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

  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Big brother who art in heaven, surveillance be thy name. Thy data come, recon be done, stored in SQL as it is in heaven. And lead us not into frustration, for thine is Consistent, Available, and Partition tolerant. COMMIT ;

    select * from prayer_requests where response = 'yes' ;
    
    0 rows returned
    
  • RagingHungryPanda@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    So one thing about the note taking (from an ex-Christian), something that is very common is the fake prophesy or telling you details of your life that you think the person shouldn’t know. I guarantee you they’re using these notes as a way to say that God told them something about you. I’m saying this because I’ve been in churches that did that

    Edit: many say they don’t encourage it, but it doesn’t matter if someone gets “saved”

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Damn it. We already have to deal with the Mormons and the JWs periodically bothering us. Now numerous evangelical churches will be doing it too? I wish they’d all just get lost and leave people alone.

      • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s a dark-as-fuck take. But honestly, you are probably on to something with it. Many evangelical ‘followers of Christ’ have a very different view on who he was than I and others do. Their Christ is a gun-wielding, xenophobic, intolerant, white skinned, white nationalist.

        Of course, if they ever get their wish and pass some of these restrictive, oppressive federal laws against ‘non-believers’, the next phase will be ruthless infighting. Because they will inevitably turn on each other over trivial differences of opinion.

  • KeriKitty (They(/It))@pawb.social
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    4 months ago

    Wow, this is absolutely fucking horrific. I assume they’ve imported everything from Kiwi Farms incarnation too? Bunch of evil fucks.

    I’m kinda sick of all’ the evil, actually. I get that it’s very popular but maybe it shouldn’t be? I’ll just live in my own mind until people pull their heads out, I guess 🤷 What could possibly go wrong.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      Yeah I’m wondering what happens if we download it and start giving it bad data. Just say everyone is Christian, or that you’ve met with everyone in your town every day.

      • Piece_Maker@feddit.uk
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        4 months ago

        Why would you say everyone’s a Christian? Might as well have some fun. Change all the ones marking themselves as Christians to say that they’re gay liberal polygamists or something.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          I figured obviously incorrect data on potential users of the app would be sussed out rather quickly, but posing as a devout bigot who has been converting everyone in town would be more “believable.”

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        Just giving it random data should be good enough. If the users can’t trust the validity of the data, they might stop using the app.

    • Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I tried but they want you to give them your home address and I didn’t feel like doxing myself. I’m going to have to come up with a different home address that’s valid in their system. At the same time I don’t want to cause grief for the person whose address I use. Maybe I can use a church address.

  • rayyy@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    prayerwalking calls on believers to wage “violent prayer” (persistently and aggressively channeling emotions of hatred and anger against Satan)

    In other words first they will use words then move on to more “persuasive” methods when that doesn’t work.

    • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Okay, so this app is super messed up, but this take on prayerwalking is the equivalent to satanic panic for D&D.

      Prayerwalking is just what the portmanteau describes. Sometimes it contains an evangelistic bent of looking for specific people to pray with or whatever, but mostly it’s just people out praying for people and places.

        • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          Completely agree. I genuinely believe everyone should be allowed to believe and behave how they want, free from coercion, so long as they aren’t inhibiting anyone else’s ability to believe or behave as they please.

          I think there’s plenty to criticize here without resorting to the same outlandish polemics they employ.

      • MrsDoyle@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        “And 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. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6

  • Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Fucking Christians, they just can’t believe in their fairy tale daddy in the sky and leave the rest of us alone, they have to smear their god like shit everywhere. Religion is a mental illness, it’s long overdue we start treating it that way.

      • Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        lol, it’s going to turn into a hunting app with best times to hunt, type of heathen, etc. it would be funny if it weren’t so scary.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    It’s creepy that they are collecting data about us without our knowledge nor consent. And having strangers then telling us private details about ourselves.

    I wonder how they would react if we did this to them.

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The crowd of “I have nothing to hide” that also has the highest incidence of minor sexual assault, domestic violence, and infidelity? I think they think they’re talking to God who forgives whatever if you just say sorry and say a couple poems

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Good luck with that in our town lol. We recently passed a town wide ordinance against “door to door salesmen” which would cover this bullshit

    Plus, my driveway is 100 yards long, and my dogs are very barky.

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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      4 months ago

      It’s not about door to door missionary work. It’s about building a list of enemies to target when Trump takes over

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    This is going to be real Handy for them the day they try to put us all up against the wall.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      So many people in this comment section not getting it. This is a list of people they will send to the camps. They’re preparing for when the fascists take over.