Ep. 68 – God’s Love is a License for Abuse

 

Ep. 68 – God’s Love is a License for Abuse.

If you’re interested in hearing my de-conversion story click the above link to hear my story. I want to personally thank Steve and Brian for allowing me to share my story with their listeners.

ATLAH Worldwide Missionary Church Posts Horrific Anti-Gay Sign In Harlem, New York

ATLAH Worldwide Missionary Church Posts Horrific Anti-Gay Sign In Harlem, New York.

WOW! What is going on with Christians these days? Why are they  so threatened by the LGBT movement? This church has really gone off the deep end.

“Obama has RELEASED the homo DEMONS on the black man, look out black woman, a white homo may take you man.”

When will the hatred end? How can you call yourself a Christian and continue to spread this hatred for the world to see?

You are perfect just the way you are

Growing up in the Southern Baptist tradition, we were taught that we born sinners; we are flawed due to a rib woman eating an apple that a talking snake told her to eat. We are seen as weak and Jesus is strong. Isn’t amazing that Christianity strives to keep it’s followers weak instead of encouraging their strength. Anytime a Christian does something that is perceived to be against their invisible sky daddy they see themselves as failures. Too many times I’ve been told that I failed God and that I was never a ‘true’ Christian. To those people I would say…If being a TRUE Christian means telling a non-believer that they should be beheaded, hung, stoned to death or castrated so that they cannot spread the seed of Satan, I will admit that I was never a ‘true’ Christian.

I can understand the reasoning behind telling believers that they’re flawed and in need of a savior. As long as people continue to believe that they are horrible sinners in need of a savior, they will continue to fill churches every Sunday. As long as they continue to fill churches the offering plate continues to stay full. The more people they can convince that they’re flawed, broken, impure and lost sinners, the more money they can bring into the church and into the pastor’s pocket. Now I know there will be people who criticize me for saying that the pastors fill their pockets, but the next time you drive by a church on Sunday, look at the cars in the parking lot. Chances are the Mercedes is parked in the Pastors designated parking space.

If you never remember anything I share with you on this blog, please remember this…You are NOT flawed, you are NOT weak, you are NOT broken, you are NOT impure and you are NOT a lost sinner! You are perfect just the way you are. Never allow anyone to bring you down to their level. Force them to come up to your level instead and if they refuse they are not worth your time. Live the life YOU want to live, according your own standards. Be kind to others and treat others the way THEY want to be treated and you will have friends for life.

Does God have limitations?

In churches across America Pastors are teaching that there is nothing God cannot do. If you are sick, God can heal you, if you are hungry God will feed you, if you are wary God will give you rest. God is all-powerful, he is in control of everything. Anything that happens is God’s will.

I can remember when Hurricane David hit Savannah, Ga in 1979. The hurricane, although it was a category 1 hurricane, did a lot of damage. I remember asking my Sunday school teacher the Sunday that followed the hurricane if God brought the hurricane. She told me that God brought the hurricane to cleanse our city of evil and if I am alive it is because God loved me. She hugged me and said “God loves you, he would never hurt you.” As I sit here and type out this post, I am very much a critical thinker and I look back at those times and I am left with MANY questions I would have loved to ask that teacher. I have no doubt that she could not answer them.

I sat in church for over thirty years listening as the pastor went on and on about how powerful God is and there is nothing more powerful than God. The one verse the pastor never presented to the congregation is “And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.“ (Judges 1:19 KJV) This verse goes against everything every pastor has ever taught from the pulpit. How is it that God can do anything but he can not drive out the inhabitants of a valley due to iron chariots? How can people stand and sing “What a mighty God we serve” when It is perfectly clear in his own holy book that he has limitations?

4-Month-Old Baby Dies After Being Sexually, Physically Abused

4-Month-Old Baby Dies After Being Sexually, Physically Abused: Cops.

For He (God) Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (emphasis mine)

This article answers the question “what can man do to me?”

What can you say anyone say about this article? To say that this post MAJORLY pissed me off would be an understatement! Once again I am left asking “where was God?” How can a loving God stand idly by and watch an innocent infant that has no ability to defend itself be sexually penetrated and abused to the point of DEATH and do absolutely NOTHING? How can anyone make the statement that God watches all things then allow such a devastating act to occur? If God is truly omniscient, that means he knew in advance that this innocent baby would be raped and killed and yet he allowed this child to be born.

Bottom line is this….IF a God does exist and this God, with a good conscience, can stand by and allow such monstrosities to occur in lives of innocent children and infants, he is definitely NOT a God worthy of my allegiance or my praise.

Coming Soon: No ReligionRequired PODCAST

Hello all, I know that it has been a little while since my last post. I wanted to take a moment and keep you up to speed to what is going on with this blog and the direction it is soon to take.

I have been spending a lot of time researching and studying on how to set-up, record, and edit a podcast. It is my intention to add a podcast to this blog for everyone to enjoy at their convenience. I feel that having a podcast along with the blog opens up more options for those of you who have been faithfully following this blog. So, with that being said, if everything goes as I hope, I will have the very first episode available for download before the end of March 2014. I will definitely keep you all up to speed as the recording, editing and posting of the blog advances. You can also continue to expect more postings on the blog as well. Just because I am trying to add to the blog to make it a more enjoyable experience for all of you, I will not neglect the postings that you come to expect.

I thank everyone of you from the very bottom of my heart for sharing your time with me as you read the postings on this blog and I hope you enjoy the upcoming podcast as well.

New Look, Same Blog

I am always trying to find a way to improve this blog and make it easier to read. In an effort to achieve this, I changed the theme hoping it would make the site easier to navigate. I am very interested in hearing any and all comments concerning the new look of this blog. Does the new theme improve the look of the blog? Is the blog easier to navigate? Does the new theme make the blog easier to read?

This blog was created for you, the reader, so please share your opinion.

 

Faith-Healing Couple Sent Jailed After Child Dies Without Medical Care | TIME.com

Faith-Healing Couple Sent Jailed After Child Dies Without Medical Care | TIME.com.

 

I know this is not the average post from me, but I could not let this pass by without saying something about it.

Am I the only one who thinks that these two parents belong UNDER the jail? How can two parents watch as two of their children lay in bed and die? Where is the ‘mother’s heart’ we all heard about growing up?  During my time as a slave to religion I visited several Pentecostal churches and never once did I hear the Pastor preach against medication, so for the dad to say that the use of medication is against his religious beliefs is a crock of crap! It is nothing more than a ploy to get a not guilty verdict by using his religion to justify murdering his children and yes folks, if the dad had the ability to help his children and stood by and did nothing,  in my opinion it is murder.

I brought this article to the attention of a Christian friend today and he said “apparently those parent’s did not have enough faith.” What??? You’ve got to be kidding me! It seems to me that two children laying in coffins would show that the parents had faith all the way until the end. The problem is, they had faith in an invisible sky daddy when they should’ve had faith in the medical community.

 

 

The Power of Baldness

 

Will all the bald men please stand up!

As a folically challenged man, I can clearly understand the biblical story I am about to share. I started losing my hair at nineteen and I’m now in my forties and you can imagine what has happened over the last twenty plus years. As a bald guy, I have used every one-liner you could possibly think up to make light of my bald head. “Solar panel for a sex machine” is one that is commonly used but my favorite was used in a speech I gave several years ago. I always made a comment about my head at the beginning of my speech to evoke laughter from the audience and this is what I said ” Ladies and gentlemen, I must apologize for the glare, some people’s hair turned gray with age, mine turned loose.” This usually receives a good laugh and I am able to carry on with my speech. There have been many times that people have made cruel jokes about my baldness and I usually have some handy comeback, but I have never gone as far as the prophet Elisha.

II Kings 2 recounts the story of Elijah and Elisha. Chapter two isn’t a very long chapter but it is chock full of unbelievable events that supposedly took place which leads up to what I will share with you today.

In this chapter, Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind and taken to heaven (v11).  Elisha watched it happen and through his devastation he cried out ‘My Father! My Father!’ (v12). I think it is safe to assume that anyone would be upset after watching a man being sucked into the center of a tornado (whirlwind), so I can understand Elisha’s devastation. With Elijah gone, Elisha has left Jericho for Bethal and this is when things take a horrible turn. Elisha was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of her, Baldy!” the boys said (v24). Well this was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Elisha flips a bitch!

Instead of doing the adult thing and ignoring the childish acts of children, Elisha decides that the children deserved death. After all, they are poking fun at him, so surely this is an offense worthy of the death penalty, right? Well, Elisha turns around and faces the boys. He then calls down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Two female bears come out of the woods and mauls all forty-two children to death (v24).  That’s right folks, God sent two bears to kill forty-two children for acting like children. How dare those kids act like children!

I once heard a preacher say that this story is showing how God protects he chosen people. Protect them from what; children being children? Why is God so quick to kill? Where is the loving God that every pastor speaks about on Sunday morning?

Now, let’s look at this story with a little logic. We are expected to believe that forty-two children were eaten by two bears. Anyone who has ever watched Animal Planet knows that when a bear kills for food, it kills it’s prey and eats it right away. Yet we are expected to believe that two bears went on a biting and scratching spree and did not take the time to eat until all the children were dead. Even more screwed up is the fact that the other forty children did not run away while the first two children were being killed, but then again we aren’t supposed to approach scripture with logic and reason. We are to close our mind and believe with blind faith. Sorry folks but I don’t do faith. I do evidence along with logic and reason and this just doesn’t add up to either.

 

photo: Google images

Atheists On Air

New Religion Podcasts with Atheists On Air on BlogTalkRadio

Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Cash and Love of the Atheists On Air podcast and had a wonderful time. Click the above Blog Talk Radio link above to hear the show.  If you have not had the opportunity to listen to this radio show, I cannot recommend it more. You can find their podcast on iTunes, Spreaker, YouTube or you can visit their website.

Thank you Cash and Love for having me on your show and I look forward to talking to you again in the future.