"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808).
It makes me sick to my stomach when patriarchal power is used to exploit women and children — and men. It takes dreadfully twisted minds to turn the tables on the victims! Russell Moore’s words sear the core of my being.
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808).
It makes me sick to my stomach when patriarchal power is used to exploit women and children — and men. It takes dreadfully twisted minds to turn the tables on the victims! Russell Moore’s words sear the core of my being.
“[The] report is so damning that Russell Moore’s first reaction was to say: ‘I was wrong to call sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention…a crisis. Crisis is too small a word. It is an apocalypse.’ The investigation, he says, ‘uncovers a reality far more evil and systematic than I imagined it could be.’ ‘How many children were raped, how many people were assaulted, how many screams were silenced,’ he asked, ‘while we boasted that no one could reach the world for Jesus like we could.’
All I can say is HOLY sh_t, TC. This demonstrates how brainwashing and lying are imploding the evangelicals and republicans. Pizzagate is their alt reality distraction whilst they inflict, in the real world, massive abuses and lies. No wonder they do not want women to have any power over their bodies. This is more darkness by "religious" white, privileged males wearing the mask of a minister or the hood of a klan member. or the name of a seditious party. It is all about power, money and sex. Rip the roof off and tear the pages out! We are done with all these lies. America is a democracy that has stage five cancer right now. Its causal origins are white, fascist, privileged males descended from the ancient patriarchy, masked in religion and money, whose real sins deserve no forgiveness or reconciliation but penance and community service for the rest of their lives. Thank you TC for posting the full article. I am sickened again and again what is done in the name of religion and politics, power-over others and narcissism. I was told by my born-again- Christian Godmother when I was nine that Jesus died for MY sins. I did not buy it. I was one of the lucky young ones who did not believe in adult's twisted lies that did not resonate with my knowledge of my Self. She then abandoned me forever. That kind of worship has never been for me without deep questioning and seeing how people live it. Well, there may have been a small exception for something akin to idol worship via my never-ending crush on Paul McCartney, a man who wrote and sang the best love songs ever. Maybe he was my Jesus and resonated with my tween desire to live in a Golden Rule world with no external dogma, but some innate passion that most humans desire: That of giving and receiving pure, untainted LOVE. My heart aches for all those so abused by their spiritual leaders...and political leaders. When they are abused, so are we all, collectively. So are we all.
TC, thank you for the full article. What a searing indictment of a church whose entire leadership, with a few exceptions like Russell Moore, had become a criminal conspiracy to commit rape and sexual abuse. They developed elaborate hypocritical, lying, and cruel strategies to keep the abuse secret and discredit the victims. And they did so in order to perpetuate the white, male SBC leadership and pastors’ ability to continue to abuse. Suddenly everything about today’s Republican party makes sickening sense.
Why do white, male evangelical/Republican leaders tacitly or openly promote the wacko QAnon allegations claiming the Democratic party is a giant ring of pedophiles who even eat children? Because just like Dumpster, they take the focus off their own outrageous crimes by falsely accusing their opponents of doing *exactly* what they--the Republican/Southern Baptist male leadership--have *actually* been doing. Only the bizarre QAnon baby-eating allegations are (we hope) beyond their own actual vile crimes.
Why does it seem like every Republican leader is missing the neurons to perceive their own hypocrisy? Because hypocrisy, false sanctimony, and pants-on-firelies are their consciously chosen, go-to strategies. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Why does it seem like Mark Zuckerberg allowed Facebook to be used by Republicans to turbocharge Republican lies, brainwash voters, pervert the 2016 election, and explosively grow a national movement to overthrow our democracy? Because that’s exactly what he did. Meta isn’t short for the “metaverse”. It’s short for Metastasize.
So here’s the question: How do Democrats weaponize the _truth_ of this SBC investigation to expose and bring down the entire rotten edifice of Republican/evangelical white male supremacy promoters? THAT’S what we who value truth and democracy urgently need to turn into a bold action campaign.
"How do Democrats weaponize the _truth_ of this SBC investigation to expose and bring down the entire rotten edifice of Republican/evangelical white male supremacy promoters?" THERE! Right there. If we have any faith at all in the decency of most people in the USA, simply making sure the public is aware of it ought to do the trick. It should not be that hard. BUT - I have spoken with enough Republican or Libertarian people to know that hatred of the "Democrat Agenda" is so strong that too many will hold their noses and vote the other way anyway. Yes. So perhaps a better question is how can we better publicize the reasons why we think the way we do and have the agendas we have, and not some transmogrification of it all put out there by the right wingers.
Thank goodness millions of Americans recognize the crucial importance of our Free-Press - excellent journalists and reporters (we need a lot more of them, particularly LOCAL NEWs) that historians, including the eminent Timothy Snyder and Heather Cox Richardson turn to for reliable sources. Subscribers, such as our widely admired military historian, TC, don't ignore HCR's 'Notes'. That is where TC found:
… That's just a tiny fraction of links in today's 'Notes'. I won't go on, except to recommend that subscribers check them out and support the growth of the Free-Press in the USA.
Thanks, Fern. We are collecting a library of resources and sources that truly inform, just as Heather provides us with perspective and resources. Truth.
These are the same types of people who are hell-bent on forcing women to give birth, even if they are victims of rape or incest. They think they're doing God's work, but that delusional form of self-righteousness keeps them from seeing the evil they commit.
No, they commit control, oppression and the increase in number of white people. They do not give a hooey once they are born. The women will have to figure that out.
Allen, I suggest you spell out your abbreviations in the future. I went on a brief search. Is this the organization you were referring to?
'The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization formed in 2007, the Center is building its reputation through its programs and projects even before there is a building. Beginning with the 2008 groundbreaking for Reconciliation Park, which was Dr. John Hope Franklin’s last public appearance before his death in March 2009, the Center’s Board of Directors created an exciting vision – to transform the bitterness and mistrust caused by years of racial division, even violence, into a hopeful future of reconciliation and cooperation for Tulsa and the nation.'
'John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park was completed in October 2010, and is a public-private partnership, owned by The City of Tulsa and managed by the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Inc. Ultimately, the serious work of reconciliation will occur in the John Hope Franklin Center building, which will house galleries, archives, a digital story-telling booth, documentary projects, conference space, and other facilities appropriate for a historical site of national significance. Through education and community dialogue, the Center's "parlor" will create an atmosphere for healing and reconciliation.'
JHFC, Ha! Wasn't that worth thinking about for a moment or two?
We're at your beck and call, any more 'golden oldies' Allen? I thought my response with 'The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation' was perfect. C'mon, I want to see you take a knee or two.
I was thinking Jesus H. F-ing Christ. But I don't know what the H stands for. Holy? I am not very good at many acronyms. But tfg I know and the F does not stand for former in my mind...
Christianity Today magazine had its own sex abuse scandal. A senior editor couldn’t keep his hands off female staffers and kept blustering into offices to watch new mothers breast feeding. Another senior official who constantly hit on young interns only left when he was arrested for soliciting a teenage prostitute.
Hard to press "like" on your post. But this is pervasive behavior women experience in most levels of life and work. The more attention upon it, the better.
Exactly, Berry. "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." There is no religion that does not have abusive leaders among its believers. While all present day religions are male dominant, I'll resist the easy cliche that men misuse women. The truth, I think, is all about power and its tendency to delude those who wield it. HCR's letter today really ties that aspect together. If abusiveness has tentacles in every religion, it's doing fine in the secular world, too. I'm just about physically ill at the pure rampant evil in the Republican party. It has become a caricature of dysfunction whose members seem like they're from a Batman movie, except they are real and very harmful. (I'm sure there are bad actors among the Democrats, too. It's just that so many R's have access to astounding amounts of money, which has given them too much power.)
I like how you think. We just may be the Superheroes! Maybe it is time that the superheroes remove their masks and join us.
I remember that Stan Lee did a Spiderman story on a young man that had been sexually abused who is rescued by Spiderman; in conversation, Spiderman (aka Peter Parker) reveals that he, too, had been the victim of sexual abuse as a young boy.
You are the big boys and girls! Little Donny Johnny puddin and pie grabbed the girls where it made them cry. When the big boys and girls came out to play, little Donny Johnny ran away.
Hope, you speak for so many of us, feeling ill and stressed with the state of the world, and with today's letter, and especially of our country, which seems to be between crumbling and hope. Often well meaning friends and family, counsel that the way to reduce the stress is to not spend so much time reading, watching, immersed in "politics." Writing and reading LFAA is not an addiction, but I can't stop. There is some form of kinship on this site, even virtually.
Yes, sexual abuse of women and children is a feature not a bug of conservative patriarchal religions.
Because they like to keep records, we’ve seen these types of revelations repeated over and over again. Whether it’s The Southern Baptists, the Catholic Church, Jehovah Witnesses, or who knows how many others the story is depressingly the same. It’s also happens in so called New Age religions as well. Just look at all the scandals surrounding Scientology.
The coverups and the abuse of victims is also always the same. Protecting the organization, it’s so called mission and let’s be honest it’s fundraising is always more important than the crimes and the damage they cause victims.
Remember the story of the Golden Calf...and the money lenders, and so many more. Basic Bible stories that are overshadowed by the greed pure power elicits...as a woman, I wouldn't go anywhere near a Southern Baptist church. And I've known that for many years.
“Holy sh*t” was my first thought, Lynell. Had no idea a religious sect invented the literal and figurative interpretation of that phrase.
And then I thought of the patriarchal web woven over decades…nah, centuries.
I was taken aback at Professor Richardson’s warning at the beginning of the Letter. It made me immediately think of how the truth of history can be so sickening that it demands a warning. I am having a difficult time processing this woven practice of patriarchal deceit. It’s pure evil. And the complicit agreement from the leadership of an entire political party?
To me culminating in a Supreme Court Justice writing an opinion based on this “holy shit”. Not even real. Not truthful. Inhumanely human. Subjugation of fellow humans. And worse, I read this and grasped more of a sickening realization of the omission of any exception for a medical abortion. Including rape and incest. For such a powerful religious cult to consent to procreation through systematic practice of rape and incest? And include it in a legal agenda?
I need a minute after this Letter. Today I rely on others for strength.
Yes, yes, Christine, the abuse and the descriptions and intentions are more than heinous and disgusting. One scandal and abuse after another in The Church. It's almost an "oxymoron of thought" to write Church and think we're writing about a place of worship and peace and hope and love, instead of a den of... I'm not near a Unitarian Universalist, but my friends are and I've attended and that seems to be the exception. Or maybe all are vulnerable and dependent on the mortals who lead.
"It takes dreadfully twisted minds to turn the tables on the victims!"
That happened with, for one example, Anita Hill, and now we have Clarence Thomas and his insurrection-supporting wife. He should never have been confirmed.
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808).
It makes me sick to my stomach when patriarchal power is used to exploit women and children — and men. It takes dreadfully twisted minds to turn the tables on the victims! Russell Moore’s words sear the core of my being.
“[The] report is so damning that Russell Moore’s first reaction was to say: ‘I was wrong to call sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention…a crisis. Crisis is too small a word. It is an apocalypse.’ The investigation, he says, ‘uncovers a reality far more evil and systematic than I imagined it could be.’ ‘How many children were raped, how many people were assaulted, how many screams were silenced,’ he asked, ‘while we boasted that no one could reach the world for Jesus like we could.’
Read his whole article.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/may-web-only/southern-baptist-abuse-apocalypse-russell-moore.html
All I can say is HOLY sh_t, TC. This demonstrates how brainwashing and lying are imploding the evangelicals and republicans. Pizzagate is their alt reality distraction whilst they inflict, in the real world, massive abuses and lies. No wonder they do not want women to have any power over their bodies. This is more darkness by "religious" white, privileged males wearing the mask of a minister or the hood of a klan member. or the name of a seditious party. It is all about power, money and sex. Rip the roof off and tear the pages out! We are done with all these lies. America is a democracy that has stage five cancer right now. Its causal origins are white, fascist, privileged males descended from the ancient patriarchy, masked in religion and money, whose real sins deserve no forgiveness or reconciliation but penance and community service for the rest of their lives. Thank you TC for posting the full article. I am sickened again and again what is done in the name of religion and politics, power-over others and narcissism. I was told by my born-again- Christian Godmother when I was nine that Jesus died for MY sins. I did not buy it. I was one of the lucky young ones who did not believe in adult's twisted lies that did not resonate with my knowledge of my Self. She then abandoned me forever. That kind of worship has never been for me without deep questioning and seeing how people live it. Well, there may have been a small exception for something akin to idol worship via my never-ending crush on Paul McCartney, a man who wrote and sang the best love songs ever. Maybe he was my Jesus and resonated with my tween desire to live in a Golden Rule world with no external dogma, but some innate passion that most humans desire: That of giving and receiving pure, untainted LOVE. My heart aches for all those so abused by their spiritual leaders...and political leaders. When they are abused, so are we all, collectively. So are we all.
TC, thank you for the full article. What a searing indictment of a church whose entire leadership, with a few exceptions like Russell Moore, had become a criminal conspiracy to commit rape and sexual abuse. They developed elaborate hypocritical, lying, and cruel strategies to keep the abuse secret and discredit the victims. And they did so in order to perpetuate the white, male SBC leadership and pastors’ ability to continue to abuse. Suddenly everything about today’s Republican party makes sickening sense.
Why do white, male evangelical/Republican leaders tacitly or openly promote the wacko QAnon allegations claiming the Democratic party is a giant ring of pedophiles who even eat children? Because just like Dumpster, they take the focus off their own outrageous crimes by falsely accusing their opponents of doing *exactly* what they--the Republican/Southern Baptist male leadership--have *actually* been doing. Only the bizarre QAnon baby-eating allegations are (we hope) beyond their own actual vile crimes.
Why does it seem like every Republican leader is missing the neurons to perceive their own hypocrisy? Because hypocrisy, false sanctimony, and pants-on-firelies are their consciously chosen, go-to strategies. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Why does it seem like Mark Zuckerberg allowed Facebook to be used by Republicans to turbocharge Republican lies, brainwash voters, pervert the 2016 election, and explosively grow a national movement to overthrow our democracy? Because that’s exactly what he did. Meta isn’t short for the “metaverse”. It’s short for Metastasize.
So here’s the question: How do Democrats weaponize the _truth_ of this SBC investigation to expose and bring down the entire rotten edifice of Republican/evangelical white male supremacy promoters? THAT’S what we who value truth and democracy urgently need to turn into a bold action campaign.
"How do Democrats weaponize the _truth_ of this SBC investigation to expose and bring down the entire rotten edifice of Republican/evangelical white male supremacy promoters?" THERE! Right there. If we have any faith at all in the decency of most people in the USA, simply making sure the public is aware of it ought to do the trick. It should not be that hard. BUT - I have spoken with enough Republican or Libertarian people to know that hatred of the "Democrat Agenda" is so strong that too many will hold their noses and vote the other way anyway. Yes. So perhaps a better question is how can we better publicize the reasons why we think the way we do and have the agendas we have, and not some transmogrification of it all put out there by the right wingers.
Just keep telling the truth. How can anyone hate the truth? Sooner or later they have to admit it.
Thank goodness millions of Americans recognize the crucial importance of our Free-Press - excellent journalists and reporters (we need a lot more of them, particularly LOCAL NEWs) that historians, including the eminent Timothy Snyder and Heather Cox Richardson turn to for reliable sources. Subscribers, such as our widely admired military historian, TC, don't ignore HCR's 'Notes'. That is where TC found:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/may-web-only/southern-baptist-abuse-apocalypse-russell-moore.html
That link, along with a lot more are in Heather's treasure trove of, Notes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/05/russell-moore-southern-baptist-sex-abuse-allegations/
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6108172d83d55d3c9db4dd67/t/628bfccb599a375bece1f66c/1653341391218/Guidepost+Solutions+Independent+Investigation+Report_.pdf
https://religionnews.com/2019/04/11/shadows-in-the-stained-glass-patterson-and-pressler-chapel-windows-come-down/
… That's just a tiny fraction of links in today's 'Notes'. I won't go on, except to recommend that subscribers check them out and support the growth of the Free-Press in the USA.
Thanks, Fern. Heather's Notes are always a treasure trove of valuable information.
Thanks, Fern. We are collecting a library of resources and sources that truly inform, just as Heather provides us with perspective and resources. Truth.
Thank you TC - it is a passionate indictment.
Again white men in power over the lives of others abuse their power to harm those they are supposed to protect.
Thank you, TC. I will.
These are the same types of people who are hell-bent on forcing women to give birth, even if they are victims of rape or incest. They think they're doing God's work, but that delusional form of self-righteousness keeps them from seeing the evil they commit.
No, they commit control, oppression and the increase in number of white people. They do not give a hooey once they are born. The women will have to figure that out.
JHFC
I thought it was HFJC.
West Coast version?
My mother would t know.
I will now use both versions
Allen, I suggest you spell out your abbreviations in the future. I went on a brief search. Is this the organization you were referring to?
'The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization formed in 2007, the Center is building its reputation through its programs and projects even before there is a building. Beginning with the 2008 groundbreaking for Reconciliation Park, which was Dr. John Hope Franklin’s last public appearance before his death in March 2009, the Center’s Board of Directors created an exciting vision – to transform the bitterness and mistrust caused by years of racial division, even violence, into a hopeful future of reconciliation and cooperation for Tulsa and the nation.'
'John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park was completed in October 2010, and is a public-private partnership, owned by The City of Tulsa and managed by the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Inc. Ultimately, the serious work of reconciliation will occur in the John Hope Franklin Center building, which will house galleries, archives, a digital story-telling booth, documentary projects, conference space, and other facilities appropriate for a historical site of national significance. Through education and community dialogue, the Center's "parlor" will create an atmosphere for healing and reconciliation.'
https://www.jhfcenter.org/
I can only hope you are making a joke. If you don't know what it means, ask your mother
JHFC, Ha! Wasn't that worth thinking about for a moment or two?
We're at your beck and call, any more 'golden oldies' Allen? I thought my response with 'The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation' was perfect. C'mon, I want to see you take a knee or two.
You had to work at that one, didn't you?
Please be my mother for a moment!
I was thinking Jesus H. F-ing Christ. But I don't know what the H stands for. Holy? I am not very good at many acronyms. But tfg I know and the F does not stand for former in my mind...
the H is a stand alone
Ah, yes. Some things do need to stand alone! How are you faring, Allen?
AMEN!
So, I read the article (thank you, TCinLA) as well as another one linked https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/may/southern-baptist-abuse-investigation-sbc-ec-legal-survivors.html
I clicked on the link to the actual report
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/may/southern-baptist-abuse-investigation-sbc-ec-legal-survivors.html but that's for another day....if ever. Yikes! Wow! Appalling! Disgusting! What is it with men and power
Christianity Today magazine had its own sex abuse scandal. A senior editor couldn’t keep his hands off female staffers and kept blustering into offices to watch new mothers breast feeding. Another senior official who constantly hit on young interns only left when he was arrested for soliciting a teenage prostitute.
I'm sooooo surprised!
Hard to press "like" on your post. But this is pervasive behavior women experience in most levels of life and work. The more attention upon it, the better.
Wow! Just....WOW!
During the High Renaissance 40,000-50,000 people, presumed threat to the church’s beliefs, were burned as witches. The majority being women.
Power becomes its own evil.
Exactly, Berry. "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." There is no religion that does not have abusive leaders among its believers. While all present day religions are male dominant, I'll resist the easy cliche that men misuse women. The truth, I think, is all about power and its tendency to delude those who wield it. HCR's letter today really ties that aspect together. If abusiveness has tentacles in every religion, it's doing fine in the secular world, too. I'm just about physically ill at the pure rampant evil in the Republican party. It has become a caricature of dysfunction whose members seem like they're from a Batman movie, except they are real and very harmful. (I'm sure there are bad actors among the Democrats, too. It's just that so many R's have access to astounding amounts of money, which has given them too much power.)
I have felt we were in a batman movie since 2016, or earlier, and not there are any superheroes to save Gotham City. Maybe WE are the superheroes?
I like how you think. We just may be the Superheroes! Maybe it is time that the superheroes remove their masks and join us.
I remember that Stan Lee did a Spiderman story on a young man that had been sexually abused who is rescued by Spiderman; in conversation, Spiderman (aka Peter Parker) reveals that he, too, had been the victim of sexual abuse as a young boy.
There's a decent Chicago Times article on this: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-02-10-8501080651-story.html
Also a Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries rundown of it: https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/368
Wowee! Thanks for this, Ally!
Someone has to be.
You are the big boys and girls! Little Donny Johnny puddin and pie grabbed the girls where it made them cry. When the big boys and girls came out to play, little Donny Johnny ran away.
Hope, you speak for so many of us, feeling ill and stressed with the state of the world, and with today's letter, and especially of our country, which seems to be between crumbling and hope. Often well meaning friends and family, counsel that the way to reduce the stress is to not spend so much time reading, watching, immersed in "politics." Writing and reading LFAA is not an addiction, but I can't stop. There is some form of kinship on this site, even virtually.
My heart is with you, Irenie. We will all prevail, here.
Church is about power. Control over people’s lives. It would be surprising if the men who wield this power were not exploiting women and children.
Sadly it seems to become part of every religious institution. I left my "Religion" and never looked back
Me too.
Yes, sexual abuse of women and children is a feature not a bug of conservative patriarchal religions.
Because they like to keep records, we’ve seen these types of revelations repeated over and over again. Whether it’s The Southern Baptists, the Catholic Church, Jehovah Witnesses, or who knows how many others the story is depressingly the same. It’s also happens in so called New Age religions as well. Just look at all the scandals surrounding Scientology.
The coverups and the abuse of victims is also always the same. Protecting the organization, it’s so called mission and let’s be honest it’s fundraising is always more important than the crimes and the damage they cause victims.
Russell Moore may need a new identity. Evil runs deep in the “church.”
He left the SBC last year or so.
Remember the story of the Golden Calf...and the money lenders, and so many more. Basic Bible stories that are overshadowed by the greed pure power elicits...as a woman, I wouldn't go anywhere near a Southern Baptist church. And I've known that for many years.
Morning, Rowshan! Your opening quote is exactly what I was thinking when I started reading today's Letter...great minds!
“Holy sh*t” was my first thought, Lynell. Had no idea a religious sect invented the literal and figurative interpretation of that phrase.
And then I thought of the patriarchal web woven over decades…nah, centuries.
I was taken aback at Professor Richardson’s warning at the beginning of the Letter. It made me immediately think of how the truth of history can be so sickening that it demands a warning. I am having a difficult time processing this woven practice of patriarchal deceit. It’s pure evil. And the complicit agreement from the leadership of an entire political party?
To me culminating in a Supreme Court Justice writing an opinion based on this “holy shit”. Not even real. Not truthful. Inhumanely human. Subjugation of fellow humans. And worse, I read this and grasped more of a sickening realization of the omission of any exception for a medical abortion. Including rape and incest. For such a powerful religious cult to consent to procreation through systematic practice of rape and incest? And include it in a legal agenda?
I need a minute after this Letter. Today I rely on others for strength.
Salud, Lynell. And all I count on as compatriots.
May there be a way forward. 🗽
Exactly so, Christine. My reaction was more of a blasphemy than a vulgarity, but of a similar vein.
And this happened. I’m not sure how this all ends but it seems to me the 💩 is hitting the effing fan. The lid has come off.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/indiana-pastor-adultery-teen-woman-b2086334.html?amp
Yes, yes, Christine, the abuse and the descriptions and intentions are more than heinous and disgusting. One scandal and abuse after another in The Church. It's almost an "oxymoron of thought" to write Church and think we're writing about a place of worship and peace and hope and love, instead of a den of... I'm not near a Unitarian Universalist, but my friends are and I've attended and that seems to be the exception. Or maybe all are vulnerable and dependent on the mortals who lead.
Morning, Lynell! Definitely, “great minds!”
"It takes dreadfully twisted minds to turn the tables on the victims!"
That happened with, for one example, Anita Hill, and now we have Clarence Thomas and his insurrection-supporting wife. He should never have been confirmed.
Ginni Thomas asked Anita Hill to apologize to poor Clarence. Imagine!
Thank you. Your 1st line was my 1st thought while reading this article.