Israel is not “God’s Chosen People.” No one is chosen by God. He’s a myth.
There’s no evidence for the existence of Abraham. Thus, there’s no such thing as the “Promised Land.”
The Cincinnati Bengals convincingly won their second game on Sunday. Joe Burrow is back.
Violence is violence regardless of the race and ethnicity of the perpetrator.
It’s evident that Iran is funding and arming terrorist groups such as Hamas. The United States and its proxy, Israel, want nothing more than to obliterate Iran.
The United States has funded, armed, and trained terrorists over its blood-filled, violent history. Funny how Hamas and Iran are evil, but the United States is virtuous, moral, and Christian.
I finally turned on the furnace, beginning the titanic struggle over the temperature setting. 🤣
It would be nice if MSNBC actually reported the news instead of promoting a pro-military, pro-Israel, pro-Biden agenda. Progressives condemn Fox News for their politics-driven “news,” yet say nothing when MSNBC does the same.
John Oliver did a segment on Sunday about homeschooling in the United States. Thoughtful and balanced, Oliver laid out the good, bad, and ugly of homeschooling. (All six of our children were homeschooled.) I support the right to homeschool as long as it is properly regulated.
I can’t wait to see how long it takes for someone to call me an antisemite.
Bonus: Streaming services continue to raise their rates. I vaguely remember being told “cord-cutting” would save us money. How is that working out for us?
Double Bonus: Just listened to an NSA official tell Rachel Maddow that if the United States was attacked like Israel, we too would slaughter civilians and bomb communities into oblivion. Mess with us, and we will gut you. Of course, he used smooth words to convey this point. No need to do so. Two Iraq Wars and Afghanistan later, we know exactly what the United States will do to innocents if provoked.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Bruce, I didn’t see that Rachel Maddow interview. But it sounds like that NSA official got it right. How does that saying go? One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
The War of 1898, Vietnam and the forever wars against Iraq and Afghanistan all proceeded on the same script: a US facility is attacked. A story—as likely as not, a flat-out lie—is concocted about the perpetrator. We go to war against an actual or fabricated enemy.
For all of the criticisms I have of Israel (and, yes, I’ve been called an anti-Semite), I can at least say they are fighting someone who attacked them. Then again, it’s hard not to think that at least some resentment against Israel is that at times it seems to be the 51st US state which, some argue, emboldens it.
Anyway, I think the Israel/Jewish-Palestine/Arab/Muslim situation is one of the best pieces of evidence against the existence of a deity, at least of the Abrahamic strain. One side believes they are their God’s chosen people; the other thinks it’s their obligation to their God to drive out the “chosen.” Meanwhile, across an ocean, people who believe they have been “saved” in the eyes of their God—who is kinda sorta the Jewish God—hate both sides but will play one against the other because they believe it will help bring about an event in which they will ascend into the arms of their loving God.
Oh boy, the Israeli-Palestinian situation sure does create conversation in my house. I had grown up evangelical Christian where we believed Jews were God’s Chosen People, and that messing with Jews would being curses from.God while supporting Jews would bring blessings from God. Add to that the notion that Christian Gentiles were adopted, “grafted onto the vine” of God’s Chosen People so that – guess what? – the True Christians (TM) are God’s Chosen People too! It’s too bad most Jewish people rejected Jesus as Messiah and are going to hell, but we True Christians need to proselytize to them and make sure they keep Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land so Jesus knows where he’s supposed to come back to because he night be confused if Muslims take over the area! And what’s up with the Muslims anyway, why don’t they get a clue and get out? God didn’t give that land to them, so they have no right to be there! I mean, it was just a wasteland desert before the Jewish people came and started the state of Israel and got things going instead of just nomad goat-herders in the desert! ((Readers, all this is untrue – it’s what I and thousands of evangelicals were taught))
The whole situation is quite complex and the result of centuries of issues.
As MJ said, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. It’s a matter of perspective. The Colonials who fought against British rule in the 1770s were, from the perspective of the British, terrorists. US Citizens have learned the story that they were freedom fighters. Who’s right? It is much more complicated than that. And now we have January 6th insurrectionists and their supporters who are trying to weave their own narrative that they’re True Patriots in the vein of the Colonial fighters. Stories matter. History matters. Truth and accuracy matter. Nuance matters.
Bruce, well posted!
My next prediction to make the biblical prophecy nuts happy –
The desruction of the Dome of the Rock, The Arab mosque in Jeruselem.
This will suit the end of days nut cases whom so desperately want to see Jesus
awash in blood up to the Horses Mane.
Cults are part and partial to human existence. I foolish thought the 20th century
led most societies out of ignorance and religous idolatry.
I was wrong. Welcome to the “new order” – same as the “old order” – killin for Christ!
Pass the ammunition please……………
Jeff, you reminded me of the old war song; “Praise the lord and pass the ammunition”. Human evolution is slow and not in a decidedly positive direction.
Bruce, you are a great commentator on nonsense like the proposition that God, (the Jewish one) gave the land of Israel to the Jews. Good deal for Jews. Those who don’t subscribe to the Jewish God? “They are screwed.
“Hamas and Iran are evil, but the United States is virtuous, moral, and Christian”. That’s irony.
Is that hypocrisy defined? A country with one of the most powerful militaries in the world is under attack (from an occupied people with no military) and we are to understand an occupied people are evil for resisting oppression by any means at hand. It’s so incongruous it invites brain hemorrhage but that’s what 90% of the media feeds their audience.
I heard it said the Jews learned the wrong lessons from the Nazis. When occupied people resisted Nazi occupiers, their response was to bulldoze communities out of existence. This is what Israel now proposes to do to Gaza. Wiping communities off the map and confiscating land is what they have done since occupying Palestine.
It was evil when Nazis did it but righteous when Israel does it. Hitler could have said God gave Europe and Russia to the German people. (It would have made as much sense as God gave Israel to the Jews)
Bruce I’m not anti-semitic nor do I sense that you are. In the first place, it’s never been clear to me what a “semite” is. “Anti-semite” is an all purpose slur with no precise meaning applied to anyone critical of Israel in any way,
I will comment here about homeschooling. I do not agree with it. It keeps children totally under the control of their parents all day. They do not meet people from other groups, their sense of self is totally controlled. By the time you get to high school, no one has the ability to teach all the subjects needed, English, Second Language, History, Sociology (usually put in the History classes), Math, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc.
I got thru AP American History and Calculus. I did not get a good enough score in Calculus and had to take it again in college. My husband did not take Calculus in high school, but thru AP classes had half a semester of college before he got to college. Homeschooling will not do this for a child.