I'd far rather believe in no God at all than a sick puppy like that.

There is a scripture where God tells the people "i let you sacrafice babies"

He didn't stop them from sinning because he wanted them to learn the lesson on their own. About the consequences of turning there backs on him and worshipping false gods.

The problem with freewill is that we are left alone to decide wether we do good or evil. Adam freely decided to do evil. God had nothing to do with that.

institutions or "spokesmen" that show up on the tv selling their snake oil try to tell people that God does this because Gay people marry or that babies are aborted.

There is a reason more and more people turn away from formalized religion and maintain their own "spiritual" or "mental" health in ways that keep them stable and happy. Many people have not had good intentioned religious leaders who try to help people thru a spiritual journey (more philosophical of sorts) than trying to make sure the coffers are filled every week.

The Message that God is love has been replaced with hate and prejudice or love of money. leaves a bad taste in my mouth

He passed away and the church was turning into a Republican clog and a hypocritical place to be. There became a contempt if someone wasn't "one of them". When my grandfather was dying of cancer, it was the worst. When they tried to "convert" my parents into drones, it was uncomfortable. Final straw was when our friend drowned after going out to fish. He had a small daughter and he and the mother were engaged, but hadn't made it to their wedding date yet.

They were from the church.. the out of wedlock baby was "just not done". The new Pastor literally stood on the pulpit and said, "while (name) had strayed and made immoral choices in the eye of the lord, I do know that his soul was saved by Christ and Christ's blood was the only thing that had guaranteed him a spot in heaven today..." Then it was like a fire and brimstone sermon.

We all looked at one another like WTF? The only thing that eased the pain was people around the community, friends and family standing up and speaking about the wonderful things he had done and been for everyone.. Like working the food bank every year, loving his soulmate (and they really were), loving his daughter (the brief time he had to get to hold her), and the people's hearts he touched-- that was more "Godly" to me than the ugly Pastor. AND not one of those assholes from the church did a damned thing to hold out their hand and help out our friend who was left, single with a baby daughter. We all took turns babysitting and bringing clothes and diapers and everything we could do... And we were 18 and 19 yr olds in the midst of our college years.

We have allowed our society to degenerate into shit. Shit pile is getting pretty big. "Sandy" name is now related to BOTH of these events that need to be addressed and dealt with like logical adults. It kind of hit me about the "Sandy" name when the Lolz Cats edition used the name "Sandy Claws" for this week's edition headline (and I'm pretty sure he didn't even think about the title, it was part of the posting on one of the pictures)....

There are still people displaced from Hurricane Sandy for the holiday season. AND because our idiot politicians won't do the things we need to do in a BIG way to remove ourselves off of carbon. Move ourselves to renewables, upgrade our infrastructure all together, and modify building codes to deal with these events that will become more common place.

And now a community and a nation will feel the twinge of Christmas presents being opened by their children/ family member, and all of the families who will not have a child or family member alive to open up any presents this year because of a death from a firearm (40 per day die of GSW everyday in this country-- this is the number that die)... Other's live and will be effected the rest of their lives (Gabby Gifford still has a long road ahead of her to recover from the GSW to her head and she's getting the best medical care afforded to our law makers-- not all families have these options afforded to them).

I just think its an obvious WAKE-UP that shouldn't be ignored.

It can just be a matter of letting things go so long that consequences of failure to fix problems become disastrously obvious. Much like the financial crisis of 2007.

2012 will look like the peaceful safe good old days.

the roles to get things done that we need to do.

Just talk..nothing actually got done...I don't expect this to be any different

We also can walk and chew gum at the same time. The coalitions can demand pay equality, jobs, economic fairness, economic accountability, pro-union, pro-living wages, health care for all like medicare instead of tying insurance around our necks and still causing chaos in the entire system, and ridding ourselves of the violence that is ravaging this country because of guns and the culture surrounding violence in general towards "others".

You know more love, less fear. Come together. Live United, istead of allowing them to divide us.

Enough is enough.

RL

It's just human stupidity coming to fruition.

no need to drag the JOE* into this


*Jolly Old Elf