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The religious right's hypocrisy now on full display

For those (like me) who were raised in an Evangelical church (say, Southern Baptist), or who have Evangelical relatives or friends, this article doesn't provide much that's new, but it's still a revealing insight into the Evangelical obsession with sexual purity at the expense of other, far more important aspects of Christ's teachings. The article refers to the shooter in the attacks in Atlanta, who attended a Baptist Church there.

"Perry described a phenomenon in some parts of evangelical culture that he called “sexual exceptionalism,” in which sexual sins are implied to be more serious than other categories.

“So many men boil down how they’re doing spiritually to how often they have looked at porn recently...Not whether they’d grown in their love toward others, given generously of their time or spent time connecting with God, but if they masturbated.”

For some with experience in evangelical youth culture, Long’s fixation on sexual temptation was a reminder of a damaging approach to teaching young people how to address sexuality.

“It presents a very demeaning view of manhood,” said Rachael Denhollander, an evangelical advocate for sexual abuse victims. “Every time you teach a woman in the presence of a young man that it’s her responsibility to keep a man from lusting and that she has the power to keep him from sexual perversion by what she wears and what she does, what he hears is that it’s her fault.”

The article also notes that the failure of many Evangelical leaders to follow their own teachings in maintaining sexual purity has become a cliche, and mentions some recent scandals.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/evangelical-sex-addiction-atlanta-suspect.html
 
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Apparently it’s a thing that some conservative Christian medical providers are consciously objecting (refusing) to provide prescriptions for Viagra (etc.) to non-married patients seeking such assistance...


Ho boy.
 
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Apparently it’s a thing that some conservative Christian medical providers are consciously objecting (refusing) to provide prescriptions for Viagra (etc.) to non-married patients seeking such assistance...


Ho boy.

I'm sure they write the prescription if the check is big enough.
 
That's only for the rank and file deplorables. Top tier gets cialis.
 
not rightwing (that I know of), but CEO of community hospital in poor neighborhood "asks for redemption" for vaccinating 200 members of his church ahead of vulnerable populations identified for early rounds: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/3...ospital-george-miller-apology-chicago-vaccine

Jesus. Literally. If he has no problem doing this, something tells me that his books are going to be more than a little crooked. Somebody needs to send the tax man to visit George and his cronies.
 
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Awful human being? Like King David, God chooses bad men to serve as his agents.

Republican elected? God has intervened to prevent Hillary from winning!

God works in mysterious ways.
 
...had the man killed after he’d already (as king) summoned the man’s wife to himself and impregnated her.
 
If he hadn't banged Bathsheba, we never would've gotten Solomon, whose major contribution to Christianity was the idea of sawing a baby in half.




The Old Testament is hella weird.
 
It’s Not Just Young White Liberals Who Are Leaving Religion
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/its-not-just-young-white-liberals-who-are-leaving-religion/

[h=2]The nones aren’t just young, highly educated, liberal white people.[/h] Compared to the U.S. population overall, nonreligious Americans are younger and more Democratic-leaning. But the number of Americans who aren’t religious has surged in part because people in lots of demographic groups are disengaging from religion — many nones don’t fit that young, liberal stereotype. The average age of a none is 43 (so plenty are older than that). About one-third of nones (32 percent) are people of color. More than a quarter of nones voted for Trump in 2020. And about 70 percent don’t have a four-year college degree.
The decline over the last decade in the share of Black (-11 percentage points) and Hispanic adults (-10 points) who are Christians is very similar to the decline among white adults (-12 points), according to Pew. The number of college graduates leaving the faith (-13 points) is similar to those without degrees (-11 points). The decline in organized religion is indeed much bigger among Democrats (-17 points) than Republicans (-7 points) and among Millennials (-16 points) compared to Baby Boomers (-6 points), but the trend is very broad.
The growing diversity of nones explains a lot of dynamics we see in America today. For example, unlike the civil rights movements of the 1950s and ’60s, Black Lives Matter didn’t emerge from Black Christian churches and is not principally led by Black pastors. Part of the story there is that some activists involved in BLM view Black churches as too conservative, particularly in terms of not being inclusive enough of women and LGBTQ people. But another part of the story is simply that the Black Lives Matter movement was largely started by Black people under age 50. Many Black Americans under 50, like their non-Black counterparts, are disengaged from religion. About a third of Black Millennials are religiously unaffiliated, compared to 11 percent of Black Baby Boomers, according to Pew.

[h=2]Nones aren’t just leaving religion because of the Christian right.[/h] People who leave Christianity often cite the politics of the Christian right turning them off. But some of the evidence here suggests that probably isn’t the only explanation. There is a general disengagement of Americans from organized religion — people who are religious no longer identifying as members of congregations. Republicans are becoming less religious, but they seem just fine voting for candidates who court the Christian right. And the people leaving Christianity aren’t usually members of conservative evangelical congregations in the first place.
So what else is going on? Well, nations with fairly high per capita GDPs (such as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom) tend to have fairly low levels of religiosity. The U.S. has long been an outlier: a high-income, highly religious nation. But America may have always been destined to grow less religious.
 
Even if this was the only reason Liberty University is suing Little Falwell (it's not), it's still more than deserved.

 
A letter obtained by The Washington Post claims that leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention "mishandled sexual abuse claims", including bullying a sexual abuse victim.

The letter was written by Russell Moore, the head of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, who suddenly resigned his post last month to accept a position as "public theologian" at Christianity Today magazine. Moore wrote to SBC President, Rev. J.D. Greear, that "You and I both heard, in closed door meetings, sexual abuse survivors spoken of in terms of ‘Potiphar’s wife’ and other spurious biblical analogies" (the Post writes that ""In the ancient biblical story, Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph and falsely accuses him of having assaulted her.") Moore also wrote that "The conversations in these closed door meetings were far worse than anything Southern Baptists knew — or the outside world could report...[T]his comes on the heels of a track-record of the Executive Committee staff and others referring to victims as 'crazy' and, at least in one case, as worse than the sexual predators themselves."

Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/leaked-letter-reveals-allegations-southern-190555459.html
 
To me, a good majority of the posters on this board come across as cynical. I know I have posted derogatory comments in the past, some literal and some not. And yes, I believe God has used both “good” and “bad” people to accomplish things in the past. To some on this board that is a way to make it seem contradictory or comical. Some people on this board admire people ,such as politicians, who do the same thing and applaud them for their ability to do that. I will also be the first to admit that there are thousands of “Christians” who do atrociously awful things in the name of religion. There are thousands who have a warped interpretation of the Bible and its teachings. There is a fine line between thinking that the Bible may have verses that seem to forewarn of the dangers of unprotected sex among males or the dangers of intravenous drug use and the consequences that results from that sin. It’s another thing to scream that gays or drug users are dying because of God’s wrath upon their wickedness and that it is his punishment for them. Also, the idea that God approved of David’s behavior with Bathsheba is incorrect. God admonishes David for what he did and the Bible uses it as an example of what can happen when giving into temptation. I believe there is also a fine line between saying David’s first child was killed by God for punishment of his sin and saying that God knows what will happen in advance and warns of those consequences beforehand. There is and always will be free will amongst Gods people and although he knows the outcome doesn’t mean it is pre-destiny. It does seem to be splitting hairs at times but the most subtle differences can cause people to completely loose the message being conveyed. I believe God loves every race, creed, and sexual orientation on earth whether he agrees or condones the actions of those people is another topic. I believe Jesus Christ’s will is for every human being to except salvation through our belief in him and spend eternity with him in heaven. I also believe that what is happening in the world today is what has been foretold in the Bible, even down to the people that are misled just as the ones mentioned in previous posts.
 
To me, a good majority of the posters on this board come across as cynical. I know I have posted derogatory comments in the past, some literal and some not. And yes, I believe God has used both “good” and “bad” people to accomplish things in the past. To some on this board that is a way to make it seem contradictory or comical. Some people on this board admire people ,such as politicians, who do the same thing and applaud them for their ability to do that. I will also be the first to admit that there are thousands of “Christians” who do atrociously awful things in the name of religion. There are thousands who have a warped interpretation of the Bible and its teachings. There is a fine line between thinking that the Bible may have verses that seem to forewarn of the dangers of unprotected sex among males or the dangers of intravenous drug use and the consequences that results from that sin. It’s another thing to scream that gays or drug users are dying because of God’s wrath upon their wickedness and that it is his punishment for them. Also, the idea that God approved of David’s behavior with Bathsheba is incorrect. God admonishes David for what he did and the Bible uses it as an example of what can happen when giving into temptation. I believe there is also a fine line between saying David’s first child was killed by God for punishment of his sin and saying that God knows what will happen in advance and warns of those consequences beforehand. There is and always will be free will amongst Gods people and although he knows the outcome doesn’t mean it is pre-destiny. It does seem to be splitting hairs at times but the most subtle differences can cause people to completely loose the message being conveyed. I believe God loves every race, creed, and sexual orientation on earth whether he agrees or condones the actions of those people is another topic. I believe Jesus Christ’s will is for every human being to except salvation through our belief in him and spend eternity with him in heaven. I also believe that what is happening in the world today is what has been foretold in the Bible, even down to the people that are misled just as the ones mentioned in previous posts.

There is another here to unpack.
 
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