2000+ people left the Finnish EL Church in 24 hrs

[Ronja]

snip
Homosexuality was compared by the conservative debaters also with polygamy and promiscuity. The homosexuals were also invited to leave Finland for New Zealand or San Francisco "where people accept gays better." Although the tone was inappropriate at times, the discussion stayed to the very end on the typical Finnish, civilized level.

Already on Tuesday, 372 people left the church via the web, more than half of them while the program was going on. During a normal day approximately 140 members of the church leave in this way. On Wednesday, the figure rose to 2633 people, which is three times more than the previous daily record 1049, which was set on 31. December 2008.

HBL

Thanks Ronja!

It looks like maybe that church needs to leave Finland for a different part of the world "where people accept willfully ignorant bigoted asshats better!"

Note the bolded part. I'm pretty sure that all sane Finns wish that the conservative xians who spread that kind of BS would ship away - only trouble is, where should we send them? I kinda doubt that any of my RatZ friends would thank me, if I tried to send them into your neighborhood?

Anyway, to your comment, Robert! Made me and M laugh.

[Ronja]

Jeebus! 117 more resigned while I was typing those two posts above (in 20 minutes)

Speechless...

[Trolldor]

I need to change my pants.

The church self-destructed after that debate, and as always it is hilarious.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Jeebus! 117 more resigned while I was typing those two posts above (in 20 minutes)

Speechless...

Trend that out? How long until they're extinct?

[Trolldor]

They're leaving the church, not losing their religion. Likely the 'liberal' side will organise at some point, if they care enough about their lawd and savory.

[Tero]

Well, it was only a matter of time. The majority being what they call tapakristitty, or my translation, casserole Christians in the USA. They only join for community. Or hang in, as most people never join, they are Lutherans at birth. On paper.

[Ronja]

I need to change my pants.

Don't, before you've taken a look at the graphs now, or you will just have to change them again.

http://www.eroakirkosta.fi/static/ek-tilastot/

The big picture at the top is the three last day graphs (red = today, dotted red = estimate for the rest of today, dark gray = yesterday, light gray = day before yesterday)

The next, smaller picture on the right is this month (YAY, we have our own Hockey Stick!!!) and the one on the left is yearly comparisons.

[Ronja]

Jeebus! 117 more resigned while I was typing those two posts above (in 20 minutes)

Speechless...

Trend that out? How long until they're extinct?

Well, if today's speed (estimated to almost 4,300 resigners) keeps up, the math is real easy, seeing as the ELCoF has about 4.3 million members. And if it halves, but otherwise keeps up: 1000-2000 days.

I have no idea, though, how long this can keep up, but I will keep following the stats. One does not get to watch real history in the making, in real time & on the net, every day.

[Robert_S]

Jeebus! 117 more resigned while I was typing those two posts above (in 20 minutes)

Speechless...

Trend that out? How long until they're extinct?

Well, if today's speed (estimated to almost 4,300 resigners) keeps up, the math is real easy, seeing as the ELCoF has about 4.3 million members. And if it halves, but otherwise keeps up: 1000-2000 days.

I have no idea, though, how long this can keep up, but I will keep following the stats. One does not get to watch real history in the making, in real time & on the net, every day.

This calls for a song!

[Ronja]

We just broke the "old" daily record (from yesterday: 3473) - today so far 3565 (8:35 PM). That means that over eleven thousand people have voted with their feet, most of them explicitly against the conservative xian bigots. The best proof of that it is the liberals who are leaving ELCoF is that over 30,000 people have liked, on Facebook, a Finnish-language blog post where author Jari Tervo really scorched the "bright-eyed lunatics" who use "attitudes from a two thousand year old book" to justify "heartlessness and ... misanthropy".

A dear old friend of M and me has written a background and (angry) opinion piece in English about this whole brouhaha, I heartily recommend it: http://rustyvane.blogspot.com/2010/10/r ... ights.html

Living in interesting times, we are...

PS: It's 3616 now, 8:47 PM

[Tero]

The Evangelical lady says heteros will go extinct if we let homos marry. But the species will carry on. It will be threesomes. Either two males and a vagina for the family, or two females and a sack of sperm, or two, to be specific. It comes in pairs.

this was the audio, video was tampered

[Ronja]

I just finished watching the program - finally had a good enough Internet connection for that. The theist bigoted side had three "genuine" arguments: 1) the speaker's personal religious belief, 2) self-evident intuition (for all people) and 3) the babble. The rest of their arguments were either blatant or partial untruths (which all too seldom got properly called out!) or fear mongering. Oh, I almost forgot mixing issues! I lost count of non-sequiturs...

The pro-homosexuals side argumented based on the constitution (equal rights), research about the mental health of children who have grown up in rainbow families, and an individual's right to define themselves, among others. And empathy, which was disturbingly clearly missing among their opponents.

The count of people who have left the ELCoF since the day the program aired:

222 - Tuesday 12th
2,633 - Wednesday 13th
2,022 - Thursday 14th
3,473 - Friday 15th
4,545 - Saturday 16th

[JimC]

Excellent news!

[Robert_S]

How is the church taking all this?

[Tero]

Oh oh, there will be a reduced budget now for the pastor's entertainment allocation. Just coffee, not coffee and cake. He will have to visit more parishioners to get his daily cake and coffee.