“You’re not welcome back.”

That’s the message the manager of Philadelphia cheesesteak joint Max’s Steaks had for Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, after his campaign held an event outside the restaurant Friday that the eatery was told would be about autism awareness.

Mike Sfida—who agreed to hold the event because his niece and nephew have autism—was alarmed when he saw Donald Trump signs being hung outside the beloved North Philly spot on Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. McCormick arrived, gave a campaign stump address, and then handed out free sandwiches.

But the disaster didn’t end there.

After showing up at a cheesesteak restaurant to campaign under the auspice of an autism awareness event, McCormick went across the street to East Bethel Baptist Church, which happened to be holding an outdoor fundraiser for its food ministry.

The Rev. Thomas Edwards Jr., who leads the church, told his campaign to leave because he didn’t want the GOP candidate to use photos of his congregation for campaigning purposes.

“You can Photoshop,” he told the Inquirer. “You can make things seem like they aren’t. Maybe they’re going to post we’re eating dogs or eating cats, like in Ohio. Forgive me if I’m wrong. I don’t trust these people.”

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[–] 286 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Pressed by the newspaper about whether the campaign stop was an autism awareness event, Armstrong claimed “it’s always autism awareness because I’m an education advocate” and said she spoke to those gathered about autism at one point.

I swear to god, these people are straight cancer.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Hey now, at least cancer will continue growing unchecked, sapping resources from healthy tissue, unless there's serious intervention, and even then it might not go away ... no, you're right.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    The fun thing about cancer? Is that if the cancer gets cancer, they can both die. That's what I'm hoping for with the Maga movement in the Republican party. The second cancer chokes off the bloody supply, letting it die of nutrient deficiency.

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  • [–] 120 points 2 years ago (16 children)

    Wow. When a church tells the GOP to fark off, that’s gotta be a bad situation. Most churches are deep into the ChristoFascist end of the political spectrum, so McCormick must have pissed off Rev. Edward’s something bad.

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  • [–] 65 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    Welcome to the divide between mainline and evangelical Christianity.

    The latter is where most of the crazies hang out.

    Source: raised in the craziness

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Source: raised in the craziness

    On the one hand, my condolences.

    On the other hand, congrats at getting free.

    On the gripping hand, you have the ability to pull others, who are still capable of being saved, from that cray-cray. You can leverage what you used yourself to help others.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Not the poster you're responding to, but I'm a preacher's kid who made it out.

    Man, it's just about impossible to pull others out. I know the bible backwards and forwards. Can persuasively speak to the origins of tithing vs. what it is now, the confusion in the gospels, and so on. I've tried.

    Fundamentalist leadership works very hard to innoculate their people against doubting what they've been led to believe. Centuries of propaganda techniques. Highly effective.

    I had to think myself out of it and it took until I was in my 30's to free myself. No one could do it for me and I haven't been successful in pulling anyone else. My small family and I recently moved out of the deep South. It has gotten incredibly bad down there and, at this point, I don't know what can be done to help someone out of it. Maybe planting seeds of doubt and rationality are all we can do.

    It's sickening what it's done to my extended family and loved ones. I hate it. It still makes me sad. My parents and relatives would be great people if it weren't for the bad religion.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I think we should invest in bringing back church on church ideological warfare. No more bitter an enemy than a former friend. Break up the ecumenical alliances! Get those church propaganda presses flowing! The crazies should not be able to rest a day without having to prove they’re not the bat-shit ones

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It would be nice, but good luck. More rational churches will support batshit fundamentalist churches before they support dirty baby-eating atheists. Especially when it comes to their tax status.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Pardon my Catholicism but aren’t all baptists evangelicals?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Yeah, but not necessarily what you think of when you talk about "evangelical" Christians. Baptist churches are all autonomous, and while they all believe in evangelism on some level, that could mean inviting your neighbor to attend church on Sunday, or it could mean going on TV and blaming trans people for hurricanes.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Ok so they’re evangelical in the sense that even Catholics are, but could take the hint that every American has heard of Jesus snd try to be chill about it unless asked.

    I guess the real problems are the religious right, christofascism, Christendom, and all related ideologies that reject the rights of the nonbelievers and those who believe differently to live peacefully among them.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I think it was a black church which, for the most part, hasn’t gone nuts. There’s always a handful of weird ones and/or hustling preachers but the vast, vast majority are about charity and community and service. (Almost like they actually read the Bible and pay attention to what Jesus preached instead of whatever happens at Six Flags over Jesus ass megachurches.)

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Churches generally have the same divide as the people who attend them: Urban ones are sane. Rural ones are conservative freaks. And I'm fairly certain this was a Black church. 90% of Black people are Democrats.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    90% of Black people are Democrats.

    In America, only one of the two viable parties will ever do anything for urban or non-white or non-rich people. I'm glad 90% of black people have figured this out and hope they'll continue to support the party that fucks them around less.

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  • [–] 115 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    McCormick told the crowd. “I’m running to bring leadership to our commonwealth.”

    Hey that's exactly what Anericans need less of. Here's a revolutionary idea: run to be of service to the community you live in. Find out what they want and need. Do some work and get those things for them.

    Leadership. Jfc

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    [–] 71 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I swear I had to read these headlines like 10 times.

    "GOP candidate calls his campaign stop an autism fundraiser, gets banned when venue owner finds out."

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    [–] 39 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Was Four Seasons Landscaping booked this time?

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago

    Kudos to Rev Edwards and Mike!

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Fuck you McCormick. Stay away from Philly, the place is too good for ya.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Philly threw batteries at Santa, but they have some standards.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

    Also they thrashed that hitchhiking robot.

    I'm a transplant from Texas to Philadelphia. Philly is mostly populated by mutants, but they're my fucking mutants. I don't appreciate this kind of horse shit being pulled on my neighbors.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The podcast “16th minute of fame” had an episode on the Philly Chicken Man that made me fall in love with Philly. It is basically a 60 minutes episode expressing what you just said.

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If it weren’t for bad faith, they’d have no faith at all.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It's wild how they just build lying into their platform. Conservatives finally figured out how unpopular their opinions are, so they just decided that they should just tell people they believe differently than they do.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    That Reverend doesn't fuck kids, just the GOP. I'm okay with that.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    A new Another low.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I can not believe they chose to desecrate the holiest of holies, a Philly cheese steak joint.

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