Scotch,

Many religious leaders operate (quite successfully) outside the realm of their non-profit status.  There is nothing unusual about this......as long as proper disclosure and taxes are paid on the profits.

sciuriware - 09 March 2009 02:51 PM

At least one of you doesn’t realize that this thread can,
and will be read by people all over the world.
What would they think of the Western ‘civilization’ after this ..........?

;JOOP!

You think? That’s why I think it’s a put-on or gag on quest’s part just to rile everybody up to post.  There are republicans (like me) who aren’t slightly right of Attila the Hun, LOL......

Mo,

Ha Ha....can’t say I’ll admit to that, at least not entirely!  A hearty swing at the hornets nest once in a while is fun though.

I will admit that I am NOT a Republican....I subscribe to no party line....but I am conservative....SURPRISE!

I truly believe that the absolute least amount of government is the best (libertarian to some degree) and that NO government can dictate morality...that comes from one place and one place alone.

We should have agressively enforced our anti-trust laws long ago to curb corporate greed and we should never tolerate corruption in government...nor should we promote those we know to be corrupt.....a condition we are engaging in at this minute.

This country was prayed into exitence and its been Gods will that it be a properous country...as it has.  As we turn away from Him in our culture....He shall allow that as well, but we must not blame Him if it does not go well for us.

Call me crazy.

questconsulting - 09 March 2009 05:31 PM

Mo,

Ha Ha....can’t say I’ll admit to that, at least not entirely!  A hearty swing at the hornets nest once in a while is fun though.

I will admit that I am NOT a Republican....I subscribe to no party line....but I am conservative....SURPRISE!

I truly believe that the absolute least amount of government is the best (libertarian to some degree) and that NO government can dictate morality...that comes from one place and one place alone.

We should have aggressively enforced our anti-trust laws long ago to curb corporate greed and we should never tolerate corruption in government...nor should we promote those we know to be corrupt.....a condition we are engaging in at this minute.

This country was prayed into existence and its been Gods will that it be a prosperous country...as it has.  As we turn away from Him in our culture....He shall allow that as well, but we must not blame Him if it does not go well for us.

Call me crazy.

One of the freedoms our founding fathers championed was to worship, or NOT to worship.  Belief (or non-belief) in God shouldn’t be a condition for citizenship.  And I’ve seen many God-fearing politicians who are morally bankrupt, so I don’t think the religious right is any better at dictating morality.

As a (fiscal) republican, I’ve always favored laissez-faire capitalism, fiscal responsibility and to let the market dictate---I’m not a fan of the bailout. 
But I am also a social democrat, in that I believe that my gay friends have every right to get married as do my straight ones.  If they pay taxes and have kids, why shouldn’t they get married?

While I don’t expect God to book my next gig, praying doesn’t hurt.... ;-)

We should have aggressively enforced our anti-trust laws long ago to curb corporate greed and we should never tolerate corruption in government...nor should we promote those we know to be corrupt.....a condition we are engaging in at this minute.

This country was prayed into existence and its been Gods will that it be a prosperous country...as it has.  As we turn away from Him in our culture....He shall allow that as well, but we must not blame Him if it does not go well for us.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Brother Mo-z, although I agree with most of your above statements.
Sometimes as we see in this ordeal with this kid being sentenced by the judge, is where the can of worms was opened ( or finally paid attention to ) and we get to see what’s been lurking about all along.

I believe that most would agree that sometimes going through a unpleasant journey can bring about a blessing’s in the end.
It takes a lot of dirt to find a diamond, and at the end of the day, where not there yet.
Peace & blessings.

[questconsulting] Many religious leaders operate (quite successfully) outside the realm of their non-profit status.  There is nothing unusual about this......as long as proper disclosure and taxes are paid on the profits.

I could easily imagine, by the way, Coulter and Limbaugh performing the same essential job working as columnists for Pravda under Brezhnev, mutatis mutandis. (Of course they would spew a different sort of propaganda--as far as denotative content goes, not necessarily so significant with them--, and their editors likely wouldn’t allow them to be nearly as abrasive.)

Mo-Z
“One of the freedoms our founding fathers championed was to worship, or NOT to worship.  Belief (or non-belief) in God shouldn’t be a condition for citizenship.  And I’ve seen many God-fearing politicians who are morally bankrupt, so I don’t think the religious right is any better at dictating morality.”

You should meet my brother. He refers to himself as a Social Liberal and a Fiscal Fascist. Which i guess averages out to a moderate centrist...?

Bob

Wow. That was weird. I quoted a totally different passage from Mo-Zs post and a day later the paragraph above showed up which makes my response look off-topic. Does the new Motifator III package use a pointer to quoted text which doesn’t update properly if the original quoted post is altered?

Scotches comment,

“If the term religious leader includes, for example, the late Frederick Pope, former Reverend of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ferguson, Missouri, and thus leader of this church, then I should think there is something very unusual indeed--at least statistically--about religious leaders to whom the label capitalist could reasonably be applied.”

I would agree that to capitalize upon the office or position of leader of the church certainly may cause ethical problems particularily in the area of self-enrichment.

It is not the only way, though. For instance, in your example, a favorite title of the clergy is that of “reverend”.  The adjective reverend is only used in the Bible one time.  Psalm 111 uses it to describe the name of God “.....Holy and reverend is His name”

The term is never biblically used outside this association with God.  The dictionary defines reverend as worthy to be revered; entitled to reverence.  Another definition says that to be reverend is to be worthy of adoration.

It is quite obvious to see why man would want to apply this description to himself.....man loves to be revered and adored......but for any church leader to assume a title in order to exhault himself, which, by the way, is in direct in opposition to what the Gospel teaches, raises ethical questions of another type.