For the religious among us...

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http://www.newsmax.com/DavidLimbaugh/Ch ... id/724668/

Enjoy, especially the Christians...

That is an utterly terrible article and appears to be from the perspective of someone with deep-seated hostility towards progressives and a complete ignorance of what white privilege actually is.

I'm a convert to Christianity. But I am under absolutely no delusions that Christians are persecuted in the United States of America. I gotta privilege upgrade when I converted. It's nice to be a Christian compared to being a pagan.

The notion that Christians are oppressed now completely ignores very real oppression everyone else experiences. I also happen to be queer. I'm pansexual and transgender, I cannot even begin to compare what I experience as a transgender person to being a Christian.

The absolute worst I've ever gotten for being a Christian is that some people in queer spaces are a little wary of talking to you if you tell them that your Christian but this is completely understandable. Queer folks have been systematically targeted by people under the Christian banner and are understandably defensive.

What I have gotten for being a transgender person is that I have been denied treatment, I've been excluded from receiving help as a victim of domestic violence, I have been driven out of my home because of threats from my neighbors, I was told that the school system was not ready for transgender teacher and not allowed to transition on the job, there's also a very good chance that I've been turned down for employment because of my status is a transgender woman. I essentially had to leave the town I grew up in because of the political climate there is much less friendly to us than where I'm living now. In many states across the United States legislators debate whether or not we should be allowed to use the bathroom.

People are Christian because of the crosses that they bare not the crosses that they erect at the expense of others. I prefer Christians who model their life after the example Jesus, a person who was a refugee and a death row inmate. The Lord so loved the world he sent his only son. His son being a person who walked with the most marginalized people of his time. The Lord spoke truth to power he didn't get defensive in protecting his own.

Atheist can get a bit of a persecution complex too, as being an atheist in the United States of America really isn't that difficult depending on where you live.

Instead of playing the victim when you have power and envying the tiny ephemeral gains that marginalized folks are able to make or doing as this author has been doing, and mongering fear against people of color speaking out Against Racism or whining about political correctness. Instead of doing that, use your power to be an ally. My church and many others have been really cool about speaking out against police violence against people of color as well as speaking out against islamophobia. We have partnered with mosques in our community to stand in solidarity against the oppression and profiling that Muslims face in the United States.

That was...beautiful. I was once told by an old, pre-Vatican II priest that a useful way to tell how good a Christian someone is would be to look at what they own and how they spend their time.

Then again, while he owned practically nothing apart from his trumpet (which he loved to play), the Christian group that he worked for (the RCC) was/is the wealthiest organization in the world, with the largest real estate holdings of anyone apart from the nations themselves. Here in America, half our population is either Catholic or Southern Baptist. Both are Christian and so already dispel the weak assertion that Christians are at all prosecuted or oppressed. Unless, of course, one wants to argue that not allowing them to oppress others is a form of oppression, but that's a pathetic & easily identified fallacy.

Old Catholic Church, UUC (except for the part that recently failed certain LGBT people) and a few others actually do seem to live as the Christian namesake taught. One only need meet a few such people to be able to instantly identify the ones who use their religion as dysfunctional therapy.

I've been a Lutheran for 14 years, and they generally stay out of the political foray. ELCA ordains female and LGBT pastors, and allows them to preside over same-sex marriage ceremonies. LCMS and WELS do not. Congregations are big on the compassionate teachings of Jesus, and of being stewards of the earth.

Texas (predominantly Catholic) has two of the only three counties outside of the Midwest (Washington and Lee counties; the other county is in Montana) that have a Lutheran majority.

I do not support any sort of theocracy, but I don't think verses such as Leviticus 18:22 or 1 Corinthians 14:34 should be classified as hate speech or incitement under any legal codes either.

Last edited by Tim_Tex on 20 Apr 2016, 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lightninggrrl, I am not a "Christian" because of arrogant narcissists and money grubbers using that false construct for their own egos, but I AM a big fan of the guy I call Yeshua ha Moschiach, his Hebrew name which is best translated into English as Joshua the Anointed. Yeshua may have studied Buddhism, and I encourage people to do the same.

I read on your Kiwi Farms lolcow thread how trolls sent false accusations to the school district you worked for and got them to fire you. That was really awful, but par for the course on KF.

It is Y'shua bar Yosef. And he failed Messaiah 101.

1. The Jews have not been returned to their homeland by an act of good.
2. A bayt ha mikdosh has not been constructed on the Temple Mount.
3. The kingdom David has not been restored.
4. There is little peace in the world.

Y'shua bar Yosef failed which is why the Christians claim he is coming back. Maybe he will get it right the second time around.

I didn't get fired for the false allegations bit they did cause me am intense amount of terror and stress which is what they were designed for. That is what bullies and trolls are all about. They spread lies and misery around the world and then want to shovel through and put on display every bad thing I have ever done or said. Everyone has said questionable things that taken out of context can be used against them. They collect things I said all over the Internet, over the course of many years, in different places, in different contexts, to different audiences.

Let's see how their employers would like being forwarded their FYAD posts or discussion of black people "chimping out." Or in the case of KF, their years long harassment of a developmentally disabled adult.

The difference is that I suck by the same names for far to long, making me easy to track and that was a character flaw in my part. They are right about a few things, I do have an ego. I do enjoy being noticed. I also tend to use the Internet as my personal journal and I probably will continue to do so.

But none of this matters. My guilt or innocence is incidental. They are hypocrites to the highest degree. They cannot be bargained or reasoned with. Pointing out the appalling cruelty of their actions just encourages them. They revel in and enjoy the disgust people have for them. They are almost certainly going to be reading and reposting this.

I've said before that one of my take aways from the Gospels, it's that is the story of a person who the creator of the universe regards as sinless, and yet he still had tons of hatrers, even to the point they have him executed. I am not Jesus. I most certainly am a sinner but my sinfulness isn't why I am persecuted. It is they who have chosen to target me.

But here is another take away, in the Gospels the ones who seem to recognize Jesus as the son of man quickest aren't his followers, it's the demons, and they aren't happy to see him. Their reaction is vile but also most characteristically one of fear. Demons fear goodness. These folks on kiwi Farms and SASS are afraid and what they are most afraid of is being ignored and they are afraid of their victims being happy.

As much as I can, I am going to be leaving them behind and reaching out and helping their other victims. I met a really sweet girl who loves me and who I am in love with because of them. I've made other friends too. The forces of Satan won't win.


For the record, I left the district on good terms. I resigned because the political culture would not allow me to work there transitioning on the job. They never knew I was in the process of transitioning. I found out what the requirements would be by having my union rep contact HR without naming me. It took months for them to get back to me because the truth is they didn't have a policy.

And the truth is I care about the kids too much to put them in the middle of that kind of controversy. Fair or not, it would be a distraction. In hind sight I've benefited from this time in the wilderness. It's helped me grow as a person. I also have gotten back to what I most enjoy about education: helping the kids.

Last edited by Lightninggrrl on 20 Apr 2016, 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I probably will eventually, it's a low priority. I'm a little bit gnostic so I do see the value. I've still got the whole bible to read. I'm on pauls letters. I'm reading slowly, little by little. I'm going to go back to the old Testament, then the Nag Hammadi scriptures. In between I was going to be studying done books on queer theology and liberation theology. There is lots of territory to explore.

I've also been considering, when I get out of my financial hole, (which I will it's just going to take a while, gotta give up this car,) saving up for seminary school. I want to study theology, maybe minister to other queer folks who've been told all their lives that God doesn't love them.

I highly recommend the Gospel of Thomas and the various apocrypha such as the First Letter of Clement which is possibly the oldest known non-Paul statement of Christian belief (written around AD 90).

No, Yeshua most definitely is NOT the Messiah of the Jews. In fact, I am much more interested in his life, teachings, and execution. I don't really like the Nicene Creed, it skips from birth to resurrection and jumps over his life.