74 thoughts on “Happy 4th”

  1. The mind cannot absorb more than the seat can endure! If I saw KJV 1611 on a pulpit that would be a sure sign to walk right back out the door and never come back.

    1. I’ve seen a lot of fundy houses decorated red white & blue that I’m pretty sure would have the lady of the house smiling broadly to hear that in a sermon.

  6. Baptistry with river mural – check
    American flag prominently placed in front of pulpit – check
    AV 1611 proudly inscribed into pulpit – check
    Box of tissues for weeping during altar call – check

    Congratulations – you’ve just entered the fundy zone.

    1. “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind-numbing twisting of scripture and proof-texting ; a journey into a religious land whose boundaries are that of the pastor’s imagination – Next stop, the IFB Zone!”

    1. No doubt some atheist is musing, “And here we’ve been talking about the non-existence of God for years, when all we had to do was listen to His most ardent supporters saying the same thing.” 😕
      Can we say irony, boys and girls? 😉
      I knew you could. 😀

    2. That guy’s God is so fragile it depends on a flag and a dress code to keep it from disappearing.
      My God is alive and is bigger than all of us.

  10. Y’all is all mean and bitter. He played the fire outta that harmonica, and y’all ought to love the brethern not smother ’em! Can I get a “Amen”?

  12. Oh. I thought he was preaching a memorial of Kadir Japheth VanDerSloth, who passed on this day 402 years ago due to complications leading to death.

    I won’t be listening today.

    All you US citizens have a happy Independence Day. The rest of you have a good day in spite of us.

    God Bless

  13. 3:30 “Immigrants in Europe begin to pour into America in the early 19th century… coming by the statue of liberty”

    Statue of Liberty in the early 19th century eh? … nice… must be some kind of this-guy’s-own history.

    Maybe a slip of the tongue.. but then the rest of the historical revisionism got too much….

  14. Oh, by the way Pastor… most migrants into the USA in the early 19th century were not political migrants (looking for freedom) but economic migrants (looking for jobs).

  15. The God I worship speaks Chinese and Swahili. He spoke Mayan and French and Arabic and Hindi too. He’s the God in that Bible of yours, where he says that he’s no respecter of persons (ie. He doesn’t play favorites).

  18. 19 minutes in: “In those songs they learned that God is the author of liberty..and if they have it not in other parts of the world…its because God hasn’t given it to them.” I’ll bet that’s the song Paul was singing in the Phillippian jail…

    1. He’s mispronouncing Westminster Abbey. If you face the Parliament from the Thames in London, Westminster is located behind the Parliament and Big Ben.

      Most of what he says about King James is bogus, and he seems oblivious to James’s sexual orientation.

      1. I forgot to wrap that in tags. I just found it ironic that he was attempting to make himself sound educated and couldn’t even correctly pronounce the name of the place he was referencing.

        1. Yes, but Fundies don’t approve of anything with swing. You might seem happy.

          Roger Miller is one of my favorites. Even if he did have “creative help” with some lyrics.

      1. Ok, geez, made it 41 minutes in and he is literally talking about nothing that makes any sense at all, just random, disconnected stories. I can’t do it anymore.

        1. Holy moly I ff to that just to see how far off the track he’d run the train, and is just rambling about personal war stories of how he’s scared to crush a small pulpit on a trip in NYC that they needed him there to set NY’ers straight.

    1. Aw.

      My favorite thing is when a city coordinates fireworks with music. You tune in to a certain radio station and the explosions are all timed to different songs. It’s fun!

  25. Don’t know what I dislike here the most: the sermon, the harmonica playing, the flag stuck in the flowers, the KJV 1611 stamped on the pulpit, or the bad baptistry art. SO much here to hate! 😯

  26. There are about 196 countries in the world as well as many autonomous territories, zone and city-states. Some of these countries are better places to live than the USA. Some of these same countries have legalized abortion, prostitution, nudity of television and gay marriage and yet seem to escape the anger of the fundie god.
    If there is a god, I doubt the USA is the center of her attention.

  27. OK I could only get through the first portion of the sermon but it looks as if it’s a strange message on how the American system used to be godly and it assimilated immigrants by making them speak English. Apparently the good immigrants are the Europeans who immediately learned to speak English. Translate: White Christians folks who yearned for freedom and came here eager to abandon their home culture. After all, English is the language of heaven since God in his wisdom gave us the KJV 1611, emblazoned on this preacher’s pulpit. The tacit contrast is to the present time, when brown people immigrate and don’t learn English immediately. Some are even Muslims. Not to be harsh, but it seems like a lot of the IFB quietly, perhaps unconsciously believes in the superiority of the white race.

  29. Very odd. He starts off by talking about patriotism, which means love of country, and then immediately starts talking about something he calls “patriotism for the church”. You can’t have patriotism for a church as a church is not a country. He then gives several examples, including Bunyan and Luther, of people doing things which are clearly not “patriotic” in any accepted sense.
    If it had been a straight choice between religion and country for Bunyan, Luther et al, then they would have to have chosen religion. In that case, “patriotism”, love of country, would have been sinful and “of the devil”. They would be taking the love due to God and diverting it to something as artificial and wordly as a nation state. So these acts of individual conscience were not “patriotic” at all.
    For me, this highlights the contradiction in the American religious right; It’s one thing to love “country” but not “state”, but it’s another thing altogether to conflate “country” with “religion”. Surely a consistent Christian would see the worship of a nation, worship of a flag, worship of physical things and glorying in military power and conquest, as idolatry and hubris? As taking the love due solely to God and diverting it to worldly things?

  30. I skipped through and listened at random. Apparently, we can have patriotism for our country, for the church and for prayer. There are probably other things for which we can have patriotism but I just can’t go back and listen any more.

  31. I’m very glad that God has blessed our country. I’m very glad the liberty bell is inscribed with Scripture! I’m delighted that a visitor cannot go to our nation’s capital and not see Scripture on monuments and statues all over the city!

    I’m glad to be living in a country that added the words “one nation under God” to our pledge!

  33. The best part is 33:10 when he talks about how he was “blubbering about King James and the book that he wrote”. I assume he thinks that King James actually was the one that wrote the King James Version? 😀

  35. There’s a lot I could say in deconstructing this sermon (I listened to the whole thing), but I’ll limit my observations to one point…

    Mrs. Patton, beating up the little man who accused her husband of wearing medals that he didn’t earn; “Nobody says those things about my husband and gets away with it!!”

    It seems to me that the speaker admired her behavior, and I suppose the illustration was meant to convey that if we love God, we should react with physical aggression when a person “bad-mouths” God. (Defend His honor, not with a reasoned apologetic, but rather with an emotional outburst).

    If an atheist blasphemes God, what is the proper Christian response? Punch him repeatedly in the nose until “blood comes out of both of his nostrils”? If so, that’s a pretty weak argument. (Notice that in the anecdote, Mrs. Patton never answers the critic’s charges, she just got angry, and reacted emotionally)

    WDJD? Smack down Herod, or remain silent? Punch Pontius Pilate, or engage him in a discussion about the truth?

    It seems to me that this arrogance and ignorance in “defending God” with hostility, rather than with calm assurance of truth is what lies at the core of Fundy Defensiveness. Fighting Fundamentalists…Indeed.

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