Calling Trump an antichrist may give him too much credit. He is, after all, more of a carnival huckster who has turned the US presidency into a reality show sponsored by one continuous infomercial, but he is a carnival huckster who has the power of the US military at his command. Watching Mark Milley and William Barr stand in solidarity with him as they made their “brave” campaign against the people gathered at St. John’s Episcopal Church should cause all people of true faith to turn to the book of Revelation for political wisdom.

When this is all over, when the smoke from the tear gas (or whatever chemical agent used) has cleared, American Christianity will stand condemned for following the beast. An actualizing interpretation of Revelation gives us a political theology that might, we can only pray, prevent the likes of Hagee, Jeffress, Pompeo, Pence, Barr, and others from misleading so many in the future. If not, at least we will have the political theology of Revelation 13 to help us name them for who they are.

D. Stephen Long is the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University. His most recent book is Truth Telling in a Post-Truth World.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/stephen-long-should-we-call-trump-antichrist/12335450

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Gus:

What I admire in theologians and theological ethicists is their ability to focus on the antics of the present idiot in charge whom they don’t like, while having glossed over the hypocrisy of the previous tenants as glorious management… "When this is all over" will never be all over — except by accepting another justified crusade sold to us with weasel worlds, by a clever wordsmith who says what we want to hear in our hopeful progressivism, while pursuing more horrid goal of deceit. 

Obama became entangled in the deep state's desires and obliged. He bombed seven countries, destroyed Libya and tried to destroy Syria for “noble” reasons with far more deceit than Trump has exerted so far. Obama’s yes-we-can campaign fell flat on its own bed of nails, only kept moribund by “Obamacare” in the mind of the faithful. 

We all can have our point of views on the values of these reasons, but compared to the "Orange Vulgarian" who has inherited a local “ethnic” situation, stoked by the other side of politics — a situation which has often been used in other countries by the previous presidents, in order to divide and conquer — Obama was a cleverer more deceitful idiot. Bush senior and junior were the high priests of the Empire as defined by the war merchant of pseudo-democracy. Clinton was a stinker of a capitalist Pepe-le-Pew. The only reason the good American people seem to still be sane is possibly due to the fetishism of the balloons on convention days, which represent their next ideals after so much disappointment — allied with their hate of socialism...

The present US situation is exploiting racial divides, which have existed in the USA since the year dot, by political sectarianism — the blues versus the reds. Since the first pilgrim landed there, they exported their own religious prejudices, which are the normal way human behave when they plant a tent in someone else backyard. With their own fight in Europe having been lost, they had to go somewhere else, with god at their rightful side. 1619...

That Trump isn’t cajoling to the status quo and that he is stoking the ambers in the racial fire isn’t an understatement. He is a Vulgarian, not a Weasel. He uses a variety of devices, including the whatsisname 13 of the bible — fly catching devices which we think are ridiculously used, but he isn’t hiding his intent, say like Obama, who went with the secret flow.

Obama even fell in the trap of assassinating the former golden boy, Osama Bin Laden, with glorious cold vengeance, when we still don’t know how far Osama had been used by the USA as the fall guy in that country’s deceit. Osama’s memoirs would have made a fascinating reading. They were erased from history.

Stephen Long tells us of BLM peaceful protests, but forgets to mention that, like in other countries such as Syria, these were soon taken over by looters and violent activists spurred by secret services like MI6 and the CIA — or in the case of USA inc, by the “Antifa” and their own breed of justified criminal “elements”. 

The Arab Spring revolution in Syria started peacefully enough and considering it wasn’t going anywhere, the first shot were soon fired towards the army and the police as to “create a reactionary situation”. Though a bit more complex than this, the "Arab Spring” was mostly a pseudo-"spontaneous” UK secret service invention of the West to actually let one Muslim faction, the Sunnis (Saudis — which "we like"), replace the other, the Shia (Iran — which "we don’t like"). This isn’t new in the arsenal of revolutions, whether justified or not. Fighting fire with fire is a bit dubious, but sometimes, the idiot in charge thinks that’s the only way. Trump isn’t the first idiot having to deal with the “black problem” in the USA… Most others made sure they were heard to be compassionate, while putting more blacks in prison. To many black people, Obama was a disappointment... and why would Saint Barak be replaced by Devil Donald, I ask...

In Syria, for example, the political situation was Sunnis (via Daesh, Al Qaeda and Al Nusra equipped with weapons and training OFFICIALLY supplied by the USA) revolting against all other sectarian groups, including Christians, led by a dictator who maintained, till 2009, a peaceful space by preventing the simmering revolutionaries destroying the status quo. This of course let to imprisonment of people with extremist views — who could be exploited by our Empire, by showing samples of torture is the said prison, to unseat the despot in charge and replace him with… an extremist Muslim religious group, at the service of the Saudis who are the least democratic people on the planet — but are our friends. Is this why the USA are stealing the Syrian oil in the north of that country?

The present predicament of Julian Assange shows how far our accepted governmental hypocrisy has gone. We decry the attempt on the life of Navalny for which we blame Putin WITHOUT ANY PROOF, yet we protest feebly to the assassination of Khashoggi by our friends the Saudis, until we “forget it” as a faux-pas by a little Prince, who "must be doing the right thing" because the culprits are going to prison for 20 years. 

In all probabilities, the attempt on Navalny’s life seems to have been orchestrated by the West (USA) to stop the NordSea 2 pipeline. I would not be surprised...

Pipeline diplomacy is far more powerful than our illusions of democracy… The unrest in Syria started in 2009 when Assad refused the request by the US to let a Saudi pipeline through Syria. At that stage, secret agreements and not so secret alliances between Syria and the Russians could not allow this pipeline mostly designed to undercut Russia from supplying gas/oil to Europe. The present NordSea 2 pipeline is in the same vein. The USA will do anything, and I mean ANYTHING (they have said so), to prevent this project to be completed: according to the US deep state, Germany cannot be allowed to become dependant of Russian gas. All the other reasons invoked by the merchants of democracy, such as Roman 13, are but a few colourful scabs on the boils of our deceit.

So Trump in his inimitable moronic style, has decided to take the fight on the market place of sanctions and threats, and bring the troops home (horror!), rather than with the underhanded actions of the military which have been the trademarks of the previous tenants… Back to normal? Fuck!….

GL.

Too satirical for his own good.

Image at top: conservative politician becomes a progressive... from the inimitable MAD magazine... What's wrong with me?... Don't I read serious books? ...