« Everything is the way it is because it got that way

Not my VBS

I never formally attended Vacation Bible School, but my house was across the street from the Lutheran church, so sometimes I was tempted. There were kids playing outside! They were playing a beanbag game! So I wandered over a few times, and I was encouraged by the sunday school to do so. Forgive me, for I sinned.

It was mostly harmless, I think — the theme was just to have fun while under the umbrella of the church. That’s all. I guess the church has gotten more aggressive nowadays.

In a bizarre, disturbing scene that’s gone viral on TikTok, a church appeared to stage a fake execution of a man—involving realistic-looking guns and military uniforms—during Vacation Bible School. As the man is being murdered, the children are cheering in unison, “Take him out! Blow him up!” The military men then take the body outside (and out of view), where it’s suggested by the pastor they’re going to “blow him up.”

It’s disturbing that children were not only watching this scene, they were encouraged to cheer on the players machine-gunning the victim. Is this where a faith centered on the public execution of a disruptor of the status quo leads us?

The preacher at that church rationalizes the scene by saying that murdered man represented sin or satan, so it was OK to kill them. I’m sure Jesus would agree that children should be taught to kill sinners. They deserve death, after all.

I wonder if this church teaches that LGBTQ+ people are sinners?

« Everything is the way it is because it got that way

Comments

  1. Alverant says

    Remember kids, gun solve all your problems. Don’t need a trial. Just shoot the person you told was evil.
    Imagine if they were Muslim.

  3. Bill The Splut says

    They couldn’t have just…DRESSED THE GUY AS SATAN?
    Not like their version of a Muslim or Antifa?
    Imagine if it was a guy with a blond toupee and orange skin…

  4. says

    The preacher at that church rationalizes the scene by saying that murdered man represented sin or satan…

    If he had explained that to the audience in advance, the cameraperson didn’t record it. Not that such context (or any other context for that matter) would have made this disgraceful fiasco any less disgraceful. Whatever message that idiot preacher was trying to convey, he did an absolutely horrid, inexcusable job of it. I’m inclined to think this guy is so full of incoherent unfocused hate as to be unable to properly express or articulate himself at all.

  5. david says

    Luke 19:27 But those mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me.

  6. Pierce R. Butler says

    No doubt Stephen Miller is on the phone now: “Pastor Walker, could you come to DC to share your wisdom with the Oklahoma National Guard troops protecting our precious Reflecting Pool?”

    The previous “Friendly Atheist” post is just as alarming, in a different way –

    According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 53% of Americans say teachers should be allowed to lead their classes in prayer as long as students aren’t required to participate. Another 8% say teachers should be allowed to lead prayers and students should be required to take part. That means 61% of Americans believe government employees should be allowed to lead religious exercises in public school classrooms.

  7. John Morales says

    When I saw the post title, my ready referent was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBScript

    —

    david @5, indeed. But, you see, it’s a parable. Metaphorical.

    Just because the putative King clearly represents Jebus does not mean the sentiment applies, apparently.

    (Always have been amused when bad bits are allegory, but the good bits are just bits when interpreting the Babble)

  9. says

    The Bible says we’re all sinners. Perhaps President Trump will see the video and decide to launch all our ICBMs and just take the the whole damned human race out of the picture once and for all. The good news? SCOTUS will be gone, too.

  11. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Rev 6:9-11: The fifth seal: Martyrs beg God for vengeance, to kill their friends and neighbors.

    Rev 14:14-20: Jesus and an angel kill trillions with their sickles, then juice the corpses in a winepress. Based on the volume of blood produced, it was 24 trillion adults.

  12. StevoR says

    What. The. Actual. Fuck.

    I wonder if this church teaches that LGBTQ+ people are sinners?

    I don’t.

    I also don’t think they emphasise forgiveness or often teach the old “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone” or “Live by the sword,and you die by the sword” or parable of the Samaritan verses there.

  13. John Morales says

    CA7746, nope. Not Jeebus.
    Here, my emphasis, quoting your own adduced citation:

    “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.”

    It’s basically recapitulating the Old Testament, specifically Daniel 7:13:
    “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.”

    Definitely not Jesus.

    The KJV NT was translated from the Koine Greek, and in that language they are:
    ho huios tou anthrōpou, literally “the Son of the Man.”
    vs
    homoion huion anthrōpou,literally “one like a son of man” (a human figure)

  15. John Morales says

    [meta]

    Reminds me of the idiom “not one iota of difference” , which is from similar Babblical discussions in C4.

    Trinitarians held that Jesus was homoousios (ὁμοούσιος), that is “of the same substance” or “same essence” as God, whereas the rest held he was homoiousios (ὁμοιούσιος): Meaning “of a similar substance” or “similar essence”. See? One iota.

    (Guess which one won)

  16. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Son of Man: Meaning and who it is in the Bible
    By Joshua Schachterle PhD in NT and Early Christianity

    the book of Revelation clearly draws its portrait of the Son of Man as Christ directly from Daniel 7:

    and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. —Revelation 1:13

    Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand! —Revelation 14:14

    […] whether or not Jesus himself used this phrase to refer to himself, the early church attributed it to him, believing he was the coming cosmic judge. Jesus’ sayings about the coming kingdom of God would probably have been interpreted in this light, with Jesus himself being the agent who would be “coming on the clouds of heaven.”

    In Acts 7:55-56, for instance, just before he is stoned to death, we are told that Stephen

    gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

    […]
    In the New Testament, Jesus uses the phrase, changed from “one like a son of man” to “the Son of Man” to refer to his own ministry, to refer to his future agony, death, and resurrection, and finally to refer to an eschatological figure as outlined in Daniel. The book of Revelation also refers to the Danielic “one like a Son of Man” to talk about an exalted Jesus.

    While scholars have explained this phrase in a variety of ways, Larry Hurtado thinks that the most likely explanation for its use is that early Christians did not consider it a title but rather a description of Jesus: he was “THE Son of Man,” the perfect example of a human being as well as the divine Son of God.

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