First, those of my Facebook friends who have the fortitude to read right-wing sites indeed confirm my suspicion that insurrectionists are planning more violence, against all the state capitals, and on inauguration day.
So then.
Two articles about the claim that the insurrectionists on the Capitol are “not who we are,” both from The Atlantic:
Ibram X. Kendi: Denial Is the Heartbeat of America, subtitled “When have Americans been willing to admit who we are?”
David Frum: The Conservative Cult of Victimhood, subtitled “Trump was a perpetrator who thought himself a victim, and American society has indulged that same illusion among Trump supporters.”
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And then two about the link between Trumpian politics and Christian evangelicals.
The Atlantic, Emma Green: A Christian Insurrection, subtitled “Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will.”
The name of God was everywhere during Wednesday’s insurrection against the American government. The mob carried signs and flag declaring Jesus saves! and God, Guns & Guts Made America, Let’s Keep All Three. Some were participants in the Jericho March, a gathering of Christians to “pray, march, fast, and rally for election integrity.” After calling on God to “save the republic” during rallies at state capitols and in D.C. over the past two months, the marchers returned to Washington with flourish. On the National Mall, one man waved the flag of Israel above a sign begging passersby to Say Yes to Jesus. “Shout if you love Jesus!” someone yelled, and the crowd cheered. “Shout if you love Trump!” The crowd cheered louder. The group’s name is drawn from the biblical story of Jericho, “a city of false gods and corruption,” the march’s website says. Just as God instructed Joshua to march around Jericho seven times with priests blowing trumpets, Christians gathered in D.C., blowing shofars, the ram’s horn typically used in Jewish worship, to banish the “darkness of election fraud” and ensure that “the walls of corruption crumble.”
NYT, Katherine Stewart: The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage, subtitled, “Why do so many Republicans appear to be at war with both truth and democracy?”
(My short answer, as expressed before in this blog: because religious zealots *know* are right and so ordinary secular rules don’t matter.)
In multiple speeches, an interview and a widely shared article for Christianity Today, Mr. Hawley has explained that the blame for society’s ills traces all the way back to Pelagius — a British-born monk who lived 17 centuries ago. In a 2019 commencement address at The King’s College, a small conservative Christian college devoted to “a biblical worldview,” Mr. Hawley denounced Pelagius for teaching that human beings have the freedom to choose how they live their lives and that grace comes to those who do good things, as opposed to those who believe the right doctrines.
The most eloquent summary of the Pelagian vision, Mr. Hawley went on to say, can be found in the Supreme Court’s 1992 opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Mr. Hawley specifically cited Justice Anthony Kennedy’s words reprovingly: “At the heart of liberty,” Kennedy wrote, “is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” The fifth century church fathers were right to condemn this terrifying variety of heresy, Mr. Hawley argued: “Replacing it and repairing the harm it has caused is one of the challenges of our day.”
Scary stuff. And conservatives worry about Sharia (law)!. To my mind there’s no difference between Sharia and likes of Hawley and Rubio.
