Damned Christians

[zebo-the-fat]

Christians want to use stoning, I'm no expert, but is there not a commandment about "thou shall NOT kill" ??
Make up your minds, do you follow your holy book or not?

[HappySkeptic]

Fundamentalists translate that passage as "Thou shall not murder", as in unlawful killing. Lawful killing is perfectly okay (as in war, and in carrying out magic-book punishments or imaginary-friend commands).

[Fake Messiah]

Russian Orthodox Church proposes that invading Ukraine cleanses Russians from sin. At the center of this Christian fascism is impunity.

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine

The Church has been instrumental in promoting Vladimir Putin’s dream of restoring the Russian Empire. In 2012, Patriarch Kirill addressed Putin personally as the savior of modern Russia and compared his reign to a “miracle of God.”

The support of the Russian Orthodox Church has grown as the invasion of Ukraine has progressed, with Patriarch Kirill becoming one of the war’s most prominent promoters. In his sermons, he has accused “foreign forces” of trying to divide Russia and Ukraine, which he often describes as “one people.” These thinly veiled attempts to blame the war on the Western world while denying Ukraine’s right to an independent national identity closely echo the Kremlin’s own imperialistic talking points.

Patriarch Kirill has continued to defend the invasion despite mounting evidence of Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine. He has remained unmoved by the atrocities uncovered in liberated towns such as Bucha, or the seemingly endless accounts of mass killings, sexual violence, torture chambers, child abductions, and forced deportations throughout Russian-occupied Ukraine. He is silent regarding the constant missile and drone assaults against civilian targets including homes, apartment buildings, shopping centers, churches, hospitals, schools, and grain storage facilities.

Instead, Patriarch Kirill has indicated that the Russian Orthodox Church may even be willing to overlook such crimes. “The Church realizes that if someone, driven by a sense of duty and the need to honor his oath, stays loyal to his vocation and dies while carrying out his military duty, then he is without any doubt doing a deed that is equal to sacrifice. He sacrifices himself for others. And therefore, we believe that this sacrifice washes away all the sins that a person has committed,” Kirill stated in a September 2022 sermon.

Patriarch Kirill is not the only establishment figure to publicly back the invasion. On the contrary, levels of support, or at least acquiescence, among the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian society as a whole remain scandalously high.

Not one of the approximately 400 Russian Orthodox Church bishops in Russia has spoken out against the war. The Russian Orthodox Church clergy is a huge body including more than 40,000 full-time clerics, priests, and deacons internationally. Only approximately 300 members of the clergy signed a joint public statement criticizing the war, with many of the signatories based outside of Russia. Moreover, 700 university rectors have signed a public statement supporting the war.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/uk...t-ukraine/

[Fake Messiah]

https://tribuneonlineng.com/female-evang...aba-hotel/

[LinuxGal]

If you gotta go out, might as well go out this way.

[Fake Messiah]

Sydney Anglicans say same-sex desire ‘an inclination toward evil’

The Sydney Anglican Diocese has produced a new doctrinal statement on homosexuality that says the mere desire for same-sex sexual intimacy is contrary to God’s will, “an inclination toward evil” and something from which Christians seek to be liberated.

“Scripture is clear that same-sex sexual desire and same-sex sexual behaviour are contrary to God’s will and contrary to created nature,” the paper said. “The desire for same-sex sexual intimacy is an inclination toward evil, has of itself the nature of sin, and is deserving of God’s wrath.”

“Sinful desires are sinful. It’s not just the doing of sin that’s sinful, the desiring of sin is sinful,” he said. “There are not godly ways of expressing same-sex sexual desire. There’s no opportunity there, there’s no open door … It’s contrary to nature from the get-go.”

The doctrinal statement and its implications for pastoral care will be of interest to the government as it prepares a bill to ban so-called conversion practices. The Australian Christian Lobby is vowing to fight the bill and appointed a new state director in NSW, Joshua Rowe, who started this week.

“Probably in our culture, which absolutely priorities the self, that sounds harsh. But this is basic Christian doctrine,” he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydn...5dx1o.html

[Fake Messiah]

These 20 Churches Supported Political Candidates. Experts Say They Violated Federal Law.

The endorsement of political candidates by religious leaders from the pulpit has grown increasingly brazen, aggressive and sophisticated in recent years.

ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have found 20 apparent violations in the past two years of the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits church leaders from intervening in political campaigns. Two occurred in the last two weeks as candidates crisscross Texas vying for votes. The number of potential violations found by the news outlets is greater than the total number of churches the IRS has investigated for intervening in political campaigns in the past decade, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Violations can lead to the revocation of a church’s tax-exempt status.

https://www.propublica.org/article/johns...n-examples

[Fake Messiah]

New Jersey town closes beaches on Sunday mornings all summer to try to get people to go to church.

Ocean Grove and the state are in a standoff over the resort town’s rules limiting access to the beach on Sunday mornings as the Jersey Shore heads into the unofficial end of the summer on Labor Day weekend.

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association — the Methodist group that oversees the Ocean Grove section of Neptune in an unusual agreement with the Monmouth County township — does not allow access to the beach from the boardwalk before noon on Sundays.

The tradition stems from Ocean Grove’s origins as a Christian seaside resort. Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association officials said limiting beach access on Sunday mornings improves the “religious and secular” quality of life along its boardwalk.

That runs afoul of the state’s Coastal Area Facilities Review Act, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which sent a warning letter to the association Aug. 10 objecting to the use of chain and pad lock barriers barring beach access.

The dispute over Sunday beach access is the latest in a series of controversies involving the Camp Meeting Association and some Ocean Grove residents. Ocean Grove’s decision to rebuild a beach pier in the shape of a cross drew objections from some residents earlier this year.

Some beach-goers have been bypassing the chained entrances and sitting on the beaches Sunday mornings this year. Shane Martins, a founder of the nonpartisan community group Neptune United, said beach-goers arriving before noon on Sundays have been confronted by defenders of the meeting association’s policy.

https://www.nj.com/news/2023/09/jersey-s...ndays.html

[LinuxGal]

New Jersey town closes beaches on Sunday mornings all summer to try to get people to go to church.

Some beach-goers have been bypassing the chained entrances and sitting on the beaches Sunday mornings this year. Shane Martins, a founder of the nonpartisan community group Neptune United, said beach-goers arriving before noon on Sundays have been confronted by defenders of the meeting association’s policy.

Confronted by defenders that are patrolling the beach rather than going to fucking church.

[Fake Messiah]

Short documentary about the exploitation of gullible people by preachers in megachurches. But the bigger problem is who makes people gullible? Who makes them believe that god will heal them and thus makes them vulnerable to this scam?