An example of a good Christian school: Spartanburg Methodist. It's a two-year college near my parents. They offer free degrees (just associate's, obvs., but it's a good way to get your general ed stuff) to anyone who lives in the county. All students have to pay is for their textbooks and dorm if they want to live on campus. Tuition is entirely free. Everything else is paid for by donations.
But I've generally found that of the denominations, Methodists tend to be the more chill.
The current pope is, indeed, awesome. I like him; he strikes me as a genuinely good man, who approaches the world from a position of hope and compassion.
I would like to see more people like him. That he's in such a prominent position gives me hope that people will see him, and be inspired to emulate the hope and compassion part, no matter who the heck they are.
I don't know of any Catholic pastors who serve as members of local government. At least, not around my parts.
Not to put on a "Team Catholic" jersey here, even if I no longer refer to myself as one, I have more respect than I often speak of about the Catholic Church. I grew up around priests and nuns, have a high respect for Jesuits, and attended 2 years of a Jesuit high school.
I think a big difference is that where Catholics tend to spend a lot of time focusing on matters of conscience, with the need for regular confession, strains of guilt, and a fearful respect for a God who don't suffer no bullshit when he knows what was in your heart at the time, other strains of Christianity have bypassed that into the theory that sudden "re-baptisms" suddenly wash the slate clean, and that you can flaunt your "blessings" as victories and signs of God's approval.
Catholics don't do that shit. The general Catholic understanding is that regular pressings of some forgiveness button doesn't excuse you of the fact that you wouldn't have been truly sorry to begin with, and that flaunting riches in the face of the poor is inherently immoral.
So, in short, there are many Catholics that I don't apply these "Modern Christian" arguments towards. Sure, there are some who use Catholicism (just like others do in other faiths) as a personal path to power and abuse the influence and reassurances faith can bring, too. The Papacy has been a mess up until Pope Francis' arrival (and since John Paul II), but those that still admire the faith as a lifetime of conscience and introspection, I applaud.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man
I think a big difference is that where Catholics tend to spend a lot of time focusing on matters of conscience, with the need for regular confession, strains of guilt, and a fearful respect for a God who don't suffer no bullshit when he knows what was in your heart at the time, other strains of Christianity have bypassed that into the theory that sudden "re-baptisms" suddenly wash the slate clean, and that you can flaunt your "blessings" as victories and signs of God's approval.
I think the difference between evangelical Christians and other Christian faiths is that the others have a deeper history to contemplate from. For example, what history does Joel Osteen's mega-church have? What's the 700 Club have behind Pat Robertson?
I grew up with a healthy skepticism of religion, thanks to Lisa Simpson. But I also grew up with a healthy individual of faith: my father. He always went to church, and still does go every day. Still married to my mother. This is despite the fact that, as far as I know, he has always been gay.
Faith is a funny thing.
With Pope Francis, I feel as if the Catholic Church is turning a corner and coming back in line with the core of Jesus' teachings: be good to others; love your neighbors; turn the other cheek; sit with sinners; be charitable to the less fortunate. Maybe his continued influence will cause some of the barriers to break further, but we'll see.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
@Ganymede My mom's in the 'every day' club, too. Sometimes more than once a day, since she serves at mass and sings in both choirs, which often play at different masses.
Around Xmas, she just stays there from about noon on the 24th through 2am since she's either attending, performing at, or serving, or doing a reading.
@Ghost re: Francis, I have to say, as a generally very anti-religious person (from a split Christian / Jewish background that basically canceled out into secularism), even I have to love the guy.
When people justify religion's value, it's generally him that they describe: unqualified kindness, charity, good will, etc. I recognize that there are other people that strive for it, too. But part of why I love him is that he's such a visible walking indictment of the organization he represents as well as so many of the tenets of his own faith. Watching American Christian conservatives go into painful contortions on television trying to criticize him without looking like they're shit-talking their 'heir of St. Peter' is downright hilarious. I wonder how long they can even keep it up, when he won't let them use faith as a shield for gay-bashing, poor-hating, generally miserable and hate-filled ideology.
So good on the guy for that. Keep making so much of your flock look absolutely fucking terrible.
- One political party has quadrupled down on representing Christianity, running on God-centric tickets, in a country with freedom of religion for all religions. This places a face to a political movement. See Important Note above. Many of these candidates have run against women's medical rights, LGBTQ rights, and per Important Note above, creates a feeling of the religion taking a stance via political domination.
It doesn't help that there is a sizable Christian group that does literally believe they should be ruling. (Check out Dominionists some time. Then have a long shower using lots of soap to get rid of that horrible skin-crawling sensation. Then consider this: Canada's PM for a decade was a Dominionist…)
@surreality said in RL Anger:
The great whopping 'fuck you' with two birds flying re: ideological purity tests that are so gallingly common in political life in the US right now are one of the reasons I'm registered Independent and am very comfortable there.
You have absolutely no idea just how fucking Orwellian that whole "registered <party>" thing sounds to non-Americans. It's like you're making lists of people to be put up against the wall when one side or the other gets their final victory.
WHY THE FLYING FUCK WOULD YOU REGISTER YOUR POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS!?
@WTFE So that they can gerrymander the counties and take control of everything without having the popular vote
It's not a true democracy, it's technically a republic.
Hello! Long time listener, first time caller...
@WTFE So that they can gerrymander the counties and take control of everything without having the popular vote
It's not a true democracy, it's technically a republic.
That's the reason that the PTBs want you to register.
WHY ARE YOU REGISTERING!?
I register Republican so I can fuck with the primaries, but it is not illegal in my state to vote for anyone of any party. The Democratic party seems to know that I normally vote Dem, but I do get phone calls from both parties. I will say at least to me, the Republican phone calls are far more inflammatory and leading than the Democratic ones.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
I wish we just voted for the Party, and let them decide who should do what. Seems to work out.
@WTFE So that they can gerrymander the counties and take control of everything without having the popular vote
It's not a true democracy, it's technically a republic.
That's the reason that the PTBs want you to register.
WHY ARE YOU REGISTERING!?
The only truly democratic process of our alleged democratic elections are what are called the "Primaries". This is when the two-party system (Democrats and Republicans) field a number of prospective candidates per party as options to vote for.
Each of our 50 states has a state value per party, based on the population of the state. On a calendar, each respective party holds a Democrat or Republican vote that only registered party members can vote in, and they can only vote within their own party. There is no electoral college. Each vote is counted as a vote. 1 citizen? 1 vote.
The political parties have also provided a number of "Superdelegates" per state to influential party members, lobbyists, and historically these superdelegates will not commit their votes until the state has been won, and side with the candidate who won the state. California has 546 superdelegates and a population of 39 million, which comes to about each superdelegate (elite) vote in California being worth over 17,000 citizen votes.
(This should be maddening.)
In an unprecedented move, the Democrat party's superdelegates declared near unanimous support for Hillary Clinton before a single citizen had cast a single vote in the Primaries, placing her within reach of winning before the Primaries had even begun.
By the end of the primaries, this process helps decide who the (Democrat|Republican) nominees will be in the general election.
Which is, clearly, not a corrupted, usurped democratic process leaned towards focusing on the interests of the elite.
Thus concludes your 2 minute lesson as to why our democracy is clearly better than any other of you CLEARLY freedom-lacking nations, because we are the best.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man
@WTFE You have to register to vote so you are on record as a warm body in X location that is of age and meets the other requirements to vote.
You do not have to note a party.
Indicating 'Independent' covers this ground. It's a broad umbrella here, comprising lots of third parties and 'undecided's and so on.
@Thenomain I really feel sorry for the NRA phonebot that called here with a survey once.
They are really not going to enjoy listening to the fact that their scaremongering 'the libruls are comin fer our guns in mobs to kill us!' soundbytes from their dear leader were not enough to get me to drop support for responsible gun ownership, but that I sure as shit would never find them a credible source of information after that bag o' bullshit, and would gladly repeat what I heard on that call while urging others who feel as I do to find a less egregiously-unhinged organization through which to pursue those goals.
I vote to party.
Andrew WK 2020!
The only truly democratic process of our alleged democratic elections are what are called the "Primaries". This is when the two-party system (Democrats and Republicans) field a number of prospective candidates per party as options to vote for.
You have two parties? I thought you had only the one (Plutocrats) who had two ever so slightly different branch offices ("Democrats" and "Republicans").
WHY THE FLYING FUCK WOULD YOU REGISTER YOUR POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS!?
To vote in their primaries.
@Lain That is an incredibly fucking stupid thing to require.
He/Him
@Tinuviel Pretty much everyone is agreed, but it's one of the ways the two parties maintain their power and keep a third party from forming, so it's not going to change any time soon
@WTFE You have to register to vote so you are on record as a warm body in X location that is of age and meets the other requirements to vote.
You do not have to note a party.
Indicating 'Independent' covers this ground. It's a broad umbrella here, comprising lots of third parties and 'undecided's and so on.
