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Millions of Votes Are at Stake:
There are millions of moderate Christians who have not yet
decided who to vote for in the next Presidential
election. There are millions more who vote with
their fellow Christians simply because the only message
they've ever heard on numerous, controversial issues is
their Church's one-sided system of belief. They
never heard the evidence for other sides of these issues and
they've never heard the Biblical support for these other
sides.
Religion and Politics:
Since the Republicans insist on bringing the
ultra-conservative version of religion into politics, we
have two choices:
Choice 1:
To let their unprovable fairytales run the local, state and
federal governments in the United States.
Choice 2: To
challenge them to: A) prove their
claims or 2) stop trying to force the practice of
their version of religion onto the rest of us.
Seeing the
Bigger Picture: The concepts we
call religion, spirituality, and God are far bigger than
what the fundamentalist Christians claim them to
be. For centuries, those in charge of the
fundamentalist versions of the Christian religions
have used physical violence to overpower their
opposition. Fundamentalist Christianity
has a long and bloody history of using intimidation,
threats, vandalism, arson, and murder to silence all who spoke
up against their dogma. These people are not used
to major challenges -- particularly challenges that use
biblical scripture to counter their
claims.
Since arson and murder are no longer
available, they've switched to less violent but equally as
effective ways to silence the opposition. For
example, since abortion became legal, they've bullied most of the pro-choice
women off the public stage so that their campaign of forced
motherhood has almost no vocal opposition. It
certainly has no major public opposition that knows how to
"speak Bible" back to them.
"Speak
Bible" -- To use biblical scripture to counter
their claims.
They now commonly use selective
literalism of the Christian Bible to support
claims. Often those claims are countermanded in
other Biblical passages. The best way to dethrone
them is to use their own rule book (the Christian Bible) and
speak it back to them in a public forum. For
example they act is if they were separate from nature when
their own Bible (Ecclesiastes
3:19) clearly tells them otherwise.
Political-Religious
Litmus Test: Since politicians can't speak the truth on
dozens of issue and still get elected, we are going to speak it for
them. Here are some examples:
Gay Rights:
Can you explain why God-loving Christians should be supporting
gay rights and do so with Biblical support? We can!
Re-defining
Oneself: Do you know
how to get beyond the "liberal" label?
Obviously not, because "progressive" is just
another name for liberal. We do!
Forced
motherhood: Has any Democratic
candidate ever written a pro-choice position statement and
backed it up with Biblical scripture? Has any
Democratic candidate ever written a pro-choice position
statement, PERIOD? We
know how to make a strong case for choice and use both
science and scripture as support.
Additional
Topics: There are
several additional concepts and topics that need open public
discussion. Why discuss them? Because
the fundamentalist Christian leaders have intentionally
brought these topics into the political arena.
Their goal is to convert their religious beliefs into secular
law. It's possible and often very easy to
use their own Biblical scriptures to countermand the
fundamentalist dogma that they bring into the political
arena. Here's the priority list:
Exposing the commonly ignored Biblical covenant that commands
Christians take care of the environment.
Church and State -- How do they relate? It's
impossible to completely separate our religious and spiritual
nature from the political structures we create.
Then how do we give all religious views a fair
treatment? How do we prevent any single theology form
dominating the government. How do we keep
religions from tapping the public treasury?
There are three fundamental theories about
life:
Christian One-life-ism,
Atheism,
Universal Spirituality (a.k.a. Reincarnation) .
Because these three theories are mutually exclusive, two
of them contain major false beliefs. The question
is, "Which two contain the illusions?"
Notice that each of the above three assumptions offers a
different answer to the questions listed in the next topic
below.
Acknowledging the ultimate mysteries of life: What
is God ? What is a human being? Where
did we come from? Why are we here? What
happens to us after the death of our physical body?
Before you can have a reasonable discussion on any religious
topic, you must first define what you mean by the word
"God."
Is God a superhuman being who lives in the sky? If not,
what are the other possibilities?
Where in the physical universe do you go to find
God?
Do you believe you are inside or outside of God?
This belief is a major controller of human
behavior. Each of the two possible beliefs
gives very different answers to dozens of behavioral
questions.
Are you separate from God? Are you separate from
nature? Are you separate from your fellow human
beings?
The literal interpretation of the Christian Bible is just one
more interpretation.
How to unite religion and spirituality.
How to combine eastern and western religions -- Was
reincarnation edited out of Christian theology?
Stem Cell Research.
The Death Penalty. Unless atheism is the correct
religious assumption/ theory, the death penalty is a big joke
on those who believe in it.
Evolution Versus Christian Creationism. To date, this
debate has discussed only two sides of a three-sided
issue. When the third assumption/theory, Universal
Spirituality (a.k.a. Reincarnation), is added to the
debate, the picture changes dramatically.
Have you ever been wrong? While you were being
wrong, did you know you were wrong? What if you are
wrong about something right now? Would you know that you
were wrong?
Fundamentalist Christian debates have considered atheism as
the only alternative to Christian theology. The
most logical theory, Universal Spirituality (a.k.a.
Reincarnation) has been completely ignored.
Bringing this third theory into the debates completely exposes
the limited thinking of the Christian fundamentalists.
And the fourth biggest fairytale of all time --
The Rapture. ***1
Our Job: Our job
is to expose the false claims that fundamental Christianity
brings into the political arena -- to examine the
evidence and find what is most likely the truth --
to show how that evidence is supported by Christian
Scripture -- to invite the open-minded Christians
to see a bigger picture of Christianity -- and to show them
how the Democratic candidates are their best choice on
election day. Here's just one example of
seeing a bigger picture of Christianity: Another Look into the Christian Bible.²
A
High-Standards PAC: What is
required is an independent campaign organization speaking to
moderate Christians -- an organization that:
Knows how to
"speak Bible" to moderate Christians
Avoids lies of
commission.
Avoids the commonly
accepted practice of lying by simply omitting vital
pieces of the truth.
Avoids false or scurrilous accusations.
Uses humor and
pokes fun at the opponents where
appropriate.
Uses evidence
backed up by Christian scripture.
Robert Coté is
available to participate in creating such an organization or
participating in one that already exists.
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