Christians cannot agree that censorship is unwise

"I can write no more" -- Thomas Aquinas, 1273

 

How could they if they are rightly censoring themselves?

Can Everyone Agree That Censorship Is Unwise? 

by Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal

 

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. -- Matthew 12:34

 

Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. ... But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: -- Matthew 15:11, 18f.

 

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. ... Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: -- Ephesians 4:29, 31

 

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. -- Colossians 3:8

 

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. -- James 1:26

 

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. ... But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ... Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. -- James 3:6, 8, 10

 

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: -- I Peter 3:10

 

The column says "free speech is what saves us from civil war".

Christianity says that speaking freely shows that one has already lost, is defeated, and is a prisoner of the war.

To Jesus, much-speaking is of no value, and comes from evil:

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. -- Matthew 6:7;

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. -- Matthew 5:37. 

 

  

Bogged down in the quagmire of tarnation

The Frenchman Gustave Dore's illustrations of Dante's Inferno date to 1857, in one of which he shows damned traitors in the ninth circle of hell, frozen in the mythological river Cocytus around Hades, imagined rather as a lake shallow enough for his scene, and reminiscent of a bog, what the English in the mid-18th century called a tarn. 

Tollund Man is a famous example of a bog body, dating from ~400 BC, found well-preserved in a Danish peat bog in 1950. He died by hanging, as did a number of the many bog bodies which have been discovered in Northern Europe, found as they were with the nooses still around their necks. Some of these bodies also show other signs of violence.

You might say something rotten was found in Denmark. 

Bogs, swamps, and marshes have also been associated for centuries with ghosts, fairies, and spirits of one kind or another, perhaps on the strength of the misinterpretation of the natural phenomenon of the occasional ghost light seen at night in bogs. The elusive lights are due to ignition of gases from the decay of organic matter. The ghost light is known as the ignis fatuus or foolish flame, among many other names used for the phenomenon around the world.    

The word tarnation is first used in literature as far as we know from the pen of the Bostonian Royall Tyler in his 1787 play The Contrast. Etymologists plausibly style its origin merely as a North American euphemism for damnation and do not associate it with tarns. 

Perhaps it's more complicated, and more simple, than that. 

So you missed The Rapture, again

 The general root of superstition is, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.

 

--  Francis Bacon

Survey of 3,000+ American adults indicates people have remarkably strong theological beliefs, many of which contradict each other and the Bible

71% say they believe in the One Trinitarian God of Three Persons. But 57% say the Holy Ghost is not a person. And 49% say Jesus is not God.

65% say God accepts the worship of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and of every other religion. 83% say God loves everybody the same. 66% say most people are good by nature. 74% say people are born innocent of sin.

52% say sex outside of marriage is a sin. 65% say God created marriage to be between one man and one woman. 49% believe abortion is a sin. 54% disagree that gender identity can be chosen. 

62% believe Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead. 57% say hell is a real place of eternal punishment. 60% strongly deny that even the smallest of sins deserves eternal punishment.

49% think 100% of what the Bible teaches is accurate. 48% think the Bible contains myths which are not literally true. 36% say science disproves the Bible.  Half believe in the authority of the Bible. 46% believe the Bible's condemnation of homosexual behavior still applies today. 65% believe the Bible's accounts of the resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate.

Read all about it here.

Meanwhile, just 13% have actually read the whole Bible.

Same as it ever was.

 

 

 

The Charlie Kirk funeral demonstrated that Donald Trump takes the side of the Judeo, not the Christian

A rigorous, fair-minded analysis of this problem which is too sublime for this lot is provided by John J. Collins in

Love Your Neighbor: How It Became the Golden Rule:

... The most striking innovation in the Gospels, exceptional in ancient literature, is the command to love one’s enemies, which is framed as an expansion of the laws in Leviticus. ... it is clear that Jesus is speaking only to Jews. ... “enemy” likely refers to “enemy Jews.” ... That Jesus is referring to actions rather than feelings is even clearer in Luke than in Matthew, as he adduces practical examples such as charity, praying for one’s enemies, and allowing them to abuse you.

The command to love one’s neighbor as oneself is undoubtedly one of the great contributions of the Hebrew Bible to the ethical development of humanity. In context, the law was primarily concerned with the cohesion and identity of a particular people, yet the application of the “neighbor” would in time be extended to all people, and grounded in the recognition of shared humanity.     

This "enemy Jew" interpretation is consistent with an interpretation of the historical Jesus which recognizes that the gospel for the Gentiles was not original with him, but was a development which was driven by the converted Pharisaic representatives of Hellenistic Judaism. 

Mean, vindictive Donald Trump pre-celebrated the coming death of Joe Biden from cancer last night, the eve of the Charlie Kirk memorial service in Arizona today

 

It's terrible when people celebrate the death of any man

 

Scorn the cruel wrinkle of the tyrant brow, like he did

https://whyy.org/articles/rip-charles-krauthammer-who-warned-us-all/

 

He that dares to die,

May laugh at the grim face of law, and scorn

The cruel wrinkle of a tyrant brow.

 

-- John Denham

 

[Trump's] needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. 

 

-- Charles Krauthammer

 

[The tyrant] has desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole soul of him.

 

 -- Plato, Republic, Book IX 

 

 

Some commit murder, the rest just think about it

 

And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders . . .

-- Mark 7:20f. 

It is amusing to read that The School of Salamanca shows that the teachings of the Bible are completely compatible with the notions of free markets

Martín de Azpilcueta (1492?-1586)

 

Completely compatible, except for the usury lol.

Studying in the School of Salamanca

Daniel Lacalle, The Acton Institute 

 

The School of Salamanca was key to the development of our understanding of the importance of human action and freedom as basic principles of prosperity and growth, but also the moral superiority of free trade, private property rights, and economic freedom. Salamanca also reminds us that the moral principles of Catholic doctrine and the teachings of the Bible are completely compatible with the notions of free markets, individual liberty, and small government. ...

The Salamanca scholars also highlighted the importance of interest rates, not as a measure of greed but as a measure of risk. In his writings, Azpilcueta asserted that “the lender may licitly demand something beyond the principal, because he loses the chance to profit from that money in some other way.” Any loan involving capital investment necessitates an interest rate to differentiate it from other loans that are either less risky or less vital for society.

Interest rates serve as a moral guideline to determine the most effective way to use capital, making it worthwhile for lenders to take risk and lend to those who will return it safely, quickly, and productively, thus making the virtuous credit cycle the most effective way to get capital to work. At the time, it was common to think that charging interest was immoral, and that speculators, bankers, and the financial sector in general existed only to exploit the most productive sectors of society. Scholars from the School of Salamanca took the counterintuitive position that charging interest played a crucial role in enhancing opportunities for business, traders, and ultimately the growth of the most productive sectors. ...

  

Gee, why was it common to think that usury was immoral and exploitative at the time? 

 

If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.

-- Exodus 22:25

Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

-- Exodus 25:36

Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

-- Leviticus 25:37

Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:

-- Deuteronomy 23:19

Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

-- Deuteronomy 23:20

When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.

-- Deuteronomy 24:10 

Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.

-- Ezekiel 18:13 

And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

-- Luke 6:34f.

 

As with the usurers who crept into Catholicism at Salamanca, they crept also into the Gospels, turning Jesus himself into a usurer.

Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

-- Matthew 25:27

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

-- Luke 19:23

The Jesuits crept into Salamanca not far behind the usurers, the ground already prepared there for such casuistry. 

Meanwhile a Jesus who teaches giving everything away to the poor to become a disciple (Luke 14:33) wouldn't have any money himself left over for "the exchangers" or "the bank" to increase it, let alone money for the taxman:

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee. 

-- Matthew 17:27

Jesus' followers are to be as poor as their master, and utterly rely on their father in heaven: 

The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.

-- Luke 6:40

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 

-- Luke 16:13 

A new creation-myth we've heard before, in the Christian argument from design

 

The creator God, in whom few believe anymore, replaced by advanced ET creators, in whom many increasingly do.

It's all so predictable. 

 

Paper Finds Earth May Have Been Terraformed by 'Advanced Extraterrestrials'...

... according to one new paper, the chances that life emerged by pure chance on Earth are so slim that it's possible that our planet was instead seeded by "advanced extraterrestrials." ...

The theory was first proposed in the early 1970s to explain the incredible unlikeliness of life on Earth. Even at the time, the authors — including molecular biologist Francis Crick, famous for discovering the helical structure of DNA, and Salk Institute for Biological Studies chemist Leslie Orgel — admitted that "scientific evidence" was "inadequate" to "say anything about the probability." ...