WEEK IN REVIEW: The worst Pride Month sermon ever
Kenneth Copeland’s money nightmare, what Christian Nationalists say about criticism of Christian Nationalism, a new Holy Trinity, and more!
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This week, a clip I posted from a Christian hate-preacher was shared by George Takei, Natalie Wynn (a.k.a. ContraPoints), Newsweek, and others. NBC News even wrote an article about it (without giving me any credit, not that I’m bitter). The video received 100,000 views within the first hour on Twitter alone. I’ll describe that clip and others in a moment, but you can support the work I do—and help me continue it—by getting a paid subscription or donating via Patreon.
Now onto the news…
That Christian hate-preacher I mentioned above is Dillon Awes, a New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist preacher who was speaking at Jonathan Shelley’s Stedfast Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas.
In the course of a few minutes in a single sermon on Sunday, Awes called for the execution of all gay people, which he justified by claiming (lying) that they were “all pedophiles” and that they celebrated and caused school shootings. Just vile, vile stuff in the name of Jesus.
On Sunday, Christian hate-preacher Dillon Awes said that the government should execute every gay person. All of them. "They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head! That's what God teaches. That's what the Bible says."Christian hate-preacher Dillon Awes justified his calls for the execution of gay people by claiming (falsely, obviously) "all homosexuals are pedophiles." Either they've done the crime already, he insisted, or "they haven't had the opportunity yet."Christian hate-preacher Dillon Awes also said "sodomites" are responsible for school shootings—and actively celebrate those tragedies. "That's the type of people sodomites are."While the video was quickly taken down by YouTube, another copy remains up as of this writing, as does the rest of Stedfast’s channel. As I wrote, that’s where their power comes from. Awes and his ilk don’t give a damn about reaching only the people in their congregations. They don’t care if only a handful of people sit in their pews. They want to reach impressionable bigots through social media. They want to spread hate under the guise of Christian love. And social media companies are helping them do it, usually in direct violation of their own terms of service.
It’s not just Christian hate-preachers either. It’s mainstream Republicans.
Let’s hope the January 6 Committee shines a light on Christian Nationalism as a key factor in the attempted coup. This picture from Thursday night’s hearing really says it all:
A school board candidate in Maryland revealed her anti-LGBTQ bigotry by checking out every single book in a local library’s Pride display just so kids couldn’t get to them first.
Heather Fletcher justified her decision by saying, “This has nothing to do with the gay community… It has to do with the preservation of innocence.” Which is the sort of nonsense conservative Christians tell themselves to feel better about their bigotry.
The irony is that this could backfire. By checking out the books, Fletcher effectively sent the message that those books are popular. That’s how libraries decide how many copies of various books they need; they look at circulation numbers. So Fletcher’s stunt could indirectly lead to the library system getting more copies of those books.It’s never good when an Army chaplain writes about how Southern Baptists can use the U.S. military as a weapon for converting others to Christianity… while still serving as an active-duty chaplain… but that’s what William C. Harrison did in his 211-page dissertation. Can you imagine if a Muslim or atheist did anything like that? And yet this story hasn’t received much coverage at all, arguably because we just expect Christian nationalists to use the government to promote their faith.
Some good news out of Poland! Their version of the Boy Scouts decided to stop making kids pledge an oath to God. They now have a choice between a religious oath and a secular one. Will that lead to more members? Who knows, but it’s a perfect sensible step that the Boy Scouts of America have refused to make despite all their other attempts to lure in new members.
Conspiracy theorist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Christian Nationalist, wants you to know that everyone who criticizes Christian Nationalism is a “domestic terrorist.” Not her. Never her. No matter what happened on January 6.
On that point…
And as if on cue, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said we could avoid all mass shootings if government leaders just prayed more. He added that everything’s gone downhill ever since forced Christian prayers were removed from public schools in the 1960s.
Gohmert: Maybe if we heard more prayers from leaders in this country instead of taking god’s name in vain, we wouldn’t have the mass killings like we didn’t have before prayer was eliminated from schoolsHe’s wrong about our history. He’s wrong about the court case He’s wrong about what needs to change. He’s just wrong.
Want to reduce mass shootings? Put more obstacles in the way for gun owners. Especially people who want weapons that can kill several people in seconds. Raise the legal age to own one. Make owners go through a certain amount of training. Register the weapons the way we register cars. There are many more possible answers to the problem, but Republicans are hell-bent on fighting every single one of them because, as a party, they love semi-automatic weapons more than children. Dead kids are a price they’ll gladly pay to continue their violent hobbies. The NRA always takes precedence over the PTA.At least Rep. Jared Huffman has the right idea:
If you care about our nation's deadly gun violence epidemic, you have a clear choice in this year's election. Democrats have the guts and moral clarity to take action. The GOP gives you only "thoughts and prayers."Kudos also go to Rep. Sean Casten, who tried to expose how Republicans don’t even care about sending thoughts and prayers:
About 15 years ago, around the time I wrote I Sold My Soul on eBay, I was asked by a handful of publishers if I would provide blurbs for books written by “hip” Christian pastors who were trying to reach people who didn’t necessarily love church. I doubt I would support their efforts today, but at the time, I appreciated what some of those pastors were doing, trying to wrest Christianity away from the more fundamentalist and political preachers, making it more loving and less hateful.
One of those books was written by Bruxy Cavey, who became Ontario’s “most influential pastor” in due time. I mention all that because Cavey resigned this week after being arrested and charged with sexual assault. Even the “good ones” can have a dark side.This is just extraordinary and a reminder that the Southern Baptist Convention is a giant dumpster fire right now: Some Christians are furious that the SBC is allowing Guidepost to investigate sexual abuse in their churches… because the company said it supports LGBTQ people.
There was a viral story this week about the religious sect that claims Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. We already knew People of Praise demand submission of women, but its founder Kevin Ranaghan has an alleged history full of control and sexual abuse. The Guardian’s article noted that Barrett lived with him and his wife during law school, but there’s no evidence she witnessed bad behavior or has ruled in a case based only on her religious views. That’s my problem with the article. It implies that her faith is leading her to make certain decisions on the Court, but her political beliefs are no different from the conservative justices who don’t share her religious views. She deserves criticism… but acting like this loose connection to a religious leader is damning falls flat considering how many of the justices are Catholic.
Barrett is responsible for explaining her decisions, and so far, they’ve been mostly (and predictably) awful. Her bizarre religious past (and present) doesn’t make things better or worse.Scamvangelist Kenneth Copeland dreams about money. He has nightmares about money. He makes predictions based on his visions of money.
Keri Blakinger, a former felon, told her fans on TikTok that she always had her Bible on hand in jail even though she was an atheist. Why? Because it was the one book no one told her to leave behind when she transferred locations, and it became a perfect makeshift address book for information about lawyers and other important contacts.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserThe media will never call it what it really is no matter how clear the evidence becomes:
Ah, yes. The New Holy Trinity:
It’s true:
You can’t even make a fake crown these days without a religious message…
Here’s every conservative Christian preacher during Pride Month:
This one’s for the people who oppose kids interacting with drag queens…
Fundamentalist Christian grandmother Lori Alexander, a.k.a. The Transformed Wife, had a slew of horrible tweets:
And now for your weekly dose of fundie insanity:
During his sermon today, Christian hate-preacher Greg Locke spouted conspiracy theories about monkeypox, vaccines, and face masks... while mocking Amber Heard and doing his best Goat Boy impression. #JustLikeJesusChristian hate-preacher Jonathan Shelley used the public comment portion of today's Arlington (TX) City Council meeting to spread anti-LGBTQ bigotry.Christian hate-preacher Corbin Ressl says (falsely) that atheists and gay people are responsible for school shootings. Then he says he'll "sit back and enjoy the show" when his God takes vengeance on them.This week in Atheist Bible Study? Numbers 5: We're finally back to what God does best! Giving everyone a bunch of rules to ignore AND making sure women suffer because their husbands had a bad feeling about them.
It's the chapter on jealousy!I spoke with my co-host Jessica Greiff about many of the stories in this newsletter during this week’s podcast:
And finally:
That’s it for this week! Stay safe. Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Please become a full subscriber or share this with someone who may enjoy it. It would mean a lot to me :)