Fleecing the Flock - An Evangeilcal Pastor Shouts Abuse at His Followers For Not Buying Him a Luxury Watch

Carlton Funderburke, Senior Pastor and co-founder,
Church of the Well, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

US pastor calls congregation ‘cheap’ for not buying him a luxury watch | Missouri | The Guardian

Self-styled 'prophet', Pastor Carlton Funderburke of the non-denominational Church of the Well in Kansas City, Missouri, thought he had hit upon a new method of extracting wealth from his followers - demand they give him expensive gifts, then shouts abuse at them to try to make them feel guilt and shame for not obeying him.

Having asked his dupes er… congregation, to buy him an expensive Movado watch, he pointed out that the watch he wanted was on sale in the warehouse at 'Sam's Club' and he had told them he wanted one last year, "and here it is, August", and they still haven't bought it for him!

In a jaw-dropping display of hypocrisy, he then shouted at them like a spoiled toddler who didn’t get what he wanted for his birthday, complaining that they think more of their own possessions than they do of him:

Covidiot News - Antivaxxer Covidiots Losing the Argument

a COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and acceptance. b COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and acceptance if recommended by employer or one’s doctor. a, b COVID-19 acceptance in June 2020 was defined as willingness to take vaccine if proven safe and effective. COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in June 2021 was defined as having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and if not, willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it is available to them. Vaccine hesitancy was defined as having reported “no” to the question on whether they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and also either unsure/no opinion, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree to the question on whether they would take a COVID-19 vaccine when available to them. Four countries (Ghana, Kenya, Peru, and Turkey) were not included in the 2020 global survey. c Potential COVID-19 vaccine acceptance if recommended by employer or one’s doctor among those willing to take vaccine when available and those hesitant to vaccinate. c Potential COVID-19 vaccination was defined as willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it is available if recommended by employer or by doctor.

Study shows increase in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance around the world - CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy

A new study by scientists from the City University of New York School of Public Health (CUNY SPH), USA, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the School of Health Administration, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, has show a growing acceptance of the anti-Covid vaccines on a global scale between 2020 and 2021.

The team conducted a survey of 23,000 individuals from 23 countries in June 2021 and found that 75.2% reported acceptance of the vaccine, compared to 71.5% in 2020. The results of the survey were published open access in Nature Communications.
According to the CUNY SPH press release:

The study … was carried out within the context of a year of substantial but very unequal global COVID-19 vaccine availability and acceptance, which necessitated new assessments of the drivers of vaccine hesitancy and the characteristics of people not vaccinated.

Concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy and mistrust in the science behind vaccine development were the most consistent correlates of hesitancy. Other factors associated with vaccine hesitancy varied by country and included personal experience with COVID-19 (e.g., sickness or loss of a family member) and demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, education, and income).

The authors found that vaccine hesitancy did not significantly correlate with a country’s current COVID-19 case burden and mortality. In June 2021, vaccine hesitancy was reported most frequently in Russia (48.4%), Nigeria (43%), and Poland (40.7%), and least often in China (2.4%), the United Kingdom (UK) (18.8%), and Canada (20.8%).

In order to improve global vaccination rates, some countries may at present require people to present proof of vaccination to attend work, school, or indoor activities and events. Our results found strong support among participants for requirements targeting international travellers, while support was weakest among participants for requirements for schoolchildren.

Jeffrey Lazarus, lead author.
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Hospital Clínic
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
And the Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy
City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, US

Support for vaccine mandates was substantially lower among those who were hesitant to get vaccinated themselves.

Importantly, however, recommendations by a doctor, or to a lesser extent by an employer, might have an impact on a respondent’s views on vaccination in some countries.

Dean Ayman El-Mohandes, co-author Graduate School of Public Health ∓ Health Policy
City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA

Although some countries are currently disengaging from evidence-based COVID-19 control measures, the disease has by no means been controlled or ended as a public health threat. The authors note that for ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaigns to succeed in improving coverage going forward, substantial challenges remain. These include targeting those reporting lower vaccine confidence with evidence-based information campaigns and greatly expanding vaccine access in low- and middle-income countries.

Christian Child Abuse News - How a Christian Cult Facilitated Child Abuse at a Leading UK Private School

Winchester College

Photo: Dov Makabaw Sundry/Alamy

Winchester college society was cult-like, finds report into child abuse | Schools | The Guardian

There is an old saying about people, known as Wykehamists, who were educated at Winchester College, Wiltshire, UK - "Never trust a Wykehamist!" Whether there is any truth in that or not, I really couldn't say, but it's certainly true of an evangelical Christian cult that operated in the school during the 1970s and 1980s. They provided cover for the systematic abuse of boys at the college by a powerful and charismatic barrister to groom and sadistically abuse boys with impunity, according to a review of the case made public yesterday.

Winchester College is a leading UK public school - the equivalent of the fee-paying American private school - constituted as an educational charity. In their response to the review report, the college says:

John Smyth QC, who died in 2018, was Chairman of the Iwerne Trust, a charity which ran evangelical Christian holiday camps for young people. Smyth abused young people in several countries over many years. This abuse was brought to public attention by Channel 4 in 2017 and has since been the subject of a book, Bleeding for Jesus, by Andrew Graystone. In the light of the Channel 4 disclosure, the College commissioned a review from two independent expert reviewers, Ms Jan Pickles OBE and Ms Genevieve Woods. Jan Pickles was assisted in the review of current arrangements by Ms Mary Breen, formerly Headmistress of St Mary’s Ascot.

Creationist Fraud News - Mr. Kent Hovind Arrested on Domestic Violence Charge

Convicted tax fraud and Young Earth Creationist, Mr. Kent Hovind. Arrested on domestic violence charges.

Alabama evangelist Kent Hovind arrested on domestic violence charge - al.com

The Young Earth Creationist fraud and Christian televangelist, Kent Hovind, or to give him his correct academic title, Mr. Kent Hovind, has been arrested on domestic violence charges, brought by his wife, Cindi Lincoln, who alleges that he 'body-slammed her' causing injuries for which she needed to go to an emergency room. The alleged assault took place in late 2020. She is now seeking a protection order against him to prevent him repeating the attacks.

She also alleges that he sent his 'right hand man' to her apartment to threaten her and had her apartment trashed the next day. She now says she fears he may try to kill her to shut her up because his following depends on his public persona, not on his private behaviour.

Hovind, who styles himself 'Dr Dino', is the owner of a Creationist scam park, Dinosaur Adventure Land, in Conecuh, Alabama, which he opened soon after being released from an nine-year jail term for tax fraud. He makes a living by fooling scientifically illiterate simpletons by pretending to have a legitimate academic doctorate and to have been a high-school science teacher. This works on his target marks who believe anyone called 'doctor' must be an expert scientist.

Attack on Roe v. Wade Could Backfire on Conservative Repuglicans

The State of Abortion and Contraception Attitudes in All 50 States | PRRI

With a stable majority of Americans supporting a woman's right to abortion in all or most cases, attempts to repeal Roe v. Wade in SCOTUS, exploiting the new Trump-supplied right-wing majority, could backfire badly on the Repuglicans, since conservative evangelicals tend to be the only demographic group with less than 50% support for the continuing legality of abortions, so repealing Roe v. Wade could precipitate a move of moderate and liberal red voters to vote blue in red states. Most of the opposition, by numbers, comes from white evangelical Christians, matched only by a few minority faiths such as Mormons, Jehovah's Winesses and Hispanic Catholics. All the major non-evangelicals are strongly or moderately pro-abortion legality in all or most cases.

What a repeal of Roe v. Wade would produce is a situation where Repuglican politicians in red states would no longer be able to pander to their evangelical base by passing anti-abortion legislation, confident that it will be struck down in the lower courts, so they can pose as champions of conservative 'values', thwarted by a liberal establishment.

They would then be faced with the choice of continuing to pander to their extremist wing by passing increasingly restrictive anti-abortion measures and accepting the consequences of losing large numbers of their less extreme supporters to the Democrts or alientating the fanatics by not using their new-found freedom to restrict a woman's right to choose.

Survey Reveals Repuglican/Evangelical Gullibility

The “Big Lie”: Most Republicans Believe the 2020 Election was Stolen | PRRI

Amazingly, despite not a single piece of corroborating evidence that would stand up in court of widespread voter fraud ever being found, 66% of republicans and 61% of white evangelical Christians still believe Donald Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by the Democrats.

By contrast, only 4% of Democrats and 27% of Independents believe the lie.

Covidiot News - Faith-Based Covid Vaccination Rejection

A faith-based coronavirus super-spreader event, (December 2020)

Religious Identities and the Race Against the Virus: Engaging Faith Communities on COVID-19 Vaccination | PRRI

A survey published a few days ago shows how people of faith are taking their information about the efficacy and safety of the anti-covid vaccines not from science but from their cult's leadership.

The same survey also confirms the findings of other polls that those least concerned about the welfare of other people, even those in their own community, are the white evangelical Christians - the very same people who are most likely to:

• Support Donald Trump.
• Support white supremacist organizations.
• Be right-leaning Repugnicans.
• Be Creationists.
• Oppose restrictions on gun ownership.
• Be pro-life, anti-choice, mysogynists.
• Believe the ludicrous, pro-Trump, antisemitic, Dominionist QAnon conspiracy hoax.
• Believe that Trump won the 2020 election by a landslide.
• Think Earth is just a few thousand years old and probably flat, with the sun orbiting it.

The main findings, listed in the Executive Summary to the report by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) are:

Psychological Profile of a Violent Evangelical Trumpanzee

Violent insurrection at the Capitol, Washington DC, 6 Jan, 2021

Psychological ‘signature’ for the extremist mind uncovered | University of Cambridge News

A combined group of psychologists from Cambridge University, UK and Stanford University, CA, USA have mapped the underlying "psychological signature" that predisposes people to hold extreme social, political or religious views and be prepared to support violence as a means to enforce their views on others, such as we saw in the attempted coup d’état in January by evangelical Christian Trumpanzee cultists.

Trumpanzee News - And Still The Fruitloops Come...

Lance Wallnau, False Prophet

Preacher: God Anointed Trump, Therefore Biden is an “Illegal Counterfeit” | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

The seemingly endless stream of evangelical Trumpanzee Christians unable to accept that their hero lost the November election and that Joe Biden is now POTUS, shows no signs of abating.

The latest forlorn nutjob is evangelist 'prophet' Lance Wallnau, who appeared on the Jim Bakker show (do people still listen to that serial adulterer and fraud?) to announce that Biden was an 'illegal counterfeit' in office because God had anointed Donald Trump, who was therefore still the real president.

When is a False Prophet not a False Prophet?

Hank Kunneman, false prophet of One Voice Ministries, Nebraska

Hank Kunneman Says God Hates Those Who Call Him a False Prophet for Falsely Prophesying Trump's Reelection | Right Wing Watch

Readers will be familiar with preacher of hate and false prophet, Hank Kunneman and his difficulty with coming to terms with the fact that not only did his idol and personal saviour, Donald J Trump, lose the presidency, but that he falsely prophesied he would win.

Pastor Hank, of One Voice Ministries, Nebraska, has now discovered that both he and his god also hate another group of people in addition to those who never voted for Trump. They both hate people who point out that Hank Kunneman is a false prophet!

Homophobia News - Homophobic Evangelical Says Trump Was Too Gay-Friendly for God!

Dr Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries.
"God removed Trump for being too Gay-friendly"

Scott Lively Says Trump Was Too Pro-Gay, So God Removed Him From Office | Right Wing Watch

Trumpanzees who had convinced themselves that their idol, Donald J Trump, would win a second term are now struggling to come to terms with the fact that he lost and Joe Biden is President of the United States.

Of course, we've all heard the evidence-free whinging about a 'stolen election' and a massive conspiracy to include hundreds of thousands, even millions of fake votes in the count, but perhaps the most original to date is that of Scott Lively, a homophobic Trumpanzee and former gubernatorial candidate for Massachusetts, who believed Trump would destroy the LGBTQ movement by enacting Russian-style anti-gay laws. But, apparently, Trump was too pro-Gay, so God removed him. It seems Lively's god lacked the wisdom and character judgement to know this about Trump when he inserted him into the White House.

In 2016, Lively won a case in a Massachusetts court against a group calling themselves Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), although 'won' scarcely describes it since the judge condemned his actions in the clearest terms. SMUG had brought a case against Lively alleging that his preaching in Uganda had led to that country introducing the death penalty for homosexuality and that this constituted a crime against humanity.

The 1914 Act had increased the sentence for same-sex sexual activity, which had been illegal since colonial times, from 14 years to death or life imprisonment. It was later ruled invalid by the Uganda Supreme Court on procedural grounds.

Following agitation in Uganda by Lively and two other US evangelical Christian fundamentalists, Stephen Langa and Caleb Lee Brundidge, Lively wrote in his blog, which he concludes with the usual appeal for money to help with his efforts:

My week began with a meeting with about fifty members of the Ugandan Christian Lawyers Association on the evening of my arrival, then an address to members of the Parliament on the following morning. There were from fifty to one hundred persons in attendance, including numerous legislators and the Minister of Ethics and Integrity, with whom I enjoyed a personal chat for more than half and hour leading to the event. The centerpiece event was a three-day conference featuring myself, Don Schmierer, author of An Ounce of Prevention and several other books designed to help the families of homosexuals, and Caleb Lee Brundidge of International Healing Foundation, a formerly "gay" African-American man who now leads recovery workshops. It was a paid event, very well attended, mostly by professionals in various fields including education, counseling, government and medicine.

[...]

On the positive side, my host and ministry partner in Kampala, Stephen Langa, was overjoyed with the results of our efforts and predicted confidently that the coming weeks would see significant improvement in the moral climate of the nation, and a massive increase in pro-family activism in every social sphere. He said that a respected observer of society in Kampala had told him that our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the "gay" agenda in Uganda. I pray that this, and the predictions, are true.

The court dismissed the case on the narrow grounds that it did not have the jurisdiction as a result of a 2013 Supreme Court ruling issued after SMUG’s case was filed. The ruling in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell limited the extraterritorial reach of the Alien Tort Statute, under which SMUG brought its claim. In giving his ruling, Judge Michael Ponsor of the U.S. District Court in Springfield Massachusetts, said:

The question before the court is not whether Defendant’s actions in aiding and abetting efforts to demonize, intimidate, and injure LGBTI people in Uganda constitute violations of international law. They do... The much narrower and more technical question posed by Defendant’s motion is whether the limited actions taken by Defendant on American soil in pursuit of his odious campaign are sufficient to give this court jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s claims.... Since they are not sufficient, summary judgment is appropriate for this, and only this, reason.

Lively told listeners of the "Swamp Rangers" radio show that Trump had "fully endorsed backed and applauded [Richard] Grenell, [who] was an outspoken advocate for the central doctrine of the progressive movement, which is queer theory", so God had him removed.

A Victory for Human Rights as Biden Plans to Codify Roe v. Wade Into Federal Law

President Joe Biden - Promise to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law if SCOTUS rules against it.

Biden vows to ‘codify’ Roe v. Wade on anniversary of ruling - The Christian Post

The Biden/Harris administration will codify the SCOTUS ruling known as Roe v. Wade into federal law, if SCOTUS, with its new right-wing majority given it by Trump's appointees, ever reverses it.

Last Friday, on the 48th anniversary of the landmark 1973 SCOTUS ruling, President Biden said:

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe. In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack. We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care — including reproductive health care — regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.

Christians Try the 'No True Scotsmen' Fallacy to Cover Their Embarrassment Over the Failed Coup D'etat

Fundamentalist Christians praying outside the Capitol, prior to their failed coup d'etat.

Michael Brown: Just Because Christians Rioted Doesn’t Make it a Christian Riot | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

In the finest traditions of evangelical Christianity, evangelist author Michael Brown is lying to his supporters again - and of course bearing false witness against others. He claims those who took part in the riot and failed insurrection on 6th January were not real Christians and, by implication that those who did take part were other than real Christians. Brown evidently takes Matthew 7:20, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them", at face value - ironically, since it is in the context of false prophets, not the actions of self-confessed Christians.

In his rush to distance himself and dissociate himself and his faith from the disgraceful events that should have every decent Christian now questioning what it is about their core beliefs that can provoke people to do such things, Brown delivered what can only be described as one of the best examples of the 'No True Scotsmen' fallacy seen for a long time. Only Michael Brown and his friends are real Christians; all the others, no matter how passionate they are in their beliefs, aren't.

American Christians Becoming More Uncaring About Racism

No race problem here: Despite the summer of protests, many practicing Christians remain ambivalent.

Further confirmation today, if any were needed, of how low down their list of priorities the welfare of others is for American Christians.

After a summer of protests over the killing of black Americans by white police and increasing demands for social justice, equal treatment before the law for minorities and an end to institutionalized racism in the police, few people can be left thinking there is nothing wrong with American society and no grievances that need to be addressed; no wrongs needing to be righted and no evidence of the oppression of minority groups by the majority.

And yet the Christian polling organisation, Barna Group, has found that many more self-identified white Christians now say they are not motivated to address matters of racial injustice in American society than there were last year:

Thirty percent of practicing Christians — people who identify themselves as Christians, have attended worship in the past month and claim to strongly prioritize their faith — say they are not motivated to engage in matters of racial injustice (12% unmotivated, 18% not at all motivated). That's an increase from 2019, when 17% said they were not motivated (9% unmotivated, 8% not at all motivated).