Jimmy Carter: Losing my religion for equality »
Posted By Beau7890 4 months, 2 weeks ago in ReligionWomen and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.
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Beau7890
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Bkumm4 months, 2 weeks ago
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It's about time, President Carter.
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I find it interesting to note that the SBC stance on women was one thing that I kept bringing up again and again during the election. Senator McCain's church is also a member of this organization that espouses keeping women subservient to men. I haven't heard so much spinning since listening to President Clinton trying to find out what "is" is.
WAKE UP! It's nearly a decade into the 21st century and there are still religious organizations out there that believe that a woman, because of her sex, is less than a man. It's ludicrous and should be offensive to every woman of conscience.-
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UnusualSuspect4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Good for him...
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I mean, if a church (or a synagog, or other house of worship) can't see everyone as equal, then what good is it?
It's nothing but a disservice to humanity.
Anyone who drops this article is obviously in favor of restricting the rights of woman and young girls in this country, not to mention other groups...
Good going, Jimmy!
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Goppy4 months, 2 weeks ago
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I didn't realize there were any Liberals associated with the Southern Baptists.
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So this was nice to know.
But I agree with Jimmy Carter.
I talk to ardent Christian Conservatives in my line of work ... and there is an element who believe STRONGLY ... that the woman is to be subservient to the man ... in any relationship.
It's eerily similar to the teachings of the Taliban.
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Natureboy4 months, 2 weeks ago
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"It's eerily similar to the teachings of the Taliban."
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And you'll also find similar beliefs in some Judaic groups.
No suprise. Three branches, one root.
The Abrahamic creation myth is in itself patriarchal and sexist. It all goes downhill from there. -
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scott42614 months, 2 weeks ago
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Goppy, Jimmy Carter broke off from the SBC in the late '80s or early '90s....when he saw the nutty direction they were heading...He does still consider himself a Baptist ...But as I understand it the church he attends in Plains, GA is not a part of the SBC. He talks about this in his book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis....a book I highly recommend. Everyone who has a moral compass - and that includes religious and non-religious people - should read that book.
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God bless President Carter. He was a little too trusting and honest to be president, I'm afraid. Though I acknowledge the peace brokered between Egypt and Israel which exists to this day, he was an overall disappointment as president. (And we got 30 years of Reaganomics...but that's another thread altogether...).
As a former President, he has done much to improve the world. Habitat for Humanity being but a small part of his total humanitarian work.
This man is a TRUE Christian.
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Beau78904 months, 2 weeks ago
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From Carter's essay:
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I have been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries. -
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not2needy4 months, 2 weeks ago
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What i think most people lose sight of is the fact that man interpreted and wrote the King James version of the Bible! That automatically lets us know that in some respects it's a flawed text, simply because it was definitely to a man's advantage to keep women subservient and 2 steps behind him. So who's to say that there weren't things added or taken out or both to that end???
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As far as Eve being created second, hence inferior and the reason for sin!! God knew all along what Eve's role would be, otherwise, He would have omitted her existance altogether.
People can't say in one breath that they are Christians and believe in God, and in the next that Eve was the reason for sin in the world.. God knew what Eve would do long before He even created her, and God doesn't make mistakes!
I do acknowledge that the Bible is all Christians have to follow in order to try to live good decent lives, but some things you just have to take with a grain of salt and pray!-
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Beeboppin714 months, 2 weeks ago
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In addition N2N, the King James Version is the hardest to comprehend. It blows my mind to discover that people who have a difficult time understanding a simple news article are reading and then trying to educate others based on the King James version.
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In regards to Adam & Eve vs. Christ's teachings, I've argued with a close friend of mine recently on this very topic. Christians have no business mucking about in the Old Testament (which is where the Adam & Eve story comes from). Christians should be following the teachings of Christ, and those are found in the New Testament. It is my belief that if Christians were to do that, there would be quite a bit less confusion and hypocrisy. -
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Endoscopy4 months, 2 weeks ago
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N2N
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What you ignore about the King James is that we have quite a few more translations today. Comparing them to each other give a good view of what the original language said The Amplified version is very good but is cumbersome to read.
The problem with adding or taking out of the text is there are over 8000 manuscripts or pieces of them to catch this. As well as with the New Testament 99%+ is documented in letters by Christians in the first two centuries. -
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Daylight4 months, 2 weeks ago
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not2needy
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In fact the original sin is itself is a complete distortion of the real preaching of Christ, and he never said that he would die for anybody's sin and also it is highly irrational:
In Genesis, the tree forbidden for the first couple is refer to as the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis2:15); in the Qur’an, Satan deceives the couple, telling them that the tree is the “tree of immortality and kingdom that never decays” (7:20-22, 20:120) but Scripture assign to the tree no special qualities. In the Biblical version, God appeared to be furious at the couple’s transgression and punishes them with earthly life (Genesis 3:8-19), in the Qur’an the couple’s error is called a “slip” for which they are immediately forgiven, with God then promising them that they have noting to fear if they follow divine guidance (2:36-38, 20:122)T
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Daylight4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Poulenc
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What took him so long!?
Next stop: quitting his present religious affiliation if it condemns gay marriage.
Gay marriage is condemned because it is unnatural and the marriage is only between man and woman. If a man false love a dog just because the dog is beautiful and loving, can a man marry a dog? Love also has some limit. The religion impose that limit, what you can do and what you should not, in order to protect the society from being corrupt and destroyed. -
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Mutainia4 months, 2 weeks ago
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toph19734 months, 2 weeks ago
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I've never had religion in my life. I've never needed religion in my life. I do not believe in god nor do I need religion to tell me how to be "Moral." I do just fine using common sense to know right from wrong.
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It's good to see more and more people renouncing religion. I just wosh the entire world would see how evil religion truly is.-
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david_nwpa4 months, 2 weeks ago
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I agree with your comments in part. However, specific to this article, it should be noted that Jimmy Carter did not completely abandon his faith. He merely left the denomination that stands for the subjugation of women within the Church, and more broadly, within society.
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That said, I agree that religion has often been corrupted and used as an evil tool rather than a model for good and dignified behavior. Instead of following in a Christ-like manner, which is good advice, they would prefer to tell everyone else what to do, and how to do it. Any variation is considered unacceptable to them.
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roosieComment removed: Hard Banned
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calitennflo4 months, 2 weeks ago
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I have written over and over...we all now may see what the two candle-sticks were actually meant for in Revelation, as we both carry these sticks...a light and a dark stick...to see the difference, and know who the profits of untruth are, and avoid sin.
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I knew Jimmy was a good man, but that is not endorsing the Democratic party! -
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tehranchik4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Made me think of this.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXqSJ9qDQ8
I picked this because the lyrics were included. -
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Daylight4 months, 2 weeks ago
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In fact religions are not the problem but it is the desire to compete in everything others do, and make money and wealth more than one's need and also to control the wealth and politics of others. Power, politics and domination are also the root of evil. It is the religion that limits on everything people want to do or earth will be corrupted and destroyed. How can an Atheist or an homosexual decides what is good for him or others, these are sick people who blame religions for their own wrong doing.It is the Atheists and their Secular leaders who have corrupted and distorted everything on this planet because they has no morality or accountability. Where is the accountability for George Bush? It is only in religions that is man made or God given, we find all these things called ethics, morality and accountability exist. Of course everybody can claim that he/she doesn't need a religion to do good but the truth is whether it is the man made laws or the God given laws that is preventing people from doing bad things and forcing them to do good. It is the fear of punishments that is keeping people from doing wrong things not because they are born good. Man is just another animal, if not the faculties that God gave him or favored him, he is lost and cluless. Those who claim that God doesn't exist are blind and ignorant.
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Beau78904 months, 2 weeks ago
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How can an Atheist or an homosexual decides what is good for him or others, these are sick people who blame religions for their own wrong doing.
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The atheists and homosexuals I know of are not deciding what's good for others--only themselves.
Why do religions so often want to decide what's good for others?
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antibrainwasher4 months, 2 weeks ago
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the ultimate prison for women is saudia arabia. 50 girls were burned to death in a school because firefighters were not allowed to see the girls inside a building.
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Yet, we continue to pour all our resources into supporting the royal family with petrodollars. Billions every day. The saudia are the conservative ideal, one family, totalitarian power, the slaves brainwashed with draconian religion.
The evangelical christian creationist nutters, puritanical and inevitably perverts, would have us legislate their superstitions, as proclaiming that morality is owned by religion, one nation under a god. F... that, and f... them.
All religion is a disease, selling afterlife to brainwashed slaves. There absolutely is NO GOD, never was, never will be. There is no afterlife. Its all a giant con, the biggest con ever.-
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antibrainwasher4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Muslims are the greatest perverts on the planet.....by a long shot. 400 years ago, the sultan, who lived in a walled city, would have his army raid russian towns murdering all men and older women, enslaving all boys for the military to carry out more raids, and the girls would all be sex slaves for the sultan and his sons.
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Thousands of sex slaves inside a walled city within the city, where the sultan and hundreds of sons lived. When the sultan was murdered or died of insanity, the sons would slit each others throat until one survived, the new sultan.
Muslims are the biggest perverts and sexual psychopaths, sadisticly enslaving women who are considered property, with absolutely no rights.
Behold the fundamentaly principle of Muslims and evangelical teliban: WOMEN ARE SLAVES. -
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memestryker4 months ago
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Yes, it's a con, but it's a con that people readily accept, because they can't face that people can be as evil and cruel and controlling as they can be, and it gives them hope of magical intervention when things become unbearable. People who are very religious believe they need it, and they are addicted to agreement from others who also say it's true, so it keeps the wonderful fairy tale alive.
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People agree to brainwash their own children, because they've been brainwashed to think that, without it, their children will lack ethics. The evidence doesn't support their false hypotheses, but part of the brainwash is to accept without question and it's set in stone with intimidation (burning in a pit of fire, for example).
People are afraid NOT to believe. They are afraid they will lose something and their house of cards will fall. And the whole time, they don't recognize that the truth will set them free.
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epiphannyy4 months, 2 weeks ago
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If more Christians would walk the walk, like Jimmy Carter, the world would be a much better place. The problem is that, while the vast majority appear to talk a good game, very few are actually willing to apply the standards they tout to themselves and those they personally care about. Look at people like Mark Sanford and John Ensign....both "family values Christians" who used their positions to call for the impeachment of Bill Clinton and criticize all those around them into subjugation, yet they themselves were as far from their own standard of ideal that they are hardly recognizable. And how does their equally holier-than-thou base judge them? Not as they would someone on the other side of the aisle, but as men who deserve understanding and forgiveness. But had they been someone with a "-D" behind their political title, the screams for impeachment would have been deafening...by both their constituencies and these two men as well.
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That's why there's a backlash on Christianity in this country today. People aren't sick of Christianity, but they are sick of the hypocrisy embraced by most Christians. It's quite refreshing to see one with the intestinal fortitude and character to stand against the mainstream and do what's right rather than what's popular. Bravo Jimmy Carter! We need more like you!!!! -
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Beau78904 months, 2 weeks ago
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At the risk of lending credibility to another of your loony ideas by responding, I have to point out that any determination of best or worst is always subjective.
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In other words, your judgment of Carter as the worst president (in addition to having nothing to do with his thoughts on religion as a non-political agent) is by definition opinion, not "Documented fact." -
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Poulenc4 months, 2 weeks ago
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The problem of course is that most religions are totalitarian: one-think. Maintaining a closed system helps perpetuate the faith--helps consolidates its power.
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To disbelieve, to pose an alternate truth, is to threaten that power--a major no-no. Thus dogma to separate the "godly" from the "non," enforced via a rewards-and-punishments menu.
Very primitive, but effective with those who require reassurance (and a sense of control) in the face of life's essential unknowableness.-
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Beau78904 months, 2 weeks ago
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My understanding is that posing questions is a central aspect of mainstream Judaism, and I think it's encouraged in some other religions as well.
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That said, dogma imposed by authorities, prevalent in the most orthodox forms of every religion, does create the kind of totalitarianism you mention. And yes, that dogma is popular because not having to think provides a type of security for the less introspective among us.
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Poulenc4 months, 2 weeks ago
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Yes, Beau, it's wrong to lump the less orthodox manifestations of Judaism, such as its reform branch, with the more orthodox.
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I think, though, that the question-posing you mention has to do with interpreting Jewish Law rather than a full-bore kind of, is this-faith-for-real-type thang. A "Jewish" God is the given....
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