What the fuck is even wrong with these people?

I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a man nailed to two pieces of wood. Especially if it's me. ~George Carlin, Interview With Jesus.

So I guess the other day, Prosperity Gospel Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne got arrested for violating emergency regulations because he was still holding full services and large gatherings at his mega-church in Tampa, Florida.

Good.

Fuck you, asshole.

Coronavirus aside, it's about time somebody start holding these fucking dickbags accountable for their bullshit. This kind of Christianity does nothing but destroy the faith, finances and lives of millions of people and brainwash millions more into fanatics that end up being a danger to themselves and others, who believe things...both in terms of religion and in terms of the real world that are simply not true, that then influence our politics and social atmosphere and hurt millions of more people, many of whom had never even heard of this silly bullshit before the last few years when these people outed themselves by getting close to Trump.

But see, here's the thing, I've been aware of this shit for over 20 years.

And outright lawbreakers like Rodney Howard-Browne are pretty common. The fact that they know they can play the "God" card with their own followers, if not the State, is about the only thing keeping the crime rate down. this particular religious movement is rife with child molesters, liars, scammers, small-time con-artists, and outright  thieves, not to mention those who fantasize either about killing their neighbors themselves, or who think that God is going to do it for them.

In the last few decades the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and a lot of other large denominations have had very public debates on things like sexual abuse in the church, and can generally be counted on to cooperate with the State to some degree if there's an investigation...and don't get me wrong, organizations like the Southern Baptist Convention, that have a lot of Fundamentalists in them, have a lot of the same problems.

The difference is that Rodney Howard-Browne will likely be hailed as a hero by his own followers. Not in spite of putting their lives in danger, but more or less because of it.

If you wonder where Trumpism gets a lot of its death-cult zeitgeist or why some insane yahoo coke-head like Mike Lindell (the "My Pillow" guy) could be considered authoritative despite his main contribution to the world being selling massively overpriced bedding at Wal-Mart, start there.

Fanaticism for its own sake, or worse for the sake of getting glory from idiots, combined with greed and stupidity. Throw in a little racism and some lies and at the rate we're going...I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Lindell replaces Wilbur Ross as Secretary of Commerce if we're dumb enough to give that orange motherfucker a second term in office.

And ya know, the worst part is, there's an awful lot of mentally-unbalanced Evangelicals out there that are so desperate to see their views shouted back at them by the world at large that they don't see the scammy, skeevy coke-head businessman that sells a $3 item for $45 at Wal-Mart...they'll talk in almost ridiculously glowing terms about the My Pillow Guy because he talked about the Bible on TV.

I'm just sayin' Evangelicals, maybe ya'll need some kind of higher standards.

Or maybe, any standards at all.

It seems to me like especially lately any grifter that's willing to say nice things about Donald Trump and say the word Jesus a few times these days is perfectly well welcome in y'all house. And people wonder why I'm not a Christian anymore?!

There's a fucking pandemic raging and these goddamned morons want to have a "Christian Woodstock" just because the local government told people to stay at home.

And while the rest of us argue with these fucking people and try to talk some sense into them or wait for their fever dream of racism, religiosity and stupid shit to break, people are dying.

Including their own people.

And they don't care.

Because it's not about any of the things they ever said it was about. It sure as hell isn't about Jesus. If it was, maybe these motherfuckers would be thinking about somebody other than themselves.

Listen, ya'll, I used to be a Christian, I know what I was taught.

And this?

This ain't it.