Only In Springfield .....

 I had something else completely different in mind this morning when I started working on a blog, but this came across my sight, and I had to say something about it:

https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-kicked-stage-strip-show-1890247

Yes, this is real.  Yes, this happened in my hometown.  This is the same church responsible for the toe-growing incident, here:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/23/church-leader-claims-prayer-regrew-toes/11527845002/   

Last year, at this same conference, they had a tank roll out and crush cars.  You can read about that here:  https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/hawley-stronger-mens-conference-rcna26899

And, oh yes, that's our state senator attending last year's event.

*sigh*

Stuff like this goes on quite a bit in our little town.  And it generally makes national news - which is embarrassing for most of us.  But I'm starting to suspect things like this happen on purpose, because any press is good press, right?  Could you imagine if the Pagan community started behaving in this manner?

Yet, these fine folks seem to get a pass every time.  Is it because the Assemblies of God world headquarters is here?  Is it because the church this particular pastor runs is considered a mega-church?  Why are we ok with this sort of bread and circus atmosphere for religious purposes?

I try not to pass judgement on people's actions, even in cases like this.  It's not nice, and you don't know what they're going through when they do what they do.  It is very difficult to keep my opinions to myself in cases like this.  It has nothing to do with spirituality or religion and everything to do with creating an atmosphere of just how much foolishness can we accept.  What does any of this have to do with creating a stronger bond with your deity?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SAFETY IN THE PAGAN COMMUNITY

  Have you ever gone to an event and felt a sense of “ick” from an individual, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on why?  This is something that happens more often than we care to say, because as a Pagan, I know I want to be able to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I have also learned to trust my intuition. It is an unfortunate truth that our spirituality can attract less-than-savory characters due to our acceptance of people overall.  I personally try to meet people where they are and accept what they say about themselves without forcing anyone to fit into my own narrative.  It works well, unless they show me otherwise.  Actions do indeed speak louder than words, and no amount of explanation or song and dance routine will make me think a bad person is anything more than a bad person. About thirty years ago, there was an individual in our town who presented themselves as a grand and wise wizard who was willing to teach, but in order to “transfer power” to his students (
Read more

Celebrating Holidays

 Tonight, I'm helping to host a somewhat late celebration of Spring Equinox.  One of my coven mates was asked why we didn't celebrate on the actual equinox.  This year, it landed on a Tuesday, with the time being after ten p.m.  Well....as much as we would love to be able to host ceremonies and rituals on the exact day (and maybe even the exact time), reality is we all have mundane lives, and many of us work regular 9-to-5 type jobs.  We don't have full-time clergy who only work for the Pagan community (unless they've retired from that 9-to-5 job). So we try to schedule events at a time when the most people can make it out.  Saturdays are often good, but because the weather is starting to warm up, a LOT of events are being scheduled for weekends.  We've been experimenting with earlier, midweek times, and so far, it hasn't been awful. Of course, I do try to teach people that in the end, we are all really simply solitary Pagans and Witches who choose to come toget
Read more

Spiritual Predators and Narcissists

 In the Pagan community, we seem to have more than our fair share of predators and narcissists.  I'll be posting my own essay soon, but in the meantime, here's a good article about the kind of people we really need to be avoiding: What Is Spiritual Narcissism? More soon!
Read more