Did America make a pact with the devil?

[Thinktank]

Did America make a pact with the devil?

In 2010 evangelical Christian Pat Robertson said 220,000 Haitians were killed by an earthquake because Haiti made a pact with the devil. Now, Fukushima will be sending radiation towards America for at least the next forty years because of another earthquake. Did America also make a pact with the devil, to deserve Fukushima's radiation?

79.5% of America's population is Christian - that's 246 million people who believe in a God who performs miracles, or so they say. Every Sunday American Christians listen to preachers remind them of the miracle, when God opened the waves of the Red Sea to lead the nation of Israel right through the middle. But there was no suggestion of a miracle to remove one old guy - Saddam Hussein. Shame on you America for spending $4 trillion on the Iraq war, killing a million Iraqis, and giving the Iraqis depleted uranium for the next 1,000 years. You made a pact with the devil, and none of your Christian preachers protested - too loudly. Now, Fukushima will be giving America radiation for at least the next forty years. Did America make a pact with the devil?

You know what would be a miracle, America? If you could stop eating fast food long enough to stop the number of obese American children from doubling every thirty years. I think Americans spend about $1 trillion on God each year ( churches) and $4 trillion on the Iraq war - where there were no miracles. Shame on you America - you spend more on wars than all other countries on earth combined.
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[steven lloyd]

[alexoliversen]

That's the ugly part of religion. When people pray for their own people they care only for the benefit for themselves. But that why it's an oxymoron - if there is really only one god, then we are all part of that god, thus there is no us or them.

It is only selfish people who pray for their own needs ahead of others, that causes suffering in the world. Fools demonize others and use them as a scape goats, but that's when it fails, as eventually it back fires on them.

Unfortunately we are all affected by their arrogance and ignorance.

[Piecemaker]

Can't make a pact with an entity that doesn't exist.

[Bsuds]

Can't make a pact with an entity that doesn't exist.

You haven't met my MIL!

[Thinktank]

That's the ugly part of religion. When people pray for their own people they care only for the benefit for themselves. But that why it's an oxymoron - if there is really only one god, then we are all part of that god, thus there is no us or them.

But the bible teaches us to ask God to kill our enemies - I think.

Jeremiah 18
"Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
"

[Hmmm]

But the bible teaches us to ask God to kill our enemies - I think.


"

There were battles for the promise land as well as to protect the nation of Israel however this is not the case today. Think Tank, you really know very little about the bible as your posts indicate, either you really are the ignorant or your trolling. I think the later. My wish for you is that you someday get a life.

[Thinktank]

There were battles for the promise land as well as to protect the nation of Israel however this is not the case today.

The bible says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever.

If God wanted to slay the enemy by the sword - yesterday - then God wants to do it today.
God never changes.

[Thinktank]

[There were battles for the promise land as well as to protect the nation of Israel however this is not the case today.

How about tithes? Are we still supposed to give tithes like they did in the nation of Israel's time?

I'm wondering which things I'm supposed to copy from those old warmonger old testament people,
and which things God wants me to do differently?

It's so confusing. I think I need a huge multi billion dollar religion to teach me.

[Hmmm]

you seem very insincere. I would be happy to meet for a coffee and discuss any sincere questions you have. Otherwise have a great day just the same.

[Thinktank]

you seem very insincere.

Actually I'm the most sincere person on this forum - it causes problems sometimes.

Your problem is you've been brainwashed into thinking some guys in New York writing little articles
in a religious magazine - somehow know more than anyone else.

[Hmmm]

Actually I'm the most sincere person on this forum - it causes problems sometimes.

I highly doubt your sincerity because your conclusions are so off base and would only take about one minute of research to come to a more accurate understanding. its not like you're finding some small hidden messages and discussing them, you're making large blanket statements that are just wrong.

[Thinktank]

But the bible teaches us to ask God to kill our enemies - I think.

There's a lot of stuff in the old testament of the bible that says it's okay to ask God to strike our enemies dead.

Jesus said to love our enemies, yet the God of the old bible
always wanted people who disobeyed Him to be slayed by the sword.
This causes confusion among Christians. So the way the christians deal with the confusion - is to make more money.

Have you ever noticed, in life, howmoney solves all problems?

[Glacier]

The legend of making a pact with the devil is ancient. It goes all the way back to pre-Christian Celtic tales, and was carried over to America by the Scots-Irish protestants who settled in both the north and south. It's the same story used to hang witches up north, and down south, the slaves enjoyed a good spooky tale as much as anybody, and it matched similar stories told in mother Africa.

The most famous one would be the legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil. (The movie "Oh Brother, Where art Thou" plays on this same legend, as does the Ralph Baccio movie "Crossroads."



Johnson, the pioneer of Rock'n Roll, was a better guitar player than most of his contemporaries, and could play popular early jazz tunes the most of the other's couldn't. His high, keening vocal style was more common, but the two together made him really popular, and popularity breeds imitation. Later bluesmen took up his style.

In truth, Johnson was pretty much forgotten until the young Brits discovered him in the early 60s. Without Eric Clapton, Eric Burdon, and the Rolling Stones, Johnson would be just a minor historical mention now.

For the white southerners, it was the fiddlers or banjo players who made the deal with the devil. For the black folks, it was the bluesman. Both races had rambling musicians back then, who walked into town, played for whoever paid them pocket change or better, carried a pistol, drank bad whiskey, and rambled on.

Dock Boggs, the white banjo player, packed the same story with him that Johnson had. And like Johnson, Boggs had a voice that makes your hair stand straight up, and a reputation of hard drinking, fighting, and stealing another man's woman.

The only big difference between them was Johnson got killed early due to his misbehavior, and Boggs quit music and went down in the mines when he married. He managed to survive long enough to be rediscovered during the folk music craze of the early 60's, and became re-known while he was still alive.

Mississippi John Hurt was another early bluesman who lived long enough to be re-discovered, as was Bukka White, and Son House, the REAL guy who made a deal with the devil. If you listen to Son House sing Hellhound, your blood is guaranteed to run cold and your face will turn pale. House knew Johnson, and was the guy who carried House's case around. Until Ralph Rinzler found him, he had been thought to be dead for almost 30 years.

That belief was really common. Johnson and all the others weren't old men when they recorded, but their records all sounded ancient and very strange to white folks who had never been south. That many were recorded at all was a lucky break.

A couple of guys from a small record company learned there was a regional market for old songs in the south. That picture of Johnson looking all natty, holding his guitar, was taken at the same hotel that took the first picture of the Carter family, Johnny Cashes in-laws.

In one recording session over 4 days in that same hotel, Robert Johnson, the father of the blues, the Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, Dock Boggs, and a bunch of others, all cut their first recordings. All in the same room, one after the other. Every one of them got $50 a song, more money than they ever saw in one place in their lives. All had read the same newspaper ad, and showed up in Bristol, Tennessee at the same time.

If the recording machine had broken, we would have known nothing about any of them.

Every single one of those records sold big, and sold as much in the northern cities as in the south. Lots of rural southerners moved to the north because that's where the jobs were, but they hungered for the music of their roots.

[alexoliversen]

I don't think people should accuse people of things. Nobody is perfect and we are all learning here. Picking on someone is like scapegoating, stereotyping, and shoehorning them.

I can't speak for everyman, nor can I speak for others. I can only speak for myself and how I honestly see the world. We should keep things on constructive and positive level contributing to the over conversation. Attacking other people's credibility diminishes one's own credibility, as the reason why we have such forums is to discuss such topics openly. We only learn when don't diminish others.

I can't say I believe in the devil per se, but there are those spirits which conflict with you. In HinduisméBuddhism you would call them Devas. As they are the powerful spirits that have control. Really we and they are all just spirits. Christians, I find tend to lump all antagonistic forces into one grouping, thus calling it the devil.

But Personally I feel that we, being all just spirits, seek happiness for our selves thus every being seeks peace. The real problem is skill in dealing with different spirits we encounter.