PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “POLL: 63% of Americans ‘Absolutely Certain’ God Exists” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮
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Category Archives: Christianity
PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL COMMENTARY: “Christian Assyrian Woman is Harassed as ‘Terrorist’ for Speaking the Language of Jesus” / Informed Comment / Juan Cole ☮
Aramaic was the language spoken by Jesus. Although the New Testament survives in koine Greek, likely it had an Aramaic substrate. The Gospels make clear that Jesus spoke Aramaic by occasionally quoting his original words in that language. Jesus says to the little girl he heals, “Talitha qumi,” little girl get up (Mk 5:41). On the cross he says, “Eli, Eli lema sabachthani,” my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt. 27:46).
Between 600 BC and about 1000 CE [AD], the dominant spoken language in the Levant and the Fertile Crescent was Aramaic. Sometimes it is called Syriac or Chaldean. In some of this 1600-year period (sort of the span of time from the sack of Rome in 410 to our own day) sometimes Greek, and later Arabic, served as administrative and literary languages, but probably most people in what is now Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria-Palestine, even parts of Iran, spoke Aramaic for daily uses.
So after Trump’s electoral victory, an Assyrian Christian woman named Ivet Lolham was riding the BART commuter train in the Bay Area and she called her father and spoke to him in Aramaic, requesting him to pick her up from the station.
She alleges that she started being verbally abused by another passenger, who termed her a terrorist and told her: “I think you are an ugly, mean, evil little pig who might get deported and I pray that you do.”
Lolham recorded the scene on her cell phone and warned the woman it would be put on YouTube. The abusive passenger replied undeterred, “This woman is a stalker from the Middle East. She’s a Middle Eastern terrorist, she’s terrorizing citizens like me and she will probably get deported.”
In northwestern Iran around Lake Urumiya in Azerbaijani province, there are about 55,000 Chaldean and Nestorian Christians who speak Aramaic. Iran also has a small Jewish community, some members of which speak Aramaic.
So this is where Trump’s foreigner-hating America has ended up: speaking the language of Jesus in public is now equated to terrorism. Watch the video of the incident below:
h/t: Informed Comment
h/t: truthdig
WHITE-WING REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANITY: “Election 2016 ‘Is a Vote About God!'” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮
On his radio program on Friday, American Family Radio’s Bryan Fischer summed up the entire election when he told his listening audience that “this is a vote on Tuesday about God.”
“Let’s just cut right to the chase,” he said. “Let’s make it simple. This is a vote on Tuesday about God. Which of these candidates, which of the parties that these candidates represent have the greatest sensitivity, regard, respect, reverence for the things of God? So this is a vote about God and which of these candidates and which of these parties is most likely to pursue policies that show some kind of deference to God and God’s standards and God’s will.”
CRITICAL THINKING: “Those Seven Savage Christopher Hitchens Mic Drops” / ScienceNET ☮
REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANITY: “The Devil is Using the Democratic Platform to Destroy America” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮
Jim Bakker, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal televangelist supporters, warned on his program today that God will judge America for failing to elect Trump president. This election, Bakker said, could determine whether America survives or falls, because God is getting ready to punish the U.S. for keeping abortion legal.
AMERICAN HISTORY: “Support Indigenous Rights by Abolishing [Catholic] Columbus Day” / The Big Picture RT / Thom Hartmann ☮
Deborah Menkart, Teaching For Change/Zinn Education Project & Daniel Ruiz, Capital City Public Charter School, joins Thom. On Monday – millions of Americans will stay home from work and school to celebrate how Christopher Columbus committed genocide against the Taino people and launched the Transatlantic slave trade. Unfortunately – many Americans won’t know that it’s a celebration of genocide – because many Americans still don’t realize what actually happened when Columbus quote “discovered” America. Fortunately there are efforts moving forward across the country to celebrate “Indigenous People’s Day” instead of Columbus Day – with Phoenix, Arizona being the most recent city to recognize Indigenous People’s Day.
CRITICAL THINKING: “Those Seven Times Christopher Hitchens Nailed Everything” ☮
Attention: Hitchslap impact imminent! Articulate, brutally honest, and never afraid of a dangerous idea, Christopher Hitchens was a true intellectual maverick. Here are seven of his more memorable moments that stood out to me.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: “Alabama’s Ten Commandments Bigot Judge, Ray Moore, Suspended for Rest of Term for Defying Federal Judiciary Over Same-sex Marriage” ☮
The Alabama Court of the Judiciary today suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore for the rest of his term in office.
The Court ruled that Moore violated the canons of judicial ethics by ordering Alabama’s probate judges to defy a federal court injunction requiring them to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on a non-discriminatory basis. This is the second time in 13 years that Moore has been sanctioned as a result of ethics complaints filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
h/t: SPLC
CRITICAL THINKING: “Mother Teresa: Hell’s Angel” / Christopher Hitchens ☮
Christopher Hitchens investigates whether Mother Teresa of Calcutta deserves her saintly image. Probes her campaigns against contraception and abortion and her relationships with right-wing political leaders.
ATHEIST HUMOR: “If Atheists and Religious People Switched Roles” / Dustin Curry
What if the roles were reversed, and atheists started treating the religious folks like religious folks treat atheists?
Always Question Authority 