If Ericka was so 100% in on her convictions, the tweets would still be up and she wouldn’t be hiding behind a privacy wall. All she’s proven is that she’s a cowardly bigot who thinks she can dish it out without consequences. And guess what, sweetheart, actions always have consequences.
She attempted to come for Dolly because Dolly puts the lie to the persecution narrative white christian evangelicals try to push.
“They hate us because we are christians.”
Nope. Dolly is a Christian and we love her.
We just hate your raggedy racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, screw the poor, dominionist version of christianity.
Anyway. Imagine being some no account weirdo and thinking you have the juice to come for Dolly. The absolute delusion of “moral superiority” that would lead this woman to believe she could come for The Queen. *eyeroll*
Ta, Evan. Ericka doesn't know the first thing about being a good human, and claiming that her stance is biblically determined just showcases her ignorance.
True - they pick and choose the parts of the Bible that they like, just like they accuse others of doing. Except that those others focus on the parts that reflect the love for others that they aspire to. Oh, and where did Jesus condemn homosexuality? He urged his followers to help those in need, and condemned religious bigotry and hypocrisy. Funny that the evangelicals never seem to mention those things.
💯 They’re always complaining that progressive Christians “pick and choose” instead of “believing the whole Bible” but AS PER USUAL it’s projection.
At this point, the average Christian of any stripe is so far removed from the historical and cultural context in which the Bible was written that it’s basically ALL picking and choosing. Almost nobody is getting an education sufficient to suspend their own modern frameworks, understand what they’re reading, consider from that perspective what it might mean, and apply what they’ve learned to their own life. Most people are just reading the text directly onto their own context and ignoring whatever doesn’t make sense.
The difference is that progressives choose the bits that allow them to have a personal theology of love, and conservatives choose the bits that allow them to have a theology of self-righteous hate.
Personally, I’m a preacher’s kid who got an unusually robust (white evangelical) education in Biblical interpretation, and I still do a lot of “picking and choosing” — it’s just that these days I’m aware that I’m doing so, and I choose to be a decent human… not, say, an twit so far up my own ass I can’t appreciate Dolly Parton.
In Judaism, there is a story about two ancient Torah sages, Hillel and Shamai. Both were revered in their day. Hillel is associated with an expansive humanist scholarship, and Shamai with a highly technical and textual expertise. It was Hillel who, when asked to encapsulate the essence of Torah while standing on one foot, said “Treat others as you would have them treat yourself...the rest is commentary”.
Simple metric: If you're a christian and quoting from the old testament, you're doing it wrong. The whole POINT of the New Testament is that THAT'S the book that makes you a Christian, not Jewish. If you're just tapping into The Old testament, then you're effectively reading the Talmud
I'm pretty damn sure that if Jesus returns for his much-vaunted second coming, once the Repug Thugs heard what he had to say they'd crucify him all over again.
These people aren't Christians because the DO NOT follow the teachings of Jesus. They follow what that deranged, asexual bigot Paul taught. And the Old Testament! Ignoring the claim in John that says, "I am the alpha and the omega...what has gone before is past...this is the New Covenant."
I'm no doubt over simplifying things, but since I can't find much (any?) support for the bigotry in the four books of the Gospel, I tend to blame Paul for all the judgemental crap. I left Christianity long ago, but still lean on many of the lessons relayed in the Gospel, and can't think of much useful stuff to pull from those tracts Paul wrote. I sort of imagine people of his time getting one of his missives and rolling their eyes. "Oh crap, here's another one from that asshole Paul," they'd say. And then they'd pour themselves a big glass of wine, pull out the latest from Mr. Thinks He's Knows What Everyone Else Should Be Doing, and have themselves a good chuckle as someone volunteered to do the Dramatic Reading.
It also really chaps Christian conservatives asses when the call for decency and love comes from country music. That’s the last bastion of popular culture (well, that and NASCAR) that includes them, whose celebs don’t revile them, that make them feel just the tiniest bit cool, that they feel a team with. Every other bit of our culture - our music, our movies, our TV, our dance and theatre- it’s left them behind. Door shut. Ain’t never opening back up. To have a beloved COUNTRY icon turn on them with her “woke” mindset? Gutting.
Now if only they’d listen to the lyrics of Garth Brooks’ We Shall Be Free which he - a celeb they think is probably on their team- wrote in 1992.
It cracks me up that they somehow haven’t noticed Garth Brooks. He hasn’t been hiding! It’s like the NYPD cops suddenly getting all confused and angry when Bruce Springsteen came out with “American Skin” — how did this come as a surprise, folks?
Thanks, Evan. Anti LGBTQ+ hatred is so not Christian or in any way religious. They seem to block out the New Testament altogether. I got into it with a soi-disant Christian who whined that hating gays was her “sincere belief”. I pointed out that racism was also a sincere belief for many assholes as was the flat-earth argument and those were patently ridiculous as anti-LGBTQ+ “beliefs”. She insisted I was oppressing Christians and she would pray for me. I politely refused that offer.
I thought one of the core messages of Jebus was that we are all hopeless sinners equally deserving of hell but for his grace? Hence the whole "mote in your neighbors eye, log in your own" bit. As I read it, a proper christian* should have no time for worrying about their neighbors sins. But what do I know, I've just read their book.
*I am not a proper christian, I am no sort of christian at all, but I am fairly christian-knowledgeable due to the various errors of my youth.
I don't think we're all as appreciative as some folks think we should be for people like Ericka who are here to interpret "God’s vision for humanity" for us...
Way before Trump, MAGA, and the ascendency of born-again bigots trying to turn back the clock, I got tired of evangelicals wanting to 'splain to me how their "discernment" was better than my discernment because...well, just BECAUSE.
Thank you, Evan, for taking this on. Watching people who are so obviously oblivious to the message of love and acceptance squat on the Moral High Ground has rubbed me the wrong way for years now, and it's an immense relief to join you in mocking the hypocritical assholes.
Thanks for this, and all your spot-on writing. We need more like Dolly, and more like you. I have but one suggestion that would make your writing even more inclusive: my request is that you consider finding words other than "crazy" and "lunatic" to describe people who spew hateful crap. There are a lot of Mad and/or neurodivergent people in this world, and we are greatly stigmatized, living in this culture in which our evaluations of others' sanity has increasingly become conflated with how much we agree or disagree with the things they express. Those of us who actually are "crazy" are no more likely than "sane" people to be hateful bigots. There is no evidence from what she has written to suggest that Erika is insane. She is behaving exactly the way sane people behave when they hold the beliefs that she holds. Those beliefs are a choice. By all appearances, she had made a deliberate, intentional choice to hold on to hateful, judgemental attitudes, and she should be held accountable for them not because of her perceived level of sanity, but because what she expresses is harmful. I hope that this makes sense, and that you will be willing to consider choosing words to describe people like her that do not feed in to the already substantial bias against Mad and neurodivergent folks. Thank you.
"Andersen insisted that “calling sin out by name isn’t judgment,” but rather “adhering to Scripture,” and said “we’re doing more harm than good” when we don’t tell LGBTQ+ people how condemned they are."
Shouldn't they be hanging out at an airport somewhere? Maybe a bus station.
A fun Playboy interview back in '97, when he was married to Marla (also the first year she filed divorce papers) he spoke with disdain about hillbillies and scoffed at the notion of heaven, so it's easy to see how they love this sinner...so much sinning to go around...I agree with him that he'll be going somewhere else.
"Love the sinner, hate the sin" is and always has been complete, utter horseshit. They do not love sinners, particularly when they are LGBTQ+ persons. If they loved LGBTQ+ people, they'd rise up in wrath to denounce the terrorization and vilification of LGBTQ+ people that has led to escalating hate crimes.
Oh, honey, I can tell you missed out on the Southern re-education camps. (They are real and they are brutal- I don't care if every woman involved is speaking in Fundie Baby Voice, Southerners know whom to fear.)
I'm a bit jealous to be honest! I tell myself, at least I can talk to US evangelicals? 🥴
If Ericka was so 100% in on her convictions, the tweets would still be up and she wouldn’t be hiding behind a privacy wall. All she’s proven is that she’s a cowardly bigot who thinks she can dish it out without consequences. And guess what, sweetheart, actions always have consequences.
"All she’s proven is that she’s a cowardly bigot".
A very, very stupid cowardly bigot.
Ever so much this^^^
Can dish it out
Can't take it
She attempted to come for Dolly because Dolly puts the lie to the persecution narrative white christian evangelicals try to push.
“They hate us because we are christians.”
Nope. Dolly is a Christian and we love her.
We just hate your raggedy racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, screw the poor, dominionist version of christianity.
Anyway. Imagine being some no account weirdo and thinking you have the juice to come for Dolly. The absolute delusion of “moral superiority” that would lead this woman to believe she could come for The Queen. *eyeroll*
I know, right. You come for Dolly, you better not miss.
Ta, Evan. Ericka doesn't know the first thing about being a good human, and claiming that her stance is biblically determined just showcases her ignorance.
𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕.
True - they pick and choose the parts of the Bible that they like, just like they accuse others of doing. Except that those others focus on the parts that reflect the love for others that they aspire to. Oh, and where did Jesus condemn homosexuality? He urged his followers to help those in need, and condemned religious bigotry and hypocrisy. Funny that the evangelicals never seem to mention those things.
💯 They’re always complaining that progressive Christians “pick and choose” instead of “believing the whole Bible” but AS PER USUAL it’s projection.
At this point, the average Christian of any stripe is so far removed from the historical and cultural context in which the Bible was written that it’s basically ALL picking and choosing. Almost nobody is getting an education sufficient to suspend their own modern frameworks, understand what they’re reading, consider from that perspective what it might mean, and apply what they’ve learned to their own life. Most people are just reading the text directly onto their own context and ignoring whatever doesn’t make sense.
The difference is that progressives choose the bits that allow them to have a personal theology of love, and conservatives choose the bits that allow them to have a theology of self-righteous hate.
Personally, I’m a preacher’s kid who got an unusually robust (white evangelical) education in Biblical interpretation, and I still do a lot of “picking and choosing” — it’s just that these days I’m aware that I’m doing so, and I choose to be a decent human… not, say, an twit so far up my own ass I can’t appreciate Dolly Parton.
Besides, Christians are supposed to use the NEW Testament not the whole Bible. The new law replacing the old law.
As Lewis Black has often pointed out ( I paraphrase) the Old Testament is the book of his people (not Christians) and their God is kind of a dick.
In Judaism, there is a story about two ancient Torah sages, Hillel and Shamai. Both were revered in their day. Hillel is associated with an expansive humanist scholarship, and Shamai with a highly technical and textual expertise. It was Hillel who, when asked to encapsulate the essence of Torah while standing on one foot, said “Treat others as you would have them treat yourself...the rest is commentary”.
Simple metric: If you're a christian and quoting from the old testament, you're doing it wrong. The whole POINT of the New Testament is that THAT'S the book that makes you a Christian, not Jewish. If you're just tapping into The Old testament, then you're effectively reading the Talmud
I'm pretty damn sure that if Jesus returns for his much-vaunted second coming, once the Repug Thugs heard what he had to say they'd crucify him all over again.
Yes, for being a brown Jewish guy, let alone for all that hippie stuff like feed the poor, and help the less fortunate, and love well everyone..
AMEN!
These people aren't Christians because the DO NOT follow the teachings of Jesus. They follow what that deranged, asexual bigot Paul taught. And the Old Testament! Ignoring the claim in John that says, "I am the alpha and the omega...what has gone before is past...this is the New Covenant."
I agree Paul was a deranged bigot, I also think he was screwed up sexually, but please don't throw 'asexual' in there as an insult.
I didn't mean it as an insult, only as a descriptor.
Good :-)
I'm no doubt over simplifying things, but since I can't find much (any?) support for the bigotry in the four books of the Gospel, I tend to blame Paul for all the judgemental crap. I left Christianity long ago, but still lean on many of the lessons relayed in the Gospel, and can't think of much useful stuff to pull from those tracts Paul wrote. I sort of imagine people of his time getting one of his missives and rolling their eyes. "Oh crap, here's another one from that asshole Paul," they'd say. And then they'd pour themselves a big glass of wine, pull out the latest from Mr. Thinks He's Knows What Everyone Else Should Be Doing, and have themselves a good chuckle as someone volunteered to do the Dramatic Reading.
Then they would let their women talk in church!
If Dolly Parton was God, I wouldn't be an atheist.
I call her "Saint Dolly," As she is the closest thing to it, except for Jimmy Carter,
It also really chaps Christian conservatives asses when the call for decency and love comes from country music. That’s the last bastion of popular culture (well, that and NASCAR) that includes them, whose celebs don’t revile them, that make them feel just the tiniest bit cool, that they feel a team with. Every other bit of our culture - our music, our movies, our TV, our dance and theatre- it’s left them behind. Door shut. Ain’t never opening back up. To have a beloved COUNTRY icon turn on them with her “woke” mindset? Gutting.
Now if only they’d listen to the lyrics of Garth Brooks’ We Shall Be Free which he - a celeb they think is probably on their team- wrote in 1992.
It cracks me up that they somehow haven’t noticed Garth Brooks. He hasn’t been hiding! It’s like the NYPD cops suddenly getting all confused and angry when Bruce Springsteen came out with “American Skin” — how did this come as a surprise, folks?
Thanks, Evan. Anti LGBTQ+ hatred is so not Christian or in any way religious. They seem to block out the New Testament altogether. I got into it with a soi-disant Christian who whined that hating gays was her “sincere belief”. I pointed out that racism was also a sincere belief for many assholes as was the flat-earth argument and those were patently ridiculous as anti-LGBTQ+ “beliefs”. She insisted I was oppressing Christians and she would pray for me. I politely refused that offer.
I thought one of the core messages of Jebus was that we are all hopeless sinners equally deserving of hell but for his grace? Hence the whole "mote in your neighbors eye, log in your own" bit. As I read it, a proper christian* should have no time for worrying about their neighbors sins. But what do I know, I've just read their book.
*I am not a proper christian, I am no sort of christian at all, but I am fairly christian-knowledgeable due to the various errors of my youth.
I don't think we're all as appreciative as some folks think we should be for people like Ericka who are here to interpret "God’s vision for humanity" for us...
Way before Trump, MAGA, and the ascendency of born-again bigots trying to turn back the clock, I got tired of evangelicals wanting to 'splain to me how their "discernment" was better than my discernment because...well, just BECAUSE.
Thank you, Evan, for taking this on. Watching people who are so obviously oblivious to the message of love and acceptance squat on the Moral High Ground has rubbed me the wrong way for years now, and it's an immense relief to join you in mocking the hypocritical assholes.
Fuck Ericka Andersen
Thanks for this, and all your spot-on writing. We need more like Dolly, and more like you. I have but one suggestion that would make your writing even more inclusive: my request is that you consider finding words other than "crazy" and "lunatic" to describe people who spew hateful crap. There are a lot of Mad and/or neurodivergent people in this world, and we are greatly stigmatized, living in this culture in which our evaluations of others' sanity has increasingly become conflated with how much we agree or disagree with the things they express. Those of us who actually are "crazy" are no more likely than "sane" people to be hateful bigots. There is no evidence from what she has written to suggest that Erika is insane. She is behaving exactly the way sane people behave when they hold the beliefs that she holds. Those beliefs are a choice. By all appearances, she had made a deliberate, intentional choice to hold on to hateful, judgemental attitudes, and she should be held accountable for them not because of her perceived level of sanity, but because what she expresses is harmful. I hope that this makes sense, and that you will be willing to consider choosing words to describe people like her that do not feed in to the already substantial bias against Mad and neurodivergent folks. Thank you.
"Andersen insisted that “calling sin out by name isn’t judgment,” but rather “adhering to Scripture,” and said “we’re doing more harm than good” when we don’t tell LGBTQ+ people how condemned they are."
Shouldn't they be hanging out at an airport somewhere? Maybe a bus station.
"Judge ye not lest ye be judged" seems to have been lost on so many self-defined Christians
A fun Playboy interview back in '97, when he was married to Marla (also the first year she filed divorce papers) he spoke with disdain about hillbillies and scoffed at the notion of heaven, so it's easy to see how they love this sinner...so much sinning to go around...I agree with him that he'll be going somewhere else.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/donald-trump-once-said-he-didnt-believe-in-heaven-or-hell
If somebody tells me they're a White Christian, I'm going hey you got one out of two right!
"Love the sinner, hate the sin" is and always has been complete, utter horseshit. They do not love sinners, particularly when they are LGBTQ+ persons. If they loved LGBTQ+ people, they'd rise up in wrath to denounce the terrorization and vilification of LGBTQ+ people that has led to escalating hate crimes.
I know that all those Christian type capitalize "He" and "His" when referring to their deities but, c'mon,
"Scripture"?
That must be why they insist on home-schooling. To teach them all the wrong things.
Oh, honey, I can tell you missed out on the Southern re-education camps. (They are real and they are brutal- I don't care if every woman involved is speaking in Fundie Baby Voice, Southerners know whom to fear.)
I'm a bit jealous to be honest! I tell myself, at least I can talk to US evangelicals? 🥴