Dear Repugs: A certain Old Testament prophet would like to have a word with you:

[Brigid]

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

To deprive the poor of their rights
And withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

What will you do on the day of reckoning,
When disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?

Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.

Isaiah 10:1-4. (NIV)

[dipsydoodle]

1. Prophet

or profit.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. And as prophets go

Isaiah was practically Top Dog. It's one thing to blow off those minor prophets like Habakkuk or Nahum, but you don't diss Isaiah!

[Brigid]

3. You should try Amos.

I have always pictured Liam Neeson in the role.

[IrishAyes]

21. Liam Neeson would be great.

You might not be surprised to know, however, that my favorite role he played was 'Michael Collins'. Well, among the Free Irish, Collins WAS a secular prophet.

[NightWatcher]

4. Cafeteria Christians. They like to pick and choose what verses to follow

[enki23]

9. To be fair, the bible's numerous contradictions make "picking and choosing" completely unavoidable.

.

[IrishAyes]

22. That's why

.... we're well advised to take, shall we say, a well rounded approach and not fall into the trap of bibliolatry by declaring the Bible to be completely literal and inerrant in every respect. It is after all a record filtered through the hearts, minds, and hands of its intended recipients.

That said, I like to read the Psalms in KJV occasionally, but by and large prefer more modern (not to mention scholarly) editions. And don't let me get started on the Song of Solomon, or I won't be able to get Liam Neeson out of my mind at all!

[jwirr]

5. Unfortunately, the words "my people" will be interpreted by the right wing as "those like me" and

they will see no problem with the way they have been acting. They seem to have a very limited god.

[zeemike]

14. Or rather a very limited understanding of what the bible says.

Bible reading is a just a ritual with them...they have no idea what the story is about.
And it may well be willful ignorance, because what it is about contradicts what they want to believe.

[alfredo]

19. Religion is just accepting someone else's hallucination.

You are capable of inventing your own personal god, all it takes is the willingness to do the work ( or LSD). Or you could be a lazybones and follow someone else's invented god.


I make my biscuits from scratch.

[IrishAyes]

23. How do those biscuits taste? Are you a good cook?

I can be very creative myself, but we suffer want when we try to become a world unto ourselves.

[alfredo]

24. I make biscuits for those dear to me.

As far as a cook, I do alright.

[zeemike]

25. Well that is true of any belief or non belief.

But just because you can invent it in the mind don't mean it is not real or unreal.
And one could also say you could be lazy and chose not to believe in anything...that is the real lazy way out...makes things so simple...there is nothing but what we see with our eyes so no need to look any further.

I make my biscuits from scratch too....but the flower comes from somewhere else.

[alfredo]

31. I'm not saying one must reject a deity. IMO it is preferable to think for yourself.

Religion could be seen as fast food spirituality. It is imposed on, not created from within.


So when you make your biscuits, you use the ingredients at hand, mix and form them as you wish. Yes, you can make them from a mix or a can, but they are not of your own hand.

[zeemike]

34. Well I make a distinction between spiritual beliefs and religion.

Religion has always been perverted as soon as the master has gone.
In the case of Christianity it stayed true to the core beliefs longer than most of them do.
But it too had to be compromised in order to exist in the world it was founded in.
For instance after Jesus was killed the disciples adopted communism...all things held in common, and goods were distributed according to need...well that had to change in the Roman world, and it did...and when changed enough it became the official religion of Rome.

So I don't see religion as we know it today as having anything to do with spirituality...and in fact in many cases it flies in the face of spiritual beliefs.

But the one thing our biscuits have in common is flower....no flower no biscuits.

[alfredo]

35. But the flour doesn't become biscuits without using our mind and body to make it.

You might buy the ingredients ready mixed, but it lacks that personal engagement. Your end product is someone else's image of biscuits, not yours.

[zeemike]

36. And without the flower, you mind and body won't produce shit.

So in this metaphor I wold say that the flower is faith....the basis of it all.
But I still like your metaphor...and it works for me too.

[alfredo]

37. The wheat didn't become flour without human intervention. An act of faith didn't make it flour.

[zeemike]

38. True enough.

The wheat was ground into flower by the human grist mill...but it is nature that provided it for the mill to grind....ultimately we all depend on the natural world....or the creation, if you play out the metaphor.

Metaphors like this can be fun to think about.

[alfredo]

39. We came from nature and remain a part of nature.

[zeemike]

40. And nature sustains us all.

[alfredo]

43. And we need to give back. Even the lowly bean gives nitrogen to the soil that nourishes it.

[n2doc]

6. But...he was talking about the people back then!

Doesn't have anything to do with now! Now that Leviticus, that still applies!

[IrishAyes]

7. Thank you, Brigid

It's getting to where I don't want to miss any of your posts.

You'll always get nitpicked if not downright slammed by some people anytime you quote the Bible, but you are spot on.

[Brigid]

8. Why thank you, IrishAyes.

But actually, it's Isaiah who is spot on.

[IrishAyes]

18. True

But the more people are reminded of him, the better.

[hfojvt]

10. gotta love the NIV

so much clearer than the NKJV that I am using now.

But I think Mr. Isaiah might also like a word with Obama and Bernie Sanders too, among others.

At least, I am still raging about ATRA.

[Brigid]

13. Oh, Isaiah would leave no one unscathed.

You can be sure of that.

[hfojvt]

17. depends if you are talking about Isaiah

or deutero-Isaiah.

Although some people do not believe in deutero-Isaiah. http://www.dyeager.org/blog/2008/12/deutero-isaiah-hypothesis.html

I just doubt the idea that the elected scalawags of our party are doing all that much for the poor. I am not sure Obama even knows the word "poor" talking all the time, as he does, about the "middle class" and seemingly defining it as "people who make between $80,000 a year and $250,000 a year".

[QC]

11. Ezekiel 16:49 has always made me think of the Republicans.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

[Brigid]

12. That's a good one too.

The OT prophets make for some pretty vivid reading.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. There ya go!

Isaiah must have known this would come

[IrishAyes]

20. Yeah... go figure!

[hrmjustin]

16. Very meaningful and true!

[defacto7]

26. Then there's King Solomon...

"Better to live in a corner of an attic than with a contentious woman in a wide house."
Proverbs 27: 15-16
and
Proverbs 21: 9


.. I didn't say it

[ReasonableToo]

27. Ummm...religion is not for the ruling class/oppressors

Religion is for the oppressed. While there are many people who gather in fellowship and do good as a group for others, religion is also used to oppress the masses. Followers are told to endure the hardships of this life to earn a better afterlife.

For example, slave owners brought slaves to church to hear this message and even worse. Many slaves stayed put because they were afraid of what would happen to any family left behind and they were brainwashed into thinking their place in this world was to serve their master.

in economically desperate times, we see the poor turning to the church for some shred of hope and assistance. Don't look at the men and women behind the curtain siphening money out of the economy and selling your children and men off to the prison industry.

Even the imagined "war on Christmas" rallies the followers to feel like victims and cling even more strongly to their church - defending it against not just atheist but "them". Slap that "keep Christ in christmas" sticker on the car and show the world your solidarity with your fellow victims!

Meanwhile the owner class doesn't give religion a second thought apart from tax deduction.

[YeahSureRight]

28. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich - Napoleon Bonaparte

[datasuspect]

33. religion is the best weapon the oppressor has

that's why the religious narrative shadows the slave narrative.

[WinkyDink]

29. I'm pretty sure a New Testament personage had a few words that might fit.

[Brigid]

30. Oh, yes.

And Isaiah was one of his favorites too.

[datasuspect]

32. There is only one God and His name is Allah

Allah has 99 beautiful names and Mohammed is his prophet.

[NaturalHigh]

41. "Rob not the poor, because they are poor."

Proverbs 22:22

This verse is always my first argument against the payday loan racket that charges usurious interest rates to people desperate enough to take out one of their loans.

[arely staircase]

42. james 5

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.[a] 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.