(Full transcription of Marco Rubio's latest TV campaign ad)
“Our goal is eternity, the ability to live alongside our Creator and for all time, to accept the free gift of salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ. The struggle on a daily basis as a Christian is to remind ourselves of this. The purpose of our life is to cooperate with God’s plan, to those who much has been given much is expected and we will be asked to account for that. Were your treasures stored up on earth or in Heaven and to me I try to allow that to influence me in everything that I do.”
45 comments
God’s plan, to those who much has been given much is expected and we will be asked to account for that.
Right! And the Republicans' interpretation of that is that the rich are expected to become richer and richer and to amass as much profit as humanly possible. They expect Jesus to ask them in heaven "why didn't you screw over your workers more and profit from their labor to the ultimate?"
"Were your treasures stored up on earth or in Heaven"
If having your treasures stored on Earth is bad, then why does your party in general so rabidly support obscenely rich people becoming even more obscenely rich while so many others work their asses off and still live in poverty? Or is it okay if you're greedy as long as you love Jesus?
I think this is fundie if you think about it in context. This is a political ad for a man trying to become the leader of a large, diverse country. Not every American is religious and not every American is Christian. A man is trying to sell himself as a political leader based on "eternity" and "treasures" stored up in Heaven. It just doesn't sit right.
Even Trump is focusing on the issues. Sure he is focusing on bigoted issues like building the American Wall and tracking the moves of American muslims but those are still issues.
This, this is a complete avoidance of issues while trying to play on faith and emotion.
Rubio you fail.
@NeoMatrix
I don't think being "explicitly Christian" makes something fundie. It's just a religion.
Edit: I put quotes around the words "explicitly Christian" because I thought I read that in NeoMatrix's comment. I don't see it there anymore. Now I'm not sure whether I imagined it or if it's been edited out. As usual, my anxiety causes me to note this and feel bad about it.
@ NeoMatrix
"which automatically makes him Christian, and therefore fundie"
"And no, Christianity is not just a "religion". It's a political ideology."
Because the GOP and a minority of evangelical loudmouths have attempted to brand it as such doesn't make it fact. The US is 70% Christian and has a Democratic majority.
@creativerealms
Yes, I agree with you. I said something similar in my first comment. (#1903271)
I wrote the reply to NeoMatrix because I thought they were saying being "explicitly Christian" was fundy in its own right.
The purpose of our life is to cooperate with God’s plan,
Does anybody have a clue as to what this magnificent "plan" is?
The whole damned book is damned if you do/damned if you don't.
But, of course, there are no contradictions.
@NeoMatrix
I hear there are nowadays plenty of atheists in the Republican Party.
Honestly, I think I trust liberal Christians over atheists/anti-theists like yourself.
Other than identifying God as specifically Christian, this is not that different to the sort of religious talk once used by FDR and other liberal candidates for office. There's nothing here that's inherently fundie.
@ NeoMatrix
If all Christians were fundamentalist, the word "fundamentalist" would never have been invented; it was created to distinguish those who believed in the "Fundamentals" from others.
@#1903352
Except not really, because the GOP has gerrymandered so much that it's now a permanent majority party across the US. Christianity is also being enshrined in US state laws, most notably through abortion restrictions and "freedom" acts. So yes, it is a political ideology - one that's about to take over the US.
Also, the Democrats do not have a majority, considering the GOP keeps getting elected and Trump isn't locked in a mental institution right now.
@TimeToTurn
You would seriously trust Christians in government with your well-being? I would say that's rather foolish and naive. I mean, we've got one named Scott Walker in my state right now. Guess what he's done?
Well by definition you are running for leadership of a kingdom of earth, since as I understand it the big G is lord of the kingdom of heaven.
Given this, your disregard for earthly issues makes me disinclined to consider you a viable candidate for the position of POTUS.
Furthermore, the poor track record of civilizations focused more on the hereafter than the here-and-now leaves me apprehensive as to any future with you in a position of power.
Meh! An election ad aimed at a particular demographic. Namely, Middle America, sons of the soil, salt of the earth, you know, morons!
"Were your treasures stored up on earth or in Heaven and to me I try to allow that to influence me in everything that I do"
See you on Election Day later this year: as you - not a candidate - votes for the Socialist Bernie Sanders, then.
...what, you haven't gotten up to Matthew 19:21 yet? Well, you're not a Christian if you haven't read your Bible: Properly. [/Isaac Asimov]
I have. Cover-to-cover. Enjoy your paradox, Pubio, m'boy...! >:D
Good gravy! This sounds more like an ad for a Church! Rubio; You and your ilk are WEIRD!
@ TheGoose
....and said country is supposed to be a secular government!
When you read between the lines, he's basically admitting that he'll cause a crapsack world but (all the good stuff is for the afterlife, not here-and-now). *shivers*
All Dominionists should burn!
@ TimeToTurn
Uh; The Krylon is for spray-painting, not sniffing.
@ NeoMatrix
Would you like a helmet for that feathery pate, Chicken Little?
Ah, NeoMatrix, the living reminder that one needs no god to be a fundamentalist.
Do you really think that rejecting God would cure them oftheir bigotries? Then you are even more naive than I am. They would.just find new, pseudoscientific rationalisations - see "Scientific Racism" and that Alpha/Beta Sexual Market Value Evolutionary Pop Psychology nonsense so popular among neo-misogynists. Critical thinking may often lead to atheism, but being an atheist does not make you a critical thinker.
As others said. Out of context, it's basic religious thought. You think whatever you want about it, but that's it. Maybe wrong, but not fundie. As long as you just take the sentence in an isolated way.
The RWTF is that he paid an ad, with funds given by people wanting him to be president of the mightiest country in the world, for just displaying a statement that has nothing to do with the job. That's fundie.
If this were being said in a church or just in a general conversation, it wouldn't be fundie.
However, considering this message is being used in an effort to gain support for someone attempting to win the highest public office of a country where there's supposed to be a wall between church and state... I'd say it's fundie as hell.
@SpukiKitty
Or maybe it's because I'm actually concerned for my own future and the future of other Americans?
@The Mimic Octopus
It wouldn't cure them, but it would seriously help.
@SpukiKitty
And yet I live in a country which has a state religion: the Church of England.
Funny that, eh NeoMatrix...?!
I wonder what Pubio would think of certain peers in the House of Lords who dropped their opposition to same-sex marriage, thus the bill breezing through Parliament & rubber-stamped by MPs prior to a certain SCOTUS decision a couple of years later...? Those peers being bishops & archbishops in said Church of England.
Marky-boy here should realise that, due to a certain something called the Establishment Clause - put into his country's Constitution precisely because of who they were fighting against prior to said document being drawn up: King George III, the then head of the Church of England - religion has no right to exist in US politics.
...unless you want to surrender to our now head of the C-of-E, Queen Elizabeth II, then I suggest you stop being so fundie , Pubio.
@#1903472
And every day St. Peter runs by screaming:
"Everything you know is wrong!
Black is white, up is down and short is long!
And everything you thought was just so important doesn't matter!"
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why are so many people still fixated on Jesus' sacrifice and the crazy religions spawned around it, anyway? Whereas Jesus was temporarily inconvenienced for "our sins" to supposedly redeem us through some cosmic karma, the Doctor simply blows that ancient Jewish prophet out of the water. Our favorite Time-Lord suffered and died a slow, painful death, every single day for billions of years, just to save ONE single person who was unjustly killed.
When Jesus dies a few billion more times, Rubio or any other Religious pundit, give me a call.
If your focus is going to be on your treasures stored up in heaven and you're going to let that influence you in everything you do, you should be looking for employment as a clergyman, not running for president.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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