Sunday, September 17, 2023

In which the pond goes ABC bashing with Polonius (axe handles recommended) and cult worshipping with the bromancer ...

 

What with the pond having red carded every reptile in sight, the pond feared for its Sunday meditation, but luckily prattling Polonius is routinely so enraged by the ABC that he managed to avoid the rampaging hive mind jiving about the Voice, and instead the platter that mattered featured the cardigan wearers...




Thus far it's just a standard prattle, with the usual reminders that Polonius has been hanging around like the proverbial for yonks, but then the prattler honed in on the latest topic of his ire, naturally due to the ABC not having a single conservative commentator, because you certainly couldn't count the foul-mouthed, accident-prone Mandy as anything but a zombie with a mike ...





Ah yes, the ABC, and Patty, who always gets up the highly sensitive Polonial nose. Of course it takes exceptional skill to ignore all the other tales, but that's the art of being Polonius. 

That bloody BBC was also in on the conspiracy ...demented feminists complaining about men, but what's this, the whining was coming from inside the tent?





So it's time for a little more Polonial hot air breathed onto the nape of the ABC's neck ...





No mention of Karen Andrews, or for that matter responses to what she said, such is Polonius's desire to breathe hot air on the nape of the ABC's neck ... though he could have read the Graudian's Karen Andrews says male MP used to ‘breathe on the back of my neck’ in parliament, Minister in former Coalition government alleges colleague also subjected her to ‘thrusting’ innuendo during question time...

Asked by the ABC’s Annabel Crabb if she had been subjected to sexual harassment, Andrews replied: “I did have one of my male colleagues who used to breathe on the back of my neck in question time.
“Yes, breathe. I’d just be sitting there minding my own business and I would have the back of my neck breathed on.
“And if I asked a question, it would be ‘that was a great question – thrusting and probing’ and, you know, that sort of stuff.”
Andrews said the comments were “not really” funny but “there would be people that would say: ‘Can’t you take a joke? You know – can she not take a joke?’”
Andrews said that sometimes she did call out behaviour like that but “sometimes I just go ‘I can’t, I can’t be in every fight’”.

Bloody ABC! And she didn't name the hot breather's name! Take that hyperbole!

What a relief it's been to be able to present the usual barking mad homily from a deeply weird man without mentioning the hive mind on the Voice, but what to do for a bonus also not featuring the Voice?

With the likes of Everest "Ned" and Dame Slap red carded, the pond decided to return to its roots. 

Back in the day the pond used to devote Sunday to the Pellists and the angry Sydney Anglicans in search of a complimentary woman, and thanks be unto the bromancer, the pond can revive the tradition ...





It goes to say that this is deeply weird ... a fundamentalist Catholic among the Pentecostalists, and what's more a portrait done with vaseline smeared on the lens ... but there will be sting in the tail, and all will be revealed as to what set all this in motion ...

The pond isn't going to argue with loons preaching the rapture ... that's been done many times before, and is a reason why the pond is fascinated by Le Charlatans ...



 



Naturally the bromancer is going to airbrush all this, as he seeks for his SloMo roots ...




At this point, the reptiles slipped in a snap which looked so absurd that the pond simply didn't have the heart to downsize it ... it looked as cheap and as shoddy as a scene from a late low-budget Paul Cox movie, Salvation, which featured Wendy Hughes as an Elmer Gantry-style hustler ...




The pond did a little research, not much, a little, with a Reddit thread devoted to the Cult ... with lines such as this ...

Kingdom city, as most mega churches do provide community to people who need it. More often then not, these communities are some of the most diverse (ethic) communities you can find in Perth (not sexuality for obvious reasons)
This, is incredibly attractive to people who are socially isolated, in vulnerable places in their life, or are trying to find a group of likeminded people from their ethic background.
I think the key issue here is the church is lead spirituality by one man, Mark Varughese, who has a very heavy hand over the ideas presented in the church. As mega churches are such large communities, the beliefs held by the senior pastor (Mark) nearly always become the norm, leaving him in an INCREDIBLY powerful position, over many people.
This occurs in every mega church, however, Kingdom city is particularly troubling as they routinely prop Mark above others, through routine acts such as instructing the congregation to stand up for Mark when he appears on stage. They go fucking crazy for him.
In honesty, I only attended Kingdom city once or twice in my life. But even as a person who had been deeply involved in another mega church, the way their church praised Mark came off as really off and weird.
Last note to end on; kingdoms city have done some SHAAAADY shit, usually, in order to take over other churches and bring them under the “kingdom city brand”. They plant churches anytime they get a chance- which again is really weird when churches are not a new or novel concept. So what are they introducing that’s new or novel? Mark and Kingdom city’s beliefs. 

And what are some of their beliefs? Just the usual tried and true patented forms of cultism, using music to induce trances and susceptibility ... and the usual set of prejudices and clucking in tongues...





Yep, all the standard bits of biogtry, while the bromancer plays softball and does his best to sell yet another Elmer ...




Hillsong, it seems, is now so yesterday ....




Of course the bromancer wouldn't count a fierce anti-gay attitude as a scandal, but it's been around for a long time as shown by this 2017 story ...Perth church defends decision to host 'gay conversion therapy' advocate ...

A Perth church has defended its decision to host a controversial supporter of "gay conversion therapy" in a public seminar about same-sex attraction planned for Saturday evening.
Perth City Church of Christ is hosting an event with James Parker, billed as a presentation on his experience as a "gay activist to husband and father through Jesus Christ"...

...On the website Parousia Media, Mr Parker's testimonial is described as a 45 to 75 minute presentation and outlines:
  •     My Story - From Gay Activist to Husband and Father
  •     How Homosexuality Develops - Confusion and Division of Legitimate Loves
  •     Lesbianism 101 - the Basics About Female Same-Sex Attraction
  •     How Did We Get Here? - Understanding the Modern Birth and Rise of Sexualities
  •     Where Are We Going? - the Death of Society Through Same-Sex "Marriage"
  •     Changing Orientation - Aren't People Born Gay, or is Change Possible?
  •     Pastoral Responses to the Gay Rights Movement - Reaching out with Love
  •     Do No Harm - Supporting Same-Sex Attracted Youth
  •     Health Consequences of Gay Sex - the Stuff No One Ever Talks About
  •     Catholicism: Pure Gift to those Same-Sex Attracted - How the Church Ministers Life
  •     Gay Genes & Science - Neither Scientific nor Democratic, just the Furthering of Lies
  •     The Trans World - Destroying Male and Female through Gender Mainstreaming
The church denied Mr Parker promoted the "pray-the-gay-away" message...

What's deeply weird about this is that Parker patently prayed away the gay in himself, and he also hangs out with fundamentalist Catholics ...

This might help explain why the bromancer is so deeply sympathetic and prays away "isolated scandals"...




Intellectual muscle? You need intellectual muscle to talk of Adam and Eve, burning bushes, turning water into plonk, and such like matters? Not to mention angels and demons and whatever ...






Yeah, and don't forget to tip the spruiker generously ...




Oh that's touching, two fundamentalist Xians bonding over their books, and at this point the reptiles slipped in a few huge snaps which the pond thought could do with some downsizing ...






It was at that moment that the pond knew what had been missing ... the need for some cartoon relief ...






A cartoon to remind the pond that there was a real world out there, filled with suckers waiting to be ripped off ... but speaking of religious warlords ...





By this point, the pond had begun to drift a little ...






The trouble is, the bromancer wouldn't shut up about his new love, and the pond was likely to run out of cartoons ...




Lost it? Why there have been much better examples of losing it in the last week ...







Oops, demon in the room, and no Max von Sydow to hand. This was starting to go beyond a chore into the valley of the tedious ...

Meanwhile, in Newtown, the locals were setting up a different sort of church ...







Yet for all the distractions, nobody could distract the bromancer from his hagiographical excesses, remarkably short of any challenge to the loon to hand, either about his business practices or his delusional theology ...





At this point the reptiles ran a hagiographic snap which the pond naturally downsized ...






The pond did begin to wonder why the bromancer had completely abandoned any sense of journalistic integrity and hadn't bothered to talk to a few other voices. They could have been easily found, they littered that Reddit link ...

I know someone who was very closely involved in them taking over from a previous church (this is the one down on ranford rd). Apparently they came in and just started demanding everyone on staff do loads of free work, pushing people out of positions they had successfully held for a long time, got pretty toxic about a bunch of stuff and got really demanding in terms of money.
Last I heard all the old staff had left cause it was so toxic.

Or: 

I attended Kingdomcity for about 2 years and did Greenhouse (their "bible college") and I can say 100% it is a cult. They do not let you have your own beliefs or you will be scrutinised and pushed to do some kind of course to "learn the truth about jesus". They have rules for what you can wear, who you date, what music you listen to, what games you play, where you can go outside of church. Everything is highly policed. I once had two sips of a Somersby and got scolded for it by my leadership team. If you leave, expect to hear from no one you were friends with. They believe that their church is the only church that knows the true teachings of god and every other church has it wrong (including other christian churches). There is an incredible amount of racism in this church, they are incredibly homophobic. I recall Jemima saying that if a gay friend invites you to their wedding, you should not go because the devil will harm you.
They do a salvation call at the end of their services for people that want to give their life to god and they tell you that no one is watching and it is just between you and god. But, there are people in the back that count how many hands go up so that they can input the data into a system to see if they are statistically improving. The people that count how many hands go up also keep track of who those people are so they can go find them after the service to talk to them and try and get them to do one or all of the following: join a connect group or volunteer. AKA - recruitment. They then take your info, put it into a system and create a profile for you so they can see what you are doing for the church. They will follow up with you until you commit to something.
I know so many people that were abused in this church. Physically, emotionally, mentally, financially etc. literally name anything and it has probably happened. I have had a friend who were having panic attacks and leadership forced an exorcism on him, another friend who was physically abused by a member of staff and was then covered up by the leadership team (Lead Pastor: Jemima V knew about this and ignored it).
This church is so incredibly harmful. I am doing trauma therapy because of the shit that went on there, other friends have been hospitalised because their mental health declined so badly because of the treatment here. It does not matter how much you try to tell them they are in the wrong or tell them of what you went through. They don't care. All they care about is their image, literally taking over the world (i am not kidding) and making as much money as possible.

Or:

I went to try KC Perth on what turned out to be their “Miracle Offering” day. As another commenter mentioned, they hypnotized us for 15 minutes with music and then showed footage of people poorer than us forking over cash, so the pressure was on.
When the service ended, a volunteer who’d been assigned to learn my name and lure me with a free tote bag materialized, but I ran. Oh lawd I ran.

It was the sting in the tale that would reveal the sting in the tail at the end of the piece, but there were gobbets to go to get there ...





The pond has no idea why the bromancer is spruiking Pentecostalism so hard ... back aways, one of those topics of conversation was Catholicism: Pure Gift to those Same-Sex Attracted.

Or as anyone in the game knows, the Whore of Babylon, full of deviants and heretics destined to Hellfire, and if only that was a real place, that's where the bromancer would be heading ...

Speaking of conversations, why no other voices? Why no actual journalism from an alleged journalist?

Had a friend who was in it.
I'm a gender-diverse individual, and when I first came out as gay ( before coming out as not-being-cis), she yelled at me, a few not so funny words here and there, and a whole lot more. It is a CULT. Looking back everything she said about the church, the attempts she made to effectively recruit me. It's a hateful ' church' and is a cult. Downright simple, she is no longer in contact with me, doesn't even acknowledge my existence when I go to parties with her included ( inv by another friend, likely ). Overall it's a cult, who deceives it's members, worships the leader, recruits. Speaking to some other friends, she couldn't be friends with me because she would be effectively shunned from the church if she was friends with a ' queer!!!!!!!! '(semi-joking manner).
Overall it's just a cult. Don't join em, don't go to em.

Or:

I just left this kingdomcity months ago, what you said is right, they are 100% confirm cult. I experienced so many hurt in this church and i was there for 4years! Finally i am free and i am not going back there anymore, its a relief! Btw the kingdomcity i went it’s in Asia, but no matter which kingdomcity u go to, i think the teachings are the same! Which is False Truth!!

Or:

This is so true!!! Glad that u shared it out. I was in asia kingdomcity for 4 years and i decided to leave months ago, and I’m not looking back since then, their miracle offerings are bullshit, the 10fold 50fold 100fold in return are completely bullshit, the videos and sermons they played and give are to brainwashed ppl into giving them money!!! They are 100% confirm cult, please leave and don’t join anymore and their GreenHouse programme is to find potential staff to serve, they are all nothing but hypocrites!!!

Or:

I've been attending Kingdom city for the past couple months.. and intuitively found the things mentioned in this post off also... However as a new Christian and moving back to the area I was a little socially isolated and wanted to find like-minded community. This past Sunday was probably my last one, the pastor introduced the newbies to church and afterward encouraged everyone to speak in tongues... And then proceeded to do so himself.
If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 1 Corinthians 14:23

Apparently you can drop thousands in the joint as a price to pay to get to the pie in the sky in the bye and bye, but there's none so blinkered as a bromancer in heat and with a deep lust ...

Dear sweet long absent lord, "Intellecutal ballast", up against a cult leader, leading a cult ...





Apparently suckers can fork over thousands, and just like any good cult and Covetton House, there's merch ... give me the money, beautiful ...







Find out more? When you do find out more, you tend to find bugs ...






A few more cartoons to celebrate cults ...








And that left just one gobbet of pandering bilge to go ...





And there's the sting in the tale. The reptiles were too cheap to send an actual journalist to make honest journalistic enquiries. They accepted largesse from Kingdomcity, and presumably next week, the bromancer will fly to LA as a guest of Scientology to discover deep insights about Thetans ...

What to do, but finish with a Tom Tomorrow, with more at Daily Kos?





10 comments:

  1. Ah, predictable old Polonius - gotta pad out the standard attacks on the ABC, so why not include a few hundred words of general history to boost the word count? “Paul Keating…. Became PM in 1991…. Labor in 4th term…. Headed for defeat…. Keating booted in 1996…” All common knowledge, but never get between Hendo and an opportunity for a pedantic drone. Of course he missed the opportunity to add a few additional words by ignoring the fact that Keating and Labor managed to win the 1993 election, but that may still be a bit too painful for him to acknowledge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Depends on whether or not he remembers who lost it for the Libbies in 1993 and why.

      Delete
  2. Well, the Bromancer has finally gone over the edge, tumbling from hysterical hyperbole into full crackpottery. Either that or he’s sold his birthright foe a mess of pottage. Surely as a devout Catholic of the Pellist variety he realises that by hanging out with heretics he’s now condemned his immortal souls to an eternity of Hellfire? Is a round trip to Perth (Second Prize - Two return trips to Perth) really worth that? Time for an intervention - perhaps Ned, Ange, the Bouffant One and the rest of the Catholic Boys Weekly crew can remind the Bro of that essential guide to life, WWBSD - “What Would Bob Santamaria Do?”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With you Anonymous - he is one odd little frog, isn't he? Thank you, Dorothy, for giving us the full spiel - although I suspect I was not the only one who thought, at various parts of the narrative 'Are we there yet?'

      Perhaps the Bro should communicate with 'motoring journalists' or 'travel writers' who appear on the decks of the Flagship. One can be the 'guest' of whichever car manufacturer for fares and all to Spain, or the Untied States, to hoon about in the product, and about 3 paras next week discharges any sense of obligation for the generous benefits. Oh, sure - the vehicle will totally transform travel as we know it - but that needs no more than old-style boilerplate at worst, or simply topping and tailing the company handouts, and adding 'exclusive'. Travel writing is even easier - the 'journalism' is about 95% pictures, again supplied by the cruise company's PR. Of course, it was even easier a year or three back, but that dreadful ABC 'Media Watch' (an amateurish attempt to copy the long-running, highly rated, precedent, 'Media Watch Dog') started to chide publishers that there should be appropriate disclosure of 'guest' benefits.

      Delete
    2. Always good to be reminded of Elmer Gantry, DP. Here's a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY1cEZ-jXlQ

      Delete
  3. Bro: "At the Sunday morning I attend there are 900-odd folks." That he "attend"? Or did he mean to say "attended"? He hasn't abandoned BAS and his prior belief system has he ? And I''ll bet they were very "odd folks".

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  4. Here he goes: "Celsus dismissed it as a religion of 'slaves, and women and little children'." And wasn't the glorious omnipotent 'Trinity' glad of all the Roman women - especially the ones who had some private wealth and influence - for keeping Christianity alive until those all-powerful men - eg Constantine - picked up the religion and enforced it on the citizens of Rome, and of Constantinople. Which they knew would happen after a century or five because they're omniscient.

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  5. This phenomenon is straight out of P T Barnum showbiz. Barnum was of course wrong - there are thousands of suckers born every minute.
    Whatever verity there may or may not be in modern forms of christianism, pentacostalism is the religious equivalent of junk food.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't pay taxes, do take government handouts for RTOs and multinational McUniversity pyramid schemes, and always oversauce the nothingburger, for especial intellectual paralogicistics?

      Delete
    2. I notice that pentecostalism and scientology are very similar.

      But there wasn't as many suckers born every minute back in PT's day, Han, because there just wasn't as many Homo saps saps born per minute back then. And they didn't generally have as much moolah and time to waste as they have nowadays.

      Delete

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