Damned Christians

[zwanzig]

My first thought reading about that gun-toting pastor was not that he was protecting himself. Actually, I had the thought, "Cripes! God's arming his guys in church; I guess he's getting real serious about that whole sin thing."

I would not want to go to a church(for the sake of argument, if I thought it'd be worth attending in the first place) where a pastor or preacher stood at the pulpit, preaching and bellowing about God's will, God's disappointment, and where the wicked will go, while he has a gun in his belt. I'm not saying this particular pastor intends harm. But when you have a position of authority and you put a gun on your belt, especially if it is visible, it sends a certain message.

[Fake Messiah]

But when you have a position of authority and you put a gun on your belt, especially if it is visible, it sends a certain message.

It does send a message, especially in the last segment of the documentary you have a video of Christian militia training in the woods and it includes at least one minister who says that they are training to shoot atheistst.

[Fake Messiah]

US set for flurry of ‘Christian nationalist’ bills advanced by religious right aiming to “thrust Christianity into everyday American life”

With the supreme court now dominated by Trump-appointed conservative justices, elected officials in states across the country are set to introduce bills which would hack away at LGTBQ rights, reproductive rights, challenge the ability of couples to adopt children, and see religion forced into classrooms, according to a report by the American Atheists organization.

In 2019, Christian hardliners introduced bills in several American states which would see the phrase “In God we trust” displayed on public buildings, in schools and on public vehicles, including police cars. Six states – Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and Arizona – approved versions of this legislation, and it became law for every public school in those states to display the phrase.

A year earlier, Oklahoma passed an adoption law which allows private adoption agencies to turn away LGBTQ couples on religious grounds.

The people behind Christianity-based legislative efforts grouped their various efforts into three categories, according to how difficult they would be to pass, Stewart said, and each is part of a larger picture.

“The first category consisted of largely symbolic gestures, like resolutions to emblazon the motto ‘In God We Trust’ in public school classrooms,” Stewart said.

“But the point of phase one was to prepare the ground for phases two and three, which aimed to entangle government with their version of religion in deeper ways.

“Considered individually, these bills making their ways through state legislatures appear to have a scattershot quality. In reality, they are very often components of a coordinated, overarching strategy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...tion-bills

[The Grand Nudger]

The dominionists have been working hard on their title 7 exemptions - seems like they might have known that biden was going to insist it applied to homosexers by eo. They cashed out on the last admin to the tune of billions with that one.

[Fake Messiah]

Russians also go crazy for Jesus. To honor Jesus every year, Orthodox Christians take a bath in water that is -50C / -58 F, including Vladimir Putin. First they have to make a hole in the frozen lake that must be shaped like a cross.

[HappySkeptic]

Putin and the Orthodox Church are symbiotic.

And water can't be at -50C - that is the air temperature.

[Fake Messiah]

Here's an idea: how about putting these people in a mental hospital instead of giving them tax breaks

[HappySkeptic]

I realize that cherry-picked clips can distort reality, but the evangelicals depicted in that video are some of the most disgusting people I've ever seen.

Evangelists and prophets exist to gain money and power. Lying is just part of the toolkit that allows them to be successful. If they didn't have millions of listeners who had already self-lobotomized their critical faculties, the scammers would be nothing.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's true, those are the exemplars. Best in show. It would be unfair to characterize the whole lot by them and unfair to those luminaries to discount all the hard work they put into floating to the very top of the pile.

Charitably, the rest are well distributed on a very wide range from the merely indecent to the dangerously sick.

[Sal]

Dangerously sick indeed.