• LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    These lunatics have a disturbing amount of control in the US government.

    Laughing at them might be fun, and I was doing it until recently, but they’re not joking. The worse our climate disasters become – and they will very soon – the more scared people will become, and the more these groups will take advantage of that fear. We’ll see more climate refugees, more desperation, and more fear. These groups prey on fear, and they’ll amplify it on purpose.

    True fascism thrives on fear, which is why these people amplify it like they do. When climate disasters accelerate, these groups will harness the social upheaval to take control. I don’t know what we can do to stop it, but we should all be thinking about and sharing ways to head it off, because they’ve got plans in place already.

    I know I sound paranoid, but I’ve been watching them and these aren’t my ideas, but theirs. They talk about this a lot, and if we aren’t prepared, their plans could actually work. I don’t want to live in the fascist future they’re planning. If we don’t combat it, we’ll be living in the Handmaid’s Tale before most of us realise.

  • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    That is absolutely terrifying.

    If I made a least of where all the Christians live, they’d rightfully freak the fuck out.

  • rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    “The app boasts influential supporters, including the former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jim Henry, and controversial Christian data-harvesting firm Gloo. It puts a lot of features at the fingertips of the faithful, including the ability to filter whole neighborhoods by religion, ethnicity, “Hispanic country of origin,” “assimilation,” and whether there are children living in the household.”

    Christ.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    This is a yikes, they’re doing the Westboro Church tactics without wanting the money, just to harass.

    The Mapping Center for Evangelism and Church Growth’s founder and president Chris Cooper suggests using the app to conduct neighborly activities such as putting on a barbecue for potential converts, but scattered throughout the app’s training and promotional videos are suggestions to undertake the controversial practice of “prayerwalking.” An idea becoming increasingly popular among Christian supremacist groups, prayerwalking involves believers flooding so-called “un-Christian” territories in order to combat “demonic strongholds.” In practice, it varies from blessing new neighbors to gathering groups to pray in front of everything from mosques to drag bars in service of “spiritual warfare.”

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    As a Christian: this is absolutely despicable. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, and a huge part of loving someone is to respect their boundaries.

    So screw this app and the people that built it. If you want to invite your neighbors to learn about Jesus:

    1. Set a good example
    2. Get to know them
    3. Invite only when it’s relevant (i.e. to a kid’s baptism or whatever)

    If they want to learn about Jesus, they’ll ask.

  • retrieval4558@mander.xyz
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    10 months ago

    Any of you super coders in here know of a way to download the app ourselves and inject significant amounts of false data into it?

  • Breezy@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It would be a real shame if people started leaving reviews on the play store with their concerns. Real shame i tell you, its sitting at a 4.7 rating with all but 1 five star, and they gave it a four star.

    Anyways for any god loving Christian who just wants to download their app to pray for their neighbors, ive taken the ten seconds needed to visit their site and grabbed their app links.

    Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blesseveryhome.bealight

    Apple https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bless-every-home/id1541313484

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    10 months ago

    Can we appreciate how incredibility messed up it is to have Christians trying to tell other religions are not valid? It is terribly messed up to try to convert Muslims to Christianity.

    With that being said it is important to note that this is a small group of people in Christianity. They are ruining the reputation for all denominations and creating Christian hate which will hurt Christians everywhere in the long run. I wonder how they would react if there was Jewish protest in front of there Church

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      I think the “try to convert” part makes no sense. Conversion is a very personal thing, and you can’t force someone to do it. You can invite, but that’s about it.

      Anything more violates common decency.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Someone on lemmy commented that the purpose of those conversion drives is not to garner new members (though it’s a nice benefit if it works), but to help reinforce the “us” versus “them” division in the people out knocking on doors. It really makes a lot of sense to me.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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          10 months ago

          I agree with that. I think the point of Mormons being forced to go door-to-door and engage with the outside world in a way that is guaranteed to create discomfort and hostility… is that they’ll learn the the outside world equals discomfort and hostility. I can’t imagine that it has any nonzero effect in terms of converting people to Mormonism at all.

          I think how it works for Christians probably depends on the nonuniform details of how exactly they do the proselytizing, but I’m imagine it works mostly the same in most cases.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            Mormons being forced to go door-to-door

            Mormons aren’t forced to go door-to-door, it’s absolutely a choice. In fact, Mormon missionaries pay their own way (less so in poorer countries, but still).

            Perhaps you’re thinking of Jehova’s Witnesses? I don’t know much about their proselytizing, but I have invited them in before and they don’t seem particularly interested in following up, especially if you don’t buy their stuff.

            • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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              10 months ago

              Oh crap – you’re right, yes. I thought it was a requirement for Mormons but it’s not.

  • Mangoholic@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    I mean they don’t need sensitive data, they already know which house is religious, because the people signed up for it. So by default every other home gets added. That is all very puplic information.