Religious freedom?

"An estimated 350,000 religious congregations operate schools, pregnancy resource centers, soup kitchens, drug addiction programs, homeless shelters, and adoption agencies. These serve 70 million Americans each year and the value of their services are estimated at over $44.3 billion annually." (Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Vol. 12, Art. 3 (2016)) This is from a religious freedom brochure. Considering how these "free" organizations are controlled by government regulations and are then manipulated by their grants to continue their work I question how free they are to worship, speak out, to petition the government, or to hold privately beliefs about marriage, education and business.

The year was 1215

The Magna Carta, established the principle that no one, including the king or a lawmaker, is above the law, and establishes a framework for future documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. And yes, all you who jump on your victimhood or identity, it didn't include all people, but the principle was established.

And the First Right in what is called the Bill of Rights includes as First among the Firsts , RELIGION. Religion underpins all the rest--the government can't establish religion and it can't prohibit the exercise of it. Then comes speech, press, and peaceful assembly. We've allowed the governors of the states to shred our First Amendment. Take back your rights. They didn't give us these rights, and we shouldn't have handed them over like helpless children who had nothing to protect us.

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed that when job numbers are up and unemployment figures down, the media begin to roar about keeping businesses and schools closed? Of course you did, Democrat, Libertarian or Republican.

Have you noticed that the media meme yesterday was that Trump commented on Biden's religion? Biden never said a word about the atheist, anti-Christian bombardment by Antifa and BLM, did he? Or that statues of Mary and Catholic missionaries were being torn down and destroyed by "peaceful protestors." Did you notice Biden stayed silent in the basement (he's a "devout Catholic" according to media)? Of course you did, liberal, conservative, moderate, or independent.

And that's why you won't vote for Biden, who intends to pass his presidency on to an unknown POC female 2-fer to satisfy the far leftists in the Democrat party, home of socialists, Communists, and anarchists, just as soon as he can get confirmation of his illness.

The precious First Amendment

Yes, Google is a private firm, and it can censor anything it wants--it is not the government. But it has more power over you than the government and it is a public utility whether or not it has that title. No, we can't assemble and we can't petition--because petitioning the government is useless so it might as well not exist. And where would we assemble if the government has closed everything? Freedom to worship on-line is not the same as freedom of religion. Anyone who speaks against the current myths developed by the left or the intersectionality promoted by academe risks her career and sometimes life. Where is the government in protecting these rights defending us from those who would swarm on social media or on the lawn in front of our homes?

Bad framing

Don’t let the left frame the argument—where anything you say that they don’t agree with is hate speech, or they restrict your freedom of religion and redefine it as bigoted or racist.

https://www.prageru.com/video/the-dark-art-of-framing/

You haven’t seen anything yet

Wall Street Journal today opined "The left’s culture warriors always need new monsters to slay. Among their most improbable targets in recent years is the famously friendly restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, which this week appears to have surrendered.

In 2012 CEO Dan Cathy, a committed evangelical Christian, sinned against the progressive ethos by expressing support for the traditional view of marriage. That prompted a political campaign against Chick-fil-A."

Most of us who stood in front of a pastor, judge or someone with a mail-order license and daisies in her hair always believed marriage was between a man and woman. Even most homosexuals. But after activists succeeded in the insurance and work benefits demands, and told everyone it was just about love, things changed after the Supremes again made law and decided to change thousands of years of history. Now if you believe God had something in mind, or even if directionless evolution lurched forward to protect the human race, now you are a hater, bigot, and evil person. And an awful lot of gay guys ended up at the altar (and later in divorce court) who thought they were protected from all that their heterosexual friends and associates were going through.

But is wasn't enough, as we've seen from the growing transgender wars--which threaten homosexuals as much as heterosexuals and will destroy their movement. This Chick-fil-A thing is just one more hole in the wall through which the nation will be attacked at its base--the babies that are unnecessary and inconvenient; the easy divorce or no marriage at all putting generations of children at risk; the demand that we ignore biology and pretend men have periods and babies (which seems to be the only time the Left want babies to live); ignoring the child trafficking across the real border; performing drag queens during library story hour; the dropping birthrate to the place where our population can't be replaced without importing people like oxen to do the dirty work; and the required reeducation camps supplied by our "woke capitalists" and leftist universities. No one will be allowed to have a thought differing from the socialist/communist cabal that is controlling the government and academe.

It will not make any difference if in 2019 you were a social justice warrior who supported gay marriage or the chemical castration of little boys so they can pretend to be girls--eventually even YOU WILL FIND a split in the road and say you won't go down that path. You'll ask, "Where's my country?" Maybe it will be legalized pedophilia, or the redefinition of so much history you'll think you didn't go to school, or digital spying everywhere, or losing your job because you aren't a minority. Look out. Then they'll haul you off to the reeducation camp or the phony trial where you'll have no right to presumption of innocence because in 1850 your family came here from Germany or Ireland.

News of the day, Monday December 10

*I am so done with "hate speech." With AI we'll soon have "hate thoughts" and even if no word was uttered, you'll lose a job, or a position of honor or a Heisman Trophy. Right now we're down to two categories that can be insulted with impunity--Trump supporters and old ladies with white hair (I've had to leave the liberal social media platforms for the threats due to my age--"die old hag--make room on the planet for people worth it"). I hope the reporter who dug through the twitter trash of a 14 year old is happy.

I'm about to start sticking up for the ridiculous rap artists who say ugly things about light skin black women (the only black women allowed in their videos) just so they can have freedom of speech and act dumb when asked about it, denying they mean any disrespect.

**It's perfectly clear now. It has always been about getting Trump out of office, to undo the will of the people and never was about Russia. If it were about Russia, they'd be investigating Clinton and the deep state that works within the "Just-Us" Department.  They’d be going after Strzok, and Comey, and Ohl, instead of trying to rescue Obama’s “legacy” and saving Hillary. Millions of tax dollars have gone to a slush fund to protect the offices and skin of members of Congress who have been sued for various problems, but no out of control prosecutor has tried to kick them out of office. If Trump paid off a prostitute, it was his own money.  Democrats intend to do nothing of the “people’s work” the next two years, and believe they were elected to try to unseat Trump.

***Same old, same old for 40 years. Global warming aka climate change.  I think the agnostics/atheists care deeply about the creation because they don't believe the Creator, or that there was one. Let's get our priorities right. Clean up our own messes first, house, yard, neighborhood, then work outward. Rid ourselves of hate, anger and lies, then work on the plastic bottles, Styrofoam cups and plastic straws. Work up to not flying our luxury jets to climate conferences.

****If a conservative mob on social media had attacked a black business man and destroyed his small business, it would have been national news for weeks on CNN. But if leftist haters do it, then it's just business as usual.  Marcella Jackson and her husband will rebuild because they believe in the American dream, and that isn't socialism.

Marcella was a “closet conservative. . . “ until a few months ago when a radical LEFTIST attacked my and my husband's small sausage business after being seen on stage at a Delaware Trump rally.

I watched in horror as leftists smeared my husband online and called him a racist and a hate monger. I watched them leave nasty messages, write bad reviews and down vote our business without having ever tried our amazing sausages or vegan products.

Frankly, I knew people could be mean spirited, but I did not expect them to harass our business customers or convince our landlord not to renew our rental agreement. I never thought people would attack a stranger without so much as verifying if the information that they were acting on was true.

But they did. In about a weeks time we found ourselves essentially without income.”

Politics and religion going public

“Were I to launch into a sermon on the upcoming presidential election, my email box would short-circuit from the deluge of opinions many would need to communicate. However, because this sermon is on the life of Meister Eckhart, chances are good that when it comes to email I'll receive nary a byte. Face it, theology fails to generate the same temperature of heated discourse as politics, despite the admonition against bringing up either politics or religion on a first date.

On the other hand, were these the Middle Ages, the ceaseless subject matter of CNN or Fox News would be the moods and moves of God rather than the latest exploits of kings and princes. In medieval Europe, where earthly life was precarious and death the daily dread, the life to come was the only life that warranted debate.”

You can read the rest of this interesting sermon on Eckhart,  but I really chose this part because of its truth on speaking out and the dangers of writing about politics and religion.  So few people are passionate these days about religion that if you have a belief or opinion about the nativity, baptism, end times, or communion few will challenge you because they may believe all ways lead to God, or all truth is what I say it is.  Politics, however, especially if made public can get you fired, lose friends, destroy relationships, or even get your home attacked by Antifa, as Tucker Carlson found out (and he’s not even a Trump supporter but has spoken out about the D.C.  “elites” in his latest book, “Ship of Fools.”)

• Are you pro-life?  That used to be a religious issue, but is now such a hotly debated topic on heartbeats, selling baby parts and tax support, good friends best not discuss it.
• Marriage?  That also used to be a religious issue, but divorce and infidelity were the morality topics.  Not now.  It’s about baking cakes and fixing floral arrangements, and whether you can lose your business for being on the wrong side of Democrat party politics.
• Gender? God created man and woman used to be a debate about long day, short day, and whether this Biblical story was myth or fact, and now it’s about transphobia and your first amendment right to not only have a religion belief, but freedom of speech.
• Pronouns for God? Feminists used to rail about the masculine pronouns used in the Trinitarian Godhead,  or in traditional hymns, now we can not even use the pronouns he, she, him, her in ordinary discourse or writing!

So yes, it’s far safer to blog or Facebook about religion—it’s just that liberal politics have been co-opting religion so picking a topic is dancing in a mine field. 

Putin didn't say this--a Catholic priest did.

“Too many of the pastors—too many, practically all—in Germany refused to speak against national socialism,” continued Orsi. “And look [at] the result: millions of Jews, pastors, priests, homosexuals, gypsies all lost their lives because everyone was afraid. What are you afraid of, a couple of bucks? Your tax-exempt status? What’s that going to do to you? Your churches may be closed anyway, because if a certain party gets elected, this certain party said, if the churches do not agree with our interpretation of women’s reproductive rights, they’ll just have to change their doctrine.”

 

“If a certain party gets elected, I can assure you what kind of judges are going to be on those appeals courts,” he said. And those judges will be charged with deciding whether the government may force churches and religious institutions to pay for abortion, contraception, and abortifacient drugs, he noted. . . 

 

“Somehow, [Christians] have come to buy the story that you cannot be political in church,” said Orsi. “Let me tell you right now, oh yes, you can, and oh, yes, you better be. Because you might not have a church to go to if you don’t vote the right way in November.”"  Father Michael Orsi