The biggest mistake that could be made here would be trying to debate or argue with him. As a fundamentalist he lives in a world beyond the reach of facts and reason by definition. I don't know what his education amounts to, but I would be shocked to learn he has any background in mental health what so ever. Few things are more damaging to mental health than fundamentalist, unreasoning, religion. His enablers in the pews are every bit as bad, or they wouldn't be there.
MacArthur reminds me of that jackass, Dr. Don McLeroy of the Texas State Board of Education, who once said, "Someone has to stand up to the experts." Well, given a chance, I'd confront MacArthur with a phalanx of experts in each field, as well as those they have treated, and rub his sorry nose in it. Let him hear the stories of those who are managing their PTSD, OCD, and ADHD, because they got the right treatment, never mind the horror stories of those who listened to MacArthur or someone like him and suffered as a result.
I want that fool to know first-hand of the harm he is doing, whether he's prepared to accept those testimonies or not. Yeah, yeah, I know, it'll never happen. Doesn't change the necessity of it.
May I comment about experts and those that “know” based upon my Learning?
1. In many courts I’m considered an expert in a couple of areas. However I’m always learning new things so with this new knowledge, was I an expert before I learned it? Since everything is always changing, I do not believe there are experts.
2. There once was a man who was always trying to learn from experts and would ask them questions about their expertise. Unfortunately he found flaws in their knowledge. After doing this for some time he finally concluded he “KNEW NOTHING.” His name was Socrates.
3. There once was a man who gained great insights into human suffering. Others wished him to share his insights and how he gained them. He did but cautioned that he was sharing what worked for him and that others must walk their own path to their individual “enlightenment” the Buddha even warned that while walking that Road (path) if they meet a Buddha along the way, they should—metaphorically—murder him.
4. Those that think they know the Tao—the way—do not know, precisely because they “think” they know.
5. IMO anyone who knows, especially those that know because they know the mind of their mythical god, are not only foolish but may be dangerous.
I’m listening to and watching video of Pentatonix sing Hallelujah. Helps me FEEL the deep yearning of those seeking a connection to their god. My heart and soul feel it. My mind knows-from experience—it is unrequited yearning but still a deep and soulful feeling.
However, if I listen to an evangelist speaking, that forlorn yearning turns to nausea and I know “hell is other people.”
I remember a study from social psychology done many decades ago that showed when one defends a position in a debate it entrenches them further into the position they defend. Thus, it is a waste of time arguing with fools.
I feel like they need to be publicly denounced and challenged to a debate. Their lies cannot be the last thing lingering out there without challenge. While most of these extreme ministers would probably not accept the challenge (which I think is a sign of weakness on their part, b/c if you truly believe in something you shouldn't have a problem debating it), there would be a few of them that are arrogant enough to agree to debate....... and after that debate if one person in the church decides to pick up a different book other than the bible, they might actually break free of the cult. I also wonder how much of MacArthur's rhetoric he actually truly believes versus creating a stage presence and making money with that hateful rhetoric, not that he is even close to being normal, he's a shit bag excuse for a human regardless.
My parents believed this. Mental illness was a sin and I would be beaten until I repented of the sin the world was trying to make excuses for. I have Dissociative Identity Disorder. Hmm I wonder how that happened...
That sort of gaslighting will certainly put you into some form of complex PTSD (cPTSD). Gas Lighting amounts to RE-Abusing victims. . . That’s why I come down so hard on people like that . . . It’s not ignorance—it’s more abuse. There are a lot of sadistic people hiding behind “religious authority.” They are about control and punishment, not actual “religion.”
I sometimes am grateful for the abuse as it helped me open my eyes. As a teen I loved reading Kafka, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and others whose vision was more aligned with my own. We are free of the gaslighting which is “Blessing” from us to ourselves if can can just appreciate the blessing.
Says the guy who very likely has never served in the military, never seen combat, and sure as hell has no medical training to allow him to understand the subtleties of disorders which impact mental and emotional processing. Now me, I never served either, but I'd like to think I have a couple of things that John MacArthur doesn't have: EMPATHY and COMPASSION, never mind a willingness to learn about things I may previously not have known.
I have known men (no women, so far) who came back from Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan who suffered from PTSD. I've known and observed multiple kids, including two of my gal's grandkids, who have ADHD and have been treated for it. I've seen the before and after and understand that something is going on in their mental mechanisms which is keeping them from functioning as well as even they would like.
As for MacArthur, this is what we get when someone decides he knows more than anyone else and has to hold forth, mostly to demonstrate how utterly ignorant he is. Drs. Dunning and Kruger, there's your patient.
Vets are not only ones to suffer from PTSD. He also denies the suffering of rape and abuse victims, but it's coherent with him " revealing that MacArthur failed to protect child abuse victims, and excommunicated a mother for refusing to allow her abusive husband back into her home,".
I wonder what kind of song Mary Poppins would sing about this guy and people like him? My guess is she wouldn’t sing at all about one who appears to be collapsing further and further into a the black hole of ignorance. It appears that it is too late to save them as they have passed the event horizon where any kind
Every time I see your handle I can hear the great Haley Rhinehardt singing BLACK HOLE SUN with Post Modern Jukebox. Since I know little French—I know Je sui malad for not knowing French—I’ll take English.
Again, comment posted before finished because of accidental touch on my iPad and not allowed to edit. Oh well, I think I’ll just float on the substack current and not try to swim upstream.
I've never been in the military either, but my dad was a medic in the Navy in world war 2. He lived for 50 years with undiagnosed and untreated PTSD and daily migraines. Like the preacher, my mom had no medical training and believed for every day of the 57 years she and dad were married that dad was lying about his health problems, in order to get attention (or something.) Dad died in 2007, but to this day I have been unable to wrap my head around that attitude. Like that preacher, mom thought her Catholic god would make everything better if something was wrong. In the mid-90s, dad finally got a PTSD diagnosis and the medication and psychotherapy he needed. Mom continued to sabotage his treatment,though it was clear to everyone else--including all us kids--that dad was improving. (He never did get treatment for the daily migraines. I inherited the same daily migraine pattern, and just last week a neurologist told me I was lying. He didn't have the ignorance excuse mom did. The nerve of some people!)
I have a PTSD diagnosis and 70% of my VA disability is that. But this is a slightly different story:
2 years ago the VA transferred me to a new doctor (primary care). For two years I complained of increasing pain and stiffness in my right pinky finger. At first, just an ache, but I told him about it. He replied "let's try not holding our phone so much." Well, wait, I hold it with my left hand. Over an 18 month period he would not believe there was an issue at all, despite the fact that I have almost no movement in the finger now and intense pain. To sum up ... got a new primary care, she spent less than two minutes manipulating the finger and asking questions, diagnosed "trigger finger syndrome", and referred me to orthopedics for steroid shots.
The only problem now is that this is progressive and the damage permanent. So I lost two years of intervention and management to an ass who thought he knew and never asked me questions, or any other medical person, for that matter.
Yup. I'm a living/breathing example of mis-diagnosis causing permanent harm, 69 years+ worth of harm and counting, despite later attempts to rectify the problem.. Which is why "nuh-uh" diagnoses like the neurojackass last week Do Not Get A Pass Anymore. I did tell him that I didn't appreciate him calling me and nine other people over three generations of my family liars. The stunned look on his face when I said I'd be looking for a second opinion was priceless. I'm usually not so direct, or give them a second chance--but not this time. Arrogant asshole!
I hope and pray more people stand up and start saying "no that's not acceptable" to their doctors and other people in positions of authority when those authority figures don't give them the time of day. It's their job, they get paid to listen and to diagnose, telling somebody that's "all in your head" doesn't solve anything. Stand up, fight back! Don't tolerate it!
Yes, same. Except, I do more than pray about it. I make sure, as best I can, that these sorts of assholes face consequences for their arrogance and mistreatment of people, even if it's just reporting them, leaving a bad Yelp review, and trashing them when I'm asked to recommend them to others. Thirty or forty years ago, a doc's bad reputation might not get beyond a local area, but now people can and do make them face up to their bad behavior and misdiagnoses. (The misdiagnosis that I was subjected to as a kid, 69+ years ago, might be less likely to happen today. The dude would likely be caught and at least have his license yanked.)
Whenever I find somebody preaching from the pulpit, I send out the link so that you could easily report them to the IRS because it's illegal and it makes me mad! So here's the link if it will help you in the future. I keep it handy. Share it with your friends and do not let them get away with it! https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf
I too suffered migraines as a child. They went away when I left home and started realizing my family no longer had any control over me that I had given them.
I couldn't find anything in his bio which stated that he served in the armed forces - hence no combat experience. I did read that he attended Bob Jones University and is a proponent of young earth creationism. Tells me everything I need to know about this charlatan.
Based on his age, it looks like he would have missed both drafts. Even if he hadn't, he would have found a way to get a deferment. Certainly there are military service people in his church, or family members of service members that suffer from PTSD, why do they listen to him? Why do they attend the church? certain people are predispositioned to being brainwashed. They need deprogramming, no different than any other cult.
It's called post 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 stress disorder, not post bereavement stress disorder. It is not just ordinary grief. I have been living with ordinary grief for seven fucking years since the death of my wife, and it sure as hell isn't PTSD.
And ADHD? My late wife had that. I have seen how she was when it was treated, as well as how she was when it was untreated for the brief periods when she was hospitalized for unrelated issues. I can tell you that bugabear is real, too.
You, sir, are a fool who thinks that everything fits into the narrow little boxes your personal interpretation of one religion's holy book tells you exist. No one you don't look down on will tell you this because of the authoritarian control structure of your religion that put you on top.
I would say fuck you and the horse you rode in on, but I have too much respect for horses.
Another POS Know-Nothing is gaslighting every last person who was traumatized, INCLUDING those ABUSED BY CHURCH MEMBERS AND CHURCH DOGMA. He has NO basis in science or reality, so why give him air time? He’s just another abuser who deserves a bullet to his head, which will never arrive. Don’t spread his BS.
This is not about religion. It is about abusive people who seek to control and dominate, using positions of power—they are sadistic. You find them in ALL religions.
Christians profess to a superior morality due to their religion, yet I see nothing moral in what MacArthur is babbling foolishly about. What I DO see is a total lack of empathy from him. Empathy and religion are two very separate things. He has one thing and not the other.
Oh, and by the way? Scripture says that his god detests lying lips (see Proverbs 12:22).
Combat Veteran here. I have little doubt that a few of us could take little Johnny out behind the conex and introduce him to PTSD in a visceral manner. 😉
I think Pope Francis tries to reflect a Jesus-centered, Sermon on the Mount-kind of christianity. His visible difficulty in doing so tells us volumes about the various and malorous corruptions infecting many more recent xianities. Religions present poorly in more secular and humanistic societies.
Any religion or ideology that lessens the humanity or worth of someone simply for not being a follower is by its nature unconscionable and should be broadly unacceptable in a decent civil society. The only exception, and it's not really an exception, is an ideology that is intolerant of intolerance, which is NOT intolerance as self-reference is troublesome even to basic logic itself as Bertrand Russell discovered to his dismay. Unfortunately, it IS the very nature of religions and ideologies to view outsiders as less than.
It is a kinda weird paradox, like Russell's 'set of all sets that are not members of themselves' or 'the barber who shaves everyone in town who doesn't shave themselves, so who shaves the barber'. It's extremely relevant to a lot of the BS christians are constantly doing, like crying 'freedom of religion' when that freedom is to take away the freedoms and rights of those who don't follow their religion [some recent SCOTUS rulings allowing with such grotesqueries ]
I’m a fan of much—not all-of the insights of Karl Popper. As you may know, he was a very bright physicist who escaped Nazi Germany and is most famous for his views of what constitutes science.
OT hi y’all, been away for a little bit. Just wanted to tell you that I tried out for a community theater and got a part in Midsummer Nights Dream. Also, I got an Art on Main project again this year. It will be my 5th one. I’m gonna be busy for the next two months. But I am excited for the new challenges.
Philostrate. And I may also be playing a fairy. I’ll know more on Wednesday at the first rehearsal.
My boss is cracking down on phone use at work, so I have to wait for breaks and lunch or when I get home. Then my hubs gets upset when I am on the phone too much after work too. I’m just trying to work out the new schedule.
All during my 60 years of being a Christian, I knew that MacArthur was an idiot. Now in the 7 years since my awakening to atheism, I've changed my opinion of him. Now, he's a blithering idiot !!
John MacArthur is one of those people I honestly wish could be made to live up close and personal with the results of his lies. I feel like the only way to get through to someone this steeped in conspiracy theories is pretty much for reality to smack him upside the noggin, as it were.
Religion has done long term irreparable harm to the mentally ill for centuries(millennia?) now, and it's become clear that pattern isn't changing in far too many places. Pretending that there is no problem is, at some point, saying that the solution to the problem is to continue having the problem. I don't see how continuing to have the same problems for the entirety of human existence helps anyone at all; seems like the sort of thing a cruel god looking for entertainment might do, really. From what I see in this clip, John MacArthur has proven he's not just a fanatical religious preacher, he's also a conspiracy nut who really needs find reality again preferably posthaste. Until he does, the best thing anyone can do to help him is stop listening to these unhinged rants he seems to be so very fond of.
"How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! How shitty and illogical is His plan..." (Sorry, I forget exactly how the verse goes...)
It sounds like this clown has been studying Scientology, another "religion" that would prefer to hoover up your money you might otherwise spend on legit mental health care.
He talks about people winding up homeless in L.A. (as if Los Angeles contained all the homeless people in the US), yet makes no mention of feeding, clothing and housing them like his savior said to do.
So how many homeless people has McArthur helped? Bet I can count them on one hand and still have 4 fingers and a thumb left over. He's one of those believers who calls Jesus 'Lord' yet doesn't do what Jesus tells him to.
The guy that said that is now in court facing all manner of charges, civil and criminal. His supposedly rabid hordes are failing to show up across from the courthouse to show their support. He gets laughed at in court and has to eat it. His own lawyers are having trouble handling him and family and friends have to be in the gallery to babysit him so that he doesn't explode and screw himself in front of the judge and jury.
(Imagine that. Having to babysit a 77-year-old-man like the 3-year-old toddler that he mentally is)
The biggest mistake that could be made here would be trying to debate or argue with him. As a fundamentalist he lives in a world beyond the reach of facts and reason by definition. I don't know what his education amounts to, but I would be shocked to learn he has any background in mental health what so ever. Few things are more damaging to mental health than fundamentalist, unreasoning, religion. His enablers in the pews are every bit as bad, or they wouldn't be there.
MacArthur reminds me of that jackass, Dr. Don McLeroy of the Texas State Board of Education, who once said, "Someone has to stand up to the experts." Well, given a chance, I'd confront MacArthur with a phalanx of experts in each field, as well as those they have treated, and rub his sorry nose in it. Let him hear the stories of those who are managing their PTSD, OCD, and ADHD, because they got the right treatment, never mind the horror stories of those who listened to MacArthur or someone like him and suffered as a result.
I want that fool to know first-hand of the harm he is doing, whether he's prepared to accept those testimonies or not. Yeah, yeah, I know, it'll never happen. Doesn't change the necessity of it.
Let him drive on a freeway in the wrong side. After all, experts say it's so dangerous that doing it more of a couple of minutes is lethal.
No one ever prayed their way out of PTSD. It is something that physically re-wires the brain.
Exactly, and laying on of hands and deliverance does not work.
Flight to strong religion is very common in people having a mental health crisis.
May I comment about experts and those that “know” based upon my Learning?
1. In many courts I’m considered an expert in a couple of areas. However I’m always learning new things so with this new knowledge, was I an expert before I learned it? Since everything is always changing, I do not believe there are experts.
2. There once was a man who was always trying to learn from experts and would ask them questions about their expertise. Unfortunately he found flaws in their knowledge. After doing this for some time he finally concluded he “KNEW NOTHING.” His name was Socrates.
3. There once was a man who gained great insights into human suffering. Others wished him to share his insights and how he gained them. He did but cautioned that he was sharing what worked for him and that others must walk their own path to their individual “enlightenment” the Buddha even warned that while walking that Road (path) if they meet a Buddha along the way, they should—metaphorically—murder him.
4. Those that think they know the Tao—the way—do not know, precisely because they “think” they know.
5. IMO anyone who knows, especially those that know because they know the mind of their mythical god, are not only foolish but may be dangerous.
I KNOW NOTHING
It's amazing how often god speaks to people, especially politicians and pastors, to reaffirm what those people already believe.
Yep......god spoke to Mike Johnson just in December telling him he was the new Moses......
If i claimed that, I'd be in a psych ward. Mike claims and the idiots believe him.
I’m listening to and watching video of Pentatonix sing Hallelujah. Helps me FEEL the deep yearning of those seeking a connection to their god. My heart and soul feel it. My mind knows-from experience—it is unrequited yearning but still a deep and soulful feeling.
However, if I listen to an evangelist speaking, that forlorn yearning turns to nausea and I know “hell is other people.”
Sgt. Schultz was a very wise man.
[puts sandals on head, exits the chat]
If you suffered a trauma, you would know it.
Wasn’t that the infamous line(s) of the Nazi camp guards?
Last line from Jean-Paul Sartre’s play NO EXIT.
I remember a study from social psychology done many decades ago that showed when one defends a position in a debate it entrenches them further into the position they defend. Thus, it is a waste of time arguing with fools.
Never waste your time arguing with an idiot are words to live by.
Yes, I think it would be a sign of maturity and wisdom to live by those words. Damn, I’m not very mature or wise. ♐️♐️♊️👅👅👅😎
I feel like they need to be publicly denounced and challenged to a debate. Their lies cannot be the last thing lingering out there without challenge. While most of these extreme ministers would probably not accept the challenge (which I think is a sign of weakness on their part, b/c if you truly believe in something you shouldn't have a problem debating it), there would be a few of them that are arrogant enough to agree to debate....... and after that debate if one person in the church decides to pick up a different book other than the bible, they might actually break free of the cult. I also wonder how much of MacArthur's rhetoric he actually truly believes versus creating a stage presence and making money with that hateful rhetoric, not that he is even close to being normal, he's a shit bag excuse for a human regardless.
My parents believed this. Mental illness was a sin and I would be beaten until I repented of the sin the world was trying to make excuses for. I have Dissociative Identity Disorder. Hmm I wonder how that happened...
That sort of gaslighting will certainly put you into some form of complex PTSD (cPTSD). Gas Lighting amounts to RE-Abusing victims. . . That’s why I come down so hard on people like that . . . It’s not ignorance—it’s more abuse. There are a lot of sadistic people hiding behind “religious authority.” They are about control and punishment, not actual “religion.”
My diagnosis is DID so much more complex and yes, the abuse was severe and it's traumatizing all over again when people won't believe.
I sometimes am grateful for the abuse as it helped me open my eyes. As a teen I loved reading Kafka, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and others whose vision was more aligned with my own. We are free of the gaslighting which is “Blessing” from us to ourselves if can can just appreciate the blessing.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑃𝑇𝑆𝐷. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑂𝐶𝐷. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝐴𝐷𝐻𝐷.
Says the guy who very likely has never served in the military, never seen combat, and sure as hell has no medical training to allow him to understand the subtleties of disorders which impact mental and emotional processing. Now me, I never served either, but I'd like to think I have a couple of things that John MacArthur doesn't have: EMPATHY and COMPASSION, never mind a willingness to learn about things I may previously not have known.
I have known men (no women, so far) who came back from Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan who suffered from PTSD. I've known and observed multiple kids, including two of my gal's grandkids, who have ADHD and have been treated for it. I've seen the before and after and understand that something is going on in their mental mechanisms which is keeping them from functioning as well as even they would like.
As for MacArthur, this is what we get when someone decides he knows more than anyone else and has to hold forth, mostly to demonstrate how utterly ignorant he is. Drs. Dunning and Kruger, there's your patient.
Vets are not only ones to suffer from PTSD. He also denies the suffering of rape and abuse victims, but it's coherent with him " revealing that MacArthur failed to protect child abuse victims, and excommunicated a mother for refusing to allow her abusive husband back into her home,".
I wonder what kind of song Mary Poppins would sing about this guy and people like him? My guess is she wouldn’t sing at all about one who appears to be collapsing further and further into a the black hole of ignorance. It appears that it is too late to save them as they have passed the event horizon where any kind
Should I try to coin one in French or English ?
Every time I see your handle I can hear the great Haley Rhinehardt singing BLACK HOLE SUN with Post Modern Jukebox. Since I know little French—I know Je sui malad for not knowing French—I’ll take English.
My Black Hole preferred Rammstein.
From "Feed the birds"
Early each day to the steps of Oral BOB
The stupid cuckoo man comes
In his own dumb way to the people he calls
"Come, buy my books void of ideas."
Come call the little dumbs, show them their fate
Then they'll be bad like you do
Their young minds are hungry, their brains are so bare
All it takes is intolerance from you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6RD6mjiIZE
Locally, Brandi Carlile covered Black Hole Sun...WITH Soundgarden.
https://youtu.be/n10KfpmKen4
Again, comment posted before finished because of accidental touch on my iPad and not allowed to edit. Oh well, I think I’ll just float on the substack current and not try to swim upstream.
I've never been in the military either, but my dad was a medic in the Navy in world war 2. He lived for 50 years with undiagnosed and untreated PTSD and daily migraines. Like the preacher, my mom had no medical training and believed for every day of the 57 years she and dad were married that dad was lying about his health problems, in order to get attention (or something.) Dad died in 2007, but to this day I have been unable to wrap my head around that attitude. Like that preacher, mom thought her Catholic god would make everything better if something was wrong. In the mid-90s, dad finally got a PTSD diagnosis and the medication and psychotherapy he needed. Mom continued to sabotage his treatment,though it was clear to everyone else--including all us kids--that dad was improving. (He never did get treatment for the daily migraines. I inherited the same daily migraine pattern, and just last week a neurologist told me I was lying. He didn't have the ignorance excuse mom did. The nerve of some people!)
I have a PTSD diagnosis and 70% of my VA disability is that. But this is a slightly different story:
2 years ago the VA transferred me to a new doctor (primary care). For two years I complained of increasing pain and stiffness in my right pinky finger. At first, just an ache, but I told him about it. He replied "let's try not holding our phone so much." Well, wait, I hold it with my left hand. Over an 18 month period he would not believe there was an issue at all, despite the fact that I have almost no movement in the finger now and intense pain. To sum up ... got a new primary care, she spent less than two minutes manipulating the finger and asking questions, diagnosed "trigger finger syndrome", and referred me to orthopedics for steroid shots.
The only problem now is that this is progressive and the damage permanent. So I lost two years of intervention and management to an ass who thought he knew and never asked me questions, or any other medical person, for that matter.
Mis and un diagnoses cause permanent harm!
Yup. I'm a living/breathing example of mis-diagnosis causing permanent harm, 69 years+ worth of harm and counting, despite later attempts to rectify the problem.. Which is why "nuh-uh" diagnoses like the neurojackass last week Do Not Get A Pass Anymore. I did tell him that I didn't appreciate him calling me and nine other people over three generations of my family liars. The stunned look on his face when I said I'd be looking for a second opinion was priceless. I'm usually not so direct, or give them a second chance--but not this time. Arrogant asshole!
I hope and pray more people stand up and start saying "no that's not acceptable" to their doctors and other people in positions of authority when those authority figures don't give them the time of day. It's their job, they get paid to listen and to diagnose, telling somebody that's "all in your head" doesn't solve anything. Stand up, fight back! Don't tolerate it!
Yes, same. Except, I do more than pray about it. I make sure, as best I can, that these sorts of assholes face consequences for their arrogance and mistreatment of people, even if it's just reporting them, leaving a bad Yelp review, and trashing them when I'm asked to recommend them to others. Thirty or forty years ago, a doc's bad reputation might not get beyond a local area, but now people can and do make them face up to their bad behavior and misdiagnoses. (The misdiagnosis that I was subjected to as a kid, 69+ years ago, might be less likely to happen today. The dude would likely be caught and at least have his license yanked.)
Whenever I find somebody preaching from the pulpit, I send out the link so that you could easily report them to the IRS because it's illegal and it makes me mad! So here's the link if it will help you in the future. I keep it handy. Share it with your friends and do not let them get away with it! https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf
I too suffered migraines as a child. They went away when I left home and started realizing my family no longer had any control over me that I had given them.
Interesting. Mine appeared about age 45, long after I'd left home. When they finally did get going, it was the family pattern. Go figure.
I've dealt with PTSD for over half a century. You don't get over it.
I couldn't find anything in his bio which stated that he served in the armed forces - hence no combat experience. I did read that he attended Bob Jones University and is a proponent of young earth creationism. Tells me everything I need to know about this charlatan.
Based on his age, it looks like he would have missed both drafts. Even if he hadn't, he would have found a way to get a deferment. Certainly there are military service people in his church, or family members of service members that suffer from PTSD, why do they listen to him? Why do they attend the church? certain people are predispositioned to being brainwashed. They need deprogramming, no different than any other cult.
Hey MacArthur:
It's called post 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 stress disorder, not post bereavement stress disorder. It is not just ordinary grief. I have been living with ordinary grief for seven fucking years since the death of my wife, and it sure as hell isn't PTSD.
And ADHD? My late wife had that. I have seen how she was when it was treated, as well as how she was when it was untreated for the brief periods when she was hospitalized for unrelated issues. I can tell you that bugabear is real, too.
You, sir, are a fool who thinks that everything fits into the narrow little boxes your personal interpretation of one religion's holy book tells you exist. No one you don't look down on will tell you this because of the authoritarian control structure of your religion that put you on top.
I would say fuck you and the horse you rode in on, but I have too much respect for horses.
Tell them fk you WITH the horse they rode in on.
Another POS Know-Nothing is gaslighting every last person who was traumatized, INCLUDING those ABUSED BY CHURCH MEMBERS AND CHURCH DOGMA. He has NO basis in science or reality, so why give him air time? He’s just another abuser who deserves a bullet to his head, which will never arrive. Don’t spread his BS.
Hear hear. The Abrahamic religions have always been the great abusers.
This is not about religion. It is about abusive people who seek to control and dominate, using positions of power—they are sadistic. You find them in ALL religions.
And the beat goes on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkYYE6hmjg
A Christian uttering "There's no such thing." Wow. Talk about clueless.
Self awareness has never been their strong suit.
It’s time people like that were corrected on the spot: This guy is coming from a place of sadism and control, not his “religion.”
Christians profess to a superior morality due to their religion, yet I see nothing moral in what MacArthur is babbling foolishly about. What I DO see is a total lack of empathy from him. Empathy and religion are two very separate things. He has one thing and not the other.
Oh, and by the way? Scripture says that his god detests lying lips (see Proverbs 12:22).
Combat Veteran here. I have little doubt that a few of us could take little Johnny out behind the conex and introduce him to PTSD in a visceral manner. 😉
It's sad to say, but sometimes, the only way some people learn a lesson is the HARD way. Personally, I think MacArthur fits that description to a T.
"Naturally, no one else on that panel had a word of criticism for MacArthur."
That REALLY says A LOT. Are there any good christians? Not many, certainly not in the loudest most prominent of the leadership.
I think Pope Francis tries to reflect a Jesus-centered, Sermon on the Mount-kind of christianity. His visible difficulty in doing so tells us volumes about the various and malorous corruptions infecting many more recent xianities. Religions present poorly in more secular and humanistic societies.
Any religion or ideology that lessens the humanity or worth of someone simply for not being a follower is by its nature unconscionable and should be broadly unacceptable in a decent civil society. The only exception, and it's not really an exception, is an ideology that is intolerant of intolerance, which is NOT intolerance as self-reference is troublesome even to basic logic itself as Bertrand Russell discovered to his dismay. Unfortunately, it IS the very nature of religions and ideologies to view outsiders as less than.
Even Jesus' Beatitudes in that Sermon on the Mount are a piss-poor guide to morality.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/741aa91dd2d36347d9c8d4d473243fe7632cc76382e865a97a8082d343d9202b.png
It is a kinda weird paradox, like Russell's 'set of all sets that are not members of themselves' or 'the barber who shaves everyone in town who doesn't shave themselves, so who shaves the barber'. It's extremely relevant to a lot of the BS christians are constantly doing, like crying 'freedom of religion' when that freedom is to take away the freedoms and rights of those who don't follow their religion [some recent SCOTUS rulings allowing with such grotesqueries ]
I’m a fan of much—not all-of the insights of Karl Popper. As you may know, he was a very bright physicist who escaped Nazi Germany and is most famous for his views of what constitutes science.
OT hi y’all, been away for a little bit. Just wanted to tell you that I tried out for a community theater and got a part in Midsummer Nights Dream. Also, I got an Art on Main project again this year. It will be my 5th one. I’m gonna be busy for the next two months. But I am excited for the new challenges.
Congratulations, Val. Knock 'em dead!
Break a leg!
Hey, what happened to my comment that I posted to Val hours ago? It read:
"Felicitations. "Break a leg" as they say in The Biz."
I was wondering where you were. Congrats! Which part?
Philostrate. And I may also be playing a fairy. I’ll know more on Wednesday at the first rehearsal.
My boss is cracking down on phone use at work, so I have to wait for breaks and lunch or when I get home. Then my hubs gets upset when I am on the phone too much after work too. I’m just trying to work out the new schedule.
Master of the Revels for Theseus's court. Sort of sounds like the Ringmaster at a circus. You should be great. : )
All during my 60 years of being a Christian, I knew that MacArthur was an idiot. Now in the 7 years since my awakening to atheism, I've changed my opinion of him. Now, he's a blithering idiot !!
John MacArthur is one of those people I honestly wish could be made to live up close and personal with the results of his lies. I feel like the only way to get through to someone this steeped in conspiracy theories is pretty much for reality to smack him upside the noggin, as it were.
Religion has done long term irreparable harm to the mentally ill for centuries(millennia?) now, and it's become clear that pattern isn't changing in far too many places. Pretending that there is no problem is, at some point, saying that the solution to the problem is to continue having the problem. I don't see how continuing to have the same problems for the entirety of human existence helps anyone at all; seems like the sort of thing a cruel god looking for entertainment might do, really. From what I see in this clip, John MacArthur has proven he's not just a fanatical religious preacher, he's also a conspiracy nut who really needs find reality again preferably posthaste. Until he does, the best thing anyone can do to help him is stop listening to these unhinged rants he seems to be so very fond of.
Better not. He is so intoxicated by his auto proclaimed expertise, he will try to exorcise patients.
"And another thing: that 'germ theory' thing is a scam too! And don't get me started about the 'gravity' hoax..."
Things don't fall, the Earth is accelerating up. (I hope the /s doesn't fall flat.)
God just makes things stick to the Earth through His power and love.
Then whey didn't god make a planet of he asteroid belt instead of a bunch of loose rocks?
LOLOLOL
"How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! How shitty and illogical is His plan..." (Sorry, I forget exactly how the verse goes...)
Have you been reading this weeks Non Sequitur?
https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2024/04/29
It sounds like this clown has been studying Scientology, another "religion" that would prefer to hoover up your money you might otherwise spend on legit mental health care.
He talks about people winding up homeless in L.A. (as if Los Angeles contained all the homeless people in the US), yet makes no mention of feeding, clothing and housing them like his savior said to do.
So how many homeless people has McArthur helped? Bet I can count them on one hand and still have 4 fingers and a thumb left over. He's one of those believers who calls Jesus 'Lord' yet doesn't do what Jesus tells him to.
I'm sure he'd 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 them spend a night in jail if they came 'round his door to take shelter on the stoop.
Or gives them a Joel Osteen and outright turns them away because they'd make his carpet all yucky.
"Jesus didn't mean the icky ones!"
He's not a conspiracy theorist, he's a conspiracy fantasist. Nothing he says needs to be even remotely seriously considered.
With a lofty following of adherents who accept everything he says. Useful idiots. MAGAs.
Well, nobody rational needs to take him seriously. The deranged he has with him always.
He could literally shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single follower.
The guy that said that is now in court facing all manner of charges, civil and criminal. His supposedly rabid hordes are failing to show up across from the courthouse to show their support. He gets laughed at in court and has to eat it. His own lawyers are having trouble handling him and family and friends have to be in the gallery to babysit him so that he doesn't explode and screw himself in front of the judge and jury.
(Imagine that. Having to babysit a 77-year-old-man like the 3-year-old toddler that he mentally is)
I give a 3-year-old a little more credit. But both have a tendency to doze off and fart.