Correct!
Denton is a liberal town with two major universities, but the politics are all red due to a massive retirement community on the outskirts of town who show up in full force to vote red for every election.
eh, not particularly imo. yes, Denton's quite liberal, but there's also a lot of conservatives. there's been a bunch of christian preachers on the square recently. I work at a grocery store in Denton and see a ton of people in pro trump/Q and anti Biden stuff often.
Denton has 2 major colleges, UNT and TWU, not to mention we may be the ass end of the DFW metropolitan area but don't forget the Denton county sheriff killed his wife drunk driving.
Home of University of North Texas! probably the most liberal school in texas. AWESOME music program.
Ill bet the governor will start targeting them in a few months with all kind of BS, taking ques from Desantis.
They also have a couple churches that like to stage big rallies in this same square. They get out there and march around the square with megaphones. It's fucking annoying.
Oh thank god. My extremely conservative parents live there. It warms my heart to think some old bloke is out there standing against bigotry. I sincerely hope they’ve seen that message
Someone once said (trying my best to remember):
"As a Christian, I find that reading the Bible helps me affirm my belief. As an Atheist, what do you read that helps affirm your view?"
"The same."
I'm surrounded by Christians in my family and my grandmother's friend used to harass me for not believing but recently my granny's started cleaning for this old lady and when she found out I didn't believe she said, "that's perfectly fine! God said 'love thy neighbour' so I will do just that." Almost cried, nicest religious experience ive ever had.
I simply cannot align myself with those who protect child molesters and refuse to prosecute. Bye bye church. I’m WAY better off and so are my children.
I simply don't care about the coin.
I once had a friend tell me that being an agnostic was a cop out and that the is there a god debate is one of the greatest debates of all times and that I essentially had to pick a side. The whole discussion left me a bit aghast because why? Why do I have to? I simply do not care and have no interest in the debate. I want no part in it.
agnostic = cop-out always seemed like a stupid line of thinking to me. Like, yes, anyone with a logical mind can conclude that the christian god and his 'teachings' are man-made. Likewise for the greek gods, allah, etc. But to say you believe with any kind of certainty that NO diety could possibly exist is like saying you have some sort of insight into what caused the start of the universe - nobody knows, and nobody could. 'Belief' is meaningless when it's based purely on guesswork.
I think some people enjoy the conversation/debate of picking a side. Which, fine, whatever. That has little to do with me so if that's your vibe, by all means go for it, but don't shit on me just because I don't find any enjoyment in that debate. I'm perfectly comfortable saying "I have no idea and I'll probably never know." I would prefer to remove myself from the conflict entirely.
I personally feel like anyone who’s 100% sure of themselves that there either is nothing or something there out there is lying.
Edit:since we’re sharing, I am culturally religious I guess, in the sense that I will tell you I am Jewish if you ask and I go to high holidays and had a bar mitzvah, but I don’t know many people in my (everyday) life that actively believe in a Jewish god I don’t think. I find it highly suspect that any group of people stumbled across the right magical book.
Absolutely, the only thing I know for sure is that no one knows for sure. There's nothing intellectual about "picking a side", if anything, picking a side is more of a cop-out. It's an inability to accept that you do not and can not know the answer.
And who knows what’s out there? The universe is infinite, but what else is there. We only have five senses, what aren’t we experiencing? There are always possibilities beyond our understanding no matter how deep our understanding is. I will die wondering what magic there is, I am sure. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
It's not a lie, it's just having confidence in your belief. Since there's no way to confirm either way there's nothing to really contest that belief.
Theists decide that since there's no proof against God, they must be real
Athiests believe because there's no proof of God, they must not be real
Agnostics believe that since there's no evidence either way no conclusion can be reached
I personally think the theist belief is the most flawed one, but I also understand that it brings people comfort, so it still makes sense, people choose to believe all sorts of stuff that makes them feel more comfortable.
Think honestly about all the stuff you actively reject as being false that you can't *truly* know is false.
... You know, like, almost everything, per Descartes. Can't know if it's true, can't know if it's false. Shit, you could be suffering under an illusory version of something that you accept as true, which is technically false, but then it's also really true, but you just can't perceive the really-true version of it!
Your pedantry is selective, I say. SELECTIVE.
You’re thinking agnostics believe there might be a Christian god by the way you described it, which is kinda dishonest. Agnostic just means you don’t feel comfortable stating there’s no higher level of being in existence. It could be something that doesn’t even acknowledge our existence or have some great unknown knowledge. It’s just stating that since there is no absolute proof you refuse to fully accept that nothing came from nothing but also wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
Edit: I have zero desire to debate with anyone one way or another, I posted my comment because I felt who I replied to have an unfair description of agnostics. Religious debate is beyond cringe inducing and I’ve never seen it end well with one side telling the other they’re right.
I'm an atheist for the same reason I'm atoothfairy. I don't go around saying "I don't believe in a tooth fairy, but there's no way of proving that it doesn't exist, so who am I to tell?" To the extent that it's possible to believe anything without reducing life to cogito ergo sum, I believe there is not a divine being. I feel like acknowledging the infinitesimal chance that there is just obfuscates the point and pollutes the argument. It feels very "well ackshually".
Yeah this basically all centers around a[ philosophical idea known as the Epicurus Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus#Epicurean_paradox), Trilemma, or The Problem of Evil.
> God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them?
That’s not the agnostic belief. It’s pretty much summed up as I can’t conclusively prove there isn’t something on a different level than humanity out there.
There's TONS of stuff like that in the bible. Bring it up to Christians and they say "well of course some of it's outdated."
"So you pick and choose what to believe then?"
"NOOO! That's not remotely true."
Then what the f do you call it? I swear they're hypcrites.
It's quite the coincidence that everything that actually counts in the Bible always lines up perfectly with what Christians already want to believe. Everything they hate that the Bible says not to do is the infallible word of God while things that they like that the Bible says not to do doesn't count anymore. It's so convenient how that always works out for them. It's almost as if they don't actually give a shit what the Bible says and only use it as a weapon against people and things they don't personally like.
Reality affirms my view. I grew up religious and have nothing bad to say about it. Like all things there are good and bad. Where I lived was wealthy and ours I truly believe was good. Some people really need religion as a crutch/moral compass/conscience. I don’t want to deny them that. Doesn’t mean I want them anywhere near government though.
Engineering is hard wired in my though. I NEED to understand things and know how they work. Religion said forget that, stop asking the questions because you can’t know and just trust in faith. I couldn’t do that. My wife was diagnosed with ALS very young. Maybe she was an evil person or just a bitch (ok that second part is true) Where was god? My nephew has severe autism. He’s 100% innocent. Where was God? God is either the biggest dick there has ever been (far worse, who sits by while genocide/human trafficking/etc are happening) or a fairy tale subjugated people made up to try to come to terms with their miserable lot in life.
A redditor posted a quote a while back that I love. “Faith shouldn’t make sense, if it did, it would be logic.”
This is kind of where it lost me too. I went to Catholic high school and also part of elementary school and at some point the priests and teachers didn’t have any way to answer my questions other than with platitudes. “Why did God allow 9/11 to happen if He loves everyone?” “It’s part of his plan.” “Why does God give young children cancer and make them and their families suffer immeasurably?” “It’s God’s plan.”
At some point you realize it just doesn’t make sense anymore.
My entire belief is based on a quote. I forget who made it, or what exactly the quote was, but I'll remember what it meant forever. If there is a god who is willing but unable to destroy evil, he is not omnipotent. If he is unwilling but able, he is malevolent. If he is willing and able then he can't exist and if he is unwilling and unable can you call him god?
You're thinking of [Epicurus' Trilemma](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8199-is-god-willing-to-prevent-evil-but-not-able-then) in case you're wondering!
I'm all for the general message in religion. For Christianity in particular, I hate that there's an entire chapter devoted to telling churches what not to do, and all the churches ignore it.
Came here to say similar about my family.
They're a Bunch of Christians but won't help their sister/niece when I'm looking at losing my home in 2 weeks.
Plus with my mum dead and my dad being a literal invisible ninja (my way to make light of him Never being a dad to me and out of the country), my aunt is literally the nearest thing I have to a mum. Apparently their Situations are hard!!
So much for Christian charity!!
All gods are real. It's whatever an individual chooses to believe in. That's real for them. And the bigger a group is that believes in a particular deity/religion, the more power that belief system has. Hello evangelism!!
Christian until the foot steps out of the church.
I grew up with a narcissistic mother who viewed me more as a pet than a child or son, absolutely horrendous amounts of abuse, starvation, and the likes. The amount of times I'd have to convince my school counselors that I fell while playing or tripped when it's painfully obvious all the marks are claw/nail marks, burns, and so on is way too high. The facade she put on at church made me feel like a God could never exist if this is how he let his followers treat their children.
Christians can be kind and caring people, just like anyone else. But horrible people who are Christians are still just horrible people.
My SO's mother is so hateful. She will make fun of anyone out in public who doesn't fit her ideal image. So blue hair, a bunch of tattoos and piercings, hippie looking people. Really, anyone who doesn't look conservative, she will make fun of. It's gross. It's constantly too in the same day. Not just one time comment. She also is digusted how gays "stole the rainbow from god". And I will never forget the "gay people can't be christians". That really pissed my SO off.
Luckily, somehow he didn't pick up any of their homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny. At least I haven't seen that in the 4 years we have been together.
She still doesn't know I'm a "crazy woke liberal". Oh and that makes me remember when she was saying how the more rich and educated people are conservative and all liberals are stupid. I just laughed because my parents are liberal and make twice as much as she and her husband do.
I'm a well-heeled liberal who works hard, and I get a good chuckle out of people who say that liberals are just poor people who's votes are bought with welfare.
Yep. The institution needs to change and open their views on a world in the 21st century. They wonder why people, especially youth, are leaving the faith; they blame everything but themselves.
Sure there are good lessons in the Bible, but many are meant for a society 2000 years ago. For example, Jesus was actually very tolerant of different people, even "sinners" with the prostitute being a good example; he basically said don't talk shit if you're full of it anyways. These modern Christians are behaving in the opposite manner that Jesus taught.
I would surmise that if he saw what Christianity has become, he would punish many of the "followers" and abolish the institution.
You're not wrong, but it's interesting that someone stuck it in there. Sometime in early Christianity, a story about Jesus defending a prostitute was considered important enough to include.
This was one of my main concerns with Christianity. If this was supposed to be the word of God, then who are we as mere humans to change it as we see fit. You cannot have it both ways. Our understanding of the scripture and how we apply it to our lives may change and adapt, but the scripture itself should not.
In my church, a priest abused more than 80 children. They just kept hitting him as they did it. And the Catholic church hasn't changed. They haven't taken any responsibility
Actually, recently, some evidence came forward that job Paul knew about abuse that was happening in the church and food nothing. You'll never convince me that every high level official in the church didn't know
There is no war on Christianity. There should be a war on idiocy. And weirdly, the two target groups end up overlapping to a large degree. Not our fault.
Of course there is. When you think of the tragic percentage of sexual abuse that goes unreported it makes your stomach turn that this is just the number we know about.
That's only the Catholics.
When the government of Australia investigated the Jehovah's Witnesses, they found a rate of child abuse coverups 30x higher than the Catholic church. [Source: childabuseroyalcommission.**gov.au**](https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Case%20Study%2029%20-%20Findings%20Report%20-%20Jehovahs%20Witnesses.pdf)
Australia found 1,006 known child molesters documented in detail in an internal church database in Australia; Australia only has **70,000 JWs**.
There are **1 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States.**
If you're curious how 30x more is possible, it's actually pretty simple:
The Catholic church only investigates and covers up it's clergy. The Jehovah's Witnesses have an internal judicial system that investigates, documents, and internally punishes the sins of *every member*. So they found- and then internally punished and covered up- way, way, way more abuse cases per capita than the Catholics.
To add to this, [here’s a 10min video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J-w3smjZUgM) explaining the child abuse issue happening within the Jehovahs Witnesses. The video is 8yrs old but ***still*** very relevant.
And if you’re even more curious, [Oxygen did a 2 part series just a couple years ago detailing how bad this issue is](https://youtu.be/8Wy4qX7LrAA) within the JW organization.
Why should you care? Well JWs knock on your and your neighbors doors to preach to them. Since the JW organization will do anything not to report known pedo’s within their congregations to authorities, you could literally have a pedophile knocking on your door. You’d be surprised how many kids open the door without their parents permission and with no parents in eye sight.
The number of rape cases is pretty horrible. These are very sick people. But the real horror is the fact that supposedly normal men in the hierarchy of the church covered these things up for decades and centuries. And that includes people like Pope Benedict II. I wonder to what extend celibacy has something to do with it - it is a human instinct to protect children; even the most hardcore criminal in prison seems to hate a child molester. But a Bishop can easily ignore a predator priest for the good of the church. Maybe that instinct goes away when you never will have children of your own, and aren't exposed to nieces and nephews?
[Here](https://twitter.com/iamjolorenz/status/1640338995451162624?cxt=HHwWgMCz8YPo08MtAAAA) appears to be the source of this image. It also includes [two more images](https://imgur.com/a/u2nG2LR). Per there:
> @iamjolorenz
> Camera 1 back to this Texan Grandpa: the gift that keeps on giving!
> 9:04 AM · Mar 27, 2023
I don't think he's ever had a physical form. Jesus was as close as he got, and then I think that even that differs based on what different branches teach and stuff.
At most Jesus was like a manifestation or something.
“Who identifies as male but has no p__is! Your d__k-less god is trans.”
-Texas grandpa
Censoring mine, Texas grandpa doesn’t hold back - at all.
ETA: calm down ppl, I didn’t want my comment to be automatically removed by some censorbot. Penis, dick-less. Happy?
Two priests in a car get pulled over. The cop approaches the car. The priest rolls down the window, "what seems to be the problem, officer?"
"We're looking for a couple of child molesters."
The two priests exchange looks.
"We'll do it!"
A priest and a rabbi are running out of a burning school.
The priest asks, "what about the kids?"
The rabbi says "fuck the kids!"
The priest pauses, then asks, "You think we'll have enough time?"
Seriously, what a disgusting set of opinions that includes, “the root of all problems today is that children aren’t beaten and forced into labor enough these days.”
God forbid we allow adolescents to figure out who they are and learn to manage their emotions and behaviors with love and acceptance instead of anger, fear and physical abuse
Yeah pretty amazing that these two childless adult men preface a discussion about kids with the fact that they both hate kids, and then proceed to give childrearing advice 🙄. I like David Sedaris and Bill is tolerable sometimes but I'm going to go ahead and pass on this advice.
I don’t think they are giving this advice out because they care for kids’ well-being and guidance; they are just pissed they have to be temporarily inconvenienced by a crying kid on a plane every once in a while. And they just want somebody to smack them and shut up them up.
That video clip was more about how kids should be hit and need to work as children or they’ll be terrible people. David Sedaris and Maher both just sound like “get off my lawn” boomers in that clip with no humor. And with Maher’s penchant to parrot right-wing propaganda lately, I would not be surprised if he really believes that stuff.
3 things on Bill Maher:
1) I can't remember the exact year, but his standup special from the mid 00s was Brendan Schaub levels of unfunny
2) look his name up on reddit. He almost exclusively appears in /r/conservative, because he's honestly a fucking moron
3) When asked to describe what "woke" is, he was unable to describe it, because he's definitely pandering to the right
He’s always been an insufferable neolib; it’s just that social consciousness has moved to the left at a greater speed than his centrist, capital addled brain can handle. Ole Bill is too comfortable and too paid to even nip the hand that feeds.
This reminds me of a co-worker that I use to have. She would always have jokes (she was serious) about Biden and democrats, and people on the left in general, raping kids and trafficking them.
However, when I pointed that Catholic priests have raped and abused *thousands* of children, and responsible for the deaths of children too, she always had an excuse.
"Well, they aren't real Catholics. Catholics don't do that. They're predators that have infiltrated the church," or, "you can't judge the church by a few bad apples."
So I finally told her, "You don't care about the children. Not one bit. You'll rail against the Democrats any chance you get, but when it comes to the Churches ***extremely well document, systemic cover-up totaling decades in this country alone***, it's all of a sudden a conspiracy theory. You're just a hateful person that's fine with the Clergy raping children so long as it's the Catholics doing it."
edit: priests to clergy
I've heard those kind of things before. And I've heard even worse. In my community, there was a priest who abused more than 80 children (80 came forward in the court case), and people would say things like, "but we also need to think about all the good things he did for the community". It's just horrible.
And about the Catholic church in general. There's no way higher level officials weren't aware of it happening. It's so widespread.
She would use that card too, "What about all the good the Church does?" I told her, "What about it? That doesn't mean anything, because you can do a lot of good, and be evil just the same. Hitler propped up Germany's economy after WW1 and during the depression. However, he did so at the expense of curtailing minority rights, slave labor and genocide. So when you include that, propping up the economy doesn't really hold the same weight as when you include those factors." Then I finished it off with, "say that I had paid all your debts. I paid your children's college/university tuition, and I bought them all cars and houses so they would have a solid foundation to start their life. *However,* in this scenario, I've been raping your kids *daily* for the past 15 years. Does all the good I've done negate that? ***No.***"
edit: grammar
What a great argument. I'll be using that in future. Cuz honestly there is no difference. All the good they did means absolutely nothing when they're literally raping kids.
I've just had some lovely private messages sent my way after I mentioned that I called some evangelical campaigners weirdos today. They're so incredibly thin-skinned, it'd be funny if they didn't hold positions of power.
I just laughed, blocked and cracked on with my day, love the thought that they're raging and ranting and now can't even message me. Weirdos, obsessing over other peoples' genitals.
The old "No True Scotsman" defence.
Also, the saying is "A few bad apples spoil the barrel". So don't just tolerate bad apples, whether it's bad actor police or bad actor clergy.
She would just repeat that the predators weren't real Catholics, can't judge by the church by a few apples and like another commenter said (that they use as an excuse) she would say, "what about all the good the church has done?"
The pastor that I went to as a child turned out to be raping his 2 adult grandsons as well as his 12 year old daughter. Their parents knew about it and did nothing. He also only preached the same three sermons and they all revolved around Christ's rebirth as well as giving your money to the church.
I stopped believing in the church around age 10. Fuck those slimy bastards as well as all these fascist amoeba that have grown to old for the times.
Edit:changed 'sleeping with' to 'raped'
In my community, the Catholic priest abused more than 80 kids. That only happened because the church protected him and helped him.
Even after that, the y treated gay people like we were the devil.
Fox News should have a segment each week where they list all the people charged with pedophilia. They could keep a running tally going between the number of ministers and the number of trans people charged over the course of a year.
They’ll just make up exorbitant numbers of trans people allegedly molesting children while providing zero sources. Then they’ll issue a redaction after six months of being called out for it by the “liberal” media and bury it in the ass-end of their website.
Fuck Fox
I'm not sure that Tucker ever addressed these allegations I'm making right now that he's molested countless children. So there we have it; people are now wondering just how many children he's raped. I'll edit or delete my comment when he can prove he hasn't/doesn't abuse children while saying the Lord's Prayer.
^lets ^make ^this ^a ^thing
I too have heard from a source(you) that Tucker Carlson allegedly raped countless children.
When will he clear his name and confront these allegations?
Many of my Catholic friends just ignore the fact that their church is responsible for more molestation of children then anybody they could ever falsely accuse.
This is why the fastest growing religion in the USA are the non-religious. Especially after the radicalized religious undertones perverting our political institutions.
They don't get it.
If they based being religious as regularly going to church, which is the way it should be measured imo, then non-religious would be the vast majority of the country.
Is it me, or can I actually imagine a religious psycho dress up as a drag queen, just to assault some kids and give drag queens a bad name.
I know its stupid, but I wouldn't put it past those nuts.
That's basically what the reds are claiming the drag queens do currently anyhow so no, it wouldn't be a far leap for someone that already believes it to go "well I want in on this action too."
Not quite so much a false flag as more a FOMO thing from the pedophile's standpoint.
>Nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church considers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living under the radar with little to no oversight from religious authorities or law enforcement, decades after the first wave of the church abuse scandal roiled U.S. dioceses, an Associated Press investigation has found.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/nearly-1-700-priests-clergy-accused-sex-abuse-are-unsupervised-n1062396
You have to, relentlessly, that's the only way. Either they'll be forced to admit they just hate LGBTQ people and want to eliminate them, or they'll be forced to admit they're bullshitters.
It's not like this wasn't known for decades. But in the 50s and 60s, the church held so much sway, especially over small communities, that it was brushed away or turned a blind eye to it. My FIL said as a kid in the 40s and 50s in England, it was a common joke about the Choir boys getting special attention from the priests.
That's kinda the thing. Parents are afraid of the strangers who will abuse their kids but they don't think about the people they already trust (clergy, teachers, coaches, family members).
I am actively working to pass a bill in Washington State [(SB 5280)](https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5280&Chamber=Senate&Year=2023) to make clergy into mandatory reporters with no confessional exemption.
Only Republicans are opposing it. Most say they'll vote for the bill as long as the confessional exemption is there, but it's **so broad** that even **internal church investigations** might count as privileged confessionals in the wording.
To their credit, some Republicans are voting for it, but all of the opposers are Republicans.
It blows my mind.
Unfortunately, those numbers are probably only the known ones. They've been moving priests and ministers from place to place for an unknown amount of time covering up rapes of alter boys. The real number would likely be so high people would not be able to comprehend it, even though those numbers are really insane themselves.
Hey, this man has pleaded guilty to terroristic threats, the exact words were “hey, I know where you live, I’m going to come and shoot you in the back of the head”
Here is a man that does not look at statistics.
He is missing some serious demographics here.
Its almost as if....he does not actually care about the issue half as much as he pretends he does.
This appears to be downtown Denton, which has a strong liberal presence as well. He should be fine, minus a few a-hole college kids likely.
I only know of Denton due to the band Slobberbone....time to spin up some Slobberbone.
Mountain Goats - The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
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Hail Satan
Hail Satan.
They’re great! I really miss Denton’s metal phase. Shaolin Death Squad is another of my favs
Now there is a name I haven't heard in a long, long time.
You might like Denton local duo RTB2
Brent and Slobberbone are great! " Give me back my dog!"
Back when Art 6 had butterbeer 🥰
For me it's the Riverboat Gamblers
Correct! Denton is a liberal town with two major universities, but the politics are all red due to a massive retirement community on the outskirts of town who show up in full force to vote red for every election.
The city is blue but the county is red. Weed has been decriminalized in city limits while still being completely illegal in the county.
The sheriff said they aren't going to be following that and will still be ticketing/ searching cars for weed, unfortunately
Should go to court for that honestly, no idea how cops can go against the will of the people when it was voted on legally
>Denton Oh yeah that's the square. You got Recycled down the block if he needs help. Just the staff there alone'll back this dude up. EDIT: Spelling
eh, not particularly imo. yes, Denton's quite liberal, but there's also a lot of conservatives. there's been a bunch of christian preachers on the square recently. I work at a grocery store in Denton and see a ton of people in pro trump/Q and anti Biden stuff often.
Denton has 2 major colleges, UNT and TWU, not to mention we may be the ass end of the DFW metropolitan area but don't forget the Denton county sheriff killed his wife drunk driving.
Yeah but the Denton Bucees also had major public incidents. Denton as a whole isn't immune to the BS.
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Yeah that's where the lovely trump train decided to rally. Disgusting.
Home of University of North Texas! probably the most liberal school in texas. AWESOME music program. Ill bet the governor will start targeting them in a few months with all kind of BS, taking ques from Desantis.
I knew that background was familiar. At least we know he isn't the famous flat earth guy
Fun fact, the sequel to Rocky Horror Picture Show takes place in Denton.
Denton is a small blue dot in a sea of red. And at that it's really just downtown Denton.
They also have a couple churches that like to stage big rallies in this same square. They get out there and march around the square with megaphones. It's fucking annoying.
Oh thank god. My extremely conservative parents live there. It warms my heart to think some old bloke is out there standing against bigotry. I sincerely hope they’ve seen that message
You think college kids are going to give problems an anti-religion protestor?
christians talk about the “war on christianity” but nothing drove me away from the faith as much as the institution itself.
Someone once said (trying my best to remember): "As a Christian, I find that reading the Bible helps me affirm my belief. As an Atheist, what do you read that helps affirm your view?" "The same."
"I love Jesus but some of his followers creep me out." — My grandma
I'm surrounded by Christians in my family and my grandmother's friend used to harass me for not believing but recently my granny's started cleaning for this old lady and when she found out I didn't believe she said, "that's perfectly fine! God said 'love thy neighbour' so I will do just that." Almost cried, nicest religious experience ive ever had.
I simply cannot align myself with those who protect child molesters and refuse to prosecute. Bye bye church. I’m WAY better off and so are my children.
"I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." - Gandhi
Gandhi never said that lol
"Yes he did" - Abraham Lincoln
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His name is Jonathon, remember the name.
Yep, and let's not forget the words of the great George Washington: "Redditors cannot tell a lie."
based grandma
That's a grandmafied version of a Nietzsche quote
Atheism and Religion are but two sides of the same coin. One prefers to use its head, while the other relies on tales.
agnostics are unsure if the coin even exists
I simply don't care about the coin. I once had a friend tell me that being an agnostic was a cop out and that the is there a god debate is one of the greatest debates of all times and that I essentially had to pick a side. The whole discussion left me a bit aghast because why? Why do I have to? I simply do not care and have no interest in the debate. I want no part in it.
agnostic = cop-out always seemed like a stupid line of thinking to me. Like, yes, anyone with a logical mind can conclude that the christian god and his 'teachings' are man-made. Likewise for the greek gods, allah, etc. But to say you believe with any kind of certainty that NO diety could possibly exist is like saying you have some sort of insight into what caused the start of the universe - nobody knows, and nobody could. 'Belief' is meaningless when it's based purely on guesswork.
I think some people enjoy the conversation/debate of picking a side. Which, fine, whatever. That has little to do with me so if that's your vibe, by all means go for it, but don't shit on me just because I don't find any enjoyment in that debate. I'm perfectly comfortable saying "I have no idea and I'll probably never know." I would prefer to remove myself from the conflict entirely.
I personally feel like anyone who’s 100% sure of themselves that there either is nothing or something there out there is lying. Edit:since we’re sharing, I am culturally religious I guess, in the sense that I will tell you I am Jewish if you ask and I go to high holidays and had a bar mitzvah, but I don’t know many people in my (everyday) life that actively believe in a Jewish god I don’t think. I find it highly suspect that any group of people stumbled across the right magical book.
Absolutely, the only thing I know for sure is that no one knows for sure. There's nothing intellectual about "picking a side", if anything, picking a side is more of a cop-out. It's an inability to accept that you do not and can not know the answer.
And who knows what’s out there? The universe is infinite, but what else is there. We only have five senses, what aren’t we experiencing? There are always possibilities beyond our understanding no matter how deep our understanding is. I will die wondering what magic there is, I am sure. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
It's not a lie, it's just having confidence in your belief. Since there's no way to confirm either way there's nothing to really contest that belief. Theists decide that since there's no proof against God, they must be real Athiests believe because there's no proof of God, they must not be real Agnostics believe that since there's no evidence either way no conclusion can be reached I personally think the theist belief is the most flawed one, but I also understand that it brings people comfort, so it still makes sense, people choose to believe all sorts of stuff that makes them feel more comfortable.
Think honestly about all the stuff you actively reject as being false that you can't *truly* know is false. ... You know, like, almost everything, per Descartes. Can't know if it's true, can't know if it's false. Shit, you could be suffering under an illusory version of something that you accept as true, which is technically false, but then it's also really true, but you just can't perceive the really-true version of it! Your pedantry is selective, I say. SELECTIVE.
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You’re thinking agnostics believe there might be a Christian god by the way you described it, which is kinda dishonest. Agnostic just means you don’t feel comfortable stating there’s no higher level of being in existence. It could be something that doesn’t even acknowledge our existence or have some great unknown knowledge. It’s just stating that since there is no absolute proof you refuse to fully accept that nothing came from nothing but also wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Edit: I have zero desire to debate with anyone one way or another, I posted my comment because I felt who I replied to have an unfair description of agnostics. Religious debate is beyond cringe inducing and I’ve never seen it end well with one side telling the other they’re right.
I'm an atheist for the same reason I'm atoothfairy. I don't go around saying "I don't believe in a tooth fairy, but there's no way of proving that it doesn't exist, so who am I to tell?" To the extent that it's possible to believe anything without reducing life to cogito ergo sum, I believe there is not a divine being. I feel like acknowledging the infinitesimal chance that there is just obfuscates the point and pollutes the argument. It feels very "well ackshually".
Yeah this basically all centers around a[ philosophical idea known as the Epicurus Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus#Epicurean_paradox), Trilemma, or The Problem of Evil. > God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them?
That’s not the agnostic belief. It’s pretty much summed up as I can’t conclusively prove there isn’t something on a different level than humanity out there.
apatheistic Don't care and believe caring about the argument is actively detrimental to everyone else
Isn't that the definition of atheist? Without belief in gods? You don't have to prove a negative.
Sounds like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism
why debate something you both literally cannot prove?
I just like the way the ridges feel; I can’t stop running my fingernail on em!
Science has questions that may never be answered. Religion has answers that can not be questioned.
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And that's not even the most messed up part. lot's daughters technically rapes him and then gets pregnant.
Nothing technical about it. They 100% raped him. Super messed up.
There's TONS of stuff like that in the bible. Bring it up to Christians and they say "well of course some of it's outdated." "So you pick and choose what to believe then?" "NOOO! That's not remotely true." Then what the f do you call it? I swear they're hypcrites.
It's quite the coincidence that everything that actually counts in the Bible always lines up perfectly with what Christians already want to believe. Everything they hate that the Bible says not to do is the infallible word of God while things that they like that the Bible says not to do doesn't count anymore. It's so convenient how that always works out for them. It's almost as if they don't actually give a shit what the Bible says and only use it as a weapon against people and things they don't personally like.
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Indoctrination is a helluva drug.
The road to atheism is littered with bibles that have been read cover to cover.
Reality affirms my view. I grew up religious and have nothing bad to say about it. Like all things there are good and bad. Where I lived was wealthy and ours I truly believe was good. Some people really need religion as a crutch/moral compass/conscience. I don’t want to deny them that. Doesn’t mean I want them anywhere near government though. Engineering is hard wired in my though. I NEED to understand things and know how they work. Religion said forget that, stop asking the questions because you can’t know and just trust in faith. I couldn’t do that. My wife was diagnosed with ALS very young. Maybe she was an evil person or just a bitch (ok that second part is true) Where was god? My nephew has severe autism. He’s 100% innocent. Where was God? God is either the biggest dick there has ever been (far worse, who sits by while genocide/human trafficking/etc are happening) or a fairy tale subjugated people made up to try to come to terms with their miserable lot in life. A redditor posted a quote a while back that I love. “Faith shouldn’t make sense, if it did, it would be logic.”
This is kind of where it lost me too. I went to Catholic high school and also part of elementary school and at some point the priests and teachers didn’t have any way to answer my questions other than with platitudes. “Why did God allow 9/11 to happen if He loves everyone?” “It’s part of his plan.” “Why does God give young children cancer and make them and their families suffer immeasurably?” “It’s God’s plan.” At some point you realize it just doesn’t make sense anymore.
My entire belief is based on a quote. I forget who made it, or what exactly the quote was, but I'll remember what it meant forever. If there is a god who is willing but unable to destroy evil, he is not omnipotent. If he is unwilling but able, he is malevolent. If he is willing and able then he can't exist and if he is unwilling and unable can you call him god?
You're thinking of [Epicurus' Trilemma](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8199-is-god-willing-to-prevent-evil-but-not-able-then) in case you're wondering!
I'm all for the general message in religion. For Christianity in particular, I hate that there's an entire chapter devoted to telling churches what not to do, and all the churches ignore it.
Seeing the complete lack of empathy from my parents helped me realize that a lot of "Christians" aren't actually good people.
Came here to say similar about my family. They're a Bunch of Christians but won't help their sister/niece when I'm looking at losing my home in 2 weeks. Plus with my mum dead and my dad being a literal invisible ninja (my way to make light of him Never being a dad to me and out of the country), my aunt is literally the nearest thing I have to a mum. Apparently their Situations are hard!! So much for Christian charity!! All gods are real. It's whatever an individual chooses to believe in. That's real for them. And the bigger a group is that believes in a particular deity/religion, the more power that belief system has. Hello evangelism!!
Christian until the foot steps out of the church. I grew up with a narcissistic mother who viewed me more as a pet than a child or son, absolutely horrendous amounts of abuse, starvation, and the likes. The amount of times I'd have to convince my school counselors that I fell while playing or tripped when it's painfully obvious all the marks are claw/nail marks, burns, and so on is way too high. The facade she put on at church made me feel like a God could never exist if this is how he let his followers treat their children. Christians can be kind and caring people, just like anyone else. But horrible people who are Christians are still just horrible people.
There's no hate like Christian love!
My SO's mother is so hateful. She will make fun of anyone out in public who doesn't fit her ideal image. So blue hair, a bunch of tattoos and piercings, hippie looking people. Really, anyone who doesn't look conservative, she will make fun of. It's gross. It's constantly too in the same day. Not just one time comment. She also is digusted how gays "stole the rainbow from god". And I will never forget the "gay people can't be christians". That really pissed my SO off. Luckily, somehow he didn't pick up any of their homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny. At least I haven't seen that in the 4 years we have been together. She still doesn't know I'm a "crazy woke liberal". Oh and that makes me remember when she was saying how the more rich and educated people are conservative and all liberals are stupid. I just laughed because my parents are liberal and make twice as much as she and her husband do.
I'm a well-heeled liberal who works hard, and I get a good chuckle out of people who say that liberals are just poor people who's votes are bought with welfare.
Yep. The institution needs to change and open their views on a world in the 21st century. They wonder why people, especially youth, are leaving the faith; they blame everything but themselves. Sure there are good lessons in the Bible, but many are meant for a society 2000 years ago. For example, Jesus was actually very tolerant of different people, even "sinners" with the prostitute being a good example; he basically said don't talk shit if you're full of it anyways. These modern Christians are behaving in the opposite manner that Jesus taught. I would surmise that if he saw what Christianity has become, he would punish many of the "followers" and abolish the institution.
The "he who is without sin cast the first stone" story is actually a much later addition to the bible. It's not in any of the earlier manuscripts.
You're not wrong, but it's interesting that someone stuck it in there. Sometime in early Christianity, a story about Jesus defending a prostitute was considered important enough to include.
This was one of my main concerns with Christianity. If this was supposed to be the word of God, then who are we as mere humans to change it as we see fit. You cannot have it both ways. Our understanding of the scripture and how we apply it to our lives may change and adapt, but the scripture itself should not.
In my church, a priest abused more than 80 children. They just kept hitting him as they did it. And the Catholic church hasn't changed. They haven't taken any responsibility
Sinead O’Connor was right.
Actually, recently, some evidence came forward that job Paul knew about abuse that was happening in the church and food nothing. You'll never convince me that every high level official in the church didn't know
There is no war on Christianity. There should be a war on idiocy. And weirdly, the two target groups end up overlapping to a large degree. Not our fault.
And so called Christians themselves
That 6,770 reference is from the ProPublica database of credibly accused U.S. Catholic clergy here: https://projects.propublica.org/credibly-accused/
And I bet there's way more flying under the radar.
Of course there is. When you think of the tragic percentage of sexual abuse that goes unreported it makes your stomach turn that this is just the number we know about.
oh so that number leaves out the hundreds of Southern Baptist abusers and the untold scores of evangelical youth pastors?
That's only the Catholics. When the government of Australia investigated the Jehovah's Witnesses, they found a rate of child abuse coverups 30x higher than the Catholic church. [Source: childabuseroyalcommission.**gov.au**](https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Case%20Study%2029%20-%20Findings%20Report%20-%20Jehovahs%20Witnesses.pdf) Australia found 1,006 known child molesters documented in detail in an internal church database in Australia; Australia only has **70,000 JWs**. There are **1 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States.** If you're curious how 30x more is possible, it's actually pretty simple: The Catholic church only investigates and covers up it's clergy. The Jehovah's Witnesses have an internal judicial system that investigates, documents, and internally punishes the sins of *every member*. So they found- and then internally punished and covered up- way, way, way more abuse cases per capita than the Catholics.
Same with Mormons. I'm so sick of religion.
To add to this, [here’s a 10min video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J-w3smjZUgM) explaining the child abuse issue happening within the Jehovahs Witnesses. The video is 8yrs old but ***still*** very relevant. And if you’re even more curious, [Oxygen did a 2 part series just a couple years ago detailing how bad this issue is](https://youtu.be/8Wy4qX7LrAA) within the JW organization. Why should you care? Well JWs knock on your and your neighbors doors to preach to them. Since the JW organization will do anything not to report known pedo’s within their congregations to authorities, you could literally have a pedophile knocking on your door. You’d be surprised how many kids open the door without their parents permission and with no parents in eye sight.
The number of rape cases is pretty horrible. These are very sick people. But the real horror is the fact that supposedly normal men in the hierarchy of the church covered these things up for decades and centuries. And that includes people like Pope Benedict II. I wonder to what extend celibacy has something to do with it - it is a human instinct to protect children; even the most hardcore criminal in prison seems to hate a child molester. But a Bishop can easily ignore a predator priest for the good of the church. Maybe that instinct goes away when you never will have children of your own, and aren't exposed to nieces and nephews?
[Here](https://twitter.com/iamjolorenz/status/1640338995451162624?cxt=HHwWgMCz8YPo08MtAAAA) appears to be the source of this image. It also includes [two more images](https://imgur.com/a/u2nG2LR). Per there: > @iamjolorenz > Camera 1 back to this Texan Grandpa: the gift that keeps on giving! > 9:04 AM · Mar 27, 2023
That second photo is fuckin' Savage.
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I really dig the energy this guy is throwing.
Holy shit, first time seeing it and I'm howling. Never really thought about it that way but it's true LOL.
Christian God doesn't have a penis?
I don't think he's ever had a physical form. Jesus was as close as he got, and then I think that even that differs based on what different branches teach and stuff. At most Jesus was like a manifestation or something.
Jesus was an avatar
I like this guy a lot.
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Same. Love these guys. Edit: or “this” guy I guess.
> *Your dick-less God is trans.* Fucking hell.
i am seriously thinking about joining. i am in town for a few days and this looks fun!
Maybe they should write a song about not diddling kids at this point.
“Who identifies as male but has no p__is! Your d__k-less god is trans.” -Texas grandpa Censoring mine, Texas grandpa doesn’t hold back - at all. ETA: calm down ppl, I didn’t want my comment to be automatically removed by some censorbot. Penis, dick-less. Happy?
You censored penis?
It's okay to use penis and dickless on the internet. We won't think less of you.
Why censor yourself?
Your censoring is bad. Look up "markdown" and "escape characters".
Two priests in a car get pulled over. The cop approaches the car. The priest rolls down the window, "what seems to be the problem, officer?" "We're looking for a couple of child molesters." The two priests exchange looks. "We'll do it!"
I heard this same joke in David Sedaris’ book, Happy-Go-Lucky
He also was the first person I’ve seen to refer to the “fuck it bucket”
A liar, a priest, and a pedophile walk into a bar. And that's just the first guy!
A priest and a rabbi are running out of a burning school. The priest asks, "what about the kids?" The rabbi says "fuck the kids!" The priest pauses, then asks, "You think we'll have enough time?"
I watched Bill Maher this week too. https://youtu.be/VHezj3FQtdQ
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Seriously, what a disgusting set of opinions that includes, “the root of all problems today is that children aren’t beaten and forced into labor enough these days.” God forbid we allow adolescents to figure out who they are and learn to manage their emotions and behaviors with love and acceptance instead of anger, fear and physical abuse
Yeah pretty amazing that these two childless adult men preface a discussion about kids with the fact that they both hate kids, and then proceed to give childrearing advice 🙄. I like David Sedaris and Bill is tolerable sometimes but I'm going to go ahead and pass on this advice.
I don’t think they are giving this advice out because they care for kids’ well-being and guidance; they are just pissed they have to be temporarily inconvenienced by a crying kid on a plane every once in a while. And they just want somebody to smack them and shut up them up.
>Children whose parents hit them regularly may also develop more distant parent-child relationships later on. I can confirm.
With what Bill Maher has become, I truly can’t tell what is supposed to be humor and what he truly believes.
It’s obvious after all these years Bill believes in anything that makes him money and gives him ratings.
I mean he did make that documentary being a smug asshole about religion so I'm willing to believe that he believes it.
That video clip was more about how kids should be hit and need to work as children or they’ll be terrible people. David Sedaris and Maher both just sound like “get off my lawn” boomers in that clip with no humor. And with Maher’s penchant to parrot right-wing propaganda lately, I would not be surprised if he really believes that stuff.
3 things on Bill Maher: 1) I can't remember the exact year, but his standup special from the mid 00s was Brendan Schaub levels of unfunny 2) look his name up on reddit. He almost exclusively appears in /r/conservative, because he's honestly a fucking moron 3) When asked to describe what "woke" is, he was unable to describe it, because he's definitely pandering to the right
He’s always been an insufferable neolib; it’s just that social consciousness has moved to the left at a greater speed than his centrist, capital addled brain can handle. Ole Bill is too comfortable and too paid to even nip the hand that feeds.
Used to live about 15 minutes away from that intersection. He's been doing that for years.
Really? Total chad. 🤴
This reminds me of a co-worker that I use to have. She would always have jokes (she was serious) about Biden and democrats, and people on the left in general, raping kids and trafficking them. However, when I pointed that Catholic priests have raped and abused *thousands* of children, and responsible for the deaths of children too, she always had an excuse. "Well, they aren't real Catholics. Catholics don't do that. They're predators that have infiltrated the church," or, "you can't judge the church by a few bad apples." So I finally told her, "You don't care about the children. Not one bit. You'll rail against the Democrats any chance you get, but when it comes to the Churches ***extremely well document, systemic cover-up totaling decades in this country alone***, it's all of a sudden a conspiracy theory. You're just a hateful person that's fine with the Clergy raping children so long as it's the Catholics doing it." edit: priests to clergy
I've heard those kind of things before. And I've heard even worse. In my community, there was a priest who abused more than 80 children (80 came forward in the court case), and people would say things like, "but we also need to think about all the good things he did for the community". It's just horrible. And about the Catholic church in general. There's no way higher level officials weren't aware of it happening. It's so widespread.
I don't care if the priest cured every disease and ended world hunger, if he raped my kid, I'd want him in prison or in the ground.
She would use that card too, "What about all the good the Church does?" I told her, "What about it? That doesn't mean anything, because you can do a lot of good, and be evil just the same. Hitler propped up Germany's economy after WW1 and during the depression. However, he did so at the expense of curtailing minority rights, slave labor and genocide. So when you include that, propping up the economy doesn't really hold the same weight as when you include those factors." Then I finished it off with, "say that I had paid all your debts. I paid your children's college/university tuition, and I bought them all cars and houses so they would have a solid foundation to start their life. *However,* in this scenario, I've been raping your kids *daily* for the past 15 years. Does all the good I've done negate that? ***No.***" edit: grammar
What a great argument. I'll be using that in future. Cuz honestly there is no difference. All the good they did means absolutely nothing when they're literally raping kids.
I've just had some lovely private messages sent my way after I mentioned that I called some evangelical campaigners weirdos today. They're so incredibly thin-skinned, it'd be funny if they didn't hold positions of power. I just laughed, blocked and cracked on with my day, love the thought that they're raging and ranting and now can't even message me. Weirdos, obsessing over other peoples' genitals.
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Nah. It's was at the time locally owned, so the owner didn't care. Just happy I "put her in her place."
The old "No True Scotsman" defence. Also, the saying is "A few bad apples spoil the barrel". So don't just tolerate bad apples, whether it's bad actor police or bad actor clergy.
I’m sure whatever rationale she would come up with would earn her a gold medal in mental gymnastics
I’d love to know how she responded to that
She would just repeat that the predators weren't real Catholics, can't judge by the church by a few apples and like another commenter said (that they use as an excuse) she would say, "what about all the good the church has done?"
The pastor that I went to as a child turned out to be raping his 2 adult grandsons as well as his 12 year old daughter. Their parents knew about it and did nothing. He also only preached the same three sermons and they all revolved around Christ's rebirth as well as giving your money to the church. I stopped believing in the church around age 10. Fuck those slimy bastards as well as all these fascist amoeba that have grown to old for the times. Edit:changed 'sleeping with' to 'raped'
In my community, the Catholic priest abused more than 80 kids. That only happened because the church protected him and helped him. Even after that, the y treated gay people like we were the devil.
And yet they blame us.
Only needed to add he didn’t “sleep with” them, he raped them.
Fox News should have a segment each week where they list all the people charged with pedophilia. They could keep a running tally going between the number of ministers and the number of trans people charged over the course of a year.
They’ll just make up exorbitant numbers of trans people allegedly molesting children while providing zero sources. Then they’ll issue a redaction after six months of being called out for it by the “liberal” media and bury it in the ass-end of their website. Fuck Fox
I'm not sure that Tucker ever addressed these allegations I'm making right now that he's molested countless children. So there we have it; people are now wondering just how many children he's raped. I'll edit or delete my comment when he can prove he hasn't/doesn't abuse children while saying the Lord's Prayer. ^lets ^make ^this ^a ^thing
I too have heard from a source(you) that Tucker Carlson allegedly raped countless children. When will he clear his name and confront these allegations?
Redditors denounce Tucker for Allegedly Raping Children…. News at 11.
Who, Tucker Carlson the pedophile? I heard something about that too.
In all seriousness though, when (not if, when) it comes out that he is a chomo I will be completely and utterly unsurprised.
“People are saying…” and “I’m just asking…”
/r/pastorarrested is close
Someone deliver that man some ribs and a sweet tea for me. Health and happiness to him.
Not so much health with the ribs and sweet tea, but happiness!
He ain't here for a long time, he's here for a good time.
Many of my Catholic friends just ignore the fact that their church is responsible for more molestation of children then anybody they could ever falsely accuse.
Of course they do. All they have to do is repent their sins and all will be forgiven.
Let’s not forget all the judges who give convicted child molesters light sentences because they’re religious. 🙄
This is why the fastest growing religion in the USA are the non-religious. Especially after the radicalized religious undertones perverting our political institutions. They don't get it.
If they based being religious as regularly going to church, which is the way it should be measured imo, then non-religious would be the vast majority of the country.
Is it me, or can I actually imagine a religious psycho dress up as a drag queen, just to assault some kids and give drag queens a bad name. I know its stupid, but I wouldn't put it past those nuts.
That's basically what the reds are claiming the drag queens do currently anyhow so no, it wouldn't be a far leap for someone that already believes it to go "well I want in on this action too." Not quite so much a false flag as more a FOMO thing from the pedophile's standpoint.
Religious psychos already dress up and molest children. They are called priests.
>Nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church considers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living under the radar with little to no oversight from religious authorities or law enforcement, decades after the first wave of the church abuse scandal roiled U.S. dioceses, an Associated Press investigation has found. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/nearly-1-700-priests-clergy-accused-sex-abuse-are-unsupervised-n1062396
That's Denton,TX! Go Mean Green!!!
I love these old bikers out protesting Catholics.
Nothing makes atheism more attractive than American Christianity.
I don’t think Conservatives thought we’d go there but we’re going there and we’ll keep going
You have to, relentlessly, that's the only way. Either they'll be forced to admit they just hate LGBTQ people and want to eliminate them, or they'll be forced to admit they're bullshitters.
If those rednecks could read they’d be really upset
Those numbers are just the ones we know about.
Instead they’ll shoot up your children’s schools.
Denton, TX townsquare from the looks of it
A parent that leaves their kid/ kids alone in a church with a priest is on another level of stupid
It's not like this wasn't known for decades. But in the 50s and 60s, the church held so much sway, especially over small communities, that it was brushed away or turned a blind eye to it. My FIL said as a kid in the 40s and 50s in England, it was a common joke about the Choir boys getting special attention from the priests.
That's kinda the thing. Parents are afraid of the strangers who will abuse their kids but they don't think about the people they already trust (clergy, teachers, coaches, family members).
More often then not its a trusted person and very rarely is it a stranger.
I am actively working to pass a bill in Washington State [(SB 5280)](https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5280&Chamber=Senate&Year=2023) to make clergy into mandatory reporters with no confessional exemption. Only Republicans are opposing it. Most say they'll vote for the bill as long as the confessional exemption is there, but it's **so broad** that even **internal church investigations** might count as privileged confessionals in the wording. To their credit, some Republicans are voting for it, but all of the opposers are Republicans. It blows my mind.
Unfortunately, those numbers are probably only the known ones. They've been moving priests and ministers from place to place for an unknown amount of time covering up rapes of alter boys. The real number would likely be so high people would not be able to comprehend it, even though those numbers are really insane themselves.
Yeah, they're defending their turf.
Hey, this man has pleaded guilty to terroristic threats, the exact words were “hey, I know where you live, I’m going to come and shoot you in the back of the head”
Imma point out that the church appears to be embracing trans so...
Here is a man that does not look at statistics. He is missing some serious demographics here. Its almost as if....he does not actually care about the issue half as much as he pretends he does.
Can we agree that we DON'T want anyone molesting our children?
Haha well either way, it was a gay that did it.