Two disturbing articles, especially when considered TOGETHER keeping in mind the implication of the second one in which Bannon is portrayed as being a Judeo-Christian traditionalist. The articles show how increasingly Christians are being thrown into the Trump (Bannon?) camp whether we want to be or not.
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From article one “Steve Bannon is calling the shots in the White House. That’s terrifying“:
“Bannon is not the president’s servant. The president is his tool. For years, Bannon cast about for the proper vehicle to carry the fight forward. Sarah Palin, Rick Perry –they were considered possible material. Now in Donald Trump he has found adequate if imperfect stuff. Both are workaholics. Both share a protectionist mindset. Both are combative.
But Bannon, in contrast to the president, is not easily distracted. He is intelligent, articulate, focused in his ideology and dedicated to the struggle. And he has now been catapulted by an undisciplined president to the inner precincts of the National Security Council and its principals’ committee, assuming a position senior to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence.
Unvetted, unconfirmed but immensely powerful, Bannon may just be the most dangerous man in America.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/31/steve-bannon-most-dangerous-man-in-america
And article two “Why Steve Bannon wants to destroy secularism” :
“Just what does Steve Bannon believe? For some, his thinking can be boiled down to racism. For others, he is merely a sinister opportunist taking advantage of Trump and the “alt-right”, a far-right movement in the US, for economic gain and fame. But what if he is fundamentally driven by something else? Like: religion.”
And
“The most bothersome feature of Bannon’s talk is the fact that a Catholic group at the Vatican responded to it with enthusiasm. Their questions demonstrate that they knew Bannon’s desire to make his message receptive to rightwing populist parties. Excitement over his idea of a renewed Judeo-Christian Europe seemingly trumped such concerns. This is same political ideology that galvanized evangelicals to vote for Trump.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/07/why-steve-bannon-wants-to-destroy-secularism
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I find it disturbing that THIS is the way that Christians, Christianity and Christian interests are being portrayed to the wider world.
In an email exchange with a friend we discussed the current Trump (Bannon?) response to Syrian refugees.
My friend said:
Can you feel the whole world polarising? Mild-mannered Muslims are realising that they are the enemy after all. Trump also is allowing Syrians in if they are “Christians”. That is like having a gold-letter reference from Jack the Ripper. Now those mild-mannered Muslims know who the actual enemy really is. “Christians” like Trump.
In their eyes, you and me.
I replied:
Yes, when they started to speak of favouring Syrian Christians, I thought of the target being put on their back – making them even MORE prone to severe persecution; subjecting them to a darker equivalent of Trump’s “extreme vetting” (as if anything Trump does isn’t dark enough in its own right).
And as western society increases its protest against Trump’s dictatorial mania, his perceived favouring of Christians puts that target on our backs too.
The “target on the back” of western Christians that I mentioned to my friend firstly relates to an increased hostility towards followers of Jesus by wider western society when genuine believers become increasingly painted with the same brush as the “evangelicals” whose support helped Trump to the Presidency.
Secondly it will relate to an increased hostility from the Trump camp towards those Christians who saw through the Trump camp’s “alternative facts” and opposed him.
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A disturbing image linking Trump, money and the cross. The latter associating Trump wrongly (but understandably) to Christianity via traditional symbolism.
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On the telephone, Bannon spoke in blunt but calm tones, peppered with a dose of profanities, and humorously referred to himself at one point as “Darth Vader.” …
….
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“You’re the opposition party,” Bannon said. “Not the Democratic Party. You’re the opposition party. The media’s the opposition party.”
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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article128953639.html#storylink=cpy
(from the New York Times)
[This was in the context of the push for “alternative facts” on the part of the current White House.]
President Bannon?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/president-bannon.html?_r=0
I was mentioning to someone, a few days ago, a particular “leader”/behind-the-scenes manipulator who, years ago, said he and his type of policy ideologues only needed someone (to be President) with the necessary digits (fingers) on his hand (not a brain) to be able to hold a pen and sign the stuff they want. But I hadn’t seen that man (Grover Norquist) around Trump’s crowds. Today (yesterday by date compared to your location) he was at the table. And Trump said to him, “I’m going to do a good job for you, Grover.”
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/politics/donald-trump-tax-pledge-grover-norquist-party-people/index.html
This is only for a little context about the man. There is a lot more on him, such as his desire to “drown” the United States government in a “bathtub” (when it is made small enough).
I hadn’t seen your last post and link before my 11:29; I made note of this the day it happened:
Spicer: “The president [Trump] went out of his way…” (2:15ish ET, day after Holocaust Memorial Day executive order) — when there’d been no mention of the Jewish experience during WWII and the Holocaust.
There’s a protest going on in our country right now with a (fairly disgraced) writer for Breitbart News [an organization, as the New York Times writer aptly said, “supercharged” by Bannon — after Breitbart himself died] scheduled to speak. It’s not only a protest; I don’t doubt Bannon sent the anarchists in there.
I’ve scheduled something to be posted in about 12 hours time regarding Trump’s treatment of Australia’s Prime Minister.
You can perhaps continue the unfinished statement in its title “With friends like this…”
I didn’t post it immediately because I’ve only recently posted something else.
I’m sure you’ve heard our eh-hem president found his call with the prime minister of Australia (in which he bragged again about crowd size) was his “worst” of the day, on a day that he also spoke with the president of Russia. Subsequently, people are dying in eastern Ukraine, and nothing is said to Russia at all. But Flynn comes out and says Iran “is on notice” (a phrase for which there is no meaning or per which there is no official communication). And, apparently, when Trump spoke with the president of Mexico, he dropped a threat as to sending troops into Mexico (this is beyond what we heard from the start).
Oh well.
This is what American “evangelicals” voted for and are still happy about – if Bill Randles latest Trump worshipping post is an indication.
I’ve now brought my schedule post forward.
Addendum to my 1:57 PM: A couple or so days later, Nicky Haley apparently has more testosterone than Donald Trump. (This is a reference to the [elsewhere, in recent topics, named] “pastor” who said something about estrogen motivating those who would question Trump.) She said something standing up to Russia in a U.N. hearing. Likewise, just yesterday, the Pentagon said something clear about Russia while Trump continues to act like he has no clue Russia ever does anything with which Americans would take issue.