America is losing its religion — and the effects will be long-lasting

NiftyNiblick said:
Protestants believe in salvation by faith alone.
How does that concept help anything?

You can be a racist piece of shit, a wife beater, a child molester, and a terrorist trumpanzee,
but if you accept an executed hippie Jew as your lord and saviour,
an allegedly nice guy, by the way, nothing like you,
fuck, you're all set!

Catholics rejected the reformation that arrived at that theory, but then the Pat Buchanans, Rick Santorums, and Paul Ryans showed up
to prove that altar boy diddling monks weren't our only problem.

Secular humanism has a reassuring aura of sanity to it.
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My rudimentary understanding of the Protestant tradition is that there is still an incentive to do good works and not be a total jackass.

The standard Protestant is always going to be stressed out wondering if they received God's grace. According to Protestant theology, we can recieve hints in this life if we have received grace if we live a moral life. The incentive is to not act evil because in doing so, one would be demonstrating they have not recieved God's grace.

Even so, John Calvin and the Calvinist tradition scares the crap out of me. Predestination seems to imply free will is an illusion.
 
Cypress said:
My rudimentary understanding of the Protestant tradition is that there is still an incentive to do good works and not be a total jackass.

The standard Protestant is always going to be stressed out wondering if they received God's grace. According to Protestant theology, we can recieve hints in this life if we have received grace if we live a moral life. The incentive is to not act evil because in doing so, one would be demonstrating they have not recieved God's grace.

Even so, John Calvin and the Calvinist tradition scares the crap out of me. Predestination seems to imply free will is an illusion.
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None of that is the Protestantism I grew up with.
 
Cypress said:
Predestination seems to imply free will is an illusion.
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only if you don't understand predestination.........

The standard Protestant is always going to be stressed out wondering if they received God's grace.
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uh, that's ridiculous.......everyone gets God's grace if they want it......if you want it, there is no reason to be stressed.....the only reason to be stressed is if you refuse it......then you're fucked.....
 
BidenPresident said:
Preventing churches from paying property taxes seems like an obvious violation of the first amendment.
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I don't know if the typical suburban church down the street pays property taxes, or not. I suspect not, based on a case where we used to live in St. Louis. An old hospital was purchased by the Presbyterian church, razed, and a big ritzy upscale retirement center was built in its place. The church tried to claim that it was a "charitable" venture (even though it costs a minimum of half a million dollars to buy a suite there, plus upwards of $10K/month) so that it could escape property taxes. They lost.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/aberdeen-heights-fights-for-tax-free-status/63-282170168
 
BidenPresident said:
Luther is contemporary? And I am more familiar with them than you. My god, you're always a lying jerk.
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Where did I say Luther was contemporary??

Protestantism traces roots and theology to Luther and Calvin. That's a fact, jack.

If your little fundamentalist church is outside the Lutheran- Calvinist tradition, then I was not talking about your church.
 
Cypress said:
Predestination seems to imply free will is an illusion.
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If the entire universe and all that occurs within it is merely the random confluence of sub-atomic particles in the infinity of space,
that would also preclude free will without getting religion involved.

My childhood run as a "practicing" Christian was spent as a Catholic,
but the rituals of Catholicism always seemed more like ethnic tradition than actual faith.
We concentrated on the social aspects more than anything. Food and liquor were definitely at the core.
We might have pinned a few bucks on a Saint as it was paraded through the streets,
but it was straight to the food and drink after that.

You saw The Godfather. The cultural stuff was completely real.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
I don't know if the typical suburban church down the street pays property taxes, or not. I suspect not, based on a case where we used to live in St. Louis. An old hospital was purchased by the Presbyterian church, razed, and a big ritzy upscale retirement center was built in its place. The church tried to claim that it was a "charitable" venture (even though it costs a minimum of half a million dollars to buy a suite there, plus upwards of $10K/month) so that it could escape property taxes. They lost.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/aberdeen-heights-fights-for-tax-free-status/63-282170168
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Federal law. I forget when, but at least 100 years old.
 
Cypress said:
Where did I say Luther was contemporary??

Protestantism traces roots and theology to Luther and Calvin. That's a fact, jack.

If your little fundamentalist church is outside the Lutheran- Calvinist tradition, then I was not talking about your church.
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Stick with your admission you know very little about Protestants.
 
BidenPresident said:
Charities don't have property, do they?
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???....did you seriously just ask that question?......does the St. Jude's Children's Hospital own property?.......does the Ronald McDonald House have any properties?.....does the New York Philharmonic Society own any property.........

Direct Relief's headquarters.....
Direct_Relief_DH_20181105_0025-e1565899322792.jpg
 
PostmodernProphet said:
???....did you seriously just ask that question?......does the St. Jude's Children's Hospital own property?.......does the Ronald McDonald House have any properties?.....does the New York Philharmonic Society own any property.........

Direct Relief's headquarters.....
Direct_Relief_DH_20181105_0025-e1565899322792.jpg
Click to expand...


I don't know if schools pay property tax. But US law requires all children to attend school. That makes it profoundly different from churches.
 
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