Right to LifeBoard

Lutheran Commonwealth wrote:

I think the future of Christianity, for many at least, will be to keep it within their families. To pass it on, from generation to generation, without having any formal church building, or congregation that is registered by the state they're living in.

I think the solution is to have as many books available as possible, within the family, about the Christian denomination and its theology, that they belong to, to keep the information intact as the time goes on. And to live the daily life, as a Christian, showing your fruits. Your faith is in your heart, and not somewhere external. It comes from within.

You have the means of home schooling available, where the parents will be able to learn them and bring them up in the faith. Where there is a lot of resources available on the internet too, these days.

I think Christianity will go into another form, where it will lose its formal character within the society. And it's nothing that stops believers, within the same area, to meet at someone's private house and to have a gathering, to have Bible studies, to have Christian worship.

Just look at China and how Christians are looked upon there. Probably something similar will arrive in the West too. And constitutions can be changed, as long as the majority of the population supports it. So I believe the Christian faith will be more underground, publicly speaking, more than ever in the future.

Though I am not too clued into it, what your suggesting is essentially something like the Benedict Option, a small yet committed Church and this may be the way to go if the culture does not abandon secular relativism, which it may still do.

It may come the point where it will need to be a few close knit families which becomes the Church in towns and in certain areas of cities, centered around a church. Maybe even creating a commune.

https://coloradosun.com/2020/05/28/colorado-coronavirus-economy-budget-politics-opinion/

-.-

The Catholic State of Eire wrote:

Though I am not too clued into it, what your suggesting is essentially something like the Benedict Option, a small yet committed Church and this may be the way to go if the culture does not abandon secular relativism, which it may still do.

It may come the point where it will need to be a few close knit families which becomes the Church in towns and in certain areas of cities, centered around a church. Maybe even creating a commune.

I wasn't aware of the Benedict Option and I've just read about it on Wikipedia, which was interesting. But I think today in many societies, and especially in the future, you will need to keep your faith to yourself, to be able to get a job. Without a job, no income, which is a powerful tool for the governments and the elite to control religion. And not just religion, but all things the government wants to get rid of in the population, when it comes to thoughts or conceptions.

Which is why I was mentioning that the Christian faith would then need to be more underground. Because Christians too want to survive.

I'm of course very pessimistic here, thinking the worst for the future, but you might as well be prepared for it, in my opinion.

Plus I think Christianity will be looked upon as a mythology only, in a bigger and bigger degree, as the time goes on, which will be hard for many Christians to face. Being looked upon as a lunatic or someone stupid, losing the respect from other people.

I get people have a right to be angry but they have no right to destroy, plunder, and attack people and businesses. Hopefully the riots will settle down, it's certainly not a good look.

The Rouge Christmas State wrote:

I get people have a right to be angry but they have no right to destroy, plunder, and attack people and businesses. Hopefully the riots will settle down, it's certainly not a good look.

In any case, I don't believe people should be more angry at these protests than they are at the fact that three unarmed black people were killed by law enforcement this week alone, or that a police officer kneeled on George Floyd for eight minutes as he suffocated to death, or how that police officer decided to continue for five minutes after Floyd went unconscious. And I certainly don't believe people should be more angry at the protests than at the fact that the President of the United States used the words of a 1960s segregationist to call for shooting protesters in the streets.

How many times do unarmed black men have to say "I can't breathe" before people get the message? I do not blame the protesters -- I blame the system that caused this to happen, a system wherein black mothers have to teach their boys how to not get killed when dealing with the police.

A riot is the language of the unheard. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Rouge Christmas State wrote:

I get people have a right to be angry but they have no right to destroy, plunder, and attack people and businesses. Hopefully the riots will settle down, it's certainly not a good look.

United massachusetts wrote:

In any case, I don't believe people should be more angry at these protests than they are at the fact that three unarmed black people were killed by law enforcement this week alone, or that a police officer kneeled on George Floyd for eight minutes as he suffocated to death, or how that police officer decided to continue for five minutes after Floyd went unconscious. And I certainly don't believe people should be more angry at the protests than at the fact that the President of the United States used the words of a 1960s segregationist to call for shooting protesters in the streets.

Upon reflection, I hope everybody here can agree that (1) recklessly killing a person is a very serious crime, (2) arson is a serious crime, and (3) making inflammatory comments on social media is not a crime.

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/609.195
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/609.562

In a proper hierarchy of values, murder is worse than arson, and arson is worse than offensiveness.

United massachusetts:
As I said earlier, MLK did certainly acknowledge the anger that simmers in black communities, and the necessity of addressing it immediately. But he always encouraged protestors to commit themselves to nonviolence, because it worked, and because violence only produced more violence. To paraphrase another quote from him, you can burn down a police department, but you cannot burn down hatred, or murder, or dehumanization. You can only add to it.

Racism exists today. It always will, until the day of Jesus' Second Coming. And it must be addressed. (My pastor, who has spoken out quite deliberately against the racial injustices in the nation, has had some people ask whether he's become a liberal. That's a terrible line of thought. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and ignore the problem.) We can give thanks that racism is no longer enshrined in our nation's laws, but legislation does not change hearts. It never has and never will. Only God can do that. So we grieve over these tragedies, we address them frankly, and we find a constructive path forward. I recognize the grief that hardens into anger in some people and leads them to rioting, but violence is counterproductive and morally destructive. It never brings about the right kind of change- it only seeks to do unto others what they have done to you, in some measure.

As for Trump, he has a long history of making a fool of himself on social media. He doesn't appear to think before he speaks. He shows none of the professionalism that I expect from the President. I've heard that he's polite and respectful in private, but this brash, arrogant persona is how he'll be remembered. And it's not a good look. He could be his own worst enemy in the coming election.

I was reading an article on Forbes about police shootings and it had this to say:

"Since January 01, 2015, 4,728 people have died in police shootings and around half, 2,385, were white. 1,252 were black, 877 were Hispanic and 214 were from other racial groups. As a share of the population, however, things are very different. Black Americans account for less than 13% of the U.S. population but the rate at which they are shot and killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans."

However, I never trust statistics since they are misleading more often than not, especially is used by the media or politicians where they are basically scientific-sounding lies over 90% of the time. In this case, this line particularly concerns me:
"The data refers specifically to police shootings and it relies primarily on news accounts, social media postings and police reports."
That's vague, but it doesn't sound like a very good way of getting accurate numbers.

*also another reason to distrust it: by my own math about 26% of those cases reported are against blacks, but while 13% of the US population is black, the percent is close to 20% in urban areas nationwide and, as everyone knows, most police activity and shootings take place in urban areas.

United massachusetts wrote:

The President of the United States has special obligations. When his words incite violence against US Citizens, that is something to be furious about. It's not just the offensiveness of Trump quoting segregationists to respond to a series of lynchings -- it's that he's actively inciting violence against American citizens.

I don't know what goes on inside the President's head. He could be malicious, or he could be misinformed. And he's constantly saying contradictory things. On one hand, he says things that inflame passions. On the other hand, he says, "I don't want this [violence] to happen."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/500159-trump-seeks-to-explain-looting-leads-to-shooting-tweet-that-sparked

To make matters worse, he never apologizes for anything.

He seems to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality. It's not clear to me what he really believes (if anything at all).

Congratulations to Elon Musk and his company on the development of a functioning rocket!

Wow... Look at the stats of Under Ledzia... USA move over... We've got a new land of the free...

Culture of Life wrote:

Congratulations to Elon Musk and his company on the development of a functioning rocket!

This is huge. For the first time since 2011, Americans launched into space from American soil on an American spacecraft. Musk wants to have unmanned cargo missions to Mars within two years, and manned missions within four years. He just might do it. I believe that we will have men on Mars before this decade is out.

Phydios wrote:

This is huge. For the first time since 2011, Americans launched into space from American soil on an American spacecraft. Musk wants to have unmanned cargo missions to Mars within two years, and manned missions within four years. He just might do it. I believe that we will have men on Mars before this decade is out.

I hope so. I will put aside my personal disdain for Musk in hope that SpaceEx does well going forward.

A new regional poll is up: What regional issue is most important to you?

Nominations for the presidential election will open on Monday. Voting will open on June 8th.

Also, I'm accepting proposals for the next regional poll. Post them here.

For Culture of Life, a clarihew:

President Donald Trump
Many consider a nasty, orangish lump,
The rest absolve him of every sin,
Except those who don't know where to begin.

I believe you've selected the third option.

Fatty the Marmot wrote:

For Culture of Life, a clarihew:

President Donald Trump
Many consider a nasty, orangish lump,
The rest absolve him of every sin,
Except those who don't know where to begin.

I believe you've selected the third option.

Him and me both.

New poll in Zentari, come and vote!

Has Progress on Racial Equality Regress Over the Last 10 Years?

At the moment for me the most important is having fun in nation states. I have my NS role-play region, so I no longer push for a giant reform in this region. I have a lot of friends here back from the times when I was commonly called a commie and Peter was commonly called a fascist... Good times by the way... I am staying in this region for fun and for the friends I made along the way. I don't see a need in making a big deal of my ministry, since most people here are either very western-centered or religious nations anyway, thus making most role-plays kind of a European Union/United States simulation. I do have plans for role-plays though, but I would be more than happy to have them happen off-site, for this region would not be the same if my initiative changed it and certainly having a stigma of being "the bad toxic region" even though we have a lot of allies and influence in the NS overall is pretty fun. As well as the entire WA hogwash... I love just going to the resolution and playing bets with myself for what did UM vote xD