Dale Partridge has adopted or fostered approximately zero children as far as I’m aware so… faith without works is dead, brother. Funny how Christians who do nothing are the loudest online about everything Christians supposedly do.
Tweeting this does nothing to change the reality that there are indeed many unwanted children today in the foster care system and Dale is doing nothing to change this fact. It’s the equivalent of the man with leprosy approaching Jesus and being like, “Lord, if you’re willing please heal me….” And Jesus being like “yeah, I came here to heal you,” and then walking away.
My main issue though is this basically applauds Christians for doing the upmost bare minimum. James said “religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to take care of widow and orphans.” So like the base minimum for being a decent religious person (not even Christian) is to care about orphaned children. That’s literally the absolute bare minimum, which is funny as most modern, Evangelical Christians care about neither orphans nor widows – just look at how underfunded and corrupt our foster care system is and then look at what the majority of conservative, “Christian” politicians and pundits build their platforms on. It ain’t children or widows.
Advocating that Christians do something that should be a no-brainer is why American Christianity is dying and why the secular world laughs in our faces whenever Christians try to hold some moral high-ground over various issues.
Unfortunately, Dale is exactly like most American Christians, more concerned with getting likes and retweets online than doing anything useful, let alone doing anything Jesus would actually do. Patting yourself on the back for doing the bare minimum isn’t the flex he thinks it is. It should be a given that Christians were and are at the forefront of hospitals, adoptions, women’s shelters, etc. (if his stat is even true) not something to brag about. In fact, the Bible even tells us that our giving should be done in secret which makes this tweet doubly in poor taste.
A proper response would be that yes, the church could and should do more for expectant mothers. We could be advocating for 6 months minimum of paid maternity leave so that new mothers can bond with their children and not have to worry about losing their jobs, we could be advocating for better healthcare so new mothers don’t go bankrupt having kids, we could be advocating for better sex education and better access to birth control to limit the amount of unwanted pregnancies, and Dale could put his money where his mouth is and foster or adopt a child to prove he isn’t full of air.
But of course, that would mean actually following the Bible on which his faith is built upon and not just tweeting hot takes.
Morgan and Paul Olliges of the “That’s Not In the Bible Show” always manage to bring me out of my self-imposed blogging exile somehow. That said, for once I have a reason for temporarily abandoning my blog and it’s not just that I’m playing Jedi Fallen Order (10/10 game), but I’m writing articles for a local newspaper, which takes up a lot of time because, unlike my blog posts, those have to be coherent, grammatically correct, and well-written.
Morgan Olliges posted on Instagram asking why people who have pre-marital sex still go to church. I don’t know, maybe because Jesus said, “[t]hose who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Furthermore, Morgan herself had pre-marital sex and readily accepted the grace God offered her. But doesn’t want to extend that same grace to others, which is typical of conservative, evangelical Christians. Jesus forgives but you heathen liberals are going to hell for doing the exact same thing I’m doing, amiright?
She continues (along with her husband) to use their platform to spew drivel. Specifically that living in sexual sin causes mental health issues and insinuating that Christians having extra-marital sex aren’t really Christians.
There’s only one caveat to being saved and that’s outlined in John 3:16, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” That isn’t to discredit works entirely – part of becoming a Christian is accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord. However, salvation isn’t negated by having sex, or even living in deliberate sin. Of course, evidence that you have a walk with God is choosing to no longer live in sin but that’s not what she’s saying here.
Second, I’m gonna guess she’s probably not talking about pornography in regards to “sexual sin” which is adultery. Nor is she talking about lust of which her husband, Paul, is always going on about women in the gym wearing leggings and how he’s lusting after them. By her logic, why is Paul going to church when he’s still ogling other women and living in sexual sin? Again Biblically speaking, merely looking at a woman with lust is committing adultery, so she really ought to talk to her husband about his salvation first and maybe read the Bible. Specifically the part where Jesus said take the speck out of your own eye before throwing shade, ya hypocrite.
Third, can you imagine Jesus saying to all the people who came to Him for salvation and healing, “I don’t wanna hear from you?” Like it’s actually incredibly sad that she thinks this is acceptable behavior for Christians. What a missed opportunity here to spread the gospel and love on those who are hurting, yet instead she choose to be judgmental.
And she’s wrong. Jesus straight up tells us we will suffer in this world; struggling with mental health as a Christian doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong, or are living in sin. It’s the product of living in a fallen world in which we’re all more or less promised some level of suffering (which… sounds depressing…). Not that there aren’t consequences for sin, but telling people the reason they struggle with mental health issues is because they’re having sex outside of marriage and you don’t wanna hear from them is cruel and stupid.
As a Christian, I’m obviously not gonna encourage anyone to commit adultery lol even thought it’s low on the list of things I care about, personally. In fact, Morgan might’ve been on to something because 1 Corinthians does say, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” That said, Morgan is the pot calling the kettle black here given she was screwing around prior to meeting Paul. Instead of extending grace to those reaching out to her, she questions why they’re going to the one place that will help them live out their Christian faith.
The Bible says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothingIf I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” My issue with Morgan and Paul, other than the fact that the Bible is always an afterthought to whatever political brownie point they’re trying to score that day, is they’re always speaking from a place of pride, judgment, and condemnation, rather than love. It’s partially why they’re the target of so much criticism online.
It’s ironic Morgan specifically questions why people having extramarital sex are still going to church, when hot take: going to church doesn’t make one a Christian. Rather, evidence that one is a Christian can be found in fostering the fruits of the spirit. Love, kindness, and gentleness are ways the world knows we’re Christians without us saying so. Looking through their history, I saw no examples of them regularly doing anything generous for their fans who support them (giveaways, gift cards, even randomly gifting someone $5 for coffee which many of the Christian influencers I follow do), nor do they regularly donate to, or encourage their fans to donate to organizations and charities that help the poor, orphans, or pregnant women. But they do brag about getting $1400 strollers from their fans and beg for gifts online.
Take away their YouTube channel, Instagram posts, and all the things they say about being a Christian, and their actions reveal greedy, prideful, and selfish individuals who aren’t very much like Christ at all. Needless to say, if anyone ought to question the sincerity of their faith and salvation, it’s probably Paul and Morgan.
I’ve been wanting to do a critique on Girl Defined in the style of Brittany Dawn for a while but alas, just don’t have the time while trying to 100% complete Forbidden West.
That said, Bethany Beal of Girl Defined is not very Christ-like. She’s currently complaining about free gifts people have sent her.
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18. While I’m certain Paul was probably talking about Christians being imprisoned, burned at the stake, and chopped in half for preaching the gospel here, this verse could easily apply to someone attempting to give you a backpack listed on your own registry. For free.
Lying is one of the 7 deadly sins. I doubt if given the option between being grilled for cannibal meat and working a normal job, she would choose to roast. Secondly, doubling down rather than either turning the other cheek, or apologizing for making it seem like working is a bad thing (because there’s no reason to degrade someone else’s profession just to uplift your own), is deliberately stirring strife. Something Christians ought not to do. The Bible say, “[t]hey were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” Does she really look at behavior and thinks it’s honoring God? Especially when this behavior is right up there with murder?
Despite Girl Defined building their brand on being Godly, Bethany is nothing but. Her family is relatively wealthy, and she runs an Instagram account called sheworkssmart selling 3k courses and boasting about how much money she makes.
Yes, she’s not only begging her followers for gifts instead of throwing a baby shower, but also bragging about having added things for her current son to her unborn child’s registry. If she’s making as much money as she’s claiming to be, why does she need other people to buy her gifts? Charity is a tenet of Christianity, so if anything she ought to bless her followers with her abundance of wealth. And while she’d no doubt say something like “oh these people just blessed me out of the goodness of their heart”, she wouldn’t have posted her registry publicly if she didn’t want to guilt her followers into buying her stuff.
Hebrews says, “[k]eep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have…” and Proverbs says “[b]etter is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.” Sure, while there aren’t any explicit Bible verses saying don’t exploit the people who support you into funding your own lifestyle, it goes without saying her behavior is shady and selfish at best, downright sinful at worst.
Christians shouldn’t be known for their grifting but for their generosity. Yet, in all my time following Bethany, I don’t recall ever seeing her even do like a $20 Starbucks gift card giveaway. It’s quite telling that at nearly every opportunity to be generous Bethany (and the rest of Girl Defined) choose to focus only on themselves and their needs. Time and time again, they’ve had opportunities to show true, sacrificial charity like Jesus did and yet, they not only fail but are smug and boastful about it.
For all Bethany’s poetic waxing about not finding your identity in gender and how we’re not the king of our lives, perhaps she should read the Bible a bit more closely. After all, it’s not the love of self that’s the root of all evil but the love of money.
ARayOfDawn 