When TX Lt Gov @DanPatrick says there are "more important things than living" recall that, like @VP Pence, he says he's "a Christian first, Conservative second & Republican third" - they're Christian Dominionists & truly believe there are more important things than living, and
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indeed, I think it's a darn good bet that Patrick & Pence & the rest of the Dominionists who have come to such shocking prominence in American politics believe, quite sincerely, that this is an act of God & a step toward the rapture, & that their job is to get out of God's way
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and by "get out of God's way" I mean: Don't slow down the process. Let people die. Encourage lethal behavior. True Christians will go straight to eternal life in Christ's presence; everyone else will go where they belong, hell. But don't get in God's way. It's the End Times.
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People who aren't some version this kind of Christian or aren't versed in what they believe tend to laugh at it & dismiss it as lunacy, & it's certainly lunacy, but these men hold enormous power, & believe the lunacy. It really matters for you & me that they ACTUALLY believe it.

Psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson once wrote something like "it does not matter if a thing is real - if it is perceived of as being real, it will be real in its consequences."

It doesn't matter that the lunacy isn't real - powerful men think it is. It has real consequences.

PS I was just reminded that AG Bill Barr is *also* a Dominionist.

I'm guessing these men believe Trump is a tool of God's End Times plan, &/or that these aren't the End Times so much as a precursor, in which God will cleanse the nation of sinners & put it in True Christian hands