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May 31st, 2010
06:13 PM ET
Gospel singer Kirk Franklin on his new bookGospel singer Kirk Franklin - an abandoned youth who became a father in his teens - talks with CNN's T.J. Holmes about his new book, "The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life's Storms." |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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To all you commenters above...all you need to do, is get right with God. And, leave the jesus myth alone. Because, it ain't over, until God says it's over!
"...implores Christians...tostart loudly expressing their faith-based opinions..."
Is that open to Wiccans too? Was it open to Protestants on 23 August 1572, the day French Catholics started massacring 70 thousand French Huguenots? Was it open to the tens of thousands of victims of the Inquisition?
Keep your silly, divisive, drivel to yourselves and we'll all be happier.
"Another American preacher decries imminent government cuts to programs for the poor, urging Christian churches to mobilize politically to protect society’s most vulnerable."
Don't most churches solicit donations from the people who go to them? If they're so determined to subsidise "the poor,", they can use their own money. It's easy–and slimy–to be charitable with other people's money.
Where in the world do you think "their own money" comes from genius?
@SHEETIRON THE BIBLE SUPPORTS SLAVERY
...no it doesn't. Did you read the part about God sending plague after plague upon the nation of Egypt of enslaving the Israelites, or the part where the New Testament calls all people equal?
@SHEETIRON CHECK OUT YOU BORE A FALSE WITNESS
BIBLE SLAVERY LAWS ARE: KJV Exodus 20:17, Deuteronomy 5:21 BEATING SLAVE AS $MONEY ,Exodus 21:20-21, Exodus 21:26-27,Emancipation of Slaves: Slaves in ancient Israel were automatically emancipated after 6 years of slavery, but only if they were Jewish. However, if the slave owner "gave" the slave a wife, the owner could keep the wife and any children as his property.
Passages in Exodus state that female slaves who were sold into slavery by their fathers would be slaves forever. A corresponding passage in Exodus contradicts this; it required female slaves to be given their freedom after 6 years.
Exodus 21:1-4, Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Exodus 21:7, Leviticus 25:44-46:,Leviticus 25:48-53, Exodus 21:8,Leviticus 19:20-22
SHAIARRA
Learn something about what your discussing before you go make a fool of yourself. First off you will notice that these were REGULATIONS for those who had slaves, not a COMMENDATION of having slaves which were not in fact slaves as you and I think of slaves. They were treated as members of the family. In fact, many slaves of the Hebrews were so devoted to the family they served that they willingly became slaves for life. You will find that in the old Levitical laws of the Bible as well. The slave who chose to be a slave for life went with the family to the temple for a public ceremony before all the people and declared himself a slave for life then took a earring as a symbol of slavery for life. That being said, you seem to forget that this is Old Testament Levitical Laws which is only bound to the Jewish People and once the messiah(Jesus of Nazareth)came as prophesied he brought into fulfillment the Levitical Laws and declared that slave, freeman, Jew, Gentile, Samaritan, civilized, barbarian, rich, poor, man, women, are now old terms of identification. All are the same, equal, and one in Christ.
churches are irs 501 corporations seeetiron
The facts are everywhere if you have the courage and the will to look and research. The facts are readily available and easy to find. I just named 2 excellent sources. It's not too late to wake up....and seek the truth.
Oh God another cult member. It's people like "JJ" that we have to protect our children against. The truth matters and our children should never be exposed to this ridiculous, negative, nonsense. It just destroys lives and breeds nothing but shame and guilt.
People say all the time that its irresponsible and bad parenting for parents to force feed their children Christianity and to forbid them from exploring any other faith, yet YOU are are pretty much advocating the same thing... interesting.
@SHEETIRON DO YOU DO THIS? BIBLE NEW TESTAMENT ROM16:16, 1Cor 16:20, 2Cor13:12, 1Thes5:26 1Pet5:14 men are told to KISS Each other
I hope you don't go to France or the middle east where a kiss on the cheek is still a customary greeting. Perhaps you should be more tolerant of other cultures.
@SHEETIRON YOU EVADED THE QUESTION, DO YOU DO AS THE GOOD BOOK "BIBLE" THAT SUPPORTS SLAVERY AND PERMITS A MAN TO SELL HIS FAMILY OFF TO SETTLE HIS DEBTS?
1 Corinthians 1:18-24 (New International Version)
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."[a]
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
@JJ WHY NOT READ FROM KJV INSTEAD.........OH YEA THATS RIGHT HE WAS GAY GOOOGLE "KING JAMES BIBLE GAY" AND WIKIPEDIA MENTIONS IT WITH QUOTES FROM HIMSELF AND HIS QUEEN TO HIS LOVERS
Ok....then ignorance would be the better choice of words....but brainwashing is still an accurate term.
There are many sources but to start you off try: "Who wrote the New Testament? The making of the Christian Myth"
Also....."The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold"
These all seem like the same old one sided anti christian propaganda that I see all the time. Where are the facts? Wheres the raw evidence?
I know it was brainwashing because I used to be a Christian. That was the way I was raised....but thank God I was able to escape the brainwashing......and even my mom and dad who used to be a strict Christians is in her 80's and now realizes how much BS is in the Bible and has major doubts that the Christian story happened as written..Thank God for the wisdom of old age. The only good thing is Christianity is slowly dying, it will take a while but people will finally grow up eventually. It just takes time.
"slowly dying"? Where did you get those numbers? How do you explain the "MegaChurch" phenomenon where before these huge churches used to be rare but now are popping up everywhere? Why is the Bible still the most sold book in America? Why is Christian Music still on the rise? How do you explain the sudden increase of Christian theme based movies being made by big time move industries? Im not saying Christianity is on the rise, but the claim that it is "slowly dying" as you claim seems a bit far fetched. Once again, where is the evidence to back this up? When did this start? If it is happening, it had to be very recent. If it started dying off decades ago, how do explain the great revivals of the 20th century? There just seems to be to many contradictions in history for this theory that Christianity is "slowly dying" to be true.
I feel its important to point out that being "raised Christian" does not by no means make a person a Christian no more does going to church, listening to Christian music, etc make a person a Christian.
I KNOW it's brainwashing...because the vast majority of Christians know little or next to nothing of their religion. The facts and how it came to be....how it was formed and sold to people. I KNOW it's brainwashing because most Christians have extremely narrow minds and do not see the WHOLE picture. The Universe is teaming with intelligent life, with many civilizations being more advanced than us technoligically and intelligence wise as well. They have no idea what Christianity is. They have values and morals that are completely different than ours. i am not an athiest, I believe in a Creator or Universal intelligence but I how ludicrous and primitive the "Christian Story" is. I know and millions of others do as well that the Christian God is a primitive, and childish version of God.....in fact in many ways the God of Christianity has characteristics that can be only described as evil.
You did a good job of making it clear that you have strong opinions concerning Christianity, but you have yet to give any evidence demonstrating how myself, and others like me are "brainwashed". How do you know that we do not know anything about our faith? How do YOU know anything about it? How do you know that we did not use the same methods as you in discovering our faith? Where did you get your information? What sources can you provide that support your claims? Even if we are ignorant as far as our own faith goes, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are "brainwashed". It is still possible that we came to the convictions and beliefs that we uphold through our own personal search for truth and purpose. Brainwashing implies being coerced, manipulated, tricked into thinking a certain way, not a lack of knowledge. Perhaps you should choose different words when describing us.
The post from " _ericmichael" illustrates how sad and tragic it is when someone is brainwashed by a cult. Make no mistake Christianity is a cult. It just happens to be a bit older than most today. EricMichael..I'm not going to ask a myth created by man to reveal himself to me. Know the facts, research your religion.
The universe is full of intelligent civilizations, do you actually think they know anything about Christianity? Christianity is an earth based religion created by us, and formed from our culture and our values from that time period. Open your mind and get out of that small box you put yourself in.
What makes you assume that its brainwashing? Why do so many people like yourself assume that people like us have been brainwashed, manipulated, tricked and force fed into believing what we believe. Maybe its because the alternative frightens you. The alternative that we actually came to these personal convictions on our own, and that we truly do believe the things we profess. For a person to believe these things due to brainwashing is easy for you to accept, its not our fault, we were manipulated into believing this. But the idea that a rational person came to these conclusions by way of their own search for truth and willingly and knowingly embraces them disturbs you. Perhaps that is the reason you assume its brainwashing.
Jesus is NOT the "son" of the Living God as you say. That is myth created by man. The majority of the Christian story never happened. It was a man created mythology taken from other earlier created myths and developed into the fairy tale we see today. The story is still being created today. No I am not an atheist but I know how Christianity started. Research your religion.
Jesus is the Son of the living God, I am too ... and so are you! Yes you too kapukane ... you are God's Son.
So... do you have any evidence to back up this claim, or am I and the rest of us just supposed to take your word for it?
@ BOTH SHEETIRON AND TONY THE PROOF GOOGLE "BIBLE MYTH, THEN BIBLE SLAVERY, THE YOUTUBE SEARCH "HISTORY CHANNEL BIBLE" THEN "BIBLE INCONSISTENCY" ITS THE ELOHIM GODS NOT EL GOD USED IN THE BIBLE
So basically SHAIARRA, you don't have any evidence to back up your claim either. Just propaganda videos that are full of opinions and no facts.
This is truth. Christianity was never meant to be(according to the New Testament) and should not be about religion, or about a certain number or type of prayers, or rites, rituals, traditions, or any of that religious baggage that will get you nowhere as far as eternity is concerned. Its about a person. That person is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God, and a relationship with him. People make it about so many other trivial fruitless things. Its all about the person Jesus Christ.