Mastodawn

William Lindsey

"As [Hegseth's pastor Douglas] Wilson said in the lead-in to his [Tucker] Carlson interview, 'there is no salvation without the shedding of blood. There must be a sacrifice. There must be a scapegoat.' ...

This is what Christian nationalism requires: a morality that is comfortable ending the world as we know it, so their sort of Christians get their day."

~ Sarah Stankorb

#Trump #Hegseth #DouglasWilson #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture
/1

https://sarahstankorb.substack.com/p/who-wins-in-a-moral-debate-between

Who Wins in a Moral Debate between Tucker Carlson and Douglas Wilson?

Not us

In Polite Company

William Lindsey

"The rest of us, our rights, our lives, become collateral damage in this gruesome fantasy.

Christian nationalism and the Christian patriarchy that comes built in are direct threats to our basic freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom (for women) to vote, freedom for all of us to make basic choices about our own lives."

#Trump #Hegseth #DouglasWilson #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #misogyny #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination
/2

William Lindsey

"The right to live that life freely and safely gets swallowed by the fundamentalist state religion and its function as an arbiter of the nation’s will to power."

#Trump #Hegseth #DouglasWilson #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #patriarchy #misogyny #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination
/3

William Lindsey

"Do Christian nations rain down death and destruction all day long? Which part of Jesus’ ministry signals this sort of behavior is in line with his goals for his followers?

Violence, and the glorification of it, is a central cultural element of the Christianity of Christian nationalism."

~ Andrew Whitehead

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence
/4

https://andrewwhitehead.substack.com/p/would-jesus-condone-death-and-destruction

Would Jesus Condone "Death and Destruction from the Sky All Day Long"?

I guess this is a question we are being forced to ask in the current context.

American Idolatry

William Lindsey

"In the context of the broader Christian tradition, however, other expressions of Christianity would consider it an idol. And an idol is whatever Christians place their hope and trust in rather than God."

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence
/5

William Lindsey

"It feels patently ridiculous, but we have, you know, white Christian nationalists running the Pentagon. … They clearly haven't read the Bible because in Revelation, the people who start the war are the bad guys in that book. So it really does make you think a little bit how deeply they've thought this through."

~ Sam Osterhout

#Trump #Hegseth #MikeHuckabee #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture
/6

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/a-war-to-spark-armageddon-its-the

A War To Spark Armageddon?! | It's The End! ... of the Week with Sam Osterhout & Max Burns

It may very well be the end with the ways things are going in Iran.

Lincoln Square

William Lindsey

Peter Wehner looks at Hegseth's "manosphere affect," "his delight in celebrating mercilessness, his talk of death and destruction raining down from the skies, his glee in 'punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.'"

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/7

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/03/pete-hegseth-briefings-iran/686260/?gift=_ZIU2b-u6NxEmt_0j2INZhTy61PDPqyziuCLgGDS-U4&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Pete Hegseth’s Moral Unseriousness

The defense secretary appears unable to approach matters of life and death with even the slightest bit of reverence or humility.

The Atlantic

William Lindsey

For Hegseth, it's all about strutting and freeting his hour upon the stage, engaging in displays of belligerent performative masculinity designed to hide the smallness and emptiness of his core.

But:

"America’s 'secretary of war' doesn’t approach matters of war and peace, of life and death, with even the slightest bit of reverence or humility."

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/8

William Lindsey

"All of his instincts are toward aggression; he appears to relish the destruction and death that he can now unleash.

We need people in government and in the military who can lead the nation to victory in times of war, but that is quite different than having people in leadership who indulge in bloodlust or who are wrestling with inner demons."

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/9

William Lindsey

"Crisis is always the authoritarian's friend, whether it's a manufactured crisis, or an actual crisis that gets exploited. This is definitely a war of choice. It was not a war of necessity. So you ask why. And I think it's just part of the continued drum beat of crisis."

~ Robert P. Jones

#Trump #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism
/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGY0GAGlhUE&t=1s

Pete Hegseth's Christian Nationalism and the War in Iran

YouTube

William Lindsey

"Because when you have the drum beat of crisis, you can make all kinds of arguments about I need extraordinary power. I need extraordinary power, these are extraordinary times, so the normal rules don't apply. So all of that just kind of goes out the window. So I think that one thing we do know about authoritarians is that they are always trying to either generate, exploit, or continue this continual state of crisis."

#Trump #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism
/11

William Lindsey

"That's really I think part of the game plan and if this comes up and comes down, you know there'll be another one because I think that is the playbook, to kind of keep the crisis going so everybody's kind of off offb alance and. And I will say this again — you all have heard me say, like I keep saying — we just need six righteous Republicans in Congress."

#Trump #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism #Republicans
/12

William Lindsey

"That's all we need um to stop most of this nonsense, most of this violence. We don't have them."

Note: I have lightly edited Jones' verbal statements for clarity and flow.

#Trump #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #authoritarianism #Republicans
/13

William Lindsey

"The politicized element of American evangelical splinter Protestantism has been delivering all manner of bovines all over social media because Talarico is engaging them on their own ground. For decades now, because of their organization, their money, and a compliant political media," (continued in /15)

~ Charles Pierce

#JamesTalarico #Republicans #WhiteEvangelicals #evangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism #media
/14

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a70647443/trump-administration-sexual-assault/

The Trump Administration Has Permanently Ruined the English Language

Call it the “superlative dialect.” Nothing is ever simply a win—it’s instead the greatest victory that there absolutely ever was.

Esquire

William Lindsey

(continued from /14)

"these people have managed to define their interpretation of Christianity in political contexts as all of Christianity itself from the stable in Bethlehem to the New Hampshire primary.

It has driven me crazy ever since I saw its beginnings at a thing called Washington For Jesus in 1980."

#JamesTalarico #Republicans #WhiteEvangelicals #evangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism #media
/15

William Lindsey

"There is no single 'Christian' position on, say, women’s rights because there is no single 'Christian' position on Jesus Christ. They are not used to having to defend their theology as theology in political campaigns."

#JamesTalarico #Republicans #WhiteEvangelicals #evangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism #media
/16

William Lindsey

"Between Talarico and my pal John Fugelsang’s best-selling book, Separation of Church and Hate, and the eternal salience of the 25th chapter of Matthew, we may have a fair fight for the first time in a long while."

#JamesTalarico #Republicans #WhiteEvangelicals #evangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism #media
/17

@wdlindsy unfortunately, we can be completely certain that at least one significant crisis will be manufactured to justify stopping the midterms. If it works - and so far every single pretense HAS - we won't get to see that play out.

⚙️ Roy Phillips Mar 7

@wdlindsy His is a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Fragarach Mar 7

I still think, unlikely though it is to ever happen, R A Heinlein's thoughts made sense.
Any politician who calls for war should immediately be conscripted and sent to front line.
Part of the problem, that seems to have reached a crescendo with the current régime, is that those in charge think of war as if it's pretty much a video game.
I don't know of many ex service people clamouring for another illegal war.

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity

MostlyTato Mar 7

@Fragarach @wdlindsy
"Any politician who calls for war should immediately be conscripted and sent to front line."
I've been thinking exactly that recently.

@MostlyTato @Fragarach @wdlindsy You want war?! Here's your war!

@MostlyTato @wdlindsy @Fragarach and bring their families!

Fragarach Mar 8

@Rickd6 @MostlyTato @wdlindsy

Please don't think I'm getting at you, and I know none of this conversation is overly serious, but it's so easy to trivialise things that are abhorrent.
I served for 15 years, and I really don't want to see anyone, including those I don’t know and will never meet, involved in a war situation.
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, I genuinely believed that we were moving towards a better world. When the Good Friday Agreement was signed, I cried with relief.
But, as for those who drum up sentiments and language that lead people to hate other human beings, I hate, loathe and despise them.
Where the UK in particular has fallen down recently echoes another of Heinlein's views, that a successful army or navy is one that appears so fierce as to make any actual fighting unnecessary. It does rather lend itself to being used by autocrats, but that's always a risk.

/rant over, sorry.

VHG 🇪🇺🇺🇦Mar 7

@wdlindsy Sounds Like hitlers rants about war

@wdlindsy And to think, this idiot commands the most powerful military on earth. This is not going to end well.

UncleRico Mar 7

@alex_p_roe @wdlindsy Just like what happened with Russia with it’s invasion of Ukraine I think we should re-evaluate the “most powerful military on earth” trope. I have no issue however with saying the most well funded. We shall see how much of that funding has actually been making it to our troops though and how much has fraudulently been making its way into defense contractors pockets.

@shsbxheb @wdlindsy Yup, we have no idea how much of that phenomenally generous funding has actually been spent on making and keeping the US military powerful but it still has some pretty good gear and no shortage of experienced troops as well as a very powerful navy and state of the art, if expensive, fighters and bombers. And a very sophisticated intelligence network to back it all up.

UncleRico Mar 8

@alex_p_roe @wdlindsy I still hold skepticism that that is all actually true. Same was said for Russia military until their tanks fell apart on the blitzkrieg. None of that helped in Afghanistan for us either. The one thing we have demonstrated we can do is drop bombs and short term special ops. And our intelligence has been severely compromised by our screwing our allies.

@shsbxheb @wdlindsy Well, the US does have a powerful military and can do lots of damage and special ops stuff too but the US )with the possible exception of WW2) is very good at getting mixed up in wars, not so good at winning them. And it treats its vets like dirt too. Is the US military a force for good, or just a force for the good of the US?

RainbowFrog Mar 8

that kind of warmongerer should not be allowed to play with any other soldiers than *tin* ones 🤮

Maximilian Overdraft, Esq.Mar 8

In the world of wrestling, the bad guy is the "heel" and everything is staged. They think they'll be able to redeem themselves before leaving the game by finding Jesus (the real Jesus) in the end. And they believe in wrestling rules for their souls, evidently.

Capt. Tony Mar 8

@wdlindsy You don’t really expect thought from these idiots??

William Lindsey

@mermaidchaser I'm not clear on which person in the thread you're directing that question to.

Capt. Tony Mar 8

@wdlindsy rhetorical question

Resistor McResistanceFace Mar 7

"I do love Jesus but would you look at the ass on that Golden Cow" - Christians walking with Christ but turning their heads toward Trump

Before Pope Urban II, I don't think it was like this. We're a thousand years into this misappropriation of Jesus.