By Frank Schaeffer
Why isn’t the media telling the truth? The riot was led by Trump but made possible by thousands of demonstrators who came from White evangelical churches. Churches organized hundreds of groups in cars, buses and planes.
Trump is a fascist willing to use violence to achieve his racial nationalist goals. So are his evangelical supporters. If you had any doubt about that, Wednesday’s attack on Congress should end them. It was tens of thousand evangelicals in groups ORGANIZED BY CHURCHES invaded DC.
History teaches the futility of appeasement. Giving in to fascists never pacifies them-just encourages them to go further. So why have media and public figures placated White evangelicals by not calling them out? It’s time to admit it: Trump’s core enabler fascists are evangelicals. And without support from the likes of Franklin Graham and Ralph Reed, Trump’s mob would never have enabled him.
When armed ‘protesters’ with Trump’s blessing menaced Michigan authorities over Covid-19 nothing happened to them. That was a mere dress rehearsal for the Capitol invasion. In Michigan they should have been arrested and “open carry” laws rescinded. Republican/evangelical leadership did NOTHING. In fact, the evangelical/Blackwater-founding DeVos family funds the far right in Michigan.
One of the leaders in armed thugs that was involved in invading the Michigan Capitol last spring AND the US Capitol invasion just now is Meshawn Maddock. He is in line to become co-chair of the Michigan G.O.P. !!!! This riot came from the HEART of the GOP. It was funded by the likes of the evangelical fanatics in the DeVos family.
Right-wing activists have been getting away with threatening elected officials, even brandishing weapons in public spaces. They have had the support of not only Trump but the evangelical establishment and the GOP/NRA/Guns-and-God lobby. How did you think this would end?
McConnell waited more than a month before accepting Joe Biden as president-elect. One senior Republican said to The Washington Post, “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?” Well, now we know the answer. And one reason no one dared call out these people is because their far right cause comes wrapped the the cloak of “religious liberty.”
Why was security so lax? The people who were in charge of protecting Congress failed to do so because they didn’t want to be seen treating the “respectable” “nice” “mom and pop” White evangelical MAGA mob as dangerous because they arrived in buses RENTED BY CHURCHES.
The WSJ reports that Defense Department officials worried about the ‘optics’ of having military personnel on the steps of the Capitol greeting the white evangelicals leading the demonstration-something that didn’t concern them during the less dangerous BLM protests.
The lesson for Trumpist extremist evangelicals is that they can engage in violent attacks on the core institutions of American democracy, and face hardly any consequences and with GOP blessing.
What’s Next?
White evangelical Trump fanatics are deeply embedded in the US government and military. Am I the only person worried about what will happen during the inauguration? After the failure to protect Congress will there will be adequate security during the presidential transition?
If you imagine that the people who stormed the Capitol will just go away once Biden is installed in the White House, you’re delusional. They come from the White evangelical heartland and claim religious liberty and 2nd Amendment gun rights give them impunity. And we all go along! And the media doesn’t want to appear “anti-religious” so never connects the dots between the likes of the DeVos family, Franklin Graham, Ralph Reed, the mega church leaders and the armed thugs in Proud Boys. But these groups reinforce each other.
It’s time to stop appeasing the White evangelicals among us. Law enforcement should seek to arrest as many of the church-led and organized participants in Wednesday’s attack as possible. Some of their pastors that rented the buses to bring groups should be held accountable.
Don’t say we need to “bring the country together” so “don’t go after the Trump clan and far right evangelical mob.” Appeasement of Trump’s ARMED White Evangelical mob in the name of ‘religious liberty’ is what got us to where we are. It has to stop, now.
After 9/11, US law enforcement monitored activities of American mosques. Why aren’t US authorities monitoring the activities of Trump’s white evangelical churches and leadership that called forth – and organized – the thousands of insurrectionist Christians who invaded DC?
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Thanks Frank. AOC re evangelical senator Hawley:
“You fist-pumped insurrectionists and baselessly attacked our elections,” she replied to him on Twitter. “Your actions fueled a riot and you fundraised in the chaos. Five people are dead.
“Even your GOP colleagues have distanced from your acts. Yet here you are crying over a book deal. You should be expelled.”
>> One of the most damaging realities about Hawley, Cruz, and many of the others who have bowed down to Trump, is that they identify as evangelical Christians. <<
~ Paula Stone Williams. Another ex-evangelical. You two should have a lot in common! Are you friends?
https://paulastonewilliams.com/2021/01/08/character-counts/
I am angry about the riot that took place this past week. As an African-American, I have also been angry for several years about the blatant use of my people as punching bags for insecure white supremacists. I am concerned about what these idiots will try to do over the next several weeks. The insatiable, irreconcilable malignancy of these people is something I just can’t fathom. The fact that they continue to lie uncontrollably, and that they continue to hitch themselves to a compulsive liar-in-chief is also mind-boggling. Case in point: some of them are claiming that the riot was actually instigated by Antifa – even though the photos of rioters show that the rioters were all Trump supporters.
People have blamed social media companies for providing a platform for the organizing of the deadly kind of hate we have witnessed under Trump. But we must also remember the role played by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Murdoch is a king of lies.
I do have a question. You say that the rioters arrived at the Capitol in buses rented by or operated by Evangelical churches. Can you name the churches, and is there documentation of involvement by pastors? Thanks!