Here’s another one for the atheist crowd.

This past season of Str*nger Th*ngs touching on the satanic panic of the 80's, really got me remembering some extremely wild and f*cked up stuff from my teen years growing up in the evangelical church. Like just wild, wild stuff. And bear in mind that I just don't remember the worst or weirdest of it, because my brain is just like, "Lol. No."

Heed the trigger warnings if you're going to read under the cut.

Every summer we would go to this summer camp at what was essentially a christian commune in the woods. And there was adult programming, children's programming and teen programming. Programming is probably a really accurate word to use here, because... yeah. Kinda, probably brainwashing more than just attending a couple of lectures.

Anyway, they always made us watch this video series about the evils of rock music. And they would play things like "Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zeppelin backwards (this was called back masking) and point out all the satanic messages hidden there, things like 'worship satan!' or 'satan is king!' or 'k*ll yourself'. And they would, in all seriousness, talk about how these bands had sold their soul to satan and were working with him to pollute the minds of the youth. It was so metal, tbh. Lol. But yeah, they took that crap seriously.

Then we would be encouraged to go and get any tapes of secular music that we had brought with us to camp (I never had any because my parents did not allow it), and they would start this big bonfire, and all the kids would be encouraged to burn them. Sometimes they would talk about how in camps past, some of the tapes were so filled with evil that they couldn't be burned, or they screamed while being burned. Yes, grown ass adults said this shit to 13 - 17 year olds like it was absolute truth. Wild.

There was also this dude called Mike Warnke (google it for a wild ride of a story) who was an evangelical pastor and stand up comedian and a supposed 'expert' on Satanism, as he claimed that he had been a Satanist. And like not the current Church of Satan, but like something out of Rosemary's Baby. He was later revealed to be a complete fraud (what a surprise!), but for years he 'educated' the evangelical masses on how Satanists were roaming the country searching for their precious children to convert, or sacrifice, or ritually r*pe. Like I remember being low-key terrified about this in middle school. It sounds nuts now, but we were brainwashed with this garbage constantly, not just at summer camp, but also in the christian school I attended from Grade 6-12 (ever heard of A.C.E. schools? Google it for another wild ride). And this isn't even touching on all the exorcisms I had performed on me after I had a dissociative/mild psychotic episode in my late teens, and was sent away to the same commune to be 'ministered to' by a pastor there. I can't really talk about that stuff yet, because it was too traumatic. But lets just say that Mr. Warnke's Satanists were much less of a concern that the leadership in the Evangelical church which had been committing abuses for years on some level or another and probably still are. They're just very good at covering stuff up and handling it 'internally'.

But anyway, the point is, the Satanic Panic was a real thing in certain circles in the 80's, and it was super wild. And Evangelicals have always been a hot mess, just in different ways. And that's story time for today, I guess.

Thinking about my au where Logan runs a controversial megachurch

it’s an evangelical non-denominational parish, non-charismatic (no speaking in tongues or other such esotericism) but absolutely preaches the prosperity gospel. tithing is encouraged, and of course, politics & the culture wars are often referenced in mass.

logan is the head pastor and gives a sermon at every mass. his congregants love him fiercely. he also has his own TV show where he promotes his line of (ghostwritten) self help books.

it’s extremely important, for image’s sake, that waystar church is publicly a family-run parish. kendall, roman, and shiv have all worked forward-facing positions at the church, including giving readings at mass, planning spectacles for the audience, upper management, even guest appearances on logan’s show. connor has held several (meaningless) positions within the church but has not appeared publicly, despite his desire to do so, as he is from a previous marriage and his mom was catholic

the megachurch eventually becomes the center of an investigation into sexual misconduct & financial fraud; the events play out much how the show actually does, with kendall being the first to move against his father & attempt to use it as a way to get back at logan for the abuse he & his siblings endured

Christians condemn insurrectionists in the US and Brazil – call for participants and organizers to be held accountable.

Excerpt from the pastors at the Word and the Way...

https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/christian-nationalism-invades-brazil

[...] Much like Trump and Bolsonaro received advice from shared political figures (like Steve Bannon), they’ve also been helped by their shared religious supporters. Like Lou Engle. The Pentecostal preacher peddled claims of “voter fraud” after the 2020 presidential election, casting the results showing Trump lost as proof of demonic forces at work. But Engle doesn’t just evangelize in the United States. He’s held large “The Send” prayer rallies across the country, but also in Brazil.

With more than 140,000 people attending the 12-hour “The Send” event in Brazil in 2020, then-President Bolsonaro came on stage to talk about his faith in Jesus. That led journalist Jon Ward to wonder about the impact of such religious movements on this week’s political scene in Brazil.

“Is there any self-reflection going on among Christian leaders who have supported Trump and Bolsonaro?” Ward wrote in his Substack newsletter Border-Stalkers yesterday. “Twice now, political leaders who were elected in no small part because of evangelicals have refused to acknowledge their losses, and their supporters have waged violent assaults on their country’s own government, law enforcement, and journalists. Is there any self-assessment inside evangelicalism among the many Christian leaders whose support enabled both these men to get elected and to nearly topple their respective democracies?”

The Catholic Church in Brazil quickly condemned Sunday’s violence. A statement from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil argued, “These attacks must be immediately stopped, and their organizers and participants must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Citizens and democracy need to be protected.”

It’s a good first step. Christian leaders must condemn the violence. But then Christians must also consider how pastors and churches helped inspire the attack on the government. And Christians in the U.S. need to evaluate our role in the violence of Jan. 6 and Jan. 8. We must stop going therefore to make disciples of all nations as we baptize them into the gospel of insurrection.

______________________________

Lou Engle (born October 9, 1952) is an American Charismatic Christian leader, best known for his leadership of TheCall, which holds prayer rallies. ... Engle strongly supports criminalization of abortion, and encouraged his audiences to ... vote for anti-abortion political candidates. Engle maintains that issues such as abortion and homosexuality should remain at the center of the evangelical movement.

Engle was described by Joe Conason as a "radical theocrat". The Southern Poverty Law Center says he can occasionally "venture into bloodlust."

______________________________

On multiple occasions, Jair Bolsonaro has publicly endorsed physical violence as a legitimate and necessary form of political action. In 1999, when he was 44 years old and a representative in the Brazilian Congress, Bolsonaro said during a TV interview that the only way of "changing" Brazil was by "killing thirty thousand people, beginning with Fernando Henrique Cardoso" (then President of Brazil).

Pastor Ng'ang'a Falls Victim to Fraud as he loses 650k through sim swap

In a recent turn of events, Pastor Ng’ang’a, the esteemed leader of Neno Evangelism Centre, has found himself ensnared in a distressing ordeal of financial fraud.  Reports reveal that the revered preacher has incurred losses totaling Ksh 630,000 at the hands of fraudulent activities, casting a shadow over his otherwise steadfast stewardship. The unsettling incident came to light when Pastor…

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New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/the-rapture-and-the-inferno/

The Rapture And The Inferno

Some people can be fooled some of the time, but not all of the people can be fooled all of the time unless they want to be.  Evangelical Christians seem to be among the latter. They have every reason to doubt Donald Trump’s religious convictions.  The number of fraud cases he has lost should be a clue: Trump University, his charitable foundation, and the E. Jean Carroll rape charge. The 91 current criminal indictments ought to be a red flag, too. Nonetheless, if polls speak true, a majority of the religious right gives the former president their unwavering support. Why they put their faith in him is unfathomable. Until  2016 when he ran for President, he had little commerce with them and identified as a  Presbyterian.  Even now, what he seems to admire most about evangelicals is the ability of their pastors to squeeze vast sums of money from the flock. “They’re all hustlers,” Trump says of them, the highest form of praise a con man can give to someone he believes is in the trade. In private, however, his remarks are anything but flattering. Despite his duplicity, evangelical pastors struggle to create what amounts to a squared circle, allying themselves with a man whose shenanigans rival those of Bernie Madow.  Instead, they turn a blind eye to his conduct or choose to see him as a “flawed vessel of God’s will.” An equivocation like the last one is a confession.  They know they have made a Faustian bargain, but given their priorities, they have no choice.  Under Trump’s leadership, they hope to drag the United States into the past, a period when women had few rights and LGBTQ was no more than a set of alphabet letters. So far, aligning themselves with an “infidel” has had its rewards. Trump chose an evangelical as his 2016 Presidential running mate, and after winning the election, he filled his Cabinet with people like Mike Pompeo who believe in the Rapture. Then he gave them the jewel they sought most.   He appointed three Supreme Court judges who were happy to overturn Rove v. Wade and deny women sovereignty over their bodies. When opposites conspire with one another, outcomes are unpredictable.  Trump and the pastors have cobbled together a wide net meant to ensnare an army of true believers. They’ve forgotten, however, that the same net circumscribes their boundaries and failed to foresee how a changed environment would alter their flock. One pastor complains his parishioners have begun to reject Christ’s teachings, finding them to be too weak. They seem to prefer the strum and dang of their new savior, Donald Trump. He not only embodies righteousness but also promises revenge. No doubt the former president thrills to the roar of the crowd, but the stage upon which he struts is a narrow one. The audience that gathers at his feet comes not to praise him but to hear their worst instincts validated. Moderate the message to the slightest degree and will they boo, as they did when he urged them to get a Covid 19 vaccine. Trump and the pastors have come to realize that their suppliants are more to be feared than exhorted. No longer a disorganized band of malcontents, they swell with the promise of the coming Rapture. To be ready, they’ve formed themselves into mindless hammers and are prepared to crush anyone who fails to share their frenzy. Trump’s rhetoric has grown more violent in response to their bloodlust. They may hurry him along the path he has chosen, but these suppliants demand of him a never-ending cycle of extremes, a demand that may appall some of the unscrupulous pastors and ambitious politicians who have been dragged within his wake like Marley’s chains. Having pledged their troth to a flawed vessel, these former luminaries must tread in their master’s footsteps or lose all import. Surely, a  compact this perfidious begs for a circle in Dante’s hell.

Christians need to accept the fact that the modern Christian church is extremely susceptible to charlatans and frauds.

If you're the kind of person who learns how to tell people what they want to hear, a great way to make money off it is to become a pastor.

And it's not always people setting out to be a bad-faith faith-leader. Charismatic churches often put a lot of effort into seeking miracles, evangelical churches put a lot of emphasis on getting more converts. A pastor or leadership body with good intentions can turn a blind eye or let a few falsehoods slide if it seems to advance the measures for those goals.

And of course if your church starts getting successful and your salary starts going up you may be tempted to protect and increase your new quality of life over faithful leadership.

This could be a largely subconscious thing too. Pastors may be in a state of denial and believe just as much as their church body that they are in the right.

When the Bible talks about false prophets and discerning them by their fruit, yeah sure there may be some willfully bad actors. But a lot of them are probably people who started out for the right reasons then became corrupted by the power, the money, or the dream of the church.

This is another plug for Heaven Bent and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill btw.

Clergy Condemn the Insurrection in Brazil

Excerpt from the pastors at the Word and the Way

https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/christian-nationalism-invades-brazil [...] Much like Trump and Bolsonaro received advice from shared political figures (like Steve Bannon), they’ve also been helped by their shared religious supporters. Like Lou Engle. The Pentecostal preacher peddled claims of “voter fraud” after the 2020 presidential election, casting the results showing Trump lost as proof of demonic forces at work. But Engle doesn’t just evangelize in the United States. He’s held large “The Send” prayer rallies across the country, but also in Brazil. With more than 140,000 people attending the 12-hour “The Send” event in Brazil in 2020, then-President Bolsonaro came on stage to talk about his faith in Jesus. That led journalist Jon Ward to wonder about the impact of such religious movements on this week’s political scene in Brazil. “Is there any self-reflection going on among Christian leaders who have supported Trump and Bolsonaro?” Ward wrote in his Substack newsletter Border-Stalkers yesterday. “Twice now, political leaders who were elected in no small part because of evangelicals have refused to acknowledge their losses, and their supporters have waged violent assaults on their country’s own government, law enforcement, and journalists. Is there any self-assessment inside evangelicalism among the many Christian leaders whose support enabled both these men to get elected and to nearly topple their respective democracies?” The Catholic Church in Brazil quickly condemned Sunday’s violence. A statement from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil argued, “These attacks must be immediately stopped, and their organizers and participants must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Citizens and democracy need to be protected.” It’s a good first step. Christian leaders must condemn the violence. But then Christians must also consider how pastors and churches helped inspire the attack on the government. And Christians in the U.S. need to evaluate our role in the violence of Jan. 6 and Jan. 8. We must stop going therefore to make disciples of all nations as we baptize them into the gospel of insurrection.

I was the sound guy for a Megachurch via /r/atheism

I was the sound guy for a Megachurch

A lovely chap on Reddit asked me to tell a story of my time as the sound guy for my old church. I thought ya'll might appreciate my work 🙂

When I was 14 I started learning how to mix at youth church. After the live band, we’d often put on background music, to create a “holy atmosphere”. I put together a playlist of suitable songs – bass, beat, minimal lyrics. Turn down the treble and Childish Gambino is just perfect. Got away with playing songs about drugs and sex for years :P

By 18 I was promoted to main service. State of the art digital mixer. Small church, ~500 people on an average Sunday. I did my job well, but sure had my share of fucking around. There was one terrible BV who’d often be slightly out of time or off pitch – his volume goes up 😊 The annoying “faith healer” scam artist gets a ton of sibilance. One time an annoying preacher was yelling, screaming, then went to mic drop – I muted it, but only after maxing out the volume for a good second, blowing everyone’s eardrums out. I got a couple thanks for muting it.

At 18, I was only there because I had a community around me. I didn't believe a word of it. I went to a sort of Charismatic, Evangelical, Pentecostal church, part of a global Megachurch. In other words, they had a lot of stupid fucking beliefs; not to mention your typical scandals with fraud and sexual abuse. Most notably, they claim to be progressive and inclusive, and are smart enough to publicly keep quiet on any 'controversial' issues (social issues, science, etc), as in my country (New Zealand) openly sharing such these beliefs would be disillusioning to most of your audience (unless that's what you built your audience around...). They spread these beliefs in a far more insidious manner, for example through youth leaders, or panels "debating" these topics.

There was one particular junior pastor at my church. Let's call him Jack. Jack's in his late twenties, influential, sometimes MC'ing or preaching in service. Jack was also my youth group leader - we'd meet with others on a Wednesday and 'hang out', with some time dedicated to talking about God. Through this I came to dislike him and his strong intolerant, anti-scientific beliefs. It's also worth noting, having been born overseas, Jack has a rather unmistakable accent. 

One of my good friends was in the same boat as me - disillusioned, and in too deep. Let's call him Mike. Mike often played guitar on band (actually, he's the BV I previously described) and occasionally worked the camera, which would feed the projectors, and record the church service. Mike and I would often hang out, smoke and jam together. One evening, high off our balls, we devised a plan to fuck with Jack.

Over about a month, I recorded Jack's isolated voices whenever he was speaking - at main church and youth church. Most notably, I'd record all of the Wednesday youth group sessions on my phone, and we'd lead him to discuss complex, controversial and explicit topics. I think I had an Iphone 6s. The audio quality was decent - but I'd pop it in Reaper, extract the juicy bits, equalize, compress, etc, to make the quality sound 'perfect'. We had a few hours' worth of recordings, but by the end we cut it down to just a handful of phrases. I remember just the one.

People on stage typically wear monitors, which are basically a wireless pack that receives the audio I transmit, and plays it in their in-ears. They can mute and adjust volume, but we sound-check beforehand to make sure they're happy, and I have full control over the mix. Jack's mix consists of his own mic, secondary speaker mic, with a little live band and audience. (Sidenote - churches use ambient crowd mics to amplify the sound of the audience.) Now, you might think I'm going to play some juicy audio in Jack's in-ears. Kinda.

We'd probably never be allowed alone in the church - but over that month, Mike and I would stay to dabble after most people had left, pretending to test and troubleshoot. With my phone plugged into the digital mixer, effectively I had created a soundboard. We devised how we could play phrases without raising suspicion, and tested it all to ensure the day would be flawless.

Jack was the MC for the busy morning service. Mike kicked back as Cameraman. The Service Coordinator and Technical Director sit in the control booth too, oblivious to our mischief. We wait patiently.

MC intro, 5 minutes. Live band worship, 15 minutes. Continue live background music. MC short sermon, 10 minutes. Guest speaker/offering, 10 minutes minimum. The offering pot is passed around, and Jack gets back up on stage. The kids have been sitting/standing on the floor in the front on the auditorium. MC to send the kids up to kids church, 30 seconds. He says, "Give us an applause for your awesome kids who have been up front with us today. It's time for our kids to head up to kids church!" Mike pans the camera to the cute kids waving toward the audience. The ambient crowd mics pick up the cheers and applause, and Jack visibly recoils as I blast applause in his ears. I cut his mic from the main speakers, and he stares at me, as his lips start moving. Calmly, he says; "Lord, please help me with my masturbation."

The applause quickly stops, and the camera pans back to Jack. He looks down and fiddles with his monitor pack, and resumes by introducing our senior pastor to a stunned audience. He heads back off stage.

Everyone heard it other than himself, and the recordings show it happened. I flew under the radar - nobody ever confronted me about the incident (other than Mike, of course!). I like to think Jack made a bumbling fool of himself, denying what happened and blaming the in-ears. I'd like to think he got in trouble... but he was back on schedule, MC'ing two weeks later.

Tl;dr: Made my pastor say he needed help from God with masturbation while talking about the audience's kids.

Submitted December 19, 2022 at 07:40AM by kaurib (From Reddit https://ift.tt/zM4lSkJ)

...."As always, Republicans vastly underestimated black voters, who failed to support Walker from the beginning, rightly looking askance at his MAGA ties and being put off by the myriad indicators of his total unfitness. Black folks are particularly good at assessing the potential harms political candidates will do, a self-preservationist calculation black voters have always had to make. Walker failed on every count.

But those GOP strategists were right in predicting their overwhelmingly white base would embrace a black candidate whom they saw as promoting their agenda, which is rooted in anti-blackness and revanchist white supremacy. According to exit polls from NBC News—which will likely change in the coming days and weeks, but not so much as to undo the primary takeaways here—70 percent of white Georgians chose Walker to represent them in the Senate, compared with just eight percent of black voters. More than 70 percent of white male voters and 68 percent of white women voted for Walker, while just 12 percent of black men did the same. Black women—consistently the most reliable rejectors of GOP white supremacist nonsense—gave Walker just 5 percent their votes.

“[GOP backers] figured being famous and black would be all it took to peel off enough African-American support for Warnock to secure a Walker win.”

It’s also notable that a staggering 88 percent of white evangelicals, or nearly nine out of 10, cast their ballots not for Warnock—a true religious scholar who holds a doctorate in systematic theology and the pastor at one of Atlanta’s oldest and most revered black Baptist churches—but instead chose Walker, whose naked hypocrisy in pursuit of political power is a shared trait. It’s likely that those same white conservative voters shrugged off Walker’s moral failings, not just because it’s politically convenient, but because it jibes with the racist views they already hold about black folks. (It’s hard not to remember that Trump was absolutely enraged by Barack Obama’s successes. He’s probably happy to promote a black candidate who doesn’t threaten his confidence in innate white supremacy so thoroughly).

Between now and the December 6 runoff, there will be much pontificating in the media about why this race looked like it did.

I can’t help but suspect some media types will contend that Warnock should’ve shook more babies and kissed more hands, crisscrossed the state more, made his policy stands clearer, or even—in the dumbest takes of all—done more to reach out to Republican voters. But at a certain point, the realities are located in the truths about us, meaning who we are as a country, and where we are at this moment.

Sure, Warnock is progressive on issues that conservatives oppose, but the devil here is in details of race, a changing Georgia, white fears of status loss and a black candidate who they entrust to do the GOP’s white supremacist bidding. That’s how we got here, despite Warnock being so much more qualified than Walker that it’s maddening the comparison is even being voted on.

And even knowing this, there’s still no guarantee Georgia will do the right thing. Should Warnock win, it’s still mortifying for us as a nation that it was ever this close. But in the event Walker wins, it’s a national shame. Either way, it should never have been this close."

UK govt close up pastor Tobi Adegboyega’s church over £1.9m fraud allegations

UK govt close up pastor Tobi Adegboyega’s church over £1.9m fraud allegations

The U.K government has shut down Salvation Proclaimers Anointedu Church, founded by UK-based Nigerian Pastor, Tobi Adeboyega, over an alleged £1.87 million fraud. The evangelical church commonly known as SPAC Nation was wound up in the High Court on 9 June 2022 before Judge Burton, after the church reportedly failed to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating with…

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UK govt shuts down pastor Tobi Adegboyega’s church over £1.9m fraud allegations

The U.K government has shut down Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church, founded by UK-based Nigerian Pastor, Tobi Adeboyega, over an alleged £1.87 million fraud. The evangelical church commonly known as SPAC Nation was wound up in the High Court on 9 June 2022 before Judge Burton, after the church reportedly failed to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating with a…

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UK government shuts down Pastor Adegboyega's Church over £1.9M fraud.

UK government shuts down Pastor Adegboyega’s Church over £1.9M fraud.

UK government shuts down pastor Tobi Adegboyega’s church over £1.9M fraud allegations. The UK government has shut down Salvation proclaimers Anointed Church, commonly known as SPAC Nation. In an announcement made by the UK government, the evangelical was wound up in the Public interest in the High Court on Tuesday, June 9, 2022. It says; “The court heard that SPAC Nation was incorporated in…

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Sim City News Station, Newcrest 5:00 pm

Good evening, I’m Irina Johnston, and this is SCN daily news.

Years ago, the local community gathered to mourn the untimely death of evangelical mega-pastor Geoffery Landgraab. Shortly afterwards, we were all shaken to our core by the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Nancy Landgraab. Now, another bombshell has dropped.

Mr. and Mrs. Landgraab were found alive in Sulani this morning and arrested by agents of the Sim City Bureau of Investigation. The pair have been charged with money laundering, fraud, assault of a police officer, and obstruction of justice. They are currently being held in Sim City Maximum Security Penintentiary, awaiting trial.

We caught up with their son and current pastor of the Megachurch of the Watcher, Malcolm Landgraab, outside of Landgraab Mansion. He had this to say:

“This is ridiculous. My mother and father are dead, may the Watcher bless their souls. So these people who were found in Sulani must be lookalikes. And if my parents aren’t dead, then they’re innocent. They’re good, Watcher-fearing people. And if they aren’t innocent, well, then, nobody’s perfect and we all make mistakes. I have no further comment at this time.”

The Megachurch of the Watcher is the largest church in the area, with over 5,000 members. Some have taken to social media in defense of the Landgraabs, causing the hashtag “Landgraabs did nothing wrong” to start trending. User TravisScott93 writes,

"An authority figure would NEVER do a bad thing!! I stand with Geoff and Nancy!! #fakenews #landgraabsdidnothingwrong #howdareyou #rip #viral #follow4follow”

As always, SCN news will report further updates as events warrant. Now, let’s take a look at tomorrow’s weather forecast.

Lmao the pastor of the evangelical mega church that seriously fucked me up is being outed as a fraud and embesselor and also having been abusive to the people under him