Most of the "Civil War" threats are coming from the far Evangelical right.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2024/08/right-wing-politics-is-destructive.htmlThe rhetoric coming out of the Evangelical political right is increasingly including attempts to find obscure passages from the Bible, specifically from the Old Testament references to ancient, theocratic Israel, to justify threats of political violence in the event of a Democratic party victory, especially in the Presidential election, and to push the agenda toward full-on Dominion theology, should Trump be elected and a Republican majority be seated in Congress. The head of the Heritage Foundation, the group responsible for writing the draconian Project 2025, threatened violence if there was resistance to their efforts to start a "second American revolution."
Those within American Evangelicalism who consistently repeat these kinds of threats, and continue to push dominion theology and Christian nationalism, by violence if they deem it necessary, are not Christian. I use the term "pseudo-Christian," because they belong to groups that appear and act like Christian churches, but which preach a very different gospel than the one recorded as being preached and taught by Jesus. They will point to obscure passages of scripture which they take completely out of their historical and cultural context and mis-apply to current circumstances as justification and proof for what they want to do.
In the case of the Wisconsin pastor cited in the linked article above, dragging out a 16th century Protestant doctrine, the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate, an "out," primarily to get past biblical prohibitions against resisting the authority of the civil government in order to "protect true religious practice." What that meant was that "lesser magistrates," for example, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, could protect someone like Martin Luther, from the Emperor, Charles V, who would have enforced the Catholic Church's verdict against Luther's protest.
It's not a biblically justifiable doctrine. In fact, it defies the principles laid out by the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:1-7 and the Apostle Peter in I Peter 2:13-17. Those passages were put into practice by the church during the great persecution it experienced at the hands of the Roman emperors from the mid-first century until the reign of Constantine in the early 300's. It also goes completely against every value and virtue taught by Jesus in the Christian gospel. It's a justification for the use of political power to advance the mission and purpose of the Christian church, and from my perspective, an admission of their inability to recognize, or even acknowledge the presence of any spiritual power within the church.
ck4829
(35,798 posts)Not from a god, right wing. White nationalist terrorist Dylann Roof fired the first shot of the civil he wanted.
robertpaulsen
(8,697 posts)Why else would a registered Republican shoot Trump? It may sound crazy, but not illogical for these weirdos.
lees1975
(5,862 posts)There's a lot not right about that which makes it seem like some way to ignite a civil war. There's just a whole lot about that kid that hasn't come out.
Girard442
(6,387 posts)...to craft a message so convincing that violence would be unnecessary.
Historically, hasn't worked out.
chouchou
(1,265 posts)Isn't it rather ironic, saying "start a revolution" and also break God's main commandment "Thou shall not kill".
I mean, talk about the cake and eat it....Oh Bother...
hunter
(38,842 posts)Love will resist, love will win.
dalton99a
(84,074 posts)AntiFascist
(12,859 posts)(Psalms 137 : 79). Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock: the children represent the future generations, and so must be destroyed if the enemy is truly to be eradicated.