This episode is actually a fairly decent satirical take on the rise of Moral Majority and its key players. Of course some of us can't help wondering what led all those mega-church pastors to abandon their perfect candidate, Ted Cruz, for the least conservative candidate on God's green earth, Donald Trump, at the Republican primaries. Since these sheep tend to follow their self-righteous earthly shepherds, there is probably a fair strong line between votes and what pastors preached from the pulpit. Fortunately for the Christofascists, in Trump's brave new world, churches will be able to maintain their nonprofit status while directly profiting from political candidates whom they endorse from the pulpit. Sundays will be extended political campaigns. Admit it, there's only so much Bible study to be done before the masses get bored.
The church-as-entertainment model has taken over the American mainstream. And we have decrepit culture warriors to thank for their service. In the second part of the series, Samantha Bee has an interview with Frank Schaeffer, the son of culture warrior extraordinaire, Francis Schaeffer, who devised the wedge issue of abortion from his commune in Switzerland.
We all know how much fun Liberty University has been having with Jerry Crazy-As-Hell Falwell Jr.'s appointment to a national task force on religious agitprop. Trump's courtier press, Breitbart, celebrated Falwell's political enthusiasm in early January:
“Trump is better than advertised,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., an attorney who took over the Lynchburg, Virginia college his father founded in order to educate “Champions for Christ” and send them out into the secular world.
“I could not be more pleased,” he said. “We are taking the government from a bunch of incompetents, led by a bunch of amateurs, to being led by professionals from every industry and every walk of life.”
Falwell endorsed Trump just before the Iowa caucuses, despite the fact Trump’s top rival for the GOP nomination, Texas Sen. R. Edward “Ted” Cruz, launched his own bid for the White House at the Christian school.
When Falwell made his decision, Trump had not fully articulated many of his positions and had not yet come down on what Falwell considered the right side of the issues, he said. “I just felt he had such a heart for the American people that I knew he would–and sure enough he did.
The lawyer, who was speaking to Breitbart News outside Washington’s Trump International Hotel, said Trump’s choice of Indiana Gov. Michael R. Pence was just one example of how the new president excelled expectations.
If you somehow managed to avoid reading the sixteen travesties in the Left Behind series, I urge you to read it now. Because that's the blueprint for Trump's foreign policy agenda-- how to fight Satan from the Oval Office in an epic, evangelical mini-series. As for me, I will continue to focus on reality and resist this putrid excuse for an administration. The Armageddonites have been reading these books for years and preparing for the final show-down.
I hope reality intervenes before Christofascist fantasy becomes the dominant reality. Ideas have power. Bad ideas have long benefitted from the support of moral majorities who surrender their grey matter to whatever rules the stadium.
