Religion in the news

[Hope]

It's sad - they're grabbing people out of schools and churches, too. I hope they get the chance to let someone they know/love know what's happened to them. 😢 

 

A Navajo man was detained this week, too. I wonder where they'd send him to? 😕 The profiling of brown people is distressing...

Edited Tuesday at 11:12 PM by Hope

[Tortuga]

6 minutes ago, Hope said:

It's sad - they're grabbing people out of schools and churches, too. I hope they get the chance to let someone they know/love know what's happened to them. 😢 

 

A Navajo man was detained this week, too. I wonder where they'd send him to? 😕 The profiling of brown people is distressing...

I'm definitely not going to work on my tan this year...

[BLEmom]

4 hours ago, LeolaRootStew said:

 

I heard they were including churches as places that can be raided for immigrants. As far as if this happens to us, we wouldn't be harboring/resisting the efforts of ICE to remove illegal aliens, so what direction would we need other than to not resist the cops who may show up?

I ask because while it sounds simple enough as you outlined in your post, it could cause quite the disruption and could be potentially heart wrenching for a family that it would happen to. 

There are many Spanish friends who may not be here legally. Also, they are even rescinding some papers that have been previously allowed. While our brothers are not criminals in the sense of gang members and such, they could have come from that background and we don’t really know how far reaching this may go. 

Considering the way the slave provides loving direction and gives the heads up on issues that may come, I wondered if any had heard anything yet. 

[BLEmom]

10 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

I'm definitely not going to work on my tan this year...

😑

 

I even warned my husband as racial profiling could increase. He got his citizenship about 10 years ago but he is brown and has an accent. Around here that means you’re “Mexican” and should go back to where you came from. 
 

If things end up going really far, I’ll be shipped back to Europe as I’m a naturalized citizen too!  🤪

 

While things haven’t gotten too crazy yet, it could spiral quickly. 

[careful]

1 hour ago, Sheep said:

I have been hearing about "collateral arrests" by these ICE agents. That is, the agents, in the course of searching for one of their targets, come across another undocumented immigrant who does not have a criminal record, and they arrest him on the fly. Or, so I hear the story. Can someone clarify please?

i am in the us and watch the news regularly...Yes your understanding is  correct at present....the next phase may include targeting those that are not criminals  but at present those are simply collateral damage

[Witness1970]

22 hours ago, LeolaRootStew said:

 

Yes, it's partisan.

So, in that case, if we treat someone with kindness when we know they are homosexual, we are being partisan.  I thought that we were supposed to be kind to everyone.

[Shawnster]

1 hour ago, Witness1970 said:

So, in that case, if we treat someone with kindness when we know they are homosexual, we are being partisan.  I thought that we were supposed to be kind to everyone.

No. 

 

When we treat a homosexual with kindness we are being Christian. 

 

When we request political leaders to legalize homosexual behavior, when we advocate politicians to treat homosexuals with equality under the law, that is when we are being partisan. 

 

A religious leader using their official capacity as a religious leader using their religious church service to deliver a message about a political matter and directing part of that sermon toward the Vice President of the United States (or any other country) is engaging in partisan politics. 

 

Immigration laws, immigration reform, and the deportation of illegal immigrants are political issues. The legalization of homosexuality and granting homosexuals equal rights under the law are political issues.

 

Politicians use morality and emotion to garner support for their political issues. Politicians are not above using bias, exaggeration, distortions, twisting facts, lying, and inflammatory speech in order to whip emotions into a frenzy over their political issues. 

 

It's important for everyone, especially Christians, to cut through the noise, the smoke, and the rhetoric and be able to see the difference between personal actions and political actions. 

[Jwanon]

It's a good thing Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law, or else it would have been an extremely bad witness to the world

 

We have nothing to fear

[chuck83]

Deadly crowd crush at India’s Mahakumbh Mela: All to know

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/29/deadly-crowd-crush-at-indias-mahakumbh-mela-all-to-know

So nice that we can walk orderly into our conventions.

[ChrisW]

2 hours ago, Shawnster said:

No. 

 

When we treat a homosexual with kindness we are being Christian. 

 

When we request political leaders to legalize homosexual behavior, when we advocate politicians to treat homosexuals with equality under the law, that is when we are being partisan. 

 

A religious leader using their official capacity as a religious leader using their religious church service to deliver a message about a political matter and directing part of that sermon toward the Vice President of the United States (or any other country) is engaging in partisan politics. 

 

Immigration laws, immigration reform, and the deportation of illegal immigrants are political issues. The legalization of homosexuality and granting homosexuals equal rights under the law are political issues.

 

Politicians use morality and emotion to garner support for their political issues. Politicians are not above using bias, exaggeration, distortions, twisting facts, lying, and inflammatory speech in order to whip emotions into a frenzy over their political issues. 

 

It's important for everyone, especially Christians, to cut through the noise, the smoke, and the rhetoric and be able to see the difference between personal actions and political actions. 

So true. I appreciate your words. Since we are followers of Christ that is my question. Would Jesus have made a speech like that? That was not why he was sent to the earth. 

[LeolaRootStew]

3 hours ago, Witness1970 said:

So, in that case, if we treat someone with kindness when we know they are homosexual, we are being partisan.  I thought that we were supposed to be kind to everyone.

 

Category error. Partisan politics is taking sides in politics; saying hello to someone is not taking sides in politics, thus it is not partisan.

 

Pleading for a specific political stance at a political event is taking sides in politics, which is partisan. 

 

Anyone who is getting distracted by the actual call "for mercy" is missing the point entirely. Both supporters and opposers of her viewpoint would both agree that she is taking sides on a political issue - that she is being partisan.

 

Since I am neutral in politics, I am not for or against her partisan statement, but I do support accurately labelling it as partisan.

[Shawnster]

6 minutes ago, ChrisW said:

So true. I appreciate your words. Since we are followers of Christ that is my question. Would Jesus have made a speech like that? That was not why he was sent to the earth. 

Did Jesus make any speeches regarding the social ills of his day? Did he comment on slavery or the mistreatment of women? 

 

Has anyone watched the Caleb and Sophia video "Who Should be My Friend"? The video shows how Jesus instructed Mary and Martha despite the fact that at the time social (and political) norms of the day were that a woman should only focus on being a good wife and mother and preparing the home.  Notice that Jesus did not try to change the society's norms. He did not go on a crusade of equal rights or treatment of women. He simply treated Mary and Martha as they ought to have been treated. 

 

That is our exemplar. He set the example. We treat people the way Jehovah wants us to be treated. However, we do not involve ourselves in any type of political advocacy, movement, or change, even though such changes might align with our Christian values such as laws pertaining to pollution, smoking, abortion, segregation, immigration, homosexuality, etc... 

[trottigy]

And as that has been thoroughly hashed. How about this new news item:

 

Religious sect followers prayed and sang as an 8-year-old died. All 14 have been found guilty of manslaughter

 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/australia/australia-sect-elizabeth-struhs-guilty-intl-hnk

 

She died as they wouldn't administer insulin and prayed instead. That is a painful way to die.

 

 

It's this type of extremism that we often get lumped in with since we don't do blood transfusions. I'm glad we're discussing this again in our midweek meeting.

[Jwanon]

6 hours ago, trottigy said:

And as that has been thoroughly hashed. How about this new news item:

 

Religious sect followers prayed and sang as an 8-year-old died. All 14 have been found guilty of manslaughter

 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/australia/australia-sect-elizabeth-struhs-guilty-intl-hnk

 

She died as they wouldn't administer insulin and prayed instead. That is a painful way to die.

 

 

It's this type of extremism that we often get lumped in with since we don't do blood transfusions. I'm glad we're discussing this again in our midweek meeting.

 

The article doesn't mention the name of the sect

[chuck83]

48 minutes ago, Jwanon said:

 

The article doesn't mention the name of the sect

 

"The Saints" per a Google search. Christian based.

[Witness1970]

21 hours ago, LeolaRootStew said:

 

Category error. Partisan politics is taking sides in politics; saying hello to someone is not taking sides in politics, thus it is not partisan.

 

Pleading for a specific political stance at a political event is taking sides in politics, which is partisan. 

 

Anyone who is getting distracted by the actual call "for mercy" is missing the point entirely. Both supporters and opposers of her viewpoint would both agree that she is taking sides on a political issue - that she is being partisan.

 

Since I am neutral in politics, I am not for or against her partisan statement, but I do support accurately labelling it as partisan.

I will admit that I did not hear the entire speech.  The only part I heard was when she asked that Trump show kindness and mercy.  I don't care what laws they make.  I just want to be on the correct side (Jehovah's side) no matter who rules.