What an absurd idea! I never realized how many people held to this idea until I had my wife and I had a child with a … “birth defect.” People I thought cared about us let us know that such things happen when you don’t “live for the Lord.”

It’s a disgusting belief. If these people ever read their Bible, they would know that even Jesus thought it was a stupid belief. When his disciples asked Jesus if a blind man’s parents had sinned to cause their child to be blind, Jesus response was:

“Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9)

And maybe a “what is wrong with you????” (I added that in). God may have allowed someone to be born blind, but it had nothing to do with anyone doing anything wrong. Sometimes these things happen. We live in a world that falls apart. Bad things happen. You might wash a pair of pants with $100 in them. Genetic code might get mangled from natural processes. None of that means that God looked down from heaven, and saw me picking my nose in the car, and thought to himself:

“Oh dear, how should punish him for that? I know! I’ll let his kid be born split in half! That’ll learn him a lesson!”

The Old Testament is no excuse for such a insanely depressing belief either, because, again God said,

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

So no. My child is not some crazy punishment from God for my “evil doings.” Evil doings which usually, in the context of the conversation, consist of following Jesus teachings (imagine that! I’m evil for following Jesus teachings. The person they claim to follow). But that’s another can of worms.

Forgive my poor mood; today is the National Day of Prayer. It sounds like a great idea I suppose, but the results can be horrific. Today is, for all intents and purposes a day to praise the state, to pray for the health of the state, show off your spirituality by publicly praying flowing prayers filled with vain words. I’m still so disturbed by it that I don’t really want to finish writing about it, or really showing it. Worst part is, I’m complaining about myself from a few years back.

Those flags must make Jesus very, very happy.

Glory to the state! Pray for those overseas that kill families and children in the name of our great imperialism! God Bless our nation of death!

Praise God for Death, Doom and the Great US of A!

More flags! Pray for the health of the state! Glory to state!

And lets not forget to use a supposed day of prayer as an opportunity to knock political enemies. Of all the things to criticize Obama for: killing, stealing, etc., it would seem not showing up for a showy prayer would not be very high on the list. But still:

Whoa. Seriously? What's disgusting is judging people's Christianity based on how public their prayers are.

Some Christians have an knack for missing the point of some things. For instance, how Generations with Vision views the Hunger Games. Kevin Swanson takes offense to everything in the movie, and particularly complains about how “there were two audiences watching the game, and everybody on both sides of the screen was rooting for the winner.”

Um, yes Kevin, that’s the point. The point was to act like a mirror. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work with fiction, with people instead choosing to complain about how horrible reality is, and try to stay in their fantasy world by shunning works like Hunger Games, 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and others.

Oh, and not to mention, he uses this to rant about libertarianism in his sermon (because, love one another, and the golden rule are so evil apparently). How can people be so deceived?

After James Dobson endorsed Rick Santorum, I found this in my Bible reading:

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom James Dobson has committed fornication, and has been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Good going James Dobson, You got a mention in Revelation!

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/01/19/dobson-endorses-santorum-for-gop-nomination/

“We do not acknowledge allegiance to any human government. We recognize but one King and Lawgiver, one Judge and Ruler of mankind. Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity only as we love all other lands. The interests and rights of American citizens are not dearer to us than those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism to revenge any national insult or injury…”

Tolstoy, Leo (Quoting the Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by Peace Convention); Garnett, Constance (2011-07-12). The Kingdom of God Is Within You (Kindle Locations 91-94). Kindle Edition.

This is not a quote from the Bible, but it’s still Biblical. Jesus never fought for the cause of Rome, or even the cause of Isreal. He came down that “that the world may be saved through him” (YLT-John 3:17). What are we doing as Christians seeking vengeance against a people? We should be reaching out to them, and not killing them. How is it possible to juggle the idea of winning souls and killing them at the same time? It’s not.

It is unfortunate that 9/11 has become the excuse for nationalism and blood thirsty flag worship in this nation. Instead of using the dead to encourage more death, we should be doing the opposite.