The Debate between President Trump and Joe Biden

The Democrats' idea of free speech guaranteed to Americans in the Bill of Rights is very fluid.

 
In 2021 you could lose your career if you advocated the use of Ivermectin, a safe, legal, low cost treatment for parasites which also acts as an anti-viral.

In 2024 you can verbally abuse Jews and threaten their right to exist with no fear of arrest or career damage but lose your job for saying a man is not a woman.

Remember that when you watch the debate tonight. It's back to basics . . .

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

You might be a Christian Nationalist if

 You might be a Christian Nationalist if:

You believe in natural rights.

You attend church. Possibly more than once a week.

You support your children and participate in their lives.

You believe marriage is between a man and woman.

You believe men can't become women, nor women men.

You believe teachers and school administrators should not secretly influence your children against your family values.

You believe giving a child cross sex hormones and genital surgery is child abuse.

You believe the USA has borders that should be protected.

You believe children are being trafficked across the border.

You believe releasing foreign military age young men who are well dressed and physically fit into the general population with no tracking could endanger our safety.

You believe sowing distrust and loss of trust in the military with wokeism instruction is a threat to our safety.

You believe DEI has been destructive to student learning.

You believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

You believe Israel has a right to eliminate the danger of Hamas.

You believe Hillary Clinton and ladies in pink hats had a right to protest the election results of 2016, just as Trump supporters had a right to protest the election results of 2020.

The religion of the Left

 The Party's faith in Sustainability, a poem

(by Norma Bruce, based on an idea in How Sustainability is Becoming the One True Corporate Religion by Ellen Weinreb, Dec. 20, 2011)

Their Religion, the One True, is Sustainability 
Their Cult is Climate Change
Their Cathedrals are on every college campus
Their Priests are staffing corporate H.R. departments 

Their Sacrament is Abortion

Their Baptism is a sprinkle of mRNA

Their creed is a CRT screed

Their church fathers are Marx, Nietzsche, Sarte, Marcuse, and Foucault.

Their testimonies speak lived experience of oppression

Their scripture contains no objective truth

Their Revivals are George Floyd riots
Their Galileo's trial is a January 6 Committee 

Their boards deny Corpernicus a seat
Their choir directors creates castrati 

Their missionaries translate language into chaos

Their pulpits are filled with media CEOs and intersectional academics.

Laying siege to the Institutions--Christopher Rufo

Christopher Rufo is the new "hate on him" guy that the Left loves to ridicule and demean. Why? Because he exposes Wokeism, CRT, trans-agenda, queer theory, intersectionality, etc. with the Sword of Truth, and a clear explanation of their own Leftist/Marxist history and direction. What looks like chaos to you, is well planned."The leftist dream of a working-class rebellion in America fizzled after the ’60s. By the mid-1970s, radical groups like the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground had faded from prominence. But the leftist dreamers didn’t give up. Abandoning hope of a Russian-style revolution, they settled on a more sophisticated strategy—waging a revolution not of the proletariat, but of the elites, and specifically of the knowledge elites. It would proceed not by taking over the means of production, but by taking control of education and culture—a strategy that German Marxist Rudi Dutschke, a student activist in the 1960s, called “the long march through the institutions.”

This idea is traceable to Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote in the 1930s of “capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”

This march through our institutions, begun a half-century ago, has now proved largely successful. Over the past two years, I’ve looked at the federal bureaucracy, the universities, K-12 schools, and big corporations. And what I’ve found is that the revolutionary ideas of the ’60s have been repackaged, repurposed, and injected into American life at the institutional level." https://christopherrufo.com/laying-siege-to-the-institutions/

Controlling K-12 of public and private education is essential. Why else have the DoJ attack parents? The younger the better. Perhaps the only Biblical principal the Left has learned well, is Proverbs 22:6--"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." In my opinion, the Leftists are the losers with old, tired ideas in contrast to our U.S. Constitution (which they hate) has the fresh, recent and revolutionary ideas. The only similarity might be that the 60s Weather Underground and the 2011 Occupy Movement were the white, young, wealthy and best educated; our Founders were also white, young, wealthy and well educated. The difference is the radicals of the 1960s and 21st century were spoiled brats and guilt ridden by their own abundance. Their only desire was/is to create chaos--and the plan now begins in the schools--even pre-K. To create confusion about family, marriage, sex, religion, purpose, meaning, ambition, merit, etc.

Masks, mandates and media

"All religions have their representatives. There are cardinals, bishops, imams and rabbi’s etc. They are perhaps the leading voices, but they aren’t the only representatives. There are envoys, missionaries, TV evangelists, religious correspondents and so on.

The State is no different. We have politicians and governmental advisers, as the leading voices, but there are also NGO spokespersons, union officials, the academic & scientific orthodoxy, lords and ladies, multinational CEO’s, central bankers, business leaders and more. Of these, the most powerful, in terms of their ability to shape public opinion are the mainstream media (MSM.)"

This article is from June 2020, when mask mandates, without a shred of science, were just being imposed. And with each mandate we've experienced more loss of freedom and the masks certainly haven't kept us safe. Even those with the 3 shots are getting Covid.

Face Masks Have Put Us In A State – OffGuardian (off-guardian.org)

On being a conservative in 2021

When I left the liberal left (i.e., the Democrat party) in 2000 I only knew about the one issue that mattered most to me: abortion. Democrats supported it, wanted it, lusted after it, used my tax money to support it, and campaigned on it. So I left the left--the party that said they cared about the workers and the little guys, but lied about it for years.

At the time, I didn't know much about Republicans except what I'd been told by academics and the media. They were bad I was told. I had to find out about "conservative" ideas and values on my own, because Republicans were sort of . . . spineless, and weak, and weren't good at selling their ideas. So here's what I'd like to see from Republicans--perhaps the impossible dream.

Attitudes/sentiments/beliefs for Conservatism

Family (I include pro-life protections in this)
Faith (freedom of religion for all faiths)
Fair (opportunities for all)
Patriotism (respect and honor for the country's history, values, laws)
Security (strong, but not corrupt or bloated, military)
Free markets (as little gov't interference as possible)
Safety net (for the unborn, the weakest, the elderly)
Practical, prudent policies (no more 2000 page bills no one reads)
Fiscally wise, low taxes (capitalism, but not oligarchs like Bezos owning Washington Post or Big Tech controlling the presidency)
Separation of the 3 branches of government as intended
Merit, intelligence, ambition and ability rewarded
Natural and built environment protected, but not worshipped
Local control where possible, national direction where necessary

and I'll add more as I think (or sleep) on it.

Telling black women to abort their future in the name of health and liberation

New ways to oppress blacks. Tell them that aborting their children is reproductive justice and liberation. And feature it during Black History month. I wonder how much these women earn for taking their show on the road. They've been paid speakers as "Christians" for years. More black babies are legally killed in 4 days than 80 years of lynching. Why isn't it called "systemic racism?"

"Ohio State's Center for the Study of Religion for "Religion, Healing and the Movement for Black Lives," from 4:30─6 p.m., featuring these presentations:

• "Black Spirituality and the Creation of Spaces for Healing and Liberation" with Dr. Elise Edwards (Baylor University)

• "Trusting Black Women: Reproductive Justice as Black Liberation" with Dr. Monique Moultrie, Georgia State University"

Americans need a religious revival says famous agnostic

“The Founders were not really super orthodox,” Charles Murray observed. “They were all nominally Christians, but they wouldn’t pass the litmus test for a lot of evangelicals today. But they were absolutely, emphatically agreed that you cannot have a free society with a constitution such as the one they had created unless you are trying to govern a religious people. If you do not have religion as the controlling force, then the kinds of laws we have could not possibly work.” Without religion, Murray told me, there was simply no “intrinsic motivation” for people to behave morally — and no definition for what constitutes moral behavior in the first place."

Q&A with Charles Murray: Religious Revival That Could Save America | National Review

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.

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. 

Should the minority tyrannize the majority?

I'm old enough to remember when divorce brought shame to the whole family. Even the extended family. Even marrying a divorced person was not acceptable. I was very young--but I remember. There are still people who don't believe in divorce, who would shun a relative, or stay in a miserable relationship just to avoid it. Could be religion, could just be obstinance. There may even be more of them than there are LGBTQ.

So what if an anti-divorce party grabbed political power and could have a career ruined or a business closed or involve one in a law suit because of divorce, or belief in divorce for others even though not even married? That's what we as a nation are being forced to confront with the power of LGBTQ. We have to accept men on the women's track team even though they are clearly men; a CEO can't eat a Chick-fil-a without apologizing because he is attacked on social media; we have to accept men in the ladies' restroom endangering women; we have to accept 5 year olds wanting to be called by a different pronoun encouraged by their wacko parents; we have to accept same sex marriage, not just as a legal entity, but socially and privately; we have to accept fostering and adopting as what's best for the adult couple, not the young child. If we don't accept this tyranny from a tiny minority we are the bigots.

The Church of Climate Change—a parody of Christianity

• The great pagan deity - Gaia
• The prophet/top bishop- Al Gore
• The lower ranked priests are from various science groups, not necessarily related to climate or environment
• Paid clergy have the keys to the kingdom and can translate and publish sacred scripture
• The liturgy contains sacred words repeated frequently like sustainable, liberal, progressive, consensus, diversity, multicultural, gender and pronoun free; sexist, racist, homophobe, transphobic, bigot
• The communion elements are organic, all-natural, free-range, local, gluten free with marijuana supplied if requested
• The chapels and cathedrals built from recycled materials powered by windmills, roofed with solar panels also  contain safe spaces and intersex bathrooms
• The vast internet sites which it owns publish witch hunts by trolls and tag along followers on Twitter and Facebook to compost the church’s enemies
• Heretics are identified, chastised and rejected, as "deniers" (or swamp of crazy) who can be condemned to hell or burned at the stake of public opinion if they don’t recant
• Courts of inquisition bully or imprison scientists and journalists through loss of government grants and access to research funds and peer-reviewed journals, closing down perceived heresies
• Demons bearing names like fossil fuel, fracking and plastic are cast out or flogged and exorcised 
• Weekly and monthly stewardship campaigns focus on redistribution, wealth transfer, tax the rich, eliminate the unborn, reduce the birth rate
• Sack-cloth-and-ashes (all natural, of course) promote the pessimism of impending doom
• Orthodoxy of revelation by high priests of unrelated social sciences cannot be challenged
• Ecclesiastical conformity is essential
• Grace through ritualistic practices like recycling, birth control is offered
• Earth Day, an annual holy day of reverential worship with time to reflect on Rachel Carson’s non-contributions to humanity is celebrated publicly and promoted in schools
• The annual church picnic is postponed because of heat, and called climate change. Too cold? It’s also called climate change. Rain? Never happened in the past.
• Guilt and condemnation of certain lifestyles, especially for white males, are preached and pushed
• Genuflections to sustainability are required
• Indulgences called carbon offsets are sold 
• Mission projects in third world countries fund human sacrifice by withholding DDT for brown and black people and supporting “women’s health” (aka abortion).  
•  

What is common sense?

 The joke is that common sense isn't very common.  But what is it?

Pew Research has studied the effect of religion on every day life and decisions, and arranged it by state. The percent of adults in Ohio who say they look to religion most for guidance on right and wrong is only 33% and 47% say they look to common sense. However, in 2007 it was 27% look to religion and 57% to common sense. Maybe the recession sent a few of them back to church.  Only 32% of Ohioans say there are clear standards of right and wrong, whereas 66% says it depends on the situation. 

For my generation "common sense" probably was the values and ethics handed down by parents and grandparents, which they most likely learned in church.  My parents were born in 1912 and 1913, they both grew up on farms, attended one room schools, and neither one had any choice about going to church, and in those days that meant worship with adults.  They heard about how treat their neighbor and the poor, they knew from observation and lectures about an honest day's work, they were told the wages of sin is death.  My siblings and I heard a similar message either in church, at school, or from our parents and it was reinforced in club activities like Girl Scouts and 4-H or church choir practice and in our friends' homes.

   If you look at this topic on the internet, where I found this picture, you'll find all sorts of negative comments on how religion and common sense conflict.  I don't think so. Everything from saving for the future, to being faithful to family and friends, to working hard, to staying in the race, to the importance of cleanliness and good health, to speaking truth is covered in the Bible, and probably in most religions. If you're prejudiced and cherry picking, you can probably make your point, but if you look at how life generally works out, religion is the winner.   

Where is the divide between liberal and conservative?

What is the dividing line between liberal and conservative?  Government.  The bigger the better for liberals, smaller and only as much as necessary for conservatives. At least that's in the speeches, both have contributed to our own bloated government. And as in many issues, some go farther to left to extreme statism like the USSR or Nazi Germany, and some farther to the right to libertarianism or anarchy, the absence of government like Haiti with no services, no army, no infrastructure.

It’s not that abortion didn’t happen before 1973 when it was legalized nationally, but now it’s government protected and supported with tax money.  Now it’s in the platform of one major party. Now many churches support it, unthinkable when I was growing up. Now it takes the lives of many blacks, females and disabled, people expendable unless old enough to vote as a block.

There's also a religious divide. 92% of Congress say they are Christians compared to only 73% of American adults.  That probably reflects the average age difference. Conservatives are more likely to be Evangelical Christians than members of Mainline denominations, and see life as sacred, even if born into poverty or difficult circumstances. At the 50% mark, half to the right, and 39% to the left with 11% uncommitted, eight denominations are Evangelical and two are Mainline.  Of the "nones" 26% are Republican, 26% uncommitted, and 49% Democrat. So you can be a liberal in good standing with no religion at all, but might have some push back on that if you are a Conservative. (Pew Research)

It’s not that families didn’t suffer from divorce and children weren’t left with no father before 1964, but now Uncle Sam brings home the bacon and women are told they can do it all--with enough government and no dad at home. Conservatives are more likely to believe that men matter. It is liberals seem to have a war against men, pushing the LGBTQ agenda and advocating for the cis-gender. The income gap is also viewed as a liberal/conservative issue--conservative economics seems aware that it depends on the number of earners in a household, with over twice as many earners in the top income quintile households (1.98) than earners per household in the lowest-income households (0.41). Two is more than 4/10th, but we're in the age of dumbed down math also encouraged more by liberals than conservatives.

It’s not that both liberals and conservatives don’t claim the rights to our constitution.  Liberals want a plastic, expanding and growing constitution. Something modern for times of crisis and dysfunction. Conservatives want the one on which our country was founded. Conservatives are much more likely to quote the founders; liberals think that could be racist since a few owned slaves, and prefer some ideological progeny of Karl Marx or Saul Alinsky. (The great lie.)

Both liberals and conservatives acknowledge we have three branches of government for checks and balances, but liberals want a weak Congress with its power shifted to the Executive or to the Judicial.  Congress, after all, represents the people through the ballot, and they can’t be as easily controlled from a central location like Washington, DC. It’s disorganized and partisan, as it was designed to be. Conservatives press for a stronger Congress, which has the power of the purse, and that‘s just unthinkable in the White House which sees all tax money as its own.  And that’s the case whether a Bush or an Obama is living there.

Liberals want higher taxes to support a stronger central government.  Conservatives claim to want more power residing in the corporate world, with more profit going to investors, not to the government directly, but they want to control politicians through their own lobbyists. Both the left and right, liberals and conservatives, accuse the other of being fat cats, made rich on corporate influence and lobbies. Of the top ten in Congress, eight are Democrats, although in looking over the entire list, no one is poor, and after doing their “public service” both liberals and conservatives enter think tanks, corporate boards and lobbyist groups.  John Boehner, recently one of the most powerful men in Congress, is now representing Big Tobacco interests. Also, I've never heard of the wealthiest Democrat, so perhaps he doesn't show up much. (List of current members of Congress by Wealth)

Happy Earth Day. . . Sucker

Earth Day is the highest holy day of the Climate Change/Global Warming religion. A modern day faith for pagans whose chant is, "I'm spiritual, but not religious." It was established in 1970, the same year that DDT was officially declared off limits, sacrificing to the new gods millions of brown and black children from malaria in developing countries. One of the saints of this new 20th c. religion is Rachel Carson; Al Gore used to be high priest, but not sure if his stock is still high. 46 years later and there still isn't a good replacement for DDT, but you keep buying and donating those bed nets to make yourself feel better. When Zika lands in DC, or the Attorney General gets dengue, someone may just have a change of heart about DDT. And that smartest politician of all times, Republican Richard Nixon, saw the response of the gullible to the first Earth Day, and used it to develop another huge bureaucracy from 15 other agencies, calling it the Environmental Protection Agency. Now only the government is allowed to pollute water.

 http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/07/climate_change_hysteria_and_the_madness_of_crowds.html

"The World Health Organization (WHO) credits DDT with saving anywhere from 50 million to a 100 million lives by preventing the spread of malaria. There were sharp drops in malaria cases reported in parts of Europe, India, and the U.S. following World War II according to WHO. In fact, malaria was virtually banished in the U.S. thanks to DDT, government studies show. Unfortunately, DDT was later banned as a result of unfounded hysteria allowing malaria to spread in developing parts of the world where about 50 million children succumbed to the disease."
 http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/kevin-mooney/2008/10/07/human-cost-global-warming-hysteria-subject-new-documentary

 http://reason.com/archives/2012/09/26/silent-spring-turns-50-this-week

Highly religious Americans are happier and more involved with family

Pew Research has determined this--but also says highly religious Americans are also no more likely to exercise and eat right or recycle than the not so religious.  Well, go for what's important and work on the less important stuff.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 12, 2016) – A new Pew Research Center study of the ways religion influences the daily lives of Americans finds that people who are highly religious are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier with the way things are going in their lives.

For example, 47% of highly religious Americans – defined as those who say they pray every day and attend religious services each week – gather with extended family at least once or twice a month. By comparison, just 30% of Americans who are less religious gather as frequently with their extended families. Roughly two-thirds of highly religious adults (65%) say they have donated money, time or goods to help the poor in the past week, compared with 41% who are less religious. And 40% of highly religious U.S. adults describe themselves as “very happy,” compared with 29% of those who are less religious.

However, in several other areas of day-to-day life – including interpersonal interactions, attention to health and fitness, and social and environmental consciousness – Pew Research Center surveys find that people who pray every day and regularly attend religious services appear to be very similar to those who are not as religious.

For instance, highly religious people are about as likely as other Americans to say they lost their temper recently, and they are only marginally less likely to say they told a white lie in the past week. When it comes to diet and exercise, highly religious Americans are no less likely to have overeaten in the past week, and they are no more likely to say they exercise regularly. Highly religious people also are no more likely than other Americans to recycle. And when making decisions about what goods and services to buy, highly religious Americans are no more inclined to consider the manufacturers’ environmental records or whether companies pay employees a fair wage.

Additional key findings in the report include:

Three-quarters of adults – including 96% of members of historically black Protestant churches and 93% of evangelical Protestants – say they thanked God for something in the past week. And two-thirds, including 91% of those in the historically black Protestant tradition and 87% of evangelicals, say they asked God for help during the past week. One-third of religiously unaffiliated Americans say they thanked God for something in the past week, and one-in-four have asked God for help in the past week.

Nearly half of Americans (46%) say they talk with their immediate families about religion at least once or twice a month. About a quarter (27%) say they talk about religion at least once a month with their extended families, and 33% say they discuss religion as often with people outside their families. Having regular conversations about religion is most common among evangelicals and people who belong to churches in the historically black Protestant tradition. By contrast, relatively few religious “nones” say they discuss religion with any regularity.

One-third of American adults (33%) say they volunteered in the past week. This includes 10% who say they volunteered mainly through a church or religious organization and 22% who say their volunteering was not done through a religious organization.

Three-in-ten adults say they meditated in the past week to help cope with stress. Regularly using meditation to cope with stress is more common among highly religious people than among those who are less religious (42% vs. 26%).

Nine-in-ten adults say the quality of a product is a “major factor” they take into account when making purchasing decisions, and three-quarters focus on the price. Far fewer – only about one-quarter of adults – say a company’s environmental responsibility (26%) or whether it pays employees a fair wage (26%) are major factors in their purchasing decisions. Highly religious adults are no more or less likely than those who are less religious to say they consider a company’s environmental record and fair wage practices in making purchasing decisions.

Three-quarters of Catholics say they look to their own conscience “a great deal” for guidance on difficult moral questions. Far fewer Catholics say they look a great deal to the Catholic Church’s teachings (21%), the Bible (15%) or the pope (11%) for guidance on difficult moral questions.

When asked to describe, in their own words, what being a “moral person” means to them, 23% of religious “nones” cite the golden rule or being kind to others, 15% mention being a good person and 12% mention being tolerant and respectful of others.

These are among the latest findings of Pew Research Center’s U.S. Religious Landscape Study. Two previous reports on the Landscape Study, based on a 2014 telephone survey of more than 35,000 adults, examined the changing religious composition of the U.S. public and described the religious beliefs, practices and experiences of Americans. This new report also draws on the national telephone survey but is based primarily on a supplemental survey among 3,278 participants in the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative group of randomly selected U.S. adults surveyed online and by mail. The supplemental survey was designed to go beyond traditional measures of religious behavior – such as worship service attendance, prayer and belief in God – to examine the ways people exhibit (or do not exhibit) their religious beliefs, values and connections in their day-to-day lives.

Ethnicity, gender and religion in campaign 2016

There's an interesting video out there with Rubio responding to questions about his religion.  One appears to be off the cuff (unless the question was planted) and the other in a prepared speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy2Fjk00tTA

 

Many Republicans who complained of Obama’s lack of experience (in anything), will have to eat their words if Marco Rubio is elected. Has Rubio done anything other than be a politician? The question in the video came from an atheist.  Atheists and agnostics are also condescending, accusing the religious people of being illiterate bumpkins and troglodites. Films for example, and some politicians with sketchy theology and history, but who pretend to be Christians. They are becoming very aggressive, putting up billboards that are anti-God and ads on TV. And of course, the anti-God people pretty much control the culture so they control the conversation.

 

The a second event on the video is linked to the first, with the audience member wanting to hear a "formula" statement about faith.  Rubio talks about his current church attendance and affiliation, which is Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic. Now that presents a puzzle, but he’s an excellent word crafter and seems to pull it all together. He says that when he and his family became Southern Baptist (had actually been Mormon for awhile) and he really studied the Bible it revitalized all the lessons and liturgy he’d learned growing up as a Catholic, so they “reverted” to Catholicism but continue to follow the Southern Baptist sermons (Christ Fellowship)  and still occasionally attend because they like the pastor (mentioned his name, but I’m not familiar with that). The Catholic church is a big umbrella with a lot of leeway on beliefs (Pelosi and Kerry for instance have not been denied communion for their abortion and gay marriage beliefs), whereas the Southern Baptist umbrella, if there is one, is pretty small with little deviation from doctrine allowed. Next to Cruz, Rubio is the most talented speechifier of all the candidates, and even if you don’t like him, you have to be amazed as his quickness.

 

If Rubio pulls ahead, Trump will find a way to smear Catholics, and then point to Rubio as being duplicitous because he attends two churches (like he stirred up the Cruz birther issue). However, this makes Rubio conversant in three religious languages and styles, Mormonism, Baptist and Catholicism—and all three have a very strong social action/justice commitment. Trump in a narcissistic know-nothing in any language. Especially religion.

Five quintiles, four races, four pillars of success

There are five quintiles the government uses to show economic groups in the U.S. The top quintile (incomes about $94,000+) pays almost 84% of the income taxes. The quintile figure doesn't provide number of earners in a household, and most in that quintile have two  earners, which lower the quintiles may not.

There are four groups tracked--Asian households have the highest income, then white, then Hispanic, then black. There are four pillars holding up the higher and upper middle earning groups--1) marriage, 2) higher education, 3) social capital by which they contribute to their community--local clubs, politics, sports, and 4) organized religion.

There are a lot of sources to check for this information:  The CBO, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/49440 and Charles Murray "Coming Apart" (2012) and  The Heritage Foundation to name a few. http://blackdemographics.com/households/marriage-in-black-america/  The Wikipedia article has a good bibliography, but is about 6-7 years old.

The new religion with which to violate the first commandment—Climate Change

“The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and one of the most powerful women in Christianity, said that climate change was a moral imperative akin to that of the civil rights movement. She said it was already a threat to the livelihoods and survival of people in the developing world.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/24/climate-change-denial-immoral-says-head-episcopal-church

Al Gore is high priest; prayers for Mother Earth; a Yoga pose instead of folded hands and bowed head; global treaties are the new scripture; and the collection plate—your confiscated taxes to a global government.