Dude, I Can See China from that Hole You're Diggin'!

Tony Miano attempts to answer a question about god's will, Calvinism, grace and salvation and ended up digging himself into a hole. Keep in mind that (a) Tony spends most of his time on street corners shouting about salvation, and (b) according to Tony, hell is real, people go there, and those people spend eternity being tortured. Eternity. Being tortured. And (c), people go to hell for not believing properly in Jesus.

Here's the question:

I have a question about this statement:

"God is sovereign. If it is God's will that someone be saved, they will be saved regardless of what I do or don't do."

From what I gather from your blog, you don't seem to be a Calvinist. But yet this statement, along with how you teach/preach, seems to be contradictory. I say that because you tell everyone to repent of their sin, turn to Jesus and accept him as their Savior. Now, one may see that statement and say, 'Why should I repent and turn to Jesus if it's not God's will that I be saved?'

I'm not trying to call you out or call label you a liar or anything, I'm just looking at this from an outsider's perspective.

Actually, the real question is, HOW could you repent and receive salvation if an OMNIPOTENT god doesn't want you to. Really, how?

I believe that Salvation is of the Lord (Psalm 3:8).

I believe that no one will repent and believe the gospel unless God draws the person to Himself (John 6:44), causing the person to be born again (1 Peter 1:3).

I believe an unregenerate person is utterly incapable by an act of his or her own will to choose Christ (John 1:12-13). The reason is prior to God's regenerative work; a person is dead in his or her sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). And no dead person can do anything to bring himself or herself back to life.

Okay, so Calvinism. That's an excellent definition of what Calvinism is. God provides salvation, no one can be saved unless god wants them to. The real question that arises with Calvinism isn't the mechanics of salvation, it's the ethics of salvation, the morality of god, if you will.

I am god. I make two places for the humans I created to go after they die, heaven and hell. Both places are these humans' home for eternity. Forever. Infinity. A really, really, really long time. Heaven's pleasant enough, hell is torture. Unending torture for all eternity. Forever. Infinity. A really, really, really long time. So, I'm sociopathic enough to create hell and to send humans to hell, but eventually I kinda feel bad about it and create a way for humans to avoid hell: salvation. I sacrifice myself to myself to change the rule I made and voila! salvation.

But I have to individually decide which humans will receive salvation and which will not. And those humans that I have decided do not deserve salvation go to hell. And get tortured. Forever. Infinity. A really, really, really long time. If I do decide not to save a human, no matter how much they want to be saved, it doesn't matter. They're going to hell.

This might almost be ethical, if I only saved nice people, people who helped other people, people who were generally good, but I don't. Plenty of really nice people are atheists, doomed to suffer for all eternity, while plenty of truly horrible people are saved. See also: Son of Sam.

This is entirely unethical, completely immoral and downright depraved. God isn't dead, he's insane. And love. Insane, cruel, depraved love. Yeah, let me get right on worshipping that. Oh, wait, he doesn't want me to, so I can't.

All right then, carry on.

And Tony's on a streetcorner right now, trying to convince people to change god's mind about their salvation? There is literally no sense to be found in the intersection of what Tony claims to believe and what Tony actually does.

Disingenuous, Thy Name is Tony Miano

Tony Miano is a friend and coworker of Ray Comfort who spends most of his time standing on street corners either insulting strangers or taking advantage of tragedy. Tony Miano searches out high profile accident sites and funerals in his area (including the funerals of American soldiers) so that he can stand nearby and preach his particular brand of salvation at anyone in attendance.

It's more palatable than what Westboro Baptist does, but it is no less offensive or exploitive.

So let's see how Tony rationalizes what he does.

This is from a commenter calling Tony out on his behavior:

"Yes, because there's nothing the mourning family and friends of the victims of a tragic accident need more than to be reassured that if their loved ones didn't believe your specific interpretation of christianity then they are now rightfully burning in unimaginable torture for the rest of eternity. My condolences to the poor family. And my hope and prayer for you, Tony, is that you stop following the Law to the letter and start respecting the spirit in which it was given."

This is Tony's reply:

I wonder if these folks even bothered to listen to my conversation with Donald. Donald lost his mom just two weeks before I met him on that street corner. Like the woman who was killed on the 4th of July, Donald's mom was killed in a traffic accident.

If you listen closely to my conversation with Donald, you will hear us mention his mom several times. But at no point is there any argument, or discussion for that matter, about where his mom was now. If Donald had asked me where his mom went when she died, I would have gently and honestly said, "I don't know." I never met his mom. I know nothing of her spiritual condition.

That's the very definition of disingenuous. Tony clearly states while proselytizing that there are only two places to go after death, heaven and hell. Tony clearly states what he believes to be the only possible way to get into heaven. Therefore, if Donald's mom does not meet the criteria for heaven Tony has clearly stated, then, according to Tony, Donald's mom must be in hell. Tony may never say the words "[Donald's mom] is in hell", but he says as much in his preaching. He says the same thing about anyone's dead loved ones. And he says it at their funerals.

You can dance around it all you want, Tony, but you are a tragedy pimp, using the pain and loss of others to promote your own beliefs. And that's me being generous. Considering that you get paid to promote those beliefs (he does work with Ray Comfort), it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that you are pimping tragedy to ensure you continue to get a paycheck.

It's Not the Good News We Hate

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Imagine working with someone who only has one interest: gardening. Now imagine if that person talked solely about gardening, no matter what the conversation- and they just have to join every conversation. You're discussing the latest episode of Lost, they start talking about fertilizing their garden. You're talking about the football game, they join in with an in depth look at how they're organizing the vegetables this year. You're enjoying a little birthday celebration for a coworker, they can't shut up about their pumpkins.

You're going to avoid that person at all costs, for a very good reason: they have no interest in you, other than as a means of indulging their monomania. Thus is Tony Miano, evangelist extraordinaire.

This morning I went to the Bellflower DMV, not far from Living Waters
headquarters, to renew my driver's license. Michelle, who spent the day with me,
and I got to the DMV about 45 minutes before the facility opened. The line
quickly grew to well-over 100 people.

There was only one thing to do. :-)

I recently had to go to PennDOT to renew my ID. About the only thing that would have made that experience worse is having to listen to someone proselytize for an hour. (You should see my picture- the look on my face could only be explained by aliens landing to my left just as the picture was taken.)

There were more things than preaching to do, Mr. Miano. You could have respected your fellow ID seekers and left them alone. You could have worked on a crossword puzzle. You could have balanced your checkbook. Or, you could have spent an hour getting to know someone. You could have enjoyed another human being as a unique individual, instead of as an object to satisfy your monomania.

I had a delightful conversation with an immigrant from Ukraine who recently became a US citizen. I learned all sorts of things I never knew about Ukraine. (For one thing, it's not "the Ukraine", it's "Ukraine" and the secret to great borscht is lemon juice right at the end.) She was a lot of fun, but that's something Mr. Miano will never know, because all he ever does is talk at people, not to them.

No, It's Not Theft

feminism, feminist, tony, miano, comfort, misogyny, quiverfull,
For some reason, I've been stewing about this post from Ray Comfort's bff, Tony "The Lawman*" Miano. I don't know why I've been stewing about it. I have a blog. I can rant about it. So here we go.

Frankly, the whole post, wherein The Lawman explains his Quiverfullish plan for his daughter's vaginas lives, is rantworthy, but it's the following requirement for his daughters' husbands that caused all the stewing.

The man who marries my daughter must . . .

. . . receive my consent to marry my daughter. Otherwise, he is nothing more than a thief.

No, because you can't steal people. You don't own your daughters, The Lawman. You can't own people at all in this country. Haven't been able to for, oh, 150 years or so. Your adult daughter is welcome to do anything she'd like with her life, including marry a man you don't like. That does not make him a thief, or her a runaway slave.

See, The Lawman, women in this country, in this century, have all the same rights you do. I know, it's amazing. We can vote, own property, get jobs, marry whomever we wish (in 6 states, really marry whomever we wish), use birth control. Anything you can do, we can do, too.

And that includes making our own decisions in life.



*I always hear that as announced by the "let's get ready to rumble" guy.

Taking the Crazy Train to Nutterville

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This guy lives in California:

Proclaiming the Law and the Gospel is not a right given to Christians by men. It is a command given to Christians by God. If you want to earn and exercise a right, go earn and exercise the right to die for Jesus Christ at the hands of the very people who insist you do not have the right to speak to them about the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

So, when did California start executing Christians for their belief? Yet again we have confirmation that what fundys want more than anything else is a return of the lions.

Expect to Be Accosted

evangelical, evangelism, witness, witnessing, christian, religion, god, jesus, miano

Tony Miano, a good friend of Ray Comfort's, has this advice for the fundys:



Depraved Indifference: Being morally culpable while acting with wanton disregard for the life of another. If you refuse to share the gospel with lost souls, then you are guilty as charged.



The "life" of another, Mr. Miano. Not the "afterlife" of another. Feel free to leave us alone.