Faith without morality or theology, much less that “soyboy” Jesus? Sign MAGA Republicans up!
Earlier this week, Donald Trump unveiled his newest grift to squeeze money out of his cult followers: Trump-branded Bibles. Claiming the book contains the “King James version” and “also includes the Founding Father [sic] documents,” Trump promised “you have to have it for your heart, for your soul.” The screenshots of the video are funny by themselves, but I highly recommend watching the ad Trump cut for these Bibles. Trump radiates total contempt for Christianity.
This is Trump in his angry-bored mode, letting viewers know with his listless tone and posture that he thinks all this Bible stuff is dumb. The not-at-all subtle message of the video is that Trump doesn’t believe any of this faith-in-God crap, but he definitely believes in using Christian identity as a weapon to make money and dominate his foes.
Many Trump opponents on social media replied with video clips underscoring how Trump may be the single most ignorant person in the country about the contents of the Bible.
Oh absolutely. And it’s not just Mistborn, all of Sanderson’s writing is deeply infused with thoughts on religion that are seriously considered and I find spiritually valuable. Mistborn is probably the most hard hitting to my experiences as someone who left Christianity initially due to its use as a cudgel against me. And the way that era 2 shows kelsier treated is very insightful.
Elantris hits pretty hard on its takes on religion where there are two dead gods and a religious war. Stormlight feels like a scathing critique of America and its Christianity with the Alethi also worshipping a dead god, but also deeply following absurd and stupid religious rules. They worship Honor and have none. It’s also a fantasy take on the author’s religion of Mormonism where you can see some of his struggles with it but also his valuation of it.
And that’s not even getting into Sanderson’s depiction of sacred violations of gender roles which absolutely must be noted.
Yeah I can really geek out about this. The only author to come close in speaking to me religiously is Pratchett.
I feel like I’m reading something I wrote right now. 😂
Have you read the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks? It’s not quite as good as the Cosmere works, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it plays with some similar themes. It’s also a great hard magic system.