FaithT said:

This is sickening. Virtually everything connected to Trump is.


Native American actor says she was detained by ICE officers who said tribal ID ‘looked fake’
Elaine Miles of Northern Exposure was stopped by four masked men in Seattle while walking to bus stop
Read in The Guardian: Native American actor says she was detained by ICE officers who said tribal ID ‘looked fake’ — Guardian US

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Few might know that Noem herself was banned from most tribal lands when she was Governor due to her statements about Native Americans. That ICE would be insensitive or lack training concerning Native Americans and their ID's etc. should be no surprise.

Richard T said:

In Trump's group of 19 nations,

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Please list those countries or provide a source. Thank you in advance.

Yttrium said:

Certainly not.

On the other hand, if I found an immigrant family starving in the streets, I'd work with others to help them find shelter and food, and I might consider providing some of my own funds to help out. In my experience, not all people in need are out to take advantage of me. They just need some temporary assistance.

Now, I feel that Democrats take the caring for people in need thing a bit too far. We have limited resources, and if you're not careful the few who will take advantage of us will cause problems. I'm not protective of illegal immigrants. However, I'm not in favor of revoking green cards from people who are struggling.

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That is a fair and honest answer. So you agree that the limited resources are limited. Would it fair to propose cutting off the flow of incoming immigrants until the limited resources are better allocated to the ones who need it while screening put the ones who are manipulating and taking advantage of it?

lismore said:

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition in the UK Parliament, a 'cultural Christian' says spending money on benefits is unchristian.

Kemi Badenoch says spending on welfare is 'unchristian'

Kemi Badenoch has said welfare spending could be considered "unchristian," following Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget.

www.thelondoneconomic.com

Earlier this month, Badenoch quoted St Paul’s advice to Timothy in the Bible as she argued that the “responsibility and dignity of work” was a Christian imperative, the Times reports.
She said: “St Paul, we read, in the first Epistle to Timothy proclaims that ‘Anyone who does not provide for his own household … is worse than an unbeliever’.

“This is the Christian recognition that we all have duties … To ourselves, to our families and to the community we are part of. Conservatives believe in making work pay, in rewarding risk, in ensuring effort matches reward.”

She continued: “My message is let’s get people off welfare into work. Let us not leave debt for our children and grandchildren. That is the worst unfairness.”

When she was asked to elaborate on what she meant, Badenoch continued: “In early Christian times there was no state or welfare so I think that you can argue that, actually. The Christian tradition is about communities and families and charity, not about compulsory taxation in order to pay welfare.

Any thoughts?

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Lifestyles have changed since the time of free gleaning of the fields by the poor. land is basically removed from the poor. The poor too can't sell a family member as slaves to pay debts. So if left just to charity, many would fall through the cracks in a modern nation. I see it in poor nations now. how some have hospitals that require cash upfront and will turn away patients if funds are not shown.

She is right that work is good for the able bodied. However, many on welfare are elderly, already working, or children. Some too do cycle out of welfare, though some also make a career of it. A good policy would be to subsidize employers that hire long-term welfare types. This makes these workers more attractive and accomplishes some savings for those that are able bodied of working age.

To me such statements are political but have no real practical application especially in the UK. But if you wish to return to peasants in the streets and lots of social unrest I guess a nation could try. If you look at the sheer amount that is needed, only a miracle of God could provide that funding from charity. i asked google ai about the amount that Christians in the UK currently give to all charities including churches. The average was around 75 pounds per month. True they could ramp that figure up, but it would require alot more to make

Landon Caeli said:

Any room for opposing viewpoints here?

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The only opinions that might matter will come from SCOTUS. But it's a free county if you've got something to say.

Dave... said:

Hey Dan.

I believe the the one important thing that is often overlooked in Ephesians 1:4 and context is that we are chosen "in Him", and always "In Christ". --Vs. 10 is speaking of the Spirit baptism which began at Pentecost (1 Cor. 12:13). Vs. 11 is speaking of true OT believers already declared righteous by OT faith (Romans 8:29) who came to faith in Jesus.

It is Jesus who was elect from the foundations of the world. Anyone who is placed 'in Him', becomes elect with Him. Thus, "In Him" we receive all these things spoken about in Ephesians 1. This has been God's plan from the [foundations of the world], thus the 'Lamb slain from the foundations of the world' is speaking about an eternal decree, but it still had to actually happen before it applied.

We are all placed into Christ with the NT indwelling, called the placing into, or, baptism with the Holy Spirit, that was made available to everyone after Christ was lifted up. Today, when someone believes and trusts in Christ Jesus in faith, Jesus places the Holy Spirit in us, making us one with Him (the baptism into the Body, into Christ), as a result, being born again and justified. This is all initiated by faith.

For your convenience, I quoted it.

1-14 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined (Romans 8:29) according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Dave

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Hi Dave and just asking. as I do not have many Dispensational , Per-Mil and PRE- Mil. response here are you. DIOSPENSATIONAL. ?

Just ready to lay down and you a long list , see you. MONDAY .

dan p

BasedLutheran said:

gibberish

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Such as "any facts" or just misstatements from Trump on the use of the term and even the income status of the countries he banned? As i now see that several of the nations are not considered low income at all.

Reluctant Theologian said:

More detailed quote:

The same holds true for the maidservant who is under the yoke of slavery; she too is in another's power, that is, her master's. But if she is a believer, let her regard herself as belonging to God, not to her master, and let her keep her body pure for the Lord who bought her with his own blood. [...] But if her master is an unbeliever, let the believing maidservant bear up, knowing that she is serving the Lord Christ. Let her not maltreat her flesh but rather adorn it chastely, keeping it pure and undefiled for the Lord. For it is not permitted her to fornicate or to surrender her body to anyone but her own husband. But if she is forced by her master, let her pray to be given strength to endure and not to sin against the Lord. For the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and must be kept in holiness.

Upon reading better I agree it's more likely he was referring with 'endure' to persist in refusal than to let her master have his way with a sinful plan. Under Torah law though the master could have married her still himself but any believing master would never be allowed to force his slaves to commit sin - including prostitution.

PS: later theologians do seem to provide this exoneration in case of force/coercion - e.g Augustine (The city of God - +/- 420 AD):

And this seems a rhetorical question.

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While slaves did not enjoy the rights of a trial, it doesn’t stop anyone from viewing this as a shameful act.

BCP1928 said:

If it was socially ok to be a physical male and a psychlogical female then trans people would be much better off.

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Question for you. (I asked my son this same question when he told me he “felt feminine”.)

What basis does a male have for thinking they are “psychologically” female? If you’re not female; how would you have any idea what it’s like to be female?

The statement here, is based on an assumption; which is based on a stereotype of what the male in question “thinks” women feel like.

And we can pretty safely conclude that his perception is based on what he is concluding based on what he sees of women in society around him.

And why is it that these men “pick” the “hot”, “sexy” model types to fashion their perceptions of their “psychological womanhood” from? None of these trans “women” are modeling their perceptions off of…. Grandma for example.

Think about that a minute.

MarkRohfrietsch said:

And no one to debate with!!!

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Indeed, but, believe it or not, I actually prefer interesting discussions on the liturgy. Any time someone wishes to get into the weeds with me on exploring the history of the Anaphora of St. James, or St. Mark, or the Twelve Apostles, or help me write festal services for St. Abanoub the Martyr, who is sadly only liturgically commemorated in the Coptic church, being a Coptic youth who received a crown of martyrdom during the DIocletian Persecution, but who absolutely deserves a feast day in the Western, Byzantine and Syriac Rites, and for that matter, a few other translations of saints; also surprisingly, a lot of Eastern Orthodox saints only have Troparia and Kontakia, not full canons or propers for vespers; setting these up is relatively easy since the General Menaion like the Common for different kinds of saints in the Roman Rite provides a template (most liturgical rites have a default form for different types of feast days which can be used in the absence of a dedicated service or used as the basis for composing such a service)

chevyontheriver said:

Still using Fedora, but fed up with systemd and Gnome and Wayland

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Systemd: proudly encouraging migrations to FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD and Illumos since 2010

Oompa Loompa said:

Such as?

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Trump's ignorance of the derogatory usage of "third World" is first not the terms original meaning. Even if one allows for this old prejudicial stereo type that was replaced at the end of the cold war, not all the nations would fit this abused terminology. In Trump's group of 19 nations, there are a couple of upper middle income nations, a middle income nation and some lower middle income nations.

Here is a partial list of Christian nations that are low income, Christian majority nations as you asked someone else.
Burundi
: Consistently ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world,
Burundi has a population that is approximately 75% Christian
.
Central African Republic (CAR)
: The CAR is another nation near the bottom of global income lists, with estimates placing its Christian population at around 80%.

• Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
  : A massive country that is overwhelmingly Christian (over 90%), the
  DRC
  is classified as a low-income economy and ranks among the poorest globally.
• Liberia
  : Liberia has a high Christian population percentage (around 85.5% as per some estimates) and is categorized as a low-income nation.
• Malawi
  : With a large Christian majority, Malawi is also on the World Bank's list of low-income economies.

Benaiah468 said:

He will spread His messianic kingdom of peace throughout the whole world. Then the nations will come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles together with Israel (Zec 14:16). Israel and the nations will praise the G-d of Israel together. What a prospect!

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Agreed, but is it not that God's people now will be those who come from all nations to the Kingdom, the new chosen. There will be no leaders like before however, except Jesus, who plays no favourites. Everybody had their chance before Him and blew it. The Father's Kingdom will have come, and His Will will be done in earth, not ours.

Oompa Loompa said:

So none? Would you let an immigrant family into your home, raid your refrigerator, refuse to leave, and demand you provide for them?

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Certainly not.

On the other hand, if I found an immigrant family starving in the streets, I'd work with others to help them find shelter and food, and I might consider providing some of my own funds to help out. In my experience, not all people in need are out to take advantage of me. They just need some temporary assistance.

Now, I feel that Democrats take the caring for people in need thing a bit too far. We have limited resources, and if you're not careful the few who will take advantage of us will cause problems. I'm not protective of illegal immigrants. However, I'm not in favor of revoking green cards from people who are struggling.

BasedLutheran said:

I do that every week at my local soup kitchen. I don't need to let rapers and gangbangers from other countries in to harm my family in order to do that.

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statistically, it's more likely to come from your own family or your family members friends.

Watch out for THEM instead.

Servus said:

Since I'm an American taxpayer, rather than a Canadian, I most certainly am in the position of approving and disapproving of how my tax dollars are spent.

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I have it on good authority your tax dollars were used to pay a maintenance work in Yellowstone National Park. I hope that's alright.


It's presumptuous entitlement to think you'd get to manage every cent of the tax dollars given out by the govt.

DaisyDay said:

I wonder if we as a culture should reconsider allowing mentally ill folk such easy access to deadly weapons.

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True, liberals, especially of the transgender type, should probably be banned from owning guns

Richard T said:

Wow, you are wrong on at least two levels. First, the bible is full of events where the High are brought low, and the low are brought high. So while you think that there is not any economic mobility between nations, you would be wrong.

From low income to middle income nations

• ão Tomé and Príncipe: Graduated in December 2024.
• Bhutan: Graduated in December 2023.
• Vanuatu: Graduated in December 2020.
• Equatorial Guinea: Graduated in June 2017.
• Samoa: Graduated in January 2014.
• Maldives: Graduated in January 2011.
• Cabo Verde: Graduated in December 2007.
• Botswana: Graduated in December 1994.

From middle income to high income nations

• Bulgaria: Moved to the high-income category in 2024, supported by modest growth following the pandemic.
• Palau: Also moved to high-income status in 2024 as its post-pandemic economic recovery continued.
• Russia: Reclassified as high-income in 2024, with economic activity influenced by increased military-related activity and a rebound in trade.
• Costa Rica: Was promoted to high-income in 2024 after consistent strong growth in recent years.
• Cabo Verde and Samoa: Were reclassified as upper-middle-income in 2024

Source: World Bank country classifications by income level for 2024-2025

More importantly, is there a "Third World" in the bible? A place where God lowers the status of man? No of course not. Jesus loves all just the same. If anything Jesus favored the poor, not the rich. It is not a politically correct term. The way that Trump used it was not even close to its original meaning anyway, which was invented during the cold war.

"The idea of the "Third World" began to go out of favor in the late 1980s and became largely obsolete by the early 1990s, primarily with the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The term was originally a political designation coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy to describe nations that were non-aligned with either the capitalist "First World" (led by the U.S.) or the communist "Second World" (led by the Soviet Union)

To me its better to reject such a concept because it is prejudicial, derogatory and even unprofessional.

I am glad you love your nation and hopefully its fruits. But as citizens of heaven there are only saved and unsaved, country of origin means little. and should you ever go to Global South nation, you would quickly change your mind.

Who was the greatest giver in the bible ever. The widow with two mites.
"When the disciples ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus redirects their attention from their own honor to the needs of the community, and especially of its most vulnerable members. Their question about greatness becomes the springboard for an entire chapter of teachings devoted to life in community....
Like Jesus’ disciples, we often fail to process Jesus’ teachings because our own concerns drown them out. We worry that our churches are too empty and that the Church in the U.S. has lost too much power. Yet Jesus’ words show that we are paying attention to the wrong things. The greatest in the kingdom of heaven are not those with the largest buildings, the highest Average Sunday Attendance, and the biggest budgets. The greatest in God’s reign are those who know how little is under their control, and who focus on loving and serving people in need instead of promoting themselves. Today, in this time and place, Jesus invites us to become like little children, trusting in God and following Jesus in the self-emptying way of love."

Source: Commentary on Matthew 18:1-9 - Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

I pray you can go on a mission trip to developing country sometime and see the compassion and love of God towards the poor. God bless!

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gibberish

Yttrium said:

Yeah, but helping out the impoverished... showing hospitality... I think I've read about that somewhere before. Oh, well. Not important.

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I do that every week at my local soup kitchen. I don't need to let rapers and gangbangers from other countries in to harm my family in order to do that.

Say it aint so said:

I asked because we can have study battles all day long. I found those kinds of interactions here just aren't worth it. As your study notes what drives suicides; "Transgender individuals have a higher prevalence of depression across several age groups, often due to life experiences that include discrimination, harassment, violence, misgendering, and enacted stigma that may generate poor mental health outcomes and harmful behaviors." The hypothetical was meant to understand at what point would it take for others, who for example, mislabel what they experience as a mental condition. Even if one is take your study as gold, they are calling out the need of post procedure support.

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So what should post procedural support look like? (I’m all in favor of mental health treatment.)

Yet if mental health had done their due diligence to begin with; the “down stream” wouldn’t have been to burden people who are psychologically fragile coming into this; with additional psychological burdens that have no way of being reconciled.

Gender dysphoria, somewhere in the person’s past; starts with a message that there’s something profoundly defective about them from conception. They experience this long before they ever encounter the “gender affirming medical establishment”.

And that establishment just reinforces this messaging. “Yeah, you really were born in the wrong body; so we’ll fix all that by making you a permanent customer of big pharma and and personally charging you thousands of dollars for unnecessary surgeries…”

And psychologically the patient can never “square that circle”. It’s impossible to reconcile a lie. They are not born in the wrong body. It’s OK for them to be them. One’s temperament is genetically driven and one’s personality is forged out of the combination of their temperament and life experience.

The transgenderism is just a symptom of a deeper struggle; and that struggle is a struggle of self. And a lot of times, that struggle is birthed out of childhood environment that’s in the least very psychologically abusive; although often (particularly) sexually abusive.

50% of biological males who seek “gender affirming care” have been sexually abused. For biological females who seek “gender affirming care” that statistic jumps to 85%.

Another factor is autistic spectrum disorder. Something like 35% of trans people have ASD.

And another stat I saw in the Medicare data (which I didn’t know about until I saw it there; is there’s also high correlation with schizophrenia. Now I don’t believe transgenderism causes schizophrenia or vice versa. Yet in the mix here of mental health conditions; there’s got to be some common factor that’s in operation in both issues.

Now here’s another factor in play here:

The rates of people seeking “gender affirming care” has spiked significantly since about 2015. And guess what population it has spiked in. (Middle class caucasian.female teens!)

They call phenomena like this “social contagion”. Now why all the sudden has this particular social contagion surfaced? Its predecessors were anorexia, bulimia, Tourette’s, and if you wanna go back into the 1980s; “the satanic panic“. Now obviously there are people who legitimately have Tourette’s, and eating disorders are real and potentially fatal.

Now what was causing those spikes? Well, when they went back and studied the data on these increases; they could tie it to social media!

So what is transgenderism among certain populations of teens, other than a “fad” (and a very destructive one at that)! Throw in there that this is now being taught to kindergartners and we have a self inflicted mental health crisis on our hands!

And now let’s exacerbate the problem by telling parents “Would you rather have a trans son or a dead daughter?”

The deliberate spreading of this ideology is just plain evil!

And one last point; some researcher brought up. What else is being taught in schools? (Critical race theory.) Which is telling white people that they are the source of all society’s ills. So in order to “be in the in group” (because who wants to be a member of the patriarchal, racist, slave trading, Nazi…. Trump voter)?

13 year old teen girl: “[bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] - I’m trans!”

(Social Marxism self inflicted wound.)

Servus said:

One where they don't have to actually do anything and it comes with high pay and premium benefits.

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Good idea. Quite a few people have jobs like that already. It's time the working class got some of them.

Reluctant Theologian said:

I will look up a more detailed quote .. thanks for asking for detail

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More detailed quote:

The same holds true for the maidservant who is under the yoke of slavery; she too is in another's power, that is, her master's. But if she is a believer, let her regard herself as belonging to God, not to her master, and let her keep her body pure for the Lord who bought her with his own blood. [...] But if her master is an unbeliever, let the believing maidservant bear up, knowing that she is serving the Lord Christ. Let her not maltreat her flesh but rather adorn it chastely, keeping it pure and undefiled for the Lord. For it is not permitted her to fornicate or to surrender her body to anyone but her own husband. But if she is forced by her master, let her pray to be given strength to endure and not to sin against the Lord. For the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and must be kept in holiness.

Upon reading better I agree it's more likely he was referring with 'endure' to persist in refusal than to let her master have his way with a sinful plan. Under Torah law though the master could have married her still himself but any believing master would never be allowed to force his slaves to commit sin - including prostitution.

PS: later theologians do seem to provide this exoneration in case of force/coercion - e.g Augustine (The city of God - +/- 420 AD):

But since purity is a virtue of the soul, and has for its companion virtue, the fortitude which will rather endure all ills than consent to evil; and since no one, however magnanimous and pure, has always the disposal of his own body, but can control only the consent and refusal of his will, what sane man can suppose that, if his body be seized and forcibly made use of to satisfy the lust of another, he thereby loses his purity?

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And this seems a rhetorical question.

Rescued One said:

About 8 inches of snow on the ground and 26 degrees..

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We had an unusually heavy fall of snow on Saturday of over 10 inches. Temperatures reached into the 20's F. today.

stevevw said:

Yes but the scientific method does not use those experiences to measure and know that reality. The scientists has to step back and detached themselves from the experiences to then measure things objectively. All feelings and experiences have to be cast aside.

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Cast aside? What hogwash. Experiences are observations. How would a physicist study the spectra of light without an experience of color?

stevevw said:

Like the experience of colors such as a golden sunset or a fire red sports car. Science can measure the brain activity related to vision and the light wave spectrum to know all the technical data.

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Sure. So what?

stevevw said:

But the actual experience cannot be measured in quantities. Its a experience that can only be measured, known and verified directly by the experiencer.

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Sure. So what?