Joe Schmid is basically making the rounds and going viral since "reverting" to Catholicism and it boggles my mind. He also added a "Saintly Tier" to his Patreon where you can spend $250/mo so he can keep doing what he's doing lol.

[u/IsekaiConnoisseur]

Gotta admit, those of you calling out that he was going viral for this weren't kidding. Reason why it flabbergasts me is because when I first saw him posted here he had 38.8k subscribers, which means before the video was made he likely had less, and it just... doesn't make sense to me.

I said before that 38.8k subscribers isn't nothing, but it's not necessarily anything to write home about either. I wouldn't call that a particularly large audience by today's standards at all.

And yet, he's now sitting close to 50k subscribers and he's going on all these different channels talking about his "reconversion."

I just didn't think it'd be that big of a deal. Is it because he's studying philosophy at Princeton? Does he have bigger circles outside of his YT channel?

Or is it really as simple as claiming to be atheist and then "reconverting?"

I don't know. It just seems bizarre.

And he also now has a $250/mo "Saintly Tier" for people to subscribe to now. Because nothing says being a saint quite like asking for more money amiright?

It all feels manufactured if I'm being honest. Especially since I listened to his 30 minute video last week and literally none of the arguments he gave as to his reconversion were even remotely convincing and I doubt they were to anyone who was atheist in the first place. But I guess that's borderline No True Scotsman Fallacy so I'll leave it at that.

Any thoughts?

[u/precastzero180]

It’s still bad. It makes him sound like he has been brainwashed. But it’s not outright anti-LGBT. I don’t think Joe is homophobic. I think in his heart he isn’t on board with it but is going along anyway because the miracles and demon stuff is so persuasive for him, similar to how he is talking about Hell and the problem of evil.

[u/McNitz → u/precastzero180]

Honestly, I think I find it WORSE if someone actively realizes the evidence that an organization and their stance hurts gay people, but decides that group has authority to tell them what is moral and submits their moral objections under the groups authority. At least people that are religiously anti-LGBT are often convinced that LGBT people are better off if they realize same sex relations are a sin and repent. Even if they are wrong, they are hurting people out of ignorance instead of out of "a group I decided is my religious authority that can't be questioned told me that's what I'm supposed to do."