(Posted 19 Oct, from items collected 13 Oct)
- Do your beliefs or your acts define your religion?
- Hemant Mehta on plans for the live-streamed execution;
- Two takes on Marco Rubio’s speech in Greece appealing to pre-Enlightenment, pre-Scientific Revolution ideas about humanity and society;
- Comments from Allen Clifton about what Republicans say they are about versus what they do.
Several items that seem to align today.
I know that the various religions disagree on this point — some say only belief (faith) matters, others that actions count as much or more — but the take here is on how this philosopher would *define* religions. (Also, I just noticed that this regular contributor to Big Think has his own substack.)
Big Think, Jonny Thomson, 12 Oct 2026: You’re a Christian and a Buddhist (whether you like it or not), subtitled “Is religion defined more by beliefs or practices?”
I’m going to call you a Christian.
I don’t care if you don’t believe in God, or read the Bible, or accept that Jesus died for your sins. I’m going to call you a Christian anyway, because you do Christian things. You’re kind to others, you give to charity, you look after your neighbor. You don’t work on the Sabbath, you give gifts at Christmas, and you are awestruck by the sight of a cathedral touching the sunset sky. You’re a Christian.
In this week’s Mini Philosophy interview, I spoke with the popular YouTuber and scholar of religion Andrew Henry. He introduced me to the term “orthopraxy,” which says being religious is not defined by what you believe but by what you do. If you behave according to a certain religion, you are that religion.
Whereas people who behave like Buddhists can be called Buddhists. Usually what a religion is is up to authorities. But no one is actually is charge of deciding these things.
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Case in point.
Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, today 13 Oct: The “pro-life” pastors who want America to watch a live-streamed execution, subtitled “Many of the evangelical pastors who denounce Pride flags in classrooms and Ms. Rachel are celebrating the possibility of a government-sponsored snuff film”
Because “pro-life” has a very specific meaning to them — opposition to abortion, and that’s all. Most people grow up bad, they think, and deserve whatever cruel punishments they are deemed to deserve. The piece cites defense of televising this execution on grounds of deterrence. Is there any evidence that works? Let’s just say that public executions are only performed in extreme authoritarian counties.
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Another perspective on the same general topic.
Salon, Curtis Dozier, today 13 Oct: Rubio’s Greece speech is MAGA’s latest classical cover story, subtitled “The Trump administration keeps borrowing ancient prestige to make its brutality look noble”
They appeal to pre-Enlightenment, pre-Scientific Revolution ideas about humanity and society. Opening:
It’s really hard to take Secretary of State Marco Rubio seriously. He’s a child of immigrants who has cynically sold his political soul to the most anti-immigrant administration in modern American history, one headed by the man from whom Rubio endured humiliating verbal abuse during his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. But Rubio is all-in for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. Last week he was on the world stage in Athens, Greece, for the sixth U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, trying to put a good spin on what he called the Trump administration’s “unapologetic pursuit of national power.”\
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On that same Rubio speech.
NY Times, opinion by Bret Stephens, today 13 Oct: Western Civ Lessons for Team Trump [gift link]
For at least the second time this year, Marco Rubio delivered a stirring speech championing the virtues of Western civilization — “a civilization,” he said on Wednesday from the Acropolis in Athens, “that we must fight to defend today with the same passion as our forefathers did.”
The same week, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, announced that the Pentagon would livestream the execution of the Fort Hood killer. President Trump decided to buy diesel fuel directly from Russia, potentially amounting to billions in funding for Vladimir Putin’s war machine. And The Wall Street Journal reported that Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, is under investigation by the State Department’s inspector general for receiving improper gifts in exchange for political and business favors.
Is this what the secretary of state meant by Western civilization?
In fact, all people, including non-Westerners who aren’t yet its beneficiaries, should want to celebrate, defend and perpetuate Western civilization. But that requires a basic understanding of what Western civilization is. The Trump administration, above all, could use a primer.
At its base, it’s a civilization that rests on three pillars.
The three pillars are: the quest for truth; the worth and dignity of every human being; and the rule of law. These are progressive, enlightenment values that challenge the authoritarian, hierarchical views of ancient civilizations and the OT. Stephens, a conservative, throws in references to the Bible (rather than, say, the Declaration or Constitution), without realizing this point. He ends:
Asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mohandas Gandhi is said to have quipped, “I think it would be a good idea.” It would be a good idea, too, if the Trump administration knew what it was talking about when it talked about that same civilization.
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Finally for today, here’s a commentator that Facebook keeps showing me, one Allen Clifton. I noticed today that he has a Substack. Too many sites to follow! For now I’ll quote some of his post from two days ago. It’s about how Christians act, as opposed to what they claim to believe. This is an essential argument about the hypocrisy of the right.
It’s about what Christians claim — Fiscal conservatism, small government, family values, the Constitution, personal accountability, pro-life policies, religious freedom, border security, and states’ rights — as opposed to what they do.
Facebook, Allen Clifton, 11 Oct 2026: Facebook post
I think it’s important to remind folks that the Republican Party was a cult long before Donald Trump took it over. Back in 2013, I wrote an article where I referred to the party as the “Cult of Republicanity,” a group of people who chose to believe in things that were objectively not backed by reality.
For a moment, let’s ignore all the MAGA nonsense of the past decade.
Prior to Trump, what did Republicans always say they were about?
Fiscal conservatism, small government, family values, the Constitution, personal accountability, pro-life policies, religious freedom, border security, and states’ rights.
Except that was all bullsh*t long before Trump.
Fiscal Conservatism: This is one of the easiest ones for me, dating back to when I was much younger. It never made sense why a party looked at Ronald Reagan as the “icon of fiscal conservatism” when he nearly tripled the national debt during his eight years in office. How in the world is that “fiscally conservative”? Since then, Republican presidents have added more to the national debt than Democrats, and a president from the GOP hasn’t balanced the budget since Eisenhower left office in 1961. So, how in the world do you claim to be the party of “fiscal responsibility” when your “icon” nearly tripled the national debt — and your party has added more to it than the opposition you claim is built on “out-of-control government spending”?
Small Government: This has always been a joke as well. The only time the GOP backs small government is when that government is trying to prevent them from using that very same government to impose their views on others. In nearly every other instance, such as gay marriage and abortion, they want a massive, controlling government. Even at the state level, they’re hypocrites. Here in Texas, when a local city or county passes something Republicans oppose at the state level, Gov. Greg Abbott signs legislation that overrides the will of that smaller local government. Republicans love themselves some big government whenever they can use it to force others to follow their ideologies.
Family Values: How? Where? Newt Gingrich was the House Speaker in the ’90s who led the impeachment effort against Bill Clinton over his affair while he himself was having multiple affairs during both of his marriages. But it gets worse: He divorced his first wife, whom he was cheating on, while she was being treated for cancer. Then he divorced his second wife, whom he was cheating on, just months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Then the very next Republican House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, sexually abused and assaulted male students when he was a high school teacher. And now the party is represented by Donald Trump, with Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. right there with him — three men with multiple affairs, divorces, two confirmed legal cases involving sexual assault, as well as multiple other allegations. …
It goes on like this, covering these additional topics: the Constitution, personal accountability, pro-life, religious freedom, border security, and states’ rights.
Concluding:
A multiple adulterer, the antithesis of Christian values — a man who takes absolutely no personal responsibility for anything he does, has effectively torn up the Constitution as he tries to rule like a dictator, and will go down in history having added more trillions to the national debt than any other president in history.
It wasn’t a matter of if a lowlife piece of crap took over the Republican Party, just when and who it would be.
Because Donald Trump isn’t the cause of what made the Republican Party a cult; he’s just the result of the Cult of Republicanity that existed long before he took the party over.
