Tag: Religious Beliefs

The Hidden Cost Of Religious Hypocrisy

We have a lot of religious manure being spread these days…..Christians are firmly behind a pedophile well several pedopiles and they pretend that they are following some precept of Christianity while supporting these people…..they are not as far as I was taught in my early days of Christian training…..Christianity has become a joke to the rest of the world….Gandhi had statement about Christianity….”It is is lovely ideal too bad it has never been tried” (a paraphrase).

Hypocrisy is running deep in religious circles these days….one candidate in the South says that he is running for a seat the God wants him to have….how pretentious is that?

Back to the religious hypocrisy……..

I’m standing and clapping for Bethany S. Mandel’s op-ed in The New York Times today.  If you don’t know her name or her work, she’s a politically and socially conservative Orthodox Jew. As an adult, she was received into Orthodox Judaism by Rabbi Barry Freundel … who, it came out later, was secretly videotaping women as they undressed and entered into the ritual mikvah bath. Mandel was one of those caught on the dirty rabbi’s camera. He’s now in jail. Excerpts from her column:

It’s hard to describe the depth of my feeling of betrayal. As a convert, I wasn’t just another student of Rabbi Freundel. My faith and practice — my Judaism — was shaped by his words, deeds and thought. For those of us victimized by trusted religious leaders, every day is a struggle to disentangle our negative associations of beautiful rituals from the ugly abusers who taught us about their meaning.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-hidden-cost-of-religious-hypocrisy/

I am sorry but religion is killing itself with all its hypocrisy……we need to get back to religious basics….until then it will forever remain a joke.

American Religion Perverted

Below is a piece I read written by a theological professor….it tries to answer some questions that I have heard asked in the past.

Every election we hear lots about religion and its place in our society…..but just how much religion has been there in all of the 241 years of the presidency?

Source: God In America: God in the White House | PBS

Evangelicals continue to redefine religion in America.

If that is what religion has become, I want nothing to do with any of it.” This came from a young adult, speaking about the takeover of religion by the political right-wing that now owns the evangelical version of the Christian faith. My young friend is not alone. There are millions of young, and not so young, Americans echoing the same sentiment.

Source: American Religion Perverted | Articles | Senior Correspondent

I may not agree with parts of this article but I do believe that it should be read and questions answered.

God in the White House

Today’s posts will be generic….nothing in Breaking News……I have a full day of tests for my doctors so I will be a bit missing for most of the day….I apologize.

This is a FYI piece…it is not intended to influence anyone one way or the other…..purely informational……and in no way should be seen as an endorsement.

Every election we will see an ad or a speech or something about the candidates belief in God almighty….which is fine but it is not a deal maker with me.

I personally do not care what religion the candidate is or what his personal beliefs are….I do not make my decision based on religion.

I would prefer that we keep religion out of the voting process all together.

But that aside we hear a lot about this president or that and their belief in the deity we call God and how it influenced their tenure as president….but are these claims accurate?

Let’s look at the presidents down through the years……

The religious beliefs of the first president of the United States of America have been the subject of debate since he held office.

Washington’s faith has been categorized at times as evangelical Christianity, deist, Free Masonry and mainline Protestant Christianity. Washington himself was raised in, married in and became a vestryman in the Episcopal Church (the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion). However, he rarely took communion and attended church sporadically.

(read on……)

Source: God In America: God in the White House | PBS

There is your look at our presidents and their religious thoughts……

Closing Thought–26Jun17

Paying For Miracles!

That is “paying” not “praying” for miracles.

There seems to be booming business in Africa on the selling of miracles…..religious leaders are making profits off these hopes by parishioners…selling miracles…..

The Christian nation of Zambia has a proliferation of churches led by foreign and local pastors, popularly known as prophets. They take advantage of people’s credulity to make good money.

On a recent Sunday morning in Chibolya Secondary School, in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, more than ten churches conducted services in several classrooms. The noise made it hard to concentrate on any sermon.

Hundreds of people flocked to the area to hear a so-called prophetic word. This refers to a prophecy tailored to serve one individual at a particular time. It is a foretelling of personal events and the congregants loved it.

Source: Zambia: Selling Miracles in Zambia – allAfrica.com

Kinda sounds like a practice of the Roman Catholic Church, the early years……I guess they had to pay for all that opulence in buildings and ceremonies somehow.

It is stories like this that turn people off of religion…I have a problem with this type of religious programs….

Personally, I think it is disgusting to prey on people’s beliefs and to profit from their situations.

I need to go take a shower now!

Must close it down for now…..enjoy your day….chuq

Closing Thought–20Jun17

Update:  The first tropical storm approaches the coast where I live…not predicted to be a strong storm but will get a bunch of rain and some wind…we should be safe from any major damage….this time.

Speaking of the “first”…….

Have you guys ever read a story or report that made you sit up and ask…..WTF?

Well, I read one that made me ask that question and shake my head….

It appears that some cultures still hang on the old belief of the purity of the woman they are about to marry…..yes I am talking about that virginity thing.

A story out of Tunisia about a procedure that is being done to solve that problem for some women……hymenoplasty.

In Tunisia, young women are expected to be virgins when they marry, leading to a growing trade in hymen reconstruction surgery.

Yasmine (not her real name) looks nervous. She’s biting her nails and checks her mobile phone constantly.

“I consider this to be deception and I’m really worried,” she says.

We’re on the fourth floor of a private clinic in Tunis – the gynaecology service. Around us in the pink waiting room, other women wait patiently to be seen.

Yasmine confides in me that she is having a hymenoplasty, a short procedure that promises to reconstruct her virginity surgically.

Source: The Tunisian women who want to be virgins again – BBC News

Personally, I do not understand this fixation on virginity….but then I do not have to worry about it.

What happens if the news gets out of which doctors are doing this….will there be a religious backlash?

What about the women themselves?  If found out will they be safe?

Wave bye bye….time for me to shut it down for the day….back tomorrow with more stuff….chuq

Closing Thought–16Jun17

WWJD?

I grew up in the South and in those days racism was rampant and leading the way were the Southern Baptist and their use of the Old Testament to justify racism……so when I read a news report I was duly surprised…..

The Southern Baptist Convention has voted to condemn “alt-right” racism—along with every other kind of racism. The denomination, which is holding its annual convention in Phoenix, approved a resolution Wednesday to “denounce and repudiate” racism, “including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” NPR reports. The resolution followed the controversial rejection Tuesday of an earlier version that denounced the “retrograde ideologies, xenophobic biases and racial bigotries of the ‘alt-right’ that seek to subvert our government,” reports the AP. Resolutions committee chief Barrett Duke said the original version contained language that was too broad and inflammatory.

The measure passed almost unanimously among the 5,000 in attendance, reports the Arizona Republic. Duke apologized for the confusion about the earlier resolution. It wasn’t “because we don’t share your abhorrence of racism and especially the particularly vicious form of racism that has manifested itself in the alt-right movement,” he told the crowd. William D. McKissic, the African-American pastor who introduced the resolution, says he is pleased with the outcome, but the episode shows that problems will continue until the church denounces the biblical “Curse of Ham” once used to justify slavery. McKissic says he is encouraged by the outcry from Baptists of all races that followed the committee’s rejection of Tuesday’s resolution.

To say that I was surprised after reading this would be an understatement….if finding it an amazing turn…one for the better.

My day has come to an end…..I hope everyone has a good evening and I will look for you tomorrow……peace out…..chuq

OMG! It’s Kosher!

Saturday and a day of rest and reflection…..my granddaughter is putting together a podcast and she and I will talk about my time in the Army…..gonna be a radio star…..

Before I start I need to report some sad news……..news that few Americans will pay attention to….news that should NEVER be ignored.

A 22-year-old soldier born in Boston who was on his first deployment to Syria died Friday from injuries suffered in a vehicle rollover, the Army announced Saturday.

Army Specialist Etienne Jules Murphy, of Snellville, Ga., was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia.

Murphy,a married father of two young sons, was in a nontactical vehicle when the rollover occurred in Al-Hasakah in northern Syria, according to statements from the Army and Department of Defense.

IST extends our deepest sympathies to this brave soldier’s family.

Food!  Everything is better with bacon!  Hell I could eat a bowling ball with enough bacon.

A good type is applewood smoked thick cut…but let’s admit it….does it really matter as long as it is BACON?

You know some religions have these food restrictions……Jews cannot eat shell fish or pork….but wait they may have been screwing themselves out of something as good tasting as bacon…..but having this restriction…..

I know…..HUH?

Have Jews been depriving themselves of bacon for no reason? A group of biblical scholars makes the argument in Haaretz that the Book of Leviticus, the third in the Old Testament that lays down various laws dictating how Jewish people should live, wasn’t actually meant for the laity. Rather, they contend, it was meant for the priests of the Temple, though historically only Chapter 21 has been interpreted as applying to only priests, including a ban on ritual scarring and tattoos. The other rules have long been extended to everyone of the Jewish faith, including the decree that only meat from an “animal that has a cloven hoof that is completely split into double hooves, and which brings up its cud” was ritually clean enough for consumption, per Vice’s Munchies.

Many aspects of the Book of Leviticus have long confounded scholars, including whether it was Moses who compiled the book, and when it was first composed—some say 3,500 years ago, others say far more recently, possibly in the fifth century BC. The current argument is that the entire book was originally written for priests, but somewhere during Babylonian captivity someone extended the rules in Leviticus to everyone as a means of unifying the exiled, and setting them apart from those of other religions around them, reports Vice. So this ban on bacon, for instance, encouraged “the enthusiastic self-perception that [Jews] were all priests in the new Temple of God, the world,” one scholar says.

A Kosher BLT?  They can now eat a descent breakfast.

Damn!  Now I need a BLT!

Please have some relaxation and some family time….enjoy your weekend….Peace, Love and a BLT….chuq

Greed Knows No Religion

Back in the days after 9/11 there was a ransom offered for the location of Osama….it stood for a decade……..no one would step up to claim the multi-million dollar reward.

I thought hen that these people that knew of his whereabouts were more dedicated to the movement than to the pursuit of cash…..almost admirable…..

But in the end….greed will always win the day…..a true American way……

A friend in Iraq sent me a mews story that I need to pass onto my readers…..

Kirkuk – Iraqi media outlets announced on Monday, that eight people working in the so-called Diwan al-Zakat (Zakat Bureau) of the Islamic State in Hawija district, southwest of Kirkuk, disappeared with 600 million dinars in mysterious circumstances.

According to alsumaria.tv, “Eight workers in ISIS Diwan al-Zakat in Hawija, including the currency exchange official, disappeared in mysterious circumstances yesterday.”

“600 million dinars also disappeared from the fund of Diwan al-Zakat with the workers,” Sumaria explained. “The ISIS militants waged raids on the homes of the workers but failed to find them, which raised suspicions that the disappeared persons fled with the money out of Hawija,” Sumaria added.

Noteworthy, the areas southwest of Kirkuk have been under the control of ISIS since June 2014, including the areas of Hawija, Zab, Riyad, al-Abbasi and al-Rashad.

File photo.

I guess greed will win out every time…..

More Stories You Will Not Read

That is unless you are a perceptive person and subscribe to IST….

There are always stories and reports out there that never make it into the news cycle for whatever reason…..and when I find them I try to share with my readers for I believe they deserve to know everything I know….

These stories have no value other than information……they are FYI for my loyal readers…..

First, there is one about a Islamic issue…….

You see Islam is a religion based on the teachings of Abraham (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) and like most within that tradition they are male-centric….meaning the men pretty much control the religion…..but one brave soul in Denmark has started a female mosque……

Scandinavia’s first women-led mosque, which prohibits polygamy and is home to female imams, officially opened its doors in Denmark in March, but the place of worship is not odd or unique, says its founder Sherin Khankan.

“I believe Mariam mosque is part of a much larger global movement [based on] Islamic feminism established in the 1970s, which exploded in the 1990s,” Khankan, a mother of four and one of the two imamas at the mosque, told Al Arabiya English.

Source: Female-run mosque in Denmark ‘part of global trend,’ says founder – Al Arabiya English

These women are fighting the male domination of their religion….this I can agree with…..I wish them luck.

Next…recently the news has been about the burkini, a Muslim version of a swim suit, for Muslim women so they do not violate any religious thing……in the past there has been lots of talk and action against the wearing of the burqa….that full body wrap that some women are forced to wear in extreme conservative Islamic societies…..

But now that ban has moved into the ranks of ISIS (you remember them right?)

ISIS has outlawed the burka at their security centers in a northern Iraqi city, despite previously brutally enforcing a law requiring them to be worn.

The terror group have banned women entering the buildings in Mosul while wearing the full-face covering after a number of commanders were killed by veiled women.

Previously women in Syria and Iraq have been beaten or even killed by ISIS’s ‘morality police’ for not wearing a veil to conceal their body and eyes.

Amazing just how unnecessary these things are when it is their butts on the line….

Finally, an occurrence in Iran should make some Americans happy as Hell…..

The pistachio farmers in California.  Since 1979 these trees have made some of the people in California very rich…..BTW, Iran use to have a monopoly on pistachios until recently when the trees that were smuggled out of Iran in 1979 started bearing nuts…..but now there is a drought in Iran that is effecting the pistachio trees……

Pistachios are Iran’s biggest export after crude oil, with 250,000 tonnes of the nut produced last year — a figure only recently topped by the United States.

In Kerman province in southern Iran, cities have grown rich from pistachios, but time is running out for the industry as unconstrained farming and climate change take a devastating toll.

Near the city of Sirjan, a long line of enormous sinkholes like bomb craters mark the points where an underground aquifer was pumped completely dry, and the ground simply collapsed.

Source: Flash – Iran’s pistachio farms are dying of thirst – France 24

America could have the best pistachios if only they would learn how to process the nut before market…..until then the ones out of Iran are still the best….

That is it for today and I want to begin my relaxation and the weekend….go out and have some fun……we will be back in style Monday.

How To Beat Falling Oil Prices

As we all know the oil market is kinda volatile…up and down….it has been so bad that the Saudis are looking for ways to expand their chances for income….they are exploring many different avenues to make cash.

But it seems that they have found a good way….at least in the short run…..

Muslims are required if possible to make the trip to Mecca at least once in their life….it is a religious obligation….

With Hajj prices for UK pilgrims soaring to $12,000 from $4,000 in 2010, many pilgrims can no longer afford to take part in the trip

With its glittering skyscrapers, ritzy hotels, and sprawling shopping malls, it is hard to believe Mecca was ever a simple dusty, desert town where the likes of Abraham, Hagar and Muhammad once roamed. The transformation to the landscape over the last few decades has been swift and irreversible.

Both staggering poverty and opulence are on full display in Mecca during the annual Hajj season, which began last week. Huddled masses of pilgrims from all over the world lie sprawled out on blankets on the floor of the courtyard outside the main mosque. They include the African family of five who lie asleep with all their belongings at the front door of the high-rise shopping mall and hotel just adjacent to the Grand Mosque, to the thousands of panhandlers who set up camp each year in the Tent City of Mina, selling scarves, slippers, toys – anything in the hope that foreign pilgrims will give generously.

Source: Is Saudi Arabia pricing poorer pilgrims out of Hajj? | Middle East Eye

That is one way to take advantage of a captive audience…..fleece the pilgrims….

Ah the greed is just amazing and all in the name of GOD……