Yet another Texas Evangelical Christian "Pastor" was caught having an affair, and the "elders" of his church have fired him. I'm not sure if it is the "evangelical" or the "texan" in these guys that makes them hornier than they should. After all they are allowed to marry, unlike Catholic priests whose official explanation for how they defuse their libidos is that they have wet dreams at night.
Deep down I know it's just that they are guys like every other guy. But the problem is when you preach virtue you can't behave like a whore. When you pretend to be a Christian who has repented for his sins by adopting (?) Jesus in your life and pledged, on penalty of death and eternal damnation, to be faithful to your wife, what is the thought process in your brain when you unbuckle your pants and stare down at the woman or underage girl lying on the bed in front of you?
There is no stupid confession in the protestant religion like Catholics have. Many people in Catholic countries do the vilest things without any remorse knowing ahead of their acts that they'll just confess and be forgiven. They then go on guilt-free to repeat the cycle in an asymptotic line that never touches eternity because everyone dies one day.
But Protestants did what Muslims did several centuries before them: establish a direct relationship with God without the intercession of a priest: One is directly responsible to God, which is not an easy burden to carry if you are an idiot who believes in a non-existent God, which means that a Protestant or a Muslim's responsibility for their actions is really with themselves pretending to be God. God is this remote distant entity that has no features. In Catholic beliefs, an idiot can stare at a statue and "see" God, but no such "easing" of faith with protestants and muslims.
Therefore, when a protestant "evangelical" lays that naked woman - not his wife - on the bed or behind the altar and the pulpit, he must be telling himself, "I know I'm betraying my oath to my wife but I'll repent later to God - but not to her as she'll never find out - and God will forgive me". In American culture, all you have to do after some action that is neither good nor bad, is say, "I'm sorry", regardless of whether you mean it or not, and regardless of whether you believe what you did was bad. Truth is irrelevant. Honesty is irrelevant. Expedient superficiality trumps long-term arduous substance. Just as American women expect their men to say, "I love you" regardless of whether or not these men mean it. They just want to hear it.
So, in fact, it is easier for a protestant or a muslim to "sin" because there is no witness to the sin (e.g. the priest) that is required by the Catholic religion.
Bottom line: Stop believing all these "elders", "church leaders", "reverends", "fathers", "sisters", "pastors"... They are all horny creepy crooks. The occasional story we hear about is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine how many adulteries, how many rapes, how many abuses.... go unheard of within all church circles. Just as the Catholic scandal of priests abusing, raping and sodomizing young underage people took some time to blossom and be discovered across the planet on every continent and every country, the scandal emerging within the Evangelical Protestant church is likely to keep growing until people realize the fallacy of the entire concept of religion.
You see, religion makes huge claims about:
1- the existence of a non-existent God, one that "must" be imagined in order to explain the world around us
2- the truly psychologically-criminal idea that we are "sinners" simply because we are born with a brain. "Divine Grace" is a state invoked by religion to make you behave in the manner of an animal, without conscience of good or bad, in total stupidity. Having a thinking brain is our original sin, "Don't eat from the tree of knowledge", says he in the garden of debauchery and guilt-free sex and abundant food, otherwise I'll cast you out and "there'll be no more orgies for you"
3- that we need to be saved from that "original" sin that some bearded white Zombie in the Sky shoved down our throats at the moment of birth without our consent or knowledge
4- that somewhere along the long course of human evolution as ignorant primates, "prophets, demi-gods, messengers, messiahs,..." emerged to tell us made-up stories intended to explain what our ignorance could not explain. Several of these "prophets" claimed to speak with God who speaks back to them, and to receive messages from God that people must abide by. Some of them claimed to be God's genetic children
5- that these "prophets, diviners, soothsayers, magicians, shamans, and such charlatans" established organizations called "religions" that humans were forced to accept as reflections of some eternal "truths" and custodians of morality
6- and many other claims the details of which are too many to elaborate here. It's been so many millennia that the "wisdom" imparted by these prophecies has accumulated into fictional and often disgusting "holy books" garbage that people take literally
But the point is that for the millennia of known human existence, with all the claims that religions made, I see no difference in the level of barbarity between, say, someone living 10,000 years ago and the level of barbarity we see today. We still raid, kill, rape, plunder, burn, kidnap, destroy, maim.... AND with increasing technologically-mediated brutality.
The biological man has remained intact, despite all the claims of all religions as repositories of the ultimate moral order in which man is a superior being, created in the image of God. If God resembles us, then he is a lousy god because he resembles the vilest most brutal species that evolution has produced. Therefore, religions have NOT changed humans into better beings, they have NOT improved our lot. The only thing they have succeeded in doing is controlling us, sometimes for our own good but most often encouraging us to more barbarism and brutality, by psychological blackmail and depriving us of our fundamental freedoms and preventing us from liberating ourselves.
Yet, the custodians of these "religions", like all dictators, autocrats, and absolute rulers, do not abide by the very precepts they impose on us. Why? Because we, ordinary people, must be controlled, but they, the religious "leaders" don't need to because they are infallible; after all, they have conversations with the God that chose them and who tells them the "truth". We are controlled by the custodians (priests, sheikhs, pastors, imams, popes, bishops, elders...), while they are controlled directly by God. But since God does not exist, these custodians live lives that are out of control. And once in a while, we catch them with their hand in the cookie jar, their hand under somebody's skirt or pants, or their pants down in a sleezy motel....
Free yourself from religion, just as you should free yourself from political parties. Do not "belong" to any association of humans claiming to find happiness for you. Raymond Aaron once said, "one cannot institutionalize happiness". Find happiness inside yourself, and you will carry it with you wherever you go.
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A 73-year-old married pastor has been fired from his Texas church after admitting to an “inappropriate relationship.” Steven J. Lawson, a father of four, parted ways with the Trinity Bible Church in Dallas after informing elders about the unnamed woman, the house of worship said in a statement.
The church has not revealed any further details about its reasons for axing the prominent figure in evangelicalism and author of 28 books, including one called The Moment of Truth.
Lawson has been married to his wife, Anne, for 40 years and they have three adult sons and a daughter. He was removed from his role as lead preacher “effective immediately,” church officials said.
“The elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas regretfully announce that effective immediately, Steven J. Lawson has been removed indefinitely from all ministry activities at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas,” the statement continued.
“Several days ago, the elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas were informed by Steve Lawson of an inappropriate relationship that he has had with a woman. The elders have met with Steve and will continue to come alongside him and pray for him with the ultimate goal of his personal repentance. Steve will no longer be compensated by Trinity Bible Church of Dallas.
“In light of this, may we be reminded that we are ALL sinners, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners—and Christ remains Head of His Church, which is bigger than any fallen man.”
Lawson was also the founder and president of OnePassion Ministries. The organization’s website has posted a statement saying that he has resigned from all his duties after he “confessed to the board that he has had an inappropriate relationship with a woman, a sin that has disqualified him from ministry.”
The statement adds that the pastor “regrets the damage he has caused to his family, the church, the reputation of OnePassion Ministries, and most of all Jesus Christ.”
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