News bits: Divisions within the Christian nationalist movement; judicial ethics, or lack thereof

From the creating false narratives files:

Religious division in the Christian nationalist

political-ethnic-religious movement

Religion News Service writes:

As Christian nationalism digs in, differing visions surface

As Christian nationalists get more specific, ideological and theological divisions have reemerged.

When Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke took the stage at the ReAwaken America Tour in Pennsylvania over the weekend, the throngs who had come out to hear conspiracy theories and inflammatory rhetoric about Democratic candidates instead heard Locke aim some of his sharpest criticism at a surprising target: Pope Francis.

“If you trust anybody but Jesus to get you to heaven, you ain’t going,” Locke said, his voice rising. “You say, ‘Well what about the pope?’ He ain’t a pope, he’s a pimp … He has prostituted the church.”

It was an odd note to strike at a rally where perhaps the biggest name on the speaker’s roster was retired Gen. Michael Flynn, a Catholic who later made it a point to mention his faith while voicing support for Christian nationalism. “I’m a Christian — I’m a Catholic, by the way,” said Flynn.

Locke had aired his anti-Catholic position a few days before in a Facebook post advocating for burning rosaries and “Catholic statues.” When another user urged him to abandon the anti-Catholic rhetoric, Locke doubled down. “Catholicism is idolatry 100%” he wrote. “I will not be silent whether you follow or not. It’s a false pagan religion and so filled with perversity it’s ridiculous.”

Anti-Catholic rhetoric has long been a theme in nativist American thought, which includes some forms of extremist Protestant Christian agitators such as the Ku Klux Klan. But in the current Christian nationalist surge that fuels the ReAwaken gatherings and others like it, the ideology has served more as a glue holding together a wide range of right-wing coalitions. Locke’s remarks injected an uneasy tension, raising the prospect that what was once a unifying force is now prone to causing potential divisions in right-wing ranks.

What this interdenominational bickering means for the Christian nationalist (CN) political-ethnic-religious movement is unclear to me. I do not know how prominent and serious this kind of discord is.

False narrative creation

This is the first reporting I can recall that focuses on religious divisions within the CN movement. I find this unexpected and surprising. That is probably mostly because in my naïve atheism, Christians criticizing and bickering about religious denominational differences strikes me as ludicrous. To me, it’s like bickering over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Pure nonsense. That led me to maybe mostly falsely believe that there was mostly harmony among the different Christian denominations in the CN movement.

Obviously, I was wrong because I was ignorant. On a bit of reflection, maybe this should not have been much of a surprise at all. CN religious leaders are zealots. They take their particular brand of religion completely seriously. CN dogma is theocratic authoritarian. Authoritarianism tends to not tolerate dissent and various kinds of differences. That includes differences between Catholics and other Christian denominations.

Let that be a lesson to us all. One’s beliefs, e.g., my own atheism, leads one to construct narratives and perceptions of reality to make sense of the world and to reinforce those beliefs. Filling in reality knowledge gaps is usually psychologically reassuring. Those mental perceptions can be, probably usually are, at least partly or mostly at odds with actual reality. All of this is normal for humans. Reality creation in the absence of knowledge of facts is an important trait that makes us human. Reality creation works fast and usually completely unconsciously. 

And that is why I keep harping on the critical importance of fidelity to facts, true truths and sound reasoning in politics.** Even if they contradict personal beliefs, or are psychologically and/or socially inconvenient or threatening.

** Facts, true truths and sound reasoning are not very important in religion. Religion and theocracy are faith-based. Secular politics is reality-based. Hence a need for separation of state from church in a democracy. In a theocracy or tyranny, that need vanishes because facts, true truths and sound reasoning are what the tyrant or religious leaders say they are, even when they are completely wrong. 

On the Code of Conduct for Federal Judges

Judges are supposed to act in accord with a set of ethics rules that are a bit different from and more stringent than those that apply to lawyers. I know, ethics rules for lawyers and judges might come as a surprise to some or lots of people. The astonishing sleaze in lawyering and judging in politics over the last few years make it look like there were few, if any, meaningful ethics rules for lawyers and judges. 

The sick joke aside, the ethics code for federal judges is of public record. Here are some key bits of it for enquiring minds: 

Canon 2: A Judge Should Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in all Activities

(A) Respect for Law. A judge should respect and comply with the law and should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

(B) Outside Influence. A judge should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge should neither lend the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others nor convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge. A judge should not testify voluntarily as a character witness.

(C) Nondiscriminatory Membership. A judge should not hold membership in any organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin.

Canon 3: A Judge Should Perform the Duties of the Office Fairly, Impartially and Diligently

The duties of judicial office take precedence over all other activities. The judge should perform those duties with respect for others, and should not engage in behavior that is harassing, abusive, prejudiced, or biased. The judge should adhere to the following standards:

(A) Adjudicative Responsibilities.

(1) A judge should be faithful to, and maintain professional competence in, the law and should not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor, or fear of criticism.

(2) A judge should hear and decide matters assigned, unless disqualified, and should maintain order and decorum in all judicial proceedings.

That might strike some readers as bizarre. For example, we are all aware of federal pro-Trump judge Aileen Cannon. She has bent over backward to protect Trump in the federal lawsuit over the documents he stole from the government and kept with him in Florida. Loose cannon Aileen has violated ethics canon 3(A)(1). From what I can tell, she will not be reprimanded and her sleazy partisan behavior will be seen as within the discretion of a federal judge. 

More importantly, we are all aware of the CN Supreme Court justice Amy Barrett. She was a long time member of a extremist Christian fundamentalist group called the People of Praise. The core dogma of that group, like core CN dogma, is to openly discriminate against non-heterosexual people and their families. Her membership in the People of Praise has led to a lawsuit demanding she recuse herself from a lawsuit about businesses that want to discriminate against non-heterosexual people. 

The Guardian wrote:

Former members of Amy Coney Barrett’s secretive faith group, the People of Praise, are calling on the US supreme court justice to recuse herself from an upcoming case involving gay rights, saying Barrett’s continued affiliation with the Christian group means she has participated in discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people.

The former members are part of a network of “survivors” of the controversial charismatic group who say Barrett’s “lifelong and continued” membership in the People of Praise make her too biased to fairly adjudicate an upcoming case that will decide whether private business owners have a right to decline services to potential clients based on their sexual orientation.  

They point to Barrett’s former role on the board of Trinity Schools Inc, a private group of Christian schools that is affiliated with the People of Praise and, in effect, barred children of same-sex parents from attending the school.

A faculty guide published in 2015, the year Barrett joined the board, said “blatant sexual immorality” – which the guide said included “homosexual acts” – had “no place in the culture of Trinity Schools”. The discriminatory policies were in place before and after Barrett joined.

It is reasonable to think that Barrett will not recuse herself despite her blatant violation of canon 2(C). Supreme Court justices live by their own ethics rules. There is no meaningful mechanism to enforce ethics in the Supreme Court. The judges don’t even bother to explain themselves. It’s beneath their dignity. The most we might get for an explanation from a Supreme Court judge is an admonition to move along because there is nothing to see here. 

 

A ruckus in the church and other tidbits

The Christian kerfuffle in the teapot

Newsweek writes:

Thousands have signed a petition launched by a Christian organization condemning Donald Trump's 2024 bid for the White House.

The morning after Trump's announcement, Faithful America launched a petition that has since amassed more than 14,000 signatures.

The petition says that Trump announced his latest presidential campaign with a speech "laced with fearmongering and lies" and made it clear he "intends to double down on the fascist tactics" that led to the "Christian-nationalist" attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

"We don't know much yet about how the 2024 election will play out, but one thing is certain: Another Trump presidency would be a disaster for our country," it adds. "Multiple power-hungry pastors and Christian-nationalist leaders like Mike Huckabee, Mark Burns, and Eric Metaxas are already lining up to stand with him, falsely pretending they speak for all Christians."

Guess I’m not the only one who is calling out Christian nationalism and fascism on America’s radical right. A few other folks see the same thing. And I do mean few. 14,000 signatures is barely a drop in the bucket. It’s a little droplet. 

The news here is not that there are thousands of Christians in open opposition to Trump. Unfortunately, there are tens of millions of Christian who are not. That’s the real news here.

On sustainable energy production

Over at Neurologica blog, Steve Novella writes:

What is the potential of advanced geothermal? I read different estimates, but they range from 4-6% of current US electricity production by 2050. Here is a map of the US showing the temperature at 7 km. Current drilling technology is good to get down to about this depth but not beyond. But in the 3-7 km range, drilling is expensive and takes time. Even if we take the high end of the estimates, 6% of energy production in the US by 2050 is nice, but also is not going to be a major solution for decarbonization.

Hydroelectric power is currently at about 6% in the US, with a potential to increase to 9% by 2050. That assumes static demand, which is not likely to be true, so these figures will likely be lower. In fact, hydro capacity may only increase enough to keep it at 6% or so as demand increases. Wind and solar have the greatest potential for significant growth. Wind is currently at 9.2% and solar at 2.8%. There are two issues with these sources, they are land-use intensive, and they are intermittent. Without getting into the same debate about the upper limit of wind and solar, let’s just say there is a range of estimates where they can get by 2050.

If, then, by 2050 we have 6% hydro, 4% geothermal, 20% solar, and 30% wind, that leaves 40% unaccounted for. Right now nuclear is 18.9% and fossil fuel is 61%. Many of our nuclear power plants are set to retire so that 18.9% can decrease if we don’t extend their lifespan and replace them. This is why I say that our real choice for the next 30 years is between nuclear and fossil fuel.

If we can get significant new nuclear online in 10-30 years, they will replace fossil fuel plants and hold us over until deep drilling for geothermal comes online, or massive grid storage, or even fusion. These are more realistic for the second half of this century, not by 2050.

The IPCC agrees – there is no solution without nuclear. The numbers simply don’t work. Any other projection is incredible wishful thinking that we simply cannot risk. Otherwise that 40% or so will be provided by fossil fuel, and we will blow past 1.5 C.

We have no choice but to go all in on nuclear power. That has been clear for years. And for years most our political and business leadership has been undermining nuclear power and/or advocating for more carbon energy. Among the culpable prominent political and business leadership are the entire Republican Party leadership and oil and other carbon energy corporations, e.g., Exxon-Mobile. 

From the Humans Can Be Stupid files

Law and Crime writes:

Man Robbed Bank Using Back of His Birth Certificate as Note to Teller While Wearing Ankle Monitor from Another Case — All to ‘Prove a Point’ to His Lover: Feds

A Missouri man has pleaded guilty to robbing a local Bank of America branch using a demand note written on the back of his own birth certificate and while he was wearing an ankle monitor related to a previous case. That device easily placed him at the scene, according to court paperwork.

He did it all, he admitted to the authorities, to “prove a point” to his lover — though it’s unclear from court records precisely what “point” he was trying to make.

 Wonder who his lover is.

The surprised culprit: Michael Conley Loyd

Police nabbed him after leisurely pursuit

“How did they find me so fast?”

Getting a handle on what American Christian theocracy looks like

The concept of what a radical right American Christian theocracy will be is probably murky in the minds of most Americans. It is hard to mentally project exactly what that concept can entail in its impacts on society, business and government. Because of that, a series of blog posts that focus on examples of what the radical theocrats want will help make the concept more concrete and understandable. This is the first in a series of posts on Christian theocracy.

Law and Crime writes:

Norm Pattis, the controversial Connecticut attorney for Alex Jones, is now behind a federal lawsuit seeking to hold a major pharmaceutical company responsible for forcing Christian employees to violate their beliefs that their bodies are “temples of the Holy Spirit” by getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

Pattis’ firm filed suit Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts against Takeda Pharmaceuticals, alleging claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for discriminating on the basis of religious beliefs. In the complaint, plaintiffs say that in Takeda’s quest to “create ‘highly-innovative medicines,'” the company “fosters a business culture and set of employment practices hostile to religious beliefs it believes might impede its scientific mission.”

The plaintiffs — a group of former employees of Takeda Pharmaceuticals — contend they were victims of religious discrimination because they were fired for refusing to get vaccinated.

According to the complaint, Takeda instituted a vaccination requirement on employees who work in or visit medical facilities that included an exception for religious objections. That exception required that an objecting employee had “sincerely held” beliefs and that accommodating those beliefs would not impose an “undue hardship” on Takeda’s business.

The lawsuit alleges that Takeda’s policy is essentially a sham. Per the complaint:

Takeda rarely, if ever, finds the religious beliefs of an employee “sincere” enough to warrant an exemption. When it cannot defeat the claims of a believer by claiming insincerity, Takeda then claims that accommodating the religious beliefs of an employee or prospective employee would pose an undue hardship on its business. The result is that Takeda almost never grants religious exemptions, in violation of Title VII.

It then goes on to detail precisely what the plaintiffs’ religious objection to the vaccine was — the debunked claim that COVID-19 vaccines contain aborted fetal cells:

The plaintiffs expressed concerns about their being required to inject a substance into their body that was developed in part by use of aborted fetal stem cells; they also asserted various claims such as their bodies being a temples of the Holy Spirit, and asserted other religious grounds sounding in faiths and practices long recognized in the United States and throughout the world.

The plaintiffs’ argument is one that has been used before in vaccine-mandate lawsuits by conservative groups. 

The plaintiffs ask for unspecified compensatory damages including lost wages and attorneys fees, as well as punitive damages.

We the Patriots, USA, Inc., the non-profit law firm that funded the litigation, released the following statement on Thursday:

Our fervent hope is that this lawsuit brings to light the fact that so many people continue to suffer as a result of the decisions that were made during the last two years. For them, the covid crisis is far from over. We are confident that we will obtain a victory for religious freedom that will ensure that discrimination against those with religious beliefs opposed to certain vaccinations is never justified in the eyes of the law.

We the Patriots is also requesting donations to offset the cost of litigation.

There is a lot to consider in this one story. A couple of points stand out:

• Theocratic Christian nationalists (CNs) do not hesitate to argue any excuse being a matter of freedom of religion, e.g., referring to humans as “temples of the Holy Spirit.” That excuse can be used to reject anything medical or nutritional that the CN movement decides is objectionable to God. That would include refusal of all vaccines and any and all medical treatments for parents and their children.

• Although conflicts among constitutional rights are common in modern society, the CN movement obliterates all of them by elevating all religion-related beliefs and activities above all other rights, social concerns and business practices. For example, the CN movement does not care about the adverse public health effects of refusal to get vaccinated. That includes injury and deaths of members of the public who do not share CN beliefs or practices.  

• The CN movement does not hesitate to resort to demagoguery, lies, deceit, slanders and crackpot reasoning to misinform and manipulate people. The CN flock is often or usually seriously misinformed. For example, COVID vaccines do not contain aborted human fetal cells. Nonetheless, the lawsuit alleges that in a court filing. That is not only a lie based on zero evidence, it is crackpot reasoning because having any cells in the main vaccines is impossible due to how the vaccines are made -- no cells are involved.

• CN elites are always asking for money. Always. That is despite massive tax breaks for religion under US tax law. Their greed is boundless. Kleptocratic in my opinion. A major core goal of the CN movement is to force taxpayers to pay for all or nearly all costs of all religious activities. If it gets in power, the CN movement will use our own tax dollars to neuter democracy, secularism and our civil liberties. CN elites want us taxpayers to pay for their own efforts to deceive, cheat, oppress and abuse us.

News bits: Trump is back on Twitter, Mullahs shooting people's eyes out, etc.

It’s baaaaack!

The NYT writes:

Elon Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account

Mr. Musk, who had asked Twitter users about whether to bring back the former president to the service, said, “The people have spoken.”

“The people have spoken,” Mr. Musk said on Twitter. “Trump will be reinstated.” He added the Latin phrase “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” which roughly means that the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Musk claimed that 52% of 15 million Twitter votes were in favor of reinstating Trump.

From now on, I'll refrain from posting or linking to Tweets here. I don’t want to feed the beast that builds and makes money from Hellscape v. 2. The ‘Musk era’ of poison, lies, slander and open sympathy for treason has begun.

UPDATE: Trump has said that he will not return to Twitter and instead will continue to spout lies, slanders and poison on is social media site. This is good news.

What theocracy can look like

The NYT writes:

Hundreds of Protesters in Iran Blinded by 

Metal Pellets and Rubber Bullets

Security forces have been firing ammunition that has ruptured the eyes of antigovernment demonstrators in the past two months. “Everything went dark,” one said.

The protester was speeding toward a demonstration in Tehran on his motorbike when an Iranian security officer standing 10 feet away raised his gun and fired a rubber bullet.

The protester said the bullet hit his left eye. “We locked eyes and then everything went dark,” said the protester, who goes by the nickname Saman. He cupped his hand to his mutilated eye, afraid that it would drop from its socket, as he drove himself to a hospital where doctors refused to treat him, he said.

He was finally admitted to the government-run Farabi Eye Hospital, where he was operated on nearly 24 hours after he had been shot.

One has to wonder whether things could get that bad in the US after a takeover by an American Christian Taliban operating under Christian Sharia law. The is what the wrath of sacred, loving Gods can look like:

Saman

From the capitalism fails files: 

COVID hell may be upon us

The NYT writes:

The End of Vaccines at ‘Warp Speed’

Financial and bureaucratic barriers in the United States mean that the next generation of Covid vaccines may well be designed here, but used elsewhere.

Operation Warp Speed, the Trump-era program that poured billions of dollars into developing Covid shots, seemed to signal a new dawn of American vaccine making, demonstrating how decades of scientific grunt work could be turned into lifesaving medicine in a matter of months.

But as a third pandemic winter begins in the United States, its vaccine-making effort has lost steam. Efforts to test and produce next-generation Covid vaccines are bogged down by bureaucratic problems and funding shortfalls. Foreign rivals have raced ahead in approving long-awaited nasal-spray vaccines, including one invented in St. Louis, creating a scenario in which Americans would have to travel abroad for the latest in American vaccine technology.

Anyone who argues that capitalism always does everything better than government needs to ignore, deny, downplay and/or distort facts like these. This is what capitalists privately call bad news. By that they mean, bad news for their profits. Many or most capitalists do not care much or at all about whether people get sick or die or not. They care about profit and hating on government.