Trump Jr. wanted to impregnate his mistress Aubrey O'Day

[vorlon13]

I'd assert extramarital affairs are a big driver in the demand for abortions. Yet our current US evangelicals and fundamentalists love our adulterous first family.

It don't add up.

Why don't believers believe ??

[John V]

Why don't believers believe ??

If you actually read the Bible rather than cherry picking verses, you'd see that the pattern within the Bible itself is long periods of apathy and corruption with occasional brief revivals. Jesus rhetorically asked if he'd find faith on the earth when he returned, and spoke of the wide path and narrow gate, and the sower. Lack of faith, even among those who profess it, isn't exactly surprising.

[vorlon13]

I was imagining crowds of folks flooding podiums where Trump is speaking with Chick tracts on adultery.

Yet, nothing like that ever seems to happen. Faith leaders of all stripes get audiences with Trump and they don't witness the Word to Trump, instead they seem to absorb his outlook on things. And then proceed to serve 2 masters, and it's hard to say they even acknowledge God as Master #1.

I'm finding these intermittent and so selective demonstrations of faith as to be nonexistent to be far more corrosive to the body of Christ than anything going on at Atheist Forums.

[John V]

I was imagining crowds of folks flooding podiums where Trump is speaking with Chick tracts on adultery.

Yet, nothing like that ever seems to happen.  Faith leaders of all stripes get audiences with Trump and they don't witness the Word to Trump, instead they seem to absorb his outlook on things. And then proceed to serve 2 masters, and it's hard to say they even acknowledge God as Master #1.

I'm finding these intermittent and so selective demonstrations of faith as to be nonexistent to be far more corrosive to the body of Christ than anything going on at Atheist Forums.

Yep. I've said before that you guys would be better off fighting religion by joining it and watering it down.

[vorlon13]

It's pretty dilute already from the slacker type believers already attached to the movement.

Just in my lifetime the watering down of dogma, rules, edicts, commandments and strictures is amazing, and virtually entirely self inflicted. And clearly the changes (liberalizations) are meant to keep warm bodies in the pews and crispy bills in the collection plates.

One might think a dedicated, pious minister or pastor might choose to honor an eternal and unchanging God with a career of sermons that reflect that and trust in the Lord to grow his congregation instead of taking the easy way out and just spewing out to the masses what they want to hear, lest they not show up next Sunday.

It would be redundant for atheists to try and hasten things along from inside . . . . .

[John V]

It's pretty dilute already from the slacker type believers already attached to the movement.

Here that's true. In some other parts of the world it's better. But, per Jesus' question, it seems to me that real faith is going to mostly fade away in the end. I agree with the rapture doctrine, but I think it's going to be much smaller scale than it's portrayed to be in books and movies.

Just in my lifetime the watering down of dogma, rules, edicts, commandments and strictures is amazing, and virtually entirely self inflicted.

Yep.

And clearly the changes (liberalizations) are meant to keep warm bodies in the pews and crispy bills in the collection plates.

Sometimes. There are other causes too. And as far as butts in seats, some of the more conservative churches maintain and even grow. The independent watered-down churches frequently do well. It's the older denominations that water things down to some extent without going full modern that seem to suffer the most, at least in my area.

One might think a dedicated, pious minister or pastor might choose to honor an eternal and unchanging God with a career of sermons that reflect that and trust in the Lord to grow his congregation instead of taking the easy way out and just spewing out to the masses what they want to hear, lest they not show up next Sunday.

Some do. My church will probably fold when the current pastors die, but they're willing to accept that. Again, Biblically, it's the way things tend to go. Preaching the truth is no guarantee that the congregation will grow.

[Shell B]

Money makes people have sex with some weasel-looking motherfuckers. I couldn't. It's not because I'm a better person but because I don't have the stomach for it.