Things That Don't Surprise Me Anymore

A lot of Christians are hypocrites.

What else can you say about a faith that supports torture more than any other faith, all while piously going to large churches and preaching things like "do onto others as you want them to do onto you?" Instead of loving their neighbor, "Christians" are more likely to torture them, just in case the neighbor might know something they don't know about their minister also being a hypocrite.

Someone in that church needs to remind their flock that their "Jesus" died from torture, just a thought.

Of course, a lot of Christians are also fiercely anti-immigrant. I have read the Bible and I didn't see much about 'whites only" It seems incredibly bigoted to preach Christianity and then vote for bigoted Republicans.

Many Republicans are racists.

I don't mind it so much as much as I do them pretending that they're not.
Check out my friend Mario's take on John Boehner's comments. Classic.

Economists are just guessing like the rest of us.

How many times does a journalist have to survey a panel of economists, only to have them miss their 'consensus' prediction by 50% or more until we realize, really, they are guessing.

Watch for the next article, on GDP, on housing sales, on anything and you'll realize, they're all just guessing like the rest of us.

No one is dumber than a Newspaper Executive.

Back in the day at Duke, I was an econ major, much to the amusement of many of my friends now. I learned a little something called "supply and demand."

Let me use small words.

If someone really wants what you're selling, you can raise prices.

If someone doesn't, you better lower them.

So newspapers, faced with double digit declines every six months, are raising their prices.

The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, both used to be a quarter, then fifty cents, then seventy five cents, are now going to both be $1.00.

Genius, I tell you, pure genius.

Comments

[bluebird47]

I can easily see why this is a pretty common belief of a lot of people. I used to post on two BB's and all the while that posters are condeming abortion, equating it to murder and not even allowing for the health of the mother, incest, or rape they are cheering for torture and always wanting to "hang" or execute a criminal. They are the loudest voices which is why I think those voices stick. I too left a chuch because of racism as well as just plain out right mean and nasty people. I always wonder how someone can attend church every Sunday and still be so small minded. BTW it was a Presbyterian church, which is a fairly liberal denomination, as well as the fact that after the old pastor left the others that followed were all fairly liberal and preached more about acceptance than anything else. Go figure.

[merger]

I am a Christian that attends one of those mega churches. I do not believe in torture, my pastor and my Sunday School teachers do not believe in torture. You know little about Christians. You also, don't understand that we are independent in our thoughts, interpretations, and beliefs. We are not all alike, many of us are Democrats too, and all of us are imperfect as are nonbelievers. Wow!!! you are extremely general, condemning, and prejudice in your statements.

[ColumbusMike]

As long as you allow the nutcases to be the only voices we ever hear, people will assume that is the only voice there is--and lump you all together. Why wouldn't they? If you disagree with the nutcases, speak up and let us (and them) hear a different voice. Otherwise, your deafening silence just gives consent.

[fatmo]

excellent answer!

[liberalsrheros]

you just heard his voice but you let your own prejudice get in the way.

[IhateNeoCons]

BRAVO! That is what these so-called Christians don't get. I've posted a number of times on torture stories on here asking "Where are the Christians?" It never gets posted. I guess it is liable to insult them. You see merger, the problem for you is that being a Christian requires you to spread the word. The rest of us recognize Pat Robertson as someone who belongs in a powerful position in Hitler's Germany, not as a supposed preacher. Why then is he still on the air? We aren't talking about nuance here. Every day he gets on TV and literally wipes his arse with the words of Jesus, and you do NOTHING. Remember the quote: "the hottest place in hell is reserved for those, who in times of great moral crises, do nothing". You don't get to sit on the fence. That may be unfair, but you made the choice to be a Christian, now step up...or shut up.

[merger]

I just did speak up.

[merger]

I am speaking up. We also speak up when we vote, just like you. There are still 76% of the population who identify themselves as Christian. That is over 150,000,000 people. You listen to the few who are selectively singled out for interviews by the media and you assume these people speak for the millions who call themselves Christian. Every President since my first year to vote(1980) has said they were Christian-­-including Obama. We are not all cracked pots, and we are not all ignorant and uneducated. As a Southern Baptist, I can tell you that we are self governed, and each church within the convention is autonomous. We have churches that are conservative, liberal, and moderate. We do not all think alike, nor do we or are we required to think just like each other, our teachers or our pastors. We are democratic in our church leadership, and our convention. Each church chooses its own pastor, and they are voted on by the congregation. We have no requirements to membership to a church, but a statement or profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

[ConservMom]

Yes, the world isn't perfect. What kind of news is that? Believe it or not, there are people who aren't really God fearing people, people not desiring to be Christlike, at churches! Big deal! Like we didn't know it? However, they come, they listen, and it really is God who does the heart change, not us.
So, where's your understanding and wisdom? Not present, obviously.

[JGatsby]

I'm not sure why people are so surprised that Christians are pro-torture. Probably the longest most wide spread use of systemic torture in the history of the world was the inquisition and Christians gave us that as well.

[ConservMom]

Hmmmm.. maybe you can understand it better if said this way "Specter was never a Republican but pretended to be to get elected at the time" Get it? Same as not all claiming to be christians, are reallly Christlike! No big news there!

[RevMetheus]

Specter was a republican until they moved farther and farther right, and the people that tortured in Christ's name were Christians until people tried to say they are just bad people.

Yes, there are lots of good people who are just living with their faith, but to say that not all Christians are Christ-like as an excuse to allow bad people to undermine the tenants of Christianity in public and in the government is poor reasoning.

You believe in the goodness of the Christian faith? Take it back from the haters and the Leviticans and the Wrath of God'ers. Take it back from the xenophobes and the racists and the people that believe that if you arent a Christian you arent worth living.

[Querent]

Specter was and is a Republican. Painting a D on his chest doesn't change that. Ordinary people don't need to be judged in this way, at least not by other human beings. But after serving 30 odd years as a Republican Senator, the few remaining years of Specter's time in office can hardly counterbalance them.

[johnwcowan]

The newspaper business isn't like an ordinary business: to a first approximation, the more papers you sell, the more money you lose. If the customers paid for the full cost of the paper, a daily would be $5-$64 and the Sunday edition $10, most probably. Instead, the cost (plus profit) is picked up by the advertisers -- who are hurting badly. Either the cost of papers goes up, or the papers go under, period.

[IhateNeoCons]

Wow are you obtuse! You reinforced the very point you are arguing against and you seemingly don' t realise it! If the major source of income is advertising, the more papers they spread, the better their ability to sell advertising, no matter how bad the advertisers are hurting. If my competitor raises his paper from 75 cents to a dollar, and I drop my price to 25 cents, who is going to spread more adds around the city? If I leave my advertising cost the same as always regardless of how my circulation increases, or if I even discount it say 5 or 10%, the increased volume I steal from competitors will still put me way over the top. Ultimately the comptetitor will mirror me, but if I can't out-compete him with the head-start that I got, then I don't deserve to be in business. Of course that is the way a free-market is supposed to work so no wonder conservatives don't recognize it. What "conservatives" really want isn't a free market with fair competition. They want the ability to collude and game the system to reap massive short term gain because like petulent 2 year olds who want a cookie, they can't see past tomorrow. Which again, means they really shouldn't be in business. So why should we care if any of these people get flushed in this recession? They earned the swim. I hope they get a few tasty mouthfuls on the way down.

[LeftRight]

I agree with billyfromphilly here, it's not that the Christian faith teaches people to be evil, it's that the people who don't pay attention to what their faith actually is are ripe for the picking by those who are unscrupulous about abusing that faith!

The pastor that married my wife and I seemed like a really good guy, until the day that he told us to vote for George W. in the 2004 election..... I haven't set foot inside a church since that day (with the exception of the Episcopal church I went to as a child for my grandfather's funeral). I have talked to the pastor since then (he's a distant relative to my wife...) and was seriously disturbed when I realized how little he understood of the book he preached about 4 times every Sunday....

[Querent]

In a way, you have put your finger on the real difficulty. While the teachings of Jesus have no discernable connection with right wing politics today, there are nevertheless many, many elements in the doctrines of modern churches which accept and encourage chauvinistic and heterophobic attitudes, and, like your pastor, there are many, many church advocates who accept all the repressive, condemnatory, and hierarchy-­validating ideas which have been incorporated into those doctrines. How to separate these things out?

In my experience, you cannot lead someone who venerates the traditions of church and community equally with the Christian message to see the difference between the two. The choices are to continue in fellowship with people many of whose ideas one hates and adamantly opposes, or to separate from them. Most modern people simply cannot tolerate the doctrines of modern churches, which have become so anti-rational as to make their identification as Christian almost unbelievable. In my opinion, that is why church membership is steadily declining, and professed Christians have less and less credibility with the general population.

[GOP4MoreTears]

Go figure!?!

[billyfromphilly]

I agree with just about everything you said, but let's not oversimplify that it's "the faith" that teaches people to be pro torture. I'm a lifelong Democrat and Catholic and I've learned from my faith, not from the crazy right wing nutjobs, that torture and capital punishment are wrong. That excluding people from pursuing their dream just because they were born in a different country is wrong. The people that claim to be Christian but support torture usually know very little about the life of Christ or his teachings, that he hung out with buddhists, etc. Instead they just agree with whatever hate and fear filled propaganda that's been sold to them from the televangelist crowd. Everybody has the right to believe what they will, but don't throw people like me under the bus with all the nutjobs just because it's easy to do so. Otherwise, I dig your posts and will keep looking forward to them.

[JGatsby]

"Christ ... hung out with buddhists" Could you explain or give some support for that?