Rabbi or Rebbe?

Link

I'll start a new blog tag for my trans readers.

Franklin On A Soggy Roll

I really have no desire to keep on bringing up Franklin Graham and his shenanigans, trust me, but the man just won't stop with the stupid. He's like a crazy uncle who's telling you there's a bugging device in the potato salad at the family Memorial Day picnic. You really do try to ignore him, but he makes it almost impossible to do it.

False:
link *

Truth, thanks to comments left on forums:

It actually IS the weather. Stores always stock items early. Like Xmas in September. Target stocked their summer clothes in March, and it wasn't until mid-May that warm weather hit most of the country.

Correlation is not causation. That's probably why Walmart (Christian founded and based), Sears, Costco, Kohl's, Macy's & Nordstrom ALL had their stock prices drop between 4/27 and 4/29 - the exact same time frame that anti-gay hate group AFA is citing to claim their boycott was a success against Target stores. Apparently so successful that it caused EVERY SINGLE other retailer to suffer a similar drop over the same period.








*In case you can't link, Franklin and other religious conservative groups called a boycott on Target department stores because of there stance on transgenders using bathrooms. Stock prices did fall, but Target corporate said it had nothing to due with the boycott and cited the reason above. These boycotts have actually helped companies. When a boycott was called on Starbucks for their support of gay marriage, stock prices rose 7.6%. When Albert Mohler called a boycott on Disney (all these companies I name here had a boycott in relation to the LGBTQ). the boycott was an utter failure with  Robert Parham, founder and former executive director of Baptist Center for Ethics, admitting:

"Boycotts are a proven and noble approach to social change, but only when leaders are prudent about their strategy and committed to their cause. Boycotts rooted in moral self-righteousness and lacking moral endurance wash away like sandcastles on a beach.

As for ending the failed boycott (on Disney), the SBC has two paths. One way is to redefine the boycott. The SBC can claim success by saying it faithfully condemned sin, defended the American family and testified to God’s will. Emphasizing spiritual matters instead of economic ones, faithfulness instead of effectiveness, the boycott will be declared a victory.

Another way is silence. Unable to admit failure, Southern Baptist leaders will ignore their earlier pontifical threats and hope that rank-and-file church members forget their bombastic statements. Like the three monkeys, SBC leaders will speak no failure, see no failure and hear no failure. The boycott will quietly disappear from the SBC agenda.

The moral of the story may be that self-righteous chest-thumping brings no real social change."

Franklin likes that hoodoo that voodoo doughnuts do

                                      

   

Trey on Sunday

Link

Visions or too much spicy Thai before bed?

The exchange with the French 'ex-gay' started me thinking about this issue of visions, prophetic dreams, and God speaking directly to people like he believed what happened to him. Now as a Pentecostal, these are all very real to me coming from this denominational background (The Bible backs me on this (Acts 2:17).
But all these spiritual manifestations and utterances have to jive with the Word of God or they are
n o t h i n g.

There is also a real danger when interacting with the spiritual realm because there is the possibility you may not be dealing with God or his messengers, but the other guy and his ilk. Even Paul said if an angelic being appears to you while you're taking a shower (the first red flag is someone coming to you while you're in the shower) and tells you something that seems to be contrary to the Word, the visitor is from the other guy who NEVER has your best interest in mind. The fact Paul gives this warning says it can happen, just ask Joseph Smith.

My Pentecostal side of the denomination isle is a perfect example of those who like to believe they have their toes dipped into the spiritual pool over other types of Christians, but somehow they embrace more spiritual heresies at the same time (Latter Rain, Manifest Sons of God, Oneness, Shepherdship Movement, and different incarnations of the prosperity doctrine are all heresies that stemmed from the Pentecostal church, not to mention the scary "revival" meetings). My Pentecostal brethren, always stretching to hear the voices of Angels while ignoring the cries of men.

False dreams and prophesies can do real damage. The assistant Pastor of my church felt like he had a prophetic calling to start his own church. He did and it failed, miserably. It left him questioning everything. God was not behind this, but hearing it from him? It was from God and it's an example of how you can really convince yourself God is talking to you. This can go from the greater to the lesser of us. 

Then you have some like a YouTube "Prophetess" who had a vision from God of California having a major Earthquake because of all the homosexuals being busy with homosexuality in the state. Well, guess what? Seismologists who don't get visions from God have been predicting a major Earthquake for years because we haven't had smaller Earthquakes and now it's built into one big one coming to me soon. Of course when it happens this "seer" will see it as her prophesy coming true and people in the Bible Belt who believe gays cause natural disasters will be in awe of her while running away from the tornadoes they'll say God didn't send them. From the looks of it, all you have to do is have a social media account and you are ripe for all kinds of visions from the Lord. The problem is the visions don't match up or directly contradict visions others have had and that makes many people liars, delusional, or maybe both. The Bible says if a prophet of God is wrong even once, they aren't of God and they are to be killed. There is no wiggle room with this and it shows how lightly so many believers take this subject when God doesn't.

"And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds."

Jeremiah 14:14.


At this point in time when the Body of Christ is infested with heresies and are becoming crueler to their LGBTQ neighbor instead of nicer, maybe we should step away from the dreams and prophesies till we're grounded in the Word of God FIRST. I'm talking about really being solid in it to where we can tell these multitudes of self-professed prophets who dream dreams to shut up and sit down with what isn't from God because this has turned into a jumbled mess of spiritual entertainment over a sober faith anchored soundly in the Word of God.


"The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Her visions gave her an Excedrin migraine.

My French Ex-Gay and Me: The Movie.

"Ex-gays" love to give their testimony on how God delivered them from the excruciating pain and sheer horror of homosexuality. One caught my attention because he didn't seem to go through all the molesting and sexual exploitation most 'former' homosexuals go through that made them hate homosexuality. I wrote a comment on his first YouTube video that he responded back to and after a few more comments we decided he should write me privately.

It started with me linking him to my blog testimony (in the tags below) in response to what he said in his video and I went further with saying; "Please, look over my blog and I will be glad to answer any question or walk you through whatever you need help with."
He wrote me back:

"So I've been reading through your testimony and I have to say that I quite understand your point of you, but you also have to know that what led me to where I am today is not according to men but according to the direction God put me into from the beginning. I would like to tell you more about my testimony now though it is quite long (this is an understatement from him), I don't have any blog to redirect you to but if you're interested in reading my story I'm ready to write it down for you in an email. 

Let me know!" 

I responded:

"I would love to here what you have to say (big mistake)."

NEXT thing I get is paragraph after paragraph of what was him telling me all kinds of personal issues including spiritual visions people seem to have approached him with when he was young to not be gay, God telling him to leave his first boyfriend and the Holy Spirit telling him he'll get all kinds of spiritual gifts and Christmas presents if the boyfriend isn't in the picture anymore (the 3rd Person of the Trinity really had it in for this particular boyfriend). He finally ended up leaving the boyfriend because of all the Holy badgering and all of a sudden communication was cut off from God's end, the Holy Spirit never gave him his wonderful presents that were promised and he becomes so despondent, he quit school, moved back to his parents and contemplated suicide. He ends up in ANOTHER gay relationship that this time is abusive and all of a sudden God decides to pop into his life again like a deadbeat dad who's kid just turned 18 to tell him stop being gay, again. This time it sticks and God didn't drop him later.

It all sounded odd and almost like a late-nite Mexican soap opera you find on the Telemundo channel, but with God causing the melodrama. I wrote him back with trying to find a place to start with what he wrote:

"My first issue is with how you think the Holy Spirit made you promises if you obey Him in leaving your boyfriend. The Holy Spirit doesn't work that way in being conditional in what He offers. All we desire from the Holy Spirit is there for the asking of we are saved and if it's not imparted to us? God's Will trumps our desire in His perfect wisdom. I noticed you had people around you (the people in the church you grew up in, the girl who came to you with her dream, the mother... ) who put in you that the love you had was wrong early on. I think they had more of an impact on you than you know. You're life collapsed AFTER you left your first boyfriend at the 'prompting' of God that started your spiritual journey? Do you think maybe the choices you made were not from God and that is why your life fell apart and you felt God abandoned you? You get another boyfriend who's abusive and it was only then God came to you again? I see all kinds of wrong here already. I stopped reading your testimony at this point because I want you to understand something brother. God is not a roller coaster of feelings and prophetic dreams and audible visitations. This is why we go by his Word that gives us discernment with what is from God and what isn't. I believe what has happened to you is you really believing God has brought you to this point, but if homosexuality is not a sin (remember the verses I brought up in your YouTube comment and how I put then in their correct context?), God's Holy Spirit wouldn't have been doing what you believe Him to be doing. As a Pentecostal I know full well the dangers of going by spiritual manifestations that are the work of the mind and flesh. Now what I see here could also be a case of if you truly believe homosexuality is sin, even though the case can't be made from the Bible, maybe God did leave you in your will to leave homosexuality because it became a stumbling block to you, THAT I understand."

The next e-mail from him:

"(My name) you should expect have a debate with me on this only after reading the all story. Apparently you didn't understand that I've spend hours writing It just for you and this is really disrespectful. Or you're not interested in my story and you move on or you take the time to consider what I said because you can not expect me to listen to what you have to say if you didn't even try with me ... And it makes you write a lot of nonsense that I can't answer, because the answers are found in the rest of what you didn't take the time to consider (they weren't because after he wrote me this, I read everything he said)."

My response:

"There is no debate with you because I never wanted to debate you in how we came to be in our different paths. Is that how you saw all this? We all have a testimony who have sought God and many times those testimonies contradict each other, who is right? The testimony that is in line with the Word of God outside of experiences and emotion. You say I disrespected you with not reading your whole testimony and I understand your anger because you are right, but what I had to say about the first few paragraphs of what you wrote, you didn't even respond to so we could go on from there. 

What I wrote was not nonsense because you didn't understand it or wanted to accept it.

I'm sorry."

He never wrote again and is continuing to post his "ex-gay" videos.

Beth had a sneaking suspicion she was in black and white again

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

"We're being persecuted for our faith in Jesus!"

"They hate us because they hated Jesus first!"

Let's look at these claims.

What are the 3 attributes that define us as the real Believers in Jesus according to the Bible?

1. Love everyone around you as yourself.

2. Don't judge anyone.

3. Live at peace with everyone around you (Paul).

Now what would the unbelieving World have a problem with those 3?

You're right. Nothing.

So what is the reason or reasons you will be hated according to Jesus? Let's go back and see why Jesus was hated and then the Christians after Him.

Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Scribes and the Pharisees that made them hate Him. So Jesus was hated for pointing out hypocrisy.

He was hated for being blasphemous for saying who He was (the Son of God), but we, His FOLLOWERS, will never make this claim. So nix this reason Christians are hated.

Jesus was hated because He put Love over Law by the Scribes and Pharisees for others. So Jesus was hated for loving people over religious rules. 

Now we look at why the early Christians were persecuted. 

They made a man named Jesus their God over the pagan Gods of the Roman Empire. What caused the greatest persecution of Christians in history. So believing in Jesus over other Gods made Christians hated by the government and their pagan neighbor. So are you hated for believing in Jesus over other Gods? No. So also nix this reason you're hated.

Now you know why you are hated. 

It's not because of the 3 attributes that make up a real Christian, or because you believe in Jesus over other Gods, it's because you are legalistic hypocrites, the very people who hated Jesus.

If Jesus were to walk the Earth in the present day? It would be the new Scribes and Pharisees called "Christians" that would hate Him for calling out their legalism and hypocrisy. And like when Jesus walked then? It would be the sinners walking the street who would be drawn by His love for them.

Three Pits In A Pod

I don't know what's happened to Billie Graham's children. I've written about Franklin's antics before and now his sister Anne is stepping up with her bid to outdo her brother in fanaticism by saying 911 happened because of transgender acceptance.

To imply God decided to turn a blind eye to watch sparrows fall out of the sky while men and women were torn to pieces, burned alive, or fell out of the sky to their deaths like sparrows themselves on 9/11, that God did a retroactive judgment on America because of transgenders peeing in public restrooms years later, Is disgusting and a reproach to the Name of God. It's disgusting coming from any human being and even more so coming from anyone in any type of ministry or even faith. Anne's brother, never the one to be left out with a 9/11 comparison, is just as loathsome with equating that day of 9/11 with the "moral terrorism" of homosexuality. Did I say Franklin just stated gays "snatch children away for themselves" in a Russian newspaper? Gays are now the child-snatcher monster "Qallupilluit" of Inuit Alaskan lore according to Franklin. Their father's body is in the ground and these two beans are doing everything they can to run his ministry into the ground with him. Franklin's daughter who doesn't fall far from the dump truck when it's on a rocky road, a big surprise, is no different from saying trans kids are a "threat to little girls" in 2020. Someone put a collective cork in these people.

Qallupilluit
Homosexual coming for your child.

Fishes and Furs and Danny Trejo

 

A common challenge brought up by the anti-gay religious goes like this; "Show me a gay relationship in the Bible or anything that affirms it?" 

First, you are asking me to prove what isn't written, what you believe is proving your point in some way if I can't. I'll turn it around and show me a clear chapter and verse stating; "Man and woman becoming one flesh AND ALL ELSE IS NOT ALLOWABLE." The burden of proof is on you to show me they aren't allowed, with what isn't written, because YOU are the one saying these gay relationships are forbidden from the start. You'll then have to admit you're making the Genesis narrative that was only a narrative into a Biblical edict for every man and woman to follow, forever, and reading between the lines of Matthew 19 what isn't there with making up a Biblical prohibition out of a Biblical silence. The Bible is also silent on the early Bible patriarch's practice of having concubines, historically arranged marriages without love or heterosexual anal sex.

Second, In situations like these when there is Biblical silence on a topic, what is either permissible or what is not permissible to us with iffy borders, it should be decided by the test if it breaks the Royal Law of love or if it harms, hurts, or exploits. Fur-wearing and fish hatcheries are two examples the Bible says nothing about but is clear with what we are to decide on it. Fur-wearing caters to one's vanity, it's also a status symbol of the rich that gives a bad message to unbelievers when Jesus was no fan of the rich, not to mention the horrific conditions these animals live in that make us not good shepherds over these creatures. This is not a permissible practice. Fish hatcheries give a chance for a fish population to grow from the greed of overharvesting, it's good for the environment, nothing is harmed or exploited, this is being a good shepherd over these creatures. This is permissible practice. Gay relationships hurt or harm no one with two people finding loving companionship. No one is exploited, or forced, and the rule of Royal Law is kept. This is permissible. 

3rd, We as Christians have been given the power by Christ to "Bind" or to "Loose" (Matt. 16:19) on subjects coming before respective Church leaders, subjects the churches have never needed to address before when a judgment call needed to be made. What is decided by them with these subjects on Earth, Heaven will respect. This autonomy was given to the Jews (Matt. 23:3), and Christ gave it to the Christian elders who sit at the "Seat of Moses" with the body of believers they lead in agreement (Acts 15:22). 

When church bodies decide the affirmative on issues of homosexuality only now coming before them (acceptance, marriage, ordination), it is loosed in Heaven. Some church bodies still "bind" on homosexuality and that is fine, they have that power on Earth that WILL be respected in Heaven, but this is not binding to those church bodies that loose acceptance. As far as I know, I'm the only one who put this little apologetics gem in relevance to the Church with homosexuality. Let someone else run with it in more depth.

The Bible is clear that marriage was made for us, not us made for the "institution" of marriage. 

Franklin's Jaw-Dropping Disbelief

"Can you imagine a city where a popular, successful business is singled out (for a boycott?)..."

- Franklin Graham on New York Mayor Bill De Blasio's call for a boycott of the anti-LGBTQ Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain.



"Boycott Target department stores, Disney, Nike, Starbucks, World Vision charity, the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, Wells Fargo bank... "

- Franklin Graham asking you to boycott these companies because they are pro-LGBTQ.



Trans Like Tang Because They Can

I could list off all the negative "Christian" happenings across the country right now against transsexuals with public restroom accommodations, but instead I'm going to use this opportunity to let some parents talk about having a transgender child and link to a Christian transsexual's blog that has a beautiful spirit.

But first a look at the cases of supposed "transgender predators" in public restrooms.




ts4jc


Transsexual (F to M) Balian Buschaum.