BC POLITICS
Saved by @Alex1Powell

Wonderfully refreshing
Lusk speaking about "the danger of Christians claiming privilege within the state and the persecution of Christians which that led to...
If you have a political system which gives privilege to Christians then that system have to define what a Christian is"

 Paynter: "If Christians are pursuing political power, what ... they are essentially saying is that might makes right."
Lusk: 1/ "The basic problem w/a religious right is that it says that the state has been established by God to enforce law & all law has a religious basis."
Lusk: 2/ "And therefore whatever the state does must reflect a religious position. And therefore if there are diverse religious positions at work, then the inevitable result is that one will oppress the other."
Lusk: "To say we are post-Christian does not mean we are ex-Christian ... Although Christain belief is a small minority, certainly our culture, our values, our system- these are very much part of a Christian heritage and sensibility which is inherited."
Paynter: It's a question now of what privilege the church should claim. I don't want to say that Christians shouldn't be active in politics or speaking in the public square. But we shouldn't claim a privilege, to work with people of other faiths or none towards the common good"
Feldman now bringing up an example my mind was going to as well, which is Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron:
"He had voted to endorse same sex marriage but then his personal view as a Christian ... he didn't endorse it the same way. Is that the kind of thing that you're getting at?"
[pausing for a moment - will return shortly to tweet more about this fascinating podcast episode]
Lusk: "Essentially, for a politican to be asked, is something a sin, is a violation of religious liberty. What is a sin is properly a matter within the church. What is properly to be [considered] under the law is a matter for the whole community."
Payner saying Judges is one of her favourite books of the Bible.
SAME.
Now talking about the parable of the trees. Exciting stuff.

Sidenote: This is something I've spent some time on too.
https://t.co/1XJQX6cXwr
Lusk speaking about the parable.
Context: God gave permission for the people to have a king. And I interpret that as meaning they could have a state.
They went first to Gideon. He said no, God will rule over you.
So they set up a worship point in his home town.
Idolatry.
Gideon dies. Abimelech asks to be made king.
A grim story about violence in politics, as Abimelech rounds up all his rivals to be killed.
One survives: Jothan, who tells the parable of the trees.
*Jotham.
In the parable, the bramble says I will rule over you. But be careful lest I burn you all up.
At that point, Jotham says, if you have in truth to Gideon made Abimelech ruler, good luck to you. If not, be careful because you will get burnt up.
Israel turns into a failed state.
Lusk: 1/ "The point of this story is that the thorn is a picture of the state. The thorn is not a useless tree. If you travel in dry desert lands, you'll see rows of thorn that keep the animals in, etc. In dry, hot conditions the thorn can catch fire."
Lusk: 2/ "So if you're going to have a thorn bush, keep it watered and trimmed. The picture here is of the state's function, properly and legitimately is to have the monopoly of force. The state can project force to protect the fruit trees."
Feldman: Citing Bellah, "There is no human activity which cannot assume religious significance."
"I wonder if it's possible to have a secular state that doesn't draw upon metaphysical notions of the good or use certain religious tropes."
Lusk: "I would like to think that's possible and to my mind it's worth trying, that we simply have - the job of government should be a technical job."

My comment: As a scholar of religious language, I don't believe this is possible, so I'm interested in the argument here.
Feldman: Arguing that there will by default be cornerstone principles, documents, etc.. That somehow, running a state, is not possible without some element of [the metaphysical].
Feldman: "There is traditional organized religion. That can in some cases be the defining characteristic of a state (theocracy). Then there is this sort of social glue that every society needs... To some degree ... a good society [is an] inherently metaphysical determination."
Sidenote: Strongly recommend that Christians listeners look into two kingdom doctrine, which speaks to much under discussion here.
Lusk: "I don't think the common good is a Christian idea. Christians understand human beings to be sinful, and we believe that good is found only in submission to God."

Sidenote: again, strongly recommend literature on 2 Kingdoms (e.g., Luther), which speaks to this.
Lusk: "We need to explore the idea of the good society as being the competent society, the society that creates safety and the society that makes it possible for people to pursue their own idea of good. People don't become good by conforming to the state."
Lusk: "Religious views do colour an ability to do [a political] job. Because if [a Christian politican] does their job well, it's honouring to God. But it's not the job of a Christian politician to go out and make people behave like Christians."
Paynter: "What are your thoughts about what the religious right is trying to do in the United States at the moment?"
Lusk: "The backbone of this is an ideology, of Rushdoony and Schaeffer and it was the idea that the state exists to promote law, that the law it promotes must be God's law, that if it's not God's law, than it's Satanic. We must wage cultural war against this phenomenon."
Lusk: "A huge movement of protecting men within marriage, the role of women, this stuff is still going on, the subordination of women, meeting sexual needs of men. This is really powerful stuff."
Now some discussion about the role of civil rights movement in the religious right.
Racism, sexism tied in to the religious right.
Lusk: Part of the appeal of Jimmy Carter was character. But part of the pushback against Carter was, he was too nice, not delivering to the evangelical base.
Trump is seen as a strong man who will deliver. Character is irrelevant.

Thanks to @HelenEPaynter and @matthew_feldman and their guest Paul Lusk for such a stimulating episode.

I highly recommend this series.

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> At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton... declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States.

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My piece in the NY Times today: "the Trump administration is denying applications submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services at a rate 37 percent higher than the Obama administration did in 2016."

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Rachel "The Doc" Bitecofer \U0001f4c8\U0001f52d\U0001f34c
Rachel "The Doc" Bitec...
@RachelBitecofer
1. "They're leaving! They're leaving!"" yell seditionist as they watch House members fleeing the floor through the glass doors the only thing (+ some under-armed officers + office furniture" that protected our elected REPs (same ballot as Trump, each & everyone

@McConnellPress

2. of them felt so inclined towards martyrdom and/or possessed the weapons (Jesus, what if they'd has a grenade & guess what, in America, yes, you can come up w functional equivalents of that bc barring people from them is a betrayal of freedom so great we must simply acquiesce

3. their eventual death tolls. One functional "freedom grenade" down that hallway, tossed w ease through a hole in the glass door, could have easily hit anyone fleeing.Unless it was Mo Brooks, MTG, or one of their well-known crazy boosters, here's a thing @LeaderMcConnell ought

4. to reflect upon as he makes his CRITCAL pivot decision, which he could rally 17 people & start a fight for control of the party that rest of the country will help him with,EVEN AFTER ALL THE SHIT HE'S DONE TO PEOPLE, YES, THE REST OF THE COUNTRY WOULD HELP HIM IF HE WAS TO

5. RALLY 17 SENATORS FOR IMPEACHMENT, he'd find his whole 🌎awakened. And Mitch, as far as I understand it, you could do it anonymously!! How much would THAT fuck w them?? How great would it be, for the 1st time in 5 yrs, to be the one w power- you LOVE power! Think of the FUN!
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Much of Twitter is misunderstanding Bruce Castor’s speech at Trump’s impeachment trial because much of Twitter is absolutely NOT Bruce Castor’s audience.

This man is on it. He knows he only needs to keep *over 1/3 with him. Then more so, he needs the American nation on his side.

Honestly, Twitter misunderstanding what Bruce Castor is doing right now is like Twitter misunderstanding how Brexit & Trump won back then

“Why fear the people who were smart enough to pick you?” (*Listen*)

And yes, ditto for David Schoen. He knows who his audience is.

And he’s on target.

Two different audiences
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Oooooh, he held up the Red book. OUCH 😖😆
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We all have heard and read the Satyanarayan katha. But none of us dont know the original stories that Shatanand or Sadhu or Kalavati must have heard. Also, as a habit we hear or read this katha


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#SatiSavitri #RealLifeExperiences #BharatDarshana

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1/

This is a real-life incident as narrated by Prof. Krishna Bihari Pandey titled "Sati Savitri"

Sati Savitri is a well known puranic figure from Srimad DeviBhagwatham and Mahabharatha as one of those who fought with Yama to save her husband.

2/

This story is a modern real-life experience which mimics the puranic account in it's own unique way.

The story occurs in 1975 with Prof and his wife in Delhi with professor working as a researcher in university. Prof's family is in Allahabad in a large joint family

3/

Once Prof gets to know that his mother is not keeping well. He goes to his native and brings his mother. With dedicated care of his wife, his mother recovers quite remarkably and regains full stamina and strength

Mother-in-law & Daughter-in-law go out for shopping frequently

4/

Life's going smooth until one day when they receive a telegram that Prof's father is not keeping well.

His mother is distressed about the situation and requests her son to take her to the native. Prof is a little angry due to frequent travels and turns it down

5/
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(Very long thread but useful) 1/n

Shashanka was a Shaivite king of Gauda with his capital being Karnasuvarna.
He is often accused to be a persecutor of Buddhists by the certain historians prejudiced folks to form a picture that Hindu kings were also against other religions just like the muslim kings. 2/n

Much of Shashanka's life after 619 CE is not very much known to us. Historians primarily cite from a few sources like 1) Banabhatta's Harshacharita and 2) Hsuan Tsung's Si Yu Ki(SYK), both being 7th century texts and 3/n

3) Manjushri Mula Kalpa(MMK), an 8th century text sometimes also dated as a 12th century text. 4/n

The method of accusing Shashanka as a Buddhist hater is established by saying that Shashanka desecrated Buddha's sacred marks, destroyed the Bodhi Tree in Gaya and replaced the Buddha statue w Shiva after which he died as he incurred a mortal flesh-rotting disease 5/n
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