Recent posts

#11

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by zorkan - September 15, 2026, 12:57:41 PM

Meanwhile at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park London lies proof of religious peace after 90 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dS3CCM1XOU

Proof of bullshit, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoMKmTqsMM

#12

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by Dark Lightning - September 13, 2026, 11:40:41 PM

   That kind of sang froid is something I don't have. It was a Waldorf school, and I didn't want to terrorize the students. At least beyond a little math. Please don't judge, I just needed the money. I modified my previous post. It should have read ..."thought came to me..." I missed to the word "came".

#13

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by billy rubin - September 13, 2026, 11:30:22 PM

i am truly sorry that you had to let that opportunity slip by. those are the moments that make life worth living.

my father once worked with an operations geologist in oklahoma.

operations geologists drive hundreds of miles with no sleep. AMHIK

anyway, the guy fell asleep and ran the car off the road. it hit the ditch, flipped, and skidded on its roof into a gas station and stopped by the pumps.

the attendant ran out,

my god! my god! are you okay??

and the geologist, upside down, had the presence of mind to look him in the eye and say,

fill 'er up!

#14

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by Dark Lightning - September 13, 2026, 04:41:36 PM

Heh, when I was teaching a math class many years ago, one of the students blurted, "Why are you doing this to us?". I told one of the other teachers that the thought  came to me of saying, "I've come for your souls. Give them to me now!", in that James Earl Jones voice. Of course, I didn't say that to the class. The other teacher was amused.

#15

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by billy rubin - September 13, 2026, 01:49:08 PM

a friend of mine in school once told me about his response to college campus performative evangelizing. he put on a black cloak, iirc, and stood next to them evangelizing for satan as an alternative.

i was not there but i imagine the entertainment value alone would have been high.

#16

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by Dark Lightning - September 12, 2026, 06:02:51 PM

Man, that's annoying. I don't see any of that around here. Probably if I went into Los Angeles, or something.

#17

Religion / Re: Evangelists

Last post by zorkan - September 12, 2026, 03:55:14 PM

Saturday 12th September:
Just been walking through the centre of Coventry, a place where ordinary people love to shop but now dominated by loud and aggressive evangelists.
Groups of christians making an unbearable noise shouting over each other, then a guy shouting over them with a microphone. Also a muslim and JW presence.
People of this city deserve far better. It's supposed to be 'City of peace and reconciliation', or so it says when you enter it.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LBbw-tLJvu8

https://www.facebook.com/groups/341102676017302/posts/10089879251139547/

https://www.facebook.com/coventrycityofpeace/
No, stay away until this menace is stopped.
Until then: There is no hell, only Coventry.


 

#18

Religion / Re: Who Would Have Thought?

Last post by Recusant - September 11, 2026, 04:52:01 PM

Don't want to let Christians hog the spotlight.

"Buddhist monk arrested in suspected $3m embezzlement scandal" | BBC

Thai police have arrested a Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling 100 million baht ($3m; £2.2m) from his monastery, along with a suspected female accomplice he was filmed having sex with.

Phra Wachirayan Wi, a former abbot at the prominent 14th-Century Wat Phutthaisawan in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, allegedly pocketed donations meant for the temple on more than 20 occasions over two years.

In Thailand, Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy and also renounce material possessions. He was defrocked after his arrest. He has yet to comment publicly.

The latest arrests come just over a year after another sex-and-blackmail case involving senior monks rocked Thailand's monastic community.

The 66-year-old was known for creating a highly-coveted coin amulet. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reportedly owns some of his creations.

Thailand's Buddhist institution has long been plagued with reports of monks breaking their vow of celibacy, trafficking drugs and committing financial crimes.

[Continues . . .]

[Pastor Greg Locke]

#19

Politics / Re: Dominionists in the United...

Last post by Recusant - September 10, 2026, 05:10:00 AM

Bonnie Kristian, the deputy editor of Christianity Today, has a book out which attempts to defend white evangelicals in the US. A few days ago I read an interview with her in which she laid out her basic thesis: we shouldn't condemn the entire group just because a lot of them have shitty beliefs and support fascist-wannabes like Trump and Mike Johnson (Speaker of the House who is openly a Dominionist). Many of those same folks give to charities and are kind to their neighbors. Not her words of course, but my characterization. In her efforts to promote her book she also wrote a piece for The Washington Post advancing the same argument. As you might have assumed, I wasn't impressed. 

It was good to read a well-reasoned reply to Kristian's argument by Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist.

Kristian cites a steep decline in how Democrats view Christian fundamentalists. In 2008, according to one study, 52.8% of Democrats "had a positive view of Christian fundamentalists." By 2024, that number had dropped to 32.2%.

But declining approval isn't proof of irrational bigotry, especially when that decline coincides with white evangelicals' overwhelming support for Trump, and an aggressive campaign to weaponize the government against LGBTQ people, immigrants, religious minorities, people who need abortions, and public schools.

When you do unpopular things, don't be surprised when your popularity fades.

[. . .]

We can't have "civic friendship" with people who don't think Muslims, LGBTQ people, immigrants, atheists, and women should have the same rights they do.

Who's to blame for that? It's not Christianity as a whole or every individual evangelical. It's the white evangelical political bloc—the constituency that has supplied votes, money, theological cover, and institutional support for authoritarianism and Christian nationalism.

So if "cancer" is too inflammatory, choose another word. Call it a decades-long moral failure. Whatever the label, the movement has spread through our government, made life worse for vulnerable Americans, and prioritized loyalty to the Republican Party over every principle its members claim to hold sacred.

Objecting to the "cancer" metaphor does nothing to treat the underlying disease.

In a different interview, Kristian complained that attention-seeking blowhards like Pastor Greg Locke are constantly presented as representative of white evangelical pastors. It's true that Locke doesn't represent every pastor. But that raises a more important question: Who does represent white evangelical power?

Franklin Graham has influence. Pete Hegseth has power. Paula White-Cain advises Trump. Mike Johnson is Speaker of the House. Kristian can't dismiss every destructive leader as an unrepresentative anomaly while defining evangelicalism by the kindest and least powerful people in the pews. A movement should have to answer for the people it elevates, follows, funds, and repeatedly places in power.

Remember: MAGA allegiance remains perfectly acceptable in most white evangelical spaces. It rarely costs anyone their church membership, leadership positions, Christian media platforms, or the respect of their fellow Christians. That tolerance is a choice. If authoritarian cruelty isn't a deal-breaker, what the hell is?

Kristian is right to say individual white evangelicals shouldn't be reduced to a stereotype. There are white evangelicals who oppose Trump, defend LGBTQ people, welcome refugees, protect church-state separation, and reject their faith being used as a political weapon. They deserve to be recognized. We can work with them.

But that minority can't absolve the larger movement.

For three consecutive presidential elections, roughly 80% of white evangelical voters have backed Donald Trump. Their churches, institutions, media outlets, and celebrities have turned the GOP into a vehicle for Christian Nationalism. As a result, Americans are losing their rights, health care, safety, education, and freedom.

Kristian may want critics like me to see evangelicals as kind neighbors who stop by when you're sick rather than as caricatures like Locke. Fine. But white evangelical leaders should also be willing to see the immigrant taken from her family, the transgender child terrorized by right-wing lawmakers, the Muslim treated as an enemy by evangelists, the pregnant woman denied medical care, and the students forced to go to class under the shadow of a Ten Commandments poster. Those people aren't caricatures either.

[Continues . . .]

#20

Politics / Re: Duke of Bullshit: "The" Do...

Last post by Dark Lightning - September 09, 2026, 06:53:08 PM

I'll check for a milsurp store around here. I can also buy new from the Navy Exchange, but it's 40 or so miles from my house.