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from The Daily Mail:

Could ChatGPT create a new RELIGION? World is on the verge of a contemporary faith started by an AI writing its own sacred texts, historian claims

The world is on the verge of a new religion created by artificial intelligence, the historian Yuval Noah Harari has claimed.

The academic – known for his bestselling book Sapiens – said software such as ChatGPT could attract worshippers by writing its own sacred texts.

Speaking at a science conference, he said AI had crossed a new frontier by ‘gaining mastery’ of our language and was now capable of using it to shape human culture.

Dr Harari used the event to add his voice to growing calls for urgent regulation over the sector, which experts have warned is amid a ‘dangerous’ arms race.

He said: ‘In the future we might see the first cults and religions in history whose revered texts were written by a non-human intelligence.

‘Of course, religions throughout history claimed that their holy books were written by unknown human intelligence. This was never true before.

‘This could become true very, very quickly, with far-reaching consequences.’

Speaking at the Frontiers Forum event in Switzerland, he warned machines now had the tools to ‘cocoon us in a Matrix-like world of illusions’, referring to the 1999 sci-film film.

The Hollywood blockbuster depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source.

He said: ‘Contrary to what some conspiracy theories assume, you don’t really need to implant chips in people’s brains in order to control them or to manipulate them.

‘For thousands of years, prophets and poets and politicians have used language and storytelling in order to manipulate and to control people and to reshape society.

‘Now AI is likely to be able to do it. And once it can… it doesn’t need to send killer robots to shoot us. It can get humans to pull the trigger.’

Calling for tighter regulation, he said: ‘We need to act quickly before AI gets out of our control. Drug companies cannot sell people new medicines without first subjecting these products to rigorous safety checks.’

He added: ‘Similarly, governments must immediately ban the release into the public domain of any more revolutionary AI tools before they are made safe.’

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from The Guardian:

The Dalai Lama has apologised after he faced allegations of inappropriate behaviour after kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to “suck his tongue” at a public event in India.

The interaction, which took place in late February at the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamshala, was attended by about 100 young students who had just graduated from the Indian M3M Foundation.

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhism and has lived in exile in India since 1959, when Tibet was annexed by China.

In a video that has gone viral, one of the young male students approached a microphone at the event and asked the Dalai Lama: “Can I hug you?”

The Dalai Lama, 87, told the boy to come up to the platform where he was seated. Motioning to his cheek, he is heard saying “first here”, after which the child kissed him and gave him a hug.

The Dalai Lama kept hold of the boy, saying “I think here also” and then planted a kiss on his lips. “And suck my tongue,” the Dalai Lama then said, sticking out his tongue, forehead to forehead with the student. The boy quickly stuck out his own tongue and went to move away while the Dalai Lama laughed and pulled the boy in for another hug, as the audience laughed.

The spiritual leader then spoke to the boy, advising him to look to those who create “peace and happiness” and not to follow “human beings who always kill other people”, before giving him a final hug.

As the video spread across the internet it was condemned by many, who called it “inappropriate”, “scandalous” and “disgusting”. The controversy prompted an apology from the office of the Dalai Lama, who said his behaviour had been “innocent and playful”.

It said in a statement: “His holiness wishes to apologise to the boy and his family as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.

“His holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident.”

The Dalai Lama has faced previous controversies. In 2019 he caused an outcry after suggesting that if the Dalai Lama returned as a woman “she should be more attractive”, for which his office apologised.

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from The Disntr:

The cult of Dionysus was a Greek mystery religion centered around the worship of the god of wine, fertility, and ecstasy. This cult involved frenzied dancing, music, and sexual rituals, particularly including homosexual practices among male worshippers. Same-sex relationships and acts were considered a natural part of the cult’s worship, and it was believed that they helped to bring the worshippers closer to their god.

Male followers of the cult were known as “maenads” and “satyrs” and would often dress in women’s clothing, wear makeup, and engage in effeminate behavior as a part of their worship. These practices were seen as a way to transcend traditional gender roles and to connect with the divine in a more profound way. The cult of Dionysus was often viewed as subversive and dangerous by the mainstream culture of ancient Greece, but it remained popular throughout the Hellenistic period and beyond.

That’s the best description I can give for the drag queen cult that is taking over our nation as we speak and sadly, governments, schools, and even places that call themselves “churches” have been given over completely to the ideology of this cult.

The recent event at the Minnesota State Capitol building, where a drag show was held for Transgender Day of Visibility, has caused outrage and controversy. The performance by a drag queen who goes by the name Tomi Saint James, known for posting nude photos online, was explicit and involved dancing on the North Star symbol in the middle of the rotunda. The event was hosted by OutFront Minnesota, an LGBTQ civil rights group, and live-streamed by Minnesota Democrats, with even small children and babies in attendance.

The Democratic speakers, including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and two representatives, were overshadowed by James and the controversy he stirred. This event is not an isolated case, as another Democratic representative recently took her child to a drag brunch hosted by Lady Martina, who has been criticized for performing at a taxpayer-funded “family-friendly” drag event and for involvement in incest-themed pornography and self-proclaimed satanism.

The backlash to these events has resulted in a bill in the Minnesota Senate seeking to classify drag performances as adult entertainment to prevent them from taking place on public property. The bill’s author, Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, argues that drag performances are physically unsafe for children and have a negative impact on their minds by desensitizing them to unhealthy sexual behavior.

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from independent sentinel:

While the world watches deranged Soros-bought DAs and AGs witch hunt for crimes to charge Donald Trump, the world is dumping the dollar. We could one day look like Venezuela with wheelbarrows of worthless cash. It was the Barack Obama dream. He wanted us to look like the rest of the world, especially the Third one.

Weaponizing SWIFT is destroying the dollar, along with our reckless monetary policies. It was predictable. The sentinel predicted it, and if the Sentinel knew, the administration knew. They did it anyway and told us ‘evil Russia’ would collapse. Russia did not collapse, and its future looks pretty good.

Last week, China and Brazil reached an agreement to settle trades in one anothers’ currencies.  India and China plan to trade in their own currency.

India and Malaysia have recently begun using the Indian Rupee to settle certain trades, and there have been perennial warnings about Saudi Arabia and other energy exporters moving away from the dollar. On that note, China also recently executed a test trade for natural gas with France settled in yuan.

American Institute for Economic Research says it’s not only the US’s weaponization of the dollar. It’s our abuse of it.

“It’s not just the conscription of the dollar in economic warfare, but increasingly error-fraught monetary policy regimes that are driving various interests away from the greenback. The monetary policy response to the 2008 financial crisis saw the dollar’s value whipped around unpredictably, and the response to the outbreak of COVID was even more frenetic. The massively expansionary response to the pandemic in 2020 was followed by an initially dismissive posture toward the outbreak of inflation, which reached four-decade highs before an aggressive contractionary shift in policy that destabilized precarious financial institutions was implemented.”

Tehran Times claims there is a global campaign. “A global uprising has begun to overcome the domination of the dollar, but the point to consider is that the wise leader of the revolution has been emphasizing the importance of this issue for years.”

At least 56 nations are looking to shed the dollar. Some see cryptocurrencies as a way out of the dollar—another dangerous boondoggle.

BIG CHANGES ARE COMING IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS

The Kenyan President warned his people to get rid of the dollar because it won’t be worth much. He is probably going to digital money. He said the market will be different in a couple of weeks.

“I am giving you free advice that those of you who are hoarding dollars, you shortly might go into losses. You better do what you must do because this market is going to be different in a couple of weeks.”  We think Kenya’s going digital.

WinePressNews:

It is no secret that the US Dollar is becoming less and less valuable by the day, losing its purchasing power at a rapid scale, and with the clear divide that has been created between the East and Western world due to the Russia-Ukraine war, many nations are growing sick and tired of the dollar and are now looking to dump it before it depreciates in value some more…

One measure President Ruto said the State is taking is finalizing an arrangement that will allow oil importers to purchase the commodity using shillings instead of dollars. Gas imports account for 30% of the country’s yearly import bill.

Deranged Politicians Are Destroying Democracy 

While the world watches the Manhattan DA arrest Donald Trump for a non-crime, they are dumping our dollar. Many are pushing freedom-robbing digital money.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele says America has lost all arguments when it comes to the concept of democracy in the midst of the Trump indictment and arraignment.

Last week when it was announced that President Trump would be indicted, Bukele put out a statement via social media that stated, “Imagine if this happened to a leading opposition presidential candidate here in El Salvador.”

He later added: “Sadly, it’ll be very hard for US Foreign Policy to use arguments such as ‘democracy’ and ‘free and fair elections’, or try to condemn ‘political persecution’ in other countries, from now on.”

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from g3 ministries:

hen Christ was asked about the great commandment in the Law, he answered without hesitation: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37). True worship of God is centered in our affections for him. As Jonathan Edwards rightly observed, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” Indeed, a purely intellectualized worship is no worship at all.

This is one reason God has commanded that his people sing in corporate worship. Singing, Paul explains, allows believers to express their hearts to God, particularly thanksgiving (Col 3:16, Eph 5:19). The inspired songs of Scripture are filled with heart expression such as lamentcontritionthanksgiving, love, and praise.

However, the role of emotion and music in worship today has departed considerably from biblical precept and example. In fact, I would suggest that the relationship of emotion and music to worship in contemporary Christianity has shifted to such a significant degree that it hardly resembles what Scripture models.

The relationship of emotion and music to worship in contemporary Christianity has shifted to such a significant degree that it hardly resembles what Scripture models.

This reality is clearly evident with recent events like the faux revival at Asbury University, the global popularity of worship music of groups like Hillsong, or, frankly, the entire contemporary worship movement. It is almost impossible to engage in thoughtful, biblical conversation with contemporary Christians about worship, music, and emotion due to fundamental shifts that have come to characterize contemporary evangelicalism.

In each of these cases, intense emotional expression has come to define the essence of true relationship with God. “The students at Asbury are so passionate about God!” So we dare not question the validity of what’s happening. “I can feel God’s presence in that worship!” So why wouldn’t we promote that music? If the nature of true worship is love for God, why would we question whether these movements are biblical?

John MacArthur summarized the reason well in the recent Shepherd’s Conference Q&A session when he described what happened at Asbury as “chords over Christ.” “Shut off the music and see what happens,” he challenged.

MacArthur put his finger on the issue I have been identifying for many years: music has taken on an unprecedented and, indeed, unbiblical role in contemporary evangelical worship today, in which music is used to create what modern Christians assume to be “feelings of spirituality,” “the felt presence of God,” and “revival.” And because this function has become so intrenched in contemporary evangelicalism, to question the music, the feelings, or the experiences is to question the very work of God in many evangelicals’ minds.

No wonder I get so much hate mail.

Music has taken on an unbiblical role in contemporary evangelical worship today in which music is used to create what modern Christians assume to be “feelings of spirituality,” “the felt presence of God,” and “revival.”

Nothing More Than Feelings

Yet carefully defining the true nature of spiritual experience based upon the Word of God is critical. And, in particular, we need to recognize how modern notions of “emotion” are not the same thing as what the Bible calls praise, joy, or love.

The category of “emotion” is a relatively recent term, only entering common discourse about 200 years ago. Prior to that, people didn’t use the term, and consequently, they had a far more nuanced understanding of human sensibility.

Thomas Dixon traces the creation and evolution of this idea in his very helpful book, From Passions to Emotions. He demonstrates how the idea of emotion “is little more than a hundred years old. Darwin’s Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (1872) and William James’ “What is an Emotion” (1884) are the first studies of the emotions using scientific methodology.”1

The category of emotion, shaped as it was by Enlightenment rationalism and Darwinian evolution, is defined primarily by effects upon the body, what we might call “feelings.” Then, with this more recent category firmly entrenched in modern thought, Christians read biblical descriptions of worship and relationship with God and define such realities also primarily in terms of feelings. Consequently, exhilaration, euphoria, and other merely chemical affects upon the body have come to define Christian worship and spirituality for most Christians today.

However, the biblical concept of affection was something entirely different. The fruit of the Spirit, for example, are by definition affections not inherently defined by physical feelings. Since God is a Spirit and does not have a body like man, affections like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are fundamentally spiritual. Though each of these affections certainly may affect the body, they are not defined by physical feelings.

Furthermore, even the nature of how spiritual affections affect the body or what kinds of feelings may accompany them differ from the nature of physical feelings typically associated with worship in contemporary evangelicalism.

For example, Michael Brown recently tweeted the following:

Immediately you can see his assumption that the modern category of emotion is inherently an essential part of worship. And so I responded to his tweet by listing many passages that do, indeed, caution against unbridled physical feelings:

  • Romans 12:3 – Think with sober judgment
  • Gal 5:23 – The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
  • 1 Thess 5:6, 8 – Be sober.
  • 1 Tim 2:9 – women should be self-controlled.
  • 1 Tim 3:2 – An overseer is to be sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable.
  • 1 Tim 3:8 – Deacons must be dignified.
  • 1 Tim 3:11 – Deacon’s wives must be dignified and sober-minded.
  • 2 Tim 1:7 – God gave us a spirit of self-control.
  • 2 Tim 3:3 – The last days will be characterized by lack of self-control.
  • 2 Tim 4:5 – Paul commands Timothy to be sober-minded.
  • Titus 1:8 – An overseer should be self-controlled and disciplined.
  • Titus 2:2-6 – Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women are to be reverent in behavior. Younger women and younger men are to be self-controlled.
  • Titus 2:12 – Renounce ungodliness and worldy passions, but be self-controlled.
  • 1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
  • 1 Peter 4:7 – The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
  • 1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
  • 2 Peter 1:6 – Add to your faith self-control and steadfastness.

Unbridled emotion is actually a mark of spiritual immaturity, while true spiritual affections have more modest affects upon the body. Religious affections will be characterized, not by intense euphoria, but by what Jonathan Edwards calls “the lamb-like, dove-like spirit or temper of Jesus Christ.” Truly Spirit-formed religious affections, according to Edwards, “naturally beget and promote such a spirit of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness, and mercy, as appeared in Christ.”2

Instead of cultivating true biblical religious affections, contemporary evangelicalism has become what a former professor of mine called a “glandular religion.”

Musical Manipulation

With the secular category of emotion thoroughly impacting Christian interpretation of worship and relationship with God, Christians in the nineteenth century began to look for means to cultivate the kinds of feelings they assumed to be essential characteristics of conversion, spiritual growth, and worship.

They found the perfect tool in pop music.

Charles Finney was among the first to urge those leading his revival services to use music to create “feelings of spirituality.” Believing it was the preacher’s responsibility to create the proper conditions for revival through raising excitement, a kind of music designed to quickly manufacture such excitement was the ideal stimulant.

And stimulant is exactly what that music is. Pop music is specifically designed to produce immediate gratification through direct stimulation of bodily feelings. After Finney, this kind of music began to replace the substantive hymnody of church history past that was carefully chosen to give expression to biblical religious affections.

Since the earliest days of the church, church leaders had cautioned against using music in worship that was simply designed to stir up feelings. Clement of Alexandria, for example, insisted,

But we must abominate extravagant music, which enervates men’s souls, and leads to changefulness—now mournful, and then licentious and voluptuous, and then frenzied and frantic.3

Rather, Clement argued that the church’s hymnody should employ “temperate harmonies.”4 In A New Song for an Old World, Calvin Stapert notes how uniform this understanding of music was among early pastors and theologians.

This emphasis was renewed during the Reformation. Martin Luther and other German reformers insisted that worship music embody reverence. For example, Johann Konrad Dannhauer required that music be “sacred, glowing with love, humble, dignified, the praise of God sung by the voice of men and instruments with becoming grace and majesty,” contrasted with “profane music, which is unspiritual, frivolous, proud, irreverent.”5 Likewise, Balthasar Meisner insisted,

Let all levity, and sensualism be absent [in worship music]. On the contrary, let gravity and a pious intent of the mind prevail, which does not contemplate and pursue bare harmony but devoutly fits and joins to it the inmost desires and affections. For unless a ready spirit is joined to the turns of the voice and a vigilant and fervent heart to the varied words, we weary God and ourselves in vain with that melody. For not our voice but our prayer, not musical chords but the heart, and a heart not clamoring but loving, sings in the ear of God.6

John Calvin, too, insisted that music used for worship fit its solemn purpose, having “weight” and “majesty” rather than being “light” or “frivolous.”7

These theologians understood the proper place and function of music in worship. They knew that biblically, emotion and singing come as a result of the Spirit’s work through the Word of God in a believer’s life, not as a cause of the Holy Spirit’s work. Calvin Stapert helpfully makes this point with reference to Ephesians 5:18–19 and Colossians 3:16:

“Spirit filling” does not come as the result of singing. Rather, “Spirit filling” comes first; singing is the response. . . . Clear as these passages are in declaring that Christian singing is a response to the Word of Christ and to being filled with the Spirit, it is hard to keep from turning the cause and effect around. Music, with it stimulating power, can too easily be seen as the cause and the “Spirit filling” as the effect.8

“Such a reading of the passages,” Stapert argues, “gives song an undue epicletic function and turns it into a means of beguiling the Holy Spirit.” He argues that such a “magical epicletic function” characterized pagan worship music, not Christian.9

In other words, in Scripture, it is Christ over chords. True spiritual affections are created within us by allowing the Word of Christ to richly dwell within us; singing then helps us to express those affections that were created by the Spirit of Christ filling us with the Word of Christ.

Singing then helps us to express those affections that were created by the Spirit of Christ filling us with the Word of Christ.

The Pentecostalization of Evangelical Worship

The evangelical expectation of intense feelings manufactured by music as the essence of spirituality was only exacerbated by Pentecostalism in the twentieth century. Charismatic theologians argue that the Holy Spirit’s primary work in worship is that of making God’s presence known in observable, tangible ways such that worshipers can truly encounter God. This theology places a high emphasis and expectation in worship upon physical expressiveness and intensity, resulting in what is sometimes called a “Praise and Worship” theology of worship. The goal, in this theology, is to experience the presence of God in worship, but praise is considered the means through which Christians do so.

This change in theology of worship led to a new understanding of worship music perhaps best described by Ruth Ann Ashton’s 1993 God’s Presence through Music,10 raising the matter of musical style to a level of significance that Lim and Ruth describe as “musical sacramentality,” where music is now considered a primary means through which “God’s presence could be encountered in worship.”11

Musically Manufactured Emotion is No Work of God

We must be careful to define spiritual affections biblically and put music in its proper place. Otherwise, we risk worshiping chords instead of Christ.

The use of music to manufacture “feelings of spirituality” is exactly why Hillsong and the whole contemporary worship music movement are so popular—take away the music, and you eliminate the “feelings of spirituality.” In fact, the Hillsong documentary that came out last year made this very point:

The use of music to manufacture “revival” is what drove the events at Asbury—take away the music, and you eliminate the “revival.” Since when is a bunch of college kids swaying to music for multiple consecutive days revival?

MacArthur was right: in most of evangelicalism today, it is chords over Christ.

True religion does consist in the religious affections, and music is a wonderful gift from God that helps to give expression to the affections created by the Spirit through his Word.

But we must be careful to define spiritual affections biblically and put music in its proper place. Otherwise, we risk worshiping chords instead of Christ.

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from pjmedia:

On Monday, 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological woman who identified as transgender, murdered six people, including three children, at The Covenant School, a private Christian grade school in Tennessee.

This deadly attack was carried out the same week as a planned “Day of Vengeance” by transgender activists later this week.

The website of the Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN), declares, “Like the Stonewall Riots the gays and lesbians were experiencing what the trans community is facing now. This cycle of hate needs to end in fact it must. Allies, siblings we need you now more than ever. ‘I was a radical revolutionist. I still am a revolutionist…I am glad I was in the Stonewall Riot. I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought, ‘My god, the revolution is here. The revolution is finally here?’ —Sylvia Rivera.”

Currently, there is no known connection between the shooter and the group. On Monday, Nashville Chief of Police John Drake was asked whether Hale identifying as transgender played a role in her targeting the school, and he would not confirm this but indicated that it was a working theory and said it would be discussed at a later date.

The primary Day of Vengeance event is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Supreme Court in D.C., with additional events planned for March 31. LGBTQ activists specifically targeted Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was previously the target of an assassination attempt by a far-left activist last year.

The group purports to seek revenge for what they term “trans genocide,” a conspiracy theory that claims that transgender people are systemically targeted with violence. However, an examination of FBI statistics by the Daily Wire shows no proof to corroborate this claim. In 2021, only two of the 271 recorded hate crimes against transgender individuals resulted in murder. These figures are substantially lower than those of other groups and insufficient to substantiate allegations of “trans genocide.”

According to its website, the organization’s National Recruitment Director is Bo Belotti, 22. Belotti, a biological female who identifies as a man, was profiled by her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University, in December.

“[She] co-founded a statewide activist collective for trans people and served as a campaign manager for a city council candidate, a field organizer for Planned Parenthood’s political action committee, and a field organizer for Terry McAuliffe in his gubernatorial run. In addition, [she] was a fellow for Del. Elizabeth Guzman and interned with former Del. Joshua Cole before being promoted to a legislative aide for Cole.”

Belotti boasted of her efforts in helping to craft HB145, which mandated the development of model transgender policies for public schools. The resulting guidelines encouraged schools to conceal the gender transition of children from their parents.

There is currently no indication that the planned “Day of Vengeance” has been canceled. However, in the wake of Monday’s shooting, various social media accounts connected to the group have been made private.

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from DISNTR:

Recently, an alleged scandal has emerged which is gaining significant media attention. Australian Parliament member, Andrew Wilkie, has made serious allegations against the leaders of Hillsong Church, namely Brian Houston and Phil Dooley, accusing them of engaging in fraudulent activities such as money laundering and tax evasion. Wilkie has backed up his allegations with financial records and board papers, claiming that they provide evidence of Hillsong’s wrongdoings.

“Deputy speaker last year, a whistleblower provided me with financial records and board papers that show Hillsong is breaking numerous laws in Australia and around the world relating to fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion,” Wilkie told the speaker in the video clip provided below.

“For example, this document shows how, in 2021, four members of the Houston family and their friends enjoyed at a three-day luxury retreat in Cancun, Mexico, using $150,000 of church money. And these documents show former leader Brian Houston treating private jets like Ubers again or with church money.”

The evidence presented by Wilkie allegedly suggests that Hillsong Church has paid American televangelists, such as Joyce Meyer and T.D. Jakes, tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in honorariums for their engagements with the church.

“For example,” Wilkie said, “US Pastor Joyce Meyer enjoyed honorariums of $160,000, $133,000 100,030, $2,000. And US. Pastor T. D. Jakes received $71,000 and $120,000 with a staggering $77,000 worth of airfares to and from Australia thrown in.”

Further, some pastors received “curious payments” suggesting that Brian Houston may have used some of the money to illegally pay off “external pastors,” including US megachurch pastor of Church of the Highlands, Chris Hodges, who was selected to investigate allegations of Houston in a 2019 sexual misconduct scandal involving a female parishioner.

“There’s also the curious payments of $10,000 each to Paul de Jong and Chris Hodges, the external pastors who investigated allegations of Brian Houston Houston’s 2019 sexual misconduct in a Sydney hotel room involving a female parishioner.”

Furthermore, the financial records allegedly indicate that Hillsong Church earns $80 million more in Australian annual income than it publicly reports.

Wilkie has also highlighted that Hillsong’s Community Venues company funded the purchase of Festival Hall in Melbourne using a $15.7 million loan. The loan is unlikely to ever be repaid and is ineligible for tax-deductible church donations. The financial documents allegedly reveal that church funds were used to pay for luxury retreats, private jet trips, and shopping sprees that would “embarrass a Kardashian.”

These serious allegations against Hillsong Church and its leaders have sparked controversy in Australia, with many calling for further investigation to determine the validity of these claims. These well-known megachurch prosperity hucksters have always been known to be charlatans who feast off the menial incomes of their millions of followers, but if these allegations turn out to be true, there needs to be serious accountability.

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from protestia:

Last year an anonymous group of wealthy donors launched a 100 million dollar campaign for Jesus- the largest of its kind- with the “He Gets Us” thesis being plastered across TV and social media, aimed to attract cultural Christians and pagans to consider the man Jesus, and the way he relates to humankind. 

While that campaign promotion is monstrously huge in and of itself, unheard of for the Christian space, that investment is increasing tenfold. Jason Vanderground, President of the marketing firm managing the campaign, says that far from stopping at $100 million dollars, that number is expected to reach over $1 billion by 2025, and that’s just the first phase. He Gets Us is appearing in this year’s Superbowl, with the one ad buy costing nearly $20 million dollars. 

The videos, featuring moving black and white images playing under stirring music, were funded by the Servant Christian Foundation, a group whose donors remain anonymous. Marketing firm Haven conceptualized and crafted the non-denomination campaign, and popular ministry partner Gloo, which uses data to help Churches grow and develop receivables, supported the campaign, ensuring partners have the ability to respond to all upcoming inquiries.

Predictably, their campaign was woke, focusing on how Jesus was a marginalized immigrant refugee who was bullied for his empathy. Some examples:

Have you ever experienced frustration? Sorrow? Temptation? So has Jesus. Jesus understood what life was like for people in his day — especially for the marginalized. He was drawn to those on the fringes because he was one too: An immigrant. Homeless. Arrested. Bullied. Through it all, Jesus welcomed outcasts, stood up for women, hung out with troublemakers, even befriended enemies. He did it because of his radical love, empathy, and acceptance for all of us.

and

Jesus invited all to participate in the love, but not everyone was interested. The powerful and the wealthy were often threatened by Jesus’ movement because it always resisted systems of oppression. After all, many benefited from oppressing the poor, the sick, women, and even certain races that Jesus embraced throughout his activism. So, they didn’t just reject his invitation; they killed him for it.

ed flags everywhere.

In an article by Natasha Crain, she lists 7 things the campaign gets wrong with elaboration afterwards

  • The fact that Jesus “gets us,” stripped from the context of His identity, is meaningless.
  • Jesus is presented as an example, not a Savior.
  • The campaign’s stated goal is about inspiration, not a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
  • The campaign reinforces the problematic idea that Jesus’s followers have Jesus all wrong.
  • The campaign reinforces what culture wants to believe about Jesus while leaving out what culture doesn’t want to believe.
  • The campaign characterizes the so-called culture war in terms of secular social justice rather than underlying worldview differences.
  • The next steps offered by He Gets Us could lead someone far away from truth rather than toward it.

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from winepress news:

President Joe Biden’s wife Jill also made an appearance and speech.

Last night the annual Grammy awards ceremony was broadcast to U.S. audiences and abroad, awarding performing artists and groups for their music. The event however caused a ruckus online after two performing artists heavily glorified Satan and things associated with Satanism.

According to the official Grammy website, ‘Sam Smith and Kim Petras took the 65th GRAMMY Awards to the body shop with a transgressive performance of their smash collaboration “Unholy,”‘ the awarding body described.

“Unholy” was released in September of last year and ascended to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, thus propelling Smith and Petras to become the first publicly non-binary and trans artists to achieve such a feat.

Surrounded by long-haired acolytes in identical red sheaths, Smith kicked off the performance in an outfit of latex and a devil-horned top hat before Petras made her grand entrance in a giant cage guarded by a trio of she-devils.

“Mummy don’t know daddy’s getting hot/ At the body shop, doin’ something unholy,” the duo belted in hellish harmony as a wall of fire erupted on stage behind Petras’ personal prison.

Later that night the duo received a Grammy, where Petras took the opportunity to thank the many other transgender performers that paved the way for people such as themselves.

I want to thank all the incredible transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so I could be here tonight.
Sam graciously wanted me to accept this award because I’m the first transgender woman to win this award.
I don’t think I could be here without Madonna.

According to Variety Petras said backstage her performance was supposedly inspired by her not being accepted by religion.

I think a lot of people, honestly, have kind of labeled what I stand for and what Sam stands for as religiously not cool, and I personally grew up wondering about religion and wanting to be a part of it but slowly realizing it didn’t want me to be a part of it.

So it’s a take on not being able to choose religion. And not being able to live the way that people might want you to live, because as a trans person I’m already not kind of wanted in religion. So we were doing a take on that and I was kind of hellkeeper Kim.

At the end of the performance the broadcast cut away to commercial, but before it did, the Grammy’s mentioned that one of the show’s sponsors for the night was the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

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The cancellation news is here.

from Christian Headlines:

The conservative Christian group One Million Moms has launched a petition urging Disney to cancel its FXX animated sitcom series Little Demon. The show features a mother who was impregnated by Satan and gives birth to an Antichrist daughter.

The show, rated TV-MA, features graphic violence, nudity and satanic imagery. One Million Moms, which has petitioned against other controversial shows, is urging parents to sign their latest petition calling for Disney to cancel Little Demon.

According to Deadline, “Among other shenanigans, the comedy … shows Laura [the mother] nude with no pixelation. She strips down in the first episode to perform a ritual, while there are multiple instances of nudity throughout the series.”

“Thirteen years after being impregnated by Satan, a reluctant mother and her Antichrist daughter attempt to live an ordinary life,” Disney describes the show, according to The Christian Post.

In the petition, One Million Moms quotes the series creator Seth Kirschner, who allegedly told reporters, “We are going to keep going for it until we are told no.”

“Let us be sure they are told, ‘No!’ quickly!” the group contends.

“We must do so because Disney is introducing viewers, including children who might stumble across this series, to a world of demons, witches, and sorcery,” the petition says. “Along with the demonic content of this series, the minds of younger viewers will also be inundated with secular worldviews that reflect the current culture.”

One Million Moms also warns that the previews and commercials “include such horrific content that it is difficult for families who watch FXX to avoid its evil subject matter completely.”

“It is evident that Disney is trying ‘to portray witchcraft as a positive tool to fight evil.’ The first episode is more than enough for most Christian families to realize that Little Demon is an extremely dangerous series,” the organization stresses in the petition. “Titled “First Blood,” this initial episode of the premiere season is currently streaming.”

One Million Moms concluded the petition by urging Disney to “cancel this demonic show, Little Demon, immediately.”

As of this writing, over 20,000 people have signed the petition.

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