A reader, Nancy Papat, read Pastor Chartes Foster Johnson’s article about Governor Gregg Abbott’s campaign against pornography in the schools and school libraries. She concluded that the Bible is a dangerous book because it contains sexual innuendoes, violence, and even anti-capitalist propaganda (like driving the money-changers from the Temple).
She posted this comment:
By this standard, schools will have to remove the Holy Bible from school libraries.
* There is much too much sex – that story of David and Bathsheba is for mature audiences only
*There are stories of slavery and abuse which might make some children feel bad because that could be interpreted as Critical Race Theory.
*Then there is the story about Mary and Joseph fleeing Bethlehem for Egypt to protect baby Jesus after the King ordered the killing of male babies. Doesn’t that glorify and even deify refugees?
*Jesus threw moneychangers out of the Temple which could raise questions about wealthy pastors of mega-churches in Texas. Is that anti-religion for a state like Texas? [It is also critical of capitalism.]
*Years later, Jesus himself suffered the gory, torturous death of crucifixion. Clearly the Bible has too much sex, violence, and dangerous political statements for the state of Texas and its students.
Then there is the question of whether Mary and Joseph were married when she got pregnant. If God was the father of Jesus, not Joseph, this raises more questions.
Have you read any licentious or subversive text in the Bible? Please add to her list.
Surely this dangerous book should not be read by children!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Elijah: “Take all the prophets of Baal…and there let them be slain!”
Rampant animal cruelty in all the ritual slaughters.
Animal cruelty? Here is a streamlined, gentle telling of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah
When the two angels arrived in Sodom and Gomorrah, a man named Lot invited them to stay at his home. Some men from the city came to Lots home demanding to be given the two visitors so they could have sex with them. Lot, trying to defend and protect the angels, offered the men his virgin daughters in their place. As the angry men tried to break into Lot’s home, the angels struck the men blind and then led Lot and his family out of the city.
As Lot’s family fled Sodom and Gomorrah, God rained down burning sulfur onto the city. All men, animals, and vegetation were destroyed. The angels warned Lot and his family to not look back but his wife did not listen and was immediately turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back.
God created all mankind, animal kind, everything belongs to God even your soul. He is God He can do what He wants!
Should all history books like the civil war be banned for violent and killing stories? You will NEVER banned the word of God nor destroy it because God himself promised to preserved it to all generations.
It’s very easy to find awful parts of the Bible. I’m sure God didn’t condone all of these passages that were written by people who have the same biases and hatreds that people have today.
Luke 16:18
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”
Leaving your wife and marrying another woman because your wife likes to talk a lot isn’t a Biblically-valid reason for divorce.
2 Chronicles 21:14-15
“Behold, the Lord will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions,and you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the disease, day by day.”
Leviticus 26:27–29
“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.”
The Lord was so furious with their wickedness that the consequence would involve famine and even cannibalism.
Hm. It’s not unreasonable to pull the book containing such nightmarish passages from the bookshelf of schools. 😉
They ate those animals are deer hunters in animal cruelty as well?
Exodus 20:17: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house …. or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
You mean I shouldn’t want what the Jones’ have next door? Definitely anti-capitalist….
And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
–Luke 18:18-25, KJV
Do you know what covet means
covetous, greedy, acquisitive, grasping, avaricious mean having or showing a strong desire for especially material possessions. covetous implies inordinate desire often for another’s possessions.
You’re an odiot!
Do you even know what covetous means
covetous, greedy, acquisitive, grasping, avaricious mean having or showing a strong desire for especially material possessions. covetous implies inordinate desire often for another’s possessions.
You’re an idiot!
“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down beneath his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” –Song of Solomon 2:3
See also Ezekiel 23:20
“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down beneath his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” –Song of S 2:3
See also Ezekiel 23:20
For some reason, the name of a certain king of Israel renowned for his wisdom, like the name of Supreme Court “Justice” Caveman, automatically triggers moderation. Oh the mysteries, like that of the Trinity, of WordPress!
To my knowledge, this is the primary mention of fellatio in that library of books known as the Bible.
The note for this passage in the King James Bible given me by my grandmother says, “Christ’s love for his Church.” LOL.
TRUE!
Thank you for posting this, Diane. I have thought the same thing.
“Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.” Ezekiel 23:19-21.
30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
37 And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
–Genesis 19, KJV
The inebriated Lot opining the morning after about the prior night’s subterfuge, “I hate when that happens. Damned women.”
Well, that explains why anti-abortionists won’t accept an exception for incest. They believe that young women invite it upon themselves.
Can’t blame Lot for not wanting to dwell in Zoar.
A one camel town if ever there was one.
Cease and Desist Demand
If you persist, SomeDAM, in defaming Zoar and so damaging the Zoar by Camel tourism industry, please be aware that we shall seek remedies to the fullest extent of the law. –Resheph Shemesh, Esq., on behalf of The Zoar Tourism Council
So now, Bob, you are a spkoesperson for Zoar Tourism Industries? Many people might think, you probably are a lawyer, but I am quite sure, you are a spy. For which country, we have yet to figure out, but we will figure it out. What languages do you say you speak?
I speak the languages of Kami and dead saints and several of the guitar, though the first two might be just voices I hear in my head. I understand that there are medicines for this. I’m working on my English. I am curious, Mr. Wierdl, about you. I’m already impressed that you are a master of Hungarian and English and mathematics.
Well, if I admitted that I learned Russian for twelve years in school in “Communist” Hungary, I may lose my US citizenship hence I keep quiet about it. The only thing I consistently remember is the Soviet national anthem, though I now regret not paying more attention in Russian classes. It was difficult, though, since we mostly read about the great Soviet revolution and the life of Lenin, like how he was fond of sledding in the mountains as a young boy.
Wow! My lord, I wish I had this language! To be able to read Russian literature in the original, now that would truly be something. Impressive, Mate. If you wrote your memoirs, I would definitely read them. A fascinating life.
And what a shame about the reading you were subjected to, given the wonders available in that language!
I had an intensive Latin reading course. I’ve studied some French, Spanish, and Italian and know enough of these to plod through a newspaper, for the most part, but given the large number of cognates, that’s no great accomplishment. I recently took up learning Japanese, which is really difficult–so few cognates and all those different writing systems. I’ve studied linguistics off and on for most of my adult life and have a head full of trivia from various languages past and present, and I know quite a bit/of English at different periods in its development.
But a lawyer? That’s defamation.
Well, Bob, only lawyers write this way “be aware that we shall seek remedies to the fullest extent of the law”. Besides, who else knows the full extent of the law?
LOL. Yeah. I’ve always chuckled as well, Mate, at that “fullest extent” business. But cliched hyperbole seems to work for the folks who ply this pernicious trade.
I am always really impressed when someone who grew up with a very different first language masters English as well as you have, Mate. English is so freaking complex and weird, though thanks be to Ganesha or whatever language god you like, it doesn’t have 15 cases and a huge gaggle of verb aspects.
“See, the day of the Lord is coming — a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger. . . . I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty. . . . Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.” (Isaiah 13:9–16 NIV)
“For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.” | Exodus 35:2
Good morning Diane and everyone,
And there’s this doozy!
“But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.”
Genesis 38:9-10
There you go, scaring all the readers of this blog!
31 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
3 And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian.
4 Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.
5 So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.
7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.
8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.
10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.
12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
–Numbers 31, KJV
“If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.” –Deut 25:11-12
Say what?
Happens all the time.
Ask any prosecutor.
These two men wouldn’t have happened to be Corinthian, would they?
Two Corinthians walk into a bar. They both get concussions.
If Rittenhouse had balls and, an intent to murder with an AK-15, should a demographic that makes up 50% of Kenosha’s population
(ladies whose arsenal is plastic bags) refrain from….
This sounds more like one guy’s personal experience than an infraction requiring legal remedy.
When Saul’s servants told him what David had said, Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” 1 Sam 18:20-30
Better call Saul.
Saul McGill?
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4T here were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6, KJV
“Hey, those Earth girls are pretty hot!” say the sons of God.
LOL
Then there was the time when Mary yelled
at the young boy, for not closing the door.
“Jesus Christ, close the damn door,
were you born in a barn?”
LOL.
And also when Mary Magdalene said to Jesus on the cross
“For Christs sake, get down off there. You’ll break your neck!”
…to say nothing of catch pneumonia, just wearing that loin cloth”
Years ago, when I was a little boy, I called my younger brother a fool–a term, I suppose, that I had picked up in church, where people used such loose language. My grandmother, who was standing nearby and really knew her Bible, quoted a scripture at me: “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” –Matt 5:22
For weeks thereafter, I was scared to death. I was going to hell for sure.
Prescient, wasn’t she?
Haaa!
Jesus! After reading all the above comments, in the name of all that is holy and sacred, ban that Book posthaste.
The Grand Inquisitor in The Brother Karamosov condemns Christ, returned, to death again for heresies in direct contradiction to the teaching and practice of the Church.
Excellent, good one!
accepting hypocrisy a necessary tenet for belief
Belief, that is, in the teachings of the Church, which steer so far from those of Yeshua of Nazareth
To say nothing of accepting the violation of physics.
Parting of the Red Sea, walking on water, turning water to wine (which is also technically a violation of chemistry, but chemistry is basically physics), turning Lots wife to a salt pillar of her community , etc
And also a violation of biology (resurrection), which is also physics at it’s most basic.
If someone read in an ancient Greek myth that some fellow, let’s call him Diphtheria, ordered the sun to stop in the sky and it did. We would think, well, of course, these people thought that the sun was a ball-like thing (a fiery chariot?) that traveled across the sun each day, and the myth is in keeping with that prescientific belief. But they read the same nonsense in an ancient Hebrew story, and they don’t accept the obvious, parsimonious historical explanation. Instead, they go to elaborate lengths to invent justifications for this. Well, it’s just symbolic. Well, it’s actually talking about an eclipse. No evidence in the text for these justifications, of course, but people want to believe that this set of ancient myths are the true ancient myths. LOL.
Although, come to think of it, maybe resurrection doesn’t actually violate physics or biology, since bringing people back after their heart has stopped is resurrection, in a way.
But not after days outside at room temperature.
The real mystery is how someone with neither heart nor brain, like Stephen Miller, is able to live.
With the flies and all.
And then there is also the virgin birth, which always seemed suspect to me.
Although I suppose the virgin birth is also possible, if a woman who is a virgin becomes a surrogate and then gives birth.
I am starting to question my own questioning.
As would any birth by a virgin who had been artificially inseminated.
Although I suppose one
Not sure how common artificial insemination was 2000 years ago, though.
And yes, I know: I’m going to Hell.
Poet
A camel’s gut crafted into a turkey baster and then filled with semen
Virgin Birth:
Bob
So, I guess imagination can be a curse when it’s used to refute reality.
that this set of ancient myths is the true set of ancient myths
Bob, I enjoyed reading your Christmas story “It Came upon a Midnight Clear,” but something strange happened. Three suggestive and Satanic pop-up ads appeared on my screen–and don’t try to explain them away, because I know what I saw and read!!
First ad: “Find signals in the noise.”
Second: “This simple trick empties your gut every morning.”
Third: “Do this every morning to snap back sagging skin.”
Thanks for reading it! Alas, the free version of WordPress contains random ads. Sorry!
Wilson 12:23-1913
Jesus saves, Moses invests…
Yikes!
And Satan speculates
Jesus saves and Esposito scores on the rebound!
Highly, highly recommended, these breathtakingly brilliant and scholarly lectures on the Bible by Christine Hayes of Yale. This is a FREE online course that you can listen to at your leisure. I loved the lectures so much that I ordered and read the book based on these, which expands on the course content:
https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145
To access the audio files of the lectures, simply click on the tab labelled “Sessions.”
People in the West have a bad habit of treating the library of books known as the Bible differently than they do other historical documents. Hayes is one of the few who doesn’t do that. These lectures are just magnificent. Also highly recommended, and for the same reason–actual scholarship–the books of New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman–in particular, his Lost Christianities and his The New Testament.
Mark Twain made a similar point long ago! http://www.twainquotes.com/19351102.html
LOL. That’s hilarious.
The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave. –Mark Twain
An amusing story:
In 1631, the Royal Printers in England published an edition of the King James Bible with a couple typos in it. The first left out the word NOT, resulting in the following line:
“Thou shalt commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14)
The second replaced the word greatness, resulting in the following line:
“Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his great-asse.”
The king ordered all the copies confiscated and burned, but fortunately, a few survived for the edification of future generations.
Hmmm. A lot of my comments here are in moderation, even though I have exhibited, I think, tremendous restraint on this topic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible
Tocqueville 18:35
As the past has ceased to throw its light
upon the future, the mind of man wanders
in obscurity.
wow. great quotation
NoBrick, thanks a lot for quoting Tocqueville. W. Edwards Deming teaches “a system cannot know itself; an outside view is needed.” You’ve piqued my interest to read Tocqueville’s view of 19th century America from the outside.
“There is no power on earth so worthy of honor in itself or clothed with rights so sacred that I would admit its uncontrolled and all-predominant authority. When I see that the right and the means of absolute command are conferred on any power whatever, be it called a people or a king, an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or a republic, I say there is the germ of tyranny, and I seek to live elsewhere, under other laws.”
–Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 1835
amen
The canonical books found in Roman Catholic and Protestant Bibles are just the beginning of the zaniness. There are literally hundreds of actual texts from the first couple centuries CE that deal with the stories of Christ and the apostles that exist in whole or in part, and there are many modern forgeries of such books (e.g., the Essene Gospels of Peace fabricated by a cult leader in the 1960s). And there is the magnificent and fascinating Book of Enoch, which elaborates enormously on the story of the Nephalim (those sons of God who married Earth women, mentioned above). It’s considered canonical by the Ethiopian Christian church. A great place to find these many texts is The Internet Sacred Text Archive at https://www.sacred-texts.com/.
https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/index.htm
I, too, committed a gospel, though with no pretense to its authenticity: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/the-true-gospel-of-thomas-the-apostle-by-bob-shepherd/
Which is strange because the Egyptians recorded stuff. Lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff.
But the Egyptians only recorded in hieroglyphics and the readers were all lost in the sand, so now we can only speculate about the meanings.
The same is already true about the information recorded on floppy discs.
cx: Nephilim
The Bible can cause us all to be ashamed of our Judeo-Christian roots because the Israelites took all the gold out of Egypt when they escaped. But it doesn’t matter. Oh Nancy, oh Diane, don’t you understand? It doesn’t matter what’s in a book. Books are not for reading. The Bible isn’t for reading. A book is something you use to avoid public school closure by showing you can answer a multiple choice question about one single paragraph. You only read one paragraph. You don’t read the context. The Bible is something you place your hand on when you swear oaths. The Bible is something you hold up in your hand when you tear gas protestors to do a photo in front of a church. Jesus Christ. Same goes for the Constitution. These things used to contain words and ideas. Thanks to our genius billionaires, books today are just kindle.
the Israelites took all the gold out of Egypt when they escaped
Nope. I assume this was meant as satire, but I’m not quite getting it.
No Trump Presidential Library yet. But such a place might contain copies of everything that Trump ever read, i.e., two passages from the speeches of Adolf Hitler. This wouldn’t require much space. The library might also display the few shreds of the Constitution that remain after his administration, as well as copies of books written under the semi-literate Trump’s name by ghostwriters. Best of all, it might contain works by Trump himself, such as the Sharpied weather map and applications for apartments labeled C for Colored at the top in his own handwriting.
Of course, should such a place be built, it would be the BEST library ever. You’ve never seen such a library! Copies of The Spiritual Reflections of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, of Stephen Miller’s immortal Practicing Compassion, and of Mike Lindell’s The Theory and Practice of Evidence. Trump’s [money] laundry lists. Shopping lists for ammo by Loren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene. The love poems of Matt Gaetz. Gosh. What a trove!
“are just kindle.” LOL.
It’s in the Bible, G-d told the Jews to take all the gold and then He made it happen. I read about it every year on Passover. Exodus 12:35 The Children of Israel carried out the word of Moses; they requested from the Egyptians silver vessels, gold vessels, and garments. 36 Hashem gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians and they granted their request — so they emptied Egypt.
And I’m glad someone picked up on the Kindle reference. Thank you. I almost capitalized it to make sure. I almost even discussed lower case versus capital to make sure.
I remember the first time I read that passage about the silver, gold, and garments to my parents, years ago. They had trouble believing it. It’s not in the Hollywood movie version, that’s for sure. The Bible is certainly not a happy Hollywood fairy tale. It is like Shrek, though, in that there is a talking donkey.
Thanks, LCT!
It’s my understanding that there is not a shred of external evidence that there was ever a Jewish captivity in Egypt.
I just realized something. The Egyptians gave the Israelites gold and silver after holding them as slaves. Better not tell the anti-CRT crowd, there is reparations in the Bible! G-d ordered reparations! O. M. G.
Reparations. LMAO!!!
Bob, not to disagree, but there is no way to discuss whether my people were enslaved in Egypt without painfully delving into the world wide web of conspiracy theory driven fakery on both sides. How the pyramids and the rest of the seven wonders were built is all conjecture. They’re wonders. Wondering can be wonderful, as long as we keep in mind that we’re just wondrously full of wonder in absence of facts.
I had totally forgotten about the gold and silver bit. I found this interesting:
I changed my mind about using ‘is’ with ‘reparations’. It may be grammatically correct, as in saying there is the act of paying reparations, but it sure sounds wrong. There are reparations in the Bible. English is so stupid. Not saying English are stupid, but English is.
Christine Hayes is very convincing on this issue. No world wide web of conspiracy theory needed.
https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145/lecture-7
She elaborates on this in the following lecture: https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145/lecture-8
See also the last section of this lecture: Three Scholarly Models for the Emergence of the Nation State of Israel [00:34:29]
https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145/lecture-12
You know what else comes from Yale? Beer drinking, coed groping Supreme Court justices do. Graduates of the fake superintendent training program, the Broad Academy, do, since Yale accepted $100 million from Eli Broad to host it. Another billionaire bought the Yale Commons. All I’m saying is that Yale is far from perfect. Try not to worship the professors too much and I’ll try not to worship my heritage and cultural identity too much. Deal?
Sorry, LCT. My Christine Hayes worship will continue unabated and would even if she taught at Niall Ferguson’s new University of Grievance. I have this weird penchant for believing that there are actual facts about what happened in the past, that there are statements about the past that are warranted by actual evidence and statements about the past that are not. As far as people’s group mythologies go, fine. But mark my word: one day you will all have to accept the primacy of Bastet.
Thus saith Bob-Um-Ra!
But seriously, LCT, you have good reason to care deeply about this heritage. This origin story is one of the most beautiful ever told. It’s gripping, exciting, profound, and powerful.
With a much stronger grip on the imagination than, say, the idea that they emerged as a relatively geographically isolated faction of the Canaanites that developed its own mythology that syncretized those of their native Canaan and of surrounding peoples and later made the historically almost unprecedented innovation of absolute monotheism.
I have nothing but respect for you. Consider, however, the gravity of the position, “I am right and you are wrong” when discussing religion — or race. It’s called Critical Race Theory, not Critical Race Irrefutable Fact. It’s not the stories of the Bible which are dangerous; it’s the zealotry with which we pursue our beliefs about them which is. Most of human history is dangerous if studied as fact versus fiction. Ancient history especially must be interpreted and re-interpreted in light of new perspectives, but belief that a new perspective, or an old one, is entirely right must be wrong. I say we’re both probably a little right and we’re both probably a little wrong.
My position is simply that there is no evidence external to these stories for the truth of these stories and that they serve as a national origin myth. Both, I think, are demonstrable. That there may have been a captivity in Israel remains very much an open question. There’s just no external evidence of it, which is odd given the extent to which Egyptians recorded stuff.
I thought the Israelites took the electricity out of Egypt.
From the Aswan dam turbines.
I’m worried that some of the Israelites took the data out of the iPhones of Egypt.
You’re thinking of the i-Sraelites
The Exodus story was pieced together from mythic and folkloric material sometime around 500 BCE and deals with events that were supposed to have happened a thousand years earlier. It’s a national origin myth.
The Bg Bang story was pieced together by a Catholic priest some time around 1930 AD and deals with events that were supposed to have happened 13.8 billion years earlier(if you can believe that) It’s a scientific origin myth.
What!? The Big Bang Theory was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady and premiered on CBS in 2007
Yeah, speculation with some warrant in the observations of expansion, based on red shift, and uniform background radiation. But at least science, unlike religion as viewed by its adherents, embraces a possibility of eventual falsification.
A hilarious response, SomeDAM!
Some DAM logical repartee, if you ask me.
(Speaking of which, I’ve done a little light swearing on this post about the Bible, for which I sincerely apologize.)
I have been the worst for straying from the point of Diane’s original post–the craven, opportunism and hypocrisy of the GOP war on books.
Many times have our debates enlightened me more than a bit, changed my mind somewhat, and forced me to reflect. Frustrating and fulfilling at the same time. Our debates make me a better teacher and person. It’s beautiful in Diane’s living room. Thank you.
Is that judge named Samuel? 🤔
Not if it’s done this way:
Nothing mentioned prior compares to The Song of Solomon in the Bible. It is in it’s entirety very salacious, so much so that prior generations of christians cut the entire book out of their Bibles and some libraries also removed that particular book from their library Bibles. Others would not let children read that part of the Bible.
I’m pretty sure they did not have flannel board figures or Sunday school lessons from the Song of Solomon either
So you could say the Bible has been censored many times in many societies so why not Texas. I’v also met very few “christians” who have e even read the Bible.
Song of Solomon snippets:
A sachet of myrrh is my love to me, lying all night between my breasts.
Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle doe, that graze among the lilies.
Your stately form resembles a date palm, and your breasts are like clustered fruit.
I say, “I will climb the palm tree; I will hold its fruit!”
May your breasts be now like grape clusters,
Our sister is small; she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on the day that she is spoken for?
I’m a city wall, and my breasts are the towers. So now I’m in his eyes as one who brings peace.
And then there’s the whole sister relations thing in this text. Strange but true, and common enough in the Middle East at the time. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-biblical-song-of-songs-and-the-sumerian-love-songs/
As Diane and all of you correctly note, the Bible is a dangerous and provocative book.
In my life, it saved me from being a lawyer and delivered me to an even less reputable vocation: preacher.
Be careful when you read it.
Thank G-d you are who you are!
agreed
The Bible is actually written like many of our laws and indeed our Constitution: able to be interpreted to mean different (sometimes opposite) things.
But it’s even worse because God didn’t write the equivalent of the Federalist papers for context so Her original intent is hard to know.
Keeping it simple : Yes
Canada, 42% of the people think religion is important. U.S.A. – 69% (Wikipedia)
Thor will deal harshly with these unbelievers!
Heyerdahl??
https://images.app.goo.gl/qxXJ1FNHim2Q63316
Thank God KonTiki bar is open
Poet
Thanks for the music
My pleasure.
I love John Hiatt and Tiki bar is one of my favorites.
Perspective-
While one of the two major religions in the USA dropped in relative size from 25% to 22%, (since the 1960’s), the absolute number increased significantly, from 45 mil. to 72 mil.
Yes, but. . . according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (very near where I used to live), there are approximately 41,000 Christian denominations and organizations in the world today. So, there are vast differences in belief systems within this religion. The United States has been particularly fertile in its breeding of various Christianities.
There are 20 states in which no religious group comprises a greater share of residents than the religiously unaffiliated. These states tend to be more concentrated in the Western U.S., although they include a couple of New England states, as well. More than four in ten (41%) residents of Vermont and approximately one-third of Americans in Oregon (36%), Washington (35%), Hawaii (34%), Colorado (33%), and New Hampshire (33%) are religiously unaffiliated. –https://www.prri.org/research/american-religious-landscape-christian-religiously-unaffiliated/
I have no idea how the folks at Gordon came up with that number. It seems suspect, but it also seems reasonable to say of Christianities that there are a LOT of them, and they are constantly squabbling and willing to put one another to death over matters like which side of the egg should be broken. This was what Constantine tried to stop by creating a single state-sponsored version.
And Michael Flynn is with him on that!
Bob-
Thank you for adding to the discussion. As you documented and through interpolation, it’s evident that related political and geographical info is critical. Because you provided what I assume are the six states with greatest percent of unaffiliated, I checked the states. They voted for Biden in 2020.
We know that between 63% and 80+% of White conservative Christians who attend church regularly voted for Trump in 2020. Two important questions are, do clergy and right wing influencers who cite religion as what drives them, have greater influence among the White, conservative religious and which states is voting impacted.
The history of the world’s experiences provides a long term perspective. As you have warned in other posts, the threat to American democracy is today. The people steering the ship reflect the voters’ choices today.
Agreed. Ever since Karl Rove figured out how to harness the evangelical right and Lee Atwater perfected the art of fiction-based agitprop, the republic has been in grave danger.
Linda
So it is religion that is driving them toward racism and authoritarianism? I suspect it is their authoritarian and racist leanings that may be driving them to a religion that reinforces those ethos.
Joel-
The change that warrants examination is institutional religion’s weaponization in the U.S.
Was it John Paul II’s call for evangelism in the public sphere (and, every sphere)? Was it Charles Koch? Was it Murdoch?
The GOP has morphed into a dangerous predator with conservative religion as its primary muscle.
Linda
It was “Brown v BOE” , Paul Weyrich, Falwell, Anita Bryant … they predated John Paul II
The Republican Party was off the rails since 1964 . Rockefeller got booed right off the convention stage that year. But don’t take my word check with Stewart Stevens. Nothing like an insider to fill you in.
Nixon had the Southern Strategy, Reagan the welfare queen. Bush played on Willy Horton Shrub went looking for voter fraud .. and Trump was just obvious about it . But the issues have always been race and homophobia. The Democrats have not received a majority of the White
Vote since 1964.
Democrats response was to become Republican light to the detriment of the working class they sort to appease. It was never about the economics. The Leadership of the Union movement has begged and pleaded for decades to no avail. After all what is more important than
“AMERICAN VALUES ” the response I get. Values like voting for child predators(Roy Moore ) and rapists Donald Trump.
Joel
The following is the from the Jesuit’s America magazine, “Explainer: A brief history of the Catholic vote in the U.S.”
“1960’s and 70’s…No longer voted as an economically disadvantaged bloc….became more suburban.” “Catholic…participation in national politics has become more prominent since Roe v Wade (1973).”
The article omits discussion about race except to quote a person who said, relative to rising affluence, “Catholics became Anglo Saxon Protestants.”
The average American retains the view that Catholic voting leans Democratic which is untrue. 63% of White Catholics who attend church regularly voted for Trump in 2020. I’d speculate that in midwestern states that state candidates who are Republican get votes at even higher rates. Recognition of voting patterns in electoral vote- rich states and in states with GOP administrations is critical for liberal wins.
To date, Democrats have remained silent about the religious vote unless it is evangelical.
Understanding a change in Russia since 2012 is important. A church’s religious leader endorsing Putin as a miracle of God was new. And since then, the church’s influence within the government has grown. The U.S. is its parallel.
Linda
If they did not mention race they must have had an agenda or been hopelessly blind. It was understandable that Catholic parents sent their children to the Church Parish school in the religiously mixed white working class neighborhood I grew up in NYC in the 60s.. Yet when I returned for a visit a few decades later they seemed to have changed Parishes all together, guess why.
“School buses carrying African American children were pelted with eggs, bricks, and bottles, and police in combat gear fought to control angry white protesters besieging the schools.
U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity ordered the busing of African American students to predominantly white schools and white students to black schools in an effort to integrate Boston’s geographically segregated public schools. In his June 1974 ruling in Morgan v. Hennigan, Garrity stated that Boston’s de facto school segregation discriminated against black children. The beginning of forced busing on September 12 was met with massive protests, particularly in South Boston, the city’s main Irish-Catholic neighborhood.”
Roe had barely sunk in by 1974.
I would say that your criticism of the Catholic Church is over the top except that as you rightly point out they have escaped much of the criticism that has been directed at protestant denominations. And the effort to conquer the courts has been led by Catholics like Leo, Barr and Scalia. Today’s NY Times had a piece on Biden being greeted by the Pope and shunned by American Catholic clergy.
That Putin should be endorsed by the Eastern Orthodox church is absolutely no surprise.
I’m with Jefferson on this, they all suck.
“in every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. he is always in alliance with the Despot abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.”
Joel
Thank you for adding comment.
Please reconsider your “over the top” observation. I write frequently on the subject, not to be redundant but, to inform those who stop in to read a post at Diane’s blog, someone who hadn’t previously known that there are almost 50 state Catholic Conferences explicitly set up to influence legislatures, someone who doesn’t know about the Conferences’ successes i.e. school choice legislation, anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ laws, someone who thinks the evangelicals’ network is the most powerful, well-funded religious group influencing Wash., someone who blithely thinks Christian nationalists are a fringe group despite Steve Bannon’s role, someone who thinks Charles Koch’s campaign is separate from the religious right.
If political influencer, Pat Buchanan’s, specific religious background and his view about how it shaped his politics was known by those on the left (he received 20% in a GOP primary vote for President), I think they’d be surprised. Many reading his history along side the Ryan Girdusky interview about Judge Scalia, would be surprised at what they didn’t know.
When mainstream media informs the public, I won’t feel compelled. At a website focused on spreading a Catholic message, the host who was sympathetic to Oklahoma University’s Prof. Brian McCall wrote he was shocked the story received only very localized coverage.
If it was a CRT anecdotal illustration leading to the resignation of a K-12 teacher, msm would have covered it.
In conclusion, I ask you to look at the politics of powerful right wing Catholics, through a prism of a woman in Texas denied an abortion whether, it was the result of rape, incest, etc. And, I ask you to consider the prism of a LGBTQ teen who is put through conversion therapy because political maneuvering resulted in the defeat of legislation aimed at preventing the abuse.
For me to do less because what I write and do is perceived in a way I think is unjust, doesn’t feel like the right answer.
Linda
Easy we are on the same team. My statement was was followed with a qualifier . The reason Protestants and Evangelicals take more heat is in part due to their being twice as many of them. And their reach extending further into Congress and the White House with prayer sessions in both on my dime. Where as exit polls show that between 76% (Edison) and 81%(AP) of those who identify as Evangelical voted for Trump and 52% of those who Identify as Catholic voted for Biden or 49/49 depending on the poll. So it would seem the Evangelical Church has a greater influence on the flock. Although that may reflect Demographic and Regional differences.
Katrine Stewart does a good Job of exposing both. With a shout out to Diane as well.
Throw a good percentage of Orthodox and non Orthodox Jews into the caldron as well. The only way to maintain freedom of religion is to have freedom from religion.
Joel
I am glad that we are on the same side.
If the Supreme Court had interpreted the Free Exercise clause as the Framers had intended (people should be able to jog when and where they want), many of the problems that have arisen since could have been avoided.
Of course, a central part of the problem is that different Framers intended different (sometimes opposite) things with the very same words. And the words were made so damned ambiguous that one can argue almost any position based on them.
What is often touted as the “brilliance” and “prescience” of the Framers in creating a “living” document is actually merely the result of having to word things in a way that Framers with diverging viewpoints could come to agreement on.
I want to add this: I would happily sit in a pew in Charles Foster Johnson’s church and learn from him, if he would have me, which I strongly suspect he would. More like him! A brilliant and beautiful man. I thoroughly enjoyed an online session I attended featuring Rev. Johnson and Diane. I am not a Christian, but I find the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth extremely moving and as profound is it gets, and I reject scientism and embrace Hamlet’s
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Meanwhile, in other news, Putin is preparing to roll into Ukraine.
And one wonders about China and Taiwan
American corporations (with no country) enabled, enables China’s threat.
And mindless American consumers addicted to trinkets and junk enable the corporations that enable China’s threat…all while babbling on about the abundance of consumer goods, the miracle of capitalism, the importance of greed, and the need to support American manufacturers.
Consumer demand = jobs to pay for food, shelter,…
Pres. McKinley said, “I do not prize the word cheap. It is not a word of inspiration. It is the badge of poverty, the signal of despair. Cheap merchandise means cheap men and cheap men means a cheap country.”
A case could be made that Canada and western European democracies are better exemplars of national success than the U.S.
My fear is that Russia will invade Ukraine and that China will think this a highly opportune time to invade Taiwan. A double whammy.
Hong Kong- check
Taiwan- check
Bob,
If you haven’t read, the European Council on Foreign Relations article, “Defender of the faith? How Ukraine’s Orthodox split threatens Russia” (May 30, 2019), it’s fascinating.
“The Orthodox Church in Ukraine this year became autocephalous- meaning it is no longer answerable to the Moscow Patriarchate Church (Patriarch Kirill)….The Kremlin and Russian Orthodox Church enjoy a close relationship…”
The relative size of the Catholic and Orthodox populations in Eastern European countries is discussed as well as
the complexity of religious identity as intertwined into nationalism even when practice of religiosity is low for the population.
“A prominent symbiosis between the Kremlin and the Orthodox Church emerged after 2012….The Russian Orthodox Church’s ostensible role is as an important soft power arm of Russian foreign policy.”
Patriarch Kirill described Putin as a miracle from God. Kirill was on an advisory board of the Russian Ministry of Defense (Michael Flynn comes to mind).
Religious differences contributing to the start of hostilities between factions or countries? How unusual! LOL.
I read the article as a clarion call about an unreported alliance between a church’s leaders and the Russian state. The topic of religious inter or intra conflict might make for a sequel?
One mustn’t forget Ezekiel 23:20!
“She lusted after their genitals — as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.” (NET)
The most dangerous thing about the Bible, taken as a whole, is it’s insistence that we behave toward others in a redemptive fashion, thus making ourselves targets of a similar redemption. It is difficult to forgive your enemy over and over rather than to strike out at him. You will live in misery, addicted to the idea of sacrificial love.
Roy-
You have an interesting perspective.
Just one caveat, the conservative self-labeling Christians who are forgiving, turning the other cheek may not be very high in number or percentage.
It is a bar I do not claim to hit. Perhaps someday.
Perhaps I should have entitled that passage above “The Redemption of the Middianites.”
The redemption of the Middianites
Kill them all–every man, woman, child, and beast, save only the virgin girls. Keep those for yourselves. Oh, and steal all their livestock and burn their villages to the ground.
Sorry, Roy. I couldn’t resist. But this is a lovely teaching. I suspect that by “taken as a whole,” you are saying that Jesus’s teaching about redemption weighs more heavily than does all that righteous wrath in the OT. Some early Christian gnostic sects believed that the two visions, that of the OT and of the NT, were so different that they were clearly about two different gods. There was the bad one, who made the sinful world, and the good one that Christ talked about. And interesting study of these: Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion: The Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. Beacon, 2015.
The Jonas book, by the way, is a scholarly treatment of Gnosticism, with translations of actual early Gnostic texts–quite unlike the gobs and gobs of nonsense one reads about Gnosticism online. All in all, these were pretty ridiculous belief systems, but it’s quite interesting to examine these early Christianities and to think about the vastly differing forms they took before one of them got the political muscle to establish itself.
A dear friend of mine, Roy, who shares your kind heart, was raised as a Calvinist missionary and deeply involved, for most of her life, in evangelicalism. But she couldn’t stand the cognitive dissonance of positing a God who would condemn most not to a week of torture, or a year, but eternal damnation. She has become a Universalist as a result. One of the many Christian factions.
One of the things that horrifies me in the Christian legacy is its contemptus mundi. The world is evil, sinful, but there will be pie in the sky when you die. But there are Christian factions that argue, correctly, I think, that Christ taught that the New Jerusalem would be established right here, on the good green Earth. Bart Ehrman writes eloquently and persuasively in defense of this reading. He also argues persuasively that Christ was pointing to a coming redeemer, not to himself as that redeemer. This is what William Blake thought:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54684/jerusalem-and-did-those-feet-in-ancient-time
The ugly consequences of that contemptus mundi in Christian thought have been dramatic. This extremely baleful notion has gone a long way, throughout history, toward keeping people from pursuing eudemonia–their best lives
“I think, that Christ taught that the New Jerusalem would be established right here, on the good green Earth.”
So much rereading and fixing to the Bible makes it completely unrecongizable. Isn’t it time for a new religion? Just don’t write a Bible for it. And don’t pretend, you are teaching something; something and about somebody real.
Btw, why should schools need to have a Christian Bible? Isn’t it available for free reading and even ownership from the hundreds of churches in town?
Oh, my Lord, there are New Religions enough in the world right now, especially in the U.S., that breeding-ground for new religions. An example: Marconics, cooked up by a batty English transplant to the U.S. who styles herself Grace Elohim, and claims to have created the model (DNA) for life on Earth, and charges people hundreds of dollars for “No Touch Energy Healings” to “uncap” their chakras so that they can “download energy” from the invisible mother ship circling the earth and so become “light workers” in their “angel” forms who can battle the shape-shifting aliens who are trying to take over the Earth so they can get access to the “Crystals of Power” buried within the planet, all of which needs to be done before the coming apocalypse. I wish I were making this up, but a friend of mine became involved in this “New Religion” (we’re not supposed to call them “cults” anymore for a dumb PC reason), much to my horror/chagrin. As far as the reading that Christ spoke of establishing paradise here on Earth, that’s what all the stuff about a New Jerusalem right here, where the last would be first and the first last. This is hardly as farfetched as some interpretations, as the Jonas book on Christian gnosticisms and the Ehrman book on Lost Christianities amply illustrate, or I could refer you to a certain homegrown one here in the U.S. that claims that after being resurrected Jesus carried out a second mission in the New World, all of which was spelled out in some tablets written in “Reformed hieroglyphics” that could be read by a guy in New York because and angel gave him some magic translation glasses.
Thanks for the background on the poem “Jerusalem.” When I first heard it, it was the hymn version (set to music during WW1) at the beginning of the movie Chariots of Fire, and I could not understand all the words and did not know it was by Blake.
Her book on the scriptural basis of Universalism (the notion that all will eventually be redeemed) is here: https://www.amazon.sg/Confessions-Tomboy-Grandma-Eternal-Destiny/dp/0998629723
My post here about the eventual redemption of everyone, the theological position known as Universalism, is, alas, in moderation.
The most dangerous thing about the Bible . . . is its insistence that we behave toward others in a redemptive fashion.
Tell that to the millions slaughtered worldwide under the banner of the prince of peace. The perpetrators of the genocides and enslavements got their notions from somewhere.
In the name of their religion, Christians left rivers of blood throughout history. And in the name of their religion, quoting scripture, they practiced slavery.
But those passages in the Bible justifying slavery–let’s just say that they were made all better later on. There. No boo boo. All better.
But hey, none of that matters because there will be pie in the sky when you die.
From Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather (1692).
The New-Englanders are a People of God settled in those, which were once the Devil’s Territories; and it may easily be supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People here accomplishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, That He should have the Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession.
I’m late but I’m happy for this post. I think the U.S. Constitution should be similarly banned. The original text clearly asserts that Black people are worth 3/5 as much as white people. Maybe it was repealed by later amendment but that can’t be discussed without bringing race into the classroom, which might make some kids uncomfortable. We simply must take the constitution out of the classroom. (Happy Thanksgiving; have a nice day).
LOL. Excelelnt, Mr. Lotke!
I had a student who didn’t like apples. Wouldn’t eat the things. Nonetheless, before the GOP Thought Police rectified my thinking, I taught Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple Picking,” which, given her dietary proclivities, clearly had the potential to make her uncomfortable. I now understand, ofc, that I should avoid all topics when teaching. Ignorance is Strength.
Clearly, Mr. Lotke is not a Constitutionalist. Therefore, his arguments should actually be considered.
Yeah, with all these amendments, the Constitution is getting very (even fatally) confusing. Wait a few decades, and with 1001st amendment, it will be as confusing and as applicable to the real world as the Bible.
The Constitution is not literature, not somebody’s intellectual property, so rewrite the darn thing as needed, and treat old versions as historical resources.
I suspect that when, in 2024, the current incarnation of the Repugnican Party gets control of the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Presidency, we shall see a wholesale rewriting of U.S. law to make the Fourth Reich they are envisioning possible.
So then 2024 is the deadline for my retiring somewhere in Europe where I can still receive my social security but not the news—if such a place exists at all. Do you think the Repugnicans will be able to reduce social security?
This will be tough for them, and I’m certainly worried about this, but they certainly have been calling for that for quite a while, alas.
https://www.foreconomicjustice.org/?p=17993
That’s good, clear writing. I didn’t know that Medicade was also in the mind of these evildoers. Meanwhile I pay $25/mo for full healthcare in Hungary.
Can we just say it? Republican “Christians” do NOT believe in the teachings of The Gospels. The core tenets of the Republican Party now are white nationalism, racism, authoritarianism, tax cuts for corporations and the rich…and sedition. None of these can truly be taken as the teachings of Jesus. Let’s just take one, taxation.
As Susan Pace Hamill wrote in the Virginia Tax Review in 2006,
“the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics require tax policy structures that both raise adequate revenues providing all citizens a reasonable opportunity to reach their potential, and allocate the burden for paying the taxes under a moderately progressive model……The Judeo-Christian standard of justice forbidding oppression directly applies to the laws defining how the burden for paying taxes will be allocated among those at different levels of income and wealth…Judeo-Christian standards of justice express special concern for those with little wealth and power, and require those at higher levels of income and wealth to endure real economic sacrifices beyond their voluntary efforts of beneficence and charity…tax policy is one of the most important barometers measuring the authenticity of a community claiming to be people of God.”
And yet, Republican tax policy is ALWAYS “trickle down.” That doesn’t trickle down. That piles up deficits and debt.
The Trump 2017 tax cut added $2 trillion to the national debt, and went overwhelmingly to the top 1 percent. Amazon doubled its profits in 2018 and paid no income tax .And then Trump broke the economy.
In the early George W. Bush administration, they refused to heed dire warnings of imminent terrorist attacks inside the US, instead focusing on Bush’s tax cut bill. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities summes the Bush tax cuts this way:
“Policymakers enacted the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts with the promise that they would ‘pay for themselves’ by delivering increased economic growth, which would generate higher tax revenues But even President Bush’s Treasury Department estimated that under the most optimistic scenario, the tax cuts would at best pay for less than 10 percent of their long-term cost with increased growth.”
“Evidence suggests that the tax cuts — particularly those for high-income households — did not improve economic growth or pay for themselves, but instead ballooned deficits and debt and contributed to a rise in income inequality.”
Then there were the two wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – that Bush refused to pay for and which have a total price tag of about $6 trillion. And the broken economy and the Great Recession.
No different with Reagan, the “great” tax-cutter. Former Reagan administration Treasury official Bruce Bartlett said that
“When the Reagan Administration sent its tax bill to Congress in early 1981, it did not incorporate any growth effects into its revenue estimate. The numbers sent to Congress assumed that it would lose 100 cents on the dollar.”
It did. We piled up deficits and debt and the trade deficit exploded.
And the whole time, conservative “Christian” evangelicals have been along for the ride. Enthusiastically.
Their penchant for The Bible is like their deep fondness for The Pledge of Allegiance. They recite “with liberty and justice for all,” but they clearly don’t believe it.
Amen!
All faith belief systems are dangerous. Not for the content within their supposedly sacred texts but for the demand that all believe their absurdities-Sky Daddy, virgin birth, rising from the dead, and/or the prophet riding to heaven on a white stallion. It is the demand for faith beliefs to be believed that is so consummately harmful, especially as all those systems pound such inanities into adherents from the time they are born. And if one doesn’t faith believe those things they are ostracized and, especially in the past but even at times these days, put to death for heresy.
To hell with faith belief systems, especially the three Abrahamic ones.
There are no dangerous contents in the bible I have read the bible multiple times it’s absolutely safe for children. Nancy Papat probably has an agenda to get it out of schools. Like for instance she may have had sex outside of marriage which is not approved in bible, she could be a lesbian, which is also not approved in the bible. She could be in a cult where they hate the bible, wherein, Jesus died on the cross for his enemies to be saved, and teaches Christians to love our enemies. The Bible says in Romans 5 (KJV)
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
¹¹ And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
¹² Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
¹³ (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
¹⁵ But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
¹⁶ And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
¹⁷ For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
¹⁸ Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
¹⁹ For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
²⁰ Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
²¹ That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
The points Namcy brought up were pretty petty really. The story of bathsheba is written in a way where I could let my own child read it. First off it’s “NOT” written in a such detailed way that you learn every detail of the event. So you basically get a general summary of the event without all the gory details. So in that way it’s fine for children. It would be better if the bible was taught to the child from their parent or Sunday school teacher though. Children may not understand all the details so they should be taught the Bible where it’s relevant to them at their age. Obviously, children should learn more as they grow and mature, and there are also Bible’s for kids which may be more appropriate for them to read. That way they could easily learn the most from the Bible cause some bibles are written on twelve grade level like the kjv.
Nancy brings up slavery and critical race theory. Obviously, she never read the entire Bible. Like for instance slavery in Egypt, okay, there was slavery in Egypt, but as far as race is concerned it has nothing to do with critical race theory. Egyptians were decendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham, brother of Issac, patriarch of the Jews. So they were ancestors to each other. That’s like saying your cousin is racist just for being your cousin. A lot of what slavery in the bible actually refers to is when the Jews were in debt to another they would sell their services to them till the debt was paid in full then they would return back to their own farms etc…
I don’t know how Mary and Joseph fleeing persecution from a king can glorify or deify refugges. First off, it was just marry and Joseph fleeing not the whole country. Although, that area where Jesus was born the children were killed, sad enough. But the reason for that was because Jesus was prophesied to be called the King of the Jews. Which brought Jesus in competition to King Herod’s crown itself. So King Herod sought to kill Jesus so he could get rid of the competition later on maybe even for his decendants. Obviously, Jesus was the prophesied Messiah savior of the Jews, but the Jews rejected him because of the religious leaders, mainly cause Jesus was too influential to the Jewish people, and the Jewish leaders thought Jesus would take away all their influence and they would lose the place and position with the Roman empire that was in control of Jersalem. Jesus was the messiah but that’s not to say every person fleeing persecution was to become the same thing. That’s foolish to think so!
Do you know what covet means
covetous, greedy, acquisitive, grasping, avaricious mean having or showing a strong desire for especially material possessions. covetous implies inordinate desire often for another’s possessions.
You’re an odiot!
The Word of God will remain forever!!!!!!!