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POPSOne Nation Under God - Jon McNaughton These men and women were passionately religious and saw the hand of God all around them. To God they gave Thanks for His Hand in the founding of this great nation. To Him, according to their own testimony they turned for wisdom and strength when life and liberty hung in the balance. Certainly the debate on separation of church and state will continue. But no one can dispute how our Founding Fathers and Patriots felt about God. The record is clear! 'One Nation Under God' is Jon McNaughton's witness and reminder that those who went before us knew from whence their blessings came! To view the details of this artwork, click on the link below: http://mcnaughtonart.com/artwork/view_zoom/?artpiece_id=353
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POPSIreland imposes new blasphemy law I'm reposting this far and wide. I wonder if they realize that this goes both ways. Now you'll have Xtians and Muslims and Buddhists and Catholics all being given a fine, because they all blaspheme each other! LOL Priceless!! All we have to do is get all atheists to shush up for just a little while, and watch the hilarity ensue! Then when they're all bankrupt from fines (and most likely jail time for not being able to pay those fines, eventually), THEN us atheists can rise up and call them ALL on being the biggest idiots to walk the Earth!
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POPSdo who I say, not what I do in closing: "I've long thought that the solution to the cheap, cost-free moralizing that leads very upstanding people like Karl Rove to want to ban same-sex marriages (which they don't want to enter into themselves, and thus cost them nothing) is to have those same "principles" apply consistently to all marriage laws. If Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and their friends and followers actually were required by law to stay married to their wives -- the way that "traditional marriage" was generally supposed to work -- the movement to have our secular laws conform to "traditional marriage" principles would almost certainly die a quick, quiet and well-deserved death." http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/2010-California-Protection-of-Marriage-Act/
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POPSRove: Champion of "traditional" divorce Actually, this is Rove's second divorce. His first wife was "Valerie Wainright, a wealthy Houston woman from the Bush social circle, but the marriage could not withstand his consuming preoccupation with politics." They divorced after three years of marriage. So the one that was just terminated was Rove's second "traditional marriage" to end without death doing them part. His next traditional marriage will be to his third wife. Did I mention that Rove believes it's vital that our secular laws enforce precepts of "traditional marriages" and bar everything else?
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POPSAre We Better Off Without Religion? More from the article below: "For this reason Paul carries out his analysis both with and without the US included, but either way the same correlations turn up. The 1st world nations with the highest levels of belief in God, and the greatest religious observance are also the ones with all the signs of societal dysfunction. These correlations are truly stunning. They are not barely significant or marginal in any way. Many, such as those between popular religiosity and teenage abortions and STDs have correlation coefficients over 0.9 and the overall correlation with the SSS is 0.7 with the US included and 0.5 without. These are powerful relationships. But why? The critical step from correlation to cause is not easy. Paul analyses all sorts of possibilities. Immigration and diversity do not explain the relationships, nor do a country's frontier past, nor its violent media,..."
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POPSAbortion Legalized In Spain Abortion was nevertheless widely available because women can assert mental distress as the sole ground for accessing the procedure, regardless of the progress of the pregnancy. More than 100,000 abortions are conducted in Spain each year, and most of them are early-term procedures that fell under the mental distress category. This bill, however, is important, because it erases the threat of jail time and declares abortion to be a woman's right. This is important, because in the past there have been serious consequences for women, doctors and clinics.
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POPSWhat would Jesus buy? Does Black Friday mean more to you than Good Friday? Why are we upset that a retailer doesn't evangelize?
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POPSObama declares war on Christmas and Hanukkah! Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., wasn't about to take this lying down. "I believe that sending a Christmas card without referencing a holiday and its purpose limits the Christmas celebration in favor of a more 'politically correct' holiday," Brown told Fox News Radio. So he's fighting back -- he's introduced a resolution "expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected for use by those who celebrate Christmas." Under the resolution -- which, even if passed, would be without any legal force whatsoever -- the House would also "strongly disapprov of attempts to ban references to Christmas."
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POPSSpending Godless Money As Americans evolve to reject religion and the ranks of atheism, agnosticism, and secular humanism continue to grow stronger, we may eventually achieve an enlightened government; one that supports the separation of state and church; one that respects the rights of individuals. Until then however, let's just keep on spending that "godless" money…. I don't know if this is legal or not, I just find it an interesting way to protest. Such a little circle, peaceful and quiet, yet the message it sends is loud and clear. Has anyone ever seen one of these bills?
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POPSBelievers: $4.5m; atheists: nil Atheists Convention refused funding. Gave them something else to bitch about, apart from the massive amounts of govt money given to the richest group, the original multi nationals - churches. Fair exchange though - we get to listen to them bitch about lots of things like Communists, Islam, people complaining about pedophilia, education driving people away from the church, etc
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POPSPTSD & Faith-Based Initiatives At the VA
More from the article below: "The story of the mistreatment of returning veterans from Iraq is well known and shocking. But the role of religious ideology in that mistreatment—how, inside the government, it was a potent tool in the betrayal of an overwhelmingly Christian Army—is much less known. “I couldn’t stand to hear that phrase any longer—‘God was watching over me,’” Benimoff wrote. Sullivan explained to McLendon and the other attendees that the rise in benefits claims the VA was noticing was caused partly by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were suffering from PTSD. “That’s too many,” McLendon said, then hit his hand on the table. “They are too young” to be filing claims, and they are doing it “too soon.” He hit the table again. The claims, he said, are “costing us too much money,” and if the veterans “believed in God and country . . . they would not come home with PTSD.” At that point, he slammed his palm against the table a final time, making a loud smack."
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POPSContrast - Press Release vs Actual News This is a press release. A careful reading shows the lengths the publishers will go to increase sales. It clearly frames the "authors" (quotes are for ridicule) as somehow victims of the angry hordes of evil atheists gathering outside the town's walls waving pitchforks and torches. This approach probably will be successful. It plays right into the Religious Rights perceptions of persecution and prejudice.
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POPSGod Did It! (cont) "In December 2005, federal Judge John E. Jones III ruled that ID must meet the same fate that creationism met in 1987 when the Supreme Court ruled religious doctrines can't be promoted in secular institutions because they violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Judge Jones wrote in his decision regarding a policy of the Dover, Pennsylvania, school district that added ID to the school's biology program: The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy...."
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POPSWhy is marriage a civil right? More: This is why refusing communion is not a violation of civil rights - because communion is not a civil contract, it does not confer civil rights or responsibilities, and is therefore not a matter of civil law. I will say it yet again. Your laws that say same-sex couples can't get married are the same laws that say they can't eat shrimp or cut their beards. Which is fine and well for you, but I'm going to continue to enjoy my crab louie salad bare-faced without even humoring the idea that I need to protect, defend, and preserve your "sanctity of brunch".
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POPSEuropean Court bans classroom crucifixes "Those societies which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom and revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows" - A.N. Whitehead