Sunday thoughts are religious thoughts

[The Polack MSgt]

No nation on Earth is as loudly a self declared Christian Nation as America is.

As a group we claim the highest levels of belief, of daily prayer and weekly attendance to churches.

So do me a fucking solid and quit telling me that all the problems are because we are pushing God out of our society.

Maybe God is mad because we are a nation of modern day Philistines who hates the stranger, hates the poor and cages children.

Maybe God is angry that we do all of these things at the direction of an adulterous liar who has said he's never had any reason to seek God's forgiveness.

Or, and this is my theory, maybe all those stories are just stories and we are being "punished" for electing an unfit man.

Punished by his greed, ignorance, poor decisions and shitty planning.

[MFGsunny]

1. Amen! Well said. Much obliged! n/t

[MineralMan]

2. It's interesting to look at how people treat religion.

I found it very informative to have lived in a Muslim country, Turkey, while in the USAF. I was stationed at a base on the outskirts of Samsun, a city on the Black Sea, for 15 months. Five times a day, I heard the call to prayer, if I was in my barracks. There was a mosque just down a hill from the window in my barracks room.

There were mosques everywhere in Samsun, Turkey, and everything came to a stop in Samsun, a city of over 150,000, at the times when the call to prayer rang out from the ever-present mosques. Those were religious people, and Turkey is notable as one of the least pious Muslim nations.

In terms of religion, Americans are pikers compared to Muslims in Muslim countries. We tend to stop what we're doing for one hour on Sundays, if we celebrate religion at all. Muslims in Muslim countries stop what they are doing five times a day, when the call to prayer comes out of the local mosque.

It is easy to see that we are not really a religious society when you make that comparison. Not at all.

In America, we give lip-service to religion, at most. And that only once in a while.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. 'I was stationed in Samsun, a city on the Black Sea for 15 months.'

Where was the city located the rest of the time?

Comma karma is gonna getcha.

Seriously, I agree that what passes for religiosity in this country is actually sanctimony - and I suggest that the Muslim practice of stop-everything-five-times-daily prayer may be more about cultural conformity than true piety. Some are truly pious, I concede, but the pressure to be publicly observant is tremendous in those countries.

[MineralMan]

7. Yeah, I had already corrected that as you were typing.

Thanks for reading closely enough to notice the error.

[Cirque du So-What]

10. I have also updated my post

to add my 2¢ on religiosity.

[MineralMan]

15. Cultural and language differences made it difficult

for me to form relationships with people in Turkey that were close enough to discuss religion. So, I don't know how religious most Turks were. I do know that the observance of the daily prayers was widespread. Practice definitely instills some awareness, I believe.

Beyond that, I cannot make any statements about piety among Turkish people. However, even common language includes the word "Allah" in many different forms in even greetings and farewells. It is impossible to be polite in Turkish without those references. Islam is deeply embedded in language and culture, from what I observed.

[The Polack MSgt]

8. I know what you mean - I have been in several Muslim countries in my Air Force career

It's why I specified the claim "Christian Nation" American Christians as a whole can't put up with actually being tols how to live. There are a lot of Bible a la cart folks to be sure.

But, I disagree with these sentences In America, we give lip-service to religion, at most. And that only once in a while.
Perhaps you haven't met many of the people in a vast subculture of American Christendom.

"Most secular Americans are only cultural Christians, but we just need them to stay out of our way while we fix America" This is how my Uncle explained it. Fully in earnest.

Perhaps you don't have a church popular with Quiverfull Movement families a few blocks down the road from your house.

And make no mistake they hold "Christmas and Easter Christians" in disdain

[MineralMan]

11. Self-styled "Devout Christians" make up only a small minority

of the US population. That is the difference between our country and Muslim countries. Most US Christians are nominal Christians, at most.

I am an atheist.

[stopbush]

3. It makes a lot more sense as soon as you remove the fantasy of a god existing

and put the blame for our troubles where it squarely belongs: on human arrogance, ignorance and indifference that has nothing to do with the existence of supernatural beings.

[malaise]

4. Clearly you don't know Jamaica?

It's as bad or worse -filled with religious idiots

[The Polack MSgt]

9. My career has only given me the opportunity so see places

I would never pay to go.

So no Jamaica unfortunately

[malaise]

12. Every idiot snake oil salesman in the US has made money from

our sheeple and we have our own grifters

[samplegirl]

6. Oh my I've said

About the same..... that it never occurred to these Christians that maybe God has put us on pause because he’s tired of watching us kill everything and everyone because of greed.

[Alliepoo]

13. Amen and amen!

[brer cat]

14. K&R