Cult of Personality

There are many ways we can come to define what compromises a Cult. There are a couple of podcasts on the concept of Cults and they fairly do a broad sweep of the subject which can include Bravo’s Housewives franchises to certain types of diets. My personal favorite: The Cult of Dolly Parton. I have to admit that while I respect fandom there is this point where you cross lines, but I am not sure I have heard of anyone altering their body physically and dressing like Dolly daily, relocating to Tennessee and taking up residence near Dollywood to be closer to their icon where her songs are on permanent playlist. The Cult of Kardashians however…..

But the point is that when you become obsessive to the point where all rational thought and all spare time and energy is devoted to a singular subject that you are willing to change your lifestyle, your appearance, donate your money or turn over your finances and independence in which to pursue and remain in the society in which you are a member, you are in a cult. There is the Sarah Lawrence Cult that was in the news of late and a subject of a Documentary and now a play. That is a cult.

There are cults around business, NXVIM is one that stands out as perhaps the most bizarre of those, but I would include Scientology as that is a publishing industry as well as a Real Estate Firm despite having the designation of a “Religion” enabling them tax breaks and exemptions. Nice work if you can get it.

And that is the biggest cult of all – Organized Religion. The idea that you can have a “house” as it is called for worship, draw people in to listen to someone read a version of a book, take that an interpret its meaning, then demand fealty, in turn submission of one’s soul to that and demand money in which to enable you to do it all again and then not pay taxes on earnings, that is to say a hell of a cult.

And like all Cults sex is the big tool, pencil in which to draw and of course the weapon to further the submission of now both body and soul. The Catholic Church really mastered that craft and with that there are more Revelations than in the Bible (pun intended) about other organized Churches that have similar problem, the Southern Baptists are one such example. With that the promises of investigations and repentance, the big tool of Churches that one there, in which to ostracize those who harmed others. In other words, like Police who get busted for shooting/killing/harming someone they are just moved to a new place on the Chess Board. They then spend their days hoping to not get caught again for doing the same or just at least not outed for something they did in the past and promise, pinky swear, to never do again.

When one thinks of Cults almost always you think of Religion. There are many and the cross the globe. The fill a Wiki page and include largely those centered on the concept of faith. But they are more than that. You really have to examine what a cult is, and despite the idea that they are some sort of thrown together crazies who are nuts is actually kind of right and wrong. Charlie Manson was an example of that but when you look at the Cult of Nike Shoes, aka Heaven’s Gate, they were not. They were highly organized, had a dogma, a Hierarchy and in turn financial records, established income and were to all their members it was a “religion.” If they had the appropriate tax documentation and legal registration filed that I cannot answer but I suspect they did. And yes there is a podcast about them too.

And with that the idea of Mass Suicide aka Homicide features in many cults. There was Jim Jones, the above mentioned Heaven’s Gate and this cult in Kenya that had members starve themselves while the founder managed to survive. This is not unlike the one in Tennessee, subject of another documentary The Way Down, about the Remnant Fellowship and their founding Minister, Gwen Shamblin, who died in a plane crash. Guess weight was not a problem in why that plane crashed.

And there is a debate that groups like Heaven’s Gate and many other established groups, almost all of them subjects of movies, documentaries, podcasts and books, such Wild Wild Country. And are they in fact organized religions that simply like Scientology have a different angle on historical canons or are they are a cult? Again, I think ALL and any of it are cults but again I will say that you are free to go in and out of a Church at any time and not feel compelled to shave your head, wear a costume, donate all your money and go live in social isolation dedicated to the faith. Oh wait? Never mind. Still love Audrey Hepburn in a Nun’s Story though.

I have found some similarities to cults, they are all started by Men and then they get Women involved to be the recruiters, the beards, the front faces to show the legitimacy of the organization. Even Jeffrey Epstein had Jizzehlda/Ghislaine or Beard, to pose as his companion in which to enable him to move among the movers and shakers of leadership and finance in which to gain trust, gain money and fuck young girls. The revelations of that family/cult/business is still coming to light. I love the denial by all those whose interests coalesced with Epstein in pursuit of more money (sure but really isn’t sex part of that?) I love that they never saw a “young” girl in his company or on his properties and planes. Really you didn’t? They seem to remember you.

Yes folks Money is a type of cult, where the Billionaires and Millionaires meet, greet, fuck and do it all again in pursuit of money and fame. And all of that comes or do I mean cum, in the forms of buying, planes, boats, art or homes in which to prove how your bank account and dick are the biggest. Look at Newport or Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, Manhattan where they have erect ones lining the sky. Islands or Ranches are another way to hide one’s crimes right in the open and with that they are telling us to fuck off as this is an exclusive cult where membership is closed.

There would be no NXIVM or many cults without the Multi Level Marketing one sees in other business oriented “cults” such as Amway and Herbalife. That is how that nut, Raniere, in NXIVM made a living prior to his founding of that cult. MLMs have been called many names, including network marketing, social marketing, pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, product-based sales, referral marketing, and direct sales. MLMs are pyramid schemes that focus on recruiting people to recruit others, presumably giving a cut of the income up the chain. Bernie Madoff anyone?

When you dedicate yourself to preserving a belief, a lifestyle, a type of faith falls in line. Without that you have well just life and free will, and cults do not want free will, they want submission and obsession. The idea that you will have a better life, maybe not on this planet or even when alive but later so keep on believing, starving, earning, worshiping or fucking. That last one is always the biggest element in most cults. Remember they are almost all started by Men. Gwen broke that glass ceiling literally and is now with her God so I assume she can eat now, you don’t need food in heaven. And that Men are well men and they are ruled by the Dick. Why do you think all are Warriors of God and carry a big Sword there?

There are many cults and many types of them. The John Birch Society, the KKK, the White Supremacy movements that have many extensions the same way the Southern Baptists have Churches. Where to you think White Christian Nationalism comes from? I often recall the Westboro Baptist Church. But think of all the Pro Life Movements, where they literally killed Doctors, so much for pro life. And Politics make for strange bedfellows and none are more strange than the obsessive histrionic belief in Donald Trump. I have long said he hit the boxes of having money and fame. We all know that both are due to bluster and production values that the show The Apprentice provided. Like all Churches, Businesses have the Front of the House and the Back of the House. The back runs it all, they collect the money, hide the money and disperse the money, to themselves. It is all a type of grifting, or the long con. And without a certain type of believers that continue to come through the doors there is no way a business can last and you need that door open 24/7. Thank GOD for the Internet as now you never are closed.

The rise of Social Media parallels the rise of White Supremacy as it enabled, permitted, tolerated and allowed it. There were always factions and groups who in their isolation found support but then you have a massive communication too to facilitate it. Fox News and Tucker Carlson became the de facto propaganda machine and in turn those incidents of violence prompted by racial and religious animosity were easily dismissed and the faux rise of “antifa” became the new warrior cry and ones to blame. In my day it was Hippies, before that Communists and so on. The same way the lay elections at Soccer Moms, Tea Partiers and other “groups” that will be the determining factor are just concocted by the Media in which to bring eyes to screens, now those screens are more than Televisions, they are Phones, Computers, IPads and any form of technology one uses to find like. And as in all Math equations, like likes like.

As I watched the recent film on Showtime on Waco and I began to realize the complex web of how Guns and how those with guns meet, interact and the individuals, almost all exclusively white men who are lost and misdirected and use often Religion as their expression of frustration it allowed me to learn more about the way we use whatever tool we have in our kit to become a weapon. McVeigh was prompted by Waco and led him to find an enabler or more than one (which we still do not know and never will) I do find it ironic that it was the current DOJ Head, Merrick Garland who Prosecuted him but I am not sure I agree that it was flawless as he failed to realize that others were involved to help him plan and act upon it. And when we look at many of the mass shootings they are prompted by far more than a lone wolf who did not get laid, were bullied, were Racist, were Homophobic, Misogynist, Anti Semitic or whatever “ist” you need to validate your rage.

Jeffrey Toobin has written a new book, Homegrown, documenting some of this history behind Waco and the fanaticism that grew out of the 90s. The culmination of that was in fact Columbine. I had read the great book by Dave Cullen on the subject and knew the boys were not in fact bullied or sad losers. They had been in fact arrested and with that they conned their Parents, the Authorities that they were not a problem. But the myths remain. The same way a Teacher called that trigger by the drawings by one of them, the same was true in Michigan and yet the Parents there did know and in turn took off running. Denial is the same as complicity in many of these young men who are enabled to get guns, to hide the second life in the same way a Man hides a Mistress. Talk about Cults again and its relationship to reality TV take a look at Scandoval. What a farce that took up hours of rage and mob mentality to denigrate an idiot on a “reality” show and his affair. Do you actually know these people? Why do you care? Apply that rationale to the angry white men/boys who for some reason seen others as enemy’s and wish to do them harm. And when I got into an online argument with someone who was convinced that Columbine was a standard school shooting (again are any?) I pointed to the facts behind their reasoning, how they were perceived in legal filings as “good young promising men” by Therapists and Law Enforcement. Their parents relieved and meanwhile they planned on. Their killing of most of the victims was in the School Library and they took pleasure while shooting them. It is not a pretty story but again we have a gun problem, we have a massive mental health problem and we have no way of stopping or circumventing any of it. Time and time again we have failed to see signs, ignore flags and in turn we are so afraid we in fact contribute to it by buying more guns. And I will write a post about the history of how guns became the most significant issue in America today, a type of de facto defense mechanism that has little to do with the 2nd Amendment but more about money and strategy by the NRA and Gun Manufacturers. As all things in life there is always history and a back story.

But without a leader, a type of person, either dead or alive, in which to draw members there is no cult. Think Jesus and that is the starring member of that cult. When one looks at many “cult” fanatics there are usually patterns of behavior and failed businesses that often push one to form a type of community and in turn prove the naysayers wrong. The intent may be benign, but usually it evolves and becomes grander in both scope and scale. They almost always do. But as Americans we are illiterate, we like to emote, we like to believe what we believe and refuse to spend anytime doing the homework, taking the time to ask questions, and expect that our “instincts” are right. Really? Your instincts? We have two: Fight or flight. And with that we have some with higher order thinking skills motivated largely by the biggest motivator – Money. Money is the only thing that matters regardless of Class, Race, Gender etc, etc etc. And anyone who tells you different is either a Charlatan aka a Cult Leader or a Pathological liar aka a Cult Leader. Some are better than others at manipulating people to BELIEVE and not all of it is about a belief but it is about money. See Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos on that one.

It all falls to those who are Believers, Followers and those who are Leaders. And they are distinctly different. It is the Cult of Personality.

Crowd Hell

I love to cruise through religious nonsense on Facebook and Instagram where the young Christians tout their faith, their bands or their products that advertise and commercialize their dedication to their faith. What.Ever. One of my favorites is a dimwit from Nashville who has a Crowd Heaven start up of garbage merch that once the Evangelical Gilead take over will be resigned to the garbage heap. We will be covered up more than any woman in Afghanistan could ever imagine. Think this is hyperbole? Here is another moronic woman running for office who only wants sex to be legal between (of age) married couples. I am going with the “of age” belief that the minute the Bitch is fertile let’s get her hitched and breeding. I have said repeatedly that women own the anti abortion movement and their role in the January 6th insurrection has yet to come fully forward but they funded a lot of the travelers to that destination that day and gave the men the clubs and reasons behind the movement. Men will do whatever it takes to get laid and that includes committing a federal crime. As noted by this whackfucking job. If men thought more with their heads and less with their dicks the world would be a better place and with that onto the story below.

I have made my point about the Evangelical religion, particularly the extreme sect of that group the Reformation Baptists. With all of the most conservative of the faith is the Southern Baptists whose belief in the role of women in the Church is not one of leadership nor in fellowship. They are to teach girls how to be women who serve. That serving part is to the Lord first and then the family. So a Bible in one hand, a fry pan in the other. This is an excellent essay on the role of women in the Church and where they are with regards to the fellowship of the Southern Baptist. And this is why finally this extreme behavior which includes assault, rape, child molestation on the level of the Catholic Church came to light. And irony the same group hate the Catholics. I wonder is that they got a better hold historically of both cash and child abuse? And kid not (pun intended) they are equally Anti Semitic which explains a great deal of the bullshit of Replacement Theory being repeated in much of the rhetoric of the movement, because if the Church says it then it is the word of law. They are a mishmash of idiocy and arrogance that explains why Trump embraced their bullshit, it was as if he finally found his people. **I am envisioning Trump as Moses upon the Mount going, “Let my people go.” There are some great laughs there. And with that he also said “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman.” Again with the sexual references, the Bible is obsessed with it, but sexually abuse a kid… ****

Yes folks the Atheist reads the Bible, well unlike the current morons in office who feel banning books will stop one from getting triggered, I do read it, get upset and laugh as I have this ability to critically analyze and debate the words in it. Me smart and stuff. But when you speak to anyone who takes this shit as sacrosanct they dismiss this and remind you that the FEAR GOD and are a WARRIOR FOR CHRIST. As you saw on January 6th, take that shit seriously as they are dangerous when afraid. I think of the drinking game, Never have I ever, which is a double negative challenge and that right there explains the Evangelical faith.

If more women had a significant leadership in the role of the Churches, if they were less strident about the Patriarchy and the code of silence to protect sinners as they be sinning, this might not have happened for as long as it did. The same goes for the Catholic Church as it still is covering tracks for their Pedophile Priests. Religion is a cult, they subscribe to the idea that suffering for one’s beliefs is essential and that being a Martyr is the key to heaven. So if that you are hurt for your faith, including abuse both physical and sexual, then suffer on. It is also why they eschew education outside the avenues of the Church as that learning and stuff, being exposed to knowledge and the “others” can do great harm in master manipulation and bullshit proselytizing. To that I say, IN HIS EYE. What I mean by that – I spit in it.

Southern Baptist leaders covered up sex abuse, kept secret database, report says

Among the findings was a previously unknown case of a pastor who was credibly accused of assaulting a woman a month after leaving the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey The Washington Post May 22, 2022

Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and “even vilified” by top clergy in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

The findings of nearly 300 pages include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational leaders for decades actively resisted calls for abuse prevention and reform. Evidence in the report suggests leaders also lied to Southern Baptists over whether they could maintain a database of offenders to prevent more abuse when top leaders were secretly keeping a private list for years.

The report — the first investigation of its kind in a massive Protestant denomination like the SBC — is expected to send shock waves throughout a conservative Christian community that has had intense internal battles over how to handle sex abuse. The 13 million-member denomination, along with other religious institutions in the United States, has struggled with declining membership for the past 15 years. Its leaders have long resisted comparisons between its sexual abuse crisis and that of the Catholic Church, saying the total number of abuse cases among Southern Baptists was small.

The investigation finds that for almost two decades, survivors of abuse and other concerned Southern Baptists have been contacting the Southern Baptist Convention’s administrative arm to report alleged child molesters and other accused abusers who were in the pulpit or employed as church staff members. Many of the cases referred to in the report were considered outside the statute of limitations, the time survivors can report sex abuse, so it’s unclear how many abusers were criminally charged.

The report, compiled by an organization called Guidepost Solutions at the request of Southern Baptists, states that abuse survivors’ calls and emails were “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility” by leaders who were concerned more with protecting the institution from liability than from protecting Southern Baptists from further abuse.

“While stories of abuse were minimized, and survivors were ignored or even vilified, revelations came to light in recent years that some senior SBC leaders had protected or even supported alleged abusers, the report states

While the report focuses primarily on how leaders handled abuse issues when survivors came forward, it also states that a major Southern Baptist leader was credibly accused of sexually assaulting a woman just one month after he completed his two-year tenure as president of the convention. The report finds that Johnny Hunt, a beloved Georgia-based Southern Baptist pastor who has been a senior vice president at the SBC’s missions arm, was credibly accused of assaulting a woman during a Panama City Beach, Fla., vacation in 2010.

The report states that Hunt, in an interview with investigators, denied any physical contact with the woman but acknowledged that he had interactions with her. After the report was released, Hunt, who has not been charged over the alleged incident, posted a statement on Twitter, saying, “I vigorously deny the circumstances and characterizations set forth in the Guidepost report. I have never abused anybody.”

Hunt resigned on May 13 from the North American Mission Board, according to a statement by NAMB President Kevin Ezell. Ezell said that before May 13, he was not aware of alleged misconduct by Hunt. Generally, he called the details of the report “egregious and deeply disturbing.”

Sex abuse survivors, many of whom have been sharing their stories for years, anticipated Sunday’s release would confirm the facts around many of the stories they have already shared, but many were still surprised to see the pattern of coverups by the highest levels of leadership.

“I knew it was rotten, but it’s astonishing and infuriating,” said Jennifer Lyell, a survivor who was once the highest-paid female executive at the SBC and whose story of sexual abuse at a Southern Baptist seminary is detailed in the report. “This is a denomination that is through and through about power. It is misappropriated power. It does not in any way reflect the Jesus I see in the scriptures. I am so gutted.”

The report also names several senior SBC leaders who protected and even supported alleged abusers, including three past presidents of the convention, a former vice president and the former head of the SBC’s administrative arm.

The third-party investigation into actions between 2000 and 2021 focused on actions by the SBC’s Executive Committee, which handles financial and administrative duties. Although Southern Baptist churches operate independently from one another, the Nashville-based Executive Committee distributes more than $190 million cooperative program in its annual budget that funds its missions, seminaries and ministries.

For decades, the findings show, Southern Baptists were told the denomination could not put together a registry of sex offenders because it would go against the denomination’s polity — or how it functions. What the report reveals is that leaders maintained a list of offenders while keeping it a secret to avoid the possibility of getting sued. The report also includes private emails showing how longtime leaders such as August Boto were dismissive about sexual abuse concerns, calling them “a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

In an April 2007 email, the convention’s attorney sent Boto a memo explaining how a SBC database could be implemented consistent with SBC polity, saying “it would fit our polity and present ministries to help churches in this area of child abuse and sexual misconduct.” The report states that he recommended “immediate action to signal the Convention’s desire that the [executive committee] and the entities begin a more aggressive effort in this area.” That same year, after a Southern Baptist pastor made a motion for a database, Boto rejected the idea.

For a denomination designed to give more democratic power to its lay leaders or “messengers” who voted to commission the third-party investigation, the report shows how lay Southern Baptists allowed a few key leaders, including Boto and the convention’s longtime lawyer, James Guenther, to control the national institutional response to sex abuse for decades. Guenther, the longtime lawyer for the SBC, said he had not read the report yet. Attempts to reach Boto on Sunday were unsuccessful.

“The report is going to validate so much about how they really blindly chose to stay on the same path all these years,” said Tiffany Thigpen, whose story of sexual abuse in a Southern Baptist church is detailed in the report. “It buoys what we’ve been saying all along. Now Southern Baptists have to carry the weight.”

During Executive Committee meetings in 2021, some members argued against waiving attorney-client privilege, which would give investigators access to records of conversations on legal matters among the committee’s members and staffers. They said doing so went against the advice of convention lawyers and could bankrupt the SBC by exposing it to lawsuits.

The debate over waiving privilege upset a large swath of Southern Baptists, causing some to believe the Executive Committee was not doing the “will of the messengers,” or following the lead of lay leaders who had already voted in favor of doing so. It also led to the resignation of the Executive Committee’s head, Ronnie Floyd, who also once served as SBC president and was on President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory council. The decision over attorney-client privilege also led to the resignation of the convention’s attorneys, who are named throughout the report.

According to the report, Floyd told SBC leaders in a 2019 email that he had received “some calls” from “key SBC pastors and leaders” expressing “growing concern about all the emphasis on the sexual abuse crisis.” He then stated: “Our priority cannot be the latest cultural crisis.” Floyd did not immediately return a request for comment.

Christa Brown, who told SBC leaders that she was abused by a youth pastor who went on to serve in other Southern Baptist churches in multiple states, has long advocated a churchwide database and was met with hostility. The report states that when she met with SBC leaders in 2007, a member of the Executive Committee “turned his back to her during her speech and another chortled.”

“The Executive Committee betrayed not only survivors who worked hard to try to make something happen, but betrayed the whole Southern Baptist Convention,” said Brown, who is a retired appellate attorney in Colorado. “They’ve made their own faith into a complicit partner for their own decision to choose institutional protection over the protection of kids and congregants.”

The report, which was requested by Southern Baptists during its last annual meeting, comes just weeks before its next gathering in Anaheim, Calif., where members are expected discuss next steps. Recommendations by Guidepost include providing dedicated survivor advocacy support and a survivor compensation fund.

“We must be ready to take meaningful steps to change our culture as it relates to sexual abuse,” Ed Litton, the current SBC president, said in a statement.

Since decades of sex abuse and coverups in the Catholic Church were reported by the Boston Globe in 2002, some U.S. dioceses have published lists of priests they say have been credibly accused of sexual abuse to prevent the transfer of abusers to other churches. Unlike the Catholic Church, the SBC has a non-hierarchical structure.

In March 2007, the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a priest and canon lawyer who first warned of the looming Catholic sex abuse crisis, wrote to the SBC and Executive Committee presidents, according to the report. He expressed his concerns that SBC leaders could be falling into some of the same patterns as Catholic leaders in not dealing with clergy sex abuse, and he urged that Southern Baptists should learn from Catholic mistakes and take action early on to implement structural reforms so as to make children safer.

The report states that Frank Page, who was leading the Executive Committee at the time, responded to Doyle in a short letter that “Southern Baptist leaders truly have no authority over local churches” but that they would attempt to use their “influence” to provide protections. In an article, Page accused a survivor group of having a hidden agenda of setting up the nation’s largest Protestant body for lawsuits. Page later resigned from his position in 2018 over having a “morally inappropriate relationship.” Page did not immediately return a request for comment.

Rachael Denhollander, a former USA gymnast who outed Larry Nassar’s serial sexual assaults, is an adviser on a Southern Baptist task force on the issue and said that the report shows a need for institutions like the SBC to seek outside expertise on sex abuse.

“It shows a level of coverup and harassment and resistance to reforms on an institutional level that has led to decades of survivors being victimized and hurt,” Denhollander said. “The question Southern Baptists have to ask is, ‘How could this happen?’”

The issue of sex abuse was a prominent theme in leaked private letters written by Russell Moore, who left his position in 2021 as head of the SBC’s policy arm, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Moore said he expects Southern Baptists to receive Sunday’s report in a similar way to how Nikita Khrushchev shocked the Soviet Union when he detailed Joseph Stalin’s crimes in a speech in 1956.

“The depths of wickedness and inhumanity in this report are breathtaking,” Moore said. “People will say, ‘This is not all Southern Baptists, look at all the good we do.’ The report demonstrates a pattern of stonewalling, coverup, intimidation and retaliation.”

Moore said he hopes the SBC will consider replacing a statue of evangelist Billy Graham, which was moved from Nashville to Graham’s home state in 2016, with a statue of Christa Brown, the abuse survivor who spent the past two decades fighting for reform.

Man, God, & Toxic Masculinity

I have been writing a great deal about Religion for two reasons: One, due to my experience in Nashville and particularly with regards to my encounters with Ethan who is now Ministering in his family Church and spreading hate speech in each Bible interpretation. From Homosexuality, to the role of women in the church, Ethan spares no rods and beats the hate down, much like I suspect his Father did to him, in the same was his Grandfather did to his Father. Yes folks all of that kind of family loathing and introspection is often part of the Section Baptist Church Sunday AM and PM services. Ramshackle does not describe it. You can find that on YouTube or Facebook as that is how these ministries bypass filters and checks. And while their Church is not a large scale ministry, Ethan is soon interning at one where they franchise the hate like McDonald’s does burgers. Coming to a town near you, a Pastor with self-loathing misdirecting and projecting anger onto the believers and more importantly the sinners whom they wish to convert to that old time religion.

The second reason is due to the Evangelical embrace of Trump and their role in the January 6th insurrection. They are not backing down and like Trump are embracing another Big Lie. That first one is about Jesus, the son, the myth, the legend.

I had heard of this book and had no reason to read it as I lived around it for three years. It is why I call the women “cum dumpsters” as the men in their lives see them as nothing more than receptacles of their seed and to breed as much as possible in which to keep the white man supreme. The Southern Baptist Convention held in Nashville, aside from being a super spreader Covid event, barely came to terms with their hating of Blacks, Women and the LGBQT community, sex abuse in their ranks, as well as public health and safety. Vaccines are Satan’s tool and all that. Covid makes a nice keepsake to bring home to the family. And with the election and divisiveness of their committees I don’t see the Baptists being anything progressive when it comes to America and it not being first without Trump at the helm. They truly believe he is the MAN.

And this also explains some of the cultural rub off in Hispanic/Latin and Black communities where a part of their history and belief system is in fact very Misogynistic and compares to their White Evangelicals when it comes to religion, that old time one. Again Christianity is like Judaism and Islam with regards to factions of their faith (well none in Islam) that embraces modernity and contemporary roles in society when it comes to accepting those who are not conservative if not rigid in their beliefs.. aka “their truths.” Love that I can take a Millennial expression and turn it into exactly what Conservatives love, that truth has alternative facts. Thanks Kellyanne, a staunch Catholic, along with William Barr, which is why Trump embraced them as well. (I remember when America feared JFK as a Catholic President.) That conservative view of family and cultural mores that somehow have us all put into our cages, gilded for some, for others not so much, has always been the bell weather of Conservative Politics. Long before Fox, Rush Limbaugh and friends, Father Coughlin beat the airways like a drum to warn of the Liberal scourge. When I listen to Ethan and his father preach it is that same long winded incoherent messaging that reminds me why I abandoned religion years ago. And they are more common then not as that is the idea, bury a message of hate in amidst of bullshit. Quote some scripture, make up a meaning and viola! Now pass the plate. New age rhetoric is equally obtuse and full of bullshit and they too are embracing the lies and conspiracy theories at a fast pace as who wants to be left out of the revolution!

Here is an article about the Book that compares Trump to John Wayne, also a made up character and actor. Charleston Heston is another figure to whom the right love as he played Moses, another fictional character. The idea that Q’Anon is somehow so out there and full of bullshit seems nonsensical when it comes to anyone advocating and following it, has clearly never been to a Yoga commune or a mega Church. Same diff as they focus and follow the gibberish and made up stuff with some real tangible shit and then they press the button that is the trigger warning that you are coming close to a connection of pain and trauma. With that they have you hooked, like drugs it is a free first taste that will have you coming for more. Drugs can kill you and toxic masculinity can as well. The opioid crisis anyone? Child abuse? Domestic Violence? Street violence? Mass shootings? Nothing makes boys Prouder than being a member of a group that calls themselves a militia with their guns the extension of their dicks. They are standing up and standing by alright.

How a book about evangelicals, Trump and militant masculinity became a surprise bestseller

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey July 16, 2021|The Washington Post

When historian Kristin Du Mez’s latest book, “Jesus and John Wayne,” came out in the summer of 2020, it received little attention from mainstream gatekeepers and reviewers.

But the book, which explores evangelical fondness for former president Donald Trump and strong masculine figures, has since sold more than 100,000 copies through word of mouth, podcasts and book clubs. When it came out in paperback last month, the book shot up to No. 4 among nonfiction paperbacks on the New York Times bestseller list.

As journalists and academics tried to explain how evangelicals could bring themselves to vote for Trump, Du Mez argued that evangelical support was not a shocking aberration from their views but a culmination of evangelicals’ long-standing embrace of militant masculinity, presenting the man as protector and warrior.

“In 2016, many observers were stunned at evangelicals’ apparent betrayal of their own values,” Du Mez wrote. “In reality, evangelicals did not cast their vote despite their beliefs, but because of them.”

The book also described a pattern of abuse and its coverup by several mainstream evangelical leaders, many of whom are still in leadership. Du Mez contended that evangelical leaders’ emphasis on militant masculinity created a culture where abuse was able to flourish and often kept secret, an argument that has both caught fire and created controversy.

Du Mez, who teaches at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich., wrote that mainstream evangelical leaders such as John Piper, James Dobson and John Eldredge, preached a “mutually reinforcing vision of Christian masculinity — of patriarchy and submission, sex and power.”

“The militant Christian masculinity they practiced and preached did indelibly shape both family and nation,” Du Mez wrote.

Piper, Dobson and Eldredge did not return requests for comment.

Russell Moore, who was the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s policy arm until earlier this year, said in an email that everywhere he goes someone asks him about the book.

Moore, now a public theologian for Christianity Today magazine, said that many evangelicals are trying to understand recent developments like Trump’s rise and revelations of sexual abuse in evangelical spaces. Moore said that Du Mez has shown that “much of what has passed for evangelicalism over the past decades was more John Wayne than Jesus” and that some of the characters in her book who have been portrayed by some as fringe turned out not to be fringe at all.

“ ‘Jesus and John Wayne’ is not the whole picture, but it’s on target in enough places that we should take seriously the mirror put to our faces to reform ourselves by the gospel we believe,” Moore wrote in an email. “I don’t agree with this book on everything, by any means, but there are key aspects that are necessary for us to see, and that can help us make sense of some things.”

The book showed how masculine pop-culture figures like John Wayne could influence the evangelical imagination and shape the way people act and think, said Karen Swallow Prior, who teaches English at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Among my own group of friends and peers, this is the book that they have been talking about more than any other in recent years,” she said. “I can’t think of the last one that people talked about this much.”

In his review for the journal Christian History earlier this year, Yale University historian Jon Butler called the book one of the most important on modern evangelicalism in the past four decades. A review for the Christian website Mere Orthodoxy said the book should be required reading for evangelicals. Du Mez’s book also inspired a three-part episode for the popular Holy Post podcast and was named book of the year last year by Englewood Review of Books.

The book also has its critics, including First Things magazine, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and other reviewers for Mere Orthodoxy.

“Having announced her thesis about militant Christian-nationalist, male-patriarchal supremacy, she mines American history for classic biblical,” Daniel Harrell wrote for Christianity Today. “On the other hand are plenty of white evangelical men canceled out for political acts never committed but only assumed and whose patriotism gets distorted as nationalism simply because they’re white, Christian, and male. As a political force they barely register compared to Amazon, Facebook, and Hollywood.”

One of the more frequent criticisms she receives is from the subtitle of her book: “How white evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation.” Du Mez said that she wanted to challenge White evangelicals to examine their core beliefs about Jesus’s teachings to “turn the other cheek,” love your neighbor and love your enemy.

“I wanted to make clear that I wasn’t going to woo evangelicals or cater to evangelicals,” she said. The Bible lists virtues like love, peace, kindness and gentleness that Du Mez argues would contradict the model of militant Christianity that leaders have held up.

Raised in a Dutch immigrant community in Sioux Center, Iowa, Du Mez’s mother was a Dutch immigrant and her father was a longtime Reformed theologian at Dordt University, where in 2016 Trump famously told a crowd he could shoot someone in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose supporters.

Du Mez said she began working on the topic around 2005 when she started teaching at Calvin, a Christian university rooted in the Reformed tradition of Protestantism. Du Mez was teaching a class on U.S. history and lecturing on President Theodore Roosevelt to show how American ideas about masculinity have changed over time through economics, foreign policy and race.

Two male students came up to her after class one day and suggested she read the book “Wild at Heart,” by Colorado-based author John Eldredge, which has sold more than 4 million copies. She bought a copy and found “a particularly militant conception of masculine Christianity that Roosevelt had been promoting.”

In the early years of America’s war with Iraq, Du Mez considered how Eldredge’s vision of masculinity promoted militaristic ideas about America as an empire. Du Mez said she also reviewed data that showed White evangelicals were more likely to condone the war in Iraq and the military’s use of torture.

“I was trying to tease out: Is this mainstream or is this fringe?” she said in an interview. “As a Christian scholar, I thought, is this what I should be doing? If this is fringe, should I hold this up as though it’s mainstream?”

Du Mez set the topic aside for a few years but picked it up again in 2016 in the days after the “Access Hollywood” tapes came out — in which Trump is heard making vulgar comments about women — and many evangelical leaders came to Trump’s defense. That’s when she decided what she had been working on wasn’t fringe.

Du Mez is a longtime member of a Christian Reformed Church, part of a denomination under the umbrella group called the National Association of Evangelicals. She was influenced by cultural evangelicalism through popular Christian music and the “purity culture” movement that encouraged sexual abstinence before marriage. However, she wasn’t exposed to popular evangelical leaders like John Piper, Wayne Grudem or Jerry Falwell Sr. until adulthood.

Her book, published by a nonreligious publisher called Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Co., found its way into the evangelical world through powerful word-of-mouth networks. Du Mez’s editor Daniel Gerstle said “Jesus and John Wayne” was the publisher’s “surprise hit” of 2020, selling over 300 hardcover copies every week in its first months of publication. The first jump came in late December when the book began selling more than 900 copies a week. Popular Bible teacher Beth Moore, Gerstle noted, has tweeted about the book, describing it as the one she hopes evangelicals read in 2021.

While the book is almost entirely focused on White evangelicals, Du Mez said she has received feedback from a number of Black Christian leaders about it as well. John Onwuchekwa, a Black pastor in Atlanta who left the Southern Baptist Convention last summer, said he felt “vindicated” when he read the book because it seemed to affirm his experiences and connected dots for him.

“The book was refreshing because it wasn’t someone who [seemed] angry or vindictive,” Onwuchekwa said. “There was a courage, a boldness, a matter-of-factness.”

Other books about evangelicals, politics, gender and race that published in the past year include “The Making of Biblical Womanhood,” by Beth Allison Barr, “White Too Long,” by Robert P. Jones, “White Evangelical Racism,” by Anthea Butler, “American Blindspot,” by Gerardo Marti, “God’s Law and Order,” by Aaron Griffith and “Taking America Back for God,” by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry.

Du Mez said that many “troubled” evangelicals who have read her book are going through a “religious reckoning” where they’re grappling with what they have been taught both culturally and theologically. However, she said she hasn’t seen much change by many evangelical institutions.

Evangelical leaders and institutions continue to promote their versions of masculinity. This weekend in Dallas, thousands of evangelical men are expected to gather for a conference called Promise Keepers that will include speakers who once sat on Trump’s evangelical advisory council. Attendees are promised “biblical and spiritual tools that will empower you to be the man Christ intended you to be.”

Jesus Christ Superstar

After living in the buckle of the belt I had no idea how significant religion is to the everyday person in the South.  It provides education, information, support, misinformation, community and ostracization, judgement and in turn acceptance.  It is a cornucopia of bullshit wrapped in the Book of Myths.  

The Evangelical movement is largely composed of Southern Baptists who have no centralized organization or dogma but is a collective of churches where the Pastor/Minister determines the course or path for their congregation.  So this disassociation of an association has churches that are more Fundamentalist/Legalist in tone, some are more open minded and some are just small collectives attempting to preach gospel and simply serve.   They are littered throughout the South and are led by men and they cross race and economics.  Some espouse the Prosperity Gospel and others simply struggle to remain afloat as the tides change and fewer are in fact joining the Church.

However, as many Americans are unaware they are not going down like the Titanic as they are sure that if they become ingratiated into American law and politics it will preserve and ensure their existence and through this they will get the funding they need to do so – from the Government versus their Congregants.  Good plan.

George W. Bush began this transition to faith based practices and called it Compassionate Conservatism which enabled religious groups to tap into federal largess to serve the poor.  Note this:

Government should promote the work of charities, community groups and faith-based institutions. Government should view Americans who work in faith-based charities as partners, not as rivals. When it comes to providing resources the government should not discriminate against these groups that often inspire life-changing faith in a way that government never should.

That changed and Obama was quite cognizant of the role of Government and that concept of separation of Church and State as outlined by the Constitution.  You know that document that conservatives love to throw around and use when it suits and ignore when it doesn’t.  But the Supreme Court is in place to ensure that it too takes a role in cutting that document to shreds.  Trust me the Court is not the friend of the people.

Meanwhile as I watched in Tennessee hate laws pass as under the guise of “religious freedom” including the right of Therapists to reject treating members of the LGBQT community and in turn refuse to allow them to adopt or foster children to who is allowed to perform marriages it doesn’t take Columbo to do the detective work on that.  Jesus rules and by rules he means he is the higher power of all whether you like it or not.

I am afraid, very afraid if Trump continues in office and we do not get rid of some of the more incalcitrant Republicans who think this is a good idea.  To that I say fuck them.  Start voting and start asking questions, by being ignorant you are culpable.

Don’t Let Trump Pay Back Evangelicals Like This

New rules promulgated by his administration to advance ‘religious freedom’ will actually restrict it.

By Katherine Stewart
Ms. Stewart is the author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.”
The New York Times/Sunday Review
March 6, 2020

Many Americans know by now that when Christian nationalists talk about “religious freedom” they are really asking for the privilege to impose their religion on other people. What Americans may not yet understand is that they are also demanding money from taxpayers to do so.

Long before Donald Trump hitched his political fortunes to the Christian right, previous Republican administrations had primed the pumps that would send public money flowing toward religious organizations.

In 2002, the George W. Bush administration increased the flow of federal money to faith-based organizations providing services on behalf of the government. Mr. Bush himself insisted that these organizations would not be permitted to discriminate. But in fact the new method of faith-based funding invited the risk of discrimination and the erosion of church-state separation.

The Obama administration, responding to these concerns, put in place provisions to ensure that members of the public were not subject to discrimination on the basis of religious belief or unwanted proselytizing. The provisions also required that users of church-sponsored social programs be made aware of nonsectarian options.

The Trump administration is now proposing to eliminate these Obama-era safeguards. And true to form, they did so earlier this year, on the increasingly Orwellian-sounding annual Religious Freedom Day in January.

One purpose of the new proposed regulations is to make sure that organizations receiving taxpayer money are exempt from the kinds of anti-discrimination law by which nonreligious organizations must abide. If that sounds like a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, that’s because it is — or at least it should be.

Under the proposed regulations, faith-based aid organizations that receive public money are free to hire and fire their workers and subcontractors on account of their religion, sexual orientation, or any other behavior or characteristic that the organization finds religiously appealing or objectionable. Aid-providing organizations will no longer have any obligation to let members of the public receiving their services know if there are available nonsectarian options. Organizations that receive their money through vouchers and other forms of indirect aid can now proselytize, require that recipients participate in religious activities or ask that recipients pledge their loyalty to Jesus. And the government itself is no longer required to offer a nonsectarian option for those whose beliefs or conscience make it impossible for them to accept aid on these terms.

“The proposed rules would strip away religious freedom protections from people, often the most vulnerable and marginalized, and even allow faith-based organizations to discriminate in government-funded programs,” Rachel Laser, president and chief executive of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told me. She added that this puts the interests of these organizations “ahead of the needs of the people seeking critical services.”

Why is the Trump administration so determined to tear down the wall of separation between church and state? The long game is clear: because that’s the way you “take back America” and make it a Christian nation.

But the short game is more relevant now. There is a pile of public money on the other side of the wall that separates church and state, and Christian nationalists are determined to grab it (and to hold on to what they have already grabbed).

These kinds of pro-discrimination rules are bound to cause harm. There may be a woman who loses her job at a faith-based service provider because she is “living in sin” with her partner. There may be people seeking counseling services who will forgo the help they need because it is offered only in conservative Christian health care settings and is staffed with Christian-only providers, all of whom claim to be living in conformity with a “Bible lifestyle.”

There will be some minority-religion providers — a Jewish soup kitchen here, a Muslim job-training initiative there — that will defend the new rules and claim to benefit from them. But they will serve, in effect, as strategic cover, lending the appearance of diversity to a movement that ties the idea of America to specific conservative religious and cultural identities.

Legitimizing these forms of discrimination is itself a grotesque violation of whatever it is that we actually mean by religious freedom. But that’s the point, as far as Mr. Trump and his Christian nationalist allies are concerned. The religious rights of the larger American public are collateral damage in a war of conquest aimed squarely at the public coffers.

To grasp the motivation for the Trump administration in promulgating “religious freedom,” it helps to review a little Supreme Court history. In 2017, the Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Mo., brought a case in which the church claimed that it had an equal claim to government grants for purchasing materials to upgrade its playground.

At the time, many commentators raised a concern that the case was really just a device for eliminating Establishment Clause concerns from decisions affecting the public funding of religious institutions and activities. Lawyers from conservative Christian legal organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that refusing to allocate public money to religious institutions amounted to discrimination against religion. This theory, if it takes hold in law, significantly weakens the Establishment Clause. If withholding taxpayer money from religious institutions amounts to discrimination, then the taxpayer has no choice but to fund religion.

Some important things to know about today’s Christian nationalist movement: It doesn’t believe in the First Amendment as we usually understand it and as our founders intended it. It doesn’t believe that the government should make no law respecting an establishment of religion. It also takes a dim view of government assistance — unless the money passes through churches first. Politically connected religious leaders like Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries, whose White House Bible study has been attended by at least 10 current and former members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet, maintains that social welfare programs have no basis in scripture. “The responsibility to meet the needs of the poor lies first with the husband in a marriage, secondly with the family (if the husband is absent), and thirdly with the church,” Mr. Drollinger has written. “Again, nowhere does God command the institutions of government or commerce to fully support those with genuine needs.”

These ideas are shared by David Barton, a historical revisionist who sits on the boards of an array of Christian nationalist legislative and data initiatives, pastoral networks and other influential groups. Mr. Barton has argued that the Bible and God himself oppose progressive income taxes, capital gains taxes and minimum wage laws. “Since sinful man tends to live in bondage, different forms of slavery have replaced the more obvious system of past centuries,” according to an essay posted to Mr. Barton’s WallBuilders website titled “The Bible, Slavery and America’s Founders.” “The state has assumed the role of master for many, providing aid and assistance, and with it more and more control, to those unable to provide for themselves. The only solution to slavery is the liberty of the Gospel.”

While these activists rail against direct government aid to the poor, they are eager to increase the flow of government handouts to churches and religious groups who may then provide the aid themselves, but without adherence to nondiscrimination law. As a further bonus, when the money gets funneled to religious organizations, some of it then can then be pumped back into the right-wing political machine through religious organizations and the policy groups they support, which act as de facto partisan political cells.

In order to understand the game that Christian nationalists are playing, it’s important to remember that the First Amendment has two clauses concerning religion: one that guarantees the freedom to exercise religion and one that prohibits the government from establishing any religion. What the framers understood is that these two come as a pair; they are necessarily connected. We are free to exercise religion precisely because the government refrains from establishing religion.

At present, the Christian nationalist movement has substantial sources of support in the form of access to wealthy donors and robust donor-advised charities. It also has a large base of supporters who make large numbers of small contributions. But leaders of the movement know that their bread will have a lot more butter if it comes from the government. They already receive significant funding indirectly from taxpayers in the form of deductions and exemptions. They are determined to secure these extra funds, and they are immensely fearful of losing them, especially if a pluralistic society decides to do something about the fact that its tax dollars are being used to fund groups that actively promote discrimination against many citizens and support radical political agendas.

In the future, if the Trump administration has its way, the current flow of taxpayer money to religious organizations may well look like the trickle before the flood. Religious nationalists dream of a time when most or all social welfare services pass through the hands of religious entities. They imagine a future in which a young woman seeking advice on reproductive health care will have nowhere to turn but a state-funded, church-operated network of “counseling” centers that will tell her she will go to hell if she doesn’t have the baby.

The discrimination against individuals and the misuse of public money that the Trump administration’s proposed regulations would allow is bad enough. But these are far from the worst consequences of this kind of assault on the separation of church and state. The most profound danger here is to the deep structure of American society and politics.

In 1786, when Thomas Jefferson and James Madison pushed through the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that Religious Freedom Day commemorates, the issue that motivated them and that brought evangelical Christians at the time over to their side was a detested tax imposed on all Virginians to pay for the church services demanded by the established church. “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical,” Jefferson wrote. “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.”

It is ironic, then, that the Trump administration’s religious freedom initiative seeks to fund religious organizations with taxpayer money. But what makes this particularly dangerous is that the same money in many cases goes to churches and religious organizations that are increasingly and aggressively asserting themselves in partisan politics, and that happen to support Mr. Trump. As Jefferson and Madison understood, the destruction of the wall that separates church and state corrupts politics just as surely as it corrupts religion.

Laying of Hands

This is a common practice among Evangelicals, the laying of hands upon the sinner to be healed and prayed for.  But it is common among most faiths as it is referred to in the Bible or as I call it the Book of Myths with many connotations.  I will let you the faithful or faithless examine the many contradictory and confusing reasons hands are laid upon you by reading this site, Desiring God. 

I of course read the word desire and go immediately into a more prurient meaning and in turn think they should change the concept of pray to prey as it seems no faith/religion is exempt from the practice of sexual abuse towards their congregants/members.

The Catholics have been busy praying and paying off the massive debt accumulated from Priests whose hands more than wandered away from the business of prayer.  Recently the more “modern” sect of Catholics were hoping that the New Pope, same as the Old Pope, would be open to indoctrinating women and allowing for some Priests to marry in those regions where it is difficult to find a fully vested individual willing to join the Priesthood with its archaic concept of celibacy forsaking family and all that material stuff that the Church requires.  Well no said the big Chief but remember when he was the breath of fresh air and enlightened hope? Well watch the Two Popes on Netflix or the New Pope on HBO they do offer a much better perspective of the convoluted politics of the Church.

But the nice thing is that while the morally superior Evangelicals have a direct channel to the White House they are not any better at keeping their hands off either.  Comforting, I know.  The Southern Baptists have long suppressed any sexual issues as of course a failing of the individual and victim blaming when any assault occurs as we learned at Baylor University when Kenneth Starr was abdicated from his throne of leadership.  Really is that not what it is with religion a type of Monarchy disguised as Theocracy?

And just like the Catholics the moving of leaders/ministers/perverts between Churches without a heads up is another common denominator that the Evangelicals do.  And yet the Reformists aka the Legalist sect of that faith hate Catholics and see them as the original Roman faithless as they were once polytheists and clearly way more fun.  They may be right after all! Who knew! Oh wait it was Christianity that destroyed the Empire, wrong again! In a continued effort to make themselves feel good enough, Christians find those who are worse than they.  They point fingers, they shame shame.  They  blame others, find scapegoats.  They exclude, persecute, and eventually plot to destroy the sinners.  Sounds great sign me up!

While always turning the mirror outward they can avoid looking at their own reflection. But the truth is that all Churches regardless of their origin need to clean their houses.   This article from USA Today discusses in length the damage done by the Southern Baptists and their own role in sexual abuse and more importantly the denial and covering up. Bless their hearts! But this quote stood out:  Once your faith is used against you, he said, it is hard to trust again.

I never was molested or touched by an Angel or any other less celestial figure.  I liked Church and Religion as it offered a perspective on community, love and kindness.  Funny I don’t even recall the messengers, just the message and it has always resonated with me and then I realized that I don’t need a Church or a ‘father’ figure to teach me empathy and compassion, I have that and had it all along.  Strong faith comes from strong teachers and they have nothing to do with being religious or faith based.  But then again I came to Atheism as a choice, like being a Vegan or Pescatarian or whatever choices one makes in life about their own well being.  Reading the book of myths, taking classes on the science of Theology as a just that a science made me change my views and beliefs about religion.  My choice and it was one that for years I even denied – I used agnostic or the phrase “spiritual but not religious.” Here it is simply put: I am an Atheist.

But here is my last message to the religious: GO FUCK YOURSELF.   You will do way less harm and self love is the best kind of love.

ETA:  Immediately after posting this I went to read The New York Times and found this opinion piece.  I think it says it all about the bullshit of celibacy.

I Have a Story for Pope Francis About Priestly Celibacy

Who pays the price when a priest breaks his vow?

By Mimi Bull
The New York Times February 17 2020 Editorials and Opinions
Ms. Bull is the author of “Celibacy, a Love Story.”

Want the human story on priestly celibacy? Talk to someone who’s paid the price.

I am bitterly disappointed by the news that Pope Francis will not be relaxing priestly celibacy rules in remote parts of the Amazon. The idea — intended to make it easier to recruit priests in underserved areas — was supported by a Vatican conference in October, but in his papal document, released on Wednesday, Francis ignored their suggestion.

My interest in this isn’t the mild curiosity of a lapsed Catholic. I am the child of a priest who broke his vow of celibacy and left a legacy of secrecy that was devastating to him, to my mother and particularly to me.

To hide my father’s broken vow, I was told that I was adopted. I did not know until I was 35 that my “adoptive mother” was actually my grandmother and my “adoptive sister” was, in reality, my mother. But even then, I wasn’t told the whole truth. At the time, I was told my father had been a businessman from Pennsylvania.

If only I had known that my real father was the beloved young pastor of our local Polish parish in Norwood, Mass. He was a regular guest in our home, and we attended weekly Mass in his church. He died at the end of my freshman year at Smith College. I didn’t find out until the age of 50, on the day of my birth mother’s funeral, that the man I adored as “Pate” — my own nickname, short for the Latin “pater” — and the community knew as “Father Hip” was my father.

I was more fortunate than most children of priests. The man and woman I now know to have been my birth parents, chose to raise me, nurture me and, in the depths of the Depression, give me as normal a life as they could manage within a complex web of secrecy. My father chose to be involved in my life; he referred to himself as my “guardian,” and I found out after my mother died that he had held this title legally.

Nonetheless, all the secrecy took a toll on a sensitive child. I knew I was somehow different. I knew instinctively that there were things I could not mention casually — the frequency with which my mother, Pate and I got together alone, for instance, including trips to Boston for dinner. Secrecy became second nature.

I was well trained to revere priests, so the idea that Pate might have literally fathered me never occurred to me. I adored him and saw him frequently, but he was my parish priest and my “guardian.”

After he died, I paced the dormitory floors at night, experiencing something I had no word for. It was depression. At that point in my life, I had no idea he was my father, yet his death had a profound impact on me. Desperate to keep my scholarship, I kept my depression hidden — a lifelong habit that led to thoughts of suicide before I was able to be free of it. It affected my marriage, my parenting and my own creative use of a fine mind and education. I felt set apart and unworthy.

I also mourn how the secret affected my parents. My father died at 47, held back in a small parish and unable to fulfill his larger ambitions. Did my existence have something to do with the fact that he, as a mutual friend informed me later, was passed over for a position at a larger and more challenging parish? I’ll never know and can only speculate. My mother was burdened to her death with the truth she never shared with me or the husband she married six years after Pate’s death.

I am one of the 50,000 people from 175 countries who reportedly visit Coping International, a website for children of priests. I expect there is a vast spectrum of stories to be told, many much harder and more painfully unresolved than mine.

Some priests’ children are denied their identities and recognition by their fathers’ families. Others are rejected outright by their fathers and witness the hardships of their mothers’ complicated lives. These experiences shape us and stay with us.

I consider celibacy a serious and valid religious practice if it is entered willingly. It should be available to those who seriously wish to live a celibate life. For nine centuries, though, it has been the rule for all ordained Roman Catholic priests — and it must stop. To live alone and celibate is to deny the most basic drive. Not everyone who would make a fine priest is made for the celibate life.

While I was happy to see the church grappling with the issue, allowing married priests in remote regions would have been a tiny step. It would have done little to confront the root of the problem: the human toll that enforced celibacy has taken on priests and others around them.

What to do? We must lift the veil of secrecy and shine a light on the children born under rules of celibacy. Talk to us. Help us reclaim our identities, reclaim the halves of our families we have been kept from and help us remove the slur of “bastard.” Help us heal.

And join with us in urging Pope Francis to reform the celibacy mandate, so no other child has to suffer.

Uh Yeah

I really have nothing to add here but after my verbal abuse session by Ethan last Saturday I am just digging in the dirt here to validate my loathing of him.

Sexism has long been part of the culture of Southern Baptists

March 6, 2019
The Conversation
Susan M. Shaw
Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University

Recent media reports have revealed decades of abuse by Southern Baptist pastors.

Denominational leaders are offering apologies and calling the sexual abuse “evil,” “unjust” and a “barbarity of unrestrained sinful patterns.” Many Southern Baptist leaders are considering action.

As a scholar who has written a book on Southern Baptist women and the church, I’d argue that this scandal has its origins in how Southern Baptists have long and purposefully pushed back against women’s progress.

The ‘woman question’

Since the Southern Baptist Convention’s founding in 1845, Southern Baptists have had a complicated history with women.

Historian Elizabeth Flowers explains that questions of women’s roles as preachers, teachers and deacons were frequent subjects of disagreement among Baptists.

Women were not allowed to serve as messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention until 1918. A messenger is a member of a local Southern Baptist church who is appointed by the congregation to attend the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention and vote on Southern Baptist Convention business. The church doesn’t instruct the messenger how to vote, nor does the messenger represent the church. Messengers attend as individuals who vote based on their own conscience.

When Southern Baptist women formed a national organization to support missionary work in 1888, they had to hold their first meeting in a Methodist church down the street from the Baptist church where the Southern Baptist Convention was meeting. Until the 20th century, only men gave the organization’s report to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Indeed, women in the U.S. did not have the right to vote at this time. The Southern Baptist Convention’s practices certainly reflected larger social norms around gender, but its reasoning was also theological. These beliefs formed a basis for gender hierarchy that ultimately triumphed in the late 20th century.

Southern Baptist controversy

In the 1970s, greater numbers of women entered the six Southern Baptist seminaries, many professing a calling to the pastorate, even though most churches still refused to ordain them.

I grew up Southern Baptist and was a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1980s. By that time, women were about a third of the student body, although very few women were professors.

The idea that the Bible is without error in history, science or theology was used as a test for theological faithfulness by Southern Baptist fundamentalist leaders. claire.whetton/Flickr.com, CC BY-NC-ND

This was also a time when fundamentalists took charge of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention owns six seminaries and numerous publishing and missionary agencies worth billions of dollars.

Fundamentalists used biblical inerrancy, the idea that the Bible is without error in history, science or theology, as a test for theological faithfulness.

Beginning with the denomination’s annual conference in 1979, these fundamentalists were able to inspire voters to elect fundamentalist leaders. They claimed that moderate Baptists who did not accept inerrancy were also the ones who did not believe the Bible.

The new leaders purged the moderates from Southern Baptist Convention employment and leadership.

While fundamentalists claimed this takeover was about biblical inerrancy, in reality, it was as much, if not more, about women. As historian Barry Hankins also concludes, the “gender issue” eventually became a central issue for Southern Baptist fundamentalists as their takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention proceeded.

So even as these Baptist leaders claimed their movement was about the Bible, they specifically targeted women and worked to reverse women’s progress in church and home.
First in the Edenic fall

In 1984, as fundamentalists gained greater control, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution against women’s ordination. The resolution reasoned that women are excluded from ordained ministry to “preserve a submission God requires because the man was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall.”

In other words, because Eve was the first to eat the fruit that led to the humans’ expulsion from Eden, they argued, God compels all women to submit to men.

Furthermore, the resolution argued for the preservation of “God’s delegated order of authority” – “God the head of Christ, Christ the head of man, man the head of woman.”

In Baptist polity, local churches are autonomous and free to ordain and call as pastor whom they will. The Southern Baptist Convention has no official control over local churches.

As, however, local churches did ordain and call women to the pastorate, local Baptist associations “disfellowshipped” these congregations, excluding them from participating in the local association.

Fundamentalists appointed a president of Southern Seminary in 1993 who forced Molly Marshall, the first woman to teach theology at a Southern Baptist seminary, to resign in 1994, primarily over her support for women in ministry.

‘Gracious submission’

In 2000, reinforcing fundamentalist beliefs about women, the Southern Baptist Convention changed its statement of faith, noting that women and men “are of equal worth before God” while insisting “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”

In 2003, an administrator at Southern Seminary explained that in response to women’s desire to rule over men men must exercise their rightful “rulership” over women. What this administrator interpreted as a desire to “rule over” was actually a simple demand for equality in the home and the ability to serve as pastors and leaders in church and society.

For Southern Baptists, the statement of faith is not a creed but rather a set of largely agreed-upon beliefs. The statement is not binding on any individual or local church. Seminaries and denominational agencies, such as the International Mission Board, however, must work within the guidelines of the statement.

The 2000 statement of faith also asserts, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” In response, in 2004, Southern Baptists’ North American Mission Board stopped endorsing women as chaplains. Prior to the controversy, more moderate Southern Baptists had supported women in ordained ministry, including chaplaincy.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary then used this statement in 2007 to remove Sheri Klouda from its faculty, where she taught Hebrew, simply because she was a woman. Klouda was not ordained and did not support the ordination of women. In their thinking, however, she was teaching men the Bible, which they forbid women to do.

They were able to remove her on the basis of gender because religious institutions are exempt from gender-based nondiscrimination laws for positions that have an explicit religious function, such as pastor or seminary professor, if their beliefs sanction such discrimination.
Sexual abuse among Southern Baptists

As early as the 1980s, Dee Ann Miller, who had survived sexual assault by a Southern Baptist missionary, tried to call attention to the problem of sexual abuse but found a denomination unwilling to address it.

Similarly, in 2009 another survivor, Christa Brown, critiqued the denomination’s minimizing and enabling of abuse. Southern Baptist churches often allowed abusers to move onto a new and unwitting congregation without reporting abuse, and the Southern Baptist Convention refused to create a registry of abusers for churches to consult.

A scandal at Baylor University brought Baptists’ inaction on sexual assault to the fore. A 2016 report on the university’s handling of sexual assault found a “fundamental failure by Baylor to implement Title IX.” The report noted “that Baylor’s efforts to implement Title IX were slow, ad hoc, and hindered by a lack of institutional support and engagement by senior leadership.” The report was specifically in response to the sexual assault problems in athletics.
Paige Patterson. AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser

Baylor was not alone in institutional mishandling of abuse. In 2018, trustees of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary fired President Paige Patterson, an architect of the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC, over statements he had made encouraging abused wives to return to abusive husbands and discouraging seminary students from reporting rapes to police.

Sexism and rape myths

Research suggests that sexist beliefs affect men’s attitudes toward sexual coercion. In particular, men who hold sexist beliefs are more likely to accept the myths that “women ask for it” or “if a woman is wearing provocative clothes, she wants sex” or “lots of women lie about being raped.”

Most significantly, research also suggests that fundamentalist and sexist clergy also tend to have more negative attitudes toward rape victims.

Apologies will not be enough

In my view, Southern Baptists’ history in relation to women provides important context for the current moment and helps explain the denomination’s inaction on sexual abuse by pastors.

The Southern Baptist Convention has fostered a culture in which sexual abuse and inadequate responses are not at all surprising. Apologies will likely do little to change that culture as long as beliefs about women’s submission stay in place.

What Jesus Wore

 As I have come to learn that here in the Bible Belt the belt is a powerful sword in which to cut a wide swath of pain and disbelief.   The Bible here is not a tool but a weapon in which to destroy lives and condemn others to a sense of social isolation as they are not worthy of respect or acknowledgement.  I know this first hand from my former friend Ethan who has finally raised his sword when he shared with me he was a Warrior for Christ and that he would put aside family and loved ones in the pursuit of faith.  As I do not share the same faith I am not worthy of his time which is apparently precious and limited for those who are not the same.  Of course as long as you share his belief systems and wants to get into your pants or get some type of gift or free shit then fuck that shit that Bible stays firmly attached to his magical 3×5 card he endlessly checks for messages from God or whoever else has been deigned acceptable under the checklist of criteria he needs to have in which to determine worthiness.  In other words he is batshit crazy religious kook.

Read the book by Tara Westover, Educated, I cannot stress enough how essential it is to understand the effects of what extreme devout obsession about religion and false edicts do to children and adults for decades.  It is a trauma I have personally now seen and experienced in this boy of 22 and he frightens me.   I cannot stress enough what that means as I know fear is not rational but then again I have been in his company neither is he when it comes to religion.   The boy has suffered serious trauma and his religion has made him so damaged he is unable to see the forest for the trees. That said I am out and I can’t wait to be out of Nashville away from him. Do I think he is a threat to himself or others.  Yes but what kind remains to be seen.

So when you read the stories of those victimized by this obsessive religiosity understand that may be why this particular SECT of faith is declining.  This does not mean there is a decline in Evangelical faiths they, however, still exist and are running or ruining lives in the same way they just are less organized as we know that they have no central organization and dogma and for that we can say THANK JESUS!

It’s ruined me.’ Former independent fundamental Baptists describe life in the church
BY SARAH SMITH
Dec. 9, 2018

Former members of independent fundamental Baptist churches describe a culture and teachings that affect the rest of their lives. The following quotes are taken from interviews.
Getting in

Independent fundamental Baptist church members are either born into the movement and grow up knowing nothing else or are brought into the churches through evangelism. The tight-knit community of motivated people is appealing, especially to vulnerable people.

“I was an adult, I was in my early 20s. Our lives were a dysfunctional mess, and we needed support. We didn’t have family in town so we started attending a church because someone my husband worked with invited us. The strict boundaries helped for a while, but over time it seemed pointless: no matter how strict the rules got we couldn’t please anybody.”

— Lisa Bertolini, California

“I liked the sense of belonging I felt, the caring feeling of the community, because I didn’t have that before.”

— Karen Rice, Pennsylvania

“There was a lot of positive energy going on. We went to the church, there was a lot going on, a lot of activities, great music program — the people just seemed to be, quote-unquote, ‘on fire for the Lord.’”

— Sindye Banko Alexander, Colorado
At Church

Life in an independent fundamental Baptist church can quickly become insular. Members are held to “standards” both inside and outside the church: modest dress for women and a ban on movies and secular music in the stricter churches. The pastor becomes the ultimate authority, followed by the man of the house. Members are taught to look at the world with suspicion.

“My dad asked me if I were allowed to wear pants, if I would do it. I said, ‘I don’t know’ — as a kid you’re terrified — I don’t know. He said, ‘Because you can’t tell me right now, that means you are not a Christian. You are not going to heaven because a Christian would never hesitate at that question.’ ”

— Leah Elliott, Indiana

“I told her that I was raped and how violent it was and how I was terrified it would happen again. She gave me a five-minute counseling session and told me she would have to tell Pastor Schaap and the nurse, inform the doctor. And not to tell anyone. Anyway, we had our meeting, and they told me my rape was God’s will because it sent me there.”

— Amber McMorrow, Colorado. Former pastor Jack Schaap is serving a federal prison sentence for sexually abusing a 16-year-old congregant at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. He did not respond to requests for comment via a letter sent to him in prison.

“It was a fire. I don’t remember anything about it. I just remember they told us to bring our pants, and we burned our pants. I remember thinking when I did it, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ My dad’s the pastor. Yeah, so we did it. I was probably 12.”

— Mindy Woosley, North Carolina

“We were told, ‘You can either forgive him like Jesus would or call the police, and they can take you away and put you in foster care like you were before.’ OK, I don’t want to go to hell, so I do what Jesus would do.’’

— Sara Means, Oklahoma, on her alleged abuser

“I was nursing, but the pastor outlawed nursing. No women were allowed to nurse because it kept them from church. I went to the bathroom to cry, and I’m getting engorged — you have to nurse, you get in a lot of pain if you don’t. I’m in the bathroom, and the nursery worker came into the stall with me. I think I was just grabbing toilet paper to blow my nose, she barged in and said, ‘The devil wants you to miss this sermon that’s happening right now. You get back in there.’ “

— Kara Blocker, Oregon

“You have a system of belief where what the pastor says is true, and you cannot disagree, the deacon boards don’t disagree, you don’t go against what the pastor says because the ingrained thinking is he’s God’s man, and you don’t lift a hand against God’s anointed.”

— Jo McGuire, Indiana

“I started dating a boy at 15. Pastor had a meeting with him and his mom, and told them I couldn’t marry him because he didn’t come from a broken home and didn’t know how to take care of me. And I wasn’t clean. Meaning I was violated.”

— Sarah Mullins, California, on how she was treated because she had divorced parents.

“I have so few memories of my cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles that it scares me. We were allowed to see them about once a year, until the church decided that the ‘good church members’ shouldn’t fellowship with their non-believing relatives. We were pretty much cut off after that. My grandparents still don’t understand why we were withheld from them.”

— Anonymous, Ohio

“They teach us there’s no such thing as mental illness. They say it’s all just not trusting in Jesus enough.”

— Barbra Lanzisera, California

“There’s a secret glee in thinking people you don’t like are burning in hell.”

— James McGrail, West Virginia

“One of my parents got upset and threw a paddle at my younger sister. It gave her a black eye, she was 6 or 7. The pastor saw it and asked what happened, and the pastor told my sister, ‘If you have anyone that is not a church member ask you what happened, you don’t tell them because if you do you’ll get taken away from your family.’”

— Anonymous, Oklahoma

“When I was 15, I tried to have the right attitude. It just never happened. I remember one time a teacher prayed with me that God would do whatever — God would do something drastic, even a car accident or a death or anything it took to get me right with God.”

— Anonymous, Wisconsin

“God has a killer surveillance system and is disappointed in you. There’s nothing you can do to please him.”

— Frederick Feeley Jr., Michigan

“There was a prevailing belief that it was always the girl’s fault, even a child. Because if a girl was being modest and obeying God nothing bad would happen. And boys and men were simply unable to control themselves, so it was up to the girls and women.”

— Denise Kodi, Alabama

“I remember just being so scared to think a negative thought against the man of God, a pastor. If a thought would go through my mind in the fleet of the moment, not meaning it to, about a pastor, I would start praying and be terrified something bad was gonna happen to me.”

— Bethany Leonard, Georgia

“My late mother, not long after we had started going to church, my stepfather had asked her to spend no more than $50 at the grocery store. Unfortunately, the bill totaled $52. Rather than put something back to get the bill under $50, she gave the cashier a weak smile and explained apologetically, ‘I’m so sorry, but I’m going to have to call my husband about this. You see, we’re a Christian family, and I believe in submitting to my husband.’ So off she went to the other end of the store to use the phone and call my stepfather at work while my brother and I waited at the counter. I could feel my face turning red, and my brother didn’t really understand what was going on, either. Our mother came back with a satisfied smile and informed the cashier, ‘I’m so sorry for holding up the line, but my husband said it was fine. I just had to ask him first because we’re a Christian family.’”

— Natasha Latham, Texas

“One of my classmates saw me riding one of my horses, and she reported me to the principal for wearing pants.”

— Susan Wisecarver, Indiana
Hear them speak
They were terrorized, trapped and even sexually abused. Now, these former members of independent fundamental Baptist churches share how their experiences will affect the rest of their lives. Click to hear their stories.
Aftermath

When members leave the church, they may lose almost all of their friends and even their family. They realize their degrees from unaccredited Bible colleges don’t mean anything in the outside world. They suddenly have to learn to navigate a world they learned was evil. And for many, it takes years of therapy to overcome the fear-based teachings of the church.

“I’ve been in therapy for a couple years now trying to figure out who I am outside of fundamentalism.”

— Anonymous, North Carolina

“I’ve been away from there for 30-plus years, I still have those feelings. I still — if something bad happens to me, my immediate go-to in my brain is God’s punishing me, and I have to talk myself through it.”

— Linda Murphrey, who requested her location be withheld because she’s received death threats for speaking out in the past.

“It wasn’t even until I was 21, and I was telling my future fiancé. I was explaining to him about the situation, and he was the one that like brought it to my head that it’s like, ‘No stupid, it’s not your fault, that was a terrible man and you were raped.’ That word never even came to my mind. I didn’t hear of anyone else getting raped, I didn’t know it was a thing.”

— Brianna Kenyon, Michigan, who says she was abused by a church employee. He did not respond to requests for comment.

“I have had to go through years of therapy and numerous medications for my panic attacks and depression, and I have tried to commit suicide twice — once while still attending there and another time shortly after. I feel like I can never be normal or live a normal life — so many years were ruined and taken away from me. I was stripped of a normal childhood and having actual parents or any real friends. It has given me severe social anxiety. Until this day, it’s so hard to meet people and make new friends because I am such a basket case.”

— Melissa Winter, Tennessee, via Facebook messenger

“Do I wish he was in jail? Yes. But vengeance isn’t mine. It’s not mine to give to him. It’s not mine to keep pursuing. I’ve done what I could. But he’s got three kids. My abuser has three kids. What has it done to those children of his?”

— Amie Brown, South Carolina, on her alleged abuse by a church employee. He did not respond to requests for comment.

“I remember my first pair of pants, it was 11th grade. I started crying when I put them on, I was like, ‘I’m going to get in trouble.’ I wore them to public school, I couldn’t eat my lunch. I was shaking. I kept looking around thinking there’d be a spy. He always said, no matter how far you went, his reach went farther.”

— Michelle Myers, Arizona, on her fear of her former pastor

“I never went to see a movie till I was 35 years old. It was “Armageddon.” To be honest I was shaking and scared in the movie theater when I was 35 years old, because you’ve been pumped your whole life that movies are evil and wrong.”

— Mat Cannon, Texas

“If I can be candid, it’s ruined me.”

— Anonymous, California

“One thing I absolutely know is that God is true, and the word of God is perfect. So if people had been saying that they’re applying the word of God but turning into this fiasco, they missed something.”

— Stephen Meister, Illinois

“It’s made me very very sensitive to the fact that there’s evil, evil perpetrators and to the fact that people do not recover from this. This whole crime, this whole issue, it damages generations.”

— Susan Richardson, Tennessee, on sexual abuse

“You get ostracized. Your family won’t have anything to do with you, you won’t admit you’re part of the family. You lose your identity. You lose every single label you were given. It’s stripped away. It’s as painful as peeling the first layer of skin off your whole body.”

— Trisha LaCroix, Nevada, on leaving the church

Bags Packed

Well I am packing as fast as I can but I can’t get out of here soon enough.  Another day of bizarro world when the Director of Schools compares the recent arguments about salary and favoritism in the Nashville Public Schools is akin to Trayvon Martin.  HUH? He is been murdered for wearing a hoodie?  What the fuck is this man talking about?

From the Report:  With his administration facing a sexual harassment scandal and questions about no-bid contracts, Joseph has suggested those questions are motivated by the same fears that led to the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

I have given up trying to understand how I am somehow akin to George Zimmerman or any of the other fragile white people that call Police or shoot Black individuals for wearing a hoodie, walking their dog, knocking on their door, eating an ice cream or wearing shower shoes to the pool.  When you generalize everyone you are as guilty of the same. Again:  He who accuses, excuses.

But once again I am relieved to find the white people who live here as idiotic if not more so with their insanity.

‘If I was raped, I would move’: Speaker Glen Casada doubles down on support of Rep. David Byrd
Natalie Allison, Nashville Tennessean Published  Feb. 19, 2019 |

House Speaker Glen Casada says he will continue to defend a Republican lawmaker accused of sexual assault against multiple former students, recently questioning the credibility of the women who came forward and implying that victims of rape should move.

In a video published by The Tennessee Holler, a newly created liberal media website, former Democratic candidate for Congress Justin Kanew questioned Casada about his support of Rep. David Byrd, R-Waynesboro.

Three women last year accused Byrd of sexually assaulting them in the 1980s when they were teenagers playing on the Wayne County High School girls basketball team, which Byrd coached.

In a story last spring, WSMV included audio from a phone call recorded by one of the women as she talked to Byrd about what happened when she was 15. Byrd said he was sorry, though he does not say specifically for what he is apologizing.

The recent video of the conversation with Casada was taken at a town hall event last month in Franklin, Kanew said.

On the topic of the women’s credibility, Kanew told Casada that the women had been ostracized in their community as a result of coming forward with allegations against Byrd.

“If it’s important, and it is — it’d be important to me if I was raped, I would move,” Casada said. “And hell would have no fury.”

Kanew replied that he believed Casada couldn’t answer what he would do if he were “raped as a woman in rural Tennessee.”

“Or as a man, I could,” Casada said. “There are just certain codes of conduct.”
Casada defends decision to appoint Byrd to chair education subcommittee

In response to a request for comment about his remarks in the video, Casada released a statement echoing what he has said before about his support of Byrd, who was reelected by more than 55 points in November.

“One of the most sacred rights we have as Americans is the concept of being innocent until proven guilty,” Casada said. “Rep. Byrd is doing a fantastic job as Chairman of our Education Administration Subcommittee and I am proud he has agreed to serve.”

Christi Rice (center) discusses explains why she is helping a new political action committee dubbed Enough is Enough Tennessee on Sept. 27, 2018. Rice says Rep. David Byrd inappropriately touched her when she was 15-years-old and he was her 28-year-old coach. (Photo11: Joel Ebert)

Casada has appointed Byrd to chair the House’s newly created education administration subcommittee.

Byrd, who graduated from Wayne County High School in 1975, coached there for 24 years and was the school’s principal for eight years.

Both former House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, called for Byrd’s resignation last spring.

When asked about the video on Tuesday, Gov. Bill Lee would not comment directly on Casada’s remarks or on whether he believed Byrd should step down but called for the situation to be taken seriously.

“I think we have to take very seriously allegations of sexual misconduct, and sexual misconduct should never be tolerated either in state government or the private sector, as well,” Lee said.

Kanew, who said he had been in contact with Enough is Enough Tennessee, a political action committee seeking Byrd’s ouster, told Casada he and others are opposed to Byrd being in a position of leadership.

“We’re not asking for a conviction,” Kanew said. “You have the authority not to empower men like that and make it OK. Because what happens is the next guy sees that nothing happened, and he’s going to do it.”

A video published last fall by a PAC run by Casada likened Byrd to President Donald Trump and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, saying the men had been attacked by “unhinged liberals.”

In the encounter last month, Kanew asked Casada if he believed the women who came forward.

“I don’t think they’re lying,” Casada said. “I think they’re believing something that’s not true.”

Kanew said he had planned to ask Casada publicly during the town hall, which included others from the Williamson County legislative delegation, but was not called on.

He said he had not attempted to schedule a meeting with Casada over his concerns because he didn’t want to get “canned answers” about the issue.

“This is our state’s biggest shame right now, is the fact that this man is still in the legislature in a position of power,” Kanew said. “It shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

The Tennessee Holler website does not disclose who is running the the site or list any staff members.

Meanwhile Tennessee’s Senator Blackburn is avoiding committing to Trump’s wall but she believes it will stop Sex Traffcking.  Well she should look right in her backyard to see what the Baptists have been up to with regards to that.  They hate to think all the Catholics are having all the fun here.

Southern Baptist sex abuse crisis: What you need to know
Duane W. Gang and Holly Meyer, Nashville Tennessean Published  Feb. 19, 2019

Southern Baptists across the country are grappling with a sex abuse crisis in the wake of a startling investigative report detailing more than 380 cases where church leaders and volunteers have been accused of sexual misconduct.

In total, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News found more than 700 victims.

Here’s what you need to know about the story and how Southern Baptist Convention leaders are responding.

Why did the news organizations investigate the church?

Victims of sexual abuse had long criticized church leaders for not doing enough to combat the problem, including tracking how many church leaders are accused of sexual misconduct. So the news organizations set out build their own database.

What was the reaction to the news?

Calls for reform and change came quickly. Southern Baptist leaders vowed to address the problem.

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear, a pastor in North Carolina, called sexual abuse by church leaders and volunteers “pure evil,” and apologized to victims.

“We are profoundly sorry,” Greear, along with fellow Pastor Brad Hambrick, wrote in a article posted on Greear’s website the day after the news broke. “It is an unjust tragedy that you experienced abuse in the past. And it is unjust and tragic that you feel fear in the present.

“We, the church, have failed you.”
What is the church doing about the problem?

Greear on Monday night unveiled the initial recommendations from a study group on sexual abuse that got started last year when he took over as president.

Those proposed changes including providing free training for ministry leaders and encouraging churches to review their policies on abuse.

The recommendations also call for a re-examination of the ordination process and ensuring that Southern Baptist churches cannot have a “wanton disregard for prevention of sexual abuse” and still be in good fellowship with the denomination, Greear said.
Why can’t the change happen right away?

The Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention is a network of more than 46,000 churches that make up the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Unlike other Christian denominations, individual Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, which has been cited as a hurdle for reform in the past.

That means the implementation of all 10 recommendations is not a done deal.

Greear has said that level of local church control is a factor.

“The Baptist doctrine of church autonomy should never be a religious cover for passivity towards abuse,” he wrote in a series of Twitter posts earlier this month. “Church autonomy is about freeing the church to do the right thing — to obey Christ — in every situation. It is a heinous error to apply autonomy in a way that enables abuse.”
What can Southern Baptist leaders do if individual churches don’t prevent abuse?

A particular area to watch is whether the Southern Baptist Convention expels churches that do not do more to prevent future abuse.

Greear on Monday night singled out 10 churches that deserve particular focus and could face removal from the network of churches.

“I am not calling for disfellowshipping any of these churches at this point, but these churches must be called upon to give assurances to the Southern Baptist Convention that they have taken the necessary steps to correct their policies and procedures with regards to abuse and survivors,” Greear said.

The convention has taken action against churches before. Last year, at the convention’s annual meeting in Dallas, a Georgia church got the boot over accusations of racism.
Who is J.D. Greear and why does he matter?

Greear, who leads The Summit Church in North Carolina, took over as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention last year.

He is in his 40s and his leadership marks what is widely seen as a generational shift in for the denomination. He succeeded Pastor Steve Gaines, who leads Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.

In September, the convention’s Executive Committee allocated $250,000 for the sexual abuse advisory group Greear created soon after he was elected in June.

The advisory group’s purpose is to figure out how Southern Baptists can better respond to incidents and prevent abuse from happening.

Greear said he formed the group because church leaders have “known that there is a problem.”

The advisory group came in the midst of Southern Baptist’s own #MeToo moment. In the run-up to the denomination’s annual meeting last year where Greear was elected, Southern Baptists were embroiled in months of controversy over a prominent church leader’s treatment of women and how he handled years-old allegations of sexual misconduct.
Are church leaders from Tennessee accused of abuse?

The Houston Chronicle database includes 16 people from Tennessee.

Here are the convictions found in Tennessee:

• Larry Michael Berkley, a pastor convicted in Lauderdale County in 2014, was convicted of 16 crimes, including four counts of aggravated statutory rape and four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure. He is serving a 33 year sentence.
• Mark W. Mangrum, a pastor convicted in 2007 in federal court, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and 20 years of supervised release for distributing child porn to “induce a minor to engage in sexual conduct.” He is a registered sex offender.
• Steven Carl Haney, a pastor convicted in Shelby County, was convicted of a 2003 sexual battery by an authority figure and in state court of a 2001 rape. He was the pastor of Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Cordova for 20 years before resigning in 2006, according to an article from Baptist News Global.
• Charles Alan Denton, an associate pastor convicted in Montgomery County, is now a registered sex offender for a 2014 sexual battery.
• Christopher Douglas Ross, a youth pastor convicted in Wilson County in 2016, is serving a four year sentence in state prison.
• Donald Brent Page, a youth pastor convicted in federal court, was convicted of crossing state lines with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in Tennessee in 2008. He was sentenced to 36 months for coercion or enticement of a minor in Memphis.
• Gregory Stanley Dempsey, a music minister convicted in Hamilton County, was convicted of a 2003 sexual battery by an authority figure.
• Heath Tyler Ransom, a youth minister convicted in Madison County, is listed as a sex offender for a 2017 conviction of criminal attempt to commit solicitation of a minor.
• Jason Evan Kennedy, a youth minister convicted in Knox County, is a registered sex offender for soliciting a minor for sex.
• Joseph Todd Neill, a youth pastor convicted in federal court, is listed as a sex offender for two statutory rapes and a related pornography charge. He was convicted of the federal possession of pornography charge in 2014 and released in 2017.
• Luke A. Cooke, a youth minister convicted in Shelby County and federal court in 2015, was convicted for “coercion or enticement of a minor” and transporting a juvenile with the intent of engaging in illegal sexual activity.
• Timothy Neal Byars, a youth minister charged in Knox County in 2008, is a registered sex offender for rape and an attempt to commit sexual battery.
• Timothy Ronald Felts, a youth pastor convicted in Cheatham County in 2009 and 2016, was convicted of sexual battery and later of three counts of aggravated statutory rape and attempted aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
• Chad Eugene Luttrell, a church volunteer convicted in 2010 in Madison County, pled guilty to a charge of sexual battery and is a registered sex offender.
• Cristopher Ryan Crossno, a Sunday school teacher convicted in 2015 in Montgomery County, is a registered sex offender with a conviction of sexual battery.
• Mark Curtis Adams, a youth teacher convicted in federal court in 2018, pled guilty to a charge that he used a social media application to induce a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

As this is the center of the Bible Belt and the Southern Baptist organization houses its headquarters in Nashville just across from Lifeway the largest Christian Publishing house you wonder if they have a backroom for porn.    The sheer hypocrisy boggles the mind as they are also the largest component of what comprises Evangelicals and this is the same group that loves Trump. Blow that horn!  Whoops that may not sound so great.

I have been trying to understand why everyone marries so young here and I know that fucking is most of the guilt associated with that but the reality is as we are learning about the Catholics that perhaps abstinence and all is not a good idea and surpressing one’s sexuality also  not a good plan. Those two, however, are not explanations or reasons behind molesting children.  Abuse and molestation are not connected to those who chose to refrain from sex or who are Gay.  That said when one is forced to not be true to oneself there is a great deal of confusion, secrecy and frustration that often leads to bad  or misguided decisions. 

Rape is I am afraid no longer just about power it is about sex and about the ability to exploit power to simply think that rules are not applicable when you are in power.   And that means about everything from sex to money to laws.   We are learning that fame and power are too high of an intoxicant to think that what you are doing is forcing consent you are simply manipulating what would have happened anyway, right? No but the mind of a moronic horned up man who is drunk on his power feels no empathy for his victims.   The recent Ryan Adams saga is another story about someone who used drugs and women equally with no concept of what damage either was doing.  R. Kelly was famous and made money and that regardless if it was true then why had no one called the Police. Well maybe this is what they mean when they refer to Black Women as disposable but again I seriously doubt that if they were white it would be any different.   Or gay right? Ask that about Bryan Singer or Kevin Spacey’s victims. 

So what State should all victims of rape move to? Utah? That Mormon thing would enable a large family type situation and they are sort of like a cult that would work?  I like Wyoming it gave us Dick Cheney and that is one special type of sociopath.  At least he is not a Rapist.