Why does god need billboards?

John 1:14 King James Version (KJV)

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

So, the election is tomorrow. In the meantime, there's something we need to talk about, something that's going to be a problem from here on out. To be honest, if Republicans lose tomorrow, it's probably going to be a bigger problem the worse they lose.

It's this "Cult 45" shit. It's that #MAGA is these people's Allah Akbar and Deus Vult and INRI and any other religious invocation or slogan you can think of...all rolled into one.

And if you think the above Bible verse in any way, shape or form references Donald Trump, you're part of the problem. The only "Word" made flesh here is "Asshole."

It's not just that the "Capital T, Capital S" Trump Supporters think he's some kind of a god, it's that at least some Evangelicals are speaking of him in terms that literally in a Biblical fashion are used to reference Christ.

Hello? Does anybody other than me see how screwed up this is?

Am I the only one (and mind you, I'm saying this as an Ex-Christian) who thinks that if these fucking people think that the Gospel needs to be made "Great Again" (or, for that matter, that Man could do such a thing through his own vain efforts) they're in the wrong damned business?

How is it, that with all these Evangelicals, with all their talk of faith and trusting in God and this and that and the other thing...it always comes down to cleverness, to deception, to manipulation and to trusting in Man's efforts rather than in the God they claim to revere above all else?

I honestly wonder, if whoever is responsible for such things were to place the actual mantle of divinity on Ayn Rand, or Donald Trump, or the fucking Pillsbury Dough Boy, how the fuck many of these exemplars of Christian Faith would leave Jesus hanging and rush right over to whatever other banner was most permissive in letting them do what they already decided they wanted to do anyway?

See, at least in my experience of it, belief in God, in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and in the workings of the Holy Spirit required a degree of internal morality...a conscious understanding that X was right and Y was wrong, and at least some belief in the concepts of facts, of reason, and of truth.

Why? Because if it's any other way, you risk getting caught up in cult-like belief systems, falling prey to false teachers, and getting carried away in the kind of maniacal idiocy I now associate with my ex-wife's Pentecostal church, or the message board of Christianity.com back in the day.

Or, ya know, you could end up like these people and (intentionally or not) start proclaiming by means of billboards and social media posts that Donald Trump is Jesus Christ.

Ya know, I've yet to see anything resembling either grace or truth from Trump or his supporters.

It's sort of like how back in the day on the Christianity.com forums some random dude could spout off for days about some guy named Benjamin Creme being the Anti-Christ. At the time, I had no idea who that was and upon even the slightest bit of investigation, well he's just some old guy who's made a career of of peddling vaguely Buddhist claptrap and editing a self-published magazine. Except, imagine that instead of putting this dude nobody'd ever heard of on blast all the time, this random Evangelical nut bag were spending days upon days proclaiming the glories of this idiot to all who would listen.

Ironically, the most eloquent take-down of the entire mess was from this Korean American Calvinist computer-and-theology nerd in Tennessee. "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

Yes, the world, or at least the world as I knew it roughly 15 years ago has well and truly been turned upside down. Instead of calling Trumpism what it is...a cult...and attacking it with the fury that they'll muster against the Hare Krishnas, the Mormons, the Moonies or Satya Sai Baba...the Evangelicals are now actively shilling for the cult in the hopes that they'll get a more "Christian" America out of the deal??

Wait, wait, wait...one of these things is very clearly not like the other one.

I suppose one could charitably put this crap down to desire for popularity, or groupthink, or just getting caught up in the moment...but I'm not going to buy into that crap. They were hoping they'd get more political power and social control, and that once they had it nobody would bring up how they got it.

Instead...despite the fact that Republicans control all three branches of government, I feel like their hold on things has never been weaker, and I feel like their weakness has translated into America losing its grip on the sole-Superpower status that conservatives once treasured so greatly and profited from so handsomely.

And the worst part is, they don't understand why. Well, I'm a tell you why. If you become the kind of dangerous, unstable, violent fanatic that even your own family can't trust you not to start shooting at them...this is going to trickle up writ-large into world affairs if enough people get like that. Much of the rest of the world is reacting accordingly, and when we come back to the table we're going to have to do so as an equal, not from some kind of superior position. 

See, our position in the world was built largely on soft power, on trust, on this idea that the Man Behind The Curtain man in the Oval Office was at least somewhat competent, and that if he screwed up, our democratic system...which much of the world follows some variation of, by the way...would hold him to account.

Instead, we have the Russians hoping and praying that Americans are going to start shooting at each other.

Is that how you want to see America go down?

Funny thing, but at the end of the day even the Trump Supporters, or at least the conservative old bags and the ranty old men quoted in the article that this Twitter post linked to admit this bullshit is not normal, implying that they know it's a cult, they know it's ridiculous, they know it's wrong...and that they just don't care. Maybe they think they'll get something out of it other than slowly starving to death when the Social Security checks stop coming and society falls apart and dueling elements of the former US military, or opposing gangs of militiamen with AK-47's and Technical Trucks, start fighting it out in their hometowns.

I don't know what the hell these fucking people are thinking. My own experience as a former member of several of their various tribes suggests that they simply aren't.

The midterm election is tomorrow. We have the capability to stop this crap.

We The People have within our grasp the power granted to mythological heroes, to Prophets, to True Believers the world over...and perversely to every single bogeyman the Evangelicals have ever hidden under their metaphorical beds in terror of

(...even though they imagine themselves to have that power even as they reject it in favor of fellating any shitbird that'll stroke their egos and tell them how great or important they are...)

...The power to destroy a false God,

To reveal it for what it is.

To be That Guy and ask "Why does god need a starship?" (Or a ballot box, or a billboard, for that matter.)

But only if we show up and vote.

Vote the bastards out. All. Of. Them.