think of how great America would be if we followed these tenets:

[mopaul]

The Commandments of Blessedness (The Beatitudes)
1 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
2 Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted
3 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth
4 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness
5 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy
6 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God
7 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God
8,9 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake

........now, mind you, i'm an atheist, raised up as a good christian like most of us here, and this is a nation that claims to be predominately christian. these words make sense, good, common sense, and represent what america needs. not a revival or mass salvation, just use these words to affect what america is SUPPOSED to be about.

1. help the poor. we can afford that at least, no one should have to go begging for medical help, or be forced to decide between medicine or food.

2. not only does bush bring great grief and suffering and mourning into the world, he NEVER comforts the mourners.

3. bush promised a humble and meek foreign policy, and promised to help the meek and the least among us, like Christ admonishes, but his actions make it all a cruel joke unto Christ.

4. bush does not thirst after righteousness, but he talks about it a lot, like jimmy swaggart talks about sin, then commits it.

5. bushkkko does not understand the concept of mercy. they claimed to be liberating the iraqi people from tyranny and despotism, and then systematically slaughtered one hundred thousand innocents, mostly women and children, and torturing thousands as well. they do not understand the concept of mercy.

6. bush claims to be born again, therefore forgiven and pure of heart. but it's a lie, and if there is a god, he/she knows it's a lie. he speaks of being compassionate, and a follower of the prince of peace, so his heart is anything but pure. it's black and corrupted with the guilt brought on by mass slaughter and genocide and monstrous greed and powerlust. there is nothing pure about bush's heart.

7. bush and kkkrew claim to be peacemakers. they claim to be bringing peace and democracy to the middle east. i don't think this is exactly what Christ had in mind when he said this. i think maybe he meant ending war, and ending poverty and oppression and restoring peace in a war torn land and feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, and helping the poor and afflicted and the least among us, or something like that, not bombing the fuck out of them.

8. persecuting the already persecuted seems to be the offical policy of bushkkko. we went to iraq supposedly to free the persecuted, and we can see how well that's going. your not really helping the persecuted when you shoot, burn, explode and torture them. and your not blessing them by killing 100,000 of them, when they weren't even involved in nine eleven. they are righteous and innocent people, who worship the exact same god most americans do, and we are not helping them as Christ would have.

......hey george, you dumbfuck, it's called the bible, check it out sometime................

[displacedtexan]

1. Don't you find it odd that we atheists...

live by the moral code that most Christians ignore?

Good post! Thanks!

[Nay]

9. Yes, as an atheist who follows Buddhist tenets, I have always

found it odd that I'm the one who follows this stuff much more than my "Christian" neighbors and coworkers, who basically go around kicking the shit out of everybody to get their way. Pretty amazing.

[Nimrod]

10. You can't control anyone that way

That's why the religious right usurps and twists the "word of God". They are zero about doing good works and all about controlling the masses. They may vary on their rationalizations of the evil they do, but it all comes down to that. Understanding and applying the real christian moral code is left to the realm of those of us who don't seek dominion over others.

[clydefrand]

2. Nothing about him speaks of Christian attitudes.

I don't understand those who advocate killing others for the lies of this misleader. To me they aren't espousing Christian values. Why can't they see that they preach one thing and practice another?

[mopaul]

3. "father, forgive them, for they do not see".....J.C........n/t

[classof56]

7. It's because of their narrow focus

My Calvinist grandfather used to have a phrase: "Ten-in-a-bed Baptists". That is, they're so narrow they could sleep ten in a bed. The far-right Christians only look at a very few issues: Abortion, homosexuality, prayer in schools and at school functions like ball games, posting the 10 commandments in public places, one or two others, depending on the denomination we're talking about. They like to bemoan how "persecuted" they are, and how far down American has slid because we were after all, founded on Christian principles by Christian men whose basis for the Constitution was the 10 Commandments. I've been around these folks enough to know that no amount of truth or reasoning--such as, hey, America's a free country and people have rights including not agreeing with you--will reach them. They want what they want, which is for their narrow views and beliefs to be institutionalized, and they see Bush as making that happen 'cause he claims to be born again and says he prays to Jesus every morning.

I won't even talk about the Rapture here. All I can say is, if Bush manages to pull this one off by hook or crook (as in 2000), get ready for some heavy-duty stuff, including a serious attempt to strip away most of the rights we take for granted. Because these narrow-minded RWers also do not believe in separation of church and state. The question will be, Just which church are we talking about? That'll be the fun part!

DEFEAT BUSH!!

[UL_Approved]

4. An atheist's prayer

Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.

(refer to signature)

[H2O Man]

5. I like this. Good job.

It's funny: last night I spoke with an old friend on the phone, and was telling her about how annoyed my 10-year old daughter was about Bush's "cry wolf!" commercial. My daughter, like all children, has a degree of insight that adults would do well to listen to. One week in church, she said that if people really believed in Jesus, there wouldn't need to be money. My friend laughed and said that's it, if people really listened to him, then the Christian religion would do more good than harm. I noted that he said listen to children.

These are the routes that Jesus says people can be blessed, meaning literally to obtain bliss. The first one is in reference to the poor having the spirit of sharing. And it's so true: poor people are the most likely to share openly, no matter how little they have. And Jesus noted in other teachings that this tendency gave them a spiritual wealth that few rich people could hope for.

(*** Both of my daughters have looked at a couple of mopaul's artwork, and think they are hysterical!)

[mopaul]

6. from the mouths of babes shall come the truth

your daughter, the president, is wise beyond her years. the stuff they teach us in sunday school as kids sticks with you. but grownups tend to forget it and twist it all around.

the one thing christ really hated though was hypocrites, and that's what the screaming christians all are. it's the quiet ones that are the most sincere, the meek ones. they shall inherit the earth.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. About #8

As Bill Moyers hinted last night while talking to Richard Viguerie, the Republicans always act as if they are being persecuted, never more so than when they are in power, like now or during the Reagan administration.

[prolesunited]

11. Wouldn't that be nice

Here's an off-topic story. Blue-Jay and I were in an independent bookstore in Yellow Springs, Ohio. We were looking at ant-Bush magnets and one caught his eye. He said that it looked just like a mopaul cartoon.

I turned it over, and we laughed when we saw your name on it. We got a kick out of it and I thought you would enjoy hearing about it.

:hi:

[mopaul]

12. glad you saw that....

...those magnets are apparently selling like crazy, and i recently got a nice royalty check from the makers of the magnets. their catolog can be found at ephemera.com

my stuff's in the fall/winter supplimentary

[Kanary]

13. I"d be content if only just DU could live by those......

[Deja Q]

14. * is a prime example of being poor in spirit.

He's more fit for the kingdom of Hell, I regret to say.