A Story of War, Lies, and Holy Hypocrisy

When it comes to war, even Trump's biggest critics suddenly believe every word. And they're using the Old Testament as their targeting map.

For years, the media and Democrats—and even some Republicans, folks like people over at the Lincoln Project and other places—have been telling us that Donald Trump is a pathological liar, a narcissist, hellbent on becoming a dictator. That he is indeed ready to overturn our entire democracy at any cost. He's willing to deploy troops into the streets, he's willing to arrest or detain elected officials. That he is a menace and a danger to us all.

But now, on the verge of Trump getting us into yet another war, with his support for Israel unchecked and undisputed, the Democrats, the media, and so many have gone silent. Their disdain and distrust of Donald Trump has all but become a whisper.

And now we're supposed to believe that when he says the Iranians are maybe two weeks away from a nuclear bomb, they print it in the New York Times as a headline. Without question. The Wahington Post literally used to have a tracker that showed how many times he had lied. A tracker that showed how many things he had done to violate the Constitution, to ignore court orders, to do various things that were completely against norms or laws. But not now. Not for war. It’s not as bad as the run up to Iraq. There are voices, even in mainstream media, calling for cooler heads to prevail. Still it’s to little to lowkey for such a huge moment.

Trump's own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress that Iran is NOT building a nuclear weapon. The U.S. intelligence services—which are not exactly what you'd call dovish people—say that the Iranians haven't even made the decision to make one. But when reporters asked Trump about this, you know what he said? Quote: "I don't care what she said." Then he cut her out of the war planning. That alone should be front-page news. Every. Damn. Day.

His own intelligence chief. The person who's supposed to know these things. And she's not even allowed into the discussions about the Iranian response, the U.S. response to the Iranian and Israeli war. They excluded her from the Camp David meeting. That's a bad sign. When you're shutting out your own intelligence director because she won't go along with your war narrative, that's a real bad sign.

It's eerily familiar to Iraq and Afghanistan—the same playbook, the same lies, the same march to war.

But for the one thing that seems to unite leaders in our business community, in our politics, and across our media—war and the death of civilians. When it comes to war, suddenly the divisions vanish. The outrage fades. And the same people who call Trump a threat to democracy fall in line behind his bombs.

Which is already happening in Iran, all while Israel is imposing a blockade that is starving the Palestinian people. Committing a genocide. Indiscriminately killing men, women, and children. And they've admitted it.

Leadership of the Israeli government has admitted that they are now going after civilians—people that run the government, the health ministry. They have said we're going to start doing political targeting and social targeting of elected officials. And they've also suggested that they're going to kill Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of Iran. Openly assassinate him. Which is, you know, they've committed so many violations of law.

One of the other claims that Democrats love to make is that we're a nation of laws, that we respect laws. And that would include international law—things like genocide, things like assassinations. But we don't.

And then here we are, ready again to spill blood and treasure for someone else's war.

The Christian church across the street from me flies two flags: American and Israeli. Not a cross. Not a message of peace. Two flags of nations, side by side, like they're the same cause. Like bombing Gaza is somehow what Jesus would do.

Watching this Tucker Carlson clip with Ted Cruz, one of Ted Cruz's basis for supporting Israel is something he learned in Bible school as a kid. Some line from the Old Testament that those who stand with Israel will be blessed and those who don't, won't be. Or some shit like that.

And you know, not only do we have a separation of church and state, it's fucking insane that we're picking some religious text to dictate our foreign policy. To back the murdering of civilians and the starving of children, the blowing up of limbs.

We're not a Christian nation—our Constitution says so. We do not go to war over prophecy. We do not bomb civilians because of something a senator remembers from Bible school.

Christianity at its heart, at its core, the actual teachings of Jesus Christ ought to be the framework for an amazing place to live. If the politicians who invoke his name so often actually lived by the teachings of their Messiah, what you'd see is a system working to uplift the poor, house and feed people, clothe the poverty-stricken. They'd be teaching people to “fish”, producing capacity, making sure life's improving. We'd be building cities, building houses, building electrical grids that don't pollute the earth. We'd be good stewards.

Instead, they use it to justify wars. To export bombs instead of building schools. To kill instead of heal.

I thought, as Christians, that the New Testament sort of replaced the Old Testament. That we moved on beyond that. That it was about love thy neighbor and brother. I thought that in that faith—and maybe I'm wrong—but I thought that in that faith, they had moved away from the Old Testament. That the eye for an eye was no longer the way it went, that it made the whole world blind. I thought that the Messiah had come and delivered a new message, the good word, the New Testament, and that all of that Old Testament thinking was now, if not obsolete, at least old thinking—a thing of the past.

Am I wrong in that assumption? Am I misunderstanding their religion? Or are they misunderstanding it themselves?

I can tell you, growing up here in East Tennessee, one of the reasons I learned to detest their version of Christianity was because I saw them out there in the world more obsessed with people's sexuality, sexual conduct, their social conduct, and what kind of clothes they wore to Sunday school or to church. Rather than out there helping people. Rather than out there clothing the unclothed, housing the homeless and feeding the hungry. They were full of shit, and it made me resent the hell out of them.

But that's not Christianity. That's the perversion of it. That's the TV preacher bullshit. That's the weaponization of faith for power and profit.

What's happening is not holy. It's not righteous. And it damn sure isn't legal. It's murder, starvation, and chaos—wrapped in a flag and blessed by a pulpit.

Despite their best efforts, we're not a Christian nation. And it's insane to think that we would go to war because the first book of a Bible tells us so—especially when they ignore everything their Messiah actually taught.

I don't want to kill or die for their perversion of religion. I don't want my kids sent to war over some senator's twisted Sunday school lesson. I don't want my neighbors' kids coming home in boxes for a prophecy that contradicts everything their Messiah preached.

If they actually followed Jesus, we'd be exporting hope, not horror. We'd be known for our hospitals, not our bombs. We'd be the nation that feeds the hungry, not the one that creates more of them.

A church that beats the drums of war is, in my opinion, not one worth respecting. Not this weaponized version they're selling. Not this Old Testament war-mongering dressed up in a cross. And certainly not this unholy alliance of politics and perverted prophecy that sends our children to die for someone else's interpretation of God.

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