What are you on about, brain?

Tzedakah (charity) is one of the greatest mitzvahs (good deed) in Judaism. Good job on the Christianity = Religion trolling.

uummm..... I pretty sure you're missing the whole point of Lent....

"Do not make targeted threads that are abusive or degrading toward another member, group of members, or social group. This includes but is not limited to posts regarding sexuality, race, and religion."

not sure, probably depends on how you define degrading.

BB I thought you were Catholic. You've never heard of a mite box?

why does atheism demand we kill babies?

checkmate, atheists.

@JMO,

Wait a second, is that seriously a rule?

...so, suddenly the Forum is more stiff and conservative than the high school that I went to?

Wow. Honestly, I came in here to criticize Brain Bomb, but instead I think he's healthy for the forums.

I don't get it

This seems like a troll thread, one that potentially violates the webdip forum terms, as jmo pointed out above. That said, I'll respect the question and questioner by assuming it was meant in good faith, rather than intending to degrade or disrespect anyone.

Short answer is: the question seems to indicate a misunderstanding or ignorance of religious customs.

Long answer: I will guess that the question refers to the Christian religion specifically, rather than "religion" in general. The period of time it refers to could be the Christian season of Lent (5-6 weeks before Easter, not 40 days), where traditional Christians remember the events which led up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This includes suffering, but is by no means limited to it--the scriptural accounts are overflowing with literary and historical insights (and spiritual value, if you're a believer). However, that traditional churches chose to emphasize these events.... might be mistaken for "celebrating the brutal slaughter of God," if you're looking at it from the outside. Under the assumption that the question is intended to seek knowledge (rather than trolling), I invite further and more specific questions about why Christians do set aside time to remember and re-read these narratives.

Regarding the notion about charitable giving, it already happens during Lent. Besides being a remembrance of what Christ has done for fallen and broken humanity, the season of Lent is a time of repentance and reflection on our own shortcomings. Many well meaning people earnestly use this time to improve their own attitudes and treatment of others. Charitable giving is a part of this, though religious people in general tend to give year-round. At my church, for example, we took up a special offering during Lent to help inner-city families in crisis situations, but year-round we run a large food pantry to distribute food to the poor. source: I'm a Christian, in a conservative Lutheran church body.

That said, the question seems like a troll, and I salute you for a well crafted troll question (topic is important to lots of people, just enough vagueness to be misleading, but just enough specific complaint to get people going, etc).

I do believe in charity. I gave a tip at a restaurant recently.

^ Yep, trolling.

ABANDON FRED (nobody likes Fred)

If God were a person today he would be on Abilify, Zoloft, and muscle relaxers. The Bi-polar semi psychotic tendencies if the Old Testament (floods, epic plagues, brain scramblings, and meteoric devastation at gomorrah) suddenly turns to loveable happy god in the New Testament.

^ Yep, trolling

Who is Fred?

If you took every semi-automatic weapon in America and replaced it with a paintbrush think how colorful the country would be.

@AL "@JMO,

Wait a second, is that seriously a rule?

...so, suddenly the Forum is more stiff and conservative than the high school that I went to?

Wow. Honestly, I came in here to criticize Brain Bomb, but instead I think he's healthy for the forums."


Uhhh....Al, have you looked at college campuses lately? Safe zones and wee wittle childwen being offended by political slogans written in chalk....

Open up your eyes boys....WebDip was just way ahead of the curve in instituting diapered safe places for the easily offended....

If were in the habit of getting rid of threads that attack certain groups; and you really feel threatened by this thread, you evidently havent noticed how this website is consistently males trying to harp about abortion. 3 abortion threads a week is acceptable but a non-descriptive crituque of hipocrisy of lent is me being rude and singling out religious groups.... riiiight.

So for the record: abortion is okay to Jmo faux forum police.

But opening a dialogue about greed and unwillingness to actually be charitable during lent us christian bashing.

@CA: Fred is a joke.

if evolution is survival of the fittest, how did bo become a mod again?

checkmate, atheists.

Lol @ zoloft comment. It's been done before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism

Why dont we just have every thread from now on be "offended by abortion", "offended by catholicism", "not offended by catholocism", "nuke the whales", "dont nuke the whales", "offended by satire", "not offended by satire", "offended by things that may or may not be attacking my core beliefs"

"offended by rule violations"; "not offended by rule violations", "offended by provateurs"; "angry at Obama"; "not very angry"; "tired of spam", "hungry for spam", "where is jmo when we need him to call a spade a spade?" , "how to make a thread without anyone giving a shit, "how to use mute-thread feature"

The prosecution rests.

If history is any guide, Jesus plays a mean Turkey.

Brainy, were you around for The Great WebDip Purge? Just curious.

I was a non forum participant from 2012-oct 2015. The forum was too full of trolls.

So then you decided to take up their mantle?

Do you actually believe that or just saying it to get +1's? I seem to recall you saying this thread was just a false equivalency with incindiary verbiage not some trolling violation on par with the purge people.

if evolution is survival of the fittest, how is this thread still going?

checkmate, atheists.