Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

I know Christmas is over, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about holiday traditions. For some, it’s caroling and eggnog. For others, it’s decorating the tree and driving around to see all the houses lit up and decorated.

For Leftists, it’s telling conservative Christians they’re not following Jesus.

This year, though, the Left put a little twist on their annual airing of grievances not directly connected to Festivus. They outdid themselves by making so many bizarre and illogical statements about one third of the best power trio that isn’t named Rush.

So, grab yourself your cousin’s killer eggnog made with lighter fluid and prepare for a trip from the ridiculous to the sublime…ly ridiculous.

Jesus

What the Left thinks it means – a possibly fictional figure worshiped by rubes who can’t even follow his teachings

What it really means – a religious, possibly historical, figure who Leftists still can’t figure out

Leftists are of two minds (or would that be brain cells) when it comes to Jesus. Many don’t believe He existed. Others think He was a progressive. Others think He was a socialist. He was black. He was an immigrant. He was gay.

And just when you thought they couldn’t add more, the Left found a few more. This year’s additions are Jesus was Asian, a Palestinian refugee, technically Palestinian, had a “trans body,” and even had a CNN religion reporter claim He would have been buried under rubble if He were born today.

Give them a year and they might say Jesus was a gender fluid wheelchair bound crossdressing furry who believed sex with minors was okey-dokey.

And people wonder why I laugh when Leftists say they’re smarter than us?

I will admit I’m not a theologian (although I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night), but you really don’t have to be to understand who Jesus was. For those who believe, He is the son of God who died for our sins. For those who don’t (and not a flaming Leftist), He was a man whose influence is undeniable and provided a decent guide to living a good life. For those who pretend to believe, He’s a good source of cash.

I’m looking at you, Joel Olsteen.

So, how do Leftists get it so wrong when it comes to a simple Jewish carpenter? A part of it is how they view Jesus, not as a religious figure, but as a tool to bash believers. Some of this is easy to understand, as the Left’s main religion is bureaucracy. When you put your faith in the size and scope of government, you don’t want competition, especially not from the Son of God.

But the Left doesn’t need to believe in Jesus for Him to be useful for their needs. That brings us back to an old friend, Saul Alinsky and his “Rules for Radicals.” In particular, let’s look at Rule 4:

“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

When Leftists bring up how they believe Jesus would have acted, they’re using Rule 4 with the expected outcome being the conservative Christian either shutting up completely or giving a defensive answer the Left can then use against him/her. (Spoiler Alert: still 2 genders.) That’s why they keep making up stories about who Jesus was: they need Him to be their religious tofu and take on the traits the Left want Him to espouse.

The problem with this tactic is two fold. First, these are interpretations by people who may or may not have studied the Bible closely enough to be knowledgeable (which, surprise surprise, goes against Uncle Saul’s second rule “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”) As such, saying Jesus was gay because he hung out with 12 disciples, for example (all the while ignoring the women who also followed Him), shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the source material. Therefore, why give credence to a group keeps getting facts wrong in an attempt to shame you into becoming a Leftist?

This second one relies more on logic, namely we can read what Jesus said. Granted, there are language translation and theological/political issues that make a straight one-to-one interpretation harder than figuring out why people care Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce. Having said that, you can compare translations and get the gist of what He was saying. Even if you aren’t a Christian and/or conservative, you can still read the Bible and compare it to what the Leftists are saying to figure out they’re full of…well, since this Lexicon entry is about Jesus, I’d better not swear.

The way the Left keeps reinventing Jesus reminds me of the Buddy Christ from Kevin Smith’s “Dogma.” In the film, the Catholic Church “retires” the Christ figure they used for centuries and replaced Him with a friendlier version. This winds up backfiring, causing two fallen angels to bring back God’s vengeance on humanity. I won’t spoil the movie in case you want to see it, but I encourage you to watch it with a careful eye and ear because Smith brings up some valid criticisms of how modern Christianity is practiced.

Still looking at you, Olsteen!

In the interest of fairness, I admit the Right uses Jesus in a similar way, suggesting he’s fair skinned and closer to Edgar Winter in hue than Bishop Desmond Tutu. Where the Left and Right diverge is in sheer volume of attempts to use Him as a political cudgel. Where some members of the Right will smack you with the Son of God once in a while, the Left uses Him as a cat-o-nine-tails. And if you remember the Crucifixion, you know why that analogy is fitting and quite possibly will get me a one way ticket to Hell.

Speaking for myself, I’ve always seen Jesus as apolitical. He wasn’t concerned with who won elections or how the government should use the power the people gave it. His eyes were always on something more substantial: being a sacrifice for all of our sins. Any politician who tries to tell you he or she can make you a better deal is a liar, but I repeat myself

The greatest irony in all of this is the Left wants Christian conservatives to live up to rules they either don’t believe in or have no concept of how to follow. And that’s the one lesson they always get wrong: we can never be like Christ completely because we are flawed. We mess up all the time, unlike Jesus who was perfect from conception. The best we can hope for is not to mess things up too badly, and even then we are forgiven. It’s the simplest of truths to believers, and the simplest of things to disregard if you’re not down with the divine elements of that concept. Just don’t use Jesus as a theological Louisville Slugger, okay?

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

When you think about it (and I do because I really have no life), the English language has a lot of words and phrases that come from combining two words or concepts. Some of them work, like “ginormous” which combines gigantic and enormous which are synonyms for “big.” Others, like “jumbo shrimp” or “House Intelligence Committee,” don’t work so well because they contradict each other.

This week the Left rolled out a new phrase to describe a threat they see underneath their beds, that being “Christian nationalist.” Whether this phrase is the next “ginormous” or “House Intelligence Committee” has yet to be seen, but I think it warrants a deep dive to give us a better perspective on this new turn of a phrase.

Christian nationalist

What the Left thinks it means – the newest threat to our democracy, conservatives who believe Christianity should be the primary inspiration for our government

What it really means – a turn of a phrase that shows the Left knows nothing about either

Although Christian nationalism has only recently come into focus, the concept has been around for a few years. In fact, the Leftists at the New York Times have linked it to the rise of Donald Trump, mainly because it seems the faithful and the nationalist in America flocked to his message. Which, of course in the hivemind of the Left, makes them domestic terrorists in training. In fact, if Christian nationalists aren’t stopped now, we could find ourselves in the midst of another rise of Hitler…or is the The Handmaid’s Tale this week? In either case, it’s bad.

Or is it?

I won’t pretend there isn’t the possibility of bad outcomes with Christian nationalism, mainly because there are people willing to twist Christian doctrine towards political ends because, let’s face it, there are some asshats out there. Having said that, I’m not sure Christian nationalism is as much of a threat as the Left would lead us to believe. Imagine that. Leftists overstating a problem to whip up hysteria and fear for political gains. Who would have thunk it?

Anyway, we need to look at both parts of the phrase to understand what the Left is trying to portray as a threat and whether the threat is credible. First, let’s look at Christianity as a whole. After all, nothing like pissing off as many people as possible, right?

Although individual faiths and mileage may vary, the Bible is pretty clear on matters of governance: governments are established by God’s will, as outlined in Romans 13:1-3:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended

Notice something that’s missing in that passage? A reference to nationalism. Well, that, and a good meatloaf recipe, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Although God teaches us to follow the law, there is still an acknowledgement of the possibility of wicked men and women getting into positions of power and making laws that go against the Word. And, remember, this was before Las Vegas was built. As a result, Christians are also taught to focus not on the world of Man, but on the world of God because we are taught Man is sinful and imperfect. And anyone who has followed politics in the past few decades can attest to both being true.

So, where does nationalism come into play? As noted above, the Bible doesn’t mention nationalism, which puts it clearly in the world of Man. The best way to describe it is what you get when you inject steroids and PCP into patriotism. It goes beyond merely loving one’s country and into a belief the country itself is the best in the world under any and all circumstances. The only problem with this idea is it assumes the country cannot make mistakes and always does the right thing. Again, see the past few decades of American politics for proof this ain’t the case.

When you combine Christians and nationalism, you get…a confusing mess. On the one hand, the faithful are to accept the government we have because God put the elected officials there (that, and the dead voters in Chicago in Illinois Democrats’ cases) and Man is imperfect. On the other hand, nationalists believe the country we have is perfect and should be the model for everyone else to follow. Maybe it’s just my weird way of looking at things, but wouldn’t nationalism mean its proponents put the country, ruled by imperfect people, above God? And wouldn’t that make Christian nationalism contradictory?

Why, yes. Yes on both counts.

But the Left doesn’t want us to think that hard about it. Just accept Christian nationalists are super-duper dagnasty evil and be done with it. There’s a tiny problem with that, however, and it stems from how the Left sees religion as a whole.

The religious have been stereotyped in pop culture as being so uptight not even WD-40 could loosen them up. Oh, and that each one is a super goody-two-shoes who are also flaming hypocrites on any and all subjects. Of course, if you are a person of faith who just happens to vote straight-ticket Democrat, you’re doing right by your Lord and by your party. Hmmm…didn’t Jesus say something about not being able to serve two masters?

Why, yes. Yes He did. Matthew 6:24 for the people praying along at home:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Although the verse specifically mentions money, the same principle applies to politics, which also involves money these days. Even so, the point remains. You cannot serve God and Man at the same time without running into the kind of theological and moral quandaries only Man could invent for ourselves. And you thought Elon Musk was clever!

However, this doesn’t prevent the Left from perpetuating the stereotypes they’ve spent decades perfecting. They rely on it to make any openly Christian politician look two-faced and phony, and it works for the most part thanks to tactics from what’s become a Bible of sorts to the Left, Rules for Radicals. One of the rules boils down to making your opponents live up to their own standards, which gives Leftists plenty of political fodder to use when the opponents don’t. By building the “Christians are moralizing hypocrites” strawman, the Left have an easy way to knock down people of faith.

Then, they put a little more English (that’s spin, not the language) onto it by lumping Christians in with nationalists to create a Frankenstein’s Strawman of undesirables. And linking it to Donald Trump? That’s your trifecta of fuckery there, kids!

Here’s the funny thing, though. The Left’s knowledge of Christianity and nationalism don’t go much beyond the stereotypes they build. I’m as shocked as you are to learn Leftists are lazy thinkers, but I think we can overcome the surprise and disappointment.

Christianity is much more than an ideology or a political faction. It is a way of life. The faithful take God’s Word to heart and try to live their lives in a Godly way while knowing they will fail. And it’s not a cult mentality, either. If you stop and get to know Christians, you’ll find they’re not that different from most regular people (which excludes Leftists since, well, they ain’t regular). They worry about the future of the country like we all do from time to time. They want to be able to put food on the table and roofs over their heads. And, yes, they want politicians to represent their interests in office.

But does that mean Christian nationalists are evil? Not really. Maybe confused or unclear about what the Bible teaches, but not evil..yet. There are Fred Phelps types out there who have no problem twisting the Bible into hateful rhetoric, and here’s the part Leftists don’t get: Christians are taught to look out for these types and not follow. And given the Westboro Baptist Church has fewer members than Republican hosts on MSNBC, I don’t think they’re as pervasive a force as they and the Left think they are.

Which leads us to question whether Christian nationalism is a problem. Well, this is going to shock you, but I’m going to say they aren’t. We’re not dealing with a massive movement that attracts people on a daily basis, but rather a few cranks who think their combination of Christian faith and nationalism is the only way to go.

And the Leftists who are giving them more attention than they warrant.

That’s right, kids. The Left has a vested interest in getting people to worry about Christian nationalists, and it boils down to money, power, and division. Just like with mass shootings, Leftists need there to be unrest caused by people they deem undesirable to gin up nightmare scenarios that never seem to come true. Remember, these are the same Leftists who told us Donald Trump would get us into a war with China. And as we found out recently, apparently that was Nancy Pelosi’s job.

Regardless of what, if any, faith you follow, it should concern you Leftists are working so hard to make you afraid of a theocracy that has been threatened for decades, but has yet to materialize in any way. What are they trying to hide or divert our attentions from, exactly?

Oh, yeah. Leftists suck at governing.

If your track record was as much of a flaming bag of dog shit as Joe Biden’s, wouldn’t you try to invent an enemy to bash?

A 2nd Look

This Leftist meme needed more attention. In my previous article I stated that the meme was attacking the Lefts big three enemies.

President Donald Trump
American Conservative (Republicans) and America itself
and Christianity/Christians.

This is psychological propaganda. Doctor Joseph Goebbels would be proud of this meme and what others have done with his body of work.

Dividing the meme in half there is a right side and a left side.

All of the negative aspects are on the right side. This creates a subconscious thought that right is bad. Thus the Left begins it’s clandestine attack on the American Conservative (Republican) which is generally viewed as being on the right side of the political spectrum.

The particular images of Jesus here are also well chosen for propaganda purposes. On the left side is a very African featured Jesus. Fully in line with the current affairs of the Leftist-Marxist Black Lives Matter movement.

While on the right side is a very Caucasian Jesus. And it has been altered from the original image with the addition of an American Flag and MAGA hat.

Since the Left hates America all this imagery appears on the negative right side of the meme.

The positive left side has some additional false hoods besides the image of Jesus. He was not African, so we would not look like that image. He was Jewish so his skin complexion would be olive and not brown.

Jesus was never a child refugee either. This lie is being put out by the Left for political gain and goes against the truth in Holy Scripture.

Jesus was neither poor or homeless. Jesus was a skilled carpenter. A trade learned from his given human adoptive father Joseph before he began His ministry. And he had a home in Nazareth.

No true believer, or American Conservative (Republican), or even any right leaning political organization believes any of the aspects listed on the negative right side of this meme.

Again, Jesus was of an olive complexion since He was a Jew born in Bethlehem in the Roman Province of Judea in the 1st Century.

Jesus could not be an American since the nation would not exist for another 1700 years at the time of His life on Earth. It is absurd to even have this as an aspect listed. But the purpose is to attack the American nation.

Jesus however did play a major role in the formation of the American nation. His teachings would lay the foundation for the Constitution and the American Dream. Freedom and Liberty for all people as our Founding Fathers designed this Great nation under Christian principles.

Within Holy Scripture from the time of creation to the great flood. All people descended from Adam and Eve. Thus there is only one race up through the time of the great flood.

And from the time of the great flood to the present day. We have all descended from Noah and his family that were spared. Again we are but one race. Man. Humankind. Created in God’s image.

When the Holy Bible divides people into ethnic differences it is only to divide them in half. One is either Jew or Gentile. Or sometimes written as Jew or Greek. The only other major division of the people is by Faith. One is either God-fearing or a pagan.

Ethnicity, race, and Nationality are all tied closely together. Sometimes they are even confused and mistaken for one another. Nationalities are mentioned in Scripture.

Was Jesus a Nationalist? Certainly not for the Roman Empire which He was a subject of like everyone else in Judea.

But read Matthew 15:21-28. In this passage of Holy Scripture Jesus tells a Canaanite woman that He has come only for the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus, in this passage, also compares the Canaanites to being dogs while the Israelites are children. In our modern world of today such statements would be very racist and nationalistic.

Many have pointed out that since Jesus never condemned homosexuality in the New Testament it means that Jesus approved of the practice. And Christians today are in error for condemning it.

Those doubters know that there are many verses in the Old Testament that condemn homosexuality as a grievous sin but they are wrong about the New Testament and what it says on the subject.

For Romans 1:24-27 speaks of the sin of homosexuality as does 1st Corinthians 6:9-10. And if these verses are not enough to convince the reader on what Jesus believed about the nature of homosexuality. Then remember this, Jesus was a Jew and was taught the Laws of Moses (the Old Testament) which declares that homosexuality is a sin.

But more importantly, Jesus is God. He and the Father are one. Moses received the Law from God. Thus he received it from Jesus. Jesus wrote the Laws of Moses which condemn homosexuality. There is no escaping this fact.

Yet the meme does call the aspect homophobia. And here it is correct. Jesus was not homophobic and neither are His followers today.

It is love of our neighbors that drive Christians to preach the truth of homosexuality and other sins. To free our neighbors from sin in the forgiveness and redemption of Jesus Christ. Loving your neighbor does not mean you condone their sins.

We touched before on the wealth of Jesus. He was not poor and nor was he rich. There are numerous verses in Holy Scripture where we see the Disciples go into town to purchase food or other goods. And it is written that those Disciples gave up everything to follow Jesus.

So where did they get the money to by the things that are mentioned in the Scriptures? Where do they get the money to pay for their travel across all of the Province of Judea?

Scripture doesn’t say. Jesus wasn’t rich. But as a skilled carpenter for many years before beginning His ministry he wasn’t poor by any means either. Of course some monies could have been given to the Disciples by the people as they traveled and preached as well.

Jesus hates sin. As a righteous God and creator of all the universe He has that right. We see His hatred and anger of sin when He verbally confronts the Pharisee hypocrites. We see His hatred and anger of sin when He enters the Temple at Jerusalem and turns over the tables causing destruction and physically assaults the money changers and merchants that have turned the Temple into a den of thieves.

And we see it again when Jesus curses the fig tree so that it withers and dies never to bear any fruit.

Lastly, of course Jesus was never a Christian. He was a 1st Century Jew but also the Son of God. He came to save the world from its sin. He was killed, buried, and rose again to complete this task.

His initial followers, mostly Jews, called their movement “The Way”. It would take several centuries after his ascension into Heaven before the term Christian started to be used. And at first it was an insulting term. Only adopted later to be a term that we are happy to use today.