{"id":3430,"date":"2021-10-05T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/?p=3430"},"modified":"2021-10-09T21:17:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T21:17:45","slug":"in-search-of-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2021\/10\/05\/in-search-of-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"\nYesterday I watched most of the five-part mini series on HBO, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, 2021.  It is the story of Gwen Shamblin Lara (1955-2021), who promoted a diet program within a Christian &#8220;Remnant Fellowship.&#8221; Here is the trailer: <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wiQSsrQCG6c\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<p><\/p><p>\nWhat do I think about this?\n<\/p><p>\nWell, two things. The first is that there were and there still are a slew of preachers who exploit the gullibility of so many people. I can&#8217;t tell the mind sets of these evangelists. All I know is that many of them make great fortunes, so that they can afford such jets as a Cessna Citation 501 (in which Gwen Shamblin was killed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"505\" src=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cessna.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cessna.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cessna-300x152.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cessna-768x388.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p><p>\nAnd my take on such preachers is pretty much as portrayed by the character played by Burt Lancaster in the film Elmer Gantry, 1960 (based on Sinclair Lewis&#8217;s novel of 1927). Here is a clip from the movie:\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/30TkCJGsXas\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p><p>\nMy second point is that these gullible people form the great mass of the 84% of the world&#8217;s population: <a href=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2020\/06\/13\/the-unenlightened\/\">The Unenlightened<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I watched most of the five-part mini series on HBO, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, 2021. It is the story of Gwen Shamblin Lara (1955-2021), who promoted a diet program within a Christian &#8220;Remnant Fellowship.&#8221; Here is the trailer: What do I think about this? Well, two things. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2021\/10\/05\/in-search-of-salvation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;In Search of Salvation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-bullshit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3430"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3435,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions\/3435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}