Websites to Watch Out for

[Unmasked]

Have you ever come across those wacky websites that make you want to pull your hair out? It seems like a new one pops up every day. We all know about Westboro Baptist Church's websites, but what other ones have you seen that made you angry, made you cry, or even made you laugh?

One that I found was gotquestions.org I was researching some stuff for a paper and ran into that particular one. They claim that if you ask them a question, you'll get a biblically based answer in 2-7 days. They looked legit for a second, until I read their assessment of Sodom. I even sent them a question and got a biased answer back on why their answers were infallible. Check them out if you get the chance, and maybe send them a few complaints

www.wnd.com (WorldNetDaily) is a biased news site that pushes a strong anti-LGBT agenda, and also cooks up wild conspiracy theories on how the World seeks to destroy the church and criminalize Christianity.

www.chick.com is convinced that Halloween is a plot by Satanists to sacrifice children "to Satan (or Samhain)". I find it incredibly amusing that they mixed up the name of the Sabbat with the Tempter. They also claim to have testimony from ex-satanists affirming this. Funny, because the Church of Satan doesn't believe in a Deity or a Devil. Satanism is just a shocking name for a religion that's really about hedonism.

www.christiangallery.com is probably the oddest site I've ever seen. Their primary concern seems to be ending legalized abortion and showing pictures of dead babies, but they've managed to tie homosexuality into it as well. I've never made the connection between the two, but if you've got a strong stomach, check them out.

demonbuster.com -- Obsessed with demons, need I say more?

cuttingedge.org - Obsessed with witches and human sacrifice. They also seem to think that Catholic Eucharist amounts to the same thing.
http://www.cuttingedge.org/ce1059.html

What ones have you encountered lately? What'd you think of them? Have a "favorite"? Mine is probably chick.com or wnd because they're both so ridiculous that I can't help but smile at their nonsense.

[Unmasked]

I know that there are screwed up groups out there, but the fundie sites make them seem much bigger than they actually are. These sites mislead people and make them target innocent Pagans and Wiccans as Satanic child murderers. I've seen "Divine Justice" enacted at solstice celebrations, where a caravan of extremist crash the gate blaring Petra, using hateful language, and getting violent. The overstatement fuels groups like the Army of God, and gives way to terrorist attacks and concert riots that make us all look horrible.

[Progo35]

One of the worst websites I've ever seen is one set up to parady southern baptist fundamentalism, called Landover Baptist. This website's contents contain very hostile anti-religious progoganda, some of which seems designed to make visitors think that this is a real church somewhere that espouses their beliefs. I guess the saddest thing is that some of the statements CAN come off sounding similar to some of the most extreme groups or evangelism methods out there, but there are enough red flags to indicate that the people who designed the site are truly bigoted.

[keltic63]

One of the funniest satirical sites that lampoons the fundies is Landover Baptist. It has quizzes you can take that at first seem so simple, but the authors have really done their research. It's amazing what you can learn about the Bible from this site. The humor is so over the top that I don't think anyone would ever believe it's a real church. The authors make statements similar to those made by extreme fundamentalist churches/pastors/church members and skewer them, sometimes just carrying them through to their logical ends. The people who designed the site must have grown up in fundamentalist churches to be able to pull of this satire without actually being antagonistic.

[keltic63]

btw, here's a great site for the newest information concerning pharmaceutical research and homosexuality: http://www.hetracil.com/ I'm sure you'll find some great info on that site.

[dsdrane]

Honestly, the jokes write themselves.

You really can't make this stuff up.

Scary people will always exist...so thank God for our inalienable right to make fun of them.

I have no doubt the Lord has a fantastic sense of humor.

I mean: have you seen a giraffe lately??

[Daniel]

sat·ire
n.
A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
The branch of literature constituting such works.
Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

[Latin satira, probably alteration (influenced by Greek satur, satyr, and saturos, burlesque of a mythical episode), of (lanx) satura, fruit (plate) mixture, from feminine of satur, sated, well-fitted.]

Well-fitted? Sated? Fruit?

Sounds gay to me! I guess this is why I love satire. It presupposes that those who use it- and enjoy it- know what they are talking about.

[antonyh]

Originally Posted by dsdrane

Honestly, the jokes write themselves.

You really can't make this stuff up.

Scary people will always exist...so thank God for our inalienable right to make fun of them.

I have no doubt the Lord has a fantastic sense of humor.

I mean: have you seen a giraffe lately??

Has it every occurred to you that a Giraffe may think you look funny

[dsdrane]

Originally Posted by antonyh

Has it every occurred to you that a Giraffe may think you look funny

Of course!

[BrianB]

Originally Posted by keltic63

One of the funniest satirical sites that lampoons the fundies is Landover Baptist. It has quizzes you can take that at first seem so simple, but the authors have really done their research. It's amazing what you can learn about the Bible from this site. The humor is so over the top that I don't think anyone would ever believe it's a real church. The authors make statements similar to those made by extreme fundamentalist churches/pastors/church members and skewer them, sometimes just carrying them through to their logical ends. The people who designed the site must have grown up in fundamentalist churches to be able to pull of this satire without actually being antagonistic.

I think the funniest part of Landover Baptist is the email they receive. Maybe some of the email is made up but some of it sounds too serious. The emails have me every time. Mostly some fool writes in thinking he is writing to a real church with a real pastor. It's clear that he doesn't get the parody.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by BrianB

It's clear that he doesn't get the parody.

Really? Well....I'll be danged!

[Unmasked]

I think giraffes look very endearing. Ever see a platypus?

[Progo35]

Well, I don't know if any of you have ever had the "pleasure" of complaining about the website, but I personally know that the person who plays the character of Betsy Bowers feels that it is her personal mission to convince people that Jesus never lived and that the entire Christian religion is based on the mythologies of Osiris and Dionysisus. I also know that a few years ago, Landover Baptist used to provide the personal emails of everyone who wrote to their site for whatever reason. I got two emails from one person who wrote that Christians were "walking hate crimes" and "should be gassed in camps." This continued until I and some other people who were angered at the continued harassment threatened legal action if our email addresses were not taken down. So, just puting it out there for you.

[antonyh]

Originally Posted by Progo35

Well, I don't know if any of you have ever had the "pleasure" of complaining about the website, but I personally know that the person who plays the character of Betsy Bowers feels that it is her personal mission to convince people that Jesus never lived and that the entire Christian religion is based on the mythologies of Osiris and Dionysisus. I also know that a few years ago, Landover Baptist used to provide the personal emails of everyone who wrote to their site for whatever reason. I got two emails from one person who wrote that Christians were "walking hate crimes" and "should be gassed in camps." This continued until I and some other people who were angered at the continued harassment threatened legal action if our email addresses were not taken down. So, just puting it out there for you.

I am glad that religion is a protected category in the existing hate crimes bill!

[keltic63]

Originally Posted by Progo35

Well, I don't know if any of you have ever had the "pleasure" of complaining about the website, but I personally know that the person who plays the character of Betsy Bowers feels that it is her personal mission to convince people that Jesus never lived and that the entire Christian religion is based on the mythologies of Osiris and Dionysisus. I also know that a few years ago, Landover Baptist used to provide the personal emails of everyone who wrote to their site for whatever reason. I got two emails from one person who wrote that Christians were "walking hate crimes" and "should be gassed in camps." This continued until I and some other people who were angered at the continued harassment threatened legal action if our email addresses were not taken down. So, just puting it out there for you.

can you support this statement?

[Progo35]

Well, I could, if I had obsessively held unto her email from when I was eighteen years old (8 yrs ago). Unless, of course, you think that I would make that up for my own amusement. I remember quite clearly, however. I wrote that as a Christian, I shared the gospel because "I have a responsibility to tell others the truth." She wrote, "And I also have a responsibility to tell others the truth: that this Jesus never lived. His entire story was fabricated from the pagan stories of Osirus and Dionysius. So, your entire religion is a fraud. Have a lovely day." I wouldn't waste my time writing to these people now, but at the time I thought it was a good idea. You could, perhaps, find our exchanges on their website, as I think it's in their archive somewhere.

[Unmasked]

We have varied writings to prove that there was a Jesus who was looked to as a Messiah. Jews, Romans, and Greeks wrote about him. The travels of Jesus were well known. She might have a better time referencing all of the other "Messiahs" we never hear about today, like Apollonius. Jesus was the most out there and he pissed the Pharisees off more.

[keltic63]

from wikipedia:

The character, as well as the content of the website, was created by Paul Bradley, who is also one of the lead writers for the websites LandoverBaptist.org (a parody site concerning religion) and Whitehouse.org. Bradley is the sole author of all material on the Betty Bowers site, as well as the author of What Would Betty Do? (Simon & Schuster 2002), based on the same character.
Bradley was also a co-author on The White House Employee Handbook (Penguin 2004) and Welcome to Jesusland! (formerly the United States of America) (Time Warner 2006). The character Betty Bowers appears in all three of these books.
The content of the website and site "newsletters" varies; sometimes the satire is a tongue-in-cheek spoof of its intended target, whereas other pieces may have content that is directly critical of those targets.

So now the question becomes "who are we talking about? Paul Bradley? the model/actress who appears in the photographs as Betty Bowers? the author who responded to the emails?" Who is the person at the Landover Baptist site that feels it a personal mission to convince people that Jesus never lived and that the entire Christian religion is based on the mythologies of Osiris and Dionysisus?

[paul]

www.chick.com is convinced that Halloween is a plot by Satanists to sacrifice children "to Satan (or Samhain)". I find it incredibly amusing that they mixed up the name of the Sabbat with the Tempter. They also claim to have testimony from ex-satanists affirming this. Funny, because the Church of Satan doesn't believe in a Deity or a Devil. Satanism is just a shocking name for a religion that's really about hedonism.

not to be confused with bikerchick.com

[Progo35]

I don't know, Keltic-why don't you email Betsy Bowers and ask her?