I had a friend my first year in college who was black, gay, Republican and a fundamentalist christian. He gave most of what little money he had to the televangelists Jim and Tammy Fay Baker - and this was after the sex and financial shenanigans that brought down their empire were exposed. And it’s not like he didn’t believe the truth of the scandals. He did believe it and was still that fucking eager to give them his money anyway. I just can’t understand the people that support these frauds.
Oof. Also Tammy Faye wound up awesome after she left Jim. She became a voice of progressive Christianity (most famously hugging a gay man with AIDS on TV in the height of the fear) and stopped her embezzlement.
Jim on the other hand sells drums of survivalist food through his preaching to this day
We should be treating religion like a mind virus that needs wiping out.
BuT rElIgIoN iS GoOd
Before leaving to prison, the pastor gathered all members of his church, whipped out his Neuralyzer and flashed the fuckers. He came back from a “vacation”. That’s it. No one knows.
If only. Instead, people really are this stupid and gullible.
Those dumb mother fuckers.
Religion is important, some people really need it they said.
And, chat, this is why blind faith in anything is a bad thing.
There’s only so much time in a day and so much “Do Your Own Research” anyone is going to have the background or the social connections to interrogate.
If anything, the folks who tell themselves “I would never fall for this” are the most popular targets for affinity scams.
Court documents alleged Caldwell, using his position at Houston’s Windsor Village Church, and a financial advisor sold $3.5 million in worthless pre-revolutionary Chinese bonds to the elderly and other vulnerable investors.
This is why I put “blind” in bold. He was literally caught red handed defrauding the elderly. That is where the blindness of the congregation comes in. They choose to ignore the glaring breach of trust and allow him to retain his position of influence.
That is where the blindness of the congregation comes in.
You’re dealing with a survivorship bias. Anyone who saw the fraud and was disgusted by the minister’s actions has left already.
So are the remaining people not turning a blind eye to the public documentation of his deceit because they have “faith” that he is the best person to lead them?
You’d have to ask the remaining parishioners. Unfortunately, the modern state of American journalism is to pack a fist full of soundbites in between walls of ads and call it a day.
For all I know, the church has exactly three congregants left - per the included photo - and an anonymously sourced (WHY ARE YOU ANONYMOUSLY SOURCING THIS QUOTE?!) one of them is just blandly “Yeah, we’re glad he’s back”.
I will say that this guy is close personal friends with Emanuel Cleaver, a sitting State House Rep and former Mayor and the cousin of two prominent Black Panthers. So if they’re disproportionately skeptical of a prosecution of one of their leaders… idk, maybe there’s something ABC13 - a news channel owned and operated by wealthy Houston conservatives and a Florida-Based media mega-corp with some pretty seedy histories of its own - isn’t including in its coverage.
But “I can’t believe a congregation of Black Houstonians would question in the infallibility of the US justice system” is, itself, an expression of blind faith that you might want to explore.
Wait till the good pastor discovers crypto.
These stupid motherfuckers give truckloads of money to bible thumping parasites instead of their own families and communities, then turn around and blame all their woes on immigrants, LGBTQ+, the left, the right, and even some made up shit like satan.
PS: Also, can anyone explain to me why Satan if the bad guy in that fairytale? He stands up for equal rights for his brethren by starting some angel union or some shit and he a all his homies get eternal punishment for it. Then, instead of rebelling further, he spends all his time revealing and punishing the wicked. That sounds like a stand up guy to me.
Yeah, translations are rough. More importantly, every story has to have a bad guy and the people who put together the Bible were not very creative. Other texts are way more fun with quality and variety of lore (good and bad).
For many people, in-group is the only thing that matters.
I’m in the wrong field. Should have been a pastor.
Want to make a ton of money fast? Start a religion.
Stop giving out my secrets, L. Ron.
Once a sucker always a sucker.
Lol. These people would draw and quarter Jesus if he came back to life and continued preaching his own teachings.
Pharisees, pharisees everywhere
And this is at reason we have pedophiles in charge
The normies deserve the rulers they get clearly
