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Trump supporting evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress thinks the coronavirus pandemic is 'background noise' when compared to the new SCOTUS vacancy. The pandemic had claimed almost 200,000 lives at the time of his tweet. It has now claimed over 200,000 lives
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| On the same day Americans coronavirus deaths reached over 200,000, Franklin Graham put out this tweet. He did not ask that anyone pray for the families of those who died. |
If there is one positive consequence coming from a Trump Administration, it's that he took only four years to reveal something which I have been trying to do for 14 - the fact that the religious right/anti-LGBTQ industry is comprised of lying soul-sucking charlatans. And he did that by simply giving them what they wanted in terms of power.
On Tuesday, an ugly milestone was reached during the coronavirus pandemic. Over 200,000 Americans have died from the virus. And almost seven million have been infected. However, this wasn't important to the group of Trump loving evangelicals Their minds were elsewhere, i.e .the fight over Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement on the Supreme Court.
According to Christian author John Fea:
For many American evangelicals, Christian witness in the political sphere comes down to overturning Roe v. Wade. This is why the court evangelicals are so gleeful about Trump getting another Supreme Court nomination. This is also why they say virtually nothing about the president’s mishandling of COVID-19 (nearly 200,000 dead), his separation of families at the Mexican border, his environmental policies that will one day make the planet incapable of sustaining life, and his racism. Look for yourself. The silence is deafening.
Start your research with these names:
Franklin Graham, James Robison, James Dobson, Jenetzen Franklin, Jack Graham, Paula White, Greg Laurie, John Hagee, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Johnnie Moore, Ralph Reed, Robert Jeffress, Eric Metaxas, Jim Garlow, Jack Hibbs, Harry Jackson Jr., Luke Barnett, Richard Land, Jim Bakker, David Barton, Steve Strang, Samuel Rodriguez, Charlie Kirk, Lance Wallnau, and Jenna Ellis.
I imagine (again, I only imagine) that some of these people were on a conference call the moment Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. They no doubt started the session with prayer for the Ginsburg’s family and perhaps even threw-out a prayer or two for those suffering through COVID-19. And then, when the pleasantries were done, they got down to strategizing about how to best support the president’s forthcoming Supreme Court nomination and the most effective ways of spinning their 2016 claims that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee–Merrick Garland–did not deserve a hearing in the Senate because it was an election year.
Fea also points out that there was one Trump evangelical who did in fact say something about the coronavirus pandemic before the 200,000 milestone was reached:
Robert Jeffress said that COVID-19 is mere “background noise” now that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead and Trump can appoint another conservative justice. Background noise? Tell that to the families who lost lives from COVID. What kind of world do we live in where a Christian pastor can say that the loss of 200,000 lives is unimportant and get virtually no push-back from his followers, all men and women who name the name of Jesus Christ?
Fea's post is worth a read, if you can stomach reading instance after instance of supposed Christian leaders practically drooling over themselves as they ruminate over a SCOTUS seat while Americans suffer from a pandemic in the backdrop.
