Sunday Facepalm: God’s not dead, he’s being sued.

Pure Flix

Maybe God’s Not Dead, but he’ll probably wish he were when he learns about this lawsuit against the producers of the hokey franchise. According to The Wrap, Pure Flix Entertainment and co-founder David A.R. White are being sued for violating the eighth commandment, which The Simpsons or maybe Sunday school (and the New King James Bible) should have taught them is “Thou shalt not steal.” Screenwriters Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Michael Landon Jr. filed their suit on Monday, in which they claim that Pure Flix and White stole the premise for God’s Not Dead ’s from their screenplay for the unreleased film, Rise.

They are suing for 100 million dollars. 100 million. This pedestrian, boring meme of a story is barely worth one.

According to the complaint, “Rise” tells the story “of a freshman at Harvard facing an environment hostile to her Christian faith.” [T]he student then debates her professor three times on whether God exists.

The complaint notes numerous alleged similarities, stating, “The theme, set-up, opportunity, turning point, change of plans, complications, set back, final push, climax and aftermath of the ‘Rise’ screenplay and the ‘God’s Not Dead’ motion picture are the same.” [TheWrap]

I suppose Kullberg feels like she has a case on account of actually being a prominent Christian who went to Harvard, but that doesn’t change the fact that God’s Not Dead was essentially torn from the Marine Todd meme, which any shrewd idiot with a tolerance for tedium and an email account could’ve turned into a movie. I still want to see the Luke O’Neil version.

Interestingly, Kullberg and Landon are suing for $100 million, “a portion of God’s Not Dead‘s $140 million worldwide.”

Meanwhile, God’s Not Dead‘s lifetime international revenue is $62.63 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo. The only source for that $140 million number I can find is a Fox News interview with Kevin Sorbo. True, he says that includes DVD sales, but $80 million worth is a lot of DVDs.

Oh man, am I ever impressed with anyone who actually sat through this movie. I couldn’t even manage the whole trailer, I only made it to 1:48. I was afraid I might actually die of a fatal eyeroll. Worth 100 million? No way on earth. Or heaven. Or hell.

Via Uproxx and AV Club.

Campaign for USA.

CREDIT: YouTube/Screenshot

CREDIT: YouTube/Screenshot

It just never stops. There are always more willfully ignorant, evil-minded bigots out there, just salivating at the opportunity to cause harm.

The Conservative Republicans of Texas, which has already been named a hate group for its rhetoric, has launched what it’s calling “Campaign for USA” — modeled after their “Campaign for Houston.” It uses the same ad from the Houston campaign, which shows a little girl being stalked by a man in a bathroom, but the spot now targets Target for the retail giant’s inclusive bathroom policy.

[…]

The Campaign for USA website claims that by allowing guests to use restrooms and changing facilities that match their gender identity, “This means that any man can say he feels like a woman and use the women’s bathroom or dressing room at Target. Just because a man feels like and thinks he is a women [sic], does not make him a woman, any more than thinking he is a dog, would make him a dog, even if he walked on all fours and barked.” The site then links to an article about pup play, a kink found in the gay community that has nothing to do with gender identity.

“The whole concept of ‘transgender’ of course is absurd and irrational,” the site insists. “Those who practice this behavior or enable it have adopted perverted thinking.”

In case the Campaign’s perspective is not clear, the site continues to drive home the point:

The term transgender is a euphemism, a weaker alternative, for the term pervert, in order to make the behavior seem more acceptable. Men who dress up like women and want to use women’s bathrooms, showers and locker rooms are sexual deviants and perverts. The LGBT homosexual political movement wants to force society, under the penalty of law, to accept, affirm as normal, and celebrate the perverted homosexual lifestyle and the deviant behavior of men who claim to be women. The goal of the LGBT is to destroy all Biblical moral absolutes and create sexual anarchy in society. The LGBT political movement wants it mandated that this wicked lifestyle be taught to children in school, starting in Kindergarten, and that children be encouraged to experiment with homosexual and transvestite behavior. The goal is to break down the children’s consciences, so that they can more easily be recruited into the homosexual lifestyle.

It proceeds to start citing Bible verses, promising that rather than “affirm and celebrate homosexual behavior and other forms of sexual perversion,” they will “proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” to the LGBT community “so that they may be saved from the penalty of their sin and walk in the light of God’s word.”

[…]

The anti-Target ad will nevertheless run across Texas for three months, costing the Campaign $2 million. Jared Woodfill, president of the campaign, promised, “We’re not going to let this go. We’re going to continue to fight this battle until Target changes their policy or goes out of business.” That could be a very long time.

Full story at ThinkProgress.

The Real Victims of Persecution: American Christians, Part II.

donald-trump-claims-accommodating-transgender-people-is-too-expensivex750_0Continuing the Art of Pandering with Donald Trump: America Is A Judeo-Christian Nation Because ‘That’s The Way It Is’. Well, that’s certainly a concise, well thought out, well researched conclusion. *Cough* On with the show…

In an interview following his speech at the Road to Majority summit today, Donald Trump told Christian Broadcasting Network pundit David Brody that he agrees America is a “Judeo-Christian nation” because “that’s the way it is.”

Trump also vowed to reach out to Religious Right movement figures, mentioning his upcoming meeting with a variety of extreme activists and preachers hosted by Ben Carson.

And here I was thinking that the nightmare just had to stop at some point, the rhetoric and reaching out to all the evil people had to at least slow down, but no. It actually gets worse.

When asked if he would “turn down” some of the controversial rhetoric that has come to define him,Trump gave a mixed response.

“Well, you have to be who you are. I’ve gotten the largest number of votes in the history of Republican politics, by far, and so I want to keep doing what we’re doing. But if you ask me to tone it down I’ll tone it down,” Trump laughed.

He also used the speech to reiterate his support of the pro-life community. It’s no secret Trump has had a shaky relationship with the pro-lifers in the past but conservative women groups seem to be warming up to the idea of a President Trump.

“From what I hear he has been very consistent in meeting with the conservative community and the life community and being there in support,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told CBN News.

That is seriously bad news.

He will also hold a closed-door meeting with many evangelical leaders later this month.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, will be in that meeting. CBN News asked Perkins how Trump can narrow the gap between himself and evangelicals.

“His vice-presidential pick is going to be extremely important. I think it needs to be somebody that has a relationship with the evangelical community, which he really has not had,” Perkins said.

[…]

“I don’t think he can necessary transcend the theological differences from a stand point of evangelicals and the centrality of their faith. He can’t rewrite the narrative of his business career. But I think he can say,’ I’m going to protect your right to believe. I understand how important you are to American and America’s moral fabric and I’m going to fight for you,’ Perkins continued.

Oh good, a closed door meeting with evangelicals. Who knows what he’s going to promise them?

Via Right Wing Watch (video)  and CBN.

Bombing Bathrooms.

Police investigate bomb in Target women's bathroom (Photo: Screen capture)

Police investigate bomb in Target women’s bathroom (Photo: Screen capture)

EVANSTON – A small bomb exploded in the women’s bathroom at a Target store in Evanston on Wednesday, and officials are investigating whether it’s connected to the company’s policy allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice.

Commander Joe Dugan says no one was inside the bathroom when the small explosion happened a little after 4 o’clock. It caused minor damage and no one was injured. Early indications are that a plastic bottle was used but no projectiles like nails or tacks were inside it. Investigators are gathering evidence including examining store security camera video.

Yep, someone went there. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and it wasn’t a major effort as far as bombs go, but that doesn’t matter much. What does matter is that the first person with a very dangerous mindset has done this, because I’m pretty sure we all know this won’t be the last. Terrorism has a face, and it’s in the house with us.

Via WGNtv.

Strong Reactions.

Ellie, left, who is transgender, hugs her brother Ronnie. (Courtesy Ford family)

Ellie, left, who is transgender, hugs her brother Ronnie. (Courtesy Ford family)

Ron and Vanessa Ford are the parents of a 5-year-old transgender child, and they recently wrote for The Washington Post about why they appreciate and support the Obama administration’s directive to schools on accommodating transgender students.

[…]

For the Fords, the debate about bathroom access is really a debate about discrimination, and about whether the government will or will not sanction discrimination against their child.

“We are an interracial couple,” they wrote. “Fifty years ago, in many places across the country, it would have been legal to discriminate against us because, many people said, a fundamental part of who we are was somehow offensive and perverse. Our daughter is transgender. In many places across the country, it is legal to discriminate against her because, many people say, a fundamental part of who she is somehow offensive and perverse.”

We asked readers to weigh in on how the bathroom debate compares to earlier civil rights debates. There were many responses, representing the wide range of views and strong feelings that have characterized the discussion about transgender rights in America.

It was good to see mostly support from readers, but it wasn’t just support. I dislike reading the non-supportive contributions, but I think it’s important to keep a current insight into how people are not only viewing certain issues, but how they are viewing people. It seems to me that in such views, beyond all the regular reasons for being anti and upset, there’s a distinct current of “no, not human”. This is othering, but it’s taking on an ugly extremism, with people even citing the violence directed at transgender people as a reason to refuse gender dysphoria being real, and gender affirmation as being absolutely wrong. Then there are those who are not concerned with actual people at all, just upset at what they see as co-opting the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.

[Read more…]

Conjuring Christian Horror.

(Photo: Grace Hill Media) “The Conjuring 2,” brings to the screen another real case from the files of renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, June 2016.

(Photo: Grace Hill Media)
“The Conjuring 2,” brings to the screen another real case from the files of renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, June 2016.

Case files of renowned demonologists! Okay, I had never heard of these people, but I do live under a rock. I really do dislike this insistent message of fear that is all things Christianity. This sort of thing does no one good; there’s enough in the world to be concerned about without creating and reinforcing a constant culture of fear.

“The Conjuring 2” is written by Christian screenwriters Chad and Carey Hills, and in their new horror film they hope to spread the message that God will conquer evil.

New Line Cinema’s supernatural thriller “The Conjuring 2,” directed by James Wan (“Furious 7”), brings to the silver screen another real case of the paranormal from the files of renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who use their faith to drive out demons. The hair-raising thriller will hit theaters June 10.

[…]

Although a straight horror film, the writers of “The Conjuring 2” want people to see that evil exists in the form of demons as written in scripture, but God will always triumph over them. The film also tackles spiritual warfare, prayer and faith in God.

[…]

CP: What advice does the movie offer to help people have faith in God?

Hills: Have faith in God, because he’s the winner. Through Him, evil is banished, a young girl is saved, and a family is brought back together. Without the Warrens and their faith, none of that would have happened, and this film is just one of millions of examples.

[…]

CP: There’s a quote in the movie that says, “God will be there for all who need.” Where did this principle come from, and what can you tell skeptics who do not believe that?

Hills: It’s something that we just believe in, and have had eyewitness accounts of that being truthful. Some may not see it as that, as they think what they need is one thing, and don’t see what God has provided them. We would encourage the skeptics to open their hearts and minds, and take a step back, and really look at their lives, and track the good as well as the bad. They may just be surprised at the outcome.

The Full Horror is Here.

Morass of Nastiness

clipartbest.com

clipartbest.com

A poem, by Johnny Vector.

Morass of Nastiness

There’s a morass of nastiness well on the way,
From peyote to peeing, it’s coming to stay.
We said it would give you the freedom to pray,
Oh thank you so much for the RFRA.

It may have at first seemed like Truman Quixote:
Trying to legalize taking peyote.
But for logic, religion is most antidotey.
So excuse me if now I’m a little bit gloaty.

We made it all happen, we got us some laws
To make sure you never get out of our claws.
Keep away from our bathrooms and lunch counters, cause
We’re putting this country back, just like it was.

There’s an army of lawyers with claims to seek who
Have a living to earn, and some harm to wreak too.
With their war-cry of “Freedom!” they’ll help to keep you
From having to deal with LBGTQ.

But wait, that’s not all; we’re preparing a bill
(Which we know that the libs will be trying to kill)
To remind you that sex is a dangerous thrill,
We’re going to prevent you from taking the pill.

There’s a morass of nastiness well on the way,
A bit evil, for sure, but we’re happy to say
That it isn’t our freedom we’re taking away
With the ever-expansionist RFRA.

Trump: Jesus Is Somebody I Can Really Rely On.

Donald Trump said Jesus Christ is “somebody I can totally rely on,” particularly for “security and confidence.” (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Donald Trump touched on his thoughts about Jesus Christ Wednesday by saying Jesus is “somebody I can totally rely on,” particularly for “security and confidence” as he enters the general election phase of the race.

Trump also told Cal Thomas in an interview posted Wednesday that he doesn’t plan on asking for forgiveness from God too much going forward, even though he does plan on asking for it on occasion.

“Every president has called upon God at some point. Lincoln spoke of not being able to hold the office of the presidency without spending time on his knees,” Thomas told Trump. “You have said you never felt the need to ask for God’s forgiveness, and yet repentance for one’s sins is a precondition to salvation. I ask you the question Jesus asked of Peter: Who do you say He is?”

“I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won’t have to be asking for much forgiveness,” Trump said, before talking up his relationships with clergymen and evangelicals more broadly. “I’m going to treat my religion, which is Christian, with great respect and care.”

Thomas then repeated his initial question, asking “who do you say Jesus is?” The question stems from the Gospel.

“Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence,” Trump said. “Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind.”

I really didn’t need yet another reason to seriously dislike Trump, especially in high office, but I got one anyway.

Full Story Here.

Religious Freedom Flood

AP Photo.

AP Photo.

The current backlash of religious liberty legislation won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but it looks like we will be in for a long courthouse ride on the current wave. The Advocate has an excellent article providing a good summation of Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, and their various permutations now piling up on courthouse steps. As noted, attempts at circumventing civil rights rulings aren’t new at all, but some groups are getting more savvy about language use, which can allow some discrimination to be passed, where the ones with blatant discriminatory language won’t.

Religious freedom is all the rage these days. To hear it told by conservative activists, the constitutional promise of each citizen’s free exercise of religion is under attack like no other time in U.S. history. Surely, such an urgent question is headed for the Supreme Court, right?

Maybe not so fast. Several out attorneys who have spent decades fighting for LGBT civil rights tell The Advocate that we may be settling in for another long, drawn-out battle that challenges discriminatory laws state by state, clause by clause.

[…]

Perhaps proving they’ve learned from Romer, though, anti-LGBT lawmakers these days are less explicit about which groups they’re targeting. The trend in RFRA legislation is to never include any mention of the words “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender,” or even “sexual orientation or gender identity.”

[…]

Some of the modern iterations of these religious freedom laws hew closely to the federal RFRA, which is comparatively narrow in scope, and therefore generally considered constitutional. But the new wave of bills claiming to protect religious freedom have a broader and, advocates say, more sinister motive.

“It’s not just about LGBT people,” Warbelow explain. “It’s about so much more. That’s an element of why these states are trying to pass [religious freedom laws], but it’s also very much about birth control. It’s very much about restrictions around abortion or even having to talk about abortion. It’s about creating a system in which the religious majority gets to live out their faith regardless of whom it hurts.”

The challenge, these attorneys agreed, is that litigation is designed to address one particular issue or constitutional question at a time. With laws that enable such widespread, multifaceted discrimination, each of those discriminatory provisions will have to be struck down individually, in every state where such a law exists. And even if this Herculean effort is successful, there’s nothing stopping determined anti-LGBT lawmakers from reintroducing slightly amended versions of bills that may have already been struck down in court.

“I actually think the American people are fundamentally with us, on understanding how the effort to use religion as a sword needs to be rejected in this [election] cycle,” says Wolfson. “It’s a multiple set of engagements we need to do, but the big lesson of the marriage work is: Get ahead of it. Have an affirmative strategy. Don’t just be reacting.”

Warbelow agrees and stresses that the problem isn’t with the concept of religious liberty.

“There’s still a real need for protections for religious minorities,” says Warbelow. “It’s just that the [federal RFRA] law has been misused by the courts.”

She points to the Do No Harm Act, a piece of legislation introduced by two Democrats last month in the U.S. House of Representatives that looks to revise the federal RFRA to clarify that it cannot be used to discriminate against members of any minority class, be they religious minorities, LGBT people, and/or women. The bill, Warbelow says, seeks to “restore RFRA to its original intent.”

“We need to reenvision what it means to protect religious liberties,” Warbelow says, “without creating a system in which it’s a free-for-all for discrimination.”

Full Story Here.

I don’t want to sound like a victim, but I’m a victim.

CS

Former Major League Baseball player Curt Schilling, who was recently fired from his ESPN analyst position for a transphobic Facebook post, joined conservative radio host Rick Wiles on his show on May 18, where he attacked ESPN and its parent company, Disney, claiming that his firing was just another case of white Christians being marginalized in America.

“I don’t want to sound like a victim because I’m not trying to sound like a victim but I think the only thing people now acknowledge publicly is that it’s okay to infringe upon or talk down on white Christians,” Schilling said.

“We all knew this was coming,” he continued. “The Scripture’s pretty clear on what’s gonna happen with us, to us, and about us in, you know, many parts of the Bible.”

[…]

“The only positive I’ve seen in this administration is the sale of firearms has gone through the roof in the last seven and a half years because law-abiding citizens are arming themselves to protect themselves from what feels to be every bit that the tyrannical government, the Second Amendment was created to protect us against,” Schilling said.

Wiles claimed that “the left is pushing us towards civil war and they don’t realize we have all the guns.”

“The left is pushing a civil war that they would never fight,” Schilling said. “They don’t have the guts to stand up.” He then claimed the left wants the government to fight in the civil war for them, as, unlike conservatives, “they want the government to do everything for them.”

Right Wing Watch has the full rant.

Stuart2012

Stuart Shepard. Family Policy Alliance.

Stuart Shepard, of Family Policy Alliance, descended into incoherence when trying to express how much transgender people are victimizing and oppressing all the normal humans.

Shepard claimed that transgender people reject the existence of a God who creates everyone with purpose in mind. “When you reject the idea of the ability to know what’s true, you’re essentially rejecting God,” he said. “You’re saying, ‘You put me in the wrong body,’ if you accept that there’s a God, or, ‘There can’t possibly be a God so none of this matters and everything is fluid and unknowable therefore.’”

[…]

Regarding the federal government’s protection of transgender individuals’ rights, Shepard said, “All of these, I mean every time you see it, they say, ‘Well, this is about discrimination.’ Well, their solution is to discriminate against all of us who don’t accept that point of view. It is a discriminatory act that they’re proposing, but they don’t even see it as that.”

He said of transgender people, “They just can’t get to that view of the world to realize that their own actions are discriminatory at the most private level possible, with the other humans that we share this country with.”

Ultimately, Shepard said, accepting transgender rights will undermine the traditional family structure and create chaos. “It comes down to this rejection of everything that’s come before, the idea of mom and dad and male and female and marriage or not married, about all of those things, they want to throw it all out,” he said. “…They want to bring us to a state, essentially of chaos where whatever you feel about anything is acceptable, and we all just think and feel the way that we do about everything, including the most foundational elements of culture and society: the family.”

“There is a deeper question here of, ‘What can we know is true if you can’t even know whether your child is a boy or a girl, what can you know?” Shepard said. “I mean, what’s left that is knowable? And that’s where we’ve gone. We’ve gone from an understanding of everything to be found through science to this understanding of, ‘Everything I know is what I feel. I feel this way. Therefore, it is. And you can have your own feelings and feel the way you do.’”

Hey, Stuart, about knowing the gender of your child? It’s pretty easy, you just listen to your child, they know what gender they are. There are good parents everywhere who could have clued you into that little bit of knowledge. As for this “understanding of everything to be found through science”, how did science get in the word salad? I thought this was all about god. You should stick with god, Stuart. You really wouldn’t like what science has to say about, well, pretty much everything.

Right Wing Watch has the full word salad.

Applied Bioethics…

Shutterstock. [The Right-minded people at College Fix couldn't bother with a credit.]

Shutterstock. [The right-minded people at College Fix couldn’t bother with a credit.]

Christian style. Oklahoma Wesleyan University is launching an applied bioethics certificate program this July that will train students in pro-life activism and pregnancy center management.

Equip yourself to answer pro-choice arguments compellingly and winsomely in any setting. Recognizing that an abstract approach to bioethics is insufficient, Oklahoma Wesleyan University is proud to be one of the few universities in the nation committed to equipping the next generation of life-affirming apologists, politicians, and pregnancy center executives.

“Applied Bioethics at OKWU is the most important pro-life training you will ever receive…I went from the frustration of finding myself flat-footed in conversations about abortion to being thoroughly equipped to winsomely answer arguments in ways that are life changing. Don’t pass up this opportunity to take your ministry to the next level and begin making abortion unthinkable in your community.” – Jody Ward (Project Manager, Women’s Care Center, Baltimore, MD)

Nationally recognized pro-life organizations are partnering with Oklahoma Wesleyan University to offer certifications in pro-life training and ministry essentials.

My emphasis there. Winsomely? I take this to mean they’re trying for a folksy Huckabee type of approach and argumentation. Perhaps they think they can simply charm people into a rabid anti-life position.

From the Right-Minded College Fix:

OKWU is also studying the “feasibility” of expanding the program into a full-blown bachelor’s degree that prepares students for “vocational work in pro-life apologetics, political consulting, or for an executive role” in pregnancy help centers and medical clinics, according to the program website.

I think someone doesn’t understand how quote marks work. I know that’s on the petty side, but it’s bothersome. Why is feasibility in scare quotes? Moving past that, this is on the seriously depressing side. Fake clinics already proliferate the landscape, and there are plenty of professional liars staffing them already. More are not needed, winsome or no.

While OKWU says applied-bioethics credits earned by students will be transferable, it’s still working out the details because the program is “in the very early stages,” England told The College Fix.

It ran a pilot session last summer after “a group of highly-respected pro-life voices put the curriculum together and began looking for a university to take the idea and run with it,” she added.

One of those voices was Scott Klusendorf, founder and president of the Life Training Institute. If Christian students want to simply keep their faith through college but not make a larger cultural impact, “then we are in trouble,” Klusendorf told The Fix in a phone interview. Students “need to be able to make a case for the pro-life view in one minute or less if necessary,” he said: “There is no major out there anywhere that is teaching people to do this.” Klusendorf teaches an ethics and abortion course that examines “the toughest critics of the pro-life view, the academic critics,” and equips students to answer their objections, he said.

If you can cope with it, there’s a 45 minute video of Klusendorf giving one of his talks in the UK at the site, along with Sribd documents describing the Ethics of Abortion online class. Apparently, Mr. Klusendorf can’t limit his arguments to one minute.

Atheists are cowards and the police ignore the law.

Christian street preachers clash with authorities (YouTube/Buddy Fisher)

Christian street preachers clash with authorities (YouTube/Buddy Fisher)

Naturally, Christians showed up at the Reason Rally to do some preaching. It takes time to get to the clash between the U.S. Park officers and the preachers (around the 9:00 minute mark), so I listened to a fair amount of the standard nonsense, mostly about hell, but there was one interesting bit. The preacher (who is, I assume, Buddy Fisher) is carrying on about us decadent atheists, how we love our sin, our drunkenness, our sex outside marriage, our…muff diving. The preacher seemed to realize that he may have skittered off the rails a bit with that one, and quickly moved to a different tack. Back to more of the same old, if we’re just a bag of chemicals, there’s no love, yada, yada, yada, some odd stuff about Hemingway being an authentic atheist because he killed himself, and before long, the park cops show up. They are quiet, and polite, and explain that the preachers have a choice of two different locations to where they can move. Oh no. No, no, no. Preacher whips out this paper, and explains this court case, and that they have The Heckler’s Veto! You can’t make us move! Magic Court Papers! (I think the court case was Bible Believers v. Wayne County.) They keep arguing, the video ends.

Oh look, here comes the continuation! A description on the second video reads: ”Part 2 of unlawfully being removed from the Reason Rally 2016 in Washington DC. Officers Burnett and White unlawfully remove Christians from an event that is free and open to the public being held by a group of atheists with a non-exclusive permit. Their permit allows them to set up the stage, amplifiers, etc, but does not give them the authority to remove us from public property. Atheists are cowards and the police ignore the law.”

Via The Blaze.