Saint Babbitt of QAnon

The subject today is why persuasion no longer works, why the art of political compromise is dead, who killed it, and why.  And to do that, we’re going to start off with a thing I did not know about until I was today years old.  That there are a few Christian churches out there that canonize Pontius Pilate as a saint.  

Which is wild.  

Even if you're not a Christian, you've probably heard of Pilate -- the first century A.D. Roman governor of the province of Judea after whom "Pilates" is named who presided over the sentencing of Jesus of Nazareth, just as he had presided over the crucifixion of hundreds of men adjudged to have broken one Roman law or another.  The execution of Jesus was nothing out of the ordinary: just another, bog standard example of Roman rule, handled in bulk with the speed and indifference of the average big city traffic court on any given Monday.

And yet in the Coptic Church, and in some Ethiopian churches he’s considered a saint. And not just any old kind of saint.  They believe he and his wife converted to Christianity and he was executed by the emperor, which makes him a martyr. 

Of course, this is all just goofy post hoc religious fiction, but so is so much of the New Testament.  

For example, there is zero chance that a high ranking roman army officer would be attending the crucifixion of a handful of troublemakers and criminals, much less declare out loud that "Truly, this was the Son of God!"  And yet, the gospel writers penciled in at least one (or possibly two, or maybe they're the same guy) centurion -- a commander of 100 men -- in attendance at this minor event.  

If you want to know the long version of how and why Christian origin stories got scripted this way, there is no lack of literature on the subject.  The much shorter version is marketing.  Specifically, how to take a minor Jewish apocalyptic cult and go looking for converts among much wider, gentile audience.  An audience that likes the brochure, but very definitely weren't on-board with the whole "gotta convert and be circumcised and keep kosher" thing.

Step 1:  Have a vision that says the whole "gotta convert and be circumcised and keep kosher" thing is no longer necessary.  Come one, come all!  Credit that to the very active and prolific, Paul of Tarsus.  

Step 2:  Since the wider, gentile audience you're trying to convert are going to mostly be Romans, you start rewriting your origin story so that, even though Jesus was a practicing Jew, the Jews become the  villains.  They're the ones who shout down Pilates' offer to release Jesus because Passover (this never happened, and there was no such "custom") 

The Barabbas episode is a well-known story in the Jesus Passion narrative. But it has, however, been debated as to matters of its historicity and viewed with suspicion on several grounds. The following arguments are usually provided:

Beyond the Gospels there is no mention of this event in primary sources for Pilate. There are a few sources attesting to Pilate’s governorship over Judea. For instance, from Philo of Alexandria (C. BCE 20-50 CE) and Josephus Flavius (c. 37-100 CE), historians have enough information to learn about Pilate’s character and his attitude towards the Jews over whom he ruled. Neither indicates the custom central to the Barabbas episode. 

Based on what Philo’s and Josephus’s sources tell us of Pilate, the critic argues that Pilate would never have released a murderous insurrectionist against Rome, let alone this be a custom. Rather, Pilate was brutal and ruthless, and would use his soldiers to beat people into submission. This perspective finds support. According to Philo, Pilate “was a man of inflexible, stubborn and cruel disposition…”...

Moreover, for Pilate to release an insurrectionist would likely bring the Empire down on himself, which Pilate certainly would not have wanted.

Conversely, the Romans slowly evolve into, if not the heroes, at least sympathetic characters.  The centurion at the cross.  Pilate being bullied into executing Jesus by a Jewish crowd.   Matthew 27:24

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

This first century propaganda push to shift the blame for the Romans arresting Jesus as an insurgent against the Roman empire and executing him in accordance with Roman law planted the seeds from which modern, murderous antisemitism sprang.  Matthew 27:25

All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

From The Centre For The Study of Bible and Violence:

But important as it is, such historical contextualisation is not enough to deal with the legacy of Matthew 27:25 – the way in which it has been weaponised against Jews, and ‘has haunted Jewish-Christian relations for almost sixteen hundred years’.[3]  The accusation that all Jews everywhere, and down the generations, are ‘Christ-killers’ can be documented from the mid-second century:  Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho, told the Jew Trypho that at Christ’s first coming ‘he was pierced by you’.[4]  And Melito, bishop of Sardis, preached a powerful Passiontide sermon in which he rhetorically addressed ‘O lawless Israel’, saying, ‘you cast the vote of opposition against your Lord … over whom even Pilate washed his hands: for you killed him at the great feast’.[5]  Melito has been called ‘the first poet of deicide’, for making the explicit claim that ‘God has been murdered.  The King of Israel has been destroyed by an Israelite right hand.’[6]  Christian anti-Judaism later fused with racial antisemitism, and the deicide charge featured, for example, in the Nazi school curriculum.[7]  

Note that last part about this grotesque perversion of the truth eventually became so embedded in the culture that it was party of Nazi school curriculum as you read this from Reason magazine:

New Oklahoma Curriculum Requires Students To Learn 2020 Election Fraud Conspiracies 

The new standards are "the most unapologetically conservative, pro-America social studies standards in the nation," according to State Superintendent Ryan Walters.

n the new school year, thousands of Oklahoma students will be required to learn about 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories as part of a new curriculum developed by the state's controversial superintendent, Ryan Walters. Walters, who has come under fire in recent months for an effort to require Oklahoma classrooms to stock Bibles and display the Ten Commandments, has said that the addition "empowers students to investigate and understand the electoral process." 

While it's not necessarily unreasonable to want students to learn about the dispute over the 2020 election, the standards' framing of the controversy (which turned up no evidence of election interference) and Walters' comments about it make it clear that teachers are meant to shed doubt on the veracity of the election. 

"The purpose of the standard is simple: we want students to think for themselves, not be spoon-fed left wing propaganda," Walters said in a statement to The Washington Post in March. "Students deserve to examine every aspect of our elections, including the legitimate concerns raised by millions of Americans in 2020."

Put a pin in that terrifying development for one minute while I send another fun Roman fact your way.

Did you know that, in Roman theology, emperors could be declared divine?  Well, of course you knew, because you watched I, Claudius, but maybe some other's didn't.  It's true.  It's the original meaning of the word "apotheosis".  Through a formal vote in the Roman Senate an emperor or other august person (usually deceased) could be elevated to the status of a divinity. 

These days there is a great deal of frustration and confusion abroad in the land about why the Republican party has divorced itself, not just from policies which the base never gave a shit about anyway, but from reason itself.  Why do they all believe such goddamn stupid lies?   Why do they persist in putting their faith in the same liars over and over again even as the lies fall apart over and over again?  

Whatever happened to art of political compromise and the power of persuasion?  

The answer is that Republicans have left the realm of politics altogether.   Sure, Republicans still have titles and elected offices and ribbon cuttings.  And, sure, every now and then there is some attempt to put on a show for the cameras about passing a bill or a budget.  But those are just the trappings and relics of an age that has now passed, because they are no longer a political party.

They are a religion.  And, yes, you'll hear a lot of critics (myself included) calling them a "cult", so I won't quibble except to say that there really isn't that much that separates a cult from a religion.  A.I. Jebus says it's more of a spectrum, and the distinction is often a matter of social and cultural perception. For example, has the group gained recognition from mainstream society as a religion?  Some people still think of Mormonism as a cult, most people would call it a religion?

Money is also a big consideration.  Bring enough gold to the table, and you can sit with the big boys.  

Social acceptance is also a factor.  Do you have enough people in your tent to be recognized by the mainstream culture as a legitimate religion.  Consider that, in the 1st and 2nd centuries, there were between 59 and 76 million people in the  Roman empire.  And at the end of the 1st century, the number of Christians in the empire amounted to nothing more than a rounding error.  Based on the modeling of Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity, there were approximately 7,500 Christians by the end of the first century (0.02% of sixty million people);

Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity has a very interesting model that starts with 1,000 members of the Jesus Sect in 40 AD and projects a growth rate of 40% per decade up to the fourth century. As Stark lays out, this tallies with the available historical evidence, both the more impressionistic kind,[1] and a remarkable study on the growth of Christianity in Egypt, where we have the nearest approximation to births, marriages, and deaths records in the Roman world.[2]

Starks model means the trajectory was, roughly[3]:

7,500 Christians by the end of the first century (0.02% of sixty million people);

40,000 Christians by 150 AD (0.07%)

200,000 by 200 AD (0.35%)

2 million by 250 AD (2%)...

By 300 AD, there were six million Christians, and by 350 AD there were approximately thirty million, with Christians now a clear majority of the Empire.

Deciding at what point Christianity stopped being a cult and start being a religion really comes down to a matter of taste, so whether you prefer the term "cult" (since it sounds more transitory and personality-based) or "religion", something profoundly dark and disturbing that has been rumbling around in the guts of the GOP for decades has finally emerged fully into the open, and it is not a political party anymore.  And now that all internal opposition has been snuffed out and the faithful are in command of their own media platforms, they are proceeding with even greater vigor in doing what Republicans have been doing all along anyway: rewriting history to suit themselves.  

Just as the heroes and villains and martyrs of the Christian origin story were rearranged to suit the changing needs of the expanding church, so too are the heroes, villains and martyrs of the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 terrorist attack on the American capitol being rewritten to suit the Right's new religion.  

It is now the official canon of the Church of MAGA that the 2020 election was stolen, and any statement to the contrary is heresy that can cost you your job with the regime.  From Fortune Magazine, March 6, 2025:

Trump team tests job candidates by asking who won the 2020 election

The White House is giving potential job candidates litmus tests in interviews to make sure they are sufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump and his second-term agenda, according to people familiar with the process.

Among the questions asked of multiple candidates: Would you be willing to serve as a spokesperson for mass deportations? Which of Trump’s executive orders is your favorite? Who won the 2020 presidential election? And which Trump policy do you disagree with?

Job seekers are asked their views on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to overturn the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump pardoned hundreds of people convicted of crimes linked to the assault, which killed at least seven people and injured 150 police officers. He has called the day’s events a peaceful protest.

The insurgents have been recast as hostages and heroes...

    -- liberated from their durance vile by the divine intervention of the godhead of their new faith -- 

-- which comes alongside promises of terrible retribution against the sinners who dared to defy the servants of the godhead:

And of course, story of the traitor Ashli Babbitt who fucked around and found out has been magically transformed into the tale of a Martyr to the Holy Cause.  From ABC News:

DOJ reaches agreement in principle to settle lawsuit brought by family of Ashli Babbitt

Babbitt's family sued the government in January 2024 seeking $30 million. 

The Department of Justice has reached an agreement in principle to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump rioter who was shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The details of the proposed settlement were not made clear during a Friday hearing before federal Judge Ana Reyes, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Babbitt's family members sued the government in January 2024 seeking $30 million for what they allege was her wrongful shooting death by Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd.

Here's what actually happened.  Again from ABC News:

Byrd was cleared of any wrongdoing following an internal investigation into the actions leading up to his shooting of Babbitt as she tried to climb through a broken window that led to the House Speaker's Lobby, where several lawmakers and their staff were sheltering from rioters.

And here's the official doctrine according to the infallible leader of the Church of MAGA:

President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his solidarity with Babbitt's family and called for "justice" for what he has said was her "murder" at Byrd's hands -- in line with his broader vocal support for the pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol to overturn his 2020 election loss.

In March, Trump said in an interview with Newsmax he wasn't aware of the lawsuit brought by Babbitt's family but promised he would "look into" it.

"I'm a big fan of Ashli Babbitt, OK, and Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan, and she was innocently standing there -- they even say trying to sort of hold back the crowd," Trump said. "And a man did something unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I think it's a disgrace. I'm going to look into that. I did not know that."

As an emergent religion, the Church of MAGA checks all the boxes.  It has its saints and martyrs and a godhead.  

It has has the Republican party's age-old contempt for the existing order of things, and now, under Trump, that evil old temple is being torn down.  And in its place shall be a paradise on Earth for the faithful.  Revelation 21:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

From The Atlantic, July 21, 2016:

‘I Alone Can Fix It’

Breaking with two centuries of political tradition, Donald Trump didn’t ask Americans to place their trust in each other or in God, but rather, in Trump.

From Yahoo News, March 10, 2025:

Trump: 'We're going to become so rich, you're not going to know where to spend all that money' 

Miracles are now performed on a daily basis.  Sometimes on an hourly basis.  Through faith alone, rising prices have stopped being a bad thing and become a good thing.  Who needs so many dolls and pencils anyway?  

And who says they're rising anyway?  Trump has declared that:

"The cost of eggs has come down like 93%, 94% since we took office, and they’re pretty much normally priced now.”

Also I am told that somewhere out there in Real America gas now costs less than $2 a gallon.  From CNBC:

“Gasoline just broke $1.98 a Gallon, lowest in years,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday. “Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!”

And once Trump had been re-elected, the Church of MAGA had it's very own story of symbolic betrayal, death and resurrection.

Take a long look at the groveling deference and sycophancy of Trump's cabinet and the Republicans in congress.  Doesn't that look an awful lot like an act of "apotheosis" -- of elevating Trump to divine status?

And now that it has its hands on real, state power, what would a new, bloody-minded religion be without the declarations of jihad against blasphemers and heretics.  This is from the April 9, 2025 Presidential Memoranda FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

Title: Addressing Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship

...Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his Government authority. Krebs’ misconduct involved the censorship of disfavored speech implicating the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic. CISA, under Krebs’ leadership, suppressed conservative viewpoints under the guise of combatting supposed disinformation, and recruited and coerced major social media platforms to further its partisan mission. CISA covertly worked to blind the American public to the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. Krebs, through CISA, promoted the censorship of election information, including known risks associated with certain voting practices. Similarly, Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines. Krebs skewed the bona fide debate about COVID-19 by attempting to discredit widely shared views that ran contrary to CISA’s favored perspective...

This July will mark the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey trial.   Care to guess how many Christian evangelicals still refuse to believe in evolution?  According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey indicated that 66% of white evangelical Protestants hold a creationist stance, believing humans have always existed in their present form.

What about refusal to believe in climate change despite the fact that the consensus of 97-99% of all scientists is that it is real and man-made?  Or belief that the Bible is the literal an inerrant word of God despite mountains of historical, geological, paleographic, forensic and chemical evidence to the contrary?

Like it or not, for the Right this stopped being a political contest over policy questions a long time ago and  became a Holy War against us infidels and heretics on the Left.  That’s what all of their culture war bullshit adds up to: Church of MAGA articles of faith that their leaders have told them,  are under siege by us godless, commie scum.  

Long past time for Dems to wake up and stop pretending what is broken about this country can be fixed by bringing a House resolution to a Holy War.  

No Half Measures