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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
Can someone explain to me what this thread has to do with religion? I see all these religious references but nothing in any of the stories about any religious organizations.
What I do see is at best a choice of questionable police tactics and at worst a misappropration of authority. I have to wonder, however, about the location where these tickets are being written and if anyone is indeed impeeding the flow of traffic.
I'm really not sure at all what to make of the last story. It's pretty self-evident here that a lot of homeless are veterans. Not all of them saw action, but a lot did. I think that the stereotypical homeless person in most Americans' eyes is a Vietnam veteran who couldn't deal with the world outside of combat and is an addictive mess. I'm not saying that's right, just my opinion on exactly what the stereotype is. I guess that means that my son's stereotype will be an Iraq veteran instead. Sad but a part of human nature I think.
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Ever asked yourself where America’s disapproving attitoode to the poor came from, Jazzer?
Ever wondered why America and its sickeningly sycophantic Calvinazi satraps in the U.K, Canada, and Oz also think poverty is a sure sign of divine disapproval?
Or why craven John Wayne wannabes, who haven’t ever and never will see a shot fired in anger if they can help it, condemn people as traitors if they don’t “support our troops” in Eye-Wrack and AgaKhanistan? Yet the same warlike Cut-lunch Commandos couldn’t give a flying fuck for "our boys" when they come home as damaged goods?
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• Divine providence (predestination): We are born good or evil (bad seed). Criminals are part of all communities, as saints and sinners are forced to live together. Ultimately it is all part of God’s plan, established before the first human ever appeared on earth. If this sounds like Calvinism, as we discussed the first night of class, you’re right. A Calvinistic God is all powerful, all knowing, and ultimately inscrutable.
The idea of divine providence leads to many questions. Is God the author of evil as well as good? Why would God choose certain persons for divine bliss while others are destined for eternal damnation? Is there nothing human beings can do about their fate? However, Calvin forbade even asking these questions. Questioning God is the ultimate blasphemy.
What would the followers of Calvin do? Would they follow Calvin’s admonition not to question providence? Of course not! Max Weber has described the results of the quest to know one’s fate in one of the most famous history texts ever written The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Calvin’s followers quickly realized that to live in a world in which one’s life decisions had no impact on one’s ultimate outcome was to live in an absurd world. One could lie, cheat, and steal and still end up in heaven. On the other hand, God might reject even a virtuous person because they were not "chosen." Calvinists believed that God was not a trickster (unlike Woody Allen’s view of God in Love and Death), and would not fool believers into thinking they were saved.
The sign of God’s election chosen by Calvinists was success in a worldly occupation. The idea of "work as a calling" was borrowed from Martin Luther, who exhorted believers not to leave their current jobs for religious occupations (becoming a priest or nun). The inadvertent result of the Calvinist creation of the Protestant work ethic was the establishment of capitalism. With renewed devotion to work, the self-fulfilling prophecy was success in business.
One unfortunate consequence of the Protestant ethic was a flip-flop in Western attitudes toward the poor. Some would argue that our criminal justice system is still trying to overcome the built-in bias against behavior among the poor now dominant in our culture. Prior to Calvinism, the predominant perspective toward poverty was that it had special spiritual significance. Jesus was poor, priests often took vows of poverty, and the poor were to be helped by the church community through the giving of alms. After the emergence of capitalism, the poor were considered disreputable. Images of the poor as lazy, drug and alcohol abusers, petty criminals, are commonplace. Attempts to control the behavior of the poor have abounded, while business-related crimes seemed to be ignored. It has not been difficult for critical theorists to make this point.
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from here