Official LRC President Donald J Trump Thread

Fat hurts wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

3) We will have to disagree about people not being evil if they are not for equal rights for gay people. This is one of the problems I have with ALL Christians or anyone who is adamant that their religion is the correct one. The Bible is a book that was written by mortal men about an imaginary God, and because of that book, they are deciding that it is improper for two adults to love each other. Just wrong...immoral to the point of evil., ESPECIALLY when they cherry pick what to follow and what not to follow. ALL Christians, if they actually did what The Bible says to do, would be in prison. There are roughly 4200 recognized religions on this planet, and people tend to believe the one they grew up with...so their faith has to do with regionalism. Not really the way to find THE one right religion. Now, I know you tend to be a bit more on the liberal side with Christianity, so I have no doubt that you might have a good answer to the above from your perspective, but as I have said before, you are in the great minority with regard to Christians in this country.

4) I don't think everyone who is wrong is evil. Lot of people like Country music and okra, and neither of those things are right, but they are not evil to like those things. It IS evil though to hold up a "holy book" and persecute law-abiding citizens because of a belief in some invisible imaginary man in the sky.

The last straw for me in my formerly more liberal United Methodist Church was when the wife of the associate pastor was doing the "Children's Moments" during the service and told those kids that The Bible wasn't just filled with stories but that all of those things in The Bible happened exactly as described. That is a very popular opinion among Christians, and it is nuts...and, of course, some of those people use that warped belief to support their evilness.

I'll address a bit of what you said, but I could go on for hours if time allowed.

First, there are many who believe that you, Flagpole, are evil because you think that same sex marriage is OK. You end up calling each other evil just because you disagree.

You are both wrong to call each other evil just because your beliefs are different.

A literal interpretation of scripture is indeed a popular principle of exegesis. But if you drill down with folks you find that most are pretty reasonable about what "literal" scripture actually means. If you present a difficult passage and say, "Are you comfortable that this was meant as allegory?", most will not have a problem with it.

That wife of the associate pastor didn't really understand what she was saying. It's sad that you left the church just because of someone who's faith is not very sophisticated. I doubt that this "wife of an associate pastor" has had much theological training.

Small Minds wrote:

Fat hurts wrote:

I'll address a bit of what you said, but I could go on for hours if time allowed.

First, there are many who believe that you, Flagpole, are evil because you think that same sex marriage is OK. You end up calling each other evil just because you disagree.

You are both wrong to call each other evil just because your beliefs are different.

A literal interpretation of scripture is indeed a popular principle of exegesis. But if you drill down with folks you find that most are pretty reasonable about what "literal" scripture actually means. If you present a difficult passage and say, "Are you comfortable that this was meant as allegory?", most will not have a problem with it.

That wife of the associate pastor didn't really understand what she was saying. It's sad that you left the church just because of someone who's faith is not very sophisticated. I doubt that this "wife of an associate pastor" has had much theological training.

Flagpole does have a limited understanding of Christianity and the Bible.

agip wrote:

1) PLEASE stop listing 3+ links in your posts. It's stupid, useless and inconsiderate.

2) Hey Flagpole, the Mooch thinks Trump will drop out in March 2020 after realizing he can't win.

His poll numbers are quite bad at this stage. Do you think he might drop out, like Lyndon Johnson in 1968?

Yes. He’s gonna drop out of the race because it’s gonna become very clear. Okay, it’ll be March of 2020. He’ll likely drop out by March of 2020. It’s gonna become very clear that it’s impossible for him to win. And is this the kind of guy that’s gonna want to be that humiliated and lose as a sitting president? He’s got the self-worth in terms of his self-esteem of a small pigeon. It’s a very small pigeon. Okay. And so you think this guy’s gonna look at those poll numbers and say—he’s not gonna be able to handle that humiliation. And by the way, he is smart enough to know that that entire Congress hates his guts.

Flagpole wrote:

Fat hurts wrote:

I'll address a bit of what you said, but I could go on for hours if time allowed.

First, there are many who believe that you, Flagpole, are evil because you think that same sex marriage is OK. You end up calling each other evil just because you disagree.

You are both wrong to call each other evil just because your beliefs are different.

A literal interpretation of scripture is indeed a popular principle of exegesis. But if you drill down with folks you find that most are pretty reasonable about what "literal" scripture actually means. If you present a difficult passage and say, "Are you comfortable that this was meant as allegory?", most will not have a problem with it.

That wife of the associate pastor didn't really understand what she was saying. It's sad that you left the church just because of someone who's faith is not very sophisticated. I doubt that this "wife of an associate pastor" has had much theological training.

1) I say Jeffrey Dahmer was evil, and he might have disagreed. He might have believed I was evil because we disagreed. He was wrong. Those who are not for equal rights for all people are profoundly immoral and therefore evil. The fact that they use a book written by mortal men about an imaginary omnipotent man in the sky just makes them even more so.

2) In your paragraph about literal scripture, what you are describing there is ultimately that those who believe in the literal will cave when it suits their interest and accept the literal also when it does...so hypocrites.

3) The view of the wife of that pastor was becoming the prevailing view in the church. Insane, and I had to break ties at that point. If it wasn't her, it would have been something else in the near future as I was close to leaving not only the church but the religion.

4) For a long time as a church-goer and a self-described Christian, I was more than ok with deciding that Jesus was a great teacher and, even though no one ever called him "Jesus", there was a lot in The Bible to help one lead a good and grace-filled life. I had enough of people telling me that you had to believe Jesus was the Son of God, had to believe in all the "magic" performed by him and others, and that the Bible was to be taken literally, so I had to renounce my Christianity.

Fat hurts wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

1) I say Jeffrey Dahmer was evil, and he might have disagreed. He might have believed I was evil because we disagreed. He was wrong. Those who are not for equal rights for all people are profoundly immoral and therefore evil. The fact that they use a book written by mortal men about an imaginary omnipotent man in the sky just makes them even more so.

2) In your paragraph about literal scripture, what you are describing there is ultimately that those who believe in the literal will cave when it suits their interest and accept the literal also when it does...so hypocrites.

3) The view of the wife of that pastor was becoming the prevailing view in the church. Insane, and I had to break ties at that point. If it wasn't her, it would have been something else in the near future as I was close to leaving not only the church but the religion.

4) For a long time as a church-goer and a self-described Christian, I was more than ok with deciding that Jesus was a great teacher and, even though no one ever called him "Jesus", there was a lot in The Bible to help one lead a good and grace-filled life. I had enough of people telling me that you had to believe Jesus was the Son of God, had to believe in all the "magic" performed by him and others, and that the Bible was to be taken literally, so I had to renounce my Christianity.

1) You are comparing ordinary Christians to Jeffrey Dahmer. Let's get back to reality, shall we?

A hundred years ago, you would have trouble finding a single person in American who would say that gays should have the right to marry. So you are saying that every person in American was evil?

2) No, you missed the point entirely. I'm saying that many people who say they believe in a literal interpretation of scripture all will concede that "literal" doesn't mean every single passage. But they use literal interpretation as their first principle of hermeneutics. When the literal interpretation doesn't make sense, you turn to something else. It's a perfectly valid academic approach.

However, many Christians know so little about hermeneutics that they will say they take the Bible literally without understanding the implications at all.

3) It's always sad when that happens, but sometimes groups morph into something you can no longer support. Your faith is your own. I'm afraid you let that influence your relationship with God, which is even sadder.

4) Everyone called him "Jesus". That was his name. Perhaps you meant to write something else?

Being a Christian means following Jesus' teachings, including the ultimate claim that he is the son of God. But you never got all the way there. You were never willing to surrender yourself fully to Him. That leap of faith can be scary, but it is the key to a life filled with the peace that passeth all understanding.

Fat hurts wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

1) I say Jeffrey Dahmer was evil, and he might have disagreed. He might have believed I was evil because we disagreed. He was wrong. Those who are not for equal rights for all people are profoundly immoral and therefore evil. The fact that they use a book written by mortal men about an imaginary omnipotent man in the sky just makes them even more so.

2) In your paragraph about literal scripture, what you are describing there is ultimately that those who believe in the literal will cave when it suits their interest and accept the literal also when it does...so hypocrites.

3) The view of the wife of that pastor was becoming the prevailing view in the church. Insane, and I had to break ties at that point. If it wasn't her, it would have been something else in the near future as I was close to leaving not only the church but the religion.

4) For a long time as a church-goer and a self-described Christian, I was more than ok with deciding that Jesus was a great teacher and, even though no one ever called him "Jesus", there was a lot in The Bible to help one lead a good and grace-filled life. I had enough of people telling me that you had to believe Jesus was the Son of God, had to believe in all the "magic" performed by him and others, and that the Bible was to be taken literally, so I had to renounce my Christianity.

1) You are comparing ordinary Christians to Jeffrey Dahmer. Let's get back to reality, shall we?

A hundred years ago, you would have trouble finding a single person in American who would say that gays should have the right to marry. So you are saying that every person in American was evil?

2) No, you missed the point entirely. I'm saying that many people who say they believe in a literal interpretation of scripture all will concede that "literal" doesn't mean every single passage. But they use literal interpretation as their first principle of hermeneutics. When the literal interpretation doesn't make sense, you turn to something else. It's a perfectly valid academic approach.

However, many Christians know so little about hermeneutics that they will say they take the Bible literally without understanding the implications at all.

3) It's always sad when that happens, but sometimes groups morph into something you can no longer support. Your faith is your own. I'm afraid you let that influence your relationship with God, which is even sadder.

4) Everyone called him "Jesus". That was his name. Perhaps you meant to write something else?

Being a Christian means following Jesus' teachings, including the ultimate claim that he is the son of God. But you never got all the way there. You were never willing to surrender yourself fully to Him. That leap of faith can be scary, but it is the key to a life filled with the peace that passeth all understanding.