Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Jerry Newcombe of the group Truth In Action, on the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater.
I can’t help but feel that to some extent, we’re reaping what we’ve been sowing as a society. We said to God, “Get out of the public arena.” Lawsuit after lawsuit, often by misguided “civil libertarians,” have chased away any fear of God in the land — at least in the hearts of millions.
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New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, on Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota.
Bachmann’s concept of Christian love brims with hate, and she has a deep satchel of stones to throw. From what kind of messiah did she learn that?
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Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, lashing out at Sen. John McCain for criticizing him and his fellow conservative members for suggesting that a senior aide to Secretary of State Clinton is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
And I wish some of these numb nuts would go out and read the letter before they make these horrible allegations about the horrible accusations we’re making.
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Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, vowing to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant just steps from the Freedom Trail after the family-owned firm’s president suggested gay marriage is “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.”
That’s the Freedom Trail. That’s where it all started right here. And we’re not going to have a company, Chick-fil-A or whatever the hell the name is, on our Freedom Trail.
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Mayor Menino, backing away from a threat to actively block the fast-food chain from setting up shop in the city.
Some people might not like these positions, but as mayor of the city of Boston, you can’t run and hide, and I’ll always protect people’s rights. I’m right out front there and if people don’t like it, I feel sorry for them. But I’m the mayor of Boston and I get elected to make my opinions known.
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Washington, D.C.’s Calvary Baptist Church, in a letter explaining why it voted to disassociate from the Southern Baptist Convention.
We believe the Southern Baptist Convention has departed from the historic principles of separation of church and state and autonomy of the local church to such a degree that seriously calls into question our continued affiliation with the convention.
Calvary Baptist Church. Amen y’all.
Michele Bachmann. She supposedly learned that crap from Francis Schaeffer, who some believe was an unofficial father of the Christian reconstructionist movement. However, I think her real problem is that she lets the ape-like common ancestor inside of her get its way a little too often.
Chick-Fil-A? I cannot and will not tell others what to do. That is their choice. However, as for my family, I am implementing a family moratorium on eating at the Chick-Fil-A in my town because I happen to know that every employee working in the entire restaurant is a sinner. Sinners provoke the wrath of God, and I do not want to be in the place when it gets hit with fire and brimstone because of all those sinners working in there. Surely doom will descend from on high when God finds out that we have sinners working in our Chick-Fil-A and people actually approve of it publicly by eating there.
The problem the people that own Chick-Fil-A have is the problem that every fundie and conservative evangelical in our country has. They do not know how to reconcile the incessantly angry and genocidal God of the Old Testament with the gentle and loving Jesus of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul told them all how to do it, but none of them ever read it or follow. The Old Testament and the entire Old Testament law, including the 10 Commandments, has passed away. It is a suspended covenant that no longer exists for Christians. It is GONE forever.
Then the fundies pop in and say, Jesus said that “not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all be fulfilled.” The thing they forget is that Jesus was talking to Jews, and the old covenant was still in force at the moment he was doing that talking. His death and arising WAS the fulfillment, as my old Southern Baptist preacher used to proclaim.
These idiots want to make out like it never happened so they can still be legalists and moralists. Sorry, jig’s up. A new covenant is in force. The old one passed away. Jesus has a new way. The trouble with them is that they neither want to hear that new way or follow it.
I always enjoy Charles’ comments. However, this time I must offer some disagreement. Like him, I am a little conflicted by the Chic-fil-a issue. People, including business owners, have a right to their religious beliefs and doctrines, just as I have right to not patronize their establishment should I disagree. His premise that we are all sinners implies the biblical description of homosexuality as a sin. The bible does say that, along with many other sins and prohibitions we simply ignore in our modern interpretations of life. In my work, I’ve encountered many homosexual young men and women. Without fail, they are all good productive citizens, including, in many instances, excellent parents. So, I have determined to have my beliefs derive from personal observations and good scientific analysis, rather that from two thousand plus year old journal written by often angry old white men.
I think you might have misunderstood what I was saying, but no matter. The comment was much appreciated.
That’s a great call by D.C. Calvary. It was in fact the Virginia Baptists who pressed hard at the state’s Ratification Convention for a federal Bill of Rights because they feared religious persecution.
Superintendent of schools Will in louisiana says they will pull voucher funding for any school not in compliance with La. standards on evolution and other sciences. Jundal’s back door approach to using Fedral funds to teach creationism in La just got slammed.