The Secular Frontier

In a previous post I noted Trump abandoned conservative evangelicals on the abortion issue. Clearly, he is hoping they are not one-issue voters, and certainly conservative evangelicals are going to vote Republican regardless, but why did Trump make this move? And the other day, he also positioned himself as the IVF support candidate. New polling out may be a clue. Harris has a small overall lead over Trump, despite being badly beaten by Trump among male voters. However, and this seems to be key, Trump is being slaughtered by Harris among female voters. This makes perfect sense as to why Trump has abandoned his narrative of overturning Roe and so wants to position himself as the Reproductive Rights candidate to draw the female vote toward his ticket. The problem is that since Trump caused the abortion issue to go back to the states, there is no federal abortion rights mandate and so Trump could simply flip flop on the issue again if the voting demographics change or for whatever other political flight ... Read Article

Yesterday I talked about Trump basically throwing his anti-abortion evangelical supporters under the bust by proposing a reproductive rights platform, obviously hoping to appeal to a wider moderate base while still maintaining as many evangelicals as possible who are not one-issue voters. Today, Trump did the same thing with the military. Trump has long been antagonistic toward the military, doing such things as making fun of prisoners of war like John McCain. Today, he flipflopped paid respect to fallen soldiers at Arlington: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR9SsJ9x5C8 The Vote Vets organization noted: He called them suckers and losers. He refused to visit their fellow fallen, in Europe. But today, with an election coming up, Donald Trump pretends to care about all those who died in service to America. NEVER FORGET! It's not just his disrespect for the Medal of Honor. Trump calls our war dead 'suckers' and 'losers.' ... Read Article

So today, Trump's second in command JD Vance has dialed back on one of the key issues for Evangelicals supporting Trump: the abortion ban. See the Meet The Press interview starting at 7:12-9:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zETjconbCRs What seems clear is that Trump sang the evangelical song as long as it suited him, but now he needs to appeal to a bigger, more moderate audience. Yesterday, Trump posted that his presidency would be great for “reproductive rights” (abortion). UPDATE: See the Fox News article HERE ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQZdbzjnZyc ... Read Article

Elon Musk recently did what he calls a "conversation" with Donald Trump which broke records with over a billion views. Conservative network Fox News chose this as the initial banner takeaway: THE MIRACLE': Trump reflects on how his faith in God has grown in the wake of the attempted assassination on his life last month. Five key takeaways from the former president's interview with Elon Musk. https://trib.al/VXBWxfx (FOX NEWS) The conservative evangelical right wants you to think God saved Trump because he is God's chosen president. You can't make this stuff up, lol. ... Read Article

This INDEX contains links to my blog posts in a series about the historical unreliability of the Passion Narrative in the Gospel of Luke. https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2024/07/lukes-unreliable-passion-story-part-1/ https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2024/07/lukes-unreliable-passion-story-part-2/ https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2024/07/lukes-unreliable-passion-story-part-3/ https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2024/07/lukes-unreliable-passion-story-part-4/ https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2024/07/lukes-unreliable-passion-story-part-4-continued/ ... Read Article

The best and simplest way to save our democracy is to prevent Donald Trump and his Project 2025 Christian Fascist thugs from taking control of the presidency. If we can get Kamala Harris elected in November, then we can prevent the Christian Fascists from destroying our democracy and our country. However, the race for the presidency is currently too close for comfort, so we need to have a backup plan. There is significant evidence that Donald Trump accepted a Ten Million dollar bribe from the dictator of Egypt: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/08/02/trump-campaign-egypt-investigation https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-revelatory-bombshell-secret-probe-of-trump-suspicious-egypt-money-shut-down-by-barr-s-doj-wapo-216325701508 So, we have a strong backup plan that can be implemented, but Democrats must take action NOW for the backup plan to have any hope of success. The statute of limitations has run out on the potential criminal charge against Trump of accepti ... Read Article

I'd like to share that my third and final essay on Robyn Faith Walsh as been published. CHECK IT OUT! ABSTRACT: This is Part C of a three-part literary application and defense of Robyn Faith Walsh’s recent (2021) hypothesis that the Gospels are not, as is usually thought, the product of literate spokespersons conveying the oral tradition of their community, but rather are birthed out of networks of elite Greco-Roman-Jewish writers in dialogue with one another, not downtrodden illiterate peasants. For example, what if the empty tomb narrative did not originate in the oral tradition of a Christian community, but in empty tomb apotheosis narratives that the author had read from ancient novels like that of Chariton? As a literary test of a hypothesis, I ask what predictions we can make of the kinds of concepts that we should find in the New Testament on Walsh’s literary elite education model, compared to what we should find if the oral tradition model is correct. I show that Walsh’s approach is certain ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcMk0_zZAVk&t ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE The FIRST REASON why Donald Trump LOST the debate was that he lost the debate on the single most important question of the debate  (see my post “TRUMP’S LIES and the LYING LIARS Who Tell Them“): Who was the worst president in the history of our nation? The SECOND REASON why Donald Trump LOST the debate was because he LOST the debate on an issue that Trump believes (or pretends to believe) is one of the most important issues that our country faces: IMMIGRATION. Trump LOST the debate on IMMIGRATION because: Nearly every comment by Trump about IMMIGRATION was either a LIE or was BULLSHIT. For details on this point, see my post “Trump CLEARLY LOST the Debate“. The THIRD REASON why Donald Trump LOST the debate with Joe Biden, was that Trump LOST the debate on the issues that most Americans believe to be the most important issues that our country faces: issues about the health of our ECONOMY (i.e. Job ... Read Article

Male boxer "wins" Olympic match today when his female opponent quits after 46 seconds to avoid serious injury or death. The utter madness continues thanks entirely to the insane woke ideology. Is there anyone who thinks this is fair and just? (Michael Shermer) See Article The solution seems straightforward enough. Create another division where trans women can compete against other trans women. ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE I am in the process of arguing that the Passion Narrative in the Gospel of Luke is historically unreliable. The Passion Narrative in Luke is found in Chapters 22 and 23 of the Gospel of Luke. I am beginning my examination Luke’s Passion Narrative with Chapter 23, which contains the following six parts: Part 1: Jesus Before Pilate (verses 1-5) Part 2: Jesus Before Herod (verses 6-12) Part 3: Jesus Sentenced to Death (verses 13-25) Part 4: Crucifixion of Jesus (verses 26-43) Part 5: Death of Jesus (verses 44-49) Part 6: Burial of Jesus (verses 50-56) In previous posts, I have argued that Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are historically unreliable. I am currently focused on an examination of Part 4 of Chapter 23 of the Gospel of Luke (Crucifixion of Jesus). In the previous post about Part 4, I argued that the opening verse of Part 4 (verse 26) was historically unreliable. In this current post, I will examine verses 27 through 31, verses ... Read Article

The idea of the Philippian Christ poetry is Jesus left his high place to suffer for us. Evangelical Christians are framing Trump according to the same narrative: ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drswjy6kGms ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE I am arguing that the Passion Narrative in the Gospel of Luke is historically unreliable. The Passion Narrative in Luke is found in Chapters 22 and 23 of the Gospel of Luke. I am beginning my examination Luke's Passion Narrative with Chapter 23, which contains the following six parts: Part 1: Jesus Before Pilate (verses 1-5) Part 2: Jesus Before Herod (verses 6-12) Part 3: Jesus Sentenced to Death (verses 13-25) Part 4: Crucifixion of Jesus (verses 26-43) Part 5: Death of Jesus (verses 44-49) Part 6: Burial of Jesus (verses 50-56) In Part 1 of this series, I argued that the opening section of Chapter 23 (Jesus Before Pilate) is historically unreliable. In Part 2 of this series, I argued that the second section of Chapter 23 (Jesus Before Herod) is also historically unreliable. In Part 3 of this series, I argued that the third section of Chapter 23 (Jesus Sentenced to Death) is also historically unreliable. In this current post, I will argue that the fourt ... Read Article