"We need more christians in politics." FTR, I've seen few actual christians in politics, so he may have a point there. But he's not talking about real christians; he's talking about the cosplayers who fly 'Appeal to Heaven' flags, wear cross jewelry, and have Jesus in their twitter bios - while open carrying at church, calling for a 'Second Revolution', and standing in a church exclaiming that 'some people need killing!" We need more of those like we need more athletes foot, black mold and Ebola outbreaks.
I wonder if the mindset of some Christians of being answerable to God's Law™, rather than the secular law of the land, isn't at least partially at the root of actions such as what Beard did here. As Hemant pointed out, his rather naive comment about: “we need to have Christians in politics nowadays” is indicative of his sense of self-justification. Thinking of that, I can't help but notice that Senator Raphael Warnock, a Baptist pastor himself, managed to get himself into office WITHOUT such questionable methods, and Beard would have done well to follow his example.
In any case, Beard got caught at it, and his mistake will hit him where it counts: IN HIS OWN WALLET. With luck, he'll learn from his mistake (and maybe others will pick up on the lesson as well), perhaps along with a lesson regarding State / Church separation. One can always hope.
The difference is Sen Warnock is an ethical man, who not only won his race, but a much more expensive one, by grassroots donations. If Beard had any ethics he could have done the same. Illegally doing so is obviously much easier than putting in the actual work.
This one falls under Hanlon's razor for me. Local dude runs for office, completely and utterly ignorant of campaign and election law. I fully agree 'ignorance is no excuse', he should pay fines, and ideally this is the sort of conduct that his competition can use to say "look, this guy is totally unqualified to be in office; he didn't even bother to figure out how to run let alone govern legally." If his Christian mindset influenced him, it was probably more about "Since God told me to run, I don't need to look anything up on how to do that" rather than "I looked up all the rules but since God told me to run, I don't need to follow them."
Whichever it is, it doesn't paint a good picture of him. When it comes to multiple blatant crimes, there is no "better" answer to the question "did you not know what you were doing, or did you know and do it anyway?"
Yes, one can always hope. But my experience says he will either put this down to PERSECUTION, or see it as an example of Satan working to undermine the Kingdom of the Lord.
Maybe. Or local Texas politics could be operating on the Russian model: everyone is guilty of corruption, & the commission decides on who to go after based on political orders.
Did those churches really think that donating money was on the up and up? They have to know the rules regarding their tax exempt status. I’m of the mind that because this was a small local race they figured they could slip the money in because who would notice? Same for Beard’s campaigning from the pulpit. The justification that more Christians are needed in government is puke worthy.
Just going on Hemant's article, one of them admitted they were told by Beard it was illegal. So yup, at least that one knew.
It also looks like the Commission may have taken that into account. While the numbers are comparatively small, the pastor who admitted knowing got fined 2x their donation, while the second pastor got fined 1x their donation (the third isn't mentioned as getting fined at all).
My question about that one is, why is one church donating to another? Not that they're rivals, but they're rivals. Also, wouldn't they be spending money they need to spread the word on someone else spreading the word. That excuse sounded the least plausible to me. If they had a reason to donate to another church because they thought the other church was doing something they should be doing but can't, wouldn't they specify that this money goes toward the soup kitchen, or donation closet, or specific purpose. They wouldn't be just donating freely and be surprised that money went toward nefarious deeds.
Or maybe I'm naive and churches just spread money around. I just know that the churches I attended back in the day, when dirt was being invented, were not making enough to just give it away to rival churches willy nilly.
I would have half believed it if was a wire transfer where you use accounts serial numbers, except it was checks with the name of the person or entity receiving the money on it.
Fraankenpope showed us that a couple years ago with a huge fraud trial in the vatican. Meanwhile the vatican is used to warehousse high ranking pedophiles like redbird Bernard Law.
Hell evil Pope Ratzi the nazi (the actual Hitler youth) was proved by Germany of moving them around to protect them when he was arch Bishop of Munich.
"Pope Benedict XVI failed to take action when he knew of priests who were abusing children while he was Archbishop of Munich in Germany from 1977 to 1981, a Catholic Church-led, German investigation has alleged, according to multiple reports.
Pope Benedict, known at the time as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, has denied the accusations, but his denials are “not reconcilable with the files in evidence,” according to lawyer Martin Pusch of the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm, commissioned by the Church about two years ago to investigate abuse between 1945 and 2019, CNN reports.
The report by the German law firm that collected decades of Church records states that there is evidence that Ratzinger knew directly of the abuse by certain priests before the scandal became public, but he did not act,
Much of the report is said to focus on priest Peter Hullermann, who was accused of abusing children in the late 1970s and ’80s, when Ratzinger was archbishop in Munich, reports the Post.
German media has questioned for years how much Ratzinger knew of the abuse at the time, as Hullermann had been sent to jail in 1986 for abusing children, but he was still permitted to remain in the Church, according to the Post.
Another Vatican-commissioned report that ended in 2018 concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014, NBC reports. Over half of the victims were under the age of 13, and about a third of them were altar servers.
Why should there be more Christians in politics? They are already disproportionately represented in elected office. Of course, the far right fundamantalist types won't accept that fact. They bagpipe away most of their brethren (the ones who actually care about helping people and not about power). They want more Christians who think exactly like they do in politics tso they can maintain and strengthen their grip on power. They want enough power to make their interpretation of what Christianity is supposed to be to become 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆. Once they have accomplished that, they can force everyone into their narrow little boxes, into which most people will not fit.
Should the religious right ever succeed in breaking down all the barriers between church and state, they will soon come to realize why those barriers were there in the first place as religious factions begin tearing one another apart. This is just one more example of Christian hypocrisy. One set of rules for thee, another set for me.
Guys, these RWNJ Christians scare the fucking daylights out of me. Because I used to BE one. I know how they think. I know how they believe. I know how fucking RIGHT they think they are about EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
Seriously, these people honestly believe they are the salt of the earth. They believe they are the only ones standing between a world full of reprobate heathens and the Wrath of God. They honestly, truly believe they are the only ones bringing sanity to the table. I know that sounds absurd, but believe me, this is how many of them think. Sure, a lot of them are just after the power and the glory of control, but many others believe they are the only agents of Peace and Sanity in the universe gone mad.
This shouldn’t be news, that he was punished for breaking the law. Things are so fucking ass backwards in our electoral process. It’s not news that a candidate broke election laws as well as non-profit rules, but it is news that the candidate was held accountable for it.
Why are they so desperate to hide it? Aren't they proud of trying to turn the USA into a fascist xtian theocracy? What are they so ashamed of that it needs to be held away from scrutiny?
At some level or other, they KNOW that what they want is 1) unpopular, 2) illegal and 3) detrimental to the general public ... but they want to do it anyway.
Because they care more about power than they do about people.
A friend of mine, before he de-converted walked a lot of that one in Spain, whose name I can't be bothered looking up because I only got about four hours sleep last night. :)
"We need more christians in politics." FTR, I've seen few actual christians in politics, so he may have a point there. But he's not talking about real christians; he's talking about the cosplayers who fly 'Appeal to Heaven' flags, wear cross jewelry, and have Jesus in their twitter bios - while open carrying at church, calling for a 'Second Revolution', and standing in a church exclaiming that 'some people need killing!" We need more of those like we need more athletes foot, black mold and Ebola outbreaks.
I wonder if the mindset of some Christians of being answerable to God's Law™, rather than the secular law of the land, isn't at least partially at the root of actions such as what Beard did here. As Hemant pointed out, his rather naive comment about: “we need to have Christians in politics nowadays” is indicative of his sense of self-justification. Thinking of that, I can't help but notice that Senator Raphael Warnock, a Baptist pastor himself, managed to get himself into office WITHOUT such questionable methods, and Beard would have done well to follow his example.
In any case, Beard got caught at it, and his mistake will hit him where it counts: IN HIS OWN WALLET. With luck, he'll learn from his mistake (and maybe others will pick up on the lesson as well), perhaps along with a lesson regarding State / Church separation. One can always hope.
The difference is Sen Warnock is an ethical man, who not only won his race, but a much more expensive one, by grassroots donations. If Beard had any ethics he could have done the same. Illegally doing so is obviously much easier than putting in the actual work.
But-but-but...Gawd tole him too!
This one falls under Hanlon's razor for me. Local dude runs for office, completely and utterly ignorant of campaign and election law. I fully agree 'ignorance is no excuse', he should pay fines, and ideally this is the sort of conduct that his competition can use to say "look, this guy is totally unqualified to be in office; he didn't even bother to figure out how to run let alone govern legally." If his Christian mindset influenced him, it was probably more about "Since God told me to run, I don't need to look anything up on how to do that" rather than "I looked up all the rules but since God told me to run, I don't need to follow them."
Whichever it is, it doesn't paint a good picture of him. When it comes to multiple blatant crimes, there is no "better" answer to the question "did you not know what you were doing, or did you know and do it anyway?"
This is the worrisome thing for me: those who are genuinely clueless, as opposed to those who are purposefully clueless.
They're both dangerous, though for different reasons.
^THIS.^
It wouldn't change anything. His wallet is funded by church funds already.
I would hope that the church would be moved to reserve their funds, since they were at the root of this whole incident, but who am I kidding! 😝
I kidded myself for far too long, trying to hold on to my belief.
Touche.
Yes, one can always hope. But my experience says he will either put this down to PERSECUTION, or see it as an example of Satan working to undermine the Kingdom of the Lord.
I LIKE it!!!
THX! Just ordered one.
If the Texas Ethics Commission says you messed up, you REALLY messed up.
Maybe. Or local Texas politics could be operating on the Russian model: everyone is guilty of corruption, & the commission decides on who to go after based on political orders.
I guess god didn't want Beard on the Abilene City Council. (And thought he had too much money.)
Did those churches really think that donating money was on the up and up? They have to know the rules regarding their tax exempt status. I’m of the mind that because this was a small local race they figured they could slip the money in because who would notice? Same for Beard’s campaigning from the pulpit. The justification that more Christians are needed in government is puke worthy.
Just going on Hemant's article, one of them admitted they were told by Beard it was illegal. So yup, at least that one knew.
It also looks like the Commission may have taken that into account. While the numbers are comparatively small, the pastor who admitted knowing got fined 2x their donation, while the second pastor got fined 1x their donation (the third isn't mentioned as getting fined at all).
I think the third was a credible mistake or at least they had some plausible explanation
My question about that one is, why is one church donating to another? Not that they're rivals, but they're rivals. Also, wouldn't they be spending money they need to spread the word on someone else spreading the word. That excuse sounded the least plausible to me. If they had a reason to donate to another church because they thought the other church was doing something they should be doing but can't, wouldn't they specify that this money goes toward the soup kitchen, or donation closet, or specific purpose. They wouldn't be just donating freely and be surprised that money went toward nefarious deeds.
Or maybe I'm naive and churches just spread money around. I just know that the churches I attended back in the day, when dirt was being invented, were not making enough to just give it away to rival churches willy nilly.
Perhaps because they’re so persecuted they thought the church was more effective at combatting all that persecution 🙄
Money laundering.
Yes you're right; rereading, Hemant says they weren't fined and opines that the Commission may have bought the 'mistake' line.
I would have half believed it if was a wire transfer where you use accounts serial numbers, except it was checks with the name of the person or entity receiving the money on it.
If you're a pastor and you mess with kids, you'll be all right. Mess with church $$$, however, and see the church's fangs come out.
Christian priorities.
Fraankenpope showed us that a couple years ago with a huge fraud trial in the vatican. Meanwhile the vatican is used to warehousse high ranking pedophiles like redbird Bernard Law.
Hell evil Pope Ratzi the nazi (the actual Hitler youth) was proved by Germany of moving them around to protect them when he was arch Bishop of Munich.
"Pope Benedict XVI failed to take action when he knew of priests who were abusing children while he was Archbishop of Munich in Germany from 1977 to 1981, a Catholic Church-led, German investigation has alleged, according to multiple reports.
Pope Benedict, known at the time as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, has denied the accusations, but his denials are “not reconcilable with the files in evidence,” according to lawyer Martin Pusch of the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl law firm, commissioned by the Church about two years ago to investigate abuse between 1945 and 2019, CNN reports.
The report by the German law firm that collected decades of Church records states that there is evidence that Ratzinger knew directly of the abuse by certain priests before the scandal became public, but he did not act,
Much of the report is said to focus on priest Peter Hullermann, who was accused of abusing children in the late 1970s and ’80s, when Ratzinger was archbishop in Munich, reports the Post.
German media has questioned for years how much Ratzinger knew of the abuse at the time, as Hullermann had been sent to jail in 1986 for abusing children, but he was still permitted to remain in the Church, according to the Post.
Another Vatican-commissioned report that ended in 2018 concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014, NBC reports. Over half of the victims were under the age of 13, and about a third of them were altar servers.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/590544-investigators-say-pope-benedict-knew-about-abused-children-while/
"We need more Christians in politics."
Sure, Jan.
Why should there be more Christians in politics? They are already disproportionately represented in elected office. Of course, the far right fundamantalist types won't accept that fact. They bagpipe away most of their brethren (the ones who actually care about helping people and not about power). They want more Christians who think exactly like they do in politics tso they can maintain and strengthen their grip on power. They want enough power to make their interpretation of what Christianity is supposed to be to become 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆. Once they have accomplished that, they can force everyone into their narrow little boxes, into which most people will not fit.
Quite the opposite, Jan. We need far LESS Christians in politics. We need less Christians in the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD!!!!!
Edited for typo. Too fucking many margaritas again.
Should the religious right ever succeed in breaking down all the barriers between church and state, they will soon come to realize why those barriers were there in the first place as religious factions begin tearing one another apart. This is just one more example of Christian hypocrisy. One set of rules for thee, another set for me.
Which would come first, killing infidels or burning heretics?
2 birds with 1 stoning.
GAAAHHH!
Guys, these RWNJ Christians scare the fucking daylights out of me. Because I used to BE one. I know how they think. I know how they believe. I know how fucking RIGHT they think they are about EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.
Seriously, these people honestly believe they are the salt of the earth. They believe they are the only ones standing between a world full of reprobate heathens and the Wrath of God. They honestly, truly believe they are the only ones bringing sanity to the table. I know that sounds absurd, but believe me, this is how many of them think. Sure, a lot of them are just after the power and the glory of control, but many others believe they are the only agents of Peace and Sanity in the universe gone mad.
They are CONTROL fighting against KAOS.
Sorry for the rant, you guys. Another sleepless night and too many margaritas. Or as I like to call them, Them Angels.
*Hugs* Lynn, I'm having trouble sleeping myself these days.
THNX :)
+++ Good question. Nothing rules out both things happening at the same time.
JFC, oraxx, are you TRYING to make sure I never sleep again?
Coin toss.
This shouldn’t be news, that he was punished for breaking the law. Things are so fucking ass backwards in our electoral process. It’s not news that a candidate broke election laws as well as non-profit rules, but it is news that the candidate was held accountable for it.
🎯
1.06 am and here I am. And not surprised in the least.
Just another day ending in Y.
Uh-oh! The word is out and they're trying to rebrand.
Agenda 47 = Project 2025
Yeah, I mentioned that the other day.
Why are they so desperate to hide it? Aren't they proud of trying to turn the USA into a fascist xtian theocracy? What are they so ashamed of that it needs to be held away from scrutiny?
At some level or other, they KNOW that what they want is 1) unpopular, 2) illegal and 3) detrimental to the general public ... but they want to do it anyway.
Because they care more about power than they do about people.
They know it's wrong but they still want to do it irregardless. That makes them sociopaths, every one of them. Absolute power corrupting absolutely.
"Irregardless?!?" 😁
Irregardless:
"...without attention to, or despite the conditions or situation"
-- Cambridge Dictionary, 2018 :)
Cockroaches hate the light.
"assess a civil penalty of up to $5,000 or triple the amount at issue, WHICHEVER IS GREATER,"
Amount at issue $ 800. 800 × 3 = 2400. Fine = 3500.
3500 > 5000. christian maths at works, m'ssieurs, dames.
Kleptocrats gotta kleptocrat.
Being a patriot.
https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/449728830_7643710532416623_177615662835325489_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296&_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=cc71e4&_nc_ohc=JlCoE1e0aDUQ7kNvgG_YtXW&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&oh=00_AYDsg_07INYfOeZxuzHGPOEvWfnj9-b8HvFiUSDfSk8MYw&oe=66969246
"The government of the United States is not, in any way, founded on the Christian religion."-The Treaty of Tripoli, baby!
THOSE are the words that should be mandated to be plastered over the walls of public school classrooms.
Propose it; see who objects.
IRS has seized $1Bilion from those making over 1 million per year. More expected. WGNTV.
Good.
The power of brainwashing.
https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/450608405_867255412115988_7466290439357274665_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296&_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=pVr3UbJXwwEQ7kNvgHnbADQ&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&oh=00_AYCGaSU6huMucM9e7gEQqqZEb3zB-tTvMad6MxImivudRA&oe=6695E340
But would he walk 500 miles and then walk 500 more just to be the priest who walked 1000 miles to bang that alter boy?
Unless he learned by talking to a wide variety of people in his travels that his religion has been a horror for humanity, it was wasted trip.
But I would walk six hundred miles
And I would walk six hundred more
Just to be the man who walked twelve hundred miles
To fall down at your door
*Sung with a Scottish accent*
Ça fait marcher* le commerce.
* Walk and euphemism for spending money in shops (among others).
"Marcher ou mourir" :)
"Marche ou crève" 🙂
I prefer PC Wren to Stephen King. :)
Never finished one written by the Maine star 😁
Personally, I have a preference for Chattam and Masterton.
Why should I be even slightly impressed with this?
With some hope, he was too busy and tired to molest children ?
"He's seeing, he's calling
His legacy he's spawning
He's coming, corrupting
Among the living
I'm the Walking Dude
I can see all the world
Twist your mind with fear
I'm the man with the power
Among the living
Follow me or die."
-- Anthrax, "Among the Living"
That surplice looks awfully clean and freshly ironed for a dude who allegedly walked that far.
A friend of mine, before he de-converted walked a lot of that one in Spain, whose name I can't be bothered looking up because I only got about four hours sleep last night. :)