Archive for the 'Religion' Category
Obama and Infanticide: it doesn’t matter
Date: September 1st, 2008, Filed under Religion
Chicago, IL
By A.B. Dada
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A close Christian family friend emailed me a link just before the weekend. The basis for the article is yet one more Christoconservative reason not to vote for Barack Obama: his possible support against the so-called “Born Alive” bills.
The idea behind the “Born Alive” bill is that babies that are alive after a late-term abortion should be considered alive and (in the words of the pro-abortion supporters) not allowed to expire. The bills that Obama supposedly was against would give government mandate to keeping a child alive if it an attempted abortion leaves the baby alive after removal from the mother.
While I have no particular opinion on Obama’s position, and whether or not he supports Born Alive legislation or not, I do not see a single Christian reason to use his (or anyone else’s) position on abortion to decide who to vote for.
Abortion, to me, is not a moral act, but it is something that also is not a forced act. No one is going to a mother, and against her will telling her to terminate her pregnancy. It is a decision made by the mother, and its direct effect is on both the mother and the fetus, and no one else. That’s an important consideration for Christians to make.
Even the Bible offers an interesting rebuke of the anti-abortion wing of Christiandom, in Exodus 21:22:
22 “Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she has a miscarriage. If no further injury results, the man who struck the woman must pay the amount of compensation the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve.
In this situation, we see that a man forcing a woman to miscarry (”abort”) is charged with a civil penalty, not a criminal one. The Book of Exodus is the only place that is clear regarding the “murder” of a fetus: it is not a criminal penalty as one would have with murder, but a civil one. Of course most Christians understand that the Book of Exodus was based on the Old Covenant with the Jews, and may not matter much today, but the fact that we have no real New Testament support or detraction from God’s old policy leads me to believe that the matter is fairly clear: the killing of a fetus is a civil issue, not a criminal one. This does not mean that I support abortion, it just means that I disagree vehemently with the vast majority of Christians who use it as a political process rather than a personal-moral issue.
If a woman makes a decision that harms another person, that decision is solely her burden to deal with. Christians, as a whole, would be much less abrasive if they advocated adoption of unwanted children rather than aggressing against abortion without knowing the specifics of the reason why a mother has decided to terminate a pregnancy. It isn’t my place to judge a mother’s decision, and that is a Biblical position regardless of doctrine.
But let’s work beyond Barack Obama’s possible failure to support a bill that “guarantees” the life of an attempted aborted fetus/child. In that case, Christians want government to go out and force a moral decision on another person. That, to me, is reprehensible, but not as reprehensible as what my Christian friends would rather support: John McCain.
McCain is an enemy of Christianity, as much or maybe even more so than George W. Bush was. Unlike the abortion issue, where we have no further clarification by God through the New Testament books, we DO have something that guarantees judgment of an evil, criminal, anti-God act that McCain and Bush and the rest of the majority of the conservatives support: murder of others.
Christian Conservatives have a great error in judgment to apologize for: to the world, to non-conservatives, and to paleoconservatives. Their support of a dictator and murderer is the only thing I will generally speak to my conservative friends about. I no longer want to hear about who to vote for, what policies are good or bad, or what they’re doing for Labor Day. It’s not important. The support of murder, criminal and ungodly, is a primary concern for modern day conservatives. And we have Jesus’ own words against this support, in Matthew 5:9:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God”
It’s quite simple. The sons of God are the peacemakers. There’s no denying Christ said this, and meant it, and we are to stick with it if we want to be the sons of God. This very line is why I tell my Christian friends in the military to desert their post and run for Canada. This very line is why I tell my Christian friends that I will never be a part of the mainstream Christian movement, which is enamored with mass murder of both foreigners and citizens. This is why I can not understand why a Christian would say no to Obama but yes to McCain: one seemingly supports the immoral (in my mind) decision of a person to murder their child versus the other person who wishes to command individuals to murder other individuals.
Let’s recap:
Obama: Might possibly support not criminalizing one person (a mother) from taking the possible life of another (fetus/child), but is not forcing anyone to do it.
McCain: Definitely supports forcing one person (a soldier) to take the life of others, possibly and quite often an innocent, regardless of the act that the other person may have done. That, my friends, is murder. That is why I would never in my life consider voting YES for McCain or anyone who supports military intervention anywhere in the world. They are supporters of the act of murder, and I will not tie my name to that act.
I also won’t vote for Obama. Obama, no matter what Democrat supporters say, is just as big of a warmonger as McCain is. They both will escalate the use of U.S. troops to other countries in the world. They both will push for larger “defense” budgets, and both will be doing so by destroying your savings and your income. Neither of them are peacemakers, they both are warmongers and supporters of the act of murder and the atrocities of war.
I will have nothing to do with either. Yet I also will not castigate Obama for refusing to add yet another crime to the lawbooks. We have enough laws that do nothing, protect no one, and only restrict the freedoms of peaceful, moral individuals. That’s the reality. In fact, I would probably support Obama’s decision not to vote for yet another useless law, only because it prevented more laws from being added to the overwhelming record of laws that no one can follow or understand. But my support for the man ends there. The primary reason I can’t support either candidate is their warmongering, support for murder of innocents, and desire to control the world through the means of force instead of the means of love, as Jesus proclaimed was the number one goal for all Christians.
So rebuke McCain, Christians. Rebuke yourselves if you voted for Bush. Rebuke your friends and family in the military and tell them to go AWOL tomorrow. After you’ve done that, I will happily listen to your reasons why I shouldn’t support either candidate. I’m sure there are many, and I’ve made it easier for you: I’m voting for neither.
A response to praying at the pump comments
Date: August 10th, 2008, Filed under Religion
Zion, IL
By A.B. Dada
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In my previous article, Thank God for High Gas Prices, a few readers had left some comments that I felt I had to respond to as best as I can. I appreciate comments, both positive and supporter and negative and critical, as it helps me form a stronger opinion or even catch my own error.
Christopher said the following:
You have an interesting perspective. I appreciate you tying in the writings of Isaiah, as I think they are very applicable to us in our time. I would like to comment on your introductory comments on religion. I thoroughly understand where you are coming from on this whole group think mentality. However, don’t you think that there is a way to be involved in a religion, believe everything that the religion teaches, and yet be able to keep yourself aloof from the hypocrisy of the other members? I certainly hope so because I agree with your complaints, I simply do not choose to come to the same conclusions you have come to. Yes, there are hypocrites, but the prophets tell us to be in the world, but not of the world. I think that a person like you could benefit a congregation immensely, but if you hide your light under a bushel, you show you are ashamed of your testimony of Christ.
I do believe that many Christians are adamant in their adherence to their basic testimony of Christ, but I feel so many of them, the religious as I call them, act as ill reminders of the love that Jesus brought forth from God for all people. Christ had little to do with groups, even though He actively formed his own unique group (the Apostles, as we call them today). His reprimands on others went to individuals and to groups, so I don’t think He hated groups, but I do believe he shunned the idea that faith had anything to do with groups.
I do go to “church” regularly, and have quite a strong connection with hundreds of congregations around the country due to my Christian printing ministry. I don’t think the Church is active as Christ envisioned it, though, especially within the mainstream Christian movement. When I go to “church,” I’m often asked why I won’t join in prayer, or pray for revival, or pray for healing, or pray over my food. The simple answer: Christ showed us that God abhorred group prayer. Christ was very specific and particular about this. Prayer is a completely private, secret act done between a believer and God, in a private and secret place. There is no debate here, because most Christian — I’d almost say all Christians — are wrong about how to pray. Instead, when Christian join together to pray, I chuckle inwardly, knowing their prayers are not what God is listening to. Why should He, when the Messiah was adamant that prayer in public, in the Temple, was a wasted, sinful effort?
And that’s just one area where Christ was strongly opinioned agains group-think. Time and again we read the words of Jesus in disturbing the groupthink of the Pharisees, the Saducees and many other groups. He even castigated his own family (a group) for their reliance on the group itself. Groups are unimportant when it comes to being a beacon of God’s love for the world. In fact, I would heartily say that it is groups themselves that disrupt the love of God for the individual. We are to be beacons, individually. When I shrug off the title “Christian,” I am no longer at fault for those who say “All Christians are hypocrites” or “All Christians are warmongers.” I want people to see me for ME, the individual proclaiming God’s love and redemption for all of mankind through the cross. I don’t want people to say “That Christian Dada” or “Dada, the Christian.” That’s not me. I’m “Dada, a man created by God for specific purposes, with particular strengths and weaknesses.” I don’t sell myself as perfect or imperfect, but as a person with great strengths and weaknesses, both.
The prophets, to me, are not the people to be listening to. Christ Himself denounced the prophets for not understanding what He was speaking. It is obvious to me that the Scriptures repeatedly display the faults of the prophets (old and new testaments), with Christ downplaying their knowledge of what His Truth was, and would come to. They didn’t even really fully believe or understand what was going to happen there in their very generation. When the Scriptures show disconnect between what the prophets themselves believe they saw, and wrote about, it is obvious that the prophets can not be trusted. Only Jesus can. Only His words are truth and bond and guarantees, not what simple, sinful, error-prone men believed. They portrayed a lot of inane falsehoods that conflicted with what other prophets did and said, prophets who were all alive at the very same time even.
Religion, to me, is lost. It is worthless. It is fruitless. It bears nothing but frustration for those who want to try to be faithful to God. Every religion, Christian or otherwise, tries to hold to basic truths that are not even consistent between the denominations of the same religion! How can a Christian hold up Scripture as “the truth” when few Christians agree on how to read and live that truth? Simple answer: you can’t, because it isn’t Scripture that is the Word of God, it is Jesus Himself who is the only truth. So when groups unite, and try to sell a product, the only product you’ll notice, generally, is the differences between those selling the product, not the similarities. That’s why I shrug off religion, and shrug off groups. When I do work with groups, I am really just working with individuals who I hope can see their own strengths to being a beacon of God’s love for others, for the world, for everyone. Yes, they still use my products and services as a group, but over time I’ve noticed that my care for the individual trumps all the work that the individual does as a group.
I’ll try to explain myself better in a future series of articles, but feel free to comment or email me if this makes little sense.
Another reader, juenger1701, said:
so where does that leave the rest of us who actively avoid government and have a hard time remembering when we’re “supposed” to vote?
This is an excellent question. What does one who is either anti-state, or non-statist, do? The simple answer is: speak out against the state, when you notice it is doing wrong. Work against the state’s manipulations when you see them. The dollar has weakened almost every year since 1913; why do you hold dollars? The buying power of the government’s currency is obviously falling, so why take part in trying to use it as the standard of your savings? My gas is still 25 cents a gallon; yours can be, too. It’s as simple as not accepting the dollar as a store of wealth, just as a transfer agent to your pocket, at which point you convert it to true forms of money or assets that you can use for profit rather than loss.
Chafing at the “word” of God
Date: July 13th, 2008, Filed under Religion
Chicago, IL
By A.B. Dada
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Whether you consider yourself faithful or atheist, I hope this Sunday morning article will give you some ammunition against cultists and faithfulmen without reason. If you disagree, please leave me a comment below so I can investigate deeper.
After an incredibly tiring night of churning out print jobs for my church print ministry, I fell asleep with a TV on. I awoke slowly, in fits and starts, with the darling Pentecostal Creflo Dollar puking his typical inanities to his hungry congregation. Creflo Dollar, like many pentecostals, promotes the Prosperity Doctrine, the idea that God wants people wealthy. Not just in dollars, but in all aspects. I do not adhere to this doctrine, but it is not that doctrine that frustrated me as Creflo’s sermon flowed into my conscious yet sleeping mind.
Creflo, like many Christian ministers, was using a term over and over that makes me cringe. That term, a common term in Christianity, is the word of God. Whenever Creflo and many Christian ministers use this term, they’ll hold up the Bible while using that descriptive.
It’s a common error, and one that quickly becomes fact and truth to the listener. This is why I am not a fan of simple sermons that attempt to create truth in the minds of the listeners. God’s truths come from personal discernment and thinking, not from the mouth of another. If one wants to understand the Bible, or any book of scripture from any faith, it is important to not just read, but inquire as to what any story or rite means from the context of the overall portion of that part of the scripture.
For the Judeochristians, the word of God is simpler than most people understand. The Word of God is not the Bible, it is not Scripture, it is not the Ten Commandments or Jesus’ Two Commandments. In its most pure form, the definition of the Word of God is Jesus.
In the Book of John 1:1, we see this simple definition brought to light:
(ASV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(BBE) From the first he was the Word, and the Word was in relation with God and was God.
(ISV) In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(LITV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
I included 4 translations to show that there is fallibility in receiving direct understanding from just one version of Scripture. Many Christians attempt to settle the idea of calling Scripture infallible because they confuse the infallibility of the Word of God (Jesus) with the infallibility of Scripture. This is a big mistake, since it is NOT Scripture that produces truth and all things, but the Word of God (Jesus), as we see in John 1:3:
(ASV) All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.
(BBE) All things came into existence through him, and without him nothing was.
(ISV) Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.
(LITV) All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
Who is this “him” that the Scripture is speaking of? Looking at John 1:1-2, that “him” is the Word of God. It is not Scripture that makes all things, but God, and the Word of God (Jesus). So why do ministers and simple Christians and Christian cultists use the phrase to mean Scripture? I have no idea, but it creates a terrible dilemma in working to refute bad translations of Scripture.
What is the Scriptural proof that the Word of God is specifically Jesus? Look in John 1:14:
(ASV) And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.
(BBE) And so the Word became flesh and took a place among us for a time; and we saw his glory–such glory as is given to an only son by his father–saw it to be true and full of grace.
(ISV) The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father’s unique Son, full of grace and truth.
(LITV) And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and of truth.
Here we see specifically what, or actually who, the Word of God is. For Christians, it is obvious that the Word of God is Jesus, not Scripture/the Bible.
Of course there are places in the Scriptures where the word “word” or “words” are used to speak of Scripture and all of God’s prominent communications with men in the ancient past. Mark 13:31 is one such area, but it is not refering to the Word of God, but His words. It is important to discern between these two separate words (Word of God and words), which use two different Greek/Hebrew terms (logov/logoi). Again, this only comes through study and discernment, not through teaching, as many legitimate ministers and illegitimate cult leaders misuse Scripture by jumping around from Book to Book and Testament to Testament, trying to bring clarity by avoiding context. The context of the Word of God is always Jesus, a second part of the Godhead.
So if you’re a regular watcher of TV ministries, or an attender of congregational services and sermons, and you hear the use of the term Word of God to mean Scripture, be aware that what more is coming from the person misrepresenting this term may be taking you down a path separate from what God wants of man. It is a common mistake, but a mistake that many sermons and preachings are based on. If the basis for such a sermon is this misuse of the most important term of the Scripture, then how can the rest of that message be infallible?
I understand that many Christians refuse to accept this theory of mine. I am not an ordained minister or teacher, just someone who likes to prove what I hear. In all my studies of Scripture, I have not once been able to find a use of the Word of God that means Scripture. Since the Word of God is infallible, it is Jesus who is never wrong. This is why one can refute the idea of every translation of Scripture being infallible: the Bible is not the Word of God, but the story of the Word of God.
Thank God for high gas prices: Praying at the pump?
Date: July 11th, 2008, Filed under Finances, Religion
Zion, IL
By A.B. Dada
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You may have heard of the religious nuts running around and praying at gas stations for God to lower gas prices. If not, check out Vindy.com’s article detailing it, titled Praying for a miracle at pump.
It’s a fun article to think about, whether or not you’ve got religion. As a man of faith myself, I detest the idea of religion and the groupthink it forces people into. Here is exactly why many of those who hold to a certain religion make themselves out to be the crazies they are. It’s sad.
I’ll assume that the crazies here who think that prayer at the pump will turn God’s head in any way are probably aligned with a Christian religious cult. Even though I adhere to the Bible myself, I tend to push away the idea of being a Christian because of the various religious cults that use that brand name. Reading Scripture shows you that high gas prices comes directly with God’s perfect creation, not from bad people.
Let us recall the Book of Isaiah, notably chapter 1. Bible scholars of the Preterist variety know that these verses of the Old Testament prophecized directly to Ancient Israel around the 1st century. Here’s what God had spoken to His People:
22 Your silver has become dross,
your choice wine is diluted with water.
23 Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves;
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.
They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
the widow’s case does not come before them.
The first lines here is important: your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. What is dross? For thousands of years, man had used gold and silver as a medium of exchange, or what we call money. It was pure gold and silver that had the most value. When coinage was invented, the rulers of the time discovered they could introduce cheaper metals into the coins to debase their full value. This cheaper metal was called dross: basically garbage. When the rulers counterfeited coins, saying a 1 ounce coin was 1 ounce of silver even though it may have been 0.5 ounces or even 0.1 ounces of pure silver, the value of that coin dropped. People were not stupid. God provided for the value of the coin to fall, so even the wine became watered down to be sold for what the value of the coin was worth. Prices skyrocketed.
Why did the silver become dross? Because the Ancient Israelites were whores, as God provided for again in Isaiah 1:
21 How the faithful city
has become a whore,
she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.
RIght before the Book of Isaiah mentions that the silver had become dross and their best wine water, it is said that the city became a whore. The whore of Revelation (Ancient Israel) bed down with the Beast (Rome) to forgo God’s desires for them as a Nation. To bring this ancient story to modern times, it is the equivalent of God’s People (all of us, faithful or not) aligning themselves with the apostate State (our governments). Instead of relying on using our talents as individuals, we attempt to team up to make things better. Unfortunately, as I’ve said before, teamwork does not work.
So we see today, 2000 years after God’s Israel was destroyed forever, that the same rules are in motion: if you destroy the value of currency, you will destroy the quality of what you buy. In order to buy quality wine at the time of Christ, one had to spend much more for the non-watered down variety. If you destroy the value of currency, you will pay much more for a barrel of oil.
It has been shown that a gallon of gas in 1947 was selling for about one quarter, 25 cents. A quarter in 1964 was 90% silver, with a spot value of 25 cents. At the time, an ounce of silver was $1. Today, an ounce of silver is around $18-$19, and a gallon of gas is around $4.25 near me. Look at that! Gas is 1/4 an ounce of silver. It hasn’t budged in 60 years.
What has budged? Your politicians. Your evil, greedy, powermongering whores who unite with the State instead of with the People that they serve.
So today I thank God, in some obscure way since I am not in communication with Him, for allowing the laws of supply and demand to exist. I cheerfully laugh and smile as people who whored themselves with the elect cry over the high gas prices. I jump and clap when I realize that they are receiving exactly what they asked for!
If you’re one of these people: if gas prices are hurting your ability to eat, if the next winter’s heating oil prices will cause you to be a little chilly, and if your savings are tapped from the cost of cooling your home, be joyful! God has answered you in the best way possible: you are getting what you deserved.
Do you know when you first whored your life, and acted like the harlot that God called Ancient Israel? It was when you drove to that voting booth. It was when you punched that ballot for a Democrat or Republican. You were a virgin before that first time voting, and you immediately switched from a pure individual tasting freedom to a promiscuous slut who desires tyranny. You asked for this by voting for a tyrant, and you are now reaping what you sowed.
So instead of praying to God for lowering gas prices, how about turning away from your lustful desire to control your fellow man through your governments? How about avoiding the voting booths at all costs, and telling your friends and family that you’re honestly sorry for voting and hurting others? Even if you are not a person of faith, the laws of supply and demand win out in the long run. Your vote is giving you this pain. Your vote is preventing you from being able to afford the basics in life. Your vote is aligning you with those who steal from us all, giving them a mandate to make it worse.
Turn away. Apologize. Never do it again. And to protect yourself from this madness in the future, save 20% of your income in gold and silver. You’ll turn away from the whoring, and return your person and family and household to freedom instead of tyranny.
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A.B. Dada is the founder and editor of the Global Unanimocracy Network. He’s a minister of spirituality, sound, swank and substance, forgoing the use of force and working to implement an anarcho-capitalist lifestyle. As dedicated Preterist “Christian,” he’s been ostracized, excommunicated and called a heretic by dozens of congregations and counting. He’s a regular pro-liberty troll at slashdot.org, and likes to hit and run at billions of blogs thanks to Google BlogSearch. He runs DNG, VIP and numerous other side projects to keep his ADD in focus. Email rants and raves, criticisms and compliments to adam.dada@gmail.com.
Defending Religious Persecution
Date: July 4th, 2008, Filed under Religion
Chicago, IL
By A.B. Dada
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I detest religion.
That pretty much sums up the entire theme of this article. It isn’t just the word that I don’t like, it’s the entire redefinition of that word. If we look up religion in the dictionary, specifically the Dictionary.com Unabridged version, we get the following definitions:
1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
Here we see that religion is a set of beliefs regarding the universe, containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. Right here we see the beginning of the problem with religion: governing the conduct of human affairs. When one person’s faith interdicts how another person lives, you instantly have a violation of the second person’s property rights and right to self maintenance. If that definition of religion was partially redefined to “containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs of only those believing in that religion,” I would have no concern over religion. But the general indifference to who that religion governs creates too much animosity in the world. I say we should all just move forward to ban the idea of religion in our lives.
The second definition, from the same dictionary:
2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
Ok, this is acceptable. As long as the beliefs are agreed upon by a number of persons to only pertain to that number of persons, it does not infringe at all on me or anyone else.
3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.
The third definition is also not ignorant of the right of others to believe what they want and live how they want, as long as they hurt no one. This definition of religion is also acceptable to me.
The rest of the definitions in that dictionary are relatively harmless, and just point back to the first three.
But religion has changed, especially in the modern world. Whether you are a Jew or a Christian or a Muslim or one of the many variances of those faiths, or a number of other faiths, the new definition of religion seems to be based solely on forcing your views on others, and condemning them for not having the same views. Even worse, the religious tend to fall towards using the State as the means of forcing others to live within the religious advocate’s worldview. This is where I take the biggest issue with.
Even though I consider myself a person of deep faith, I have started to disrespect those who have religion. It doesn’t matter what their religion is, the fact that they use their belief in a faith as a pedestal to launch attacks on others really concerns me. I’ve become concerned enough to gain a large prejudice against the religious. It’s starting to get to the point that I am persecuting those who have religion, including those who are close to me. I don’t want any part of it: the idea of forcing others to live a certain way, even if they’re harming no one, all in the name of a God, god or gods.
A simple example is a close friend of mine who tends to fall towards the Evangelical Pentecostal Christian religion. Their faith is not strong in their live, based solely on watching how they live it, but their religion causes them to want to attack others outside their religion using any means possible. If their neighbor uses drugs, this religionist is the first one to call the police, even though no harm has come to the religionist. If they see a pair of teenagers holding hands, they’ll be the first one to step forward to them and condemn them, on someone else’s property. If a foreign group of people show a different belief, this person wants to use military force to change them, all in the name of their religion. And they want me to pay for it.
Even though they can persecute others for their varying beliefs, I can not. I am not allowed to use a person’s religion as a reason for not hiring them. I am considered evil if I decide to stop talking to someone at a party or gathering solely based on their outrageous belief in their religion. I am dismissed at prejudiced if I say that some people’s religions are bordering on idol worship and cultism. I am frowned upon by friends and family if I call out a religious fanatic on their overwhelming madness in wanting to convert the world to their religion through force and property violations.
Religion, today, is defined mostly as one thing it seems: a person of vocal faith who wants to scare or force others to believe in that faith. Note that I when I say vocal faith, the emphasis is on the vocal part. Words are never as strong as actions. If a religious person wants others to look deeper into their faith, the actions must be stronger than the words. In the case of most modern Western religions, that is rarely the case. We have some minor believers of faith who may have acted in a manner that could be considered a true beacon of hope and love, but they are few and far between. Instead, we end up with mouthpieces that use condemnation, fear, judgment and usually force to basically scare the hell out of the unbeliever.
It’s counterproductive, and I find it disgusting. I want nothing to do with religion, or the religious. The faithful I admire, and appreciate, and will listen to. The religious can go away, for all I care.
So while I don’t advocate persecuting someone based solely on their religious beliefs, I do believe it is OK to remove them from your life the moment that their beliefs come out as a desire to force others to bow to the religious person’s God, god or gods. Once that person wants to use force, in some way, to change the lives of others, it is OK to walk away, vocally if necessary. Do not fear retribution when you call out the religious fanatic for their desire to use human force rather than kind example to change another.
Here’s my simple rules for the religious fanatic:
Homosexuality: Don’t like it? Be a beacon of marital perfection in your heterosexual relationship. Don’t condemn sex, promote the wonder and beauty of sex in your heterosexual marriage. Religious people, in my opinion, have no sex. It’s a stigma of some kind.
Abortion: Don’t like it? Adopt. Bring in as many children of unwed mothers as possible. Promote the beauty of taking in another. How about adopting a child of another race than your own, or even another religious background? Blog about it, tell the world. Don’t be shy to advocate adoption as the solution to unwanted children.
Drugs: Don’t like them? Get to know the addict. Find out what in their past has caused them to cling to their addiction. Invite them into your home, care for them, help them find work, and be positive to keep them on the up and up. I know people who want to use force against drug users, but put their own children or family on the street when the drug addiction causes their own family to steal from them or strike out at them. Be the stable platform for the addict to recover through.
Atheism: Don’t like them? Give them a reason to think about your faith. Instead of threatening them with hell and eternal punishment (neither of which I believe, even though I hold faith in the Bible as God’s story), how about enlightening them by being a strong and stable person of faith? Rather than casting them out of your life by scaring them too many times, how about showing them why your faith has truly changed you, made you different from the rest?
While these are only a few recommendations, the end result is the same: using force to change the lives of others doesn’t work, and it makes you look like an idiot. Using government to force change harms everyone who has to pay for the bureaucratic and ineffective state that has only one real desire: to make itself bigger and more powerful. Use peaceful means, positive examples, and hard personal work if you want to help others bring change in their lives.
Live as a person of faith, not as a person of religion. If you must be the latter, kindly understand that your kind isn’t welcome in my life. You’ve lost touch with reality, with your faith, and with your God, god or gods. Each day you spew your religious garbage in hate and vitriol is another day wasted for promoting your faith.
Adam Dada accuses James Dobson of distorting the Bible.
Date: June 24th, 2008, Filed under Religion
Zion, IL
By A.B. Dada
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Front page at some news sites and news aggregators is that James Dobson is accusing future President Barack Obama of distorting the Bible. (link) Now isn’t that a pot calling the kettle a very dark gray?
James Dobson, as some readers here know, is the founder and cheerleader of an organization called Focus on the (white) Family. For those unfamiliar with his organization, here are some tenets of what they promote:
1. Against Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Dobsob and cohorts promote judging those who terminate pregnancies rather than promote Christians adopting as many unwanted babies as they can.
2. Provides vile banter against homosexuality, even though Jesus and His Apostles never spoke of the matter. Instead, and very important, Dobson holds to Old Testament stories regarding homosexuality, rather than New Testament provisions against judging a man’s sliver of sin versus the log of evilness within our own life.
3. Decries adultery, against Jesus’ own words and actions in John 8:1-11.
4. Promotes an anti-gambling ethic, even though Jesus is silent in this matter completely.
5. Presents full support of the current State of Zion in Palestine, even though God destroyed the Nation of Jacob, as prophecy fulfilled from the Book of Malachi (last book of the Old Testament).
6. He wants you to believe that the Word of God is the Bible, which it is not. The Word of God is Jesus, not Scripture burned and pulled and twisted by man. Scripture tells the story of the Word of God, a story of overcoming evil through good. One man used completely perfect good to destroy completely imperfect evil, setting a standard for those who live by His Name to follow.
As we see in the Book of Revelation, God warned through dream images that the Whore (the Nation of Jacob) would sleep with the Beast (the State of Rome). Dobson’s own organization is primarily a tax-avoiding political group, focusing on modern left conservative beliefs. The sad fact is that 220 million people internationally are duped daily by the distortions provided by Dobson and cohorts.
Dobson’s distortion of the Bible is what is killing the Church today. The new cult of Dispensationalism started by cult leaders Moody and Scofield is stronger than the old faith of peace, love, harmony, good will and charity. Don’t love your enemy, bomb them. Don’t be a beacon of light in harmony with the world, bring darkness on your enemies. Don’t provide good will and charity to the needy, cut them off with State-enforced regulations and restrictions. Don’t care for the single young mother in a time of need, criticize her decision-making process. Don’t shelter the cold, rip their homes from under them while supporting the Godless fiat money system.
Dobson is like most modern day Christian superleaders: he’s got the wrong message to speak. He’s distorted a wonderful, freeing story of God’s progression from Adam to Jesus. Dobson holds one truth: push Christianity to the ends of the world, and if you can’t, kill or incarcerate those who stand in your way. Dobson will trick Christians into gospelizing rather than loving, due to only reading up to Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Dobson is awaiting the gospel to be preached, but why didn’t he read his Bible a little more, at least to the Book of Romans, 10:18: “But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’”
Sorry, Jimmy Boy, that message was spread properly over 2000 years ago. There’s no need to blow up your enemies, belittle the needy and ignore the whoring with government that Jesus warned us about before he vindicated over evil forever. Instead of holding the Sermon on the Mount in your heart, it seems you’d rather carry the Old Testament as your sword.
We don’t need your interpretation of the Bible. Moody and Scofield were controlling men with one intent: dominionism. It’s too bad that so many Christians today continue to believe in a future event that already happened, leaving us with a glorious world freed of God’s Curses and Judgment.
Remember, Christians, the Sermon on the Mount. It decried such “leaders” as Dobson and those of his kin. It provided for peace, never war. It provided for humility, never pride. It provided for charity, never theft. It provided for understanding, never judgment. It provided for Christians to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world.
What does Focus on the Family provide for?
