Author Topic: Prayer and Religion in Public Life  (Read 632923 times)

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #800 on: June 10, 2021, 12:08:38 PM »
You really don't see the issue? I mean ... really? You seem to be saying that because there are a variety of religious services on bases, to include those that aren't Christian based, that it's perfectly fine to put up any religious signs at the entrance to a military installation. Is that your position?

The issue is paranoid anti-religious extremists who have the mistaken belief that the Constitution prohibits all expressions of God or religion on public property.  It doesn't. 

The other issue is those same folks who mistakenly believe the Constitution protects them from being offended by something they don't believe exists.  It doesn't. 

Anyone who believes they need to be protected from seeing a sign advertising Vacation Bible School needs to man up, put on their big boy pants, and get over it already.  This isn't establishing a church.  It's not forcing anyone to attend church.  It's not forcing anyone to become a Christian.  It's just plain silly. 

Agnostic007

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 14883
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #801 on: June 10, 2021, 08:33:46 PM »
The issue is paranoid anti-religious extremists who have the mistaken belief that the Constitution prohibits all expressions of God or religion on public property.  It doesn't. 

The other issue is those same folks who mistakenly believe the Constitution protects them from being offended by something they don't believe exists.  It doesn't. 

Anyone who believes they need to be protected from seeing a sign advertising Vacation Bible School needs to man up, put on their big boy pants, and get over it already.  This isn't establishing a church.  It's not forcing anyone to attend church.  It's not forcing anyone to become a Christian.  It's just plain silly.

So you don't see it.. cool

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #802 on: June 25, 2021, 08:20:48 PM »
It especially will not happen when a member of Congress threatens their tax exempt status in retaliation. 

Joe Biden on Potentially Being Denied Communion: ‘A Private Matter, Don’t Think That’s Going to Happen’
by WENDELL HUSEBØ
18 Jun 2021

President Joe Biden commented on potentially being denied Communion at the Catholic Church on Friday, saying it was a private matter and that it was not going to happen.

“How do you feel personally about that?” the reporter asked Biden after he had finished speaking about Chinese coronavirus vaccine numbers.

“That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Biden responded before scurrying off the stage.

The question comes as the Wall Street Journal reported Friday there is a movement afoot to disallow Biden to receive Communion from the Catholic Church due to his favorable position on murdering babies before they are born.

The Journal explained:

U.S. Catholic bishops on Friday agreed to prepare a document that would lay out the conditions under which Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, including President Biden, may be denied Communion.

The controversial measure, which had drawn objections from the Vatican and from Pope Francis’s strongest allies among the U.S. bishops, required only a simple majority but passed with 73%, or 168, of the 229 votes cast on Thursday. More than 270 U.S. bishops were eligible to vote.

The bishops’ doctrinal committee will now proceed to draft a document on the Eucharist that will include a section on the conditions under which politicians may receive Communion. Some bishops want that section to state that politicians who support abortion rights must be denied the sacrament.

The report comes as the editors of the influential National Catholic Register issued an op-ed June 14 noting Biden’s slip into his current radical position in favor of unrestricted abortion-on-demand.

In February, Father Jerry Pokorsky, a Virginia priest and Director of Human Life International, said Biden was the “most aggressively anti-Catholic President in history.”

Also in February, the head of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann, stated Biden should stop labeling “himself a devout Catholic since his actions contradict this claim.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/18/joe-biden-on-potentially-being-denied-communion-a-private-matter-dont-think-thats-going-to-happen/

Humble Narcissist

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 27377
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #803 on: June 26, 2021, 02:39:03 PM »
Liberalism is Biden's religion.  I doubt he cares about being denied communion.

The Scott

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21263
  • I'm a victim of soicumcision!!
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #804 on: June 26, 2021, 03:28:26 PM »
Liberalism is Biden's religion.  I doubt he cares about being denied communion.

Biden's counting on "indulgences"...FTN.   ;D

bhank

  • Competitors
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 22705
  • Trainer of Champions
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #805 on: September 27, 2021, 08:34:45 AM »
I pray for GAINS

Humble Narcissist

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 27377
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #806 on: September 27, 2021, 09:05:34 AM »
I pray for GAINS
Maybe you'll be jacked in the afterlife with striated wings.

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #807 on: September 27, 2021, 08:17:39 PM »
I pray for GAINS

Prayer is useless without maximum effort.  Gotta eat right, train hard, rest, supplement . . . and then pray.   :)

The Scott

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21263
  • I'm a victim of soicumcision!!
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #808 on: September 27, 2021, 08:20:24 PM »
I pray for GAINS

STFU you depleted bag of banged up buttholes.  FOAD you mental maggot.

Humble Narcissist

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 27377
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #809 on: September 28, 2021, 10:49:34 AM »
Prayer is useless without maximum effort.  Gotta eat right, train hard, rest, supplement . . . and then pray.   :)
Are you Hulk Hogan?

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #810 on: September 28, 2021, 11:25:38 PM »
Are you Hulk Hogan?

Nah.  He's taller than me.  But I'm in a lot better shape than him.  I'm a gym rat.   :)

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #811 on: November 09, 2021, 11:29:17 AM »
Catholic Senator Dick Durbin Denied Communion Because He Supports Killing Babies in Abortions
Micaiah Bilger
Nov 9, 2021 
https://www.lifenews.com/2021/11/09/catholic-senator-dick-durbin-denied-communion-because-he-supports-killing-babies-in-abortions/

AbrahamG

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 18071
  • Team Pfizer
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #812 on: November 09, 2021, 04:47:56 PM »
Catholic Senator Dick Durbin Denied Communion Because He Supports Killing Babies in Abortions
Micaiah Bilger
Nov 9, 2021 
https://www.lifenews.com/2021/11/09/catholic-senator-dick-durbin-denied-communion-because-he-supports-killing-babies-in-abortions/

Why don't they deny communion to pro death penalty Catholics as well?  Would at least be consistent. 

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #813 on: November 09, 2021, 06:09:54 PM »
Why don't they deny communion to pro death penalty Catholics as well?  Would at least be consistent.

Good point.

The Scott

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21263
  • I'm a victim of soicumcision!!
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #814 on: November 09, 2021, 06:39:09 PM »
Why don't they deny communion to pro death penalty Catholics as well?  Would at least be consistent.

Primarily due to the simple fact that the unborn are held innocent and murderers are deserving of death.    Take it from a Cashew, my friend.

AbrahamG

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 18071
  • Team Pfizer
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #815 on: November 09, 2021, 06:43:38 PM »
Primarily due to the simple fact that the unborn are held innocent and murderers are deserving of death.    Take it from a Cashew, my friend.

My point is that they are politically choosing which rules to follow and who to apply them to.

The Scott

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21263
  • I'm a victim of soicumcision!!
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #816 on: November 09, 2021, 06:46:49 PM »
My point is that they are politically choosing which rules to follow and who to apply them to.

Men are only men, especially when they choose to behave as such.

And my point is the truth and not because I say it is. 

Skeletor

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 15497
  • Silence you furry fool!
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #817 on: December 16, 2021, 08:43:28 AM »
Kenneth Copeland is the wealthiest pastor in America. So why does he live in a tax-free Texas mansion?

At his 2015 Southwest Believers’ Convention in Fort Worth, wealthy Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland explained how he wound up living in a mansion. It all started when God told him years earlier to build that dream home his wife Gloria had described to him.

“Minister this house to her,” he recalled the almighty saying. “It is part of your prosperity.”

Her vision was vast: Rising up three stories and sporting white columns in front, the six-bedroom, six-bath estate on the shores of an exclusive lake community outside of Fort Worth has enough room to fit nearly four basketball courts — more than 18,000 square feet of living space in all.

“You may think that house is too big,” Copeland told the believers’ convention. “You may think it's too grand. I don't care what you think. I heard from heaven. Glory to God, hallelujah!”

What he didn’t mention is that his heavenly plans are being underwritten by Texas taxpayers. Under a little-known statute that county appraisers say is too vague and permissive, the $7 million mansion owned by Copeland’s Eagle Mountain International Church is considered a parsonage — a clergy residence — qualifying for a 100 percent tax break.

That means Copeland’s church gets a pass on what would otherwise be an annual property tax bill exceeding $150,000
— money that other local taxpayers must backfill to cover the cost of schools, police and firefighters.

A months-long Houston Chronicle investigation of ministers’ tax-free residences found no shortage of extravagant homes in high-dollar locales. At least two dozen were worth over $1 million even using the artificially low values that exempt properties typically carry.

Yet even in that elite company, Copeland’s tax-free clergy residence stands out as an opulent illustration of the lengths the law allows religious organizations to go in claiming the tax break. The only limit on the dollar value churches can exempt resides in the imagination of pastors like Copeland.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/unfair-burden/article/kenneth-copeland-wealth-pastor-tax-free-mansion-16662283.php

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63520
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #818 on: January 20, 2022, 02:13:12 PM »
Actor — a former atheist — details moment he fell in love with Jesus, shares his journey to faith while working in Hollywood: 'I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldn't be going there'
SARAH TAYLOR
January 12, 2022   

Former "Growing Pains" actor Kirk Cameron says that he was moved to ask Jesus into his life at the tender young age of 17 — when his child acting career was at its pinnacle.

What are the details?
Cameron, who starred on the hit 1980s sitcom, said that he began acting at 14 years old — and it didn't take long for Hollywood to get its narcissistic hooks into him.

Luckily for the longtime entertainer, he was moved to ask Jesus Christ into his life and lived the rest of his life thereafter as a changed man.

During a recent appearance on the PragerU "Stories of Us" series, the actor said that a note written by his daughter prompted him to consider his former Hollywood superstardom.

The note said, "It's the same boiling water that softens potatoes that hardens eggs. It just depends on what you're made of."

“So the same difficult challenges and influences of Hollywood that turn some people sour and make them narcissistic and bitter and joyless and afraid to not fit in is the same pressure that actually softened my heart and caused me to embrace gratitude and be thankful for the life that I have and want to use a platform and this Hollywood industry to advance the good,” he explained. “I really think it’s what you’re made of. And if you don’t know what you’re made of, don’t look to your environment or your industry or other people to give you an identity. There was somebody who made you — ask Him. And you can be sure that the ending of the story is gonna be fantastic.”

Don't miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.
Cameron said that by just 17 years old, he was living the life that most child actors dream of: riding around in high-priced sports cars with fellow '80s staples like Michael J. Fox and receiving more attention than any young, impressionable teen could ever want — but he was worried that it wasn't enough to sustain him for all eternity.

Cameron said that the moment shines clearly in his mind's eye.

After dropping off a female thespian at her acting class, Cameron said that he began to wonder if there was more to life than simply living most every teenager's dream.

“I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldn’t be going there,” he admitted, adding that he was convicted of living his life with an attitude of arrogance rather than the heart of a servant and a spirit of faithfulness.

He said that he realized right then and there that he would need to ask Jesus into his heart for forgiveness and to turn over a new leaf.

“God, if you’re there, would you please show me?" he recalled praying.

"Would you forgive me for the wrong things I’ve done and make me the person that You want me to be?”

Cameron, now 51 years old, is living life with faith at the forefront — with his wife, a fellow Christian, a woman he met on the set of his beloved '80s show.

While certainly the most important, coming to Christ wasn’t the only way Cameron changed, thanks at least in part to Hollywood. He was also introduced to his wife on the set of “Growing Pains.”

“I found a girl,” Cameron said. “She’s beautiful on the inside; she’s beautiful on the outside. I married her and we’ve been married for 30 years. You have no idea how much more valuable that is. I’ve got six grown children who love God and still ask me my opinions about things, who still love to come home and be with me and my wife, and I’m on PragerU’s ‘Stories of Us.’ I mean, the story doesn’t really end much better than this.”

https://www.theblaze.com/news/kirk-cameron-faith-journey-hollywood

ThisisOverload

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 7456
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #819 on: March 03, 2022, 01:16:53 PM »
Kenneth Copeland is the wealthiest pastor in America. So why does he live in a tax-free Texas mansion?

At his 2015 Southwest Believers’ Convention in Fort Worth, wealthy Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland explained how he wound up living in a mansion. It all started when God told him years earlier to build that dream home his wife Gloria had described to him.

“Minister this house to her,” he recalled the almighty saying. “It is part of your prosperity.”

Her vision was vast: Rising up three stories and sporting white columns in front, the six-bedroom, six-bath estate on the shores of an exclusive lake community outside of Fort Worth has enough room to fit nearly four basketball courts — more than 18,000 square feet of living space in all.

“You may think that house is too big,” Copeland told the believers’ convention. “You may think it's too grand. I don't care what you think. I heard from heaven. Glory to God, hallelujah!”

What he didn’t mention is that his heavenly plans are being underwritten by Texas taxpayers. Under a little-known statute that county appraisers say is too vague and permissive, the $7 million mansion owned by Copeland’s Eagle Mountain International Church is considered a parsonage — a clergy residence — qualifying for a 100 percent tax break.

That means Copeland’s church gets a pass on what would otherwise be an annual property tax bill exceeding $150,000
— money that other local taxpayers must backfill to cover the cost of schools, police and firefighters.

A months-long Houston Chronicle investigation of ministers’ tax-free residences found no shortage of extravagant homes in high-dollar locales. At least two dozen were worth over $1 million even using the artificially low values that exempt properties typically carry.

Yet even in that elite company, Copeland’s tax-free clergy residence stands out as an opulent illustration of the lengths the law allows religious organizations to go in claiming the tax break. The only limit on the dollar value churches can exempt resides in the imagination of pastors like Copeland.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/unfair-burden/article/kenneth-copeland-wealth-pastor-tax-free-mansion-16662283.php

He is the Devil himself.

All religious institutions should pay taxes.

There is a big church in Houston, Second Baptist i believe. One of the Pastors lived in a $400k house inside a gated community. All paid for by church offerings and tax free. He drove a new BMW 5 series and wore $3k dollar suits. Used to preach that it's ok to be rich, as long as you pay it back to God.

Unreal.

AbrahamG

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 18071
  • Team Pfizer
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #820 on: March 03, 2022, 09:24:37 PM »
He is the Devil himself.

All religious institutions should pay taxes.

There is a big church in Houston, Second Baptist i believe. One of the Pastors lived in a $400k house inside a gated community. All paid for by church offerings and tax free. He drove a new BMW 5 series and wore $3k dollar suits. Used to preach that it's ok to be rich, as long as you pay it back to God.

Unreal.

Bingo!

The Scott

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21263
  • I'm a victim of soicumcision!!
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #821 on: March 04, 2022, 02:15:21 PM »

God, if He exists, does NOT need your money and while not in the same way, these men and women do NOT need your money. But being men and women, being of the flesh and nothing more, they WANT your money and all that it allows them to do.

Not in the name of God but in the desires of their flesh.  The needs of their ego.

If I, an Atheist with an IQ of approximately 80 can see and understand this and many other truths about people, why is it so many of you who are far above me cannot understand?  You have eyes yet your refuse to open them.  You have ears and still you cover them.  I am not picking on anyone here, but...

...We had best pray there is no God.   Ahhhh...But to whom does such as we, pray?

If I were an "atheist" instead of an Atheist, I would begin by looking in the mirror.

Agnostic007

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 14883
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #822 on: March 04, 2022, 08:47:59 PM »
God, if He exists, does NOT need your money and while not in the same way, these men and women do NOT need your money. But being men and women, being of the flesh and nothing more, they WANT your money and all that it allows them to do.

Not in the name of God but in the desires of their flesh.  The needs of their ego.

If I, an Atheist with an IQ of approximately 80 can see and understand this and many other truths about people, why is it so many of you who are far above me cannot understand?  You have eyes yet your refuse to open them.  You have ears and still you cover them.  I am not picking on anyone here, but...

...We had best pray there is no God.   Ahhhh...But to whom does such as we, pray?

If I were an "atheist" instead of an Atheist, I would begin by looking in the mirror.

cool

But lets delve deeper. God... if he or she exists.. will not be like the god of the bible.. that God is obviously the work of those men of that time. So IF a god exists. all bets are on as to what the god likes or dislikes. My assumption based on my moral compass is he or she doesn't give a crap about if skin is exposed, or celebrating birthdays, or kneeling x times a day, or if you abstain from eating during certain periods. It will likely surprise 90% of the religious world what this "God" likes 

AbrahamG

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 18071
  • Team Pfizer
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #823 on: March 04, 2022, 09:03:29 PM »
cool

But lets delve deeper. God... if he or she exists.. will not be like the god of the bible.. that God is obviously the work of those men of that time. So IF a god exists. all bets are on as to what the god likes or dislikes. My assumption based on my moral compass is he or she doesn't give a crap about if skin is exposed, or celebrating birthdays, or kneeling x times a day, or if you abstain from eating during certain periods. It will likely surprise 90% of the religious world what this "God" likes

Good, realistic take on a far fetched idea.   ;D

Agnostic007

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 14883
Re: Prayer and Religion in Public Life
« Reply #824 on: March 04, 2022, 09:12:32 PM »
Good, realistic take on a far fetched idea.   ;D

I'm agonistic.. SURPRISE

But I Come from a back ground of Christianity. Was preaching in a 1ST Baptist church as a guest speaker at 16-17 years of age. but in my 30's I began to have some doubts and started to do some research outside of the Christian community. Long story short I left Christianity. I don't have a problem with Jesus' teachings.. but the Old Testament is screwed up in my opinion, Sadly the majority of people who question my stance, never actually read the bible.