This Week in God (Maddow blog)

[AlbertCat]

First up from the God Machine this week is an extraordinary exchange about the Bible with the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.


Donald Trump’s clumsiness on matters of faith has been a point of concern for some voters before, but this week, the GOP candidate sat down with Bloomberg Politics, which noted that Trump has repeatedly pointed to the Bible lately as his favorite book. Does he have a favorite scriptural verse or two he’d be willing to share?

“Well, I wouldn’t want to get into it because to me that’s very personal,” Trump replied. “You know, when I talk about the Bible it’s very personal.” Asked to cite a verse from the Bible he simply likes, the Republican responded, “No, I don’t want to do that.”

When John Heilemann asked if he preferred the Old Testament or the New Testament, Trump responded, in all seriousness, “Uh, probably [long pause] equal. I think it’s just an incredible, the whole Bible is an incredible, I joke, very much so, they always hold up The Art of the Deal, I say it’s my second favorite book of all time. But, uh, I just think the Bible is just something very special.”


(the link)

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-82915?cid=sm_fb_maddow

[Brainstormy]

1. reminds one of Sarah Palin, doesn't it?

You can no more pick one bible verse than you can pick one magazine or newspaper. Of course they read all of them.

The word salad is reminiscent, too.

[beam me up scottie]

2. Wasn't Jesus a loser?

I mean wouldn't Trump like someone who didn't get crucified?

[bvf]

3. Not a fair comparison.

Trump specifically said, "I like people who weren't captured."

Wait a minute...

[beam me up scottie]

4. Lol! Eggsackally!

[RussBLib]

5. and now his church said he's not an active member

he's probably lying about going to church there, he's likely never read the Bible and he doesn't have a clue about the Old or New Testaments, but Trump is leading among evangelicals!

Marble Collegiate Church was founded in 1628 and is one of the oldest continuous Protestant denominations in the country. The church is part of the Reformed Church in America denomination and is on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

"Donald Trump has had a longstanding history with Marble Collegiate Church, where his parents were for years active members and one of his children was baptized. However, as he indicates, he is a Presbyterian, and is not an active member of Marble," the statement said.

Original. What a bullshitter this guy is! I can't help but think the whole thing will come crashing down. Hopefully Trump does before the country does.

[AlbertCat]

6. but Trump is leading among evangelicals!

Well, duh!


They are evangelicals, after all....

They haven't gotten anything right in 2000 years.

[uriel1972]

7. I imagine them looking at their watches

Waiting at the Jesus bus-stop for many, many years to come.

[Lordquinton]

8. I dunno, people have been claiming religion is a personal thing

Here for a long time, he says it's personal and doesn't want to get into it, shouldn't that be praised? He is doing something right, after all.

[RussBLib]

9. here's one for next week - up to 400 church leaders expected to resign

hahahahahahaha - tell me about your moral superiority to atheists again?

Experts report as many as 400 pastors, deacons, elders and church staff members will resign this Sunday after their names surfaced on the list of users revealed in the Ashley Madison hack.

Writing for Christianity Today, Ed Stetzer, the executive director of LifeWay Research, and a well-regarded expert on church leadership, reports:

Based on my conversations with leaders from several denominations in the U.S. and Canada, I estimate that at least 400 church leaders (pastors, elders, staff, deacons, etc.) will be resigning Sunday. This is a significant moment of embarrassment for the church—and it should be.

The fallout from the Ashley Madison hack has been troubling for many users, particularly religious conservatives.

Family values advocate and serial child molester Josh Duggar was but one high-profile conservative Christian exposed as a user of the infamous website for individuals interested in arranging extramarital affairs.

In addition to Duggar, another high profile conservative Christian caught in the Ashley Madison storm was Christian YouTube star Sam Rader.

- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/08/400-church-leaders-expected-to-resign-after-ashley-madison-hack/#sthash.HgfedThw.dpuf

So they want to keep their wives, but not let them have any of the fun! Bastards.

[bvf]

10. You don't say?

It'll be interesting to see if this gets any traction. I hope it does. With names and affiliation info (although that might be too much to expect).

[onager]

11. Many A-M women, like God, did not exist.

I'm still waiting for an update on the 400 who got caught.

Who were mostly trying to communicate with non-existent women, it turns out.

Annalee Newitz at Gizmodo downloaded the entire hacked database and analyzed it

Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site

What I discovered was that the world of Ashley Madison was a far more dystopian place than anyone had realized. This isn’t a debauched wonderland of men cheating on their wives. It isn’t even a sadscape of 31 million men competing to attract those 5.5 million women in the database. Instead, it’s like a science fictional future where every woman on Earth is dead, and some Dilbert-like engineer has replaced them with badly-designed robots.

Those millions of Ashley Madison men were paying to hook up with women who appeared to have created profiles and then simply disappeared. Were they cobbled together by bots and bored admins, or just user debris?

Whatever the answer, the more I examined those 5.5 million female profiles, the more obvious it became that none of them had ever talked to men on the site, or even used the site at all after creating a profile. Actually, scratch that. As I’ll explain below, there’s a good chance that about 12,000 of the profiles out of millions belonged to actual, real women who were active users of Ashley Madison.

http://gizmodo.com/almost-none-of-the-women-in-the-ashley-madison-database-1725558944