Mark Gunderson 🇲🇽

@TheoManBabies Yeah. This was a few years ago

@MdtShell Wow!! Are you talking about the church in TN?

He’s still wrong. And I knew him as a baby. I know exactly who indoctrinated him into this. The same guy who told Beth Moore to go home while his wife wore the pants in his family.

@johnandrewwords @AmReformer It's wankery

Joe Rigney and @AmReformer are now in the business of baptizing threats of rape, murder, and genocide. Joe makes one argument from scripture and also highlights a story from Shakespeare as a sort of illustration of his point, though he is careful to acknowledge that Shakespeare isn’t scripture. I won’t spend much time on Shakespeare because it’s…well…fiction. Still, it’s worth noting that Henry’s violent threats are sometimes read with moral irony rather than as a straightforward endorsement. Shakespeare isn’t always so direct and shallow as simply endorsing every action because “it works.” Even so, this is not really Rigney’s argument—more of a literary illustration. Rigney then moves to Solomon and the story of the two women from 1 Kings 3:16–28. His argument is that because Solomon threatened violence against a baby, it is therefore permissible for Trump to threaten the end of a civilization. This is far too simplistic. Once again, Rigney reads a text (this time scripture) sees a good consequence, and immediately ends the analysis. It is effectively a consequentialist and utilitarian approach to ethics that also ignores who these characters actually are. First, we don’t know whether Solomon was being righteous in his threat. He does not appeal to God’s Law in his threatening, nor does the text actually justify the method. What we see in verse 28 is that the people recognized the wisdom of God in the justice carried out, which is not the same as God declaring the method itself just. Solomon is not one of the rare scriptural characters without failings. He later continues to rely on his own wisdom rather than the Torah, and it leads to his downfall. So we have here a possible descriptive/prescriptive error. Now, even if we grant that Solomon was just and righteous in his threat, does it follow that Trump is just and righteous in his? No. Of course not. If the position is that Solomon, being wise in the Lord, acted with wisdom in this particular story, it does not logically or ethically follow that all threats of violence (even toward a good end) are now justified. Solomon, if we recall, was not merely a man but a man given a special blessing of wisdom. In this scenario, he faces a judicial situation and uses a threat to determine the truth. This is not a threat to coerce a nation during a morally suspect military adventure, nor is it issued by a godless leader lacking any special gift of wisdom. You are not Solomon, and Donald J. Trump is not Solomon. Rigney acknowledges this tension but charges forward regardless. In his Trump/Solomon typology, he misunderstands the nature of wisdom. Wisdom is not law. This text is not prescribing, or even clearly justifying, violent threats. Wisdom does not allow us to cut and paste Solomon’s situation and boldly declare that all threats of violence for a justified end are now permissible. And especially not while ignoring the highly relevant details of each specific ethical situation. Solomon could have been wise in his violent threats on Tuesday and very unwise on Thursday with more violent threats. At most we have a non-normative example of wisdom from a man who’s been specially given divine wisdom. Rigney’s argument proves far too much. Even if we believe Solomon made a permissible threat of violence, that does not mean that world leaders in 2026 can make a very different type of threat for very different reasons. Rigney’s argument justifies, quite literally, any and all violent and sinful threats. As long as the end goal is justified, according to Rigney, language is unbridled from ethical concern. His use of Shakespeare makes clear that this includes threats of rape. For Rigney, “legitimate political ends” carves out a magical, morally neutral area of human life where you can say and threaten anything you like. As long as the goal is legitimate, anything goes. This is moral anarchy, godless autonomy, and theologically sloppy at best.

@TheoManBabies And my understanding is he used his podcast to move into his head teaching position. Not sure if he did much shepherding but a podcast isn't prep for that.

@TheoManBabies What bothered me the most was that the church had a media team way too large for the size of church. Like online content was being prioritized at the expense of volunteers. Two camera operators and, maybe, 200ish butts in seats felt like a volunteer burnout machine

@PNWSnowflake123 @vinniedeltaco @bdquinn To be honest--and I haven't dined out in LV much--the best Chinese food I've had was when I worked in Monterey Park. The whole San Gabriel Valley is LA's de facto Chinatown.

@MdtShell @vinniedeltaco @bdquinn Yeah. Love the food scene there also.

What's the most overrated city in the country and why is it Las Vegas?

@vinniedeltaco @PNWSnowflake123 @bdquinn Have you been to San Francisco?

@PNWSnowflake123 @bdquinn I will take the offerings of our Chinatown over anywhere else in the country with zero hesitation.

@DutchBadlands @ZrimecSteve @Ameen_HGA You must be new here. The right/left distinction you lean on would be a lot more persuasive if Conservative principles weren't repeatedly abandoned in favor of power over the last ten years

@ZrimecSteve @Ameen_HGA Thank you.

Yall sure don’t say this if you hear of a Christian casting a vote for a Democrat lol. Esp if it’s black Christians voting for Democrats.

@BMcGrewvy Even your Mac won't be supported forever.

@BMcGrewvy That's not bricking because the old Kindles (I think I have one in that range) will still operate. They just won't receive updates and so won't be able to get new content wirelessly. I suspect non-DRM'd books could still be loaded on via USB.

Phew, good to know my 11-year-old Kindle paperwhite isn't getting bricked. Yet. Can I expect this to happen in a few more years?

@jwsherrod We prosecute those who threaten the innocent, regardless of their willingness to follow through. Because the threat itself is harmful, and we don't want a world where such threats are normalized. He needs to be removed immediately.

@jwsherrod There is a reason that Iran threatens mass murder and Israel, Pakistan, and India do not.

I talked to some IRL Trump supporters today who had worried faces after reading his tweet, and I don’t think they understood why I was smiling when it came up in conversation. I tried to calm them down and reminded them that you have to take Trump seriously, but not literally.

@TCSDisciple @not_our_guy Oh man, I missed it. "The troll's name was Mac, and his bridge was very famous. He also had an island, full of horses and poop."

@not_our_guy Did he just take a screenshot of Lake Superior and use it as the basis of the fantasy cartography for his fanfic? Almost as unoriginal as shoehorning his ideology into it 😂

This cringe wignat neopagan turner diary tier fantasy novel that was given to me by some guy in patriot front

@not_our_guy Real smart putting the fantasy map on the cover to save money on a color insert.

@jwsherrod Surely, if you know his mind, you can share with us why he started this war?

@MdtShell I was smiling because I understand how Trump operates, so I understood there was no reason to actually take the apocalyptic interpretation of his Truth Social posts that many were coming away with.

@NoisyTroublemkr @NeilShenvi It's not a "worldview" curriculum that would teach this, but orthodoxy.

@NoisyTroublemkr @NeilShenvi No, I do not see. Nowhere did I say a single Christian ethic has emerged, because the Bible is not clear on HOW we care for the poor, only that we must.

What's a good Christian worldview curriculum for high schoolers?

@greateststriker @HwsEleutheroi If (big if) CAHSR starts running, the trains aren't dropped in the Atlantic after one trip. Orion can be reused with refurbishment, but SLS's 4xRS-25 engines, originally resuable on the Shuttle, are dropped expended on each flight.

@greateststriker @HwsEleutheroi Artemis isn't the example you should reach for. That's the point. It's a dead end program that could have been far sooner, cheaper, and better if not for pork.

The level of corruption in the government of the United States at all levels is the PRIMARY reason for our slavery to debt and the coming economic collapse.