Ever wonder why the promise of the prodigal son, Jesus, has not happened?
It is promised by most of the WASP religions and yet nothing has happened….why is that?
It seems that some idiotic evangelical has the answer for the faithful….
If we want Jesus to come back, then apparently we’ll have to dig deep into our pockets, according to right-wing evangelical pastor Jesse Duplantis.
During a recent four-day, live TV event Victorython on the Victory channel, Duplantis made the bizarre claim that people aren’t donating to their churches generously enough, and this is the reason why Jesus has not yet made a reappearance.
“I honestly believe this — the reason why Jesus hasn’t come is because people are not giving the way God told them to give,” he said, “when you understand this, you can speed up the time.”
Later on in the show, Duplantis further explained why if everyone called the number listed at the bottom of the screen to donate, “God the Father would say ‘Jesus, go get ‘em.’”
“I realized that I will not move people emotionally to give,” he said. “I’m gonna have people move according to the word of God. What is God saying to you?
“I really believe this, if people would call this number and put this victory all over the world, every available voice, every available outlet, God the Father would say, ‘Jesus, go get ’em.’ Because, you see, he wants to see us as much as we want to see him. … And so what is hindering all these things is because people are not doing in the financial realm — because we’re living in an economic world — what God’s called them to do.”
I have always thought that these toads were a greedy lot….but this is beyond the pail….
Just another reason I have NO use for organized religion, especially the Evangelicals….I want nothing to do with a religion that wants me to pay to pray or takes attendance…..
But that is just me….you do what the spirit moves you to do…..
I have never been a fan of the faux religious leaders that call themselves ‘evangelicals’…..since they emerged back in the Reagan years they have been the drivers of policy of the government…..and not until Trump has their true nature been so obvious.
One of the most irritating is Liberty Univ Falwell……and now that he has been disgraced more and more corruption has been uncovered……recently it is the amount of cash that Liberty fed to the Trump machine…..
After shocking many in the evangelical movement by endorsing Donald Trump over other Republicans for the 2016 presidential nomination, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. pumped millions of the nonprofit religious institution’s funds into Republican causes and efforts to promote the Trump administration, blurring the lines between education and politics.
The culmination of his efforts was the creation of a university-funded campus “think tank” — which has produced nopeer-reviewed academic work and bears little relation to study centers at other universities — that ran pro-Trump ads, hired Trump allies including former adviser Sebastian Gorka and current Trump attorney Jenna Ellis to serve as fellows and, in recent weeks, has aggressively promoted Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.
The think tank — called the Falkirk Center, a portmanteau of Falwell’s name and that of GOP activist Charlie Kirk, who co-founded it — purchased campaign-season ads on Facebook, at least $50,000’s worth of which were designated by the network as political ads, that promoted Trump and other Republican candidates by name.
“Pray For Our President,” declared one, featuring a photo of Trump with his hands clasped in prayer.
“Be a radical for our republic,” said another Facebook ad that ran over the summer with a photo of a beaming Madison Cawthorn, the rising GOP star and congressional candidate from North Carolina who spoke at Trump’s convention.
Time to tell these creeps to go back to serving their flock and leave the running of this country to the bureaucrats…..they have helped turned this country into a ‘combat zone’ that continues to tear the people apart.
Since the election of 1980 the religious right have had a strangehold on the GOP and its policies and rhetoric…..is it possible that the hold could be weakening and possibly ending?
Donald Trump, by his own words and actions, does not appear to be the most religious person.
And yet 76% of white evangelical voters supported him in the 2020 election. It’s clear American evangelicals value something other than his religious devotion. As a Christian ethicist, I’m especially interested in the ways Christians seek to gain and use political power. Why did so many Christians vote for Trump? And what are they afraid of losing when he leaves?
Could the religious right have finally met its match with Donald the Orange?
Personally if it has then I can thank Trump for his breaking of the power that these zealots held over a political party…..religion has NO place in government.-
I seldom write on religion….for one I do not care much for organized religion….butt mostly because most of the leaders are outright hypocrites….they rail about everything from protesters to fornicators to gays to Muslims…..and only the weak minded believe their babbling…..for most prove over time that they are NO better than the rest of us regardless on how much scripture they spout.
This post is about the fate of a staunch evangelical, Jerry Falwell….preachers and head of Liberty University, the university that teaches family values…..
It seems that he and his wife have been caught up in some sort of sex scandal…..
Jerry Falwell Jr. made several different headlines earlier this year, including when he told students they could come back to Liberty University during the pandemic, made a cringey face mask “joke,” and stepped down from Liberty after an odd photo of him emerged. Now, in an exclusive statement to the Washington Examiner, Falwell explains he’s been suffering from depression, prompted by an affair his wife, Becki, had with a former family friend who then threatened to expose the affair and tried to extort them. Falwell says he and Becki met 21-year-old pool attendant Giancarlo Granda in 2012 at a hotel in Miami Beach, and the couple was “so impressed by his initiative” they included him in a real estate deal. Shortly after, however, Becki entered into what Falwell calls an “inappropriate personal relationship” with Granda. “I lost 80 pounds,” Falwell says of his reaction after discovering the affair.
And it soon became a “roller coaster” and a “Fatal Attraction-like situation” after the Falwells tried to distance themselves from Granda, Falwell says, claiming that Granda got “increasingly angry and aggressive” and threatened to out the affair and embarrass the couple and Liberty University unless they paid him “substantial monies.” Mediaoutlets had reported on Granda’s ties to the Falwells last year, which included whispers of “racy” photos involving the three. Granda denies to the Examiner any type of extortion attempt, calling the claim “defamatory” and promising that “the WHOLE truth will come out.” The one silver lining for the Falwells: They reconciled after the affair. “Becki and I forgave each other, because while her indiscretion may have been more obvious and apparent, I realized that there were important smaller things I needed to do better, too,” Falwell says
The “Other Guy” has come out of the woodwork……
The news about Jerry Falwell Jr. has finally clarified: The evangelical leader tells the Wall Street Journal that he is indeed out as president of Liberty University in Virginia. Falwell says he submitted his resignation to the school’s board Monday night after conflicting reports about whether he had or had not resigned. The confusion apparently stemmed from negotiations over how much money he is due. His resignation follows a tumultuous few weeks. Coverage:
His view: “The board put me on leave, took away my duties as prez, and that’s not permitted by my contract,” Falwell told the Journal. “And they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.”
Scandals: First came the photo he posted on social media, with his pants open and his arm around the waist of his wife’s female assistant, whose pants also were open. Then came the Reuters story detailing how his wife, Becki, had a years-long sexual relationship with a younger man, and how Falwell would watch them having sex. And before all that, Falwell took flak for his decision to bring students onto campus in March amid the pandemic, notes Axios.
The code: Falwell may call his critics “self-righteous,” but they in turn see hypocrisy. The Liberty honor code for students reads, “Sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University.”
His wife: While Falwell, 58, has been influential in politics and an ardent supporter of President Trump, his wife, 53, is also a political figure, notes Reuters. Among other things, she served on the advisory board of Women for Trump, and she spoke at CPAC on a panel with her husband and Donald Trump Jr. last year.
Other man: Giancarlo Granda says he met the Falwells in 2012 at age 20 when he worked at a Miami hotel as a pool attendant. Jerry Falwell has acknowledged his wife’s affair, but he calls Granda an “extortionist,” adding, “Most of what that guy said … is not true.” BuzzFeed detailed in 2018 how the three went into business together.
The shift:Politico reports that Jerry Falwell attempted to buy out Granda from their business venture in 2015, just before getting involved with Trump’s campaign. Granda sees it as an attempt by Falwell to erase evidence of their relationship before taking on a bigger national profile. Falwell “admired Trump’s strongman public persona,” Granda tells the outlet. “Also, there was a noticeable personality change after Trump was elected. He was drunk on power and felt like he could get away with anything.” Falwell’s endorsement of Trump was seen as pivotal for his 2016 candidacy
Not to fret if you are a supporter of Falwell…..he will get out of his presidency of Liberty with a wad of cash……
Jerry Falwell Jr. has officially resigned from Liberty University, and he told the Washington Post Tuesday night that he’ll get $10.5 million in severance, as specified in his contract. That’s because he resigned in good standing, without being formally accused of or admitting to any wrongdoing. “The board was gracious not to challenge that,” he tells the newspaper. “There wasn’t any cause. I haven’t done anything.” He’ll get $2.5 million over two years, the equivalent of what his salary would have been during that same period, and he’s agreed not to work for a competing university during those years. At the end of that period, he’ll get the rest of his severance in retirement. A source tells Fox News Falwell has agreed to consult for Liberty during the transition to a new president.
His resignation comes, of course, on the heels of a controversial photo showing him with his wife’s scantily-clad assistant, which was quickly followed by Falwell’s admission that his wife had had an affair. Reports have claimed the affair lasted years and Falwell would watch his wife and her lover have sex; Falwell claims the man tried to extort the couple, and his wife denies Falwell watched, per Fox News. Her alleged lover on Tuesday issued new accusations against Falwell, claiming he shared inappropriate photos of a Liberty student; Falwell tells the Post it was simply a funny, non-sexual image of a friend of his daughters-in-law. Also Tuesday, Falwell confirmed it was President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen who helped him years ago when someone tried to blackmail the Falwells over sensitive photos. Cohen claims he asked Falwell, as a “personal favor,” to endorse President Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Really?
Doing what demagogues do…..blame someone else for their screw ups…..instead of manning up they go into excuses….I am old enough to remember Swaggart’s sex scandal……
Falwell is typical……My thinking that evangelicals are hypocrites and have seen nothing to change my mind as of yet.
Some of the loudest and foolish voices to re-open the country have come from the mental midgets within the evangelical community…..
I have written about these religious leaders that want their flocks to give them their checks from the government….and then there are the voices to return to “normal”…..
In the U.S., a variety of evangelical religious leaders have failed the test of reasoned public policy in outrageous ways. Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, railing at “tyrannical government,” refused to close his mega-church in Florida until the local police arrested him in March. He even insisted that church members in those services of 500 or more true believers should continue to shake hands with one another because “we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.”
As he saw it, his River Tampa Bay Church was the “safest place” around because it was the site of “salvation.” Only in early April did he finally move his services online and it probably wasn’t to protect the health of his congregation either. His insurance company had cancelled on him after his arrest and his continued defiance of local regulation
These religious tools are only concerned about the loss of revenue not lives……
Not to worry for the fools have Donald the Orange in their corner and he has issued dire warnings if he is not obeyed…..
President Trump issued orders to the nation’s governors to allow houses of worship to open “right now,” saying he’ll “override” them if they don’t. The president made the unscheduled announcement Friday at the White House, taking no questions from reporters. He pronounced houses of worship “essential places that provide essential services,” Politico reports, and said the CDC is preparing pandemic guidance for them. Americans “are demanding to go to church, and synagogue, or to their mosque,” Trump said, adding that “ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams and other faith leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe” when they gather. Trump said that if governors have issues with his instructions, they’ll have to call him, “and they are not going to be successful in that call.”
The president lacks the legal power to override state orders, reports the Hill. But Justice Department lawyers have told Gov. Gavin Newsom that California’s plan to let schools and businesses reopen first makes for “unequal treatment of faith communities.” Health officials have said houses of worship are especially worrisome for spreading the coronavirus, and a blanket rule might be a bad idea. “You have to be careful,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday. “If you’re in an area where there’s a relatively little infection, as there are in certain regions of the country, versus an area where there is still a high degree of infection, how you approach what you do in houses of worship really varies.”
This move is about the election and nothing else for the Orange man could care less if they are safe just how it looks to the spin doctors. We are truly living in the most ignorant of times….this would give the Dark Ages a run for the ribbon of stupidity.
By The Way….you know all those sites that are calling for the re-open…….About half are bots!
As parts of the US have lifted shutdown orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a fierce argument online about the risks and benefits of reopening. New research suggests that bots have been dominating that debate.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers analyzed over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 and related issues since January and found that roughly half the accounts — including 62% of the 1,000 most influential retweeters — appeared to be bots, they said in a report published this week.
The GOP of old is just that old and only a memory….I illustrate this statement I give my readers the platform of the 1956 GOP….
I guess that is what is meant by “the good old days”.
Ever since the 1980s the party has moved further and further Right from the 1956 platform….by 1980 the evangelicals started letting the country know their political aspirations.
By 2016 the GOP is so far Right it is starting to look and sound like the Germany of the 1930s…..and amount of eye rolls and heavy sighs will change that.
Sorry to bring this up but the characteristics are there for all to see…..
Then we step on the stage in 2019…….
No matter what Donald Trump does or says, most Republicans and white evangelicals are not going to criticize or break from him in 2020. It is a fantasy if Democrats think that they can sway them, hoping that perhaps talking about jobs, prescription drug prices, or immigration reform will move these voters. It is also a fantasy that his racist rhetoric and policies will turn off most Republicans and white evangelicals. The reason is simple—What Trump has achieved is the merger and consolidation of white supremacy, white evangelicalism and Republicanism into a party that simply is about racial identity. This is the new Republican Party.
Despite Trump’s horrendous racist, xenophobic, and misogynist language and a personal lifestyle that lives this rhetoric, Republicans and white evangelicals are with him. Recent Pew Research Center polls puts Trump’s approval among evangelicals at 69%, down from a high of 78% but still overwhelming. His strongest support according to a Marist survey is among white evangelicals with 73% approval. Similarly, among Republicans, Trump’s support is nearly 90% and after his most recent racist tweets, his approval went up. Self-avowed Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin supports Trump, and presumably were surveys among white supremacists conducted, one would find similarly high poll numbers for Trump. Trump’s base is these three groups, but in many ways they have merged.
I am sorry to bring this up…for the 1956 GOP was the party of my grandfather a person I admired the most, and that party is GONE…..Gone…..gone.
Sorry to say but the buzz words are there…the slogans, insults and lies are there…..
20 Common Themes, Rhetorical Tactics and Dangerous Policies
Here are 20 serious points of comparison between the early Hitler and Trump.
1. Neither was elected by a majority. Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, receiving votes by 25.3 percent of all eligible American voters. “That’s just a little less than the percentage of the German electorate that turned to the Nazi Party in 1932–33,” Neuborne writes. “Unlike the low turnouts in the United States, turnout in Weimar Germany averaged just over 80 percent of eligible voters.” He continues, “Once installed as a minority chancellor in January 1933, Hitler set about demonizing his political opponents, and no one—not the vaunted, intellectually brilliant German judiciary; not the respected, well-trained German police; not the revered, aristocratic German military; not the widely admired, efficient German government bureaucracy; not the wealthy, immensely powerful leaders of German industry; and not the powerful center-right political leaders of the Reichstag—mounted a serious effort to stop him.”
I agree with a friend (name withheld to protect his identity) said that he stops listening when someone says they are a Christian and that attitude seems to be the sentiment of many Americans.
At one point the “Moral Majority” held all the political power…those days are waning….what happened to those “morally” perfect leaders?
Evangelicalism doesn’t have a brand problem; it has a product problem.
Ok, Evangelicals do have a brand problem—but they also have a major product problem.
Bible-believing born-again Christians, aka Evangelicals, have had a brand problem since Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority sold the Born-again movement to the Republican party in exchange for political power a generation ago, forging the Religious Right.
The Republican party has been using Christianity’s good name to cover bad deeds ever since, all the while tapping Evangelical media empires and churches as communications and organizing platforms to bring ordinary believers along with the merger. Having become true-believers themselves, Evangelical leaders have offered themselves up as trusted messengers for this New-and-Improved political gospel project.
I cannot say that the movement is all but dead…..for it is still strong in the Deep South….the Alabama special election showed that when with all the allegations against Moore he still won the white vote overwhelmingly.
The rest of the nation has lost confidence in this movement but it will stay strong in the South until the older generation leaves us.
A lot has been said about evangelicans and their views on sex and stuff……you have come a long way baby….
Beginning next weekend, Fellowship Church, a Dallas based mega church with over 20,000 people in attendance, continues a controversial teaching seminar called “Leaving Lust Vegas” that skates the razor-thin line between lust, sex, marriage and family.
And now Pastor Ed Young heightens the controversy with an unprecedented challenge to married couples: Have Seven Days of Sex beginning Nov. 16.
Young is best known for his creative teaching style, dynamic leadership methods and no-holds-barred approach to topics that relate to today such as money, relationships, politics and sex.
“We want married people to see their bedroom for what it is – a magnet of stability, something that draws them away from the dangerous pull of lust that derails so many couples. We want couples to intentionally walk, even run, toward the marriage bed and away from sin city,” said Young. “By experiencing a sexual relationship the way God intended it, we hope couples will begin to see things with greater clarity. I often say, ‘so goes marriage, so goes the family. And ultimately, so goes our decisions and choices in this uncertain world.’ I know it is radical, but it’s all about building stronger marriages.”
A bitter sweet story of two men coming to terms with their homosexuality……..wait…..that was Broke Back…..crap….never mind.
Saddleback?Oh yeah, that was that snooze-a-thon of Rick Warren which asked social conservative questions of the two presidential candidates, Obama and McCain.
I was not going to comment that much on this waste of time but in the last couple of days I have heard many pundits and the media say that McCain won this match up hands down.Well, duh!McCain gave normally vague Republican answers to complex questions.And who would you think would be considered the winner of a conservative forum?Obama?
McCain gave answers that warrant applause from the mental midgets in the audience.That was his only intention never was he going to offer thoughtful answers; that is just not the Republican way.Obama gave thoughtful, intelligent answers, but that was not what was needed when you are talking to people who have an IQ and shoe size the same.
This also illustrates where the media is in this fight.They are the ones telling everyone of McCain’s win in this lively discussion.The only thing lively in watching this pile of crap was when the viewer switched channels to see how that swimmer guy was doing.
Of course, McCain won this abortion (pun intended) called a forum, was there going to be any doubt?But to turn this thing into some sort of campaign one-upmanship is just stupid, but then we are talking about Republicans, right?
Would you like the snooze….oh sorry…the news from a two long yawn-a-thon, then read on McDuff.
What did anyone learn from this exercise in boredom? Obama is a christian and is black; McCain is an Episcopalian who attends a Baptist church in Phoenix, that alone should tell you all you need to know about his character, and he is a white guy.
The one theme that got the biggest chuckle out me was, They did strike some common ground, such as the importance of rising above self-interest to serve one’s country. What a crock of crap! They want to be the most important person in the world–country is just part to the sell job.
Obama is an hypocrite on abortions, McCain is just plain hypocritical on everything.
Shall I go on or do you get the picture? Both are self-serving arrogant pricks that want your vote so they can continue the domination of the working class by the ruling elite.
If a voter was watching this silly exercise, then they are more confused now than ever. Why? The two major candidates are one in the same–kinda like Harvey Dent in Batman.
