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In the News

Check out this article at Time.com, titled: "Does God Want You to Be Rich?" - It's an interesting read. The article looks at the emerging (or still strong, I guess, depending on your perspective) Prosperity Theology Movement, or Prosperity Lite.

Also, this UMNS article caught my attention. Apparently, a church in Albany is in court because of complaints about their music outreach program for young people.

Comments

Seven Star Hand said…
Hello Elizabeth and all,

RE: "Does God want you to be rich?"
How about, does the Creator want some people to suffer and starve while some wallow in luxury and ignore the plight of others? What about "serving mammon" (money and materialism) instead of truth, justice, and your fellow souls? How about the rich man and the eye of a needle? Talking about the blind leading the blind...

To take this a step further, what would the Creator say about forming organizations (corporations, religions, governments, political parties, etc.) that accumulate vast wealth and resources while living people and other lifeforms suffer as a direct result? What does this say about the complete hypocrisy of all religions?

Here's some pivotal knowledge (wisdom) so people can stop focusing on symptoms and obfuscatory details and home in like a laser on the root causes of and solutions to humanity's seemingly never-ending struggles.

Money is the lifeblood of the powerful and the chains and key to human enslavement

There is a radical and highly effective solution to all of our economic problems that will dramatically simplify, streamline, and revitalize human civilization. It will eliminate all poverty, debt, and the vast majority of crime, material inequality, deception, and injustice. It will also eliminate the underlying causes of most conflicts, while preventing evil scoundrels and their cabals from deceiving, deluding, and bedeviling humanity, ever again. It will likewise eliminate the primary barriers to solving global warming, pollution, and the many evils that result from corporate greed and their control of natural and societal resources. That solution is to simply eliminate money from the human equation, thereby replacing the current system of greed, exploitation, and institutionalized coercion with freewill cooperation, just laws based on verifiable wisdom , and societal goals targeted at benefiting all, not just a self-chosen and abominably greedy few.

We can now thank millennia of political, monetary, and religious leaders for proving, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that top-down, hierarchical governance is absolute folly and foolishness. Even representative democracy, that great promise of the past, was easily and readily subverted to enslave us all, thanks to money and those that secretly control and deceptively manipulate all currencies and economies. Is there any doubt anymore that entrusting politics and money to solve humanity's problems is delusion of the highest order? Is there any doubt that permitting political and corporate leaders to control the lives of billions has resulted in great evil?

Here's a real hot potato! Eat it up, digest it, and then feed it's bones to the hungry...

Most people have no idea that the common-denominator math of all the world's currencies forms an endless loop that generates debt faster than we can ever generate the value to pay for it. This obscured and purposeful math-logic trap at the center of all banking, currencies, and economies is the root cause of poverty. Those who rule this world through fear and deception strive constantly to hide this fact, while pretending to seek solutions to poverty and human struggle. Any who would scoff at this analysis have simply failed to do the math, even though it is based on a simple common-denominator ratio.

Here is Wisdom

Doctrine of Two Spirits...

Peace...
Anonymous said…
whoa
Anonymous said…
Beth,

In the UMNS article, it states

For Drown, the issue goes beyond permits and occupancy certificates. "The issue is: does a church need to seek permission from a municipality in the fulfillment of its mission?"

This was my very first thought as I started reading this UMNS article. The way I see it, this is a church service. When I lived in Schenectady, I spent a lot of time in Albany. I can assure you first hand that the City of Albany needs to spend its time and money on much bigger and better things than a court case against a UM church. I see this as nothing but the interference of the city and county government against a legitament church holding a legitament youth event on its own property.

Oh and seven star, that is the world that we have to live in, so deal with it, toughen up, and quit whinning.

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