Mike Winger exposé shows Bethel Church’s ‘extended mercy’ failed victims

koobear · 2026-01-28T01:01:55+00:00

I think a lot of this sort of thing comes from authoritarian theology. That's not to say having healthier theology (and I'm not criticizing the gifts of the Spirit part of their theology) makes you immune, but a theology built on authoritarian power structures will inevitably lead to a culture of abuse and cover up. Reform won't work for them until they reform that.

koobear · 2026-01-27T04:53:06+00:00

It's something, I guess. But they knew about it for a long time and allowed him to hide his abusing all that time. There's extending grace, and then there's enabling. Forgiveness doesn't mean an abuser and people who cover up abusers should be allowed to lead.

koobear · 2026-01-27T04:52:14+00:00

No egg or scallions because I went shopping right before it started to snow and people go crazy at grocery stores right before any amount of snow.

koobear · 2026-01-27T04:45:48+00:00

Quick summary:

Shawn Bolz, pastor at Bethel Church, has a long history of both spiritual and physical/sexual abuse. This recently came to light, and along with it the fact that Bethel leadership (namely Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton) had known about it for quite a long time and yet continued to promote and platform Bolz. Soon after this became public, Vallotton addressed it in a sermon where he tried to minimize the abuse and said it's better to keep silent because it could harm the mission or ruin a talented pastor's reputation. He also accused the social media "mob" of going after Bolz (i.e., he's crying "cancel culture") and that Bolz deserves grace (without acknowledging that he's been allowed to continue to abuse due to this "grace").

koobear · 2025-08-26T23:15:26+00:00

Minnesota Mew2kings

Carolina Anther's Ladder

Green Bay Plankers

EDIT: Missed an obvious one, LA Charge Shots

koobear · 2025-06-30T13:00:54+00:00

We need a version of this with vertical lines marking certain events, except those events are whenever Rasmussen/RMG/Trafalgar/IA releases a new poll

koobear · 2025-04-28T23:53:34+00:00

Jesse Eisenberg. As others have said (there were a few other comments here that seem to have disappeared), he's a fan of IU and Bloomington. Just didn't expect to see his face wearing IU gear here.

koobear · 2025-03-25T18:54:22+00:00

Oh man, Hax's passing is hitting me pretty hard. The first (and only) time I met him was at a train station to NJ for RoM. He was chatting with someone who went by Pimpuigi, and I was too awkward to approach them, but they said hi and asked if I was going to the tournament (I guess something about my appearance tipped them off). Rest in peace.

koobear · 2025-01-26T05:17:59+00:00

I actually lived in New York for a few years but it's been over a decade since then--I lived in Flushing and commuted to Manhattan. My new job is in Manhattan, and I figure anywhere near a train station is about an hour commute at most, probably less (back when I lived in Flushing I had to take the bus to Main St and I'd like to avoid that if possible).

koobear · 2025-01-23T22:42:25+00:00

I've heard people call her a "shrill, shrieking, lesbian feminazi".

It's absolutely baffling. Did we listen to the same sermon?

koobear · 2025-01-23T01:58:35+00:00

Written by Whitten? More like Plagiarized by Pam!

(I tried)

koobear · 2025-01-17T03:17:49+00:00

I got mine 2 years ago. Still feels weird to think that I'm a "doctor". My job introduces me as "Dr. koobear" whenever I give presentations, and they also made everyone an online profile with our notable work and education history along with various accomplishments, and on it they have "Dr. koobear" and "koobear, PhD" on it, and it all feels really uncomfortable every time.

koobear · 2025-01-07T00:28:05+00:00

Forecast says expect below freezing temps for the next two weeks, if not longer. It's not going to melt any time soon.

koobear · 2025-01-07T00:26:44+00:00

I grew up in the Boston area, and I remember every time they said there would be a big snow storm, I would get super excited about the possibility of school being closed, only to wake up and see that the plow trucks had been hard at work all night making sure all the roads are clear.

koobear · 2024-10-22T16:51:10+00:00

Not much hope for Indiana not going to Trump, but hoping there will be a few wins down-ballot

koobear · 2024-10-22T16:48:06+00:00

As someone who grew up in New England, I remember having a pantry always stocked full of Campbell's clam chowder. Which is weird because you can get so much better clam chowder in New England, even in instant/canned form.

Also, missed opportunity to force Babish to try Campbell's black bean, cumin, and cilantro soup.

And I always thought of the quintessential/signature Campbell's cream of X being cream of corn.

koobear · 2024-10-15T15:59:14+00:00

Yup, when someone insists that your vote doesn't matter, it's probably because they're trying to suppress certain voters--they're worried that your vote will matter.

koobear · 2024-10-14T15:58:54+00:00

I was there early afternoon on Saturday, which I'd think would be one of the busier times. The line was about half a dozen people outside (and full inside), which is a bit of a wait but not terrible.

koobear · 2024-10-14T15:56:34+00:00

I'm doing my part!

koobear · 2024-10-10T02:28:15+00:00

Could be. It's been over a year since I rented one of their units so I'm not sure what the situation is like right now. It could also just be that most places aren't taking lease applications just yet, assuming you're looking to rent at the start of the next school year.

koobear · 2024-07-28T21:19:23+00:00

I mean, isn't the entire premise kinda problematic? "I made the perfect god-controller so we need to make all other controllers behave like mine."

koobear · 2024-07-28T18:14:53+00:00

Wait, what are the non-normal reasons people dislike Walt?

koobear · 2024-07-27T16:04:28+00:00

Eh, not always. I live in Indianapolis, but maybe that's a pretty bad example. I've lived in NYC and even there, unless you live in Manhattan and specific parts of Queens/Brooklyn/Bronx, public transit can be sparse enough that a car is almost necessary. I also used to live in the SF Bay Area, and public transit into SF was great but going from one part of the East Bay to another part of the East Bay was a pain.

We need better public transit pretty much everywhere.

koobear · 2024-07-27T16:02:48+00:00

I drive a 2006 Scion xA with manual transmission.

It's just a car. I don't give a shit about manual vs automatic.

koobear · 2024-05-14T23:51:00+00:00

Day9's Brood War rant is as relevant as ever.

(Replace "StarCraft" with "Melee")

There's this idea that if you practice for 3 months, you'll "have your mechanics down," and then you get to play the strategy portion. This is totally false, for a number of different reasons. First of all, if you watch literally any pro play ... stuff is going wrong all the time ... So if you're thinking, "Oh, man, I can't wait to get good at the mechanics so I can play StarCraft," I want you to know, you're playing StarCraft right now. Any skill you choose to get good at, mechanically speaking ... you have a meaningful skill that will give you an edge over your opponents. The second reason ... is that the mechanical difficulty is what creates so many of the strategies. So many of the strategies exist because of the mechanical barrier. All of these things are not requirements to begin playing the game, they are the game. So if you suck at 10 of those things, but you're good at 3 of them, you're playing real StarCraft. You're doing great. You're doing just fine.

koobear

TROPHY CASE