(December 23, 2020 at 4:27 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote:

Kristians just apparently have no earthly idea who or what Trump was before he took office (and still is today).

Oh yes, yes, yes!

Quote:Across Europe, hundreds of churches that were once filled with worship and song are now at the mercy of the elements

With religion's role declining sharply around the continent in recent decades, the most promising outcome for many of these centuries-old structures is being reincarnated as residential or commercial properties.

His stunning images show dilapidated pipe organs, overgrown cloisters, long-empty pews, and sunlight pouring into naves strewn with dust and rubble.

Many of the churches have, evidently, been neglected for years. But others look as if they have only recently been deserted, their painted walls still oddly vibrant, their seats arranged as if awaiting the next congregation. Nature can, however, be quick to act, Meslet said.

Only a handful of the churches he visited had been vandalized, he said. Some still housed undamaged statues, stained-glass windows and ornate altars. Nonetheless, in order to deter further damage, Meslet's book intentionally excludes details that might make the buildings easier to find.

Much less attention is paid to what he calls "those little churches which are slowly dying in the countryside." In France alone, the not-for-profit group Observatory of Religious Heritage lists hundreds of churches that it considers threatened or have closed in recent years.

These buildings' deterioration seems to reflect the decline of religion -- or churchgoing, specifically -- in Western Europe. While most people there still identify as Christian, only around one in five regularly attend church services, according to the Pew Research Center.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/abando...index.html

As a wood worker, my only interest in a defunct church here in the US would be access to some nice old growth wood to use in a project. I have no sympathy for the architecture of old churches. If one wants to take pictures or something to preserve the heritage, fine, but that's on them.

Always targeting women

Quote:Ohio gov. signs bill requiring women to cremate or bury aborted fetus

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill Wednesday requiring women to either cremate or bury fetal remains from surgical abortions.

The bill signed into law states the “pregnant woman is responsible for the costs related to the final disposition of the fetal remains at the chosen location.”

If cremation is chosen, the fetus must also be placed in a “grave, crypt, or niche,” the measure states.

Whoever fails to follow the bill’s requirements will face “a misdemeanor of the first degree.”

https://nypost.com/2021/01/01/ohio-gov-s...ted-fetus/

Quote:A Christian Insurrection

Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will

The Jericho March is evidence that Donald Trump has bent elements of American Christianity to his will, and that many Christians have obligingly remade their faith in his image.

Umm, remade from what exactly?

Quote:Defiant masses literally broke down the walls of government, some believing they were marching under Jesus’s banner to implement God’s will to keep Trump in the White House.

The group’s co-founders are essentially unknown in the organized Christian world. Robert Weaver, an evangelical Oklahoma insurance salesman, was nominated by Trump to lead the Indian Health Service but withdrew after The Wall Street Journal reported that he misrepresented his qualifications. Arina Grossu, who is Catholic, recently worked as a contract communications adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services. (Weaver and Grossu declined to comment. “Jericho March denounces any and all acts of violence and destruction, including any that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021,” a PR spokesperson for the March wrote to me in an email after the publication of this article.)

Still, they will have far more influence in shaping the reputation of Christianity for the outside world than many denominational giants: They helped stage a stunning effort to circumvent the 2020 election, all in the name of their faith. White evangelicals, in particular, overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016 and 2020. Some of these supporters participated in the attack on the Capitol on Wednesday. But many in the country hold all Trump voters responsible—especially those who lent him the moral authority of their faith.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...ol/617591/

Pastor carries a gun with him at all times and claims that the gun is as important as the Bible.

So he supposedly believes that God will protect him, he believes in life after death, lives in practically all-Christian-town, and yet he doesn't feel secure enough to walk down any hallway (even church's) without the gun at his fingertips.
And then they say how Christianity gives consolidation to people, as well as"peace of mind" - yeah, right.

And then every night that pastor takes a ride in a police car looking for "young people who are having fun" to threaten them, with a policeman who laments about the "good old times" when the policeman could smack a person in the face when they stop them.





Video is part of the new free 40 minutes documentary on evangelicals:

https://youtu.be/fom53HFip9I

It's a constant contradiction. There's just no explanation for it except the obvious, religion is nothing more than a useful tool for human to control others. People make religion from their own mind.

(January 14, 2021 at 8:26 pm)Spongebob Wrote: nothing more than a useful tool for human to control others.

This kind of hyperbole makes the conversation dumber.

Spongebob, you have just been schooled by the master arbiter of what is dumb and hyperbolic. 

(January 14, 2021 at 10:07 pm)Belacqua Wrote:

(January 14, 2021 at 8:26 pm)Spongebob Wrote: nothing more than a useful tool for human to control others.

This kind of hyperbole makes the conversation dumber.

Speak for yourself.  But in reality, it's not even close to hyperbole.  Don't get me started if you would like to hear hyperbole; I can practically go hyperbolic, I tell ya.