“To let you know the reason why we’re in this position is because I done some research, I made the phone calls, I talked to the proper people,” said Pastor Alvin Christian in a since-deleted Facebook Live video. “Are y’all tied in or partners with LGBQ, T, whatever? And they said ‘yes.’ I done some more research and found out that they are part of the gay rights movement.”

Pastor Christian runs the God’s Store House Food Bank in Bluefield, West Virginia, which until recently was serving over 800 families daily and 8,000 unique families every month across four Virginia and West Virginia counties.

And Jesus said, "you was hungry so I done asked if you was with them LGBQ and T folks"

• Cletus 6:9

Later in the article:

"There are also many interpretations that the prohibition against same-sex relationships in the Bible is actually just the result of a translation error or specific to a cultural context."

That's quite an eye-opener and one that I kick myself for not considering independently; of course there are going to be translation errors in the Bible, a tome so old and reinterpreted so many times it is disgustingly ignorant to assume each revision of it be accurate.

I get this strange sense of... optimistic dread I suppose? As to think of how many more injustices have befallen innocent people; lives taken, families, countries, cultures destroyed, all of which could've been avoided merely because their aggressors were... mislead. Hopefully one day these innaccuracies will be accepted and things may change.

This is not an excuse of those aggressors, no matter what the reason for their actions may have been they still carried them out in full consciousness (or at least as full of a conscience as can be achieved while under the maddening influence of religious rhetoric), just an interesting perspective.

a GoFundMe Christian started to help fund the purchase of a permanent building has received zero donations so far.

This isn’t true.

It has now raised $5.

I had been brought around to that view decades ago as a result of red dwarf of all things (clip linked below). I was fortunate to be raised entirely without religion, but it was genuinely helpful to have that perspective as an outsider as well.

Its very sad to me that so many lives are lost or ruined for… a set of books (multiple religions) that aren’t even very good, and which nearly nobody has actually read (then due to illiteracy, now due to, often, illiteracy, but just as often, a complete lack of intellectual curiosity. The book doesn't even need to be mistranslated when nobody actually reads it. Just need a figurehead (priest or such) to tell lies to the credulous congregation, and it achieves much the same.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6HVClB6wPrA

Stop calling them Christian! Christ would not approve!

You know, I had the thought last night that someone who vowed to reject Christ so that their faith wouldn't poison more peoples minds, would probably be a more devout person to the teachings than any other.

... or my lack of sleep is making my thoughts do barrel rolls