{"id":27616,"date":"2026-04-14T17:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=27616"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:59:15","slug":"maga-is-for-ot-not-nt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/04\/14\/maga-is-for-ot-not-nt\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGA is for OT, not NT"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>John Pavlovitz on how MAGA hates the Pope&#8217;s Jesus;<\/li>\n<li>The Pope denounces the US &#8220;delusion of omnipotence&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>William Saletan on the GOP acting like bigots;<\/li>\n<li>Tom Nichols on Trump&#8217;s latest meltdown;<\/li>\n<li>Sean Hannity knows better than the Pope;<\/li>\n<li>More about that teleporting guy;<\/li>\n<li>And another Republican concerned about alien bases;<\/li>\n<li>Even MAGA die-hards have rebuked Trump about his Jesus image;<\/li>\n<li>Trump despicably posts a fake photo of Springsteen;<\/li>\n<li>Jerry Coyne recalls the Jefferson Bible;<\/li>\n<li>Items about how Trump took down that Jesus image;<\/li>\n<li>NYT&#8217;s Frank Bruni about Pete Hegseth&#8217;s religious zealotry;<\/li>\n<li>And how Trump supporters survive by cognitive dissonance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>Items from the past three days, briefly noted.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!svHa!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19639ef3-af3a-40d6-a110-53b062e4d9a4_2256x1504.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>John Pavlovitz, 10 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/johnpavlovitz.substack.com\/p\/maga-christians-dont-hate-the-pope\">MAGA Christians Don&#8217;t Hate The Pope; They Hate His Jesus.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As I&#8217;ve said over and over, MAGA is more about OT than about NT. Which sorta undermines the meaning of being &#8220;Christian.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PopeLeoWhiteGown1-660x330.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, from Associated Press, 11 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/04\/pope-leo-denounces-us-delusion-of-omnipotence\/\">Pope Leo Denounces US \u201cDelusion Of Omnipotence\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the \u201cdelusion of omnipotence\u201d that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think this goes to (arrogant) idea of American exceptionalism.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!4gaM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7001b6b3-198a-4c22-87f8-5e2a9db8f13c_1920x1004.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bulwark, Will Saletan, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/theyre-not-bigots-they-just-think-act-sharia-free-caucus-fine-self-ogles-tubberville-roy\">They\u2019re Not Bigots. They Just Think, Talk, and Act Like They Are.<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The House GOP\u2019s &#8216;Sharia-Free America Caucus&#8217; is an un-American fraud.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/Yw8vgt0uv972t7q_ViWBSXsSEmY=\/0x0:2000x1125\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/04\/2026_04_14_Trump_Truth_Social\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Tom Nichols, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/04\/trump-pope-post-truth-social\/686802\/\">Trump\u2019s Latest Meltdown<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Attacking the pope was only part of the president\u2019s disturbing night on Truth Social.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mediam14apr26.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mediam14apr26.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Matters, 10 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/sean-hannity\/sean-hannity-questions-popes-knowledge-bible\">Sean Hannity questions the Pope\u2019s knowledge of the Bible<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hannity: \u201cDid you ever hear the story about David slaying Goliath?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once again, appeal to the OT.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GreggPhillips-2-660x330.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, from CNN, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/04\/teleporting-fema-official-my-dead-girlfriend-once-levitated-my-car-and-i-met-satan-while-hiking-in-spain\/\">Teleporting FEMA Official: My Dead Girlfriend Once Levitated My Car And I Met Satan While Hiking In Spain<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once again, a loose grasp upon reality, addled no doubt by religion.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>And again:<\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, 13 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/04\/burchett-begs-trump-to-release-files-on-alien-bases\/\">Burchett Begs Trump To Release Files On Alien Bases<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are no alien bases. Religion makes you credulous.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T114251-117-1200x675.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mediaite, 13 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/online\/gross-blasphemy-maga-die-hards-deliver-rare-rebuke-of-trump-for-posting-unacceptable-meme-depicting-himself-as-jesus\/\">\u2018Gross Blasphemy!\u2019 MAGA Die-Hards Deliver Rare Rebuke of Trump for Posting \u2018Unacceptable\u2019 Meme Depicting Himself as Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Even MAGA &#8212; ironically &#8212; has its limits.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trump2025Biblefuglyface-660x330-2.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, from The Mirror, 12 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/04\/trump-posts-gruesome-fake-photo-of-springsteen\/\">Trump Posts Gruesome Fake Photo Of Springsteen<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What a despicable man, Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/whyevolutionistrue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Jefferson_Bible.jpg?w=475&amp;ssl=1\" width=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jerry Coyne, 13 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/whyevolutionistrue.com\/2026\/04\/13\/monday-hili-dialogue-564\/\">Monday: Hili dialogue<\/a><\/p>\n<p>These occasional &#8220;Hili dialogues&#8221; are compilations of numerous topics. This one concerns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldaycalendar.com\/national-day\/national-thomas-jefferson-day-april-13\">National Thomas Jefferson Day<\/a>, and the famous <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jefferson_Bible\">Jefferson Bible<\/a>, his personal redaction of the NT to omit all supernatural passages while saving the supposed wisdom of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>As with the writings of Thomas Paine, the Jefferson Bible undercuts claims by the right that the founders of the US intended a Christian nation.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/04\/13\/multimedia\/13trump-news-image-jvzf\/13trump-news-image-jvzf-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, 13 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/13\/us\/politics\/trump-jesus-pope-leo-truth-social-post.html\">Trump Takes Down Post Depicting Himself as a Jesus-Like Figure<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The image, which President Trump shared on Truth Social shortly after criticizing Pope Leo, depicted him as a divine leader healing the sick.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>And,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Washington Post, 13 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/13\/trump-jesus-religious-conservatives\/\">Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Before the post was deleted, evangelical and Catholic allies called the image blasphemous in a rare public break from a base that has largely stood by Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>The current administration is infected by religious zealotry.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/04\/14\/opinion\/13bruni-newsletter\/13bruni-newsletter-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, opinion by Frank Bruni, 13 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/13\/opinion\/pete-hegseths-religious-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bFA.uU5h.I-VVlOt-juaf&amp;smid=url-share\">Pete Hegseth\u2019s Gospel of Carnage<\/a> [gift link]<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">I guess a zealot, by nature, can\u2019t hide \u2014 too extreme are his convictions, too grand his designs, too consuming his arrogance. And so, over recent weeks, Pete Hegseth has fully revealed himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">He has made clear that every missile the United States fires, every bomb it drops, every Iranian it kills, is for Jesus. Praise be the Lord, who has given America the power to wipe out an entire civilization. That\u2019s what President Trump <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/07\/us\/politics\/trump-iran-civilization-threat.html\">threatened<\/a> to do \u2014 in an intermittently jaunty social media post, no less \u2014 and Hegseth gave no indication of unwillingness to execute that order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">He brandishes assertions about God\u2019s will with the exaggerated brio of an electronics merchant pressing fliers on pedestrians passing by his new megastore: <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Have I got a holy war for you. <\/em>Embrace the death. Exult over the destruction. What only looks like hell is a ticket to heaven.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Hitchens: religion poisons everything. The other side feels exactly the same way as Hegseth about their religion.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/media-library\/trump-supporters.png?id=65488030&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;quality=50&amp;coordinates=0%2C11%2C0%2C12\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>AlterNet, Matthew Rozsa, 12 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/trump-cognitive-dissonance\/\">Trump supporters have a secret weapon against bad news about him: report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is about cognitive dissonance.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>President Donald Trump supporters have stood by him despite his documented abuses of power, rhetorically violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election and numerous alleged instances of sexual misconduct. To those outside the so-called Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, this is mystifying \u2014 yet a recent study reveals the surprising reason why.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;Will follow up with this tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Pavlovitz on how MAGA hates the Pope&#8217;s Jesus; The Pope denounces the US &#8220;delusion of omnipotence&#8221;; William Saletan on the GOP acting like bigots; Tom Nichols on Trump&#8217;s latest meltdown; Sean Hannity knows better than the Pope; More about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/04\/14\/maga-is-for-ot-not-nt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27616"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27648,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27616\/revisions\/27648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}