MetaFilter posts tagged with evangelical

Gospel of Intolerance

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:47:38 -0800

Gospel of Intolerance - Excerpts of "God Loves Uganda", a feature documentary directed and produced by filmmaker Roger Ross Williams is having its premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film explains how money donated by American evangelicals directly finances the violent antigay movement in Uganda.

"I am done making excuses for the pro-life movement."

flex — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:01:46 -0800

How I Lost Faith In The Pro-Life Movement: "What I want to share here is how I came to this realization. And if you, reader, are one of those who opposes abortion because you believe it is murder and you want to save the lives of unborn babies, well, I hope to persuade you that the pro-life movement is not actually your ally in this, that you have been misled, and that you would be more effective in decreasing the number of abortions that occur if you were to side with pro-choice progressives. If this is you, please hear me out before shaking your head." The author, Libby Anne:

"As a brief introduction, I was raised in a large homeschooling family influenced by the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements. I grew up an evangelical Christian, though with some fundamentalist aspects. I found my beliefs challenged in college and am today an atheist and a feminist... ...If you’re just here because you liked my article on the pro-life movement, I’d invite you to stick around because I have several followup posts already planned and in the works, including posts tentatively called “Pro-Life, Anti-Abortion, or Anti-Choice? Sorting through the Labels,” “What Being Pro-Life Would Look Like,” and “Science, Young Earth Creationism, and the Pro-Life Movement.”"

These are her follow-up posts since this piece "went viral" a week and a half ago: *A Response to Objections on My Pro-Life Movement Post *Seven Recent Articles on Abortion Worth Reading *More on Laws and Abortion: A Response to Marc of "Bad Catholic" (another blog on Patheos) *If You Don’t Want a Baby, Just Don’t Have Sex? *Okay Then, Let's Talk About Natural Family Planning The rebuttals so far on Bad Catholic: *How I Lost Faith In The Pro-life Movement: Rebuttal Up In Hurrrrr (Part 1) *All Banning Abortion Does Is Make It Unsafe (Rebuttal Part 2) *Does Contraception Reduce the Abortion Rate? (Rebuttal Part 3)

"I went from God loves everybody to God saves everybody to God is in everybody."

zarq — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:47:58 -0800

From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader. Jerry DeWitt is a former Pentecostal pastor in the evangelical parish of DeRidder, Louisiana who slowly lost his religious faith. Last Fall, he went public with his atheism, committing what he calls "identity suicide," and instantly becoming "the most disliked person in town." Since then, Mr. DeWitt's lost his job, his wife, his community and may be losing his house, but is still persevering and working to help others who find themselves in similar circumstances. Mr. DeWitt is the executive director of Recovering From Religion, who also run The Secular Therapist Project, which connects people in need to therapists who do not "allow their religious, spiritual or supernatural beliefs to inform their therapeutic approach." He is also the first openly-declared atheist "graduate" of The Clergy Project, (previously) a confidential online community for active and former clergy who do not hold supernatural beliefs. More on Mr. DeWitt from the Washington Post: "Pastor’s loss of faith started with loss of hell." Podcast Interviews * Living After Faith * The Angry Atheist. Videos of his Appearances * On his transition from Pastor to Atheist * At the Gathering of the Fellowship of Freethought in Dallas, 12/11: Thanksgiving vs. Tebowing * At the Oklahoma Atheists and the UCO Skeptics, 2/15/12, Parts 1, 2, 3 * Another talk from 2/7/12.

One of the best books about America I've read in a long while

Rory Marinich — Thu, 31 May 2012 05:49:10 -0800

Kevin Roose's The Unlikely Disciple, in which Brown attends Jerry Falwell's evangelical Liberty University for a semester (excerpt), has been featured on MetaFilter previously, but it deserves to be looked at in more detail. What distinguishes the book is Roose's determination to look at the people behind the belief rather than just lampooning the belief itself; he writes about interviewing Falwell (and he was in fact the last person to interview Falwell before his death), and about his uneasiness about finding the likable, human elements that went alongside the fanaticism. After publication, Liberty University allowed the book in its bookstore, but inserted a three-paragraph disclaimer warning readers of inaccuracies and telling them to be skeptical; Roose rebuts the disclaimer. An English professor at Liberty University offers an interesting perspective. Meanwhile, Roose runs a blog series called Meet Jerry's Kids, in which he interviews LU students, and The Jonah Project, where he encourages people who disagree politically or religiously to have reasoned, yelling-free discussions about the novel.

"In 1979, McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal. Sometime after that, it was decided that the Bible teaches that human life begins at conception."

mhoye — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:31:56 -0800

Fred Clark, previously in the blue for his excellent deconstruction of the Left Behind series and much more, has written a short history lesson on the Evangelical movement's surprisingly recent about-face on the subject of conception, abortion and the human soul. As he notes, "At some point between 1968 and 2012, the Bible began to say something different. That’s interesting."

Church or Cult?

Artw — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:24:35 -0800

Inside the creepy and controling world of Seattle's Mars Hill Church, home of "real marriage".

'Biblical Womanhood' A year of living by the book

Blasdelb — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:03:19 -0800

As an evangelical Christian, Rachel Held Evans often heard about the importance of practicing "biblical womanhood," but she didn't quite know what that meant. Everyone she asked seemed to have a different definition. Evans decided to embark on a quest to figure out how to be a woman by the Bible's standards. For one year, she has followed every rule in the Old and New Testaments. (FAQ) Her project is set to end today. Rachel Held Evans has also used her blog to actively champion gender equality and respect in Evangelical Christianity. Challenging homophobia, narrow views of womanhood, anti-intellectualism, and privilege, she has attracted attention from across the evangelical community. She has also been kicking ass wrestling with Evangelical heavyweights. This summer, she called out Mark Driscoll as a bully for his homophobic remarks on Facebook, prompting a response, and last month challenged best-selling author Donald Miller for writing that women are not the primary characters in their own "love stories". All this in a world in which there's an ongoing debate over whether husbands are the masters of their wives.

'These children don’t recognize the flags of their home countries, but they can all sing "Jesus Loves Me."'

zarq — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:08:21 -0800

The Evangelical Adoption Crusade "The adoption industry is on a steep decline after years of ethical problems and tightening regulations around the world." In the last two years evangelical advocacy for adoption has skyrocketed. Why? In Reclaiming Adoption, [Dan] Cruver bluntly declares, "The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel.”

Single in the Pulpit? Good luck to you!

ThePinkSuperhero — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:10:49 -0800

With Few Jobs, an Unmarried Pastor Points to Bias “Prejudice against single pastors abounds,” Mr. Almlie wrote in articles (Part 1, Part 2) he posted on a popular Christian blog site in January and February, setting off a wide-ranging debate online on a topic that many said has been largely ignored.

Missionary Position: Facing West

zarq — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:50:00 -0800

Pope Benedict XVI has announced the establishment of a new Vatican department dedicated to tackling what he called 'a grave crisis in the sense of the Christian faith and the role of the Church." The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelisation will (per Archbishop Vincent Nichols,) focus on countries "in which, even though the Christian Gospel has shaped an entire culture," secularism now reigns, in what the Pope termed an "eclipse of a sense of God." Editorial: "Catholicism, the religion that gave the world the idea of the missionary, is struggling on its historic home turf." This council is part of a larger reshuffling of the Vatican hierarchy, which may support the Pope's ongoing anti- abortion and gay marriage efforts: The first President of the new Evangelical Council will be Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, a Vatican bioethics official, whose controversial front page statement in the L’Osservatore Romano newspaper last year condoned the abortion of twins in a nine year-old Brazilian rape victim. At the time, Fisichella headed the institution that helps frame the Catholic church's "pro-life" doctrines, The Pontifical Academy for Life. A Canadian theologian and anti-abortion hardliner, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, will now head the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for Bishops, which evaluates the nomination of bishops and sets the tone for the Catholic Church hierarchy worldwide. “The head of the Congregation of Bishops is a very important nomination; it determines the ruling class of the Catholic Church for the next 20 years,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert with the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale. The appointment is particularly important in light of the abuse scandal, which has called into question the actions of bishops around the world. Victims have accused bishops of covering up abuse or not acting swiftly to discipline priests who have abused minors.
Ouellet has been outspoken against abort ion (calling it a 'moral crime', unjustified even in cases of rape) and gay marriage.

"The Twisted Monk goes beyond just providing some string to fool around with. "

internet fraud detective squad, station number 9 — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:42:49 -0800

Kinktrepeneur, former evangelical missionary, and “Rent-a-meanie” the Twisted Monk: "I guess is some ways, I’m finally fulfilling the calling I had when I was a kid and being that evangelist, changing the world one bedroom at a time." ... [most links contain no nudity but might be NSFW anyway] His website includes excellent rope tutorials with his wife of 20 years (no nudity, as tame as a bondage tutorial gets) Violet Blue tours his rope factory (nudity). Pictures and video (autoplay, warning, the video has her struggling, happily and consensually) He does live performance:"I was asked by the amazing Tamara The Trapeze Lady to perform at her Halloween show. With only 6 minutes on stage and a crowd of mostly non kinky folks, we had to come up with something fun, sexy and FAST." (This video is skippy--might help to watch it with the sound off.) Blogger describes bottoming to Monk: It's kinda like meeting Captain Kirk.

"This is so exciting to have a nice Travel Assistant and traveling companion! Wow! I'm so glad I met you."

Faint of Butt — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:10:44 -0800

Christian right leader George Rekers takes vacation with "rent boy"

"...children which lie, must go to their father the devil, into everlasting burning." -- Cotton Mather

orthogonality — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:24:52 -0800

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

Slacktivist Wraps Up Left Behind

Maastrictian — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:04:59 -0800

Slacktivist has been discussed on the blue before. His epic deconstruction, interpretation, and at times even translation of the Left Behind book series started in October of 2003. Today, it has come to an end. In between, Slacktivist has explored the impact of the Left Behind series and the fundamentalist worldview on religion and the media, and even gone on to inspire Left Behind fanfic. Fred Clark, the Slacktivist himself, intends to continue his five year project with the Left Behind movie, followed by the second book, Tribulation Force.

"Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven."

amberglow — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:45:06 -0800

Ted Haggard returns --with a cash for heaven offer to support him while he helps "broken people". Unfortunately, the procedure outlined is illegal, and the charity (Families With a Mission) is unregistered and run by a convicted sex offender. Meanwhile, Mike Jones, Haggard's favorite whore, pops up at a dirty bar trivia night (questions about Haggard and him, maybe nsfw, textwise)

Tammy Faye says goodbye

parmanparman — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:09:37 -0800

Tammy Faye Messner Bids Her Fans Goodbye. Down to 65 pounds and unable to continue treatment for cancer, Tammy Faye Messner, one of the most colorful figures in religious broadcasting, has posted a goodbye letter to fans on her Web site.

God's Next Army - a documentation about an evangelical College

homodigitalis — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 03:45:58 -0800

God's Next Army a british documentation about the Patrick Henry College. It's only goal: to train more soldiers for God and the evangelical agenda in US politics. Shouldn't there be a separation of education and ruthless fundamentalist indoctrination? (FPP)

...to help the Jewish people go home...

amberglow — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 08:54:09 -0800

Philo-Semitism: Just another form of Anti-Semitism? Interesting Wash Post article on Evangelicals turning away from supersessionism -- the centuries-old belief that with the coming of Jesus, God ended his covenant with the Jews and transferred it to the Christian church, and the concerns it is raising. ..."That hope is felt and expressed by Christians as a kind, benevolent hope," ... "But believing that someday Jews will stop being Jews and become Christians is still a form of hoping that someday there will be no more Jews." ... Is it that philosemitism is just as dehumanizing as antisemitism and, because it masquerades as its opposite, more insidious, or just the most recent manifestation of the longstanding appropriation of us Jews as symbols, whether it helps or hurts us?

I'm so excited to have been invited to our nation’s capital.

amberglow — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:35:11 -0800

Stealth Evangelism? on the National Mall in DC --sponsored by Pepsi, too. People attending The DC Festival will not see any clue -- not even a simple cross -- to suggest the real nature of the gathering: broadcasting the message of Jesus Christ.
Bio of the organizer, Luis Palau, here, including this: “We began to realize that the traditional ‘crusade’ model - uniformed choir, the suits on the platform, and old, traditional hymns - wasn’t the way to go for us,” Palau says. “We want to attract the un-churched, and we want them to encounter God, and bring them all to Christ and to understand and to connect.”

Why don't Christians live what they preach?

livingsanctuary — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 21:23:33 -0800

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience This is the question this article from Christianity Today asks. It shows some scary stats for anyone involved in the Protestant church, that the lifestyles of Evangelical Christians is not really all that different from the rest of society.

Sad day for mefi.....

Mach3avelli — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 23:26:05 -0800

It's unOFFICIAL! yet again!
Bush wins re-election! And Nader nowhere to shoulder blame.
The consequences.
The deciding demographic? The Evangelical vote. (Interestingly, look how the vote went for Carter, born-again Southern Baptist, in the '76 election.)
So who's to blame? Personally, I point the finger at the PR. Because everyone should damn-well accept the fact that it's not about the issues.
Let the recount and litigation begin!

Calling all Hot Women of the LORD!!!

loquacious — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:09:21 -0800

Hello, my name is Tamara! As you can probably tell, I'm a Christian who loves Jesus and cares for all humans, even the wicked. What you probably don't know is that I'm hot.

Getting Evangelicalism All Wrong

marcusb — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 09:48:24 -0800

How the left's fear of a right-wing Christian conspiracy gets George W. Bush -- and today's evangelical Christians -- all wrong. Alan Jacobs (more from him here and here) suggests that the idea that President Bush's evangelical Christianity has an impact on his politics is really a misunderstanding of Bush, fundamentalists, and evangelicals.

the missionaries

thedailygrowl — Sun, 30 Mar 2003 11:25:44 -0800

Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy. "Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population." (from Buzzflash) God please save me from your followers!