There's nothing clear about this at all....
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This man is not having sex since 9 months prior his last child was born.. I bet he's angry!
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Oooohhhhwerefucked
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Well, clearly burning bush, Jewish zombie, eternal damnation, Therefore I'm God wants me to be in power. Because reasons. QED.
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If you notice someone (mostly politicians) randomly pop out of nowhere and start telling you shit you wanna hear, that lerson is lying pieace of shit trying to play you. This is a highly effective method btw.
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Does this mean he ordained the Democrats too? Does that still apply when the Republicans are the minority?
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God bless America, and no place else
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And now, when the law is finally catching up to them, do we get to the part where a higher power, God, is on their side.
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meh. can't really care what opinionated bro believes in -- as long as it doesn't interfere with his job.
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I heard the banks have no cash and fort knox is empty.
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yeah? and so he's a republican. what else ya got, none of this is surprising, and after the last 7 years, in any way any more frightening than it's been to this point. we vote democrat, and we tell our friends and family to vote democrat, and we hope we can hold the line, and push it back a bit. i mean, we lost roe. what american women are doing going to work, raising families, going home to prepare meals, and just you know going on with their lives when the fundamental right to ownership over their own reproductive systems was legislated away, is beyond beyond understanding.
