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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 3:35:30 GMT 10
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 3:47:51 GMT 10
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 3:53:57 GMT 10
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Post by pim on Jul 4, 2018 7:20:35 GMT 10
What religious holiday would that be, Occam? We're a godless bunch down here. When the British settled this place with convicts God didn't really come into it, unlike North America which kinda saw itself as a safe haven for people trying to get away from religious persecution in Europe. True, we have Christmas but that's more about Santa than about baby Jesus. Good Friday is also a public holiday here but that's been subsumed into something generically called the "Easter Break", and Easter is about the Easter Bunny rather than some poor guy nailed to a cross and having a rotten Easter Break. My point is that religious holidays here have been secularised and gutted of any religious and spiritual meaning. We've just had a Catholic archbishop found criminally liable of crimes of omission in a paedophile case and sentenced to home detention. I think he's going to have to wear one of those anklet things. Organised mainstream Christianity is on the nose In Australia right now and it's not a good time to be adopting a moral high ground.
We also have something called the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend in June. Australians get a paid holiday to celebrate the birthday of your Queen who also happens to be our Queen and who happens to live in London. Even Australians like Trickle-Down Phil who likes to ride the republican bandwagon (but who glosses over the inconvenient fact that the republic he advocates is a racist one) get a paid holiday - whether they want one or not. So go figure. BTW do you Canadians get a paid holiday for the QE2's birthday?
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Post by pim on Jul 4, 2018 10:27:50 GMT 10
But Trickles! You do advocate for an unreconciled Australian republic. Never once in all your republican bandwagon posturing have you addressed the issue of Aboriginal reconciliation, a treaty to be incorporated into a republican constitution or anything to do with the Uluru statement. Your bandwagon "republicanism" would just have us delete "Queen" from the constitution and insert "president", making no other changes and leaving the existing racist sections intact. Stop whining and own your bullshit.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 12:44:15 GMT 10
What religious holiday would that be, Occam? We're a godless bunch down here. When the British settled this place with convicts God didn't really come into it, unlike North America which kinda saw itself as a safe haven for people trying to get away from religious persecution in Europe. True, we have Christmas but that's more about Santa than about baby Jesus. Good Friday is also a public holiday here but that's been subsumed into something generically called the "Easter Break", and Easter is about the Easter Bunny rather than some poor guy nailed to a cross and having a rotten Easter Break. My point is that religious holidays here have been secularised and gutted of any religious and spiritual meaning. We've just had a Catholic archbishop found criminally liable of crimes of omission in a paedophile case and sentenced to home detention. I think he's going to have to wear one of those anklet things. Organised mainstream Christianity is on the nose In Australia right now and it's not a good time to be adopting a moral high ground. We also have something called the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend in June. Australians get a paid holiday to celebrate the birthday of your Queen who also happens to be our Queen and who happens to live in London. Even Australians like Trickle-Down Phil who likes to ride the republican bandwagon (but who glosses over the inconvenient fact that the republic he advocates is a racist one) get a paid holiday - whether they want one or not. So go figure. BTW do you Canadians get a paid holiday for the QE2's birthday? But what of Good Friday, specifically? No Easter bunnies to hide behind for that one, you can't just lump it in with Easter. They are two separate occasions. On the calendar we make the distinction, whether we want to recognize it or not.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 12:54:37 GMT 10
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 21:05:45 GMT 10
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Post by KTJ on Jul 4, 2018 21:26:29 GMT 10
You know what's hilariously funny?
People who believe the god delusion in their head is a REAL GOD.
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Post by pim on Jul 4, 2018 21:41:39 GMT 10
But what of Good Friday, specifically? No Easter bunnies to hide behind for that one, you can't just lump it in with Easter. They are two separate occasions. On the calendar we make the distinction, whether we want to recognize it or not. I take your point Occam and I probably agree with the principle you're arguing from. But there it is! The Australians subsume it all into something called the "Easter Break". Good Friday is a paid public holiday and so is the Monday after Easter Day which we call Easter Sunday and the following day is called - you guessed it - Easter Monday. Disgracefully one hears the Saturday preceding Easter - which I was brought up to call Holy Saturday - "Easter" Saturday. Also, shock horror, some people here have even taken to referring to Good Friday as "Easter Friday", which to me goes way beyond the Pale. I like Easter better than Christmas. The problem with the Australian Christmas is that it occurs in summer and therefore dominates the Australian summer with all the Christmas stress of shopping, sending Christmas cards (OMG did I remember everyone? Who did I leave out?) and the preparation for that gastronomic obstacle course, Christmas lunch. At least in the northern hemisphere Christmas is in winter when it's supposed to be. So summer holidays are a completely separate issue.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 4, 2018 21:56:16 GMT 10
You know what's hilariously funny? People who believe the god delusion in their head is a REAL GOD.
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Post by KTJ on Jul 4, 2018 22:01:49 GMT 10
When you prove your god is more than a mere delusion, then I'll start taking you seriously.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 5, 2018 2:33:45 GMT 10
If I can prove the intangible is actually tangible, then you'll take me seriously? ...And folks, he said that without even a speck of irony.
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Post by pim on Jul 5, 2018 7:23:48 GMT 10
Irony and KTJ are complete strangers to each other.
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Post by KTJ on Jul 6, 2018 14:05:28 GMT 10
from The Washington Post…A church put Jesus, Mary and Joseph in ‘ICE detention’ to protest Trump's immigration policies“That was a homeless couple who weren't welcome anywhere, who took refuge in the barn,” the Reverend Stephen Carlsen said.By KRISTINE PHILLIPS | 5:02PM EDT — Tuesday, July 03, 2018Statues of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus are shown in a cage of chain-link fencing on the lawn of Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Indianapolis on July 3. The statues were placed there to protest the Trump administration's “zero tolerance” immigration policy. — Photograph: Ebony Cox/The Indianapolis Star/Associated Press.SITTING IN the heart of downtown Indianapolis, on the lawn where Christ Church Cathedral erects its Nativity scene every year, is the holy family. But there's no manger, shepherds, wise men or angels; just a chain-link fence surrounding the couple and the newborn.
Inside the fence, Mary sits on a wooden block, cradling baby Jesus in her arms as Joseph stands next to her looking down.
Christ Church Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in Indianapolis, is protesting the detention of families under the Trump administration's “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting as many people as possible for crossing into the United States illegally. Justice Department lawyers said in a filing last week that families could be detained for longer than the 20-day limit required by a previous court settlement.
The Reverend Stephen Carlsen, the church's dean and rector, said the news prompted the church to create a display showing a “detained” holy family. Joseph and Mary were not any different from migrant families fleeing violence from their home countries, he said. The couple fled to Egypt after Herod ordered the execution of baby boys in Bethlehem, according to the Bible.
“People forget what that scene means,” Carlsen told The Washington Post. “That was a homeless couple who weren't welcome anywhere, who took refuge in the barn, and it was to that couple that the Christ child was born.”
“What we take away from these stories is the same thing we take away from our teachings and religious ethics,” Carlsen added. “The heart of God is always with those who are on the margins, who are vulnerable and have no voice.”
The Episcopal church, in a blue city in a blue county in the middle of red-state Indiana, is known for being politically active and has been vocal in its criticism of the Trump administration's hard-line approach to immigration.
“This issue isn't a new one for us,” Carlsen said. “We've been working pastorally and also raising our voices on behalf of families who have come to our country seeking safety and seeking a future for their children.”
Last weekend, the church joined the Families Belong Together rally outside the Indiana Statehouse to protest the separation of families. Hundreds of similar protests took place across the country. In 2014, the church was among a handful of religious organizations that married gay couples after the state's ban on same-sex marriage was ruled unconstitutional.
Christ Church Cathedral announced the display in an early-morning tweet Tuesday using the hashtags #EveryFamilyIsHoly and #CadaFamiliaEsSagrada.
“On our lawn tonight we placed The Holy Family … in #ICE detention,” the church tweeted.
The display is reminiscent of photos of migrants in large pens with chain-link walls at a detention center in Texas. Similar images circulated in the news media during the 2014 migrant crisis under the Obama administration.
Carlsen said he has spent some time standing on the sidewalk in front of the church to talk to people about the display. He said some people aren't able to see the parallel immediately.
“People have to connect the dots. That's what's so powerful about a religious icon,” he said. “Some people connect the dots and disagree. Other people connect the dots and I can see their heart soften.”
More than 2,500 children were sent to shelters and facilities across the country between May and June. In defending the family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited a Bible passage invoked by defenders of slavery. The passage, Romans 13, says that God has ordained the government for his purposes.
But Trump reversed course amid a public uproar that included condemnation from religious leaders, including Pope Francis. He signed an executive order that ended family separations and instructed the Department of Homeland Security to keep families together while in custody. The administration said about 500 children have since been reunited with their parents.
Carlsen said he does not know how long the display will be outside the church.
“How long is it needed?” he said. “I would love for it to be outdated and be taken down. That would be my greatest wish.”__________________________________________________________________________ • Kristine Phillips is a member of The Washington Post's general assignment team. She previously covered criminal justice, courts and legal affairs at the Indianapolis Star. __________________________________________________________________________ Related to this topic: • The story of Donald Trump's grandfather, who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor • ‘We make kids disappear’: Activists alter billboard to condemn separation of migrant families • Reports have spread that shelter workers can't comfort migrant children. Rules aren't that simple. • ‘America is better than this’: What a doctor saw in a Texas shelter for migrant childrenwww.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/03/a-church-put-jesus-mary-and-joseph-in-ice-detention-to-protest-trumps-immigration-policies
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 8, 2018 7:06:19 GMT 10
It's hard to know what side you fall on here, KTJ. Do you agree with this church, or Trump?
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Post by KTJ on Jul 8, 2018 8:23:41 GMT 10
Neither. The church is preaching bullshit (that the god delusion inside people's minds is a real god) and the president lies multiple times every day.
Hence why I posted the story in the Religious Funnies thread.
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Post by KTJ on Jul 8, 2018 8:24:39 GMT 10
Here's another Religious Funny… from The Washington Post…D.C.-area Catholic priest placed on leave after throwing mourners out of a Maryland funeral“You're not a preacher … you're not a father of the Lord. You're none of that. You're the devil.”By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN | 6:00PM EDT — Tuesday, July 03, 2018The Reverend Michael Briese, a priest in the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. — Photograph: Archdiocese of Washington D.C.A D.C.-area Catholic priest was placed on leave on Tuesday after exploding at mourners waiting in a sanctuary for a funeral, reportedly telling them to “get the hell out of my church.” Video shows the argument going on feet away from an open casket holding the deceased woman.
The disturbing scene last Wednesday played out on social media after mourners recorded the Reverend Michael Briese, who is in his 60s, angrily speaking with people at St. Mary's Church in Charlotte Hall. In a letter on Thursday to the local newspaper, the Maryland Independent, Briese talked about how his anger “spilled out in a torrent” after he saw a “sacred chalice” used in the Mass damaged by a funeral guest.
After the blowup between Briese and mourners standing beside the casket of Agnes Hicks, dozens of people streamed out of the sanctuary with the casket into a parking lot, where police cars called by Briese were arriving, according to a video report by Fox 5-WTTG-DC.
The details of exactly what happened during the altercation weren't immediately clear, but church officials and Briese said in statements that nothing justified his reaction, and they apologized.
“What occurred at Saint Mary's Parish this morning does not reflect the Catholic Church's fundamental calling to respect and uplift the God-given dignity of every person,” wrote the Reverend Michael W. Fisher, who was recently installed as auxiliary bishop for ministerial leadership of the archdiocese, which covers the District and the nearby Maryland suburbs and exurbs. “I want to reach out to you first to offer my prayers for your loved one that God will grant her a place in his kingdom of eternal light and love, and condolences to your family. On days such as today, our response should always be one of compassion and sympathy for the bereaved as well as prayers for the deceased. I reiterate and reinforce the sincere apology you and your family received” earlier.
Briese was placed on administrative leave while the archdiocese investigates what it called in Fisher's note on Wednesday a “serious misunderstanding.”
Someone called 911 and reported that property was being destroyed and that a possible fight was unfolding, said Charles County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Diane Richardson. When officers arrived, there were 200 to 250 people in and around the parking lot. Some “were visibly upset … obviously something happened, but it wasn't clear what it was.”
Richardson said police escorted the group and the casket to the county line. There was no evidence of property damage, except for the chalice, which she said appeared to have been knocked over accidentally.
Hicks's children spoke angrily of their treatment at the parish where she was baptized and where, they said, she always wished to be buried.
Shanice Chisley, Hicks's daughter, told Fox 5 that “all hell broke loose” when the chalice was knocked over.
“He literally got on the mic and said, ‘There will be no funeral, no Mass, no repast [funeral reception], everyone get the hell out of my church’. He was disrespectful,” Chisley said of Briese. “He disrespected our family, he disrespected my mother.”
Renetta Baker, also interviewed by Fox 5 and identified as a daughter of Hicks, said Briese was unholy.
“You're not a preacher. You're not a pastor, you're not a father of the Lord. You're none of that. You're the devil.”
According to Fisher's letter, another priest of the archdiocese, the Reverend Scott Woods, completed the service at a nearby funeral home.
Many of the funeral attendees were black, and a pallbearer reportedly said Briese — who is white — denied, unprompted, that he was motivated by racism. Hicks was African American.
“After everyone cleared out, it was just the pallbearers, he tried to explain it that he wasn't a racist,” Theo Johnson, a pallbearer and cousin of Hicks, told the Enterprise, a newspaper covering the rural area southeast of Washington. “He said he put plaques on graves out there [in the cemetery], black and white people, he said he feeds the homeless. Nobody said anything about race. We were just saying he was being disrespectful, that this could have been handled after the funeral, and he said, ‘Forget it, just get that thing — [indicating the casket] — out of here’.”
Briese declined to comment on Tuesday but wrote to the local newspaper that he feared that those minutes in the church would erase a lifetime of public service.
“Some might dismiss these words, given the tenor of the words I uttered before the funeral that was to take place on Wednesday. That is a just part of the consequence I will bear for my behavior. Like all human beings, I, too, am broken in nature, make mistakes and, yes, I fail,” he wrote. “My recent actions and words were not borne of kindness, but a failure of my vow to serve the Lord and those entrusted to my care as a person and as priest. I am profoundly sorry for my words and actions. I pray for all in this community every day, and I can only ask that you pray for me, but also for other priests and ministers, and all who seek to serve those who suffer and struggle as we strive to build up the kingdom of God.”
Archdiocese spokeswoman Chieko Noguchi said Briese had been working with the family in the days leading up to the funeral to defray the burial costs.
A 2009 profile of Briese from the Catholic Standard said he grew up around Silver Spring and before becoming a priest he took into his home local homeless people, who he also fed, and had worked trying to help elderly and disabled people find housing.
“We grew up respecting other people. That's a big lesson, to make room for everybody,” he said in the profile. “It's in me to reach out to those in need, I've been doing that all my life.”__________________________________________________________________________ • Michelle Boorstein is a religion reporter for The Washington Post, covering the busy marketplace of American faith. Her career has included a decade of globe-trotting with the Associated Press, covering topics including terrorism in the Arizona desert, debates on male circumcision, Ugandan royalty, and how strapped doctors in Afghanistan decide who lives and who dies. __________________________________________________________________________ Related to this topic: • U.S. Catholic bishops to minister to children in border detention centers • Overturning Roe versus Wade isn't worth compromising with Trump, my fellow evangelicalswww.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/03/d-c-area-catholic-priest-placed-on-leave-after-throwing-mourners-out-of-a-maryland-church
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 8, 2018 21:33:10 GMT 10
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Post by pim on Jul 9, 2018 14:00:26 GMT 10
Return of the troll ...
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Post by pim on Jul 9, 2018 17:29:40 GMT 10
Whatever floats your boat I guess, you silly twisted boy.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 18, 2018 9:39:45 GMT 10
lol
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2018 12:34:59 GMT 10
Glad to see you have time to visit us at this awful time Ron, and can appreciate some humor in the process. Take care G
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 18, 2018 23:34:17 GMT 10
Glad to see you have time to visit us at this awful time Ron, and can appreciate some humor in the process. Take care G It's my sense of humour that has kept me going all this time, Grim. Thank you.
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Post by Occam's Spork on Jul 21, 2018 23:34:34 GMT 10
“I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied." Jeremiah 23:21
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