Pastors Who Spent 15 Days in Hospital with COVID Gives Credit to Jesus "Vaccine"
He didn't give any credit to the doctors.
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Donald Trump gave his Re-tweet of Approval to a news story about a Facebook post by Paul Ewell, a dean at Virginia Wesleyan University, that called Joe Biden voters “ignorant, anti-American, and anti-Christian.” Ewell deleted the pity-party Facebook post, but the internet is forever.
Students of VWU were upset by the dean’s “flat-out name-calling” and immature attitude, while Trump offered one word in his Twitter co-sign: “Progress!”
I’m not sure what the right word is for alienating yourself from over half the country (5.7 million more Biden voters than Trump voters, to be exact), but “progress” isn’t the one that comes to mind.Pastor John Hagee returned to church after being hospitalized with COVID-19 and told his congregation, “We have a vaccine. The name is Jesus Christ.”
Right... I don’t suppose he spent 15 days in the hospital so doctors could do nothing more than pray over him, huh?
At least you’re not spending the holidays with televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s family:
Right-wing pastor Terri Pearsons, daughter of Kenneth Copeland, says God is up in Heaven laughing at the wickedness of those who mocked her father.Televangelist Kenneth Copeland laughs at the media for declaring that Joe Biden has won the election and will become president. https://t.co/ARHqmsEbo7
Right Wing Watch @RightWingWatchThe Atlantic published a story about evangelical Pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Atlanta. Stanley closed his church when the pandemic began and pledged not to re-open until next year. While this should be the standard response to a rampant deadly virus, his decision is rare enough to be notable.
Also notable? Stanley remained mostly apolitical over the past four years, remaining on the sidelines while many of his colleagues jumped aboard the Trump Train.Stanley declined to join his friends in ministry on the Trump train, waving them off when they texted selfies from Trump Tower. But neither has he joined the evangelical resistance, remaining notably quiet at times when other prominent conservative Christian leaders have spoken out, including after the deadly 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville and on the issue of family separation. He maintains that he doesn’t want to be a “headline-news preacher” and comments selectively on current events — this summer, he crafted a message focused on the killing of George Floyd. “It’s not that I don’t have opinions. It’s more that people don’t come to church to hear my opinions.”
As much as we gripe over preachers using the pulpit to promote partisan politics, here’s one we wish would come a little closer to the line. Not to tell his congregation who to vote for — but to not mince words about who’s in direct conflict with the church’s purported ethics.
The “prophets” who insist Trump has won re-election, but we just don’t know it yet, are still at it. I suspect this won’t fade away over the next several years, either.
In an essay for the New York Times, Katherine Stewart explains why religious authoritarianism isn’t going away anytime soon. This excerpt really stands out:
”One of the most reliable strategies for producing that unshakable cohort has been to get them to agree that abortion is the easy answer to every difficult political policy question.”Self-proclaimed Christian “prophet” Shepherd Bushiri has fled South Africa to avoid going on trial for fraud and money laundering charges.
Just a little refresher course for everyone who forgot who Bushiri is: Here he is “walking on air” in 2015.You have to be a fool to buy snake oil from this man. Sadly, he’s sold a lot of snake oil.
The city of Edmonton shut down an anti-abortion group’s planned bridge light display and now conservative Christians are crying discrimination. The city originally approved Alberta March for Life’s request to display the group’s pink-blue-white color theme on the High Level Bridge, symbolizing “unborn boys and girls,” but later backtracked citing “the polarizing nature of the subject matter.”
The anti-abortion group doesn't understand the difference between celebratory/awareness displays and cruel, deprecative religious displays, so they’ve taken the city the court.WEEKEND QUICKIES
A “pro-life” activist failed to see the irony in saying, “It’s time for every church in America to defy lockdown, quarantine and any other orders related to this virus.”
Friendly Atheist Podcast Ep. 348: Isn’t President-Elect Joe Biden Part of God’s Plan?
The Freedom From Religion Foundation stepped in when it was reported that a Kansas public school was participating in Franklin Graham’s “Operation Christmas Child,” helping the less fortunately while trying to win converts, in addition to overt proselytizing from the school’s vice principal.
