It puts a lot of features at the fingertips of the faithful, including the ability to filter whole neighborhoods by religion, ethnicity, “Hispanic country of origin,” “assimilation,” and whether there are children living in the household.

Its core function is to produce neighborhood maps and detailed tables of data about people from non-Anglo-European backgrounds, drawn from commercial sources typically used by marketing and data-harvesting firms.

training videos produced by users show the extent to which evangelical groups are using sophisticated ways to target non-Christian communities, with questionable safeguards around security and privacy.

In one instance, he points to the sharable note-taking function and suggests leaving information for each household, such as “Daughter left for college” and “Mother is in the hospital.”

increasingly popular among Christian supremacist groups, prayerwalking calls on believers to wage “violent prayer” (persistently and aggressively channeling emotions of hatred and anger against Satan), engage in “spiritual mapping” (identifying areas where evil is at work, such as the darkness ruling over an abortion clinic, or the “spirit of greed” ruling over Las Vegas), and conduct prayerwalking (roaming the streets in groups, “praying on-site with insight”).

newly arrived refugees might well find a knock on the door from strangers with knowledge of their personal circumstances distressing—and that’s before these surprise visitors even begin to attempt to convert them.

placing people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds on easy-to-access databases is a dangerous road to go down

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    I’m willing to bet a lot of money that if one particular candidate wins the election in November, this data will be used for a whole fucking lot more than “evangelization”.

    • interrobang@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 months ago

      That’s all I can think about.

      I wonder if the pride flag houses have targets on them now, or if that comes with the November update

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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        8 months ago

        I’ve often thought about making a MAGA flag Map, especially for businesses with them so we know who to boycott.

        This app might give off the inverse data, which could be almost as helpful.

  • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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    I’m pretty sure religious groups think every other group is as focused and dedicated to conversation as they are.

    If they were left alone in a room with a child (or anyone really), their immediate action would be to determine how Christian the child is, test and ensure their faith is all consuming, or immediately begin the conversion process if they aren’t already their personal brand of Christian.

    They assume this is absolutely normal, expected behaviour. so any group that is different from them, must be doing the exact same thing, but with other idealogies.

    Like how they hate Islam and Sharia law while endorsing 99% of Sharia law practices under a different name. Or they think every gay person has a gay agenda and needs to make every child gay because religion knows children are the easiest to manipulate.

    They are obsessed with someone else being a groomer while being the most organized and dedicated groomers on the planet.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Bruh, the Bible says if you even think a family member is considering any other option than Christianity, it’s you’re duty to stop them, even if it means killing them.

      Blood is thicker than water.

      Is a biblical phrase, the full thing is:

      The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

      It means you’re supposed to put any other Christian, and Christianity as a whole, over family.

      Up to and including pulling an Abraham and murdering family members for not believing exactly the same shit.

      • wahming@monyet.cc
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        8 months ago

        Is a biblical phrase, the full thing is:

        The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

        That’s an urban myth.

          • Xhieron@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Your quote never appears anywhere in any of those citations.

            That the Bible–a collection of religious texts, many of them advancing directly or indirectly the ethnic and national interests of their authors’ people groups–would have stuff in it about killing people for lots of reasons is no surprise.

            But your purported origin of the common proverb in the Bible is a fabrication. It’s not in there, anywhere.

            Also Christianity doesn’t advocate killing non-believers as a matter of doctrine. Plenty of Christians have done that historically, but it’s not a teaching of the religion, and it’s never advocated in the Bible, anywhere.

            There’s plenty to criticize Christians for. I don’t understand why you felt you needed to make something up.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              What quote?

              The blood/water one?

              You know you get better answers with clear questions, right?

              Otherwise this happens where no on has any idea what you’re talking about and just trying to guess what you mean.

              It’s rarely as productive as just being specific in the first place

              • Maalus@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Answer the question. You specifically stated “it’s in the bible”. It was obvious to me, reading this thread, what exactly they meant. Please show us the location of the quote.

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  Why would you see that for a full day no one had clarified what they asked for…

                  And then demand I answer it without still saying what you think theyre asking for?

                  I don’t know if you’re trolling or honestly dont see the issue, but it really doesn’t matter.

                  Because when you act like that tacking on a “please” doesn’t count as being polite.

              • PersonalDevKit@aussie.zone
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                8 months ago

                The old acknowledged the question but dance around answering it by throwing out another question and attack of character.

                This guy has talked shit online before, this isn’t his first rodeo

      • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Hi, Christian here. No, we are not called upon to kill our family members for not being Christians. Hope this helps.

        And if you’d like to dispute by pointing out verses that imply we should be killing people, please save us both some time and check the context of the verse. Some of them are in parables, and others are of the old law back before there was hope for salvation in Christ. If you find any that are neither, I’d be surprised, but please let me know.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          Some of them are in parables, and others are of the old law back before there was hope for salvation in Christ. If

          That would almost matter …

          If Christians weren’t constantly saying they need to pass laws everyone has to follow based on that old shit…

          When you pick and choose and say some have to be followed, but the ones you disagree with don’t.

          It’s what’s called “hypocrisy” in the modern world.

          You can’t claim some stuff you’re forced to make others follow, and other stuff is outdated and we can’t hold it against you

          Gotta pick a lane champ

          • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Pick a lane? I think you’re assuming others’ actions are mine. I don’t force others to follow the Bible at all, because that’s not the biblical way. It has to be a choice, otherwise God might as well force us all directly.

            • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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              A very strongly nagged and heavily pressured and influenced choice.

              There is no magic carpenter and never was, and there is no magic “salvation” that absolves you from responsibility for your actions. Grow up and become an adult.

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I didn’t know the origin but wow, that’s the complete opposite of how the phrase gets used today

          • glimse@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I looked it up after and yeah, not from the Bible. The religious connotation likely came from a sermon from the 1600s that kind of bastardized it

      • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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        Bruh, the Bible says if you even think a family member is considering any other option than Christianity, it’s you’re duty to stop them, even if it means killing them.

        What verse? I’ve read some wack shit in the Bible, but never that.

    • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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      Hi, Christian here. I can’t speak for all Christians, but this isn’t accurate to my behaviors or perceptions.

      I generally save the “conversion process” as you call it until after I already know someone because there’s more trust from a friend. So it’s not my immediate action (and also not something I’m trying to force on them.) Also, if they’re not my “personal brand” of Christian, I don’t feel a need to convert them, because what matters is following Christ earnestly, not checking all the right answers to unclear questions. Unless it’s like the World Mission Society Church of God or something.

      I don’t assume that other religions and ideologies are full of aggressive evangelicals. I do think there are some aggressive evangelicals, but most of the time the pushing of other religions is a slow and passive thing, and the pushing of ideologies is a thing of culture as a whole, not specific agents.

      • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Totally fair point - there’s more than one type of Christian and not everyone in the faith has homogeneous opinions or actions.

        Unfortunately (fortunately?) for your faith - the ones steering the ship politically are hyper right wing convert /submit or die types.

        Until Christian denominations meaningfully split or works against the goals from evangelicals/Christian nationalists, you’re effectively sitting at the same table and will be judged accordingly.

        • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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          I’d like to know what you meant by evangelical. I’d consider myself evangelical in that I believe in evangelism (telling people about Jesus) and in the evangel (the Gospel,) but every time I hear the word used by non-Christians, it’s regarded like it’s a flavor of fascism or something.

          • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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            That’s because it is the closest thing to fascism. Especially when religion bleeds into politics.

            Don’t be shocked that your faith of complete, uncompromising, control of human behaviour based on a collective, personal conclusion that you have all the answers to everything is perceived for what it is.

            Believe whatever you want in your own head, and live your life according to whatever belief system you want. The second you try to extend the control you place on yourself to anyone else is the line between faith and fascism

            If you don’t believe in abortions? Fine.

            If you believe others should follow your example? Fine.

            If you force others to follow your idealogies through control of legal/political systems? not fine

            Y’all never seem to understand, nobody cares what you do as long as you keep self imposed control to yourself. But apparently the whole point is to “spread the love” through non-optional participation, which is what makes you so dangerous.

            If your faith really was all that goodness you claim, people would actually want to join! But they don’t. So you force them. Jesus would be so proud ❤️

            • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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              You seem to be putting words in my mouth. People I know that talk to me about these sorts of things know that this isn’t how I think at all.

              I never claim to have all the answers, and there’s a lot I don’t know about the Bible. In fact, if you talk to me about the biblical stance of abortion in particular, I’ll say that I don’t know at what point someone becomes a person, and the Bible doesn’t give a clear answer - if anything, it implies that you’re a person before you’re even conceived, which could mean that not having kids is murder, but that’s ridiculous and obviously wrong.

              I also never push for controlling others. As I said in another thread here, it has to be a choice, otherwise God might as well control us all directly. And I definitely never try to use the law as a tool to make others moral. If the law were capable of making people moral, there would be no need for Jesus.

              By the way, there are people out there who think Christians are evil for believing others should think the same way they do even if they agree it’s optional. I’ve met them. I’m not lumping you in with them, just contradicting your claim that nobody cares.

              EDIT: By the way, you didn’t define evangelical. If it’s not too much trouble, I would like to know how you define it.

              • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                I have NEVER heard of ANY christian group speaking out against evangelical attempts to control others. NEVER.

                I have NEVER heard of ANY christian organization standing up to government officials to say NO WE DO NOT WANT TO FORCE OUR GOD OR IDEOLOGY ON OTHERS THROUGH GOVERNMENT FORCE. Which is weird because government force is proof that there is no god and/or he has no power of his own.

                • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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                  Try asking your nearest pastor. It’s hard for real Christian statements to get around. Where are you going to hear it?

                  The news? They won’t share it because it’s not really news. They don’t share much besides events, and news networks are biased towards negative events and crimes, which would generally be perpetrated by fake Christians (like christofascists.)

                  Social media? Christian statements don’t trend because there are too many Christian-haters that downvote and argue. The closest you get is “look at these evil christofascists” kind of stuff like this.

                  Word of mouth and one-on-one conversations is by far the best way.

              • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Regardless of your personal actions or beliefs, you are being lumped in with extremists. If that confuses you because you personally feel innocent, there is an expression that goes something like

                “If there are 9 people at a table and a Nazi sits and eats with them, there are 10 Nazis as the table.”

                Tolerating or being indifferent to abhorrent behaviour is the same as rewarding/endorsing abhorrent behaviour.

                As for the definition of evangelicals, there’s the literal definition

                “Evangelicalism (/ˌiːvænˈdʒɛlɪkəlɪzəm, ˌɛvæn-, -ən-/), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes the centrality of sharing the “good news” of Christianity, being “born again” in which an individual experiences personal conversion, as authoritatively guided by the Bible, God’s revelation to humanity.[1][2][3][4][5] The word evangelical comes from the Greek word for “good news” (euangelion).[6]”

                And then there is the applied practice of evangelicals who spend considerable wealth influencing politics to turn America (and the world) into a theocratic state with the goal of converting everyone and doing away with anyone who resists their goals.

                They are uncompromising because they believe they act on God’s will giving them unquestionable holy authority to act as they see fit as long as it pushes their narrative and goals.

                It’s not my job to educate you on your own religion, if you’re lost as to why anyone would despise evangelicals even though “they’re not all like that” that is up to you to reconcile.

                There might be a subtle difference between a front lines Nazi and Hitler on the ‘innocence scale’ if you want to split hairs, but to everyone outside that group, a Nazi is a Nazi (who were all essentially evangelicals as well, surprise surprises)

                if you don’t believe me, here’s something to read since you like proof/evidence so much, but I doubt you’ll ever challenge your own beliefs.

                • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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                  So what I’m seeing here is that I’m being accused of fascism because some people I never met who claim to share my religion are fascists. But apparently that’s a justified accusation because apparently I have no issues with them.

                  It wasn’t okay to lump Muslims in with Al-Qaeda. Why is this okay? Because the people you’re lumping me in with are in power?

            • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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              Can you describe what it is? When you use the word evangelical, is that a synonym for christofascism, or something more specific?

              • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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                By the way, my extended family are all what you would call “good christians” and they’re all trump supporters because their pastor is, and the scales do not fall from their eyes and they do not recognize an antichrist when they see one though he keeps screaming out loud to them I AM AN ANTICHRIST!!!

              • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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                It is a synonym for christofascism. “Fire and brimstone” ideology that divides “sinners” from “saved”. ANY recognition of a punishment dealt in afterlife or perceived “wrath of god” in this life. Any usurpation of the First Amendment that ejects freedom FROM religion. Use of broadcast and cable media to spread this very bad news. Prayer in schools. Grooming children with Sunday School classes.

        • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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          Can’t argue with that logic. I can disagree, but I can’t really argue because there’s nothing there to argue with, and asking for clarification might sound like sealioning. I’m not really in a sealioning mood, so have a nice day.

  • SlippiHUD@lemmy.world
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    This seems like a conspiracy for targeted harassment, with a strong case of doxxing.

    With an email account I created 10 minutes ago and no registered church within the app, I’ve been able to pull the names and addresses of myself, my neighbors, and the names of people whose address I’ve checked.

    This is a privacy nightmare.

  • Kellamity@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    If this is truly and legitimately where it ends - doorknocking - then its an annoyance and nothing more

    But the real issue is that in the US the evangelical Christian scene has a lot of overlap with various racist/homophobic/right-wing/etcetc scenes

    You can ignore ‘have you heard of our saviour Jesus Christ’ visits with a shoulder shrug, but I bet a lot of people have genuine safety concerns about this information being available to this crowd

    • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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      A public record documenting people’s religious views and ethnic background. I can’t imagine a single nefarious thing that could be used for.

  • El_guapazo@lemmy.world
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    I think this particular app name was changed to just “bless”. They got reported on another thread.

  • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Hi, Christian here. I agree that a lot of this is quite fishy. There are a couple things I want to contest though:

    Violent prayer. I never heard of it before, but I looked it up. It’s a misnomer, and the definition provided here is incorrect. It simply refers to persistent and fervent prayer.

    Prayerwalking. Its inclusion implies that there’s something creepy or dangerous about it, but it’s actually harmless. It’s literally just people going for a walk and praying as they go (not making a show of it.)

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      Violent prayer. I never heard of it before, but I looked it up.

      That’s weird… I’ve never heard the term, but I grew up in an Evangelical Christian household, and I knew exactly what they were referring to as soon as I read it.

      • August27th@lemmy.ca
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        I knew exactly what they were referring to as soon as I read it

        For clarity, which definition did your upbringing suggest?

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          I don’t know what you mean by “which definition” as though there’s a few for me to select from…? I’m just saying that the term seems self-explanatory to me, and I’m not exactly sure how to describe it better than that.

          They think they are literally performing “spiritual warfare,” and that their words have power to destroy (yes, real and literal) demonic forces that are usually the cause of issues in your life. Usually mental health issues, shockingly. They take this VERY seriously as this is a matter of eternity in their addled minds.

          It seems as though they believe that the more angry and fervent they are with that “spiritual warfare,” the better it works?