Religious Arguing/News here---->

[Luke Warmwater]

yeah, it does....they probably shouldn't have been playing 'up the butt, bob' until after the wedding.

[ZEROSPHERES]

At first I saw a man kneeling down and pouring water out of a vessel.

[Lady Cop]

this was a big debate at 24 a few years ago, some very religious people were absolutely irrational about Halloween.



Los Angeles (CNN) – For many American Christians, Halloween is innocent, harmless and fun, and they trick-or-treat, carve pumpkins and don costumes with gusto.

For others, though – especially for some conservative and fundamentalist Christians - Halloween is a celebration of evil and has no place in the life of a believer.

“We don’t endorse that or we don’t celebrate that,” said Joe Hernandez, pastor of Worshipwalk Church in Los Angeles, which belongs to the conservative Pentecostal tradition. “People are celebrating the devil’s holiday.”

Halloween’s roots are believed to date back 1,400 years, to the Irish-pagan New Year’s celebration. The Celtic New Year began on November 1. People would light bonfires and wearing costumes to ward off roaming ghosts and evil spirits.

Some Christians, like Hernandez, believe Halloween’s pagan roots can open the door to evil. That’s why Worshipwalk is hosting a harvest festival in its church parking lot on Monday, with kids’ games and face painting.

Some conservative churches go a step further, attempting to co-opt the holiday with haunted houses - called “hell houses” - that are designed to give a glimpse of eternal damnation in hopes of strengthening faith.

“There’s Satan’s lies and there’s Jesus’ redemption and there’s a message that will change your life,” said Keenan Roberts, who says he is the inventor of the hell house, which people walk or call through, just as they would a haunted house.

“It’s designed to reach the ‘sight and sound’ age,” said Roberts. “The message is sacred but the method is not.”

Hell houses can be graphic. In Roberts’ hell house – which he markets through his Hell House Ministries – live actors depict scenes of abortion, rape, suicide and murder, though the journey through the house culminates in scenes of redemption through Jesus.

Pastor of the fundamentalist New Destiny church near Denver, Colorado, Roberts said that his ministry has received a lot of criticism for what critics say is “going too far.”

But he said today’s kids are so desensitized that he will do whatever it takes to get the message of salvation to take root.

Mainline Protestants tend to take a much softer line on Halloween, with some mainline churches embracing it.

“Halloween for me is a time to have fun,” said Wayne Walters, pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Burbank, California. “I remember growing up - on Halloween I went trick-or-treating. I was in it for the candy.”

“And at Christmas I put out cookies and milk for Santa Claus, who always took time to sit down and enjoy them,” he continued. “None of those I think had a negative influence, destroyed or diminished my faith, he said.”

Walters says that many non-religious traditions associated with Christian holidays, including Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, hardly mean those holidays are non-Christian.

[Cynical Ninja]

I have no time for religious mongs who think Halloween is evil, its just a bit of fun for fucks sake.

[Cracker]

Some Christians, like Hernandez, believe Halloween’s pagan roots can open the door to evil.

Too bad Christianity has pagan roots. That must piss him off royally.

http://pocm.info/

Silly Christians.

[aussiefriend]

Does that mean my halloween kangaroo is a pagan? Have I opened the door to evil to allow that kangaroo to ride around on a scooter? You know, I never thought of that. That Hernandez fella has got a point.

[Cracker]

Does that mean my halloween kangaroo is a pagan? Have I opened the door to evil to allow that kangaroo to ride around on a scooter? You know, I never thought of that. That Hernandez fella has got a point.

Humans and animals are all pagan because they are pre-Christian (they have been around a long time).

People equate pagan to Wiccan or other witchcraft/druid type religions. That isn't accurate. The proper definition of pagan is any religion that isn't Christianity, Judaism, or Islamic. The big three religions were all made by smelly camel people. So there is pagan and camelfucker, you decide which you like better.

Christians came from pre-Christian, or pagan, peoples. It is silly to hold prejudice against those people because you ARE those people.

Religion looks differently outside the chuch and outside belief systems. It all seems a little silly to me. I don't mind the ideas, I just mind the people who miss the message because they are willing to hurt other people for their own salvation.

So let your kangaroo collect candy. If you are doomed to Hell for that, dress like a nasty whore next year and enjoy yourself more. haha

[aussiefriend]

dress like a nasty whore next year and enjoy yourself more. haha

I do that now anyway. Seems to be working

[IMaDick]

dress like a nasty whore next year and enjoy yourself more. haha

I do that now anyway. Seems to be working

Without pictures this is stupid.

[Cracker]

From the AJC:

"Shorter University is requiring its more than 200 employees to sign a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” rejecting homosexuality.

Don Dowless, president of the Christian university in Rome, said anyone not signing the statement, which also requires staffers to reject premarital sex and adultery, faces termination.

“I think that anybody who adheres to a lifestyle that is outside of what the biblical mandate is and of what the board has passed, including the president, would not be allowed to continue here.”


Tell me Shorter College is any better than Westboro Baptist.

I am ashamed of my state for a whole new reason now. Georgia is full of nigs and gay-bashers and white trash. Cracker is an island of working white agnosticism.

Are they afraid that the gay will rub off? Are they afraid the professors will teach the students to be gay? Or do they just hate people who dress well and work out? Surely they don't hate others because of words printed in an old book. If you do shit like that, you create your own hell. You don't need a separate devil.

[Lady Cop]

interesting tiny find~6^th century!

A bone box unearthed in Jerusalem is a 1,400-year-old Christian token, archaeologists have revealed.

The small, intricately carved box made of cow, horse or camel bone was found on an excavated street in the city.

It was probably carried by a religious believer around the end of the sixth century, according to Yana Tchekhanovets, a member of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who found the relic.

[aussiefriend]

It's amazing when you go to a museum in some of these places around the world and see old relics or artefacts from thousands of years ago. It's truly an amazing experience. When I was in Bahrain I went to their museum and they had amazing preserved graves with bones, and pottery and all sorts of afterlife stuff. Even some bones of families. Thousands of years old. Amazing.

[Cracker]

Go to a natural history museum sometime. They have found human remains millions of years old. God sure waited around a long time before He made Himself known...

(Raptor Jesus goes here.)

Sorry Catholics, but I have always found your relics creepy. If I built a house around a dismembered head or finger, they would arrest me.

[Duchess]

Sorry Catholics, but I have always found your relics creepy.

What's creepy is knowing there is a guy in the sky watching every move I make.

[IMaDick]

Sorry Catholics, but I have always found your relics creepy.

What's creepy is knowing there is a guy in the sky watching every move I make.

I would love me some catholic school girl fun.

[Duchess]

[aussiefriend]

I personally am not into relics. I think it can be taken to the extreme in the form of idolatory. Haven't they got St Peters foot in the Vatican? It's a bit macarbe. Have to say though, love the shroud of turin. But they won't show us that will they?

[Lady Cop]

i'm not into relics of any type. i simply like historical artifacts/finds.

[Cynical Ninja]

Have to say though, love the shroud of turin. But they won't show us that will they?

No, because its a fake like most "relics".

[IMaDick]

Have to say though, love the shroud of turin. But they won't show us that will they?

No, because its a fake like most "relics".

It's not exactly fake, it's real, it's just not from the tomb of Christ, it's from a different time period.