NEW ERA DIARY

One Scary Dude
May 22, 2023

His name is Jason Graber. He is 29 year old. He dresses like he forgot what each component of his attire is for. His beard is not trimmed. His hair is balding and what remains never appears reined in. He has a limited third or fourth grade vocabulary. As you might expect, he is tiresome, pedantic, and unintellectual. What you likely would never guess (and what all seems to qualify him for this particular work these days) is that he is a preacher. He is the Pastor of Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Spokane, WA. A “fundamentalist, evangelical, Baptist, and Reformed” church, located in what is becoming the nexus of a rat’s nest collection of bat-shit crazy extremist religions.

Oh. And (lol), Fundamentalist Pastor Graber just called for the killing by rifle shot to the back of the head of all trans folks, their parents and teachers. [NOTE: The Bible speaks of taking up the sword, so Graber is now suggesting that they put down the guns and pick up the sword and decapitate the enemies of Christ.] Trans because they are a sin against god; Parents because they are “grooming” kids, and teachers who are pedophiles. He is calling for the public execution of these people. You may ask, “On what evidence does he take such a fanatical stance?” Well, I will leave that to you. Here is a brief transcription of his April sermon with the (highlighted) relevant words on which he bases his opinions:

… And apparently… states back East, you know, they’re having all kinds of… this grooming stuff going on in schools today…

… Apparently in schools today, they’re literally grooming the kids to… be just ready to be taken advantage of…

… Any teacher that would… show this type of lewd… I mean, basically what I’ve heard is that
they’re… basically, they’re showing pornographic images to children. To young children. Which is against the law—I’m pretty sure it’s… I think it’s a felony—but, you know what? Preachers need to get up and say… well, teachers that do this, they should be put to death. They need to be taken out and shot in the back of the head. Because they’re… they’re pedophiles!

Any teacher that’s gonna show pornographic images to young children, they are a predator! And the reason that they’re doing that is because they want to take advantage of young children…

… And these teachers, they’re showing these pornographic images to these young children, and literally grooming them, those teachers need to have the fear of God put in them. And you know what? That’s what the government is for. In Romans 13, the Bible talks about that the government’s job is to execute judgment with the sword, okay? So maybe… we need to put aside the guns and we need to get the sword back out. And we need to make these executions public. We need to find these teachers that are showing pornographic images and grooming children, we need to find them, try them, get the television out, we need to get FOX News, CNN, every YouTube channel out there, put it on television. We need to show them being publicly beheaded.

That’s what needs to happen to these people. Because you know what? Otherwise our nation is gonna turn into a literal Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…” I am pretty confident this nut case is not what Jesus intended. Sadly, I don’t think any of us anticipated this. It appears as if so-called preachers are attempting to gain notoriety, much like the Republicans are doing, by calling for more and more extreme and radical measures in the name of the Bible, or whatever is handy on random days. And, it is all a desperate, last ditch attempt to prevent a mixed-racial, liberal democratic America. In their eyes, if you have not been baptized, if you don’t believe in the resurrection, if you don’t speak in tongues, if you don’t worship snakes, if you don’t spank your children, and if your wife is not solely utilized for procreation and otherwise working to maintain the house, you are damned. You are the damned ‘other’. There is simply no place for you in their white Christian America. To help us understand what’s at stake: “Robert Jeffress, the head of 14,000-member megachurch First Baptist Dallas, a contributor to Fox News, and one of the earliest evangelical leaders to support Trump, presided over a congressional meeting. In Jeffress’ final argument, he reminded everyone — in apocalyptic terms — what their support would mean. “What I want to say in closing is this election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It’s a battle between good and evil, light and darkness, righteousness and unrighteousness. . . . This is the last chance we have, I’m convinced, as a country to turn this country around.”

I find it ironic, and you will surely notice, that those who “sayeth” and “speaketh” the words of the lord, are purposefully, unapologetically, and as the foremost part of their job description, literally “grooming kids”.

Have you noticed that the definitions or qualifications for ‘other’ have widened? I am reminded of the ‘quote’ from Pastor Martin Niemoller. (Originally, cited as a poem, First They Came, is actually taken from a series of talks he gave after being freed from a concentration camp. His quote is now memorialized at The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since its opening in 1933. it serves as an indictment of passivity and indifference. In his many speeches and lectures, Niemoller confesses his own inaction and indifference to the fate of the Jews and all victims of the Nazis. He stood by…until they came for him.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a socialist.

Then, they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-because I was was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.

Niemoller fails to mention that they came for homosexuals, the frail, foreigners, mixed-race individuals,
dissenters, political opponents, and ‘degenerate’ artists. The reason I include the group of degenerate artists is that the treatment of this group poses an exacting example of how discrimination works…then and now. “In a sense, the concept of “Aryan” art was defined by what it was not: anything that was ideologically problematic (that did not fit with the extremist beliefs of the regime) was removed until there little left but an academic style that celebrated youth, optimism, power and eternal triumph.”

This process of selection by elimination is happening today. Republicans are attempting to eliminate anything they oppose in defense of what remains…whatever remains. There is no ideological basis. There is no philosophical thesis. There is only destruction, civil unrest, and internal war. Whatever scraps remain, at least they and their compatriots will be in control. That seems all that matters. Then, cruelty will be defined as necessary, killings will be explained as cleansing, racism as purification, and so on.

It is not that pretend pastors or corrupt politicians exist. That has always been the case since the beginning of human history. It is that we waited too long to speak out. To act. To say NO. I beg of us all to undertake one task a day to speak out. Call you Congressman. Call your senator. Join an organization that supports your values. Our future depends on it.