Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:14 pm
The Republican Party’s alternate reality is a crazy place, one that bears not even a passing resemblance to that we actually inhabit, or that the rest of us experience day to day. In their world, however, if it is not the Illuminati or New World Order you have to fear, it’s witches.
Robert Maginnis, Right Wing Watch tells us, is “a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Family Research Council senior fellow.” He’s also flipping crazy, to use the vernacular.
Maginnis told televangelist Jim Bakker that witches “are advising high-ranking government officials in Washington, D.C.” and that “there’s demonic forces in that city.”
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Watch courtesy of Right Wing Watch:
“I know that there’s demonic forces in that city. I have personally met people that refer to themselves as witches, people that say they advise the senior leadership of the country. We invite within the federal government people to advise us and often some of those advisers, I think, have evil motivations, things that you and I would not approve of.â€
Oh dear. Where to begin?
What is ridiculous about Magannis’ concerns is that they are entirely contrary to the United States Constitution he swore to uphold as an army officer. There are no religious tests – they are forbidden by Article Six, Section 3 of the Constitution. And the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, which means it doesn’t matter if it is a Muslim, a Christian, an Atheist, or a witch who is doing the advising.
Maginnis and Jim Bakker may not approve, but then how many of us look forward to people like them advising a president? There are things in government none of us like, but that is part of living in a democracy.
Jim Bakker takes the indefensible position that even though no Christians are being shot or arrested or imprisoned, that Christians are being persecuted in this country. He claimed,
“[T]he cross is being degraded in America, the Christians are being—the very thing Jesus said would happen in the Last Days, that we would be, because we serve God, we would be attacked, we would be hated for the name of Christ’s sake. It seems like our nation is kinder to other faiths and Christianity is being put down further and further and further.â€
It is remarkable that conservatives tell us African-Americans are not subject to racism even while they’re being gunned down by police, while Christians, who are not, are persecuted.
Conservatives have sadly adopted the position, now being mainstreamed by Donald Trump, that only “white Christian Americans” are really Americans and that everyone else has to somehow conform to their beliefs. People have often questioned the importance of taking notice of these people.
Donald Trump’s campaign, which has brought them all under his ideological tent, should be answer enough. These are no longer ideological outliers. These are the people from whom Donald Trump is now taking advise; the people who have named him their messiah.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
