Is anyone watching these wack jobs praying

to their Golden Cow in Alabama?

:hi:

Nice fish.

n/t

for all the people the Bush administration is hurting with their short-sighted policies--the unemployed, this country's future generations, our soldiers, the Iraqi people, the people of Afghanistan...instead of praying to save a rock? Jeez. Why do people have to make such a public spectacle of their religion? It only impresses the already converted, the rest of us see a bunch of people trying to become martyrs over a slab of concrete. Try living your religion, huh?

:)

about praying in public, and showing off when it comes to prayer?

And I've never figured out what's up with the arms-raised-soaking-up-the-glory-of-god thing.

Matthew 6:5-18 NKJV) "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. {6} "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

n/t

So I can get to the part about vain repetitions and the Lord's prayer?

I think I covered the salient point, but if you don't have your bible handy, here ya go:

{7} "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. {8} "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. {9} "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. {10} Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. {11} Give us this day our daily bread. {12} And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. {13} And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. {14} "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. {15} "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. {16} "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. {17} "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, {18} "so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

is what kind of God has such insecurity issues that he needs us poor miserable sinners to assuage his ego with worship. Seems like a pretty secure position to me. Master of the universe, all knowing, little probability of getting laid off, etc. Is God like some rich people, just can't get enough ever? I must admit, I just don't get it.

Matthew 6:5-8

Prayer

5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

or are they like most freepers in that "law & order" is for everyone else except them. :shrug:

I would challenge them as others here at DU have suggested to replace their Old Testament commandments with the New Testament Sermon on the Mount.

Gotta love that convenient cherry-picking Christianity they practice.

Every day this goes on it just reinforces my belief that fundies everywhere really hate Jesus. They want none of His mercy and compassion and all of the Old Testament's fear and punishment.

Jesus wouldn't have a prayer among the far right
http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/012903/opi_aprayer.shtml

I just had to dust off this oldie but goodie!

n/t

these whack jobs (at most 50 of them) are getting wall to wall coverage for being idiots, while war protests that had millions of people, could have saved countless lives (if the moron in chief had listened) got cursory coverage by these same networks. Religious fundementalism in any form (Taliban, Christian etc.) is just plain crazy. Why hasn't their God stopped this if it's such a travesty? I know, God works in strange ways, we can't know his plan. Idiots.

A paperweight never moving....

nt

should put some kind of monument there and see how the fundies like it. What I don't understand is why these right-wing freaks don't get the fact that if they have the right to do something then other Americans have the same right...

it makes me angry these screwballs are getting so much press. If they want to pray to the damn monument, let them but don't put them on TV. Can't quite imagine what righteous cause they think they're upholding, but then again, people like that are completely clueless outside their own little bubbles; not what Jesus intended.

... that all this press is really working in their favor. What percentage of the population has real sympathy for their position, vs. the percent who sees them as false Christians?

I don't know the breakdown, but I'm guessing that they are doing nothing for their cause.

And people wonder why this place has the reputation for being hostile to religion. I believe anyone has the right to assemble peacefully in protest and this goes for anti war protestors as well as people praying.

things. I say let them expose their false God by praying and then watching that stupid rock be removed.

Environmentalist protest for the earth, antiwar people protest for peace. How in essence is this any different, except that you don't like these people? None.

They have every right to protest just as anyone else.

and we have the right to disagree with and be critical of their position.

The media coverage is ridiculous. Where were they before the thousands of deaths brought on by the invasion of Iraq? We were protesting here for weeks on end.

You don't have to agree with them at all. I just don't like the attitude of "Look at those stupid fundies" when people are peacefully protesting. We must preserve rights and freedoms even for those people with whom we disagree. If we take away their right to protest, we take away our own. Past that I think some people enjoy sniping at religious people.

No matter if that stupidity is motivated by religion or not. You think these people deserve any more slack than those religious whack jobs that killed that autistic boy when they tried to "pray" the autism out of him?

And all this wailing and praying crap over an illegally installed hunk of rock is stupid as are the people who are protesting it's removal.

Sorry if that offends, but I am not going to cut people slack for acting stupid regardless of the motivation.

But not everyone does. Whether or not you disagree with their cause you must agree they have a right to protest and a right to peaceably assemble. If you don't agree with what they're doing that's fine, but be careful not to take steps to restrict their rights. As I've said in another post the rights they have to protest equally protect you.

As far as those people who choked or asphixiated that poor child, unfortunately idiocy is universal. Child abuse has been perpetrated by religious nuts and atheist nuts. I get the feeling you're just trying to smear these people who are protesting by bringing up these other crazies. I don't believe that's logical. These people are simply protesting. You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree. Do you have to grant that they are within their rights to do so.

As far as a rock being illegal, personally I don't care one way or another. I don't really care if there is a menora, a statue of the Buddha or Vishu or Jesus on public grounds. Not everyone is an atheist.

I am not easily offended though, so please feel free to speak your mind.

Semper Fi LV

No, I didn't. So please don't make baseless assumptions. I also said that I believe that protesting the legal removal of an illegally installed momument is stupid. What these protestors are doing is showing their support for someone breaking the law and their motivations for doing stupid.

However, there are some people who get caught up in the heat of the moment who won't realize that they're condemning people for doing something they have praised others for doing. Namely, civil disobedience.

Personally, I don't think that the monument is illegal. This is just my opinion, of course. It does not harm my rights for a judge to buy a statue or monument with a religious message. I believe that this does not constitute respecting the establishment of religion, because this prohibition was placed in the bill of rights to prevent the U.S. from having a state-run religion such as the Church of England. I do not believe that it means a government functionary should get fired for donating a monument of the ten commandments.

Personally, I think the whole Madeline Murray O'Hare thing with expunging all religion like the In God We Trust from the currency is much ado about nothing. I would not think it wrong for a predominatly Hindu community to donate a statue of Vishnu outside the courthouse. It's just a work of art.

The other thing to consider is that atheism itself is a world-view. It may not be a religion since it is the denial of deities, but it is a belief system after all. If we are going to go so far as to remove all trappings of religion, isn't this respecting the establishment of atheism?

Like a theif or a vandal, without approval?

The 10 commandments do not offend me, but I am offended by this blatant attempt to push a religious agenda into the public law.

You are only kidding yourself if you believe this whackjob didn't do this in an attempt to undermine separation of church and state.

Would you defend someone's right to install a statue of a goat-legged satan standing on a pentagram in the public rotunda in the middle of the night without approval from the authorities, too? If not, then you might want to ask yourself why you have a double standard when it pertains to your chosen lifestyle?

The Christians praying claim to follow the bible. Yet as many are aware the bible does not condone horizontal prayer. Horizontal prayer is demonstrative prayer in an attempt to make sure everyone around you knows you are praying. The presense of a bullhorn is usually a sign of horizontal prayer. The bible suggests that those who wish to pray should go home and pray in private as it is a private conversation with god.

Like the recent Senator caught gambling (name escapes me at the moment). The crime is not the action itself. It is the hypocracy. The senator made his carrear by deriding the morality of his opponents and demanding the highest levels of moral behaviour. Yet he partook in a practice condemned by his own words.

The enviromentalists do not violate any of their own teachings when they protest. They walk their walk and talk their talk.

And personally, I am the kind of person who likes to pray in my closet with the lights off. However, there is enough in the Bible about witnessing that I do not believe that these people are hypocrites just for protesting and praying. There are plenty of antiwar protesters who have faith, and have prayed for peace. There is also our tradition of peacable assembly to consider. I believe they're excercising their rights and that in and of itself is a good thing.

I believe there are some people who are eager to call these people hypocrites just because of a dislike Christianity. That certianly isn't fair.

As for Bill Bennet, he wasn't a senator, he was in the Reagan administration and is a well known author on issues of morality. He's made a business of putting forth moral values, and to be found in what many people consider a sin is most definately hypocritical. In this instance, I believe vice will be its own punishment and he won't sell any more books.

I believe that most environmentalists are not hypocrites. However, I do not believe that all environmental movements are without hypocracy, in fact hypocracy is unfortuately a universal trait.

The environmentalists I feel are being hypocritical are those who set fire to a number of automobiles to protest atmosphereic pollution. The burning plastics, oils, and gasoline release many more times the pollutants into the atmosphere than the automobile would have released over its useful life. Torching a dealership lot full of automobiles is throwing the baby out with the bath water. I believe it's criminal, bad publicity for the environmental movement, and pollutive to do so.

I don't believe that eleasing livestock animals is as destructive, except that animals raised in captivity have no way to fend for themselves in the wild, and most likely all of them will starve to death. A few may be eaten by predators, but still this is no more humane than being slaughtered for sale.

I believe in peaceful protest. Some of these other things I believe hurt the movements in the long run. Two wrongs don't make a right. Just because you believe a corporation is doing wrongs does not mean you have the right to commit wrongs against it.

media coverage, yet hundreds and even thousands of protesters get nothing when they protest the chimp.

Get it?

I understand the judge paid for the thing but how did he get it there? Do they just open the building for this man and move 2 and a half ton things around? From the pictures it looks like it was all set up for this thing.

Egyptian-style (on rollers, probably with slaves, too...). Anyway, I hope that reich-wing repuke Moore has to pay to have it moved, too.

but I don't think there's anything in the Bible about praying to god in protest

wack jobs is right. You know damned well that if those cameras weren't around, those people wouldn't be raising half the fuss.


:puke:

over 100 times inserts this now and again, "Get your hands off OUR God!"

Sick bastard.