REDACTED: Hidden In Plain Sight

Why Christians Won't Accept What the Bible Actually Says about God

We’ve all seen the Epstein Files by now: thousands of photos and pages with black lines covering something, supposedly protecting victims. But in the case of Epstein, the files tend to redact the names of the perpetrators while uncovering the names, addresses and even nude photographs of victims.

The government has controlled the message.

What we finally get to see has been altered by the Trump administration: they release only what they want, in the manner they want, and have shown nothing but contempt for the victims of these crimes.

It’s almost as if the Trump administration didn’t want us to have a clear picture of what is actually in those files: it’s as if they are protecting someone by hiding the names of the perpetrators, by redacting them out of sight.

Redaction.

Being discovered in the Epstein Files can bring a swift impact to one’s life: already, some wealthy men have been embarrassed for their connection to Epstein. At least one powerful lawyer had to step down from heading his ultra-powerful law firm.

Oh, how devastating [sarcasm].

There are good reasons to redact names in court filings and legal records: protection. The norm is to protect the names and faces of victims so they are not victimized again. Many of the Epstein’s victims have been traumatized a second time after the release of Epstein-related material showed their names, faces, and fully unclothed bodies, and even with driver’s licenses. The protection offered by Trump has been solely for the men on the list—the alleged perpetrators—not the victims.

Republicans in Congress have gone right along with the Trump administration in the handling of the Epstein Files: while the Epstein Files Transparency Act required the full, unredacted release of most of the records last December, Congress has had no hearing or held no one from Trumpworld in contempt for not complying with the law. There have been no subpoenas to determine the multitude of reasons for the delays, the redactions of perpetrators, or the release of victim’s identities.

Which begs the question: if Trump’s name wasn’t redacted, would MAGA even accept it? Would they consider seeing Trump’s name—splattered thousands of times through the files—a hoax?

Would they believe their eyes?

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Remarkable as it may seem, releasing the Epstein Files with no redactions would not have hurt Trump: his MAGA followers are unwilling to find any fault in him. To them, Trump can do no wrong.

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue
and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"

Trump has shown the world the power of the cult. He understands the fact that his followers will accept what he says as gospel while denying—and even fighting—the actual truth.

The power that Trump has over his followers has proven to be intoxicating to both sides: Trump wields his power of life-and-death over his followers, demanding they fight for him while offering them unrelenting legal protection; and the followers have been willing to do what he demands, sacrificing their own lives—their job, homes, and family—to prove their worship.

Worship.

That is what Trump and MAGA share: worship. In a cult, it is the worship of the leader which cannot be questioned. What we all saw on January 6th has been sanitized, altered, and completely rewritten for the world. Trump now offers a completely revised, 1984 version of that day.

In spite of what we all saw that day, Trump, the Republicans in Congress, and MAGA still refuse to accept the fact that thousands of crazed Trump followers stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.

They refuse, even today, to accept the truth.

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Which brings us to the meme I’ve created for this post: the redaction of the Bible, specifically 1 Samuel 15.

As a former Christian, I have worked daily to share the truth found clearly in the pages of the Bible: daily, those who follow Jesus, refuse to accept it as truth.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
John 1:1-3

John declares Jesus is GOD and has been with God from the beginning, making and doing everything that God made and did. Jesus claimed it himself in John 10:30 when he said “I and the Father are one.” The church has purposefully taught this message since Nicaea: Jesus is one with God.

Unfortunately, the majority of Christians refuse to read the Bible or refuse to accept what it says about their savior: they don’t even bother to follow Jesus’ own command to not cherry-pick their favorite verses:

“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Mt. 4:4

Jesus, who is one with God and who is God, commanded that his followers live ‘on every word...of God.” But how many Christians do that? How many know anything about the ugly history of Jesus and God in the Old Testament?

Do they simply refuse to see the truth?

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘
I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel
when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
Now go, attack the Amalekites
and totally destroy all that belongs to them.
Do not spare them; put to death men and women,
children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ “
1 Samuel 15:2,3

I use this verse so Christians can clearly see God ordering the murder of ‘children and babies.’ Sorry—God and Jesus—ordering the murder of God’s enemies: babies.

Cult behavior means you listen to those in charge and don’t question the authority: “Lean not on your own understanding” is another key message of the cult: listen to no one other than God.

The cult of Christianity is the most ignorant cult in history: they ‘love’ the good, compassionate Jesus, but know absolutely nothing about the full Jesus—the baby-killing Jesus. Even when you show them, they refuse to accept the truth.

Just as MAGA gleefully gloat over Trump, Christians gleefully worship Jesus, and both cults are expert at keeping their secrets hidden from cult members.

The lies are hidden in plain sight.

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Not only is the Bible fundamentally flawed, it is downright evil.

The ugliest part of Christianity are the unseemly secrets that are right out in the open: while the Bible clearly shows that Jesus is God in the flesh—the pastors, priests, and preachers—routinely AVOID showing that…

• Jesus is God

• God killed babies

• Jesus is a baby killing monster.

The most heinous of all crimes—killing children and babies—is clearly articulated many times in the Bible: YHWH is a self-righteous, murdering myth who then spawns a son, who is also God.

But while millions of Christians accept God ‘sent his son’ to die, they don’t see that this is the same ‘savior’ was with God ‘in the beginning’ and is ‘one’ with God. They don’t realize they worship an evil, baby-killing psychopath.

They refuse the truth.

The shroud pulled over the eyes of the Christian covers them in the most horrid darkness.

As Trump doctors the Epstein Files to protect himself and his lecherous friends, those who worship the Trump of the Bible—Jesus—have moved on, no longer needing redactions. The indoctrination of their minds is so thorough, the truth no longer needs to be hidden: they wouldn’t see it anyway.

The truth is that Christians don’t see—and won’t see—the heinous acts of Jesus in the Bible because they can’t handle the truth: the mental trauma associated with unplugging from a life of belief can be devastating. The term cognitive dissonance must be employed to define that:

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort, stress, or psychological tension experienced when a person simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes. Formulated by Leon Festinger in 1957, this theory suggests that individuals naturally strive for internal consistency and will change, justify, or ignore conflicting information to alleviate this unpleasant tension.

What Christians do with their Bibles—even after being shown what it says about Jesus—is ignore the conflicting information it presents opposed to their beliefs.

The concept of "psychological redaction" suggests a profound parallel between the physical concealment in the Epstein files and the selective reading of biblical scripture. In the Epstein case, black ink is used by Trump to protect the identities of the powerful elite while leaving the nature of the crimes visible. Similarly, many readers of the Bible perform a subconscious redaction of 1 Samuel 15:3; they process the brutal reality of the command to "put to death men and women, children and infants" but mentally obscure the source of the directive to preserve a specific moral image of the divine.

Redacted in plain sight.

Just as thousands of mundane flight logs can bury a scandal, the constant focus on more palatable verses serves as a data dump that effectively hides these difficult passages in plain sight.

The black bars are unnecessary because they are generated by the reader’s own brain. We see the crime, but our internal censor hides the ‘perpetrator’ to save our worldview.

The Bible today is accepted as truth by billions of followers throughout the world. Trump’s power has yet to receive this level of success, but millions are willing to accept what they are told without question. Tomorrow, MAGA will be teaching their children that Trump saved America, that January 6th was a day of ‘love,’ and that Epstein actually saved the children.

Michael Abramowitz, then president of Freedom House, made a statement about Trump after January 6th that captures the idea of how lies can take on mythical proportions:

“But by convincing a large part of the population that there was widespread fraud, he is seeding a myth that could endure for years….”
Michael Abramowitz

Trump’s lies are still being refuted: he has not yet been able to convince everyone of his falsehoods, even though millions of followers remain faithful.

And just as those who follow Jesus refuse to see the harm he caused, those who follow Trump refuse to see the truth.

Hidden in Plain Sight.

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