That’s Not Evangelism

It has never been, is not now, and will never be evangelism.  It is a cheap escape from authentic evangelism which, according to Jesus, is going into the world and making DISCIPLES.  Not audiences, not the entertained, not the amused, and not lovers of money.

This is, though, how low theology among ‘evangelicals’ has gone.  The ‘Queen of the Sciences’ has become the court jester for today’s ‘Christians’.

No one has ever become a disciple because of cheap gimmicks wrongly called ‘evangelism’.  And if your evangelism is ‘easy’, it’s fake.

So, as Peter said to Simon Magus- ‘to hell with you and your money’.  Or as Luther translated it in 1545,  “Das du verdampt werdest mit deinem gelde!” (Acts 8:20)

There’s Never a Day in America When a Pedophile Isn’t Arrested

Visit the Department of Justice’s ‘Project Safe Childhood’ page and scroll through the justice news section.  It’s simply appalling that so many in this country are involved in such perversity.  And these are just the ones caught and who make the news.

America?  A ‘Christian Nation’?  Nope.  It isn’t even a nation of Christians.

Luther’s Dark Side and its Horrifying Consequences: Kristallnacht

Many Germans were able to justify the barbarity and inhumanity of Kristallnacht because centuries before Martin Luther, the Reformer of Germany, said these words:

I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the world, and wherever God’s word is absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.

So commences Luther’s most disgusting and disreputable book, On the Jews and Their Lies.  He continues further on

The sun has never shone on a more bloodthirsty and vengeful people than they are who imagine that they are God’s people who have been commissioned and commanded to murder and to slay the Gentiles. In fact, the most important thing that they expect of their Messiah is that he will murder and kill the entire world with their sword. They treated us Christians in this manner at the very beginning throughout all the world. They would still like to do this if they had the power, and often enough have made the attempt, for which they have got their snouts boxed lustily.

And

Finally I wish to say this for myself: If God were to give me no other Messiah than such as the Jews wish and hope for, I would much, much rather be a sow than a human being. I will cite you a good reason for this. The Jews ask no more of their Messiah than that he be a Kokhba and worldly king who will slay us Christians and share out the world among the Jews and make them lords, and who finally will die like other kings, and his children after him. For thus declares a rabbi: You must not suppose that it will be different at the time of the Messiah than it has been since the creation of the world, etc.; that is, there will be days and nights, years and months, summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, begetting and dying, eating and drinking, sleeping, growing, digesting, eliminating—all will take its course as it does now, only the Jews will be the masters and will possess all the world’s gold, goods, joys, and delights, while we Christians will be their servants. This coincides entirely with the thoughts and teachings of Muhammad. He kills us Christians as the Jews would like to do, occupies the land, and takes over our property, our joys and pleasures. If he were a Jew and not an Ishmaelite, the Jews would have accepted him as the Messiah long ago, or they would have made him the Kokhba.

Luther may not have written those things had he been gifted with the ability to see into the future and observe how his words would be used against human beings who deserved, and deserve, far better than that from a Christian theologian.  But he did write them.  And the law, the ruthless horrifying law of unintended consequences used those words as justification for what Germany did to the Jews from Nov 9, 1938 on.  And Luther is in part responsible.

Be careful what you write.  It can be used in a way you never imagined in 10,000 years.

via.

Paul Pressler, SBC Fundamentalist and Architect of the Fundamentalist Destruction of the SBC is a Pedophile

Long-time Southern Baptist lay leader Paul Pressler used religion to sexually abuse a boy in the 1980s, and when that no longer worked began paying him as an adult to keep their relationship a secret, according to a new petition in the Texas Court of Appeals.

A brief filed Nov. 4 in the 1st District Court of Appeals in Houston claims that a district judge wrongly dismissed a lawsuit last year against retired appellate judge Paul Presser due to statute of limitations.

During the very period of time when Pressler and Patterson and the rest of the fundamentalists who had taken over the SBC were gutting Southeastern Seminary and turning it into a school of fundamentalism, Pressler was molesting a young boy.

Lawyers representing Gareld Duane Rollins say the lower court ignored expert testimony that their client was mentally unfit to sue for sexual assault until 2015, when with psychiatric help he finally confronted repressed memories of sexual assault in an “outcry” statement while serving time in prison.

Attorneys from Baker Botts LLP, a Houston-based international law firm recognized as one of America’s top law firms, say that Harris County District Judge R.K. Sandhill instead relied exclusively on a confidential settlement between Pressler and Rollins stemming from an altercation in a Dallas hotel room in November 2003.

The lawsuit settled in 2004 was over simple assault, lawyers say, but Pressler regarded the $1,500 per month he agreed to pay Rollins as money to buy his silence about three decades of sexual abuse.

Read the rest.  These fundamentalists are vile.  They destroyed my school and they destroyed boys lives.

If You’re an Instagram ‘Influencer’…

You’re probably a jerk.  This girl is.  Don’t be this girl.  She’s a jerk.

Anti-Vaxxers are Insane

Especially Australian ones…

An anti-vaccination mother took to social media on Wednesday to share her decision to give out tainted lollipops for Halloween.

The Australian mother, who identifies herself online as Sarah Walker RN, shared in the private Facebook group “Stop Mandatory Vaccination” that her son, whose name has been redacted, contracted chickenpox and that she planned to “help” other children in the community by spreading the virus through candy.

“So my beautiful son [redacted] has the chickenpox at the moment and we’ve both decided to help others with natural immunity this Halloween!” Walker wrote. “We have the packaging open and closing down pat and can’t wait to help others in our community.”

The moral of the story- don’t take candy from strange, totally depraved Aussies.

The Rank Hypocrisy of the ‘Why Doesn’t God Do Anything About Evil’ Crowd

Every time something awful happens and some wretch does something terrible to innocent folk there is always a chorus of voices raised in protest, complaining that God ought to do something, and why, by the way, doesn’t he.

David Hume was the loudest of these screechers, opining at the end of the day that ‘if God is good he is not God; and if God is God, he is not good’.

What the poor syphilitic Scotsman failed to admit, or recognize, along with all of his modern disciples, is that God has granted ALL of us free will.

Our exercise of that free will is the problem, not God.  And we love our free will, when it’s ours.  We just don’t like it when someone besides us exercises theirs.

So, for instance, Bob wants to go out and get drunk and drive home, and does so because he’s free to do so.  And on the way home he runs Randy down.  Randy was minding his own business but Bob was exercising his free will to be an absolute piece of human garbage.  And so he was.   Randy suffered the consequences of Bob’s free will.  But of course Randy too is a friend of free will, since only hours earlier, he had followed a girl from her dorm room to a park where she was going to jog.  Overcome with desire, because he had seen her many times before, Randy raped her and left her for dead.  Because, you know, free will.

Free will… it opens the door to every evil and is the worst and best of all God’s gifts to wretched selfish humanity.  Or more precisely, the use of free will is the greatest gift God has given to wretched humanity.

Free will exists because God wishes us to be free, and not puppets.  How we choose to use our freedom is completely in our hands.  But the minute someone uses theirs in a way contrary to our wishes, we blame God (whilst enjoying our own free will to the fullest).

It is hypocrisy.  It is rank hypocrisy to denounce God whilst exercising the freedom he has granted.  Instead of denouncing God, denounce the one who exercised her or his free will to do evil.  Denounce yourself.  Because when all is said and done, you’re the one who has taken the good gift of God and destroyed it.

The next time some piece of filth guns down a bunch of folk remind yourself that he has distorted a good gift of God: choice.  And when you’re screeching about ‘a woman’s choice’ remember your own opposition to choice in the hands of the terrorist and recall that your own choices haven’t always been what anyone outside your own head would call good; and stop blaming God, and start blaming the totally depraved wretch who did the deed you despise.

Trump is Destroying the Government

Not the Onion-

Trump Appoints Illuminati Self-Help Author ‘Magus Incognito’ To Federal Education Board

President Donald Trump has appointed an author of self-styled “Illuminati” self-help and financial advice books to a position on a federal education board.

The appointment of George Mentz ― who also writes under the pen name “Magus Incognito” ― to the Commission on Presidential Scholars was announced last Wednesday in a White House press release.

The group is tasked with selecting “presidential scholars” from across the country, an honorific reserved for 161 high school seniors who “demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in academics, the arts, career and technical education and an outstanding commitment to public service.”

Federal Election Commission filings show Mentz has given substantial sums to Republican causes and candidates, including more than $10,000 to Trump’s campaign and an associated political action committee.

Mentz’s author page on Amazon suggests that he is a prolific writer, with more than 60 titles to his name. That includes works with titles like “The Law of Attraction & Prosperity Bible – The Illuminati Wealth Manifesto & Codex” and “The Illuminati Handbook – The Path of Illumination and Ascension.”

In a 2013 book by “Magus Incognito” called “Rosicrucian and Masonic Spirituality & Secrets – The Handbook,” Mentz tells readers the book’s teachings “can propel the initiate into the 4th dimension of existence on this Earth.”

Fool.

More on the Dirk Obbink ‘Sure I’ll Sell You Some Old Stuff For Your Museum Right out of My Office’ Scandal

Ugh.

For the field of papyrology this may be a moment of reckoning. One of their most distinguished luminaries—a MacArthur “genius grant” winner, no less—is alleged to have sold antiquities that he did not own. When I spoke to Nongbri in June he told me “If this isn’t a one-off thing, and there are more records of sales, it becomes harder to believe that other scholars who work closely with Dirk Obbink didn’t know this kind of thing was going on.” The scale of the problem, as Nongbri notes, is still undetermined. If items were illicitly leaving the Oxyrhynchus collection and being funneled through Baidun it’s possible that other items (and indeed dealers) are involved. Perhaps this is the tip of the iceberg. It’s also possible that other Oxyrhynchus papyri were sold to different U.S. buyers. Regardless of the scale of the problem, the fact that items could leave the collection at all demonstrates that there is a need for greater transparency in the administration of shared intellectual and cultural heritage.

Scholars…  Some of you need Jesus.   Your egos and your sense of entitlement are astonishing.

Tommy Lee Jenkins…

Remember that name.

A convicted pedophile from Indiana was busted for trying to have sex with a 14-year-old girl — after walking 351 miles to meet her, according to authorities.

Tommy Lee Jenkins, 32, began an X-rated instant-message exchange with a teen named “Kylee” in Wisconsin who was actually a sheriff’s deputy, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

Jenkins asked her for sexually explicit photographs while badgering her to meet him for sex in Whitestown, Ind., where he lived, officials said.

When she refused, he set off on foot for where she supposedly was, in Neenah, Wisc. — repeatedly sending her explicit messages and updating her on the progress of his desperate hike, according to prosecutors.

His mammoth trek ended with a surprise — with sheriff’s deputies and an FBI agent waiting to bust him, authorities announced Friday.

Jenkins was charged with using a computer to attempt to persuade, induce or entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted.

Have you ever noticed that evil is more willing to do ‘whatever it takes’ to get what it wants than good is?  Maybe that’s why evil wins in this world.

Murder By Cop

He was supposed to be checking on a woman’s welfare.  Instead, he gunned her down in her own home.

A black woman was shot and killed by a white police officer in her Fort Worth, Texas home after a neighbor called dispatchers to report the woman’s front door was open, police said.

The officers were searching the perimeter of the woman’s home when they saw a person standing near a window inside and one of them opened fire, killing her, Fort Worth police said.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner identified the woman killed as 28-year-old Atatiana Koquice Jefferson. The medical examiner placed her time and place of death as Saturday at 2:30 a.m. in the bedroom of her home.
A cause and manner of death for Jefferson are not yet listed.

Hours after the shooting, police released a heavily edited version of the officer’s body camera footage. The nearly 2-minute video shows officers walking outside the home with flashlights for a few minutes before one of them yells, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” and shoots his weapon through a window.

Take note of the last paragraph. And watch for a coverup.  Being Black in America, even in your own home, is not safe.

Teamwork Trumps the ‘Good Guy With a Gun’ Every Time

Two people were injured in a shooting at a New Hampshire church Saturday morning.

It happened at the New England Pentecostal Church in Pelham, which is close to the state’s border with Massachusetts.

A wedding was taking place at the time, with about 40 people in attendance. Guests at the wedding were able to subdue the shooter until authorities arrived and took him into custody.

Police have not confirmed a motive in the shooting, but they do not believe it was random. They recovered a handgun at the scene.

The injured man and woman were taken to area hospitals. Some other guests were treated at the church for minor injuries. Nobody was killed in the incident.

A motivated team can take down a shooter easier than the mythical ‘good guy with a gun’.

Rudy Is Dirty, But He’s Not Alone

Can we not pretend that Rudy is the only dirty politician. Every politician of every party is in the money for influence game and they all have their little toadies doing whatever ‘needs to be done’ to gain and hold power.

Rudy is dirty, but he’s not alone.

When Rudolph W. Giuliani set out to dredge up damaging information on President Trump’s rivals in Ukraine, he turned to a native of the former Soviet republic with whom he already had a lucrative business relationship.

Etc.

Christians ought to remember two things when thinking about politicians:

Remember the doctrine of the total depravity of humanity.  Your politician is a depraved sinner.

and

It is idiotic to put your faith in a person.  Any person.  You have one Lord.  And he isn’t a politician.

‘How on Earth Did That Get There????’

Total depravity knows no limits.  Sin leads to more sin and ever more sin till the sinner is sin itself.

He’s 9 and He Will Be Tried for Murder

Ghastly deeds are done even by the young.

A 9-year-old is set to be charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection to the mobile home fire in Goodfield that killed five people back in April.

The juvenile, whose name will not be released due to their age, will also be charged with two counts of arson and one count of aggravated arson. Woodford County State’s Attorney Greg Minger did not reveal any possible relations to the victims, but did refer to the suspect as a “he.”

Etc….

Oh Ladies, be Best….

Don’t marry a guy who sexually assaults one of your Bridesmaid’s two days before the wedding!

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with sexually assaulting a bridesmaid from his wife’s bridal party two days before his wedding, according to police. The wedding went on as planned.

Daniel J. Carney allegedly assaulted a 29-year-old Oregon woman Aug. 30 in a men’s locker room at the Shawnee Inn in Smithfield Township following a day of rafting and paddleboarding on the Delaware River, according to the criminal complaint.

The 28-year-old was arrested a month later on Oct. 3 and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of an unconscious person, simple assault and indecent assault, according to court records. He was arraigned Monday in Marshalls Creek and placed on an unsecured $100,000 bail on the condition he does not have any contact with the victim, a court official told NBC News. His attorney, James Swetz, did not immediately return a request for comment.

…

On the morning of the wedding, Carney texted the victim and asked her to be “as happy as possible” for the bride, according to the complaint. He also asked her to take the morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy. “We never did do it but would you consider taking plan b to make damn certain just in case?,” the text read in part, according to the complaint. “There is almost no chance but still. Please tell me yes I’m begging you.”

Ladies….  What’s wrong with some of you?

You Get More Jail Time For Shooting a Cop’s Dog Than Shooting a Black Man…

There is no justice in America.

This Is Precisely Why Blanket Statements Like ‘Believe the Women’ Are Both False and Evil

Because, hold on to your seat, some women are liars!

Claims of abuse have to be taken case by case and all allegations thoroughly and honestly investigated. Lives are at stake.

Distraught Kevin Stewart sat on the ledge of his 14th-storey flat window seriously contemplating whether life was worth living because of the vicious lies that had “destroyed” him.

The 20-year-old, who has learning difficulties, had been moved to the flat “for his own safety” after receiving threats from enraged individuals who believed Airdrie teenager Shannon Maley’s poisonous smear campaign.

Maley had accused Kevin of sexual assault and then gone on to concoct an abhorrently elaborate plan to see him jailed.

After saying he molested her in Centenary Park in June 2017, she created fake social media profiles in Kevin’s name and sent herself scores of depraved and threatening messages.

Read the whole.

Trump and Jeffress Slammed for their Civil War Comment

As Democrats begin an impeachment inquiry, President Trump spent Sunday vigorously defending himself on Twitter and sharing cable news clips of his most ardent devotees insisting that he did nothing wrong in asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden.

Trump highlighted one quote from a longtime evangelical pastor warning of particularly dire consequences if the Democrats follow through.

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted, adding his own parenthetical to a quote from Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist preacher speaking on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.

Trump’s tweet invoking civil war marks a notable escalation in his rhetoric about the impeachment inquiry and also highlights his close relationship with Jeffress, a pastor known for viciously attacking other faiths who holds sway over both evangelical voters and the president. …

“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a decorated Air Force veteran who served as a pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This is beyond repugnant.”

Two Senate Democrats, Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii), also condemned the president’s tweet in a back-and-forth in which Murphy described the message as “so frightening.”

“He is going to keep talking like this,” Murphy tweeted, “and some people are going to listen and do what he asks.”

The idea of a U.S. civil war did not come from Trump directly. Instead, he quoted a high-profile and contentious Texas pastor who has stood with the president since the earliest days of the 2016 campaign.

Jeffress, who fronts a megachurch in Dallas that attracts 14,000 worshipers and hosts his own religious television and radio shows, introduced then-candidate Trump at a campaign rally in January 2016. A month later, he gave an impassioned speech in Fort Worth, endorsing Trump, who he said would be a “true friend” to evangelical Christians, at a time when many religious conservatives still wavered on whether to support the former Democrat with a scandalous past.

Etc.  Read it all.  Jeffress is a hatemonger and his supporters at Dallas are as well.

Another GOP Senator Who is also A Child Predator

Prosecutors in Pennsylvania have charged a state senator with possession of child pornography after authorities traced an explicit image involving a minor to the senator’s personal computer.

Police arrested state Sen. Mike Folmer on Tuesday at his home about an hour outside of Harrisburg. During a search of Folmer’s cellphone, investigators say they found two other suspected images of child pornography.

Folmer, 63, who is married and has seven grandchildren, told police that he “had been dealing with some personal problems,” according to a criminal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

Folmer told investigators that he had received the image, apparently showing a sex act involving a young girl, through his Tumblr blog, according to court documents. But prosecutors say it was Folmer who uploaded the imagery to the social media site in December 2017 under the screen name “hoser44.”

Tumblr flagged the imagery to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in February, court documents state. Authorities issued subpoenas earlier this year to Yahoo, AT&T Wireless and Comcast to recover account details provided by Tumblr.

The GOP- the hypocrisy never ends.