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POPSJodie Comes Out Guess what conservative America? There are so many gays and lesbians in your own families. In fact, I doubt there's on American family today that doesn't count at least one gay or lesbian member somewhere in its ranks. Count them--and then love them. Isn't it totally un-Christ-like to turn against your own son or daughter, or brother or sister, just because he or she happens to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual? What difference does it make? He may be gay, but he's still your son. She may be a lesbian, but she's still your daughter. Sure, evangelical ministers and conservative politicians will continue to denounce homosexuality from the pulpit and urge parishioners to join them in denying equal rights to gays and lesbians. And some poor misguided souls will blindly agree. But their hate speech will eventually fail, as people realize those attacks are directed against the people they love the most, their family members.
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POPSOver half of Americans believe in guardian angels Also, political party was linked to religious beliefs, with 77 percent of Republicans saying they believed in heaven, compared to 54 percent of Democrats. Those Americans who say they do not believe in God -- four percent -- as well as those who say they have no religion -- 11 percent -- were very close the figures in the 2005 survey. In all 45 percent of Americans say they have had at least two religious encounters in their lives, the survey found, and conservative Protestants were more likely than Catholics or Jews to report religious or mystical experiences.
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POPSA Conservative For Obama I saw this clipped earlier, but I didn't realize the gravity of the endorsement. Wow, a publisher of the National Review saying, "But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. "
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POPSWho would Jesus torture Welcome to the new Christianity. Or is it The new BS. Maybe those of you who would condone torture during the week and attend your temples and cathedrals on Sunday truly don't believe in your God. Why else would you make an argument for rather then against. Now it shouldn't bother me I,m a heathen, fortunately I still maintain a since of moral decency, you know, like what is written in some of those dumb ass documents like the CONSTITUTION and THE BILL OF RIGHTS. If all you so called people of faith would get together there would be more then enough voices to effect a change, right? After all yours is the moral outraged, just and family oriented party is it not? Just like to say Thank you for living up to my worst suspicions. The entire lot are self-righteous, blathering hypocrites.
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POPSWhy hate Gore? Granted, giving Gore the Nobel Prize may well be a political stunt somewhat out of proportion with the relevance of his actions. On the other hand humorless extreme conservatives have even more distorted notion of Gore. Their obsessive hatred of him is even more surreal than the hype. Why do they care so much about him? Why froth at the mouth over just one politician? Klugman provides some interesting answers, but also seems a little to simplistic. I have long been puzzeled on the vhemence with which conservatives react against environmentalism, and I don't think its as simple as pure greed.
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POPSFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Date Saints Followers Rape Teenage Girls (added after the seventh comment below): the accommodation test: for Christian or 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' try substituting X or Y, e.g. atheist, buddhist, conservative, hindu... Editing, narrating, conjoining words, a few words, though based on 'facts' can stir outrage, pain, offence etc.
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POPSChristian Double Standard True to form, Christians seem to be all in favor of religious non-discrimination as long as it's non-discrimination towards Christians only.
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POPSThe QuiverFull movement: having babies -- lots of babies -- for God Newsweek on the "QuiverFull" movement ("Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them." Psalm 127.4f.), which campaigns against birth control, espouses a relatively fundamentalist version of evangelical Christianity, and advocates having at least six children per family.
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POPSCheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran
MORE; The issuance of orders for Neo-Con mass media arms to push for an assault on Iran also puts the U.S. on red alert for a terror attack, whether real or manufactured, which Dick Cheney has already promised will immediately be blamed on Iran no matter who the real culprits are. On August 1st, 2005 the American Conservative reported that Cheney had tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan involved a massive air strike on Iran which included the use of nuclear weapons. The publication reported that, "The response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States," meaning that any such attack will immediately be blamed on Iran and any evidence to the contrary will be buried. The London Times reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had finalized plans for a 3 day blitz designed t
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POPSAre You Washed In The Blood? "A campaign had emerged to promote the idea that the Bible was entirely without error, even in matters of history and science. Some feared that more liberal theological positions were being taught in the convention's seminaries. n August, he visited the White House. In "Our Endangered Values," Carter recalls Smith saying, at the close of their meeting, "We are praying, Mr. President, that you will abandon secular humanism as your religion." HMMMMM . . . where have I heard that before? I thinky maybe here on CM, yes I do. I think I have had that charge leveled on me that I MUST be a secular humanist. God FORBID that I promote peace, I MUST be a pacifist -(even though Jesus was the ultimate pacifist). God FORBID I must be a voice against violence, homophobia, patriarchy, sexism, and racism. I MUST be secular. God wouldn't want those values; the only values God wants are crotch based.
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POPSMcCain's plan to kill the UN The article is hilarious in it's bias, though in fairness I do not think the writer pretends to be neutral. Still, it is so petty and outlandish in it's assertions. That said, I think this dude his given me a reason to vote for John McCain.
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POPSThe Physiology And Psychology Of Voting The researchers used a multiple regression analysis to compare the effects of change in skin conductance levels in response to threatening images, gender, age, education, and income on support for socially “protective” policies such as the ones listed above. The only two statistically significant effects were those of education (less education translated into more support for conservative policies) and skin conductance. That in itself means that -- within the confines of this study -- physiology trumps gender, age and income, traditionally considered highly relevant causal factors in politics by social scientists. Moreover, the regression coefficient associated with skin conductance was more than 56 times that of education! !!!
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POPSThe American Religious Crisis It startles me how quickly these stories are coming. With news like this, it is impossible to not further explore the conflict between modern society and fundamentalist faith. I believe that the inevitable progress of society, and the fundamentalist rejection of modernism and defiance of that progress can only end in some major sort of spiritual collapse. The fact that, in these times, so many feel so violently uncomfortable with progress and the future strikes me as the defining conflict of our times. What is bring about such a large scale rejection of modernity? Why is progress so often equated with sin? The pat answers that we always offer somehow ring hollow. They haven't been able to reconcile this conflict, and neither sides seems to address the humanity of the other. If we continue down this divisive path, there is no future for spirituality in America.