“You’re not welcome back.”
That’s the message the manager of Philadelphia cheesesteak joint Max’s Steaks had for Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, after his campaign held an event outside the restaurant Friday that the eatery was told would be about autism awareness.
Mike Sfida—who agreed to hold the event because his niece and nephew have autism—was alarmed when he saw Donald Trump signs being hung outside the beloved North Philly spot on Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. McCormick arrived, gave a campaign stump address, and then handed out free sandwiches.
…
But the disaster didn’t end there.
After showing up at a cheesesteak restaurant to campaign under the auspice of an autism awareness event, McCormick went across the street to East Bethel Baptist Church, which happened to be holding an outdoor fundraiser for its food ministry.
The Rev. Thomas Edwards Jr., who leads the church, told his campaign to leave because he didn’t want the GOP candidate to use photos of his congregation for campaigning purposes.
“You can Photoshop,” he told the Inquirer. “You can make things seem like they aren’t. Maybe they’re going to post we’re eating dogs or eating cats, like in Ohio. Forgive me if I’m wrong. I don’t trust these people.”
Wow. When a church tells the GOP to fark off, that’s gotta be a bad situation. Most churches are deep into the ChristoFascist end of the political spectrum, so McCormick must have pissed off Rev. Edward’s something bad.
Welcome to the divide between mainline and evangelical Christianity.
The latter is where most of the crazies hang out.
Source: raised in the craziness
On the one hand, my condolences.
On the other hand, congrats at getting free.
On the gripping hand, you have the ability to pull others, who are still capable of being saved, from that cray-cray. You can leverage what you used yourself to help others.
Not the poster you’re responding to, but I’m a preacher’s kid who made it out.
Man, it’s just about impossible to pull others out. I know the bible backwards and forwards. Can persuasively speak to the origins of tithing vs. what it is now, the confusion in the gospels, and so on. I’ve tried.
Fundamentalist leadership works very hard to innoculate their people against doubting what they’ve been led to believe. Centuries of propaganda techniques. Highly effective.
I had to think myself out of it and it took until I was in my 30’s to free myself. No one could do it for me and I haven’t been successful in pulling anyone else. My small family and I recently moved out of the deep South. It has gotten incredibly bad down there and, at this point, I don’t know what can be done to help someone out of it. Maybe planting seeds of doubt and rationality are all we can do.
It’s sickening what it’s done to my extended family and loved ones. I hate it. It still makes me sad. My parents and relatives would be great people if it weren’t for the bad religion.
I think we should invest in bringing back church on church ideological warfare. No more bitter an enemy than a former friend. Break up the ecumenical alliances! Get those church propaganda presses flowing! The crazies should not be able to rest a day without having to prove they’re not the bat-shit ones
It would be nice, but good luck. More rational churches will support batshit fundamentalist churches before they support dirty baby-eating atheists. Especially when it comes to their tax status.
I went to a lot of churches. I don’t think I ever found the “normal” ones.
So now I embrace the weirdos and the exiles and they’re the best! Weird and full of problems, which is why I fit in so we’ll!
Pardon my Catholicism but aren’t all baptists evangelicals?
Perhaps, but certainly all Protestants are not Baptists.
If you find yourself with 3 hours to kill, this video is fascinating. The whole channel is great.
https://youtu.be/8q6FUlay-M8?si=ZWczkNQfzXVu_3KE
Oh I’m aware, before beginning my path to atheism and ultimately paganism, I considered some denominations of the Anglican side of the Anglican-Catholic schism, and I’ve long been a fan of the Quakers. In general I mostly oppose the evangelicals, most modern baptists, and any denomination sufficiently close to Calvinism (though that’s partly because I think Calvinism is particularly horrifying theologically) as well as the fascistic side of the Catholic Church (but I’m always happy to stand beside and behind the Catholic workers)
But yeah I bring up the baptists mostly because that’s the denomination of the preacher in the post. I recognize that the baptists weren’t always like they’re largely represented today, but while I know some of their history I mostly just know them as the people who can’t tell the difference between a bishop and a satanist.
Yeah, but not necessarily what you think of when you talk about “evangelical” Christians. Baptist churches are all autonomous, and while they all believe in evangelism on some level, that could mean inviting your neighbor to attend church on Sunday, or it could mean going on TV and blaming trans people for hurricanes.
Ok so they’re evangelical in the sense that even Catholics are, but could take the hint that every American has heard of Jesus snd try to be chill about it unless asked.
I guess the real problems are the religious right, christofascism, Christendom, and all related ideologies that reject the rights of the nonbelievers and those who believe differently to live peacefully among them.
I think it was a black church which, for the most part, hasn’t gone nuts. There’s always a handful of weird ones and/or hustling preachers but the vast, vast majority are about charity and community and service. (Almost like they actually read the Bible and pay attention to what Jesus preached instead of whatever happens at Six Flags over Jesus ass megachurches.)
Not to mention the history of activisim around black churches. That’s where MLK Jr came from.
There are still plenty of churches that haven’t dove off the deep end, so I’m not too surprised.
Churches generally have the same divide as the people who attend them: Urban ones are sane. Rural ones are conservative freaks. And I’m fairly certain this was a Black church. 90% of Black people are Democrats.
In America, only one of the two viable parties will ever do anything for urban or non-white or non-rich people. I’m glad 90% of black people have figured this out and hope they’ll continue to support the party that fucks them around less.