Top Trump supporter apparently falsified much of his biography. Actually I think doing that is how you become a top Trump supporter.

Courtesy of CNN:

A top Donald Trump surrogate admitted to falsifying some of his professional accomplishments after a contentious confrontation with CNN anchor Victor Blackwell. 

South Carolina preacher Mark Burns, who regularly introduces Trump at his campaign events, had listed on his church's website that he had a Bachelor of Science degree and served six years in the Army Reserve. 

Burns, however, was never in the Army Reserve. He was in the South Carolina National Guard, from which he was discharged in 2008, CNN found. 

As far as a Bachelor's degree, North Greenville University told CNN he only attended the school for one semester. Burns admitted that he did not finish his degree when CNN asked him about it. 

When CNN confronted Burns about the various professional and social exaggerations he had featured on his biography, Burns first said the page had "obviously" been either "manipulated or either hacked or added." 

But the site host, Wix, said there was no evidence of a hack. 

I think my favorite part is when this idiot starts claiming that the interview, which has him surrounded by lights, with a microphone, and in front of cameras, is supposed to be "off the record."

Yeah, that's how that works.

For those of you who may have forgotten, Mark Burns is the guy who sent this tweet.

Yeah, that guy.

The other day some troll was on here claiming that I was being racist by suggesting that only self loathing or ignorant black folks could support Donald Trump.

This, this is the kind of African American who supports Trump.

I stand by my claim.

Minister brags that he "punched a kid" as hard as he could in order to get him to accept Jesus Christ as his savior. You know because violence and Jesus Christ go hand in hand.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A pastor at the Bible Baptist Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey is coming under fire after his church posted a video of him claiming to have converted a “smart aleck” youth by “punching him in the chest as hard as I could.” 

Pastor Eric Dammann begins by saying that he met a young man in Calgary named “Ben,” who was “a nice kid, but one of those — he was a real smart aleck. He was a bright kid, which didn’t help things — made him more dangerous.” 

“We were outside one day at youth group,” Dammann continues, “and he was just trying to push my buttons. He was just kind of not taking the Lord serious [sic].” 

“So I walked over to him and went BAM! Punched him in the chest as hard as I could. I crumpled the kid. I just crumpled him.” 

“Then I leaned over and said, ‘Ben, when are you going to stop playing games with God?’ I led that man to the Lord right there,” he concludes.

I found it enlightening that this guy identified the boy's intelligence as making him "dangerous." And responded by using violence in order to overcome the boy's resistance.

Sounds to me as if this guy did not have a great deal of faith in his religion if he felt the need to beat a child up in order to sell him on his particular brand of Christianity.

You know I have worked with kids for most of my adult life, in one form or another, and if I had EVER put my hands on a child the way this guy is describing they would have not only fired me but thrown my ass in jail.

Where, by the way, I would have deserved to go. 

The real cancer in this country is fairly easy to detect.

The idea that seemingly rational people can say, or accept, this kind of thing absolutely boggles my freaking mind.

Man who was a minister for over 30 years come out as an Atheist. Wait, you can do that?

Courtesy of the Friendly Atheist:  

Rev. Bob Ripley was a minister for more than three decades, including 15 years spent as Senior Minister at Metropolitan United Church, a major Canadian congregation. He also wrote a syndicated column discussing religion for the past 25 years. His most recent column, however, may raise a lot of eyebrows, because Ripley talks about how he no longer believes in God:… I need to tell you that I’ve changed my mind. Where once I proclaimed the doctrines of Christianity with passion and sincerity, I am now convinced that religion, all religion, is man-made. As with the long line of deities dotting the history of our species, the idea of one God, Yahweh, made manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, is our means to an end — to explain how we got here, for instance, or to avoid looking fate in the face or to gain an edge over our enemies. 

… 

If all this makes you sad, I’m sorry. Please remember that I have not changed. The heart that was once surrendered to Jesus Christ, that gave itself to others and infused a vocation with kindness, still beats in me. If you have ever met me, know that the person I was then, I am now, still striving for integrity and capable of profound love. 

I’m not lost. I began this journey by asking questions. It continued by not being content with trite cliches or lazy affirmations. Curiosity is an amazing accelerant. I am a passionate advocate for unremitting intellectual honesty, for reason and reality, for love and learning. My advocacy simply no longer assumes a deity. 

I still believe. I believe no person or group of persons is inferior to any other. I believe that what matters is not so much what we believe, but how we conduct ourselves for these few short, fragile years of being alive. I believe that being aware of the beauty and wonder of the universe, including this pale blue dot in the remote corner of one of billions of galaxies, is an indescribably wonderful privilege.

You know I have believed for quite some time that there are a number of ministers who no longer believe, but simply cannot bring themselves to walk away from the only life they have ever known.

I also think that in reality there are more non-believers in the world than believers. They simply hide that fact in deference to family, or career, or social position, instead living in constant fear of ever letting on to others their lack of faith.

In some ways these people are in a similar place to closeted homosexuals. Forever forced to deny their true selves in a desperate attempt to fit in with those around them.

Hopefully soon we will witness the same acceptance for the non-religious community that we are now beginning to witness among the LGBT community.

I know that's my goal.

Wise words from a youth pastor.

Dare I say it? Amen.