Can I get an Amen for Jerry DeWitt?

Last October, I was lucky enough to hear Jerry DeWitt speak (preach, actually) at the Freedom From Religion Foundation convention in Porland , Oregon. Iit was an experience I'll never forget. If he'd had an altar call, I'd have gone up.

We need more of this. We need more atheist preachers!

Yesterday, Jerry delivered a sermon at the first "full-fledged atheist church" in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There are youtube videos (part 1 and part 2), but the quality is a bit too poor to get full effect of his preaching.

So here's Jerry's Easter sermon at the American Atheist convention instead. Enjoy!
 


BTW, I pre-ordered Jerry's new book (Hope after Faith) and I was told yesterday that it has shipped. As soon as I get it I'm going read it. And when I do, I'll let you know what I think.

 But don't wait for that. Buy it now. You can have faith in Jerry!

Douglas Wilson: Casting the first (and only) stone

Poor Doug Wilson. He has no one to throw stones with anymore.

Here is what he said in a recent post about the Exodus International affair.

I need to say a quick something about Exodus International shutting down, as they did so with apologies extended to gays and lesbians who had been harmed by their reparative therapy.
Here is how one news story put it:

“Exodus is an institution in the conservative Christian world, but we’ve ceased to be a living, breathing organism,” Alan Chambers, president of Exodus, said in a statement. “For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.”

I want first to note the obvious thing about this ... this is a capitulation, a collapse, an apostasy, a travesty, and a moon crater. This is an instance of an organization that existed to call men and women to biblical repentance, and has wound up repenting of their belief in the need for any such repentance. So here is the first lesson — never repent of repenting. Bad idea.

...

In my mind’s eye, I can see when Lot was leaving Sodom, how there was a group of men at the city limits laughing at him. “You know,” they said, “you’re on the wrong side of history.” Lot’s wife nodded slightly, wishing she had married that Chambers fellow instead.

And here's my comment on his blog:

Yes, you’re pretty much all alone now, Douglas. No one else is willing to apply the biblical law to homosexuals.

It didn’t use to be that way though. Not too long ago that verse was loudly and unashamedly proclaimed at Credenda Agenda [produced by Pastor Wilson's church]. Here, for example, is a quote from Magestralis. (Your Eye Shall Not Pity, Greg Dickison, 1999, Vol. 3)

“Capital crimes, for example, include premeditated killing (murder), kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one’s parents (Ex. 21:14; 21:16;22:18;22:19; Lev. 20:10; 20:13; Ex. 21:17).”

But you have to go to the wayback machine to find quotes like that anymore. No one is willing to even say aloud the words of Leviticus 20:13.

I guess it’s up to you to throw the first (and only) stone.

I haven't yet got a response from Mr. Wilson. But if I do, I'll let you know what he says.

Mr. Deity and the Flood

Absurdification is the bedrock upon which faith is built.

Glenn Beck cites Moroni 9 saying, "If you ever hear me mention the Book of Mormon on the air, we are at the end."

I happen to believe in another book, called the Book of Mormon, and in it at the very end, it is a story about the Americas, and it's only a story of "Watch for these things." It is really a calendar. That's all it is, a calendar. "Watch for these things and you will know what season you're in. 

Towards the very end, one of the last books, it talks about, everything is to repeat itself,  how the enemies that they were up against at that time were into cannibalism. And they were eating people as a sign of bravery and courage. And when I saw the video of, two videos, one in Russia, where the Russian rebels are eating people, the Russian drug lords are actually eating their enemies. 

Now who is tied to the Russians?  The Russians are tied to the same people in Syria. And we are also tying ourselves to the other side in Syria. And I saw the video of a soldier in the groups that we are arming stand on the battlefield and cut the chest open and take a heart, a beating heart, out of a dead body--cut him open and cut it out and eat it, and use it as courage, I thought to myself I know this calendar, I've seen this movie before. 

I warn you, we are in very dangerous times. We are living in biblical times. 

I told my staff a long time ago, when you hear me start talking about God, you'll know we're in a different DEFCON level. When you start hearing me use the words "Jesus Christ" on the air--because I know what it does to my popularity. I know what it does. And I know how it makes you into a crazy Christian kook. And I said we will be in a much different DEFCON level when I start saying "Jesus Christ" and quoting the Bible. 

If you ever hear me mention the Book of Mormon on the air, we are at the end. And I am sorry to say that I feel we are now at the place to where you better have your house in order. 

So get your house in order because Glenn Beck mentioned the Book of Mormon on the air!

But when Glenn Beck watched the cannibal videos, what Book of Mormon passage did it bring to his fervid mind? What was the movie that he had seen before? What day is it now on the Book of Mormon calendar? And what DEFCON level are we now living in?

It's all there in Moroni 9, the penultimate chapter of the last book of the Book of Mormon.

They feed the women upon the flesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers...

And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue --

And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery. Moroni 9:8-10

The Lamanites killed and ate the Nephites. And the Nephites deprived the Lamanite women of "that which is most dear and precious above all things" (their virginity).

Don't you see? Everything repeats itself in the Book of Mormon. It's a calendar, just like Glenn Beck said.

The Russian rebels and the Syrian rebels are cannibals (Glenn Beck watched the movies), just like (well, sort of like, anyway) the Lamanites and the Nephites in the Book of Mormon.

So now you know. It's DEFCON 1 (nuclear war is imminent) and we're living in biblical (and Book of Mormon) times.

Today is Moroni 9 on Glenn Beck's calendar and tomorrow is Jeremiah 19:9.