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| Conservatives attack their own; A house divided christian-atheist | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 3 2014, 12:17 AM (355 Views) | |
| Pat | Mar 3 2014, 12:17 AM Post #1 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/01/American-Atheists-President-Conservatives-Pretend-Christianity-Still-Holds-Water-in-American-Society Apparently, the head of some atheist organization came out and stuck his foot in his mouth by declaring that Christianity held little value in America. The head of the conservatives responded by dis-inviting atheists to the CPAC convention. In reality, this is a battle between evangelical Christians and non-believers. In America according to PEW, 51.3% of people identify with being Christian. Of those, 26.3 identify as being evangelical. People identifying as being religious has been shrinking at an alarming rate with the largest increase in polling being among those who say they are nothing. They don't identify with anything of a religious nature. The evangelical Christians are centered in the deep south, which leads me to believe that this identity is cultural in nature. Surprisingly, when asked to define what they mean when they say they are religious or Christian, most polled can't define what they mean, their family roots are such so they still keep calling themselves Christian. I suspect that is the root cause of why those reporting no religious identity is rising fastest among all Americans. People take some time to think about it and then admit they are nothing. As a conservative with deep libertarian values, I'm insulted by the responses of both sides in the lined article. Conservatism is not a religion even though the evangelical's which are the one's discriminating would have us believe it is. Anyway, this can not bode well for the republicans, the evangelicals are now culling the members of a conservative force, a force that historically leans Republican. This could drive the atheists and other non believers to third party type candidates. |
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| tomdrobin | Mar 3 2014, 12:52 AM Post #2 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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If I understand correctly the author is bemoaning religious intolerance in the conservative movement. The GOP has been playing the religion card to gain their support, and now it comes back to bite them. Karma is sweet. |
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| Pat | Mar 3 2014, 01:21 AM Post #3 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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I don't know about karma but in my opinion, the absolute worst move by the GOP was to embrace the religious extremists of the evangelical right. It has been downhill ever since. |
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| Neutral | Mar 3 2014, 02:09 AM Post #4 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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The GOP is in some sort of disarray for sure but they are also set to take the Senate so counting them out is absurd. |
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| Pat | Mar 3 2014, 03:29 AM Post #5 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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The young are speaking out as well, lose this segment of the population and a party cripples itself on into the future. Why the older party leaders continue to erect barriers is unconscionable. The party needs to join the 21st century and toss out those older separatists. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/to-young-christians-speak_b_4874382.html "Never in my life has my very faith been called into question like this." That's what young evangelical writer Jonathan Merritt told me this week. His statement followed a media firestorm, ignited when both he and Kirsten Powers weighed in on proposed laws in Kansas and Arizona that would have allowed business owners to deny service to gay couples, based on conservative religious beliefs about homosexuality. Merritt and Powers each suggested that justifying legal discrimination against gay and lesbian couples might not be the best form of Christian outreach and raised consistency issues of whether discrimination would also be applied to other less than "biblical" marriages, or if just gays and lesbians were being singled out. Their columns in both the Religion News Service and the Daily Beast have provoked intense responses from many Southern Baptists (where Merritt has his own heritage), those who call themselves Neo or "New" Calvinists, and other assorted critics from the political right. Neither Merritt nor Powers took clear theological positions on all the sexuality issues involved. But both have been stunned by the responses from emails, tweets, and angry phone calls. The 1,200 Twitter notifications, messages, and calls from "leaders" that Merritt has received in the last few days include, "You only pretend to worship Jesus"; "You're not a Christian"; "You are the enemies of Christianity"; "You're marginalized now"; "You're damaged goods"; "You're on the outs now." Merritt and Powers were not questioning the gospel; they were "just asking whether we should discriminate against a whole group of people." Both columnists believe Christians can honestly disagree on these complicated questions surrounding sexuality, but wanted to raise a discussion about whether passing laws that discriminate based on one religious point of view was wise, especially in this rapidly changing culture. As proof of the cultural shifts that are underway, some striking new data in a report by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute came out this week. The report shows that most religiously unaffiliated Americans now support civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. But so do most white mainline Protestants, white and Hispanic Catholics, and Jews. The generational divide is even more dramatic: strong majorities -- across the political spectrum -- of 18- to 33-year-old millennials support protecting gays and lesbians in the workplace, and most, religious and not, support the right of same-sex couples to marry. The report even states that "White evangelical Protestant millennials are more than twice as likely to favor same-sex marriage as the oldest generation of white evangelical Protestants (43% vs. 19%)." |
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| Berton | Mar 3 2014, 09:31 AM Post #6 |
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What most people do not understand is that conservatives are mostly united in their stand strategically. It is only in tactics which they disagree about. |
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| Deleted User | Mar 3 2014, 10:20 PM Post #7 |
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There is a good reason behind the principle of separation of church & state. Something the US should have taken from Britain. |
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| Berton | Mar 4 2014, 03:53 AM Post #8 |
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We do have separation between Church and State. The State is not to pass any law which infringes a church.
Edited by Berton, Mar 4 2014, 03:54 AM.
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| tomdrobin | Mar 4 2014, 01:07 PM Post #9 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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Well, they can't get enough votes to win by telling their true agenda which is protecting the wealth of their masters. So, they play off peoples fears and prejudices. Words like welfare queens, union thugs, failed stimulus, death panels the BS constantly cranked out by the right wing spin machine. |
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| Berton | Mar 4 2014, 08:46 PM Post #10 |
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I wonder why on this board any one with christian views are called extremists? |
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