Some Children Have More Intelligence Than Adults!

September 26, 2021 / Posted in  Archbishop Elpidophoros, Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, Blog, COVID, Creflo Augustus Dollar, Evangelical Pastors for Trump, Facebook, Firefighters4Freedom, Gavin Roberts, Gloria Copeland, Jerry Savelle, Jesse Duplantis, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Joyce Meyer, Justice in Policing Act, Kenneth Copeland, Lakewood Church--Osteen's church, Los Angeles Firefighters, Los Angeles Police, Mark Barclay, MT Technology Review, Paul and Jan, Paul and Jan Crouch, police officers, Pope Francis, qualified immunity, Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin, San Francisco Police, San Jose’s police union, Supreme Court, Ten Precepts, Tony Spell, Trinity Broadcasting Network, YouTube

For his 12th birthday, Gavin Roberts only had one request: get vaccinated against the coronavirus that killed his dad last year. When he reached the legal age to get the shot on Sunday, his wish was finally granted¹. Alice Roberts, Gavin’s mother, told NBC New York² that her son’s decision was strongly influenced by his dad’s death early in the pandemic. He knew his father wanted it and he was determined to get the vaccination in honor of his father.³

While Gavin, Alice, and the two sisters took precautions to protect themselves and others, those whom the public has a misguide trust in to protect others are among those super-spreading the pandemic. Not all police were thoughtful of the health and security of the people they were sworn to protect.

Police and Fire Fighters against COVID vaccinations

This is, sadly, the case with the Los Angeles Police and Los Angeles Firefighters who account for more 2800 coronavirus cases. Of 211 identified outbreaks of three or more coronavirus cases at police or fire agencies in L.A. County between March 2020 and last month, 112 were linked to the LAPD and LAFD, according to the data. The LAPD had 37 identified outbreaks, accounting for 1,061 cases, while the LAFD had 75 identified outbreaks, accounting for 553 cases, the data show. Another 18 outbreaks were identified at the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, accounting for 334 cases, and 44 at the L.A. County Fire Department, accounting for 211 cases, the data show.⁴ In response to a new L.A. ordinance mandating that all employees be vaccinated by next month unless they are granted a medical or religious exemption, both LAPD⁵ and LAFD employees filed lawsuits⁶ challenging the requirement. Thousands more have filed notice that they intend to claim an exemption.⁷ This is despite ten LAPD and three spouses of LAPD employees have died of COVID-19⁸, yet a group of disgruntled feeling self-privileged and ignoring the health of the community, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the vaccination mandate, arguing that it violates their constitutional rights to privacy and due process. Among those who sued are employees “who could not assert a medical or religious exemption,” as well as those who contend they have natural antibodies from contracting the coronavirus.⁵ According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one recent study suggested that unvaccinated people were 4½ times more likely than fully vaccinated people to get infected,¹⁰ more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 11 times more likely to die. Between June 1 and the start of the month of September, about 85% of new infections among LAPD employees were in unvaccinated staffers, according to department data.¹¹ The LAPD produced a video which had the widows of LAPD personnel who died from COVID speak to their loss and urge other members of the department to get vaccinated.¹² California state data last month showed the rate of coronavirus infections among unvaccinated residents was six times greater than the rate among vaccinated people.¹³

California is hindered in fighting COVID spike, especially among the LAFD neo-Nazi organization Firefighters4Freedom that called on everyone not to get vaccinated. This encouraged the LAPD to stop wearing masks while on duty–and subsequently infecting the general population of Los Angeles County. “The goal … is to overturn an unconstitutional city ordinance, not to be granted a stay of execution,” Firefighters 4 Freedom wrote in an Instagram post¹⁴: “Getting any type of exemption will never make this problem of government overreach go away.” Most LAPD officers who have tested positive since June were unvaccinated.¹¹

LAPD officers and LAFD firefighters have been ignoring public safety — and their sworn duties to uphold it — by refusing to get vaccinated or wear masks in public settings.¹⁶ Similar accusations have been directed at public safety employees elsewhere in the county and across the country. LAPD Chief Michel Moore briefed the panel on the rise of infections in the department and in the city as a whole, several people watching the remote meeting on video made comments chastising officers for not doing their part to prevent the virus’ spread. Moore acknowledged that the 52 new cases identified in the last week were almost certainly an undercount, because officers aren’t regularly tested and could be asymptomatic.

While a some officers refuse to wear a mask when arresting a person for any number of reasons, they claim they have a right of choice to go maskless even if they contaminate others with coronavirus and expect taxpayers to stand behind their choice even if it means higher taxes to pay for lawsuits against the COVID-spreading police and fire fighters. The unvaccinated police and fire fighters are outraged that anyone would even suggest that hospitals not admit someone who was not vaccinated and had COVID, and argue against the right of choice for doctors who refuse to see them as they spread the deadly virus. The Mercury News editorial of September 25, 2021 said it best: Police, firefighters and other public safety workers who don’t want to comply with city, county and state vaccination mandates should look for another job.¹⁷ San Jose’s police union is pushing back on the city’s vaccination mandate, which was announced last month and goes into effect Sept. 30. The change requires vaccinations and limits a weekly testing alternative only to those eligible for a medical or religious exemption.¹⁸ 366 San Francisco Police Department employees that are unvaccinated against COVID-19, 193 have applied for religious exemptions to avoid having to get required vaccines, and have no other religious beliefs to disguise their fraudulent claims.¹⁹ Unlike the police who think they are a special privileged group not answerable to or for the public, 74% of all San Francisco residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.²⁰ There is no valid religious reason not to  be vaccinated.

Pope Francis and mainstream Protestant pastors on the COVID vaccines

As  Pope Francis who called getting the vaccine “an act of love”,²¹ and questioned the sincerity of those claiming fraudulent “religious exemptions”.²² Pope Francis said on Wednesday he was puzzled why so many people, including some cardinals in Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, have refused to get inoculated against COVID-19.”It is a bit strange because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines,” he said aboard the plane returning from Slovakia, responding to a question from a reporter about the reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Pope Francis ordered all employees to get the vaccine or submit to regular testing.²³ The Vatican’s Academy for Life even took on vaccine skeptics–including Catholics–showing the vaccine was a gift for god.²⁴

Mainstream Protestants on COVID

The pontiff was echoed by Trump-supporting Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church Dallas,²⁵ who argued that Roman Catholicism was created by Satan. Jeffress stopped shouting about colored people not being saved or have voted for Biden, brushing up on his bona fides of vicious vindictiveness more in keeping with Saul of Tarsus than the Jesus of the Bible he claimed he followed. He reluctantly agreed that people need to wear masks during the pandemic while still arguing that Trump was the Chosen One of his god who originally had called (through a talking dove) the Jewish nomad, Jesus, to be his chosen son: ιδου ο παις μου ον ηρετισα ο αγαπητος μου εις ον ευδοκησεν η ψυχη μου θησω το πνευμα μου επ αυτον και κρισιν τοις εθνεσιν απαγγελει²⁶ being a paraphrase of הֵ֤ן עַבְדִּי֙ אֶתְמָךְ־בּ֔וֹ בְּחִירִ֖י רָצְתָ֣ה נַפְשִׁ֑י נָתַ֤תִּי רוּחִי֙ עָלָ֔יו מִשְׁפָּ֖ט לַגּוֹיִ֥ם יוֹצִֽיא׃ ²⁷.

Pastor Keith Marshall of the Hope Lutheran Church in Enumclaw, Washington – population 11,879 – wrote a short column for the Enumclaw Courier Herald that he thought would “go around my small Facebook world,” but the entire country can’t stop sharing it online. Marshal had tired of hearing about exemptions for religious reasons.²⁸ last year as two men belligerently tried to claim religious exemptions to wearing masks in the restaurant, more antimaskers harass employees in a variety of stores and shops,²⁹ and some pastors are giving “religious exemption” letters to congregants³⁰ to get out of vaccine requirements.

Quack theologians who have no real knowledge of the Bible, like Kevin McCall (born 1986) a self-ordained “pastor” who argued that anything he deemed unclean whether it’s vaccines, bad food, liquor or drugs — those are unclean things,³¹ setting himself up as a god, even though Christianity has generally not been opposed to masks or vaccines in the past. McCall has dabbled in numerous things that he has neither experience nor education about, and has posed a threat to the people of Brooklyn…put always at a price by asking for “donations.” In addition to recording an album of protest songs he hopes to market, McCall said he’s doled out exemption letters to 90 church members and received calls from about 170 people outside his congregation seeking them in the last two days. He said most of the calls came from city workers — teachers, nurses, cops and MTA workers. McCall, who also heads the Crisis Action Center, a civil rights group, inaccurately compared the miracle COVID vaccines to booze and recreational drugs, saying he’s merely providing religious people with a way to live their faith.

Greek Orthodoxy and vaccines

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, the highest clergy member of the Greek Orthodox religion in the United States, met with Bishops from across the country on a video conference. The group unanimously affirmed that the Church not only permits vaccinations against diseases but “encourages Her Faithful, after medical tests and approbations, to be vaccinated with the approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2”,³² The archbishop spoke that there was no valid religious reason not to be vaccinated. However, he noted, there were many scriptural reasons to “take the stab” of the vaccine: to protect the family and to protect others.

Judaism and vaccines

Mitzvah is one of the Torah’s 613 Divine commandments; a good deed or religious precept, according to Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin. Rabbi Shurpin writes “guarding your own health doesn’t only make sense, it’s actually a mitzvah. That means that even if you don’t want to do it, for whatever reason, you are still obligated to do so,³³ As noted in one paper: “The Jewish tradition tells us we are obligated to get vaccinated. There are two reasons for this obligation: we are obligated to protect ourselves, and we are obligated to protect other people. The Torah command us , “רַַ֡ ק הִ ש ָּׁ֣ מֶ ר לְ ךָ֩ ּושְ מ ֹ֨ ר נַפְ שְ ךָ֜ מְ א ֹ֗ ד , “Just guard yourself  and guard your soul exceedingly.” The rabbis teach “guard yourself” means look after your physical body. We are obligated to take actions that protect ourselves from danger and health hazards.”³⁴

Islam and vaccines

The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America³⁵ said the vaccines are safe and do not contain pork in them,³⁶ in harmony with other religious leaders said that all Muslims should take the vaccine.³⁷

A hospital system in Arkansas, Conway Regional Health System, is making it a bit more difficult for staff to receive a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The hospital is now requiring staff who want a religious exemption to also swear off extremely common medicines, such as Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, ibuprofen, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, albuterol, Preparation H, MMR vaccine, Claritin, Zoloft, Prilosec OTC, and azithromycin, to get the exemption.³⁸ The list of common over-the-counter medications (as well as commonly prescribed drugs) which were developed, produced, or tested in manners similar to the developmental COVID-19 vaccines, using descendant lines from old fetal cells encompasses just about anything you would commonly turn to for headache, allergy, or indigestion relief.³⁹ If we reject a medication or vaccine merely for being tested on a fetal cell line, most of a standard pharmacy would be immoral, as well as the “remedies” suggested by Trump, the Trump Crime Family, and COVID denier and antivaxxers and antimaskers, including Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Oxbryta–but not Gas-X.⁴⁰

Buddhism

Even the Dalai Lama⁴¹ received his shots (March 6, 2021), and urged all Buddhist to have the vaccine.  The spiritual leader of most Buddhists opined that not to take the vaccine would endanger others, and the Buddha taught all people are responsible for all other people without exception if the are to be pure individuals. Buddhism claims that life is one, which means that all forms of life are essentially related to one another and share a common essence. Even though there are different expressions of life, their lives are basically the same and they only differ in their external forms of being. In order to reach this Nirvana, every Buddhist must carefully observe the 8-fold Path and the Ten Precepts that help prevent any accumulation of karma. These precepts include: not taking life, not stealing, being chaste, not lying, not drinking intoxicants, etc.

The first of the five precepts in Pali reads as Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami meaning that “I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life.” Here the word pana refers to any living being that has breath and consciousness. Modern Buddhists will generally use vaccines to make sure their health is protected. Buddhist biomedical researchers who experiment on life forms believe that the purpose of biomedical research is to save rather than to sacrifice life.⁴² Buddhist biomedical researchers do the experiments for the love of life, for instance, they experiment on the donated tissues or samples, thereby accumulating no bad karma.⁴³

The “door to happiness will find happiness hereafter” is spelled out by not harming others by prohibiting them to find their own  happiness without harming others–for that reason Buddhist priests and nuns call on all people to vaccinate so they would not be responsible for the deaths of themselves (suicide) or others (murder) by their selfish acts.⁴⁴ Buddhism requires that everyone accepts all others with charity, compassion, understanding, and love (although there have been some noticeable exceptions among some adherents, especially in Myanmar (previously known as Burma, where close to 90% of the population identified as Buddhists, but not all Buddhist in Myanmar) where nationalism is combined with religion⁴⁵ similar to the white christian evangelical movement in the USA that is strangling faith in quest of a racist, purified, white nationalist society dreamed of by many End Time aficionados and Neo-Nazis supporting Trump. On the whole, Buddhist movements were in opposition to military rule, but when it became a reality, they were severely repressed.⁴⁶ in an manner identical to Hitler’s takeover of the old Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany.⁴⁷ In January 1934, all the Lutheran bishops affirmed their unconditional loyalty to the Nazi government and Hitler.⁴⁸ 

Predatory preachers, pastors, pulpit-pounders

Only white evangelical christians are skeptical against the vaccine, basing their arguments on fallible social media–especially Facebook, Twitter, and InTouch.⁴⁹ The U.S. is currently averaging over 119,000 new cases each day and over 2,000 new deaths.⁵⁰ And with only 55.9% of the population fully vaccinated, the disease is likely to keep circulating through the population during the winter.

Tony Spell

The most outspoken televangelist and evangelical opposed to the vaccine is white nationalist / white supremacist Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church (Baton Rouge, LA),⁵¹ Spell believes he is above the law and that his god told told him that he does not have to obey the laws he does not agree with either promulgated on the state or federal level. In many ways Spell acts as irrational as any Sovereign Citizen since he argues that civil laws⁵² that conflict with the laws of his god, especially in preaching, gathering in tithes, and showing the magnificence of the King of Heaven, he has divine permission to disobey.⁵³ Spell is totally ignorant of science, and has no  knowledge of medicine, the human body or its function or capabilities of use.⁵² A church member died of COVID.⁵⁵ To make matters worse, Spell asked congregants to donate stimulus checks to fight against “force” vaccinations.⁵⁶

YouTube on  religious misinformation on COVID

Spell has a most-strange god. But there is a flickering dim light in the window of YouTube that has banned all anti-vaccine content and anti-vaccine activists–including anti-vaccine pastors and priests (and other predatory evangelists) from using its channel.⁵⁷ YouTube said content that “falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them” will be taken down. But idiots, such as state troopers, highway patrols, professional athletes, and prison guards, including the termination of the accounts of several prominent anti-vaccine influencers, including Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing “the need to remove egregious harmful content” that falsely claims approved vaccines are dangerous or ineffective, in every state continue to spread false information that kills people.⁵⁸

Gloria and Kenneth Copeland

Gloria Copeland of Texas who argued “you do not need the vaccine, you got  Jesus!”, whose husband Kenneth Copeland, a television regular,

when not begging for money or another jet to add to his fleet of jets⁵⁹

as he does not want to ride with common people in a commercial jet where he would have to be vaccinated,⁶⁰ and blows wind out of his mouth at congregants who are fearful of catching COVID–ignoring the number of his own congregation infect with the coronavirus and have been ill and died.⁶¹ Before blowing at the camera, he said: ”I blow the wind of God on you. You are destroyed forever, and you’ll never be back. Thank you, God. Let it happen. Cause it to happen.” Leading a chant surrounded by members of his church and preaching to an empty room, he called out: “Wind, almighty, strong, south wind, Heat: Burn this thing, in the name of Jesus. I say, you bow your knees. You fall on your face.”

Copeland. a proud white nationalist and white supremacist, has nothing in common with the Biblical Jesus, and obviously never read the Gospels.⁶² said: “We’ve got a duck season, a deer season, but we don’t have a flu season. Don’t receive it when somebody threatens you with ‘everybody’s getting the flu!’ We’ve already had our shot . . Jesus himself gave us the flu shot.”⁶³

Jesse Duplantis

Like other predatory pastors Jesse Duplantis, born 1949, is a preacher from the Christian Evangelical Charismatic tradition born in New Orleans, LA, a Prosperity Gospel preacher who does not know the message of Jesus of the Bible but broadcasts that his Jesus demands he have a luxury jet.⁶⁴ He sat on the Board of Regents of Oral Roberts University who awarded Duplantis an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1999.

Jesse Duplantis rides in a Dassault Falcon 7X. It is his fourth jet valued at $54 million, and was assigned to join his trinity of luxury private jets.⁶⁵ It has room for 20 passengers. Duplantis defended his choice by saying: “I really believe that if Jesus was physically on the earth today he wouldn’t be riding a donkey. Think about that for a minute. He’d be in an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world.” ⁶⁶

But Duplantis’ extravagant lifestyle does not end with a fleet of  jets. He also lives “modestly” in a sprawling mansion that “the will of God [sic] gave to him by moving the hearts of believers”–without mentioning the poverty of the Jesus of the Gospels, or how Jesus had nowhere “to lay his head” or even a rock for a pillow: και λεγει αυτω ο ιησους αι αλωπεκες φωλεους εχουσιν και τα πετεινα του ουρανου κατασκηνωσεις ο δε υιος του ανθρωπου ουκ εχει που την κεφαλην κλινη⁶⁷ and in Luke 9:58: και ειπεν αυτω ο ιησους αι αλωπεκες φωλεους εχουσιν και τα πετεινα του ουρανου κατασκηνωσεις ο δε υιος του ανθρωπου ουκ εχει που την κεφαλην κλινη indicating that Jesus was a refugee without a home⁶⁸ telling his followers that they might have to flee oppression and seek sanctuary elsewhere but in their homeland: ²³ οταν δε διωκωσιν υμας εν τη πολει ταυτη φευγετε εις την αλλην αμην γαρ λεγω υμιν ου μη τελεσητε τας πολεις του ισραηλ εως αν ελθη ο υιος του ανθρωπου.[Matthew 10:23.]  The square footage of the home is nearly 35,000 square feet (depending if you count bathrooms, or if not, then 34,986 feet). The number of bedrooms and bathrooms is unknown but is definitely in the double digits. If you want to see it, Jesse Duplantis address is 13912 River Rd, Destrehan, LA 70047.⁶⁹ Here is an interior photograph  going to the different floors:

Jerry Savelle

Jerry Savelle, born December 24, 1946 in Vicksburg, MS, worked as an autobody repairman before beginning his ministry in 1974 as a traveling preacher⁷⁰ Before entering the ministry, Savelle worked as an autobody repairman. He grew up on the racetracks and knew he wanted to own an automotive business just like his dad but then at the age of eleven he watched Oral Roberts on television and wanted to be like him. He opened Jerry’s Paint and Body Shop in 1968, however in 1969 he again felt the call to go into ministry. In February 1969, and seeing the wealth of the Copelands, he entered the ministry.⁷¹

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer, the former Pauline Joyce Hutchison, was born in 1943 in south Saint Louis, MO. Her first marriage to a part-time car salesman, lasted five years. After her divorce she frequented bars before meeting and marrying Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman. She was “drunk with the Spirit of God” in a local bowling alley and decided to become a preacher although she did not go to church. Her husband suggested that they begin a television ministry which initially aired in Chicago. Then she began to make money–and considered herself “blessed” so she invested in home and jets.⁷² Her loyalty to Trump was bought. Fenton-based Joyce Meyer Ministries was approved for a forgivable loan worth $5 million to $10 million — the largest sum an individual entity could apply for — but it was only one of tens of thousands of religious organizations that received a total of $7.3 billion in pandemic aid from the Small Business Administration.⁷³

In all, about 88,400 small business loans were made to religious organizations, including televangelist Joyce Meyer’s, which in 2007-2011 was investigated by the Senate over its finances. Many observed it was another chink in her armor. Quick to retort tartly, she spat, “there is no need for us to apologize for being blessed.”⁷⁴ Later in life, Joyce Meyer posted a video on Instagram Tuesday where she admitted that she had gotten some of it wrong in regard to prosperity gospel and faith.⁷⁵

Meyer said, “I’m glad for what I learned about prosperity, but it got out of balance. I’m glad for what I learned about faith, but it got out of balance.” She continued, “So, every time someone had a problem in their life it was ‘cause they didn’t have enough faith. If you got sick, you didn’t have enough faith. If your child died, you didn’t have enough faith.” “Well, that’s not right,” she added. Meyer went on to note that the Bible does not promise Christians that they will have it easy in life.⁷⁶ She has five homes.

Creflo and Taffi Dollar

Equally corrupt, Creflo Augustus Dollar,⁷⁷ born 1962, and founded his religion in 1986  in College Park, GA, in the cafeteria of Kathleen Mitchell Elementary School in College Park, with eight people attending. To get more people to hear his message he believed he needed a jet–and in time bought a Gulfstream G650 for $67,050 so that he could “reach out to everyone” with his message of Jesus. ⁷⁸ A preacher of the “Prosperity Gospel” who has used it to enrich himself, faced criticism when he bought his Gulfstream. He retorted, “If I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me.⁷⁹

Dollar has a criminal past: he choked and hit his 15-year-old daughter for wanting to go to a party; her 19-year-0ld daughter corroborated most of her sister’s account.⁸⁰ Dollar said he put his hands around her throat, punched her, and started hitting her with his shoe, then wrestled her to the floor and spanked when she became “disrespectful”. A deputy noticed a scratch on the child’s neck. Her mother, the wife of Dollar, said she saw nothing because she is co-pastor of the church.⁸¹ There was no apology to anyone by Creflo or Taffi Dollar who claimed that they were just admonishing their children as commanded in Exodus:⁸² כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ and throughout [sic] the Bible they held as being the word of their god and an injunction on and of their ministry of the word of their god. Old Testament preachers consider dishonouring parents by striking or cursing them was punishable by death follow the Torah.⁸³

Joel Osteen

Joel Osteen another preacher of prosperity,⁸⁴ born March 5, 1963, is based in Houston, Texas, and claims that Jesus wants everyone to be rich, so justifies his need to have an Airbus A319 to tell the world that Jesus never said he wanted people to be poor. He charges $30 to $50 to attend one of his “rallies” or “events”. Seats in the 100 section sell for $100 to $150. Floor seats, in high demand, sell for $380 to $700.⁸⁵ Osteen is one of the loudest voices in the “Prosperity Gospel” movement and uses his $86 million dollar jet to spread the word and make himself rich.⁸⁶ Snoops notes that in the past Osteen had a net worth of more than $40 million, that he lived in a $10.5 million mansion, and that his Lakewood Church received $4.4 million in PPP Covid-19-relief loans. “Osteen had a net worth of more than $40 million, that he lived in a $10.5 million mansion, and that his Lakewood Church received $4.4 million in PPP Covid-19-relief loans.

Osteen does own a home in Houston that is valued at around $10 million,⁸⁷ and his Lakewood Church did receive a $4.4 million PPP loan.⁸⁸  Claims about Osteen’s net worth, however, are just estimations. We found estimates for Osteen’s net worth⁸⁹ ranging from $40⁹⁰ to $100 million,⁹¹ which indicates that these are little more than guessing.

While we can’t determine Osteen’s exact net worth, it is safe to say that he’s wealthy. In times of tragedy and overwhelming human need, Joel Osteen conveniently forgot the message of Jesus in his Bible: ³⁵ επεινασα γαρ και εδωκατε μοι φαγειν εδιψησα και εποτισατε με ξενος ημην και συνηγαγετε με ³⁶ γυμνος και περιεβαλετε με ησθενησα και επεσκεψασθε με εν φυλακη ημην και ηλθετε προς με ³⁷ τοτε αποκριθησονται αυτω οι δικαιοι λεγοντες κυριε ποτε σε ειδομεν πεινωντα και εθρεψαμεν η διψωντα και εποτισαμεν ³⁸ ποτε δε σε ειδομεν ξενον και συνηγαγομεν η γυμνον και περιεβαλομεν ³⁹ ποτε δε σε ειδομεν ασθενη η εν φυλακη και ηλθομεν προς σε ⁴⁰ και αποκριθεις ο βασιλευς ερει αυτοις αμην λεγω υμιν εφ οσον εποιησατε ενι τουτων των αδελφων μου των ελαχιστων εμοι εποιησατε⁹²

Joel Osteen did not want to open his church for tropical storm victims, claiming that it was flooded. After mounting pressure from both followers and non-followers of the celebrity pastor and his famous church, Osteen finally issued a statement claiming he and Lakewood Church will house victims of Tropical Storm Harvey “once the cities and county shelters reach capacity.” Osteen’s father’s church, Lakewood Church, holds up to 16,000. Osteen claimed that the building was “inaccessible due to severe flooding.”⁹³

Paul and Jan Crouch

Paul and Jan Crouch, profiteers off the Bible own two jets: a Hawker 800XP (valued at $10-$13,5 million) ⁹⁴and a Bombardier BD0700-1A10 that cost $8 million ⁹⁵. This odious couple founded Trinity Broadcasting Network, paying Paul $400,000 as President, and Jan $365 as co-founder. Jan granddaughter alleged that her grand mother embezzled money from Trinity Broadcasting Network.⁹⁶ A  jury awarded the televangelists granddaughter $2 million in the Trinity Broadcasting molestation scandal in which the granddaughter, Cerra, was sexually abused at age 13 in an Atlanta hotel room by a thirty-year-old Trinity employee.⁹⁷

Marion Gordon Robertson

Pat Robertson, born 1930 in Lexington, Virginia. He was baptized Marion Gordon Robertson. He was nicknamed Pat by his six-year-old brother who enjoyed patting him on the check, and saying “pat, pat, pat.”⁹⁸ Pat graduated from Yale Law School, but failed the New York bar exam. He was unemployed for months because of his abrasive personality. He had little time for religion until he saw how lucrative faith or the preaching of faith could be. Robertson calls non-Christians “termites,” Hindus “demonic,” and blamed the 9/11 attacks on, among others, feminists, LGBT people, and the ACLU.⁹⁹ Few pastors have been more divisive or embody the worst televangelist movement more than Pat Robertson – down to the luxury private jet. In Robertson’s case, that means a C-21 Learjet Model 35, which was first introduced in 1973. However much Robertson may have paid for it originally, as of 2018 Learjets were said to start at  $500K. ¹⁰⁰ In 2020, Robertson predicted that Trump would win the 2020 presidential election, then universal chaos would ensue, then the end of the world: “What I think very frankly is the only thing that will fulfill the word of Jesus … is some kind of asteroid strike on the globe,’’ he said. “It’s sudden destruction. It’s not going to be some nuclear war. We’re not going to be allowed to blow this earth up.”¹⁰¹ Robertson has made such prophesies before and was wrong. In 1976, he predicted the world would end in 1982. And in his 1990 book, “The New Millennium,” he said the world would be destroyed on April 29, 2007.¹⁰² All are paid for–by “believers” (many of whom are renters and impoverished). Robertson argues that all who believe in his god will achieve the same rewards “in heaven and on earth” and so, continues to beg for their offerings to speed his missionary work forward even if they starve.

Like most televangelists and tent preachers, modern day Elmer Gantrys, Pat Robertson enjoys the good life. He owns at least two mansions, a jet, and other perks of the his prefatory pastorate. He has claimed these properties and other luxuries were “gifts” from his god who rewards him even though most of his fleeced flock live modestly to poor. Robertson has never been known as a “generous giver” and a benefactor if it did not help him.

Mark Barclay

Mark Barclay,¹⁰³ asks for donations of $79K to paint his private jet, a Cessna Citation III,¹⁰⁴ plus jet-fuel required for him to speak “sowing toward the jet fuel-burn cost. A televangelist out of Midland Michigan dubbed as the “Preacher of Righteousness” has asked his followers in a letter for $79,000 to repaint a luxury jet he says “actually belongs” to the Lord. Mark Barclay of Mark Barclay Ministries sent out a letter dated May 2013, asking for $79,000 to repaint the Citation III 650 purchased by his organization in 2012 because the paint had started to chip, according to a recent report by PimpPreacher.com, a website with the tagline, “Exposing the Greed in Our Pulpits.”

Barclay likes to be numbered among the Evangelical Pastors for Trump.¹⁰⁵ He is said to speak in a “prophetic voice” about End Times on earth.¹⁰⁶ He holds a “National Holy Spirit Conference” every year in Midland,  MI–that many consider a rabid cult.¹⁰⁷ He believes that he can raise people from the dead (rescuing his granddaughter from his swimming pool after she lost consciousness by performing CPR). Like all predators, Barclay claims what he enjoys is determined by his god–the believers are only giving him “gifts” that his god tells them to offer as “tithes” and “offerings”–totally ignoring what his Bible tells about tithes and offerings:

“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord: it is holy to the Lord.” as stated in Leviticus 27:30:  וְכָל־מַעְשַׂ֨ר הָאָ֜רֶץ מִזֶּ֤רַע הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ מִפְּרִ֣י הָעֵ֔ץ לַיהוָ֖ה ה֑וּא קֹ֖דֶשׁ לַֽיהוָֽה׃ Nothing in the Torah or New Testament says to give money, property, clothing or anything else–and then not to preachers or priests but to god.

Facebook aiding predators misinformation

What is not surprising is that most white evangelical christian pastors, preachers, and priests, got fed information (especially misinformation on COVID) from Eastern European troll farms. Nineteen of the 20 top Christian Facebook pages were run by troll farms out of Kosovo and Macedonia¹⁰⁸ in 2019 according to a leaked internal report.

Their content was reaching 140 million US users per month—75% of whom had never followed any of the pages. They were seeing the content because Facebook’s content-recommendation system had pushed it into their news feeds. “Instead of users choosing to receive content from these actors, it is our platform that is choosing to give [these troll farms] an enormous reach,” wrote the report’s author, Jeff Allen, a former senior-level data scientist at Facebook. The troll farm pages also combined to form the largest Christian American page on Facebook, 20 times larger than the next largest—reaching 75 million US users monthly, 95% of whom had never followed any of the pages.¹⁰⁹

Bad cops–predatory police punctuating racism

Most police and a majority of sheriffs think they are a privileged class of people and above the law.¹¹⁰ In a national survey, 49% believe that “most police officers think they are above the law.” This view is held by larger shares of black and Hispanic Americans, younger people, lower income individuals, and Democrats. About two-thirds (64%) of African Americans and 52% of Hispanics believe police “generally” are not held accountable for misconduct.¹¹¹ Majorities of millennials (58%) and those earning less than $30,000 a year (54%) doubt police misconduct is punished.⁴⁰ The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 introduced by House Democrats this week contains a provision that is likely to become the subject of lively debate. The proposal is extremely important from a symbolic perspective. The Supreme Court has used the doctrine in recent years to send a message to lower courts that it wants less litigation against police.¹¹³ The doctrine of qualified immunity muddies the principle of equal justice under law. Nor is qualified immunity contained in the text of any federal statute. It was invented by the Supreme Court in a series of cases, most importantly the 1982 decision of Harlow v. Fitzgerald 457 U.S. 800 102 S Ct 2727 73 L.Ed. 396.¹¹⁴ The basic idea of the doctrine is to create an exception to the important civil rights statute known as Section 1983.¹¹⁵ That law, whose origins date back to 1871, says that a state or local government official who violates a citizen’s constitutional rights “under color of law” can be sued in federal court and held liable for monetary damages.

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