Christmas Conversation Starter

Here's a common depiction of the first Christmas - three wise men riding camels and visiting Jesus who was born in a stable:

That's the story Christians like to tell but it's not the story we read in the bible. The gospel of Matthew, for example, refers only to "wise men"; not three of them and not riding on camels either. There may have been dozens of wise men and they might have been riding in coaches pulled by horses for all we know (or they may have been travelling on foot).

Also you can search through the New Testament as carefully as you like, but you will find no mention of Jesus being born in a stable. In fact Matthew is most emphatic when he tells us that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem and, "On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage." (Matthew 2:11)

What happened next? Did Mary and Joseph wait eight days in Bethlehem before going to the Temple in Jerusalem and then heading straight back to Nazareth? (Luke 2:21-39)

Or did the family immediately leave Bethlehem and travel down to Egypt where they stayed until Herod was dead? (Matthew 2:13-15)

When was Jesus born? In about 6 BCE while Herod was alive? (Matthew 2:1)

Or ten years later in 6 CE when Quirinius was governor of Syria? (Luke 2:2)

Maybe it was somewhere in between those two dates because Luke also tells us (in Luke 3:1-23) that John started baptising in 29AD, “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” when Jesus was “about thirty” – which means that Jesus was born in about 1BCE.

Or maybe it was none of those dates because, in John 8:57, during his early ministry, “The Jews said unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old.” It’s a fairly vague statement, but surely they’ve got to be talking about someone over forty (and probably closer to forty-five), in which case Jesus could have been born as early as 15BCE.

A little Socratic Questioning during this year's Christmas dinner and you can turn it into a really memorable event.

A Christmas Story

I used to work at a recycling plant and the Christmas cards started arriving during the last week of November each year. Not just one or two every now and then, but hundreds of them every day!

Dear old auntie Doris would go to all the trouble of sending her best Christmas wishes to other members of her family - and they would chuck the card in the bin the same day it was delivered!

There Are No Atheists In Foxholes

I have heard it many times when discussing the existence of god with a Christian. There always comes a time when they realise that they have been cornered and their defence of god is doomed to fail - and that's when they resort to the "There are no atheists in foxholes" argument.

In effect the Christian is saying to the atheist, "You might be feeling 'oh-so-clever' right now, but when the chips are down and your life is on the line, you will go running to god like a frightened child running to his mother."

But let's take a closer look at that foxhole situation...

The atheist is in the foxhole because he knows there is no god to protect him from all the bullets whizzing overhead. Sheltering in the foxhole gives him the best chance of survival.

But what is the Christian doing? Is he up on the rampart, fully exposed and relying on his god to protect him as he advances towards the enemy? No he is not! He is down in the foxhole with the atheist.

And he is in the foxhole because he knows there is no god protecting him from the enemy bullets. God cannot save him - but the foxhole will.

So basically, everyone in the foxhole is an atheist.

---

Christians Can Be Awful Sometimes

80% of white born-again Christians supported Roy Moore, according to the Washington Post.

click to enlarge

To put that another way, a majority of white evangelicals are upset that a child molester won’t represent their Christian values in the Senate.

http://www.patheos.com/2017/12/12/

Nov 11, 1215, Fourth Lateran Council Begins

During my tours around the Internet I discovered that the 4th Lateran Council began on this day (November 11) in 1215 CE, so I popped across to this Catholic website to get some more details. It was worth it too. I was pissing myself laughing after reading just the first line of Canon #1: 

We firmly believe and simply confess that there is only one true God, eternal and immeasurable, almighty, unchangeable, incomprehensible and ineffable

They comprehend the incomprehensible and they use words to describe the ineffable. That's comedy gold that is...

Also in Canon #1 it was officially declared that the bread and wine served during holy communion did, indeed, miraculously turn into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. (I think the blood would be a bit too salty for my tastes but the Catholics seem to like it.)

In Canon #2 they declared Joachim's Three Ages theory to be a heresy and it's pretty obvious why they did so: According to Joachim the history of the world was divided into three 'ages' and the third age was going to begin in 1260 CE but - and this was the heretical bit - during this third age mankind would come in direct contact with god, thus making the Pope, his bishops, and the very church itself, totally redundant. (Now that's what I call a heresy.)

In Canon #3 they poured scorn on the idea of people being presumed innocent until found guilty. It was decided that all suspected heretics were to be considered guilty until they could prove their innocence: 

Those who are only found suspect of heresy are to be struck with the sword of anathema, unless they prove their innocence by an appropriate purgation

It is worth mentioning that this 4th Lateran Council with its arse-about-face ideas regarding innocence was initiated by Pope Innocent III. These Catholics have a really vicious sense of humour don't they?

Down at the other end of the document, however, things start to turn nasty and we find a few special rules for the Jews and the Muslims. In Canon #68 it is pointed out that Jews and Muslims have been dressing up as ordinary people and confusing the Christian hoi-poloi to the point where they were actually treating each other as equals: 

A difference of dress distinguishes Jews or Saracens from Christians in some provinces, but in others a certain confusion has developed so that they are indistinguishable. Whence it sometimes happens that by mistake Christians join with Jewish or Saracen women, and Jews or Saracens with christian women.

But never fear; the dear, sweet Christians, came up with a solution: 

In order that the offence of such a damnable mixing may not spread further, under the excuse of a mistake of this kind, we decree that such persons of either sex, in every christian province and at all times, are to be distinguished in public from other people by the character of their dress

And then, just for good measure the Jews and Muslims were ordered to stay indoors during Easter: 

They shall not appear in public at all on the days of lamentation and on passion Sunday

Dear old Pope Innocent III must have really had it in for the Jews at that time because, in Canon #69, he refers to them as the "blasphemers of Christ" and he orders that they must not be allowed to hold any public office at any time:

It would be too absurd for a blasphemer of Christ to exercise power over Christians. We therefore renew in this canon, on account of the boldness of the offenders, what the council of Toledo providently decreed in this matter : we forbid Jews to be appointed to public offices

I wonder how many Catholic bloggers will mention the 4th Lateran Council today?

I wonder how many will get past Canon #1?

I wonder how many will get all the way down to Canon #68 and Canon #69?

First Baptist Church Massacre

Sunday November 5th, 2017

First Baptist Church

Sutherland Springs

Texas, USA

A 26-year-old gunman entered the church and killed 26 people whose ages ranged from 18 months to 77 years. Another twenty people were seriously wounded.

---

And then there was the callous atheist who pointed out that Christians are always praying to go to heaven when they die, and therefore: When those saints of First Baptist Church were murdered yesterday, God wasn’t ignoring their prayers. He was answering them.

Oh, wait a minute... 

It wasn't an atheist who said those horrible things; it was a dear sweet Christian! A Lutheran pastor name Hans Fiene who preaches his nonsense in the State of Illinois. Here are the low-lights as they appeared in his article on The Federalist website the day after the murders:

When those saints of First Baptist Church were murdered yesterday, God wasn’t ignoring their prayers. He was answering them. 

When a madman with a rifle sought to persecute the faithful at First Baptist Church on Sunday morning, he failed. Just like those who put Christ to death, and just like those who have brought violence to believers in every generation, this man only succeeded in being the means through which God delivered his children from this evil world into an eternity of righteousness and peace. 

Although the murderer filled their eyes with terror, God has now filled them with his glory. Although he persecuted them with violence, God seized that violence and has now used it to deliver his faithful into a kingdom of peace. Although this madman brought death to so many, God has used that death to give them the eternal life won for them in the blood of Jesus.

You can read the full article here:

---

He's not backing down either. People have been ridiculing his attitude and this is how he is responding on his twitter account:

Thoughts and Prayers

A few years ago this nice young American boy took his legally obtained gun collection down to the local church and killed nine people.

Everybody offered their thoughts and prayers and stuffed animals were left at the scene. What else could they do?



A few weeks ago this nice old American man took his legally obtained gun collection down to an open air concert and killed sixty people while wounding five hundred more.

Everybody offered their thoughts and prayers and stuffed animals were left at the scene. What else could they do?



Today it's the youngsters turn again - twenty-six year old Devin Kelley, took his legally obtained gun collection down to the local church and killed twenty-six people just for the fun of it.

Everybody offered their thoughts and prayers and stuffed animals were left at the scene. What else could they do?

---

Thoughts and prayers.
Stuffed animals on the footpath.
What more can civilized people do?

Gun control? 

Don't even think about it! 

That's blasphemy, that is.

---

Christian Missions and Social Progress Vol I

In the previous post we noticed that Nobel Peace Prize winner, John Mott, mentioned "the masterly, scientific survey by Dr. Dennis of the social evils of the non-Christian world". Mott was referring to a book titled Christian Missions and Social Progress Vol I (written by Dr Dennis).

In the table of contents beginning at page ten Doctor Dennis lists dozens of sins that he claims were being committed by non-Christians around the world. Sins like Gambling, Immorality, Adultery, Corruption, Bribery, and Fraud for example.

The thing that strikes me about these sins is that far from being exclusive to the non-Christians, they are extremely well represented in the Christian community as well.

It's a huge book (468 pages) and I didn't know where to begin so I decided to search for the word "Australia" (for no other reason than that I live in Australia) and this is what I found on page 151:

Among the aboriginies of Australia, especially the Papuans of Queensland, cannibal feasts are a common occurrance, as Lumholtz declares.

Now that surprised me because Papua and Australia are two different countries and one does not expect to find a mistake like that in a book which John Mott describes as "masterly" and "scientific".

I decided to take a closer look at his credentials and discovered that Dr Dennis was most definitely not a masterly scientist. He was doctor alright, but his doctorate was not in the field of science. He was a Doctor of Divinity. He was nothing more than a glorified bible student! And he was not usually known as 'Dr Dennis' but as 'Reverend Dennis".

But wait, there's more: the Reverend Dennis was quoting from an earlier book written by Carl Lumholtz (Among Cannibals by Carl Lumholtz) so I went back to that original source and found that it, too, was extremely unscientific.

On page 130 of "Among Cannibals" Lumholtz explains that some Australian aborigines have broad noses while almost all of the inhabitants of Papua have very broad noses and therefore, according to Lumholtz: 

I think it probable that the large noses sometimes found in Northern Queensland may be attributed to a mixture with Papuans, whose noses are known to be their pride.
https://archive.org/details/amongcannibalsac1889lumh

Here is the full text as it appears on page 130:

The most characteristic feature of an Australian's face is the low receding forehead and the prominence of the part immediately above the eyes. The latter might indicate keen perception, and in this they are not lacking. Their eyes are expressive, dark brown, frequently with a tinge of deep blue. The white of the eye is of a dirty yellow colour and very much bloodshot, which gives them a savage look. The nose is flat and triangular, and narrow at the top, thus bringing the eyes near together. The partition between the two nostrils is very large and conspicuous. Many of the natives pierce it and put a yellow stick into it as an ornament. My men, who of course had neither pockets nor pipe-cases, frequently put their pipes into these holes in their noses as a convenient place to keep them, and fancied that their noses looked all the better for it. Now and then I met men whose noses were almost Roman, and there were all the transitional forms between these and the flat triangular noses. I have also heard of high aquiline noses among the natives of New South Wales. I think it probable that the large noses sometimes found in Northern Queensland may be attributed to a mixture with Papuans, whose noses are known to be their pride. The irregular size of their bodies is evidence in the same direction.

The Australian aborigines have high cheek-bones and large, open, ugly-looking mouths. But the blacks on Herbert river usually keep their mouths shut, which improves their looks, and they are, upon the whole, a better looking race than the natives in the south. Their lips are a reddish-blue, and they have small receding chins. Their muscular development is usually slight and their legs and arms are particularly slender; still I have seen many exceptions to this rule. The women are always knock-kneed, and this is often the case with the men, although with them it is not nearly so marked, their legs being almost straight.

On page 132 Lumholtz also notes that:

The race must be characterised as ugly-looking, though the expression of the countenance is not, as a rule, disagreeable, especially when their attention is awakened. Occasionally handsome individuals may be found, particularly among the men, who as a rule are better shaped than the women.

And this unscientific nonsense is the source used by Dr Dennis, and which John Mott (Nobel Peace Prize winner) refers to as "masterly and scientific".

Evangelization Of The World In This Generation

While browsing the Internet the other day, I came across the name of John R Mott, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. I had a look at his Wikipedia page and discovered that in 1900 he wrote a book titled "The Evangelization Of The World In This Generation". This is how he described his mission:

Here it is again 

(with my comments in red)

THE OBLIGATION TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD

He was never "obligated" to evangelize the world. He was just making a pest of himself; barging in on unsuspecting victims and haranguing them about a religion in which they had no interest. Imagine if a Hindu had confronted John Mott and told him that Hindus had an obligation to convince Christians that Ganesha actually existed. John Mott would have been horrified by such nonsense - yet Mott himself was preaching the same sort of nonsense.

It is our duty to evangelize the world because all men need Christ.

That is nothing more than Christian rhetoric. The gospel of Matthew does, indeed, contain The Great Commission where Jesus orders his disciples to preach the good news to the whole world, but nobody has a "duty" to obey that order two thousand years after it was given.

As for that business about "all men need Christ"; it's just not true. Take me for example. I've been without Christ all of my life and everything is going quite well for me. Why would I "need" a Christ who threatens to murder anyone who speaks against him? To tell the truth; if that cruel bastard ever comes back again, I'll see if I can get him arrested for incitement to commit a felony.

Christian Scriptures and the careful and extended observation of earnest men the world over agree that with respect to the need of salvation all nations and races are alike.

Here John Mott is assuming that the "earnest men" are all Christians who want everyone else to also join their religion and thus gain salvation. John Mott would never regard a Sikh or a Shinto as an "earnest man" and it would never occur to him that their idea of salvation does not include a conversion to Christianity.

The need of the non-Christian world is indescribably great. Hundreds of millions are to-day living in ignorance and darkness, steeped in idolatry, superstition, degradation and corruption.

John Mott casually declares that non-Christians are living in ignorance and darkness. Is he trying to say that only Christians can be educated; only Christians can see the light? You bet he is. He is saying that all non-Christians are, by definition, degraded and corrupt. Talk about Christian superiority!

He complains that non-Christians are "steeped in idolatry" yet what does he do every Sunday morning? He kneels down in front of an idol - Jesus on the Cross - and asks that idol to forgive his sins.

John Mott also complains that non-Christians are superstitious yet fails to notice that Christians are equally superstitious. They sincerely believe that Peter was able to pay his taxes when a fish gave him some money. They sincerely believe that dead Christians climbed out of their graves and walked around Jerusalem. They sincerely believe that David killed two hundred men, cut off their foreskins, and used those foreskins to buy a wife. They sincerely believe that the sun stood still so that Joshua had extra daylight to win a battle. They sincerely believe such idiotic rubbish and then they have the cheek to regard non-Christians as superstitious!

Reflect on the desolating and cruel evils which are making such fearful ravages among them.

When it comes to desolating and cruel evils we can put Christianity right at the top of the list. I'm thinking of the Inquisitions where tens of thousands of people were tortured in church basements and then burned alive in the town square while devout Christians watched and cheered. John Mott was born the 19th century and the Inquisition was still executing blasphemers and heretics during that same century - yet he has the audacity to claim that the Christian inquisitors are the good guys while non-Christians are cruel and evil.

See under what a burden of sin and sorrow and suffering they live. Can any candid person doubt the reality of the awful need after reviewing the masterly, scientific survey by Dr. Dennis of the social evils of the non-Christian world?

John Mott lists Dr Dennis as an authority on the social evils of the non-Christian world and we'll take a look at what he has to say in the next post.

No one who has seen the actual conditions can question that they who are without God are also without hope.

Once again we have a fine example of the swaggering superiority for which Christians are so famous. John Mott implies that Christians live the free and easy lifestyle while non-Christians - every single one of them - is "without hope". Such pomposity and arrogance. How did he ever manage to win a Nobel Peace Prize?

It's A Brave New World

From the Guardian:

Researchers at Stanford University claimed to have found that computer algorithms could accurately predict the sexuality of people from photographs of their faces. Their artificial intelligence programme was able to detect, with surprising accuracy, from more than 300,000 dating website images, who was gay and who straight. The computers were more successful at getting the sexuality of men right – 81% of the time from one picture, 91% after analysing five pictures. With women it was still impressive; 71% correct from analysing one picture and 81% after five.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/12/ 

There was a time when the powers that be had the ability to detect witches. For hundreds of years they used their talents to discover and then kill witches by the thousands and the tens of thousands. Then they discovered that witches didn't exist! "Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind," said the witch-finders. "But looking on the bright side; if all those witches were truly innocent then they went straight to heaven didn't they? So we actually did them a favour didn't we?"


More recently the authorities used scientific measurements to recognise criminals: 

A thief, for example, could be identified by his expressive face, manual dexterity, and small, wandering eyes. Habitual murderers meanwhile had cold, glassy stares, bloodshot eyes and big hawk-like noses, and rapists had ‘jug ears’ ...  female criminals were far more ruthless than male; tended to be lustful and immodest; were shorter and more wrinkled; and had darker hair and smaller skulls than ‘normal’ women. 

http://www.historyextra.com/article/feature/born-criminal  

 

Given past results, I might just take this Stanford University theory with a grain of salt.

Muslims At The University Of Mosul

The Mosul University Library opened in 1967. Sixty of Mosul's wealthiest citizens donated their historic book collections to the university and the library eventually contained a million books, historic maps, and ancient manuscripts that dated back to the ninth century.

All those books are gone now:

During the thirty-two months that the Islamic State ruled the city, the university campus, on tree-lined grounds near the Tigris River, was gradually closed down and then torched. Quite intentionally, the library was hardest hit. ISIS sought to kill the ideas within its walls.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/

Mosul University Library 2017

Extremist Muslims have a saying about books and their contents:

If it's already in the Koran we don't need it,

and if it's not in the Koran we don't need it.

Another Sleep Walking Murderer

Raleigh police charged Phelps, 29, with murder Friday morning after finding his wife, Lauren Ashley-Nicole Phelps, also 29, mortally stabbed at the townhouse where they lived on Patuxent Drive. On the 911 call, the dispatcher asked Phelps what had happened.

“I had a dream and then I turned on the lights and she’s dead on the floor. There’s blood all over me, and there’s a bloody knife on the bed. I think I did it. I took more medicine that I should have. I took Coricidin Cough and Cold because I know it can make you feel good and sometimes I can’t sleep at night.”

Matthew Phelps worked at Dunlap Lawn Service and graduated from Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in 2011 in Pineville, Ky., where he studied mission and evangelism.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/

The sleep walking defense is reasonably common among wife-killers but the 'cough medicine' cause is quite unusual.

It's strange how these incidents always result in an innocent party being killed. You never hear of an apprentice preacher taking cough medicine; going unconscious, and then waking up to find he has been stabbing himself in the legs with a hat pin. That never happens. It's always the wife who cops the stabbing - and she's always dead. Never stabbed in the legs; always stabbed in the chest and neck. Strange that...

Moses Has Seen The Light

Charlie Moses is looking for pen-friends. He describes himself like this:

I'm Charles Moses ... I enjoy playing my guitar and singing most all kinds of songs, such as country, rock, spiritual, and gospel ... I've got a great personality, a great sense of humor, and I am very fun to be around. I love to cut up and tell jokes and old hunting and fishing stories. Family is very important to me. I have a mom, two sisters, nieces and nephews, lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles. 

God is very important to me as well. God gives me strong and encourages me to help others in here. As long as I keep my focus on Jesus Christ I cannot lose. I love to sing praises to him. I'm a prayer warrior. I'm involved in some really great study circles from clergy visitors. I am truly blessed.

I welcome all pen pals. God bless each of you.

http://www.writeaprisoner.com/Template.aspx?i=z-54876

Sounds like a nice man doesn't he? Until you read the rest of his story and discover that he has glossed over a couple of details:

Charles Lannis Moses, you see, is just another drug addled murderer who treats his fellow citizens as if they were pieces of shit. 

Back in the year 2000 he was high on drugs and decided to have a bit of fun with the local police. Whenever they tried to talk to him he would jump into his vehicle and lead them on a high speed pursuit.

Then he started shooting. He fired at one police officer and missed. Then he shot another officer in the head. A short time later he killed a local farmer and took the farmer's vehicle.

Eventually he was captured and sentenced to a minimum of 190 years in jail.

http://extras.denverpost.com/news/news0216t.htm 

click to enlarge
 

http://www.writeaprisoner.com/Template.aspx?i=z-54876

Ratbag Parents

The father was just another druggie who liked bashing women and frightening children so it wasn't surprising when his wife got an Apprehended Violence Order against him. He was ordered to stay away from the family and never go near them again.

But then the wife started feeling sorry for him. She forgot that only a few days ago he was pointing a loaded gun at her head and threatening to kill her. She forgot all that and told the guy, "Don't worry about about the AVO, come and visit us any time you like." And he did. And he always brought his guns with him. His favourite was his sawn-off shotgun. Not only was it deadly but it was illegal as well - talk about exciting!

Then in late August 2017 the husband was due in court on drug charges so he decided to stash his sawn-off shotgun at the wife's house. Once again she forgot about the AVO and let him into the house and watched while he stashed the loaded weapon.

Trouble was, the children were also watching.

As soon as mum and dad left the room the kids retrieved the gun and eventually  a three year old girl had her head blown off.

Now the mother suddenly remembers that she hates the man and spends the rest of night screaming at him while he sits in the gutter outside the home, crying his eyes out, and asking "Why did this happen to me?" He's been putting on quite an act about it:

The man’s barrister William Barber told the court his client had been alone in a cell 23 hours a day and without his usual antidepressants and sleeping medication.

“He is very very highly traumatised, he tells me he hasn’t slept for five days. He is losing his mind,” Mr Barber said.

You watch him brighten up when the police finally agree that one of the other children pulled the trigger and he is no longer facing a manslaughter charge.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/the-father

Important Question

Why are turds tapered?

So your arse doesn't shut with a bang.

Oogedy-Boogedy-Boo (Famous Christian Prayer)

In parts of the USA on Monday, August 21, 2017, there will be a total eclipse of the Sun. On August 19, 2017, a Christian preacher named Bryan Fischer asked this question on his Facebook page:

Does God have a message for us in the total eclipse of the sun?

He starts out by saying:

Now in the thoughts I express here, I am not all pretending that I have received some form of revelation from God about the meaning he wants us to attach to a total eclipse of the sun. This is simply an effort to ponder this sign in the heavens and speculate as to its possible spiritual implications.

In that paragraph he is speaking in the language of Christianese. Here's what it sounds like in ordinary English: 'My name is Bryan Fischer. I am a man of God and, while I would never claim to know the mind of God, I can nevertheless assure you that I do know the mind of God. Whatever I tell you can be regarded as absolutely true because God would not let me say it if it wasn't true.'

Then he says this:

The path of this total eclipse of the sun is remarkable, in that it crosses over the entire continental United States, almost perfectly bisecting America from the Northwest to the Southeast. And in that path, the sun will be perfectly blotted out, by the ruler of the night, plunging all of America in its path into virtual total darkness.

This is a metaphor, or a sign, of the work of the Prince of Darkness in obscuring the light of God’s truth. Satan, and those who unwittingly serve as his accomplices by resisting the public acknowledgement of God and seeking to repress the expression of Christian faith in our land, are bringing on us a dark night of the national soul.

In other words Bryan Fischer has taken something as natural and predictable as a total eclipse of the Sun; added a big helping of Christian Oogedy-Boogedy-Boo, and come up with a message direct from the Lord God Almighty.

And the basic gist of the message?

Stop it or you'll go blind!

Read the whole thing here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink

His Mother Must Be So Proud Of Him

Now that's what I call a slap in the face.

Sad, but I can't help laughing.

The Joys Of Retirement

The Joys Of Retirement:

Waking up at 7-o-clock and then trying to figure out whether it's 7-o-clock in the morning or 7-o-clock at night.

You don't think anyone could live like that? That's 'cos you ain't retired.

Kill Disobedient Children Says Pastor Ben Skaug

Another long post which I don't expect anyone to read, but I just want it on the record that I disagree with almost every word spoken by Pastor Ben Skaug in the following video where he tries to convince his audience that this next piece of biblical nonsense from Deuteronomy makes perfect sense:

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)

 

original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-nCov2R4w

If I call Pastor Ben Skaug a cruel, callous, uncaring, miserable piece of shit, you can be sure that most Christians will be highly offended and say that I am a child of the Devil.

But they are not offended (not even slightly) when Pastor Ben Skaug publicly defends a bible text that says Christian parents have the God-given right to kill disobedient children for something as mild as gluttony!

Pastor Skaug then goes on to tell his gullible Christian audience that they will not be punished for killing their children, but they will be rewarded instead. "Lavished with covenantal blessings," as he puts it.

But it's worse than that because he also states that if Christian parents do not obey the biblical law (and kill their disobedient children) then it is the parents who will be punished!

Christians listen to that utter piffle and agree with every word of it: "Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Kill the gluttons, slay the drunks, murder the children; it says so in the bible."

You doubt a modern Christian would ever behave so badly? Check out this incident which occurred in 2017:

Transcript from video:

I think in this one we have to take a step back for a moment and to see that the covenantal structure that God has with his people. God lays out the covenant law and says 'here are the things you must do to remain in covenant with me. If you do them then I am obligated to pour out and lavish upon you all the covenantal blessings' - and you see those listed in Deuteronomy 28 - 'But vice-versa, if you break the covenantal law then here are the covenant curses that I as a perfectly holy, just and right God, am obligated to now pour out upon you.'

This section in Deuteronomy 19 concerning the child: If you as a parent has a child who is continually breaking and transgressing the covenant law of God, you must remember that if you as a father were to harbor this child - and furthermore as a city - if the city harbored the child who was a continual covenant transgressor, then God is obligated - not just sitting back being mean - he's obligated to pour covenant curses out, not just upon you, but now upon the entire city.

So now, when you think about that question, it goes back to the fact, do you love God more than you love all other things? Jesus Christ says this exact same thing in a different way in the New Testament when he says, 'All who love child, mother, father, sister, brother, more than me, are not worthy of me.' So, in other words, do we love God pre-eminently, or do we not? 

And if; if we make an idol out of anything; if we place anything above the living God then we are harboring that which trangresses - and we cannot! He is worthy of our love. He is worthy of our devotion.

Spoken by Pastor Ben Skaug.

Let's go through Skaug's diatribe, point by point.

(My comments in red) 

I think in this one we have to take a step back for a moment

That's code for "let's change the subject". Here's how he does it.

and to see that the covenantal structure that God has with his people. God lays out the covenant law and says 'here are the things you must do to remain in covenant with me. If you do them then I am obligated to pour out and lavish upon you all the covenantal blessings' - and you see those listed in Deuteronomy 28.'

See what he's done? Instead of discussing God's immoral command that gluttonous children should be stoned to death Pastor Skaug is talking, instead, about the wonderful advantages (lavish blessings) that benefit people who become Christians and obey God.

Notice, also, that Pastor Skaug mentions the "blessings" that can be found in Deuteronomy chapter 28, but he fails to mention that the blessings last only until verse fourteen - and then come the curses. Curses that continue without a break until verse sixty-eight! Fourteen verses of blessings. Fifty-four verses of curses.

And you won't believe some of those curses; Christian torture porn at its most disgusting. 

'But vice-versa, if you break the covenantal law then here are the covenant curses that I as a perfectly holy, just and right God, am obligated to now pour out upon you.'

Now this bit surprises me because Pastor Skaug actually mentions the curses. But notice the bland language he uses. He says that "if you break the covenantal law then" you must bear the "covenant curses" which (he implies) are "perfectly holy, just and right." Let me list just a tiny few of those "perfectly holy, just and right" curses as they appear in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and then you decide whether or not you would be prepared to worship the Christian God of Love:

• The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly
• The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you
• The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew
• The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies
• The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.
• The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind
• You shall be continually abused and robbed
• You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her.
• Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people
• You shall be continually abused and crushed, and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see.
• The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed
• You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity.
• The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle ... It shall besiege you in all your towns
• In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.
• Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating
• She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter, begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else
• The Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies.
• The Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction
• Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life.

And there's a whole lot more Christian torture porn where that came from. If you're looking for sadistic pornography, forget about the Internet; just read your bible!

This section in Deuteronomy 19 concerning the child:

I think he is referring to Deuteronomy 21 (probably thinking of verse 19 in that chapter).

If you as a parent has a child who is continually breaking and transgressing the covenant law of God,

This time Pastor Skaug is preparing to blame the victim. He is suggesting that the "child" has become an unrepentant recidivist who has passed beyond redemption and become eligible for the maximum possible sentence - the death penalty!

Once again I should like to remind you that Skaug is talking about the death penalty for gluttony! Gluttony for Christ's sake! The death penalty! And not a painless death either; but death by stoning! (Excuse the exclamation points but I think they are necessary here.)

But Pastor Skaug is being more evasive than his gullible audience could imagine because, in the bible, God is not talking about punishing recidivists. He's not even talking about "three strikes and you're out". God is demanding the death penalty for the first offence! Check out this incident where God orders the offending child to be put to death at the first offence:

If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. (Deuteronomy 13:6-9)

Or this incident where an old man was picking up sticks on the Sabbath and God had him executed before the day ended:

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp.” The whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. (Numbers 15:32-36)

Pastor Skaug knows all these details but he deliberately withholds that information from his audience because he is trying to blame the victim. Skaug is trying to convince his audience that God only wants to punish people who are "continually breaking and transgressing the covenant law of God," whereas the bible clearly states that even gluttons and stick-picker-uppers must be stoned to death on the first offence.

you must remember that if you as a father were to harbor this child - and furthermore as a city - if the city harbored the child

Again Pastor Skaug shows his rat-cunning by casually absolving his gullible Christian audience from all responsibility for the murder of their own children. He is casually (and without biblical authority) suggesting that it is the city that has applied the death penalty - not God, not the parents, but the city - so now it's a problem for local government and nothing to do with the parents (or God).

(the child) who was a continual covenant transgressor,

As I've already shown, Pastor Skaug is pissing in your ear when he tells you that the disobedient children are being punished for continual wrong-doing. God wants people dead at the first offence.

then God is obligated - not just sitting back being mean - he's obligated to pour covenant curses out, not just upon you, but now upon the entire city.

Pastor Skaug is now implying that the gluttonous child must be stoned to death otherwise everyone in the whole city would be guilty of "harboring" the sinner and God would be "obligated to pour covenant curses out" upon the city residents. Much better, Pastor Skaug implies, that one gluttonous child (or an elderly stick-picker-upper) is stoned to death immediately, than that a whole city is punished for failing to obey God's "perfectly holy, just and right" law.

So now, when you think about that question, it goes back to the fact, do you love God more than you love all other things?

Well maybe some people can cope with a situation like that - but what sort of parents kill their own children for gluttony and then defend their actions by saying "God made me do it."

[I'm thinking to myself that if Pastor Skaug (slippery bastard that he is) was defending them in court, he would suggest they change the reason from "God made me do it" to "The Devil made me do it."]

Jesus Christ says this exact same thing in a different way in the New Testament when he says, 'All who love child, mother, father, sister, brother, more than me, are not worthy of me.'

Once again Pastor Skaug fails to give his gullible Christian audience the full story. Jesus Christ doesn't just say "You are not worthy of me" and leaves it at that. Oh no, Jesus Christ, like his old man, enthusiastically recommends the death penalty for all backsliders when he says:

If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)

Not many Christians know that verse because rat-cunning pastors like Ben Skaug never preach it from the pulpit. (You can probably guess why they don't. It doesn't fit too well with the "gentle-Jesus-meek-and- mild" shit they teach in Sunday School.)

So, in other words, do we love God pre-eminently, or do we not?

Put me down for "not".

And if; if we make an idol out of anything; if we place anything above the living God then we are harboring that which trangresses - and we cannot! He is worthy of our love. He is worthy of our devotion.

But that is total bullshit because we've already seen Deuteronomy 13:6-9 where God says that if anyone makes an idol out of anything or they decide to worship other gods, then:

Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them.

God is worthy of nothing; certainly not our love and devotion. He's a fucking serial killer for Christ's sake!

Here endeth the lesson :)

True Christians: Always Ready To Kill Their Own Children

Christians believe every word of the bible is true and they say all of God's commands must be obeyed without question so, for those reasons, they regard this text as quite reasonable:  

If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. (Deuteronomy 13:6-9)

You doubt that any Christian would be silly enough, cruel enough, to kill their own child for simply changing religions? Check this out:

A Christian resident of the central Israeli town of Ramle was charged on Sunday with killing his teenage daughter over her relationship with a young Muslim.

Sami Karra allegedly murdered his daughter, Henriette, 17, because he and his family objected to her relationship with a man who was serving time in prison, as well as her plans to convert to Islam for him.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.801555

Sure, the 21st century Christians scamper around town pretending to be all pious and humble and interested only in doing good works, but when push comes to shove; when God backs them into a corner, they go fucking mental !

Christian Apologetics

Christian apologists are Defenders of the Faith.

They are also notorious liars!

I'll give you an example:

In his Encyclopedia Of Bible Difficulties the apologist, Gleason Archer, refers to the 'Parable of the Mustard Seed' as it appears in the gospel of Matthew.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches (Matthew 13:31-32)

But the mustard seed is not the "smallest of all the seeds" so the bible has got it wrong - and that's a problem Gleason Archer has to fix. This is how he does it:

---

In Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus describes the mustard seed (kokkos sinapeos) as being "smaller than all the seeds." The question arises as to whether this statement could be supported by a knowledgeable botanist, or did Christ make a mistake in His rating of the comparative size of the mustard seed? In all probability, He was referring to the black mustard (Brassica nigra; cf. W.E. Shewell-Cooper, "Mustard," in Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia, 4:324-25). J.C. Trever (Buttrick, Interpreter's Dictionary, 3:477) suggests that the orchid seed is even smaller than the seed of the black mustard. But it is highly questionable whether Jesus was discussing all plant life on planet Earth when He made this statement. No one yet has proved that ancient Palestinians planted anything that bore a smaller seed than that of the black mustard, and that was the framework within which Jesus was speaking. There is no record of the orchid ever being cultivated in Palestine.

---

Before I tear that apology apart let me point out that I couldn't care less about Jesus, or the bible, or the parable of the mustard seed. The message behind the parable doesn't interest me in the slightest. All I want to do is point out the lying, cheating, conniving methods used by apologists like Gleason Archer when they attempt to flim-flam their readers with nonsensical codswallop.

In his apologetic, Archer says,

In all probability, He was referring to the black mustard...

Archer makes this claim with not a skerrick of evidence. He simply states that "in all probablity" Jesus was referring to the black mustard seed and thereafter expects his readers to accept it as the truth. Where did he get the information from? He doesn't say. But one thing we know for sure - the bible most certainly does not identify the type of mustard seed Jesus was talking about.


Then Archer points out that J.C. Trevor,

suggests that the orchid seed is even smaller than the seed of the black mustard.

Botanists, however, don't just "suggest" that orchid seeds are smaller than mustard seeds, they know it for a fact. Take a look at this picture and see for yourself:

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0601.htm#seed

Archer follows-up with this statement:

But it is highly questionable whether Jesus was discussing all plant life on planet Earth when He made this statement.

Now this is the big one. This is the lie that Gleason Archers knows to be a lie. He knows for certain that Jesus said the mustard seed was the smallest of all the seeds on the Earth and then casually declares that it is "highly questionable" that Jesus said any such thing!

Remember that Gleason Archer (BA, LL.B, PhD, BD) was a biblical scholar, theologian, educator and author. He was Professor of Biblical Languages at Fuller Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1965 and Professor of Old Testament and Semitics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1965 to 1986.

Archer was also involved in translating the NASB and NIV versions of the bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into English. That is to say, Gleason Archer knew the bible probably better than anyone else on the planet. He knew that Matthew copied the parable of the mustard seed from the original version that had appeared ten years earlier in the gospel of Mark. Furthermore, in that original version, Mark has Jesus saying that a mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. (Mark 4:30-31)

Archer knew all of those details - he actually translated those very words from the original Greek into the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and the New International Version (NIV). He knew exactly what the bible was saying and he lied about it anyway. But that's what apologists do - they tell lies for a living!


Also, according to Archer,

No one yet has proved that ancient Palestinians planted anything that bore a smaller seed than that of the black mustard

Another lie! It is well known that Palestinians cultivated another plant which has seeds much smaller than the mustard seed. It is the poppy plant and it has been cultivated in Palestine for the last 5,000 years. Not only cultivated in Palestine, but also native to the area. The clue is in the name. It is called the Semitic Poppy and you can find all the details here.


Then Archer goes on to say that the Palestinian area was,

the framework within which Jesus was speaking.

So we are back with Archers "big lie" mentioned earlier. Archer is once again telling his readers that Jesus was referring only to seeds that were cultivated in Palestine, whereas, in fact, the gospel of Mark has Jesus referring to all the seeds on the earth.


And Archer is guilty of Lying by Omission in the next sentence when he writes:

There is no record of the orchid ever being cultivated in Palestine.

That is true - but Archer deliberately omits to mention the poppy seed. Why? Because the presence of the poppy seed totally destroys his claim that that mustard seed was the smallest seed in Palestine at the time when Jesus told the parable.

Christians: Do You Believe What This Preacher Said? (Truly Believe?)

Original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EOM_dyQAi8

As Amedia told it, he was awakened in March 2011 by his wife, who told him that their daughter was in Hawaii and in imminent danger of being swept away by the tsunami that had killed more than 20,000 people in Japan. Amedia immediately leapt out of bed, turned toward Hawaii and declared “that that tsunami stop, that it cannot touch [Hawaii], that is my inheritance, that is my child and as a prophet of God, I command you to stop now.”

Amedia then called his daughter and told her to look into the ocean where she would “see an angel stirring in the waters, he will hold back the waters, the waters will pull back and then they will recede and go the other way.”

And that is exactly what happened, he said, and his daughter even “got it on video.”

Amedia said that when critics mock his claim that he personally turned back a tsunami as well as his prophetic proclamations about Trump, “God laughs in heaven.”

 http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/frank-amedia

I liked this comment by John Pieret at Patheos Blogs

Hmmmm ... The tsunami reached Kaua‘i just after 3 a.m. 

http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/tsunami- 

Amedia is from Canfield, Ohio. 

http://www.touchheaven.com/ 

Hawaii is 8 hours behind Ohio. That would have meant the tsunami reached Kaua‘i at around 7 p.m. Ohio time. But Amedia says his wife woke him up 15 minutes before the tsunami reached Kaua‘i at 6:45 a.m..

Tell us another, Frank.

Source: 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2017/07/12/amedia

A Slice Of Life

A slice of life in the apartment block where I live:

A slender young girl in her early twenties knocks on my neighbour's door. The young girl is a social worker making a home visit. My neighbour is a middle aged woman who is extremely careful about her personal safety. She doesn't know the social worker very well and dares not risk inviting her inside. The interview is conducted through a locked screen door.

Two hours later a drunken man is standing at the same door. Shirtless, with a flagon of wine in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. "Open the fuckin' door you bitch," he yells at the top of his voice. The woman sees the flagon and quickly unlocks the screen door. "Come inside," she says, "And I'll get a couple of glasses."

Two hours later, the sounds of an argument. Raised voices and lots of thumping and bumping. Things are being broken. People are being beaten. And above it all the shrill cry of my very cautious neighbour: "Call the cops ... Call the cops ... Call the cops."

Unsolved Murder Investigation - Christian Style

Deuteronomy 21

Unsolved Murder Investigation

1 “Suppose someone is found murdered in a field in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you, and you do not know who killed him. 2 Your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the place where the body was found to each of the nearby towns. 3 Then the leaders of the town nearest to where the body was found are to select a young cow that has never been used for work. 4 They are to take it down to a spot near a stream that never runs dry and where the ground has never been plowed or planted, and there they are to break its neck. 5 The levitical priests are to go there also, because they are to decide every legal case involving violence. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name. 6 Then all the leaders from the town nearest the place where the murdered person was found are to wash their hands over the cow 7 and say, ‘We did not murder this one, and we do not know who did it. 8 Lord, forgive your people Israel, whom you rescued from Egypt. Forgive us and do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.’ 9 And so, by doing what the Lord requires, you will not be held responsible for the murder. (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)

How the hell can Christians read that shit remain true believers?

Another Christian Who Hasn't Read His Bible

This comes from a Huffington Post article in 2015 where Greg Gianforte was telling lies for Jesus:

In a February talk at the Montana Bible College about how to find "godly purpose" in work, Gianforte explained why retirement isn't consistent with biblical teachings.

"There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it's been an accepted concept in our culture today," he said. "Nowhere does it say, 'Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach.' It doesn't say that anywhere."

"The example I think of is Noah," he continued. "How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600. He wasn't like, cashing Social Security checks, he wasn't hanging out, he was working. So, I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/greg-gianforte

But the concept of retirement is biblical - as this text makes clear:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall begin to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting; and from the age of fifty years they shall retire from the duty of the service and serve no more. (Numbers 8:23-25)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers

Telling lies for Jesus will definitely get you places though - Greg Gianforte is now a Republican congressman for Montana.

The Chase Was Terminated (That Old Story)

Two people are dead and a man has been arrested following a high-speed crash involving a stolen vehicle on the Princes Highway at St Peters, in Sydney's inner west, early on Thursday morning.

It's understood police had been pursuing the ute in a nearby suburb earlier in the morning, but had terminated that pursuit for safety reason before the crash occurred.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/

I've heard that story before. Whenever an innocent party is killed by cars involved in a high speed pursuit, the police ALWAYS say they stopped the pursuit just before the crash occurred. Later, when you see the video, the "non-pursuing" police car arrives on the scene just a few seconds after the crash. Ah well, the coroner buys it - and that's all that counts really.

Terrorists

The man who murdered 22 people and injured 59 others has been named as Salman Ramadan Abedi, a Mancunian of Libyan descent ... Abedi was known to the security services but was not part of any active investigation or regarded as a high risk. He was viewed as a peripheral figure in much the same way as the Westminister attacker, Khalid Masood.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/23/manchester

They are always "peripheral figures" until they kill their victims - but then it's too late to do anything about it.

---

We have a similar system in Australia for domestic violence. The police take note of all threats made against the potential victim but that's where the action stops. They can't actually do anything until something physical occurs. The victim is assured, however, that if her spouse does manage to kill her, the police will arrest him quick smart (because then her body can be used as evidence against him).

White Collar Crime Pays Rather Well

MICHAEL Cranston, the deputy commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office, has been charged with abusing his position as a public official.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph today revealed Cranston’s son, Adam, was charged over his alleged role in a fraud syndicate that police claim stole more than $165 million — one of the biggest white-collar crimes in Australia’s history.

[...]
 

Assets seized in the past two days by the AFP include 25 motor vehicles — luxury, vintage and racing vehicles — 18 residential properties, 12 motorbikes, more than 100 bank accounts and share trading accounts, two aircraft, firearms, jewellery, artwork, vintage wines and at least $1 million located in a safety deposit box.

Sources close to the investigation claim Adam was a “co-conspirator” in a group that used an elaborate tax scam to fund a celebrity lifestyle that included prime Sydney real estate, boats — and even a racing car team.

“This investigation has ­uncovered high-level organised activity; it is complex (and) sophisticated,” the source last night told The Daily Telegraph.

“I think it will take the police a long time to figure out exactly how much money (is involved).”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/tax-tsars

My prediction:

With friends in high places none of them will do prison time - maybe a few hours unpaid community service - and most of the seized assets will be returned to them when the trial ends.

---

Update #1
Australian Tax Office boss Michael Cranston has been cleared of fraud as police investigate a multi-million dollar Sydney tax scam
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/35591639/

Update #2
The daughter of Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Michael Cranston will fight an order for compulsory questioning, saying she is eight months pregnant and has no money to her name.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/lauren-cranston