ALWAYS THE VICTIM

[kpete]

by joe quigley
?w=948

[underpants]

1. Information is power

[BBG]

2. Some Evangelicals Deny Catholicism is Christianity

Just saying sometimes there is a method to their cognitive dissonance. Usually bullshit but there it is.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Revealed religions thrive on paradox...

It's almost like they have to have something cognitively dissonant to survive.

[BBG]

4. Of course

That is the method to their madness.

[brewens]

10. They think the Mormons are a cult. They are as far as I'm concerned, but the evangelicals

need to be careful who they call a cult. The LDS is like someone set up a major lab experiment to show how Christianity could have started.

[SCantiGOP]

15. Give me that old time religion

Druids predate Christianity by more than a thousand years.

[OldBaldy1701E]

38. Yep! (n/t)

[diverdownjt]

45. C'mon man..you know they had to be smokin' some good stuff

while they were dancing around those stones...my kind of religion.

That is of course the impetus for Outlander..."dude give me another hit and I'll go back in time....."

[OldBaldy1701E]

48. Although I would have to do some more research

I am under the impression that they did stuff stronger than cannabis when they held those gatherings. Having been to a few modern interpretations of such gatherings, I know we were... altered...

[BobTheSubgenius]

27. Sam Harris had a great point about Mormonism.

He said it was objectively less likely to be true than conventional Christianity. After all, "it's just basic Christianity with the addition of a few stupid ideas."

One of the most important of the "stupid ideas" was that, when Jesus returns, he will spend half the year in Jerusalem, and the other half in Jackson County, Missouri.

That does seem to be kind of a stretch, don't you think?

[mdbl]

36. As Kathleen Madigan says,

if you think Jesus is coming back to kansas city, thirty miles north of it then you must think Jesus us a big fan of barbeque and crystal meth.

[KentuckyWoman]

44. My fav

Is that the LDS church teaches God made people brown as a curse so everyone knows they are unworthy to serve God. The "profit" suddenly had a revelation the curse was lifted in the 70's when the Federal Government offered to take their tax exempt status away because of discrimination.

Sadly, this is not the whackiest religion in America.

[stevesinpa]

34. all religions are cults

any group that demands belief without proof and demands unquestioning faith is a cult.

[Mr.Bill]

40. The difference between a cult and a religion

is how long they have been around.

[My Pet Orangutan]

11. Evangelicals Deny Catholicism is Christian? So they stacked SCOTUS with Catholics?

And are in orgasmic love with Barrett?

Does not compute.

[Turin_C3PO]

21. Right wing Catholics

and evangelicals have a political alliance in order to get judges who are anti-choice and anti-gay marriage. But most evangelicals think Catholics are statue worshipping, incense using, pope listening, pagans who are hell bound.

[My Pet Orangutan]

23. The times they are a ...

I think you would be scratching to find a majority of evangelicals who think Amy Coney Barrett is going to hell. Evangelicals are transitioning from convictions to cults of personality.

[Turin_C3PO]

24. I'm just

going by my experience of briefly attending an evangelical church twenty years ago when I was 17. I had been Catholic but was experimenting with other religions and they were so happy that i had left Catholicism and gotten "saved". I can't imagine things have changed that much since then.

[My Pet Orangutan]

26. Trump is going to heaven,

why not RW Catholics who own the Libs?

MAGA has changed a lot of things on the right. My 2c. I don't talk to them.

[Collimator]

41. My religious journey took me from my Catholic upbringing

through a flirtation with the Jehovah's Witnesses and then into Born-Again Christianity. I used to have definite ideas of what constituted a "real" Christian and now I don't care.

I actually got my back up a little when a co-worker talked about Catholics not being real Christians and I had to laugh at myself. I was probably just reacting from some atavistic instinct. I almost felt like throwing down the gauntlet of Bible challenge before her because she was an "unwed" mother with an elaborately braided hairstyle. (There is a verse in the NT about not adorning oneself with "broided hair." )

Even though I am deeply concerned about the role of religion in fostering magical thinking and intolerance, I try to practice my own tolerance towards those who find strength in notions of faith. As long as they aren't trying to impose their beliefs on others by legislating life-choices for the rest of us, I can keep my mouth shut. I do have trouble keeping quiet when people make ridiculous claims about the Bible, though. I can accept that they may want to accept the ridiculous claims in the Bible, but when you go around telling people that your sacred book has all the answers and you don't even know what is really in that book that you tout, then I can become extremely difficult.

[Turin_C3PO]

47. Yeah, I hear you.

I also don’t mind if people find inspiration from the Bible or any other sacred writing but when they claim all the knowledge in the world resides in a certain writing, I write them off as fundamentalists.

[Celerity]

49. Christianity (and most other religions) is by definition a cult of personality.

[My Pet Orangutan]

50. Well, if you are talking about the Church of England

Justin Welby et al. are piss-poor cult leaders

Then again, there is always the head of the Church, Her Majesty the Queen, Imperatrix Regina, and the Imperator in waiting, the Prince of Whales (trump's spelling)

No empire without an Emperor, hey Vicky boy?

[Lock him up.]

22. Their cult is R. Any other letter is blasphemy.

That's how deep the fux $nooze and hate radio propagandist$ hypnotized them.

[Nitram]

25. True. And the Catholic Church doesn't believe Jehovah's witnesses or Mormons are Christians. Years

ago, when I was cataloguing books for a library, I came across a series of small books published by the Catholic Church titled "Doctrines of the Devils." There was one on the Jehovah's Witnesses and one on Mormonism. I don't remember which other sects/cults/religions were included in the series.

One problem fundamentalist Christian sects have with the Catholic Church is that they believe one can be "saved" only by faith in Jesus, while the Catholic Church believes "good works" are also required.

[Drahthaardogs]

31. At some point, a religion becomes so adulterated

It may be something different. Jehovah’s are so far removed belief-wise, they probably should not be considered Christian.

Personally I believe once you adopt Calvinism, you are outside traditional Christian teachings and the argument may be valid

[Nitram]

32. I agree. The deterministic and elitist aspects of Calvinism strayed way too far from anything that

Jesus is believed to have taught. Right wing Christianity has tried to eliminate all belief in mercy for sinners (anyone that they don't agree with). If you've ever poked around the dung hill that is the Conservapedia wiki, you might have found their alternative version of the Bible that eliminates certain stories that emphasize mercy, such as the one where Jesus tells a crowd that want to stone a prostitute "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Conservapedia contends that "liberals" introduced such heresy to the bible. Go figure.

[Drahthaardogs]

33. It's the double predestination that contradicts

IMO. To a degree it’s no longer Christian. Jesus noted many times that “Many are called, few answer” that the “gate is narrow”, etc.

Jesus’s teaching pretty well held people accountable for their actions. The “saved”and “destined” are in direct conflict with His teachings

[soldierant]

35. I didn't realize JW's even claimed to be Christians.

I suspect they often get confused with 7th Day Adventists who do have a good case to be Christians.

I agree with you on Calvinism. It s very Republican, though. Claiming victimhood since ~1530.

[Drahthaardogs]

30. And yet they are the ones without Apostolic tradition

While the Roman, Orthodox, Coptic, Eastern, and Anglican Rites all do

[OldBaldy1701E]

39. I remember

when I was very little and attending the local Baptist church (dad was a deacon there), hearing that they felt Catholics were heathens because they worshipped statues and it says in the whatever about craven images and what not. I think that was around the time I started to feel something was amiss with this Yahweh thing. It took my father being ostracized and having that congregation turned against him when we moved outside of town and started going to the closer church because we were not exactly rich and had to save money however we could before I started to finally see the reality of 'church' life. Also, I am only speaking for myself. Others experiences with modern religion may have been different.

[wnylib]

42. And some Catholics have an evangelical

approach to religion. They find common ground in anti choice positions on abortion and government support for religious schools, among other issues. There are factions among Catholics.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. All their life.

.



.

[KS Toronado]

6. What movie is this clip from?

I'm getting old and forgetful.

[NutmegYankee]

7. Addams Family. (1991) nt

[Ilsa]

14. Actually, Addams Family Values, 1993. nt

[KS Toronado]

20. Feel real silly now, I should have known that.

Starred at Wednesday for 5 minutes this morning and drew blanks. Thanks for the help.

[Ilsa]

37. That was a fun, fun movie. I loved

Wednesday at camp, and that she made a nerdy boyfriend.

Morticia: "I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all — a loving husband, a family. It's just I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade."

Wednesday: "We're not shy. We're contagious."

Morticia telling Debbie: "You have enslaved him. You have placed Fester under some strange sexual spell. I respect that."

[randr]

8. The one thing they all have in common

Their victimhood

[Dukkha]

9. Kennedy went through the same thing

As he was the first catholic president. To the point where he had to give a speech during his 1960 campaign to assure the voters his catholic beliefs would not influence his policy. A very elegant speech.

"That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group."

[Lonestarblue]

12. Trump definitely allowed himself to be the instrument of white evangelicals.

Much to the detriment of the presidency—and the country. The white Christian Nationalists have gained power and they will not willingly give it up.

[SCantiGOP]

16. But the irony that historians will study

Is that the perfect exemplar of their religious views was actually the least religious and spiritual man to ever hold the office.
He happily violated all Ten Commandments, and was the poster child for the Seven Deadly Sins.

[RazBerryBeret]

13. Love this, reminds me of my Grandma

who lived in the hills of KY. in her front room she had 2 large photos in big gold frames, one on each side of her front door. One was my dad's official Army Portrait, the other side was a Portrait of JFK. I remember her talking about voting for JFK, and that she was concerned that he was Catholic. I was young, but I thought that was a ridiculous reason to not vote for a President, that the Constitution negates your Religious beliefs. But at 58 years young, I now believe that religion is more of a tool to control the small minded.

[SCantiGOP]

18. A friend I made late in life

Grew up in rural WV. He said there were two pictures on their wall: Jesus and FDR.
His Mother would complain that it was sacrilege to have them both at the same level, but his Dad said FDR should have been placed higher, because Jesus promises to save you, but FDR had directly and definitely saved their family’s life during the Great Depression.

[keithbvadu2]

17. Religious favoritism

Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. "Who does not see," he wrote, "that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/?no-ist=

[SCantiGOP]

19. This point is hard to explain to right wingers

The First Amendment was designed as much to protect religions from government interference as it was to protect citizens from having religious views forced on them.
With very few exceptions (R.I. was one) all of the 13 colonies had a legally state-mandated religion, or at least a favored sect that could receive public funding and have its principles enforced by the civilian government.

[keithbvadu2]

28. Separation of...

[SCantiGOP]

29. Philadelphia 1776 conversation:

“How do we really emphasize the separation of church and state?”

“How about saying directly that Congress cannot make ANY law concerning religion?”

In some colonies, Catholics weren’t allowed to vote; in Maryland at one time, only Catholics were allowed to vote.
When anyone claims there does not need to be a wall between church and state, they are saying that with the assumption that their religion will be the default position.

[wnylib]

43. The same people who promote

fear of Muslim Americans establishing Sharia law in the US see no irony in promoting their own religious rule.

[BobsYourUncle]

46. Important tenets of all religions

1. Ours is the only true religion, and therefore the BEST.
2. All other beliefs are false.
3. If their beliefs don’t match ours in every way it’s because they are a sect of crazies.
4. We MUST bring them to our beliefs and save them!
5. NO MATTER WHAT!