FSTDT

Jeff Hambrecht and Mitch Parsons #crackpot #fundie #sexist baptistnews.com

Men-only gyms seek to protect Christian men from lust

To reach that peak, the Christian manosphere believes men need to be in top physical and spiritual shape. So one way they’re proposing to accomplish that is through “lust-free” gyms.

“Why are we men’s only? Who are we?” asks Jeff Hambrecht, founder of Proverbs 27:17 Fitness in Oklahoma City. “In a nutshell, one of the No. 1 places affairs and infidelity occur, cheating, is the gym. Byproduct is someone who had an affair in my previous marriage. Doesn’t work out well for you fellas.”

According to the gym’s website, “There was a season of his life marked by homelessness, addiction and spiritual emptiness.” In another video, he admits, “I had a pornography addiction for almost 20 years.”

Mitch Parsons, founder of Youth Group for Men and Remnant Men in Denver, had a similar experience. “I quit four gyms before I built one,” he says on the Remnant Gym website. “I realized the problem wasn’t the gym. It was that no one had built what I actually needed, or what I wanted.”

“I was tired of having nakedness shoved in my face every time I walked into a gym to train,” Parsons claims. “I had to choose between honoring the Lord, honoring my wife, and guarding my eyes, or training my body. So I quit four gyms.”

Both male-only gyms take inspiration from Proverbs 27:17, which says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

Rather than having a gym where “nakedness” supposedly gets “shoved in his face,” Parsons dreams of “a place where Christian men gather, sharpen each other, and are formed under the fear of the Lord.”

His vision is for men to “sharpen each other in brotherhood” and suggests, “Real sharpening requires daily proximity to other faithful men who refuse to let you drift.”

Paula White #fundie #god-complex #mammon #quack baptistnews.com

President Donald Trump’s chief faith adviser is selling seven “supernatural blessings” for Easter season gifts of $1,000 or more.

On her website and social media, televangelist Paula White has a special offer for what she calls the “Passover season” when “your obedience to align yourself with the desires of God” can “release seven specific supernatural blessings for your body, your family, your finances and your future.”

White leads the White House Faith Office and recently assembled a group of 17 evangelical pastors to pray over Trump in the Oval Office.

With a portion of Exodus 23, she takes God’s promise to the Children of Israel and applies it today to those who give her $1,000 or more.

“As we read in Exodus 23, when you honor God during this Passover,” she claims, God will “assign an angel to you,” “be an enemy to your enemies,” “give you prosperity,” “take sickness away from you,” “give you a long life, “bring increase and inheritance” and “give a special year of blessing.”

All this can be yours, she says, if you bring a “Passover offering to the house of the Lord.”

Then she relates this testimony from one of her followers named Alfred: “I sowed a seed as a result of the teaching of giving during the Passover season. As a result, my unemployment benefits were restored and increased this past week. My family and I are being provided for, and spiritual blessings are evident. I believe the 7 Blessings are being manifested in me, and believe full restoration will take place in my life, career, child, and service to the Lord.”

But wait, there’s more!

With your gift of $1,000 or more, White will send you a 10-inch-high Waterford cross, plus some devotionals and an “olive wood communion set from the Holy Land.”

That special set “contains unleavened bread and grape juice from the Holy Land, two beautiful olive wood communion cups” and a booklet, her advertisement says. With these items in hand, “you can join Paula in taking communion during our special Good Friday online GLOBAL communion service at noon eastern on April 18.”