The Abyss.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name: ~Amos 5:7-8

Last week, Christianity today came out in favor of impeaching Trump and removing him from office, and for the same reasons that they advocated for Bill Clinton's impeachment 20 years ago.

9 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. ~Amos 5:9-10

Trump's reaction, of course, was to quickly brand Christianity Today as "Far Left" which is news to me, given that 20 years ago I was a subscriber and because even in their own editorial in favor of Trump's impeachment and removal, these people missed no opportunity to kick the Democrats collectively right in the nuts. Christianity Today, while making efforts to support Evangelicals of all political stripes, obviously trends Republican. They took their time weighing in on Clinton 20 years ago, and it took them 3 years to condemn Trump. But they get the right idea, Country before Party, actual beliefs before Trump. I don't have to agree with their particular take to respect that they could arrive at that conclusion. They obviously took their time and thought about it.

Yet Trump, who is basically an atheist so far as I can tell, seems interested in appointing himself some kind of high priest of Evangelicalism, not based on beliefs but because he appears to think he's purchased such an office with favors. Trump doesn't believe in Christ or Christianity, to him it's all a transaction. The white Evangelicals cheer for him, so he gives them stuff. I have to wonder, if some other group were to abase themselves more, or cheer louder, would they get more stuff from this guy who seems to see himself as some kind of orange Santa Claus to those who make him feel good about himself, while desiring to take a baseball bat to the heads of those who don't?

For fuck's sake Trump can't even be bothered to get the initials of the magazine right.

He can't be bothered to understand that if people really believe in something, one's religion is not something that can be taken away. The same with one's guns, in America at least, under the same Constitution that he keeps trashing.

That should tell you a lot about Trump, and his mentality. And Republicans go-to move is go compare Trump to Jesus?

Worse, there are those, such as Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) who have defended this arrangement.

And Trump's response to constitutionally being impeached for reasons explicitly spelled out in the text as valid is to trash-talk the Constitution.

Anybody wanna tell me what exactly is Christian about any of this garbage? It's not just that Trump, steeped in moral relativism, reduces Evangelical Christians to nothing more than some special interest group like oil companies or wealthy vineyard owners, it's that Evangelicals are enthusiastically going along with this in search of temporal power. I was taught that it matters how you get things. This ain't the right way.

"...My Kingdom is not of this world." Hello? Is this thing even on? Jesus specifically said that the powerful and wealthy would have a harder time getting into heaven, because they don't care about spirituality, but rather about possessions and power over others, and that is not what Jesus stood for.

For as much therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. ~Amos 5-11

Not that any of these motherfuckers care about Jesus. To them, Christ and Christianity and conservatism are nothing but convenient routes to power, which enable them to fool the feeble-minded more easily.

Matt Shea, a state legislator in Washington, was kicked out of the state's house Republican caucus for, essentially, supporting domestic terrorism, and he refuses to resign. This dude is basically not much more than a militia nut in a suit, and other than the lowering of standards because of the Iraq war I'm not sure how he ever made it into the Army, much less passed the Bar or got elected to the Washington State House. That this dude has been in those three particular positions and STILL supported Cliven Bundy should tell you that his word isn't worth a bucket of warm piss and he's probably never been fit for a job he's actually had. I find it telling that instead of the traditional fallback of "Because Jesus" Shea immediately compares himself to Trump and claims the Democrats were out to get him. Bitch, you should be having a lot more to worry about than Democrats as far as I'm concerned. You supported a rebellion against the United States on behalf of some old fucker who simply didn't want to pay his bills. You should be watching the skies for Reaper drones as far as I care. Fuck you and everything you stand for, with Hellfire missiles.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. ~Amos 5:12

Look, ya'll, I'm a former Christian. I have a church background, I spent most of my adult life as a conservative Republican. Nobody is more disgusted than me that these people have basically decided to bow down before a scumbag like Donald Trump and are actively conspiring to start a civil war and murder the rest of us, but that's what this is and if you don't think the first thing they'll throw in the trash in the process is the Bible, then you have another thing coming. This bullshit cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be waited out, and it will only get worse.

Take it from somebody who's been there, the only way these people can be talked out of it is if a bunch of shit goes real bad for them and they can't actually deny that religion was a part of it...or if they actively get kicked out by their fellow nuts. I was both put in the position of questioning it all by my divorce, and run out of Christianity altogether when I came back as a more moderate Christian, and if you don't think these people will gladly Kamikaze the whole of American Christianity in the service of Donald Trump and their own shitty agendas I humbly invite you to take a serious look at just why the rest of the Western world is so damned secular.

As a former conservative myself, I quite wonder what was even the point of anything I did during that part of my life. These people clearly don't care about anything now.

These people are going down, they are going to destroy themselves, and they know it. Hell, they revel in it, because they think that their reward will be some kind of eternity of blessedness with Jesus Christ, or Donald Trump, and I'm honestly not sure these morons can tell the difference.

They cannot be argued with or reasoned with, and defeating them politically is almost certainly less than half the battle. This is going to come down to a fight.

And the worst part is, they don't even know who or what they want to fight for. I'm not even sure they care. Just the fact that anyone has questioned them, much less actively resisted them or voted against them, has enraged a lot of these people beyond all reason.

There's a lot of us that do care, though, and I've been warning you all along, the only people who will profit from this mess in the end will be the coffin-makers.

But it's coming. The fact that we've tolerated this apocalyptic cult in our midst long enough for them to even change God-heads all but guarantees it, if not with this crisis, then the next one.

Hell, if they lose badly enough to get the idea that nobody wants their civil war, they'll blame the rest of us for that, too.

There's no damned difference between these people and Al Qaeda or Daesh or the Taliban. and Trump thinks he can use them if he gives them enough presents?

There's already a movement springing up among younger right-wingers that says he's not going far enough.

When somebody tells you who they are, believe them the first time.

There's a hell of a lot of these people that are nothing but monsters, and the first people they go after are going to be those conservatives who aren't monsters, or who aren't monstrous enough.

And it's already started. We've been pushed to the edge of the Abyss by "Conservative" nihilism. I'm sorry but I was not taught that nihilism was not a conservative value.

Some of us have been pushing back all along, but all of us need to start.

If you're not pushing back, you're part of the problem.