Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Susan Wright on the Right

Home
Politics and Religion
The Cult of Personality Has Overtaken Rational Thought in Politics

The Cult of Personality Has Overtaken Rational Thought in Politics

Last updated on: May 14, 2018 at 11:56 pm by Susan Wright

The Cult of Personality Has Overtaken Rational Thought in Politics 2018-05-14T23:56:31-04:00 Susan Wright

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I remember the scene after the 2008 election, when Barack Obama was announced as the new president – the first African-American president.

If they were being completely honest and accurate, he would have been touted as the first biracial president, still historic, but apparently, that doesn’t pack the same emotional punch.

Those early days of Obama’s presidency were ridiculous.

Unlike anything seen before, Obama was exalted, given a god-like status among Democrats and the usual leftist riff-raff.

There were children singing Obama hymns, for Pete’s sake!

It was peak cult-of-personality status, and those of us who couldn’t care less about the man’s skin color and only saw an ideological Marxist at the helm of this nation were beyond alarmed at the mindless adoration.

Through two terms of Barack Obama’s arrogance, executive orders, and destructive targeting of “other,” we counted down the days to when he would be gone and we would have the opportunity to restore sanity to the White House, again.

Yeah. That didn’t quite work out the way we’d hoped.

Apparently, the GOP wanted their own idol, and I missed it in the run-up to the 2016 election.

What is going on now with Donald Trump, a vile, abusive, corrupt, adulterous man, is worse than even the early Obama years.

Trump’s acolytes refer to him as “God’s man.” They compare him to Biblical heroes, and see absolutely nothing wrong with excusing his adulteries and unhinged behavior.

Trump’s followers are willing to forget everything that was once a part of being on the right and running hard to defend communist dictators and subversive personalities, simply because they say something nice about their idol.

We can expect the comparisons of Donald Trump to Jesus Christ to hit frightening levels, now that Trump has begun the process of moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

To be clear, Monday’s events were mere ceremony. They’re talking about nine years before the embassy is fully set up. For now, the embassy’s main operations are still in Tel Aviv, and the U.S. ambassador will be commuting between the two locations.

Trump has already signed the six month waiver – just as every other president since 1995 has done – that allows for putting off the actual move.

Smoke and mirrors.

Those are realities that mean nothing to those Trump devotees. They’d never allow you to get through enough of a conversation to explain to them what’s really going on.

What happened in Jerusalem on Monday was for Trump’s glory, and nothing else. He never thinks beyond how something will benefit his image or his ratings.

Trump would likely not be enjoying his time at the top of the mountain, if not for the dedicated service to the crown, given by outlets like Fox News and their opinion shows, masquerading as legitimate news.

We’re at a frightening time in our nation’s history.

Barack Obama may have started it (and he did), but the Trump worship has kicked it up to a level of ungodly man-worship.

Don’t believe it?

Take the case of Judge Jeanine Pirro, a longtime Trump pal and devoted surrogate. Her weekend program with Fox News is like nails on chalkboards, screeching and preening, going so overboard with her Trump worship that it borders on parody.

Pirro wrote a recent opinion piece and it is horrific.

“Donald Trump recognized history. He, like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods worshipped by Jews, Christians and, yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel,” Pirro wrote in an opinion piece over the weekend.

What prophecy? It doesn’t seem she could, or did name any specific prophecy. She did mention King Cyrus, who ordered the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt, but that’s not what happened here, at all. Not even close.

Maybe she’s talking about the rebuilding of the temple described in Ezekiel chapters 40-48.

Again, this is not what is happening. This is an embassy. The place of the new temple is on the Temple Mount, currently occupied by the Dome of the Rock. It will take a major upheaval, the tearing down of that mosque, in order to rebuild the third temple on its foundation.

All of that is quibbling over semantics in the worshipful world of Trump, however.

“Trump has reassured the world that his word is worth more than former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama, all of whom made the promise to move the American embassy to Jerusalem,” the celebrity judge wrote. “His word is worth more than any treaty and stronger than any UN resolution. He promised and he delivered.”

Yeah. But neither of them had Trump-levels of scrutiny and scandal going on around them that needed a distraction, either.

Sure, Clinton did with the Monica Lewinsky thing, but that was late in his second term.

The point is, Trump didn’t do this out of devotion to the Jewish people or the state of Israel. He did this because he knew it would get him the praise he desires.

He did this because he knew how dishonest his devotees are, and no one would ever bring up that he signed the waivers to prevent a full, actual move.

And for the rest of us, we see this ridiculous man being held up as more than a mere politician, and we mourn our nation.

Rational thought is dead.

Previous Post

May 14, 2018

It's Not Just Evangelical Christians Damaging Christian Witness to the World

Next Post

May 15, 2018 Colleges Are Offering Courses in Social Justice Organizing (and It's Ridiculous)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2021 November 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz