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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: January 1st, 2024

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  • I grew up in the Assemblies of God denomination. When I graduated from high school, I left home to go to college, expanded my horizons, and ultimately ended up deconstructing my religious beliefs. I have considered myself to be an atheist for more than 20 years, but I still have strong ethical beliefs that basically parallel the Christian teachings of empathy for the marginalized and the disadvantaged.

    For the past 8 years, I’ve watched my “decent Christian” family slide further and further into Trumpism. They are unrecognizable as the people who taught me the value of Christlike behavior.

    Most days, I feel like I’m a better Christian than they are. I’ve wondered for a long time how the same people who instilled those values in me have been led so far astray.

    I recognize in hindsight that they were motivated by fear of God rather than love for their fellow humans. Fox News and Trump have preyed on that fear and gradually expanded it until it has turned to hatred of anyone who doesn’t look or vote like them.


  • American voters do seem to have very short memories.

    Even faced with actual data that indicates that the economy has consistently performed better under Democrats over the past 75 years, they still pretend that the party of the oligarchs is somehow going to solve the problems of the working class.

    Donald Trump is very open about his own anti-labor policies as an employer, yet the very people who hate being screwed over by their bosses worship him.

    I don’t understand how anyone can function with this level of cognitive dissonance.





  • It has taken the better part of 50 years to get from there to here. I wouldn’t say it was easy.

    The evangelical bloc was the hardest to convince. They had to get some capitalist representation in the churches to counteract all of that business about “helping the poor” and “blessed be the meek” that Jesus was always going on about.

    Once they got Joel Osteen to convince millions of viewers that Jesus wanted them to be rich, that really clinched it for them.




  • Teacher here. I consider all of the teachers I’ve worked with, and I consider how few of them I would trust with a loaded firearm under the best possible circumstances (maybe 10 percent).

    Then I consider the number of those who would actually consider using a firearm (down to about 3 percent).

    And then I consider how many of those I would trust with a firearm in a room full of students… and it’s zero.

    I finally just avoided the problem by moving to a country where civilians are not generally allowed to own guns and school shootings are not a problem.









  • I would like to know what source you have for claiming that pedophiles are “born the way they are.”

    We understand some of the genetic and intrauterine developmental reasons for homosexuality, being trans, etc. That has scientific backing, and our understanding continues to grow and expand.

    Lumping child predators in with consenting adults smacks of the evangelical slippery slope argument against all forms of what they consider to be “sexual deviance.” I’m not buying it.


  • There are multiple references to this in the Bible. This is the most uplifting one I found.

    Psalm 90

    10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

    11 If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

    12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

    13 Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.

    14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.