We still think the god thing is nonsense.

David Barton is spreading a new lie about churches and the Constitution
Pseudo-historian David Barton is trying to rewrite history again. Why won’t more Christians challenge him?
by HEMANT MEHTA

David Barton is spreading a new lie about churches and the Constitution | David BartonDavid Barton is lying. We know this because his mouth is open.

Christian pseudo-historian David Barton has made a career out of twisting and distorting the words of the Founding Fathers and the Bible itself in defense of Christian nationalism, homophobia, and bigotry. Now he’s doing it again with the Constitution.

He’s such an egregious Christian liar that he claimed to have an earned Ph.D. that was later revealed to be a hoax. And he once wrote a book about Thomas Jefferson that was so full of misinformation that his Christian publishers pulled the book from the shelves, saying, “There were historical details — matters of fact, not matters of opinion, that were not supported at all.” (The book was ironically titled The Jefferson Lies.)

And yet conservative Christians and Republican politicians still cite him as an authoritative source of information. They all know the sort of people who take them seriously aren’t really interested in honesty. They just want someone to say, with ...

https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/davi ... stitution/

From 2017



https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... a-good-man

Eslewhere

The Satanic Temple sues elementary school as after-school club rejected
Sarah Do Couto

Its a shame that children have become the pawns in the culture wars. I appreciate what the Satanic Temple is trying to accomplish but would prefer if we could keep our test cases in the adult realm.

If you want to brainwash people it helps if you get them young - hence after school clubs.

Not quite sure where to put this ....

From the Pilgrims to QAnon: Christian nationalism is the "asteroid coming for democracy"
Scholar Samuel Perry says the myth of a "Christian nation" has distorted American history from 1690 to Trump
By KATHRYN JOYCE

If the New York Times' "1619 Project" and Donald Trump's 1776 Commission mark two defining moments in American history, as well as opposite sides of an ideological chasm, a new book by sociologists Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry identifies a third defining moment. It's not a new proposed founding, but rather an "inflection point," the moment when the nation's history could have gone in another direction.

In "The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy," Gorski and Perry argue that in the years around 1690 — when Puritan colonists began envisioning their battles against Native Americans as an apocalyptic holy war to secure a new Promised Land, when Southern Christians began to formulate a theological justification for chattel slavery — a new national mythology was born. That mythology is the "deep story" of white Christian nationalism: the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation, blessed by God and imbued with divine purpose, but also under continual threat from un-American and ungodly forces, often in the form of immigrants or racial minorities.

The result was an ethnic nationalism sanctified by religion as it established a new "holy trinity" of "freedom, order and violence," meted out variously to in-groups and out.

When rioters driven by that vision broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, they were just reenacting a story that has been told in this country for centuries. But it's a story that again threatens to "topple American democracy" unless, Gorski and Perry write, a new "united front" is formed to defend it.

Perry spoke with Salon this April.

You describe white Christian nationalism as the "San Andreas Fault" of American politics.

We see America torn apart by an authoritarian populism that was characteristic of Trump's movement, which distrusts any opinion not tied to the nationalist leader. There's a lot of distrust for experts, even medical experts when it came to ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/29/from-t ... democracy/

I have difficulty believing that Christian Nationalism can endure due to the cognitive dissonance inherent its platitudes. Personal and religious freedom, except it's not personal or religious freedom if you want to be gay, trans, Muslim, or end your own pregnancy. Follow Jesus Christ, yet don't be tolerant or forgiving, and you don't have to share with those less fortunate, or help the weak, or rehabilitate the wicked, or give second chances. I wonder if they even know that Jesus didn't speak English. This power grab by a minority of people will go the way of those before them. They exclude too many people to allow them to grow much further. The more they grow, the more exclusionary they seem ot get.

#266

The assistant principal is still a virgin?

As a ‘Seismic Shift’ Fractures Evangelicals, an Arkansas Pastor Leaves Home
Kevin Thompson thought he would lead his hometown church for the rest of his life. Then came Trump and everything after.
Ruth Graham

In the fall of 2020, Kevin Thompson delivered a sermon about the gentleness of God. At one point, he drew a quick contrast between a loving, accessible God and remote, inaccessible celebrities. Speaking without notes, his Bible in his hand, he reached for a few easy examples: Oprah, Jay-Z, Tom Hanks.

Mr. Thompson could not tell how his sermon was received. The church he led had only recently returned to meeting in person. Attendance was sparse, and it was hard to appreciate if his jokes were landing, or if his congregation — with family groups spaced three seats apart, and others watching online — remained engaged.

So he was caught off guard when two church members expressed alarm about the passing reference to Mr. Hanks. A young woman texted him, concerned; another member suggested the reference to Mr. Hanks proved Mr. Thompson did not care about the issue of sex trafficking. Mr. Thompson soon realized that their worries sprung from the sprawling QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that the movie star is part of a ring of Hollywood pedophiles.

For decades, Mr. Thompson, 44, had been confident that he knew the people of Fort Smith, a small city tucked under a bend in the Arkansas River along the Oklahoma border. He was born at the oldest hospital in town, attended public schools there and grew up in a Baptist church that encouraged him to start preaching as a teenager. He assumed he would live in Fort Smith for the rest of his life.

But now, he was not so sure. “Jesus talks about how he is the truth, how central truth is,” Mr. Thompson said in an interview. “The moment you lose the concept of truth you’ve lost everything.”

A political moment in which the Supreme Court appears on the brink of overturning Roe v. Wade looks like a triumphant era for conservative evangelicals. But there are deepening cracks beneath that ascendance.

Across the country, theologically conservative white evangelical churches that were once comfortably united have found themselves at odds over many of the same issues dividing the Republican Party and other institutions. The disruption, fear and physical separation of the pandemic have exacerbated every rift.

Many churches are fragile, with attendance far below prepandemic levels; denominations are shrinking, and so is the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian. Forty-two percent of Protestant pastors said they had seriously considered quitting full-time ministry within the past year, according to a new survey by the evangelical pollster Barna, a number that had risen 13 points since the beginning of 2021.

Michael O. Emerson, a sociologist at the University of Illinois Chicago, described a “seismic shift” coming, with white evangelical churches dividing into two broad camps: those embracing Trump-style messaging and politics, including references to conspiracy theories, and those seeking to navigate a different way.

In many churches, this involves new clashes between established leaders and ordinary believers.

Sometimes the breaches make headlines, like when ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/us/a ... rches.html

Christian Americans have a history of using the Bible to excuse the worst in humanity
Now the United States Supreme Court is coming after women’s rights to control their bodies using supposed Christian precepts as its grounding.
Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, on June 22, 2021, directed the Department of the Interior to investigate the Federal Indian boarding school system. A report released this month showed that between 1819 and 1969, the U.S. government operated or supported 408 primarily off-reservation boarding schools across 37 states (or then territories). These included 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii.

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report maintained that the expressed purpose for the creation of these schools by the U.S. governments was to assimilate specifically American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian children into a Christian European cultural system and to rob them further of their territories. It was a form of ethnic cleansing.

On initial investigation, at least half of the Federal Indian boarding schools received support or involvement from Christian religious institutions “or organization, including funding, infrastructure, and personnel.” The report goes on to state, “Initial investigation results show that approximately 50 percent of Federal Indian boarding schools may have received support or involvement from a religious institution or organization, including funding, infrastructure, and personnel.”

“As the U.S. Senate has recognized, funds from the 1819 Civilization Fund ‘were apportioned among those societies and individuals—usually missionary organizations—that had been prominent in the effort to “civilize” the Indians.’”

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative investigation found approximately 19 Federal Indian boarding schools accounted for over 500 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian child deaths. Through further investigation ...

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/05/chr ... -humanity/

Kansas town to put ‘In God We Trust’ back on police cars—but there’s a twist
The Haven City Council voted to bring back the Christian decals after a public pressure campaign—then the story got even more interesting
HEMANT MEHTA

You knew it was too good to last.

Two weeks ago, in Haven, Kansas, the city council asked the local police department to remove the “In God We Trust” decals from vehicles and to stop using their official Facebook page to promote Christianity. Council member Sandra Williams raising concerns about it, correctly noting that those were not the “forum to be talking about God.”

To his credit, Police Chief Stephen Schaffer said he would do whatever the council wanted him to do, even if he didn’t agree with it.

The second-guessing about that move, however, started quickly. Mayor Adam Wright later said “There should have been probably a little more discussion,” before bizarrely claiming cops needed to look to a higher power.

That’s why more eyes than usual were on ...

https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/rura ... lice-cars/

Have to wonder how long it will be before any police vehicle displaying a non-Christian slogan will be vandalized ...

Occult club registration rejected after complaint it may summon Satan to University of Adelaide

A club for pagans, witches and Satanists says its affiliation with the Adelaide University Union has been rejected because of a complaint its members may summon the devil onto campus.

"Even if we did want to summon Satan, it's not against university or union policy to do so, so it's still not really grounds to reject us," Adelaide University Occult Club president Ashley Towner said.

The Adelaide University Occult Club was formed in late 2020 and provisionally registered with ....

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-26/ ... /101097552

Not quite sure where to put this so here it is ...

Utah County Attorney Demands QAnon Sheriff Resign For Accusing Him Of 'Cannibalizing' Children
Alan Herrera

Utah County Attorney David Leavitt demanded county sheriff Mike Smith resign from his post after Smith published a 151-page "report" implicating Leavitt in a “ritualistic” sex ring known for “cannibalizing young children.”

The report names Leavitt and his wife as part of this story circulated among adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory. The report claims the abuse of young children took place between 1990 and 2010 across three separate counties in the state of Utah.

You can hear Leavitt's remarks in the video below.



QAnon, whose believers allege Democrats are part of a Satan-worshipping, baby-eating global pedophile ring that conspired against former President Donald Trump during his time in office, counts Smith among its adherents.

Lately, a new conspiracy has developed alleging progressives are ...

https://www.comicsands.com/utah-qanon-s ... 55037.html

How evangelicals became such hypocrites
Nathaniel Manderson



So who, what, why and how is an "evangelical"? I often forget after all my years of growing up in the church, going to an evangelical seminary and my work in ministry, that many or perhaps most Americans have little knowledge and understanding of the evangelical movement, the Christian faith and how it all connects to American culture and American politics. I would say that most Americans are frustrated at the disproportionate influence and political power that evangelical Christians hold. For some the frustration is more personal because of how they've been treated by the church types. Either way, this mysterious species — the evangelicals — seem to be a major problem in American society. As a trained evangelical, and an ordained minister, I would have to say I completely agree.

Who are these evangelicals? First off, their true ancestors are the Pharisees of the New Testament, whom Jesus describes as being obsessed with legalistic questions but neglecting "the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness." This is the primary group that had Jesus killed. Much like the Pharisees, today's American evangelicals do not represent the faith in any genuine way. They have done more damage to the name of Christianity than any group I can think of. Their misuse of the Christian faith as a political weapon against anyone they see as an enemy is driven primarily by ...

https://www.rawstory.com/evangelicals-2657458106/

Sounds like some Catholic toes were stepped on

Minister warns of “atheist ideology” after Polish scouts allowed not to mention God in oath

The Polish Scouting Association’s (ZHP) recent decision to allow recruits to omit the word “God” from their oath has drawn criticism from Catholic clergy and a minister in Poland’s national-conservative government, who warns that “attempts are being made to implement atheist ideology”.

Last month, the ZHP – which, with around 100,000 members, is Poland’s largest scouting organisation – decided at its annual congress to give scouts a choice between the current oath, in which they swear to “serve God and Poland”, or a new alternative one that omits mention of God.

“As an organisation, we want to give young people the opportunity to look for their own path,” wrote the ZHP in a statement. “Establishing a version that…omits the word ‘God’ will legitimise the accession of ...

https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/06/02/ ... d-in-oath/

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or America if you prefer) the BSA oath still requires the scout to "do their duty to god". Regardless of all the changes the BSA has made over the years, they still include that.

"allowed to not mention" is so coercive.