Redeemed Zoomer

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Richard Ackerman.
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“”Q: If God is good, why can't He destroy evil?

A: Well, He eventually will.

Q: Why can't He do it now?

A: Because He'd have to destroy you.
—Redeemed Zoomer on the problem of evil.[1]

Richard Ackerman[2], better known online as Redeemed Zoomer, is an American YouTuber who makes videos about Christianity, sometimes while building a church in Minecraft. While some of his videos are genuinely informative, such as his videos on Christian denominations, a lot of his videos are about how mainline Protestant churches have been corrupted by theological liberalism and progressivism (read: allowing gay marriage and LGBTQ pastors). In response, he founded the "Operation Reconquista" movement to "retake" the mainline Protestant Churches from progressives to have access to their historical buildings and institutions.[3] Through this movement, Ackerman sent his own "95 Theses" to his church, the PCUSA, which condemns the PCUSA for being "theologically liberal" and socially progressive.[4]

As of 30 October 2024, his YouTube channel has 472K subscribers and 53.9 million views.

Background[edit]

Ackerman was born in New York and is ethnically Jewish, although he was never religiously Jewish. According to Ackerman, he was a former "secular leftist" when he was a teen before attending a music camp and converting to Christianity.[5]

Views[edit]

Anti-LGBTQ[edit]

Although his YouTube channel is somewhat reasonable, a lot of his posts on Twitter consist of blatant bigotry against LGBTQ people.

In one tweet, Ackerman explicitly calls for LGBTQ people to be "cured," comparing homosexuality to "alcoholism,"[6] while adding that he "can't wait until we can cure" LGBT people[7] and has even endorsed the use of conversion therapy on LGBTQ people.[8] He also made a tweet claiming that LGBTQ people have "a severe spiritual and mental illness," even referencing the infamous 40% statistic, erroneously conflating attempted suicide with actual suicide.[9] In addition, he supports Uganda's anti-gay laws,[10] which punishes LGBTQ people with life imprisonment and even allows the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality."[11][12] (One of Uganda's own courts later upheld the law but found sections of it "inconsistent with right to health, privacy and freedom of religion".[13])

America as a Christian nation[edit]

Ackerman believes that the United States was founded as a Christian nation simply because most of the country during 1776 were Protestants. In addition, Ackerman believes that the US should become a Christian theocracy, justifying it by claiming that Christian theocracies worked before the French Revolution.[14]

Anti-abortion[edit]

Unsurprisingly, he fully opposes abortion and believes that any woman who gets an abortion should be treated as a murderer.[15]

Opposition to Trump[edit]

Oddly enough, he considers himself as a Never-Trumper, not because of Trump's lack of moral character, but mainly because he views Trump as being "way too pro-gay and pro-abortion."[16]

Antisemitism and race[edit]

On account of his ethnically Jewish ancestry, some antisemitic Christians accused Ackerman of trying to "subvert" Christianity. He downplayed his Jewish background in response, saying: "I have a Jewish name and nose, that's about it".[17] In one thread, neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes congratulated Ackerman on being an ex-Zionist, but one of Fuentes's followers accused Ackerman of being a "race denier" (i.e. not a racialist). Ackerman replied: "no I'm not I just don't really care".[18] He was also asked: "what's stopping you from being a groyper?", to which Ackerman said: "them constantly insulting my Jewish ethnicity even though I've repeatedly denounced Judaism".[19]

Activities and affiliations[edit]

Operation Reconquista[edit]

Ackerman created Operation Reconquista, an organization and movement aiming to promote theological and doctrinal conservatism in the Mainline Protestant churches.[3] This led to the establishment of an organization for his own PC(USA), Presbyterians for the Kingdom,[20] and Young Methodists for Tradition for the United Methodist Church,[21] the Episcopal Fellowship for Renewal for the Episcopal Church,[22] and the Society of Orthodox Lutheran Advocates.[23] With the organization of the Operation, these organizations, as well as the Puritans of the United Church of Christ and the American Baptists for Christ (for The American Baptist Churches USA) commemorated Reformation Day (October 31) of 2023 by sending 95 theses to each congregation of these churches they could find in the US,[24] presumably via way of them keeping a global map.[25]

Relative normalcy[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Stopped clock

Despite his extremely conservative beliefs, Ackerman still follows mainline Protestant doctrine rather than Christian fundamentalism, meaning that he can have somewhat reasonable religious opinions.

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ ALL atheist arguments answered in 10 minutes
  2. ↑ Ackerman's author page on the American Reformer website
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Operation Reconquista webshite
  4. ↑ "95 Theses to the Presbyterian Church USA" - Operation Reconquista
  5. ↑ "KingdomCraft: How I went from Leftist to Christian" - Youtube
  6. ↑ "Why are you surprised? The desire to cure homosexuality is the same as, like, the desire to cure alcoholism." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (6:00 PM on April 29, 2024). Archived.
  7. ↑ Yes! I can't wait until we can cure it @redeemed_zoomer, Twitter. Archived.
  8. ↑ "Gay conversion therapy is the only healthy form of therapy." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (2:52 PM on October 23, 2023). Archived.
  9. ↑ "I wouldn't call 40% suicide rates "joy" I'd call it a severe spiritual and mental illness." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (5:53 PM on April 29, 2024). Archived.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "What’s your most conservative and most liberal take? I’ll start: Liberal: climate change is real and it’s a problem. Conservative: Uganda is doing nothing wrong regarding LGBT." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (11:59 PM on December 20, 2023). Archived.
  11. ↑ (May 30, 2023). "Uganda enacts harsh anti-LGBTQ law including death penalty". Reuters.
  12. ↑ Rogin et al. (January 28, 2024). "LGBTQ+ Ugandans fight for survival, civil rights under country’s anti-gay law". PBS NewsHour.
  13. ↑ (April 3, 2024). "Ugandan court upholds anti-LGBTQ law but says some rights infringed". Reuters.
  14. ↑ "Explicitly Christian nations worked MANY times. Literally every major European power pre-French Revolution." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (10:44 AM on July 3, 2024). Archived.
  15. ↑ "Women who get abortions are murderers and must be legally treated as such." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (1:10 AM on April 26, 2024). Archived.
  16. ↑ "I've said many times I'm a never-Trumper. Trump is WAY too pro-gay and pro-abortion for me." Redeemed Zoomer on Twitter (9:55 AM on February 12, 2024). Archived.
  17. ↑ (June 13, 2024). "Exactly. I have a Jewish name and nose, that’s about it". Twitter, via Ghost Archive. (Original link).
  18. ↑ (May 15, 2024). "no I'm not I just don't really care". Twitter, via Ghost Archive. (Original link).
  19. ↑ (July 9, 2024). "them constantly insulting my Jewish ethnicity even though I've repeatedly denounced Judaism". Twitter, via Ghost Archive. (Original link).
  20. ↑ Presbyterians for the Kingdom webshite
  21. ↑ Young Methodists for Tradition webshite
  22. ↑ Episcopal Fellowship for Renewal of the Episcopal Church webshite
  23. ↑ Society of Orthodox Lutheran Advocates webshite
  24. ↑ Wingfield, Mark (November 13, 2023). "‘Operation Reconquista’ aims to return Mainline churches to ‘orthodoxy’". Baptist News Global. 
  25. ↑ Google Maps user-created entry for "historic churches"
  26. ↑ Why I believe in evolution - Kingdomcraft
  27. ↑ Why the Rapture isn't Biblical - KingdomCraft
  28. ↑ Every HERESY explained part 2!
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