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The Left never misses an opportunity to demonize decent Christians and to fear-monger about them as A Threat to Democracy™ and a white, oppressive, cultural hegemony that must be overthrown for social justice to be achieved.
Most recent case in point: Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of the far-Left Mother Jones magazine, took to X (formerly Twitter) late last week to gripe about an unnamed flight attendant on Alaska Air wishing the passengers a “blessed” night at the end of a recent flight to San Francisco, which is the home base of Mother Jones.
In a tweet she has since deleted, Jeffery wrote, “Creeping Christian nationalism alert: @AlaskaAir flight attendant just wished us a ‘blessed’ night as we landed in SFO (!) to groans. Other adjectives that would have sufficed: great, awesome, fabulous, amazing, fantastic…”
She added, “As my rowmate said, ‘this ain’t Montgomery, sweetie.’”
The snarky tweet garnered millions of views within hours and invited a swarm of social media mockery and chiding from X users on both sides of the political fence, who rightly found Jeffery’s post mean-spirited and ungrateful.
“How sad and impoverished is your life that you’re offended by someone blessing you? Get a grip,” Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen responded.
The Dispatch editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg weighed in, writing, “This is a bizarre and pretty indefensible overreaction, [in my opinion].”
Even Kamala Harris campaign fundraiser Armand Domalewski rebuked Jeffery, writing, “Respectfully, I’m a pretty left-leaning guy and I wish folks a blessed day fairly often. It’s just a nice thing to say.”
This comment prompted a response from fellow Democrat Jeffery, who replied, “Eh. It’s a matter of respect for the audience before you. Respecting their space and norms and wishes. Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms and intents. And…way off @AlaskaAir’s brand.”
To his credit, Domalewski disputed her point, adding, “As a practicing Catholic, I don’t feel like being publicly Christian is really the dominant culture here in SF lol.” Jeffery did not respond to this incisive point.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald was not as polite as Domalewski, tweeting about Jeffery’s post, “From start to finish, this tweet is art. Put it in the encyclopedia under ‘affluent white coastal American liberalism’ and no other text will be required.”
Actor Clifton Duncan posted to Jeffery, “I’m an atheist and your tweet is ridiculously paranoid and idiotic Have a blessed day”
Both Canadian conservative activist Billboard Chris and attorney Laura Powell of Californians for Good Governance shared entire threads of Jeffery using “bless” over and over again in social media posts with the same intent as the flight attendant. Powell wrote,
The Editor-in-Chief of Mother Jones uses “god bless” and “blessed” so frequently I can’t post all the screenshots and yet calls it “creeping Christian nationalism” when a flight attendant does the same. Is she holding the people who serve her to a different standard? Or perhaps she was offended that the flight attendant seemed sincere?
Washington Examiner contributor Kimberly Ross also denounced Jeffery’s post, stating,
This is not ‘creeping Christian nationalism.’ This is someone showing kindness to others. It’s not offensive. It’s not a demand for religious conversion. The issue here is you processed it as a problem that requires a public complaint while tagging the airline. Time to grow up.
But Jeffery’s complaint wasn’t made out of mere pettiness or personal offense. Nor was it done to protect Alaska Air’s “brand,” as Jeffery suggested in her response to Harris fundraiser Domalewski. It was made with the political intent to target an innocent, well-meaning Christian as part of the atheist, Marxist Left’s ongoing demonization of Christianity as an Enemy of the People™. That is why Jeffery tagged Alaska Air in her tweet – to pressure the airline publicly to punish the flight attendant and to send a message that no expressions even perceived to be Christian should be allowed in the workplace.
Regarding Jeffery’s comment that “Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms and intents”: it is absurd to claim that a flight attendant wishing passengers a “blessed” evening is in any way an act of enforcement or dominance. In fact, Domalewski was only partially correct to tell Jeffery that he doesn’t feel that “being publicly Christian is really the dominant culture here in SF”; in the post-Christian West, being publicly Christian is no longer the dominant culture in America as a whole. But it serves Jeffery’s purpose to paint the nation as being under the boot heel of a Christian theocracy.
Speaking of which, she used the label “Christian nationalism” to link the flight attendant’s horrific transgression to a movement which the Left is making a coordinated effort to demonize as a Hitlerian boogeyman. As I have written before, “Christian nationalism” is the new Progressive dog-whistle for “scary American patriots.” It signals to Progressives that Americans who love God and country – which used to be the norm before our descent into a post-Christian, post-patriotism culture – are a subversive danger to the Democrat one-party State. Christianity, after all, imposes a moral code that chafes Progressive libertines, and nationalism, with its emphasis on state sovereignty and secure borders, frustrates their globalist ambitions.
The Left’s aim is to whip up a hyperventilating panic over the specter of a fundamentalist theocracy. This is why the Left hurls such smears as “American Taliban” at believing Christians. They want to spread the dehumanizing message that America under white male Christian MAGA mullahs will descend into a Handmaid’s Tale dystopia in which homosexuals are hanged and women seeking abortions are imprisoned. The Left’s goal is to enforce their vision of the separation of church and state as one in which Christian patriots and their values are excluded from the halls of government power entirely.
It’s also worth noting that Jeffery’s approving claim that a “rowmate” on the flight said “This ain’t Montgomery, sweetie” reveals an open bigotry against the flyover Americans whom the coastal elites like Jeffery despise.
No matter what your faith (or lack thereof), it is impossible to imagine being offended by a kind wish that you be blessed as you go on your way. Clara Jeffery’s reaction only makes sense if you realize that the Mother Jones editor saw the opportunity to weaponize that blessing against a political and cultural enemy.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior
Well said, Mr. Tapson!
Speaking as a Southerner, I say: “Bless your heart❤️, Clara.” ~
All true. I posted on that thread asking Karen if she would have complained if the blessing had come from a Muslim
She just craves attention, ignoring her is the best way.
“Jeffery using “bless” over and over again in social media posts ”
Enough said.
Maybe she has taken sides in the current election, and is trying to encourage votes for Donald Trump? I ask because, Dr.Tapson, you say: “It’s also worth noting that Jeffery’s approving claim that a “rowmate” on the flight said “This ain’t Montgomery, sweetie” reveals an open bigotry against the flyover Americans whom the coastal elites like Jeffery despise.”
Indeed. And I would guess it is that open bigotry that makes people want to vote for someone who is not part of the coastal elites. So, presumably, the more that bigotry is expressed, the more votes Donald Trump is likely to get.
However, re “Christian Nationalism”, can there even be such a thing? Aren’t Christians to be “no part of the world”? And how could we be one loving family – a congregation made up of people from “every tribe and nation and tongue” – if we took sides in the divisive politics of the world? How long would it be before we too were fighting and killing each other, as is the way of “the world” (the current wicked system of things on the earth)?
You believe Christian nationalism is incompatible with Christianity because somehow we are to be “one loving family” that has “no part of the world” and is composed of “every tribe and nation and tongue.” I think it likely you believe this because you have listened to woke pastors twist the Word of God.
Nations were created by God, who commanded the earliest peoples to spread out / subdue the earth and fill it (Genesis 1:27).
Genesis 10 contains the “Table of Nations” in which the early post-flood families are identified. Each son of Noah produces several nations, each named and described identically as follows: “These were DIVIDED in THEIR lands, every one after his LANGUAGE, after their FAMILIES, in their NATIONS.” Genesis 10:5 (the sons of Japheth), Genesis 10:20 (Sons of Ham) and Genesis 10:31 (Sons of Shem). Further, God repeats the command / blessing first given to Adam and Eve to post-flood humanity: “be fruitful and multiply and fill / replenish the earth” (See Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:1).
Babel, which is described in Genesis 11, is man’s attempt to defy God and UNIFY. They spoke one language and wanted to remain in one place in defiance of God’s command to spread out and fill the earth. They desired to glorify themselves (rather than God.) See Genesis 11: 1 – 4.
Do you remember what Paul said about the confusion of foreign tongues spoken in the church in Corinth? How many translators and nations do you want to participate in your church service? Do you see that God sends a nation who speaks a foreign tongue not understood by His people to oppress and conquer them when they are being judged by Him? Do you think the church in Nigeria will not be sufficiently diverse and of “one family” if they do not begin to include other races and languages in their services?
Yes, Christianity is a powerful unifying force – the ONLY means to unite disparate peoples in peace– but that does not take away or lessen the particular love and preference we have for our own people, customs, culture and families – not until Messiah Jesus comes again.
God was pleased to make us as we are and we are profoundly different from other tribes. God’s grace does not remove these differences. These differences are to reflect the glory of God and we are all to praise Him in our own unique ways, with our own languages, customs, music, etc. With these God is well pleased!
Thank you, that’s a brilliant and well written response.
Thank you, Dan.
After I wrote to Sue, I remembered that Zephaniah 3:9 speaks of God’s returning to humanity to a single language for the purpose of a united worship of Him. At that time, it is possible that the danger of Babel will have been removed from us.
If you are curious, look at the verse with all its cross-references and “Treasury of Scripture Knowledge” references just below them:
https://biblehub.com/zephaniah/3-9.htm
Biblehub has done a great service in providing those references for us!
Hello Kynarion, as a Christian I am not usually accused of being “woke” – rather the opposite in fact. Christian standards on sexual morality, for example, are considered very unWoke indeed.
But, seriously, how can we let “the world” divide the Christian congregation? Didn’t Jesus himself say that the mark of his true followers would be the love they had for each other?
At John 13:35 he said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples—if you have love among yourselves.”
How can we have that love and unity if we take sides in all the divisions fostered by “the world”? How long before we would be fighting and killing each other?
I did not mean to say that YOU are woke, but that you might be listening to woke preaching. My own greatly beloved pastor succumbed to it, and only after much struggle did I recognized the dissonance in his preaching.
Woke ideology has pervaded the Church. It twists scriptural ideas in order to advance our destruction. Words like “love” and “in the world” and “unity.” You and I swim in woke culture and we must fight hard to de-colonize our minds.
For example, you say, “How can we have…love and unity if we take sides….?” Love is NOT tolerance of our own sin or the sins of our brothers and sisters for the sake of peace. Love, unlike tolerance, brings true peace because love is tethered to compassion and truth. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace, but division (Luke 12:51; Matthew 10: 34-36). And yet, our Lord is the Lord of Love even when He does this.
You say, “How long before we would be fighting and killing each other?” What causes divisions among us? Read James 4: 1 – 3. Unity and peace are given when the Spirit inhabits the believer and creates in him a new heart. This heart gives ONENESS with other believers who are now IN the world, but not OF the world. See also what 1 Corinthians 5: 9 – 11 says about “unity” and being “in the world.”
Go back to James 4: 4 “…Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.”
Yet, God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). What does this mean? It means God loves His creation and his people from every tribe, tongue and nation – not just the Jews and Israel.
BUT… Jesus did not pray for the world, but for believers in His high priestly prayer of John 17. 9 “I ask on their behalf. I do NOT ask on behalf of the WORLD, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours. 10 All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine; and in them I have been glorified. 11 I will no longer be in the WORLD, but they are in the WORLD, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be ONE as We are ONE.” That is true unity that only the Lord can give.
God bless you, Sue!
Hello Kynarion Thank you for another thoughtful response. I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We try to be guided by the Inspired Scriptures – both Hebrew and Christian Greek (Old and New Testament) – adding nothing, subtracting nothing.
I was a Catholic Convent schoolgirl a long long time ago – dinosaur-proof fencing round the school playground – and was attending a small Protestant Church when two JWs knocked at my door (also many years ago). I wanted to find out who created this lovely planet and say thanks. And I hope that one day I will be able to thank Him from a perfect heart. I hope we all will.
You say: “ Love is NOT tolerance of our own sin or the sins of our brothers and sisters for the sake of peace.” And you are right. The Christian congregation does not, and should not, tolerate wilful and unrepentant sinners, those who do not accept the Creator’s standards of good and bad. They are disfellowshipped. But we do not kill anyone over these differences, obviously! As Christians, aren’t our weapons of warfare only spiritual ones?
Sue, the “reply” buttons have worn out, so I reply to myself. I dearly love Jehovah’s Witnesses and when they knock upon my door, my heart leaps for joy.
They cannot, by definition, be Christian because they deny the fundamentals of the Faith. Jesus is not a created being or an angel. Jesus IS God the Son, One in substance and being with the Father and very God of very God through Whom all things were made. Our most ancient Creed affirms this. Christians worship Jesus as God the Son, and you are forbidden to do so, seeing Jesus as both created and angelic.
The JW “currency” is wrong. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9: 22). The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins because they are insufficient – not enough and the wrong currency (Hebrews 10: 4).
Micah 6:7 tells us that our sins cannot be paid with the sacrifice of our child or thousands of rams with rivers of oil. Although human sacrifice is the proper currency for human sin against God, God prohibits the sacrifice of that currency – and stayed Abraham’s knife.
Humans have sinned against Infinite Perfection. What price and in what currency can the debt be paid against infinite Perfection? The price must be infinite. The currency must be human. So we are LOST in the impossible! Angels are neither human nor perfect. Do you see the problem? Humanity is incapable of paying for sins against God, our rightly offended King.
There can be only one sacrifice that is both sufficient and in the proper human currency. The Man Christ Jesus, God Himself, veiled in human flesh, Who, being the Author and Sustainer of all life, both lay down His life of His own authority and and took it up again by that same power (John 10:18).
Sue, you JW’s are beautiful people with strong community ties. Should you become a Christian and believe the Scriptures, you would suffer much as the Jew who does the same. You would be shunned — an outcast. But you would not remain there. You would have an everlasting heritage in God Himself, with all the saints from the beginning of time throughout all eternity.
Read the Bible for yourself. It alone, and no human commentary, is inspired and is the very Word of God.
Next on the agenda?
When someone sneezes – don’t you dare say – – > GodBlessYou
Clara is isn’t taking greetings too well, as she’s inconsolable over recent events.
America’s future President survived his two attempts, while America’s enemies did not.
The dumbbitch would be more harmed by greetings from islamists on that airplane, if they were given the leeway Crooks was given. (She also wouldn’t have the chance to tweet about it afterwards.)
“Creeping Idiot alert:………..
The Left has been trying to equate Maga style nationalism with National Socialism for at least a decade, but it hasn’t worked. As if actually putting America first will lead to some version of the American Taliban running rampant in the country.
Considering how close the left is to actual National Socialism in this country perhaps they should stop embarrassing themselves. Ms. Jeffery, your sell by date has come and gone.
To normal Americans: Have a blessed day.
To the Left and the Democrats: rot in hell.
I have a one finger salute for the perpetually offended. Move to your favorite leftist hell hole and die.
I am honored to be slandered by amoral, corrupt reprobates. I’ve learned to never expect justice from evil people. Lies are the stock and trade of demonic intentions.. It’s been that way from ‘the beginning’. It was that way for Jesus and anyone following His as their Lord.
The devil is a defeated dog on a short leash. He hates it.
“The Left’s goal is to enforce their vision of the separation of church and state as one in which Christian patriots and their values are excluded from the halls of government power entirely.”
The Left’s goal is to have union, not separation, of their satanic religion and government.
Separation of church and state is not in our Constitution. The founders desired there would be no Christian denomination imposed by law as happened in Europe. They did not envision the United States would become non-Christian and non-western. They did not envision that “all men are created equal” would be used to impose inequality before the law as it does now.
If they take offense at that, it’s their problem. The list of offenses that the Left imposes on us is much more egregious and offensive in every way.
She can go to Hell – literally.
“Christian nationalism” has entered the lefty lexicon right after other fake terms like “Islamophobia” and “American Taliban”. “Christian nationalism” is just like white nationalism … except with Christians … except that some Christians are black and Hispanic (and all the other races too) … so can they be “Christian nationalists”? Asking for a friend.
“Dominant cultures always feel they have a right to enforce their norms.” Well, there’s an element of truth in that, but it is Clara Jeffery’s Mother Jones lefty culture that is dominant in the U.S. and all over the world.
So it’s no surprise that she is exercising her “right” to enforce her norms and intents. If I say “Bless you” after a sneeze is that “Christian nationalism”? How about if I say it in German?
Or is “Gesundheit” a “Christian nationalist” dog whistle too?
I don’t think “lefty culture” is dominant. It has sway over the coasts, but not “flyover” country. We are still a majority, and we should repent of ceding power to evil men and women who do not know God. We have not left a heritage to our children’s children as the righteous must do. Proverbs 13:22. There is still time to turn things around.
She demonstrated pure classism, by trying to get the stewardess fired by the airline.
Vile and petty cretins.
As a Jew, I am not offended if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas. I take it in the good spirit it is meant in.
Only subversive malign individuals take offense at a positive comment as they have sinister agendas at play.
This is what Communism looks like in practice
I don’t care what an insane Leftist says any more than I care what the guy next door with dementia says.
are we sure that isn’t another deranged male pretending to be female?
Madalyn Murray O’Hair was upset because people said they would pray for her.
And the fool was a crook who was murdered for the money she stole. She was consumed with hatred & greed, and it caught up to her.
In the end, the embezzling grifter authored her own destruction.
Would she have got her back up if the flight attendant was an indigenous latino who had sent the passengers off with a ‘Vaya con Dios’?
Yes. … Bless her. Seriously.
This is the sort of petty, noxious, inconsiderate disregard for others – to impugn basic courtesy, e.g. –
That helped me leave the Atheist religion to find a religion compatible with sanity and reality.
Wow was pretty sure Jerry Garcia is dead, and Mother Jones had folded years ago, or so I thought.
Commies such as Ms. Jeffrey take a good thing (Patriotism) and call it a boogey-name (Nationalism).
I’m guessing she also objects to Christianity itself, but is afraid to say so in public.