One of the things that keeps churches in business are people who are too stupid to grasp the fact it is never the job of our secular government to backstop their religion. If this pastor is upset, then have them move the nativity to the front lawn of his church. No one is going to complain, and it won't be illegal. Conservative Christians are never happy unless they're being allowed to mark their territory in the public square, owned by everyone.
In the 1950's nuns told us it was evil commies that were coming for our freedoms. Now it is the same kkkristers coming for our freedoms. What good is a god if you cannot control others with it?
My grammar school and h.s. were both taught by the same order of nuns. Never was there any . mention of commies. But in h.s., when I met girls from other grammar schools, taught by other orders of nuns, they were amazed at how tolerant and open-minded (though still VERY religious), the nuns at my h.s. were, so I can easily believe they were indoctrinated as you say.
What does the nativity display on the church lawn look like?
Y’all are the ones who celebrate Jesus’ demise, hell, there’s already Easter crap up in some stores. And there’s usually some cross somewhere around the nativity. Don’t be claiming atheists and Satanists want to kill Jesus, your whole religion depends on him being murdered. We just don’t think he is real, or god or whatever.
If you don’t want Santa next to baby Jesus, then don’t put a Santa display up next to your crèche on your property. If you’re gonna demand the government put up a religious display, then expect other religions and interested parties to do the same. The government doesn’t belong to you, or your religion, it belongs to all citizens. And your religion should have even less say in this crap since it doesn’t pay into the coffers of the government, but sure takes plenty out of them. Die mad about it.
Iowa town does the absolute bare minimum to 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 to comply with the first amendment. Christian Nationalist pastor gets butthurt that the 55 gallon drum of territorial pissing is down by a pint. Claims persecution. Yeah, that tracks.
Pastor Adam Todd is himself trying to murder baby Jesus and the religion that believes in this particular fairy tale, though he doesn't know it. By promoting their Christian privilege, people like Todd are turning off millennials to this overbearing religion of hatred and inequality and causing them to walk away from religion altogether.
Our nation is a nation of many religions, not just Christians. To preserve everyone's right to freedom of religion the Government, whether local, state or federal, must maintain the appearance of religious neutrality in order to comply with the Establishment clause of the First Amendment...
"Congress (the government) shall make no laws favoring an establishment of religion..."
Rather than take down the display, they chose to put up a Santa -- But that is actually a pagan symbol of Yule, as the "English" Santa Claus is a representation of Woden (Odin) of the pagan Germanic religions in their Yule celebration. I would suggest they add a Menorah as well honoring the Jewish holiday of Chanukah.
I am sick of Christians pushing their privilege into the public square. As an Iowan, I think I'll go visit this pastor and have a long talk with him about the US and its quest for equality for all. No one is trying to kill their fake Baby Jesus religion. Except maybe themselves.
Good grief, Agnes! Someone added a Santa to a Christmas display and all of a sudden, poor ol' Todd has to have a hissy-fit and wants to claim that they're trying to murder Jesus! [Come to think of it, isn't what they claim happened in the first place, except that it didn't take?!?]. I wonder if Todd realizes that this brand of melodrama is NOT a good look, for him or anyone else. Yeah, yeah, I know, he's playing to the choir, but they're clearly not the only audience out there.
It'd be nice if Todd could be bothered to grow up and deal with this as an adult, but it's pretty obvious that he hasn't got that in him.
The good pastor need lessons in civics. His church is not government property and he can put as many displays, offensive or not, as he wants. By the way, Herod was neither a satanist or an atheist, he needs history lessons as well.
He might need theology lessons, too. I doubt his qualifications to lead a Christian church if he doesn't understand that killing Jesus is kind of foundational to his belief system.
Most of these nut bags have no formal religious training. In my more than 50 years attending non-denominational churches, I found that most of them are recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, or have some other kind of mental defect. They just thrive off the attention that they never got as a child.
Actually, "we have met the enemy and he is us". That is, our sins were responsible for Christ having to die as mentioned in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. The Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers all played their role but we were the root cause.
I bet he's the sort of guy who pitches a shitfit every time someone says "happy holidays!" to him. Or to someone else within earshot in a conversation he wasn't even part of.
I checked, Solid Rock Bible Church is not in a stripmall. They have a stand alone building with room for several nativity displays. There is even room for Herod.
They even have a big rock in front. I went to high school less than 50 miles from Toledo, Iowa. Big rocks were not common there. Which means they spent good money to have it shipped in from somewhere.
I'm 50 miles north. There are plenty of big rocks around. A former boss had a rock sticking up in the middle of the yard that he wanted to get rid of. Started digging and digging. By the time we got done with the backhoe, the rock was as large as a big SUV and we hadn't gotten to the bottom yet. The rock is still there.
This reminds me of a scene in "Shawshank Redemption" where Red is guided by Andy Dufresne to a marker by a wall: a big rock made of black, volcanic glass that has no business being in a Maine hayfeld.
Andy gave red a vivid enough description of that rock and its location that would make it pretty hard for Red to miss.
I think he and Red talked about that very hayfield in Buxton when the two were still locked up. Pretty sure he gave Red precise directions before escaping, knowing that Red would soon be out on parole, Once free and safely out of the country, he simply waited for Red to show up, using the money/directions Andy left him.
From a logical standpoint (and I understand using logic with this minister is ironic), why would atheists want to kill Jesus? To me, he’s just another baby conceived out of wedlock. Would it be to prevent Christianity? If not that cult, some other would have formed. Too many people need something to worship the way Linus needs his blanket.
It wasn’t atheists that betrayed him and put him on that cross.
In normal circumstances, I'd expect that a slathering 'kill Jesus' accusation would be metaphor for 'they want to deconvert Christians.' Which may in fact be true for some atheists, though certainly not all. But THIS guy...the imagery with the knife...he seems to be on the wacko side, sincerely thinking that nonbelievers in 2023-24 want to stab a baby who was born 2000+ years ago (if at all).
All jesus has to do is come here and tell everyone what it demands. SO simple even a caveman could do it. Yet it is beyond an omnieverythinggod? How is that?
KKKristerism took centuries, and was cobbled together from the dozens of religions running rampant in Rome at the time. And this only took Constantine 375 years.
The Romans were nothing if not thorough in their bookkeeping. They didn't only 𝘯𝘰𝘵 mention anything about Jesus- the Roman records we have don't support 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 that happens in the Gospels, either. Those stories weren't just made up, they were made up by writers who hadn't even done their homework.
Let's not forget, though, that the same was said for a long, long, long time about Pilate who was only known through the gospels and the writings of Jews and Romans which were done decades after the man lived. In terms of physical evidence, we have some coins and the "Pilate Stone" but that's about it. Plus, consider how almost next to nothing has survived the years regarding any other records of Pilate's time as governor.
We'd have a lot more written by the contemporary Romans, except that when they did bother to write about it they tore it apart so thoroughly that the christains spent the next 2000 years destroying all written records that called out their death cult for what it is.
As an aside, JCS may have been the first thing that started me on the road to atheism. I was young. The soundtrack was such a (rational) departure from my Lutheran indoctrination. JCS made…..sense.
Christian hypocrisy is so funny to me. Just like capitalism, Christianity proves it’s inherently unstable. It’s like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. I was a member of a very conservative church for ten years and always struggled with key issues. This pastor doesn’t want an evil out-of -town man poking his nose in Where it doesn’t belong but these same “Christians” want to tell us who we can marry or what a woman can do with her body or Christian nationalism should infiltrate our government. I could give two fucks about his beliefs but please check your hypocrisy at the door asshole.
One of the things that keeps churches in business are people who are too stupid to grasp the fact it is never the job of our secular government to backstop their religion. If this pastor is upset, then have them move the nativity to the front lawn of his church. No one is going to complain, and it won't be illegal. Conservative Christians are never happy unless they're being allowed to mark their territory in the public square, owned by everyone.
They won't be happy until the public square is owned by only them and not everyone.
Indeed. They evidently dream of a world where everyone needs their permission for pretty much everything. That would my idea of hell on earth.
In the 1950's nuns told us it was evil commies that were coming for our freedoms. Now it is the same kkkristers coming for our freedoms. What good is a god if you cannot control others with it?
My grammar school and h.s. were both taught by the same order of nuns. Never was there any . mention of commies. But in h.s., when I met girls from other grammar schools, taught by other orders of nuns, they were amazed at how tolerant and open-minded (though still VERY religious), the nuns at my h.s. were, so I can easily believe they were indoctrinated as you say.
What does the nativity display on the church lawn look like?
Y’all are the ones who celebrate Jesus’ demise, hell, there’s already Easter crap up in some stores. And there’s usually some cross somewhere around the nativity. Don’t be claiming atheists and Satanists want to kill Jesus, your whole religion depends on him being murdered. We just don’t think he is real, or god or whatever.
If you don’t want Santa next to baby Jesus, then don’t put a Santa display up next to your crèche on your property. If you’re gonna demand the government put up a religious display, then expect other religions and interested parties to do the same. The government doesn’t belong to you, or your religion, it belongs to all citizens. And your religion should have even less say in this crap since it doesn’t pay into the coffers of the government, but sure takes plenty out of them. Die mad about it.
I want someone trolling christians with a display of Shiva or Kali 😁
Iowa town does the absolute bare minimum to 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 to comply with the first amendment. Christian Nationalist pastor gets butthurt that the 55 gallon drum of territorial pissing is down by a pint. Claims persecution. Yeah, that tracks.
'Murka's most persecuted super majority. No wonder people are walking away. It is no longer a religion. It is a bitch&moan convention.
Pastor Adam Todd is himself trying to murder baby Jesus and the religion that believes in this particular fairy tale, though he doesn't know it. By promoting their Christian privilege, people like Todd are turning off millennials to this overbearing religion of hatred and inequality and causing them to walk away from religion altogether.
Our nation is a nation of many religions, not just Christians. To preserve everyone's right to freedom of religion the Government, whether local, state or federal, must maintain the appearance of religious neutrality in order to comply with the Establishment clause of the First Amendment...
"Congress (the government) shall make no laws favoring an establishment of religion..."
Rather than take down the display, they chose to put up a Santa -- But that is actually a pagan symbol of Yule, as the "English" Santa Claus is a representation of Woden (Odin) of the pagan Germanic religions in their Yule celebration. I would suggest they add a Menorah as well honoring the Jewish holiday of Chanukah.
I am sick of Christians pushing their privilege into the public square. As an Iowan, I think I'll go visit this pastor and have a long talk with him about the US and its quest for equality for all. No one is trying to kill their fake Baby Jesus religion. Except maybe themselves.
Of course. This allows them to claim they are persecuted.
Good grief, Agnes! Someone added a Santa to a Christmas display and all of a sudden, poor ol' Todd has to have a hissy-fit and wants to claim that they're trying to murder Jesus! [Come to think of it, isn't what they claim happened in the first place, except that it didn't take?!?]. I wonder if Todd realizes that this brand of melodrama is NOT a good look, for him or anyone else. Yeah, yeah, I know, he's playing to the choir, but they're clearly not the only audience out there.
It'd be nice if Todd could be bothered to grow up and deal with this as an adult, but it's pretty obvious that he hasn't got that in him.
No murder, just a sleeper hold like in "pro" wrestling.
The good pastor need lessons in civics. His church is not government property and he can put as many displays, offensive or not, as he wants. By the way, Herod was neither a satanist or an atheist, he needs history lessons as well.
He might need theology lessons, too. I doubt his qualifications to lead a Christian church if he doesn't understand that killing Jesus is kind of foundational to his belief system.
Most of these nut bags have no formal religious training. In my more than 50 years attending non-denominational churches, I found that most of them are recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, or have some other kind of mental defect. They just thrive off the attention that they never got as a child.
And the rent and drug money in the collection plate. Jim and Tammy Faye were the masters.
The money's pretty easy too. It's the grift that keeps on giving.
But he needed to be killed by the Romans so that the Jews could serve as scapegoats. Not the reverse 😁
Actually, "we have met the enemy and he is us". That is, our sins were responsible for Christ having to die as mentioned in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. The Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers all played their role but we were the root cause.
Whose sins?
Our sins.
To the best of my knowledge, I am sinless.
Are you aware that quote is from a Floriduh based comic strip?
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/39/25/b0/3925b0c76609fc171b7bc11d1123cb8a--political-cartoons-comic-strips.jpg
So , an atheist 'forcing' a city to add santa to a display is enough murder jesus, then I must use words of a certain green dude... "Puny God".
To be fair, baby Jesus would be easier to kill than adult Jesus. Although, thinking about it, adult Jesus didn't put up much of a fight.
why fight when you can just come back to life.
He did cry out for Daddy.
Himself?
"Why hast thou forsaken me" is more a cry of despair than asking for help.
Notice how daddy went dead silent?
Jesus got a little taste of what pops does to humans when they cry out to him.
Since you insist:
https://www.zentaur.org/memes/puny_god.gif
*Turns on her laptop and launch Disney+*
I bet he's the sort of guy who pitches a shitfit every time someone says "happy holidays!" to him. Or to someone else within earshot in a conversation he wasn't even part of.
Major League Baseball outlawed the shitfit pitch in 1920.
"You put snot on the ball?"
https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=ms-android-bouygues-fr-rvc3&source=android-browser&q=pitch+gatesux#vhid=K1jpK410jYTDgM&vssid=l
Was that the one they called the "brown slider"?
Backdoor slider.
Then you wish them crappy holidays just to drive it home.
I checked, Solid Rock Bible Church is not in a stripmall. They have a stand alone building with room for several nativity displays. There is even room for Herod.
Just no room at the inn.
Toledo has a Super 8. Plus right next door is Tama. They have the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel. Plenty of rooms.
Holy Toledo.
But no room for decency and common sense.
Built upon the quicksand of wishing and hoping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDKRKluMjSE
They even have a big rock in front. I went to high school less than 50 miles from Toledo, Iowa. Big rocks were not common there. Which means they spent good money to have it shipped in from somewhere.
I'm 50 miles north. There are plenty of big rocks around. A former boss had a rock sticking up in the middle of the yard that he wanted to get rid of. Started digging and digging. By the time we got done with the backhoe, the rock was as large as a big SUV and we hadn't gotten to the bottom yet. The rock is still there.
There was a farmer nearby who had that same situation. Huge rock in his cornfield. But that was very unusual.
I was generally southeast of Toledo. HLV high school.
This reminds me of a scene in "Shawshank Redemption" where Red is guided by Andy Dufresne to a marker by a wall: a big rock made of black, volcanic glass that has no business being in a Maine hayfeld.
FWIW, I thought Andy’s clue was pretty damn obscure for someone such as Red who might not have any idea which rock had no business being there.
Andy gave red a vivid enough description of that rock and its location that would make it pretty hard for Red to miss.
I think he and Red talked about that very hayfield in Buxton when the two were still locked up. Pretty sure he gave Red precise directions before escaping, knowing that Red would soon be out on parole, Once free and safely out of the country, he simply waited for Red to show up, using the money/directions Andy left him.
"None of these groups are trying to “kill” Christ because none of the groups he mentioned think about Christ that much to begin with" Amen...
R'amen!
He Boiled for Our Sins!
:D !!!
Gluten - free us of our sins!
Why does Pastor Todd feel the need to break the ten commandments by having a carved image of religious veneration displayed?
God was pretty clear that it is forbidden to try to capture his glory and person in a manufactured object.
Technically, it's not carved. It's just some cheap-ass plywood.
Jesus the carpenter might be offended by its poor construction
Using a jig-saw is kind of carving. : )
Or, just removing extraneous stuff.
I always liked the idea that sculptors “just” remove the stuff that is hiding the figure that was always there.
From a logical standpoint (and I understand using logic with this minister is ironic), why would atheists want to kill Jesus? To me, he’s just another baby conceived out of wedlock. Would it be to prevent Christianity? If not that cult, some other would have formed. Too many people need something to worship the way Linus needs his blanket.
It wasn’t atheists that betrayed him and put him on that cross.
In normal circumstances, I'd expect that a slathering 'kill Jesus' accusation would be metaphor for 'they want to deconvert Christians.' Which may in fact be true for some atheists, though certainly not all. But THIS guy...the imagery with the knife...he seems to be on the wacko side, sincerely thinking that nonbelievers in 2023-24 want to stab a baby who was born 2000+ years ago (if at all).
All jesus has to do is come here and tell everyone what it demands. SO simple even a caveman could do it. Yet it is beyond an omnieverythinggod? How is that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjmioIukch4
The nadir of superheroes at Hanna-Barbera.
KKKristerism took centuries, and was cobbled together from the dozens of religions running rampant in Rome at the time. And this only took Constantine 375 years.
If Jesus is immortal, then how can he be killed?
Kind of difficult to kill something that never existed.
That just makes him twice as dead. Try to keep up.
I'm sure Jesus existed. Did he do all the stuff he's credited with? No.
A common man with a common name and a common claim for his region and time.
It's as if there was only ever one John Smith to Christians.
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt?
His name is my name, too.
See?
I see why you go by No Good.
Joe Smith.
That Joe Smith. He had a lot on his plate(s).
Of course he did ! He went to an "All You Can Eat" buffet in Texas!
I have my doubts. Surely a religious leader of his magnitude would have been mentioned by Roman historians at the time.
The Romans were nothing if not thorough in their bookkeeping. They didn't only 𝘯𝘰𝘵 mention anything about Jesus- the Roman records we have don't support 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 that happens in the Gospels, either. Those stories weren't just made up, they were made up by writers who hadn't even done their homework.
Let's not forget, though, that the same was said for a long, long, long time about Pilate who was only known through the gospels and the writings of Jews and Romans which were done decades after the man lived. In terms of physical evidence, we have some coins and the "Pilate Stone" but that's about it. Plus, consider how almost next to nothing has survived the years regarding any other records of Pilate's time as governor.
We'd have a lot more written by the contemporary Romans, except that when they did bother to write about it they tore it apart so thoroughly that the christains spent the next 2000 years destroying all written records that called out their death cult for what it is.
Jesus had a bad weekend for your sins.
Was it though? He got a weekend to rest up without all those peasants clamoring for free food and medical.
“Heal yourselves!!!!”
Jesus, in Jesus Christ Superstar.
As an aside, JCS may have been the first thing that started me on the road to atheism. I was young. The soundtrack was such a (rational) departure from my Lutheran indoctrination. JCS made…..sense.
Beheading, but isn't anywhere he goes technically holy ground?
Maybe that was why he was beating plowshares into swords.
Ask pope frankie. His kind spent centuries persecuting and killing Jewish people, calling them "kkkrist killers."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ8lpCQbyw
JC : If only I had a sure fire way to establish a new religion..
Peter : Wasn't Listening. Come again?
JC : Brilliant!
Yep, we sure do have our fair share and more of creepy crazy Christians cackling cacophonic claptrap here in the cornfields.
nice
If you build it, they will come.
Only to run into He Who Walks Between the Rows.
Christian hypocrisy is so funny to me. Just like capitalism, Christianity proves it’s inherently unstable. It’s like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. I was a member of a very conservative church for ten years and always struggled with key issues. This pastor doesn’t want an evil out-of -town man poking his nose in Where it doesn’t belong but these same “Christians” want to tell us who we can marry or what a woman can do with her body or Christian nationalism should infiltrate our government. I could give two fucks about his beliefs but please check your hypocrisy at the door asshole.
Why would we try "to kill Jesus?"
We just have to wait a few months until Easter rolls around!
Now I have the voice of Ned Stark in my head, ominously stating "Easter is Coming"...
Beware of swords.
I knitted my Aria, not Stark, a sweater with "Winter is coming"🤣
I oddly now have that visual, but with the dubbed voice of Ned Flanders.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qq_5UQry3T4
He is dead already, sadly, so is Elvis too: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwio0I7E7sCDAxXoIBAIHb0sCLMQyCl6BAghEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dc-GvAbPsarw&usg=AOvVaw38W-FGPZohI1nkcw4f9D8Y&opi=89978449