Persecute Me! C’mon, Please Persecuuuute Me!

2015-10-12T101850Z_1_LYNXNPEB9B0EI_RTROPTP_3_BRITAIN-HERMIT-WIDERIMAGE

Oh my, Matt Barber has a post up at Town Hall, flogging his recent book on the Liberal Agenda of Hating Jesus, and begging to be seen as terribly oppressed and persecuted.

The answer had to be yes. The Holy Spirit made it crystal clear. When Tristan Emmanuel, managing publisher and CFO of BarbWire Books, called me and said it was time for me to put pen to paper and write a book on the anti-Christian left’s demonic war on religious liberty (and all things godly and good), I immediately agreed.

I suppose it’s good policy to say yes to your own publishing company.

Why did I write the book? Because it had to be written. God’s natural created order, His immutable, scientific and transcendent moral precepts, as well as the very lives and livelihoods of Christian Americans, are under vicious attack today at a level unprecedented in American history.

Just once, I’d like for this supposed ‘God’ to speak for itself. I mean, take away all the rainbows or something. Anything. Holler from the mountaintops, whisper from the depths, something that isn’t yet another paranoid bigot pretending to speak for the Big, Bad, All Knowing God. (And then I wouldn’t have to dig through stacks of these books when I’m looking for the good stuff at thrift stores. You wouldn’t believe how many copies of A Purpose Driven Life are languishing on dusty thrift store shelves.)

There are evil blasphemies beyond imagination being foisted upon the American people today by our own godless government in the name of “progress.” Things like presidential edicts that open up little girls’ showers to grown men; the sin-centric and oxymoronic notion of “gay marriage”; forced taxpayer funding of child sacrifice; and forced participation by Christ’s followers in all the above sins, under penalty of law, to name but a few.

Oy, there’s no end to the ooze of melodrama. Most of this is old hat, the same old they’ve been moaning about, but I have to ask, how in the hell did transgender rights morph into little girls’ showers? I’m not interested in invading a little girls’ shower, wherever that might be found, outside a school. Those aren’t public lavs, and why the fuck would grown men be getting in to them? If you aren’t a teacher, I expect most grown men have other places to be. I expect most adult teachers have no particular desire to invade a little girls’ shower, either. It’s telling that the only ones consistently bringing up this little girls’ shower business are white, male, Christians.

Indeed, it is not just within the church’s purview, but it is the church’s duty to insert itself into state matters relating to morality, public policy and culture at large.

The push back has begun. Christian governors, lawmakers, business owners, lawyers, parents, judges, county clerks, organizations, universities, hospitals, adoption agencies and other individuals and groups have been given an ultimatum by the anti-Christian left: “Keep your Christianity at church and away from our culture!”

To which we say, “Not on your life.”

“Or our own.”

Oh, for Crispy Christ Onna Stick’s Sake. Like Ms. Garbo, I just want to be left alone.

The full screed be here.

Sunday Facepalm: The Great, Straight, White Hope.

Oh, pardon, that should be The Great, Straight, Christian, Male, White Hope. Dave Daubenmire says so.

“The attack that’s going on in America today is against the white, heterosexual male,” he said. “That’s the battle. If Satan can get control of the family, if they can get the white, heterosexual male removed from the scene, if they can get him ‘de-balled,’ if I will, if they can do that, there is nothing to hold back the forces of darkness in America.”

“It’s not racist, it’s the truth,” he added.

Daubenmire then argued that the war on poverty caused fatherless African-American households because the government became the parent. Now, he said, the government’s “sights are set on the white, heterosexual male.”

He declared that there are “forces of darkness that are working to overthrow this nation and overthrow this world on behalf of the prince of the power of the air, the prince of darkness.” To control the world, Daubenmire argued, these forces will first have to defeat white, heterosexual, Christian American males.

That’s not all! Ol’ Dave also weighed in on transgender issues:

On “Talkback with Chuck Wilder” this Tuesday, Ohio Religious Right activist “Coach” Dave Daubenmire suggested men today need to “man up” with “pitchforks and torches” to fight transgender people’s use of bathrooms that match their gender identity.

“What would our forefathers have done?” Daubenmire asked. “What would they have done two generations ago if the president of the United States tried to tell them to let men walk into their kids’ bathrooms?” Daubenmire answered his own question: “There’d have been pitchforks and torches. They’d have gone downtown and they’d have gotten things straightened out.”

“They would say, ‘We need that committee that was talking to the Salem witches,’” Wilder said. Wilder and Daubenmire then discussed whether witches are male or female. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Daubenmire said.

“What’s wrong with us, Chuck?” Daubenmire asked. “How is it that we’re so sissified that daddies are going to let perverts violate their daughters’ restrooms?” He agreed with Wilder’s statement that that “political correctness” and “insisting on diversity” are the main problems that led to this. Wilder said that under Obama, areas require “X amount of Chinese, black, white, I’m sure we gotta get the Syrians in there now. Diversity, I’m telling you, it’s scary. You know, let America be America without any prejudice, and it should work perfectly.”

Yes, I’m sure that would work wonderfully. You just have to get all the non-Christian, non-white, non-hetero people to leave. Perhaps if you ask nicely? My guess would be no.

Ray Comfort & The Reason Rally, Part II.

Ray Comfort and Subway gift cards that had been intended for Reason Rally attendees (Image courtesy Ray Comfort)

Ray Comfort and Subway gift cards that had been intended for Reason Rally attendees (Image courtesy Ray Comfort)

Remember Ray’s plan to invade the Reason Rally, and sway black, atheist hearts with cheap Subway gift cards? Well, Washington police have nixed his grand plan:

Ray Comfort is reluctantly canceling plans to give books and gift cards for Subway sandwiches to atheists at a coming rally in Washington. Police forced him to cancel, he explained to WND, because of the size of his contingency. More than 1,000 Christians had volunteered to help hand out the gifts to atheists who will be attending this year’s Reason Rally. […] The huge number of people who volunteered to join him apparently caused concern among Washington police. “To the D.C. police,” he said, “that constituted a protest and therefore we needed a permit to gather. We would have to stay at the other end of the National Mall, and they said that if we persisted to approach atheists to speak with them we would be arrested.”

He still plans to be there with a crew of 17 people.

[…]

“In what is so often a cruel world, we tried to show a little kindness and it didn’t work. So it now looks like we will be eating Subway sandwiches for the next 40 years,” he said.

A little kindness? Oh, ever the liar, Ray. You were grandstanding again, looking to feed your ego, rather than doing something truly kind, like feeding people who are desperately hungry. It seems even when your planned arrogance is quashed, you still can’t manage that simple act of kindness.

Full Story Here (be warned, it’s mostly a praise and link dump all about Ray, Ray, Ray.)

The Largest Christian Event on Earth.

Photo: MarchaParaJesus.com.br

Photo: MarchaParaJesus.com.br

Yesterday, Christians from Brazil celebrated the Corpus Christi holiday, a date to celebrate the body of Jesus Christ. Evangelical churches held a major event in São Paulo’s city center: the March For Jesus, an event organized by the Reborn in Christ Church for the past 24 years. This year’s numbers are staggering: more than 500 churches were there, attracting a public of 340,000 people. Organizers have called it “the largest Christian event on Earth.”

[…]

This March for Jesus is evidence of the demographic change witnessed by Brazil over the last few decades. In the 1960s, evangelicals made up no more than 4% of Brazilians. They are now 22% of our population.

These churches began preaching in Brazil early into the 20th century – always maintaining a low-profile fashion. The two main branches of evangelism found in Brazil were Pentecostal churches, first created in the U.S. with the influence of Baptists and Methodists, and Neo-Pentecostal churches, which blame the Devil for just about anything that isn’t going according to plan.

The latter group rose in the 1980s with an approach geared towards the media, and began to buy up TV and radio stations – and used airtime to spread their word. Neo-Pentecostals are adherents of the Prosperity Theory, which connects financial gains to the blessings of God. Evangelicals represented just 5% of the Brazilian population in the 1970s. Now, they number 1 out of every 4 Brazilians. Every year, 14,000 new churches open nationwide. [That’s absolutely staggering, how many churches are actually necessary? At that rate, there shouldn’t be room for anything else.]

Brazil

Full Article Here.

The religion of fundamental social justice…

Student activists during a nationwide "Hands up, walk out" protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo: Reuters/Adrees Latif.

Student activists during a nationwide “Hands up, walk out” protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Photo: Reuters/Adrees Latif.

Another day, another screed. This one certainly gave me a good laugh, as it seems I now have a religion. I guess we SJWs are upsetting everyone these days. Tsk. Be sure to put your melodrama meters away, critical levels here, of the “I’m a libertarian, of course I’m right!” kind.

NEW YORK — There’s a new religion exploding on the campuses of American universities and colleges, says Thomas Cooley professor of ethical leadership at New York University, Jonathan Haidt. And if it isn’t stopped, it might just be better to shut them all down in the next 10 or 20 years.

The religion of fundamental social justice sweeping across college campuses is so alarming, intense, and dripping with such extreme liberal fundamentalism, says Haidt, it has created an existential crisis for American academia while punishing heretics with public shame.

“There is an extremely intense, fundamental social justice religion that’s taking over, not all students, but a very strong [space] of it, at all our colleges and universities. They are prosecuting blasphemy and this is where we are,” Haidt warned an audience about the religion at a lecture billed “The American University’s New Assault on Free Speech,” organized by the Manhattan Institute in New York City this week.

[…]

When social issues like racism or sexism are treated as sacred, he says, it becomes difficult to have honest conversations about them.

“So if that’s the basic psychology and as religion itself has been retreating and kids are raised in a more secular environment, then what takes the place of that? There are lots of sacred spaces. Fighting racism, a very, very good thing to do, but when you come to sacred principles, sacred, this means no tradeoffs,” Haidt said.

“There is no nuance, you cannot trade off any other goods with it. So if you organize around fighting racism, fighting homophobia, fighting sexism, again all good things, but when they become sacred, when they become essentially objects of worship, fundamentalist religion, then when someone comes to class, someone comes to your campus, and they say the rape culture is exaggerated, they have committed blasphemy,” he said.

This religion of fundamental social justice is so frightening, even liberals are worried about it. But they aren’t speaking up, says Haidt, who describes himself as a libertarian.

“The great majority of people are really alarmed by what’s happening. There is a small group on campus of illiberal people. The illiberal left against the liberal left. The liberal left is uncomfortable but has so far been silent,” Haidt said. It is this illiberalism on campus that has given rise to groups such as Black Lives Matter where “nobody can say no to them.”

[…]

Haidt, however, doesn’t think life will continue down this road for American academia pointing to a growing counterculture movement involving projects such as the Heterodox Academy. […] So we are doing all these projects to use market forces to swamp the illiberals and basically take advantage of people’s disgust with the current situation.”

The two page screed is here.

Schoolboard Says No to “In God We Trust”.

InGod

On Tuesday night, the Waynesboro [Pa] Area School Board voted on a motion to accept a gift of several plaques that say “In God We Trust,” and put them up in the lobbies of six district public schools. Local businessman Tom McCloud officially offered the plaques as donations to the county’s public schools back in March.

Several supporters of the national motto spoke up at Tuesday’s school board meeting, in favor of installing the plaques. “It’s such a positive story, it’s such a uniting force,” said Pennsylvania State Representative Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny and Washington). “Our kids need that…sorely need that today.”

Not everyone agrees, however – atheist groups in Pennsylvania have already come out against it. While most who spoke at the school board meeting support the plaques, one Navy veteran, who called himself a “proud Christian,” took the podium to oppose the plaques.

“Many members of the community – Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist – all pay taxes and support,” said John Bryan, a resident of the Waynesboro area. “They might not wish their child to see that in the school, and I believe the proper place for it is in church or in the home.”

[…]

On the other hand, critics said “In God We Trust” only gained popularity during the Cold War era. The words became the national motto in 1956, during the “Red Scare” toward Soviet Russia and communism.

“There is absolutely no mention of God in our founding documents, and there is a reason for that,” Bryan added. “E pluribus unum – out of many people, out of many cultures, out of many religions – we come together as one people.”

Way to go, Mr. Bryan, and thank you. Full Story Here.

‘We agree with God’ on controversial HB2.

PHOTO/LATISHA CATCHATOORIAN.

PHOTO/LATISHA CATCHATOORIAN.

RALEIGH – U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, with the support of President Obama, recently referred to transgender struggles as an issue of “civil rights.” Faith leaders who stood in front of the Capitol building Tuesday called Lynch’s remarks “offensive.”

“We’re here to debunk and dispel the many fallacious ideologies that people have attached to HB2, which is simply common sense legislation,” said John Amanchukwu, youth pastor at Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh. “Our president and our Attorney General Loretta Lynch have made some inflammatory comments and statements that are erroneous at best. A person’s ability to self-identify as something they are not has nothing to do with civil rights.”

“The language of ‘civil rights’ shouldn’t be hijacked to give privileges to the politically vocal while taking away freedoms from people disfavored by government,” said Bishop Patrick Wooden, senior pastor and bishop of Upper Room Church. “As you can see, I am African-American. I have been African-American since birth; God made me this way. For the attorney general to equate the legitimate struggle of the civil rights movement to the things that HB2 stands for is embarrassing and is wrong.”

Clarence Henderson, chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Civil Rights, participated in the Greensboro Woolworth sit-ins during the civil rights movement. He said transgender identity is a “feeling” and that to call it a “movement” offends him.

“I stand before you to tell you what civil rights is and what it isn’t. It certainly isn’t transgender (identification)… If you were born a man, that’s who you are. If you were born a female, that’s who you are. Tell me how you’re going to tell the families that came on those slave ships, in chains… tell their families (that it is comparable) to transgender (identity),” he said. “You tell me how many transgender people have been lynched.”

Oh, so now people have to be lynched to qualify for human rights? How about transgender people being disproportionately murdered every day? How about them being beaten and harassed at a continuous high level? How about continuous discrimination? I guess only lynchings will do.

Pastor Kenneth Fontenot, senior pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Wilson, said no law intended to protect a minority should be passed at the expense of the majority. “The laws passed in the 1960s did not bless black people while they hurt white people,” he said.

Really? There were a whole lot of white people at the time who would have most seriously disagreed with you.

Fontenot highlighted his point by pouring maple syrup on a stack of bread, saying that covering bread in syrup does not make it pancakes.

If you don’t have the money or means to make pancakes, syrup on bread will do nicely. Maybe you prefer bread with syrup, so what? Pancakes are made with same fucking ingredients as bread. You could say it’s just a matter of expression.

“It has become more and more challenging each day to witness our common sense liberties and freedoms being challenged and assaulted by an overreach of more and more government. I strongly believe that restrooms and showers separated by biological sex is common sense, not discrimination,” said Leon Threatt, senior pastor at Christian Faith Assembly in Charlotte.

Gabriel Rogers, senior pastor at Kingdom Christian Church in Charlotte, said that just like God loves everyone, so do the ministers, but if the government gives liberties to transgender people, it’s difficult to police the ill-willed with predatory intentions protected by the same law.

Oh yes, because we’re doing such a great job of policing the ill-willed with predatory intentions now, aren’t we? You can’t even manage to police all the ill-willed predatory actions by those who consider themselves upright people of god.

“What are we going to do with the trauma when our young girls and our young boys are exposed to (opposite sex) genitalia? What are we going to do when someone is confused about their own sexuality because they’ve been exposed to someone who was confused in and of themselves?” he said.

Oh my, the horrible trauma! FFS, aren’t there actual traumas you could wring your hands over?

Jimmy Bention, pastor of Metrolina Christian Center Church of God in Christ in Monroe, was incredulous when he said society is “soft-shoeing” the issue because the conversation is about  “penises and vaginas.”

No, it isn’t. And why are you talking about genitals at all when they are capable of causing irreparable trauma?

Added Wooden: “The African-American community is not monolithic. We’re not rogue pastors. We’re not ashamed to admit we agree with God.”

Golly, I must have missed the world-wide announcement from “god”. Can we get a replay, please?

Source.

Dawkins: I’ve Given Up Twitter.

_89774482_gettyimages-459925796

Richard Dawkins. Getty Images.

Some of the professor’s most heated recent spats have unfolded on social media. He has qualified some of his Twitter remarks and lamented that medium’s lack of nuance, but embraces it nonetheless.

Or at least, he used to.

“I’ve given up Twitter,” Prof Dawkins says quietly but curtly. The tweets that appear in his name, apparently, are the work of the staff at his Foundation for Reason and Science.

“I occasionally ask them to post something, which they do, but I’ve given up doing it myself.”

It’s about time. Source.

Gambling on Anti-Transgender Policy.

Grayson County Superintendent Kelly Wilmore.

Grayson County Superintendent Kelly Wilmore.

The schools in Grayson County, Virginia have a new policy governing their bathrooms and locker rooms, and it’s the exact opposite of what the Obama administration recently recommended in its guidance on accommodating transgender students. School officials credited the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) for both drafting the policy and encouraging them to implement it, but they might someday regret trusting the conservative legal organization.

The “Student Physical Privacy Policy” ADF drafted for Grayson County’s schools is pretty straight-forward. All school bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower rooms must be separated by sex, and “sex” is determined by “anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.” It further states that “an individual’s original birth certificate” — emphasis on “original” — can be used as “definitive evidence” of a person’s sex.

If a school wants to accommodate trans students, principals must segregate those students to single-stall restrooms or “controlled use of an employee restroom, locker room, or shower.” They definitely are not allowed to use facilities that match their gender identity.

Superintendent Kelly Wilmore told the conservative outlet LifeSiteNews that his concerns have been “safety and privacy,” not politics. “It’s not that hard to claim that you’re now a transgender student,” he surmised. “All you gotta do is have a note from your parents, go and talk to the principal, and suddenly you’re transgender.”

And Wilmore has a number of reasons he isn’t worried about legal backlash. First, he believes that by segregating and ostracizing trans students, it’s actually protecting them from harassment. Second, he doesn’t think there are any transgender students in the district, so there’s no one to object. But most importantly, he’s convinced that ADF will have his back.

“The policy we adopted was written by the Alliance Defending Freedom organization,” he openly admitted, and they “claim that if we adopt their policy and it is contested,” they will come to the school district’s defense for free.

Oh, the twisted reasoning of banal evil. Segregation and ostracization is now protection. That’s terribly convenient, if you’re a bigot. This really is Civil Rights Movement II. It’s the same language, the same fucked up reasoning, the same dehumanization.

Full Story Here.

Christians, We Are At War.

(MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)

(MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)

Seriously suffering a melodrama overdose here. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the rhetoric keeps screeching higher and higher. Now we have Christians, we are at war. Maybe it’s time we accept that fact. It’s a very long screed, replete with bible passages, exhortations, charts, and graphs, all delivered at a fevered pitch over Christianity quavering at the cliff edge of extinction. No more of this Mr. Nice Jesus, no sir. It’s time for I’ll fry your ass and toss you burning into hell Jesus. Yep.

It’s not fun to think about, I realize, but war is not supposed to be fun. Especially not this kind of war. A war where the casualties are lost in the fires of Hell. A war where the enemy plots to rip your soul out of your chest and drag it into the darkness forever. A war that cannot be escaped. A war that conscripts every human on the planet into combat, on one side or the other, whether they like it or not. A war that we must train our children to fight. A war that could claim their souls, too, if we do not train them well. A war that will not be over until the end of the world. A war that God will ultimately win, but many human beings – maybe even including you, personally, and me – will lose if we die fighting for the wrong side.

These are not enjoyable thoughts. They are downright terrifying, in fact. But we cannot make the reality of our situation disappear any more than we could have wished away WWII by closing our eyes and hiding under our bed while the Germans dropped explosives on London. We can think all the nice thoughts and sing all the happy songs we want, but optimism never saves anyone when the bombs start falling. And it won’t save us from Hell. Indeed, it’s much more likely to send us there.

[…]

Christ came to separate us from our sin – a violent, painful process that requires a sword, and leads straight to the cross. And He doesn’t stop there. He enlists all of us to join Him in His ancient war against evil. A war that, even if it does not get us physically killed (although, depending on where you live, it may), it’s a war that will cause deep divisions and strife in our communities and even our families. There is nothing particularly peaceful about that.

The peace comes later, and only to his good and faithful soldiers. Those who will not take up their cross – that is, embrace the suffering and sacrifice required to gain holiness – will be deemed unworthy of Him in the end. Whoever finds his life and his peace and his happiness in worldly pursuits and worldly pleasures will lose it eternally. But whoever is willing to lay down his life – not a peaceful process, by any means – will be given life in Heaven.

Christ is not calling us to an earthly existence of endless fun and decadent luxury. He is calling us to die. And in the meantime, He is cordially inviting us to be despised by the whole world. “You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22).

[…]

Therefore, despite my valued reader’s claims, I am not trying to “bring us back to the days of Christian holy wars.” We never left those days. I cannot “bring us back” to conditions that have already existed since the dawn of time. All I can do, all anyone can do, is acknowledge that the war is on, and then choose a side. But no matter what we choose, the holy war is happening. God and the Devil and angels and demons are fighting, right now, as we speak, and the battlefield is the heart of man, to paraphrase Dostoevsky.

And so to the first statement – that “militant Christianity” is “driving people away from the church” – I say, good. The church is by its nature a militant organization of faithful soldiers waging a never-ending assault against the powers of darkness. The more it takes on that tone and that appearance, the better. And the more we weed out the bored, insincere and feckless, the better. If a person is “driven away” because the truth scares them, let them leave. Better they join the enemy outright than stay as infiltrators in our ranks, attempting to entice more believers into their cowardly, wicked way of thinking.

[…]

There is no room anymore to try and appease and cajole and compromise with the world. The Devil has cut great, wide roads through our culture, and for decades he has encountered almost no resistance. The signs of his enormous success are all around us. I don’t need to provide examples, but here are a few anyway:

  • There’s an abortion clinic in nearly every city, murdering children and selling their parts.
  • The vast majority of women who get abortions are Christian.
  • Gay marriage is now enshrined as a “human right.”
  • A majority of American Christians reject the Bible’s teachings on sexuality and abortion.
  • A majority of American Christians can’t be bothered to go to church once a month, let alone once a week.
  • Atheism is surging.
  • Cohabitation is becoming more popular than marriage.
  • Porn is one of the most profitable industries in America, especially in the Bible Belt.
  • All of our most powerful institutions – government, media, Hollywood, academia – are propagators of far-left ideology.
  • What should be our most powerful institution, the family, is crumbling. At least 43 percent of kids in the United States live without fathers in the home.
  • Half of my generation believes women can have penises and men can have vaginas.
  • This election season.

And so on.

And so on indeed. The dramatic glurge continues here, from a self-titled professional truth sayer. Seems to me that someone in such dire need of being seen as persecuted, there are plenty of places in this world they could go where that would actually happen. It’s interesting how they never manage to do that, but they do find plenty of time to wax dramatic over how all people having basic human rights is going to affect them so terribly, oh yes, when the truth of the matter is that it won’t affect them in the least.

Forever Marked with a Scarlet “C”, Oh My!

cross-flag

Oh, the hysteria. The drama. The overwhelming glurge.

If they hate Jesus, they’ll hate you—and they certainly hate Jesus. I’m talking about the American Left and its unyielding war on Christianity.

And so is my good friend Matt Barber.

In his fiery new book, Hating Jesus: The American Left’s War on Christianity, Barber reveals how secular progressives are waging an unrelenting fight against Christianity in America. Perhaps more importantly, he explains how Christians can fight back.

“Just a few short decades ago, a church-going man who publicly supported the right to life, backed laws protecting marriage and spoke freely of Christ’s love for fallen man would be universally recognized as a fine and upstanding citizen,” says Barber, an associate dean with Liberty University School of Law and an attorney concentrating on constitutional law. “He would be welcomed anywhere, including at the highest levels of power. But things have changed. In today’s America, the ‘progressive’ left actively endeavors to destroy such a man.”

Well, no. Generally speaking, such fine, upstanding men of god do a fine job of destroying themselves.

[…]

With great detail, Barber explains the Modern American leftist war strategy. It starts by vilifying Christians. They then begin scheming, quite often with success, to get Christians terminated from employment and forever marked with a scarlet “C” to inhibit any future prospects for employment.

We’ve seen this over and over. [What follows is a list of known bigots losing their positions, such as Gen. Jerry Boykin, who was fired, but rehired almost immediately.]

[…]

Next, Barber says, the radical left simultaneously attacks the family and works to tear it apart, at once sending a warning shot over the bow of other Christians and pushing them to the fringes of society. The ultimate goal? Conform to their pagan demands or face incarceration.

“What’s worse is that progressivism has, like a deadly cancer, fully metastasized into what passes for the church in America,” Barber says. “There is a great falling away afoot, and apostasy reigns supreme.”

As Barber sees it, the secular left doesn’t merely have a disagreement with Christianity. He explains these are not people with whom one may reason, compromise or even disagree; they are dedicated to evil; and they demand nothing less than the abolition of the biblical worldview, and the destruction of Christ’s followers right along with it.

Holy fuck, I’m about to overdose on melodrama here. Secular and pagan are now the same thing? I’m secular, but not pagan. I have zero interest in making any theist conform to my demands, and even less interest in forming some sort of prison for those who don’t comply to whatever. That sounds more like a religious thing to do. As an atheist and a humanist, what I do want is for Christians to go about their lives as they wish, while keeping their religion the fuck out of everyone else’s lives. Simple enough. Stop trying to enforce religious law every 5 seconds, and withdraw your collective nose out of people’s genitals. Learn to mind your own damn business when it comes to private medical decisions. Realize that freedom of religion doesn’t mean Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. If you don’t like that horrible public education, send your kids to private school, or home school. Pray privately, as your own holy book tells you to do. Stop insisting on show prayer everywhere, all the time. It doesn’t impress anyone. Stop wailing over granting basic human rights to all people. No one is at your door with chaps, a whip, and the notorious Gay Agenda.

“Now is the time to fight back. If you are someone, Christian or not, who refuses to see Christianity wiped out—like it ever could be—and your children indoctrinated into pure evil, then sitting on the sidelines is no longer an option,” Barber says. “We live in dire times. But with Christ, it’s never too late to turn the tide!”

Emphasis mine. Right, so why the fucking hysteria? Why the overdose of drama? I can clue you in, Matt. It’s called loss of privilege. People get upset about that, which is perfectly normal. What you need to do is adjust, adapt. The world is moving on, whether you like it or not.

I’m believing for transforming revival that changes America from the inside out. Sure, there will always be a radical left, but when some of the proponents of a godless nation get radically saved and speak out about their passion for Jesus, the tide will begin to turn.

The devil knows his time is short. Let’s keep praying.

Oh, I’m sure that will work. Yes. Stay in your houses, and pray. 24 / 7.  Show that Lucifer.

Full Court Hysteria Here.

Jesus Tree Giving Up The Ghost.

The tree that hides Jesus in better days.

The tree that hides Jesus in better days.

The Jesus in question exposed.

The Jesus in question exposed.

SOUTH PORTLAND — The pine tree planted to hide what some call the googly-eyed Jesus may be dying.

The long, green needles of the Austrian pine, which obscures a controversial mural of Jesus Christ on the bell tower of Holy Cross Catholic Church on Cottage Road, have mysteriously turned brown in recent weeks.

[…]

“I think pollution is doing a number on it,” Roberts said Tuesday. “It’s got something going on.”

Roberts, who is a church member, said the tree also appeared to be dead a couple of years ago, but it rebounded after he applied a fertilizer and insecticide. Now, road salt and other pollution may be taking a toll once again.

“This time it may be gone,” Roberts said. “It may have to come out.”

[…]

On April 17, the Maine Sunday Telegram published a story about the tree and its strategic placement in front of the mural. At that time, the needles on the tree were green. In that story, Henchal said parishioners didn’t talk much about the mural, though the hidden Jesus is something of a legend among children who attend the parochial school next door.

At the high-traffic intersection of Broadway and Cottage Road, the enamel-on-steel mural was installed in 1980 to replace a deteriorating tile facade on the church, which was built in 1950. Titled “Spirit of the Matter: A Christian Triptych,” the mural was designed by Damariscotta artist John Janii Laberge at the direction of a church committee.

In the April story, Laberge admitted that he has often thought of cutting the tree down with a chainsaw to expose his artwork. On Monday, Laberge said he had noticed the tree’s failing condition last week when he was dog-sitting for a friend in South Portland, but he was quick to deflect any suspicion that he is responsible.

“I didn’t poison it,” Laberge volunteered. “It may not be dead. I’ve seen it that way before and it came back. It’s probably just going through its seasonal changes.”

The response to the mural has been mixed from the start, especially to the whites of the eyes, which stare woefully toward heaven in a pose suggesting medieval religious art. While some say it’s an apt representation of pain and suffering, others say it’s creepy or scary. Laberge says he delivered on the church committee’s request to depict a “powerful, working-class Christ.”

“I wanted a strong, drive-by presence,” Laberge said. “I made something bold and big that tells something about the crucifixion and what came after. I warned them that depictions of Christ are a touchy thing.”

When Laberge drives past the mural today, he questions the negative reaction.

“It’s not that bad,” Laberge said. “A person who died on the cross is not going to look pretty.”

[…]

The mural became the subject of community controversy in 2001, when church officials considered making changes to the artwork as part of building renovations. The renovations ran over budget, however, so the idea of altering the mural was dropped, church members said. Soon after, someone suggested planting a tree in front of the mural as a way to take care of the problem.

The plan seemed to be working until the tree started showing signs of stress in recent years. Whether it can be brought back from the brink a second time is unclear.

Full Story Here. So, no one suggested praying the tree back to life? I’m shocked, after all, it’s not a fig tree. After staring at that art work for what is probably too long, I think they need a much bigger tree. Much bigger.