#10. To: wudidiz, PSUSA2, wakeup, Artisan, christine, Jethro Tull (#5)
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7) Not a servile fear, but a reverence for the infinite Creator., who gives us all that is good & knows what is best for us.
But, isn't free will based on fear of "the eternal lake of fire" the moral equivalent of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina's "civic reviews" in lieu of secret ballot elections?
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Those who did not contribute, or join the party, did so at their own risk. Opponents of the regime were mysteriously killed. In 1934, Trujillo, who had promoted himself to generalissimo of the army, was up for re-election. Although he would have won in any case as there was virtually no organized opposition left in the country, Trujillo dispensed even with these formalities. Instead, he relied upon "civic reviews", with large crowds shouting their loyalty to the government.
Personality Cult
At the suggestion of Mario Fermín Cabral, Congress voted overwhelmingly in 1936 to rename the capital from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo. The province of San Cristobal was created as "Trujillo", and the nation's highest peak, Pico Duarte, was renamed Pico Trujillo in his honor. Statues of "El Jefe" were mass-produced and erected across the Republic, and bridges and public buildings were named in his honor.
The nation's newspapers now had praise for Trujillo as part of the front page, and license plates included the slogan: "Viva Trujillo!" An electric sign was erected in Ciudad Trujillo so that "Dios y Trujillo" could be seen at night as well as in the day. Eventually, even churches were required to post the slogan: "Dios en cielo, Trujillo en tierra" (God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth).
As time went on, the order of the phrases was reversed (Trujillo on Earth, God in Heaven). Trujillo was recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize by his admirers, but the committee declined the suggestion. (presumably because the committee didn't have the wisdom that comes from having machine guns trained on them while deliberating-HD)
When he received (or summoned) a visitor, his four bodyguards would have submachine guns trained upon the "guest" during the meeting.[8]
[wiki]
To the good Christians of Santo Domingo the power of "God and Trujillo" was a distinction with very little difference.. Those who believed that both had the power of life and death over them did not openly question the morality of either "deity".
Now 4um's Christians may feel obligated to argue that God's (aka Jehovah Q. Schwartz and Jesus H. Christ's) power was legit but Trujillo's wasn't. But God never threw anyone into stinking cells with other naked and brutalized men or allowed them to succumb to TB or pneumonia for "failure to proclaim their deepest "love" for him.
And, in Santo Domingo God's "Four horsemen" were no match for four bodyguards wielding machine guns, and under those conditions it was clear which "deity" was more worthy of multiple statues.
Christians who don't fear God (i.e., ass raping priests) cannot love him because the Biblical definition of that love is simply a mandatory profession of affection to avoid consequences of unspeakable horror. Under those conditions "free will" is no choice at all. The only reason that some commit the ultimate crimes or "sins" is because they're confident that, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." (Mark Twain)
So, any ballot or plebiscite which God controls (or Trujillo controlled) is (or was) no more valid than the elections that used paperless, electronic voting machines where the results contradicted the exit polls and entire Democratic precincts inexplicably voted overwhelmingly Republican.
"Fear of Trujillo is the beginning of wisdom".
Now that makes perfect sense to all but the most extreme, wild eyed, would-be martyrs and of course those who have sacrificed nothing but were willing to kill others to force affectionate compliance, i.e., Bush supporters who threatened Natalie Maines and The Dixie Chicks. So, what do devout neoChristians (like John Hagee or Michele Bachmann or Bill O"Reilly) and anonymous "Assassins For Bush" have in common? Well, having two deities is fine as long as one doesn't interfere with or question the validity of the signing statements and/or executive orders of the other.
To the true Christians here who are hurt by such statements, I don't see how any mere mortal can clean up your house. But, you may wish to abandon those who allow no criticism presumably because even a "bad Christian" is better than a "good skeptic, agnostic or atheist". Someone should expose those who ride through the night with the cross of St. George on their gowns (or Kevlar helmets or tailored made "Sunday go to meetin' suits, and for GAWD"S SAKE don't mention Jesus while our honored Israeli/AIPAC guests are here") If Christian patriots (And I don't mean treasury looting warlords like Erik Prince or high priests like Dick Cheney) don't finger the bastards then they should stand aside while others expose the blatant hypocrisy of the Night Riders & Election Riggers For Jesus.
Now 4um's Christians may feel obligated to argue that God's (aka Jehovah Q. Schwartz and Jesus H. Christ's) power was legit but Trujillo's wasn't. But God never threw anyone into stinking cells with other naked and brutalized men or allowed them to succumb to TB or pneumonia for "failure to proclaim their deepest "love" for him.
That is what "hell" is for.
To the true Christians here who are hurt by such statements, I don't see how any mere mortal can clean up your house.
Yep. But no one can see the mess from the inside. It takes leaving that house to see how messy it all is. And when one is born in that "house", it is hard to leave because it's all we know.
But I also know that there are those "heretics" that blame what they call the "Great Apostasy" for this mess. That is a difficult argument to refute, since I believed that too for a long time, not comprehending that it was a circular argument (depending on the bible to prove the bible). The bible is one huge circular argument and breaking out of that circle is one hell of a fight. It can take years. Decades.
The bible is one huge circular argument and breaking out of that circle is one hell of a fight. It can take years. Decades.
if israel or their neocon buddies start a nuke war, and nobody gets raptured, that oughta go a long way in helping some of the radical christians break out...
i mean, how many generations of unraptured radioactive two-headed mutants will it take before people start figuring things out?
but any dogma that requires you to cripple your mind is probably doomed in the long run... reality eventually catches up.
Now 4um's Christians may feel obligated to argue that God's (aka Jehovah Q. Schwartz and Jesus H. Christ's) power was legit but Trujillo's wasn't. But God never threw anyone into stinking cells with other naked and brutalized men or allowed them to succumb to TB or pneumonia for "failure to proclaim their deepest "love" for him.
That is what "hell" is for.
To the true Christians here who are hurt by such statements, I don't see how any mere mortal can clean up your house.
Yep. But no one can see the mess from the inside. It takes leaving that house to see how messy it all is. And when one is born in that "house", it is hard to leave because it's all we know.
But I also know that there are those "heretics" that blame what they call the "Great Apostasy" for this mess. That is a difficult argument to refute, since I believed that too for a long time, not comprehending that it was a circular argument (depending on the bible to prove the bible). The bible is one huge circular argument and breaking out of that circle is one hell of a fight. It can take years. Decades.
"....The bible is one huge circular argument...."
My problem became critical when The RT. Rev. DR.-Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell said,
"Faith is the evidence of that unseen." A logical interpretation (of its illogical meaning) is, "The absence of proof is the proof of its absent existence." (The corporate jet that Israel gave Falwell was largely unseen, but I had faith that the message and mandate from them through him was very real indeed)
Cuban school kids were taught to pray to God for milk and no milk was forthcoming, but after praying to Fidel la leche "miraculously appeared!"
Would anyone be surprised to learn that many of those children had more "faith" in Fidel than ewe gno hoo?
And of course Hell is not nearly as frightening a prospect as imminent starvation or soldiers with spotlights and loudspeakers barking orders to terrified families in the middle of the night.
Fidel knew that if he grabbed children by their empty stomachs their hearts and minds would follow. (Hopefully we'll be spared the other, vulgar variation of this axiom)
My wife asked unapproved questions of the priests and nuns in Catholic school and she quickly learned that "That ain't what Catechism is all about!" She had to learn to think of the Church as her team and that other teams were trying to gain yardage at the expense of the one true Church, headed by "Christ's Vicar on Earth", presumably because it bore the original seal of approval of Emperor Constantine and the copyright claim to St. Peter the Apostle.