The Holy Bible is not a book to be lightly cast aside...

@robingoodfellow 👍

@robingoodfellow Oh really? That's why Scandinavian countries who have had christian governments for 1000 years take in the most refugees?

@Carazaa that's a beautiful thing. Here in America the evangelical community in general has a different outlook on bringing refugees into the country.

@robingoodfellow Well some people in scandinavia don't like foreigners either but thats why the Government has to make things fair and equal and be a role model for the people. Leaders need to be unifying a country. I love how Obamas speech was calming and he tried to give us hope in the country, not asking for the Military to shoot demonstrators. That's very insensitive to those who are upset and feel mistreated.

@Carazaa Seriously Obozo wow he was 1000 times more divisive and racist than trump.You should stick to religion

@kodiac Only to those who are racist!

@Carazaa How do you like your homeland being muslim? OBAMA WAS RACISM PERSONIFIED.

@kodiac How was Obama racist?

@Entwistle If you don't know i sure can't tell you.

@kodiac No I don't want a muslim country but I care about people who are being bombed and don't have a place to live and can't feed their kids. I think God wants us to help them.

@Carazaa Those same countries have disestablished their churches either explicitly like Sweden or by putiing other religions on the same footing like Norway.

Any religion can get government support here in Norway, they just have to submit audited membership numbers.

And Norway is pretty strict about refugees, you have to be a genuine refugee to get in here and once allowed in you will be assigned a place to live that quite likely will not be in the centre of the population of the country. We are considerably less welcoming in practice than countries like the UK that have, in theory, much less welcoming policies because we actually enforce our rules.

Our feelings of community have little to do with religion and much to do with a general presumption that everyone is equal, equally deserving of a good life, and equally trustworthy.

@ninalanyon Caring is a christian's highest value! !

@Carazaa Perhaps so, but no uniquely so. The vast majority of Norwegians are not religious but they still care.

@ninalanyon The majority are christian, were raised by christians, and have christian values!

Funny my experience has been the opposite. It is my experience that your sort of person doesn’t actually know many real Christians at all. @robingoodfellow

@Carazaa I've lived and worked here for 36 years and brought up three children here, your profile says USA; so perhaps I have more first hand experience of religion and lack of religion here in Norway.

Religion here is mostly not a big deal. The Lutheran church is no longer the established church (statskirke), since the revision of the constitution in 2012. You cannot trust the membership numbers because in the past everyone born in Norway was added to the membership list without consent. One had to explicitly renounce one's membership to avoid paying the kirkeskatt and most people didn't bother. It is still the case that if one parent is member then the chidlren are also members.

[quote]Norwegians are registered at baptism as members of the Church of Norway, and many remain members, using services such as baptism, confirmation, marriage and burial, rites which still have cultural standing in Norway.

68.7% of Norwegians were members of the state Church of Norway as of the end of 2019, a 1.2% drop compared to the year before and down about 11% from ten years earlier. However, only 20% of Norwegians say that religion occupies an important place in their life (according to a recent[when?] Gallup poll), making Norway one of the most secular countries of the world (only in Estonia, Sweden and Denmark were the percentages of people who considered religion to be important lower), and only about 3% of the population attends church services or other religious meetings more than once a month.[30][/quote]
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Norway#Current_issues

[quote]Oppslutning om kirkelige aktiviteter
Samisk gudstjeneste i Den norske kirke.
Foto: Kirkens informasjonstjeneste

Oppslutningen om kirkelige aktiviteter har vært synkende de siste tiårene. Døpte i prosent av alle nyfødte falt fra 96,8 % i 1960 til 73,9 % i 2006 og videre til 55,3 % i 2016. Andelen konfirmerte av alle 15-åringer falt fra 93 % i 1960 til 60 % i 2016. Andelen av alle ekteskapsinngåelser som ble gjennomført av Den norske kirke falt fra 85,2 % i 1960 til 33,4 % i 2016. Bare andelen begravelser holdt seg på et høyt nivå, 88,8 % av alle døde i 2016 ble gravlagt i regi av Den norske kirke.[44]

Antallet utmeldinger er hvert år høyere enn antallet innmeldinger. Her er ikke medregnet innmelding ved barne-/voksendåp eller bortfall ved død. I 2010 meldte 1101 personer seg inn og 6570 ut. Antallet utmeldinger viste stor økning i 1970- og 1980-årene (på det høyeste 11 755 i 1978), for så å synke igjen i 1990-årene til å legge seg nokså stabilt rundt dagens nivå de ti siste år.[45] Det var en topp i antall utmeldinger i 2016, med 41 024 registrerte tilfeller, da det ble mulig å melde seg inn og ut via internett.[46] [47] Barn av medlemmer må døpes for å bli medlemmer i kirken. Barn av medlemmer som ikke døpes, regnes som tilhørige (men ikke fullverdige medlemmer) til de fyller 18 år. Det er nok at en av foreldrene er medlem. Etter fylte 15 år (religiøs myndighetsalder) kan barnet selv melde seg ut av kirken. [/quote]
See https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_norske_kirke#Medlemskap_og_oppslutning_om_aktivitetene

@StrawberryMilkshake Of all scandinavians finland has the most church goers. However, I am Swedish and I know full well that scandinavia has fallen from their faith but their values are still christian from their parents and grandparents since the last thousand years.
But because they are not following Jesus any more even though they call themselves "christian" I fear He has taken their blessings away. The lord says, "You will be slaves to your enemies because your failure to praise God for all that He has given you." Deut 28:48

Exodus 20 The 10 commandments.

1. "You shall have no other Gods but me"
2 You shall not make yourself an image or bow down to them, or worship them. [b]I your God is a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. but showing loving kindness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.[/b]
3. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God because the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misude his name.
4. Honor the Sabbath and keep it Holy. 6 days you shall work but the 7th day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
5. Honor your Father and your Mother so you may live long in the land the Lord is giving you.
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not lie.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor, his wife, or be jealous of anything that belongs to him.

If you read historians like Tom Holland rather than humanist literature you will find that there is now a rediscovery and an emphasis on the fact that Christianity has shaped our western society and its values far more than anybody would like to admit . Sorry but it’s true. The fact we are now losing those values and society is now crumbling Holland and other writers believe is due to the abandonment of those values. @StrawberryMilkshake

No actually they didn’t exist before Christianity. You can see this in an interview where Tom Holland takes the atheist AC Grayling apart@StrawberryMilkshake

Absolutely. @StrawberryMilkshake

@1354swrdt What interview would that be?