What is Evangelism?

When you grow up in the sticks, all there are is shitty jobs...

One GOP evangelical woman running for congress has proposed that people running for public office take a Bible exam.

I have news for her and her know-nothing evangelical ilk. She would fail the test.

Question 1
When does the book of Genesis say a fetus becomes a "living soul"?
A: Before birth
B: After birth

Question 2
What is the most important part of society that should be fed?
A: Feeding the poor
B: Feeding the rich

Question 3
Given the rampant homosexuality and adultery in Rome during the time of Jesus, which of these two did Jesus speak out against?
A: He spoke out against homosexuality
B: He spoke out against adultery

Question 4
Does the book of Genesis teach evolution?
A: Yes
B: No

GOP Congressional Candidate: All Office Seekers Must Pass Bible Exam
https://www.themaven.net/theintellectualist/atheism-secularism/gop-congressional-candidate-all-office-seekers-must-pass-bible-exam-oKspTIwAMUKzimi6RDWbHg/

I thought I would bring this discussion to a clear focus and provide those four questions to demonstrate how little modern evangelicals know about the Bible.

People are inundated with so much errant doctrine by evangelicals that they think the Bible actually says what the evangelicals teach.

People "read around" the Bible versus directly reading it. Most only listen to what others say about the book.

Does anyone want to give it a shot and answer the four questions and test your biblical knowledge?

I am not trying to says the Bible is an authoritative source for morality but at least get it right rather than assume what it says and means based upon what others teach.

Since the dark ages a misconception had pervaded accepted norms; that, only clergy can read and understand the words in the Bible.

This could not be further from the truth.

Fundamentalist evangelical clergy often have a "church agenda" and the words of the book moreso than not, have also eluded them too. They are so blinded by church dogma that the cannot see the words and meanings which are as plain as the nose on their face...

Question 1
When does the book of Genesis say a fetus becomes a "living soul"?
A: Before birth
B: After birth

Question 2
What is the most important part of society that should be fed?
A: Feeding the poor
B: Feeding the rich

Question 3
Given the rampant homosexuality and adultery in Rome during the time of Jesus, which of these two did Jesus speak out against?
A: He spoke out against homosexuality
B: He spoke out against adultery

Question 4
Does the book of Genesis teach evolution?
A: Yes
B: No


Here are the answers to the Bible exam. I wonder how many evangelical politicians would pass?

Question 1
Answer = B

Question 2
Answer = A

Question 3
Answer = B

Question 4
Answer = A

If you would like to argue some of these answers, please feel free to do so.

what is the point you're trying to make here. It's better to go on welfare than to take a so called shitty job? I started at some menial jobs, worked hard, saved my money and built a big business. Any healthy American can do it. It also says in the Bible if you don't work you don't eat .

Drop a note to Pope Francis, he mysteriously thinks we should feed the hungry. Maybe he can explain it to you.

I am hungry. Send me a gift certificate for some food right now please.

What's the point you're trying to make? That everyone on welfare is lazy and good for nothing. Your fortune was down to nothing but your own hard work, no other factors were involved. Therefore anyone not as fortunate as you is inferior. Those less human than you should be reminded of their failings, while you're not quite prepared to see them starve to death you want to make survival as humiliating as possible.

That sounds about the size of it from where I'm standing.

Pope Francis grew up in a very corrupt society that has caused a lot of hunger. The government and a large portion of the businesses in Argentina are very corrupt. You can limit corruption by:

Consistently promoting moral virtues in all people from an early age by teaching through families, schools and by enforcing just laws.

Part of learning is having consequences for bad behavior. So, there is always going to be poor hungry people because of corrupt business practices, corrupt government, and poor personal choices.

Due to capitalism and a government based on a moral constitution building so much wealth and opportunity in the USA, hunger in the USA due to corrupt business practices or corrupt government are rare. The leading cause of hunger is poor personal choices.

These people that are hungry because of bad choices (and the ones that are just weak and can't take care of themselves) need to be helped out of their predicament. The solutions that provide a way out for each individual is varied. All (the poor and the rich that need to help them) need to learn and maintain moral lifestyles. The varied solutions to solve each individual hungry persons dilemma are to vast for a large secular amoral federal bureaucracy to handle. Too many people are going to be hurt by a one size fits all bureaucratic solution with no moral underpinnings.

In the meantime the government is removing the responsibility from individuals in society to take care of their neighbors, employees, coworkers, etc. . . Now nobody is learning how to experience moral solutions to moral problems. Right now when people receive low paying jobs at large corporations they are counseled on how to apply for food stamps and welfare. That is the morality that our bureaucracy is promoting. I don't know if that is the correct long term solution.

If a large employer is pressured by employees and customers alike because their employees are hungry will more than like figure out a way to make sure they receive a living wage. That is if society has enough morality to pressure them.

In the Pope's Argentina the government and business are so corruptly intertwined and the people so poorly educated on standing up for what is morally right because people like Francis thought that short term handouts are better than fighting for Long term moral society.

It worked in the USA. We have non profit community counseling centers and food assistance programs that are far more successful at changing behavior (of both rich and poor) that leads to success than, widespread federal programs like Social Security and food stamps which leave poor habits entrenched in both the rich and poor.

It is hard to blame Pope Francis though. He is only human and has had his butt kicked by the corruption in Argentina for so long that he thinks all nations have governments and businesses with same corruption problem, and the only solution is government redistribution of wealth. When in reality the solution is, teaching a population to be moral and take care of there own neighbor. It is too bad he has given up hope on the Spirit of God working through the individual and entrusted his hope in big government.

(Maybe even a Pope run world government) Looks like that's where we are heading.

How would you like that?

No, the point i am making (if you are unaware because of your privilege) is that, when you work a shitty job and you put your whole heart into your work (as the Bible says to "work heartily as if you are working for the lord").. Your body wears out fast and because they are shitty jobs they have no health insurance and you get sick from the sheer unhealthy conditions of the work.

Jobs like, working in a sewage treatment plant, a coal mine and working on a farm that uses pesticides, wiping people's regurgitated food off plates with your hand.. Unrelenting work that lasts for hours, days, months and years.

You are not sick because your DNA is inferior to let's say, “white people" you get sick because the work is unregulated and makes people get sick no matter their ethnic persuasion.

At that point welfare is no real use because you are dying.

All so some corporations can artificially raise their profit margins and get even more filthy stinking rich. Our GOP politicians take bribes so this can happen.

I hope you can understand the point I am making.

Your children are forced to live without a father or mother. Not because you did not work or love them or deserted them... but because you took a job and gave it too much of yourself. If you survive the job you spend each day living in excruciating pain, some have sores all over your body or asthma shuts off their breath when they try to exert themselves in the slightest bit.

Then they have some asshole get in their face because they are "living off the government's dime".

I hope I have made my point clear enough here.

You are the problem, your lack of empathy, your support for politicians who are paid for by by the corporations who have created this hellish servitude.

Where does it say in the Bible if you work you don't get health insurance? Where does it say in the Bible if you work you get screwed? Where does it say if you work you die and your family is left to live in the gutter without you there to provide for them?

And I would also like to explain to you what the verse you quoted actually means.

The bible is not talking about working a job it is talking about working the word.

Studying the Bible so you do not misinterpret it and use it to hurt others.


2 Timothy 2:15 King James Version (KJV)
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Comment:
There is "wrongly dividing" of the word of truth too.

To just assume this is talking about working for humans rather than for God is the first wrong dividing.

For if we assume this is talking about working for something other than God that is were the shame manifests itself. Leaving old people destitute and children without school lunches. This is worthy of shame.

But to rightly divide this is to work the word so that you understand the heart and empathy of giving to others less fortunate and sharing of your abundance to help those who have (through no fault of their own) stumbled along the way.

God does not approve of deserting those in need. The very idea that this would be acceptable is unchristian and immoral.

If you do not "work "and study the word and "rightly divide" it you may have physical riches, nice cars and a big old bank account but your heart will be starving for righteousness. You spirit will not eat, your mind will not be fed truth and your body will be a temple that holds greed and self-righteousness...

THAT is what that Bible verse really means.

It takes spiritual eyes to see it and an attitude of heart to feel its true meaning.

You see only what you want to see so you can justify your hate.

You agree with those who interpret this verse the same as you so it agrees with you so, you can continue on your merry way leaving others in the ditch.

When you do not see the spiritual truth that it is you and the selfish privileged who are in the ditch feeding off others pain and servitude. Because they did not work the word.

Your own charity is paid out of guilt and self shame for your wrongly dividing of the truth.

The truth that, some people work harder than most others and yet earn so little that they still don't eat...

I think it's wrong to get in anybodies face for working the government. I've received tens of thousands of government dollars per year while I was making very little money farming. The farm program was the profit. It didn't improve my profit because I wasn't a land owner, It made the land owner raise the rent on me. The farm program did distort the land market and still does. Now I am a landowner and take advantage of it. I saw it coming to an end so I got out of farm ground and own some apartments in the city, Hud money from my tenants pays much better than the farm program. I bet my rents are 20 percent higher because of hud and they always pay. I have an unwed mother with three kids from three different men paying me $100/month and hud pays me $900 so she can live there. Her boy friend shows up says he's not living there so she can keep her hud payment. Her 4th kid who is her oldest has a child now. they say she is visiting but I think she lives there to with her boy friend who just got her pregneant. Where the 3 or 4 irresponsible real fathers of the other children in this house hold are, I don't know. I suspect if they had to take care of these kids they might but, hud, food stamps, and school lunches are doing their job for them now.

I feel sorry for these fatherless children in these broken families. Is the federal government promoting the irresponsibile life styles these parents are living and passing on to their children? I think so. I would rather keep some of my tax dollars and help these families myself. Maybe we could teach them to break the cycle of broken relationships between mothers and fathers.

I don't judge and pay people by their intelligence or their beliefs. I hire an autistic person and pay him more than he is worth because his effort deserves it. He is doing the best with what God gave him.

I raised my 5 children and helped raise 2 foster sons. Both came from abusive households but one had a drug addicted mother. That one had serious social problems from her drug use during pregnancy (maybe) and has taken a lot of follow up in helping him get started after he moved out.

I am part owner of a company with 30 employees. I have employees that I can barely afford to pay a living wage to (and they really don't earn what I pay them) and some make upper middle class incomes. I tell the ones with low capabilities keep looking for a better paying job till then, I'll pay you what you are worth to our company and I will make sure you will always have enough food and shelter. All I ask in return is an honest effort.



If you know a corporation running obscene profits let me know. I will start a business in that field. I have never seen any business run obscene profits for more than a few years without competition stepping in and undercutting them. What is obscene is when big banks and big corporation get bailed out by government like Chrysler Dodge and the Wall street Banks. I'ts tough to compete with the big guys when they can make stupid decisions and get bailed out.

I think some of our health care problems for the middle class could be solved if the government had let health insurance companies compete across state line like auto insurance companies do.

I love everyone and help all that I can. If the government got out of everbodie's way that believes like I do, the helpless will always be taken care of.



You obviously don't know me.

I have never seen a hard worker go hungry where I live. If you have some in your part of the world send them my way. I can't find enough hard workers and our employees never go without. (I'm serious I want names and phone numbers. I need workers. The last people we hired came from 3 hours away and we relocated them. )

If I need to point this out to you then your sight is severely hampered by your blind faith partisan politics (which it is).

Oil companies are monopolies running obscene profits. How could that not be as obvious as day?

Your terms "working the government" is also insulting. Just like "engineered people".

Maybe you work the government and game the system but others find aid in our government "of and by the people". It is of the people when the people are not sold out by the selfish profit seeking republican party.

If you paid your workers living wages perhaps they would work harder and turn more over a greater profit. Instead they do as little as is humanly possible because they don't care. They are working **** jobs so they provide **** services. You get what you give.

Brianjakub askes:

Is the federal government promoting the irresponsible life styles these parents are living and passing on to their children?

Comment:
No, it is republican policies and trillions paid to corporations that are allowing corporations to cripple and rob the middle class.

If you don't work you don't eat? How many rich people know how to even operate a vacuum cleaner, a dishwasher or a clothes washer?

How many rich people pay taxes for the roads they drive on, the police that protect their businesses and the military that keeps our country sovereign?

Very few! They buy off the GOP for a fraction of what they steal and spread fear so their own are elected and then rob the middle class even more so that small businesses can barely pay living wages and their workers can barely afford to get by.

Brianjakub wrote:

You obviously don't know me.

Comment:
I do know you. your talking points indicate you support republican policies, spout out their hateful rhetoric and are blind to the humanities work that has gone undone for decades and even longer.

BrianJakub wrote:

I have never seen a hard worker go hungry where I live.

Then he wrote:
I am part owner of a company with 30 employees. I have employees that I can barely afford to pay a living wage to

Comment:
You are a walking contradiction

I should send people your way so they can barely earn a living wage? I am sure they would rather pass.

When you barely earn a living wage you have to make decisions, do I eat or do my kids eat, do I go see a doctor or do my kids go see a doctor?

Do I take public transportation to work or do my kids take public transportation to school?

You have painted yourself out with rose colored glasses while you support GOP policies that make life a living hell for labor.

Brianjakub wrote:
I feel sorry for these fatherless children in these broken families.

Comment
Is this why you support republicans who want to take away Head Start and destroy the social safety net? Is this how you show charity and try and right the wrongs done by the greedy 1%? Single mothers have to work two jobs to support fatherless children but the republicans have stood in the way for many years against equal pay for women. As if equal pay would help when most jobs do not pay enough anyway.

I am not saying you have not done some good in your life but by supporting the GOP you undo it all in one fell swoop.

Brianjakub wrote:
I have an unwed mother with three kids from three different men paying me $100/month and hud pays me $900 so she can live there.

Comment:
Imagine what life would be like for this mother and the three fathers of her children if corporate businesses paid a living wage to their employees? These corporations don't pay taxes and they don't pay a living wage and they get trillions of dollars from the new government tax plan. While the fathers of her children all pay taxes and work in jobs that do not provide a living wage.
I sense you find this HUD program ultimately is stealing money from your pocket. Well it is not HUD stealing money from your pocket it is the bribed GOP who are setting policies in line with their corporate masters.

Conservative corporations are parasites living off the middle class and robbing them blind while they post out propaganda pointing a finger at the "greedy and lazy" poor and you eat it right up.

Corporations have decimated labor unions and have turned the republican party into a puppet of their designs. This is the machinery that is robbing you at every turn.

They are attacking corporations who pay living wages and penalizing corporations who foster a strong labor ethic. They are turning state labor laws into right to work slave plantations. They are driving main street (which incidentally does pay taxes) into the gutter so they can take every dime consumers make.

They stifle science and innovation so they can produce, pollute and un-regulate their destruction of the planet.

They destroy pristine ecosystems and leave those who do pay taxes to pick up the bill. Then they infiltrate government agencies so they can steal money earmarked to fix their messes.

They pay GOP politicians to overlook their wealth inequality and monopolies while they strangle all competition off at the start.

If you cannot see this happening then you simply don't want to see it.

You cannot support the GOP policies and be a good persons also... It is an impossibility.

This is the person who kept misgendering Kaitlyn Jenner despite being repeatedly told how insulting it was. I don't this he's remotely aware of his prejudices, nor does he want to counter them.

The phrase working the government implies all people in receipt of benefit are dishonest in some way, either they're workshy layabouts with no intention of working or they're conmen, claiming benefits they're not entitled to. He refuses to accept there is genuine need, people aren't on benefits because they want to be, it's how events have transpired.

Btw, countries with a more generous benefit system are more successful in getting people off benefits and back to work.

Brianjakub wrote:

Pope Francis grew up in a very corrupt society that has caused a lot of hunger.

Comment:
It is ironic that you can point a finger at Argentine society calling it "corrupt". ...while, our GOP politicians ignore the will of the people for the sake of gun manufacturers profits and corporations buy our elections and the GOP rolls out the red carpet for Russians to hack our political systems and elections.

Homelessness in the US is at an all-time high and 1 in 6 people here in the US face hunger. The USDA defines "food insecurity" as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members. In 2011, households with children reported a significantly higher food insecurity rate than households without children: 20.6% vs. 12.2%.

This, is corruption at its finest while the 1% in the US holds more wealth than most of the rest of the world combined...

Face it Brian, you grew up in a much more corrupt society than the pope...

Maybe you should take a look at the skeletons in your own backyard before smearing and pointing a finger at the pope?

Why are you assuming that everybody that is rich and everyone who is poor is there because of corruption. When I was 21 years old with a young wife and child in 1986 I made $13,000.00 that year. I worked for a roofing company that probably made millions fixing roofs on high rise buildings. I doubt they had a return on investment above 10%.

Now I own a business and I am struggling to get a 10 % return. If I get a 10% return on my $1,000,000.00 I invest, that leaves me $50,000.00 for family living, $30,000.00 for taxes, and $20,000.00 for debt service on my loans. And I am working harder than my employees that make $50,000.00 and pay almost no taxes and get to sleep better because they don’t have to make payroll. Because if I can’t make payroll they don’t eat and neither do I.

What is the return on investment for the average US corporation?

By the way Corporations don’t bury their money, they usually reinvest to avoid paying taxes which, creates jobs. Raise corporate taxes and they will invest in a country with lower corporate taxes like those in Europe or China. How do you make a living?

In the Cayman Islands.

Transgender kids’ brains resemble their gender identity not their biological sex
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/05/transgender-kids-brains-resemble-gender-identity-not-biological-sex/?utm_source=queerty&utm_medium=directlink&utm_campaign=directlink&utm_content=Transgender+kids%E2%80%99+brains+resemble+their+gender+identity+not+their+biological+sex

Comment:
It seems human bodies have naturally "engineered" a sex change long before hormone supplementation or choice is use to augment that change.

Could be. They can tell certain sexual thoughts light the brain up a certain way. I don't know if that is telling us why they are having the thoughts.

What do you mean by a sex change?

What is there return on investment? What percentage is obscene?

Every business that is eligible for government subsidies or tax breaks almost has to play along or the competition will and put you out of business.



I pay employees according to what they produce for the company. We are in a competitive business with tight margins. If an employee needs more income they need to produce more. Some employees have very limited skills that apply to our company. I want them to go where there skills can be better utilized. I want them to quit if they think they are worth more and go get it elsewhere. If they can't find a better job or produce more I will always pay a living wage. None of our employees are on welfare that I know of.

What is the average pay at a multinational company like google or an oil company? Everybody I know wants a job at a multinational corporation. Where do you work?

Could you give some examples.

But we find a way even though some arent worth it. I pay them more than they are worth because the weak deserve a living wage and we can afford it. If i couldn't afford it I would lay them off or hope that somebody with more money than me might help them.



The median pay at our company is well above the average of our area. Almost all our employees own 2 cars and a three bedroom house. A couple don't, but there personal skill level is that of a 12 year old.



Even our employees with the intelligence of a 12 year old know they never have to face that question, and we make sure they don't. If they need a few thousand for a operation it is taken care of. If they need more a fund raiser is arranged.


I met two of the fathers and offered them full time job with pay that would have allowed them to buy the house from me they were renting. Both did not want to work for us because they couldn't guarantee me the 60 hours a week we need when we are busy because our work is seasonal. My son works for me though for the same pay as they turned down. He is 19 and has enough money saved to buy his own house.



Why aren't these men taking care of their children? Why are there so many more single unwed mothers? Are these parents letting the government take care of their children because they can work the government? I offered 2 of them jobs.



The pollution crisis ended in about the year 2000. We need to go back to that level of regulation.


Give me some examples of destroyed pristine ecosystems that happened after 2000.



Whats unequal? Most people start from zero. My parents gave me nothing. As I reached adulthood they were just about bakrupt running a fairly large farm due to high interest rates on their loans. They are wealthier than me now.

You want to take away their wealth that they worked 80 hours a week to build and give it to the family with the two fathers that won't even work for me? Why are my parents wealthy and the family with three fathers poor? I have 70 first cousins and not a single child in any family is fatherless or poor by the time they are thirty but, most were poor when they left home and started adulthood.

Why are we different?

Why do we establish stable families from generation to generation?

We have an annual family reunion back to my great great grandparents. Only 200 of the possible 1000 descendants show up but, it is something to see all the stable families.

We are mostly pro-life Catholics. Why were the descendants of my great great grandparents so successful?

Hint: We never turned down a job when we needed one even if it was a second job because the first didn't pay a living wage.