Bro Gary Hawkins 16: In BetWeen

[thoughtful]

8 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

Did this guys confuse or conflate Mormons and Muslins? Does he think Muslims follow Joseph Smith?

No - sorry. It occurred to me that it would come off that way in writing, and I should have said something. From what he said right before it, his timing, and his tone of voice, it was clear he was in Preacher Screaming a  List mode, and knew he was insulting several different religions.

It just happened to be a very short list.

1 hour ago, MayMay1123 said:

@thoughtful, I just wanted to shout out how much I appreciate your posts! I have no patience to sit through hours of BroHawk and friends, nor the talent to write as humorously and as well as you do. Standing ovation!

I'm blushing! Thanks!

I do it because it fascinates me and because, to me, the nitty-gritty of what these people say in church is basic to what's horrible about them (second only to the child abuse, neglect and restriction), so I think it's relevant to FJ snarking.

And, I am always grateful to people who go find something and bring it to FJ - posts, tweets, news items. I spent a long time just reading and commenting, so I figured I owed this place some research work.

 

32 minutes ago, postscript said:

Over/under on how long it takes Bro Gary to use that God spitting on him line in his own sermons? These guys all seem to, er, “borrow” liberally from each other’s messages, and Gary seems obsessed with smells and bodily fluids. 

And we already know that he loves that story.

Edited January 25, 2021 by thoughtful
riffle

[AuntKrazy]

On 1/21/2021 at 5:32 PM, thoughtful said:

 

There is a mask order in Texas.  So Gary and Rebecca, et al, are rebelling against authorities for no reason but their own preference.  If that is not the definition of selfishness, I don't know what is.

[thoughtful]

They are doing morning sessions at this camp meeting. It really seems like an addiction to me. The Hawkinses have set up their phone way on the other side of the church, and it is hard to see who is speaking.

As the video for this morning's meeting starts, the (host?) preacher is saying "Always remember Sammy Allen: 'The Holy Ghost is the most sensitive person here - don't take much t'offend Him."

Gary says "Yeah."

Like Gary, these guys all seem to make reference to old-time preachers a lot. I guess it's better than taking credit for their ideas, but it seems like yet another sign of their living in the past and adoring people they consider celebrities.

The man asked to lead the first prayer starts out screaming "You're the God! You're the God! You're the Lord! There's none greater than you! There's a lotta gods runnin' around sayin' they're god, but there's nothing like you!"

And he goes on screaming passionately about how fabulous God is, for almost five minutes.

Makes me think of, or possibly:

Spoiler

 

There's lots of the  self-conscious, purposeful "listen to us shouting and screaming and hehehehing" crap today, as well.

The musical group does some really good Bluegrass pickin', fiddlin' and singin' as they remind all that they are filthy sinners, but it's all under the blood, and how the old-time religion is best, as the congregation drowns them out competing to scream the loudest.

Lots of the usual - citing when and where one was saved, heck-ah'm-jest-a-good-old-poor-Southern-boy, trucks and old cars, everything good in their lives came from God/Jesus, "that mob up in Washin'ton," we're in a mess.

The first preacher is disgusted that New England used to have the gospel, but gave it up. Also England - he cites the "the sun never sets" saying (wrong - he says "Isles" instead of "Empire") as proof that it used to be Christian. Now, it's Muslim, including the mayor of London.

The first to deny God were "Mr. Adam and Mr. Eve - Brother Adam and Brother Eve." Yes, two tries, and he still makes Eve male. If some "liberal" preacher had made such an inadvertent error, they'd seize on it, and be preaching about sodomites and only two genders for years. But nobody seems to notice when this guy does it.

Another good musical group. Among other things, they sing a song called He Wouldn't Stay Dead.

The host has all of the preachers, missionaries and evangelists stand and introduce themselves. It sounds like everyone there is one of the above.

Some of them also introduce their wives. One of them says "this isn't mah wife." It gets a loud, over-exaggerated laugh, so I figure (we can't see who he is talking about) he is next to a guy.

So funny

Gary does not speak. I don't know if it was predetermined who was allowed to introduce themselves, or if he is genuinely cowed in this company or in his resentful "ah don't need to compete at them camp meetings" sulk. It may be that Gary has slipped out with Becky to work in the kitchen - I haven't heard his voice in a while.

A new preacher comes up, and reads the loaves and fishes story. As he prays afterward, someone yells "Give it to me!" twice. These guys are sometimes the vocal version of Jill's penile Plexus bottle.

He preaches on the bitten-on leftovers of the loaves and fishes, which he says Jesus gave to the disciples. He keeps telling us that God uses broken meat. Most of his point is that the people of God should be happy with used stuff, including their supplies and their spouses, with a bit of telling them that God has a use for them, even if they are broken meat.

I will say that it is somewhat of a forgiving message, and it sounds like he's urging them to respect remarried people, mixed-race kids, people with unpleasant pasts, older people, and to be accepting if their fellow Christians don't dress up, have tattoos, still have some worldly habits (he mentions smoking as his example).

Gary, did you listen?

The host preacher (I think) blah-blah-blahs (with a few sudden screams) to the end. I zoned out a bit, but did catch his mention of a Brother Bill who "bombed the Vatican with 80,000 Chick tracts.

[Pecansforeveryone]

Ah Chick tracts. Good times, good times. I will have to hit up Hannah and Jake's review of them in honor of Brother Gary. 

[thoughtful]

Gary, his preaching stifled, needs to post on FB to express himself (I was really expecting a daily video rant, but maybe Becky has exhausted him with kitchen duties).

[EyesOpen]

Who are his Facebook friends? I’m a sinning heathen and I have multiple friends who post Bible verses and things about their church or faith daily...

[Xan]

14 hours ago, thoughtful said:

There's lots of the  self-conscious, purposeful "listen to us shouting and screaming and hehehehing" crap today, as well.

The musical group does some really good Bluegrass pickin', fiddlin' and singin' as they remind all that they are filthy sinners, but it's all under the blood, and how the old-time religion is best, as the congregation drowns them out competing to scream the loudest.

You weren't kidding.  I watched a couple of minutes of the video and I could barely hear the music for all the shouting.  Men just kept jumping up, waving an arm in the air, and yelling.  That isn't displaying one's faith.  It's just rude.

Gary's found his people here.  They're loud, "old-timey", and against masks.  When they started gathering to pray at the front I watched for masks.  One guy had on a mask but then removed it when he got to the altar.  Just how stupid are these people?

Here they are.  Not a mask in sight.

Spoiler

 

[Black Aliss]

2 hours ago, Xan said:

Gary's found his people here.  They're loud, "old-timey", and against masks.  When they started gathering to pray at the front I watched for masks.  One guy had on a mask but then removed it when he got to the altar.  Just how stupid are these people?

Here they are.  Not a mask in sight.

Bless their hearts. They still have not caught on that COVID is a socialist communist anti-fa plot to kill all the Christians, have they?

[mango_fandango]

Hold on, England is Muslim now? Funny, I hadn’t noticed. Sadiq Khan is Muslim (the Mayor of London mentioned) but doesn’t push his religion on other people, unlike SOME I could mention. 

[thoughtful]

14 hours ago, EyesOpen said:

Who are his Facebook friends? I’m a sinning heathen and I have multiple friends who post Bible verses and things about their church or faith daily...

As far as I can see, his thousands of Facebook friends are all Christian, and very likely to post Bible verses and praise of Jesus. Click on any of them:

https://www.facebook.com/ghawkins38/friends

Looking at Gary's friends list, TIL there is a business called Putzmeister. Putz is Yiddish slang for penis, also used for an obnoxious person (like calling someone a dick or shmuck).

1 hour ago, mango_fandango said:

Hold on, England is Muslim now? Funny, I hadn’t noticed. Sadiq Khan is Muslim (the Mayor of London mentioned) but doesn’t push his religion on other people, unlike SOME I could mention. 

Well, you know, it's the bigot reaction. If one person from a group they dislike gets to do a thing, it means the whole world is changing (except for them).

A commercial with a same-sex couple means homosexuality is "being shoved down their throats," and everybody but them doesn't know what male and female is anymore.

White Christian males not being in charge of absolutely everything is the end of the world.

I hate to generalize about bigots, but I think I'm safe in saying that they generally generalize!

?

[thoughtful]

Monday evening camp meeting - the Hawkins phone is way over to the right again.

One of the things that has been interesting to me, watching Gary's videos from various places, is how traditions vary slightly, and seeing how people who are visiting or gathering from different churches react.

When a pastor asks one person to give a prayer, sometimes you can hear just that person, and others don't call out, or react quietly (Gary, as we know, has a moaning prayergasm). In some places, a few men will pray loudly, and others will just react or mumble softly. At this camp meeting, the tradition seems to be for most of the men to bellow and scream prayers at once. This goes on for about 4 minutes.

Host (?) preacher says he remembers the first time he heard praying like that. He was a child, in the car with his momma, and they heard it coming up out of the woods. "God came up out of the woods!" Lots of shouting answers.

They scream, whoop and whistle with phony-sounding excitement when he announces There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood, and some of them continue during the song, and after it. Same for Amazing Grace.

Part of the disconnect is that Gary's phone is far enough back that we see some congregants, and so, in the middle of all of the near-constant screaming, there are people walking by now and then  - to the bathroom, to change seats, whatever - looking bored as can be.

Spoiler

Both of these screenshots were taken at moments when most of the men were shrieking and bellowing rapturously.

After some more yelled prayer, the musical group is mostly drowned out by shouting as they do a fine Bluegrass version of Brethen, We Have Met to Worship, then It's Still the Blood.

When the first guest preacher comes up, in a rare moment of silence, someone yells (I think) "Just be good, professor," which gets a huge laugh.

He gets a big laugh by starting with some line about how he was going to preach on "12 reasons ah know Jesus was not a Democrat." He gets shouts of affirmation when he says Jesus wasn't a Republican either.

The irony that Jesus, if he lived today, would probably be way to the left of current Democrats, let alone Republicans, is, of course, nonexistent to them. They think Jesus would have been a far-right zealot.

He's very tall, and, while expressing his thanks for "a good family," he says his Momma was the only mother in the neighborhood "who had to climb a ladder to whip her kid." Big laugh. "She did it. Ah'll tell ya about the beatin' she gave me with a ball bat one these days, but that's another story."

There you have it, folks - IFB nostalgia.

Oh, wait - there's some nostalgia that's not about being beaten. He tells a story about going out doorknocking as a teen, and how he and the other future preacher he was with "got in behind some Jehovah's Witnesses." They were taking Watchtower pamphlets off of doors, leaving their materials, and were packing the JW lit "to the garbage can as fast as we could."

He says that the yelling you're hearing tonight is the result of preachers being "stymied" by Baptists for years, getting to the point "where the pop-off valve finally popped off, and glad to have a place to go, like this." Much screaming in answer.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+8%3A41-56&version=KJV

This guy fancies himself a comedian. When he gets to verse 55: And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat, he says, "And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and He commanded to give her  - tofu, and bean sprouts, decaffeinated coffee, gluten-free pasta, imitation oleo."

Because them liberal foods is funny, you see.    They scream "NO!" at each of these, as well as laughing, and he finally finishes "He said 'give her meat'" to loud amens.

He asks them to re-read the second part of verse 42: But as he went the people thronged him, and says his theme is What to Do When You're Stuck in Traffic.

He sets it up by talking about people there who may feel stuck due to not getting a position, or their church not growing. No mention of personal growth, faith, or anything that might concern the women or children there. Nope, this seems to be about bolstering those poor, put-upon patriarchal preachers praying for power and pennies (oops - I Shradered. Excuse me).

He uses the metaphor, warning against making a U-turn or taking a shortcut due to being "stuck" in their lives.

The video cuts off - there's a second one from that same service, which I will get to after work.

In the meantime, keep screaming!

Spoiler

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by thoughtful
riffles

[forgetmenow]

23 hours ago, thoughtful said:

The man asked to lead the first prayer starts out screaming "You're the God! You're the God! You're the Lord! There's none greater than you! There's a lotta gods runnin' around sayin' they're god, but there's nothing like you!"

Another good musical group. Among other things, they sing a song called He Wouldn't Stay Dead.

(bolding mine)

Well, so much for monotheism, I guess.

Also, "He Wouldn't Stay Dead" is a Grade B Western movie title, if I ever heard one.  Or an early sci-fi, maybe.

[thoughtful]

I found videos of three of the four musical groups, so you can hear them without the screaming. The first one is a blood medley, with a "shave and haircut" ending!

Spoiler

 

https://www.facebook.com/144378029075245/videos/688922801749675

Some of the kids look as sad as Rods, but at least they sound better.

BTW, when I looked more carefully at the poster for this event, while trying to read the names of the musical groups, I noticed that one of the guest preachers is Gary Lutrick, the man who Gary et al were praying for because he almost died from Covid-19.

There is a gap from the previous video to this one, so we don't get to hear the further wit and wisdom of Tall Preacher Who Mocks Wimpy Food. The second video begins with the collection, then singing from one of the musical groups, mostly drowned out by unbelievably loud shouting and whooping.

The host preacher (having checked the poster, I now know he is Pastor Lindsey) says something like "If you have to leave, that's all right," then mentions that there will be another preacher, and that some people took off of work for the whole week just to be there.

Gee, Pastor Lindsey - no pressure. If you see someone leaving, think about this - at least they waited until after the collection, you ingrate.

The next guest preacher is one of those breathless guys, who sounds overexcited from the beginning, and puts an "uh" at the beginning and end of almost every sentence. I don't know how long I will last.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+8%3A15-17&version=KJV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+8%3A15-17&version=KJV

The theme seems to be crossing over the river, and the things Ezra, and we, encounter along the way. Mostly, he screams and they scream back at him. Even having heard so much of this, I can't quite believe how incredibly loud it gets. I listened to all of it, but there is nothing worth writing here.

I may have lost some hearing - possibly some brain cells.

Pastor Lindsey says there are some problems with the bathrooms, and mumbles some apologetic things about that, then says "What ah'm sayin' is hold it as long as you can!"

He invites them to stay and eat.

Edited January 27, 2021 by thoughtful
Just once, can I post without a riffle? Please?

[thoughtful]

Becky put a short video on her Facebook page - one of the musical numbers. There is actually  less shouting in this one than there is for most of the preaching and singing, and it doesn't reach the shrieking level some of the other moments do, but this should give you some idea.

https://www.facebook.com/Becky1976/videos/10158725582278614

You can hear Gary on this one, and his yells sound quiet compared to most of these men, despite his being right by the phone.

[thoughtful]

The first video for Tuesday morning starts at a time when everyone is just hanging around - er, excuse me, fellowshipping, while someone plays the piano. The musical style is a bit beyond Gospel into Ragtime, and if that is the grand piano I hear, it sounds oddly tinny. My point is that the general atmosphere is this:

Spoiler

rather than this:

Spoiler

Pastor Lindsey greets them, says he's glad to be with church people, and that there are now porta-potties for the men to use, leaving the indoor bathrooms for the ladies. Again, he asks them to hold it as long as they can, and jokes that his wife will scold him for being crude: "She'll be raht out here in a minute, shakin' that ol' finger."

Everyone gathers at the coronavirus-exchange benches and the man asked to lead the prayers is joined by the voices of many other men. It is quiet this time - maybe they're getting tired, or saving their screams.

The pastor must have noticed this, because he comments about the quiet times and the loud times, and how he and God appreciate both. As he goes on (and on, and on), it sounds like he gets a bit weepy talking about all of the men he appreciates.

They all sing I Feel Like Traveling On, and The Glory Land Way. Then a prayer, with occasional shouting. The prayer leader asks for men that will stand up again, because, "Lord , we don't need  no sissies."

A special of Thank You, Dear Lord, partially drowned out by shouting, follows, then I Stand Amazed. It is so drowned out by shouting and ear-piercing screaming that it took quite a while to hear enough of the lyrics to look it up. Then The Lighthouse, also with shouting from the "listeners."

So much for the quiet times. Again, it doesn't sound remotely like men spontaneously expressing their feelings, or even screaming fans at a rock concert. It sounds like a competition for who can be the loudest, whether low-pitched or agonizingly shrill, with those phony hehehehs dropped in to the quieter moments.

Pastor emotionally tells them that the singers also put together all of the chairs, and "prayed over every screw." After some more back-and-forth of preachers kissing one another's asses, the guest preacher comes up. He is the pastor's son, Caleb Lindsey.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+kings+4%3A8-11&version=KJV

He speaks emotionally about men of God, and how he is grateful for those he got to "get by, and get under" while growing up. He is also grateful for the people who set aside a place for men of God to stay, and feed them, and quickly escalates to shouting and screeching about it.

He finds symbolism in the four items the couple in 2 Kings put in the chamber for Elisha, so I guess he's not only begging for people to take care of grifting preachers. He especially loves saying "table," drawing it out to be "tayyyyeeble," about 50 times.

[Jasmar]

That all just sounds so freaking bizarre, all the screaming. When I was a new Christian (and many years before deconverting, haha), we were trying to find a church. One of the places we visited had that kind of screaming, and by the end of the service, everyone in the building but us were up screaming and crying at the altar, while the preacher went on and on about how we could all just rise up to the ceiling if we were loud enough, or something. It was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever witnessed.

[thoughtful]

I don't know whether the videos are mislabeled, or some are missing, but I don't see a second video for Tuesday morning.

Tuesday evening starts with saloon-style piano, and the pastor saying that, the first time he heard shouting in church, it was nerve-wracking, but he got over it when he joined in.

He also says that an evangelist lost a datebook, and, "for an evangelist, that's more important to him than anything else he's got other than his Bible." It wasn't Gary, I'm sorry to say.

Thank God the bathrooms are fixed.

The schedule for next year is up, start praying, and the obligatory "if the Lord comes back I won't be here" joke.

And the video cuts off after only a few minutes.

BTW, I don't think I mentioned this - collection at this affair is taken in big black plastic bins.

Spoiler

No pressure.

[Dana723]

19 hours ago, thoughtful said:

I found videos of three of the four musical groups, so you can hear them without the screaming. The first one is a blood medley, with a "shave and haircut" ending!

Thank you!  I love bluegrass as well as...I guess they'd be called bluegrass hymns?  I'm not sure what it's called.  But I grew up listening to that kind of music and I enjoy it when it's done right!

[thoughtful]

1 hour ago, Dana723 said:

Thank you!  I love bluegrass as well as...I guess they'd be called bluegrass hymns?  I'm not sure what it's called.  But I grew up listening to that kind of music and I enjoy it when it's done right!

I like the sound, as well. Fast picking on guitar, mandolin and banjo, some dobro, bass, fiddle - all timbres I like. Add close harmony singing, and I'm happy.

Playing around on google, searches on bluegrass hymns, bluegrass gospel, and sacred bluegrass brought up some good stuff. I think a lot of people would just call it country gospel, but those searches brought up more of the instrumental stuff I like.

Spoiler

 

And now I've been looking up all kinds of stuff, including a memorial tribute to Earl Scruggs, hosted by a choked-up Steve Martin.

[thoughtful]

Gary (with, I assume, Becky's help, since, other than random capitalization, this is mostly correct) posts, and the commenters chime in with "not us!" and "they'll be sorry when they burn in Hell" answers.

Spoiler

 

Gary, look at Jimbo's comment, you shit. Although, if he did, I'm sure it wouldn't change his opinion at all.

Spoiler

 

[FiveAcres]

I was just at my PCP's office to get blood work done. While I was in there, an older woman (late 70s?) came in and I overheard her conversation with the receptionist. No, the older woman wasn't going to get a Covid-19 vaccination because she trusted in the lawd. She wasn't going to be afraid and she was just going to live her life. The Bible says that gawd knows the time of her birth and the time of her death. She was wearing a cloth mask, but the receptionist made her exchange it for a surgical mask. (The receptionist had looked at my mask (N95 from when we kept them because we were doing hazardous tasks around the five acre place)  and said she liked it. I got to keep my mask.)

After hearing the older woman's conversation I wondered why she bothered to go to the doctor since gawd knows when she will die. I also wondered how much longer I had to share air space with a religious fanatic from a death cult. Fortunately, the phlebotomist called me back before I could get too irritated about it. 

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by FiveAcres
balancing parentheses

[Alisamer]

On 1/26/2021 at 1:36 PM, thoughtful said:

Well, you know, it's the bigot reaction. If one person from a group they dislike gets to do a thing, it means the whole world is changing (except for them).

A commercial with a same-sex couple means homosexuality is "being shoved down their throats," and everybody but them doesn't know what male and female is anymore.

White Christian males not being in charge of absolutely everything is the end of the world.

I hate to generalize about bigots, but I think I'm safe in saying that they generally generalize!

?

This is what amazes me about these people. Particularly the "White Christian Males not being in charge of everything" part - because here we now have a white Christian male as president, but oh no - he's the WRONG sort of Christian so they hate him. I always wondered what these people would have done if Mitt Romney would have been elected - they seemed to think Obama was going to force everyone to be Muslim, and they seem to think Biden (despite being a devout Catholic) is going to force everyone to be atheist. Yet somehow that orange dude was A-OK for them... like do only democrats get the "they're going to force us to change our religion!" accusations, or would a sub-set of them have gone on about Romney forcing people to become Mormon?

They want the rules of the world to be exactly what they, themselves, believe they should be. 

Unfortunately, even they can't agree on what those rules are. If they did get their way and the country became a Christian theocracy, these same guys would still be preaching the same thing against the government, because of some rule they think should be in place that isn't. It's never ending. There's no way to be Christian enough or "pure" enough to satisfy any of these people, because put any two of them in a room long enough and they'll find some theological sticking point they disagree on!

[thoughtful]

Wednesday morning's video starts with what appears to be end of some mostly-silent prayer. They all sing There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood, very slowly (just what that hymn needed - a dirge-like tempo!), the pastor says a few words, then a woman speaks, from the congregation. She can't be seen, and can barely be heard, but it sounds like she is testifying tearfully. Then a man testifies about being saved, and being protected by God in prison.

The pastor says he appreciates their testimony. "Y'know, ya can't have testimony in some places - people are spiritually - ignorant - that's 'bout the best way I know to describe it - spiritually ignorant. They'll say stuff that off the wall, ah mean, way out."

Apparently, he is choosy about what magical thinking he will believe.

Introducing the next preacher, he says he'd heard his daddy preach, and loved it when those "old leather-lunged men o' God would rare* back and preach."

*rear, as in:

Spoiler

The preacher does a very long modesty bit about how he doesn't deserve to be up there, and praising many of the men who are there, how they should be impressed with Jesus when he's done, not him, etc.

He says he lives in Mississippi, a wicked place where they have wicked people who need Jesus. Oh, and his wife was unhappy with the shower not being hot at their hotel, so this morning she prayed to God for a hot shower, and got one.

He says he's preaching on the first four verses of the Song of Solomon, but doesn't read them.

"Hollywood has tarnished the word love. When you look at Hollywood love, you think about slappin' 'em up against the wall, givin' 'em all that sloppy sugar, and then ya git married amen. And people are misconceived about what true love is amen."

He talks about how the Song of Solomon is like the book of Revelation, and quotes an old-time preacher who, when asked if Revelation should be taken literally or allegorically, answered "yes." He also says he does what works for him, and how he doesn't use his daddy's outlines.

So, he's dancing around that whole idea that the KJV needs no interpretation - I wonder what Gary is thinking, if he's not missing all this while back in the kitchen slaving away.

He's revved up to yelling and "uh before every sentence" mode, ranting about the devil and the wicked world, and how the Song of Solomon is not about marriage, it's about Jesus, and he's never praised his wife's teeth, he just tells her she's pretty.

He says Solomon wrote 105 songs, but the Holy Ghost chose this one.

He also claims "Jews didn't let their children read it until they were about 30 years old." Not that I know of, dude.

They answer him with all of the usual bellowing, screeching, and rebel yells. Besides sounding phony, it occurred to me that some of this noise is the saved-guy version of riding around town in a pickup truck, whooping filth at women and racist slurs at non-white people and firing guns in the air. I guess it's hard to get out of the habit.

He finally reads the verses:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song+of+Solomon+1%3A1-4&version=KJV

He has mentioned, earlier, that someone else preached on these verses the night before, and keeps trying to make it clear that it doesn't bother him, and he's not trying to steal the other guy's thunder, etc. I think the pastor doth protest too much.

Now he says he thinks that, if the other guy hadn't done right, the man's daddy would have done what his daddy would, and rise up out of the grave to give him a good whuppin' or take his place for a moment.

He deals with the "better than wine" metaphor - he  doesn't know what wine is like, of course, but admits he's wondered and says he thinks they all have.

He says that the perfectly round, perfectly centered eyes of the dove are a symbol of God's love. Hey, he finally hit on a metaphor I can relate to, looking at my handsome dude relaxing on his perch on the other side of the room.

Anyway, this is pretty much a more-screamed version of Elmer Gantry's "love is the morning and the evening star" speech. And, while I couldn't find that speech in a video online, I recommend that everyone on FJ see that film and read the book.

[forgetmenow]

5 hours ago, thoughtful said:

Gary (with, I assume, Becky's help, since, other than random capitalization, this is mostly correct) posts, and the commenters chime in with "not us!" and "they'll be sorry when they burn in Hell" answers.

 

  Hide contents

 

Since Jimbo, there, has a super unique name, I indulged my curiosity and checked his fb to see if I could find out who/where his late pastor was (btw, Jimbo is racist and misogynist trash, based solely on what he posts).  Apparently, this was the pastor's 2nd bout of covid.  He survived a bout back in August.  Sadly, according to a post from earlier this month he wasn't feeling well, but it seems like he didn't think he could get re-infected.

It looks like the pastor was a kind man.  I wish people were getting better information about the virus, or believing the info they get from competent sources.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

5 hours ago, Alisamer said:

This is what amazes me about these people. Particularly the "White Christian Males not being in charge of everything" part - because here we now have a white Christian male as president, but oh no - he's the WRONG sort of Christian so they hate him. I always wondered what these people would have done if Mitt Romney would have been elected - they seemed to think Obama was going to force everyone to be Muslim, and they seem to think Biden (despite being a devout Catholic) is going to force everyone to be atheist. Yet somehow that orange dude was A-OK for them... like do only democrats get the "they're going to force us to change our religion!" accusations, or would a sub-set of them have gone on about Romney forcing people to become Mormon?

They want the rules of the world to be exactly what they, themselves, believe they should be. 

Unfortunately, even they can't agree on what those rules are. If they did get their way and the country became a Christian theocracy, these same guys would still be preaching the same thing against the government, because of some rule they think should be in place that isn't. It's never ending. There's no way to be Christian enough or "pure" enough to satisfy any of these people, because put any two of them in a room long enough and they'll find some theological sticking point they disagree on!

Actually the divisions among themselves may save America from Christian theocracy.