Author Topic: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States  (Read 12497 times)

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BT

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #15 on: December 26, 2011, 01:48:31 AM »
Kimba,

You never visited the New South. We even have tongs in Atlanta. You would blend in in Atlanta just as well as you would in SF.

Plane

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #16 on: December 26, 2011, 06:30:35 AM »
Plane "That Christ is good for the USA is not to say that Christ needs the sanction of the USA, rather the other way around."

How, and why, would Christ sanction the USA?


BSB


      He might not. It is something to be worried about.

   
Quote
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

   -Thomas Jefferson


   Gods sanction should be sought in obedience to him, not in asking God for retroactice approval on stuff he would not normally have approved.
   

    http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/TJ.html











Of course Thomas Jefferson is pretty terriffic for quotes.

Quote
        The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

  -Thomas Jefferson





BSB

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2011, 08:22:04 AM »
I don't see a how or why in there Plane. How would Christ sanction the United States, and why would he? Is it Christ's job to sanction nation states? And if so, exactly how would he do it? Would he make them more prosperous? Would he reduce the number of natural disasters? Would he make their warriors fiercer? Would he send their leader a congratulatory email? Would he make their churches grander?

BSB

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #18 on: December 26, 2011, 10:24:38 AM »
I have lived in West Virginia, Virginia, Missouri and Maryland as well as Florida.

West Virginia is not exactly Southern. It seems to be a colony of Pennsylvania economically, and rather backward in comparison with the rest of the country. The Black population is smaller than in any Southern or border state, and has little impact on the local culture.

My observation after 30 years of church attendance is that sermons are derived from a very small portion of the Bible, mostly the New Testament, Genesis and the various "prophesies" of the Old Testament that allegedly predict the Messiah. I recall at least some mention of the Tower of Babel in a Methodist Church, but Methodists seem to tend to be more intellectual than evangelicals, and spend a lot less time yammering about Revelation and the End Times.

You won't run across a lot of mention of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers or Ecclesiastes in sermons.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2011, 10:43:56 AM »
I don't see a how or why in there Plane. How would Christ sanction the United States, and why would he? Is it Christ's job to sanction nation states? And if so, exactly how would he do it? Would he make them more prosperous? Would he reduce the number of natural disasters? Would he make their warriors fiercer? Would he send their leader a congratulatory email? Would he make their churches grander?

BSB






Yes of course, any of those or all.
Though Isreal is first , the rewards are for obedience, and the punishments are for disobiedence.



http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+28&version=NIV
Deuteronomy 28:12
The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #20 on: December 26, 2011, 11:44:11 AM »
Since the idea is that God awarded Israel to the Hebrews, the prosperity of the country is also a blessing from God to the entire population, rather than to individuals. Collective punishment and reward was seen as the norm in ancient times, and sucking up to deities was commonplace, as we see in the statues to Athena, Zeus, Hermes and so on in Greece and throughout the Mediterranean.

In our modern times, we do not see collective punishment as valid. Punishing Alabama for the Gulf oil spill or West Virginia for despoiling the mountains and rivers is something we would never tolerate in this country.

When Robertson claimed that Haitians were being punished for their ancestors taking an oath to Satan, or 9-11 was a punishment for gay marriages, most Americans saw this as major nuttiness.

There are those that point out that the OT prophets claimed that God was so annoyed by the many sins of the Hebrews that he would rain destruction down on them and they would be evicted from the Promised Land forever. And then of course, the Babylonians and then the Persians conquered them. But the generations that were fingered for being so sinful were dead and gone when these invasions occurred.  So it was like the US today being punished for the Civil War atrocities. A poor sense of history makes prophesies seem relevant.

Mass punishment was very popular in the Bible. It seemed to make sense to the people of those times. But then when the Jews were punished for Hitler for the loss of WWI and the dethronement of the Kaiser, that was seen as a totally bad thing.
I am not saying that the Jews actually were any more responsible for the loss of WWI, but the idea that any people should be punished en masse was seem as simply wrong, for whatever reason.

« Last Edit: December 26, 2011, 02:55:18 PM by Xavier_Onassis »
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

BSB

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #21 on: December 26, 2011, 02:34:01 PM »
"Yes of course, any of those or all. ................., the rewards are for obedience, and punishments are for disobedience."

Plane, you're funning me. You don't really believe that do you?


BSB

Plane

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #22 on: December 26, 2011, 06:08:14 PM »
"Yes of course, any of those or all. ................., the rewards are for obedience, and punishments are for disobedience."

Plane, you're funning me. You don't really believe that do you?


BSB


    What should I beleive and qualify as a Christian?

Plane

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #23 on: December 26, 2011, 06:16:34 PM »
Collective punishment and reward was seen as the norm in ancient times,...............................In our modern times, we do not see collective punishment as valid.



   Has a superbowl ring ever been awarded individually?
    Are the "Greeks " good members of the "EU"?
      Does the USA have a "AAA" credit rating?

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #24 on: December 26, 2011, 06:34:20 PM »
The Superbowl ring is not a punishment. They award a ring to each player as an individual.

The Greek people and the American people have individual credit ratings. It is the GOVERNMENTS, not the people that have the credit ratings you mention.

Collective punishments are not seen as just in modern times as they were in the Old Testament.

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #25 on: December 26, 2011, 07:10:29 PM »
The Superbowl ring is not a punishment. They award a ring to each player as an individual.

The Greek people and the American people have individual credit ratings. It is the GOVERNMENTS, not the people that have the credit ratings you mention.

Collective punishments are not seen as just in modern times as they were in the Old Testament.


   You can individually earn a super bowl ring?
    Governments are individual entitys?
      So you understand Mitt Romneys point that Companys are people?

        I feel for the individuals of Enron these days.

BSB

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #26 on: December 26, 2011, 07:58:33 PM »
"What should I believe and qualify as a Christian?"

I asked you a direct unambiguous question plane. It would polite to answer it.


BSB

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #27 on: December 26, 2011, 08:00:31 PM »
Companies are NOT people. Companies are fictitious people according to a stupid verdict of the Supreme Court.

Governments are also not people. They are public entities. In the Old Testament, collective punishment was seen as a normal thing. To the medieval Church, Adam and Eve took extremely poor culinary advice from a talking snake and they and all their descendents were thrown out of a perfect and harmonious environment. Later, all but Noah and his family were judged to be defective and sinful and condemned to death by drowning.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #28 on: December 26, 2011, 08:04:18 PM »
What does one need to be a Christian?
 Generally, most churches would say that the Apostles' Creed is the basis. The Anglican Church has two versions of this:
\
In the Church of England there are currently two authorized forms of the creed: that of the Book of Common Prayer (1662) and that of Common Worship (2000).

Book of Common Prayer [19][20][21]

    I believe in God the Father Almighty,
    Maker of heaven and earth:

    And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
    Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    Born of the Virgin Mary,
    Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    Was crucified, dead, and buried:
    He descended into hell;
    The third day he rose again from the dead;
    He ascended into heaven,
    And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

    I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    The holy Catholick Church;
    The Communion of Saints;
    The Forgiveness of sins;
    The Resurrection of the body,
    And the Life everlasting.
    Amen.

   

Common Worship[22]

    I believe in God, the Father almighty,
    creator of heaven and earth.

    I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
    who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
    born of the Virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, died, and was buried;
    he descended to the dead.
    On the third day he rose again;
    he ascended into heaven,
    he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
    and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit,
    the holy catholic Church,
    the communion of saints,
    the forgiveness of sins,
    the resurrection of the body,
    and the life everlasting.
    Amen.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

kimba1

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Re: Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States
« Reply #29 on: December 26, 2011, 11:55:35 PM »
can corporations vote ?