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POPSJudgement Matters Character matters. Judgment matters. And yes, the people with whom you choose to associate matter.
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POPSNo Political Sermons?
The good old days when powerful politicians could stomp all over free speech. "The debate over Jones’s bill and Johnson’s amendment reveals once again how confusing and confused church-state jurisprudence is and has always been and will always be. Both sides claim that the other is violating the separation of church and state. Barry Lynn, a minister who is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, argues that “We just can’t have sermons converted into political advertisements for candidates,” and he warns against using “church collection plate money on an ad telling people” to vote for one candidate rather than another. " Oh come on. Seperating church and state is one thing. Stopping the clergy from making political statements is a whole different and very dangerous ballgame. Are you going to stop the clergy from speaking on immigration? How about speaking out about the plight of the poor? Should they stop making speeches about genocide? I
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POPSCenturies old code survives in remote Albanian village The code covers everything from inheritances and the rights of the church to the treatment of livestock. In Theth, nobody will sell land to an outsider, or even to another villager. Brides must come from outside the valley, a tradition that follows along the lines of the Kanun's rule that marriage within the same clan is forbidden. "The Kanun is the law. Just like the state law," explains Gjovalin Lokthi, 39, a gruff "kryeplak," or elected chief of the village.
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POPSAmerica Under Martial Law If this would have taken place 20 years ago, I never would have found out about it. Thank God for the internet and people who pass info like this around. I don't know what to make of the added remarks about Bible Prophecy. I think you can make a lot of money speaking about it. Jesus said you won't know the day nor the hour. He told the Jews they would have signs, but I believe the church will be gone prior to that. Paul said Jesus would come for the church like a thief in the night and the people would be crying "peace and safety." Rev 17? speaks of Babylon surrounded by water - it is a desert right now. I think we we delay his coming by allowing our country to be at war and stirring up more war and letting our president turn a republic into an empire. Jesus may or may not come back in our life time. But this I know for sure - we are losing our country, the leaders are corrupt, and only an outcry from THE PEOPLE in mass is going to stop them.
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POPSI WENT TO JAX TO SEE OBAMA, WOWZER! continued from I WENT TO JAX TO SEE OBAMA... clipmark: ** If you are of low income, you have only yourself to blame. ** If you are uneducated, it's your own fault. ** If you think War is not an answer to a problem, you are un-American. ** If you dare to question the government's roll in spying on the people or arresting people without due process, you are anti-patriotic. ** If you believe TORTURE is wrong, you are siding with the terrorists. ** If you believe state and church should be separated you are GODLESS AND EVIL. ** And dare to say a word against the McCain/Bush/Cheney practices of deregulation, no-contract bids and the good ole boys agreement of YOU SCRATCH MY BACK AND I'LL SCRATCH YOURS, Karl Rove and his followers tell you to...' GET THE HELL OUT OF 'THEIR' COUNTRY!' More in comment section...
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POPSArkansas Church Compound Raided In Child Porn Case "We don't go into pornography; nobody in the church is into that," Alamo said. "Where do these allegations stem from? The anti-Christ government. The Catholics don't like me because I have cut their congregation in half. They hate true Christianity." About 100 state and federal law officers raided the 15-acre compound housing the ministry, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a cult that opposes homosexuality, Catholicism and the government. The law center monitors the activities of extremist groups in the U.S.
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POPSChurch/State Mythology From the article: Christians in America are often told that they are being persecuted, so claims like this fall on already very fertile ground. Despite having their hands on nearly every lever of power throughout American society, many Christians sincerely believe that they and their religion are under siege and suffering from persecution. They certainly don't want to experience even more hardship, so they are responsive to whatever suggestions their leaders offer to stave off the criminalization of their religion. Unfortunately, these Christians are simply being deceived. There is no logical, necessary, or legal connection between preventing the government from promoting certain religious beliefs and preventing individual citizens from expressing those same religious beliefs on their own.
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POPSBut She Attends a Church Where They Speak in Tongues She vowed to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. “Without question, litigation challenging the Secretary's decision will be of immense significance to Alaska and the nation,” she said. “I would not be at all surprised if the case is ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. As governor, I believe that my responsibility requires full State participation beginning at the trial court and ending with the last appeal.” On Fox News, in an interview with Neil Cavuto she explained her reasoning. “We don`t believe that this speculation, again unprecedented, on computer modeling could forecast the effects of climate change, to the degree that leaves us in a comfortable position,” she said. “It’s just too far out into the future, this speculative modeling.”
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POPSAbortion Issue Dividing Catholic Votes The McCain campaign also disclosed last month that the senator was meeting privately with Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia. Former Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma, a director of Catholic outreach for the McCain campaign, said the meetings Mr. McCain has held with bishops around the country were “strictly ceremonial.” But the campaign welcomed the bishops’ comments about the Democrats and abortion, Mr. Keating said, as “statements of affectionate support” for Mr. McCain. Many parishes distributed a voter guide, produced by an outside conservative Catholic group called Catholic Answers, which identified five “nonnegotiable” issues for faithful voters: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, euthanasia and same-sex marriage." HA! In November 2004, I knowingly and willingly committed the "grievous sin" of voting for John Kerry. And Lord help me, I'd do it again tomorrow.
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POPSTroopergate Investigator Branchflower Slapped With Two Lawsuits
The Republican lawmakers’ suit, not only targeted Branchflower, but French and his Democratic colleague Sen. Kim Elton as well. “The defendants are conducting a ‘McCarthyistic’ investigation in an unlawful, biased, partial and partisan political manner in order to impact the upcoming Alaska’ general and national presidential elections,” it said. Elton is chairman of Alaska’s Legislative Council, which is overseeing Branchflower’s investigation. He is also ardently supporting Obama’s candidacy and has donated $2,000 to his presidential campaign. Monegan had attempted to include items in the Alaska state budget appropriating funds for various items within the Department of Public Safety that Governor Palin had previously vetoed,” contrary to the instructions of the Governor and contrary to the Governor’s budgetary plan, Monegan attempted to travel to Washington D.C. at state Executive Branch expense, in order to request federal funding through ‘earmarks’
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POPSLeft Comprehension Gap At the root of this curious gulf of ignorance has always been the fact that the left is unable to understand that conservatives keenly understand them and the alleged rationales behind their policies. We know they think government needs an active role in social justice, that civic and free market mechanisms like business, church, and charity are insufficient to deal with poverty, urban decay, and the social pathologies that foster them. They think that in order to foster social progress, the state needs to assume active advocacy roles on a limitless range of issues. We understand. We may utterly disagree and denounce it to hell, but we understand. When conservatives see liberals, they see the proponents of bad, inefficient, and eminently corruptible state and social systems that with eye-watering predictability, corrupt those who administer them and harm their alleged beneficiaries. Often for generations.
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POPSBond limit eased on 4 FLDS Members The state took more than 400 sect children into custody in the early April raid on suspicion of widespread sexual abuse and forced marriage. Appellate courts forced the return of the children to their parents, but civil and criminal investigations are ongoing.
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POPSSarah Palin, a Friend of Mine
Her rapid rise in politics is a direct result of her unwavering moral compass. Sarah makes her decisions based on one criterion: what’s the right thing to do? In 2003, Gov. Frank Murkowski offered her an appointment to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. (I advised her not to take the position. She ignored my advice, and took the job anyway.) Shortly after taking her seat on the commission, she noticed that one of her fellow commissioners, Randy Reudrich, was doing political business on state time. Reudrich was (and still is) chairman of the state Republican party. Randy controls the flow of money to Republican candidates. Once a year all political appointees in Alaska are required to sign a conflict of interest statement. Part of the statement requires commissioners to report any violation by their colleagues. Sarah felt she had no choice but to tell the truth about Reudrich’s abuses, even though she would be turning in a fellow Republican. In the days following her all
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POPSPalin church promotes converting gays Remember when the Republicans were virtually crucifying Barack Obama over the views of his church's pastor? Well, now it is time to see if Gov. Palin supports the views of her church regarding homosexuality. What's fair is fair.
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POPSVanishing Barns "Competition for land — to rent or buy — has grown cutthroat and overwhelming, a matter of networking and schmoozing (at church, at the local coffee shop, while selling seed) worthy of the corporate boardroom. (Some here tell of people who call the widows of farmers who have died days or hours earlier, hoping to secure land.)"
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POPSTo Follow God's Will? I think all this nonsense really hurts the message of a religious revolutionary who brought transformation and wisdom, not doctrine. There is a wise way and a foolish way; a broad way and a narrow one. Do people really think that one can "pray away gay?" It's so convenient to believe if one's orientation is heterosexual I suppose. Oh well, back to the every day business of the dead burying their own dead.
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POPSChristian, Remember This Is What It Is All About Where are the Christians on free speech? Journalists are being raided at the Republican National Convention and they continue to support the party that encourages such behavior. Don't they see the connection? Are they going to wait until they are personally affronted? It will be far to late if it isn't too late already. What they need to do is start speaking out, buy a video camera to record incidents like this, and let others know. The Republican Neocons are monitoring your response and when they see you pull the covers over your head, they will attack us all. Newsweek Mar 2007 reported that 80% of Americans claim to be Christian. If this is so, where is the light, where is truth, where is hope in any degree compared to what your Lord brought? If you said you follow the god of darkness I would believe you.
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POPSPalin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God' And I wonder what "God" she is referring to? Last I knew was that "God" is a peaceful entity - not one that promotes and projects war, especially for Gas and Oil. She must either have the wrong God or is totally confused.
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POPSPalin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview Go to the article to watch the video of Palin's speech. I wanted to watch the recorded sermons of Palin's Assembly of God pastor, Ed Kalnins at http://www.wasillaag.net. The server was overloaded. Audio and Video Archive Due to the high volume of simultaneous requests our server has temporally reached it's capacity. Please try again later.
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POPSAn Old Myth Investigated This clip is from a short piece explaining very well why, as Cline points out, freedom of and freedom from are two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the other. Interested people might benefit from linking to the original and reading it in its entirety.