It’s official; NYT sez so…
29 October 2007 by Naomi
[Pastor Terry] Fox, who is 47, said he saw some impatient shuffling in the pews, but he was stunned that the church’s lay leaders had turned on him. “They said they were tired of hearing about abortion 52 weeks a year, hearing about all this political stuff!” he told me on a recent Sunday afternoon. “And these were deacons of the church!”
In a ten-page obituary, the NYT delivers a post-mortem on evangelical fundamentalism. The much-vaunted solidarity of the once-triumphant Jerry Dobertson is crumbling before our very eyes…
Enjoy a free trip behind the Grey Lady’s parsimonious, cheese-paring pay-wall — courtesy of Huffington Post: The Evangelical Crackup, by David D. Kirkpatrick
Schadenfreude, y’all!
30 October 2007, on 5:50 am
Your post finishing with “shadenfreude” made me reflect on this popular word. Even though I have looked it up a half dozen times, I can never remember from one day to the next what it means.
30 October 2007, on 6:00 am
Um…the NYT doesn’t have a pay-wall anymore.
30 October 2007, on 9:25 am
Another excerpt:
Does this really mean that many evangelicals are tired of hearing the same message, or just that Fox is a failure in keeping his flock brainwashed? In the state of Illinois, huge evangelical mythology temples are being built, and filled all over…including Chicagoland suburbs. Most of them, as I can tell by their stupid advertising slogans on the signs out front reflect that they are strongly anti-abortion, anti gay…etc. etc. (Also we can tell from the editorials they write in the local papers.) One of these evangelical temples is only two blocks from where I live.
I am not optimistic from this one report where one or even a few churches are dying. There are too many that are “flourishing” and attracting big membership, so I am very skeptical that the evangelical movement is becoming more “moderate”.
30 October 2007, on 9:55 am
Is it just me, or does the right half of that fractured cross look like one of those brooding, Easter Island faces in profile?
Maybe there’s a job for Fox in the Hinn house. Get it? Hinn house? Fox?
30 October 2007, on 10:06 am
Is it just me, or does the right half of that fractured cross look like one of those brooding, Easter Island faces in profile?
Hey, now that you mention it!
30 October 2007, on 2:35 pm
So, why don’t you accept comments? You want Christians to be tolerant of you and your beliefs, but you don’t allow comments from Christians. If you don’t believe in what I have to say about God, don’t believe it. If you are that strong in your persistence that God doesn’t exist, then what should words matter to you?
So, let’s talk.
Ted, We do allow Christians to comment when they are reasonable and not trying to convert us. Drive-by prayers and proseltyzing to tell us that your imaginary friend is real, and that we need gawd is something we have all heard a million times. Now stop bombarding the queue with your mile-long “sermons” and “incantations” and if you offer something to the discussion about the topic of this or any post, we can let your comment through. (Keep in mind, you must actually read what we write here to be able to intelligently respond.)
~Moderators
30 October 2007, on 3:19 pm
ted, since you don’t appear to have noticed, actually click on the link “On Commenting” at the top left under “Pages” and read our policy before submitting another comment.
GifS is not a pulpit. GifS is not a street corner. GifS is not YouTube. We come here to get away from proselytizers / evangelizers / missionaries / converters / brainwashers / preachers like you. You do not get to shout sermons at us in our own home. Unlike most of the rest of the country, here you do not get a free pass simply for blathering about Maude and the Babble (unless you actually use the words “Maude” and the “Babble”).
We get more than enough of “shepherds” like you in our daily lives. We are not sheep, and we are most certainly not your flock. We are people, and if the only way you know how to talk to people is to shout at them like a drill sergeant or repeat yourself like a broken record, then this is obviously not the place for you.
30 October 2007, on 3:34 pm
Eve, that was excellently said.
30 October 2007, on 4:59 pm
What Eve said!!!
bernarda, schadenfreude is a Yiddish word for taking great glee from watching the mighty fall upon their own swords (or words that mean essentially that). The forgotten caveat hidden in it is that we are all subject to these “laws” and that the same thing *could* happen to we-the-gleeful, as well. It’s just human nature at work…
30 October 2007, on 5:08 pm
RDZ, I found a better image but it was copyright-protected on Flickr. It showed a twisted metal cross with the jeebus almost kissing the ground (yikes! shades of Hendrix!). Google.image the words “broken cross”…
Oh, and that’s a great pun! *doffs hat*
30 October 2007, on 9:49 pm
You people with all your facts and figures, your experiments and observations, your theories and knowledge. You don’t know Jack, I tell you. And by “Jack,” I mean Jesus, because Jack doesn’t necessarily have to be short for Jackson or a nickname for John or some sort of transitive verb implying self-abuse. I mean Jesus could be called “Steve” or “Darryl”, for all I care. So long as you listen to his message, which as we all know is one hundred percent true because I said that King James’ scribes said that Origen said that the Gospel writer dudes said that Jesus- or Jack or Steve or Darryl, whomever, said it was. I mean, Fiddle-dee-dee, if that ain’t proof then I don’t know what is. But don’t get me wrong. The proof of Jesus’ truth is not in the pudding but, rather, the proof of Jesus’ Pudding is in the Eating, which is what we do during the Lord’s Supper with the teesy weensy cups of grape juice and you ain’t seen nothing til you have a piece of Trident-looking, unleavened cardboard goes all hunk of bleeding flesh in your hungover, cotton mouth like a rare cheekful of Kobe beef. Jesus, it’s what’s for dinner!
30 October 2007, on 10:06 pm
Oh yeah, Ted, you’ve converted me. I don’t need no facts or observations or none of that poo-poo. I just need some ancient scrolls to tell me what to do, yeah that’s the ticket.
And I get the message, I really do. But where can I get some good, unblemish sacrificial animals? And can I really kill anyone who doesn’t worship Yahweh like Moses and Joshua and the Israelites did? Will Yahweh send out female bears to kill children who taunt me because I’m bald? Please tell me he will, because I don’t like being teased about my baldness, and they’re only children, after all.
Oh, but there’s no Jesus in the Old Testament, the book of laws Yahweh says are for all time. So why should we listen to this Jesus upstart anyway? Isn’t Jesus a bastard because Yahweh wasn’t married to Mary? Doesn’t that mean Jesus should have been put to death anyway?
So many questions, no answers…
Fucktard.
30 October 2007, on 11:45 pm
Jesus must taste divine! Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.
31 October 2007, on 7:42 am
Ted, you spend all this time and effort posting interminable, moronic sermons promoting your religious views this on a blog called “God is for suckers” where everyone obviously thinks you’re a a clown?? Please get some medical attention. You’re DEEPLY ill. Don’t you have a job or something? a family and friends? WTF??
31 October 2007, on 8:52 am
[...] Our friend Revenant recently mentioned this story in response to a drive-by Christian (ted) who came by to tell us all how we need his god’s love. I had forgotten this Bible story that is scary as any Halloween horror story. Here is first what the satirical site, Landover Baptist Church had written about it: The Lord sending bears to maul young children to death is nothing new to True Christians who have memorized their Bible! Saved folks know that the Lord Jesus is liable to send ravenous bears to kill children at the drop of a hat, as was the case when He sent two bears to rip apart 42 children who were rude enough to mock a bald man. Glory! [...]
31 October 2007, on 6:11 pm
Maybe – just maybe – if suddenly, no matter what criminals or pedophiles or slave traffickers or war mongers tried to do, all children everywhere became instantly somehow immune or protected from violence, abuse, molestation, kidnapping, murder, and the other horrors they endure on a daily basis across the globe all the time – well, then maybe I would consider giving the possibility of the existence of Maude and Rhesus a second thought.
1 November 2007, on 10:13 pm
No…only the ones like yourself who try to impose your delusional beliefs on us, and try to make everyone cater to your personal god beliefs.
I get that.
I don’t think you do.
So, can we get past the spew and talk?
If you want to talk about and have something to contribute to the subject of the post you are commenting on.
I am not going to talk down to you or berate you.
How so very self-righteous of you.
You forget you are a guest here at our atheist site, and so you play by our rules, not the other way around.
Now that we are past the angry spew, let me ask you a serious question?
Would you go down to New Orleans and rebuild someone’s house?
Many of us have…you are implying that atheists do not help in a time of crisis?
Again, these are the ignorant assumptions by xians that piss us off.
Are any of you doctors?
Uh…DUH…WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT! (a stupid one) OF COURSE THERE ARE ATHEIST DOCTORS..AND HINDU AND MUSLIM AND ALL SORTS OF OTHERS WHO DO AND DO NOT HOLD SKY DADDY BELIEFS.
We need people who will go overseas or places in this country for a couple weeks to give out free vaccines or medical treatment.
Duh…REALLY? You piss us off when you insult our intelligence. Of course ALL KINDS of people come together in times of crisis. It seems you are EXTREMELY IGNORANT about atheism in general. If a person helps, his personal beliefs should be set aside…too many god botherers will only help with the stipulation that people hear about their god beliefs. Their “mission” first is to spread the news of their imaginary friend. Then the food comes with the propaganda, maybe even after like at the homeless shelters where people are not fed till they attend a xian mythology service.
Did you go to where the Tsunami hit the hardest and stay there for weeks on end helping?
Did YOU? We have a huge readership, and I am certain some of those who read DID help in the situations you mentioned. People from everywhere, all walks of life, rich or poor, all amazingly come together to help in times of crisis BECAUSE NO SKY DADDY IS GOING TO FLOAT OUT OF THE SKY AND DO IT (funny how measly humans are the only ones who can get things done…doesn’t that tell you something?) Your imaginary friend seems very powerless to stop these catastrophes from happening, and if this god were real and allows it, he is a prick.
Christians do not have the monopoly on humanism and kindness.
Many many Christians I know did and do these things routinely.
And so do many, many atheists. The difference is that god believers do it because they believe they are going to be rewarded for it, and they love to praise themselves for it.
They were working with Muslims in Phuket, Thailand because people needed help.
No shit. I don’t think that you understand that you are “lecturing” a blog which is run and supported by older educated adults, many of whom do more volunteer work and are more concerned about people than you will ever be.
I challenge you now to reach out to those in need with a Christian.
YOU, challenge US? HA! There you go with the self-righteous shit again, like xians are the only good people (what about the ones who kill their husband and kids, have sex with little boys and have affairs with married members of their congregations?) Just because someone calls themselves a xians, doesn’t mean they are an upstanding member of society.
When people come together to help out in times of need, what the next guy’s sky daddy beliefs are is the last thing we are thinking about…
If you tell them you don’t want to hear “the Gospel”, they will respect you and not talk about it.
Bullshit. We told you already, and you keep coming back. Christians tell that lie all the time.
These are the Christians that I know. Not pushy.
Not pushy…just like you mr troll ted?
They just want to make this world better for as long as we have breath.
But you xians hate this world and are longing to be dead in the sky with your Jeebus…you contradict yourselves. You hate everything in this world, but want to save it, but can’t wait to leave it and are focused on a hoped-for afterlife somewhere over the rainbow. Don’t you see how schizo that is?
I somehow suspect you will still ridicule me and other Christians, but that is okay. I expect that.
Because you Christians have a persecution complex and like to play the martyr even though you make up the majority of the population. Your little “pity me” crap won’t work here.
2 November 2007, on 5:14 pm
^ Once again, a Good True Xian (TM) invalidates himself completely in my eyes by making the same utterly wrong assumption that only the religious deliberately do good in this world.
As for all ted’s other points, my fellow mods have addressed them more than sufficiently.