Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Yorktown

Yorktown's Journal
Yorktown's Journal
December 18, 2015

Weather forecast for the 'Religion' group: cloudy with alert storms

I posted a NRA video denouncing the 'godless left' which I found highly entertaining:



with just the following comment:
Can't be sure, but looks like the godless are out to no good.
She concludes about a god-given right to believe. I liked it. A bit circular, but cute.

Got alerted upon.

Crickey, can't report on -imo funny- events happening in the world?

Whence the question: was the alerter really offended or settling scores?

(hoping the jury would believe -as it apparently did- that any offensive reality must be hidden?)

Yours, befuddled.

December 17, 2015

Moderate Muslims Have Hit Their “Wall”

Why reforming Islam, even in the US, is difficult:

Moderate Muslims Have Hit Their “Wall”

How do you tell a radical homicidal Muslim from a moderate peace loving one?
Every Muslim humanist is asking themselves this question I first asked myself in September 2001.(...)

You really can’t tell until the moment before they pull the trigger, who is moderate and who is jihadi. Tashfeen has broken our moderate backbone, by revealing that she lived among us, unnoticed, normal, experiencing motherhood, enveloped in our secure community and yet, had radicalized.
And that’s the problem, that there are many others like her with exactly the same beliefs, who may not have been ignited yet by a radical cleric, but if the opportunity presented itself, they would follow. They’re like a dormant stick of dynamite, waiting for the fuse to be lit. The TNT is already in there.(...)

I went deep into the Midwest, wore a hijab for a year and lived there for 8 years. In that time, I attended ISNA gatherings, met with educated, professional people like myself who were also asking the same questions. They were looking to their faith for answers. And sure, there were efforts made to modernize Islam, but they were only superficial. We couldn’t do it. We couldn’t do it because there is a logical dilemma at the core of Islam. And that is, that the Quran is the last word of God, that it is perfect and unchangeable. And to even suggest such a thing is blasphemy and apostasy. (...)

I was raised in a Muslim country in the Middle East and religion was something we kept in its place, somewhere after school, soccer and cartoons. Here was a more distilled, pure and, most dangerously, a context-free Islam. There were no grandmothers here to sagely tell us which parts of the Quran to turn a blind eye to. There were no older cousins here who skipped Friday prayers and goofed off with their friends instead. Oh no. This was Islam simmered in a sauce of Midwestern sincerity, and boiled down to its dark, concentrated core. This was dangerous. (...)

- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/2015/12/moderate-muslims-have-hit-their-wall/?ref_widget=popular&ref_blog=friendlyatheist&ref_post=acts-of-terrorism-rose-60-percent-in-one-year-and-youll-never-guess-what-the-main-cause-is#sthash.qAcGixoB.dpuf
December 17, 2015

"The Islamic Dilemma", and the weird prescription of NYT's Ross Douthat

According to Ross Douthat, a conservative Roman Catholic, Islam is faced with 3 options:
• 1- that of US conservatives: close shop because Islam is inherently bad
• 2- that of liberal westerners: water down Islam toward common ground humanism
• 3- the miracle solution of Ross Douthat: become like Evangelicals, non-violent rigorists
And like Christian fundamentalists, keep an "organic link between the theological and political". (yay!)

It goes without saying path #2 is stupid. I mean, religion evolving? Naaaah.

The Islamic Dilemma
Ross Douthat - DEC. 12, 2015

(..) most Americans do look at Islam and see a problem. It isn’t just Trump supporters or Republicans. In a poll the Public Religion Research Institute conducted before the Paris attacks, 56 percent of Americans agreed that “the values of Islam are at odds with American values.” In a more recent YouGov poll, 58 percent of Americans viewed Islam unfavorably, just 17 percent viewed it favorably.

But what should devout Muslims see when they look at America, or at the wider West?
This is the issue lurking behind a lot of Western anxiety about Islam. On the one hand, Westerners want Islam to adapt and assimilate, to “moderate” in some sense, to leave behind the lure of conquest, the pull of violent jihad.

(..) And to any Muslim who takes the teachings of his faith seriously, it must seem that many Western ideas about how Islam ought to change just promise its eventual extinction.

This is clearly true of the idea, held by certain prominent atheists and some of my fellow conservatives and Christians, that the heart of Islam is necessarily illiberal — that because the faith was born in conquest and theocracy, it simply can’t accommodate itself to pluralism without a massive rupture, an apostasy in fact if not in name.
That first idea basically offers a counsel of despair: Muslims simply cannot be at home in the liberal democratic West without becoming something else entirely: atheists, Christians, or at least post-Islamic.

But it’s also true of the ideas of many secular liberal Westerners, who take a more benign view of Islam mostly because they assume that all religious ideas are arbitrary, that it doesn’t matter what Muhammad said or did because tomorrow’s Muslims can just reinterpret the Prophet’s life story and read the appropriate liberal values in.
That second idea seems kinder, but it arrives at a similar destination. Instead of a life-changing, obedience-demanding revelation of the Absolute, its modernized Islam would be Unitarianism with prayer rugs and Middle Eastern kitsch – one more sigil in the COEXIST bumper sticker, one more office in the multicultural student center, one more client group in the left-wing coalition.(..)

The good news is that there is space between these two ideas. The bad news is that we in the West can’t seem to agree on what that space should be, or how Christianity and Judaism, let alone Islam, should fit into it.(..)

In this landscape of options, the clearest model for Islam’s transition to modernity might lie in American evangelicalism — like Islam a missionary faith, like Islam decentralized and intensely scripture-oriented, and like Islam a tradition that often assumes an organic link between the theological and political.(..)
December 9, 2015

Petition to bar Trump from entry in the UK gets 100,000 signatures

'The signatories believe Donald J Trump should be banned from UK entry'

Donald Trump's claim that parts of London are "so radicalised the police are afraid for their lives" was roundly condemned by British politicians of all sorts. At the same time, there has been a surge of signatures on the British Parliament's petitions page calling for the Republican frontrunner to be banned from entering the UK.

A petition on the UK Parliament's website calling for Trump to be banned from entering the country attracted more than 100,000 signatures in about a day, making it eligible to be considered for debate in Parliament. "The signatories believe Donald J Trump should be banned from UK entry," it says, and calls for Trump to be excluded because of "hate speech".

"If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the 'unacceptable behaviour' criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful," states the petition, which was reportedly drafted by Suzanne Kelly, a woman who opposed Trump's development of a golf course in Aberdeenshire. The petition is getting heavy support from Aberdeenshire and surrounding areas in Scotland, as well as London and other major UK cities, according to a map on the Parliament website.

Could Donald Trump be banned from the UK?
Labour home affairs spokesman Jack Dromey and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett have backed the petition to ban Trump from entering the country, with Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston saying the proposal merited "serious discussion".
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35049955
December 9, 2015

Does God love me?

From the source, the answer is 'yes'.

Next week, we will ask 'What is god?', and 'Which?'.

Question: "Does God love me?"

Answer: The question of whether God loves us – personally and individually – is common. Surrounded by the conditional love of finite humanity, we cannot easily comprehend that God would love us. We know our faults. We know that God is perfect and sinless. We know that we are not. Why would God, who is infinite and holy, love us, who are finite and sinful? And yet the great truth of the gospel is that He does! Time and again, Scripture reminds us of God’s love for us.

To begin with, God created mankind in His own image. And He did so with great care and concern. He “formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being … the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man” (Genesis 2: 7, 21-22). There’s an intimacy here between God and mankind. With the rest of creation, God merely spoke and it was. Yet God took time in forming man and woman. He gave them dominion over the earth (see Genesis 1 :28). God related directly to Adam and Eve. After the Fall, the couple hid from God when He came “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3 :8). It was not abnormal for them to speak with God; it was abnormal for them to hide.

Relationship with God was broken after the Fall, but His love remained. Immediately following God’s pronouncement of curses on the sinful couple, Scripture paints another loving image of God. “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and also take from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of the Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken” (Genesis 3:21-23). God’s action here is not vindictive or punitive; it is protective. God clothed Adam and Eve to hide their shame. He drove them out of Eden to protect them from further harm. God acted out of love. Then, God’s plan of redemption and restoration begins to unfold—a plan not designed after the Fall, but before creation (1 Peter 1:20). God loves humankind so much that He chose to create us even knowing the heartache it would cause Him to redeem us.

There are many verses that demonstrate God’s love. We can see His tenderness in Old and New Testament alike. David and other psalmists were particularly articulate regarding God’s love. Just look at Psalm 139. Song of Solomon is another great picture of love. God’s love is even evident in the history of the Israelites, as He continually preserved a remnant and pled with His people to obey and live. God is seen as just, but also merciful. He is tender. He is jealous for His people, desirous that relationship be restored.

Sometimes we look at the Old Testament and think that God only loves people as a nation, not as individuals. But it is important to remember that Ruth, Hagar, David, Abraham, Moses and Jeremiah were all individuals. God stepped into each of their lives and loved them individually. This love becomes obvious in the person of Jesus.

God confined Himself to human skin in order to redeem us (see Philippians 2:5-11). He entered our world as a baby born to an unassuming family in a very humble way (He spent His first night in an animals’ feeding trough). Jesus grew up like any child would. During His public ministry, He often associated with society’s outcasts. He stopped for the sick. He healed. He listened to people. He blessed the children. He also taught us about God’s love. Luke 13:34 records Jesus crying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” This speaks God’s heart desire that people would return to Him. He longs for us. Not to punish us, but to love us.

Perhaps the greatest picture of God’s love is Jesus’ passion and crucifixion. Paul reminds us, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). Jesus’ work on the cross was a clear, unmistakable declaration of love. And this love is unconditional. We were in our worst state when Christ died for us. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins … But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace that you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:1, 4-5).

This salvation has made true life possible. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” Jesus said. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). God is not stingy. He wants to lavish His love on us. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death,” Paul proclaims in Romans 8:1-2.

Remember, Paul was formerly an enemy of Christ. He vehemently persecuted Christians. He lived by the letter of the law rather than through an understanding of God’s love. Paul, if he even thought of God’s love, probably felt that God could not love him apart from rule-following. Yet, in Christ, he found God’s grace and accepted God’s love. One of his greatest articulations of God’s love is this: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-32, 35-39).

So the simple answer is, “yes.” Yes, God loves you! As hard as it may be to believe, it is the truth.

Other Scriptures about God’s love for you:

1 John 4:8 – “ … God is love”

Ephesians 5:1-2 – “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5:25-27 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

John 15 : 9-11 – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

1 John 3:16a – “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/does-God-love-me.html
December 7, 2015

London police treating Tube station knife attack as 'terrorist incident'

(CNN)British police say they are investigating an unprovoked knife attack in an east London Tube station Saturday, which left a man with serious injuries, as a terrorist incident.

The assailant, 29, was subdued with a stun gun and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder at 7:14 p.m. Saturday in the suburb of Leytonstone, London's Metropolitan Police said.

Authorities later said that the suspect, Muhaydin Mire, of east London, had been charged with attempted murder. He's expected to appear in court on Monday.

Police had been dispatched to the station after receiving emergency calls reporting that a man had stabbed people and was threatening others, police said. The man threatened officers as they tried to reason with him, a statement said.

Police are looking into reports that the suspect yelled, "This is for Syria," during the attack, said Chioma Dijeh, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/06/europe/london-tube-stabbings/
December 6, 2015

Priceless Pope pic

December 4, 2015

San Bernardino, Colorado Springs, religion in both cases

In the case of the Planned Parenthood shootings, we even have post-shooting rationalizations:

A Colorado State Rep Claims Planned Parenthood Is the 'Real Culprit' in Last Week's Shooting
"Violence is never the answer, but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit. The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any Planned Parenthood facility is Planned Parenthood themselves. Violence begets violence. So Planned Parenthood: YOU STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE YOUR WALLS."
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40179/colorado-state-rep-planned-parenthood-real-culprit/

In the case of San Bernardino, in a staged conference with a brother-in-law, CAIR rushed to explain the motives of the killings were unknown (read, probably not linked to Islam) when the religious radicalization of Zayed Farooq should have been known to a brother-in-law.

Muslim San Bernardino gunman was 'radicalized by known terrorists' before shooting
•Police and federal agents searched a Redlands home, seizing 5,000 bullets, 12 pipe bombs and tools to make IEDs
• Investigators said Farook was in touch by phone and via social media with international terrorism subjects
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3344350/Devout-Muslim-citizen-Saudi-wife-living-American-Dream-identified-heavily-armed-duo-burst-office-holiday-party-slaughtered-14-leaving-baby-mother.html#ixzz3tLCkn9sd

And the shootings in Paris were of the same ilk. Decidedly:


Profile Information

Member since: Wed Jan 28, 2015, 04:59 AM
Number of posts: 2,884
Latest Discussions»Yorktown's Journal