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Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1202
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 02:28 pm: | 
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Sinking Saints: Ten Reasons Why Judgment Must Begin In The House of God by Etta B. Harbin
Book Reviewed by Idrissa Udqah
http://reviews.aalbc.com/sinking_saints.htm
And on a loosely related subject...
Constantine's Sword
Film Review by Kam Williams
Excellent (4 stars)
There was a precedent to Vice President Cheney’s remark made to Tim Russert on Meet the Press five days after September 11th that he would happily accept the head of Osama bin Laden on a platter. For over the course of several centuries, starting in about 1095, legions of Catholics had ventured from Europe to the Middle East with the intention of conquering the Holy Land in the name of Christianity, and all with the blessing of the reigning pope.
It was not unusual for soldiers participating in the Crusades to consider themselves virtuous for returning home with the head of a Muslim or a Jew on the end of a stick. Given that fanatical religious legacy, one can understand why someone might be inclined to examine America’s involvement in the region in a new light.
And just such an inquiry is the focus of Constantine's Sword, an informative look at the violent side of Christianity. The picture is narrated by James Carroll, a former Catholic cleric who abandoned the priesthood when he found himself plagued by nagging doubts about the historical links of his Church to papal-sanctioned ethnic cleansing.
He asks, “How did the Cross become a rallying symbol for persecution?” “How does one man who loves the Church confront its history of crusade and conquest?” “Why are intolerance, violence and war so deeply ingrained in religion?” It seems that he didn’t feel comfortable continuing to serve as a recruiter for a faith with so much blood on its hands.
Carroll, now married with two children, tackles these thorny issues by honestly reviewing the behavior of evangelical Christians from the time of Constantine all the way up to the present. He finds that proselytizing was popular not only in the Middle Ages but is still flourishing today in the U.S. Air Force Academy where pressure is being routinely applied to cadets to swear allegiance to both the United States and to Jesus.
With God as your co-pilot, especially “The right God,” it’s probably a lot easier to rationalize bombing godless heathen civilians back to the Stone Age without a second thought. A powerful documentary which makes the case that the faith-based fanaticism that has destabilized the planet has been fueled as much by the West as by radical Islam.
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Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1203
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 02:34 pm: |
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The Pope comes to America and the first thing out his mouth is an apology for the rampant pedopilia in the ranks.
A popular minister dishes out an old school Ike Turner beat down to his wife in parking lot. Word on the street is that domestic abuse in the Black church is commonplace.
It would seems some of the most relgious people are the most violent; using their religions as a cloak or a justifcation for their behavior.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6621
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 03:51 pm: |
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Ahh, I could write on this for days.
First of all, just because someone says he is religious does not mean he really is. After all, The Godfather was a mass attending Christian, was he not? Tony Soprano?
What better cover for lying, cheating, stealing, murdering than the church or religion.
Let us go back to the origins of Western Civilization. When we speak of it, we mention the legacies of the Greeks, the Romans, the Judeo Christians--
We do not mention the legacy of the Germanic Barbarians, from whom the upper classes of Western nations descend. They were a violent, revenge seeking, bloody group. At the time they overran the Roman Empire THEY WERE ALREADY CHRISTIANS.
The Christian missionairies who converted them turned a blind eye to their violence and other practices--especially since they were offering their protection to the Empire--these Germans were the soldiers and generals and even became the Emperors.
The Western European sees religion as useful--keeping the lower classes in check and justifying the most terrible atrocities, especially to non Christians and heretics but to fellow Christians if necessary.
Religion ain't at fault.
The people who profess it are at fault.
Religious people have created more atheists than all other causes combined. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6622
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 03:52 pm: |
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You would get a better understanding of Western Civilization by reading the Elder Eddas or Die Niebelungenlied. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12113
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 08:25 pm: |
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Well as they say, the only thing wrong with Christianity is Christians. I'm sure all of those male polygamists, currently in the news for accumulating harems of young girls to impregnate, think they are good Christians.
As Karl Marx said, "religion is the opiate of the masses". And, of course, "power is the great aphrodisiac" which seduces religious leaders into to abusing their power.
All religions are cults with credos that exert mind control over their followers, because the promise of triumph over death is such a glorious selling point. IMO.  |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2238
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 08:56 pm: |
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Love isn't love...I love you just doesn't mean the same anymore...You can preach and shout and talk real loud, it still isn't love. Love isn't love 'til you've given it away!--Old school gospel group Commissioned |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6623
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 - 12:43 pm: |
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Well as they say, the only thing wrong with Christianity is Christians--etc. etc.
(Cynique, some times you are so cogent. So clear. So correct. It is scary.
I'm growing on you, aren't I?) |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6624
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 - 12:45 pm: |
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Word on the street is that domestic abuse in the Black church is commonplace.
( I wouldn't say it is any more prevalent there than anyplace else.
The Black church, for all it's problems, is still probably the safest place in the black community--including most homes.
It is wrong to think that just because people are in church they have no problems--even though that's what Church members seem to try to make people think.
What better place for mean mistreaters, wife beaters, dope addicts, rummies, liars and fornicators than church?
I mean, you wouldn't need none if the people was perfect, huh?) |
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