"If I step off the pulpit and I doubt my performance, that thought is gone in a moment. If I walk into a room and I feel rejected, that thought is gone in a moment..."
"Please note that God's kill count is 227,037% higher than Satan's. These numbers do not include women and children, so it's possible that Satan made up some of the slack punt-kicking Jewish children into the Dead Sea, but I tend to doubt it. That's a pretty commanding lead on Jehovah's part. Satan coming back from that would be like the Generals coming back against the Harlem Globetrotters in the last minutes of the 4th."
But, David, this earthly life isn't the one that matters. Satan doesn't care about killing people, just tempting them into sin. If those people that God killed were in right relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then why does it matter if he killed them? They're spending eternity in God's presence, basking in His Holy Light! And if they weren't, bless their unrepentant souls, then God in his omniscience knew that they never would be. So again, it doesn't matter. You're putting too much stock in the worldly.
--
Gonna go listen to Opiate to cleanse my soul from writing that.
I've got a soft spot for Satan. In the Bible stories I know he sounds like the good guy. Dude made Eve aware she was in an abusive relationship with God and gave her the autonomy to get out. His character is willfully misrepresented.
Fucking insane stuff to read when you know the context, right? I also know a bunch of people will be reading along going, "Poor John, he sounds like a great pastor" without ever looking any further into it.
Jesus wept...I really did use that pun... I feel more puns fall out of me as I feel myself raging against the machine that is Christianity. I feel sick when I read the shittiness that comes from pastors/preacher's. They hold a position of power. Power corrupts, goddam more puns. I guess it all shows how there story never changes. Next year I go up against a pastor/preacher and counsellor from the Salvation Army's bridge treatment centre who was also a pastor in a cult called the church of Christ. I had to wear gingham dresses to church (I was 19 years old, underage, junkie, whore in trouble). His sister and brother in law are also witnesses for him. This man was in his 40s when he raped me and all the church could do was turn up to Porirua psych hospital that he put me in to keep me quite, they would all turn up and talk about how I was hurting the church. It's all they ever care about. Oh that and money. I dread court because I know it will be the same shit like this. Silly fuckwit Christians sprouting weird sounding words about me to protect themselves. What happened to me happened in 1989. Seeing that absolutely nothing has changed with how Christians are, makes me want to blow up the 🌎.
That's awful, Jazmine. Keep your peace inside your heart, whatever happens. Even if the court finds for them and against you, eventually the truth comes out. Lies burn. Not many people who profess to follow Christ can resist the burns.
When I read the title of this one, I really thought it was gonna be about how you got a haircut. I was like, “Damn, I guess David really let the haters get to him.”
On a more serious note, I wish someone would tell John Cameron that negative feelings can be productive, even necessary, and that you can’t just ignore criticism - especially when so many people are saying how damaging your actions have been.
Then again, I doubt he would even hear it 🙄
Anyways, looking forward to the next article you and Lucifer put out. Love what you create when you two collab.
I guess it ties in with the whole toxic positivity thing, right? Like you can't feel any negative emotions in your life... anger and sadness are to be shunned.
But as you say - WE NEED NEGATIVE FEELINGS THEY CAN HELP US.
I don't know, I do think the Prince of Lies would probably have a Substack.
As someone riddled with self-doubt, it's always a bit awe inspiring to see someone so lacking in humility and introspection. Did religion make them this way, or were they drawn to religion because this who they already were? It'd be fascinating if it weren't so depressing.
Religion like this draws in the narcissists and sociopaths. Like real estate agents and car salesmen, they fail upwards, surrounded by sycophants who fluff them constantly.
It did crack me up that he was thinking about being a real estate agent. I mean... even that he said it out loud. My other favourite, Peter Mortlock of City Impact (https://www.webworm.co/p/worshipping-at-the-church-of-anti?s=w) made all his cash in real estate...
I think a small doubt is useful. It's the sort of thing you might look at, as if it belongs to someone else, and ask if it makes a difference to anything, so that it becomes a self-examination. If there's nothing to regret about it, move on....but if you think maybe you could have done better, it's a tool for the next occasion.
I do it all the time. I have knee-jerk reactions: judging people. I don't like that in myself, and so far (ye gods! months have gone by) I've slowed down my response a bit, but importantly, I see occasions coming up and can pre-warn myself.
“The main thing that stood out to me is that John Cameron has developed a system to ignore basically any criticism that ever comes his way.”. Is this what we do now when faced with criticism? No self-reflection, no trying to see the other person’s point of view? I don’t know why I’m surprised by this quote, I really shouldn’t be. These outwardly devout christians are showing their ugly more and more, except very few are watching or listening. Thanks for continuing to spotlight this David.
I bumped into John Cameron unexpectedly a few weeks ago and he proceeded to tell me how hurt he was by something I'd apparently said about him online - like two years ago. That's right, I'd hurt the feelings of someone with a long list of victims of his toxic church leadership, most of them young people, some of them now with genuinely damaged lives. The lack of perspective and proportion was staggering.
It was not a quiet aside either, he really wanted to confront me with some degree of aggression and did so in the hearing of the small group of friends and family who were with me.
I learned a couple of things from that encounter. First that he must've been following closely every Webworm Arise article and every comment made to come across something from me - that's a massive amount of effort! I'd only commented twice during the entire period! And over on Facebook I'd shared the Pathfinding Report and another piece on the topic by Frank Ritchie - that's it!
The other thing I learned was that he has come nowhere near to the self-reflection or awareness that's a prerequisite to getting help for the pattern of relational dysfunction that was laid bare two years ago. Reading your update, David, he seems still to be living in the echo chamber from which he will never find healing, only flattery. Yes I do hope he gets help: for his own sake and that of his family and the people still listening to him. [And because you're probably reading this, John, please do get down to this important work urgently.]
Thanks, Jazmine. I think someone like John Cameron is just SUCH a good example of this sick church culture - his behaviour illustrates that of so many others. And so - we keep reporting on him.
"And then I just sat down, just out of the kindness of my heart, in a cafe with a pen and paper and book" There is not one single part of me that believes that dude has ever done anything out of the kindness of his heart. Charmless, scumbag grifter.
I think when you say something is out of the kindness of your heart it probably isn't. The thing about kindness is you don't have to point out it's kind.
Also, maybe I'm just being petty, but saying you did something "out of the kindness of your heart" seems like a weird thing to say about yourself? I feel like it's something you say about other people.
Thank you David for your role in uncovering this scandal-I had not heard of Arise Church and am livid about Cameron and the perverse culture of a false prophets that use Satan or something else to deflect any personal attack or accountability. A couple of years ago I watched a documentary podcast called the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill which follows the downfall of Mark Driscoll who was a superstar pastor of a Megachurch in Seattle. I think it was produced by Christianity Today (CT) but it doesn’t hold any punches…it’s a scathing piece. Oh and apparently CT is now considered leftist propaganda by Christian Nationalists.
Yeah, the Mars Hill situation was fascinating. And yes - the Arise reporting went on and on here on Webworm. The church is a lot smaller now (good) but he just found another home, welcomed by churches in the US and Australia. It's all a giant circle jerk and they all protect each other and double down when attacked (by satan, of course).
There is too much damage perpetuated by these fuckwits. I have friends who were traumatized by megachurches in Los Angeles where I grew up. Fun fact Los Angeles is the epicenter of the early 20th century Pentecostalism movement spearheaded by Aimee Simple McPherson. It’s spiritualized Barnum and Bailey, Hollywood health and wealth nonsense. Satan approves.
Sigh. As a minister in a mainline denomination, I just want to scream at these men. Their betrayal of orhers' trust and their inability to do any form of self reflection is gob smacking. Thanks David for the work you and Webwormers did on this. And yes, if I believed in Satan I'd think it rude to give him credit for your work!
To be honest, I know the man, AND his wife - I never trusted either of them and hearing all this “Satan” blaming, martyrdom and stuff makes me want to vomit. Pentecostal, charismatic Christianity leaves me totally cold after all this.
Yeah blaming Satan never sits right with me. Aren’t we given free will? How do we hold ourselves accountable then if we can just blame Satan? It’s a major cop out.
Yeah, this is the language I grew up around in Southern Baptist land and it's an easy way to not take accountability for being a) a regular human struggling through the normal muck of living OR b) a real dirtbag. It's immaturity at its finest and many people, even without Satan to blame, never get around to owning their own problems. I pity those people. The holier-than-thou veneer that comes with certain ways of thinking in the church is a lot harder to stomach though, so the pity is mixed with a heavy dose of disgust.
Honestly rude to give Satan credit for your work.
That made me chortle out loud. Another way of seeing that comment. And yes - it is rude! That took so much work, I am not giving satan credit!
lol
"If I step off the pulpit and I doubt my performance, that thought is gone in a moment. If I walk into a room and I feel rejected, that thought is gone in a moment..."
😱
Compartmentalization ✔️
Low EQ ✔️
Narcissistic personality disorder✔️
....the holy trinity of harmful ignorance.
It's such a ROUGH takeaway he walked away with. To think that the Arise reporting possible made me worse is a weird thing to think about.
Webworm: Sponsored by Journalism and Lucifer, Prince of Hell since 2020 💕
Poor Satan. The scapegoat for every incompetent church leader who lacks accountability
There was something I read once about the death count of God/Jesus vs Satan.
Satan's was way lower.
Oh, here: https://www.wired.com/2007/04/old-testament-m/
"Please note that God's kill count is 227,037% higher than Satan's. These numbers do not include women and children, so it's possible that Satan made up some of the slack punt-kicking Jewish children into the Dead Sea, but I tend to doubt it. That's a pretty commanding lead on Jehovah's part. Satan coming back from that would be like the Generals coming back against the Harlem Globetrotters in the last minutes of the 4th."
But, David, this earthly life isn't the one that matters. Satan doesn't care about killing people, just tempting them into sin. If those people that God killed were in right relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then why does it matter if he killed them? They're spending eternity in God's presence, basking in His Holy Light! And if they weren't, bless their unrepentant souls, then God in his omniscience knew that they never would be. So again, it doesn't matter. You're putting too much stock in the worldly.
--
Gonna go listen to Opiate to cleanse my soul from writing that.
Satan was barely in the Old Testament, so that wired article is unfair.
I've got a soft spot for Satan. In the Bible stories I know he sounds like the good guy. Dude made Eve aware she was in an abusive relationship with God and gave her the autonomy to get out. His character is willfully misrepresented.
Also snakes are awesome. 🐍
Agree 👍
"You’re so gracious and kind and not a victim…" - of course not - he's the perpetrator!
Fucking insane stuff to read when you know the context, right? I also know a bunch of people will be reading along going, "Poor John, he sounds like a great pastor" without ever looking any further into it.
It all makes no sense, even from the perspective of what I would expect "Christianity" to be really about. No news there I suppose.
Jesus wept...I really did use that pun... I feel more puns fall out of me as I feel myself raging against the machine that is Christianity. I feel sick when I read the shittiness that comes from pastors/preacher's. They hold a position of power. Power corrupts, goddam more puns. I guess it all shows how there story never changes. Next year I go up against a pastor/preacher and counsellor from the Salvation Army's bridge treatment centre who was also a pastor in a cult called the church of Christ. I had to wear gingham dresses to church (I was 19 years old, underage, junkie, whore in trouble). His sister and brother in law are also witnesses for him. This man was in his 40s when he raped me and all the church could do was turn up to Porirua psych hospital that he put me in to keep me quite, they would all turn up and talk about how I was hurting the church. It's all they ever care about. Oh that and money. I dread court because I know it will be the same shit like this. Silly fuckwit Christians sprouting weird sounding words about me to protect themselves. What happened to me happened in 1989. Seeing that absolutely nothing has changed with how Christians are, makes me want to blow up the 🌎.
Of anyone I will allow to use the term "Jesus wept" it's you, Jazmine. All the power your way. I'm in your corner.
I’m so sorry they caused you this much pain and grief. Your rage is justified.
Rage away, you deserve that... and so much more.
That's awful, Jazmine. Keep your peace inside your heart, whatever happens. Even if the court finds for them and against you, eventually the truth comes out. Lies burn. Not many people who profess to follow Christ can resist the burns.
What dreadful experiences Jazmine
When I read the title of this one, I really thought it was gonna be about how you got a haircut. I was like, “Damn, I guess David really let the haters get to him.”
On a more serious note, I wish someone would tell John Cameron that negative feelings can be productive, even necessary, and that you can’t just ignore criticism - especially when so many people are saying how damaging your actions have been.
Then again, I doubt he would even hear it 🙄
Anyways, looking forward to the next article you and Lucifer put out. Love what you create when you two collab.
I guess it ties in with the whole toxic positivity thing, right? Like you can't feel any negative emotions in your life... anger and sadness are to be shunned.
But as you say - WE NEED NEGATIVE FEELINGS THEY CAN HELP US.
Just gobsmacked by this guy, always.
I concluded he lacks this capacity for critical self reflection.
He seems incapable of insight.
I don't know, I do think the Prince of Lies would probably have a Substack.
As someone riddled with self-doubt, it's always a bit awe inspiring to see someone so lacking in humility and introspection. Did religion make them this way, or were they drawn to religion because this who they already were? It'd be fascinating if it weren't so depressing.
Religion like this draws in the narcissists and sociopaths. Like real estate agents and car salesmen, they fail upwards, surrounded by sycophants who fluff them constantly.
It did crack me up that he was thinking about being a real estate agent. I mean... even that he said it out loud. My other favourite, Peter Mortlock of City Impact (https://www.webworm.co/p/worshipping-at-the-church-of-anti?s=w) made all his cash in real estate...
Sounds like someone who may have recently won a consequential election
I think a small doubt is useful. It's the sort of thing you might look at, as if it belongs to someone else, and ask if it makes a difference to anything, so that it becomes a self-examination. If there's nothing to regret about it, move on....but if you think maybe you could have done better, it's a tool for the next occasion.
I do it all the time. I have knee-jerk reactions: judging people. I don't like that in myself, and so far (ye gods! months have gone by) I've slowed down my response a bit, but importantly, I see occasions coming up and can pre-warn myself.
Totally - doubt can be GREAT. We need to doubt and question ourselves, also. Self regulation.
Without doubt, Augustine wouldn't have gotten to be so awesome! Eat that pear, little dude - there will be more pears that grow
“The main thing that stood out to me is that John Cameron has developed a system to ignore basically any criticism that ever comes his way.”. Is this what we do now when faced with criticism? No self-reflection, no trying to see the other person’s point of view? I don’t know why I’m surprised by this quote, I really shouldn’t be. These outwardly devout christians are showing their ugly more and more, except very few are watching or listening. Thanks for continuing to spotlight this David.
It's bonkers, right? He has somehow managed to double down and have an even *worse* attitude.
I bumped into John Cameron unexpectedly a few weeks ago and he proceeded to tell me how hurt he was by something I'd apparently said about him online - like two years ago. That's right, I'd hurt the feelings of someone with a long list of victims of his toxic church leadership, most of them young people, some of them now with genuinely damaged lives. The lack of perspective and proportion was staggering.
It was not a quiet aside either, he really wanted to confront me with some degree of aggression and did so in the hearing of the small group of friends and family who were with me.
I learned a couple of things from that encounter. First that he must've been following closely every Webworm Arise article and every comment made to come across something from me - that's a massive amount of effort! I'd only commented twice during the entire period! And over on Facebook I'd shared the Pathfinding Report and another piece on the topic by Frank Ritchie - that's it!
The other thing I learned was that he has come nowhere near to the self-reflection or awareness that's a prerequisite to getting help for the pattern of relational dysfunction that was laid bare two years ago. Reading your update, David, he seems still to be living in the echo chamber from which he will never find healing, only flattery. Yes I do hope he gets help: for his own sake and that of his family and the people still listening to him. [And because you're probably reading this, John, please do get down to this important work urgently.]
How incredibly telling.
Also amazing as he talked in this section of the podcast about how proud he is of letting go and not holding "anger": https://youtu.be/stGcR5ARFxk?si=wLrfc2RcbnyG90CJ&t=4725
Good god.
Would’ve been so tempting to give him a good spray in front of everyone. I hope there was at least a smiling ‘go fuck yourself’ in there, David.
Deeply pleased you write this stuff.
Thanks, Jazmine. I think someone like John Cameron is just SUCH a good example of this sick church culture - his behaviour illustrates that of so many others. And so - we keep reporting on him.
"And then I just sat down, just out of the kindness of my heart, in a cafe with a pen and paper and book" There is not one single part of me that believes that dude has ever done anything out of the kindness of his heart. Charmless, scumbag grifter.
I think when you say something is out of the kindness of your heart it probably isn't. The thing about kindness is you don't have to point out it's kind.
Also, maybe I'm just being petty, but saying you did something "out of the kindness of your heart" seems like a weird thing to say about yourself? I feel like it's something you say about other people.
That's the sort of thing a Southern church lady says about herself when she wants praise lol
Thank you David for your role in uncovering this scandal-I had not heard of Arise Church and am livid about Cameron and the perverse culture of a false prophets that use Satan or something else to deflect any personal attack or accountability. A couple of years ago I watched a documentary podcast called the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill which follows the downfall of Mark Driscoll who was a superstar pastor of a Megachurch in Seattle. I think it was produced by Christianity Today (CT) but it doesn’t hold any punches…it’s a scathing piece. Oh and apparently CT is now considered leftist propaganda by Christian Nationalists.
Yeah, the Mars Hill situation was fascinating. And yes - the Arise reporting went on and on here on Webworm. The church is a lot smaller now (good) but he just found another home, welcomed by churches in the US and Australia. It's all a giant circle jerk and they all protect each other and double down when attacked (by satan, of course).
There is too much damage perpetuated by these fuckwits. I have friends who were traumatized by megachurches in Los Angeles where I grew up. Fun fact Los Angeles is the epicenter of the early 20th century Pentecostalism movement spearheaded by Aimee Simple McPherson. It’s spiritualized Barnum and Bailey, Hollywood health and wealth nonsense. Satan approves.
Sigh. As a minister in a mainline denomination, I just want to scream at these men. Their betrayal of orhers' trust and their inability to do any form of self reflection is gob smacking. Thanks David for the work you and Webwormers did on this. And yes, if I believed in Satan I'd think it rude to give him credit for your work!
Ha, thanks Rev. For the laugh, and being one of the good ones!
Gotta love it when villains tell on themselves. Thanks for highlighting this insight into his terrifying lack of emotional maturity.
To be honest, I know the man, AND his wife - I never trusted either of them and hearing all this “Satan” blaming, martyrdom and stuff makes me want to vomit. Pentecostal, charismatic Christianity leaves me totally cold after all this.
Blaming satan is SUCH a tell.
Yeah blaming Satan never sits right with me. Aren’t we given free will? How do we hold ourselves accountable then if we can just blame Satan? It’s a major cop out.
Yeah, this is the language I grew up around in Southern Baptist land and it's an easy way to not take accountability for being a) a regular human struggling through the normal muck of living OR b) a real dirtbag. It's immaturity at its finest and many people, even without Satan to blame, never get around to owning their own problems. I pity those people. The holier-than-thou veneer that comes with certain ways of thinking in the church is a lot harder to stomach though, so the pity is mixed with a heavy dose of disgust.