God answers a mother's prayer for a son, and then kills the boy in a baptistry 22 months later.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/after ... ry-126843/

God works in mysterious ways.

It was all part of God's plan.

Striking a bargain with God and making a deal with the Devil seem to yield exactly the same sort of results.

An arresting fact.

That'll learn the woman for being Pentacostal.

How sad.

Aren't the pools usually covered when they aren't in use or was that just the church I grew up attending? There were flaps in the floor of the stage that opened up and revealed the baptism pool when it was needed.

Our Baptismal was emptied until the morning of a baptism and then it was full and the only means to access it were small stairs and thick oak doors.

A lot of this stuff we deal with is not good, but the Bible says it's for good," Strong said in his sermon.

"You won't handle those problems with your emotions. God is not moved by emotions. God is moved by a relationship," he said.

Live by moronic idiocy, die in a moronically idiotic manner. Shame about the kid, wasn't his choice.

"Twenty-two months ago He gave her a son," said Strong. "And 22 months later he was taken away. I've been preaching 30 years and pastoring for 20 years, this is the first time in my ministry I've been speechless."

For fuck's sake, he's got to the point of directly experiencing something utterly indefensible. Why not take the small extra step from stunned silence to admitting it's all a crock. If a kid dying metres away isn't enough of a sign, then nothing ever will be. How fucking sad that in that respect, this kid's death seems to have been utterly in vain.

Just once, couldn't someone in this sort of position have the guts to stand up and say "My hypothesis of a loving God has been falsified." instead of reaching for the apologetics?

when the Brayden drowned in her church's baptistery.

"..the Brayden.."

Anyway, very tragic but that's a bizarre accident isn't it. I thought the font was meant to be a shallow bowl, raised on a plinth, begs the question ..how!

"You won't handle those problems with your emotions. God is not moved by emotions. God is moved by a relationship," he said.

This is all very sad and all but how can this pastor speak of any relationship with God when stuff like this happens? Why not just stop making excuses for God?

Ironclad wrote:

when the Brayden drowned in her church's baptistery.

"..the Brayden.."

Anyway, very tragic but that's a bizarre accident isn't it. I thought the font was meant to be a shallow bowl, raised on a plinth, begs the question ..how!

You know, Baptists - need a pool for the ritual. It's a question of taking the plunge.

Dolorian wrote:

"You won't handle those problems with your emotions. God is not moved by emotions. God is moved by a relationship," he said.

This is all very sad and all but how can this pastor speak of any relationship with God when stuff like this happens? Why not just stop making excuses for God?

Not to mention that this happened in his church, in the very pool where his flock are formally introduced to this alleged all loving and merciful god.
The number of ways this is fucked up for an avid god fan is untrue. It's tragic alone that a toddler has died in such a way but how this can be mangled to fit with an all loving god is going to take monstrous amounts of collective cognitive dissonance. Even the pastor hasn't got a ready line of bollocks to trot out for this one.
There's no amount of "mysterious ways" bullshitting can cover up the fact that god, if he exists, is an absolute cunt. There are sadistic child murderers and rapists walking around breathing and he allows that whilst ignoring a drowning infant he is alleged to have given in response to prayer, in the place he is worshipped by the recipient of his gift!! Was it just a short term lease or something? Didn't the mother read the small print?
Again, if a person was found to have just sat back and watched, they would be vilified and held responsible for being an unfeeling cunt. But god, well he's so good that people will make excuses for this deplorable shit!! When will people grow out of this tiresome bollocks?

Varangian wrote:

Ironclad wrote:

when the Brayden drowned in her church's baptistery.

"..the Brayden.."

Anyway, very tragic but that's a bizarre accident isn't it. I thought the font was meant to be a shallow bowl, raised on a plinth, begs the question ..how!

You know, Baptists - need a pool for the ritual. It's a question of taking the plunge.

Not Baptists, Pentecostals. Apparently a flavor of Pentecostalism that requires baptism by full immersion.

I remember my sister's baptism. She is a hefty girl and when the Pastor had her lie back to submerge, he wasn't strong enough to lift her and he slipped and fell on top of her and knocked his head. Fortunately, my sister is a realist about her weight and stood up and lifted the pastor up out of the water.

That's really sad. I'm sure they'll find a way to excuse that non-existent prick though.

Don't know why they'd think anything different, god is a cunt all through the OT, half of it is about him smiting and tempting and torturing innocents. The only excuse they give is "he's god, he can do what he wants. Fuck you, deal with it."

During my years as a pastor, I discovered (to my growing alarm) that most of the people who came to my church, or who were among the most avid and dedicated believers I knew, had experienced horrible dysfunction, abuse and neglect at the hands of their own "earthly" fathers. The dreadful specter of a Spirit-Father who either ignores you, hurts you, or fills your world with chaos is entirely consistent with reality and apt to feel like quite the expected norm as a "love" relationship.

So often was I confronted with this reality that I almost had to stop listening to the stories people wanted to tell me. It's painful just to hear.

Yeah, the way the article reads I was immediately put in mind of the comparison to Christianity to an abusive relationship.

Reminds me of something which happened when James Foley's father was giving a statement to the press shortly after James's beheading. While he was talking through tears about how his son was now "with God" up in heaven, the mobile phone of James's brother - who was standing next to his father at the time - went off. It was that silly jazz piano ringtone that comes pre-loaded in iPhones.

Can you imagine it? Both men utterly beside themselves with horrific grief with the whole world watching, and this silly frivolous ring tone goes off. When I saw that I thought to myself "if I were still a believer, then SURELY that would have been enough to make the penny drop, to make it clear that we are utterly on our own". With one ringtone the profound indifference of the universe to human feeling and suffering was revealed for the whole world to see. How could anyone possibly deny this, except by postulating a God so incredibly malicious and sadistic as to utterly defy imagination? And why would anyone possibly prefer such a malicious sadistic bastard of a God to an utterly indifferent and impersonal universe, especially when the evidence for the latter is so much stronger?