Thomas Jefferson On Religious Freedom For "Mohammedans, Hindoos And Infidels"

Keeping in mind of course that Hitler was a cradle Catholic... and that Donald Trump is a good Evangelical Christian...

When people are malfeasant, they're dealt with as such, no matter their religious affiliation.

"Christian" "Conservatives" Are Neither Christian Nor Conservative
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/08/christian-conservatives-are-neither.html

If, like most right-wingers, you assume that facts are meaningless, then Hitler's cradle Catholocism has no meaning.

Even so, it remains a fact.

"Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/is-bible-more-violent-than-quran-npr.html

Worst Bible Passages
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/worst-bible-passages.html

Wrong again.

Admittedly, there is spin on both sides.

But Trump needs to show his birth certificate to prove he's from this solar system.

Here's how it sorts at the bottom line.

Republican Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan "Summarizes The Republican Philosophy"
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/01/republican-presidential-candidate-pat.html

Conservative Icon P.J. O'Rourke Will Vote For Hillary. Why?
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/05/conservative-icon-pj-orourke-will-vote.html

Yes, it's my website and you'd learn a lot by spending time there.

Here's an A.M. post.

Best Pax Posts About Trump's Cruelty, Mendacity And Seduction Of "Conservative" "Christians"
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/08/best-pax-posts-about-trumps-cruelty.html

What documentation have you got to fault Obama?

As I thought...

Nothing.

Or at least nothing of consequence.

As for the violence in the bible, the following passage is the most violent passage in the whole across range of sacred scripture.

"The God Of The Bible Commands All Men To Stone Rebellious Children To Death
Deuteronomy"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-god-of-bible-commands-all-men-to.html

Until 50 years ago, Catholicism was notoriously anti-Semitic.

In the early '60s, my younger brother was taught -- by a nun in Catholic school -- that "the Jews are Christ killers."

It would have been very hard for HItler -- whose mother was a devout Catholic -- not to have infected her son.

The fact that Hitler became an atheist opportunist does not cancel his upbringing.

You can try to discard what you want but, again, the facts are arrayed against you.

Who did you vote for in the last election?

I voted for Hillary - on grounds similar to those of P.J. O'Rourke.

It never occurred to me you were trying to defend Catholocism.

Clearly, I've triggered a "complex." ALL CAPS IS PRETTY FREAKED OUT.

How convenient that your frightened self doesn't have to explore my blog.

That was a close call!

Please tell me whom the Bible is commanding to be stoned.

I doubt you'll "fess up," but please tell me if I'm wrong.

Your apparent recognition of an obscure verse in Deuteronomy suggests you're a "Christian" "conservative," and therefore it's a reasonably good guess your a Trumpista.

Let me see if I can help you out:

Karen, you probably remember the passage in "The Chronicles of Narnia" where God "speaks" - or, better yet, "sings" - all creation into existence.

As I move into my 7th year "playing" with "19 Miles From Davis," I am increasingly aware how often the musicality of human voice becomes indistinguishable from a musical instrument, and often crosses this "permeable membrane" in such seamless fashion that we no longer know for sure if the human voice is singing words or tones.

Then there's the immense mystery of how-and-why music -- which at bottom are "just" physical vibrations -- are metaphysically meaningful to us.

Among the ancient Jews, it was common (as it also was with Jew John's use of the Greek word "logos") to conceive "The Word" (or, in orthodox Jewish terms, the unspeakable word "Yahweh") not in the way we modern mortals conceive these two "references to deity" but as Creative Power.

Inexpressible Creative Power.

To conceive God not as the word "God" -- nor Jesus as the name "Jesus" -- is more genuine, more honest and truer than the amputational limitation we humans often employ to "cut divinity down to size," to make God manageable, to make God "more like us" so that we can "relate." (I'm reminded of Jesuit friend Tom Weston's saying: ""You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do."
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/tom-weston-best-thing-ever-said-by.html)

By virtue of our persistent mangling -- our diligent subjection of God to a Procrustean Bed of our own making -- we abuse God as surely as Jeffrey Epstein abused all those girls. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Procrustes

Although we cannot ultimately conceive God "as God IS" -- since "now we see as through a glass darkly" -- we can at least release God from the bondage in which we often hold him.

(Alan here... I will resume in my next post.)

(continuation of my previous post)

If, as I believe, it is more accurate to use the poetic image of God "singing creation into existence," then, as I also believe, it is more accurate to see Jesus as The Incarnation of God/Love, a bedrock Reality for which we use the name "Jesus" only as a marker - a reference point - a nomenclatural convenience - to invoke the "Incarnation of Love" in whose image we are made. (The literal meaning of "incarnation" is "enfleshment.")

Once freed from the verbal shackles we create, the world/God/universe -- and beyond -- become immeasurably larger than we can imagine, larger than we can conceive.

And the unfathomability of this encounter is because we are not God.

And because we are not God, we do not get to define God.

Instead, we get to practice humility, bowing before the Magnum Mysterium whose central, utterly astonising feature is the existence of Love right here on earth. (It's also helpful to recall Dorothy Day's assertion that, "We only love God as much as we love the person we love the least.")

"God so loved the world..."

Once we escape the innate limitation of words in order to posit the ineffable reality words represent, then we can see how every reference to Jesus is a personalized reference to Love.

And this personalization is important because through the person of Jesus-Love we are reminded of our nature and at the same time of our personal need to embody Love, to love the least of our fellows.

As I see it, the will of God (at least as we experience it) is about Incarnation, the embodiment of God on this earth.

The enfleshment.

It is not about -- except perhaps coincidentally -- getting back to the celestial bosom of God where, as we suppose, everything is sweetness and light.

You know, "where the skies are not cloudy all day..."

Everything that is apart from the real, actual, embodied incarnation of Love in our individual lives is "commentary" -- verbiage that is potentially useful in its way, but NOT the lived Reality to which the name "Jesus" refers.

Sleep on it.

And after a good long rest, awake.

Who did you vote for in 2016?

Best Pax Posts About Trump's Cruelty, Mendacity And Seduction Of "Conservative" "Christians"
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/08/best-pax-posts-about-trumps-cruelty.html

"Thomas Jefferson vs. Patrick Henry"
http://podcasts.history.org/podcasts_transcripts/JeffersonvsHenry.cfm