All posts tagged "Christian"

President Donald Trump was reportedly trying to win back voters he offended in recent weeks with a new stunt, according to reports on Wednesday.

The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt described how Trump's attempt Tuesday night to read from the Bible — the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles — was a move that left religious scholars unimpressed.

"Trump didn’t actually read it to the whole of the US, of course," Gabbatt wrote. "Instead he read it, in a taped message that was broadcast via a slightly janky livestream, to anyone enthusiastic enough to tune into a weeklong, rightwing, 'America Reads the Bible' event where 500 people – a collection of true believers, Republican politicians, grifters, weirdos, and homophobes – are taking it in turns to read the Bible cover to cover."...

Former President Donald Trump has empowered a fringe movement of Christian extremists known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), according to the Religion News Service.

This movement has previously been flagged by scholars as a serious new political force preparing to flex its muscles in the 2024 election.

"This NAR movement runs like a golden thread through recent flashpoints of evangelical Christian support for Donald Trump, Christian nationalism and Christian extremism," said the report. "NAR leaders were central to the mobilization of Christians for the Jan. 6 insurrection, and many apostles, prophets and NAR symbols were present around the U.S. Capitol that day. NAR ideas helped inspire the recent controversy surrounding the Alabama Supreme Court in vitro fertilization ruling. House Speaker Mike Johnson flies a flag outside his office that is closely associated with the NAR’s aggressive prophetic politics."...

Guilty or innocent — the damage done to the Don when he appears for the first time as a defendant in a Lower Manhattan criminal court on Monday will purportedly hurt his standing with a key part of his MAGA base: the evangelicals.

Former Colorado congressman Ken Buck made clear that former President Donald Trump could be badly bruised once trial gets going and unsavory details go public in the case accusing him of fudging his business records to block from public view payments to prevent alleged affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal from going public weeks before the 2016 election.

"The key to me is the essence of this case has to do with Donald Trump having an extramarital affair; they are paying a woman to have that affair and then paying that woman to not talk about the affair during the campaign for president in 2016," the now-citizen Buck said during an appearance on CNN. ...

One of the largest private Christian universities in the United States is being slapped with a hefty fine for allegedly misleading graduate students about the cost of their programs, reported the Associated Press on Tuesday.

"Grand Canyon University, which has more than 100,000 students, mostly in online programs, faces the largest fine of its kind ever issued by the U.S. Education Department. The university dismissed the allegations as 'lies and deceptive statements,'" reported Collin Binkley. "'Grand Canyon University categorically denies every accusation in the Department of Education’s statement and will take all measures necessary to defend itself from these false accusations,' the school said in a five-page statement."

"An Education Department investigation found that Grand Canyon lied to more than 7,500 current and former students about the cost of its doctoral programs," said the report. "As far back as 2017, the university told students its doctoral programs would cost between $40,000 and $49,000. The department found that less than 2% of graduates completed programs within the range, with 78% paying an additional $10,000 to $12,000." According to the report, that extra cost came from "continuation courses" students were told they needed to complete dissertation requirements....

The Supreme Court is taking the side of an extreme, declining minority of religious fundamentalists who want to use state power to preserve the centrality they once enjoyed in public society, argued Americans United for Separation of Church and State CEO Rachel Laser on MSNBC Friday.

This came after the court issued a ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis, exempting a Colorado website designer from an anti-LGBTQ discrimination law that she hadn't even been accused of breaking in the first place.

"The court is on the other side of 80 percent of Americans that want gun safety, the kinds of things they struck down earlier in the year," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "65 to 70 percent of Americans think choice is a better way to exist as a country. Marriage equality, 71 percent of all Americans think that should be the law of the land. Clearly under assault. You go down the line. And the Supreme Court doesn't even represent the whole of the Republican Party ... the United States Supreme Court today is more extreme than the most extreme version of the Republican Party that's existed in my lifetime. They will give speeches. They will complain about attacks on their legitimacy. Their legitimacy's under attack because they stand with about 20 percent of all Americans."...

Former president Donald Trump on Saturday claimed his multiple indictments are "a great badge of courage," essentially welcoming authorities to charge him in other cases while speaking at a Christian event in Washington, D.C., to promote his bid for the Republican nomination for presidency in 2024.

Trump, who is currently facing federal charges in Florida in connection with his alleged hoarding of confidential records from his time in executive office, spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's event, entitled "Road to Majority." Among other things, Trump took aim at atheists and communists, all while promising to "evict crooked Joe Biden."

When addressing the criminal cases against him, Trump claimed on stage that the Espionage Act has nothing to do with his case, in which he faces numerous felony charges for his purported retaining and potential sharing of documents from the presidency, and that it should instead be governed by the Presidential Records Act, a civil act. Trump noted that, in school, he "never learned" about being indicted or criminally charged....