Christian Hypocrite Josh Duggar Found Guilty in Child Sex Abuse Image Trial
His dad is running for office on a platform of family values.
Thank you for checking out this newsletter! Thank you even more if you become a full subscriber! And just in time for Christmas, you can give someone a gift subscription! Think of your friends! (Or your enemies.)
As the kids say, some personal news: On December 14, after over a decade of writing at Patheos, I will be taking a brief hiatus and re-emerging in the new year at a brand new website. You can read more about my decision here.
If you want to know about the new project as soon as it launches, please enter your email here for more details. (That’s not the new website. It’s just a placeholder.)
I’m very excited about the project, which has been in the works for a while. It’ll be something the broader secular “movement” hasn’t seen before, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.Conservative activist and former Family Research Council staffer Joshua Duggar was found guilty of downloading and possessing illicit images of child sexual abuse. He now faces 40 years in prison.
There are so many angles to this story, but maybe my favorite is the fact that his father, Jim Bob Duggar, is running for Arkansas State Senate on a platform of family values. If Jim Bob can’t protect the world from his own damn family, why would anyone trust him to make decisions on behalf of theirs?
The Supreme Court heard the case of Carson v. Makin, which could — and probably will — force taxpayers to fund religious schools. I discussed the background of the case here. Court watchers who get paid to read the tea leaves are extremely worried about the outcome of this case based on the questions asked by justices. Enjoy the wall of separation between church and state while you can. It’s endangered.
Right-wing gun-obsessed MAGA cultist Kaitlin Bennett, a former correspondent for InfoWars and longtime purveyor of misinformation online, says she’s no longer an atheist.
She found God. She’s Catholic now. To which I can only say… thank you?If you had no clue she was an atheist, you’re not alone, given that she’s spent years promoting Christian Nationalism.
Data finds that atheists, agnostics, and Nones voted for Joe Biden in 2020 much more than they voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. While political circumstances presumably play a large role in that, it’s also part of a pro-Democratic shift that’s been happening for years.
Myself and Hunter Driggers, one of my grad students, published a piece about how the Nones shifted their votes in 2016 vs. 2020. Biden did much better among all the nones, because he took votes from Trump but also from 3rd party candidates. politicsandreligionjournal.com/index.php/prj/…
Hot out of the press!🥁 Special issue of Politics and Religion Journal - “Religion and 🇺🇸Presidential Elections 2020” brings together articles by the #allstar group of scholars: James L. Guth, Lyman A. Kellstedt, Corwin Smidt, @ryanburge, @KedronBardwell & Hunter Driggers. 👇
Marko Veković @VekovicMarkoWhen Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz officially took power this week, one of his first acts — taking the oath of office — was skipping the words “So help me God.”
He’s not the first chancellor to do it, and he himself has done it before, but it’s kind of incredible that this was virtually a non-story in Germany, at least compared to what would’ve happened in the U.S.
Imagine going through life worry about this:
While we’re talking about New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist preachers, this is just straight-up racism:
… Also, just remember, kids:
… and Pastor Steven Anderson just wants to know:
Christian evangelist Franklin Graham has been one of the more surprising voices in favor of getting vaccinated, urging his millions of right-wing followers to get their shots.
But months after first encouraging vaccinations, he’s now falling back in line with his anti-science cohorts, celebrating the groups pushing back against vaccine mandates.
So Graham supports getting vaccinated. But he opposes pressuring people to get vaccinated. Which means a lot of people won’t get vaccinated. Which means the virus will continue to spread and mutate. Which ultimately limits the efficacy of our vaccines.
You can’t say you’re in favor of the vaccine when you also don’t care if everyone is vaccinated. That’s like saying there are good people on both sides — the vaccine and the virus. You don’t get to have it both ways!
This is why you should never take science advice from a Creationist.A reminder:
The War on Christmas is real, and it’s being fought by Republicans who think Christmas is more about promoting weapons than anything Jesus-related. AOC has the right reaction here:
Tell me again where Christ said “use the commemoration of my birth to flex violent weapons for personal political gain”? lol @ all the years Republicans spent on cultural hysteria of society “erasing Christmas and it’s meaning” when they’re doing that fine all on their own https://t.co/TOKE1SmY4CThe Boebert family. https://t.co/X5EqspSYzs
Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowskiEven the ultra-conservative Catholic League agrees with her on this one:
Christian pseudo-historian David Barton says the Second Amendment gives people the right to own their own nuclear weapons.
That may be the best argument I’ve ever heard for why the entire world needs to abandon nuclear weapons.
Twitter needs to go a step further in blocking the hate speech of Pastor Greg Locke:
Christian Nationalist congressman Madison Cawthorn recently delivered an anti-abortion rant from the House floor in which he described fetuses as “Eternal souls woven into earthen vessels sanctified by Almighty God and endowed with the miracle of life are denied their birth by a nation that was born in freedom.”
A silent genocide has slipped beneath the conscience of America. Eternal souls, woven into earthen vessels, sanctified by Almighty God, and endowed with the miracle of life are denied their birth by a nation born of freedom.A lot of attention has been given to the notion that he’s calling women “vessels” for babies, but that’s not exactly accurate. “Earthen vessels” is a reference to 2 Corinthians 4:7, which uses the phrase to poetically describe all humans in a way that’s akin to “mortal souls.” It doesn’t mean women carry babies. It means they’re finite beings when compared to an infinite God.
I’m not defending the guy since he’s a moral monster whose ultimate point is still a dangerous one. But there’s no need to accuse him of saying things he didn’t say when his actual words are plenty problematic already.For months now, Christian Nationalist hate-preacher Joshua Feuerstein has been spreading COVID lies to anyone who will listen. He said this past August, for example, that “You don’t have to wear the mask! You got Jesus! You don’t need the vaccine! You got Jesus!”
Well, well, well, guess who has COVID…?
Feuerstein didn’t announce that. We only know because he was supposed to deliver a guest sermon at a church, had to call in sick, and the pastor (apparently inadvertently) told the crowd the truth.
Looks like Joshua Feuerstein @MAGApreacher made it onto the COVID watch list. Joshy was supposed to preach at Ken Peters’ Patriot Church Knoxville this morning. Wonder how Joshy feels about Ken telling the world?Couldn’t have happened to a worse person.
A few atheists on YouTube have been putting together an in-person gathering/conference for years now, and they got some excellent media coverage this time around. It’s such a great way to interact with people who mostly know each other through their computer screens. Here’s hoping this event grows even bigger next year.
The one Christian mom at One Million Moms is very upset with this Sephora ad because it features two gay men kissing for a split second.
The FOX News Christmas tree was set on fire by some idiot, but their anchors have been saying fires are preventable:
Since we’re talking about atheists doing awesome things, I’ll just leave this nugget here:
This is awesome: @PiatPod and @dissonance_pod held their annual "Vulgarity for Charity" fundraiser, raising money for @modestneeds (which helps low-income workers). Thanks to a donor who matched gifts, they raised $448,282.12. Just incredible. Details:
Creationist “theme park” Ark Encounter will soon install a carousel where kids can ride a pterosaur… a creature that lived 66 millions years before humans first emerged in Africa.
Christian Nationalist Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas in Texas says the Biden administration is the “ungodliest” in history… despite Biden’s acts of Catholicism, which apparently don’t matter… and despite Biden’s administration, which is overwhelmingly Christian… and despite the fact that Republicans overwhelmingly accepted Donald Trump‘s frequent acts of lip service to conservative Christians even though it was beyond clear he didn’t actually believe any of it.
Here’s your weekly dose of Gene Kim:
I know you all love this TikTok video of someone calling out wealthy megachurch pastor Joel Osteen to his face…
I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as commenters online. The video just rubs me the wrong way because it seems so... pointless. Great. You told him he sucks. Now what?
If anything, I worry that it might generate sympathy for Osteen because it looks like he stopped whatever he was doing to take a quick video with someone he probably assumed was a fan - which is a nice gesture! - only to have that used against him.Speaking of Osteen, here’s Greg Locke spreading a new conspiracy about him during a church service.
These stories are incredibly difficult to hear, but they’re important: 83-year-old Pearl Lane, an active member of First United Pentecostal Church in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, died in October as a result of COVID. Her kids are blaming the church for not taking the virus seriously.
[Kim] Hibbs and her sister, Beverley Dean, say their mom’s death could have been avoided, if COVID-19 prevention measures were more strictly followed during church services in September.
“If they had went by the government rules and the protocols that were in place and wore their masks and done the six-feet distancing, then this would have never happened,” said Hibbs.Lane, her daughters say, wasn’t vaccinated. But near the end of her life, she was preparing to get the shot. It was too late.
She died from a Jesus-fueled death because the leadership at her church decided killing off the membership was worth the risk of holding in-person services even though other options were available.Miracles DO happen! Just listen to this one!
As a way to honor his pansexual daughter and show allyship with the LGBTQ community, Pastor Craig Duke recently appeared on an episode of the HBO series We’re Here, which follows a handful of drag stars as they give someone from small-town America a drag makeover while sharing their personal stories.
The episode itself was fine, but Duke has since been pushed out of his church. According to a GoFundMe page set up to assist his family, the organizers explained:
… Craig’s participation in this show caused much turmoil in the church that he was serving at the time and ultimately lead to him being “relieved of pastoral duties” at that church. Craig will continue with a significantly reduced salary until no later than February 28. Obviously, this poses a major challenge to Craig and his family as they determine their next steps.
Dave Hayes, a Christian conspiracy theorist known as the “Praying Medic,” recently offered prayers for a man struggling to cope with his wife’s miscarriage. And after a few seconds of prayer, he insisted the man was healed.
In this video from "Praying Medic" Dave Hayes, a caller says he's struggling to cope with his wife's miscarriage. Hayes prays for him... but the man doesn't feel better. Hayes prays again... and the man says he feels nothing. "Okay. You're healed," says Hayes.Nothing says “healed” like a man who’s too numbed by depression to be openly sad.
Want an update on another Dave? Spoiler: It involves the phrase “those darkies.”
Congratulations to Canada on finally banning gay conversion torture after a couple failed attempts. A bill that would criminalize those promoting or profiting off the unscientific “therapy” passed unanimously in both houses of Parliament and only awaits some technicalities before it becomes law.
As expected, however, the conservative Christian backlash has already begun. The Christian Post declared Canada an “anti-Christian nation,” citing pandemic restrictions as well as the conversion ban. Another outlet called it an “attempted imposition of a totalitarian thought system that brooks no dissent.” Another prominent activist called it a “parental prosecution bill.” And a whole bunch of wannabe-martyr pastors have already threatened to go to jail by continuing to torture gay people despite the law.There’s Christian Nationalism. And there there’s Pastor Mark Burns, a wannabe Congressman, who just wants to live in a theocracy. He said in an interview that all laws “contrary to God’s word… need to be overturned.”
No one asked the obvious follow-up question: Whose interpretation of God’s Word would we be using?
This is such a good tweet:
Sen. Tim Kaine, the former Democratic vice presidential candidate, had been a co-chair of the National Prayer Breakfast as recently as 2016, but it seems he wants nothing to do with them anymore given that it’s really just a front for Christian Nationalism. It’s about damn time.
There are many reasons to be worried about the candidacy of Dr. Mehmet Oz as he seeks the Republican nomination to U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania. The fact that he comes from a Muslim family? Not one of them… unless you’re a Christian Nationalist publication.
The Diocese of Marquette in Michigan quietly instituted new policies over the summer banning priests from offering the sacraments to professing Catholics who are trans or non-binary “unless the person has repented.” While the Church is hardly an ally of the LGBTQ community, this appears to be the first diocese to take such drastic steps.
Finally, you’ll never guess what was causing chaos at “prophetess” Kat Kerr’s home:
That’s it for this week! Please be safe as the War on Christmas resumes. You can get extra armor by becoming a full subscriber or sharing this with someone who may enjoy it. It would mean a lot to me :)
So these are the temporary digs, huh?
Testing, is this thing on?