A long time ago, I was a FUNDAMENTALIST Christian. I saw myself as a soldier in a spiritual battle. Set apart for a special purpose, attacked by the Devil and attacking the Devil’s plans. Different from your average Joe who didn’t know the “real” deal going on behind the scenes. Average Joe’s, “Muggles” in Harry Potter terms, were missing out on an exciting and important spiritual matrix everyone was a part of whether they knew they were or not. My mission was to not only survive this matrix but help others crossover this matrix too.
You may think this is wacky but if you go onto Tik Tok, ever since the days of Covid, the rage of the bitcoin, the start of CERN, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, people have been creating their own ideas of end times and “Matrixes” that you need to escape in place of just fundamentalist religion. This is probably due to the fact that religion has lost its luster on the younger generations. Remember how CERN was to open demonic portals and bring in the end? Bitcoin was to replace the dollar and the banks were to fold sometime back in Jan? New York was going to be nuked by Russia in a matter of days back in around Feb 2023?
The building up and winding up of underground conspiracy theories (fueled by Fox News which they have now been sued for) is how dangerous events like Jan 6th happened. It got people into a frenzy and a certain nameless man took advantage of it in hopes of not losing his presidency that he legitimately lost. People believed the wild conspiracy theories to the point that they were willing to build a scaffold that they would hang Mike Pence from it. And, Mike Pence himself was such a believer and backer himself, to this day, that he will not deflect or condemn any of it because he doesn’t want to lose the base of the party to get votes for a presidential election. Little does he see that no one wants to vote for a spineless president.
That’s the bigger picture. But there are ways this can get to ourselves. Back to myself as an example. I didn’t choose to go into some type of wacky belief system about God and Jesus that would also condemn and suppress my sexuality by becoming a fundamentalist Christian. I didn’t even see myself as a fundamentalist Christian but I was. This ultimately would take me into conversion and ex-gay ministry camps that in the end almost destroyed my faith altogether. I would never consciously do that. This happened over time due to circumstances and lack of resources where I lived in my small town. Isolation and fear drove me to faith circles based on the idea of “sanctification” of fear—one of setting apart from the world, instead of one of setting apart to go into the world like Jesus did. This is often similar to situations used to create terrorists but that, of course, would be worse–lack of food, parenting, and education are used to manipulate young recruits to give them some sort of structure, meaning, provision, and purpose in their life.
One of the most unfortunate things about life at 50 that I have to say that I have learned over the years is this: even though you may be genuinely looking for answers, even though you will genuinely take your first steps out on a limb, you won’t be immediately met by the truth. Often you may be met with the appearance of truth. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. I think now of how many Churches I went into and thought I was “wrong” for my resistance to their conformity when in reality they weren’t really Christ-like at all but more like a cult, looking back. I think now of all the gay places I’ve been and the people I shared my life story with all under the banner “we are gay so it’s okay!” but it wasn’t really a safe place and neither were the people. I just assumed it was because they said so and it appeared it so. I trusted them because I naturally was thinking people were like me–truth seekers and truth tellers. Wasn’t the case. Most people are users to meet needs–that’s a basic human reality.
Let’s bring this up to today, in this Trump / DeSantan era. This era when people are appalled with LGBTQ in the public square and are trying to roll back progress so much that HRC has called it a “National Emergency”. We have book bans going on and we have teachers being accused of teaching critical race theory, determining gender politics, and teaching LGBT politics in our public schools–not happening. I’ve argued, pleaded, laid out cases and you know, I think we are discovering that nothing is going to convince people who don’t want to be convinced on either side of the political spectrum. But I think there is one thing that can help in matters like these. It helped me in seeing who I needed to stop listening to and supporting on the Fundamentalist side of the faith. It was a slow letting go and jarring but if you are honest with yourself, you will either pass or fail the test and then make the necessary adjustments. Are you ready?
I asked myself this: who are the people supporting it and what fruit is it producing? So, for example, in the fundamentalist preacher circles I listened to, they were exciting for me to listen to and I “felt” it was producing it was good. When I thought of the fruit — Joy, Goodness, Patience, Love, Kindness, Self-Control etc. When I asked myself, “Is this building up my faith?”, I couldn’t pinpoint anything much. It was a bit surprising. When I looked at the cast of the characters who were in the entire network of supporters of tele-evangelists fundamentalists teachers I was watching, half of them I wouldn’t trust with a car deal. Heck, one guy’s name was Creflo O. Dollar? Come on! Dollar is right there in the name. The line-up was riddled with prosperity gospel teachers and I hated prosperity gospel teaching. I was just overlooking it and trying to get the other stuff I felt was good enough. But there were some pretty shady characters (who would in later years be taken down).
When we look at the Trump and DeSantis era, what good has that produced nationwide vs. the bad? What is the fruit? What cast of characters are in the supportive line-up of those people and that sort of “movement” if you will? As soon as you bring anything up on this, a lot of people want to start with “what aboutism’s”. What about Hilary? What about this or that? That’s detracting from the question. Face this present song first because this is the one playing right now.
There should be a red flag when nearly every racist organization from the KKK to the Proud Boys supports the side you stand on. That should really get your attention. If you have something in common where a Nazi sympathizer is cheering you on with an “atta boy!”, you should swallow deep and hard and re-evaluate what it is you are lining up with. That is what is happening with the Trump, extreme right alt side. You have a cast of characters like Steve Bannon, Majorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gatz, the now de-barred Rudy Guiliani, Michael Flynn, Alex Jones, Lindsay Graham, and celebrities like Roseanne Barr and Kidd Rock. This is who you are standing arm and arm with, along with these racist organizations. You need to ask yourself why they are supporting those kinds of men and why you are willing to stand with them. Is this helping us as a country or not to give these kinds of organizations a bigger platform? Not only this, but should you be behind a leader who sat back and watched the riots happen, did nothing and instead says our US Constitution should be done away with? These things should give any American deep, deep convictions unless they don’t “hold these truths to be self-evident” any longer. Sadly, we are learning many don’t.
People will say about DeSantis, who aren’t affected by his negative policies, that he has done great things for Florida. As Americans, to think only about your white, well-provided-for self is a very narrow privileged way of viewing life, first of all. What is the fruit of his words and policy to others in the state that are minorities? The state of Florida is 71% white. So the white population has a responsibility to look closely at how he is treating the minorities because their votes will have less impact and they can’t defend themselves in the political arena. How is it that the teachers in Florida have left in droves under his policies? This matters and it particularly matters now because he will run for president. Who are the cast of characters that support DeSatan..I mean Desantis…pardon me 🙂
Ruport Murdoch….you know, the head over Fox News who just got sued for letting all his news anchors lie about Trump and the election lies, fueling a riot? He hated Trump secretly but pretended to like for ratings (integrity red light) so of course, he is going to support DeStantis. Look at your cast of characters. Megan McCain, the hot head daughter of John McCain, who couldn’t handle it on the show The View and jumped ship rather than face Whoopie Goldberg’s face-off (not sure though I could take Whoopie every morning either?). She hated Trump but I guess she is alright with a bigot who is fine shipping immigrants to Democrat’s homes and to islands to teach people a lesson. Yeah, that’s some real Jesus-like stuff there. As Jim Gaffigan would comically say he’s “not even walking to hell, he is sprinting there!”
So to close, I think really the only way for someone to see they are on the wrong side of the war they have created in their own mind is to point out the real stories and the fruit it has created. Show the qualities of the cast of characters. It was striking to me when I began to see that so many ministers were more like used car salesmen than someone I wanted to trust my heart to. I would ask myself that when I chose a place to worship–could I share my heart with this minister and feel like they would really care? Think about that with who you vote for. Would they care? Would they be good and fair to everyone? Or just to a select few who are just like you? Because that may be fine for you now, but one day you may not be that majority, and if the tables were turned, you would want someone to vote for your freedom too. Just think about and ask yourself, what fruit is this producing in my life and who are the cast characters associated with it. You may be surprised at what you find.
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