Surely if a church cannot support a political candidate without losing tax-exempt status, then calling for the death of a candidate should mean they lose tax exemption and then pay double taxes.
The tax exempt thing should really be reformed
Eliminated, you say? I agree.
if they do charitable thingies, they could just spin that off into a proper 501c3 and call it good.
The whole reason churches get a break is because they supposedly do charity-type stuff like soup kitchens or running shelters. Most will only do charity if it's tied to proslytization, so, yeah.
The first time I really thought about it, I was surprised that churches were willing to let the government tell them what they were allowed to preach in exchange for money.
But then I realized that it was proof that all churches are scams. If you're a tax exempt church in America, then you're doing it for the money, not because it is morally right.
Jesus himself said the money belongs to Caesar.
Christianity is a fraud.
Why does this guy look like a 16 year old with a Dollar Tree mustache?
Because of that awful genz 70s stache
Can anyone just do that? Let me try..."God, please kill Hegseth's pastor!"
Also, if your pastor is calling for the killing of other people, I've got some bad news for you about your church and you being "Christian"
Let's just accept that calling someone a Christian ought to be treated as an insult, rather than pretending that the rampaging tide of assholes somehow representat an outlier.
Jesus literally taught and died to a people who hated Him and killed Him for His words. I understand this is Lemmy and people will dog on me for being a Christian, but I hope we can acknowledge that from your perspective we can separate the delusional (me) from these guys are actually just ghouls that twist who Jesus was.
The Bible has enough for unbelievers to hate without people making stuff up.
You’re not delusional. You read the book, and you believe in something. No one should have a problem with that.
I don’t think the guy in the article read the book or believes in anything. Seems like he’s pretty much shit.
Jesus was a doomsday cultist who believed literally that God's kingdom was on earth as in people were going to raise from the dead.
This is the reason for his faked resurrection by his followers. To fulfill this insane prophecy and also explains why the authorities at the time were so suspect of the "prince of peace".
Without this context his story is confusing and makes no sense.
Well the followers faked his resurrection because he died without having done the world domination thing that the messiah was supposed to do.
Don’t worry, he just ran out for smokes. He’ll be back soon and start doing all the messianic things then.
I have no ill will towards Christians, so long as they aren't moralizing hypocrites or pushing theocracy onto others. Jesus is a pretty dope figure. I admire those who follow that example. It is heretics like this that lie about doctrine and teach hate that give Christianity the taint that it has.
Christian Nationalism is quite the oxymoron, isn't it?
"Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.'"
you're making the massive assumption that a historical jesus figure actually existed. either way, the reality is if you're still christian you're holding an umbrella over these ghouls and continuing to legitimize their disgusting message.
and you're a freckle on my ballsack
I'm an atheist, but that doesn't make us enemies. Not necessarily. Growing up, if someone said God bless you, I just said thanks. And if someone said Merry Christmas to Jews or Muslims, the point was that it was wishing someone well, right? And if someone wanted to say grace, I just bowed my head and listened politely.
But long about the mid-80's, evangelicals decided that just my existence, or that of Jews or Muslims or Buddhists, was somehow persecuting them even though I'd never said a bad word about them, and frankly felt more kinship to them than those traditions that were foreign to me.
Circumstances have taught me that we are all united in a struggle to survive, to lift one another up and thus lift ourselves up, and leave a better world behind than the one we entered. And that includes people with whom I disagree — sometimes vehemently.
I think faith is a dangerous thing, but for some it can be ennobling. Whatever issues I might have with doctrine and dogma, people who truly embrace the teachings of Jesus in the Bible are my brother in cause, if not in spirit ('cause I don't believe in that stuff).
John 13:34 friendo
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
"As I have loved you" literally died for His enemies so that they might know God and we still have people saying those Psalms are for people you disagree with politically and not Satan. 😭
That pastor would have to weigh and consider dying for trump, there's no shot he could joyfully die for someone he considered an enemy.
The fact that his followers don't call him out for his insane bloodlust is very telling. These people don't even have a foundation in their own religion let alone any moral compass at all.
These hatemongers are undeserving of religious designation and should instead be labeled as the stochastic terrorists they are.
Is there a polymarket where I can bet how long it'll be before Kegbreath's "pastor" is caught with CSAM?
Hegseth's pastor is a heretic.
Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth's pastor:
Public enemies. These are the Orcs at the gates. You are not called to love the barbarian horde that is planning to break into your city and pillage, plunder, rape, and mutilate you and your people. You don’t love that horde.
Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:43-45:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Beat me to it. Blatant heresy. Directly and completely contradicts biblical canon and principals from the altar. He's a liar, a hypocrite, and a vile human being. Of course Hegseth goes to that guy's church.
Not only does he go to it. I can almost guarantee you based on the behavior of other fundamentalist Christians he probably directly sought this guy's church out for how extreme his views are.
KILL people!
-Pro Lifers!
If that shitstain you call God hasnt sent the child rapist in charge and all of the GOP leaders who have broken almost every rule to hell then it isn't going to send the rest of us.
I call for God to kill Hegseth's pastor. He's clearly a Devil worshiper. If you follow a religion of hate, you're worshiping Satan. Most Evangelical Christians worship the Devil.
Not so sure.. when I read the Bible God's killing people right and left, sometimes out of vengeance, anger, spite, and more. If anything the Satan guy seems heck of a lot more chill.
You know damn well that he is gayer than mayor mcgayerson at the gay day parade during gaytowns gay days celebration gala. A self hating gay man. That’s really the tragedy. Now, everyone is the enemy and all he can do is spread the toxicity.
Isn't that the robox oof guy?
His Mom is very proud!
You're thinking of Tommy Tallarico.
No but I have to remind myself every time he shows up.
That said oof guy might try taking credit for his achievements
Orcs? He has mixed up his fiction.
I didn’t know James Talarico was a priest…
As in "Who will rid me of this turbulent" one? He kind of is, actually.
Many well-educated people will not get this for the obvious reason, but . . .
People who are not in rural areas have almost no idea just how HARD and for how long this Trump shit has been pushed in the churches, to the point that right now, any person of the Christian faith who also drank the Kool-Aid and is deeply involved in the "Christian" politics of the right wing is thrust into a real and immediate crisis of conscience if they even think about leaving the politics. And this is by design.
Meanwhile, James Talarico, a very vanilla, scandal-free, middle-of-the-road Christian whose actual faith appears to be genuine and unimpeachable is speaking out, saying the two are NOT the same, and in doing so is providing a very specific off-ramp for people who have confused/conflated the cult of Trump with the cult of Christ, which the politicians and propagandists did deliberately so that even the thought of leaving the cult of Trump could be punished with the fear of hellfire.
In short, Talarico is incredibly dangerous to the shaky right wing because he's specifically laying a path for anyone who wants off the Trump train to still believe they can be a Christian.
And that's why the Pharisees need him to die. But not kill him themselves, because that would be a sin. Unless God did it himself, in his mercy. Or maybe someone else might get the job done, a heretic or infidel or unemployed guy down at the Walmart parking lot. So they're not gonna sin themselves, they're just gonna pray for a holy hitman of some kind, because that's alright. But not before they dehumanize him with literally fictional language describing him as an orc and unbeliever ("barbarian") because otherwise someone might remember there's a commandment against killing somewhere, but that doesn't apply to fictional monsters and infidels, or something.
Don't come at me, I'm not a believer, just an explainer, lol
Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm not Christian, but I think that some of the stories hold value, and this is very reminiscent of the pharisees. But it also fits neatly into the antichrist narrative, where Christians who don't defect to the beast of the sea are a small group who become persecuted by the defectors who insist that they're the real Christians.
And so meddlesome... smhead
Any minute now, I'm sure.
Anyone for cribbage?
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