One would think that all these stupid games about "getting into heaven" or not would have become tiresome by now. To anyone with an objective view of reality, heaven is a kid's game, something to soothe a frightened child when confronted with the inevitability of death. But nope. Adults are still indulging in that game, with Graham and Trump at or near the top of that list.
One wishes they'd grow up. One pretty well knows they won't.
I like to think that I'm still a kid at heart, at least in places. That doesn't change the fact that I'm an adult when I need to be one. This is a lesson Trump has yet to learn, and almost certainly will never learn.
It's also a joy he will never know in any real sense.
I still have wonder for the world, and I'm very damned glad of that. This universe in all its complexity astonishes me, as do our accomplishments in it. Where Trump lost his sense of wonder, I don't know.
But right now, we're all paying the price for that loss.
Being incurious seems to be a part of being a modern rethuglican. I suspect that curiosity and wonder get erased by all of their many personality disorders.
I shudder to think what I'd be like without that fraction (sometimes a BIG fraction!) of the kid that's in me. That people are so determined to "grow up" that they abandon that kid, his sense of wonder and playfulness, is just fucking tragic.
Just WHAT did they think they'd gain from giving up something so precious?
In addition to being incurious, they seem to have complete confidence that they already know everything that they need to know. One manifestation of this that I regularly encounter at Christian Post is other commenters telling me what I think. I enjoy pointing out that asking me what I think is likely to be much more accurate and efficient than telling me what I think.
In fundie households, asking questions and being curious is beaten out of the kid (sometimes literally) to instill fear and obedience. The children are taught to obey and not question anyone in a position of authority such: parents, clergy, their leaders or the children will pay a high price like being shunned, expelled, or killed in this world and burned in Hell in the next. So the kids quickly learn not to be curious or ask questions just to survive to become incurious, obedient adults!
This is one of the dividing lines between various christian sects - is acceptance of Jesus enough or are good works another requirement to get into their undetectable Heaven? At least the Pope is coming down on the side of leading a good life... Mark Twain said it best: "Heaven for the climate. Hell for the company" although I'd take Limbo rather be near that Orange Oaf and Franklin Graham for eternity. edit - added 'least'.
Franky Graham is every bit the bigot and liar that his dad Billy was and so is his sister who prayed for San Francisco and Hollywood to be obliterated by The Big G a la Sodom and Gomorrah.
I remember hearing the Nixon tapes where Billy let his anti-Semitism run unchecked. Proving to the whole world what a fake and fraud he was. It still ticks me off that they let that sleazy pulpit pimp lie in state at the Capitol.
He, just like Trump prefers that the stupid followers do the dirty work. Plus let the stupid followers suffer any consequences, while they stay safe and go tsk, tsk what a shame. If it would have succeeded then the two fuckwits would claim the credit for it.
Speaking of the insurrection, wasn't there a congressperson or two who was messaging the mob re: the whereabouts of other "WANTED" congresspersons? MTG and Beetleboobs come to mind, but it's been so long I can't remember. Were they ever investigated? Did anything ever happen to them? I never heard, so I guessing probably not?
Use your last breath to make the Public Apology to the Ceiling, and no punishment for you. Forget that, and it's eternal torment.
Seems to me like the "you just want to sin" claim believers make about atheists is just more projection. We burn for not being convinced of their god, while they can be as horrible as they want as long as they say the right words at the end.
Technically, it's all Protestantism. Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. the whole lot. The RCC takes 'works' seriously but Luther argued for Sola Fides back in the 1500s.
Yes it has its drawbacks. But then again, at the time the RCC was selling indulgences and telling people that the 'good works' they needed to do to get into heaven was 'give us money.' So you can kinda understand where Luther was coming from when he rejected that notion.
Yep. Though I realized at my First Communion that god was just Santa Claus for adults I was a good, polite, studious kid. I read the bible cover to cover several times, read Augustine and Aquinus as a teenager. It’s been decades but the lesson that we are not redeemed by words alone still figures prominently in my concept of morality and personal responsibility. What we do matters more than what we say. No matter how important our words they must be supported by action. All the while my majority Protestant neighbors were insisting Catholics worshipped the anti-Christ and justifying their own racial and religious bigotry. They were deeply suspicious of the catholic nuns who ran the health clinic for the poor and the red headed priest who made himself seriously ill by picking cucumbers every day in the blistering sun so the (non catholic but poor black) sharecropper neighbors wouldn’t get thrown out out of their home. The moral bankruptcy of so many of my white Protestant neighbors was on abundant display.
Exhibit A on why young people reject the xtian cult: a know rapist, pedophile and war criminal is assured by a professional grifter that if he accepts an imaginary friend, he will go to heaven.
Franklin Graham has no more to say about who gets heaven than I do. For one thing, he cannot demonstrate such a place even exists, and neither can anyone else. Graham has made a career out of living on his father’s name and reputation. Left to face the world armed with nothing but his intellect, few people would have ever heard of Franklin Graham.
One of Frankie Boy's stunts in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that still pisses me off - going on a newscast and saying of the thousands killed in those attacks - "How many of those people were prepared to meet Jesus?"
This is nothing more than one con man comforting another con man, period. Graham has been selling his bullsh1t just like his Dad and continues to; as Trump has been selling bullsh1t to the Americans dumb enough to listen.
The xtian get out of jail free card demonstrates the hypocrisy of the cult over and over. Using their reasoning, Hitler, a christian is with "jesus" in heaven while Anne Frank and the other victims of the Holocaust burn in "hell."
Christians can commit any atrocity and as long as they pretend to accept imaginary jesus and of course tithe to their local pastor/parasite, they are assured a place in 'heaven.'
I regard Paul as a fictional character and at best if he existed, it was after the alleged christ but xtians disregard that advice as we can see on an hourly basis.
Interesting -bible scholars posit that Paul's first letter dates to about the year 48 CE. That is 15 years after the last probable date for the crucifixion... He claims to have been in Jerusalem working for the High Priest... why, oh why does he never give us ANY biographical info on his god Jeebus? Seems like a lead-pipe cinch.
I sincerely believe Jeebus is nothing but a concatenation of myths written long after he could have lived. Not to mention that there is no account of any of the miracles which supposedly occurred when he supposedly died. Many Jews, Greeks, Romans, and others were quite literate at that time. The Church would have preserved any little shred of proof.
The purpose of this stunt is to reassure Dear Leader’s supporters that he’s a good human being despite all evidence. Dear Leader is an empty vessel and couldn’t care less about any of it so long as they continue to fill his pockets.
But it's hard, bordering on impossible, to get people who think they have special dispensation, to act like ordinary human beings. They believe they are apart from the natural order, or to use their word, "blessed."
And once again, I'm reminded of that comparison that happened in C. S. Lewis' The Last Battle, when the Calormen soldiers and Shift the monkey agreed that their god Tash was no more or less real than Aslan was.
In THAT reality, yeah, Aslan WAS real, sure. We never really learn about Tash. Around here, though, that equation holds, and is equal to the empty set.
"Many people are saying that heaven is not as nice as Mar A Lago. Just this morning a big strapping man with tears in his eyes, came up to me and said Sir, when I die, I want to go to Mar A Lago."
Another goddamm jesusfucker who has never read an actual history book, I would not be surprised that the version he got was a sanitized account of Christianity’s history!
It's amazing kindling. When I cleaned out my parent's home after their deaths, I found a slew of bibles, mostly in boxes and unused. I can't tell you how thankful I was to use them to start the woodstove that year. Praise jesus, the god of paper.
I do find it fascinating that the Reformation, in an effort to decrease the idea that the rich could just pay to be absolved of sin, ended up inventing MULTIPLE systems of arguably greater inequity:
--Predestination: God already knows your fate in heaven or hell, nothing you do matters
--salvation by faith alone, again, nothing you actually DO matters if your faith is strong enough
--The idea of "The Elect" aka if someone is fortunate it means God likes them and wants them in heaven or vice versa (often used to deny charity). This later evolved into the Prosperity Gospel
Many of these common protestant ideas came from struggling with genuine theological questions but damn if the outcome hasn't been poor!
One would think that all these stupid games about "getting into heaven" or not would have become tiresome by now. To anyone with an objective view of reality, heaven is a kid's game, something to soothe a frightened child when confronted with the inevitability of death. But nope. Adults are still indulging in that game, with Graham and Trump at or near the top of that list.
One wishes they'd grow up. One pretty well knows they won't.
Just because they've reached adult size and adult ages doesn't mean they actually are adults.
I like to think that I'm still a kid at heart, at least in places. That doesn't change the fact that I'm an adult when I need to be one. This is a lesson Trump has yet to learn, and almost certainly will never learn.
It's also a joy he will never know in any real sense.
My wife says that I act like a 10 year old - I take it as a compliment.
But, agreed 100% that when it is time to be a responsible adult member of the human species we need to step up to the task. Sadly, many do not.
I still have wonder for the world, and I'm very damned glad of that. This universe in all its complexity astonishes me, as do our accomplishments in it. Where Trump lost his sense of wonder, I don't know.
But right now, we're all paying the price for that loss.
Being incurious seems to be a part of being a modern rethuglican. I suspect that curiosity and wonder get erased by all of their many personality disorders.
I shudder to think what I'd be like without that fraction (sometimes a BIG fraction!) of the kid that's in me. That people are so determined to "grow up" that they abandon that kid, his sense of wonder and playfulness, is just fucking tragic.
Just WHAT did they think they'd gain from giving up something so precious?
In addition to being incurious, they seem to have complete confidence that they already know everything that they need to know. One manifestation of this that I regularly encounter at Christian Post is other commenters telling me what I think. I enjoy pointing out that asking me what I think is likely to be much more accurate and efficient than telling me what I think.
In fundie households, asking questions and being curious is beaten out of the kid (sometimes literally) to instill fear and obedience. The children are taught to obey and not question anyone in a position of authority such: parents, clergy, their leaders or the children will pay a high price like being shunned, expelled, or killed in this world and burned in Hell in the next. So the kids quickly learn not to be curious or ask questions just to survive to become incurious, obedient adults!
I doubt he ever had a sense of wonder.
Knowing who (and WHAT!) his father was, you may be right.
I’m either 12 or 72 yrs old on a given day. It’s the best.
This is one of the dividing lines between various christian sects - is acceptance of Jesus enough or are good works another requirement to get into their undetectable Heaven? At least the Pope is coming down on the side of leading a good life... Mark Twain said it best: "Heaven for the climate. Hell for the company" although I'd take Limbo rather be near that Orange Oaf and Franklin Graham for eternity. edit - added 'least'.
I'll stick with: "None Of The Above," thanks.
But..but... if belief in heaven gives these millions of adults comfort, what's wrong with that?(TM)
[chuckle] 😝😝😝
Franky Graham is every bit the bigot and liar that his dad Billy was and so is his sister who prayed for San Francisco and Hollywood to be obliterated by The Big G a la Sodom and Gomorrah.
I remember hearing the Nixon tapes where Billy let his anti-Semitism run unchecked. Proving to the whole world what a fake and fraud he was. It still ticks me off that they let that sleazy pulpit pimp lie in state at the Capitol.
His father at least marched with MLK. I don't see Franklin ever doing something similiar.
I was surprised Frankie wasn't at the insurrection.
He, just like Trump prefers that the stupid followers do the dirty work. Plus let the stupid followers suffer any consequences, while they stay safe and go tsk, tsk what a shame. If it would have succeeded then the two fuckwits would claim the credit for it.
Luckily, it didn’t succeeded!
Speaking of the insurrection, wasn't there a congressperson or two who was messaging the mob re: the whereabouts of other "WANTED" congresspersons? MTG and Beetleboobs come to mind, but it's been so long I can't remember. Were they ever investigated? Did anything ever happen to them? I never heard, so I guessing probably not?
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑜𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑦—𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑠—𝑎𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛.
Use your last breath to make the Public Apology to the Ceiling, and no punishment for you. Forget that, and it's eternal torment.
Seems to me like the "you just want to sin" claim believers make about atheists is just more projection. We burn for not being convinced of their god, while they can be as horrible as they want as long as they say the right words at the end.
But you should keep paying the con men every Sunday just in case you die before you get the chance to make the P.A.t.t.C.
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑐𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦.
Technically, it's all Protestantism. Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. the whole lot. The RCC takes 'works' seriously but Luther argued for Sola Fides back in the 1500s.
Yes it has its drawbacks. But then again, at the time the RCC was selling indulgences and telling people that the 'good works' they needed to do to get into heaven was 'give us money.' So you can kinda understand where Luther was coming from when he rejected that notion.
All the religions are morally bankrupt. Realizing that helped me understand that there is no bearded father figure in the sky.
Yep. Though I realized at my First Communion that god was just Santa Claus for adults I was a good, polite, studious kid. I read the bible cover to cover several times, read Augustine and Aquinus as a teenager. It’s been decades but the lesson that we are not redeemed by words alone still figures prominently in my concept of morality and personal responsibility. What we do matters more than what we say. No matter how important our words they must be supported by action. All the while my majority Protestant neighbors were insisting Catholics worshipped the anti-Christ and justifying their own racial and religious bigotry. They were deeply suspicious of the catholic nuns who ran the health clinic for the poor and the red headed priest who made himself seriously ill by picking cucumbers every day in the blistering sun so the (non catholic but poor black) sharecropper neighbors wouldn’t get thrown out out of their home. The moral bankruptcy of so many of my white Protestant neighbors was on abundant display.
Exhibit A on why young people reject the xtian cult: a know rapist, pedophile and war criminal is assured by a professional grifter that if he accepts an imaginary friend, he will go to heaven.
Franklin Graham has no more to say about who gets heaven than I do. For one thing, he cannot demonstrate such a place even exists, and neither can anyone else. Graham has made a career out of living on his father’s name and reputation. Left to face the world armed with nothing but his intellect, few people would have ever heard of Franklin Graham.
One of Frankie Boy's stunts in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that still pisses me off - going on a newscast and saying of the thousands killed in those attacks - "How many of those people were prepared to meet Jesus?"
This is nothing more than one con man comforting another con man, period. Graham has been selling his bullsh1t just like his Dad and continues to; as Trump has been selling bullsh1t to the Americans dumb enough to listen.
Two sides of the same coin.
𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑛, 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑.
↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
Absolutely freaking THIS!!!!!!
The xtian get out of jail free card demonstrates the hypocrisy of the cult over and over. Using their reasoning, Hitler, a christian is with "jesus" in heaven while Anne Frank and the other victims of the Holocaust burn in "hell."
Christians can commit any atrocity and as long as they pretend to accept imaginary jesus and of course tithe to their local pastor/parasite, they are assured a place in 'heaven.'
Didn't Paul in one of his letters said not to use the gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ as an excuse to commit sin?
I regard Paul as a fictional character and at best if he existed, it was after the alleged christ but xtians disregard that advice as we can see on an hourly basis.
Interesting -bible scholars posit that Paul's first letter dates to about the year 48 CE. That is 15 years after the last probable date for the crucifixion... He claims to have been in Jerusalem working for the High Priest... why, oh why does he never give us ANY biographical info on his god Jeebus? Seems like a lead-pipe cinch.
Paul never met Jesus. He was unaware of the virgin birth, the choirs of angels, the three wisemen, all of it.
I sincerely believe Jeebus is nothing but a concatenation of myths written long after he could have lived. Not to mention that there is no account of any of the miracles which supposedly occurred when he supposedly died. Many Jews, Greeks, Romans, and others were quite literate at that time. The Church would have preserved any little shred of proof.
Paul was a misogynist and probably a narcissist as well. IMO, that's why he sidelined Jesus after his conversion.
Hence part of the reason the Mythacist school of biblical scholarship thinks the earliest gospel - Mark could date as late as the early 2nd century.
The purpose of this stunt is to reassure Dear Leader’s supporters that he’s a good human being despite all evidence. Dear Leader is an empty vessel and couldn’t care less about any of it so long as they continue to fill his pockets.
Franklin Graham. Loon in good standing since 2011
americanloons.blogspot.com/2011/02/156-franklin-graham.html
Graham Crackers is no better than the orange guy he idolizes (I hear idolatry is a sin, Frankie. A violation of one of the Big 10).
All the Graham crackers are grifters, charlatans and frauds. His father was, his sister is.
Again, again and again.
The "Christians" use final conversion and acceptance as a get out of jail monopoly card in the game of life.
Life is real. Flying spaghetti monsters are not.
Be kind, help your neighbor, teach children to respect all others and do not steal or kill.
Really the rules are not that hard to figure out.
But it's hard, bordering on impossible, to get people who think they have special dispensation, to act like ordinary human beings. They believe they are apart from the natural order, or to use their word, "blessed."
When what they are are ASSHOLES.
Don’t forget INBRED, BRAIN DEAD, BORN AGAIN, assholes.🤨
[shrug] I guess I'm not much for gilding the lily! 😁
LOL, no need everyone here knows what you are saying!
Agreed 100%
The Flying spaghetti monster is every bit as real as the alleged jesus.
And once again, I'm reminded of that comparison that happened in C. S. Lewis' The Last Battle, when the Calormen soldiers and Shift the monkey agreed that their god Tash was no more or less real than Aslan was.
In THAT reality, yeah, Aslan WAS real, sure. We never really learn about Tash. Around here, though, that equation holds, and is equal to the empty set.
Agreed.
And the FSM believers aren't killing people and destroying an entire country.
Why would Trump want to go to heaven? He would have to be subservient to God, and we all know how much he hates not controlling things.
"Many people are saying that heaven is not as nice as Mar A Lago. Just this morning a big strapping man with tears in his eyes, came up to me and said Sir, when I die, I want to go to Mar A Lago."
That was….perfect.
He is practicing being God’s bitch by being Putin’s and Netanyahu’s bitch on earth. He’s actually really good at being a bitch.
The ONLY thing he's good at.
I find it funny that the Pope claims his religion is against war. Ha Ha Ha!
What does he think the Crusades were?
Let me guess, popey thinks that the crusaders were TOURISTS visiting the area!
Peaceful tourists.
Armed with swords, axes, maces, crossbows, spears…
And battering rams!
All in the name of "spreading the gospel."
Another goddamm jesusfucker who has never read an actual history book, I would not be surprised that the version he got was a sanitized account of Christianity’s history!
ALL RELIGIONS HAVE MUCH BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS!😠
Graham and the Pope each used bible passages that contradict each other. The bible is pretty useless.
It could be useful as a doorstop or kindling. That's it. I'm out of ideas.
The ones they used during Catholic mass were quite large and heavy. Useful for braining evil assholes. Just a thought.
It's amazing kindling. When I cleaned out my parent's home after their deaths, I found a slew of bibles, mostly in boxes and unused. I can't tell you how thankful I was to use them to start the woodstove that year. Praise jesus, the god of paper.
I've been saying it for a while: the bible argues BOTH SIDES of the argument. Whether for peace or war, you can find support for either in its pages.
If nothing else disqualifies the bible as a moral text, THAT DOES.
You’re not being fair here. The fact that opposing sides can both cite the Bible to their purposes pretty much underlines how useful it is.
I do find it fascinating that the Reformation, in an effort to decrease the idea that the rich could just pay to be absolved of sin, ended up inventing MULTIPLE systems of arguably greater inequity:
--Predestination: God already knows your fate in heaven or hell, nothing you do matters
--salvation by faith alone, again, nothing you actually DO matters if your faith is strong enough
--The idea of "The Elect" aka if someone is fortunate it means God likes them and wants them in heaven or vice versa (often used to deny charity). This later evolved into the Prosperity Gospel
Many of these common protestant ideas came from struggling with genuine theological questions but damn if the outcome hasn't been poor!
If God exists, let God forgive him. The world doesn't have to. Lock him up.