WWJV4.com is a progressive political blog that focuses a lot on the infringement of religion in politics. This certainly does not mean that we are anti-religion. We support comments from any belief system, religion, or political standing. We believe in the first amendment and wish to provide a place where intelligent conversation and debate can take place.
We believe that whether or not you personally believe in any god, the teachings of Jesus of love, peace, and forgiveness, are such that almost anyone can support them. What we do not agree with is these teachings being distorted and used to promote division, injustice, intolerance, bigotry, and discrimination against anyone.
It has been our experience that the people who argue the loudest against things like womens’ right to choose, gay rights, and acceptance of all cultures often have no idea why they believe so strongly. They are often unable to cite sources, refute arguments with evidence, or even remain civil. I wrote the other day that it will be important for the future of this nation to reach out to the Christian conservatives. I believe that many of them have their eyes closed to what is really going on and the hatred that they may be unknowingly spreading.
What we hope to do with this site is not to disparage or downgrade anyone’s beliefs but to share information. Information that may cause someone to really look at whether or not what they are clinging to as “Christian” or religious ideals are truly the messages of their gods.
To that end we will not accept comments that promote hatred or violence toward any group of people, use foul or degrading language directed at a person or group of people, or are otherwise found to be inappropriate by our moderators. We will always communicate with our submitters to advise if there are any problems with the content of the comments and give any rejected a chance to reword their thoughts.
Thank you,
WWJV4.com
The bible is relavent to current policies. Following the bible lenthens ones life also. For example, the bible states to not lie. Which is necessary for our court system to fuction. Perjury is a crime. The bible commands not to uses false measurements or balances. So this speaks to justice in truth in product labels.
Everyone has some kind of religious belief or system. Those beliefs can affect policy, if they are a policy-maker.
The core tenants of the bible are not unique to Christians and the 10 Commandments greatly pre-date Christianity. Killing, stealing, lying and so forth are common across virtually all religions. Therefore to argue that you need to be Christian to understand these values is silly.
Obviously we do not disagree with these higher laws, what we disagree with is the infringement of religion into government and policy. Especially when religion is used to deny rights to those who are out of favor with a particular religion or to promote the teachings of one religion over others.
I would be interested in seeing a reference for the assertion that following the Bible lengthens your life.
“The same canned answer you provided in a post on CJ Online. Don’t liberals have an opinion of their own, or do they ALL just copy and paste?” Your attacking Summer for copy and pasting from … Herself. How dare she use her own words!
As for the rest, read the comment I posted 20 minutes before yours.
I was raised Christian and was active in the church for many years but would no longer call myself a Christian.
I don’t think Sean was arguing that you must be Christian to understand those values, merely that those values are in the Christian belief.
“what we disagree with is the infringement of religion into government and policy. Especially when religion is used to deny rights to those who are out of favor with a particular religion or to promote the teachings of one religion over others.”
Exactly. A definition of “infringe” is To transgress or exceed the limits of; violate. This is a good definition of what I was talking about with religion infringing on government. Because government is run by people each with their own beliefs that will influence what they do, there is; of course, some religion in politics. When it goes past that to something like what William said, that’s when it’s infringing and needs to be stopped.
I was trying to say in my previous post that the bible has many good precepts that are beneficial to life. Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight. That truism is a good one to implement in daily commerce, buying and selling. We expect our food labels to be accurate in their descriptions. We expect 8oz of peanut butter to be the true amount contained in the jar. We expect 20 grams of fat on the candy bar to be correctly represented.
There are many promises that state that following the wisdom of the bible will lengthen your days. For example Proverbs 3:2 says ‘…let your heart keep my commandments; For length of days and years of life and peace will they will add to you.’ And Ephesians 6:2,3 says ‘Honor your father and mother so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.’
The American concept of a government divided into the three branches – judiciary, legislative, executive, comes from the bible. Look at Isaiah 33:22 For the Lord is our judge, The lord is our lawgiver, The lord is our king.
Sean, when you say “The American concept of a government divided into the three branches – judiciary, legislative, executive, comes from the bible. Look at Isaiah 33:22 ‘For the Lord is our judge, The lord is our lawgiver, The lord is our king.’ doesn’t that verse prove the very OPPOSITE of what you claim, i.e. in the bible there is NO division of labor.
For those interested in this topic, I’ve been posting outstanding material about it for over 12 years at http://LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/ .
Hi, anti-summer. (great name by the way)
We are certainly not anti- any religion. We do; however, believe in the separation of church and state and have to loudly disagree when any religion plays a part in making our nation’s laws.
I would encourage you to look beyond your disdain for opinions different than yours. Then perhaps you can contribute something to the discourse besides snark.
Thanks for the comment,
Summer
Religion is much more than just Christianity. The world has many religions and they are all of value and deserve respect. Like the original founders of our nation we see any infringement of religion on government or vice versa as a threat to the freedoms and liberties of all Americans.
Thanks for the comment,
William.
The first amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .”
Under that amendment we have the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. These have been interpreted to effectively be a separation of church and state. Indeed that exact phrase has been used by the Supreme Court in rulings more than 25 times.
John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison were among the early users of this term and ideology and it continues to stand up today. Thus the separation of church and state is in the constitution.
It is not ok for any religion to impose their beliefs on the rest of the country. It is discriminatory and does not allow for freedom.
You have every right to practice your religion as you see fit, you do not have the right to make laws forcing others to follow your religious beliefs.
Your statement, “pay no attention to these commandments while you’re making laws to govern your people.” strikes at the heart of what I see as the main issue, we are not your people, we are not your god’s people.
Our policy at WWJV4.com is to politely respond to all emails in a timely manner and address any concerns. Because you keep emailing William, he keeps responding to your concerns. If you would not like to be contacted by WWJV4.com or its moderators simply stop emailing.
I have never ripped off another person’s blog. I did write one article concerning the mindset of people who responded to Ms. Wells blog as well as her own. I did so because I see this as a larger issue. It is a local issue for me and something that I think begs discussion.
When a person puts their thoughts and ideas out on the internet for all to see they should expect that not everyone will agree with them. I have communicated to Ms. Wells privately regarding our differences of opinion.
Thank you for the comment,
Summer
We have freedom of religion in America and thus we must give each religion EQUAL value under the law. The freedom of any person to live according to their personal spiritual truths is the most sacred and important right that they can hold. If any religion were allowed to take over the government that right would be destroyed. Therefore it is imperative to a free country that religion not infringe on government. One must only look to modern theocracies such as Iran for a demonstration.
Having recently worked with you (at least in the same building) my offer of meeting with my friends, many of whom are conservatives, was an attempt to get past our differences to find common ground. I apologize if this sounds scary to you.
As for ripping off other bloggers, I apologize if you are new and do not understand how blogging works. We are more than free to comment on what other bloggers write about and will continue to do so as we see fit.