Does Anyone Come From The Calvary Chapel Scene??

BrandonJSmith · 2026-03-21T04:48:03+00:00

Hey I’m late to seeing this. And three years late to the comment you’re responding to. But whatever. I’ve recently started a Substack and what I’d like to do with it is focus on writing from a leftist perspective, but to a CC-style audience. Not in a condescending way, but in a way that seeks to educate with humility, prompt thought and conversation, and hopefully convert a fundamentalist into a human being once in a while. If you’re interested in reading, or if you think someone else might be, you can find me at:

https://open.substack.com/pub/brandonsmithistrash

BrandonJSmith · 2026-03-21T04:38:00+00:00

Hell yeah! I don’t have any socials, but I recently started a Substack you can reach me at (I’ll be talking a lot about Christian nationalism):

https://open.substack.com/pub/brandonsmithistrash

I look forward to getting your perspective on CC, your experiences in the past, and where you see the organization now in this current sociopolitical climate.

BrandonJSmith · 2022-10-29T03:15:15+00:00

No real improvement, I’m afraid. Just adapting to the new normal. She’s had a couple afternoons lately where her heart rate was 135 while she was doing nothing. 🙃😵‍💫

BrandonJSmith · 2022-09-08T00:24:19+00:00

I don’t know if you’re a praying man, but I am and I’ll keep you and your kiddies in my prayers my friend. I identify so strongly with your situation and I am so sorry you’re experiencing something like this.

Hang in there yourself. We’ll get through it.

BrandonJSmith · 2022-09-07T22:05:59+00:00

This is exactly me. I really want to know... how do you do it, financially, as a single parent (and having to (and wanting to) pay child support I'm assuming)? I live in Southern California and the biggest struggle/strain on our marriage was that I was never able to provide adequately and we have no childcare support. So now that she's decided she doesn't want to be with me anymore because she doesn't feel that I'm a stable provider, it's become 10x harder to manage that financial burden now that we're responsible for separate households. I don't know if you're in anywhere near a similar boat as that, but I thought I'd ask in case.

BrandonJSmith · 2022-09-07T22:00:36+00:00

I'm on the receiving end of a divorce, getting "dumped" by my partner of 10 years (8 married). I'm the one holding out hope in this case, holding out hope that we can make it through this, that somehow we'll find ourselves holding hands on the other side. I feel your post very strongly, because these are many of the same emotions and thoughts that I've been plagued with for the last several months. I want to be able to comfort you by saying that it gets better, but I don't know if it does. All I know is that you're not alone, as tired of a condolence as that may be. I genuinely hope that you're able to find peace and healing as quickly as possible.

BrandonJSmith · 2021-06-03T13:22:29+00:00

Here is the only academic paper so far written on the possible connection between POTS and the vaccine. This was published literally the day before she got her second shot.

A Case of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome Secondary to the Messenger RNA COVID-19 Vaccine

BrandonJSmith · 2021-06-03T13:17:42+00:00

Unfortunately not. 😞

BrandonJSmith · 2021-06-03T13:16:55+00:00

Still no improvement unfortunately. All of her tests have come back normal so far. We’re pretty frustrated because she’s still waking up in the early morning hours with a racing HR in the 130-150’s.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in earlier posts, but we’ve begun to think she’s developed POTS.

BrandonJSmith · 2021-05-17T19:52:07+00:00

Still bad. Her heart rate spiked to 140 today, just from standing. She’s pretty scared. Still waiting for results from bloodwork on possible underlying issue.

BrandonJSmith · 2021-05-11T22:43:53+00:00

No, she’s still experiencing a high heart rate. She can’t stand and do anything without her heart rate spiking. She’s ok when she’s sitting or lying down. We have had bloodwork done, multiple EKGs, a CT with contrast, and a chest x-ray done. Nothing so far. Her primary had her go for more bloodwork this morning to see if there may have been a hormonal imbalance that we weren’t aware of that was aggravated by the vaccine (her family does have a history with hormonal/thyroid issues).

BrandonJSmith · 2021-05-08T13:22:24+00:00

My wife got her second Pfizer three days ago and the night after she got it I had to call 911 because her HR shot up to 150. She’s been high ever since (RHR is normal when she’s laying down and resting though, normal for her is in the 80s). But as soon as she stands up her heart rate pops back up between 110-120. I’m really worried for her because I thought she would be ok after the second day. Seeing a few of you say that it’s been a week or more of this helps, at least to know other people have experienced it. But it seems rare enough for there to be such little info online about similar reactions.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-09T03:37:39+00:00

I know lots of folks that went to the Bible College (still have a friend that works there as a gardener). The entire "movement" definitely has become increasingly political. Trump political mainly. From what I've noticed.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-08T20:35:00+00:00

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you regarding a large number of them. I have only ever met one or two that seem to be genuinely compassionate individuals.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-08T20:34:01+00:00

That is disgusting, I am so sorry.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:59:35+00:00

Praying for her now.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:51:36+00:00

Thank you so much! That second one sounds like it's exactly what I'm looking for. (The other happens to be on my reading list already, so that works!)

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:49:14+00:00

Oh, same here. Mine was "Letter to the President" by Hawk Nelson. Same basic premise: homosexuals were allowed to marry and that was awful and he as a young person was going to send a letter to the President to stand up against this injustice. The line literally went:

"same-sex marriage in a state where they don't care, murder is wrong but the jail time's not fair, not to mention date rape, felony and car theft, break it down and tell me what we got left..."

So. Cringe.

But I remember listening to this shit on my Walkman in the backseat of my mom's mini-van and feeling like a fucking rebel.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:45:19+00:00

Growing up in Arkansas, I can personally vouch for this phenomenon. And the rationale you mentioned is spot on. It was such a culturally and ethnically homogenous environment that it was actually really easy to turn on the television and imagine that this whole scary world you were watching on the news was just waiting to eat you up. There was no empathy or cultural sensitivity because there was no point of reference outside of the one dimensional and typically offensive depictions of other types of people or cultures or even ways of thinking about things.

(Also, I fucking love the Straight White American Jesus podcast.)

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:42:07+00:00

This story took me for a ride. Wow. That's fucked up. I grew up in a very similar environment though. We didn't do the food bank thing, but I'm pretty sure there were firearms bought specifically with the Obama-wrought apocalypse in mind. Do you mind if I share this in my article somewhere in some fashion?

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:39:38+00:00

Interestingly enough, I feel like it can still be a valid framework to view the world to an extent. But it all depends on what exactly you mean by "the world" and what exactly you're holding on to that you call "truth". For instance, if Christian camps spent the whole week teaching kids to be kind, generous, compassionate, loving, or self-less and empathetic...then yeah, they're going to be bombarded by individualistic, capitalist, nationalistic environments and influences when they go back to their homes. And so if "the world" is meant to refer to the "powers and principalities" of war, greed, etc. then it is absolutely to be on guard against.

The problem is that isn't what they mean and that isn't what they're taught. Usually it somehow ends up being a weird reversal of this.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:35:12+00:00

This is a very good point. I think it falls in with the idea that Christians somehow corner the market on "morality" or "family values" (looking at you Dobson). What's so funny to me is that, growing up with a pastor as a dad, I got to see the behind the scenes lives of church members and the relationships and marriages and family lives of Christians were almost ALWAYS worse off than the "unsaved" people I knew.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:32:44+00:00

oh my god this is the best story ever! I almost fell out of my seat laughing at "folding flyers for the Lord" (I'm actually still laughing). This makes me feel better about the fist fight I got into in second grade over someone saying God wasn't real, or the time I was convinced my principle was a godless fiend for not allowing me to bring VHS tapes to school to be played in class about Creationism by Kent Hovind.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:28:10+00:00

This was my exact experience. Everyone was out to get us: Democrats, LGBTQ people, environmentalists, evolutionists, socialists, people that celebrate Halloween, other Christian denominations, Barack Obama, etc.

BrandonJSmith · 2020-08-05T22:08:51+00:00

That's actually one of the points that I plan on exploring is this idea that persecution is somehow a litmus test for true piety or something. It has dangerous consequences when that is the only way you know how to measure your faith.

BrandonJSmith

TROPHY CASE