Beginning to see a pattern here:
"You're fighting for light," Johnson said while introducing Moore. "Christians throughout the world, quite frankly, under persecution. Christians always are the ones who get persecuted, beheaded, slaughtered."
"They're always the ones who get trod under and nobody ever talks about them and it's evil," he continued. "You're a man of faith yourself that is actually talking about it."
For his part, Moore claimed that protesters had demonstrated outside of his church in West Virginia, but did not allege they broke the law.
"I had people protesting me outside of my church. My family and I going on," he explained. "They showed up from wherever the hell they're from. And, you know, me and my family were just trying to go to Mass. And here they are. You know, I mean, no, no space is sacred to them."
Sounds like they respected the worship space, and even all the interior space of the building. How do you feel about churches as “sanctuary” from ICE agents?
"Now we just got to make sure that James Talarico doesn't get into the Senate," Johnson said before ending the interview. "I mean, that guy saying that Jesus loves abortion and loves transing of the kids and that God is non-binary. I feel dirty, Congressman, just repeating his blasphemes and heresy on my show. I'm telling you what he says. It is antithetical to the Bible. It's actually anti-Christian. It's actually Antichrist's ideology."
"I think he is demonic," Moore remarked. "And I think we need to keep an eye on that and watchful eye because there are other forces of work in my view."
Johnson replied: "It's a defiling of God's order. It's a defiling of God's nature. Yeah. And it's pretty simple. It's nice. Even a even a, even a community college graduate like me can get it, Congressman."
Yes, “Xtian” is being very narrowly defined, there. Julian of Norwich described God as both Father and Mother. And I would remind you that when some of his followers went to Jesus to complain that non-members o the group were casting out demons in Jesus’ name, he told them that whoever was not against them, was with them. Which is a much more inclusive reversal of the more common, “whoever is not with us, is against us.”
I think Talarico is following the example of Jesus, who also accepted everybody in 1st century Palestine, which got him in trouble with people who said he was violating “God’s order.” As Jesus also said: “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged.” That’s a hard one for all of us.
But these reactions to Talarico remind me of Lucy in a Peanuts strip. Mickle in her wroth, she appears chasing her brother Linus, who finally turns and reasons with her about how brothers and sisters should work out their differences. Before he can finish, she slugs him, and explains to another character as she walks away: “I had to hit him quick. He was beginning to make sense.”
That’s what these opponents of Talarico fear the most. That he’s beginning to make sense. They can’t stand that.
