I hate writing articles on this. I truly do, but the ongoing coup attempt is the largest act of corruption in American history since the Civil War.
We've reached two new milestones. Previously, Trump encouraged his supporters to hold massive riots on January 6th, which is when Congress formally counts the electoral votes. Congress counting the electoral votes is a mere formality that isn't going to change the outcome of anything, but it is a date to rally around.
Now, dozens of coup-supporting Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate have announced they are going to use the date to challenge the electoral votes, and force members of Congress to vote on whether or not they are still willing to pledge their support to their doomed coup.
After the Electoral College formally voted for Biden, even Mitch McConnell was willing to accept his victory, and he doesn't think it's wise to force a public vote in order to get the names of the Congressmen who support the coup.
So far, 46 Republicans have publicly announced they will vote to support the coup on January 6th, but some believe a majority of the party will end up endorsing it.
December 30:
"llinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday he believes more than 100 members of the GOP could step forward to challenge the Congressional certification of electoral votes.https://www.newsweek.com/republican-predicts-over-100-gop-lawmakers-will-challenge-electoral-college-results-1558192
[...]
On Wednesday's episode of The Bulwark Podcast, Kinzinger said a large number of Republicans could back Trump's attempt to retain the presidency by objecting to the electoral votes.
"I hope I'm wrong," Kinzinger said. "I'm guessing it could be upwards of 100."
Kinzinger said he believes that the attempt by Republicans to keep Trump in office "ain't gonna work," but intimated that Trump would point an accusatory finger at someone else if the Congressional challenge fails. "The problem is Donald Trump doesn't like losing and he'll never admit he lost so he'll always blame somebody else," Kinzinger said."
December 31:
"Two Republican members of the House of Representatives tell CNN that they expect at least 140 of their GOP colleagues in the House to vote against counting the electoral votes on January 6 when Congress is expected to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/31/politics/electoral-college-house-republicans/index.html
[...]
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse spoke out against that strategy -- and the complicity of some of his GOP colleagues -- in a Facebook post Wednesday night, urging Republicans to "reject" the effort to object to the certification process.
"The president and his allies are playing with fire," he wrote. "They have been asking -- first the courts, then state legislatures, now the Congress -- to overturn the results of a presidential election. They have unsuccessfully called on judges and are now calling on federal officeholders to invalidate millions and millions of votes. If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn't and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote.""
***
Here are the names of the Republican members of Congress who have thus far announced they will vote to support the coup on January 6th.
In the Senate (updated January 2):
Josh Hawley (Mo.) - first to publicly endorse the coup vote in the Senate.
Ted Cruz (Texas)
Ron Johnson (Wis.)
James Lankford (Okla.)
Steve Daines (Mont.)
John Kennedy (La.)
Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.)
Mike Braun (Ind.)
Senators-elect (who will be sworn in on January 3rd):
Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.)
Roger Marshall (Kan.)
Bill Hagerty (Tenn.)
Tommy Tuberville (Ala.)
"The group's announcement means that at least a dozen GOP senators, or almost a quarter of the caucus, will challenge the election results Wednesday."Source:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/532366-11-senate-republicans-say-they-will-object-to-electoral-college-results-on
In the House (updated December 31):
Mo Brooks (Ala.) - leader of the coup vote in the House.
Brian Babin (Texas)
Andy Biggs (Ariz.)
Ted Budd (N.C.)
Jeff Duncan (S.C.)
Matt Gaetz (Fla.)
Louie Gohmert (Texas)
Lance Gooden (Texas)
Paul Gosar (Ariz.)
Mark Green (Tenn.)
Jody Hice (Ga.)
Clay Higgins (La.)
John Joyce (Pa.)
Fred Keller (Pa.)
Mike Kelly (Pa.)
Dan Meuser (Pa.)
Ralph Norman (S.C.)
Scott Perry (Pa.)
Guy Reschenthaler (Pa.)
Lloyd Smucker (Pa.)
GT Thompson (Pa.)
Jefferson Van Drew (N.J.)
Representatives-elect (who will be sworn in on January 3rd):
Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.)
Lauren Boebert (Colo.)
Jerry Carl (Ala.)
Madison Cawthorn (N.C.)
Andrew Clyde (Ga.)
Byron Donalds (Fla.)
Bob Good (Va.)
Diana Harshbarger (Tenn.)
Yvette Herrell (N.M.)
Ronny Jackson (Texas)
Barry Moore (Ala.)
Burgess Owens (Utah)
Source:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/532149-here-are-the-republicans-planning-to-challenge-the-electoral-college-results
That is 12 Senators and 34 members of the House who are declaring they are willing to go on the record to vote for a coup.
***
If the Republicans who vote to support the coup are allowed to remain in political office, this will be a violation of the 14th Amendment:
"Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
Here is the oath Congressmen swear:
“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/3331
By attempting to "overthrow" an election with a coup, they themselves become domestic enemies of the United States. Preventing such traitors from being sworn in to the next term of Congress on the basis of the 14th Amendment was already demanded by Congressman Bill Pascrell.
"Stated simply, men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as members of the Congress," writes the longtime Trump critic."https://www.salon.com/2020/12/15/citing-14th-amendment-democrat-bill-pascrell-says-gop-house-members-shouldnt-even-be-sworn-in_partner/
As I have warned in my previous posts, there are actually two separate coups. There is the ongoing coup attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, and there was a type of coup called a self-coup carried out by Republicans early on in Trump's administration. With the self-coup, Republicans enabled themselves to act outside of the Constitution in all of the branches of government that they controlled. I warned that the effects of the self-coup will not go away, even if Trump leaves office.
If dozens or hundreds of Republicans openly vote in Congress to support a coup and overthrow our government, they should not be allowed to remain in office. If they are allowed to remain in office, this will be evidence that the self-coup continues and they will continue to illegally operate outside of the Constitution until they are brought to justice once and for all. If the Democrat party ignores the self-coup and decides not to bring the Republican party to justice, they will be complicit in all the crimes Republicans have been allowed to commit for the duration of the self-coup.
***
The second new milestone in the coup is Trump officially calling both the 2020 election and Georgia Senate runoff elections "illegal and invalid". Remember, just a week ago Trump was considering implementing martial law to carry out "new elections" (i.e. a military coup). Will this nightmare ever end?
"“The Georgia Consent Decree is Unconstitutional & the State 2020 Presidential Election ... is therefore both illegal and invalid, and that would include the two current Senatorial Elections,” Trump tweeted."https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-georgia-senate-runoffs-illegal-invalid_n_5fefdd6fc5b65a92290e7903
***
***
Other news that has happened since the last update.
• Since we're all aware of the coup by now, let me begin by covering some other major events. In early December, it was revealed Russia launched a massive cyber attack which impacted countless government agencies and large businesses which used a compromised software. Due to the nature of the exploit, they could have had access to systems for months. Trump didn't seem to be bothered by this massive cyber attack.
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/946776718/u-s-scrambles-to-understand-major-computer-hack-but-says-little
Former Pentagon Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash, December 18:
"I think Trump requested cyber hacking from Russia. He welcomed it, he benefited from it and I think he's rewarded it."https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1340643394863980545
"John Brennan, who was head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between 2013 and 2017, said on Monday that the US president’s comments on Russia were against “reality,” and always have been.
And that, said Mr Brennan, was because the country had helped his one-time election win.
“He refuses to accept reality. I think it’s because he doesn’t see Russia as a threat to him personally,” said Mr Brennan, as he appeared on CNN’s Out Front."
(1/6/2021 update):
Janaury 1: Biden to receive intelligence briefings once again after Trump halted them on December 18th. The massive Russian cyber attack on our government was first reported in the press on December 13th. (For additional irony, here's a throwback article to 2017, when Trump said he was working with Putin to form a "Cyber Security unit" to avoid hacking.)
On January 3rd, all 10 living former Secretaries of Defense (including ultra-corrupt Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld!!!) signed a letter essentially stating the military would not become involved in a coup and Republicans needed to accept the results of the election. Excerpts from this letter can be found in the subsequent blog post. Link to the letter is below:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-former-defense-secretaries-military-peaceful-transfer-of-power/2021/01/03/2a23d52e-4c4d-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html
The fact that all 10 of these men signed this letter, the Pentagon resuming intelligence briefings for Biden (presumably against Trump's wishes), and the removal of the carrier to defuse tensions with Iran (see below) suggests the coup is very real and whatever is going on behind the scenes is much more grave than the public is aware of.
***
January 3rd, 2020 is when Trump committed a warcrime by assassinating Iranian General Soleimani while he was in Iraq conducting diplomatic matters. To celebrate this anniversary, Trump, the media, and others are trying to get us into war with Iran yet again, even though US defense officials acknowledge there is no credible threat.
https://www.businessinsider.com/nato-trump-transition-military-biden-iran-2020-12
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/us/politics/trump-iran.html
"Yet others in the Pentagon contend that the threat is being exaggerated, with the first senior defense official -- who is directly involved in discussions -- telling CNN that there is "not a single piece of corroborating intel" suggesting an attack by Iran may be imminent.https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/30/politics/defense-officials-divided-potential-iran-attack/index.html
[...]
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif charged Thursday morning that the US was creating a pretext for war."
January 1. In an unusual move, the US military decides to de-escalate the tensions:
"The Pentagon has abruptly sent the aircraft carrier Nimitz home from the Middle East and Africa over the objections of top military advisers, marking a reversal of a weekslong muscle-flexing strategy aimed at deterring Iran from attacking American troops and diplomats in the Persian Gulf.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/us/politics/iran-trump.html
Officials said on Friday that the acting defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller, had ordered the redeployment of the ship in part as a “de-escalatory” signal to Tehran to avoid stumbling into a crisis in President Trump’s waning days in office."
To give a refresher on what the US did:
"Iraq’s prime minister revealed that he was due to be meeting the Iranian commander to discuss moves being made to ease the confrontation between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia – the crux of so much of strife in the Middle East and beyond.https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/qassem-soleimani-death-iran-baghdad-middle-east-iraq-saudi-arabia-a9272901.html
Adil Abdul-Mahdi was quite clear: “I was supposed to meet him in the morning the day he was killed, he came to deliver a message from Iran in response to the message we had delivered from the Saudis to Iran.”
The prime minister also disclosed that Donald Trump had called him to ask him to mediate following the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad. According to Iraqi officials contact was made with a number of militias as well as figures in Tehran. The siege of the embassy was lifted and the US president personally thanked Abdul-Mahdi for his help.
There was nothing to suggest to the Iraqis that it was unsafe for Soleimani to travel to Baghdad – quite the contrary. This suggests that Trump helped lure the Iranian commander to a place where he could be killed."
"perfidy is a form of deception in which one side promises to act in good faith (such as by raising a flag of truce) with the intention of breaking that promise once the unsuspecting enemy is exposed (such as by coming out of cover to attack the enemy coming to take the "surrendering" prisoners into custody). Perfidy constitutes a breach of the laws of war and so is a war crime"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfidy
The US at least tried to make up reasons to justify destroying Iraq, Libya, etc. It's really fucking pathetic that Trump and others who back his policies commit war crimes against Iran and then try to use the war crimes that we committed as a justification for escalating things further.
(1/6/2021 update):
January 5:
"Tehran, Iran – US President Donald Trump has had a “red notice” request for his arrest issued through Interpol by Iran.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/5/iran-issues-interpol-notice-for-48-us-officials-including-trump
Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili announced during a press conference on Tuesday that Iran has requested the international police organisation to arrest Trump and 47 other American officials identified as playing a role in the assassination of top general Qassem Soleimani last year.
[...]
It was the second Iranian request for an international arrest warrant for Trump and dozens of US officials in the Pentagon and US Central Command, among other organisations.
In June, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr issued an arrest warrant for Trump and dozens of US officials saying they face “murder and terrorism charges”.
[...]
The US has flown nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the Gulf several times in the past month and on Monday reversed its decision to get a Navy aircraft carrier out of the region for what it said was because of renewed threats by Iranian officials.
Iran, on the other hand, has warned that hawks in the US and Israel may be trying to start a war in Trump’s remaining days in office."
***
• To give a jolly Treason's Greetings to his supporters, Trump pardoned a number of corrupt traitors, including Blackwater mercenaries who murdered children during the Iraq war.
December 23:
"President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a wave of lame duck pardons, including two for men who pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller's investigation, as well as ones for Republican allies who once served in Congress and military contractors involved in a deadly shooting of Iraqi civilians.https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/22/politics/trump-pardons/index.html
The pardons of former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, former US congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and the four Blackwater guards involved in the Iraq massacre kick off what is expected to be a flurry of pardons and commutations in the coming weeks as Trump concludes his term.
Also included in the batch announced on Tuesday are Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch lawyer who was sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to lying to Mueller investigators; two Border Patrol agents convicted in 2006 of shooting and wounding an unarmed undocumented immigrant and then covering it up; and several people convicted of non-violent drug crimes serving lengthy sentences.
The pardons came at the recommendation of Trump allies in Congress and, in some cases, the conservative media. Many of the non-violent drug offenders were recommended for clemency by Alice Johnson, the former federal inmate whose sentence Trump commuted at the urging of Kim Kardashian West.
The announcement Tuesday also included commuting the remaining prison term of former Rep. Steve Stockman, a Texas Republican who was convicted by a jury in Texas of almost two dozen felonies, including fraud and money laundering.
[...]
The pardons give forgiveness to two early defendants who pleaded guilty and served prison time in the Mueller investigation: 2016 campaign foreign policy adviser Papadopoulos and Van der Zwaan, who was part of a major investigation by Mueller into illegal foreign lobbying efforts and the Ukrainian and Russian connections of Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort.
Both Papadopoulos and Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during the Russia investigation. And neither provided Mueller with any meaningful cooperation, prosecutors said.
[...]
The four Blackwater guards — Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard — were convicted by a federal jury in 2014 after a lengthy trial that saw some 30 witnesses travel from Iraq to testify against them. Prosecutors accused the men of illegally unleashing "powerful sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers on innocent men, women and children."
According to prosecutors, the four were among seven Blackwater employees who opened fire in the Nusoor Square traffic circle in Baghdad, killing 17 people."
Even the UN is concerned by this:
***
• Republicans wage war on Christmas by passing what the media and politicians are calling a Coronavirus stimulus bill. In reality, the only way Republicans were even willing to consider new Coronavirus aid was by bundling a $900 billion Coronavirus bill together with a $1.4 trillion bill for general government spending (including plenty of unnecessary nonsense). So, the only way for regular Americans to have any hope of getting relief is for special interest groups to get their (much higher) funding as well.
For an actual concise explanation of how the so-called Coronavirus relief bill was structured, see the following 8 tweets in this Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1341577865603796993
Trump initially said he wouldn't sign this bill, because he wanted $2000 stimulus checks instead of the insulting $600. Trump also said he wanted to be presented with a Coronavirus bill that wasn't bundled with another bill. He later signed it anyway, but requested Congress amend the bill with his requests. (Hint: his own party won't accept his request for $2000 checks. If he actually cared, he shouldn't have signed it. If he actually cared, he would have been pressuring his party to pass the numerous other Coronavirus stimulus bills passed by the House over the past 7+ months).
Just to say it again, as Christmas approached, Republicans "generously" passed a $600 stimulus payment for average citizens to somehow pay their bills from the past 9 months, after Republicans ignored every other attempt this year to pass additional aid. (While, of course, being much more generous to corporations, including no longer making them pay sick leave for people infected with COVID). Remarkably, Trump criticized his party and said average citizens should get $2000 per person (although college-aged people who graduated in a pandemic economy will be ignored once again). Maybe Trump is just trying not to be a complete loser leading up to the tense Georgia Senate election? Or maybe Republican Congressmen are actually somehow even more devoid of empathy than Trump?
Of course, Trump had to remind us the coup was still ongoing in his calls to upgrade the Covid stimulus:
"I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package." He added, "And maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done.""https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/12/22/trump_congress_found_plenty_of_money_for_foreign_countries_but_sent_bare_minimum_to_the_american_people.html
The Republican party's refusal to pass actual Coronavirus aid has finally led someone to take the meekest of direct action protests. Although, for direct action to be successful in changing things, it must be applied through other means.
***
Also included in the 5,600-page Republican Covid relief bill is over $3.3 billion for the Israeli military. How many American households could have used that money instead?
See here for a concise list of the billions of unnecessary payments to Israel:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/ki5myz/shes_not_wrong_this_isnt_governance_its/ggqkjh8/
You can Ctrl+F in the following article, which provides a full text of the bill. See page 341-342, 1302-1303. "Israel" is mentioned 58 times in the bill. Starting on page 1424 the bill lists a bunch of foreign policy goals and anti-Palestinian things completely unrelated to the Coronavirus.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/interactive/2020/covid-relief-bill-full-text/
Page 1454:
"Not later than 90 days after enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees detailing steps taken by the Palestinian Authority to counter incitement of violence against Israelis and to promote peace and coexistence with Israel."
Yet another reminder that the Israel lobby is the most powerful lobby in the US, and both political parties care more about them than regular American citizens... The payments to Israel in the so-called "Covid relief bill", per capita, are roughly the same as each US citizen is going to receive! Funding apartheid is more important than helping US citizens who are starving and about to be homeless since they can't pay 9+ months of rent at once, I guess.
***
Other developments in the ongoing coup:
Neo-Nazis had been planning attacks to disable large portions of the power grid and create chaos after Trump left.
"FBI Says White Supremacists Plotted Attack on US Power Grid.https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/fbi-white-supremacists-plotted-attack-on-us-power-grid/2429789/
The Ohio teen leading the "Light's Out” plot planned to carry it out in the summer of 2021, the affidavit states.
White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared the plan said he wanted the group to be “operational” on a fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose his re-election bid, the FBI alleges in an affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed.
[...]
Some group members also indicated that they were prepared to die for their beliefs. One man from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, allegedly told the Ohio teen: “I can say with absolute certainty that I will die for this effort. I swear it on my life.” The teen replied: “I can say the same,” the court documents state.
According to the affidavit, the Wisconsin man also told an undercover FBI employee in February that the group was interested in taking “direct action” against the system and said, “If you truly want a fascist society I will put in the effort to work with you but recruitment is long and not going to be easy."
He then outlined a “radicalization” process to instill a “revolutionary mindset” which ended with recruits proving they are more than just talk. He allegedly wrote that if it seemed too tough, “I recommend leaving now, we are extremely serious about our goals and ambitions.”
The affidavit says the Ohio teen also spoke numerous times about creating Nazi militant cells around the country like those of the neo-Nazi network the Atomwaffen Division."
White Supremacists emboldened by Trump already tried to murder the Governor of Michigan in October (see the second-to-last section in this post for coverage on this). In November the Proud Boys said they would no longer "stand back and stand by" and will instead start "fighting back". In December, heavily-armed far-right rioters tried to storm the Oregon capitol building (see halfway through this post for coverage).
These people see Trump as their commander-in-chief and were given the green light by him to shift from "standing back and standing by" to riot mode on January 6th...
***
Again, to celebrate Christmas, Trump reminded us we are still in the middle of a coup.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been totally incompetent and weak on the massive Election Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election. We have absolute PROOF, but they don’t want to see it – No “standing”, they say. If we have corrupt elections, we have no country!https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1342830505163706369
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020
A young military man working in Afghanistan told me that elections in Afghanistan are far more secure and much better run than the USA’s 2020 Election. Ours, with its millions and millions of corrupt Mail-In Ballots, was the election of a third world country. Fake President!https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1342832582606598144
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020
The “Justice” Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th.https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1342821189077622792
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020
December 29:
"Giuliani reveals Trump campaign is filing new Supreme Court bid to try to overturn election result"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/supreme-court-trump-giuliani-election-b1780166.html
December 30:
"Still, 77% of Republicans claim (whether sincerely or in bad faith) that President-elect Joe Biden didn't legitimately win.
[...]
Trump and those backing his ego-salving coup attempt are in a category of their own in American history —making them historic losers.
[...]
Now Trump is left acting like James Buchanan, the president who was so bitter about Abraham Lincoln winning the 1860 election that he allowed the Civil War to break out rather than work with someone whose political philosophy differed from his own. Yet even Buchanan never contemplated actively stopping Lincoln from serving, or installing himself as a dictator, simply because he did not like the man's views. Trump initially stalled allowed Biden to begin transitioning into the White House, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic taking thousands upon thousands of lives, and has allegedly considered imposing martial law so he can stay in power. As of the time of this writing, he continues to insist that he won the 2020 election and is continuing to try to find a way to stay in power."
*****
*****
Since Christmas is supposed to be about the spirit of Jesus, I will leave off by asking what would he think about all of this? About all the people who claim to be Christians and yet commit such evil? About all the people who literally portray Trump as the second coming of Jesus? About all the people who claim to want justice yet passively sit by while all this unfolds?
Despite all the darkness and outright clinical psychopathy that the past year has ushered in, I still believe that there is hope for the future—that America can vanquish the evil that surrounds us and walk on the path of light once more. But it will take all of us working tirelessly to make that American dream into a reality.
The only way to ever achieve a noble society like this is to ruthlessly rid our nation of people like Trump, his co-conspirators, and all the other bigots who think like them. [Art source]
Merry belated Christmas.
"Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." —Matthew 10:32-39
"Verily I have come to send peace upon earth. But when I speak, notice a sword follows. I have come to unite, but notice, a man will be at variance with his father, the daughter with her mother, and the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law. And a man's foes will be those of his own household. For the unjust cannot mate with those who are just.
They who don't take their cross and follow after me, are not worthy of me. He that finds his life will lose it; and he that loses his life for my sake, will find it." —Gospel of the Nazarenes 17:14-15
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