I disagree as a believer. I think that in the end that we are all accountable to God. However, I don't see it as being our elected officials' responsibility to impose our religious beliefs upon everyone else. And from a practical perspective, if an elected official gets too out of step with the voters then that person will more than likely get the boot next election. And so, they are accountable to the people who elected them.
Conservative religious people of all stripes always attribute all that's good about the world to their religion and/or god. They do this while being very careful to ignore what religious people, acting in the name of their religion have done to their fellow humans. If religion equaled morality, the Middle East would be the happiest, safest, sanest place on earth rather than the never-ending horror story it is. No theocracy was ever a bastion of human rights and intellectual freedom.
Didn't stop folks from separating babies from their families and putting them both in cages.
In fact, in all of those cases I've cited thus far, it has encouraged that behavior and been used to justify that in the minds of believers.
What this country needs more of, what every country needs more of, are leaders who can look at other people who are different than them or in different circumstances than them and ask themselves, "What if that were me? How would I want to be treated or helped?"
Give me a Congress full of those people and we'd have a better America regardless of them being Christians, Jews, Muslim, Satanists, atheists, or polytheistic wiccans.
I had someone who sent me a christmas letter which was beyond nauseating. It talked about the reason for christmas and how god is love and god is grace and god is compassion and god is a god of justice. VOMIT VOMIT VOMIT. And this was from an educated person.
I have an elderly aunt who believes that, since the demise of both of my parents, it is her calling to bring me back to Jesus (and hopefully my Jewish wife will follow along). I can’t bring myself to read her cards and letters any more. She insists on proselytizing in them and there is almost nothing else. The last time I was with her in person I attempted to engage her in a friendly discussion of religious belief. That went nowhere. The last time spoke on the phone she learned about and refused to accept my trans son. Misgendered him and deadnamed him.
She likely isn’t long for this life and I’m just disengaging as much as I can.
Lovely, yet another god-botherer who thinks that the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom [which, frankly, is a load of horse manure!]. My rebuttal to her is both simple and blunt:
It's my own fault. Instead of posting it right away, I delayed by taking the time to read the article and all the comments to make sure I wasn't repeating a thought.
Funny, from what I've seen it's the most religious people who tend to be the worst when it comes to breaking laws and ignoring important issues in favor of rage-baiting about picayune details.
I once had a manager at work say that to me. If I had the skill to raise a single eyebrow, I would have done that. His comment made me wonder if he was looking for a reason to fire me. He wasn’t, as it turned out.
Called to serve? How many Republican Christians said they were called on by God to run for President in 2016? Guess what? They all lost. And look who DID win. The guy who supposedly embodies everything they claim to despise, yet now support as if he were the resurrected Christ.
Kim Davis proves her wrong, there’s a plethora of other “God Fearin’” politicians that weren’t mentioned in the article that prove her wrong. Plus there’s whole religious sects worth of clergy that falsifies her underlying concept of being religious (let’s face it, right wing, conservative, Christian) makes you a better person/politician/leader/whathaveyou than those who aren’t. Not to say being atheist makes you better, look at what some atheist celebrities have done recently, but atheism doesn’t claim superiority the way religion does.
Most of the time religion has no leg to stand on regarding morality.
According to Christian belief, Hitler is in heaven because he was a fervent believer who sincerely believed he and his fellow Nazis were doing their god's work on Earth. Meanwhile, Anne Frank (who did not embrace Jesusgod) was tortured and murdered and now burns forever in hell.
How fucked up do you have to be to see nothing wrong with any of that?
Jack Chick's belief was that the Jews were saved from Sheol/Limbo/Hell lite by Jesus during his 3-day 'death' or maybe it was judgement day, I haven't read that particular tract in a few decades.
Chick is one of those people you wish there really was a hell for him to roast in for all the damage he caused. Not forever, of course. Just long enough.
My experience, such as it is, is federal (I worked for a U.S. Senator) and local (I know a handful of County and municipal electeds). There were young folk at federal level to be sure. Less so at local level.
Somewhat OT: About a decade ago there was a local election that seemed important. A good old boy who seemed to think local government was about helping your campaign contributors/friends get rich versus a good government principled person. I donated substantially to the good government candidate. (I had had a bit of a windfall that year and was flush.). I attended one of the campaign rallies/fundraisers only to discover that my name was listed as a “sponsor” of the event because I was one of the larger individual donors to the campaign. Right or wrong, the campaign hadn’t told me i was a sponsor and the candidate never asked me if i wanted anything. I’m happy to report that “my” candidate won and delivered good government for 8 years.
"[Miller] said... that the best elected officials are people who “fear God” because they believe they’ll eventually be held accountable for their actions."
This worn-out claim of course begs the question, why then are soooo mannnnyy God-fearing elected officials as corrupt as a three-month-old banana?
The answer is in Christian theology. When Christians claim that people will be rotten if they don't believe that a policeman in the sky threatens to torture them forever if they are naughty, (which by the way reveals that their level of moral development is at the bottom of Lawrence Kohlberg's scale) those same Christians neglect to mention that they're AUTOMATICALLY FORGIVEN for their transgressions as long as they say the magic word "Sorrrryyyy" to that policeman. So their claimed guarantee that God fearers are more moral is made null and void.
Known mostly for her opposition to Hellfest a metal festival who harm no one and marrying her first cousin, which is against canon law without a dispense from the pope* 🙄
* Thierry Ardisson, a French host, asked to see it years ago. He is still waiting.
Rudy Giuliani also married his first cousin. I wonder if it a trend in their families. That could help explain the poor reasoning skills exhibited by both.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump booms from a speakerphone. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it
Yet Aaron "I Took Too Many Scrimmages Without a Helmet" Rogers blatantly lied about Jimmy Kimmel being involved with Epstein while staying absolutely mum on Trump.
The same people who whine about Green Day changing their lyrics to criticize MAGA ("stick to music, not politics") have no problem with a football player acting as some kind of vaccine expert and (now) somehow possessor of knowledge about Jeffrey Epstein's associates.
Dennis and Randy Quaid, Herschel Walker, Scott Baio, Antonio Sabato, Jr., Jack Nicklaus, Kirstie Alley, James Woods, Dean Cain, Robert Davi, Mary Hart, Isaiah Washington, Mike Ditka, Stephen Baldwin and more.
They also have no problem with Kid wossname and his RWNJ stuff do they? Anyway, isn't Jimmy Kellogg going to sue? I really hope so. The guy who runs the program that it appeared on popped up in my YouTube feed trying to – let's say distance himself from the football player. Apparently it was all good fun and "edgy".
If they actually followed the tenets of their religion’s namesake, great. Unfortunately, they call themselves Christians while telling others to follow Old Testament laws. Not that they do that, either.
WHAT AN IGNORANT FOOL! Has she forgotten about god's GRACE? The whole purpose of god and his "grace" is forgiveness of sins. They sin but pay no price -all sins are forgiven but she talks about being held "accountable"???? WTF
US government elected officials are not accountable to God. They are accountable to the people who elected them.
Yer all skrewed up. Next thin you know you will be claiming that they live here on earth and not "up yonder" won't ya?
I sure hope a god would punish any elected official who attempted to impose their religion on others.
Not if they "were saved"
I disagree as a believer. I think that in the end that we are all accountable to God. However, I don't see it as being our elected officials' responsibility to impose our religious beliefs upon everyone else. And from a practical perspective, if an elected official gets too out of step with the voters then that person will more than likely get the boot next election. And so, they are accountable to the people who elected them.
Not with gerrymandering.
Conservative religious people of all stripes always attribute all that's good about the world to their religion and/or god. They do this while being very careful to ignore what religious people, acting in the name of their religion have done to their fellow humans. If religion equaled morality, the Middle East would be the happiest, safest, sanest place on earth rather than the never-ending horror story it is. No theocracy was ever a bastion of human rights and intellectual freedom.
Yes. Well said.
Constantine did it. Went downhill from there.
The belief in God never stopped a Crusader or Jihadi sword from killing innocents.
Never stopped people in Salem from killing a woman accused of witchcraft.
Never stopped an "honor killing".
Never stopped one man from using violence to claim another human being as his property.
Never stopped people from forming and joining the KKK.
Didn't stop the 9/11 bombers.
Didn't stop the violence in North Ireland.
Didn't stop lynchings. Hasn't stopped lynchings anywhere.
Didn't stop folks from separating babies from their families and putting them both in cages.
In fact, in all of those cases I've cited thus far, it has encouraged that behavior and been used to justify that in the minds of believers.
What this country needs more of, what every country needs more of, are leaders who can look at other people who are different than them or in different circumstances than them and ask themselves, "What if that were me? How would I want to be treated or helped?"
Give me a Congress full of those people and we'd have a better America regardless of them being Christians, Jews, Muslim, Satanists, atheists, or polytheistic wiccans.
I had someone who sent me a christmas letter which was beyond nauseating. It talked about the reason for christmas and how god is love and god is grace and god is compassion and god is a god of justice. VOMIT VOMIT VOMIT. And this was from an educated person.
I have an elderly aunt who believes that, since the demise of both of my parents, it is her calling to bring me back to Jesus (and hopefully my Jewish wife will follow along). I can’t bring myself to read her cards and letters any more. She insists on proselytizing in them and there is almost nothing else. The last time I was with her in person I attempted to engage her in a friendly discussion of religious belief. That went nowhere. The last time spoke on the phone she learned about and refused to accept my trans son. Misgendered him and deadnamed him.
She likely isn’t long for this life and I’m just disengaging as much as I can.
Lovely, yet another god-botherer who thinks that the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom [which, frankly, is a load of horse manure!]. My rebuttal to her is both simple and blunt:
𝐼𝑓 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑠.
-- Leo Wolf
https://img.ifunny.co/images/9fbd7a75b8b8e3b7e7a9038d98b3c5bf0f0641708e67a57ee8239be96af79ef7_1.webp
Beat me to it as I was about to post it.
*chortles with glee*
It's my own fault. Instead of posting it right away, I delayed by taking the time to read the article and all the comments to make sure I wasn't repeating a thought.
There is nothing wrong with repeating a good thought.
Funny, from what I've seen it's the most religious people who tend to be the worst when it comes to breaking laws and ignoring important issues in favor of rage-baiting about picayune details.
The more religious a person is, the easier it tends to be to rationalize excuses for their own behavior.
Exactly- they can do anything they want and ask for forgiveness later.
https://www.azquotes.com/vangogh-image-quotes/23/7/Quotation-Emo-Philips-When-I-was-a-kid-I-used-to-pray-every-23-7-0758.jpg
"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission"
That quote makes my skin crawl. It's how an abuser thinks.
Explains a lot about religion, doesn't it?
I once had a manager at work say that to me. If I had the skill to raise a single eyebrow, I would have done that. His comment made me wonder if he was looking for a reason to fire me. He wasn’t, as it turned out.
Jesus always forgives them, no matter what they've done.
They hope.
Jeffrey Dahmer: Mom, if you don't like the neighbors, try the vegetables!
(just pops in my head, can't help it.)
Like the bumper sticker says, "Christians aren't perfect, we're just forgiven."
I’d like one that says “Christians aren’t perfect but they ought to try a lot harder”
:D
Called to serve? How many Republican Christians said they were called on by God to run for President in 2016? Guess what? They all lost. And look who DID win. The guy who supposedly embodies everything they claim to despise, yet now support as if he were the resurrected Christ.
Republican morality, everyone.
I have a hard time believing they have any morality at all.
One gop congress asshole called him the "orange jesus"🤮
Kim Davis proves her wrong, there’s a plethora of other “God Fearin’” politicians that weren’t mentioned in the article that prove her wrong. Plus there’s whole religious sects worth of clergy that falsifies her underlying concept of being religious (let’s face it, right wing, conservative, Christian) makes you a better person/politician/leader/whathaveyou than those who aren’t. Not to say being atheist makes you better, look at what some atheist celebrities have done recently, but atheism doesn’t claim superiority the way religion does.
Most of the time religion has no leg to stand on regarding morality.
Their god could have banned slavery. Instead, it banned bacon.
He just wanted to keep all the bacon-wrapped shrimp for himself.
And shrimp!
According to Christian belief, Hitler is in heaven because he was a fervent believer who sincerely believed he and his fellow Nazis were doing their god's work on Earth. Meanwhile, Anne Frank (who did not embrace Jesusgod) was tortured and murdered and now burns forever in hell.
How fucked up do you have to be to see nothing wrong with any of that?
Anne Frank as well as other virtuous non-believers (Gandhi) are roasting in hell. I guess these self-righteous Christians have no problem with that.
Jack Chick's belief was that the Jews were saved from Sheol/Limbo/Hell lite by Jesus during his 3-day 'death' or maybe it was judgement day, I haven't read that particular tract in a few decades.
Chick is one of those people you wish there really was a hell for him to roast in for all the damage he caused. Not forever, of course. Just long enough.
You have to be bat shit crazy to believe that.
Bat shit crazy is pretty much a descriptor of xtians.
https://www.alternet.org/gop-leader-arrested-fight/?cx_testId=1&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=4&cx_experienceId=EXDEXBKK1F00#cxrecs_s
"Shame and scandal in the family!"
The “political director” of the state’s Republican Party is 22 years old? How much money did Daddy give or who is she screwing?
I have fewer questions about her age vis a vis her job title than I do about why a Gen-Z woman is a Republican.
I think you kinda answered Maltnothops question. 'Gen-Z woman leader' makes for great PR for the party.
That's fairly typical. Most state-level staffers are young, in my experience. Many at the national levels are as well.
My experience, such as it is, is federal (I worked for a U.S. Senator) and local (I know a handful of County and municipal electeds). There were young folk at federal level to be sure. Less so at local level.
Somewhat OT: About a decade ago there was a local election that seemed important. A good old boy who seemed to think local government was about helping your campaign contributors/friends get rich versus a good government principled person. I donated substantially to the good government candidate. (I had had a bit of a windfall that year and was flush.). I attended one of the campaign rallies/fundraisers only to discover that my name was listed as a “sponsor” of the event because I was one of the larger individual donors to the campaign. Right or wrong, the campaign hadn’t told me i was a sponsor and the candidate never asked me if i wanted anything. I’m happy to report that “my” candidate won and delivered good government for 8 years.
Kids will be kids.
In other words, a normal Saturday.
Conservative values at work?
"[Miller] said... that the best elected officials are people who “fear God” because they believe they’ll eventually be held accountable for their actions."
This worn-out claim of course begs the question, why then are soooo mannnnyy God-fearing elected officials as corrupt as a three-month-old banana?
The answer is in Christian theology. When Christians claim that people will be rotten if they don't believe that a policeman in the sky threatens to torture them forever if they are naughty, (which by the way reveals that their level of moral development is at the bottom of Lawrence Kohlberg's scale) those same Christians neglect to mention that they're AUTOMATICALLY FORGIVEN for their transgressions as long as they say the magic word "Sorrrryyyy" to that policeman. So their claimed guarantee that God fearers are more moral is made null and void.
DM's maternal grandfather was a municipal councillor. He never took advantage of his position. Now guess what was his religion 😏
my guess is none
We got them too and with the same results
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Boutin
Known mostly for her opposition to Hellfest a metal festival who harm no one and marrying her first cousin, which is against canon law without a dispense from the pope* 🙄
* Thierry Ardisson, a French host, asked to see it years ago. He is still waiting.
Rudy Giuliani also married his first cousin. I wonder if it a trend in their families. That could help explain the poor reasoning skills exhibited by both.
My mom married her first cousin too. Me and my brother was the result.
Your mom went Jerry Lee Lewis?
She danced a lot* and was able to sing without people running for the hills.
*) to JLL's type of music, twist and rock'n'roll.
But yes, my father was the son of her mother's brother.
Time for another Throwback Thursday.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump booms from a speakerphone. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it
Much more recently. Trump has bizarrely and inexplicably wished Ghislaine Maxwell, of all people, well on two separate occasions.
Yet Aaron "I Took Too Many Scrimmages Without a Helmet" Rogers blatantly lied about Jimmy Kimmel being involved with Epstein while staying absolutely mum on Trump.
The same people who whine about Green Day changing their lyrics to criticize MAGA ("stick to music, not politics") have no problem with a football player acting as some kind of vaccine expert and (now) somehow possessor of knowledge about Jeffrey Epstein's associates.
By their name "Hypocrisy" shall ye know them.
They embrace Ted Nugent (hasn't had a gold album since 1980) and "Kid" Rock and Roseanne.
Hypocrisy? What hypocrisy?
And Jon Voight.
Dennis and Randy Quaid, Herschel Walker, Scott Baio, Antonio Sabato, Jr., Jack Nicklaus, Kirstie Alley, James Woods, Dean Cain, Robert Davi, Mary Hart, Isaiah Washington, Mike Ditka, Stephen Baldwin and more.
John Rich, Tyrus, JK Rowling...
Too stupid to realize Green Day was always political.
Yeah, "American Idiot" is ALREADY a political song. It's not like GD were singing a song about flowers, and then changed a lyric to "MAGA SUCKS!"
Too stupid to realize that 𝘢𝘭𝘭 art is political. Especially when the artist claims it isn't.
They also have no problem with Kid wossname and his RWNJ stuff do they? Anyway, isn't Jimmy Kellogg going to sue? I really hope so. The guy who runs the program that it appeared on popped up in my YouTube feed trying to – let's say distance himself from the football player. Apparently it was all good fun and "edgy".
If they actually followed the tenets of their religion’s namesake, great. Unfortunately, they call themselves Christians while telling others to follow Old Testament laws. Not that they do that, either.
WHAT AN IGNORANT FOOL! Has she forgotten about god's GRACE? The whole purpose of god and his "grace" is forgiveness of sins. They sin but pay no price -all sins are forgiven but she talks about being held "accountable"???? WTF
I'd like to know what her "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" is.
Fox psychic pulls a "death card" in predicting tRump's future.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/fox-news-trump-psychic-jesse-watters-rcna132080?cid=eml_mda_20240104&user_email=2d93ea6ec2b54d8dbdfe1208627778ba780bdb482c6dcdff0f924f387cc932f7
You misspelled "𝘱𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰." ;)
I thought about "/psychotic" but decided against it.
Turns out they got it wrong, article is updated to say it was the Five of Cups and not Death. Still, it's a loss card, yadda.
Five cups of diet coke?
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮