'Scripture is very clear': New House Speaker tells Congress God has 'ordained' them

Democrats should name all their laws after the Bible. Eye of the Needle bill: wealth tax and just demagogue that we need to pass this to save American souls. Mark 1:40 bill: universal healthcare
- I legitimately and unironically would support this initiative. It’s a good idea.
  
  It's an incredibly good idea. Is this the way?
  
  Vote YES on Joshua 6:25 and Ezekiel 23:20!
  
  I've been saying this for a long time. I genuinely think this would yield better results.
- I can't describe how much I like this idea.
- It's a great idea but unfortunately it has some significant flaws.
  First, I imagine quite a lot of the Christianity in American politics is performative. The politicians could just hand wave away the passages and say "That's not what Jesus meant, he personally told me so".
  The fundamentalists suckers would believe them and vote for them even harder and the ones that are drawn to religion for the excuse to abuse people won't care as long as their abusive itches get scratched.
  The other problem is that if it did work, it's comes across as more than a little Christofascist.
  The far-right and religious "in it for abuse" crowds would take to it like flies to dog shit and the bible has some horrific stuff in it that you'd definitely never want becoming law.
  Better to just pry fundamentalists and neoliberals from power so all they can do is seethe while progressives pass these kinds of laws. With genuine end times just around the corner, time is a factor.
  
  Republicans will always find a way. Even if it contradicts what they just said a minute prior. You're not gonna stop suckers from going along with ppl using them for power/money. We should just take the win.
  
  a lot of the Christianity in American politics is performative
  That’s the point. Break suspension of disbelief and see the stage crumble.
  
  The biggest flaw is democrats have too much tact. They couldn't possibly offend the people trying to oppress their constitutes.
- Take my Lemmy Lemon 🍋
  
  When lemmy gives you lemons, make lemmy-nades! 💣
- It wouldn't work since none of the GOP has ever read the Bible.
- “The I Stand to be Counted as the Faithful of the Lord Spending and Appropriations Bill will now be voted on.”

Christofascist says what?
- Deus vult.

There is no place for religion in government. This is horrifying
- Even Jesus thought so. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" means exactly that.
  
  If those Christian nationalists could read they'd be very upset
  
  Like these asshats have ever read the Bible. At least, nothing past the old testament.
  
  Come on man, that would take way too much intelligence and critical thinking skill, for GOP voters to understand.
- "Prosperity theology" often goes hand in hand with neoliberalism.
  If you're not quite psychopathic enough for "I don't care about the morality of using child slaves, only the profitability", you can assuage that guilt with "If God didn't want me to profit from child slavery, he would have stopped me doing it".

What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?
I don't care how much he enjoys talking about his favorite fairy tale novel, congress is not a book club.
- Zero difference. They're both the same shade of conservative, far-right, religious fundamentalist.
  
  Not fair. The Taliban is honest witr his desire to oppress women, minorities and undermine all education. This guys pretends to stand for equality for all while in public
- Oh, but that's totally different! You see, their holy book is just a bunch of heathenish drivel, whereas our holy book is the one and only god given truth! How do I know? It says so right here in my holy book!
  
  I had some bible thumping baptist going door to door tell me almost exactly that. I had time, and decided to amuse myself in engaging these two guys. I talked to them for about 20 mins before they left. I kept asking them to compare their religion to various religions around the world, including eastern relgiions, and was quoting passages from many of them. These guys clearly had never studied anything but their version of christianity. Their only defense was, "But this was written by our lord and savior, Jesus Christ"
- What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?
  That's an easy mistake to make, this guy's a Talibangelical
- Same God, different prophet. So not much really. Except maybe that Taliban don't ban abortion as far as I'm aware.
  
  Nope, the Taliban are like christo-fascist fundamentalists in ignoring or intentionally misinterpreting their scriptures to ban abortion.
- What is the difference between this guy and a Taliban officer?
  Beard?
- Skin tone
- Ehhh, mainly access to clean running water
- Hypocrisy.
  The Taliban are way less hypcrite.
- The irony would be God disliking this guy
- Didn't know this guy was an officer.

- Well, at least we’re not killing it in the womb—the only unacceptable place to kill things. Let’s just deprive it of education and healthcare.
  
  Ok that gave me a chuckle, nicely written
  
  I read that in John Stewart's voice.
- It’s a multinational crime syndicate masquerading as a political party.
- I feel like even the smart ones who built rockets and bombs saw us killing nazis and were like "yeah that's probably for the best"
  
  A lot of Nazis, the high ranking ones, fucked off to Venezuela and other places when they saw the end in sight and knew their necks were on the line (literally in some cases) if caught. I can imagine some used their stolen wealth to continue that brand of hate for the last 80+ years. "The smart ones" were intentionally sabotaging the Nazi war effort and defecting to the Allies with information on the Nazis' attempts at nuclear weapons. A lot of those scientists were never allowed to leave or live past the end of the war in Nazi Germany.
  
  They were inspired by our fascists. Bringing them here change things so little that even the number of fascists overall in the United States and barely had a bump in their growth.

"I believe that Scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority."
Oh, so since God raised Biden to Authority that means you're going to respect God's plan right?
Lol... Yeah... You'll all continue to pay lip service to the Bible as long as it serves your purpose.
- Yeah. This sort of talk in a lot of organized religion is a well-established cue to the listener that they can shut off their critical thinking. The intended audience is accustomed to hearing it and welcomes it, because they have the same goal as the one who says it: to have the thing they want be right.
  So their minds don’t start extrapolating to see if the words hold up to scrutiny. That’s the last thing they’d want to do.
- I move to change
  pay lip service to to manipulate and contort
  Especially considering religious leaders are taking Jesus OUT if their sermons because he is too liberal for them.
  
  If you take Jesus out aren't you just back to Judaism?
- What do you expect when your government is comprised of a bunch of greedy scummy lawyers.
  They will say literally anything to get power. Speech is rhetoric and they care nothing about reality.

Fuck your religion. Keep that shit out of politics please.
- Lmao, God has nothing to do with those guys💀
  
  god isn't a good guy. he's a villain. they can have him.

source

Quetiapine 50mg, twice per day. Increase dosage if voices persist
- That's way to low of a dose for hallucinations.
  Start with 300mg XR and up the dose of necessary
  
  Jesus Fuck! I was put on 10mg for a month and it turned me into a fucking mindless zombie. 300mg would comatose me.

And the Constitution and its Amendments are very clear about a separation of church and state.
- Some idiots think it means the government can't do anything to regulate churches. There a bunch of laws that disagree.
  
  It actually explicitly doesn't say you can't relate churches.
  "Shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
  If we're going strictly by what the words say, as long as the people are still legally allowed and freely allowed to practice their religion, Congress technically has the right to regulate religious institutions to their hearts content.
  It's not like it says "shall make no law regulating an institution of religion."
  
  A bunch of states don't tax church property and both states and feds don't tax earnings for this reason.
  
  Who watches the nightwatchers? Who or what systems could regulate the government? Ask yourself
- Ok, show me where it says that then
  
  All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
  This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
  The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be Required as a Qualification To any Office or public Trust under the United States.
  Specifically, I like this line here, that was present in the third paragraph I quoted from the Constitution:
  no religious Test shall ever be Required as a Qualification To any Office or public Trust under the United States.
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean that we specifically don't care if God, Allah, Buddha, or whoever says they are supposed to be in power?
  Edit: and since we both want to be dickheads, today, why don't you show me where it says in the Constitution to base our laws around the bible?
  
  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Dude really pulled the “divine right” card huh?
- The French invented a wonderful device to cure sufferers of the divine right delusion:
  
  Leaders claiming divinity leave the proletariat no choice but to demand proof

Imagine if religious fundamentalism wasn't acceptable for a statesman. What a crazy modern world we could be living in.
Although I guess in the case of the US, the country was founded out of religious fundamentalism in its entirely, and from a clean slate. Much more difficult to untangle it.
- Unless my history lessons are evading me, your country was founded by deists running from fundamentalists.
  
  Fundamentalists running from people not letting them be as fundamentalist as they wanted.
  
  Yes the USA was founded by deists, after the fundamentalists had settled the frontier land. It's both basically.

He did it. He said the magic words that turn on a neverending money tap from "christian" conservatives who aren't smart enough to tell when they're getting grifted.
- Well, that's because they've been indoctrinated since birth into a cult that exists to gift people.

Having said this- he should be disqualified from office.
- Lol! Having said that, God has ordained his disqualification

so thats what bile tastes like

“I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today, to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country and they deserve it.”
That includes the Democrats, right?
- On but that includes like Stalin too, like does he not hear his words?
  
  God totally "raises up those in authority," he just makes oopsies ~~here and there~~ all the fucking time.
  Or maybe he's evil. Or he changes his mind a lot. Or maybe, possibly, y'know... the dude doesn't exist.
- Jesus tap dancing on a cracker Christ maybe just maybe it's Satan‽
  
  I prefer the simpler Jesus Backflipping Christ but I love yours, too

This seditionist asshat shouldn't even be allowed to be in politics anymore. The more we allow people to try to overturn elections, the more impossible it will be to stay a democracy.

I guess the Republicans choose to ignore the separation of church and state.
Shame, since they call up the constitution so frequently.
Must be like the bible, they haven't actually read the thing they espouse to take their guidance from.
The sheer pride in ignorance these days astounds me.
It isn't bad to be ignorant, we all have things to learn every day. Its bad to be proud of it and to refuse to elevate oneself above their own shortcoming.
If that isn't the republican party in a nutshell, though.
- Must be like the bible, they haven't actually read the thing they espouse to take their guidance from.
  And they just pick out the pieces that fit their narrative and ignore the rest
- Sadly these leaders aren't actually ignorant, they know full well that they are lying. They encourage their followers to be ignorant so that those lies continue to work. This guy goes home knowing that he is full of shit and that he successfully manipulated a bunch of morons into supporting him.

He believes that all leaders are raised up by the hand of God. Better get those sainthoods lined up for Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Putin, Mugabe, etc.
- Those people - including Johnson - aren't leaders. They're bureaucrats with fancy titles and institutionalized power - the exact thing Jesus wasn't.
- Then why do they complain about Biden, or any Democrat?
  
  Because they're fuckwad hypocrites with no actual moral center of course
- Humanity once again assumes no accountability. All good things and Inventions are apparently important to us, but give authority to one mass murderer and apparently it's acceptable to blame God, after the fact. Consider an alternative possibility, that your conscience is begging for mercy.

Somebody get me outta this backwards country 🥺
- We're either almost on the other side of the critical failure of trumpism, or we're about to fulfill our destiny to actualize idiocracy.
  I give it 50/50 odds either way..
  
  Christ on bike how bad is it that idocracy is better outcome
  
  Feels more like the prequel to A Handmaid's Tale, tbh.
- You can do it - I did.
  Find a skill in need in Europe (preferably richer Northern) or rich places like Singapore where the QoL is worth moving
  Sell everything or save the equiv of 2-3 months of salary for settling-in expenses
  Write to headhunters, businesses...anyone posting a job in your field; see if they can assist you with an apartment so you can land with a place to live (note: nothing comes furnished - no carpet paint, appliances...my apartment even needed wall switches)
  Move there with everything you now own in 2-3 bags
  Rebuild your life slowly: learn the language, learn to love Ikea - you'll be there a lot, learn that you can't get what you used to love to eat so you'll have to learn to cook to make it, learn to live as an immigrant, with everyone wanting to know why you're there, without full rights, and with constant intrusion of the immigration services.
  Yeah - sounds like a pain. 25+ years later, it's been worth it to get the hell out of New Jersey.
  
  Find a skill in need in Europe (preferably richer Northern) or rich places like Singapore where the QoL is worth moving
  Oh is that all? So easy. Just find a skill. They grown on trees.
- Depending on how much family/real estate you have, moving out of the US isn't as difficult as you might intuitively think it'd be. At least not to other english-speaking countries like Canada, the UK or Ireland. Though do keep in mind that with the UK you're hardly making your situation any better, yes on paper you get public health care and it's still worlds better than the US, but it's in such shambles you don't want to rely on it. Tories! 🥳 🤢
  But even outside of that, moving to some other countries such as France or Germany depending on your language skills isn't as problematic as it was even 10 years ago any more, either. While these are still largely language dependent, a lot has internationalized in larger cities and having to rely on some english is no longer a big deal.
  
  Canada's not doing much better mate but we're hanging in there. Til our next election I guess.

Again, what is the difference between this and Taliban?
- At least the Taliban have the excuse their holy book is read in its original language. These jokers base themselves on a translation of a translation. Dogma and theocracy are wrong in any version, but if you are spouting ignorant bigotry at least make sure it's what the bronze-age sheepherders really intended...
  
  They also actively fight against ACCURATE translations because they have already built so many false arguments based on the least accurate and most out of date translations available. Even if the book WAS originally in English an original text from the 1600s would be a challenge.
- Fewer beards.
  
  Pretty sure there's plenty of 'beards' in the Republican party.

If you express grandiose delusions you should be sitting in a psychiatric chair. Not a senate chair.
- Yeah this blows my mind. If you wouldn't allow a paranoid schizophrenic to hold office, why are you allowing people who think the earth is 6000 years old and dinosaurs aren't real?
  
  They WOULD allow a paranoid schizophrenia to hold office if they voted correctly and hated the right people.
  
  They would allow paranoid schizophrenics to hold office, if the majority of voters were so too.
  
  Constant brainwashing and decades of undermining public education.
- Well he is not in the Senate he is in the House which is still far to high to be this stupid.
  
  3rd in line for the presidency.
  
  I've been pretty damn high in my day but never that stupid.
- Well, fortunately he's only a House Rep.

I believe that Scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.
I'm not sure which would be worse: that he didn't think this claim through to its logical conclusion, or that he did and didn't see the problem.
- God is the one that raises up those in authority.
  Someone really needs to ask him about Biden now
- Right? How many mass-murdering psychopaths has God raised up in authority? What an idiot.
  
  I think OP was more referring to how, by this guy's logic, he was literally fighting against the will of god when he was trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
  
  I believe that if God gives power to certain individuals, so too can he take it away. Many systems, positions and meanings in society such as caste, authority and regulation are temporary or exist based on a certain set of justifications with a certain set of rules and boundaries. Humanity would be best to learn or perhaps be reminded that there are certain responsibilities that come with leadership, one of those is to lead by example rather than to justify their leadership by an imaginary authority alone.
  For example, if we imagine a God as a being of supernatural capabilities, awareness and intelligence, well beyond our understanding, who allows us to live our lives with a certain degree of freedom, would it not be unreasonable to believe that all our current circumstances, everything from our freedom, the truth of certain issues, down to the very matter of this universe itself as it stands is a gift?
  Just my two cents

Another fucking zealot, great.

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.
Barry Goldwater
Also relevant:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/09/16/goldwater-lashes-religious-pressure/b1caa379-49fa-4e04-82de-dccda6f5e7f9/
- Daily reminder that Clinton was a Goldwater Girl. She's never been anything but a class traitor.
  
  In the context of my post wouldn't that make her a bit ahead of her time, considering she was raised in a politically conservative Illinois family?
  I mean by all means get triggered by Hillary Clinton because she lives rent free in your head but realistically Hillary had nothing to do with this post, and in this context being a "Goldwater girl" isn't a negative, especially when you remember that we're taking about the 60's here.
  
  Down voted by milquetoast libs

- You joke, but in the UK we are literally lorded over by a family that claims god chose them to rule over us, and we all just have to go along with it. And it isn't just passive acceptance, I've seen people unironically support it (E: not just royalty, but the actual "chosen by god" part).
  Indoctrination is a hell of a drug, and the US is heavy on it, there are entire populations made deliberately vulnerable to exactly this brand of bullshit.
  
  For sure. They feed it to us here in the US pretty much every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Yes Johnson... scripture is very clear - which means you, and the rest of your christofash brethren, had better pray there is no afterlife.
- "One day, you will answer for your actions, and God may not be so... Merciful.
  
  Someone should tell them that someday somehow they will die and someone's gonna steal their carbon.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. -- Thomas Jefferson
But it is long past the time when the GOP cared for what the founding fathers said.
- It's even in the fucking Bible!
  "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"
  
  “We just throw all the money up into the air, and what god wants he takes, and leaves the rest to us.”
- The district containing Charlottesville always votes religious right-wingers lately. They removed Denver Riggleman because he officiated a gay wedding, to put up an anti-gay marriage candidate. The city itself doesn't vote this way, but that's still the representative.
  In the town of Thomas Jefferson, who listed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom as among his 3 proudest accomplishments.

And here I thought it was pretty clear that the basis for his authority is the constitution, not in scripture.
- In the country where kids have to pledge allegiance to "one Nation under God" in school?
  
  In the country where the constitution says there shall be no official state religion.
  
  When a conservative talks about God, just remember that money is his god.
  
  Do any schools still do that? I guess maybe in the south. Ohio stopped doing it a long time ago.

Can we get a citation? I've actually read the bible, and no it doesn't.
- I think he's referring to Romans 13:1.
  Of course, it's his interpretation that it's them and the US specifically that God has given special favor. That citation is missing.
  
  Romans 13:1
  ¹Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. ²Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves.

I hate this timeline
- Don't worry, it'll be over soon. Just keep spending.

well my God hates you, Mike. 🖕
- Even Jesus thinks he’s a dick.
- My God also hates that downvote dude here too. 🖕
  My God likes Fetterman, Shapiro and Kenyatta.
  So there.
  🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
  
  Sometimes I forgot local political actors also exist as well as people who hold federal office, and for a second I was like, "who the fuck likes John Fetterman AND Ben Shapiro?" lmao

Yeah? He sure took his sweet fucking time as well, didn't he? Oh, right. "Mysterious ways."

- That's honestly been the most frustrating part of this whole affair. It feels like the left would rather jack themselves off over their moral and intellectual superiority than get down in the dirt digging these lunatics out. This isn't something to laugh about and it's not going to go away. There is a very real risk that we will lose our basic freedoms and possibly lives to a bunch of fascists within the next few years, and all these armchair socialists can do is point and laugh.
  
  Do you have some insight into what the left could do though? I'm frustrated too, but it's not as though Democrats are voting these people into office. What would "digging these lunatics out" look like and how would it change things?
  
  I would like to point out however that the push for "globalism" and cooperation itself is asinine because the idea that wanting xyz is fascism, not globalism, simply because you're choosing to become more self reliant rather than to defer accountability and work is not necessarily fascism. Playing the fascism card is more a strawman argument to hinder economic development in favour of "mysterious agenda" more often than not. The reality is that cooperation and mutual support is essentially done as often as possible when it works in favour of the job provider or customer.
  On the flip side the idea that wanting a good job, financial freedom and wanting your place of residence or country that you are a citizen of, to develop for the better may be the most benign expression of fascism that many can imagine. Now imagine trying to say that these people, group XYZ-ists are cunts who deserve to suffer or lose their jobs.
  Try and justify that in your mind for a moment. Because if it sounds dumb to you it's probably because it is. If you start a business that creates jobs for people in your group, that's good, if your business can create an entire system of jobs across multiple countries then even better. Power almost always naturally goes to the group or person that consistently provides the most. Just like in some places, there is essentially no or very little police force due to very low crime rates.

And my book here (I am yet to write it but its gonna be a best seller, trust me) says he should go eat a bag of dicks
I don't make the rules sorry, start chomping mate

Nutjob.

What the fuck is this dipshit on about?
- LoL! My sentiment exactly.
  Also, "I'm in danger."
- I aint ordained shit.

~~3rd~~ 2nd in line for the Presidency.
Thanks @Fraylor@lemm.ee
- Second. people need to stop assuming the actual president is in line. He's already president.
  
  Come on, you know nobody is assuming the president is "in line" for the presidency. They are just counting from the president at 1 and using the term in line. The speaker is the third person to be president after the president and vice president.

We are fuckin doomed over here

He did a fair amount of shady shit in the shadows and let other people be the face of it
I wonder how he's going to deal with actually being in the spotlight (other than drying his tears with money)

So the Republic of Gilead may actually happen? Are there enough checks and balances left to stop the US from becoming a Christian Saudi Arabia? Is it time to leave Canada before their destiny is manifested all over us?
- Canada won't be safe but, on the bright side, neither will anywhere else.

Oh great, another christian in a position of power trying to enact a theocracy.
Because we didn't have enough of those already...

Countries that are dominated with one religion, inevitably break down by religious dissention. "One nation, under my God has no liberty, and justice, for all, * (unless they are members of my religious sect)".

Suppose it was worth the delay to get a truley shitty choice. What the hell, guys?

....no

Can he be voted out by 1 person again?
- Yes for now. That rule might change though

Traitor

He is right. The scripture is clear. All the more reason to not follow it.

I mean, he has theoretical control (barely) over 1/2 of one branch of a fractious, dysfunctional and arguably corrupt federal government. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, buddy.
- arguably?? lmao have a seat my friend have I got some stories for you
- He's 2nd in line for POTUS. Scary.
- You misspelled "absolutely". You spelled it a-r-g-u-a-b-l-y. You were almost there, but you only got the first and last two letters correct.

You think he'll be singing the same tune when his speakership inevitably crashes and burns?

So did things somehow just get even worse?
- I guess if 1 and 2 get taken out things could get a lot worse 乁⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠_⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠ㄏ

They feel Romans 13:1 applies when these assholes get power; doesn't apply when they lose power

Aiite so he has full faith in Biden, good to know.