Wow, we have a big box at church for school supplies donations. And our tiny congregation (50 or so including all the kids) sends over a 100 boxes to Operation Christmas Child. Plus holds a free to the community dinner once a week. Our church is mostly fixed income retiree's but still are very generous with their money and time.
Prayer is only a part of a Christian's life. Time in prayer often brings inspiration to serve and help others.
Righteous anger!! (..snort!..)Originally Posted by Catwoman
1. I am also a Texan, and Texans aren't any more generous or kind or caring than any other state residents, so, your assertion that you KNOW those people were wonderful caring people based on their home residence is kind of silly, don't you think. This is your empirical data? Teacher?
2. And here you go..I'm an atheist and I have volunteered all my life, as have my kids, non religious friends and family. so..that should change your world view.
3. As a teacher, you should hold a healthy bit of skepticism for 'information' you get in a chain e-mail. Further, you should be able to simply check out said 'information' by a simple Internet search, as creaker showed. Again, the teacher in you, who is supposed to possess critical thinking skills, should kick in.
4. Do you and your friends really NEED the President to lead you in prayer? Do you really need a National prayer day? Aren't you supposed to be praying everyday? And what, exactly, is the purpose of a national prayer day? You want to know who the bully is? It's you, and your Christian friends who gleefully use your phony 'National Prayer Day' to bully everyone into praying to your god, take the names of those who don't, then spread lies about them to smear them. Frankly I'm proud of our President for not falling for this phony righteous crap.
OK Peggy, you win the pissin contest...I'll pray for you as you seem filled with hate and rage against Christians
What did Christians ever do to you to make you so filled with contempt?
Has anyone mentioned Matthew 6 yet? I'm often amused at how far public Christianity--at least in this country--has fallen away from the tenets Jesus set forth.
Matthew 6
New International Version (NIV)
Matthew 6
Giving to the Needy
1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Fasting
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Cat - I definitely respect your freedom of religion and also would like to thank you for service as a teacher.
I think you are missing the point of the Rick Perry prayer fest. It has little or nothing to do with religion, nothing at all to do with any effort to "help our nation", it is simply a planned political event by a politician and one that I might add is a dispicable human being. As a teacher there is no doubt in my mind that you understand that Perry has no concern whatsoever with education, the poor, or any other thing except promoting his own personal agenda. What he did is wrong and I think would be an embarrassment to the religious community. Aligning himself with a openly anti-gay religious group is just stupid. What kind of people would that attract?
Perry if anything is probably more of a neo-confederate and I think stands for just about everything that is wrong with this country. The religious loonies need to distance themselves from this guy for their own sake.
And just for those people that are not Texans, a 36% victory in a three person race definitely does not represent all Texans. He is the oil and gas government pawn and uses the conservative party to get elected. Remember it was 15 years ago that he was Al Gores Campgain manager in Texas - Perry is for one person Perry. He has never worked for anyone other than government and yet claims to be against government.
Y’all, I’m telling you – he’s Elmer Gantry. He’s a snake oil salesman.
Peace
But Zig, just suppose, just suppose, that he sincerely asked God's blessing and guidance for our nation....suppose he was sincere, in the way that I am supposed to tolerantly suppose that Imams in NYC aren't doing anything wrong by wanting a mosque at Ground Zero...What's wrong with a little two-way tolerance?
I have no doubt that Perry is sincere when he says he is a devout Christian but you do not organize a meeting in Reliant Stadium (football stadium for you Aggies) as Governor without a political agenda. That is the reason that most of the invited political guests did not RSVP the event. There were cameras. There were people who might buy his book. There was an opportunity to be seen praying the loudest.
A preacher maybe, a revival maybe (lots of room to pass the plate), but not a politician that is probably going to be running for President.
It is what it is - but don't confuse the backlash as being anti-Christian just anti-phony-Christian.
Peace
JaneV2.0 - appreciate your scriptural references but there are many others that exhort people, leaders of nations and nations to pray i.e., 2nd Chronicles 7:12 - If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face..." The reference to a people here can be regarded as a reference to a nation....There was (and still is) much public and group prayer in the time of Christ...Those references were specific to Pharisees...I can see your point but the flip side - this doesn't happen with regularity; it was (The Response) truly a call to prayer...Muslims arent judged by the call that comes out from the mosque everyday and the ritual prayer that follows...
You know the thing that made me sad in all the discussion as to whether Christians were or were not the ones who did more charitable giving of school supplies for the poor? The fact that it was necessary to do so at all.
When I was growing up and going to public school, we had a supply cabinet in the back of every classroom, that contained reams of paper, pens and pencils, markers, and all the other needed office type supplies for us to do our schoolwork. Our textbooks were supplied, and the supplies we needed were supplied as well by the school system. No one, rich OR poor, needed to go out and buy their own supplies. It was just part of school.
In high school, we would all buy our own three ring binders so we could decorate them as we pleased, but in elementary school, piles and piles of that "school paper" with the double lines lived in every classroom's supply cabinet, as did construction paper, paste, scissors, and everything else we needed. We had big rolls of mural paper back there, and tempera paints, and it was just all part of "school".
When my kids were growing up and going to public schools, it was the same. I guess it's changed since then. Maybe we're like the frogs in the water, in regards to our public schools.....they have deteriorated in so many ways over time, but we just accept it somehow, without question. And now we have the "new normal" of large numbers of kids having to depend on charity for basic school supplies.
Any teacher in the Texas schools who wants Governor Perry as President makes me scratch my head. Triumph of ideology over facts, IMHO.
Well Chickens, I have to swallow hard on that one... to vote for Perry. But my vote goes for ABO - anybody but Obama so, I may have to do it. On the other hand, it is always good for our state to have a Pres. who likes us. BHO does not...
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