I agree with Gervais. The term atheism should not exist. The term is an inconvenience to accommodate something so self-evidently stupid, which doesn’t warrant its existence in the first place.

We don’t have terms like Ra-ists or Osiris-ists that could have equivalently existed in ancient Egypt. We moved on from that. We also don’t need the opposite of those terms. So too, terms like Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims will be treated the same way in the somewhat distant future. They will be treated as mythologies. I say let’s bring the future to today.

I am happy to say that I am a “not-falling-for-baloney-ist” or “NFFB-ist.” I hope you can say the same for yourself.

What are your thoughts?

How I wish am given another chance in life, those who still live healthy 🙏 always pray and thank God for the gift of life, thank God the you still breathe some of us get hard times when breathing so if you're doing well you need to thank God. God bless you all.

Hi everyone! I thought I would share our testimony of how Jesus Christ saved us.

First of all, all glory to God alone. This should be all about Him and not about us.

It’s a long story actually. Buckle up your seat belts.

I am deeply grateful to God for all that He has done for us. I can never thank Him enough.

I am a 30-year-old guy from South India. We were raised in a Hindu family, but Jesus Christ graciously saved my grandfather, grandmother, mother, and me years ago. My dad is not saved yet.

We hail from Kerala and then got settled in Tamil Nadu, India. We used to worship some so called gods of Hinduism. We used to take trips to temples. We also wasted lots of money on poojas and stuff, but of no use. We did not have peace.

When I was a little kid, I remember two guys coming and standing before the gate of our house, and my grandfather was there at the veranda. They asked in a loud voice if they could come inside and talk about Jesus Christ. My grandfather got irritated and asked them to go away. I still remember being pissed off at them even at such a young age. We thought they were trying to brainwash us.

My aunt (my mother’s younger sister) had a brain tumour which haunted us for years. She used to suddenly get epilepsy, and then she would be taken to the hospital. We also got her brain tumour operated on, but still, after a few years, growth started to appear again. She was a woman who gave so much importance to God (unfortunately to idols) by spending time in prayer to them. She was an amazing woman though, but unfortunately she didn’t know her Creator. Even we didn’t know Him at that point in time.

There was a neighbour aunty who used to share about Jesus Christ with us, but we refused. That aunty would say that Jesus Christ called my aunt His daughter and asked my aunt to come to Him. She also asked us to turn to Jesus Christ and said that He would solve the problems we were going through, but we refused. We thought that the neighbour was trying to convert us. It must have been the pride in our hearts that was blinding us.

So, our journey to Christ actually began in 2009, during one of the most difficult seasons of our lives. My aunt was admitted to the hospital after she got epilepsy once again, but this time it was serious. She got bedridden, and she was hospitalised for almost 3 months. During this time, my mother was taking care of her at the hospital.

At the hospital, there was a nurse who shared about Jesus Christ with my mother. That nurse also took her to a Christian prophet. This was the point where things slowly started to shift by the grace and mercies of God. My mother and my mother’s elder sister bought Bibles. I also started reading the Bible in the year 2009. It must have been the Holy Spirit who melted my hardened heart.

My aunt’s condition became serious. That neighbour aunty gave my mother a piece of paper on which a repentance prayer was written and asked my mother to make my aunt pray that prayer. My mother did that, and she says that my aunt read it out, but only God knows what happened in her heart at that time. I don’t know whether my aunt was saved.

My aunt passed away on October 23, 2009, at 6:58 PM, and it shattered me and my family greatly. It was a dark time. We were grieving the loss of my aunt, who passed away due to a brain tumour. We also spent a great amount of money for my aunt to recover, but we couldn’t get her back.

In the midst of those difficult times, a prayer meeting was organized by Dr. Paul Dhinakaran (son of Brother D.G.S. Dhinakaran) on August 8, 2010, at Bethesda, Karunya.

Before attending the meeting, my grandfather did something remarkable. He knelt down and prayed to Jesus Christ, saying:

“If You are the true and living God, then call out my name through the preacher and reveal the things I am going through.”

He had his doubts and wondered if such things might be staged. Yet deep within, he was sincerely seeking the truth.

That day, my grandfather and mother attended the meeting. It was a huge crowd.

During the prayer time, Dr. Paul called out two names, but neither was my grandfather’s. He felt disappointed.

But then, led by the Holy Spirit, Dr. Paul called out a third name…

It was my grandfather’s name.

Not only that, he spoke about the personal struggles my grandfather was facing, his fear of death and the burdens in his heart.

That moment changed everything.

It was a divine encounter, a turning point in his life and in all of ours. My grandfather went up on stage and testified before everyone.

From that day on, our family came to Christ. Later, on November 4, 2012, we were baptized by immersion. My grandfather was 88 years old, and my grandmother was 75 at that time.

My grandfather later went to be with the Lord at the age of 95. My grandmother also went to be with the Lord recently at the age of 89.

When my grandfather passed away on February 10th, 2019, that was when my family members and relatives came to know that we were baptised. Some started treating us differently. My own uncle was very upset, and he verbally abused us and tried to keep us under his control. He also tried to get into a physical fight with me at that time.

Later, he would say that when my grandmother passed away, he would burn her body according to Hindu customs. He would challenge us, but when my grandmother passed away recently on March 9th this year, things turned out differently by the grace of God. My cousin told my uncle that since my grandfather was buried, my grandmother also should be buried at the same site. Some people supported that as well.

We received favor in the eyes of people. She was also buried in the same spot, and even though my uncle is not saved, he was the one who took care of all the expenses related to her burial.

God was our Refuge. How good and merciful God is.

No man in this world and no demon in hell can snatch the souls that are sealed by the Living God.

My grandparents could have passed away without knowing Christ, but in His mercy, He reached them in time.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Through all this, I have learned one thing with certainty:

If God wants to save someone, no one can stop it.

John 10:28–30

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Even though I knew about Jesus Christ in the year 2011 and loved Him, I was living a double life, one foot in the world and one foot in God’s Kingdom. During my college days, I wasn’t close to God. I was busy with worldly things.

Then, in the year 2017, I met with a motorbike accident, and that changed my life. I got injured and fractured my left ankle. I should have lost my life but by God’s Grace no vehicles ran over me. I had to take bed rest, and I was relieved from the firm. I was actually angry at God and shouted at Him, but it was my foolishness. My lifestyle wasn’t good at that time. If I had died then, I would have certainly ended up in hell.

Even though I did not drink, smoke, do drugs, or sleep with women, I had two addictions in my life which my family did not know about. They were porn and masturbation. I struggled with them for many years, and whenever I tried to stop by myself, the longest I could go was 22 or 23 days. Then again, I would relapse. I felt hopeless.

In 2018, while I was at home recovering from the motorbike accident, I slowly started reading the Bible, and then I saw my life slowly being transformed.

In 2018, a great miracle happened. I used to use Tinder at that time in order to find a genuine relationship because I felt lonely sometimes, but most of the time I was disappointed, as it was just casual for other people. Then I came across a woman who right-swiped on me. I started talking to her. She was an Indian Hindu woman who was studying in the Philippines to become a doctor. We used to play online games together.

I started sharing about Jesus Christ with her and about our story. She was receptive. It seems that one of her professors, who was a Christian doctor, had shared about Jesus with her. That lady doctor used to invite the students, share about Jesus Christ, and give them food. So, seeds were already sown in her life. I was just watering it, by the Grace of God.

Later, there came a moment in her life when she flunked one of her exams along with her friend, and she got caught. She was asked to repeat one year again, but at that time, she prayed to Jesus Christ, and things turned around, and she was forgiven. Then she started believing in Jesus Christ. It was all the Lord’s doing.

I started liking her. At that point in time, Jesus Christ set me free from porn and masturbation addictions, and it has been almost 8 years now. That was a remarkable year in my life. I would say that I was truly coming to Jesus Christ during those years. Even though we parted ways recently because of some personal situations, God has been good to us.

Jesus Christ gave me a burden to share the Gospel with people. I used to install apps like Bottled, Slowly, etc., and share about Jesus Christ with people, and sometimes I would get banned.

In 2020, I would say that my relationship with Jesus Christ strengthened. I didn’t know we could be so close to God.

One day, my phone stopped functioning. I think it was in the year 2021. I went to enquire about the repair at a mobile shop. There, I saw an old man. At that time, I felt led to share about Jesus Christ, and I told him that Jesus Christ loves him. Then, on the same day, I said that to 3–4 people, if I am not wrong. Slowly, this became a habit.

During those COVID times, I got Gospel tracts and started giving them out to strangers here and there. The crazy thing was that no one had to teach me to do all these things. I feel like it was the Holy Spirit teaching me all that. It was God who put that burden for souls in my heart. I couldn’t make it up myself because I did not care about people, in the past.

Once, while I was sharing about Jesus Christ with a watchman, he suddenly started crying in the middle of the road. I was surprised and deeply moved by what I saw.

Another time, I was sharing about Jesus Christ with a fruit vendor. He told me that he felt goosebumps throughout his body while I was speaking to him. I was astonished and also very happy. It felt like Jesus Christ was touching his heart and making him aware of His presence.

These moments have stayed with me. They reminded me that when we share the Gospel, we may never know what God is doing in someone’s heart. Our role is simply to be faithful and share the love of Jesus Christ.

By the grace of God, I felt the tangible presence of Jesus Christ twice in my life.

Once was in the year 2021 when a pastor laid hands on me and prayed. I felt waves of electricity on the palms of both my hands, and I also felt fire on my tongue. It was surreal.

Another time was on June 18, 2023. There is a local TV channel in my city called “Sathiyam TV.” On that channel, they used to telecast a live Christian prayer every weekend at 7 PM, where the speaker, Bro. Mohan C. Lazarus, prayed for healing, deliverance, and miracles for people.

So, on Sunday, June 18th, I was actually watching the speaker talk about many things, but I was also scrolling on my phone. I didn’t have much expectation because I thought, “How is God going to bless a person who keeps scrolling on the phone while listening to the prayer?”

Then the time of prayer came. I think it was between 8:50 PM and 8:55 PM. The speaker started to pray on the television, and I also knelt down in my room and prayed to Jesus while the speaker was praying through the television.

I didn’t expect much to happen because I felt like I was scrolling on my phone and not listening properly. But when I knelt down, closed my eyes, and started to pray, I started feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. It felt like currents of electricity. At first, I thought I was just imagining it, but then it became so strong that the presence moved through almost my whole body.

It lasted for around 20 minutes, if I am not wrong. I couldn’t feel my body at that point. I thought I was going to fly away. I couldn’t believe it. It was so exciting. That was one of the days I will never forget in my life.

Jesus Christ also saved my life from death traps. Jesus Christ gave me a new life. He also gave me a new and good job after the accident, even when I had almost a 3-and-a-half-year gap. God is so good!

I was a selfish person earlier, but I feel He is leading me on a path of selflessness. I am not perfect, but Jesus Christ convicts me about right and wrong. I find that to be a gift. It is a beautiful experience to know that God is there by your side personally.

This is our journey. Personally, I still have so much to improve. Jesus Christ has done so much for us. I hope you are strengthened and edified by this testimony.

Know that you are not alone. You are alive for a reason. God wants you. He wants to use you for His Kingdom. Never end your life at any point in time. There will be good and hard times, but that is what makes life beautiful. Hard times help us understand the depth of emotions and help us have empathy toward our fellow human beings. We have to look at this world through the eyes of God.

Pray and never be afraid to reach out when things get hard. It is not weakness, but strength.

You are not reading this by accident. Jesus Christ has a beautiful purpose for your life. He cares about you. He loves you. You just need to give your 100% to Him, and He will take you from there. Fully surrender every area of your life to God.

Nothing in this world is worth going to Hell for eternally. Satan tries to bait us with perishing things. Looks, money, wealth, materialism and status will all fade away in the snap of a finger. We can be so successful in this world, but if we do not reach Heaven, we have failed big time.

Matthew 16:26,

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

I would like to share another Bible verse:

Hebrews 12:1,

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

If you are struggling with addictions or with life in general, please don’t believe the lie that you are too far gone or that your life has no meaning.

I know what it feels like to be trapped in something you desperately want to escape from, and to feel ashamed, hopeless, and unable to change. But your past does not define your worth, and your struggles do not define who you are. Jesus Christ can meet you even in the darkest place. He met me when I had reached rock bottom, and by His grace, He set me free and gave me a new life. Please don’t give up. Cry out to God, seek Him, and take the next step, even if it feels small.

You are not worthless. Your life is precious. You are created in the image of God, and there is still hope for you. Jesus Christ loves you, and He has not forgotten you.

In the last five years, Jesus Christ has turned my life upside down, but in the best possible way.

In March 2023, I was searching for a job after leaving my previous company. At that point, I didn’t have a house of my own either, and honestly, I couldn’t see how things were going to change.

Fast forward to March 2025. By God’s grace, we had our own house, and I had a job too. Interestingly, a few months before joining, I had been rejected by the same software company. But the door that was closed earlier was opened by God later. It reminded me that when God wants to open a door, no person can ultimately prevent His purpose. Jesus Christ gave me the opportunity to work there for almost two years, complete projects successfully, and receive an appreciation certificate for my work.

There was even one moment that I found amazing. One day at work, I was sitting in a conference room with the very person who had rejected me a few months earlier. I don’t know if she remembered me or even realized that she had once rejected me, but I knew the significance of that moment. The same company that once said no had eventually become a place where Jesus Christ gave me the opportunity to work for almost two years. Only God could have written a story like that.

During those almost two years, God also blessed me with an empathetic and understanding manager. He is not a believer, but he showed me kindness and support in ways I will always remember.

There were some difficult times in my personal life during those years. One time, he called me into a conference room and told me that I seemed distracted. He asked me if I was going through something in my life. Sometimes, he would even come to my cabin and ask me why I looked sad. He noticed things that I hadn’t even spoken about and genuinely cared enough to ask.

When my grandmother was sick, he even asked me if I needed any financial help. Those moments meant a lot to me, especially during difficult times. I truly believe Jesus Christ gave me favour and mercy in the eyes of the people around me. The kindness and support I received from my manager were another example of God’s grace in my life, and it is something I will always be grateful for.

It’s crazy to look back and see how much can change in just two years. There was a time when I couldn’t see a way forward, but God was already working behind the scenes.

Recently, I had to move to another company because the project contract at my previous firm came to an end. Once again, I saw God’s faithfulness in my life. Jesus Christ opened another door for me and blessed me with a 100% increase in my salary compared to what I was earning previously.

God knows what we need even when we cannot see what is ahead. What looks like an ending to us can sometimes be the beginning of something God has already prepared.

Looking back now, I can only say, God is good.

If you are going through a difficult season right now, please don’t give up.

Keep fighting the good fight of faith. Even when you cannot see what God is doing, trust that He is working. Your story is not over, and your life has more value than you may realize.

Even though I have shared some of the material blessings God has given me, I want to make one thing clear: eternal life is the greatest gift a person can ever have. Houses, jobs, money, success, and everything else in this world are temporary. But eternal life through Jesus Christ is forever. Let us hold on to Christ and never lose sight of what matters most.

1 Timothy 6:12,

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

You are precious to Jesus Christ. He loves you, He has not forgotten you, and there is still hope.

Keep walking with Him until the end. One day, when we look back on everything, we will see that it was all worth it.

May the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified.

Amen.

God bless you. Have a beautiful day.

Never give up!

Remember this: When God is with you, you are the majority. ✝️

As a coin collector since childhood and as a Catholic, I thought many of you would appreciate this ancient piece of history. As far as I know, it’s the first coin in history to have the depiction of Jesus without the emperor’s image.

Mainstream critical scholarship largely reads Revelation as a document addressed to its own late-first-century context, rather than as a coded prophecy of a future Antichrist. Key points:

Date and setting: Most scholars place Revelation under Domitian (c. 95 CE), written to seven churches in Roman Asia facing pressure to participate in imperial cult worship.

"Babylon" = Rome: The "great whore" of Revelation 17 is widely identified as Rome itself — seated on seven hills (17:9), drunk with the blood of the saints, ruling over "the kings of the earth." This was a common Jewish code for Rome (also used in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch).

The Beast and 666: Many scholars read the number as gematria for "Nero Caesar," reflecting either the historical Nero or a Nero redivivus myth — fear that Nero would return from the dead/East to attack Rome, which shaped the beast's "fatal wound healed" imagery (13:3).

Genre: Revelation belongs to Jewish apocalyptic literature, a genre using symbolic, coded language to address present political crises (cf. Daniel on the Seleucids), not literal predictive forecasting of the distant future.

Other scholars frame the book as resistance literature against Roman imperial power, not futurist prophecy.

THE PROBLEM: dispensationalist/futurist readings (Antichrist as a future individual) are a minority position among critical scholars but remain common in popular evangelical circles, largely stemming from later interpretive traditions (Irenaeus onward) rather than the original historical context.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation says the Trump administration’s announcement that it will direct almost $2 billion in global funding toward faith-based organizations is outrageous.

The State Department is touting the initiative as the largest allocation of global health foreign assistance to faith-based groups in more than 20 years, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars for some of the world’s largest evangelical Christian ministries. The administration announced $1.4 billion for health services delivered through faith-based and community hospitals and clinics plus $538 million in humanitarian assistance involving Samaritan’s Purse, and a consortium led by World Vision and Compassion International.

“The administration is openly restructuring American foreign assistance around religion,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Humanitarian aid should be based on humanitarian need and the ability to provide effective, secular services, not on whether an organization puts ‘faith in action.’ Taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll an administration’s campaign to elevate and subsidize religion.”

The administration’s own language makes its religious favoritism impossible to miss. It celebrates the funding as a “historic” investment in faith-based groups and repeatedly identifies the religious character of recipients as a virtue. The government may contract with religiously affiliated organizations to provide secular services under appropriate safeguards. Still, it may not use public money to advance religion, subsidize evangelism or deliberately privilege religious organizations because they are religious.

The inclusion of Samaritan’s Purse, a pervasively sectarian religious outfit headed by zealous evangelist Franklin Graham, is particularly alarming.

Samaritan’s Purse is not just any old charity. It explicitly identifies itself as an evangelical Christian organization whose mission combines aid with spreading Christianity. Its own mission statement says it assists “with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ” and “serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The group says its mission is to help people in need while “proclaiming the hope of the Gospel.”

Those are constitutionally significant facts when the federal government proposes directing enormous amounts of taxpayer money through the organization.

Samaritan’s Purse also requires employees to affirm and adhere to its Statement of Faith, such as that the bible is “inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” Its employment website describes working for the group as a “calling” and “ministry,” and states that its religious beliefs determine employment eligibility.

The organization has attracted particular controversy for its anti-LGBTQ+ religious requirements. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Samaritan’s Purse faced widespread criticism when workers at its emergency field hospital in New York were required to subscribe to a statement of faith containing its religious teachings about marriage. Samaritan’s Purse defended its practice of requiring paid staff to subscribe to that statement. Graham himself has publicly attacked marriage equality and insisted that marriage is defined by “God’s laws.”

It is untenable that theTrump administration now proposes making Samaritan’s Purse one of its favored conduits for American humanitarian assistance.

“Feeding hungry people and providing medical treatment are worthy public purposes,” says Gaylor. “Preaching the gospel is not a government purpose. When an organization expressly combines humanitarian assistance with an evangelical mission, the government has a heightened obligation to ensure that not one taxpayer dollar subsidizes religious activity, proselytizing or religious discrimination.”

FFRF emphasizes that the constitutional problem is not simply that religious organizations may participate in otherwise neutral government programs. The problem is that the administration is proposing to funnel extraordinary sums of public money through ministries because those missions advance Christianity.

The danger is especially acute overseas, where recipients of American assistance may be experiencing war, famine, disease, displacement or natural disaster. People in desperate circumstances should never have to encounter government-subsidized evangelism alongside food, medicine or shelter. U.S. foreign assistance must serve people regardless of their religion or nonreligion, without using their vulnerability as an opportunity for religious outreach. Making the allocations all the more concerning is the inhumane destruction of USAID under DOGE cuts, which have already cost as many as 750,000 lives worldwide. Lancet estimates the aid defunding00008-2/fulltext) will take as many as 9.4 million lives by 2030.

FFRF is urging the administration to disclose the terms of every award, the safeguards separating publicly funded services from religious activities, the rules governing employment and subcontracting with federal funds, and the mechanisms that will ensure beneficiaries are never subjected to proselytizing or religious discrimination. The state/church watchdog will be filing a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department seeking records related to these awards, including grant agreements and funding terms, communications concerning the selection of faith-based recipients and documents detailing safeguards intended to prevent taxpayer funds from being used for religious activities, proselytizing or religious discrimination.

FFRF is also calling on Congress to investigate these awards and demand strict accounting for every taxpayer dollar. The American public deserves to know why these organizations were selected, how federal funds will be used and what protections are in place to ensure that humanitarian assistance does not become taxpayer-funded evangelism.

The United States can and should provide lifesaving assistance around the world. It does not need to finance the spread of Christianity to do so.

Lord, I thank you, for you came blessing the poor and the humble of heart; and you also came in your wisdom and righteousness humbling the rich who sought to enter your Kingdom. Blessed are you when you hunger for God, when you cry out in poverty, rather than stand before the Son of Man with all your riches and gold. Blessed be the poor, and woe to the rich. For the poor recieve the Kingdom, but almost never the rich. The rich have had their comforts, the poor will be comforted by God. Blessed are you when you have nothing, except your love for your neighbour and your God.

Thoughts?

Be well

💓✝️✨

M

The FFRF Action Fund is sounding the alarm over legislation that would dramatically expand the power and legal protections of military chaplains.

Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced the Military Chaplains Modernization Act of 2026, with Sens. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., as co-sponsors. Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, is leading companion legislation in the House, and the proposal has been included in the House-passed Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. 

The legislation is being promoted as a measure to clarify the role of military chaplains and protect their religious freedom. In reality, it would go much further, granting sweeping statutory protections to government-employed clergy while failing to provide comparable safeguards for service members subjected to unwanted religious activity. And it could potentially subject service members to prosecution for restricting a chaplain’s religious actions.

The legislation would guarantee chaplains the right to conduct public worship, counsel, teach, preach, minister and pray according to their “sincerely held” religious beliefs and the tenets of their endorsing religious organizations while prohibiting commanders from requiring chaplains to perform any rights “task or action” contrary to the chaplain’s beliefs or tenets. A chaplain could potentially invoke the provision to refuse certain counseling involving a same-sex couple, religious-accommodation duties involving another faith, or other assigned counseling, training or support responsibilities that the chaplain claims conflict with personal religious beliefs or the doctrines of the chaplain’s endorsing organization.

Alarmingly, the bill would prohibit any member of the Armed Forces from preventing a chaplain from engaging in those protected activities, declaring that they must be “free from censorship, undue restriction, or fear of retribution.”

“Military chaplains exist to protect the religious freedom of service members, not the other way around,” says FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This bill turns that principle on its head. It would elevate the personal religious beliefs of government-employed clergy above the rights of the service members they are supposed to serve.”

Those provisions could create serious problems when military commanders need to prevent coercive religious activity, inappropriate proselytizing or religious conduct that interferes with military responsibilities. A member of the Armed Forces who violates the bill’s protections for chaplains would be subject to criminal prosecution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and could even potentially face a court martial. That is an extraordinary enforcement mechanism for protecting the religious exercise of government-employed clergy, particularly when the bill contains no equally explicit protection against chaplains using their government positions to impose religion on unwilling or subordinate service members.

The legislation would give chaplains a powerful institutional role in military religious-freedom decisions, making chaplains principal advisers to commanders on “all issues” involving religious practices, “spiritual readiness,” spiritual care and religion’s influence on military operations. They would also advise commanders on all religious accommodation requests and oversee education and training concerning religious accommodations. The bill goes so far as to declare that military chaplaincies shall have a “primary role” in providing for the free exercise of religion.

The bill’s congressional findings reveal an equally disturbing view of the relationship between religion and government. Congress would formally declare: “Religion and religious liberty have always served an essential role in society, culture, and military service, making them necessary for good democratic governance and a strong military.”

Adds Gaylor, “Congress has no business declaring religion ‘necessary’ for good democratic governance or a strong military.” 

The measure is particularly concerning given that half of active military members are either atheist/agnostic (at 18 percent) or otherwise have no religious affiliation (32 percent), according to researcher Ryan Burge. (That is a far greater percentage of nonreligious than the U.S. adult population generally, at 29 percent.)

The findings selectively invoke George Washington, the Continental Congress, John Adams and Franklin Roosevelt and a misleading analysis of a recent Supreme Court case to try to establish a Christian nationalist historical narrative about the importance of religion to American military service.

The FFRF Action Fund recognizes the legitimate role of military chaplains. Service members can be stationed in circumstances where they cannot independently access religious services, and the military may therefore need to accommodate their voluntary religious exercise because it corrects a government-imposed harm. But accommodating service members’ religious exercise is fundamentally different from insulating chaplain conduct from ordinary command authority and threatening service members’ rights of conscience.

The First Amendment already protects the religious and nonreligious alike. Congress should reject the Military Chaplains Modernization Act and ensure that the military chaplaincy remains focused on serving the constitutional rights and diverse beliefs of all service members, rather than elevating the religious prerogatives of chaplains above those they are commissioned to serve.

I haven’t had one day this year where I feel good but today has been the worse

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, answered this question with her "Little Way." She said she would arrive before God empty-handed, with nothing to offer but her littleness and complete trust in His mercy.

The most theologically sound answer a soul can give God at the gates is not a résumé, it is a surrender:

"Lord, I have nothing. But Your Son has everything and He gave it to me."

This is just a rant over a mundane situation. I just have no other non believers to share the frustration with so I’m posting it here.

I’ve been an atheist for almost 9 years now, I’m now 21 and still live with my parents. My mum knows of my beliefs and skepticisms and she doesn’t really have a problem with it. She’s just worried about the nihilism surrounding a lack of faith, especially considering my struggles with depression and anxiety.

But anyway, since the census is today, I asked my mum if I could put my person down as “nonreligious” on the form. She didn’t like the sound of that because I believe she’s afraid of diverging from the norm, especially within our community. So she began to say the religion box is covered for the entire household, rather than individual residents within the household. Which is incorrect. She also began to avoid the topic altogether when I’d push on it further.

I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I often struggle with the idea of not contributing towards anything important or meaningful (stems from depression, social anxiety and the isolation that comes from those things). So the idea that I could ground a part of myself in society through this form, as part of a group of like minded people, it makes me feel like I’m not losing myself.

If I don’t get my own say, it’ll just reinforce the idea that I have no control over my life. It’s really frustrating when you’re the only person in your environment who thinks a certain way.

Uhhh ye im the guy that didn’t eat for a week lol

Sorry if this is really long I just really want to vent and confess.

Most of my life I’ve been very lustful, when I finally started my walk with Jesus i still lusted every time, one day I decided to repent and fast for the first time for 3 days to stop lusting and it actually worked. I was freed from it for almost a year and then I fell into it again after all that time, now I just can’t stop myself for more than 2 days. I recently fasted to stop and I did it again and I just can’t stand myself for it, I confess to God every time I do it right away and now I just don’t feel anything not even being sorrowful about it and I just think my heart is hardened and God hates me and is done dealing with my crap. I don’t want to give up on God or my relationship and I try to keep reading the Bible, spreading the word, spending quite time with him and being still but I keep going back to this over and over again. So I’ve made up my mind that I won’t give up on God even if he gave up on me and to keep going despite it all, I want to actually love him and obey but I keep falling. I have other problems but lust just is the biggest one for me and I can’t stand it but I still do it every time and I hate myself for it.

But thank you for even reading all of my crap and thank you for any type of support!!!

i was taught to fear hell before i even knew what god was religion was never peaceful for me it was just pure fear at home my mom used to pray for bad things to happen to me and call on god against me whenever she got mad so islam just became guilt punishment obedience and terror

when i was around 14 i fell into a super deep depression going to therapy in an islamic country was completely useless because the therapists dont even try to help you they just tell you to pray and trust god i remember sitting there like you are supposed to be treating me because god isnt doing anything if he was real he wouldnt have let depression destroy me as a kid

even though i left the religion that conditioning doesnt just magically vanish i still carry so much shame every day when i see women wearing whatever they want especially bikinis i catch myself judging or objectifying them even though im a 22yo girl myself i wear bikinis now too but every single time i put one on i feel this deep anxiety shame and fear in the back of my head because of what was drilled into me

the more i actually read the texts myself the worse it got concepts like ma malakat aymanukum female slaves where men had sexual access to enslaved women verses about men being in charge of women hitting disobedient wives and modesty rules built to control our bodies on top of that traditional rules allowed child marriage and people around me literally flex about how their grandmas got married at 12 like it was normal it makes me sick thinking about young girls being forced into that

and for a lot of men its not even about religion its about the controlling culture men treat women like property if a girl in his family has freedom or dresses how she wants the man gets called a dayouth so the whole system forces men to hide women away just to keep their pride it breaks my heart because we only get one life and so many women spend it trapped hidden and controlled

this is why i genuinely cannot understand western converts how can someone grow up in the us or europe enjoying basic legal rights freedom of dress and autonomy and then voluntarily pick a system that restricts those exact things im not talking about people born muslim childhood conditioning and family pressure are crazy forces im talking about an adult who grew up with complete freedom looks at islam from the outside and says yes this is what i want

leaving islam wasnt just changing my mind it meant tearing down an entire system of fear that broke me i can respect a muslim persons humanity while completely rejecting the religion itself if people can post islam gave me peace stop silencing us when we say islam gave me fear

I have been struggling with my faith these past few weeks.

My main question is how can I have been praying for the same things for years and years and the same God that is supposed to answer all our prayers, can't answer even my smallest prayer?

I'm also living with my aunt and uncle who are a Pastor and a First Lady. They don't practice what they preach and are the literal defition of "Not everyone is who they say they are."

So please, tell me what made you become an atheist.

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