WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.240 Hi, everybody, Welcome to nonprofits. Today we're going to talk about interesting 2 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:09.199 and kind of scary article from newsweek. Um, so, I like any 3 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:15.000 other week in America, we have a streaming hate preacher spreading dangerous ideas. 4 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:19.839 Recently, in Tennessee, pastor Kent Christmas, Yes that seems to be his 5 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:25.079 real name. Totis told his church that the Muslim faith was becoming more successful 6 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:30.280 because they're willing to die for their beliefs. Um proceeded to ask God to 7 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:34.479 give Christian men and women this same type of passion, willing to die for 8 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:41.880 their beliefs. So inside of this vague pseudo call to action, it seems 9 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:47.719 like this is a problem for everyone else around those types of people, given 10 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:53.399 how easy everyone seems to be these days in being influenced by religion or conspiracy 11 00:00:53.479 --> 00:01:00.600 theory theorists to take up different arms in their pursuit of bad ideas. Kelly, 12 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.280 you you have any thoughts on this? Just kick us off? Yeah? 13 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:06.400 Well, who would have guessed that another crazy pastor was coming out of 14 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:10.599 Tennessee? Right? Does anything come good come out of Tennessee? Present company 15 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:19.159 accepted, of course, friend, Yeah, so I had my first thought, 16 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:22.640 I and you knew me, and my brain always goes to silly places. 17 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:26.239 But my first thought was onward Christian bombers marching as to war with the 18 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:30.400 bombs of Jesus to kill those that will abhor. But to be fair, 19 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:36.519 he didn't come right out and say we should go strap bombs on and throw 20 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:41.480 yourselves at heathens. Um, it's he really walked around it. And I've 21 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:47.079 been talking about how they a lot of people on the extreme right have been 22 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:52.959 using laundered language. You know, it's like they take some words and clean 23 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:57.400 them up, and so they think they've made them acceptable. But we all 24 00:01:57.439 --> 00:01:59.879 know what they're doing. And that's what he's done here. Like, like 25 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.319 I said, he didn't come right out and say it, but he came 26 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:06.400 right out and said it. Anybody with the half of brain can see it. 27 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:08.800 He didn't conceal what he was trying to say at all in any way, 28 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:14.199 shape or form. So um I was when I was whenever I see 29 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:16.520 him doing this kind of a weird message, it always comes up to me 30 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:21.759 is making them look dumber than they should look because they think we're gonna fall 31 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.960 for this that for this laundered, cleaned up language. Right, So Helen, 32 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:28.199 what do you think. I know you've got a lot of thoughts about 33 00:02:28.199 --> 00:02:30.960 this. I always have thoughts, um, So I don't have a lot 34 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:37.000 to say about someone like this because it's always the same Christian hateful rhetoric we 35 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:39.919 hear all the time. And yeah, I he did clean up the language 36 00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:44.280 which you brought up, Kelly. But it's like that possible diability thing, 37 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.039 you know, like, well, I'm saying horrible things, but I'm gonna 38 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:52.240 but this way, if someone calls me on my shit, I'm I can 39 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:55.080 back it up, you know, I can kind of hide under that guy's 40 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:00.400 and that's what he's doing, and it's really really dishonest. And and again, 41 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:05.520 like just because he might not strap a bottom onto his chest or get 42 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:07.840 his pressures to do it and do something terrible, doesn't mean they're not going 43 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:13.560 to do something else terrible. Like there's not like other there's not like Christian 44 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:16.800 terrorists in this country haven't done other terrible things to promote their faith, like 45 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:22.039 you know, bomb and abortion clinic. So you know, it's it is 46 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.800 an issue that we need to have a lot of I don't know, caution 47 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:30.159 about because like, yes, he is saying the thing that we don't want 48 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:35.280 people to do and he's doing it because of his imaginary sky daddy, and 49 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:39.199 his imaginary sky Daddy really likes it if you do violent things apparently, you 50 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.120 know, even though he's the guy to love in peace. So yeah, 51 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:47.159 that's that's worrying. And I really wish people wouldn't spread stuff like this, 52 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:51.400 like what happened to church, like you know, feeding the hungry and teaching 53 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:53.879 kids to do math like volunteering and stuff. What happened to that stuff? 54 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:58.639 Why we talk about this anyway? What do you think about all this? 55 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.919 Yeah, this is an interesting thing, and it could have something to do 56 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:11.960 with my familiarity with these types of individuals. Like again, it confuses me 57 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:15.520 sometimes when when I speak to people in other parts of the United States, 58 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:20.519 because this isn't normal for them, right, But like preachers like this in 59 00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:27.279 my area of the country have definitely been around for while, although they've picked 60 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.519 up a lot over the last couple of years. Um. I wonder though, 61 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.120 and I'll throw this to you Raphael and than anybody else of course that 62 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:41.000 has thoughts on it is is us talking about this making this more problematic? 63 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:46.399 Should should we be reaching out towards more secularists, non religious and atheist folk, 64 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:53.319 or should we be reaching out more towards the liberal marginal Christians or is 65 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:56.639 that maybe a better focus for us. It depends on our goal, but 66 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:00.480 I definitely had some of these similar thoughts of like, are we platforming this 67 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:05.079 crazy person? As well as, like you said, these preachers have always 68 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:09.759 been around. There's always been doomsday or preachers. There's always been people spewing 69 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:15.319 hate everywhere you go. But if the Internet they spread, they become more 70 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:18.680 prevalent. They you know, there's a Internet. It's amazing, but it's 71 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:24.040 also dangerous. Like everything else that's amazing, it's it's letting these people reach 72 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:28.240 people everywhere, and who knows, you know, they could influence someone to 73 00:05:28.279 --> 00:05:31.120 do something horrible in another country, another state. You know, it doesn't 74 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:35.079 necessarily have to be in Tennessee in his home community. So now I don't 75 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:39.399 know how big of a church this person has, but you know they have 76 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:45.360 a worldwide reach now, So any thoughts on that? Kelly Um, Yeah, 77 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:47.480 I answer your question a star. I think we need to reach out 78 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:51.720 to both, and I'll explain why. Obviously, we need to reach out 79 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:56.959 to the secular atheist community because we are that community, and we're the people 80 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:00.079 who are most concerned they hear language like that. However, there is a 81 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:04.720 whole large group of liberal moderate Christians, as you said, and they don't 82 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:10.920 like to hear this stuff either. There's a there's an organization of churches that 83 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:15.040 have gotten together to fight back against Christian nationalism as an example, and those 84 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:19.839 So we need to get a hold of those people because there are allies in 85 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:24.360 this fight, and you know, maybe we don't want them around either, 86 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:27.759 but right now, let's get them to help us get rid of the really 87 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:31.160 bad ones, right and then maybe fifty years up the road we can work 88 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:35.199 on being nice and getting rid of them too. But yeah, I think 89 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:39.680 we need to reach out to both communities, and we need to show our 90 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:44.600 community that we can ally with theists and get something done too, because there's 91 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:47.319 a lot of people on our side that probably might not be willing to do 92 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:50.399 that at first. So I think that that's important to reach out to both 93 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.879 sides. So, yeah, Helen, you want to you want to add 94 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:58.519 to that. Yeah, I agree with us because I have to imagine and 95 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:00.680 like you know, sometimes eight is get a bad rap and we have things 96 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:03.800 straight about us that you know, we you know, hate, I want 97 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:08.879 to kill children, and you know, we're worshiping the devil, though I 98 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:12.199 don't know how that got started, but like there's all these terrible things, 99 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:14.759 like we don't have any morals, you know, all these terrible things that 100 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:19.319 are said about us. And I'm sure the modern Christians or any religious group 101 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:25.920 that has a hate group within it's part of its community, isn't gonna be 102 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.319 super excited about that. And it's like, this is not the religion that 103 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:31.360 I believe in. This is not what Jesus taught, you know, our 104 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:38.040 and for me, like I would rather play ball with those people on top 105 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:42.160 of the secular humanists and be like, hey, maybe we'll have less hate 106 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:46.079 in the world, less violence, Like let's work towards that. Let's not 107 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:48.439 you know, yes you can't. You have to find a way to preach 108 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.680 your faith. And though I have quibbles with that and problems, I don't 109 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:56.399 think the best way is through violence to scare people to you know, doing 110 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:59.680 those things. And I understand that this preacher is coming from like a very 111 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:03.600 passionate sort of you know place where he's like, well, you know, 112 00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:07.879 we have to be just as extreme as other religions, you know, And 113 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:11.600 I'm just like, yeah, but even within the Muslim religion that those people 114 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:13.800 are few, true, you know, those are those are the extremists. 115 00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:20.759 So and I think he's missing the point. And it comes off to me 116 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:26.680 as a racist and uh like racist and bigoted and you know, and a 117 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:31.759 lot of problems with this. So it just it just reads very gross. 118 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:35.919 And I and I definitely know people that are religious that would not want to 119 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:37.840 be associated, you know, with this type of people. You know, 120 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.120 this group, and I'm sure all of you know someone as well that are 121 00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:45.679 religious and we don't want to be associated with groups like this. Um, 122 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:50.320 all you think about that us are yeah, absolutely absolutely, And I think 123 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:52.600 I think you all, um, you know, really touched on something that 124 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:56.799 that I was I was hoping we would, which is the need to reach 125 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:00.639 out because there are so many you know, believers out there. Believe me, 126 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:05.840 folks, Yes, this guy is from my state, and so is 127 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:09.759 a handful of other people that I just don't want to name because I don't 128 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.559 want to give him anymore airtime. But there are thousands and thousands, if 129 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:20.480 not millions of believers in my state that absolutely abhor this type of this type 130 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:24.200 of rhetoric, right, and it is it's it's terrible. And I wonder 131 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:30.480 too, because there was so much of it that was I think very clearly 132 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:33.080 in a Christian nationalist lens. I mean, how many times did he mention 133 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:41.240 Donald Trump, right and explicitly saying about his you know, what his parishioners 134 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:46.080 should do in regards to that. You know, I sometimes, I know 135 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:50.720 this may be a little strange, but sometimes I just I'm not so sure 136 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:56.240 that the call to action that this preacher gave that was the violence is going 137 00:09:56.279 --> 00:10:00.679 to be picked up as much as the political call to action that these preachers 138 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.120 man. I wonder, I wonder what what y'all think on that too? 139 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:07.039 Do you do you think just at all? I mean, look, I'm 140 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:09.279 not condoning what he's saying, of course, right, I'm not in the 141 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:15.720 slightest, But I'm asking do you think that we're more likely to see political 142 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:20.200 action associated from this in that, you know, continuing Christian nationalist thrust that 143 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:26.120 we've seen, or are we more likely to see violence associate or both? 144 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.919 I guess what what do you think? Raphael? So? In general, 145 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:33.519 I think, um, the way people look at bad ideas ideas. As 146 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:37.360 a spectrum, you're gonna have some most people that clearly are you going to 147 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:43.039 be influenced from like nothing from zero to one hundred, you know, your 148 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:45.960 hundreds or the people who are like, I'm gonna blow some shit up. 149 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:50.720 But I think, I hope maybe it's more maybe more appropriate that those people 150 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:54.320 are in the minority, even within the spectrum of people are going to be 151 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:58.600 influenced by this type of uh screaming in a church. So I'm thinking he's 152 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:03.080 gonna have influence for sure. I just don't know how many, or if 153 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:05.519 at all, they were going to have any type of violent influence. But 154 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:11.360 I do agree that I think he's going to have a huge influence on people's 155 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:16.600 voting habits um, because everyone who's too chicken shit to like strap a bonder 156 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:20.240 themselves, which I hopefully is everyone, Um, what else are they gonna 157 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:24.679 do. They're going to vote, They're going to protests, They're going to 158 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:28.519 show up at pizza parlors because they've read something on four Chan or whatever. 159 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.080 So there's like the spectrum that I see from this type of uh. You 160 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:35.559 know, you take one bad idea and you take it a lot of places. 161 00:11:35.559 --> 00:11:39.440 It's kind of like you know, holy books. You read it a 162 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:41.240 lot of different ways, and in that sense, you know, it's, 163 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:45.399 um, it's kind of scary because I think he will, he does and 164 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:50.600 will continue to have some kind of influence on people at large. Kelly, 165 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.039 what do you what do you make any other? Yeah, you're absolutely right. 166 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:56.840 That is that is a problem and I and that's it's a big problem 167 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:01.320 with allot of the ministers today and I think I think the IRS should be 168 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:05.440 looking at him more and to be taken pulling away that nonprofit status from a 169 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:09.600 lot of churches, especially ones like this. I do want to point out 170 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:11.879 though, and because you did mention that, you know, there was a 171 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:15.320 lot of Trump in this article, and it was all it was a lot 172 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.200 of it was the journalist putting that Trump in there, you know. And 173 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:24.399 Trump was actually mentioned thirteen times, I think once it was in relation to 174 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:26.039 the minister, and the rest of it was, well, this guy supports 175 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:28.720 Trump, and Trump is bad and Trump is bad and Trump is bad and 176 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:33.039 Trump and I wanted more information about what was going on with the minister. 177 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:37.919 And I've mentioned before that I took I was the English major. I minored 178 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:41.440 in journalism and I was just like really mad, so mad at this article 179 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:46.240 because I wasn't getting the information I wanted, and I was getting more stuff 180 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:48.799 that I didn't want. So I thought, I thought the person writing it 181 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:52.799 definitely had an agenda. And I want to point out that in the original 182 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:58.360 quote, the guy did mention that it was young men we needed to go 183 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:01.399 out there and strap bombs. Yet young men we need to be going willing 184 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:05.639 to be go out there and kill themselves. Wasn't talking about the old man 185 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:09.320 like he was. I just wanted to mention that Helen is weird. It's 186 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:11.240 a little sexist, Kelly. He didn't call for a woman to do it 187 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:16.799 either, So true, true, we want I'm not going to say that 188 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:22.720 it was bad so hashtog equality. Yeah, yeah, I don't know so. 189 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.279 But besides that, yeah, I didn't notice the Trump riddick was a 190 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:33.159 little much. And yes, there are people that are part of those extreme 191 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:39.639 the extreme right that you know, are have that Christian nationalism vibe and they 192 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:45.919 like Trump and they think that somehow Trump and their religion go together like peanut 193 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:50.200 butter and jelly, you know. And that's really bothersome because you can be 194 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:54.600 a religious person and not like Trump, you know, or you can be 195 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:58.399 you can like Trump and not be religious. You know, the people come 196 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:03.399 and all, you know, colors and opinions and everything like that. So 197 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:07.000 I guess I really wish that they did he did focus more on what the 198 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:11.440 preacher was saying, because that was that was the thing that we were We 199 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:13.960 were all had a lot of concern with this, you know. Um that's 200 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:18.600 why we're talking about it. Um And yes, there has been more calls 201 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:22.639 of violence, there's been more calls for actions since um one TRUMPUS president and 202 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:26.759 since he's been out of the White House that there's been a little bit of 203 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:31.679 a law on the rhetoric. But that I think that's because consequences have happened, 204 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:35.799 you know. But that doesn't mean people aren't going on message boards and 205 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:41.320 spreading heeful things and haful ideas. So you know, I'm just I would 206 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:46.080 hope that the language like this would fell down, you know, But it 207 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:50.600 seems every single time we did this show, there's some preacher saying something really 208 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:56.240 stupid. Yeah, it feels more and more regular, unfortunately, Yeah, 209 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:00.600 it does. Yeah, for sure, M Kelly d have any final thoughts 210 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:03.919 on I wanted to go back a little to revisit it. Something I mentioned 211 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:07.679 before about the thing enough the language, because you know, he really what 212 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:13.159 he said was, and this is paraphrased, very much paraphrased. I didn't 213 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:18.039 say you should go be a suicider bomber. I simply said, Islam's growing 214 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:22.240 fast and it's doing damn good. And then Muslims they fanatically killed themselves, 215 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:26.320 and we need men, brave, young men who are willing to do that. 216 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:30.919 I never said they should do that, just that they should be willing 217 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.879 to do that. And I'm wondering to myself, to what end, to 218 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:39.679 what end do you need men to go kill yourself to show that Christianity is 219 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:43.840 right? Isn't that kind of against the religion going out and killing people and 220 00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:48.200 blowing up yourself and other people. It just didn't make any sense to me 221 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.120 at all, and I had a real problem with the whole thing. I 222 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:56.240 obviously it just doesn't seem like the guy was really taking his own faith seriously. 223 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:58.519 And I just wanted to mention that at the end, and that was 224 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:02.120 it because I didn't because guy was a real minister. I don't understand how 225 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:04.360 you could be preaching this stuff. Yeah, yeah, A little strange to 226 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:08.000 me too, but thanks so much for watching everybody, and if you want 227 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 to hear more from the nonprofits, click here.