When you're a religious freak you can define anybody, or any group, you don't like as minions of "the Antichrist", and nobody can prove you wrong by logic and facts, because your position doesn't depend on logic or facts to begin with.
Religious freak and right wing pastor Joel Webbon is surely one of the most irrational, and the most bigoted. His latest utterance has been to tell black people (like they even care who he is, much less what he says) to "stop whining about slavery and oppression," because they got taught the gospel of Jesus Christ so they can go to Heaven instead of Hell.
What they got in slavery, of course, was hell in this world and this life.
Webbon also declares with his usual crass ignorance of history and culture, that ""European people have been building cathedrals; non-European people have been building grass huts."
Well, so much for the architects of the Alhambra and the Dome of the Rock. So much also for the fact that in 1000 CE, if a Christian wanted the services of a doctor who wouldn't put him under the ground, he was well advised to seek a Jewish or Muslim medico. Back then, also, the Islamic world was streets and streets ahead of north-western Christian Europe, a squalid, backward, barbaric place by comparison; far ahead in medicine, astronomy, mathematics and yes, architecture.
Not to mention the far east, China and Japan.
And when was it that the Islamic world started to lose ground and the Christian west to catch up? When the Islamic world turned away from secular knowledge, exploration and learning, and became hung up on theology instead, while the Renaissance first sprouted in the west, and Christian lands like Italy and France found classical learning and contemporary science together.
And what's happening in the U.S. now? Urged by bats from the caverns of ignorance, like Webbon, that country has started to repress learning and science, treat it as the enemy. The "woke" enemy. If Trump and Webbon and their like are triumphant, the U.S. will become an isolated, backward enclave of superstition. Where if you get fatally sick, schmucks like Webbon will tell you to pray. It'll be about your only resort.
This is why, I believe, we need to emphasize freedom of (and from) religion at all opportunity and from the highest levels of government. There is no one correct, true or right religion. There are thousands of known religions in the world. Thousands. Some are offshoots or variations of others. Some are bizarre and off the wall. But our founding fathers knew that religious nationalism is extraordinarily dangerous, and results in violence, oppression and war. Religious tribalism is just another way to divide people into “us” and “them,” and acceptable and unacceptable.
This lone shooter achieved nothing with his actions except to cause many families pain and loss, including his own.
It’s probably the most important and personal message I’d send if I were a politician - that everyone is free to embrace any religion or no religion at all. And any religion that casts out other people or other religious beliefs as “unholy” or evil should be met with caution, scrutiny and self-reflection. As an atheist and humanist, I simply believe we are all here for a very brief time, and this is our one chance to exist and hopefully experience some joy and happiness and love. Anything we do that interferes with other people’s one chance at life or oppresses others must be condemned. People need to respect each other and let each person find meaning in their own lives.
They’ll scream ‘religious freedom’ until a Mormon walks into the room. Then suddenly the Body of Christ has amputations. Chick tracts and crusader tattoos taught them to fear anyone who doesn’t worship their brand of God. And when fear marries firepower, you get a church reduced to ash. Blessed be the ones who know the Kingdom isn’t run by gunmen or gatekeepers.
It's worth being reminded regularly that when asswipe presidents like George W. Bush swagger, and sheltered wealthy country music stars sing about kicking ass to cheer on sending people off to war, some of those people inevitably come back broken.
Well said from Pajiba the other day, speaking about Christian Nationalists:
Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Catholics, and other non-Protestant non-evangelical faiths are like aces in blackjack to them. 11 when they need to play the victim and 1 every other time.
At first, I wondered whether or not the assault on the Mormon church wasn't somehow related to immigration (they may be a socially conservative bunch, but for complicated reasons are reliable allies and supporters of Latin American immigrants), but nah... just another "my way or the highway" kind of Christian... the kind of terrorist we've seen before: https://mexfiles.net/2010/02/19/texas-the-terrist-and-la-virgen/
That, and there's apparently a belief among (some) Mormons that the Mayans were the people mentioned in the Book of Mormon when Jesus came to America after his resurrection. There's a niche tourism industry in the Yucatan catering to Mormons. Otherwise, with Mormon migration into Mexico from the 1890s thru about WWII (and some of those oddball "fundamentalist Mormon" sects up into the 1960s at least) in northern Mexico you find a lot of families that just either assimilated into the local population, or local families that converted at some point.
Anyway... kind of reliable allies in this one human rights issue, whatever their rationale. .
"Folks normal mistakes the Gun for the Lord. And true, the trigger and finger does the pray-sayin'. But the wise along us knows this and this is Truth: the Lord both Guides and Becomes the Bullet, callin' the heathen to Judgment."
When you're a religious freak you can define anybody, or any group, you don't like as minions of "the Antichrist", and nobody can prove you wrong by logic and facts, because your position doesn't depend on logic or facts to begin with.
Religious freak and right wing pastor Joel Webbon is surely one of the most irrational, and the most bigoted. His latest utterance has been to tell black people (like they even care who he is, much less what he says) to "stop whining about slavery and oppression," because they got taught the gospel of Jesus Christ so they can go to Heaven instead of Hell.
What they got in slavery, of course, was hell in this world and this life.
Webbon also declares with his usual crass ignorance of history and culture, that ""European people have been building cathedrals; non-European people have been building grass huts."
Well, so much for the architects of the Alhambra and the Dome of the Rock. So much also for the fact that in 1000 CE, if a Christian wanted the services of a doctor who wouldn't put him under the ground, he was well advised to seek a Jewish or Muslim medico. Back then, also, the Islamic world was streets and streets ahead of north-western Christian Europe, a squalid, backward, barbaric place by comparison; far ahead in medicine, astronomy, mathematics and yes, architecture.
Not to mention the far east, China and Japan.
And when was it that the Islamic world started to lose ground and the Christian west to catch up? When the Islamic world turned away from secular knowledge, exploration and learning, and became hung up on theology instead, while the Renaissance first sprouted in the west, and Christian lands like Italy and France found classical learning and contemporary science together.
And what's happening in the U.S. now? Urged by bats from the caverns of ignorance, like Webbon, that country has started to repress learning and science, treat it as the enemy. The "woke" enemy. If Trump and Webbon and their like are triumphant, the U.S. will become an isolated, backward enclave of superstition. Where if you get fatally sick, schmucks like Webbon will tell you to pray. It'll be about your only resort.
Shooter obsessed and insane, just like Trump.
Then got out and fired at the congregation with a semi automatic rifle, another lunatic
He fell in love with a devout Morman woman. She rejected him. His feelings were bruised.
All religions look equally ridiculous to a person with critical thinking skills. But then, some are more equal than others...
(with apologies to George O.)
This is why, I believe, we need to emphasize freedom of (and from) religion at all opportunity and from the highest levels of government. There is no one correct, true or right religion. There are thousands of known religions in the world. Thousands. Some are offshoots or variations of others. Some are bizarre and off the wall. But our founding fathers knew that religious nationalism is extraordinarily dangerous, and results in violence, oppression and war. Religious tribalism is just another way to divide people into “us” and “them,” and acceptable and unacceptable.
This lone shooter achieved nothing with his actions except to cause many families pain and loss, including his own.
It’s probably the most important and personal message I’d send if I were a politician - that everyone is free to embrace any religion or no religion at all. And any religion that casts out other people or other religious beliefs as “unholy” or evil should be met with caution, scrutiny and self-reflection. As an atheist and humanist, I simply believe we are all here for a very brief time, and this is our one chance to exist and hopefully experience some joy and happiness and love. Anything we do that interferes with other people’s one chance at life or oppresses others must be condemned. People need to respect each other and let each person find meaning in their own lives.
Hey, Mormons!
You know who won't look down on you just because of your beliefs and get all violent about it?
Democrats.
Try voting for them if you want to be treated nicer.
And treat black people nicer while you're at it also, too.
Ta, Dok.
They’ll scream ‘religious freedom’ until a Mormon walks into the room. Then suddenly the Body of Christ has amputations. Chick tracts and crusader tattoos taught them to fear anyone who doesn’t worship their brand of God. And when fear marries firepower, you get a church reduced to ash. Blessed be the ones who know the Kingdom isn’t run by gunmen or gatekeepers.
People forget that the Klan was just as down on Catholics as they were Jews.
It's worth being reminded regularly that when asswipe presidents like George W. Bush swagger, and sheltered wealthy country music stars sing about kicking ass to cheer on sending people off to war, some of those people inevitably come back broken.
He wasn't just broken, he was psycho.
Well said from Pajiba the other day, speaking about Christian Nationalists:
Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Catholics, and other non-Protestant non-evangelical faiths are like aces in blackjack to them. 11 when they need to play the victim and 1 every other time.
At first, I wondered whether or not the assault on the Mormon church wasn't somehow related to immigration (they may be a socially conservative bunch, but for complicated reasons are reliable allies and supporters of Latin American immigrants), but nah... just another "my way or the highway" kind of Christian... the kind of terrorist we've seen before: https://mexfiles.net/2010/02/19/texas-the-terrist-and-la-virgen/
They did a lot of missionary work in Central America. Those are their people they're supporting.
That, and there's apparently a belief among (some) Mormons that the Mayans were the people mentioned in the Book of Mormon when Jesus came to America after his resurrection. There's a niche tourism industry in the Yucatan catering to Mormons. Otherwise, with Mormon migration into Mexico from the 1890s thru about WWII (and some of those oddball "fundamentalist Mormon" sects up into the 1960s at least) in northern Mexico you find a lot of families that just either assimilated into the local population, or local families that converted at some point.
Anyway... kind of reliable allies in this one human rights issue, whatever their rationale. .
“Sanford may have been seeking revenge for the murder of Charlie Kirk by a guy who was raised LDS”
That was my first guess.
"Folks normal mistakes the Gun for the Lord. And true, the trigger and finger does the pray-sayin'. But the wise along us knows this and this is Truth: the Lord both Guides and Becomes the Bullet, callin' the heathen to Judgment."
Who done said that?
The Far Right Reverend Glock Remington.
He sounds square-jawed.
Dad was Chester Wynn!
How is it possible that after thousands of years no religion has got it right?
When atheism is just so simple...
MAGATs vs Mormons?
https://media1.tenor.com/m/XyiXcdTThBcAAAAC/let-them-fight-dr-ishiro-serizawa.gif