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religion

Any posts about religion are my views alone and do not represent any attempt to de-convert anyone.

Rebranding

Thursday 04 January 2024 | 0 Comments

There’s a local mega-church that rebranded a few years ago to “Relentless Church.” I thought that was an odd name. I always assumed it was suggesting that the Christian god is relentless in trying to reach the so-called unchurched, but there was something needlessly aggressive about that name. To be relentless seems antithetical to one of Christianity’s claimed attributes (claimed only, I would argue): that it’s built on mercy. To relent is, to some degree, to show mercy. Still, I thought they could have chosen a sillier name.

The pastor, a large man named John Gray, caused some controversy a few years ago when he bought his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini SUV. It made the Today Show:

His defense was that he used money from the couple’s reality show and his book sales to purchase the vehicle. It still seems pretty tone deaf to be a supposed servant of God and spend that kind of money on a vehicle.

But apparently tone deafness is one of Gray’s predominant qualities, for he’s decided to rebrand his church once again. This time: Love Story Church.

Considering the stream of sexual abuse scandals in countless denominations over the last few years, I couldn’t possibly imagine a worse name for the church

Taylor

Monday 11 December 2023 | 0 Comments

This is making the rounds in social media circles connected to this ass-hat's manipulative bullshit. I think he just makes this crap up...

Flames

Monday 06 November 2023 | 0 Comments

No Parties in Hell

Saturday 04 November 2023 | 0 Comments

Another one of these memes I ran into on Twitter: "There are no parties in hell. There's no cool rock music, no hanging out with friends. You will be burning. Forever. Repent and give your life to Jesus Christ!"

This is clearly aimed at Christians who more fundamentalist Christians see as living a life of sin. It's certainly not going to convince any unbelievers. In fact, most of us will just read this, shake our heads, and say, "Yes, but Jesus, as God, is the one sending us to this place. What kind of an abusive relationship is this?!"

Coexist

Friday 03 November 2023 | 0 Comments

Another gem from social media: fundamentalist Christians like to point out the perceived tendency in Islam to force conversions. In their defense, this was the way Islam initially spread, and there is a fair amount of coercion in Islamic countries to remain Islamic (the death penalty for apostasy will do that to you), and there are certainly fundamentalist Muslims who still wish to spread Islam by force. But fundamentalist Christians, despite all their protestations to the contrary, are not all that different.

"Daily reminder that Christ is King and all false creeds will be destroyed."

Using Tragedy

Monday 09 October 2023 | 0 Comments

Of course, this asshole has been prophecying Jesus's imminent return -- complete with dates -- for about five years now. He sets a date, the date passes, and he sets another date. Over and over and over and over.

On the Corner

Sunday 01 October 2023 | 0 Comments

I could hear him long before I could see him. K and I were walking up Main Street last night, returning to our car after a night out, and I could hear an amplified male voice in the distance.

"Most likely a street preacher," I thought, although sometimes the Black Hebrew Israelites make an appearance on the downtown sidewalks. As we approached, though, it was clear it was an evangelical street preacher.

"You need Jesus! If you don't know the name of Jesus, you need to invite him into your life..."

It always astounds me how these guys say nonsense like that: we live in America, in the damn Bible Belt. There is no one in this area who has never heard of Jesus. It is utterly impossible, regardless of your religious views, not to have heard of Jesus while living in South Carolina.

"There is no one walking on Main Street," I said to K, "who might be thinking, 'Now this Jesus fellow -- never heard of him. Who is he?'"

As we neared, we had to stop at the corner to wait for the light. Our street preacher started going on about the perils of living a self-centered life, completely oblivious to the irony.

"Here these people are, taking advantage of the lovely weather to enjoy their favorite restaurant's outdoor seating option, and they have to listen to this jackass as he gets his saving-the-world fix," I said to no one in particular and everyone in earshot. One guy laughed a little, most everyone else ignored my stupid comment.

I wanted to say that to the preacher himself, and came close to doing just that, but in the end, I decided not to add to the guy's persecution complex.

Changed His Mind

Friday 15 September 2023 | 0 Comments

Science Did That

Wednesday 06 September 2023 | 0 Comments

People throughout the centuries have begged their gods for healing. We see the religious praying for healing. We see the faith healers preying upon their vulnerabilities. We hear of miracles like reversed blindness and re-growing toes.

We hear about this, but we don't see the evidence. The toe woman won't show any images of her toes. While it was supposedly happening, apparently no one videoed it or photographed it. People have written about it, and there's even a website called showmethetoes.com.

Crickets. Not a word.

And then science comes along and simply does what no god has ever done. It gives voice to someone who can't speak.

It makes the paralyzed able to walk.

Why is science superior to prayer? Because it works. Pure and simple.

Not Sure

Friday 18 August 2023 | 0 Comments

Saw this on Twitter the other day:

I'm not even sure what this means. "The earth was created some 5000 years ago," this person suggests, but at "some point God fast-forwarded time to the end of the world and then reversed earth's time billions of years to the beginning of the universe." How does that work? God moved us to the end of the world -- does that mean after Jesus returned and set up shop a second time and punished all the pro-science/anti-god baddies? And then reversed time?! And then the purpose of all this is so "God's enemies [can] choose 'science' over Him"? This god is doing some kind of time-travel trickery to fool people so they'll end up in hell?! What?!

When you believe in a literal story about a talking snake convincing a woman to eat something to initiate some kind of fruit-based curse that dooms humanity for all eternity until -- well, when you just start with that as your basis for knowledge, you end up vulnerable to believing all kinds of craziness. And it doesn't even have to make sense...