Here is a key to all this crap. A slogan of fast food but it hits home today. "Have it your way."

When the reporter confronted preacher Craig [Lott? Lock?] about his rants on pedophile rings ("Biden" et al), the 2020 election ("fraudulent" ), and covid ("leftist conspiracy" ), his reply was so disingenuous.

He said, "I'm preaching to a one-sided crowd. They like what I say because I'm saying what they feel. They don't even [?] know what the evidence is. Kinda like Jesus - he would say things to make you do your own investigating. I kinda hope they'd call me on it so the evidence would come to the surface."

Oh, REALLY??

It is alarming. There's no room for complacency - these extremists and liars are dangerous to democracy. But there are a couple of encouraging points --

Trump won a greater percentage of the white evangelical vote in 2020 than he did in 2016, yet he still lost in 2020. (But republicans are working hard on voter suppression for the next couple rounds.)

The deep divide among traditional fundamentalists and the Christian nationalists is a good thing!

Those pastors were part of the problem the whole damn time!

Those pastors knew what they were contributing to when they refused to purge their religious practice of America's terrifying norms of discrimination.

They knew what they were doing when they structured their religious organizations in a manner that excluded accountability to harmed communities.

Those pastors are simply concerned that they have lost control.

They have always been the fake religion, they have always been an excuse to justify the conspiratorial exercise of authoritarian power. The trifecta of classism, racism and sexism have always been the true de facto state religions of the United States of America...

These assholes are just worried that they will lose status.

Definitely scary. They are nearing completion of another mega church here. I do not feel like I can stay here much longer. I might want to winter here, but that’s it.