I guess God told them to beat the life out of the Black children first.
This link has excerpts of the Pearl’s book. When you google “to train up a child” you get the names of so many kids who have died by the hands of religious child abusers and murderers who have used the Pearls’ words as a basis for action. Why aren’t the Pearls in jail for what’s IN PRINT, let alone the many children who have died because of them?
Religious institutions are entitled to claim religious reasons for failing to comply with public laws. This is understood to be a legitimate form of discrimination protected by their First Amendment rights to freely practice their religion.
That’s why the Catholic Church doesn’t have to provide…
I have created a new psychological disorder: Religious Persecution Fantasy (RPF). I think it’s terribly prevalent over at Faux News.
I do not respect your religion. And I do not have to.
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(via think4yourself)
This is an enormous chain and I’m sorry, but I need to say this:
The laws in the Old Testament were set forth by god as the rules the Hebrews needed to follow in order to be righteous, to atone for the sin of Adam and Eve and to be able to get into Heaven. That is also why they were required to make sacrifices, because it was part of the appeasement for Original Sin.
According to Christian theology, when Jesus came from Heaven, it was for the express purpose of sacrificing himself on the cross so that our sins may be forgiven. His sacrifice was supposed to be the ultimate act that would free us from the former laws and regulations and allow us to enter Heaven by acting in his image. That is why he said “it is finished” when he died on the cross. That is why Christians don’t have to circumcise their sons (god’s covenant with Jacob), that is why they don’t have to perform animal sacrifice, or grow out their forelocks, or follow any of the other laws of Leviticus.
When you quote Leviticus as god’s law and say they are rules we must follow because they are what god or Jesus wants us to do, what you are really saying, as a Christian, is that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was invalid. He died in vain because you believe we are still beholden to the old laws. That is what you, a self-professed good Christian, are saying to your god and his son, that their plan for your salvation wasn’t good enough for you.
So maybe actually read the thing before you start quoting it, because the implications of your actions go a lot deeper than you think.
/An atheist who understands Christian theology better than Bible-thumpers do.
If a guy spoke to her like this, we would tell her that she needs to leave him. But when god does it, people put up with it. Why? Why do you put up with threats of hell and damnation? Why do you put up with a god that is too easily willing to commit genocide? By the way, notice how this same god is supposedly against abortion. Why would anyone be willing to endure threats of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual abuse by god? Why don’t people require better treatment for themselves? Why don’t people require better of god?
(via republicanidiots)
Black Friday and The New Religion
They say America is a Christian nation, but its not. As G K Chesterton wrote, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car”. Quite. Any country that so willingly kills hundreds of thousands of other human beings abroad while neglecting the homeless and poor and sick at home cannot possibly claim to be christian. No, Americas religion in consumerism.
Christianity cannot call forth multitudes of Americans from their beds at dawn to congregate in frenzied masses the way the Black Friday sales do. Christianity does not shape and control the way ordinary people live their lives in the way that consumerism does. Priests and pastors do not have the power to influence that advertizing men do. Compared to consumerism, christianity is a spent force in America.
You can look at any age in history and pretty much know where the power lay by which buildings were the grandest. When religion really did control peoples lives magnificent cathedrals soared to the sky amid the poverty around them. When kings ruled the land their castles were a wonder for the peasants to behold. These days where does the magnificence lie ? In the towering glass skyscrapers of Wall Street and the giant, out-of-town shopping malls. They are our cathedrals of consumerism.
Despite its failings and inconsistencies Christianity at least had a kind of morality at its core. For all of the abuses and atrocities carried out in its name, for all that most so-called christians entirely ignore its central message of love, it always held out the hope that one day those who said they were its followers would actually behave as though they were. But now that America worships consumerism instead there is not even that faint hope. All that there is to look forward to is a future of Black Fridays.
Of course I’m not saying that anyone needs christianity (or any other religion) to live a good or moral life, but I am questioning the hypocrisy of pretending to follow one religion when in fact its obvious America follows another. Consumerism is a barren, empty, soulless thing. Its the religion of me-first and to hell with everyone else. Its the smart priests of advertising manipulating the gullible multitudes but instead of heaven they promise the latest iPod.
Heaven or an iPod ? We seem willing to settle for very little these days.
Separation of church and state is what this country was truly founded on and it is important to maintaining freedom in this country.
If there’s anything we know about evangelical Christians, it’s that they comprise a remarkably effective voting block, and the religious right has been a core part of the Republican coalition for decades.
So it comes as no surprise, perhaps, that the two top members of the Republican ticket, presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running-mate, Paul Ryan, would court the Family Research Council at its recent Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., where, on Friday, Ryan delivered a speech, and Romney appeared via video message. But what is appalling is that the event this duo endorsed quickly devolved into a hate fest directed against an American religious minority.
At the podium in the massive ballroom of the Omni Shoreham Hotel, and in the breakout sessions that followed, the conference’s Saturday line-up seemed contrived to demonize Muslims as liars, infiltrators and worse — and one speaker, retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, sought to direct U.S. foreign policy in ways that could affect the outcome of the presidential election, by calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran before November 6.
I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it, because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can — we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.
Bill Nye
Creationism Isn’t Safe For Kids - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
(via think4yourself)
(via think4yourself)
HATE GRAFFITI AT MUSLIM CEMETERY IN EVERGREEN PARK, CHICAGO
On August 16, 2012, a Palestinian American man went to pay respects to his deceased father at Evergreen Cemetery and was horrified to see anti-Muslim hate graffiti on a number of Muslim graves. Evergreen Cemetery is home to at least 500 Muslim graves. Cemetery officials and the police have been notified. The cemetery is located at 3401 West 87th Street, Evergreen Park, IL 60805.
absolutely horrifying
Interestingly, in the area where @RepJoeWalsh has been preaching that “Muslims are out to kill Americans, every week”. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/13/679561/gop-rep-joe-walsh-muslims-are-trying-to-kill-americans-every-week/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&mobile=nc
(via democratsaresexier)
In the past 10 days, there have been eight cases of vandalism and attacks on houses of worship across the nation, including the deadly shooting spree in a Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin on Aug. 5. The other seven incidents were mosque defacements, which have sent a tremor of fear through America’s Muslim community.
Maybe @RepJoeWalsh should tell Americans a little more than Muslims are planning to kill Americans? http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/13/679561/gop-rep-joe-walsh-muslims-are-trying-to-kill-americans-every-week/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&mobile=nc
(via silas216)
Ok. So I think it’s a little cool that Pepsi did that, cause you know that’s how I say the Pledge. But actually though. Really. Why the fuck are those two words such a big deal to ANYBODY. Like, oh man, Pepsi wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance on their cans and it doesn’t impose our religious beliefs on anyone. Shit. Grab your torches and pitch forks! Seriously? Seriously. People need to chill the fuck out.
All this makes me want to do is buy a Pepsi. I have to say the Pledge every school day, and I NEVER say “under God”. Actually, you don’t have to say the Pledge in school… you just have to stand. Which I sometimes do. I love my country, but if there is a god, America has no special protections granted by that god, nor any “manifest destiny”. Hogwash. I kind of like that Pepsi didn’t want to offend atheists! Pretty cool.
(via springtimeofmylovin)
The Book of Mormon, when it is not “chloroform in print” as Mark Twain unkindly phrased it, is full of vicious ingenuity. From it you can learn of the ancient battle of Cumorah, which occurred at a site conveniently near Joseph Smith’s home in upstate New York. In this legendary engagement, the Nephites, described as fair-skinned and “handsome,” fought against the outcast Lamanites, whose punishment for turning away from God was to be afflicted with dark skin. Later, in antebellum Missouri and preaching against abolition, Smith and his cronies announced that there had been a third group in heaven during the battle between God and Lucifer. This group had made the mistake of trying to remain neutral but, following Lucifer’s defeat, had been forced into the world and compelled to “take bodies in the accursed lineage of Canaan; and hence the negro or African race.” Until 1978, no black American was permitted to hold even the lowly position of deacon in the Mormon Church, and nor were any (not that there were many applicants) admitted to the sacred rites of the temple. The Mormon elders then had a “revelation” and changed the rules, thus more or less belatedly coming into compliance with the dominant civil rights statutes. The timing (as with the revelation abandoning polygamy, which occurred just in time to prevent Utah from being denied membership of the Union) permits one to be cynical about its sincerity. However that may be, it certainly makes nonsense of Romney’s moaning about any criticism or questioning being “un-American.” The Mormons have already had to choose—twice—between their beliefs and American values.
