I grew up in the Assemblies of God denomination. When I graduated from high school, I left home to go to college, expanded my horizons, and ultimately ended up deconstructing my religious beliefs. I have considered myself to be an atheist for more than 20 years, but I still have strong ethical beliefs that basically parallel the Christian teachings of empathy for the marginalized and the disadvantaged.
For the past 8 years, I've watched my "decent Christian" family slide further and further into Trumpism. They are unrecognizable as the people who taught me the value of Christlike behavior.
Most days, I feel like I'm a better Christian than they are. I've wondered for a long time how the same people who instilled those values in me have been led so far astray.
I recognize in hindsight that they were motivated by fear of God rather than love for their fellow humans. Fox News and Trump have preyed on that fear and gradually expanded it until it has turned to hatred of anyone who doesn't look or vote like them.
I don't see any recommendations for The Lost Boys yet. It's super '80s in the "both Coreys" way. It's dated, but still a lot of fun.
Prince of Darkness is a guilty pleasure for me. I love religious horror, so it's my favorite John Carpenter movie. There are some fairly violent bits, but it's not overly gory like a slasher flick. If you're okay with The Thing, this one should be fine.
The Endless is also religious horror, but it's more psychological. There's not much violence, but it's very tense.
Little Monsters (the 2019 one) is a heartwarming comedy about a teacher who has to protect her class from a zombie apocalypse during a field trip. It's got a moderate amount of zombie-movie gore, but it's treated in a humorous way. If you're okay with Shaun of the Dead, it should be fine.
It has taken the better part of 50 years to get from there to here. I wouldn't say it was easy.
The evangelical bloc was the hardest to convince. They had to get some capitalist representation in the churches to counteract all of that business about "helping the poor" and "blessed be the meek" that Jesus was always going on about.
Once they got Joel Osteen to convince millions of viewers that Jesus wanted them to be rich, that really clinched it for them.
Every case of a random person hiring a "hitman" that I have heard of has, in fact, been someone hiring an undercover cop. And the people soliciting the services went to jail for a good long while.
There's a big cake mix manufacturing plant near where I grew up, and I knew a lot of people who worked there. They all confirmed that the only difference between the name brand cake mix and the store brand they made was the box they put it into at the end of the process.
Oh, man. What a day that was. I was in first grade, still too young to understand that there were people in that thing and that those people died.
When we watched it blow up like fireworks, I don't think we realized that wasn't what it was supposed to do. Our poor teacher had to process it pretty quickly so she could explain it to us.
A good rancher is usually the indirect cause of their cows giving birth because they determine when mating occurs.
It wasn't sheer coincidence that so many cows had calves in the same 48-hour period. Dude planned it that way by mating (or artificially inseminating) all of his heifers at the same time.
The way that someone responds to you is a reflection of them, not of you. If someone in your life is wildly inconsistent, all you can do is make sure that you are maintaining consistency yourself.
I've worked with a number of people who acted like we were besties one day and then gave me the cold shoulder for weeks. I spent too many years wondering what was wrong with me before I finally figured out that their mood swings had nothing to do with me.
That's because there will alway be new 10-year-olds who are just discovering "new" parts of the Internet. They are growing up with the enshittification, so they don't know that things were better before they were born.
My husband swears by his Nintendo Pro controller, but he also has historically liked Xbox controllers.
Those options are too large to be comfortable in my hands, so I tend to go for undocked JoyCons and PlayStation controllers because they are better fits for me.
I use a PS4 controller for PC gaming. I definitely wouldn't buy a specific controller for my PC without actually holding a sample in my hands first.
Though the divorce judge found there was evidence that Hawkins had physically abused the oldest son, the judge said in his ruling that was “one instance that does not involve either of the two children at issue.”
As far as information in the article, it sounds like the two kids in court-ordered Christian therapy are the only two the guy didn't (allegedly) abuse.
But still, the whole thing is disgusting. These children should be protected from such an abusive garbage human. Their mother is doing the right thing.
I don't understand how it's legal for a court to order religion-based therapy that costs $1500 per month. That's absolutely insane from every possible angle.
I would like to know what source you have for claiming that pedophiles are "born the way they are."
We understand some of the genetic and intrauterine developmental reasons for homosexuality, being trans, etc. That has scientific backing, and our understanding continues to grow and expand.
Lumping child predators in with consenting adults smacks of the evangelical slippery slope argument against all forms of what they consider to be "sexual deviance." I'm not buying it.
I grew up in the Assemblies of God denomination. When I graduated from high school, I left home to go to college, expanded my horizons, and ultimately ended up deconstructing my religious beliefs. I have considered myself to be an atheist for more than 20 years, but I still have strong ethical beliefs that basically parallel the Christian teachings of empathy for the marginalized and the disadvantaged.
For the past 8 years, I've watched my "decent Christian" family slide further and further into Trumpism. They are unrecognizable as the people who taught me the value of Christlike behavior.
Most days, I feel like I'm a better Christian than they are. I've wondered for a long time how the same people who instilled those values in me have been led so far astray.
I recognize in hindsight that they were motivated by fear of God rather than love for their fellow humans. Fox News and Trump have preyed on that fear and gradually expanded it until it has turned to hatred of anyone who doesn't look or vote like them.