Originally Posted By Mr X Anyway, these "Repent Amarillo" guys go way beyond this one incident. They sound like a bunch of terrorizing thugs, if you ask me! <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/04/texas-taliban" target="_blank">http://thinkprogress.org/2010/...-taliban</a> "An evangelical Christian hate group called “Repent Amarillo” is reportedly terrorizing the town of Amarillo, Texas. Repent fashions itself as a sort of militia and targets a wide range of community members they deem offensive to their theology: gays, liberal Christians, Muslims, environmentalists, breast cancer events that do not highlight abortion, Halloween, “spring break events,” and pornography shops. On its website, Repent has posted a “Warfare Map” of its enemies in town." Here's the "warfare map", it's pretty freakin creepy (I wonder what exactly a "compromised chuch" is?). <a href="http://www.repentamarillo.com/map.php" target="_blank">http://www.repentamarillo.com/map.php</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X Clicking around their website is a very surreal experience to say the least! Check out their "mission statement". <a href="http://www.repentamarillo.com/mission.html" target="_blank">http://www.repentamarillo.com/...ion.html</a>
Originally Posted By ChurroMonster Mr X: "Here's the "warfare map", it's pretty freakin creepy (I wonder what exactly a "compromised chuch" is?). <a href="http://www.repentamarillo.com/map.php" target="_blank">http://www.repentamarillo.com/map.php</a>" They define "compromised churches" as ones that allow homosexuals.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Perhaps, until it comes time to name a national religion, then the fun begins. >>> Christianity, of course. It would be kept as non-specific as possible so as to make each person think that it was their religion and their amount of devotion that was being discussed.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^And you'd be surprised at how much distrust there is between different flavors of Protestant Fundamentalism. Once the "low hanging fruit" is gone they would start to turn on each other.
Originally Posted By Labuda "Here's the "warfare map", it's pretty freakin creepy (I wonder what exactly a "compromised chuch" is?). <a href="http://www.repentamarillo.com/map.php" target="_blank">http://www.repentamarillo.com/map.php</a>" I love that they call the UU Church a Pagan group. They sure weren't Pagan/Wiccan the last time I checked.
Originally Posted By snappyfun " vast majority of Christians in this country (myself included) don't WANT a theocracy. Some might. But most of us recognize how valuable the separation of church and state is... to both the church(es) AND the state." Again yes we agree, Christian’s don't want a theocracy because we are Christians. Most of the Christian dominated countries of the world are free , there is a reason for this; and the reason for this fact does not include the separation of church and state. (By the way cannot be found in the constitution.)
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Again, you have it backwards. Before the Enlightenment and those ideals enshrined first in the US constitution and later others, Christianity could be just as "cut the throat of heretics" as any other. Look at the Crusades, the Inquisition, Protestants and Catholics fighting for 100 years over the "right" FLAVOR of Christianity. It was the Enlightenment and the explicit ban on establishing religion that lead to the improved situation (and you're quite wrong about the separation of church and state not being in the constitution, lack of those exact words notwithstanding; and the courts have been with me on this one for, oh, 200+ years, again and again).
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>I love that they call the UU Church a Pagan group. They sure weren't Pagan/Wiccan the last time I checked.<< Just curious on what you would call them. The term 'Pagan' is often used a "catch all" for non Abrahamic religions. Since the UU's do not worship the God of Abraham they could be labelled 'pagan', in the loose sense of the term. UU's are free to believe and worship whatever they want. You can worship the sun and be considered a good UU, just as you could worship Jesus. Unitarianism has its roots in Christianity, but it would be fair to say they got off that train a long time ago. From wikipedia: "Unitarian Universalists today draw from a variety of religious traditions. Individuals may or may not self-identify as Christians or subscribe to Christian beliefs. Unitarian Universalist congregations and fellowships tend to retain some Christian traditions, such as Sunday worship with a sermon and the singing of hymns. The extent to which the elements of any particular faith tradition are incorporated into personal spiritual practice is a matter of personal choice for congregants, in keeping with the creedless, non-dogmatic approach to spirituality and faith development."
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Christian’s don't want a theocracy because we are Christians*** That's pretty funny. The seat of power of the largest Christian denomination (Catholicism) happens to BE a theocratic nation-state, complete with absolute power for its' supreme ruler the Vicar of Christ. Now tell me again about how Christians don't want a theocracy?
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^While what you say is true (That Vatican City is an autonomous state) its pretty safe to say that the overwhelming majority of Catholics do not want a theocracy. I know I don't. I will also add that the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople could really use an autonomous city state of his own. The Turks seem hell bent on stamping out the Orthodox Church, even though Turkey is supposed to be a modern "secular" state. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6001717n" target="_blank">http://www.cbsnews.com/video/w...6001717n</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X ***While what you say is true (That Vatican City is an autonomous state) its pretty safe to say that the overwhelming majority of Catholics do not want a theocracy. I know I don't.*** I suppose that really depends on what your definition of a theocracy really comes down to. Sure, the Islamic states are repressive and brutal, but what they're really doing is enforcing the laws as they see it according to the orthodoxy of their religion (right?). In many ways, some parts of the U.S. are more of a theocracy than others, in that some parts are hell bent on legislating morality and yes, most of that "morality" comes from Christian viewpoints (drinking laws, anti-gay laws, pornography laws, anti-drug laws, gambling laws, and so on...). So is the Federal government becoming a theocracy? Not really (although the anti-choice crowd sure does seem hell bent of making abortions illegal by default, and damn the SCOTUS), but on a local level it's been happening for a long time.
Originally Posted By Mr X Now, by the true definition we're nowhere close since noone is being FORCED to worship a certain way or declare a particular religion... ...but we ARE making it awfully uncomfortable for those that don't.
Originally Posted By snappyfun >>The seat of power of the largest Christian denomination (Catholicism) happens to BE a theocratic nation-state, complete with absolute power for its' supreme ruler the Vicar of Christ. Now tell me again about how Christians don't want a theocracy?<< "Mr. X, NOW NOW,you know I have great respect for your intellect, but that is just silly. The Vatican is the head of the Catholic Christian World and leads the worlds 1+ Billion Catholics. It became a Nation state not to control citizens who live in that tiny land mass, but so that no one country could claim control over its actions or doctrine.
Originally Posted By Mr X Well, in fairness if you're looking for sympathy towards religions being stomped out you're probably talking to the wrong guy. Frankly I wish all of them would go away. Now, if people want to believe whatever they want to and leave me out of it, that's great. But that ain't how most churches roll, is it.
