Trump cheats at golf - the ONE and ONLY politics thread

Not exactly. I'd argue - sincerely - that our culture's exalting of sexuality and sexual identity alters what we'd think of any psychosocial or biological indicators. Anorexia nervosa is not particularly different - a very thin person insisting they're large and overweight - but we don't hand them what I'd call "full moral and intellectual credence." We, quite simply, do not indulge them. Nor would we indulge every identification whim of the rarest of people, those who believe themselves imbued with animal spirits. Stalking Cat - who committed suicide at 54 - would not have been allowed to, for example, walk around in public naked because of his certitude that he was a cat. He would have been locked up. And if you're upset that I'd make the connection between either anorexics of Stalking Cat, well, it's worth asking why.

Is there a loving way to tell anyone anything questionable or controversial about their state of being?

Grace isn't "receiving niceness and a lack of opinion." It's unmerited favor, and to act as if you've received it is generally to ask and speak humbly. It's not necessarily bound, however, to saying nice things all the time. The Bible compellingly argues, for example, that we're sinners from the second we're born, the stain carried over from original sin. This is not a nice thing to say to babies, or about babies, or about particularly cool people who seem to have all their shit together. Yet, it's true. The best person you know remains in a position of deficit to God that no action can ever make up. It is out of this knowledge that we can speak humbly for, in essence, we're all in equal, perpetual need of the same grace. Grace is not "you're a good person and don't let anybody tell you different." Grace is "you're kind of screwed up, but we're both in the same crappy boat, and I'd kindly ask you to hold me as accountable to things and I hope to hold you."

Well, I'm not sure the "teaching I espouse" can be sufficiently explained on a message board, as it's better done in the kind of relationship that I'd like to hope I engage in.

Further, let's be clear: The matter of transgenderism is a bit of a mystery, right? I'm not suggesting it's not a complex issue. All kinds of matters of brokenness are complex, deep, painful, awful. Divorce is complex. Drug abuse is complex. People who are habitual liars and gossips are complex - and, in my experience, the most damaging people in a church. When it gets down to brass tacks, what do you have to say about any of these things aside of the things postmodern liberal culture hold up as bad?

 

In matters of art, all kinds of artists, even if I don't always like their art.

Journalists are, to some degree, always stewards of the people who speak in their stories. Saslow, IMO, is a highly faithful steward when it comes to the essence to the person's plight. His work is incredibly empathetic, which I appreciate. We need more of that kind of work.

The beats in his conversations and the small scope of his scenes - not the stories, but the scenes in them - do have a kind of forward momentum and airlessness to them. They're masterfully controlled. I'm not sure I sense joy or serendipity in them. They seem determinisitic.

Just the way I read them. I'm not a Pulitzer Prize winner, nor do I claim to be.

 

I wonder if Bernie will put her in charge of the economy if he gets elected:

 

Meanwhile, the GOP's own lawyer for BENGHAZI! says that there was nothing different that could have been done by the military that night.

Former GOP lawyer: Military acted properly on Benghazi

But of course. Gowdy and Co. tried to keep that under wraps.

 

Anorexia nervosa is a false equivalency and you know it. While a certainly complex issue, there is only scant evidence that it's genetic, and while there are some biological precursors it is not something that cannot be reversed. Transgenderism is at the core of a person's being. The treatment for gender dysphoria is for them to live as the other, not to try to reverse their condition.

No. There isn't. There are loving ways to communicate with people about their behavior, but not the core of who they are. It's the significant distinction between a drug addict and a homosexual.

Telling a homosexual that they are a sinner because they are a homosexual - or alternatively because they act on that desire inherent in their being - is not holding them accountable. Telling a transgender person that they are "confused" is not holding them accountable. To do either in the context of Christianity harms the person hearing it, harms the person delivering it and harms the body of Christ.

You've explained clearly enough that you believe - based on your understanding of Paul's writings - that the New Testament clearly prohibits homosexuality.

I have no clue what you're asking. I've tried to unpack that question two or three times but I don't know what you're getting at with that last clause. I'll say this. Divorce is a choice. Drug abuse is a choice. Lying is a choice. There can be complex problems surrounding all three that lead a person to a place where making the right choice is incredibly difficult, but they're ultimately choices. Being homosexual is not a choice. Being transgender is not a choice.

 

I'm not one of those BENGHAZI! folks, but that finding is so narrow that it does nothing to exonerate Obama, Clinton, and Rice.

Baron should be able to summarize the findings for us.

 

Please see below for an image of Tony preparing to handle this year's presidential election results.

 

Whoops!

Conservative congressional candidate shares screenshot, forgets to close porn windows

 

Probably just researching a bathroom bill.

 

Could have been much more embarrassing than "Layla Rivera tight body" and "Ivonne Sexy Amateur" I suppose.

 

I can summarize the findings quite easily.

Everything the Republicans say is bullshit.

Thank you.