Damned Christians

[Fake Messiah]

Oh no, here we go again

Cult leader who claims to be reincarnation of Jesus arrested in Russia

Russian authorities mounted a special operation to arrest a former traffic police officer who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus and has run a cult based in the depths of Siberia for the past three decades.

Helicopters and armed officers stormed communities run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, and arrested him and two of his aides. Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.

His commune mixes a selection of rites drawn from Orthodox Christianity with environmental edicts and a series of other rules. Veganism is enforced and monetary exchange is banned inside the commune. Followers wear austere clothing and count years starting from 1961, the year of Vissarion’s birth, while Christmas has been replaced by a feast day on 14 January, his birthday.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/s...ria-russia

[The Valkyrie]

"Extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse."

When are the Russians going to arrest Trump?

[HappySkeptic]

Cult leader who claims to be reincarnation of Jesus arrested in Russia

His commune mixes a selection of rites drawn from Orthodox Christianity with environmental edicts and a series of other rules. Veganism is enforced and monetary exchange is banned inside the commune. Followers wear austere clothing and count years starting from 1961, the year of Vissarion’s birth, while Christmas has been replaced by a feast day on 14 January, his birthday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/s...ria-russia

Sounds like he is attempting to recreate the type of cult described in the Book of Acts.

Has a couple dropped dead from lying about giving up all their worldly wealth to the cult?  If not, he hasn't done a good enough job of recreating the atmosphere.

[Fake Messiah]

Even Christians can't stand Christianity these days.
These are few clips from an article written by a woman priest.

Christian nationalism in the US legislates evil and punishes the poor

It’s no longer hard to find evidence of just how deeply Christian nationalism influences our politics and policymaking. During the pandemic, the Bible has repeatedly been used (and distorted) to justify Covid-19 denialism and government inaction, not to speak of outright repression. 

Later in the spring, protests against pandemic shutdowns, funded with dark money from the likes of the Koch Brothers, demanded that states reopen for business and social distancing guidelines be loosened. (Forget about masking of any sort.) At them, printed protest signs said things like: “Even Pharaoh Freed Slaves in a Plague” and “Texas will not take the Mark of the Beast.”

An epic battle for the Bible is now underway in a country that has been largely ceded to white evangelical Christian nationalists. Through a well-funded network of churches and nonprofits, universities, and think tanks, and with direct lines to the nation’s highest political officials, they’ve had carte-blanche to set the terms of what passes for religious debate in this country and dictate what morality even means in our society.

Under Trump, such religious nationalism has reached a fever pitch as a reactionary movement that includes technocratic billionaires, televangelists, and armed militias has taken root with a simple enough message: God loves white Christian America, favors small government and big business, and rewards individualism and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, the poor, people of color, and immigrants are blamed for society’s problems even as the rich get richer in what’s still the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

Decades later, segregationists continued to use stray biblical verses to rubberstamp Jim Crow practices, while in the late 1970s the Moral Majority helped to mainstream a new generation of Christian extremists into national politics. In my own youth, I remember politicians quoting Thessalonians in the lead up to the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act as proof that God believes in work-requirements for public assistance programs.

Today, the idea that poverty is the result of bad behavior, laziness, or sin rather than decisions made by those with power is distinctly ascendant in Donald Trump’s and Mitch McConnell’s Washington. Biblical passages like that one in Matthew have become another ideological tool brandished by reactionaries and the wealthy to deflect attention from this country’s systemic failures.

Consider, for example, the historic development of what’s often known as the “Bible Belt” (or alternatively the “Poverty Belt”). It sweeps across the South, from North Carolina to Mississippi, Tennessee to Alabama, home to poor people of every race. It represents the deepest, most contiguous area of poverty in the United States made possible in part by heretical theology, biblical misinterpretation, and Christian nationalism.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/how-chr...-poor/amp/

[Fake Messiah]

So the guy who is making movies to show people how Jesus is protecting Christians by making their lives better and families happier than non Christians, couldn't keep his marriage

Pure Flix founder David AR White and wife decide to ‘end their marriage’

David A.R. White and Andrea Logan announced over the weekend that they ended their marriage sometime ago.
The Pure Flix founder and “God’s Not Dead” actor and Logan, an actress and producer, were married for over 16 years. The duo, who have three children together, announced the news on Friday.

The couple both revealed that the decision did not come lightly and was made “after a great deal of prayer and counseling over many years.”

[But even in divorce, Jesus is still leading them]

Logan added, “While the future is unknown, I have faith in God, and we stand on this: Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a future and hope.'”

https://www.christianpost.com/news/puref...riage.html

[Fake Messiah]

Christian leaders are so greedy that they get psychotic fits of rage and lies fueled by fears how they might have to pay taxes.

Franklin Graham launches ‘religious freedom’ attack on ‘godless, secular agenda’ of ‘sinful’ LGBTQ voters

“LGBTQ activists within the Democratic Party are pushing their godless, secular agenda with a potential Biden Administration,” Graham declared on Facebook, pointing to a Christian Post article Saturday night.

“If you don’t conform to their ideology, agree with their sinful beliefs, teach what they say is right, they want to close you down,” he said of LGBTQ people, ignoring that the religious right literally created “cancel culture.”

“They will pressure and bully politicians to get their way. It is extremely dangerous if they are permitted to proceed unchecked. If they are allowed free reign, they will go after the accreditation of Christian colleges, then Christian ministries and churches next, to strip them of tax-exempt status and try to force them to operate under policies that go against biblical teaching.”

“This is not only an attack on free speech and expression, but also an attack on our religious liberty. The presidential election isn’t finalized yet,” he says, feeding Trump’s lies about the election, “but this shows why who we vote for is so important. We’ve had four years of an administration under President Donald J. Trump that staunchly defends religious freedom, freedom of speech, and the church. We can see that the one who holds the office of President of the United States has tremendous ramifications on our day-to-day lives and for the future of this nation.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/frankli...oters/amp/

[Nay_Sayer]

I have a local story (Photos if need be) There is a church close to me with a modest but large enough parking lot (To the right of the building). They purchased a nearby house (To the left of the building), evicted the tenants, and finally bulldozed it to give them space on the other side of their building.

[Fake Messiah]

If you followed news about Christian activities then you'll see that this one follows the usual patterns of homophobia, xenophobia, and Christian persecution complex

Racists Destroy California Monolith, Proclaim Christ Superior to Space Aliens

In the video, a group of three men are seen pushing the statue over and chanting "America First" and "Christ is King." The men, one of whom was wearing a "Make America Great Again" headband, called part of the monolith's construction "gay" then replaced it monolith with a wooden cross.

“Christ is king in this country. We don’t want illegal aliens from Mexico or outer space,” a man in the video says. “So let’s tear this bitch down.”

The group then places a wooden cross near the site of the monolith. They go on to pose and take pictures with the two pieces of plywood, all stepping with one boot on the monolith as if it’s a hunting trophy. After the photo shoot, they tie ropes around the monolith and drag it down the mountain, calling it names and cheering. 

Throughout the video they mentioning burning crosses and white power. 

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/qjpj...ace-aliens

[Fake Messiah]

Aren't Scientologists the ones who are motivated by money to make their religion work?

Norway’s priests on strike: “We are very worried about the Church’s future”

Pastor and deputy leader of the trade union Theologians Heinke Foertsch with several other church employees, trooped up outside the Cathedral in Oslo on Saturday to explain why they are on strike. 

The background is that the employer wants to deprive new employees of a permanent wage compensation of between NOK 40,000 and NOK 60,000.

“This is a strike for the Church of the future. We experience that it is very unfair and difficult that you now want to do it in such a way that new priests receive a much lower starting salary than we who are working now,” Jensen said.

Norway already has a shortage of priests. The striking priests are worried about the recruitment and the signal sent to students in the seminary.

“One third of the clergy are over 60 years old… The employer says that in four years, we may be short of 200 priests,” leader Martin Enstad in the Priests’ Association emphasized.

“We are sure that this cut will lead to us not being able to recruit new priests. This weakens recruitment. The Church requires six years of academic education,” he added.

In the week ahead, the strike is scheduled to escalate to several churches across the country. 

A number of Christmas services and other church activities are in danger of not being carried out.

“I should have baptized a child in Ullern church on Sunday morning. There, the bishop has stepped in to carry out the work. The funerals come continuously,” parish priest Jorunn Andersen in Ullern parish in Oslo said.

https://norwaytoday.info/news/norways-pr...hs-future/

[The Valkyrie]

"Christianity dying out."

I fail to see a problem.