Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:29 pm
Bill Maher took the opportunity on his last show before the election to let loose on evangelical support for Donald Trump, and it was brilliant. He began with thanks:
“We must thank Donald Trump for the one good thing he did: he exposed evangelicals…as the shameless hypocrites they’ve always been.”
He went on to say, “I don’t know if you noticed, but Republicans didn’t get to play the Jesus card this time around because it’s hard to bring up the Ten Commandments when your candidate spends his life breaking all of them.”
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It is true that Trump, unlike any other candidate they could have chosen, has played merry hob with the Religious Right’s claim to “family values.
Trump has exposed the moral relativism at the heart of conservative Christianity. Supposed to be a bulwark against moral relativism, evangelicals are instead a hotbed of expediency where the means, however deplorable, justify the ends.
Thank Trump for the one good thing he did. He exposed Evangelicals, who are his supporters as the shameless hippocrates they've always been. pic.twitter.com/hqOpc1oKMR
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) November 5, 2016
Maher continued with a checklist illustrating the differences between their candidate and the guy they say they worship. “Trump’s commandments,” he said, “are like the regular commandments with ‘LOL’ at the end.”
“Adultery? Check. Cursing? Check. Stealing? Check. Bearing false witness? Check.” Showing a photo of Putin, Maher asks, “False idols? Oh yeah.”
Maher went on to brutally expose the deplorable behavior of Trump by comparing it to what Thomas Jefferson called “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.â€
“Trump has nothing in common with Jesus, who was from the Middle East. Trump wouldn’t even let him in the country.
“Jesus healed the blind; Trump mocks the handicapped.”
“Jesus turned the other cheek; Trump grabs your pussy.”
“Jesus turned water into wine; Trump just whines.”
“The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s wife’; Trump says, ‘Fine, what about my daughter?'”
Maher reminded the audience,
“In the primaries, evangelicals had a whole bouquet of religious nuts to choose from: Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson…But they went for the foul-mouthed, thrice-married pussy-grabber.”
And then he gave a shout-out to the Mormons:
“With one exception, and I never thought I would hear myself say this, but let’s hear it for the Mormons. The Mormons, who bailed on Trump ‘bigly.’ White evangelicals go for Trump over Hillary 75 to 14, but only 19 percent of Utah Mormons have a favorable view of orange Hitler. Because apparently, the Mormons feel you shouldn’t vote for a lying, infantile scumbag just because he’s on your team.”
Donald Trump has been a ‘yuge’ disaster for evangelicals. The Religious Right has been exposed not only as morally relativistic, with right or wrong being measured on a sliding scale rather than inscribed on stone, but as hypocrites who continue to insist Trump is somehow a messiah, chosen by God to lead America to a greatness that somehow includes only angry white people.
Bill Maher just got all up in their faces and let them – and America – know what hypocrites they are. If the GOP will fall into disarray with a Trump defeat, evangelicals will also find themselves with a lot of explaining to do.
Photo: Screen capture
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.
