Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice.

For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left: It can manipulate caring people into accepting all manner of sins according to a conservative Christian perspective, including abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and certain views on social and racial justice.

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What would Jesus say? Here's what Pope Leo has said about nominally "Christian" churches preaching callous disregard for human suffering:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-10's gift to the world is

/pope-leo-faith-cannot-be-separated-from-love-for-the-poor.html

God'a gift to the world is this saintly American, missionary, scholar, monastic leader. God sent him to counteract the bad judgment of Americans who have endangered the planet with their misguided presidential choice. Thank you, God! May the world listen.

Fantine said:

Who cares?

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I do. That is good meme material.

BPPLEE said:

The book is addressed to Hebrews. The author was dealing with Jews who had accepted Christ and were turning back to Judaism

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Yeah. And your point is as it relates to what I said? This changes nothing as far as the points that I made are concerned. And those are certainly warnings that all Christians should heed and not just those who are ethnic Jews.

partinobodycular said:

I could simply say that they appear to have a physical manifestation independent of an outside observer, but I'm going to augment that to include the fact that they appear to have an agency that they may not in fact have.

In other words, it doesn't matter if they're physically real or not. If they have agency, then they're real, if they don't, then what they appear to be is simply an illusion.

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Reality's as real as it needs to be. I think it's something like this:

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RocksInMyHead said:

Right, and how does that translate to plenary authority for the President? Especially given that the President himself is the source for both of those claims.

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Title 10 of the U.S. Code grants the President authority over the National Guard and provides specific powers for their deployment, particularly within the United States during domestic emergencies established by the Constitution.

These are all good posts, but a word of warning: there's a lot of strange ideas that can come into caring for the environment. It can especially attract crowds that are hostile to God, they have made the environment their God instead. There's a reason many religions in the past were centered around the earth. Be careful of false teachers if this is your pursuit, you will surely encounter them

Hans Blaster said:

I personally changed my mind about the morality of abortion as have millions of Americans (in both directions). Morality does change.

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Same here.

bèlla said:

There’s a lot of alleged watchman predicting the rapture, assassinations, calamities and the like. The majority use gematria and convince themselves they’ll find hidden truths. While it’s utilized by other parties and they aren’t wholly wrong about the symbolism that’s promoted. The topic frequently becomes their focus where the bulk of their discourse is omens and fiddling with numbers. There’s no consideration of the spirits behind these practices nor the ramifications of their actions on the viewer. They’re opening a lot of doors and the sense of rightness increases the longer they’re involved. Some venture away from the gospel and fall into gnosticism and others spend their days decoding symbols steeped in the occult.

The glaring omission in their conversation is its application to the gifts of the Spirit. You’ll rarely hear their practices described in those terms. The gifts of prophecy, word of knowledge and discerning of spirits are clear. We don’t need a calculator to hear from God. They’re leading many people astray.

~bella

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People who are under the influence of demons always take pride in being "in the know" about things other people "can't possibly understand"

So the implied background here is concerning.

They're so mainstream, though. I mean, that's always the take on them that I've heard or read.

Interestingly, I just checked a commentary on Genesis that I have; at one point, the author is reflecting on the misleading teaching on this passage that he received as a young child.

He says, "with those pictures went an oral narrative that was very flawed. I will not blame the teacher or even the creators of the fine color pictures for the misconceptions I was taught. I will blame an oral tradition of teaching piety among Christian laity that has been perpetuated for generations. Maybe I will blame preachers for perpetuating those misunderstandings with their casual allusions in sermons. How can a theological tradition that proclaims sola scriptura so loudly and boldly then develop so many misconceptions of these stories and others in the Bible?

Do we read the stories too quickly and quote biblical passages rather than reading them, or is it just theological stubbornness that says, “I know what I believe, don’t bother me with the facts.” I have taught Old Testament for over thirty five years to encourage people to look closely at the text, especially if they are teachers, so as to avoid misconceptions."

Gnuse, Robert. Misunderstood Stories: Theological Commentary on Genesis 1–11 (p. 276).

ArmyMatt said:

but I would be very cautious with anything that comes with images.

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Just curious, why do you say that? I'm extremely knew at this as I said so I'm still not 100% certain about it's entirety(maybe I did finally lose all my marbles). Regardless, I definitely plan to run it by my priest to see what he has to say about it.
I also had some odd experiences prior to "meeting God". There was a pagan woman who followed a new-age religion called Thelema(it was essentially just witchcraft), and shortly after getting involved with her some odd things occurred around the house like small objects moving when I had left the room. After my spiritual encounter I went around the house saying a prayer and doing the sign of the cross, yet it would probably be best to have priest come out to bless the place in order to remove any evil energies lingering.
As I mentioned I was a staunch materialist(in terms of spirituality) prior to all this, and realising the spiritual realm is real can be a bit much at times.

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:

Her ex husband accused her of pouring boiling potatoes on his head . He would have suffered burn trauma. And would have had to go to the hospital. Does he have any proof. Does he have burn scars? I will look more into this.

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While I don't know if you're going to find any releases of medical related information.

There is a paper trail showing how tumultuous the marriage was in general (involving restraining orders)

And this isn't the first time her behavior has raised eyebrows, she's been secretly recorded on video being verbally abusive towards staffers.




Given her track record of how she's talked about (and to) her staff and peers, I'm inclined to think that there's a fairly solid chance that her ex-husband's allegations may have some merit. She seems like a real... let's say... witch (to keep it PG)

SavedbyGrace_ said:

worshipping demonic things

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For clarification: When you talk about "worshipping demonic things", do you mean actually carrying out ritual ceremonies addressed to Satan and/or demons by name, or are you talking about something else?

Aryeh Jay said:

I have faith that President Trump would love to use every means at his disposal to find a solution for the migrants.

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Does he still plan on opening Alcatraz?

I thought he was a saint in all branches of denominations that have official Saint lists?

My own thought is he wasn't saved & so not a saint. Judas is the example where you think you are tight-knit w/ Jesus, but you're actually not. This is a reality. I think the seal for me is that he committed suicide. This might sound unsympathetic to those who know someone who killed themselves, but I think that's evidence the Holy Spirit was not in him. He said no to God's promises

There's this idea that before Jesus, everyone - saved or unsaved- went to Hades, basically you'd just rot forever, 'saved or not'. After Jesus' death & resurrection, those who were righteous, their spirits went to heaven.
I do not know what to think about that.
The emphasis is usually a lot in the Old Testament are saved. We do know that. Hebrews describes a great cloud of witnesses who are examples of the faith, including OT prophets. Abel is mentioned, not Cain. Adam is not mentioned, but few Christians will doubt Adam wasn't saved. Moses & Elijah also appear at the Transfiguration.
(I wonder if their appearance at the Transfiguration dismisses the Hades idea???)

I'm going to try to learn Koine Greek again. I really want to read the New Testament in its original language!

Maria Billingsley said:

I had to AI this as I believe only AI can cut through to the truth these days.

The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025," which was signed by the current administration in July 2025, has been reported to contain deep rollbacks and cuts to federal nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
According to reports, the law reduces funding and is projected to force states to turn away a significant number of eligible mothers and children from WIC starting in the next year.
It is also important to note that the administration's budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026, which preceded the bill, had already proposed substantial cuts to WIC, including a significant reduction to the Cash Value Benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables.

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This is a truly evil bill. I hope Republicans wake up and do the right thing for the poor. Especially the kids, disabled people, the senior citizens. And young people. America has already lost the soybeans money, from China. And Trump wants to give billions to Argentina. But , when it comes to the poor in America. America is just losing big, because of Trump. This is not a good bill.

The ministry could have had them removed and there’s prominent cases involving influencers who’ve done the same. The larger goal of deepfakes is regulation through products that confirm our identity like the orb produced by Tools for Humanity. The deepfakes make us uncomfortable so we’ll welcome the solution. They’ll promote its security, trust, etc. But you’re losing your privacy.

~bella

The Bachman Books by Stephen King

Fantine said:

Frivolous, like 99% of the charges brought by the Trump DOJ. I look at an indictment by this DOJ as an indication of sterling character and honesty.

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She was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia.

NewLifeInChristJesus said:

So the same concept must hold for the other things we are discussing too since they all go together. Is it correct to say that in Catholicism, one may not have absolute certainty that...

• they are one with the Father and the Son (Jn 17:22),
• they are in Him and He is in them (Jn 17:23),
• they are joined to the Lord and are one Spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17),
• they have eternal life because Jesus lives in them (1 Jn 5:11–12), and
• they shall not come into judgement because they have passed from death into life (Jn 5:24)?

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As far as I'm able to understand it, salvation to Catholics is not an experiential thing. In other words, they don't have that answer from heaven about it.

I do not see the concept of guardian angels there, I think that's reading something there that isn't there.
The children are children of God, so their angels are God's angels. Their angels are not angels of darkness, but angels of light. It's specifying 'their', not b/c they belong to an angel, but b/c they belong to the light.

Our angels are no better or no worse b/c God's on each one of our team as his children. When you lose, it's not b/c your angels are a loser. God is over the angels & he knows what he's doing.

So I do not see the concept of you turning into an angel or a child turning into an angel there, either. Is this the part people get that idea from? We know from other parts of the Bible angels are warriors, messengers, & spiritual beings created separate from humans, & not humans, but not divine either. The angels are actually in awe of us. So a part that may appear to be linking humans & angels together as one, like the children are here present tense but they're as angels future tense, we need to be looking at the whole Bible & not one part to understand that that's not right

Deputy Dawg

Jan001 said:

I think Jesus will come back to earth bodily just once more. He will come back to judge the living and the dead, meaning all the people who have ever lived. The judgment will be in the Kidron Valley (Valley of Jehoshaphat).

2 Timothy 4:1
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

1 Peter 4:5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Hebrews 9:28
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

I have changed my mind and agree with you on this point. Thank you for sharing your perspective.


I think this future kingdom with Jesus will actually be in heaven where Jesus has already prepared places for his true followers in his Father's house.

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My own belief, though highly speculative, is that when Jesus comes again to earth, he will bring his glorified Church with him. However, being that we will have become immortals we may go back and forth dimensionally from the earthly plane to the heavenly plane, just like the angels.

But for a thousand years there will still be mortals on earth, and nations, who will fulfill the climax of world history. There will be Christian nations, Israel included, as well as nations not so disposed to Christianity and yet submissive to it. The Devil will be bound at this time. It will be a time of fulfilling the promises God made to Abraham, to have Israel in Abraham's faith and to have many nations sharing in Abraham's faith--all these Christian nations.

As for those of us who are transformed into immortals we may be in heaven for this thousand years, doing what the angels are doing now, monitoring, managing, and judging. Again, this is purely my speculation. If you have any ideas, I've love to hear them?