A Challenge to the Churches and Media to Stop Being "Politically Correct"

So now this President, Trump came out and said we should have a nationwide ban on German luxury automobiles.

What is this guy smoking?

Can you even imagine this?

Banning the entire nation of their BMWs, Mercedes Benz and Audi automobiles, at least?

What would his big, wealthy donors drive?

Lincoln Continentals?

Please. Who are we kidding?

But here's where the "political correctness" comes in.

Why aren't we seeing and hearing reporters, especially from local TV stations, going out to the local German luxury auto dealers and asking them what they think of this idea?

Why don't we see and get that?

I'll tell you why.

We don't see that because the local TV stations and newspapers and media outlets don't want to alienate any advertisers or readers.

Dime to a doughnut says those owners and even, likely, the managers of those luxury car dealers are high paid Republicans or at least Right Wingers. The last thing they want to do is get on the airwaves, TV, radio or get quoted in the newspaper with their picture, saying it's the outrageously stupid idea it is. God forbid they tell the truth and push away some Trump follower who was just about to plop down $58,000 or more on a brand new, shiny, 4 wheel automobile from Stuttgart.

And it's the same way with the churches.

When was the last time you heard a huge outcry from any church or from any pulpit when some government representative or government agency comes out and announces cuts in programs for the poor?

The answer, of course, is either never or long, long ago.

Once again, those ministers and priests up there giving sermons don't want to run the risk of alienating some Right Winger or Republican in the pew. God forbid they not make their weekly contribution to the plate he's about to pass around, pun heavily intended.

Political party wants to give yet more tax cuts to the already-wealthy and corporations, thus driving up the national debt, drastically, while they push for cuts to even Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid?

Sure! No problem! You won't hear a word from any "man of God."

Who's that Jesus guy?

Wha'd he say? What was he about?

So local news outlets? KMBC? KCTV5? WDAF?

What say you?

Do you have any guts?

Will you stop reporting on the latest kitty cat videos on Youtube on our evening news and instead, go out to Aristocrat Motors on I-35 or some such and ask the owner there what he thinks of this President and his brilliant idea?

Please?

We dare you.

It's Sunday----And Your Prayers?

What they really are---from America's Best Christian, Betty Bowers.


Enjoy your day, y'all.

Quote of the Day -- On Jesus

“Let’s remember, Jesus was a Jewish man of color, born homeless to an unwed teenager, who spent his formative years as an illegal immigrant before returning to his home country to hang out with twelve men, prostitutes, and socially untouchable tax collectors while he taught a radical social doctrine of equality, love, and forgiveness that included paying taxes, free healthcare, and the sharing of resources within a community.”

--Quote from FB friend Diana Pleasant-Hughes' page

Bible Facts on a Sunday

I always refer back to what Jesus said about "homosexuals" and those same-sex attracted.

That is, nothing.

Religion and Its Evolution

Face it, accept it or not.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

"Because morality is a social necessity, the moment faith in god is banished, man's gaze turns from god to man and he becomes socially conscious. Religious belief prevented the growth of a sense of realism. But atheism at once makes man realistic and alive to the needs of morality." 

--Gora

Christianity and Capitalism

People, in this nation, who consider themselves to be both Capitalists and Christians are only Capitalists.

Mark 10:21-22   Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Luke 12:16-21   Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

And my personal favorite:

Matthew 19:24    Jesus said "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Think happy thoughts.

And enjoy your Sunday.

Link:  9 Jesus Quotes About The Poor

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

“Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism."

--Albert Einstein

Links:

Buddhism

Basics of Buddhism

A Basic Buddhism Guide: Buddhism and the God-idea

Albert Einstein

Jesus Was Neither Alone Nor Was He the First

Just so you know some human history, Jesus wasn't the only--or even the first--god said to have risen from the dead. Actually, far from it.

Jesus: Just One More Dying 

and Rising Savior

History records many dying-and-rising saviors. Examples from the Ancient Near East that preceded the Jesus story include Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Baal.

Dying-and-rising god

A dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god dies and is resurrected. "Death or departure of the gods" is motif A192 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, while "resurrection of gods" is motif A193.

Examples of gods who die and later return to life are most often cited from the religions of the Ancient Near East, and traditions influenced by them including Biblical and Greco-Roman mythology and by extension Christianity. The concept of a dying-and-rising god was first proposed in comparative mythology by James Frazer's seminal The Golden Bough. Frazer associated the motif with fertility rites surrounding the yearly cycle of vegetation. Frazer cited the examples of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Dionysus and Jesus Christ.

Frazer's interpretation of the category has been critically discussed in 20th-century scholarship, to the conclusion that many examples from the world's mythologies included under "dying and rising" should only be considered "dying" but not "rising", and that the genuine dying-and-rising god is a characteristic feature of Ancient Near Eastern mythologies and the derived mystery cults of Late Antiquity.

And what is religion, anyway, if not a huge denial of death? An attempt to explain "what comes after." It only stands to reason that we want our god or God or gods dying and coming back, just to prove what we want and that it can be done, that this life isn't all there is. There's no better example or reason for this than that we want to deny death and dying.
Just saying.

That said, if you're into it, if you celebrate Easter, have at it. Enjoy.

Happy Easter.

Whatever gets you through.

Links:

The pagan roots of Easter

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

Goddess Easter: Celebration of the Spring Equinox

Ēostre 

Easter 

On Sunday

And the New York Times.

Yeah.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

A Little Holiday Perspective

A bit of human history for y'all.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Quote of the Day -- Sunday Edition

“Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarreling?”

―Mahatma Gandhi

Link:  List of religions and spiritual traditions

On Religion

For a lot of religions, there's a lot of truth in here, and not just satire. (click on picture for easier reading).

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

One More Shooting and Slaughter of American Innocents

Coincidentally and eve ironically, I got this political cartoon from none other than the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Quote of the day -- Sunday Edition

Quote of the day -- Sunday edition III

From Humans of New York  

"I've been a deep believer my whole life. 18 years as a Southern Baptist. More than 40 years as a mainline Protestant. I'm an ordained pastor. But it's just stopped making sense to me. You see people doing terrible things in the name of religion, and you think: 'Those people believe just as strongly as I do. They're just as convinced as I am.' And it just doesn't make sense anymore. It doesn't make sense to believe in a God that dabbles in people's lives. If a plane crashes, and one person survives, everyone thanks God. They say: 'God had a purpose for that person. God saved her for a reason!' Do we not realize how cruel that is? Do we not realize how cruel it is to say that if God had a purpose for that person, he also had a purpose in killing everyone else on that plane? And a purpose in starving millions of children? A purpose in slavery and genocide? For every time you say that there's a purpose behind one person's success, you invalidate billions of people. You say there is a purpose to their suffering. And that's just cruel."

 

Quote of the day--all that matters

Great quote for a Sunday:



"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." 

—Marcus Aurelius

Your Sunday humor

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

Uh, see any correlations?

(click on picture to enlarge)