One Way to Read It

It is sad when people murder. We must mourn with those who mourn. The pastor who planned on burning Qurans (Korans) today should be ignored. First, unless he steals the Qurans, he has to purchase them. This means that the pastor is supporting Quran printers, which is a good thing. Also, burning books? Really? He is definitely making a statement, but he communicates no intelligence. I would ask you to take some time to read the Quran today. Reach out to the Muslims in your community, and let them know you bear no ill will toward them or their religion. And one word on "the 1st 9/11." Some anti-Mo's made a movie a few years ago calling the Mountain Meadows Massacre the 1st 9/11. Apparently some of the documentation of the massacre that makes Mormons look really bad, was forged by the notorious Mark Hoffman. I'm not sure on the precise nature of the documents, but I imagine this, like most other horror stories about Mormons, has been exaggerated. Not that the ...

Adorable 4th grader asks Obama: "Why do people hate you? They're supposed to love you. God is love."

Chief Justice Antonin Scalia thinks Jews should accept the cross. During a debate on a giant cross that was to be erected to honor veterans: "The cross doesn't honor non-Christians who fought in the war?" Scalia asks, stunned. "A cross is the predominant symbol of Christianity, and it signifies that Jesus is the son of God and died to redeem mankind for our sins," replies Eliasberg, whose father and grandfather are both Jewish war veterans. "It's erected as a war memorial!" replies Scalia. "I assume it is erected in honor of all of the war dead. The cross is the most common symbol of ... of ... of the resting place of the dead ." Eliasberg dares to correct him: "The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of Christians. I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew ." " I don't think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead the cross hono...

I listened to This American Life Yesterday, and the host, Ira Glass, said (paraphrased) "My evangelical friends have told me that no matter what good I do in this life, no matter how just or kind I am, that I, and my entire race, will burn in hell for eternity." Because he's a Jew. I'm glad to belong to a church that takes a more kindly view of Jews: " But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me , in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles? O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads...

Deciding who goes to hell is a fun game. It keeps me awake at church. A Utah (Mormon?) artist Jon McNaughton has drawn a picture " One Nation Under God " of the saved and unsaved in America. His website has a neato feature ; you can scroll over the faces of the people in the picture, and it tells you who they are. Another website has parodied it. My problem with this is that the people he cast into hell are "others." They are "those sinners" instead of "us sinners." I just wrote about this ; it's a big problem in Utah. For example, he puts Hollywood people, abortion girl and her abortion-loving Supreme Court Justice boyfriend, lawyers, politicians, the liberal media, and evolution professors in hell. What about the hypocrites that Jesus loved so much? Where's the smug self-righteous Christian high-fiving the pregnant lady? Not there, because that, uh, would include us. My favorite was this guy: Looks like the rule to "love yo...

I've struggled to know why so many Christians are conservative, when it seems to me that Christ's teachings appear rather liberal. One group noticed this, and dedicated a website to teach that " Jesus is a liberal ." Another group noticed this, and decided to retranslate the Bible to make it more conservative . If this new translation is not a Colbertesque joke, then it is a powerful example of confirmation bias . "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly." Not only has real meaning of the Bible been mixed up through scholarly translations, but we retranslate it ourselves every time we read it, because we interpret what the words mean. I'm sure all of us are often guilty of conforming the words of Jesus to our beliefs, instead of the other way around. But this blatant attempt to rewrite scripture is a disturbing rebellion against God. As Talmage wrote: " What right have we to turn the scriptures from their ...

The existence of crazy religious people does not make all religious people crazy. So I can still have a testimony even though Glenn Beck is Mormon. No one laughs at God in a hospital No one laughs at God in a war No one’s laughing at God When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor No one laughs at God When the doctor calls after some routine tests No one’s laughing at God When it’s gotten real late And their kid’s not back from the party yet No one laughs at God When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake No one’s laughing at God When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else And they hope that they’re mistaken No one laughs at God When the cops knock on their door And they say we got some bad news, sir No one’s laughing at God When there’s a famine or fire or flood But God can be funny At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or Or when the crazies say He hates us And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke God ca...

Some guy took the scripture: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke 10:18) and translated it into Hebrew as "I saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah." So Barack Obama is Satan because his name in Hebrew translates roughly into "lighting from heaven." Cool. I also thought interesting that if you translate George Bush into Finnish you get Yrjö Pussi, or "vomit bag." Update : "The given name Barack is not a form of this name [lightning] , but is instead related to a different Semitic root which means "blessing" and is also the origin of the names Baruch (Hebrew) and Mubarak (Arabic). " - wikipedia proves another nutcase wrong. So Barack Obama means "Blessing from heaven." As in "I will . . . d open you the e windows of heaven , and pour you out a f blessing , that there shall not be room enough to receive it." But I'm sure there's another way to prove that Obama is evil.

I'm reading Robin Meyer's book . I recommend you read this entire speech. Read some of the bullets if you're in a hurry. There's a video below where he covers some of the same stuff. "As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor. Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian. We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having ...

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen tried to seduce Ron Paul in his new movie Bruno . Ron Paul pulled a Joseph and fled that den of sin. You hear that Southern Voting Bloc? Ron Paul is your example of a Biblical Saint. You too, Mormons. Paul said: "When this all gets out, I'm probably going to have to apologize to my supporters because I think most of them are going to figure out why in the world didn't I sock this guy in the nose?" and "the fact that he has raunchy material and people buy into it — it's sort of sad that that is a reflection of our culture."

But it's a Christ I've heard many people testify of, and fervently worship. A political group called "The Family" is "the oldest Christian conservative organization in Washington and it goes back seventy years. And the founder believed that god gave him a new revelation saying that Christianity had gotten it wrong for two thousand years and that what most people think of as Christianity, as being about, you know, helping the weak and the poor and the meek and the down and out, he believes god came to him one night in April in 1935 and said what Christianity should really be about is building more power for the already powerful. " -from Crooks and Liars Though this is an extreme, I seem to constantly battle this idea among Mormons that poor people are lazy and get what they deserve, and that we shouldn't help them, and that capitalism is equivalent to the gospel. These sound ideas of respected business and hard-work are nothing more than the resurrection ...

God the Father The name for the Roman God "Jupiter" comes from the Greek "Zeus Pateras" or in Latin "Dies Pater," or in the more familiar Spanish, "Dios Padre," or in the even more familiar English, "God the Father." They happened to have a father god, big deal. But you could also call him Jehovah. From Jove to Jehovah: I've read in books people say "by Jove" in place of "by God." Turns out "Jove" is the shortened form of "Jupiter," the equivalent of "God" in place of "God the Father." P and V are equivalent letters. P = V. Also, V is equivalent to U, and the Hebrew letter vau. P = V = U = ו (vau). J is equivalent to I and Y, and P to V to U, so Jove could be spelled IOUE or YOUE, pronounced Yohweh or Yahweh. Not bad. Romans worshipped Jehovah. From Jehovah to Jove It also works from Hebrew to Latin. Jehovah is also spelled Yahweh or Jahweh, because J = I = י (yod, H...

From Nabisco . What a perfect word to describe the Lord's Supper. Lest you think it I who blasphemes, consider how these agribusinesses grow their food . They are doing nothing less than participating in the murder of God's creation. The soil loss and pollution caused by industrial farming will lead to the eventual collapse of our civilization , and to tasty snacks for $1*! * Purchase of said item makes you complicit in the destruction of civilization and of your own health.

This Pastor prays that Obama will die . I'm not a Christian, but I do believe in the guy who said this : Love your enemies , bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you

Jared Diamond speaks of religion from an anthropological perspective. Politicians use organized religion to justify their theft (taxes). Politicians use religion to justify war. The popularity of a religion does not say anything of its verity. These values are not the whole explanation for religions. I recommend Collapse by Jared Diamond Guns, Germs, and Steel is also excellent.

Carl Sagan describes what it would be like to see a being from another dimension. 7 minutes, but interesting. Compare to: Joseph Smith's vision of an angel —A fourth dimensional being appears in the third dimension. Paul's vision of the third heaven —A third dimensional person is lifted into the fourth dimension. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence ."

Hannity describes America's "unqualified response" after 9/11, and the international backlash against our "unilateral military action": Do not buy this book. You will only encourage him. "It was astonishing. Imagine someone punching you in the face, and as you prepare to punch back a supposedly objective onlooker warns you not to strike back because you might "inflame" the attacker and his friends." - Deliver Us From Evil p.20 Objective onlooker? = Jesus. "But I say unto you, That ye resist not a evil : but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right b cheek , c turn to him the other also." - Jesus . The phrase "resists not evil" casts a new light on Sean's later statement: "It reflected [Jesus'] political antipathy toward America, and [his] general cowardice when it comes to confronting evil actors on the world stage." Confront evil all you want, Hannity. I'm going with Jesus on this one. Another p...

You've all seen this picture that "proves" that Obama is a Muslim: It is used to scare Americans who think your identity changes depending on what clothes you wear. These people annually crap their pants on Halloween. Well, it goes the other way too. It looks like Al Qaeda is scaring Muslims into thinking Obama's a Jew: The man wears many hats. Of course, we all know he's really a Christian. Yikes. And yet it seems like church is always so boring. But then your preacher starts talking crazy to wake everyone up. Or one of your friends asks you to try something on, someone takes a picture, and it all goes downhill from there.

"Dozens of worshippers, dressed in traditional vestments of their sects, kicked and punched each other, knocking down tapestries and overturning decorations at the site in east Jerusalem. " " Both sides blamed each other for the violence, with one Armenian monk saying that Greek Orthodox worshipers attempted to place their monk inside the tomb - which he said is not permitted. " " Fights are not uncommon in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher." -From AJE Article