Posted on 06/05/2010 6:04:48 AM PDT by Christian_Capitalist
Then what does? The people who really concern me are the ones driving around with bumper stickers that say “In even of rapture, this car will not be occupied” while wearing t-shirts emplazoned with an image of Christ on the cross with the legend “I’m ok, you’re going to Hell.” Shall we call it the Taliban wing of the Christian faith? There are too many people out there who use their “faith” as a shield from a more fitting label like, say, “Obnoxious nutcase.” It’s like the troofers who walk around thinking they are the arbiters of truth, virtue, and intellect while everyone else is nuts. I prefer people who practice their religion while not making a bog show of it “...for I tell you this: they do it only to gain the admiration of other men.” Matthew Something:Something
I think that someone can be a good person by their actions, in absence of traditional religious faith because they are just naturally good people.
Reject the premise.
Who said that any facet of the Tea Party movement is ‘Christian’?
i certainly don’t recall any of their recognised spokesmen saying so.
The movement is no more supportive or opposed to Christianity than the laws of thermodynamics.
Quite a bit of presumption on Wallis’ part.
It appears to me as if you’re quite angry with yourself for allowing others to have so much power over you — causing you to obsess about what other people say, do, and believe.
Why can’t you live and let live?
I already gave you the solution to the fears and resentments you have; smaller government.
I’m beginning to think that what you really want is to control others through the arm of a large government so that you will be able to FORCE your beliefs (that you listed in your posts above) down the throats of the rest of us.
And even though you ignored it when I wrote it above, there are no “naturally good” people. We can hope for the best, but expect the worst from each other and the social institutions we devise.
The Framers had no illusions about the realities of human nature. That’s why they set the Constitution in place to protect our _self-event_, (because they’re God-given) rights, and to protect us from each other by undergirding it with the Rule of Law (rather than men).
“The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike.” ~ C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963), The Poison of Subjectivism (from Christian Reflections; p. 108)
Yes, I believe there is an element of racial resentment to the Tea Party movement. It's relatively minor, especially in contrast to the racial triumphalism of the Obamamites, which I find at least equally repugnant. And it exists primarily because anybody can affiliate themselves with the Tea Party, it's not like there's a committee out there that can deny someone membership.
I think there would be a Tea Party right now whoever had been elected. Some minor number of those presently affiliated might not be as jazzed up, but I think Obama's color has negligible importance.
I attribute the racial makeup of the Tea Parties to the division between tax payers and welfare recipients being skewed by generations of race-based entitlement programs. It’s destroyed the work ethic and created a culture of entitlement and dependence in the black community and now they don’t know how to live without it.
I don’t disagree. Very sad.
read
IMO, here's what we do. We realize that there are vast, maybe unresolvable, differences among us. But that we all agree that the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is not the answer. We agree that the Declaration and Constitution created the greatest country on earth, not our natural resources nor our exploitation of the black and brown peoples of the world. We agree that we have different reasons for wanting to be free but that freedom and liberty are our highest political aspirations.
And so we join together, Christians, Libertarians, libertarians, conservatives, Tea Party Activists, Republicans and we kick the totalitarians out of office. If we can we ridicule and humiliate them as we ridicule and humiliate their sycophants among us. We show "liberalism" for what it is, collectivism and tyranny driven by the mental illness of its advocates.
And then, someday when we have won, and our children and grandchildren have a future again, we sit around the table and argue with each other while sharing beer or wine or fruit juice. And, at the end of the evening, we shake hands and hug each other because we have, despite our differences, preserved the right to have differences.
Well put. And freedom is an END, a GOAL, NOT a means to something else.
"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)." -- Ayn Rand
"This right to life, this right to liberty, and this right to pursue one’s happiness is unabashedly individualistic, without in the slightest denying at the same time our thoroughly social nature. It’s only that our social relations, while vital to us all, must be chosen - that is what makes the crucial difference." -- Prof. Tibor R. Machan, HERE
"One byproduct of individualism is benevolence -- a general attitude of good will towards one's neighbors and fellow human beings. Benevolence is impossible in a society where people violate each others' rights." -- Glenn Woiceshyn
Matthew 28
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
That is exactly right, and yet seemingly very few Christians seem to recognize your (EXCELLENT!) theological point.
Yes. God did not ask Cain if he was he brother's keeper; he asked Cain if he was his brother's killer. Cain did not want to answer that question, so he re-defined it to imply that God was requiring exorbitant duties of him -- as if he were Abel's "keeper", as if God was expecting him to have to feed and care for Abel, despite Abel being of sound mind and able body (well, until Cain killed him, that is).
But God never asked that of Cain. He only asked if Cain had violated the very most basic Law of Love, which is to first DO NO HARM to your brother/neighbor.
I agree. I may admit to a little bias in favor of the Tea Parties, but I'd guess that 99% or more of Tea Partiers are hardly bothered by the fact that the President happened to be born of partially black ethnic heritage (seriously -- who cares if he's half-black, or half-Cambodian?), compared to how much we're bothered by the fact that the Federal Reserve won't even tell us to whom they lent $2 Trillion dollars of our money (as just ONE example of the Bailout Madness of the last 2 years).
Yes. Absolutely.
And your point is . . . ?
(Please don’t tell me that you think “nations” in that passage refers to governmental entities. Please.)
Freedom —
What a splendid answer to tuff’s well-stated concerns. Thank both of you for an intelligent and heart-felt discourse.
As a fundamentalist Christian who sees just about everything through the lens of scripture (but who is also highly annoyed by religious ostentation and know-it-alls) I see unity of purpose as our only hope. Because we love our kids and our country, we have much in common.
We’ll never agree on everything — that’s what’s wonderful about America. But we must step up now on the Big Things that threaten our way of life.
>>>I guess what you’re suggesting is that I take a page from the Hippie Handbook: “Think globally, act locally.”
That phrase is not from the “Hippie Handbook.” Most hippies were easygoing in their personal style, and somewhat libertarian in politics, not unlike the modern-day Tea Party movement. A minority of agitators sought to radicalize the hippies, and it worked for a while.
“Think locally, act globally” is borrowed from critical theory, which was a continental European intellectual movement that sought to rescue socialism from its association with Soviet totalitarianism. It was just an offshoot of the Frankfurt School.
Tha TEA Party is AMERICAN
end of discussion (grampa always said: “Don’t get into a pis*ing contest with a skunk.” You simply don’t give these cretins substance by acknowling them. )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9_bP219ehQ
Guess I’m just used to seeing it on the bumpers of volkswagens, lol.
To everyone who replied, I thank you whole-heartedly for your input. I think we all agree that the GOP (and the gov’t especially) needs to move in a more libertarian direction, and re-assert the primacy of the rights of the individual.
bttt
I don't think "nations" exactly matches "governments" but no government can or ever will a successful impediment to the Great Commission.
Governments are subject to Him.
Psalm 2
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
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