"There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him--early."
-- Samuel Clemens
And that's the thorny part, so far as I can see. I can understand how faith is relevant to hiring in positions pertaining to a church's ministries.
And I can understand how in many communities the best equipped institution to deal with social problems might be a church.
But I don't condone using religion as a determining factor in hiring for a position that is paid for by federal money. I don't dig that at all.
(Something that keeps popping into my head, and I'm certainly not saying anybody here has made this suggestion, but a lot of the people I've heard argue against the government paying for social and welfare services claim that these matters would be better left to charitable organizations than the gov't. I wonder what they think of such charitable organizations receiving federal money to carry out their works. I'm not trying to make any sort of straw-man accusation here, just thinking aloud as I muddle about.)
thanks to google:
The Barna Research Group released a new study of divorce December 21st, discovering that Christians are more likely to divorce than non-Christians, and that LDS Church members are no different than the national average, with 24% of marriages ending in divorce.
The data comes from Barna's survey interviews of nearly 4000 adults in the United States, which indicate that while just 11% are currently divorced, a full 25% either are or have been divorced and are now married again. Among born again Christians 27% are currently or have previously been divorced, compared to 24% of those that are not 'born again.' Barna says that the difference is statistically significant because of the large sample size.
Barna's research also indicates that atheists and agnostics are below the norm, with just 21% currently or have previously been divorced
Setanta wrote:Well, yer right about one thing, there, Boss . . . one of the three of us you've mentioned is indeed a brilliantly unique individual . . .
Thank you, Setanta. That is the first nice thing you've said about me in several days.
George
Thank you for your comments.
I have enjoyed interacting with you -- and I look forward to much more of it.
Keeping a sense of humor in these discussions is a must; otherwise you fry your brain and become a zombie.
Eris' apple, Frank, Eris' apple
...hmm. maybe i'll set up a thread called "outside," where people can step to settle their differences away from all the breakables and paying customers...
So PD, the Eris' apple reference doesn't click with ya, huh?
Oh, damn.
Don't tell me we're gonna have a war now!
Does now, but it's all Hellenic to me.
really? can i watch?
a lot makes sense to me now. georgeob1 is a smart fella.
heeheeheeheeheeheehee . . .
i was jes stirrin' the pot a little, PD . . .
Setanta wrote:The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court had a multi-ton stone slab inscribed with the ten commandments, and then had said slab installed in the rotunda of the state's Judiciary Center. That certainly qualifies as "traditional religion" in public life. It also qualified for an assault from those whom the right would describe as "secular humanists"-a handy way of marginalizing Jews, Muslims, Hindus and anyone else who is not Christian
Well, The Ten Commandments cannot marginalize Jews, since it was the Jewish prophet Moses that received them from the Lord, and they were adopted by Christianity together with the whole Jewish Holy Scripture, namely The Old Testament. I do not think that this may marginalize Hindus, since they are not mentioned there at all, and I cannot believe that there may be a Hindu disagreeing with any of the commandments. And Muslims should be reminded from time to time that God prohibits murder, maybe this will help them to reconsider their behavior.
Well, that was certainly a self-serving load of manure . . .
Yes, we know all Muslims are murderers. I'm sure there are no Christians who have ever committed murder.
Well, of course. To commit murder is not Christian behavior, ergo anyone who commits murder is not a Christian. That should be perfectly clear, I'd think.
Ha ! ! !
I love that one . . . whenever you bring up the blood-soaked history of bigotry inspired murder with any religionist, the reply you get is to the effect that those people are not true christians (or jews, or muslims, or . . . whatever)
Agree with everything Setanta said, especially "no" as first answer. Will read his other comments later. Good night.
Lightwizard wrote:I'm sure there are no Christians who have ever committed murder.
There, surely were. But Christianity has never condoned their behavior and did not promise them paradise with 70 virgins for molestation as a reward for it.
