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This is really helpful & (to my mind) compassionate work from @plmanseau on the conception of self and others @PressSec sustains & draws from. I'm a Nashville lifer, so....I breathe this air. We have to get granular in the ways we talk about it. https://newrepublic.com/article/158042/kayleigh-mcenany-trump-christian-martyrdom-columbine
To describe this culture critically (or ask questions about it) isn't to hate it. I view @michaelwsmith as a mentor even as Peter Manseau helps me remember that he has a role in the lore that drives @PressSec's moral formation:
Her adversarial posture (a persecution complex) toward all who questions the mindset of the white supremacist sexual predator who (for now) commands our military has a backstory. It's a lot like mine and, I imagine, @ericmetaxas' & @JaySekulow's & more people than I can count.
I call it #ThePrayerTrade broadly & the #NashvilleNexus specifically. It's a real thing within which I'm situated & within which I've tried to offer loving critique. I'm a former employee of the church, for instance, that claims @MarshaBlackburn as a member.
Here's Peter's review of a book I wrote while I worked there. His critique of my work is/was correct, and I've updated (& hopefully improved) the book since. It was the best I could manage, at the time, but my blinders were obvious. https://therevealer.org/16921/
His gift of thoughtfulness 2 me is of a piece with what he's offering @PressSec (if she'll have it). I pray she will. Thoughtful feedback, same as it ever was, is what we have for each other. Please amplify it wherever you find it ESPECIALLY if (like me) you live within the cult.
In time, Peter's friend, @JeffSharlet (who I also have yet to meet in person), eventually invited me to talk about the #NashvilleNexus in @KtBuddha (which I've drawn upon for years). Here's me on @mountain_goats AND the #NashvilleNexus: https://killingthebuddha.com/mag/exegesis/experiments-in-sincerity/
John D. & Peter M. & Jeff S. all do that thing of talking about where they are & where they've been with open hands. I think doing this as often as possible is how the work gets done. If Thoreau's right and everyone craves reality. Maybe it'll keep catching on here & there.
The #PrayerTrade gets complicated. Given her interest in martyrdom, I don't think @PressSec ever imagined that she'd make light of gassing priests on behalf of a White House controlled by a white supremacist sexual predator, but here we are. https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1270061356805283841
#PrayerTrade is exhausting. Did @PressSec ever imagine that she'd go from dedicating a book to a teenager who, it is alleged, died for her faith to excusing men in uniform who brutalized a man for sharing his? Mercy. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1270733231424442373
And of course, this too is #NashvilleNexus. Billy Graham once asked Will Campbell to join him onstage at a revival. Will declined, not because he disliked Billy, but b/c of a mechanism he found distasteful. That mechanism is #ThePrayerTrade. https://twitter.com/johntedge/status/1271827752300281858
I don't think @PressSec ever planned to defend a white supremacist sexual predator's right to post videos of children on Twitter. I also imagine @michaelwsmith wishes @GovBillLee would stop ordering State Troopers to rough up young people. https://twitter.com/alexsalvinews/status/1274039793811218432 #PrayerTrade
And to deepen the picture, here's @JeffSharlet with a deep dive on some of the unfamous folks who'll risk their own lives & the lives of others to get closer to what feels like the heat of power. It takes a lot of cults to make culture. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel?mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=vf&utm_source=twitter&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social
Relatedly, I could name 100 #prayertrade-centric people in Nashville who (like @PressSec) know in their hearts that 45 incites violence with speech like this, but (like @PressSec) appear unwilling to risk their spot by saying so. Clarifying times. https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1275120287487590401
Heartbreaking moment for a woman who once celebrated those who gave the full measure of their devotion by telling the truth & dying for it. I hope those who know @PressSec will tell her, lovingly & firmly, that she has the power to step away. https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1275161133557694464
Same song & dance. If you persuade yourself that your defense of #MAGA (white supremacist terror's attempted rebrand) is a defense of Christ, Christianity, & civilization itself, all perceived persecution reinforces your position. Pray for @JennaEllisEsq. https://twitter.com/JennaEllisEsq/status/1275215576684802049
Given her earlier interests in religious liberty, I spy a parallel universe in which @PressSec advocates for Christian prisoner of conscience, Reality Winner, & demands that our government return the Bible we stole. In this one, the script is different. https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1275811737112100865
It's true that many within the #NashvilleNexus & #ThePrayerTrade don't know about Dorothy Day or Daniel Berrigan, but it didn't have to be that way. Maybe @nytdavidbrooks will let his alleged interest in day take him to @martingugino https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/different-kind-catholic via @plmanseau
I try to write 4 & w/in the world I'm describing ( @jonforeman of @switchfoot, for instance, is my brother). @richardabailey was kind enough to highlight a page that illustrates this effort. In the parallel universe I fantasize, @presssec would've read it. https://twitter.com/richardabailey/status/1275910927179792387
Really helpful zoom out from @emmaogreen. Because I believe @PressSec has lately signed on as a willing host body of #whitesupremacistantichristpoltergeist, I don't think it's true that "She is peaceful in her faith," but I get it. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/kayleigh-mcenany-trump-evangelicals/613471/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share #PrayerTrade
I keep returning to @PressSec's words to @DavidBrodyCBN: "I know who I’m ultimately working for, and it’s the big guy upstairs.” It's a common expression that often strikes me as a folksy-sounding appeal to a white supremacist conception of God. Thoughts? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/kayleigh-mcenany-trump-evangelicals/613471/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
We become what we mediate. I hope @presssec knows she doesn't have to live like this. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1277661441227657221
I can imagine getting paid to be one version of myself at a young age & losing a healthy sense of who I am. When she dedicated a book to a shooting victim, I don't think @PressSec ever imagined she'd speak this way about the Celebrity Apprentice. https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1278057322351337479
#ThePrayerTrade gets complicated. We become the content we think we're only mediating. Same as it ever was. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1278431494139232256
#ThePrayerTrade sustains contradictions. @michaelwsmith endorses @govbilllee. Here's what Governor Lee does to Christians who've waited outdoors to talk to him for over three weeks. I think Smitty got a raw deal. https://twitter.com/brotherjones_/status/1280707940077494273
In which @johnrich, co-author of "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)," decrees what is/isn't Christian for an allegedly Christian learning community & pushes for the firing of prophet-scholar, @btpaschall. Welcome to #NashvilleNexus. Thank you, @ShannonDingle. https://sojo.net/articles/when-christian-schools-decry-racism-while-ignoring-it-internally
Maybe @PressSec will write another book about moments like these. Repentance is the final human seriousness. We live in hope. https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1280976280314249216
#NashvilleNexus: @michaelwsmith endorses a millionaire "of faith" for governor. Bill refuses to pray with the incarcerated Christians he has executed, orders @TNHighwayPatrol to bully @brotherjones_ & @plaza_tn, no Medicaid expansion & now...heartbeats: https://twitter.com/GovBillLee/status/1282739313147510784
#ThePrayerTrade is often a revolving door. "Faith" is a currency that normalizes terror. @GenFlynn, Bill Barr, & Roger Stone can each find a home with @ericmetaxas at @SalemMediaGrp & @NRBassociation. Faith laundering is big business. Ask @PressSec. https://twitter.com/betsy_klein/status/1283422895616790531
. @dandarling, I spy an audition tape for 2021. https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1283806757140279299
. @PressSec once dedicated a book to a child she believes was gunned down in school for her Christian faith. What faith compels @PressSec to offer American children up as a living sacrifice to a sexual predator's re-election bid? https://twitter.com/JoshNBCNews/status/1283836438199652354
. @DavidBrodyCBN is a professional faith launderer. They all come to "Jesus" eventually. https://twitter.com/DavidBrodyCBN/status/1283386357759520770
Success within the #PrayerTrade can be leveraged to create opportunities as a spokesperson for various faiths centered in authoritarianism. It gets weird. https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1286724518694793217
This is wonderful. In this instance, @RepTedYoho can no longer use his association with @bread4theworld as cover for his enabling of rape culture. This suggests that the #PrayerTrade has SOME boundaries. @EugeneCho won't launder Yoho's faith. Good for him. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-ted-yoho-removed-from-board-of-christian-charity-over-his-comments-about-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/2020/07/25/31037546-ceaa-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0yrvT11F5xQktNNal5W94KpqJIrkN-0-vuZbyTeJT8kLTv7ERWh2VLgk4
