Meet The Pastors Fighting Back Against QAnon

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
David Gilbert
@daithaigilbert
QAnon conspiracies have become pervasive within large parts of the evangelical community across America.

Here are the people fighting back against a threat one of them called "the most serious problem" the church has faced in his lifetime

Meet The Pastors Fighting Back Against QAnon
“This is the most serious problem within Protestant Christianity that I've seen in my lifetime.”
vice.com
7:32 AM · Oct 4, 2021

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7ew8d/evangelical-pastors-fighting-back-against-qanon

Bruce Gerencser was raised in an evangelical household, was educated in an evangelical school, married the daughter of an evangelical Baptist minister, and soon became a fundamentalist Baptist preacher himself.

He freely admits that the gospel he preached, at times, was extreme.

“Our beliefs were quite fundamentalist. We were young Earth creationists—you know, the Earth was 6,000 years old,” Gerencser told VICE News. “We had a long list of rules and standards that govern human behavior, everything from premarital sex and adultery. We were certainly homophobic, or at least I was personally homophobic. Everything was strictly controlled.”

But in 2005, after 25 years as a pastor, Gerencser gave it all up. Three years later, he renounced Christianity and became an atheist and a humanist, after becoming disillusioned with the church’s lurch to the right.

Now in his mid-70s, Bruce lives with his wife of 43 years just outside the small town of Bryan, Ohio, and he spends his time fighting back against the ills he sees within the church. Most recently that fight has seen him highlight and take on those spreading the gospel of QAnon.

*snip*

[TlalocW]

1. Since before last November

I started going down a rabbit hole of YouTube "prophets" and other so-called men of God working on keeping the Big Lie going. The more sane of them just worship Trump and say he'll win the next election. They're the minority. The "prophets" claim that he's still going to be reinstated. It's really a disturbing look at part of America.

TlalocW

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

2. K&R

[Claire Oh Nette]

3. Church is a business.

Spirituality is fine. Having Faith is fine. Having a personal relationship with god, fine. Believing in god/allah/jehovah, all fine.
But when it comes to Church, then we're talking organized business of religiosity. It's a business, a private business at that; thus, churches make use of the commons and public services. Churches should pay income taxes--why, maybe a tenth, a tithe.

I see no difference between church and, say, my golf club. Each depends on members to pay offerings or greens fees. Each grows as new members decide this is where they want to fellowship with others of like minds. Each is a voluntary activity.

The biggest difference is that my golf club doesn't tell me how to behave or how to vote. While the government affords churches plenty of latitude, today's churches aren't preaching gospel; rather, they're politicking, which makes them not houses of worship, but political clubs and PACs.

It's time to tax the churches--all of them at the same flat 10% to avoid the appearance of favoritism. They hold themselves outside society, and have no "skin in the game." If those fundamentalist pastors can afford million dollar mansions and their own jets, they can afford to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's....