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The actions in said video were borne of religious fervor and not a lot of commons sense or informed belief. A matter of the ignorant doing something they heard about.

I would say that they also believe that physical pain should be used in discipline. Thus they combined the two to cast out demons. I also would believe that they don't have a body of rules for this sort of thing. The more established churches (like the Catholic Church) do.

So, if we saw this happening on a city street corner it would be labeled child abuse.  Why hasn't this happened with this situation.  Why should religion be used as an excuse/cover?

bedstuy wrote:

So, if we saw this happening on a city street corner it would be labeled child abuse.  Why hasn't this happened with this situation.  Why should religion be used as an excuse/cover?

That's exactly why the religious organizations don't like hate speech laws.
It's only a matter of time before they are used against us by those who don't like us, and nutty judges give ridiculous verdicts.

I can't speak to what happened in that video. I wasn't there.
Clearly I believe demons are real and can be cast out, as I believe the Bible is the truth, but there is an unfortunate trend for exorcisms where demons are not involved.

As much as religion is abused to do absurd things, attempts to control what religion can and can not do, no matter how much you dislike it, need to be exercised with extreme caution - or you are guilty of exactly what you accuse religions of, forcing your beliefs and ideals upon others who don't see things your way.

Chickenhawk wrote:

resedit wrote:

As much as religion is abused to do absurd things, attempts to control what religion can and can not do, no matter how much you dislike it, need to be exercised with extreme caution - or you are guilty of exactly what you accuse religions of, forcing your beliefs and ideals upon others who don't see things your way.

There you go with the relativism again.

We're a secular society, so therefore all of our laws should be based on secular ideals. These people beat up a boy for being gay. That is the definition of a hate crime. Whether it was committed by a religious group or not should not enter into it. The only thing that it being a religious group has to do with it is that its always disturbing that people will use religion as a shield for their own bigotry.

QFT

resedit wrote:

bedstuy wrote:

So, if we saw this happening on a city street corner it would be labeled child abuse.  Why hasn't this happened with this situation.  Why should religion be used as an excuse/cover?

That's exactly why the religious organizations don't like hate speech laws.
It's only a matter of time before they are used against us by those who don't like us, and nutty judges give ridiculous verdicts.

I can't speak to what happened in that video. I wasn't there.
Clearly I believe demons are real and can be cast out, as I believe the Bible is the truth, but there is an unfortunate trend for exorcisms where demons are not involved.

As much as religion is abused to do absurd things, attempts to control what religion can and can not do, no matter how much you dislike it, need to be exercised with extreme caution - or you are guilty of exactly what you accuse religions of, forcing your beliefs and ideals upon others who don't see things your way.

I think you need to watch the video and then take back this statement.  No American has the right to beat a child.  Don't hide behind religious freedom to defend abuse or taking rights away from people.

The real issue here should be that this church was "doing it wrong". Nowhere in the Bible do you find Jesus violently confronting demons in order to cast them out. He told them to get lost, and they got lost - period. Even the most "violent" encounter described - that of Legion - was only violent in the sense that the demons were driven into pigs, which drowned themselves in the sea.

While Christians themselves have no innate authority to cast out demons, not being God, they are granted access to ask the Holy Spirit, who does have the authority, to do so. However, Christians should be cautious when attempting to do so, as attempting to cast out demons without the authority of God is a bad idea.

True demons know the difference, and there is a story in the Bible about some priests who tried to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. It didn't end so well for the priests. On the flip side, had this been an actual exorcism, and these clowns actually called on the authority of the Holy Spirit, there wouldn't have been much to see.

The problem is that the Catholic church turned Christianity into a works-based religion like all the others; stripping away the bedrock faith that is the basis for all such actions. They came up with rituals for everything, and in a true moment of historical irony, replicated all of the worst excesses of the Pharisees. This granted greater power for the priests, who actively set about to make sure they were indispensable.

Don't confuse absurd religious ritual with authentic fruits of the faith.

Are you one of those calvinists who criticizes that catholic church for having priests instead of ministers or pastors?

radarman wrote:

Acts 19:13-16 (New International Version)

Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Naked?

Hmmm, I wonder if that demon was aquainted with the gay demon that posessed the boy in the original post?

radarman wrote:

The real issue here should be that this church was "doing it wrong".
..
Don't confuse absurd religious ritual with authentic fruits of technology.

Right. They shoulda just called Ghostbusters.

I'm still disturbed by the fact that people still think invisible creatures
are the cause of our problems and are debating the proper method for ridding one's body of them...

Chickenhawk wrote:

He would have ended up dripping with goo, but feeling like a million bucks.

Why not just let him be gay?

robco wrote:

I'm still disturbed by the fact that people still think invisible creatures
are the cause of our problems and are debating the proper method for ridding one's body of them...

I know! Some people believe our bodies are just riddled with invisible creatures! That they even live in our stomachs, in our hair, on our skin!

()

Bacteria are visible - just not to the naked eye.