Theobros, Patriarchs, Dominionists, Christofascists et al.

[Howl]

4 hours ago, dramallama said:

Just wait until 2023 when SCOTUS will decide Moore v Harper, that could put the final nail in the coffin of American "democracy".

I don't think many people get that democracy is teetering on the edge in this country.  Just in the last week...it's possibly our country will be an authoritarian train wreck.  I keep thinking about Turkey, a previously secular and democratic country until Erdogan came on the scene -- now it's pretty grim and no longer secular.  And Erdogan will be ruling (not governing) for the foreseeable future. 

I'll also share that in the last month or so, I've started to really ponder if the 2016 election was stolen in some way.  Not in a conspiracy-y kinda way, but just to contemplate if and how it might have happened.  If there is even one bad actor, voting machines are totally vulnerable to tampering.  As Karl Rove pointed out, presumably based on experience, that one needs only to rig the vote by 3% -- a minimal amount that doesn't raise suspicion without triggering a recount. 

[hoipolloi]

7 hours ago, dramallama said:

Just wait until 2023 when SCOTUS will decide Moore v Harper, that could put the final nail in the coffin of American "democracy".

 

3 hours ago, Howl said:

I don't think many people get that democracy is teetering on the edge in this country. 

I totally agree. I am also not seeing enough from the Ds in Congress or the White House -- they're like a deer in the headlights. At the federal level, they have a trifecta at the moment, however slim it is, and need to use it to the max. Procedural, technical, bureaucratic -- whatever, they need to do what can be done. We know the Rs would be pulling out the stops if they controlled Congress & the WH.

I caught glimpses of last night's July 4th festivities in DC and all I could feel was sorrow & fear for the US -- there is little or nothing to celebrate in 2022.

[Katzchen24]

11 hours ago, Howl said:

I don't think many people get that democracy is teetering on the edge in this country.  Just in the last week...it's possibly our country will be an authoritarian train wreck.  I keep thinking about Turkey, a previously secular and democratic country until Erdogan came on the scene -- now it's pretty grim and no longer secular.  And Erdogan will be ruling (not governing) for the foreseeable future. 

I'll also share that in the last month or so, I've started to really ponder if the 2016 election was stolen in some way.  Not in a conspiracy-y kinda way, but just to contemplate if and how it might have happened.  If there is even one bad actor, voting machines are totally vulnerable to tampering.  As Karl Rove pointed out, presumably based on experience, that one needs only to rig the vote by 3% -- a minimal amount that doesn't raise suspicion without triggering a recount. 

I follow a liberal lawyer’s podcast, and they’re terrified and horrified in equal measure. At this point i think that if there was a genuine case around an election that went to SCOTUS, law and precedent would have very little to do with their ruling. I had given the US 5 years before it was was a white Christian theocracy in name, but I think I’m giving it until November. I’m so sorry. 

[neuroticcat]

A guy on twitter wrote this masterpiece re: theobros.

 

Theobro - A Poem

I am the very model of a patriarchal theobro
I balk at women's leggings and decry them all as wily hoes
I speak the truth in love by raining fire on these reprobates
(By which I mean most anyone who Social Justice advocates) 

I'm a Husband, Father, Pastor and a Sinner needing all the grace
But that's for me! What *you* deserve is many punches in the face.
I know a lot of out-of-context verses that support my views
And anyone correcting me, of wokeness I will fierce accuse 

I absolutely lose my freaking mind if any woman talks
I hound their social media like jackals in the bushes stalk
I phone their pastors and decry the attitude of womenfolk
By this I show my well-adjusted sense of what is right or woke. 

And if by some demonic sin a lady knows theology
I diss her point no matter how unerring the tautology
I wave away rebuttals and insist on speaking with her man
And question her salvation if she is a seminarian. 

I live to praise the men who cause the greatest total suffering
Excusing all abuse of -- hang on, JMac's sermon buffering --
Aha! He told me what to think of articles correctional:
We're clearly victims of the culture's mindset intersectional. 

And if by some ungodly chance the proof is undeniable
I bend my back in half to show the leader isn't liable.
It's not abuse of power, no, it's half-and-half adultery
Let's never mind the Humble Leader's character desultory. 

I boldly show my manhood in this all-important culture war
I make it known how strong, how long, how tough I am: and furthermore
Opining on the loss of White and masculine hegemony
I simply can't accept the Kingdom doesn't focus all on me. 

I claim objective truth while making errors eisigetical
And twist the scriptures to support my borderline heretical
Mutations of the doctrines honored through the ages glorious:
And at the end of all disputes I crown myself victorious. 

[hi so I write other things too

Feel free to check out my pinned tweet for my long-running Genesis in Epic Verse series

Or read it at

https://writhyn.github.io/the-bible-in-verse]

On subjects one and all I am the uppermost authority
Regardless of the history or scholarship majority
I'll miss your point entirely inserting my reality
And claim myself a victim when I suffer a fatality.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1547644725657628674.html

Edited July 15, 2022 by neuroticcat
cut and paste text

[MamaJunebug]

I’m going to be singing that til the Housewolves howl at me to stop!  Thank you, @neuroticcat!!!!!

[Columbia]

This is the first formal article I’ve seen about JD Hall. His elders and deacons sound like a bunch of sniveling yes-men, but I’m glad that they decided JD’s permanently disqualified himself. All of them should be disqualified as well for letting him get away with his awful behavior for so long  

We need to start a pool for how many months until he pulls a Mark Driscoll and starts a new church in Missouri. I give him within the year. 

[Howl]

JD Hall has decamped to some type of rehab in Missouri. I hope it's a secular rehab and not Jesus rehab.  

[Howl]

Jim Rigby, my favorite hyper-hwoke Presbyterian minister, posted a nice counterpoint to theobro-ism today. I can imagine the histrionics and pearl clutching from the theo-bro crowd on reading this. 

ON BACHELOR GODS

Have you ever noticed that, the more patriarchal and homophobic the theologian, the more homosexual their image God sounds? When theologians insist on calling God “He” and on opposing any suggestion of a Goddess, they end up with a Trinity of three bachelor Gods spending eternity as roommates. What kind of person would rather worship two guys and a ghost than permit any feminine image into the Godhead?

The rest under the spoiler:

Spoiler

Religion is usually either cosmic poetry or cultural propaganda. The image of a “heavenly parent” can be a personal way of feeling one’s roots into the cosmos, but believing in an eternally unmarried father figure is more likely to conjure one’s place within a human patriarchal hierarchy.

To paraphrase an old bumpersticker, some Christians are more comfortable with two men holding guns than holding hands. Human religious ideas of gender may sometimes be binary, but nature is always a continuum. If religion does not make room for EVERY member of our human family all across the gender continuum, it easily becomes a boys club where women can only serve in the auxiliary.

Such religion must continually use sexist imagery to keep from breaking its patriarchal trance. One of the surest signs of religious trance is when our creeds lose their power if we take out images of gender and hierarchy. No one should be surprised that this nation, founded by white male slavers, should be protective of the image of a white male Jesus. For many in this nation, Jesus has been reduced to a logo for white, male, capitalist America.

Religious symbols can be wonderful aids that help us experience the sacred all around us, but those same symbols mislead us the moment we believe in them literally. The remedy to religious brainwashing is either to interpret the symbols of religion by the common experience of ALL of humanity, or to avoid religious imagery altogether.

The purpose of religion is not to lead us to itself so we might be saved from some hypothetical threat. The purpose of religion (when it is healthy) is to break our cultural trances so we might live in and share this wonderful mysterious world in common.

I will point out that Catholicism has the Virgin Mary as the feminine archetype, but she's worshiped as a virgin mother -- we won't get into how weird that is -- having zero agency in her own right. 

 

[Black Aliss]

This just in: There are moar witches! An entire coven of them. Locke hired a PI to investigate the witches, as one does, and learned they all use the same post office box! 

 

[thoughtful]

Were they getting mail from Ithaca NY?

Spoiler

There isn't a good bible-believin' church in Ithaca New York, because "the witches closed it down."

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I honestly feel like Greg Locke should be on the FX show “What we do in the shadows.” Because he’s just a parody of a preacher. He’s a fucking joke. 

[Giraffe]

Wow. He's on a roll. The more he rants the more curious I am about his skeletons. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

5 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

Wow. He's on a roll. The more he rants the more curious I am about his skeletons. 

Well some skeletons have come out. He dumped his wife for the church secretary and claimed his ex was mentally ill. Which made him look like shit but a lot of humpers stuck by him. 

[Giraffe]

1 minute ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Well some skeletons have come out. He dumped his wife for the church secretary and claimed his ex was mentally ill. Which made him look like shit but a lot of humpers stuck by him. 

Ooh, I didn't know this! It's still shocking to me that people like him (or Sproul, Ted Haggard, the Mars Hill guy etc.) still have followers or even gain new ones. 

[Black Aliss]

I just loves me some logical fallacies. Like this one

Quote

“Hand to God,” he said. “In the name of Jesus, if I’m lying, if I’m over exaggerating what I’m trying to tell these people for the purpose of clicks and likes, may I drop dead preaching on this platform having blasphemed the power of the Holy Ghost in front of everybody.”

God did not strike him dead. 

QED: He's telling the truth.

[shesinsane]

12 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

Ooh, I didn't know this! It's still shocking to me that people like him (or Sproul, Ted Haggard, the Mars Hill guy etc.) still have followers or even gain new ones. 

Some members of St. James Church are reconsidering their support of Ted Haggard at this very moment. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/disgraced-megachurch-pastor-ted-haggard-faces-new-allegations-of-inappropriate-touching-of-young-men/ar-AA1024vn

[JermajestyDuggar]

Look at trump. He has more skeletons than an anatomy class in his closet and he still got elected. People don’t care. 

[Howl]

10 hours ago, shesinsane said:

Some members of St. James Church are reconsidering their support of Ted Haggard at this very moment. 

I hadn't realized that Ted's "new" church had fallen apart. Depending on what "inappropriate touching" with a minor child entails, Ted could end up in prison. 

As my best friend often says, "More will be revealed!"  

A refresher from back in 2006 when Haggard was outed by a gay male prostitute, and methamphetamine played a part. 

Spoiler

Nov. 3, 2006 -- The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who has resigned amid allegations that he had sex with a former self-described male prostitute, has admitted to buying methamphetamines from the man, but denied that he had used the drug or had sex with the man.

"I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away. I bought it for myself but never used it," the Rev. Ted Haggard said today to a reporter for KUSA who interviewed him as he was leaving his Colorado Springs, Colo., home. "I was tempted, but I never used it." He said he threw out the drug without using it.

Haggard said he got a massage from the man, 49-year-old Mike Jones, after receiving a recommendation from a Denver hotel, but said he never had sex with him...

...Jones, who says he is a former gay prostitute and alleges that Haggard paid him for sex at regular intervals over a three-year period.

"He [Haggard] goes, 'A fantasy of mine is to have an orgy with about six young college guys ranging from 18 to 22 in age,'" Jones told KHOW-AM radio in Colorado.

"I will tell you it was not emotional. … Just strictly physical," Jones added.

Mike Jones, in my mind the more believable of the two. 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Howl

[Howl]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:01 AM, Columbia said:

Poor Owen’s going to get caught à la Ted Haggard. It’s only a matter of time. 

 Apparently, it's Round 2 for Ted (posted by @shesinsane over in the Greg Locke thread). 

10 hours ago, shesinsane said:

Some members of St. James Church are reconsidering their support of Ted Haggard at this very moment. 

Disgraced megachurch pastor Ted Haggard faces new allegations of 'inappropriate touching' of young men

But back to Theobros, I stumbled across this interesting article from Sojourners, August 31, 2021,  discussing Mark Driscoll.  (For context, read about Sojourners here.)

THE PROBLEM WAS ALWAYS BIGGER THAN MARK DRISCOLL

<snip> "...His theology was a call to action, an everyday war. Yet, Driscoll’s manly mission — like most manly missions in history — was simply a manifestation and exploitation of a culture of fear and uncertainty. He leaned on masculine, war metaphors that allowed him to demand complete loyalty and obedience. In wartime, there is no room for dissent. His commitment to God’s infallible sovereignty easily slipped into a movement centered around his own sovereignty."

[MamaJunebug]

So glad to know Sojourners is still around. 

[Columbia]

I think this thread is an excellent summary of some thoughts I’ve had about how women live and find power under strong complimentarian and patriarchal communities. There are so many names that came to mind and so many examples that could be listed. 
 

 

[danvillebelle]

Wow.  This quote in the replies:  No one is meaner than a Christian woman proving how nice she is to defend her precarious role in the system.

That defines SO MANY women we've discussed here, especially those like Abbie Halberstadt.  She tries to sound nice, and she always sounds mean as a snake and unbearably smug.

[Howl]

Add Doug Wilson's daughter to the arrogant list. She has referred power as Doug Wilson's daughter and a husband who has status in the Christ Church hierarchy. 

She has all the privilege which includes telling less fortunate wives how to submit to the Christ Church hierarchy and their own husbands. 

[neuroticcat]

 

 

15 hours ago, Columbia said:

I think this thread is an excellent summary of some thoughts I’ve had about how women live and find power under strong complimentarian and patriarchal communities. There are so many names that came to mind and so many examples that could be listed. 
 

 

Yes! Saw that thread on twitter and thought it was a great observation and applies to so many of the fundie influencer women who see their ministry as smugly telling everyone how to follow their example.

Ugh, the theobros are at it again - joining up some hyper-misogynistic conference. Vile. 

 

 

[Columbia]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

Add Doug Wilson's daughter to the arrogant list. She has referred power as Doug Wilson's daughter and a husband who has status in the Christ Church hierarchy. 

She has all the privilege which includes telling less fortunate wives how to submit to the Christ Church hierarchy and their own husbands. 

The Wilsonettes, Nancy Wilson, Beal Phillips in the VF glory days, Debi Pearl, Victoria Botkin, Stacy McDonald, Jenny Chancey. So many names. Basically any woman married to a patriarchy leader.