Trump has a better understanding of the Bible than Pope Leo, says conservative Christian pastor
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-robert-jeffress-bible-pope-b2973812.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world406
Comments84
All I want to know is when the church will start booting these guys to the curb and denouncing them.
He’s an evangelical, so the only requirement he has is saying ‘I’m a pastor.’ This particular one already has a litany of controversial quotes and, like many evangelicals, is staunchly anti-catholic, calling them a satanic Babylonian cult at one point.
Is this the same guy who just did a blessing of a golden statue of Trump, insisting it wasn’t a golden calf?
Different guy, same ilk.
I wonder if he would say the same about the actual golden calf that was on display at Mar a Lago a while ago.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mar-a-lago-goat-trump/
It may seem obvious but the guy is a pastor, not a catholic. The pope does not exist in his world.
Yeah I get that there are several sects of Christianity, just like any other religion. The Pope has no authority over non-Catholics. That said, you would think that even some Protestants would see this as an affront to the teachings of Jesus and cast out the bad ones in their midst.
You would think, because you are a logical and rational person. But they are not. Jesus exists in their world, purely as a bludgeon to push their own horrible beliefs.
Cast them out how? There is no central organization overseeing all Christian groups. You can literally start your own church tomorrow if you want and there's nothing anyone can do to stop you, or keep others from associating with you.
It's not so different from the fediverse. You can ban people, but you can't stop them from going somewhere else. And if they start their own instance, you can defederate from it but you can't actually shut them down or stop others from joining them.
There is no central authority to make this happen. Any dildo can (and will) open a new church in a strip mall and continue grifting rubes.
Some Protestants would indeed, too bad there are sects of Protestants ranging from Diet Catholic to snake handling faith healers
Kind of, or at least the pope shouldn't.. bit the followers tend to be authoritarian and so seem to also respond to authority figures.
I've definitely seen how Protestants respond to the pope shift dramatically in the past 40 years.
Just as there are Americans who are not enamored with Trump who are not getting the media spotlight, there are Christians reacting negatively. But the media is focusing on the Maga Nationalist Christians. It's simply more profitable to focus on the extremists.
Here are some examples that the media has only touched on lightly.
Pastor Loran Livingston, Central Church, FEB 28, 2026
https://youtu.be/3ZeWDtREdW4?t=5078
https://churchleaders.com/news/2215893-heresy-paula-white-cain-trump-jesus-easter.html
John Piper Under Fire for Referring to Trump’s Re-Election as an ‘Evil’
NOV 7, 2024
https://churchleaders.com/news/500345-john-piper-under-fire-for-referring-to-trump-as-a-test-from-god.html
AUG 8, 2023
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192663920/southern-baptist-convention-donald-trump-christianity
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/2053207948294574577
APR 27, 2026
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2026/04/27/james-talaricos-pastor-said-the-trump-administration-wants-to-revive-the-confederacy-n2675128
MAY 4, 2026
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/04/world/video/bishop-trump-critic-lamb-live-050404aseg1-cnni-religion-fast
MAY 07, 2026
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-criticized-bishop-palm-beach-hours-before-marco-rubio-pope-leo-meeting-11923091
MAY 03, 2026
https://www.alternet.org/megachurch-trump/
https://www.instagram.com/pastorbrandonaz
Edit: inserting dates so that you can see it's not all recent, but has been going on for years. Yes, I did focus on a lot of the recent ones. And this is not all, I simply got tired of typing. It's tiring reporting on what the media resists reporting.
Lol, I had to go back and check your name, because I thought yappymonotheist had made a comeback.
Well, everyone who calls him a Christian, is the issue. He is a sect leader.
Your question gets to the crux of the issue, I believe big money will betray religion, but religion could get the jump on big money, it won't though because there's such an overlap. Big money wins. Unless we stop them.
I assumed you were saying you want to know when the church replaces crucifixes and Christ references with trump. Doesn't seem far off to me.
Never. That’s the whole point of church. Anyone with half a brain knows there is no god and the [insert religious text] is a book created by man.
This is two separate churches, it's like asking why france doesn't remove the king of England.
There were a few times in history that they tried to do so.
All churches are the same. They just have different bank accounts.
Not really, Evangelicals don't recognise the Pope as an authority. It's only Roman Catholics.
Church is church. Church is money. Money is god.
They're trying so hard to miss your point lol
Right? ;)
Power is god, wealth is merely one of the easiest ways to attain and retain power. But don’t discount the power of the cult of personality, “prophets”, “saviors”, and the allure of divinely appointed superiority of a “select” group of people. There’s dirt-poor motherfuckers who murder, steal, and rape without a second thought because they are of the belief their god approves and they have the power to victimize someone.
What’s Donald Trump’s favorite book or passages from the Bible? “All of them”. New or old Testament? “Both”. It’s deeply personal though, so he won’t say.
And the Pope would probably only reference a few specific passages, probably doesn't even know any others. If President Trump said he loves them all, then CLEARLY he's read them all!
All religious people are liars.
But none so insidious and morally depraved as the American Christian.
I mean I'll take this guy over honor killings of women any day.
There are certainly worse religious people around than this guy and the majority of American Christians are also better than this guy.
If we're comparing the traditional western or historically majority Christian nations then yeah the US is absolutely the worst.
ALL RELIGIOUS PEOPLE ARE LIARS I DIDNT FUCKING STUTTER.
IF THIS OFFENDS YOU I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU.
thank you for your attention to this matter
That's not what my comment said dude or what I was addressing at all.
Nuance is dead resume circle jerking
Atleast my stock in Orville Redenbacher is doing well...
The man doesn't even know how to hold a book correctly, and there's plenty of evidence to suggest he may actually be functionally illiterate. I highly doubt he's read a single verse of the bible.
These people are literally insane.
They're salesmen.
What they're saying is only "crazy" if it fails to move units. And this guy seems to have been very successful at moving merch
The US evangelical movement is entirely unconnected with what any rational person would call grace or love. It is a movement about hate and racism.
So these people are stupid, of course.
They are not THAT stupid
They know what they're saying
They know it's all bullshit
They are also a pastor
This means that this pastor is full of shit and he knows it
He knows he's evil yet continues preaching for trump
This guy literally is the guy that imaginary bible warns about
And all "Christians" are following him because of course
Makes you wish it were real, just so he'd go to hell.
This unfortunately, these American Christian evangelicals are also chuds
Jesus: treat others with respect, love, peace.
Trump: make money by scamming people, blame others for your mistakes, start wars, prosecute minorities.
Yeah, Trump gets it.
Then ask him to recite literally any bible verse.
"You shall not put the Trump, your God, to the test."
https://youtu.be/_Bv5z2M9M-4
Relevant
Sorry but the words of a pedophile carry little weight with me.
You referring to the pastor or Trump?
Yes.
And then people are surprised by decreasing church attendance. I'm glad I'm an atheist
I have no idea about those numbers, but I seem to be seeing religion pushed more and more in daily life. More religious vendors at the local farm shops, more young people (in our sphere) talking about it or involving themselves with it. My cynical self feels like it is subversively (isn’t it always?) being pushed.
Edit: Forgot to mention the billboards and bumper stickers I see too.
It's a decreasing amount overall, but the union of the christofascists with the current asshole in charge (and all his lackeys that help) allows a far greater reach, which they are hoping is enough to pull more people in.
Is there anything more Protestant than worshipping a golden calf, then getting mad when someone suggests that might be heresy.
Dude didn't even know there was a new and old testament.
Most Americans don't,, based on their religious rantings
Yup, it's all old testy now.
https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/
Is the pastor able to read ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek and understand the original context? Otherwise he doesn't understand the bible either, and that would be assuming he had actually read it in full himself. Trump himslf doesn't have an understanding of even 'see Spot run!'.
It's not clear he even reads English. He might be as illiterate as Trump.
Megachurches are a cancer on society.
Man, Donald Trump knows more about a religious text than a guy who has dedicated his entire life to it? Crazy.
"I am a reality denying whore!"
You know Donny trump can't read for shit, He can't grasp even Bluey, that's why He summarizes and ad libs everything, He couldn't read an SNL scritp
Hold up, I'm gonna check you're handbook.
Oh hey check this one out too.
Damn y'all are just so fucking bad at your one job.
All religion is mental illness. But nothing gives me the heebie-jeebies more than "christian pastor". UGH
The Bible? No. My struggle? Yes.
It simplifies life that any statement beginning with "Trump has a better understanding..." is false. That can be relied on at the same level of certainty as the laws of Thermodynamics.
thats bullshit of course.
Depending on what is meant by "understanding", it might be true that Trump has a better understanding of the bible than Pope Leo.
If you're talking about a scholarly understanding, then surely Leo has a better understanding. I mean, Trump can barely read in the first place. He definitely hasn't ever read the bible on his own initiative. A small child who goes to Sunday school has a better scholarly understanding of the bible than Trump.
However, Trump at his core is a con man and game recognizes game, as they say. Religion is one of history's greatest cons. The bible was written by the uneducated, by lunatics and the delusional, and by confidence tricksters. So on that level, Trump likely understands that the bible is all bullshit that isn't worth the paper it's written on. And so in that way, it might be true that Trump understands the bible better than Pope Leo.
The Bible is a weird maniacal rambling mess, so that tracks?
I guarantee dumbass has read no more than 100 words of the bible, and not necessarily consecutive words.
We talking the same guy that couldn't recite his favorite Bible passage?
The Cult of the Dead Merkavist has spawned multiple cults of the antichrists.
This deluded loser is just as demented as Trump is and Trump barely understands breathing, so as long as it doesn't involve raping children he doesn't understand anything.
Hahahaha wawahahaha
If Jesus the hardline orthodox Jew from first century Galilee came back to life today, or even a century after his death, he would be appalled that gentiles have created an entirely new religion out of the worship of his idol, and he’d have far more in common with those Jews who have adhered strictly to (his interpretation) of the laws in Leviticus, like the Haredim.
Of course there’s some nuance, Jesus was certainly a revolutionary looking to upend the established order, but these modern “Christians” are completely off the map in terms of what Jesus was doing and teaching.
I'm going to doubt that on the grounds that the dude seems to be functionally illiterate.
Nice! Good laugh this morning. Where would we be without this clown?
It's also funny because there's no way to understand the Bible better or worse.
What a weird world we live in.
There is! For example if someone like Peter Hegseth study bible by watching hollywood gangster movies, they tend to understand the bible less than a person who actually read it.
Everything about the Bible I learned from The Boondocks Saints:
"And Shepherds we shall be For Thee my Lord, for Thee Power hath descended forth from Thy hand Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patri, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."
Dang. You're right. You can always count on idiots to do idiotic things.