When you’re watching the Super Bowl, do try to avoid the commercials. Not only is it rampant capitalism, but they’re propaganda for odious organizations. Take those “Jesus gets it” commercials:
The Servant Foundation has plunged millions of dollars into its ‘He Gets Us’ ads, which paint Jesus as an “influencer” who was “cancelled” for standing up for his beliefs. The controversial adverts were shown at this year’s Super Bowl and have been plastered across billboards in the United States over the last year.
But analysis of financial accounts by openDemocracy shows over the last five years the Servant Foundation has also grown to become the main identifiable source of funding for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), described as an anti-LGBTIQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) – an allegation it denies.
You already know that if they can afford a Super Bowl ad, they’re a poisonous organization. They’re pushing Jesus, which is about as awful as pushing heroin. Here’s a local Minnesota example, you’ve probably got these creeps in your neighborhood, too.
A former minister at a large Owatonna church has been charged with multiple felonies after a woman reported he sexually assaulted her while she was a student at the school associated with the church – and again as an adult.A second woman reported he had attempted sexual contact with her, also when she was a student.
Luverne Zacharias, 46, of Medford, faces one count each of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, as well as two counts each of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, as reported by the Steele County Times.
Zacharias was a teacher and principal at the school; the victim was about 14 years of age when the inappropriate touching began, the complaint says.
The woman told police that Zacharias would meet her in the basement of the school when she was sent to get milk for her classmates at lunchtime and during breaks. He allegedly touched her breasts and genitals over her clothing at first, doing it at least once every day, the woman said.
Zacharias would give her notes, tell her she was beautiful and that she reminded him of his daughter. He also reportedly told her he couldn’t control himself around her, and that she was “like my kryptonite.”
She reminded him of his daughter…so what’s he doing molesting her? It just got worse and worse from there.
The girl also reported Zacharias…to other church authorities. Doesn’t she know that their first thought would be to protect their own?
Court documents state the victim reported the alleged assault to pastors Tim and Cherrie Peterson. They told her they would hold Zacharias accountable for his actions, but told the victim to “think about Zacharias’s family and kids and what they might go through if she went to law enforcement,” the complaint says.
Keep that in mind when the lying Christian ads appear on your screen. Jesus chose the rapists and child molesters.
Funny that Jesus doesn’t say anything about LGBT or abortion in the bible.
At William Lane Craig’s website “Reasonable Faith”, WLC answers a weekly question asking his opinion on various religious questions. I just sent him a question I doubt I will see answered, but I tried.
My Question
in John 14:15, we read the words of Jesus, “If you love me keep
my commandments”. The we have the commands in Mark 10, Luke
12, 14, 18, and Matthew 19, “Sell all you have and give to the poor”.
Which few Christians follow. It would seem most Christian have no
intention of following the commands of Jesus as commanded in
the gospels. And we have the supporting verses, “You cannot serve
God and mammon” etc. As an atheist, I find it odd that so many
Christians demand all take the Bible seriously, when few Christians
take these commands of Jesus seriously
Do you are to comment on this issue?
I do not think Jesus was a exactly fan of capitalism. But do these Christian get Jesus?
They should sell all those ads and give it to the poor. I read that somewhere….
Jesus chose the rapists and child molesters not to forget Trump and the Republicans. Except he didn’t. He preferred the company of decent people like tax collectors and prostitutes.
“I personally hold the man completely blameless for the religion(s) foisted upon him posthumously.” -paraphrasing Aleister Crowley.
I use to have a tee shirt that said “Jesus. Save me from your followers”
She was a child who didn’t know any better. The Petersons don’t have that excuse. Honestly, if I knew of these claims and someone asked me to “think about Zacharias’s family and kids and what they might go through if she went to law enforcement,” I answer by saying that he’s probably molesting his own kids.
It is fun to see Darwinian evolution affect religious organisations in a culture where secular values have become the norm.
To remain at all relevant, the Swedish church – formerly the state church – has internalised the values of the secular culture. More old-fashioned kind of religion lives on in smaller groups (evangelicals, catholics, muslims etc) but they, too, must adapt or perish in the long run.
The old-fashioned church was a repressive hierarchic extention of the state. The ghost that remains is like a collection of religious social workers.
A predator in the ranks- for the hierarchy to try to sweep it under the carpet would not only be difficult -nearly half the priests are women-, it would be like collective suicide for the organisation!
“Zacharias would give her notes, tell her she was beautiful and that she reminded him of his daughter”
Has someone checked in with his daughter?
O/T: did anyone know that there was a shooting at Joel Osteen’s Megachurch in Texas?
https://www.joemygod.com/2024/02/cops-active-shooter-at-joel-osteens-tx-megachurch/
Obviously this filthy pervert’s been molesting his daughter as well as the ladies who knew him since college, just like TFG.
*and high school, too.
@ 8
Addendum… when it was still the state church, it got the same modernizations other parts of the civil service got (yes, priests saxons et al were civil servants) with an ombudsman for safety etc.
There is still of course the risks with all organisations that HR might overlook a predator but it is much more risk in the small sectarian groups -Jehowah’s Witnesses is an obvious example. And the weird groups inside the Catholic Church. I could write pages about our evangelical groups, one of them had a murderer as priest.
Be aware that this article about the ministering pervert is from a right wing site that contains a link to a false article claiming that Biden willingly stole documents and hid them in a garage, which is an absolute, made up lie.
Tip: Replace “Biden” with “Trump” and the lie becomes the truth right there.
Owosso Harpist @ 11
Horrible, but not surprising at all. By this stage I am just glad there is not a big field with shallow graves behind his house.
Cheerfulcharlie @ 2
These Christians carefully avoid reading the parts of the Bible that might induce cognitive dissonance.
The fact that so many of them follow Trump, the most obvious of false prophets and con men demonstrate the shallowness of their belief system.
Myself @ 13
The evangelical priest in the Swedish town Knutby manipulated a follower to murder his wife, and he very likely had another person killed too. Elmer Gantry was nothing compared to that guy.
@birgerjohansson : “By this stage I am just glad there is not a big field with shallow graves behind his house.”
Are we really sure there’s not?
Horrific but not surprising indeed.
From last year in case you don’t remember.
https://pandasthumb.org/archives/2023/02/Funder-of-Super-Bowl.html
Dan Phelps @ 17
I remember seeing the article and what that horrible “He gets us” group endorses via the Dark Web – every group made up of white supremacists, embrace young earth fantasies, idolize Stupid idiot Trump, support oil lobbyists, spew out hatred against gays, trans, blacks, browns, etc.
Boy, am I glad I’m not watching the Super Bowl.
As a satanist anarchist who does not commit more than the average daily number of felonies, I must object.
I think that (mostly) Christianity is shilling for “alms.” I think that capitalism is the natural continuation of feudalism, the thing that gave us race slavery as we know it, and divided people even more than religion did in the past. I think crime is a transgression of law, law being neither ethical nor moral, but merely the rules of a sovereign state.
Given that, they’re not the same. This is just a shallow liberal response to things that have been cast out . . . .
I like Stephen Colbert’s version:
Jesus: “I’ll get you! I’ll get you if it’s the last thing I do!”
Also, Colbert has frequent conversations with god at his show. Yaweh seems much cooler than in the bible.
Heinlein readers might interpret it as “He groks us”…remember that cannibalism was a part of Martian culture!
The Gospels portray Jesus as telling his original followers they’d live to see his return. But like many of the Christian sects to follow there were enough followers who ignored his apparent failed prophecy for the religion to keep going.
I don’t get it. They picture Jesus as quite a liberal, to push a conservative agenda?