They'll convenientlyskip over every part in scripture that demands morality and self-restraint, and holds them accountable to their actions. Oh, and literally all of Jesus' teachings, lol. Merciless "Christians" are a little bit like "dry water".

Revelations 13: 16-17

And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Most organized religions don't cultivate empathy, especially the ones considered Abrahamic. It probably inhibits it.

It's all about their gods saying "do these things and you won't suffer at my hands." Followers don't get to think about whether something is correct or the right thing to do. They're too busy thinking about if it's going to count as a sin.

Having lived in Utah for way too long, I have seen this among the Mor[m]ons. They'll do "good works" but it's very impersonal most of the time.

It's about grinding the maximum blessings with the least amount of effort. That doesn't lend itself to empathy.

Especially with the whole temple thing. Spend a couple of hours cosplaying as an avatar for a dead person and still get all the blessings as if you helped a living person in a tight spot.

Don't forget the flipping tables, beating bankers and money-lenders, and saying that rich people don't go to Heaven.

It won't. There's too many other assets implanted. Vance is no better and he at least knows when to shut the fuck up.

sure as hell wasnt on my bingo card.

He’s not, but the fundamentalist Christians have decided he’s their hero.

Would it be better if he was, though?

Happiness is small moments. Little dots of hope in a sea of despair and misery.

You go to work. Autopilot through the day. Then at lunch or on break you get that sandwich you really love from a nearby shop or your favorite spot. You have that momentary respite before returning to whatever drudgery you're forced to endure to live in this hole. Now expand that to cover everything all the time. Might be a sandwich. Might be a new episode of your favorite show. A hug from your partner or child.

Tiny moments of joy.

Doe 174 dying is a tiny moment of joy that a whole lot of people will get a whole lot of joy from. So yeah. It'll be worth it. And I'll applaud it no matter how it happens.

Is it a movement or is it a trump cult?

Jesus said very specifically to feed, clothe, and house people in need, and that even letting the poor live on your property and eat your food isn't enough to keep you out of hell if you don't actually keep them safe and fed enough. He REALLY insisted, he talked about prisoners rights repeatedly. I've never heard of a single church trying to improve prisoners lives. Not one. Someone did the math and discovered that if every building used for religious worship sponsored two people. Housed two homeless people, there would be no homelessness. That's it. Two people. Now assuming just Christian churches would make those numbers harder, let's go ahead and double that number even though that's impossible because the majority of places of worship are Christian in the US by a lot more than 50%, but let's just pretend it's 4 people a Christian church. That's VERY LITTLE EFFORT that would end all homelessness in America.

Try and build a halfway house anywhere in the US and what happens? Thousands of people suddenly are motivated to show up to town hall meetings and sign petitions!

Figure it took them 30 years just to take Salman Rushdie’s eye.

not that I wouldn't love this win for religious fundamentalist posturing, it's not going to play out like that for Fruity Tootsie the Orange Teletubby. he's not the same.

It took 40 years

When two tribes go to war.

Don't need to international news supplies all the info I've needed for the last 40+ years.