Satanic Temple Monument Going Up On OKC Capital Grounds (marriages, Army, religion)
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It doesn't matter, does it? "All scripture is God breathed". That means, men wrote as the Holy Spirt led them. Luke, an eye witness of Christ and his teaching, recorded the events where Christ spoke those words.
What you are saying is simply this: You don't believe. You don't believe the bible, you don't believe Christ, and you probably don't believe God exists either.
All scripture is written by fallible men. The current books are found in the Christian Bible because of horse trading by men who met with their own agendas or at the behest of a sponsor at the Council of Nicea and campaigned for their own interests. Many other books were left on the cutting room floor. The Catholic Bible (IIRC) has five books not found in other Christian Bibles, and that is nowhere near everything that was available for inclusion.
The Scriptures were not written down in real time, but beginning somewhere in the second century. Add to that the fact that a lot of translations were done by scribes who were paid to slant them to the patron's views, and it is highly likely that what you are reading today is nowhere near the original text.
That said, the Bible and the teachings of Jesus are an excellent roadmap for living. His disdain for greed and accumulation of wealth and his ministry among the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the imprisoned, the diseased, and the outcast is most instructional as a guide for how we should conduct our affairs if we truly wish to follow Him. I only wish that Christians were less worried about campaigning to have the teachings of Jesus in public places and more concerned with putting Jesus back in Christians.
Well, I'd count myself as a member of the war-on-Christmas gang. I think the Satanic Temple isn't a religion, just like Scientology isn't. Religion and philosophy are different. But if Wiccans wanted a statue then I'd be fine with that.
That reminds me of the time when a self-professed Christian lectured me that Buddhism is not a religion. "It's just some fake, made-up thing ... and they worship idols!" he said. Um, okay. It wasn't worth two minutes of my time to explain that Buddhism is actually over 500 years older than Christianity, and has about a half a billion followers.
That said, the Bible and the teachings of Jesus are an excellent roadmap for living. His disdain for greed and accumulation of wealth and his ministry among the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the imprisoned, the diseased, and the outcast is most instructional as a guide for how we should conduct our affairs if we truly wish to follow Him. I only wish that Christians were less worried about campaigning to have the teachings of Jesus in public places and more concerned with putting Jesus back in Christians.
The clash of Christ's teachings with the interpretation that modern American "Christians" have created to suit themselves is biting and painful. The European Christians I know tend to shake their heads in collective disgust.
The self-proclaimed "Christians" here in the US talk about the War on Christmas and, by extension, on Christianity, but conveniently neglect to look into the mirror and acknowledge themselves as Christianity's biggest enemies in their pursuit of greed, egotism, and consumerism.
Cafeteria Christianity is a much bigger threat than any Satanic Temple, Muslim, Atheist, scientific endeavor, Pope, or the US Constitution could ever be.
It doesn't matter, does it? "All scripture is God breathed". That means, men wrote as the Holy Spirit led them. Luke, an eye witness of Christ and his teaching, recorded the events where Christ spoke those words.
That may have been true for the ORIGINAL writings, but they have been edited and altered numerous times by those in control to keep a tight rein on the people.
The first Bibles were copied by hand allowing the Church to filter and edit as they saw fit.
Keep in mind until relative modern times the average person wasn't able to read the Bible themselves, it was the Priest that TOLD them what it said.
This is how dumb the religious right is. I have said it on several AM radio shows and get cut off. How do you allow the ten commandments and not allow the church of Satan, or Islam or what ever else wants to display? You can't
Are you now claiming that Muslims are better than we? The Muslims and their hordes who rode into Europe, slaughering millions and conqueroring the lands, with the sole intent of annihilating Christians?
Are you denying that Christians, over a period 1,700 years did not oppress, persecute, annilhilate and massacre millions of Jews in Europe and elsewhere? That pogroms and crusades never took place? How about Christians who invaded the Levant and killed not only Muslims and Jews but thousands of other Christians in the Eastern Holy Roman Empire and in Constantinople?
However, being that Christmas is a Christian holiday, and Christianity having been the dominant religion for most of our history (and still is today) I see no reason why displays of non-Christian religions should be allowed during a clearly Christian holiday season. Why do they want to? It is only for the purpose of poking Christians in the eye. Period.
So I guess all those Hanukkah menorahs and dreidels and such bother you in public parks, shop windows, office building lobbies, shopping malls, and so on. If not, then why not Hindu or Buddhist holiday decorations as well?
What I believe is that there is no prohibition in the Constitution agaist religion being expressed in public places (even in government buildings and schools, which are apparently now, "government schools"), and the very fact that the Ten Commandments are inscribed on many public buildings (including, I believe, the Supreme Court) it would seem as though no one in the early days of our history held the view of the First Amendment that is popular among secularists today.
However, being that Christmas is a Christian holiday, and Christianity having been the dominant religion for most of our history (and still is today) I see no reason why displays of non-Christian religions should be allowed during a clearly Christian holiday season. Why do they want to? It is only for the purpose of poking Christians in the eye. Period.
How do you reconcile that the Ten Commandments are completely Jewish? The books of Genesis and Exodus were written by Jewish scribes hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. All of the Old Testament was ancient by the Nativity, and were included in both the Bible and the Koran.
Why would any other religion want to poke Christians in the eye? Every religion has it's own winter solstice holiday. Humans observed the yearly solstices long before any civilization developed writing.
Our Christmas Day on Dec. 25th is an arbitrary date, and is very modern in comparison others. Old Christmas was celebrated for 1000 years in January, and all Christmas celebration was attached to far older non-Christian religions as a way to turn them toward Christianity even further back.
I don't think God is impressed with Oklahoma's Ten Commandments monument. It had already been up in May when He let one of the worst tornadoes ever to hit Moore, OK.
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