Text by Bob Shell, Copyright 2022
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Extreme ‘Trumpism’
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For years I’ve subscribed to ‘The Philadelphia Trumpet’ (www. thetrumpet.com), published by the Philadelphia Church of God, which isn’t located in Philadelphia, but in Edmond, Oklahoma. It claims to be the successor to ‘The Plain Truth,’ a magazine published for many years by the late Herbert W. Armstrong, (father of radio preacher Garner Ted Armstrong) although there are other claimants to that succession, some ending up in court to argue their rights to Armstrong’s copyrights.
My grandfather, Reverend Pleasant Shell, a Methodist minister, introduced me to ‘The Plain Truth’ when my sister and I used to spend part of our summer vacation with him and our grandmother as children in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Armstrong proposed that modern worldwide political events were all foretold in biblical prophesy, a belief carried on by ‘The Philadelphia Trumpet,’ an idea that seems ridiculous on its face, but is taken seriously by The Trumpet’s large worldwide subscribers.
But, in recent years I’ve watched the Trumpet turn more and more to the right, and more recently to the radical right, as expressed by Donald Trump and his sycophantic followers. The Trumpet’s staff write articles proclaiming that Trump’s rise to power was foretold in the Bible. They’re convinced that he will somehow magically regain the presidency, before the end of Joe Biden’s term, when Biden’s election victory is somehow decertified.
They’ve swallowed the ‘stolen election’ lie, hook line and sinker. One recent article was ‘When Trump Returns to Power.’
As you would expect, they deny anthropocentric global warming, too.
And they’re plainly opposed to equality for women, and LGBTQ people. As far as they’re concerned, ‘if it ain’t in the Bible, it ain’t real.’
They are biblical literalists, a ridiculous posture, since we now know that the present Bible is a hodge-podge of frequently contradictory books written by unknown authors around two thousand years ago.
Even the synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, don’t agree on Jesus’s birth, childhood, and ministry. Biblical scholars know that Mark is the oldest, but even it was written around 100 years after the death of Jesus. Scholars believe that Mark was based on a lost older book that they call ‘Q’ (from the German ‘quelle’ meaning ‘the source’). Q may have been written by someone who lived contemporaneously with Jesus, or by Jesus himself. Hopefully, a copy of Q exists somewhere and will be discovered as were the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Naj Hamadi library, both of which have given us new understandings of the beliefs and practices of the earliest Christians, which were radically different from those of present-day ‘Christianity.’
But, biblical literalists like the Trumpet writers show little or no interest in these early Christian writings, because they paint a very different picture of Jesus and his real teachings before the early Christian Church was hijacked by that imposter Saul-Paul, a misogynistic didact who corrupted Jesus’s simple message. Jesus never said anything about original sin, or forgiving sins. He preached a very Buddhist-like path to enlightenment. Buddhism had reached the Middle East before his birth, and Buddhist influences on early Christian teachings are clear.
Why, then, do I read the claptrap published in The Trumpet? Because I believe it is vitally important that we understand what these people believe and practice. They’re wealthy and organized and would impose their radical agenda on the rest of us.
Our American democracy is more fragile than most think. We nearly lost it to a coup, the sort of thing you see in third world countries. If not for a few brave men like Mike Pence, who stood up to this aspiring tyrant, we might well be living in a radical Trump dictatorship today.
Here in Virginia, a radical Trump clone with no political experience whatsoever was just elected governor. Even before taking office he’s been spouting nonsense about things he plans to do that are simply not within the power of the governor. I’m not looking forward to his regime. I was frankly astonished that the people of Virginia were stupid enough to elect a Trump clone.
But the Democrats seem determined to keep themselves out of power by adopting an equally radical philosophy in the opposite direction, radical leftism. Where are the moderates, the centrists, in either party? Why have we seemingly lost the ability to compromise and put the good of the country above partisan posturing and radical nonsense from both sides of the aisle? Where are the true American patriots?
Here in Virginia, a radical Trump clone with no political experience was just elected governor. Even before taking office he’s been spouting nonsense about things he plans to do that are simply not within the power of the governor. I’m not looking forward to his regime. I was frankly astonished that the people of Virginia were stupid enough to elect a Trump clone.
But the Democrats seem determined to keep themselves out of power by adopting an equally radical philosophy in the opposite direction, radical leftism. Where are the moderates, the centrists, in either party? Why have we seemingly lost the ability to compromise and put the good of the country above partisan posturing and radical nonsense from both sides of the aisle? Where are the true Americans?
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About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author, former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine and veteran contributor to this blog. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models. He is serving the 13th year of his sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Facility, Virginia. To read additional articles by Bob Shell, click here: https://tonyward.com/censorship/
Editor’s Note: If you like Bob Shell’s blog posts, you’re sure to like his new book, COSMIC DANCE by Bob Shell (ISBN: 9781799224747, $ 12.95 book, $ 5.99 eBook) available now on Amazon.com . The book, his 26th, is a collection of essays written over the last twelve years in prison, none published anywhere before. It is subtitled, “A biologist’s reflections on space, time, reality, evolution, and the nature of consciousness,” which describes it pretty well. You can read a sample section and reviews on Amazon.com. Here’s the link:
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