A Texas man who kidnapped a 13-year-old girl in San Antonio and sexually assaulted her multiple times while driving her to Southern California last year pleaded guilty to a federal kidnapping charge Friday as part of a plea agreement, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said.
Steven Robert Sablan, 62, abducted the girl at gunpoint on or about July 6, 2023, in San Antonio and “engaged in sexual activity” with her while driving her to Long Beach, California, the plea agreement states.
“At the time of the crime, Sablan had no legal custody or familial relationship to the victim,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a news release.
So, it turns out you don’t have to be a billionaire to make things happen. I can think of two ways a bunch of people on Lemmy can make a movement like this happen.
Approach 1: Create a non-profit/charity
This will have to start very small, be funded through donations, and slowly grow by helping people in various ways, causing more people to join and expand. Like you mentioned, it will take a very long time to make a dent in Catholicism.
Approach 2: Get corporate America behind this
This is a lot easier than people think - we just need to figure out how do monetize this. Given how many private jets and other extravagances Christian evangelicals have, I suspect there could be enough money in religion - we’d have to discuss and work out how to get enough $$$ to make it worth their while without having hate as a core tenet of our religion.
This approach could have the advantage of multi-million dollar advertising budgets, lobbyists, and many other resources to have a much faster impact than the other approach.
Let me know if you’re up for discussing and fleshing out the details. I think it could be a fun exercise, and it might even lead somewhere in the future - I personally have a few contacts in high places in corporate America that will always listen to new business pitches 😉
You are correct that work can be done without being a billionaire. However, to accomplish much I imagine it would have to become a full time job, at least for some people. Most of us can’t leave our jobs. And if it was going to be a part time endeavor, we might get more results joining an organization that already exists.
I haven’t kept up with the unitarians, but using them as an example you could probably work with them to accomplish some of these goals. You wouldn’t have to build everything from scratch. But you’d have to deal with the existing brand and legacy, so that’s a mixed bag.
Also, I would be hesitant to get too in bed with corporate interests. That could easily lead to enshittification, corruption of ideals, or just losing people because it feels corporate instead of spiritual. But I’m not experienced in running this sort of thing, so this is mostly guessing.