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Gwen Diehn's avatar

Thanks so much for this. I'm a long-time fan of Jeff Sharlet. The thought of the NPB makes my teeth hurt. I'm planning a no-prayer breakfast with friends.

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Jonathan Larsen's avatar

I can't overstate how important I think this is. SO many people gravitate -- understandably! -- to religion not because of theology or politics but because of the social aspects. We need a secular culture that's just as infused with secular values.

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Gwen Diehn's avatar

Absolutely. As one of my cousins used to say in regards to her own secularism " I wish people would respect my lack of belief."

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Avie Hern's avatar

It's love THINE enemies.

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Jonathan Larsen's avatar

Y'know, I looked it up and there seems to be some disagreement over usage. It seemed to me like you're right, because of the vowel start to "enemies," but popular usage these days seems to favor "thy." Anyway, thanks so much for thine input.

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Katie's avatar

Question: Are you aware of any links between the Family and the New Apostolic Reformation? Being that the latter seems to be so in for Trump, I find that theocracy group more terrifying. Looking online for info about links between the groups, I came across this from last year in which you are mentioned extensively: https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/unhealthy-breakfast-how-the-national-prayer-breakfast-a-relic-from-the-1950s-era-of-civil-religion-evolved-into-a-florid-display-of-christian-nationalism/

Perhaps one reason I find the NAR more terrifying is that they're very popular in my area, as documented in this Atlantic Mag story (gifted article): https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/eau-claire-tent-revival/680097/?gift=AKbSn4toAaj1yz4qa1r_JEWm6dyYH-RDquUH_CVrL1Q&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

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Jonathan Larsen's avatar

Katie, you touch upon a really important issue. I am, of course, aware of the New Apostolic Reformation. But coverage of religious issues in this country (and generally) is so poor and threadbare that we don't really have any "general interest" reporters stitching together all the movements and institutions. NAR, I am sure, has some connections somewhere with The Fellowship (I try to respect their pronouns), if only because The Fellowship is so, uh, agnostic about that kind of thing. If Aderholt or Gosar has ties to the NAR, then, yeah, there you go. What we really, truly need is for enough readers and audience to boost the work of people doing religious reporting so that a genuine market emerges for it...and then we get more/better big-picture stuff.

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Katie's avatar

Small correction - the 2020 NPB was after Trump's first impeachment. But, hey, who's keeping count? Who CAN keep count of all his transgressions ....

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Jonathan Larsen's avatar

Thank you. I'll go fix now.

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𝓙𝓪𝓼𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓦𝓸𝓵𝓯𝓮's avatar

These people creep me out😬

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Barbara Shaidnagle's avatar

PT. 2 CNN is talking about tariffs halt, MSNBC had Rachel talking about USAID but I wanna SEE the resistance as we did on Jan 6

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Barbara Shaidnagle's avatar

Ever since Obama took office, CNN or no one else has shown the prayer breakfast in entirety, showing the segment before the current President speaks. I would be happy if you totally skipped this year. The only way to control the ego is to ignore it. Media does not get it. What is going on now is a distraction from his real work. This Musk situation is straight out of the Project

2025 manifesto. Was the press there to record those who stood up at USAID? CNN and MSNBC

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