• mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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        7 months ago

        Welcome back! I’m sure you have a lot to catch up on after being in a coma or whatever. Number 1, an angry mob tried to kill the vice president and 12 million people think they were right to do it and it’s a shame they didn’t succeed.

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        7 months ago

        You clearly don’t know the Christian Nationalists I know. Let me ask you something, only for true believers. If you really truly believed in your heart that God was calling you to kill in his name, would you do it?

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          It’s mind boggling that there are people who think God couldn’t come up with a better solution than murder. I mean a micrometeorite could take anyone of us out at any point. Or he could wait for us to yawn and have a murder hornet fly into your mouth. Or y’know, being God and all and capable of doing anything, he could just have his giant disembodied hand come out of the wall, grab us and pull us to the other side, a la Legend of Zelda and that’s just if he insists on making it a spectacule and not just snap* aneurysm.

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            7 months ago

            Then do you have some context to understand what I’m asking? Because I know my share of Christians that either get uncomfortably quiet with that question or very confidently answer yes.

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Boy, I wish. Speaking as someone who knows these people, no. This is exactly what they want to do.

  • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    These lunatics have a disturbing amount of control in the US government.

    Laughing at them might be fun, and I was doing it until recently, but they’re not joking. The worse our climate disasters become – and they will very soon – the more scared people will become, and the more these groups will take advantage of that fear. We’ll see more climate refugees, more desperation, and more fear. These groups prey on fear, and they’ll amplify it on purpose.

    True fascism thrives on fear, which is why these people amplify it like they do. When climate disasters accelerate, these groups will harness the social upheaval to take control. I don’t know what we can do to stop it, but we should all be thinking about and sharing ways to head it off, because they’ve got plans in place already.

    I know I sound paranoid, but I’ve been watching them and these aren’t my ideas, but theirs. They talk about this a lot, and if we aren’t prepared, their plans could actually work. I don’t want to live in the fascist future they’re planning. If we don’t combat it, we’ll be living in the Handmaid’s Tale before most of us realise.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    As a Christian: this is absolutely despicable. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, and a huge part of loving someone is to respect their boundaries.

    So screw this app and the people that built it. If you want to invite your neighbors to learn about Jesus:

    1. Set a good example
    2. Get to know them
    3. Invite only when it’s relevant (i.e. to a kid’s baptism or whatever)

    If they want to learn about Jesus, they’ll ask.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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          7 months ago

          Yeah. I’m not religious but I’ve worked with church groups and actually every one I can think of immediately, was out for good and doing Christ things. I think the more prejudicial ones just are more vocal about what they’re doing.

      • arin@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Good Christians leave because they realize who are in power and what corrupt shit have been going on

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        If I were the devil and this world was mine to see Well, I’d witness all the atrocities and it’d probably frighten me So I’d run back home with a story to tell I’d tell all my demon friends that I always preferred Hell — Colby Acuff

        One of the existential terrors of deconstruction is realizing the human species is plenty capable of evil and atrocity, that no demons are needed

        Then when we’ve seen the absolute worst humans could imagine, Sir David Attenborough comes along holding Nature’s beer.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          Every concept of hell and the details on what earns you a spot there I have always translated to “hell on earth.”

          As in: the things someone would do to earn them a spot in hell creates hell on earth. There is no hell other than the hell people create for us here.

    • somtwo@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      As an ex-christian, the most un-christlike behavior is often espoused by Christians.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        As the saying goes: one bad apple spoils the barrel.

        I think most Christians are fine, at least the Christians who understand and try to follow Christ’s teachings, it’s just the few “Christian influencers” or whatever that are a pox on society. I try to distance myself from them as much as possible, and encourage the rest to be better examples.

        • caveman@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          Well, militants are always annoying, be they Christian, lefties, Righties, vegans, meat eaters or whatever

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            7 months ago

            It’s because they craft their entire identity around that particular thing. It does not matter what the belief or how illogical the belief, if you question it, or are simply not prepared to go along with it, they get really angry and incoherent.

            • caveman@lemmy.ml
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              7 months ago

              I mean I know people who are vegan or religious or atheist which are not annoying, but as you said some people make it a huge part of their identity and it sucks.

        • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          I somewhat agree with you. The problem is that all those bad apples are the loudest of the bunch, which is why people, understandably, try to avoid all Christians like the plague. I did too for MANY years, until I was the target of a miracle myself. But that didn’t change my behavior towards people, I still treat EVERYONE with respect, and as kindly as I am able to (sorry, still human, so not always possible, lol).

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            The same is true with Muslims as well. A lot of people in the west dislike Muslims generally because of the relatively small percentage of extremists, yet the Muslims I work with are fantastic people. My coworker (Christian, I believe) married an Iranian woman (Muslim), and said the people in Iran are generally quite awesome, it’s just the minority who is in power that causes the problems.

            In general, most people are pretty chill, regardless of religion (or lack thereof). So please, if you feel like a stereotype is accurate, go out and meet people from that demographic in real life (not on SM), and you’ll likely realize most people are good. It doesn’t really matter what the demographic and stereotype are, most people don’t fit it.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      7 months ago

      At the very least they should target people who consider themselves Christian but have stopped going to Church for one reason or another.

      Although to be fair many of the more “dedicated” Churches function more like a cult

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        I don’t think they should “target” anyone. The entire basis for this app is creepy at best, and it shouldn’t exist in this form. If people want a way to discuss things, they should instead share anonymous experiences.

        But yeah, there are a lot of weird, culty “churches” out there, where I suspect the leadership is knowingly manipulating their congregations. But there ale also a lot of accusations of culty behavior that really aren’t applicable, so it’s a mixed bag. At the end of the day, I think most people are decent, regardless of religion, it’s just the really vocal minority (the brainwashed minority, as well as those who left) that make the most noise.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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      7 months ago

      There was a Masto post recently where someone’s conservative mother told her that she knows being gay is a choice, because she feel attraction to girls, but she chooses not to act on it, and that’s the responsible Christian thing to do or w/e.

      It legit made me all of a sudden realize why there’s so much overlap between “we have to punish the gays and make it illegal” and “I secretly go to male prostitutes all the time” in Republican circles. It just all of a sudden harmonized and clicked into place and made perfect sense.

      • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Many that think being gay is a choice, are in fact bisexual themselves. So for them it’s a choice on whether or not to act on it. And they project that everyone else is the same.

        • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          And even then it’s not really a choice, since you can’t really choose to stop having feelings. I guess that for bi people it’s easier to pretend, but where there’s love, there’s love.

          It’s like, being a hetero dude and vlbeing forced to go with a girl when there’s another one you love. It’s hard in any case.

          • NoTittyPicsPlz@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            People tend to project themselves on other people. We all do it, and it can be shocking to find how different people actually are from each other. I’ve heard all my life from certain Christians that people who are atheist have no moral compass and there’s nothing stopping them from killing and raping people. Which I find revealing, because they are saying their beliefs are the only thing stopping them from doing those things. I have never once wanted to rape or kill anyone, maybe that’s why it’s easy for me to not believe in god.

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    7 months ago

    This is a yikes, they’re doing the Westboro Church tactics without wanting the money, just to harass.

    The Mapping Center for Evangelism and Church Growth’s founder and president Chris Cooper suggests using the app to conduct neighborly activities such as putting on a barbecue for potential converts, but scattered throughout the app’s training and promotional videos are suggestions to undertake the controversial practice of “prayerwalking.” An idea becoming increasingly popular among Christian supremacist groups, prayerwalking involves believers flooding so-called “un-Christian” territories in order to combat “demonic strongholds.” In practice, it varies from blessing new neighbors to gathering groups to pray in front of everything from mosques to drag bars in service of “spiritual warfare.”

    • gregorum@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      And how long until this app gets tied to several mass shootings and a spate of burning crosses?

  • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    That is absolutely terrifying.

    If I made a least of where all the Christians live, they’d rightfully freak the fuck out.

  • retrieval4558@mander.xyz
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    7 months ago

    Any of you super coders in here know of a way to download the app ourselves and inject significant amounts of false data into it?

  • Tayvick@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    This is concerning. I don’t want some stranger knowing personal details about me before I even know they exist

    • init@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      I’ve received letters twice from the same individual who belongs to a JW church. The first was when they moved into the area, and the second was when I moved to another place.

      Your property ownership records (if you’re American) are public records, and if you grab it within like, 3 years (where I live), you can even find the closing price and more detailed information on the sale.

      Demand better privacy laws.

  • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    This is real bad. I’m a christian (albeit a very unorthodox one), and this goes against everything Christians are supposed to follow according to the bible. This can only be construed as church authoritarianism. Maybe this is why I’m looked down upon by most “Christians” out there, but I could not care less. If a christian says or does anything that does not align with LOVE EVERYONE,that’s not a christian, but a “faith merchant”. Their “privacy policy” is tailored to make it seem like they are doing God’s work, when reading it with the intent to understand clearly displays the intention to gather data on you and everyone around you. And I’m sorry, but anyone that does this is guilty of wanting data to sell until proven otherwise, no exceptions.

    - Who Has Access to Your Data

    “Your password is not accessible by or shared with anybody. Not even we can access it. It is stored in an inaccessible encrypted format.”

    So, ONLY the password is encrypted, everything else is stored as clearly as a traffic sign. Noted.

    “None of the information entered by you is shared with anybody unless you specifically give us permission to do so by opting in to affiliate your Light role with one or more of our partner organizations; by opting in to have your contact information available to other Light roles in your neighborhood; or by creating an administrator role in a partner organization.”

    Where have we seen this before? Ah, right, in EVERY parivacy policy on every single company known to sell our data for profit without caring about anyone or anything except getting more money.

    Funny thing is, there’s no mention anywhere on how they are getting the data on what they call the “blessees”. Care to take a wild guess on how that’s done?

    I am genuinely sorry that this is happening, and blown away by how disgusting this is. No wonder most people don’t want anything to do with us, Christianity has become everything Jesus spoke against.

    • jwt@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      FYI: If you hear someone talking about encrypting passwords (instead of hashing); big red flag that they don’t know what they’re doing.

        • jwt@programming.dev
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          7 months ago

          Not a dig at you btw, but at the people trying to convince us they care about security.

          • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
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            7 months ago

            Oh, no, I didn’t take it as a dig directed at me. I took it as good information for me to consider moving forward. Thank you.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      I am genuinely sorry that this is happening

      Appreciate the sentiment, but it’s not anyone’s task to apologize for someone else’s shitty behavior.

      What you (and other Christians who are bothered by this approach) can do is to talk to your fellow believers about it and express your concerns.

      We all know they’re not going to listen to us heathen unbelievers…

    • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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      7 months ago

      You and people who hold beliefs like yours should just pick a new name for yourselves, I’ve tried to convince family members of this for years. Let the jerks have the name they tainted, pick a better name for your beliefs, and get out of the way for people to condemn the institution of Christianity for it’s actions.

      You shouldn’t feel responsible for them. You should just let them suffer the consequences of their actions and get outta the way.

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
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        Most of us would, for sure, if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re called Christians because we follow Christ. However, from my very personal perspective, the name is irrelevant. So much so that our own bible does not mention “christians” anywhere. Having said that, I am a die hard follower of Jesus, people can call me Jesuit, Jesus freak (yes, been called that plenty of times, I find it funny), or whatever. But first and foremost, I’m a human, full of flaws, an expert at finding out what doesn’t work (I guess Normie’s call those “making mistakes” 🤣🤣), with lost of situations in my life, and a firm believer that, should everyone decide to respect others, love them with their flaws, and be willing to help EVERYONE else as long as it’s not detrimental to themselves, their environment or others (in thayvsame order), we would have so much peace in this world that it’ll probably get boring haha. Anyway, switching gears real quick: Does anyone here have experience with Arch based Linux distros? Preferably EndeavourOS? I live what I’m seeing, but I can’t find a reason why none of my flatpak installations are showing in my apps. I really want to try Arch to find out why die hard Arch users are so proud of that, but so far it seems like a distros made exclusively for people that like to be in pain. What gives? If you can pint me in the right direction to a community where I can vent and maybe find solutions, I would really appreciate it. Oh, and God forgive me, but FUCK MICROSOFT!

        • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          I’m not a Christian but sometimes I hear Christians talking the way you just have and it’s the most compelling thing about it and draws me towards it. Love and forgiveness all the way. I use Debian so I can’t help with your arch question. I do think that Jesus would use Linux though.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    7 months ago

    Can we appreciate how incredibility messed up it is to have Christians trying to tell other religions are not valid? It is terribly messed up to try to convert Muslims to Christianity.

    With that being said it is important to note that this is a small group of people in Christianity. They are ruining the reputation for all denominations and creating Christian hate which will hurt Christians everywhere in the long run. I wonder how they would react if there was Jewish protest in front of there Church

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      I think the “try to convert” part makes no sense. Conversion is a very personal thing, and you can’t force someone to do it. You can invite, but that’s about it.

      Anything more violates common decency.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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        7 months ago

        I don’t think the app is designed to try to convert people. Filtering by immigration status is the giveaway.

        Oftentimes, American-style authoritarian organized religion equips you with a very particular type of doublethink which makes it possible to promote an app like this and wholeheartedly believe that it will be used for good things because you and all the people around you are the best type of people that exist, while being aware and planning for it to maybe be used (and making sure it’s useful) for something totally different.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        The “try to convert” thing sounds like the marketing & sales division of the church. People can’t join your church if they don’t even know about it.

        And both being annoying, of course.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          “Trying to convert” has biblical basis, and most religions have some kind of evangelism component to it. But there’s a lot of ways to go about that. One is the aggressive approach (i.e. high pressure salesman; join or you’ll burn in hell!), and the other is the example Jesus and other scriptural people set (i.e. serving others and getting them to want to ask the questions). Many religious people to the latter, and it’s the obnoxious people who do the former that give religion a bad rap.

          So my recommendation is if you want people to join your church, instruct your members to go out and do good in the community. Be a good friend, offer to do service for them from time to time, and engage with service opportunities in your community. Eventually people will ask, and they’ll care a lot more about what you have to say than if you’re telling them to go to church or they’ll burn in hell…

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Someone on lemmy commented that the purpose of those conversion drives is not to garner new members (though it’s a nice benefit if it works), but to help reinforce the “us” versus “them” division in the people out knocking on doors. It really makes a lot of sense to me.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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          7 months ago

          I agree with that. I think the point of Mormons being forced to go door-to-door and engage with the outside world in a way that is guaranteed to create discomfort and hostility… is that they’ll learn the the outside world equals discomfort and hostility. I can’t imagine that it has any nonzero effect in terms of converting people to Mormonism at all.

          I think how it works for Christians probably depends on the nonuniform details of how exactly they do the proselytizing, but I’m imagine it works mostly the same in most cases.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            Mormons being forced to go door-to-door

            Mormons aren’t forced to go door-to-door, it’s absolutely a choice. In fact, Mormon missionaries pay their own way (less so in poorer countries, but still).

            Perhaps you’re thinking of Jehova’s Witnesses? I don’t know much about their proselytizing, but I have invited them in before and they don’t seem particularly interested in following up, especially if you don’t buy their stuff.

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              Oh crap – you’re right, yes. I thought it was a requirement for Mormons but it’s not.

          • limelight79@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Picking them out in particular is interesting, because I have a good friend that’s Mormon, and we used to hang out a lot. They really have their own community, I was definitely an outsider (but not obviously so, as I don’t have facial hair, etc.). We briefly dated, but that didn’t go anywhere for obvious reasons, and later I realized that in her world I’m probably the “bad boy” (few others would consider me that, but everything is relative).

            They were nice people, but overall they just were …boring. I don’t even remember most of the ones I met, and I doubt I could pick even some of her closer friends out of a lineup. I don’t mean to be nasty, but few of them had any sort of interesting life experiences, which is weird, considering many of them traveled abroad for mission trips.

            At one point the Mormon single women in the area created a video to convince more single Mormon men to move there. There was a serious shortage. Even in that situation they still felt like they had to stay in the Mormon community.

            On the flip side, a few years ago, friends of ours moved to a new neighborhood and had a housewarming party, and one of the families that joined them were neighbors that were Mormons (who preferred the term Latter Day Saints). But the wife had rainbow rings on and I think one of the daughters had purple hair…so, they seemed unlike other Mormons I’ve met, but I didn’t get the chance to ask about it.

  • rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works
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    “The app boasts influential supporters, including the former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jim Henry, and controversial Christian data-harvesting firm Gloo. It puts a lot of features at the fingertips of the faithful, including the ability to filter whole neighborhoods by religion, ethnicity, “Hispanic country of origin,” “assimilation,” and whether there are children living in the household.”

    Christ.

  • Breezy@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    It would be a real shame if people started leaving reviews on the play store with their concerns. Real shame i tell you, its sitting at a 4.7 rating with all but 1 five star, and they gave it a four star.

    Anyways for any god loving Christian who just wants to download their app to pray for their neighbors, ive taken the ten seconds needed to visit their site and grabbed their app links.

    Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blesseveryhome.bealight

    Apple https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bless-every-home/id1541313484

  • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    Oh please let them come, I’ll gladly tell them all about how “Jehovah, or JHVH-1 as WE know him, is no true god but an evil space monster from some corporate sin galaxy sent here to take our SLACK! He’s been fooling them! But J. R. “Bob” Dobbs, High Epopt of The Church of The SubGenius, knows the truth, and he has a plan to save all his followers from certain death come X-Day. We’ll all be Ruptured up into the PleasureSaucers for orgies with the alien sex goddesses and the MWOWM machine will make our every possible desires true. You want that lost comic collection back? Want revenge on that one priest? Well “Bob” will give it to ya, young evangelist, here, take this pamphlet to get you started…”

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    7 months ago

    I feel like this information is going to get sold to GOT–sorry, ‘voter suppression’ efforts and general databrokers.