Lunatics like that just don't have a concept of politics that can exist disconnected from religion, religion is the only legitimate politic. This is as old as the existence of cities. It's so hard to make a civilization that breaks off from that and to maintain it that way.
This. You start making these money making machines chip in their fair share to the local infrastructures they leech off of, and all that political shit will stop real fast.
As a Christian and former pastor, I'm 100% in favor of taxing religous organizations that exist to serve political interst in theory. Separation of church and state makes both institutions better. But it's difficult in practice. Short of a preacher saying to vote a certain way, it's difficult to nail down if they're being political.
Sometimes there are issues relevant to churches that become super political.
Matthew 25 says that Christians will be judged on their treatment of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, and the foreigners. It's pretty much the only time when Jesus directly threatens damnation. Our government is committing atrocities against all these groups. Should Trump have the power to effectively close churches that preach messages he doesn't like by taking them out of existence?
Not really, in practice. Thanks to Scientology, the IRS is extremely gun shy at doing anything to churches that violate their tax exempt status, or anything vaguely church-shaped for that matter.
Well, for your purposes you need to grift some stupid rich people and get rich.
(In point of fact, this is what Hubbard did with Scientology. They targeted rich and influential people like tom cruise to extract their wealth and that wealth became the reason the IRS had trouble- they could afford a large army of lawyers.)
Dude it's so weird you just mentioned this because I totally had a vision from the machine spirit that lives in the heart of Sagittarius a* telling me that lots of people need to give me money
Since you're in in the ground floor I am having a vision that says you can get a very high cut as the first of my servers.
It's what we're calling disciples. We're going with a machine god inside a black hole angle here.
This will be a technocratic religion, and we'll have to build the mainframe one node at a time.
Only when we've united the world in singular purpose, will the event horizon of Sagittarius a* open and reveal to us the infinite everlasting pleasure of eternal bliss in the world beyond this one.
I like it. We're going to be the "Internet of Believers" or a "Heaven's Default Gateway." Sprinkle enough technobabble inspired utterances throughout and we'll find plenty of marks true believers in no time.
it's wild out here in bumfuckastan america. there'll be a county of <10k people but they have like 3-400 different churches throughout the place, one for each cluster of families (all rundown and incredibly depressing)...and only 1 or 2 people in each church could even tell you what denomination they are.
like...godamn...kind of understand why the catholic church used to just execute people for starting schisms.
I lived in rural western Missouri and that's exactly how it was. One Walmart, one traffic light, and more flavors of apostolic Christianity than Baskin-Robbins has of ice cream in a town of less than 5k. Tiny churches everywhere.
I liked the variety of films they'd show: "Joseph Smith and the Temple of Doom," "Mohammed: Satan's Messenger," and "Buddha and the Path of Damnation."
It's because they're never made by believers, just people knowing that they can have a tiny budget and a huge price point because parents will pay anything for "Good Wholesome Christian Entertainment" that won't turn their kids woke.
Except for the God's Not Dead movies, sadly those are made by geniune Evangelicals, and you can tell because they're insanely mean spirited and have budgets.
I'd love to remake "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" for an Evangelical audience. He's still defending lesbians but they're just heavily coded and they live in Florida.
Reminds me of my uncle for some reason. He belonged to a tiny little church and dragged his wife into it as well. I used to say that he believed that he and the minister and possibly his wife were the only people who would be allowed into Heaven - and he wasn't too sure about his wife and the minister.
At his funeral his minister got up and gave quite a speech. In his southern drawl he invited us all to rush up to him, get on our knees, and accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.
I grabbed my father and my son fiercely to make sure they didn't go up in a spirit of comedy (my family has a strange sense of humor). Luckily I didn't have to struggle too hard. But everyone just sat there looking at the guy. My people are polite, but they aren't going to give up their own beliefs for ANYONE. Not when an entire nation tried to exterminate us for our religion!
(Although I should note that I'm a long-time atheist. But that was MY decision, no one else's.)
most of em arent even all that predatory, they're just...for lack of a better term...dumb as fuck. (but they are easy pickings for the predatory churches)
the 1-2 people who can even tell you what denomination their church is probably hasn't even read their whole bible let alone studied the scriptures at all. and the brand of jesus they're selling doesn't work to calm people's fears about death most of the time either, all they do is scare people into thinking (insert family member with above room-temp IQ who gtfo of that place asap) is going to burn in hell if they can't convert them before they die.
at this stage in america i'm not sure what the answer is to bring these people back to reality, if that's even a good idea...most don't last longer than whatever chucklefuck preacher they got knocking on death's door, and when they're gone the rest just dissolve out into the other churches if they bother at all.
"40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
But let's all remember that in those times, your neighbors were your people, your family and tribe; not just a random stranger (which could very well be your neighbor today).
These Christians apparently don't realize that Christians cut off their balls for many centuries, until the 1800s. The first council of Nicea was convened because of this very subject, to stop their priests and other eager converts from castrating themselves.
Jesus said it was fine, cut those buddies off! But, priests at Nicea Council disagreed, saying it's all metaphorical, stop doing that even though Jesus said you should do that.
So, if they are right and their God is the boss, their entire religion, from early days to Catholicism to today, is based on blasphemy.
Anyways, they should be if anything exuberantly trans.
Jesus Himself said "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
So, you don't have to cut your balls off, that's silly. BUT it's perfectly fine if you do.
69 Comments
xxce2AAb@feddit.dk · 89 pts · 241d
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 46 pts · 241d
Hey asshole. Come over where I am (plus some friends) and say that shit. We love and support our Trans community, you fucking piece of shit.
Aneb@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 240d
There would be no LGBTQIA+ community without transfolks fighting for our rights
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 231d
Sadly they're trying to say that Marsha wasn't "REAAALLLY" trans to discredit this narrative
Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 240d
Take away the tax freedoms. This is obviously a political organization.
Uruanna@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 240d
Lunatics like that just don't have a concept of politics that can exist disconnected from religion, religion is the only legitimate politic. This is as old as the existence of cities. It's so hard to make a civilization that breaks off from that and to maintain it that way.
BodePlotHole@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 239d
This. You start making these money making machines chip in their fair share to the local infrastructures they leech off of, and all that political shit will stop real fast.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 239d
As a Christian and former pastor, I'm 100% in favor of taxing religous organizations that exist to serve political interst in theory. Separation of church and state makes both institutions better. But it's difficult in practice. Short of a preacher saying to vote a certain way, it's difficult to nail down if they're being political.
Sometimes there are issues relevant to churches that become super political.
Matthew 25 says that Christians will be judged on their treatment of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, and the foreigners. It's pretty much the only time when Jesus directly threatens damnation. Our government is committing atrocities against all these groups. Should Trump have the power to effectively close churches that preach messages he doesn't like by taking them out of existence?
Shave_MyBeever@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 238d
If they are promoting a petition, then it is political.
Quokka@quokk.au · 32 pts · 241d
Ain’t no love like Christian love.
regedit@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 240d
I thought it was Ain't no hate like Christian love?
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 240d
We now gave definitive proof that Jesus isn't real, because if he were, he'd come down here and punch this guy in the fucking face.
voracitude@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 240d
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 231d
This is unironically made lead me to conclude God doesn't exist. If he did, he'd smite so many fucking Christians it's not even funny.
Not one angel was sent to protect jews from the holocaust, not one cherub to stand up against pedophiles in the church.
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 240d
Who is this trash human to speak for a god?
watson387@sopuli.xyz · 16 pts · 240d
Fuck you AND Jesus!
FoolishSage@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 241d
I'm not overly familiar with US laws or anything, but isn't a church that messes with politics at risk of losing their tax exemption?
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 240d
Not really, in practice. Thanks to Scientology, the IRS is extremely gun shy at doing anything to churches that violate their tax exempt status, or anything vaguely church-shaped for that matter.
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 240d
How does one start a religion?
Like. Do you get followers and then write the holy book, or does the holy book come first or what?
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 240d
Well, for your purposes you need to grift some stupid rich people and get rich.
(In point of fact, this is what Hubbard did with Scientology. They targeted rich and influential people like tom cruise to extract their wealth and that wealth became the reason the IRS had trouble- they could afford a large army of lawyers.)
watson387@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 240d
It requires proficiency in the long con and an abundant supply of people who are afraid of anything different.
MBech@feddit.dk · 3 pts · 240d
Don't forget a complete lack of empathy or morality.
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 240d
I'm sure it's possible to do it relatively ethically.
I dont know if that has ever happened but I'm sure it's possible.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 240d
https://youtu.be/7y1xJAVZxXg
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 240d
Most of Christian history has been just using cherry-picked verses to create whole denominations. The Gospel of John is a good spot to start.
Joseph Smith took an alternate route - claims of visions to get followers then wrote the holy books.
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 240d
Dude it's so weird you just mentioned this because I totally had a vision from the machine spirit that lives in the heart of Sagittarius a* telling me that lots of people need to give me money
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 240d
Sounds legit. Let me know if you want some help spreading the good news. For a percentage of the blessings.
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 240d
Since you're in in the ground floor I am having a vision that says you can get a very high cut as the first of my servers.
It's what we're calling disciples. We're going with a machine god inside a black hole angle here.
This will be a technocratic religion, and we'll have to build the mainframe one node at a time.
Only when we've united the world in singular purpose, will the event horizon of Sagittarius a* open and reveal to us the infinite everlasting pleasure of eternal bliss in the world beyond this one.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 240d
I like it. We're going to be the "Internet of Believers" or a "Heaven's Default Gateway." Sprinkle enough
technobabbleinspired utterances throughout and we'll find plenty ofmarkstrue believers in no time.Mirshe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 239d
Sorry, Curtis Yarvin's rationalist weirdos beat you there.
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 231d
Yes I heard the same voice, it said they should suck your magnificent PINGAS
IronBird@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 240d
it's wild out here in bumfuckastan america. there'll be a county of <10k people but they have like 3-400 different churches throughout the place, one for each cluster of families (all rundown and incredibly depressing)...and only 1 or 2 people in each church could even tell you what denomination they are.
like...godamn...kind of understand why the catholic church used to just execute people for starting schisms.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 240d
I lived in rural western Missouri and that's exactly how it was. One Walmart, one traffic light, and more flavors of apostolic Christianity than Baskin-Robbins has of ice cream in a town of less than 5k. Tiny churches everywhere.
I liked the variety of films they'd show: "Joseph Smith and the Temple of Doom," "Mohammed: Satan's Messenger," and "Buddha and the Path of Damnation."
SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 239d
Christian movies rise to a whole new level of badosity.
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 231d
It's because they're never made by believers, just people knowing that they can have a tiny budget and a huge price point because parents will pay anything for "Good Wholesome Christian Entertainment" that won't turn their kids woke.
Except for the God's Not Dead movies, sadly those are made by geniune Evangelicals, and you can tell because they're insanely mean spirited and have budgets.
IronBird@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 240d
there's one i see traveling around now via semi called The Thorn, the ad makes it look like low-budget passion of the christ
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 240d
I'd love to remake "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" for an Evangelical audience. He's still defending lesbians but they're just heavily coded and they live in Florida.
Quasit@kolektiva.social · 3 pts · 240d
@harrys_balzac @IronBird
Reminds me of my uncle for some reason. He belonged to a tiny little church and dragged his wife into it as well. I used to say that he believed that he and the minister and possibly his wife were the only people who would be allowed into Heaven - and he wasn't too sure about his wife and the minister.
At his funeral his minister got up and gave quite a speech. In his southern drawl he invited us all to rush up to him, get on our knees, and accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.
I grabbed my father and my son fiercely to make sure they didn't go up in a spirit of comedy (my family has a strange sense of humor). Luckily I didn't have to struggle too hard. But everyone just sat there looking at the guy. My people are polite, but they aren't going to give up their own beliefs for ANYONE. Not when an entire nation tried to exterminate us for our religion!
(Although I should note that I'm a long-time atheist. But that was MY decision, no one else's.)
#Religion
#Churches
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 240d
I would have run up. I would have been upset to not have some canned whipped cream to really sell the demonic possession aspect.
I remember walking by a little church and it was toward the end of the service. The interior doors were propped open. I stopped and looked in.
One short stocky woman was running (as best she could) laps around the pews, jazz hands going, screaming for Jesus to save her.
A younger woman was dancing like the Peanuts kids in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." If you'd given them a couple of Red Bulls.
The preacher was driving out demons up front. His face was so red, I honestly thought his head was going to explode.
IronBird@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 240d
most of em arent even all that predatory, they're just...for lack of a better term...dumb as fuck. (but they are easy pickings for the predatory churches)
the 1-2 people who can even tell you what denomination their church is probably hasn't even read their whole bible let alone studied the scriptures at all. and the brand of jesus they're selling doesn't work to calm people's fears about death most of the time either, all they do is scare people into thinking (insert family member with above room-temp IQ who gtfo of that place asap) is going to burn in hell if they can't convert them before they die.
at this stage in america i'm not sure what the answer is to bring these people back to reality, if that's even a good idea...most don't last longer than whatever chucklefuck preacher they got knocking on death's door, and when they're gone the rest just dissolve out into the other churches if they bother at all.
Quasit@kolektiva.social · 1 pts · 240d
@IronBird @harrys_balzac
I can't help but wonder how those churches survive!
IronBird@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 240d
same as everywhere else, they've havens for tax evasion and ratfuckery.
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 239d
Pretty easy I guess. John Oliver made "our lady of perpetual exemption" to make a point.
Medic8teMe@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 241d
US law? That exists...
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 231d
Does if you're poor
SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 239d
That dude has a secret Grindr account for sure. His username is probably "Yankn4Yeshua"
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 240d
Quick reminder of everything Jesus said about LGBTQ+ folks, you can look these up!
". . ."
ThefuzzyFurryComrade@pawb.social · 12 pts · 240d
He did say to "love your neighbor" quite a few times, but they are going to ignore that as it is far too woke.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 240d
Matthew 25:40:
"40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 231d
Unironically, churches have been asked by their congregation to stop portraying Jesus as "Woke" and "Socialist"
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 231d
One of my favorite Stephen Colbert qoutes is.. paraprhased
"I'd like to share with you something Jesus said about homosexuals. I'd like to, but he never said anything about them."
SARGE@startrek.website · 9 pts · 240d
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 240d
And the word he used for “love” means to actively provide for their needs and well-being. That would include HRT.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 240d
But let's all remember that in those times, your neighbors were your people, your family and tribe; not just a random stranger (which could very well be your neighbor today).
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 240d
These Christians apparently don't realize that Christians cut off their balls for many centuries, until the 1800s. The first council of Nicea was convened because of this very subject, to stop their priests and other eager converts from castrating themselves.
Jesus said it was fine, cut those buddies off! But, priests at Nicea Council disagreed, saying it's all metaphorical, stop doing that even though Jesus said you should do that.
So, if they are right and their God is the boss, their entire religion, from early days to Catholicism to today, is based on blasphemy.
Anyways, they should be if anything exuberantly trans.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 239d
So, if you're a real christian, you should cut your balls off, got it.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 239d
Jesus Himself said "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
So, you don't have to cut your balls off, that's silly. BUT it's perfectly fine if you do.
Rhoeri@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 240d
When you have to threaten the sheep to comply with your ignorance and hatred, you aren’t the shepherd- you’re the wolf.
scttgard@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 240d
Colorado tends to deal with these nutjobs fairly well. We don't tolereate people like this.
Shave_MyBeever@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 238d
I mean, they voted in Lauren Boebert
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 240d
sign it if you want to get smited by angel or god for being so sacriligeous
DeICEAmerica@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 240d
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 231d
Hey, Michael Jackson, unlike this guy, was innocent.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 239d