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Totally having a normal one over at the Federalist

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Literally a death cult.

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The funny thing this sort of endurance of suffering is actually a good thing… in certain circumstances. Like World War 2.

Whining and throwing a fit because the adults tell you not to stick your finger in the light socket because your think the right to believe in alternative theories of electricity is a freedom with dying for, because you don’t want to be told what to do by the political opposition regardless of the issue, is not that moment.

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Is that St. Peter on the Cross? He was crucified upside down, wasn’t he?

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I endorse Enidigm’s distinction!

Suffering and death are never wholly negative things in Christianity when paired with self-sacrifice–for hopefully obvious reasons.

Yep, you’re right. That’s St. Peter. Google tells me that’s a Michaelangelo fresco.

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That article is… wow

Shaming people for dying by accident is a bit twisted, but it might make sense if you believe life is over once a person stops breathing, and so cling to the illusion of human control over death to avoid the terror of acknowledging that’s impossible. It’s such pagan assumptions driving the ridiculous number of news articles with fear-porn titles
. . .
Christian teaching diametrically opposes the underlying theology pushed in such articles and in many other popular COVID narratives. That’s true despite the appearance generated by the majority of Western churches prioritizing obedience to men instead of to God by shutting themselves down over COVID-19.

The Christian faith makes it very clear that death, while sad to those left behind and a tragic consequence of human sin, is now good for all who believe in Christ. A Christian funeral is a cause for rejoicing, albeit understandably through tears from those of us temporarily left behind.

Sin destroys faith. It is time for Christians individually and corporately to repent for the way we and our institutions responded to the COVID-19 outbreak. Our refusal to preach and obey the clear teachings of the Bible amid the world’s panic have betrayed Our Lord.

Thanks be to God, there’s a way out for us. It’s the same as for Saint Peter, the coward Christ transformed into a lion. That way out is repentance! Then let us rejoice and sin no more.

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So The Federalist is running Christian sermons now? I wonder who they think their audience is? Certainly not Republican politicians – there’s nothing Christian about that bunch of hypocrites.

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Wait, why do so many Christians need guns to defend their homes from minority invaders then? Shouldn’t they welcome their early deaths? I’m very confused.

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(Tom voice)
Ha ha, you read the federalist!

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I know :P I feel very dirty.

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This is the one that always gets me. We still need guns to keep ourselves safe and cops to be overly violent with people and our military to be giant but really, why so scared of dying you libtards?

EDIT: I forgot a wall and an army of border patrol agents to keep us safe from illegals

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McSweeney’s has you covered:

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But also:

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They’ll tell you that dying is good and nothing to be afraid of while carrying a firearm everywhere to protect themselves from death or to protect whatever is their wallet.

I can understand the whole “don’t fear death” angle to a point. Okay, you’re not afraid to die. But that doesn’t give you the right to push that death and suffering onto others. And then you carry a gun and talk about killing people who might harm or kill you and you’ve told me you actually don’t believe what you’re saying in the first place.

I’m a Christian that carries a weapon basically everywhere, but I also recognize that ultimately that’s a failing on my part as flawed human being. Christ’s followers had swords, but he sure wasn’t happy when they actually used them. So on some level Christ understood the contradiction, but when it came down to actual violence he was pretty clear on where he stood as well.

It’s one of those things that really bothers me. I’ve even listen to a pastor who says he doesn’t fear death and then like then turn around and talk about how if someone broke into his house they’d see the “old street Rob” come out. Maybe he’s just being honest since he’d be the first to say he’s a flawed human being, but he didn’t say it with anything approaching remorse, it was almost giddy.

TLDR: It’s a stupid position for a group of people largely defined by their mortal fears.
“I’m not afraid of death, that’s why I carry a gun to kill anyone who scares me.”
You can be in both camps, but they never acknowledge the latter half as a failing, it’s a virtue to them.

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Marco has thoughts about the results of letting his party have power for several decades.
But somehow it’s the fault of the people that opposed those policies.

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Hm… Aren’t both parties pretty deeply responsible for offshoring manufacturing to China, etc?

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I don’t think we could or should blame either party. I think it is a function of Americans’ desire for lower price goods, and corporations desire to increase profits.

I’d also argue that outsourcing has been overall great. Literally, a billion people in India and China have been lifted out of abject poverty ($1/day) into the working class, and now are part of the global economic. The benefits to those one billion and the lower cost to 700 million consumers in the EU and the US, vastly outweigh the harm to the tens of millions of displaced worker in both places.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” - Spock

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Factor in the fossil fuel cost of a massive overseas shipping network, our dependency on a Communist regime for some of our everyday necessities including medicine, the abusive conditions of many workers in China and elsewhere, and the inherited effects of poverty and drug abuse and neglect on the next generation of rust belt residents, and it starts to look less rosy. An increase in wealth both here and abroad is not always worth a decline in dignity.