1. Conservative Pastors to Break Law by Endorsing a Candidate

Comment #255814 by swingstar73 on September 28, 2008 at 9:59 am

I am a proud atheist and my girlfriend is an evangelical christian... so needless to say, we argue about everything all the time. This article inspired me to rant at her on IM for a little bit, and I wonder what you guys would think of what i said...

Please excuse the typos, i wasn't initially intending to have my rant posted on this forum.

swingstar73: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/28/carroll.preach.politics.cnn
swingstar73: this article kinda confuses me too
swingstar73: of course, i wasn't able to watch the video all the way through cause my internets retarded
swingstar73: but the thing i wonder is, why is it illegal for pastors to preach a political message?
swingstar73: isn't that kinda the whole point of being a pastor (or any public speaker) in the first place?
swingstar73: the question i wonder, is why is it illegal for pastors to preach politics in the first place
swingstar73: i mean, to me, i definitly religions functioning like lemmings or cults, whatever.... cause at least from my observations, religious people tend to always resort to "well my preacher knows the answer to that question" (which is a very scary though, to me)
swingstar73: so i understand why we wouldn't want anybody to become too powerful in a church, out of fear of them gaining a demagogue-like
swingstar73: position*
swingstar73: but i wonder, what the law has to say about it.....
swingstar73: because what i am saying, although possibly true, is not politically correct
swingstar73: aka, my opinion definitly would not fit in with the view of the majority
swingstar73: and really, political correctness is simply a reflection on what the majority says....
swingstar73: soooo..... what reason would the majority have for placing this limit?
swingstar73: the only thing i can think of is that maybe the supreme courts down the line have interpretted 'freedom of/from religion' with a little bit of a secularist twinge...... government will have no say in religion, and religion will have no say in government....
swingstar73: but i doubt you will find too many religious people, especially the ones who actually believe their religion, trying to say that somehow their bright shiny little nugget of spiritual truth is somehow incompatible with the way the government should be run.... are u kidding me??
swingstar73: if anything it couldn't be more the opposite..... religion inspires some of the most anti-social behavior
swingstar73: cause religion is essentially a claim of knowledge...... not a claim of preference
swingstar73: and nobody is going to against what they 'know' to be true...
swingstar73: ahhh now i got to see the whole video....
swingstar73: ok, so basically it is because the church is tax exempt
swingstar73: which raises an even bigger problem
swingstar73: CHURCHES SHOULD NOT BE TAX EXEMPT
swingstar73: i've been saying that ever since i started working at u.s. toy....... we were supposed to give tax exemption to churches..... but fuck that, i never willingly let the churches get away with it.... they should be taxed just like any other business
swingstar73: so the issue here is clear..... the reason why this fucked up law preventing pastors from preaching politics exists is because it is based upon an already fucked up existing law that forgets that if churches receive tax exemption status, then that goes entirely against the constitution
swingstar73: i think it's oddly funny because the reason why there is that lapse in logic that allows churches to get tax exemption status is simply because the majority of people are church goers, and they don't want to have to pay taxes (for purely self-serving reasons)...... but as a karmic twist.... for all of their self-serving, they managed to fuck themselves over, cause now as a tax exempt organization, they cannot preach politics
swingstar73: it'll be interesting to see what will happen.....
swingstar73: i tend to think it may be the kind of issue where the churches will start preaching politics, and people who don't look at the bigger picture will say "well yeah they should be able to speak their mind, thats violating freedom of speech"...... and then churches will be given both tax exemption status as well as having the power to preach politics
swingstar73: and then our government will be (once again) going against the constitution by supporting a religion
swingstar73: but because the only people that are going to argue against it are in the minority, it won't be stopped
swingstar73: and america will have unintentionally fucked itself over, yet again
swingstar73: because they didn't look at the bigger picture
swingstar73: and it doesn't surprise me that, as usual, the people that will fail to look at the bigger picture will be the religious
swingstar73: thats all religion is anyways..... it's just a convenient way for people to say "even though the truth of the matter may lie elsewhere, i don't really have the time or energy to try to find it..... so i am just going to pick my stance and stick with it....because thats just easier
swingstar73: so although the truth of the matter is that churches should not be tax exempt and preachers should be allowed to preach whatever the fuck they feel like (thus upholding the first amendment), america will simply say "yeah, but we are christians... we don't care whats right or wrong....we just simply feel the need to be right all the time, even when we aren't.... so fuck what the constitution says..... it doesn't fit in with my plan...... sure we understand why freedom from religion is important, and sure we understand what free speech is..... but guess what, as soon as it gets in our way... fuck it... because we're right and everyone else is wrong"
swingstar73: and then religion will be given the endorsement of the government (through the means of tax exemption) as well as the right to do and say whatever they want
swingstar73: thats so fucked up

2. A word for nonbelievers

Comment #189898 by swingstar73 on June 7, 2008 at 1:39 pm

I see this sign every time i drive to rehearse with my band. When i saw it, it was the 'atheist's miracle'.... It is so nice to know that i'm not the only atheist around, cause it certainly feels that way, just about all the time. Good work!

3. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111478 by swingstar73 on January 14, 2008 at 6:28 pm

You sound like an amazing man. I hope your surgery goes extremely well.