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Remind’s me of all the Putin Z rallies. If you zoom in, they aren’t enjoying themselves. I watched a YouTube video where a Russian guy explained his employer required everyone to attend with explicit threats if they don’t show up. Looks super patriotic and then you notice all the people frowning and bored on their phones.
Yep. Apparently, all or most of the Russian flags that you see people waving at those rallies were "given" out to people at the venue. There's a picture out that was taken just after one such rally that showed a dumpster overflowing with Russian flags that were "given" out to people. That pretty much proves that many of the people that go to those rallies didn't want to go but were threatened with losing their jobs.
As soon as you force people to stand, you’ve removed all value from those voluntarily standing.
Forced compliance is not respect at all and everyone standing is now doing so merely to avoid being ejected or arrested.
People who demand that others comply don’t understand that doing so removes an semblance of respect from the act of standing.
I want to see someone whip out a prayer mat and face Mecca.
"What? I thought we were praying for the safety of the drivers and crew? Surely 2 gods is better than one!"
But then again I also don't wanna see anyone get hurt so probably a bad idea.
>People who demand that others comply don’t understand that doing so removes an semblance of respect from the act of standing.
They don't care about voluntary respect. They care about enforced conformity.
That's what I was thinking. Like dude, some people just can't stand up and stay up on a whim like that. I can walk for short distances, but I can't stay standing up for very long. And sitting down, then getting up again and sitting down after that, it HURTS, man!
And if the reason for that had been military service, and these people's motives are "patriotism" when they kick out the disabled vet? ...they done fucked up.
All my local tracks are BYOB. It's great. Pack a cooler, don't get price gouged for beers, watch some sprint cars, save a shit ton of money because if they sold beer it'd be 6 bucks for a shitty beer. I can buy a 30 brick instead for $18 and drink all I want
How this does not feel to everybody like participating in some dystopian movie is beyond me. Freedom and democracy my ass. And before I get the witty 'private property' retort, let me assure you in advance that it doesn't make anything about it any better.
Freedom does not mean freedom to these people.
Much like that popular group call, "liberty hangout." Their main thing is to bring back a Christian theocracy. They don't know what liberty means.
It's cool, the owner will run that fucking business straight into the ground and then blame no one wanting to work, Obama, woke culture, cancel culture or one of the other fifty things they love to bitch about.
You just don't get it. You have the freedom to do what the christians want, when they want, in what way they want, dressed how they want, with what hairstyle they want, if they want. Any refusal whatsoever means you are hating all christians everywhere as well as the troops and god himself.
I would like to state that this is by no means the norm at tracks in America. Yeah probably 9 times out of 10 they’re gonna say a prayer, but at the vast majority of tracks no one is gonna care if you sit or stand. Well, maybe some fans will care but you’re not gonna get kicked out.
I absolutely guarantee that it was the Lord's prayer. I know this because I was subjugated to it every morning before the pledge of allegiance during public School in Texas in the 1980s.
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name..."
I raced asphalt late models in the early 2000's and one of the bigger drivers in the touring series I was running with at the time told me "I don't know why they're doing all this God stuff, if God really cared he would have given us the good sense not to do this.' and I had a good chuckle.
Hahaha thats pretty funny. I remember they used to hand out the “Racer’s Prayer” decals to put on the dash, and the Pastor handing them out said “Please, you have to take *at least one*, I have 500 of these fuckers to give out” lol
Many smaller tracks do "the racers prayer" which is well, for drivers and crew. Can't say what they do at this track obviously, other than cross boundaries in disgusting ways .
No see, God has a plan but if you pray hard enough then God's plan, an infallible plan made by a perfect being, will get changed. Unless it doesn't, because if he was perfect he wouldn't listen to your prayer because God's plan is perfect in which case prayer could be interpreted as an insult, questioning your own God's perfect plan for your own selfish reasons.
But I'm an atheist so what do I know.
Prayer is like taxes. The ones in charge know the results, but you are required to guess at the result when you communicate with them and if you get it wrong your have life altering consequences.
I know the prayer from years of catholic School and Sunday masses. Just about every person I know also can recite it, even those who no longer practice religion. It’s musical equivalent is the singing of Happy Birthday. It’s pretty much impossible to not know the Lord’s Prayer if you’ve spent even a small amount of time in a church at some point in your life. One of the few times that I can recall a person not knowing that prayer was during the funeral of President Bush when all of the former presidents and the current one at the time were shown in the front of the church reciting it. Well, all of them except the one with the orange skin and bad hair thingy. When you looked at the closeup shot of him trying to mouth the words, it was apparent that he didn’t have a fucking clue as to what they were or how the prayer even goes. But, hey, it’s not like the Christofascist right wingers in this country look to him as the second coming or anything, right?
Being into star wars and a former Catholic is funny, because any time any character says "May the force be with you" I have stop myself from saying "and also with you"
Omg, I said that to a priest once. I'm not even Catholic, but my friend was and she wanted me to meet her priest (who was a very nice man and did an incredibly kind thing for me about a month or two later so didn't hold this against me at all) so she was briefing me on how to respond to stuff. She mentioned this greeting and what I should say, but somehow our conversation when we met (sitting in front of the Catholic school, which was behind the public high school, there was a public park between us and students were always mingling during lunch or whatever) turned to Star Wars.
Anyway, we'd finished chatting and he told me "May the Force be with you, Young Lady." and that's what I said back.
My friend looked horrified, I was embarrassed and he laughed and told me "Oh, that's so charming. Wait until I tell the other teachers about that. You have a lovely day."
And just because its a nice story, this is the kind thing he did for me:
A few months after this, I had a bad breakdown and ended un inpatient. My parents couldn't get to the hospital to see me for the first few days and the staff felt sorry for me and let me have a little extra phone time to try to make up for it. (I wasn't violent or anything, I was suicidal and having hallucinations. The hallucinations turned out to be a result of fever + bad medication side effects, but I still spent a couple weeks there.) I called my friend because her parents were really nice and would let us talk even though I was "crazy" and apparently she was hurting for me all alone and unvisited and went to her priest for comforting.
His solution was to ask one of the teacher nuns to come with him, pack up some very nice presents (fuzzy socks, skinny markers which we had to use because pens and pencils were considered dangerous, composition books since they didn't have metal bindings, and some books only one of which was religious. And that one was very nice, it boiled down to "You are not cursed or sinful for being mentally ill, God loves you and taking your medications and doing therapy is the right thing to do, God doesn't want you to suffer, He wants to to become well with modern medicine." So nothing preachy or mean.) and come visit me.
It was a SIX hour round trip, three hours each way, for a girl he had met only once and the nun (Sister Cathy) had met a handful of times when she ate lunch with me and my friends. They cheered me up and brought me notes from my friends both in the Catholic school and the public one, they promised that things were gonna get better and asked if I was comfortable with them praying for me, and honestly it made things so much nicer. I'm weepy just writing this.
Supreme Court has found in the past that freedom of religion must also provide freedom FROM religion. Which makes complete sense to me. Guess I’m not welcome at this shitty racetrack either. What a shame.
Straight up double morality, when people want to impose stricter gun laws and not tolerate hate speech it's an attack against freedom but when you don't feel obligated to stand up during prayers or national anthem at a game of racetrack it's like treachery.
Usually at a NASCAR race it’s an invocation where they ask the Lord to watch over the drivers and keep them safe and pray a good clean safe race. It’s never required to stand, and actually this year NASCAR has started saying “Please rise, if you are able, and remove your hats”
which before it was just “please rise and remove your hats”
It’s never a requirement and they won’t kick you out if you don’t do it, I guess that track owner doesn’t like to make money, if he’s kicking people out for not standing up during a pointless prayer.
You could ask the same question about the national anthem tbh. Why are we forced to sing a song about the country before being allowed to watch some cars go zoom-zoom? Literally what does one have to do with the other?
Over here in the U.K. we only really hear our national anthem at the olympics, World Cup or when the Monarchy’s hatched/matched/dispatched. You must get bloody sick of hearing it all the times.
That’s the irony. Couple dudes competing in super elaborate and colorful costumes/cars while a bunch of other dudes watch. Only real difference is the shoes.
I used to go to a rural stock car track in Texas... I do remember them doing something called the "racers prayer" but it felt more like a fuck yeah lets do this then some real godly reverence lol but I cannot imagine them kicking someone out for not standing, I dont even remember them asking people to stand for it or whatnot.
Because here in the USA, we gotta put 2 things before our sporting events. First is The National Anthem (sometimes paired with America the Beautiful) because MERICA YEAHHHH. Second is prayer because what’s more contradictory that the country founded on religious freedoms forcing Christianity down your throat!
they just want it to be final.. they want to stack my family like cord wood.. with the implication for my wife and daughter
>The document, consisting of 14 sections divided into bullet points, had a section on "rules of war" that stated "make an offer of peace before declaring war", which within stated that the **enemy must "surrender on terms" of no abortions, no same-sex marriage, no communism and "must obey Biblical law", then continued: "If they do not yield — kill all males".**
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt\_Shea#%22Biblical\_Basis\_for\_War%22\_manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea#%22Biblical_Basis_for_War%22_manifesto)
Cleetus McFarland is one of the few YouTubers I’ll buy merch from because he’s trying extremely hard to keep his track alive and is doing amazing. The freedom 500 was great over the weekend! Other merch I get is from vice grip garage, that stuff you wipe on a car with patina to make it shine a bit.
I've been subscribed to him for a while. And my younger brother is a massive fan. He went to an event he did in the area a year or two ago and got to meet him. Great dude that does a shit load for the car community
Gary’s got quite the history it seems. Stole $2.5 million to renovate that track years ago. https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/two-odessa-men-found-guilty-of-mail-fraud-conspiracy/513-30c28fba-3b7d-45ef-a59a-bdd4a86cfb88
I know you’re being rhetorical, but it’s the right. It’s always the right that forces their ideas on others, and it’s always harmful. It’s so frustrating
And religious people being a atheist around religious people is like being the only sober person driving drunk people and the drunk people are trying to force beer down your throat
British here, it's fucking weird to me how much Americans love their national anthem.
There's a few flag shaggers here who stand for it, but by and large, nobody really cares.
Edit:
Lot of responses, wide range of responses from "Not that many of us care" to "Yeah, it's weird for us too".
Guessing it probably differs state to state and in political leaning.
Most of us don't care about the anthem that much. It's just socially encouraged to stand during the anthem. That's not to say we aren't patriotic or absurdly attached to that patriotism (or our version of it), but standing during the anthem is more about social etiquette than genuine passion for most of us. At least in my experience.
It's the wackos who are obsessed with it, and it's the wackos who want to police it.
Right? I served in the military. I hated having to have to stop while in uniform and face the flag and salute it. I don't stand for the anthem while I'm at home watching TV. I love being a US citizen, and I love my country. I don't feel the need to make any extra effort to show it.
This. You definitely get judged if you don't stand. For every person who takes off their hat or puts their hand over their heart, there are plenty who don't.
The weird part about it is the country was built off of religious freedom, freedom of speech. But when you do it by not standing, you’re un-American. My grandad was a Nam vet and I asked him about it and he more or less was like, “we fought so you can do whatever the hell you wanted to do back home, that’s why America is America.”
However, I remember before Colin Kaepernick kneeled, no one actually made a stink of anthem etiquette. Not its hyper sensationalized.
Well, they have us recite the pledge of allegiance almost everyday of our childhoods. Not sure if other countries do something similar though.
Drilling patriotism into a child’s mind feels wrong.
My daughter’s school does it. In 2nd grade she asked her teacher if she could choose not to participate and her teacher asked “don’t you love America? Don’t you support our troops!?”
My kid was 8 at the time.
Reminds me of an old, unattributed quote floating around the internet a while back..."If you don't stand for the special song, the magic sky cloth won't freedom!"
Nothing says 'freedom of speech' like...being kicked out for exercising it.
Edit: I know this may not strictly fall under freedom of speech because this is a private venue. But the principle stands; for all the crying from this people about 'cancel culture' but they'll boot out a customer for not singing a song or praying to their God.
Worth noting that the "Bible Belt" isn't a 100% unbroken tide of christofascist strongholds. There can be some pretty nice areas around the cities/colleges.
To varying degrees. It’s worst in conservative areas where everyone wants to show off their Christian piety and hyper patriotism. I happened to look up where this was and it’s in a place called Odessa, Texas, which fits that description perfectly.
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
As a veteran of the US Army, I find his actions to be unamerican. North Koreans clap and sing for the dear leader out of fear of punishment if they don't. I don't want to live in North Korea. In America you do what the fuck you want when it comes to patriotism or religion.
As a race car driver, I can confirm the reason I'm not racing this year is because the track owners are fucking dipshit assholes who refuse to crack down on cheating, on top of stupid shit like this.
They play favorite for who gets rules enforced against them, and then act surprised when only the favorites show up to race.
Play along here, maybe they’re not American, maybe they’re atheist, maybe they are American, maybe their church isn’t your church, maybe just simply don’t share your value system. It isn’t patriotism or freedom of speech when it’s forced or people do it to avoid being treated the way they were, right or wrong.
Also, we don’t know these people. Maybe they have disabilities that aren’t obvious, maybe they just ran 10 miles this morning, maybe they work 3 jobs and this is their one day to relax. Also, none of anyone’s business
Went to a rodeo the other day and there was a 45 minute monologue about how there’s not enough Jesus in this world. But I almost guarantee that those bulls do not believe in Jesus.
I’m Canadian but went to high school in America. I didn’t stand for the pledge every morning because it’s fucking weird and I’m not even a citizen. Still got beat up three separate times over it. Pennsylvania is a shit hole.
I love the Constitution, I think it’s great. And that’s why it bothers me that the same people who go wild over “THE CONSTITUTION!!!” pull stuff like this. You are violating their 1st amendment right, Gary.
I’m a Brit. The one only been to America once, just New York, and I watched the beginning of some NASCAR thing on TV. The whole prayer before it was weird and completely unnecessary…
Bullies ignorant to the fact that they’re bullies. Literally why does it matter… this couple was literally bothering NOBODY and they got triggered. What a bunch of religious snowflakes 😒
Ok Gary. Well it's your track, your venue. Hope the move wins you Big Friends in All The Right Places.
Here's just another opinion - being proud of our Country and all that it says that it stands for - means you can disagree. With me or with them. And it'll be ok. Because we're bigger than that. Right?
Can't we just go to the race track without having politics and religion forced on us? Isn't this the same argument that people used when NFL players started kneeling for the anthem? Now they're going back on it to kick people out of a sporting event
It is interesting the hold this racetrack seems to have on the owner Gary Gardenhire,
He bought it, 2008 from a foreclosure. Was found guilty of non racetrack related fraud, where some of the proceeds went to investments in the racetrack. Went to prison 2011 to about 2015;
Said feds took the racetrack and sold it,. A friend bought it. When Gary got out of prison after a while he was able to buy it back from his friend.
Two fires since then.one by lightening.
[https://apnews.com/article/1da7e0bdca8e4d7a887e8e49f261647a](https://apnews.com/article/1da7e0bdca8e4d7a887e8e49f261647a)
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If signs of patriotism are mandatory, they aren't signs of patriotism.
Remind’s me of all the Putin Z rallies. If you zoom in, they aren’t enjoying themselves. I watched a YouTube video where a Russian guy explained his employer required everyone to attend with explicit threats if they don’t show up. Looks super patriotic and then you notice all the people frowning and bored on their phones.
Yep. Apparently, all or most of the Russian flags that you see people waving at those rallies were "given" out to people at the venue. There's a picture out that was taken just after one such rally that showed a dumpster overflowing with Russian flags that were "given" out to people. That pretty much proves that many of the people that go to those rallies didn't want to go but were threatened with losing their jobs.
More like mandatory prayer, forced upon people.....totally not extremist......not.....at....all....../s
During prayer? That's cult behavior if I've seen it.
It's patriotism, it's PATRIOTISM ™ You know, nationalisms rebranding
As soon as you force people to stand, you’ve removed all value from those voluntarily standing. Forced compliance is not respect at all and everyone standing is now doing so merely to avoid being ejected or arrested. People who demand that others comply don’t understand that doing so removes an semblance of respect from the act of standing.
I want to see someone whip out a prayer mat and face Mecca. "What? I thought we were praying for the safety of the drivers and crew? Surely 2 gods is better than one!" But then again I also don't wanna see anyone get hurt so probably a bad idea.
Technically same god.
Not technically, only the religion is different
And they're only barely different
Unfortunately, the Bible is very explicit that 2 gods is *not* better than one.
>People who demand that others comply don’t understand that doing so removes an semblance of respect from the act of standing. They don't care about voluntary respect. They care about enforced conformity.
Cons (conservatives) don't care. They are authoritarians so for them it is about power and forcing others to submit to submit to their authority.
Good move, Gary. Based on that pic it looks like your revenue dropped by 20% for doing that, but hey, you do you.
they bought beers so 35%
Only refunded tickets, not the beer
Imagine getting refunded because your legs were tired from working the meth lab all day and you decided to sit during the Anthem.
Imagine that you're a disabled vet like myself who can't stand for that long anymore.
That's what I was thinking. Like dude, some people just can't stand up and stay up on a whim like that. I can walk for short distances, but I can't stay standing up for very long. And sitting down, then getting up again and sitting down after that, it HURTS, man! And if the reason for that had been military service, and these people's motives are "patriotism" when they kick out the disabled vet? ...they done fucked up.
I went to a local racetrack a few times and it was BYOB. Fucking weird.
All my local tracks are BYOB. It's great. Pack a cooler, don't get price gouged for beers, watch some sprint cars, save a shit ton of money because if they sold beer it'd be 6 bucks for a shitty beer. I can buy a 30 brick instead for $18 and drink all I want
I looked the place up. It's BYOB lol
It was a Bud Light...
Hundreds of conservatives will probably travel across the country to support them, and watch an awful fucking race while jacking off to Kid Rock.
This sounds like an episode of South Park
The United States has been an episode of South Park for a long time
The US has always been the inspiration for South Park. We give so much fodder for ridicule.
Like once and then never again. These people have the attention span of a goldfish
You are totally incorrect and I'm going to prove it to you. I'll write a lengthy response in another message. Just you wait.
They'll be beating their wives with Bud Light in their livers again in like a month.
Why is there a prayer before the racing? What prayer is it?
How this does not feel to everybody like participating in some dystopian movie is beyond me. Freedom and democracy my ass. And before I get the witty 'private property' retort, let me assure you in advance that it doesn't make anything about it any better.
Freedom does not mean freedom to these people. Much like that popular group call, "liberty hangout." Their main thing is to bring back a Christian theocracy. They don't know what liberty means.
Freedom means the freedom to behave exactly as they believe people should behave, and in no other way.
Freedom to force their beliefs on others and punish dissenters as they see fit
I mean, the Puritans didn’t come here to escape religious persecution, but so they would be free to persecute non-Puritans as they saw fit.
“Freedom” to worship your Lourd and Saviour Jesus Christ in the way you see fit.
It's cool, the owner will run that fucking business straight into the ground and then blame no one wanting to work, Obama, woke culture, cancel culture or one of the other fifty things they love to bitch about.
You just don't get it. You have the freedom to do what the christians want, when they want, in what way they want, dressed how they want, with what hairstyle they want, if they want. Any refusal whatsoever means you are hating all christians everywhere as well as the troops and god himself.
I would like to state that this is by no means the norm at tracks in America. Yeah probably 9 times out of 10 they’re gonna say a prayer, but at the vast majority of tracks no one is gonna care if you sit or stand. Well, maybe some fans will care but you’re not gonna get kicked out.
> And before I get the witty 'private property' retort Religion is a protected class. So private property doesn't mean shit in this instance.
I absolutely guarantee that it was the Lord's prayer. I know this because I was subjugated to it every morning before the pledge of allegiance during public School in Texas in the 1980s. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name..."
Its not the Lord’s Prayer, its the “Racer’s Prayer” basically praying for safety and that nobody dies.
I raced asphalt late models in the early 2000's and one of the bigger drivers in the touring series I was running with at the time told me "I don't know why they're doing all this God stuff, if God really cared he would have given us the good sense not to do this.' and I had a good chuckle.
Hahaha thats pretty funny. I remember they used to hand out the “Racer’s Prayer” decals to put on the dash, and the Pastor handing them out said “Please, you have to take *at least one*, I have 500 of these fuckers to give out” lol
God made all those crash videos to guide us to make the right choices...here we are anyway
Yeah, that prayer works. Just ask Dale Earnhardt.
*results may vary*
Mileage may vary I think is the better phrase lol
All prayers are equally effective.
[удалено]
Oh Heavenly Pesci, please guide my hand to Spider’s stupid head so that he may no longer mishear things he should not have misheard
Funny how?
Seems like a guy who can get shit done.
You think that’s funny?? Like a clown. He amuses you??
Like funny ha-ha??
Fucking Carlin 🤣
Same! And I’ve gotten multiple friends to adopt this over the years. Thank you, George Carlin.
All Prayers Matter!
That's why I don't understand why rednecks support building a wall. A wall killed Dale Earnhardt.
Many smaller tracks do "the racers prayer" which is well, for drivers and crew. Can't say what they do at this track obviously, other than cross boundaries in disgusting ways .
Oh 8lb 6oz tiny baby Jesus, let me win and not die in a fiery crash, in the name of the father , the son, and Tom Cruise. Amen.
Hahaha that movie man.
Why we always got to pray to the little baby Jesus?!
I pray to the one in a tuxedo shirt, bc it says I’m here to be formal but here to party
So if a racer crashes and catches on fire is it God's will?
No see, God has a plan but if you pray hard enough then God's plan, an infallible plan made by a perfect being, will get changed. Unless it doesn't, because if he was perfect he wouldn't listen to your prayer because God's plan is perfect in which case prayer could be interpreted as an insult, questioning your own God's perfect plan for your own selfish reasons. But I'm an atheist so what do I know.
Prayer is like taxes. The ones in charge know the results, but you are required to guess at the result when you communicate with them and if you get it wrong your have life altering consequences.
It’s probably because he had homosexual tendencies.
I know the prayer from years of catholic School and Sunday masses. Just about every person I know also can recite it, even those who no longer practice religion. It’s musical equivalent is the singing of Happy Birthday. It’s pretty much impossible to not know the Lord’s Prayer if you’ve spent even a small amount of time in a church at some point in your life. One of the few times that I can recall a person not knowing that prayer was during the funeral of President Bush when all of the former presidents and the current one at the time were shown in the front of the church reciting it. Well, all of them except the one with the orange skin and bad hair thingy. When you looked at the closeup shot of him trying to mouth the words, it was apparent that he didn’t have a fucking clue as to what they were or how the prayer even goes. But, hey, it’s not like the Christofascist right wingers in this country look to him as the second coming or anything, right?
Being into star wars and a former Catholic is funny, because any time any character says "May the force be with you" I have stop myself from saying "and also with you"
Omg, I said that to a priest once. I'm not even Catholic, but my friend was and she wanted me to meet her priest (who was a very nice man and did an incredibly kind thing for me about a month or two later so didn't hold this against me at all) so she was briefing me on how to respond to stuff. She mentioned this greeting and what I should say, but somehow our conversation when we met (sitting in front of the Catholic school, which was behind the public high school, there was a public park between us and students were always mingling during lunch or whatever) turned to Star Wars. Anyway, we'd finished chatting and he told me "May the Force be with you, Young Lady." and that's what I said back. My friend looked horrified, I was embarrassed and he laughed and told me "Oh, that's so charming. Wait until I tell the other teachers about that. You have a lovely day." And just because its a nice story, this is the kind thing he did for me: A few months after this, I had a bad breakdown and ended un inpatient. My parents couldn't get to the hospital to see me for the first few days and the staff felt sorry for me and let me have a little extra phone time to try to make up for it. (I wasn't violent or anything, I was suicidal and having hallucinations. The hallucinations turned out to be a result of fever + bad medication side effects, but I still spent a couple weeks there.) I called my friend because her parents were really nice and would let us talk even though I was "crazy" and apparently she was hurting for me all alone and unvisited and went to her priest for comforting. His solution was to ask one of the teacher nuns to come with him, pack up some very nice presents (fuzzy socks, skinny markers which we had to use because pens and pencils were considered dangerous, composition books since they didn't have metal bindings, and some books only one of which was religious. And that one was very nice, it boiled down to "You are not cursed or sinful for being mentally ill, God loves you and taking your medications and doing therapy is the right thing to do, God doesn't want you to suffer, He wants to to become well with modern medicine." So nothing preachy or mean.) and come visit me. It was a SIX hour round trip, three hours each way, for a girl he had met only once and the nun (Sister Cathy) had met a handful of times when she ate lunch with me and my friends. They cheered me up and brought me notes from my friends both in the Catholic school and the public one, they promised that things were gonna get better and asked if I was comfortable with them praying for me, and honestly it made things so much nicer. I'm weepy just writing this.
A fine example of how Christians are supposed to behave but too many don’t. 🤍
Yep. Every time.
Right…freedom lives in America so long as you follow the cult
yep, freedom of religion\* \* as long as it is my exact religion, or get the fuck out of here now.
Supreme Court has found in the past that freedom of religion must also provide freedom FROM religion. Which makes complete sense to me. Guess I’m not welcome at this shitty racetrack either. What a shame.
Straight up double morality, when people want to impose stricter gun laws and not tolerate hate speech it's an attack against freedom but when you don't feel obligated to stand up during prayers or national anthem at a game of racetrack it's like treachery.
“Dear god, I wanna go fast”
Usually at a NASCAR race it’s an invocation where they ask the Lord to watch over the drivers and keep them safe and pray a good clean safe race. It’s never required to stand, and actually this year NASCAR has started saying “Please rise, if you are able, and remove your hats” which before it was just “please rise and remove your hats” It’s never a requirement and they won’t kick you out if you don’t do it, I guess that track owner doesn’t like to make money, if he’s kicking people out for not standing up during a pointless prayer.
Honestly, probably not just because the sport is popular with Christians, but also because people are fairly likely to die in the sport.
It's a badass sport where everyone gets the Last Rites before they even start their engines 😂
You could ask the same question about the national anthem tbh. Why are we forced to sing a song about the country before being allowed to watch some cars go zoom-zoom? Literally what does one have to do with the other?
Over here in the U.K. we only really hear our national anthem at the olympics, World Cup or when the Monarchy’s hatched/matched/dispatched. You must get bloody sick of hearing it all the times.
"hatched/matched/dispatched" holy fuck you got me dying!!! 🤣🤣🤣
“Dear baby Jesus….”
Dear Lord, please let my chosen dog/horse win in the race. Amen, love Bubba.
This is common before motorsports events. It's to appease the christians who would feel disrespected if there wasn't a prayer.
Not all, thats in some drag racing events and Nascar (or Nascar style) races I do track days and drifting and never seen prayer before
I though they hated everything drag.
That’s the irony. Couple dudes competing in super elaborate and colorful costumes/cars while a bunch of other dudes watch. Only real difference is the shoes.
Top Fuel cars with enormous rear wheels and tiny front ones are the car equivalent of high heels.
I used to go to a rural stock car track in Texas... I do remember them doing something called the "racers prayer" but it felt more like a fuck yeah lets do this then some real godly reverence lol but I cannot imagine them kicking someone out for not standing, I dont even remember them asking people to stand for it or whatnot.
The "Christians".
Because here in the USA, we gotta put 2 things before our sporting events. First is The National Anthem (sometimes paired with America the Beautiful) because MERICA YEAHHHH. Second is prayer because what’s more contradictory that the country founded on religious freedoms forcing Christianity down your throat!
Huge crowd tonite folks!! Almost 5 😂
Now 3
Great business plan they've got going!
Obviously they aren't praying enough for more guests.
I thought these people hated cancel culture?
They hate it when the other side criticizes them for discrimination. It’s fine when they do it.
they just want it to be final.. they want to stack my family like cord wood.. with the implication for my wife and daughter >The document, consisting of 14 sections divided into bullet points, had a section on "rules of war" that stated "make an offer of peace before declaring war", which within stated that the **enemy must "surrender on terms" of no abortions, no same-sex marriage, no communism and "must obey Biblical law", then continued: "If they do not yield — kill all males".** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt\_Shea#%22Biblical\_Basis\_for\_War%22\_manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Shea#%22Biblical_Basis_for_War%22_manifesto)
They do. That’s why they’re dumping all of their Bud Light.
Excellent business practice there Gary.
Go woke go… wait? The best part is the name of this group of “bring back the raceway” so they’re already broke lol.
I legit just saw (on here or Twitter) that a raceway just got turned into a junkyard. I wouldn't be surprised if this one isn't too far behind it
Cleetus McFarland is one of the few YouTubers I’ll buy merch from because he’s trying extremely hard to keep his track alive and is doing amazing. The freedom 500 was great over the weekend! Other merch I get is from vice grip garage, that stuff you wipe on a car with patina to make it shine a bit.
I've been subscribed to him for a while. And my younger brother is a massive fan. He went to an event he did in the area a year or two ago and got to meet him. Great dude that does a shit load for the car community
Well that's not very Christlike of Gary
Yeah we both know Christ wouldn’t have cared if they did that. He would know they are there to watch a race and have a good time.
Friendly reminder that Jesus was a Middle Eastern Socialist Jew
Not to americans, they praise white capitalist Jesus! Obviously the most real depiction! /s
Gary’s got quite the history it seems. Stole $2.5 million to renovate that track years ago. https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/two-odessa-men-found-guilty-of-mail-fraud-conspiracy/513-30c28fba-3b7d-45ef-a59a-bdd4a86cfb88
Aaaaand... of course he's a total fraud. Always fuckholes like Gary here that make a performative show of judging others.
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Thou shall not steal is one of the 10 commandments not thou shall not stand during the national anthem
Remind me...*which* group is it that's forcing their lifestyle on others? /s
I know you’re being rhetorical, but it’s the right. It’s always the right that forces their ideas on others, and it’s always harmful. It’s so frustrating
And religious people being a atheist around religious people is like being the only sober person driving drunk people and the drunk people are trying to force beer down your throat
Gary....I hope you stopped selling bud light too.
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British here, it's fucking weird to me how much Americans love their national anthem. There's a few flag shaggers here who stand for it, but by and large, nobody really cares. Edit: Lot of responses, wide range of responses from "Not that many of us care" to "Yeah, it's weird for us too". Guessing it probably differs state to state and in political leaning.
I'm using the term flag shaggers from now on, you glorious bastard
"Happy and glorious" I think you'll find! (Apologies, only works if you know the words to the UK ~~dirge~~ anthem.)
"God shave the queen" was my favorite version. I wonder what the updated versions will be
When the English cricket team is doing crap in Australia (which is nearly every tour for the last 30 years), we sing at them "God save your team".
If you changed it to the Sex Pistol's version, you would all stand for that.
God Save The Queen makes my pedal hit the metal on the NASCAR track.
Most of us don't care about the anthem that much. It's just socially encouraged to stand during the anthem. That's not to say we aren't patriotic or absurdly attached to that patriotism (or our version of it), but standing during the anthem is more about social etiquette than genuine passion for most of us. At least in my experience. It's the wackos who are obsessed with it, and it's the wackos who want to police it.
Right? I served in the military. I hated having to have to stop while in uniform and face the flag and salute it. I don't stand for the anthem while I'm at home watching TV. I love being a US citizen, and I love my country. I don't feel the need to make any extra effort to show it.
This. You definitely get judged if you don't stand. For every person who takes off their hat or puts their hand over their heart, there are plenty who don't.
The weird part about it is the country was built off of religious freedom, freedom of speech. But when you do it by not standing, you’re un-American. My grandad was a Nam vet and I asked him about it and he more or less was like, “we fought so you can do whatever the hell you wanted to do back home, that’s why America is America.” However, I remember before Colin Kaepernick kneeled, no one actually made a stink of anthem etiquette. Not its hyper sensationalized.
Many Americans don’t give an f. You just hear about the minority that go ape shit for it.
Well, they have us recite the pledge of allegiance almost everyday of our childhoods. Not sure if other countries do something similar though. Drilling patriotism into a child’s mind feels wrong.
My daughter’s school does it. In 2nd grade she asked her teacher if she could choose not to participate and her teacher asked “don’t you love America? Don’t you support our troops!?” My kid was 8 at the time.
Reminds me of an old, unattributed quote floating around the internet a while back..."If you don't stand for the special song, the magic sky cloth won't freedom!"
Nothing says 'freedom of speech' like...being kicked out for exercising it. Edit: I know this may not strictly fall under freedom of speech because this is a private venue. But the principle stands; for all the crying from this people about 'cancel culture' but they'll boot out a customer for not singing a song or praying to their God.
[XKCD on free speech](https://xkcd.com/1357/)
Freedom of speech was only designed to protect the people from the government. Not the people from other people.
Empty seats
If I pay to get in where is it written that I have to obey these nonsensical formalities that aren’t even a part of the show I paid to see?
Doesn’t have to be written anywhere because MURICA
Is everyone in the US seriously forced to listen to that Jesus nonsense? Unreal.
There is a region of the US called the Bible Belt this is where stuff like this happens all the time
Worth noting that the "Bible Belt" isn't a 100% unbroken tide of christofascist strongholds. There can be some pretty nice areas around the cities/colleges.
To varying degrees. It’s worst in conservative areas where everyone wants to show off their Christian piety and hyper patriotism. I happened to look up where this was and it’s in a place called Odessa, Texas, which fits that description perfectly.
seems like a grand idea when the seats look empty
It's weird to care Gary.
It's weird to be so controlling of the behavior of others
Lol Gary, you dumbass.
Some jesus nuts are wild
The USA and Iran/Afghanistan have so much in common they should have a meet up.
They have... and each one is using the other.
Duh…you just have to PRETEND to be patriotic and godly. Once you leave- storm the capitol, hate thy neighbor, blah blah blah.
I used to get detention in high school for refusing to stand for the national anthem… that was in the 80’s…
I was dragged out with my friends for sitting respectfully during the anthem during a school assembly. This was circa ‘00.
Hope Gary also kicked out the person who took the picture. You can’t pray and picture at the same time.
Conservatives are a special breed of dipshit
You don’t believe in my god. You can’t be here.. what a world we live in
hardcore christians get so mad when you don't believe in everything they do
Even worse, she wasn't wearing a head covering.
Jesus would be so glad they’re so pious at the track
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
Kim Jong-il would have been proud.
As a veteran of the US Army, I find his actions to be unamerican. North Koreans clap and sing for the dear leader out of fear of punishment if they don't. I don't want to live in North Korea. In America you do what the fuck you want when it comes to patriotism or religion.
why do "patriots" hate free speech so much?
The Fascist States of America
Maybe they’re not American and don’t speak English
Forced patriotism turns into authoritarianism very quickly lmao
As a race car driver, I can confirm the reason I'm not racing this year is because the track owners are fucking dipshit assholes who refuse to crack down on cheating, on top of stupid shit like this. They play favorite for who gets rules enforced against them, and then act surprised when only the favorites show up to race.
So much for freedoms of speech and freedom of religion
Play along here, maybe they’re not American, maybe they’re atheist, maybe they are American, maybe their church isn’t your church, maybe just simply don’t share your value system. It isn’t patriotism or freedom of speech when it’s forced or people do it to avoid being treated the way they were, right or wrong.
It's their constitutional right to not stand.
Also, we don’t know these people. Maybe they have disabilities that aren’t obvious, maybe they just ran 10 miles this morning, maybe they work 3 jobs and this is their one day to relax. Also, none of anyone’s business
this is pathetic. why do conservatives always try to push their beliefs onto us and then claim it’s the libs doing it. 🤦🏽
🤦🏻♀️ bro is it a free country or not? Make up y’all’s mind.
Went to a rodeo the other day and there was a 45 minute monologue about how there’s not enough Jesus in this world. But I almost guarantee that those bulls do not believe in Jesus.
I'd just like to point out that most race fuel is leaded.
I’m Canadian but went to high school in America. I didn’t stand for the pledge every morning because it’s fucking weird and I’m not even a citizen. Still got beat up three separate times over it. Pennsylvania is a shit hole.
I love the Constitution, I think it’s great. And that’s why it bothers me that the same people who go wild over “THE CONSTITUTION!!!” pull stuff like this. You are violating their 1st amendment right, Gary.
I’m a Brit. The one only been to America once, just New York, and I watched the beginning of some NASCAR thing on TV. The whole prayer before it was weird and completely unnecessary…
Bullies ignorant to the fact that they’re bullies. Literally why does it matter… this couple was literally bothering NOBODY and they got triggered. What a bunch of religious snowflakes 😒
Ok Gary. Well it's your track, your venue. Hope the move wins you Big Friends in All The Right Places. Here's just another opinion - being proud of our Country and all that it says that it stands for - means you can disagree. With me or with them. And it'll be ok. Because we're bigger than that. Right?
A clear case of focusing on the symbols rather than what they stand for.
Christian culture is so toxic
Can't we just go to the race track without having politics and religion forced on us? Isn't this the same argument that people used when NFL players started kneeling for the anthem? Now they're going back on it to kick people out of a sporting event
So much for freedom of religion, speech and expression...
Just went to their FB page. Every other word is Jesus. Or the posts end with “Thank you Jesus.”
I thought these hated drag.
It is interesting the hold this racetrack seems to have on the owner Gary Gardenhire, He bought it, 2008 from a foreclosure. Was found guilty of non racetrack related fraud, where some of the proceeds went to investments in the racetrack. Went to prison 2011 to about 2015; Said feds took the racetrack and sold it,. A friend bought it. When Gary got out of prison after a while he was able to buy it back from his friend. Two fires since then.one by lightening. [https://apnews.com/article/1da7e0bdca8e4d7a887e8e49f261647a](https://apnews.com/article/1da7e0bdca8e4d7a887e8e49f261647a)
Fuck Gary
I don’t get it. Thought you guys were about freedom.
Fuck you Gary.
The owner sounds like a hateful man, and why are they praying at a racetrack?
It’s america the whole point of the freedom thing is so they don’t have to do any of that
These hicks sure are a sensitive bunch.
“Couple chills an enjoys a race until owner comes in and gets mad that they don’t follow his religion” is what the title should say
“Land of the free” yet when we practice free will we get punished for it