The Boeskool

Christians: Want To Actually Help Flood Victims? Keep Your Prayers… Stop Voting Republican.

Posted on July 10, 2025 by theboeskool

If you are friends with any conservative Christians on social media platforms, you’ve undoubtedly seen calls for people to “PRAY FOR TEXAS” after this latest round of floods that washed away homes and left 120 people dead with another 170 more still missing. Mourners gather together to “honor the dead” and sing worship songs with hands raised, crediting the lost lives to an “Act of God.” Do any of these emotional vigils and calls to prayer feel familiar to anyone else?

If your response to a tragedy is “thoughts & prayers” rather than working to ensure it doesn’t happen again, you are missing the point of Christianity. *Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images*

They leave me with the same taste in my mouth as when Christians have candlelight vigils and post calls for prayer after each new mass shooting in some mall or church or school… After those same Christians have spent all their political capital getting people elected who work as hard as possible to fight against any gun regulations which might have prevented another tragedy. It’s a pattern to which we’ve become accustomed—Especially in red states: 1) Deny the data showing there is a growing problem, 2) Work to elect leaders with an open distain for anything that smacks of regulation or prevention, 3) Claim “There’s nothing we could have done” when tragedy strikes, 4) Offer up fervent “Thoughts & Prayers,” 5) Rinse & repeat. And nothing changes. It’s a handy little republican byproduct of a theology that believes God is in control of everything: If a tragedy happened, and God is in control, then God must have either wanted it to happen or at least allowed it to happen… Either way, it’s an act of God and we have no control, right? RIGHT???

(On a side note, the other way republicans exploit bad Christian theology/ignorance is this: Intentionally work to make government as inept, dysfunctional, untrustworthy, & corrupt as possible… So that when problems arise that require and are best-suited for government intervention, this same voting block is like, “YOU WANT ME TO VOTE FOR MORE INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION?!?” It’s a strategy that’s both cynical and diabolical, but it’s also grossly effective.)

Whether it’s disturbed teenagers with access to weapons of war repeatedly showing up at schools and opening fire, or the lost lives of dozens of young girls at a summer camp swept away by a another 1000-year-flood that seems to be coming every few years, the republican response is always the same: “There’s nothing we could have done.” But in 2016—after research showed the emergency alert systems along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas were woefully lacking—the Obama administration tried to give them federal funds to make it safer. The republican-led commission laughed about taking the $5.1 million dollars (to keep the money from going to liberal states), but decided not to use the money to update the warning system. They even make jokes/puns about how using the funding for a river alert was “dead in the water.” Please watch this video.

@itsamemollio0
Kerr County commissioners refused two grants from Obama and Biden to update their flood emergency warning system. #Republicans #politicstiktok #texasflooding #campmystic #kervilletx #politicalnews #texas #texaspolitics
♬ original sound – its-a-me-Mollio

This isn’t the only way the republican response to school shootings is similar to the republican response to increased climate disasters. Just like the dishonest claims that the mass shootings are “false flag” operations conducted to swing public sentiment toward more gun control, there’s even conspiracies going around that “they” (the all-powerful THEY) are intentionally controlling the weather to produce these tragedies. After Hurricane Helene destroyed huge parts of North Carolina in October 2024, American embarrassment Marjorie Taylor Greene made several comments suggesting a link between the path of the storm and deliberate weather manipulation… And now this same elected idiot is making similar wild conspiracies about the Texas flooding. She even trying to introduce legislation. Just look at this utter lunatic:

I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. It will be a felony offense.

I have been researching weather…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 5, 2025

That’s right, folks… The party who doesn’t believe in the data and science behind climate change is the same party that believes some powerful illuminati are able to control the weather… perhaps with Jewish Space Lasers. This is where we are in this country. And for me, the really depressing part is that there are enough people in Georgia who are either so easily deceived, so utterly ignorant, or so hopelessly evil that they keep voting for fools like Marjorie Taylor Greene. But one thing’s for sure: With morons like this in charge, it’s NO WONDER so many people think that “government is the problem.”

When disasters happen to people, the need for basic empathy and human decency is suddenly so clear to those affected by the disaster. But isn’t it strange that these same republican voters seem to be unable to muster any of that same empathy or basic human decency when they cheer on the opening of a concentration camp on American soil?

@goodtrouble_
A tragedy is a tragedy is a tragedy
♬ original sound – GoodTrouble

Isn’t it weird how—in the midst of something bad happening to YOU—it’s always so clear that we, as human beings, should be taking care of each other? But somehow, these same people are capable of laughing and mocking hispanic people being rounded up and put into concentration camps, and even buying “Alligator Alcatraz” merch?? When liberal California is burning with wildfires, the cause is a complex mix of God’s holy retribution and the inept Democratic leadership… But when disaster hits YOU, it’s suddenly time to read those verses about taking care of those in need.

This nation is so broken. So many people celebrate selfishness while demonizing decency, compassion, & empathy. America is infected by a disease of hatred, bigotry, & indifference… And the festering open wound that keeps us so sick is the continued moral & political failure of the christian church in this time. The christian church is the voting block that keeps the people in charge who are determined to do nothing to prevent preventable tragedies. People are stirred to prayer when they see videos of people swept up in a flash flood… But those same people CELEBRATE when they see families torn apart as people are swept up by ICE’s masked goons in “immigration raids.” And the pastors of those evangelical churches preach NOTHING about this inconsistency & hypocrisy on Sunday mornings. The Christian Church could stop America’s descent into fascism in ONE ELECTION. Instead, it cheers. It leads the way.

So if you’re a christian and you’re somehow still reading this, I have something to tell you: If seeing a natural disaster makes you feel stirred to action, and the action you choose is “thoughts & prayers” rather than working to elect competent, compassionate leaders who work to prevent that sort of thing from ever happening again, you have failed. You want to help flood victims? Stop voting for the party that acts like the science behind man-made climate change is some sort of conspiracy theory while they pull out of climate treaties designed to lessen our impact on the earth we all share & our children will inherit. You want to help flood victims?? Stop voting for the party that would rather fund tax breaks for billionaires than fund early warning systems that could have saved the lives of the girls at Camp Mystic. You want to help flood victims??? Stop voting for the party that cuts funding & staffing to FEMA and NOAA and every other administration designed to help people & make our lives better and safer… All so they can increase the deficit while making the rich richer at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.

Seriously, though…Have these people ever even READ the Bible? You can read the words of Jesus to them, and they’d accuse you of “liberal indoctrination.” Keep your empty prayers. I’d prefer Christians stop praying and start voting for people and policy that aren’t opposite of Jesus in every conceivable way. You want to pray? Pray that your heart is changed. Pray that you start to care enough for the poor and vulnerable that you stop voting against their interests. Pray that feel the same compassion for the brown people swept up by ICE as you feel for the Texans swept up by a flood. You feeling stirred to pray? Pray that you care enough about your neighbor to stop voting republican.

Thank you again for reading! I understand that most of the christians who are in the cult of trump are too far gone to hear anything I’ve written here. But if you have friends of family who are not totally gone, I’d love for you to share this post with them. You can also share it on Facebook or on Bluesky. And if you value my writing or this post, you can BECOME A PATRON, leave a TIP ON PAYPAL, or buy me a sandwich by Venmoing me at chris-boeskool. Stay strong, stay connected, and don’t lose hope.

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Alligator Alcatraz, bible, Camp Mystic, Christianity, Empathy, Faith, Hypocrisy, Jesus, Kerr County, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Prayer, Texas Flood, Thoughts & Prayers | Leave a comment

It’s Time For Americans To Be Brave

Posted on June 27, 2025 by theboeskool

Anyone else feeling that tension between wanting to be informed and wanting to be happy? I sure am. Every day immigrant families are torn apart as armed, masked, goose-stepping goons in unmarked cars kidnap brown, Spanish-speaking people in ICE raids. I watch in horror as our country’s leaders either cheer on the genocide in Gaza or stand idly by as families are bombed and children are starved in an open air concentration camp. Meanwhile, the government is pulling federal funding from institutions—from colleges to hospitals to businesses—who dare to promote or encourage Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. It never ends. Dismantling consumer and worker protections… Blatant acts of corruption… Gutting care for Veterans… Slashing medicaid funding that will lead to the closing of rural hospitals… Installing a conspiratorial, anti-vax moron in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services… Demonizing trans people who just want to live their lives, while criminalizing the medical care for trans youth that keeps them from being a group that is eight times more likely to commit suicide… Attacking higher education. Attacking Women’s Rights. Attacking the press. Attacking the rule of law. Attacking the truth.

That hopelessly overwhelmed, powerless feeling is strategic. Steve Bannon has talked about it many times. He calls it “flooding the zone.” You can read about it HERE. Even this whole 1000+ page “Big Beautiful Bill” bullshit is an example of flooding the zone. It’s filled with so much awfulness that you can’t take it all in… Especially difficult for a population with an attention span incapable of following something that can’t fit on a bumper sticker or a red hat. I mean, do people even REMEMBER tariffs?? Prices are going up because of trump’s stupid tariffs, and WE are paying for those price increases. But just when people are like, “Wait, I don’t like THAT,” we’re flooded with news of Marines being deployed to Los Angeles. And as people start asking, “Wait a sec… You mean to tell me we’re rounding up Spanish-speaking people in a city named LOS-FREAKING-ANGELES?!? HALF OF THE DAMN CITIES IN CALIFORNIA HAVE SPANISH NAMES,” next thing you know, they’re dropping bombs on Iran. And people are like, “What was I saying?”

There’s no doubt about it — Evil is definitely flourishing right now in America. They’re cutting funding to NPR and PBS, for God’s sake. The GOP is so far gone that when they see Sesame Street teach kids to be compassionate, empathetic, and kind, they think that those moral messages are some kind of ‘propaganda” against the Republican Party. What do you think Mr. Rogers would do if he were alive today seeing all this happen? Well, 56 years ago, he sat down in front of a skeptical Senate subcommittee and asked them to financially prioritize & value the good work PBS does with children. Please enjoy this moment of simple goodness and moral clarity brought to the world courtesy of Fred Rogers…

This isn’t the first time that Fred Rogers has reminded me that Not Everything Is Crap. But for today’s Republican Party, the sort of sentimental display of compassion and caring you just watched is painted as somehow anti-American. There’s a significant portion of the American populace that is so addled by cultist loyalty and deceived by media manipulation that as their leader attacks democracy and the rule of law, their response is, “Well, democracy and the rule of law aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.” It will take decades to repair all of the damage that trump and his army of bigoted idiots have done to the institutions that actually made America great. But I think it’s time to forget about being “great” again. It’s time for America to be BRAVE again.

When one person bravely stands up against tyranny and says, “Not to men like you” when they are told to kneel, EVERYONE gets more brave. Maybe YOU are you one to stand up…

I’ve been thinking a lot about bravery lately. And discomfort. And distraction.

I work at a restaurant. In our kitchen, there are Spanish-speaking people. They’re not criminals… They come into a hot kitchen, work hard, and cook delicious food. They have families. They laugh and tell jokes that I often can’t understand. I sometimes teach them some English, and they sometimes teach me some Spanish. Without being able to fully communicate with them, I know I like them. Just like with everyone else, there are some I like more than others. But because of the ICE raids in the Nashville area, we had to have a protocol for what to do if ICE shows up. And as my soul welled up with righteous anger at the injustice we’re living though, I decided that I think I’ve lived long enough. Not in a “I want to die” sort of way… I don’t. I really enjoy living. There’s a quote by author Tom Robbins that says, “There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, and nothing worth killing for.” But I’ve been thinking about how our grandparents and great-grandparents literally ran toward nazi machine gun fire on the beaches at Normandy. And about people marching in Selma, knowing there was a good chance they would be beaten up and arrested. And I think people are probably going to have to be willing to die for this cause.

We are PERILOUSLY close to losing the right to free and fair elections. Honestly, we might have already lost them. Think about this for a minute: To this day, trump insists that the election he lost to Joe Biden was “rigged.” He is purging federal employees who do not hold this same view. Watch the complete distain that trump appointees show for anyone who questions their authority. Observe the ease with which the lies flow when someone dares to confront them with facts. In this BS bill they’re trying to pass, there is a section (specifically section 70302) that allows them to ignore judicial orders. If that happens, it’s basically game over for the separation of powers. The actions and policies put forth by this corrupt administration are DEEPLY unpopular with the American people. And the lack of concern shown by republicans about losing mid-term elections makes me think that perhaps they are not planning on HAVING mid-term elections. How hard would it be for them to see polls that foretell a loss, declare the elections “rigged,” and take control of the mean & technology for voting? How out of character would that seem?? I suspect that the injustice around us will not go away without conflict, and the power that this group of fascists has acquired will not be given up without a fight.

We cannot be distracted… Not by the flood of misery and awfulness and injustice that makes us feel like we are drowning, and not by the phones in our hands or the screens in front of our eyes. We have to be prepared to be uncomfortable. Think about how many people can’t even WATCH Saving Private Ryan. It’s too uncomfortable for so many of us to even sit through three hours of cinema to see the sorts of sacrifices people made to fight tyranny. We have to be willing to get arrested… To be hit by the stones they are throwing at the most vulnerable people around us… And—if necessary—to put ourselves between them and the guns that are pointed at them. We have to be brave. Generation before us ran toward gunfire. They marched toward the dogs and the firehoses and the batons.

Thank you for reading. If you’re low on hope, perhaps anger will suffice. Look for inspiration in the arts. Read The Hunger Games. Watch some Andor… Or any of the Stars Wars movies, really. Watch those young men run toward the bullets in Saving Private Ryan. Look at the photos of the millions of people who were at the “No Kings” protests. Hell, watch some episodes of Mr. Rogers if that’ll help. Don’t be distracted. Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be brave.

And if you like this post and you’d like to leave this server/blogger a tip, you can do that on PAYPAL or Venmo me at chris-boeskool. If you really want to support my writing, you can also become a patron on PATREON. You can also follow me or share this post on FACEBOOK or on BLUESKY. Thanks again, and take care of each other.

Posted in 2) Politics, 5) Not Quite Sure | Tagged Big Ugly Bill, Bravery, DEI, Free and Fair Elections, Gaza, ICE Raids, Mr. Rogers, No Kings, Saving Private Ryan, Trump, Voting Rights | 1 Comment

The Real Reason Birth Rates Are Dropping In America

Posted on April 25, 2025 by theboeskool

The trump administration has identified a new “crisis” that must be addressed: Birth Rates are dropping in America. This is not just a recent issue—birth rates have been fairly steadily dropping since the 1960s, but they’ve gotten especially low over the last ten years. And so, elon and RFK Jr. and Shitler himself are setting their sights on the goal of increasing birth rates in America. To that end, the brain trust in the Oval Office is floating a brilliant idea: “Maybe we give these reluctant incubators a nice little $5000 check if they pop out a kid… That, and we can give them some ‘menstrual classes'” (as if the problem is that women have forgotten how ovulation works). Trump has dubbed it a “Baby Bonus,” as all good ideas have to have an alliterative title.

And I mean, who BETTER to figure out why women aren’t having as many babies than a room full of men, amirite? So then I figured, “Hey, *I’M* a man! I must have some important things to say about this as well!! [screams internally while not knowing whether to laugh or cry]

Okay… Okay… Just… Okay. I need to turn off the sarcasm and get serious. I did about five minutes of deep breathing with my face in my hands… quietly considering whether it’s worth it to continue writing this post… wondering how in the world we got into this situation, where a man who is quite possibly the most immoral, most broken, most incompetent person on the planet is holding the most powerful office in the nation. Okay… Deep breath.

Let’s start at the beginning: Birth rates in America have been dropping since 1960. Do you know what else happened in 1960? The FDA approved the birth control pill for women. Interestingly, scientists have had many successful attempts at making a birth control pill for men, but those pills were abandoned because of the side effects… Even though the side effects men experienced were nearly identical (and often less severe) than the side effects women experience when taking the pill. And let’s be honest—Do we really trust young men to be responsible enough to remember to faithfully take a daily birth control pill. So men are really left with two options for their own birth control: Condoms and vasectomies. Still, the pill—along with access to safe and legal abortions—gave women more control over when and if they CHOOSE to have a baby… and that was a GIANT leap forward for women’s rights. Which is one of the reasons why birth-rate-obsessed republicans and their pernicious Project 2025 have been so focused on removing those rights from women and undermining access to birth control.

Before I continue, let’s be real: Republicans are not interested in raising ALL birth rates. That’s clear to everyone, right? The “crisis” America is facing is not that birth rates are dropping… For them, the crisis is that WHITE birth rates are dropping. They’re not trying to raise the birth rates of Black & Brown families. They’re worried about America getting less white. It’s the beating, racist heart behind trump’s remarks about people from “shithole countries” (referring to Haiti and African nations) wanting to come here, while he lamented that people from Norway weren’t immigrating. He actually said this. And said and did so much worse. And 77 million Americans still voted for him. Lord have mercy. ANYway… If they were so worried about not having enough people, they could just let in some of those brown people looking for work and hungry for a better life lined up at our southern border. So we can all agree that republicans are not focused making more babies. They’re focused on making more WHITE babies. Concern about falling birthrates is almost always about eugenics and racism. Just so that’s settled…

So the pill is one of the main reasons for the START of the decline in U.S. birth rates. But I’d like to focus more on the precipitous drop in birth rates since 2015. Let’s think back… What was happening in the American zeitgeist around 2015? What fetid narcissistic monstrosity came forward like the orange, ready-to-pop head of a giant pimple that was symptomatic of the pent-up racism and white fragility buried beneath America’s unwashed back?

Just look at this fucker’s face. I’m sorry, I know… “Earmuffs.” But that word needs to be used here. This is the picture HE ACTUALLY CHOSE for his inauguration photo. Hollywood’s most creative minds would have to work very hard to come up with a portrait that says “I’m a villain” more effectively than this one.

Stay with me for a minute or two. Imagine you have a large portion of America that’s grown accustomed to a certain amount of privilege. This privilege comes in many forms: Maybe you got used to getting hired for a job over someone who’s just as qualified as you are because you’re white or you’re a man… Maybe you got used to getting let off with a warning when you’re pulled over, when the same thing doesn’t happen for people who don’t look like you… Maybe you got used to feeling valued as a “provider” for someone whose options were severely limited by the society they live in. And THEN, you start seeing changes around you… People noticing your privilege… People calling for equality. And as you experience the growing equality around you, you interpret that equality as oppression. And you long for older times… BETTER times… A time when America was GREAT.

And it’s unthinkable that “privilege” had anything to do with you getting to where you are. So if a woman or a Black person got a promotion, it HAD to be because of unfair policies… and not because of the character-building process of having to work twice as hard to get half as much. Sure, social media exposes you to videos of Black people having interactions with law enforcement that seem very different than the ones you are used to… But it must be because they had it coming. Because if the playing field isn’t level, that means you might not have EARNED everything you have. Maybe your wife left you—or your mom left your dad—and maybe you don’t feel valued simply by virtue of you being a man—even though you bring nothing to the relationship other than anger and fragility and a need for control—and you like the sound of this Project 2025 and its plan to end no-fault divorce.

And so they’ve given you something to BLAME for your dwindling privilege. It’s not your own mediocrity… It CAN’T be. It’s that evil DEI!! (side note: I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that they’ve managed to get a significant portion of America to demonize DIVERSITY, EQUITY, and INCLUSION). And you’re angry! And you’re wanting to make America great again! And then a bunch of corrupt, incompetent, liars and criminals—with the help of billionaires who control the media you take in—ride your wave of working man’s anger and misplaced nostalgia to an electoral victory. God help us.

And now here we are: With a whole administration believes that we have to get “back” to “meritocracy,” while ALSO believing that the only ones with true merit are STRAIGHT WHITE MEN. Add to that the fact that any reasonable republicans have either left or been abandoned by the trump cultists in charge, so they’re only accepting applications from the kind of fiercely loyal cowards who are either drowning in the kool-aid or terrified to speak up… The sort of people who know for SURE that if they DO speak up with ideas contrary to the party line, the brain-rotted, character-lacking boy’s club in charge will replace them in an INSTANT with some other fiercely loyal, incompetent coward. Compassion is foreign to Dear Leader, and it must be foreign to his loyal lackeys as well.

And a nation of women look on in disbelief at the horrors unfolding… at their rights being whittled away… at a psychotic & growingly toxic ideology pushing a narrative that tells young men that compassion is FEMININE, and femininity is WEAKNESS. They demonize & scapegoat femininity & compassion, all while encouraging the worst, most toxic parts of masculinity to thrive. Women watch as aggrieved, fragile morons work to dismantle every social safety net and remove any bit of government support that sniffs of compassion or works to help people in any meaningful way. Housing prices skyrocket, healthcare is unaffordable, and when a competent person comes along with actual plans to help working people, both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris lose the general election … wait for it… because America isn’t really ready for a woman to lead. All of this while attacking education, sowing distrust of the vaccines that keep our kids safe from diseases, and calling climate change a “hoax.”

And into this symphony of sadness and dysfunction, they have the nerve to ask women to have more babies. I mean… Seriously.

Please read this very good post.

So just to recap: Republicans have been steadily working to remove any programs that help mothers and children, fighting tooth and nail against universal or even affordable healthcare, making the future more & more frightening and uncertain. They refuse to raise the living wage, refuse to raise taxes on billionaires, refuse to help with exploitative student debt, refuse to pay for pre-K, refuse paid parental leave, refuse to do anything about affordable housing… All while demonizing & diminishing femininity and encouraging a significant portion of American men to become infinitely more unfuckable—but they’re wondering why fewer women are deciding to have babies? Am I getting that right?

Thank you so much for reading. If you managed to read all this way, you are probably—like me—very discouraged. You might—like me—be wondering if anything you do makes any sort of difference in the face of such evil. I’m reminded of King Theoden asking, “What can men do against such reckless hate?” And Aragorn’s brave response, “Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.” I’m so sad. And so angry. And so ready to ride out and meet them. THANK YOU to the people who support this blog. If appreciated this post, & you’d like to leave a tip, you can do that ON PAYPAL or you can Venmo me at chris-boeskool. If you’d like to become a patron, you can do that ON PATREON. Or you can follow me ON BLUESKY (elon’s twitter is for fascists) or still on Facebook (ugh, I know). Stay strong, stay hopeful, and stay active.

Posted in 2) Politics | Tagged baby, Baby Bonus, Birth Control, Birth Rates, Compassion, DEI, elon musk, Eugenics, health, Meritocracy, Motherhood, Politics, Pregnancy, Racism, RFK Jr., Shitler, Trump | 1 Comment

An Honest Question For Christians Who Support Trump

Posted on September 15, 2024 by theboeskool

My question to you is this: Is there anything Donald Trump could say or do that would make you stop supporting him? Genuinely… ANYTHING? Is there any act of immorality vile enough, or any biblical or civil law he could break, that he could lose your vote? Is there anything resembling a bottom for you? I’m honestly wondering…

Nearly nine years ago, Donald Trump stood in front of a crowd of people at a small Christian college in Iowa called Dordt (a college very demographically & theologically similar to my alma mater Calvin University), and there he bragged “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” Well, I’m not sure if “bragged” is the word. I think—in a rare moment of honesty—he was just expressing genuine amazement at the lack of any sort of moral standard below which he could sink for his supporters. And he was right… 81% of those same white evangelicals he was speaking to at Dordt College went on to vote for him… Ignoring him bragging about sexually assaulting women… Ignoring a lifetime of corruption & failure & adultery… Ignoring him mocking a disabled reporter… Ignoring him attacking a Gold Star family… Ignoring a MOUNTAIN of evidence that would very reasonably place this dishonest man among history’s most repulsive & corrupt villains.

Then came his presidency, where his supporters watched with indifference as the president of the United States and “leader of the free world” literally praised dictators… As he fired the government employees responsible for investigating the illegal things he did… As evidence came out that he used campaign funds to pay off a porn star… As he bumbled a pandemic response which led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths… As he withheld military support for Ukraine unless they produced information which would harm his political opponent… And finally as he incited an insurrection with his lies on January 6, watched as his supporters attacked the Capitol, and then sat in silence FOR MORE THAN THREE HOURS as his political allies pleaded with him to call off his minions.

Now we watch as he promises to be “a dictator on day one.” He has repeatedly said he would use the federal government to go after political rivals. He stands in front of cheering, sneering crowds and channels Adolf Hitler, referring to immigrants as “vermin” and accusing them of “poisoning the blood” of America. And just this past week, we watched as he stood on a debate stage, in front of an audience of nearly 70 million people, and accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio of stealing & eating people’s pets.

I have heard the immigrants-come-to-town-and-eat-pets racist trope ever since I was a child. This is very old racism .
— May-lee Chai 翟梅莉 (@mayleechai) September 11, 2024

This trope about immigrants eating pets has a long & very racist history. I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve heard some “joke” about there being dog or cat meat in Chinese food. This started a LONG time ago. In the 1888 presidential election, Grover Cleveland printed trading cards portraying Chinese immigrants eating rats in order to smear his political opponent. This stoked people’s fears that these brown people were taking the jobs, bringing disease, and even killing pets and putting them into their food. Sound familiar? Demonizing immigrants is straight out of the nazi handbook…

From the holocaust museum. https://t.co/yU3K8PVbnu pic.twitter.com/sTwA4Oqb7k
— Alejandra Caraballo is on Threads/Bluesky (@Esqueer_) September 14, 2024

Many times, when Trump says something super racist or insane, the press will question J.D. Vance about it in a kind of “Hey man, your wife is the daughter of immigrants and you have biracial kids… Are you OKAY with this?” sort of way. But as you can see above, he doubles down on Trump’s virulent xenophobia. And speaking to J.D. Vance’s point about a rise in car insurance rates, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post published a story about a minor fender bender in Springfield, Ohio involving a Haitian immigrant—who, by the way, are in this country legally. Imagine a large New York paper posting a whole story about a minor traffic accident that happened over 600 miles away. Incredible.

Notice that in the "Trump" future, everyone is white, and in the "Kamala" future, pretty much everyone is non-white.

Very subtle. pic.twitter.com/br1lemP6cR
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 13, 2024

They’re really not even trying to hide it anymore. They are catering to racists. If you meet someone who is is open about them being a white supremacist or a neo-nazi, you can be nearly certain that they are voting republican. And Christians don’t care.

In 2016, J.D. Vance wrote (in a tweet that he has since deleted), “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.” After the release of the Access Hollywood tape (where trump bragged about kissing women without their permission and “grab[ing] them by the pussy”), Vance tweeted “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.” He even referred to trump as “America’s Hitler.” But it seems that—like so many other people who identify as “Christian”—the promise of a bit more power was enticing enough to make him abandon his beliefs and ignore his moral repulsion to trump’s constant vileness… And now he’s blaming Black & Brown folks for “communicable diseases.” This is the man on the republican ticket who’d be one 78 year old man’s heartbeat away from the presidency.

“I didn’t change my mind about Trump being ‘America’s Hitler’; I changed my mind about that being a bad thing.” https://t.co/CGkrkaLjRH
— Ryan Marotta (@RyanJMarotta) September 14, 2024

Seriously though, read what JD Vance wrote on that tweet. It reads like a Hitler speech… If Hitler was boring as shit, didn’t know how to order donuts, & sexually attracted to couches.

And to let you know the fruit of these lies that fan the flames of racial fear and hatred, the Haitian families living in Springfield are feeling scared to let their kids go to school as the presidential candidate most white christians support spreads false stories about their community (and not that it should matter, but a community that is LARGELY CHRISTIAN… though there have also been accusations of “voodoo”). But it turns out that actually works out well, because for a third day in a row since Trump & Vance have spread their racist lies about Haitians, people have been calling in bomb threats to schools, community & government buildings, and hospitals in Springfield. So to sum up: A largely Christian, Black immigrant community—here legally from an impoverished & largely decimated country that Christians LOVE to take mission trips to—is scared to go outside because the candidate that christians are voting for is spreading lies about them eating pets. That’s where we are.

Lynch mob arrives in Ohio town due to Ohio Senator and former president of the United States spreading a false rumor about Haitians. https://t.co/xjAdfxm2PD
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 14, 2024

And now the Proud Boys have shown up… Perfect.

So I repeat my question to you, Christian: Is there NOTHING he could do that is despicable enough, demented enough, vile enough, to lose your support?

Though, again—to be fair—it is really almost exclusively only WHITE Christians who support him. Pew Research recently came out with a poll showing 82% of white evangelicals support Trump in this coming election. That’s slightly up from the 81% of white evangelicals who voted for trump in 2016. Perhaps it’s not that there are even more white evangelicals who support trump… Perhaps there are so many people whose disgust with the Christian support of this vile man has resulted in enough people leaving evangelicalism that those who remain simply account for a bigger percentage. One can hope…

In the Bible, there is a story of a Faustian bargain of sorts—before Jesus starts his ministry—where the devil tempts or “tests” Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus is hungry, and the devil suggests that he turns a stone into bread. He then tempts him to throw himself off the top of the temple, because supposedly angels will catch him & keep him from getting hurt. In the third temptation, the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain, shows him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (must have been a REALLY tall mountain to see the kingdoms on the other side of the planet), and the devil tells him that it’s all his if he just bows down and worships him. Jesus passes this third test, and he goes on to start his ministry.

I grew up being taught these stories… Both in Sunday school AND in the Christian schools I attended. These stories MEANT SOMETHING to me—I was TAUGHT the story about Jesus being offered all this power, but him turning it down to be a servant. I was TAUGHT the story of a people who desperately wanted a king, holding a sword, riding on a horse… But God deciding to show up as a carpenter, healing his enemy’s ear, riding on a donkey. I was TAUGHT the story of a man who loved sinners, who welcomed the outcast, who healed the sick… And then I watched as roughly 81% of the people who taught me those stories—at the first opportunity for a little bit more power—bowed down at the feet of a man who couldn’t be more totally opposite of the Jesus of those stories if he had tried.

Did y’all not see the VeggieTales about not bowing before the chocolate bunny? This is Christianity 101, people!!

So was he right? When he said he could murder someone in the street and not lose a voter, was he talking about you? The only reason a vile lying ghoul like trump has a chance in hell of winning is because white Christians in America love power more than they love Jesus. That’s it. Otherwise, the only ones voting for him would be a smattering of incels & dropouts & people who spend time in white supremacist chat rooms. White Christians are the only reason it’s even close. And if that’s you and you’re reading this, YOU are the only reason it’s close. You watch in silence as “America’s Hitler” equates immigrants from “shithole countries” with crime, disease, and missing pets… stirring hateful, stupid people into actions that do VERY REAL HARM. Every day you keep supporting this racist, sexist, adjudicated rapist conman is another day the devil in that Bible story offers you power if you just bow down, and you fail the test. Miserably.

But if you still support trump and you call yourself a Christian, I’ve got some good news for you… Some “Gospel,” if you will: This test you keep failing is not a test that you only get to take once. It’s a test that is going to be there tomorrow as well. It’s a test that you get another chance at passing every day… Particularly on November 5th. I mean, come on—Something inside of you instinctively has to be feeling weird about the fact that you keep ending up on the same side as nazis. When Rach, Shack, & Benny were threatened with the furnace if they didn’t bow down to the Chocolate Bunny in that VeggieTales episode, even vegetables knew that their integrity meant more. When the devil offered power to Jesus if he’d bow down, he said, “Away from me, Satan!” It never works out well for the people in those faustian tales who sell their integrity… their most deeply-held beliefs… Their SOUL in exchange for a little more power. If you call yourself a christian, it’s time to consider choosing to love Jesus more than you love power.

Thank you very much for reading. I must confess that part of the reason I want/need so badly for trump to lose is out of a place of selfishness. I feel like I need trump to lose for the sake of my own soul. I don’t know that my belief in goodness could survive another election night where the results leave me reevaluating my beliefs about human nature, or could sustain another presidential term that leaves me looking at the people around me with suspicion & disgust. Please, PLEASE vote. And if you’re interested, you can follow me ON FACEBOOK or ON TWITTER. Also, if you value the things I write, you can also BECOME A PATRON or leave me a tip either ON PAYPAL or Venmo me at chris-boeskool

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged 81% of white evangelicals, America's Hilter, Chocolate Bunny, Christian Trump Supporters, Christianity, Donald Trump, Eating Pets, JD Vance, news, Politics, Racism, Trump, VeggieTales, Welcoming Immigrants, White Evangelicals | 4 Comments

I’m Not Done Talking About Gus Walz

Posted on August 29, 2024 by theboeskool

Yeah, I realize the discussion has moved on. The DNC is last week’s news. Little donald’s constant barrage of vileness makes it hard to stay focused for very long on any one act of MAGA depravity for very long. It’s hard to even REMEMBER the disgusting thing he did last week, because he’s done half a dozen even more disgusting things since then. And our attention wanes. We get distracted by the outrage we feel by something like him telling Sheldon Adelson’s wife Miriam that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is “actually much better“ than the Congressional Medal of Honor (the nation’s highest military award) “because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead. She gets it and she’s healthy, beautiful woman.” Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Medal of Freedom because she was the wife of a Casino tycoon who used his billions of dollars to get republicans elected.

Trump: When we gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom… It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many… pic.twitter.com/a766KxAC2e
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 16, 2024

And before we can focus on that piece of filth, he does something like going into Arlington National Cemetery to get some creepy, smiling thumbs-up photo ops next to soldiers’ graves, so his campaign can make a neat TikTok video ad.

Now it's come out the Arlington Army official the Trump team assaulted for trying to enforce federal law was a woman.

They assaulted a female army official and then announced she must have had a mental health episode for asking them to follow the law.

Fucking animals. pic.twitter.com/U7L5Zehe3Z
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) August 28, 2024

And just when you think he can’t sink any lower, he posts this repulsive sexist garbage to his “Truth Social.”

Donald Trump just reposted this on Truth Social.

The man is utterly unfit for office. pic.twitter.com/CfLhWShI0K
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 28, 2024

It’s hard to stay focused in the midst of such a vile shitstorm… But I’m going to draw your attention back a week or so to one of the grossest displays of political ugliness I’ve ever seen.

At the Democratic National Convention, Tim Walz’s kids sat with their mother as their father spoke to the crowd. During his speech, Tim looked at his family and said, “Hope, Gus, and Gwen: You are my entire world, and I love you.” And in a beautiful and uncharacteristic moment of emotion, his 17 year old son Gus stood up. His eyes filled up with tears. He put his hand on his chest. He clapped, and encouraged those around him to applaud as well. And then—through the tears and cheers—he proudly yelled, “THAT’S MY DAD!” I honestly can’t even type those words without crying, it’s so beautiful.

When I was in college, my roommate was one of my best friends. He played basketball for Calvin our freshman year. Because of injuries to other players, he was put into the game against a pretty big rival. The Fieldhouse was packed, and I was cheering from the stands. He got hot shooting that day, and I watched in amazement as he hit 6—SIX—three pointers in a row. The place went wild. After he made the sixth shot, the other team called a time out, and right as the cheering started dying down, I yelled, “THAT’S MY ROOMMATE!” at the top of my lungs. Everyone heard me yell those words, and the cheering started back up… I was so proud. But the pride I felt that day watching my friend catch fire in a basketball game doesn’t even come close to the pride a kid must feel watching his dad—the teacher and coach—stand up and accept the nomination for Vice President of the United States of America, and then look at you and tell you you’re his entire world. Just look at this picture:

But there were many people on the political right who did not see this moment as something beautiful. They saw it as an opportunity to ridicule.

We all knew it was coming, the shitty, repulsive comments about Gus Walz… https://t.co/gqVOnpDZXM pic.twitter.com/KhzdMatPjK
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) August 22, 2024

Conservative talk show host and republican talking head Jay Weber referred to Gus as a “blubbering bitch boy.”

Im curious, @iHeartRadio/@newstalk1130, how would your advertisers feel about one of your radio hosts referring to a DISABLED CHILD as a “blubbering bitch boy”?

Do you think they’ll still buy ads from you once we start showing them the kind of monsters you employ & protect? pic.twitter.com/85y9dHnK1G
— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) August 22, 2024

Gus is neurodivergent and grew up with a non-verbal leaning disorder, and after getting ratioed into oblivion, Jay deleted his post, apologizing about not knowing that “the kid was disabled.”

Looks like @JayWeber3 has also deleted his non-apology tweet after it started gaining traction nationally.

Dont worry though, I grabbed screenshots. Feel free to share far and wide! Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, big guy. pic.twitter.com/OPOSjlIxCf
— thebluntanalyst (@theblunta) August 22, 2024

And I guess this is what I wanted to talk about: The seemingly insurmountable chasm between the political left and the political right in this country. People talk about wanting us to “come together” as a country… But is there any hope of “coming together” when we see a kid getting emotional about being proud of & loving his dad, and one side sees it as heartbreakingly beautiful, while the other side sees it as something to make fun of? How do you “come together” when you see healthy male emotion, and one side sees it as strength while the other side sees it as weakness?

And what’s even MORE bewildering and disheartening (to me, at least) is this: How are there enough broken people in this country that this election is even close? Who looks at the side calling a kid a “blubbering bitch boy” for being so proud of his dad that he cries, and says, “I’m voting with THOSE people.” I hesitate to put this in terms of “good & evil,” but it’s difficult NOT to. If ridiculing a kid for loving and being proud of his dad is not evil, then what is? The list of disgusting, disgraceful, repugnant things donald trump does gets longer every day. The evidence of his vileness is simply overwhelming. If you tried to compile a list, no one would have the time or the stomach to read it… And somehow the race is still close. One side is like, “He’s a felon and an adjudicated sexual assaulter who bragged about grabbing women by the pussy, fanboys over dictators, lies hundreds of times every day, and literally sent his minions to storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power,” and the other side is like, “She laughs too much.” We are not the same.

But listen: Even though it’s hard to not focus on all the depravity coming from the political right these days, if you look, there’s so much to be encouraged by. The reaction to the people mocking Gus Walz was swift and severe. Sure, it sucks when a few assholes bully a kid. But how cool is it when your whole community comes together to defend that kid, you know? I’m not really that discouraged about the wickedness we see coming from trump and his MAGA minions… I’m pretty used to that by now. I’m more discouraged at what seems like a widening chasm between those who can see it for the evil it is, and those who somehow have talked themselves into embracing being “deplorable.” But I’m hopeful today. Someday in the future, there may be a legitimate reason for voting republican again, but there is no moral case for it right now. This election is not a matter of right & left… It’s a matter of right & wrong. Do the right thing, America.

Thank you for reading. Thank you to my friends who encourage me to keep writing… It really does means a lot to me. If you’d like to support me & this blog, you can BECOME A PATRON. Or you can leave a tip on PayPal or by Venmo at chris-boeskool. You can also follow me ON FACEBOOK and ON TWITTER. Stay hopeful. Look for the helpers. Take care of each other. And for God’s sake, VOTE! This election needs to be an absolute ass kicking.

Posted in 2) Politics | Tagged 2024 Election, Ann Coulter, Blubbering Bitch Boy, Gus Walz, Jay Weber, Kamala Harris, Right and Wrong, Tim Walz, Toxic Masculinity, Trump | 1 Comment

See If You Can Tell The Differences Between The Republican Convention and A Nazi Rally

Posted on July 19, 2024 by theboeskool

Last year, Tennessee’s theocratic Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill No. 3, which has become known as the “Anti-Drag Bill.” It makes it illegal to engage in “adult cabaret” in any location where a person who is not an adult could view the performance, and even though the word “drag” appears nowhere in the bill, it goes on to describe performers as “male or female impersonators” and makes it a crime to do this where it might be “harmful to minors.” Basically what happened is this: As christian conservatives caught wind of drag queens reading to kids in libraries, white evangelicals did what they do in red states: They clutched their collective pearls, cried out for somebody to “think of the children,” and went on to pass a law to enforce their religion’s sexual ethic on everyone else. Yesterday, a trump appointed circuit court judge just reversed a lower court ruling against the unconstitutional Anti-Drag Bill. So as of right now in Tennessee, if someone dresses in drag in public and there are children around, they are in danger of being arrested. Because for MANY people, a person who is in drag just sitting on a couch and EXISTING can be harmful to kids… As we see here where Mom’s For Liberty member Beth Bourne accosts drag queens who were just waiting in a Waikiki hotel lobby.

While on vacation in Hawaii, this Karen gets shaking mad when she sees a drag queen in the lobby for a Pride Celebration brunch.

Most mainlander haoles are unaware that Mahu have been an integral and accepted part of Polynesian society for hundreds of years. pic.twitter.com/FvGcroXbGh
— StrictlyChristo  🇺🇦🌻 (@StrictlyChristo) June 24, 2024

So yeah… That’s what these folks think is harmful to children. Just their kids SEEING a man in makeup and a dress is an existential threat to them and the precious eyes of their children. Where they can, christians pass laws to make it illegal for drag performers to be places where kids might even see them (even though kids are about 1000 times more likely to get sexually abused at church than at a drag show… but I digress). In the state I live in, if men in drag—wearing dresses & makeup—march for their right to dance and express themselves, they can be arrested for that. Fast forward from June to July…

Earlier this month, multiple different white supremacist and neo-nazis groups marched through the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, shouting their hatred & bigotry through bullhorns and cowardly identity-hiding masks (while talking about “pride,” ironically). Disaffected and angry white men took to the streets of Nashville to protest their perceived dwindling privilege. And the people to blame? Black & Brown people, immigrants, and Jews apparently. They believe there is a white genocide happening… A “Great Replacement” conspiracy designed by powerful people to use immigration and interracial marriage to dwindle the numbers and power of white Americans.

Unlike drag queens in public places, THESE people playing dress up were not worried about being arrested for their actions. Quite the opposite—they had police protection as they marched. Because dressing up and marching is USUALLY protected actions in America. Genuinely, it feels like the GOP enjoys these sorts of glaring hypocrisies. It feels like a flex. Like, “Yeah, I SEE that it’s hypocritical… We’re going to do it anyway, so you fear how powerful we are.” One of the slogans that the white supremacists and neo-nazis shouted as they marched was the phrase “DEPORTATION SAVES THE NATION.” Fast forward from the nazi marches in early July to this week’s Republican Convention...

Well, you have to hand it to them… Unlike the neo-nazis in Nashville, at least they are brave enough to show their faces while they shout their racist & xenophobic slogans.

And I would bet you that 100% of the throngs of white people at the ~~nazi rally~~ Republican Convention holding up those ~~Deportation Saves The Nation~~ “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” signs identify as christians. They probably go to church that supports Tennessee’s Anti-Drag Law, and the pastor backs up his bigotry by quoting a Bible verse that says, “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lᴏʀᴅ your God.” But something tells me that same church is not giving a lot of time to the many verses commanding God’s people to be kind and hospitable to the alien, immigrant, & stranger… Verses like, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God.” But again—The hypocrisy is a flex. It’s the same sort of hypocrisy that has an executive of the gay hook-up app Grindr refer to the republican Convention as “basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.”

Gay dating app Grindr is experiencing an unprecedented 350% increase in traffic this week in the city of Milwaukee and the RNC being there is the obvious reason.

The biggest homophobic hateful bigots are often the most closeted hypocrites. 🏳️‍🌈
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) July 18, 2024

I’m convinced that WAY more people are bisexual than I used to think… Especially the ones who think that sexual orientation is something that a person can CHOOSE. I don’t know what it’s like to be so bisexual that the gender I’m attracted to is determined by a choice I can make. Anyway, Grindr crashed in Milwaukee this week LOL.

It’s said that “When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” This week’s Republican Convention is a testament to that saying. We are on the precipice of a very, very dangerous time. People really didn’t think that Trump would win in 2016, so there wasn’t a plan in place for what to do with him in the White House. 2024 is different. If you haven’t watched this segment from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, PLEASE take the time to do it now.

John Oliver on Project 2025 and a second Trump term.

I was going to clip this segment out into shorter sections but decided to keep it together because it's too important and, frankly, it should terrify you. pic.twitter.com/Kaqo07lurB
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) June 18, 2024

We are living in a time where a white supremacist billionaire literally BOUGHT the platform where hundreds of millions of Americans got their news, he changed the rules to encourage the views of avowed racists & neo-nazis (where you can now drop the N-word with impunity, but you can’t say “cisgender”), and he changed the algorithm to boost his own conspiracies while he donates $45million a month to trump’s super pac. Mere minutes on social media can make you feel so defeated and hopeless… And people who are hopeless are a lot less likely to vote. But I’ve got some good news for you that I swear is true: There are WAY more people who are disgusted by the Republican Party and the cult of trump than there are people who support it. All that needs to happen to prevent America’s slide into fascism is for those people to vote.

So listen… I realize you’re scared. I’m scared too. I realize you’re tired & frustrated. I’m tired & frustrated too. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably angry… Angry at the utter failure of the American church in this time… Angry at the way so many of our neighbors seem to embrace the hateful ideology of trump’s Republican Party… Angry that our choice for president—once again—comes down to two very old white men. But we MUST allow that anger to turn to ACTION and not APATHY. I really don’t care if you think that the fact that Joe Biden is 3 years older than the narcissistic rapist felon conman he’s running against somehow makes him too old to be president. We are not voting for one man. We are voting for an ADMINISTRATION. One is an administration that is trying to improve worker’s rights, provide Americans with affordable healthcare, and ask more from millionaires and billionaires to give back to the nation & system that allowed them to amass such wealth.

The other administration includes a VP who referred to trump as “America’s Hitler” (which I feel like SHOULD be a negative, but turns out it might be a selling point). They want to get rid of the Department of Education. They want to get rid of NOAA, OSHA, the FDA and any other agency that regulates or protects workers. They want to get rid of non-partisan specialists and experts within the government, and be able to replace them with MAGA loyalists. They want a nation-wide abortion ban, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or even cases where the life of the mother is in danger. They are running on MASS DEPORTATIONS, for God’s sake. And they want to reduce taxes on the super rich while increasing taxes on the poor and middle class… even though trump added nearly $9trillion to the national debt while in office.

Budget Deficit (numbers in parentheses mean surplus)
Under Jimmy Carter
1977: $54B
1981: $79B
Change: +46.2963%

Under Ronald Reagan
1981: $79B
1989: $153B
Change: +93.6709%

Under George H.W. Bush
1989: $153B
1993: $255B
Change: +66.6667%

Under Bill Clinton
1993: $255B
2001:…
— Craig Rozniecki (@CraigRozniecki) December 16, 2023

One administration is trying to help working people by pushing policy which protects us from the whims & power of an aspiring oligarchy. The other is working directly on behalf of that oligarchy.

One is led by an old white man who has a stutter. The other is led by an old white man who’s a convicted felon whose name appears all of Jeffery Epstein’s flight records, was found liable by a jury of his peers in a court of law for rape and slander, incited and insurrection and then waited HOURS before telling his followers to stop, bragged about sexual assault and “grabbing them by the pussy,” took the side of Putin over the American intelligence community, lies so much it’s nearly impossible to fact check him in real time, and has a convention that is almost impossible to tell apart from an actual nazi rally.

You. Me. WE have a responsibility to vote. Whoever’s name is at the top of the democratic ticket… THAT is who we must vote for. I don’t care if it’s Joe Biden, Joe Biden’s ghost, or Joe Biden’s shadow. Hell, I would vote for Donald Trump’s bloated & soiled Depends Undergarments before I’d vote for Donald Trump. We’re voting for an administration. If Biden says he’s staying in the race, then that’s who we are voting for. We are voting for FILL IN THE BLANK, because the other option would be unthinkable, and he’d do harm that could take decades to repair. We can & will do this… Do NOT lose hope!

If you are feeling hopeful right now, please don’t forget to take the time to encourage the people around you. These are dark days, but it’s far from over. In both France and England, voters overwhelmingly rejected fascism and right-wing extremism in their most recent elections. The news wants to paint a picture of hopelessness, because people without hope don’t stand in line to vote. But there IS hope. In the words of Winston Churchill, “I am an optimist. It does not seem of too much use being anything else.” Anyway, f you’d like more of me in your life, you can follow my on Facebook or on Twitter. And if you’d like to support my writing, leave a tip, or pass on some financial encouragement, you can do that on PATREON, on PAYPAL, or Venmo at chris-boeskool. Love y’all.

Posted in 2) Politics | Tagged America's Hitler, Anti-Drag Bill, Beth Bourne, Grindr, Hope, Mass Deportations Now, Nazi Rally, Project 2025, Republican Convention, Voting | Leave a comment

Dear MAGA Cultist: Here’s Why I Put My Pronouns In My Bio

Posted on June 13, 2024 by theboeskool

Hi there, person who just showed up in my social media notifications with some tired, overused comment about how you are dismissing my clever comment/biting sarcasm/witty response because I (along with many other people) have put my pronouns in my bio. My name is Chris (He/Him), and I’ve been meaning to write this for a while…

Social media profile pics and bios are a quick way to give people an idea of who you are. For example, chances are good you have a picture of some sort of star-spangled cross or an eagle holding a gun or some other obscure image that—like a pointy white hood—hides your cowardly identity and allows you to say whatever racist, bigoted things you want on the internet while maintaining a sense of impunity. You might have something about trump or “MAGA” or “2A” or maybe even some QAnon reference in your bio. And I’d ALSO be willing to bet you have something in your profile identifying you as a christian or a “follower of Christ,” even though a literal moment’s research would almost certainly reveal the things you post to be absolutely DRIPPING with the most insidious brand of bigotry & judgment & hatred.

You probably just read a comment I wrote, looked at my bio, saw the “He/Him” there, and thought to yourself, “THIS IS MY BIG CHANCE! I’m usually not very good at making jokes in my regular life, but I’m going to let this stranger on the internet know that—because of the presence of those pronouns—I don’t respect the things he has to say. I can ridicule him and make “jokes” like these:”

C'mon Tim he/him is upset🤣 https://t.co/0FZ4VAbl35
— Free(lawful but awful )Thinker (@FreeThi56993890) June 13, 2024

Ok him/her/they/it
— JD (@m5drummer) June 13, 2024

That’s mighty big talk for a fella who has to tell folks he’s a man. 🤷‍♀️
— Currermell (@currermell) June 13, 2024

If you are a person who has ever included your pronouns in your bio, you have no doubt seen some variation of the same “joke,” all told by what seems to be a collection of the most boring people on the planet. Sometimes these folks will include a version of the “joke” in their own bios… Stuff like “My pronouns are Fu¢k/Joe/Biden or Fire/Fauci or some such hilarity. If this is you, I’m honestly not sure what made you this way… Maybe you grew up in a home without any sort of love. Maybe an uncle gave you a Jordan Peterson book for your birthday when you were in college, and the timing coincided with that girl telling you she doesn’t like you in that way, and all your anger & shame found an outlet, and you thought, “If I was just more MANLY, THEN she’d love me.” Maybe you are just wholly unable to come up with something original. Maybe someone, somewhere once told you the lie that compassion is weakness, and for some reason you believed them. Whatever the reason, you strike me as profoundly broken people.

So listen… I’m going to do my best to explain to you why I put those pronouns there, okay? It’s not because I feel like I have to tell you I’m a man (although, admittedly my tenor voice has been referred to as “ma’am” in more than one fast food drive-thru over the years). I’m a 6’2″ bald guy who often has some sort of facial hair… I’m not writing “he/him” because I’m worried about being mistaken for a woman. Here’s why I include my pronouns: I include my pronouns because I love my trans, non-binary, and gender-non-conforming friends, family, & community members. That’s it… That’s why I do it. I’m not sure if this is news to you or not, but there are some people out there whose gender is not as readily apparent as mine is… and because I care about those people and don’t want to make their lives even harder, I include my pronouns. I do this to try to make them feel more welcome and less awkward about sharing the pronouns that THEY use, which might not be as easily identifiable as mine are.

When I used to work in schools, we’d do presentations in schools all over Tennessee. When the kids would ask questions, we’d call on them by pointing toward them and saying, “The person wearing the blue shirt” or “The person with the long, dark hair.” Things like that… And the REASON we did this is because sometimes people get the kid’s gender wrong, and it sucks to have your peers snicker & laugh because some dumb educators misgendered you at school. If you’re in a classroom setting, another way to prevent this kind of embarrassment is to simply ask EVERYONE in the class to provide the pronouns they use, rather than only asking the people whose pronouns you are unsure of.

And it’s not just kids or people who are in the process of transitioning who get misgendered. Some people identify as gender fluid. Maybe there’s a woman who is bald because of alopecia, and she’s not interested in wearing makeup or wearing traditionally feminine things that might make it easier for the people around her to identify her gender. Some people feel more “both/and” and prefer “They/Them” pronouns. There are plenty of ways for people to be outside of the norm in ways that don’t fit nicely into a binary model… And as we encounter those people, there are people who choose to do things that make those folks feel more INCLUDED or people who choose to do things that make those folks feel more EXCLUDED. It seems like those of you who are critical of people posting their pronouns belong to the latter group…

Sometimes it feels like a significant portion of our country was educated about diversity by Michael Scott…

People who live in a binary, black & white world struggle to see nuance or anything that resembles a spectrum. And I get it: Things can get confusing when we use masculine or feminine pronouns to delineate between both gender AND sex… Which, by the way, are not the same thing. Sex has more to do with biology, and gender has more to do with social expressions, roles, & norms. Most people grow up being taught that sex is one of TWO boxes: Male or Female. When people find out that—like most of biology—it’s more complicated than that, some people respond with fear and anger at the realization of that complexity. Some of those folks decide to embrace their ignorance, as a sort of “I’ll show THEM” response (as a side note, this is one of the reasons the right wing like to demonize academic & intellectual “elites.” It’s also why you see a coordinated effort to attack both public schooling AND institutions of higher education. People who go to trade schools are a lot less likely to learn about the complexities of human biology).

pic.twitter.com/NXUnjkzpCa
— Comrade Sisko 🖖🏾✊🏿 (@Pinko69420) June 2, 2024

In most cultures, gender is fairly binary, but MANY cultures around the world include “third gender” categories, like the māhū in Tahitian and Native Hawaiian cultures. Some Native American traditions have four genders: Feminine women, masculine women, feminine men, and masculine men. Most academic & anthropological studies of gender have five different gender groupings where people fit: Males, Females, Androgynous (like intersex people of those with gender liminality), Transgendered (with trans having a meaning of beyond normal boundaries), and non-sexual or neutered people… Eunuchs, for example.

SPEAKING of which (and especially for those of you who identify as christian)… There is a story in the Bible about an Ethiopian Eunuch. It takes place during the early days of the church, when the church was growing and there was a debate going on about whether people had to become Jewish before being Christian, or whether this “Jesus” stuff was for EVERYBODY… Gentiles included. The book of Acts is the story of that growth, and in Acts 8 we learn of a 1) Ethiopian (cultural & racial outsider) 2) Eunuch (a sexual minority who was excluded from traditional Jewish worship) who was reading a passage from Isaiah. Then Philip the Evangelist told this dark-skinned sexual minority about Jesus, they rode past some water, and the Eunuch was BAPTIZED into the Church. Of ALL of the stories the author could have chosen, he included the story of the inclusion of an outsider who didn’t fit nicely into the traditional sexual binary. Think about that for a little bit—ESPECIALLY those of you with “follower of Christ” in your bio—before you ridicule people for attempting to make non-binary and trans people feel more welcome by including their pronouns in their own bios. For some reason that story is not as popular with evangelicals as the couple of verses condemning same-sex relations…

Anyway, during the trump presidency, there was a great, short article written with the amazing title, “I Don’t Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People.” And in a lot of ways, that’s really what this comes down to… Some people care enough about others to wear a mask to prevent the spread of a deadly disease during a pandemic. Others don’t. Some people care enough about others to vote to fully fund our public schools so that poor kids can receive a quality education just like rich kids get. Others don’t. And some people care enough about others to put their pronouns in their bio so that a group of people who are used to feeling like outsiders feel just a little more “normal.” Others don’t. I’m PROUD to post my pronouns, just like I’m proud of the trans, non-binary, & gender-non-conforming people in my life… And your worn-out jokes don’t make me mad as much as they just make me feel sad for you. I can’t imagine being so profoundly broken that I actually feel ANGER at seeing another person doing a simple act of compassion in order to make a non-binary or trans person feel a bit more welcomed & included. That seems like such a sad existence to me…

Thank you so much for reading. If my writing is meaningful to you, and you’d like to support me or leave a tip, you can BECOME A PATRON, leave a TIP ON PAYPAL, or Venmo me at chris-boeskool. If you want to get a notification when I write something new, you can subscribe to this blog. And if you want to follow my on social media, you can do that on FACEBOOK or on the shitshow that TWITTER has devolved into. And please, PLEASE… Don’t let bigoted dipshits badger & bully you into not doing a small act of kindness & compassion that can make vulnerable people’s lives just a little bit easier.

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Bigotry, Ethiopian Eunuch, He/Him, Inclusion, MAGA, Pronouns, Pronouns In Bio, Sex and Gender, She/Her, They/Them | Leave a comment

Here’s Why “Christian Nationalists” Love Trump

Posted on May 10, 2024 by theboeskool

It seems it’s become less and less unfashionable in America to identify yourself as a “Christian Nationalist.” It’s difficult to describe Christian Nationalism in a concise way, but at its heart, it consists mostly of people who believe that they have to “take back the country” for God. That often means a return to straight, white christian men being in charge, so it’s no surprise that these folks immediately identified with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Before we get too much further, I’m going to need you to take a minute & forty-five seconds to watch this clip of a Christian Nationalist theobro named Joel Webbon talk about his belief that the only way forward for America is to have a “Caesar-type” leader to rise up, who “Constitution be dammed, just rules with an iron fist.”

Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon says Americans are "degenerates" and therefore the Constitution doesn't work anymore, so this nation needs a Caesar-like dictator who "Constitution be dammed, just rules with an iron fist." pic.twitter.com/2sDev7ZFy1
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 8, 2024

Joel probably gives away the plan here a little more than some people might like. The truth is that “Christian Nationalism” has always been a disguise for saying “Fascism” while that word is still largely unpopular. Nazi talking points like focusing on ‘birth rate” and the lie that is “the great replacement theory” belie the REAL end-goal 4 these theobros: Democracy won’t preserve their power, so they need use FORCE. That force is fascism. And there are snakes all over the garden, whispering “Is fascism REALLY that bad?”

If you speak of the virtues of democracy, more and more you’ll hear people bring up the quip that “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” And don’t be surprised to have someone mansplain & correct you about how we’re ACTUALLY a Constitutional Republic. And what’s so frustrating is that these christian nationalists paint themselves as “patriots” when they HATE what America has traditionally stood for. Speaking of which, watch this short clip of Jamie Raskin destroying Re. Glenn Grothman with actual context, intelligence, & understanding on the popular right-wing Republican/Republic talking point.

Grothman attempts to lecture Raskin on the use of the word ‘Republic’ in the pledge of allegiance. Raskin provides Grothman with a history lesson pic.twitter.com/aSGsQw1wy1
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 8, 2024

Trump started his presidential campaign making hatful, racist, comments about Mexicans, and proudly displaying nativist, exclusionary plans for banning Muslims. And republican voters LOVED him for it. This is why we see so many people on the political right identifying Immigration as their number one concern… even in states that are nowhere NEAR a border. Though it shouldn’t be overlooked that their preoccupation with ending U.S. immigration NEVER seems concerned with people coming across the Canadian border. Their nativist focus is on Brown people who don’t speak “our” language. For them, the model American is a white, straight, christian English speaker… and each deviation away from that model make an immigrant less desirable. This is why christians who would normally clutch their collective pearls at the use of the word “shithole” all decided to let it slide when Trump lamented that people from all the SHITHOLE countries (Haiti and African nations) were sending their people, rather than places like Norway (with their famously diverse population).

American christians seem more horrified and offended by naughty words than they are by the promise of the end of American democracy… Or by policies that actively support genocide, for that matter.

Trump is the perfect solution to the problems Christian Nationalists point out. Hence, their “tolerance” for trump’s constant praise of & affinity for despots, strongmen, & dictators. They act like they endure some of his nativist, xenophobic comments, but in actuality, it’s a large part of why they love him. Many white Americans have been absolutely simmering for decades about being told that they can’t say certain words anymore… You know, like they could back when America was “great.” Many republican politicians question whether diversity is really a good thing, and they do it with impunity. They idealize and hold up Japan as a model of a functioning homogeneous society, and they’ll ask the question, “Why can’t we do that HERE?” These are the sorts of talking points that—until fairly recently—were only heard from the fringes… from people with white hoods or swastika tattoos. Now we hear them echoed in the halls of Congress. For the Republican Party, virtues like Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion have become effective boogiemen to scare white christian voters to the polls.

Their goal is out in the open: It’s fascism. But make no mistake: They can’t accomplish this goal without the church… Without slimy “pastors” like Joel Webbon making a theological case for their plan. And these power-hungry predators often hold sway over 1000s of voters. Look at the aimless shlubs still attending JP Miller’s church (If you don’t know this tragic story, you can read about it HERE). The people in those pews watched their pastor use his position of power groom a teenage girl, divorce his wife & mother of his 5 kids, and then abuse Mica Miller until she saw no other option than to take her own life. Even when they see PROOF of his philandering while he’s still married, people are still showing up and handing over their money to this grifting charlatan. It fills me with rage and sadness.

Right wing pastors are the perfect pairing for people with fascism as a political plan. These abusive pastors already exemplify a brand of theological fascism from the pulpit. Religion has long been used to coerce the ignorant & impressionable to stay under the control of an abusive leader, w/ fear of HELL as a consequence for the betrayal known as “free thought.” This is why evangelicals will bristle so hard at any challenge to the doctrine of hell: LOSS OF CONTROL.

And control is the end goal of Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism is just a softer way of saying “Fascism, but with some people calling themselves ‘christians’ in control.” And that promise of power might actually be appealing to SOME christians… But when you dig a little deeper into the ideology, you find that their aversion to diversity does not stop with religion. These are the sorts of people who are rooting for the wrong side when they read or watch The Handmaid’s Tale. They want men in control. They want patriarchy. They want white power. And they do NOT trust democracy to get them there. And in walks an orange malignant narcissist with delusions of grandeur and 91 criminal indictments, talking about making America great again. Again. And these Christian Nationalists are willing to sacrifice democracy to a fascist narcissist if it means preserving even a *BIT* more of their power.

I feel like just about everything that can be said about trump has been said. At this point, if a person can’t see the evil of who trump is, they’re either not going to see, or that’s why he’s their guy. But in six months, we’re having another election. And the choice is—once again—between two old white men: One a fascist wannabe dictator… The other a flawed leader who has been largely unconcerned with the cries of the people of Palestine as Israel attempts to ethnically cleanse and genocide them. I wish so much that the choice we had was different, but it’s not. It seems that the power of protest has moved the moral needle of Joe Biden at least a little, as he recently paused the shipment of weapons to Israel. But the stakes are too high to throw away a vote. We must do everything we can to keep trump as far from the presidency as possible. It’s so important for us to not give in to apathy and hopelessness. It’s so import for us all to vote.

Thank you so much for reading. If you’d like to follow me on social media, you can do that on Twitter and on Facebook. If you’d like to leave a tip or help support my work, you can Venmo a tip to chris-boeskool or PayPal, or even become a patron on Patreon. Okay, that’ll be the last of the P alliteration for today… Love y’all.

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged 2024 Presidential Election, Christian Nationalism, DEI, Donald Trump, Fascism, Genocide, J.P. Miller, Jamie Raskin, Joel Webbon, Mica Miller, Politics, Trump, Two Wolves and a Lamb | 1 Comment

What Israel Is Doing To The People Of Gaza Is Not “Defending Themselves.” It’s a Genocidal Massacre.

Posted on November 7, 2023 by theboeskool

So listen, I realize that many of your collective eyes glaze over when people start talking about the Bible… That being said, I’m going to start off this totally-non-controversial blog post by talking about the Bible. If you’re not familiar with the Bible, that’s totally fine. I’m going to summarize part of it: In the Biblical story of the Jewish people, the people of Israel were taken as slaves in Egypt. Their escaping bondage is a HUGE part of the Old Testament story and of the Jewish faith. When the law was being laid out, all through Deuteronomy the people were told OVER AND OVER to REMEMBER. “Remember that YOU were slaves in Egypt.”

When they were told not to oppress workers who are poor & needy…
When they were told to treat people fairly…
When they were told to leave part of their fields to feed the foreigner, the fatherless, & the widow…
When they were told to forgive debt & commanded to observe the Year of Jubilee…

They were told to REMEMBER. You KNOW how awful & evil the oppression of evil of Egypt was… You KNOW how it felt… REMEMBER that awfulness & evil, & uses those memories to be sure to never treat others with those same acts of oppression.

There’s something about knowing how oppression feels that SHOULD inform & hopefully alter people’s actions when & if they ever find themselves in the position of oppressing others… But you have to remember. This is why, later on, when he told a story of a man who was forgiven a great debt, but had no grace for someone who owed him just a little bit, a Rabbi named Jesus came down so hard on the guy whose large debt was cancelled, but he beat up the poor schmuck who owed him a little: He should have known better. I have written about this before…

Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in front of the morgue in Deir al Balah on October 31. Fatima Shbair/AP

About 80 years ago, millions & millions of Jewish people were the victims of a genocidal campaign. People like to paint the Holocaust as if it were the actions of one evil madman… But there are many ways people support genocide. Some support it actively, some support it by going along with the crowd, and some support it staying silent when they know they should be speaking up. And please hear me when I say this: WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING TO GAZA RIGHT NOW IS AN ACT OF GENOCIDE.

One month ago today, Hamas militants led a coordinated attack on both military & civilian targets. In one day they killed over 350 members of the Israeli military & police, and they targeted & murdered over 1000 Israeli civilians. They also took over 200 civilians and soldiers hostage. These murders were brutal & horrific, they were war crimes, and they were almost universally condemned. And when people commit war crimes, the international community must come together to decry those actions, followed by working toward consequences for those crimes and taking those criminals out of power. Instead, how Israel has responded is by deciding to bomb everywhere they think a Hamas member might be, regardless of how many civilians are in the same area. These bombings have killed anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 Palestinians… Thousands & thousands of whom are children.

Under the guise of retaliation for the October 7th attacks, Israel has engaged in what can only be described as a genocidal attack on the people living in Gaza. There are people who study genocide in the hopes of preventing it, and those people have observed 10 stages of genocide. By any estimation, what Israel is doing to the people living in Gaza in the late stages of the 10 stages of genocide. Read through these stages… This is full-on genocide.

It is already transitioning from stage 8 to stage 9, and people are still trying to deny we have been witnessing a genocide. pic.twitter.com/pedm2JsL6L
— Gritty is the Way (@Gritty20202) November 5, 2023

The people living in Gaza are living in the world’s biggest open-air prison. They live in a permanent state of apartheid. Just under 50% of the people living there are children. Israel is using white phosphorous bombs—an international war crime. They have turned off electricity & water to the people living in Gaza. Multiple times, Israel has bombed refugee sites, killing hundreds. They have killed thousands of children as they openly attack civilian sites. Nearly HALF of the housing units in Gaza—one of the most densely populated places on the planet—have been destroyed by the bombs being dropped by Israel.

More than 45% of all housing units in Gaza are destroyed.

45%. Almost half of all housing in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/hSXXNgGpe6
— روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) November 2, 2023

The world will remember. We will not forget. pic.twitter.com/c1CZcqRNKn
— Ahmed Alnaouq (@AlnaouqA) November 3, 2023

Israel dropped almost as many bombs in Gaza in one week as the U.S. did in Afghanistan in one year — the heaviest year.

Gaza is 141 sq miles.

Afghanistan is 252,071 sq miles. https://t.co/Fo0u2hIdzv pic.twitter.com/rBRWczI29x
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) November 6, 2023

And they do all of these horrific things with the support of the United States government. As the world cries out for a ceasefire, American politicians on both sides of the aisle have reaffirmed their support for Israel’s war crimes. It seriously makes me feel insane. Ta-Nehisi Coates is smarter & more eloquent than I could ever hope to be, and I need you to watch this video of him talking about how what is happening in Palestine is NOT complicated. Yes, the history of the region is complicated… But the MORALITY of what is currently happening is very clear: It’s an occupation. It’s oppression. It’s apartheid. It’s genocide. Please, please watch this video:

“You can’t behold evil and then return and not speak on it.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks about how an experience in Palestine illuminated the connections between the African American and Palestinian liberation struggles, and the moral responsibility to speak out. pic.twitter.com/y0HrXibUJz
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 2, 2023

Dozens of journalists have been killed. You can find the translation in the comments of the tweet below, but you really don’t even need it. You can see the emotion pouring from this journalist’s whole body as he talks about the atrocities he has seen and the murdered family of his colleague, killed by Israeli bombs.

We can’t take it anymore, we’re exhausted… We’re gonna get killed, it’s just a matter of when. There’s no protection, no impunity. These PPEs don’t protect us. Nothing protects journalists. We lose lives, one by one… Mohammed Abu Hatab was here, half an hour ago. pic.twitter.com/Ox8Wrrqsf9
— Rania Zabaneh (@RZabaneh) November 2, 2023

These pictures and these videos break my heart. I don’t want to post it here, but here is a link to video the aftermath of an Israeli attack on an ambulance because they thought a member of Hamas might be in one of the ambulances (Caution: It is VERY graphic).

https://twitter.com/khalilo1/status/1719782770572951637?s=20

Not everyone is staying silent. Some politicians and some celebrities are speaking up…

My statement on $14.3 billion in funding for Israel with absolutely no conditions on upholding human rights: pic.twitter.com/AX0hErzdpN
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) November 2, 2023

THANK YOU Angelina Jolie. pic.twitter.com/4LKxYUkr4I
— 🍉 (@filmsdaenerys) November 1, 2023

What feels most maddening is that any criticism of the war crimes Israel continues to commit in Gaza is met with accusations of antisemitism. And make no mistake, there is plenty of antisemitism out there… It is horrible & harmful, and where we see it, we need to loudly and consistently call it out. But for some people, any support for the Palestinian people or of a free Palestinian state is interpreted as anti-semitism. Wanting Israel to stop killing civilians and children who are trapped in a modern day concentration camp does NOT mean that you are antisemitic.

guys is it antisemitic to not want children to die? https://t.co/sqPuuSDV1o
— suri (@suricidal) November 2, 2023

A common refrain is that the people of Gaza kind of had this coming… Like “this is what they get for voting for Hamas.” But 47.3% of Gaza’s population are kids. 28% of the population is under NINE YEARS OLD. The last election where Hamas was elected into leadership was held in 2006. The nearly 5000 kids that Israel has killed were NOT voting in that election… They weren’t even born yet. And they have grown up in the poverty & incredible hardship that comes with living in a strict land & sea blockade—enforced by Israel—that prevents food, medicine, & people from moving across the border.

These numbers are deeply, deeply shocking & not remotely “normal” or typical even for modern warfare and aerial bombardment. After less than one month, this figure is already approaching the number of children killed during the Nazi’s blitz on London that lasted *eight* months. https://t.co/ApGJBzmOYz
— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) November 5, 2023

This is the pediatric cancer department. https://t.co/t5HW391LAQ
— Yumna (@yumna_patel) November 6, 2023

A few days ago, the mother of this five year old girl attempted to celebrate her daughter’s birthday while living in the war zone that is Gaza. The mother’s name is Doaa. She had her Ph.D. and was living in Gaza working as an Arabic and English instructor. About a week ago, she tweeted about how hard it was to simply find a cupcake to celebrate her daughter’s birthday. Three days ago, she & another of her daughters (7 years old) were killed by an Israeli airstrike. Let this break your heart. This has got to stop.

She tweeted this yesterday and today Israel killed her. God have mercy 💔 https://t.co/XPYmqQYbxX
— Francesca Tacchi 🫒🇵🇸🇦🇲 (@jackdaw_writes) November 5, 2023

These children being slaughtered are not terrorists. They are not members of Hamas. And they are NOT an acceptable casualty of war.

These are Aya and Abood Moghari. Israel killed them today.

Again, these are dangerous terrorists of Hamas. pic.twitter.com/IzKys3wvno
— Ahmed Alnaouq (@AlnaouqA) November 5, 2023

Imagine there was a violent gang was living somewhere in your neighborhood. And after a series of gang murders, the police decided to drop bombs on houses, schools, and hospitals in order to weed out the gang members. This is what is happening in Gaza. And it is not okay. Listen—If I am ever taken as a hostage, raped, or murdered by terrible people, and then those terrible people hide in a school or a hospital, I’d like to go on record as saying that I do NOT want you bomb that school or hospital—killing hundreds of kids in the bombings—because you think that’s the only way to get the bad guys. If you think that I would want you to do something like this, you don’t know me at all. This kind of thinking seems so monstrous to me.

So what can we do? We need to be putting as much pressure as possible on our representatives to CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE IMMEDIATELY. If you don’t know who your representatives are, you can put your zip code in ON THIS WEBSITE and it will tell you their name & give you their number. CALL THEM. In addition to that, speak up! Amplify the voices of people crying out for an end to the violence & carnage & genocide happening in Gaza right now. I guess that’s why I’m writing this: I mean, I want to inform people… Part of me is just angry & wants to vent… But really, a big part of me just wants to be on the record as speaking out AGAINST the genocide taking place right now. Calling for a ceasefire, calling for a free Palestine, and calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal attacks against the people of Gaza is NOT antisemitism. It’s just basic morality.

Thank you so much for reading. I have written on this subject before (HERE and HERE). It’s interesting to see my perspective progress… But one thing that HASN’T changed is that I believe God (in however the definition of that word has evolved for me) is more concerned with being on the side of the oppressed than God is concerned about who is getting the theology “right” (and I haven’t touched on the craziness that is Evangelicals believing that this conflict HAS to happen for Jesus to return). But without a doubt, the people of Gaza are being oppressed right now. PLEASE call your representative and demand a ceasefire. If you feel moved by the things I’ve written here, you can share this post. And if you value my writing and this blog, you can support me by BECOMING A PATRON or by leaving a tip ON PAYPAL or by Venmoing me at chris-boeskool

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Apartheid, Ceasefire, Doaa, Free Palestine, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Israel and Gaza, Stages of genocide, Ta-Nehisi Coates, War in Gaza | 2 Comments

Calvinism Attracts The Worst People… Here’s Why:

Posted on October 29, 2023 by theboeskool

I come from a long line of Calvinists. Both sides of my family run thick with both Reformed Theology and debilitating Dutchness. My grandfather was a Christian Reformed minister, and I’d bet that just about every one of my family members can tell you what the acrostic “TULIP” stands for. Even my education—from elementary through college—was steeped in this troubling tradition.

I say “troubling,” but please don’t read this as me saying “Calvinists are bad people.” Some of the sweetest, most loving & generous people I’ve ever known continue to embrace the reformed tradition. But not all Calvinists are in the same camp. It feels to me like there are three main groups of Calvinists in the world right now, and only one of them is truly… Depraved (for lack of a better word):

People who grew up in Reformed Christianity, and for whatever reason—be it lack of exposure to competing ideas, lack of desire or willingness to question an established authority, lack of interest in or free time to devote to wrestling with theological questions, or any number of other reasons—they never considered challenging the beliefs of their established tradition. The reason they stay is not necessarily due to ignorance or indifference… It might just be inertia.
People who have seen the inconsistencies & dangers in Reformed Theology, started pulling on the stray snags in the sweater of their religious tradition (exclusion & homophobia & the incongruent inflexiblity of a movement built of reform, to name a few), and—rather than puling those strings until they are wearing nothing, they’ve decided to dedicate themselves to mending that old sweater. They stay because of the deep ties to and deep love for the friends & family inside Calvinism… attempting to reform Reformed religion.
(This is the really gross one) People who are newly attracted to the way Calvinism explains and abdicates responsibility for the darkness of their own hearts. The worst of these are the awfully loud & loudly awful “Theobros” who run in packs online, feeding off each other’s depravity, like they’re actively trying to provide the world a living proof text for the Need For A Savior. “You don’t believe in Total Depravity?!?” they say… “Check THIS out!”

In short, the first group is sort of “This is my group & I don’t really feel like changing.” The second group believes “I can change it from the inside.” And the third group is like, “Wait, you’re telling me I can be as awful as I want to people on the internet, and I get to credit it to my religion?!? I’M IN!” To be fair, there is also a fourth group that consists of “It’s just not worth it anymore… I’m out.“ I can understand & sympathize with all of the groups. Except group number three. Number threes REALLY gross me out.

For those of you looking for a last minute Halloween costume idea…heobro

I’m trying to come up with an analogy, but I’m having a lot of trouble. They all seem so implausible… Slapping the elderly? People abusing kids as their “natural” inclination? Throwing rocks at cars off of an overpass, and thinking “Everybody does it”?!? It’s just so wild to think of TOTAL DEPRAVITY as our instinctive state of being. John Calvin used phrases like “utterly perverse” and “naturally hateful to God.” He said of humans that “everything which our mind conceives, meditates, plans, and resolves, is always evil.” What kind of deep-seated issues does someone have to have to not only embrace this view of his own heart, but also ascribe it to the whole of human nature?

But there are corners of christianity—mostly male, almost totally white, and predominantly bearded—who are rediscovering Calvinism and committing themselves to being public theologians, while pushing a worldview which STARTS from a place of “We are all utterly perverse.” And here’s the thing, guys: I’m with you about the “utterly perverse” part… Just not the “ALL” part. To me, it seems totally depraved to believe that we are incapable of doing anything good. If y’all want to form a group of like-minded bros who are bound together by their belief in their own depravity, I can’t stop you. But maybe leave the rest of us out of it. Brokenness? Sure. Propensity for evil? Fine. But if you’re incapable of seeing the good that people do each day, THAT seems like an appropriate example of “utterly perverse.” And anyway, John Calvin: If we’re so incapable of doing good, how’d you come up with that “good” theological framework? Checkmate, Johnny.

These pockets of new Calvinists have an inclination toward white christian nationalism, and it is almost always coupled with a good portion of misogyny and a disposition toward fascism. And I’m not sure if it’s a chicken or an egg thing. I don’t think Calvinism necessarily breeds fascism… My gut tells me these new adherents of Reformed Theology are a result of damaged people looking for a theological landing spot that doesn’t conflict with their toxic masculinity. It’s brokenness looking for an explanation rather than seeking a solution or a remedy. If you are a person who gets pleasure from being cruel to other people, you’d probably be drawn to a theology proclaiming that deep down we are ALL sadists.

But make no mistake: This new batch of Calvinists are drawn to the doctrine of Total Depravity in the very same way some trump cultists are drawn to embracing the term “Deplorables.” And the wide crossover on the Venn diagram of these two groups is NOT a coincidence. Not sure what—if anything—can be done about it… But seeing these parallels has made it easier for me to understand these folks, and maybe it will be of some help to you as well.

Thank you for reading. If you have any ideas for how to handle people who are drawn toward Depravity & Deplorability, I’d love to hear them. And if you’d like to support me, my writing, & this blog, you can BECOME A PATRON. If you’d like to leave a tip, you can do that ON PAYPAL or by Venmoing me at chris-boeskool. Stay hopeful & stay rational… If you can manage that. Love y’all.